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Simple Snack – Beet Chips

You either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Remember last Winter how it was the coolest (or uncoolest) thing ever to wear big furry suede boots of a certain unnamed brand and tuck your jeans in them? Chances are people either thought you were either rocking them like a cute little ski bunny or that you looked freaking ridiculous. But no matter if you actually wore them or not, you’ve no doubt seen someone with them and have a pretty solid idea if they were awesome or terrible.

That’s exactly how beets are – they are possibly one of the most polarizing foods I know, and everyone has an opinion about them, good or bad. We both happen to be part of the “beets are freaking awesome” camp, but are always looking for new ways to eat them besides in salads, our usual choice. I just love their earthy, almost “umami” type of taste – they add an extra dimension to the flavor profile of just about any dish. So when I came across this recipe for baked beet chips by Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures, I knew it had to be next on our list of yummy delights to try.

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The Gluten Free Husband Makes Breakfast Quesadillas

Hello everyone! Well I am back for a second installment of “Holy crap my husband can cook” on Jenn’s blog!

Breakfast. It’s probably one the hardest times for a gluten-free person to find something really tasty to eat. I know it is for me. Every time I go to the store to get foods for breakfast I am faced with cereals, meuslis, oats, pastries, and several other extremely flavorful (but ultimately glutenicious) items that I know I can’t even think about eating. For this reason, I have been trying to come up with breakfast items that I could make that would inspire me to once again look forward to eating in the morning (a cup of yogurt gets old REAL quick).

The idea for these quesadillas came very quickly to both Jenn and I in one of those moments where you just look at each other and say, “Wow, we really have to make that.” We were talking about how much we liked the enchiladas that we had made, and I had recently come up with the bright idea of frying tortillas in a pan, salting them and devouring away (not the most sophisticated meal in the world but you would be surprised how satisfying it really is, especially accompanied with fried halloumi cheese). Then, I don’t know who started talking first, but we began asking things like, “What if we put cheese, cured meats, an egg and a few other breakfasty items between two tortillas and then fried them in butter?” If your mouth just started watering, then you just had the same reaction I had as well.

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Orange and Honey Rotisserie Chicken

The act of roasting chicken can be good for many things. Some say it’s good for your love life. Others for sharing with friends. For me, roasting a chicken is simply dinner. It’s dinner that is low-stress, and it’s dinner that is sure to create leftovers with little extra effort. It can even be thought of as healthy; but most of all, it’s flavorful and satisfying in that “catch the flavors wafting around as you walk in the door and instantly be transported back in time to memories of family get-togethers” kind of way.

This roast chicken was also an experiment. My toaster oven supposedly came with a rotisserie setup, and I wanted to see if it actually worked. Well, I must have the world’s most awesome toaster oven, because we got the chicken onto the spit successfully, and it actually rotated in the oven! I say “we” because my husband helped – he was convinced the just-marinated chicken might slip out of my hands and slide across the floor of the kitchen like it was practicing ice skating for the next Olympics – no one wants that kind of champion title for their dinner! This bird was about at the limit for my little oven though, coming in at about 1.7 kg it just barely cleared the bottom.

Ah yes, the marinade….this is one I will definitely be making again. So simple and easy, completely effortless really. If I had found my juicer this would have been even easier – but I always seem to be losing things (ha don’t ask me how many times I’ve lost my keys!), and after about 4 minutes 37 seconds of searching decided at that point it would just be faster to squeeze the oranges by hand. Sweet Spanish oranges, I hope you never go out of season because you taste so much better than your 2 CHF/kg price tag would lead one to believe! Sweet oranges and honey, salty tamari, and zing from chives and garlic made for quite the marinade/glaze on this chicken. So much honey made the sauce gooey and helped it stick to the chicken while it was roasting, and we ended up with an aroma throughout our home that was just irresistible. Letting it rest after coming out of the oven was simply torture!

Speaking of honey, have you checked out the round up from the Blogger Secret Ingredient event that I hosted this past week? There were some awesomely diverse and scrumptious entries, all using honey – from condiments to desserts, there’s a dish for just about anything!

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Disclaimer: I am NOT a licensed medical professional NOR am I a certified nutritionist. This site is NOT meant to be used in place of medical advice. You are responsible for your own consumption of foods. Consult a licensed medical professional before making any dietary changes. Contact manufacturer to inquire about allergy risks in specific food products.