Tacos... with a twist

The go to food for someone with celiac disease is Mexican food. Beside flour tortillas, and you have to watch the seasoning packets and sauces - so I usually stick with making stuff from scratch, it's pretty much all gluten free.  But eating the same thing over and over can get a little boring. I was craving Stuffed Peppers (something my mother made a lot while I was growing up - super yummy.)  But I knew had, surprise, surprise, the fixings for tacos at home. So, on my way home, I picked up a couple colored peppers, and decided to use them for the "taco shell."  The result? Delicious.

There's no secret to making tacos, but here's what I did.

Preparing the peppers
Preheat the oven to 400
Slice your peppers in half (we used red, orange and yellow)
Clean out the seed and that white stuff
Brush the inside and outside with olive or another oil
Set open face up on a cookie sheet (I used silpat beneath the peppers to prevent sticking)
Bake for 15 minutes face up and then turn over for 15 minutes more

Ingredients I like in tacos...
Either black beans or refried beans
Seasoned taco meat
Cheese (I put my cheese on the hot pepper instead of the beans first)
Cabbage, sliced (not a lettuce fan)
Tomatoes
Olives
Avocado, diced
Sour cream
Taco sauce or salsa

And that night, I ate the tacos with fresh sliced pineapple and steamed asparagus. Yum!

Grape Salad

image from: http://globe-views.com/dreams/grapes.html

A friend made us this salad when she hosted book club a little while ago.  It doesn't photo well (thus the stock photo), but it tastes absolutely fantastic. A perfect salad for a summer party or for me, a perfect dessert.

Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
1/2 c white sugar
1 T vanilla
2 lbs grapes (I like it with mixed grapes, but if you have picky eaters, I'm sure it's great with one color of grapes only)
Pecans, chopped
Brown Sugar

Directions
Blend cream cheese and sour cream until smooth
Add white sugar
Add vanilla
Fold in grapes
Mix chopped pecans with a little brown sugar and sprinkle on top of salad
Chill for at least 1 hour before serving

Jalapeno Popper Chicken Taquitos

Image from the original blog

Since being diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago now, I've been trying to figure out how to cook again. I'm starting to get the hang of things, and decided to use our food blog again to post the recipes I find that are already gluten free or are easily adaptable (including where I originally found the recipe so that you can try the meal with gluten if you like...)

This recipe comes from: Creme de la Crumb (click on blog name to be taken to the original recipe) and it was a slow cooker recipe. I had planned to do the whole slow cooker thing, but forgot on the day I'd set to make it. So, my prep was all done just before eating.

Another tip if you will be making just before and not slow cooking.. I buy the big bags of chicken from Costco. But I don't just stick it in the freezer. I have a food sealer, so I seal off a couple two breast per bags, and then I boil about half the bag.  Then I shred half the chicken and dice the other half to freeze in 2 cup portions (the amount usually needed for a recipe.) So easy to defrost and use when needed.

Jalapeño Popper Chicken Taquitos (influenced by Creme de la Creme)

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts, shredded (I found this to be a bit too much, I'll use less next time)
1 c cream cheese, room temperature
⅓ c jalapeños (canned, jarred, or fresh) finely chopped
1 t garlic powder
1 t salt
1 t cumin
16 tortillas (I used GF corn, the blogger prefers taco-sized flour)
1½ cups shredded cheese (or as needed - I didn't use that much)

My Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425
Combine cream cheese, jalapeños, garlic powder, salt and cumin. 
Stir in chicken until well mixed.
Warm the tortillas for about 20 seconds in the microwave.
Spray casserole dish with non-stick spray.
Sprinkle some cheese on the bottom of a tortilla, spread chicken on the tortilla, and roll it up. (I used toothpicks to keep the rolled up tortillas rolled.)
After they are all rolled (mine ended up making a lot more that the 16 mentioned in the recipe), and lined up in the casserole dish, spray the taquitos with cooking spray (this helps them crisp up). 
I baked for 12 minutes, then turned on the broiler for 3 minutes. Next time, since I won't use so much chicken, the taquitos shouldn't be crammed in filling the whole pan. I'd recommend turning them over so that both sides crisp under the broiler.

Oh, and I recommend their sauce. It is a Creamy Tomatillo Sauce. I don't know about it being a Cafe Rio knock off (Cafe Rio is not in the least bit gluten free, I'm a Costa Vida girl, as they are.) It was a good sauce. I forgot to buy a new bulb of garlic though, so it didn't have any garlic in it.  You could make half the recipe and have more than enough for the taquitos.

Enjoy