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When You’re Gluten-Free But HARD Craving a Big Mac, You Improvise

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Big Mac Salad

What you’re looking at, above, is what happens when a gal who grew up eating delicious Big Macs like it was her job gets a killer craving BUT now has to eat entirely gluten-free.

A “Big Mac Salad.”

I’ve found that when I crave anything in particular that I can no longer have, it’s almost never the gluten/wheat that I’m craving. It’s all the other flavors. And the wonderful thing about flavors is this – they can be recreated, on your own terms… and in this case, the terms are gluten-free.

Big Mac Salad

Lots of Cheese – Lots. Of. Cheese.

When I recreate flavors, I generally turn to one of two approaches:

  1. Salads
  2. Bowls

This one was pretty obvious – what I needed was a Big Mac Salad.

Before going any further, let’s take a minute to appreciate the Big Mac. This sandwich is one of the best-tasting fast food sandwiches known to mankind. The combo of the hamburgers, lettuce, and that sauce… holy cats, there’s just nothing about them I don’t love.

To recreate this lifelong favorite, I had to determine the different flavors/ingredients of this beautiful (yet decidedly not gluten-free) sandwich:

  • all beef patties
  • “special sauce” (Thousand Island)
  • lettuce
  • cheese
  • pickles
  • onions
  • … “on a sesame seed bun” (hearing the jingle in your head yet?)

Lettuce, hamburgers, shredded cheddar cheese, and pickles are easy enough – you just have to know the right ingredients and invite them to the party.  If I were making this salad and knew we’d be eating it at one setting, I would have added white onion (after sauteing it in the hamburger’s skillet). However, I knew that I’d be sending leftovers to work with my husband for his lunch the next day and I didn’t trust white onions to refrain from “taking over,” so I went with green onions. They’re milder and don’t overpower a salad overnight. If I’d had scallions or red onion, I might have used one of them.

But, I love green onions to the ends of the earth and back, so I went with them.

Big Mac Salad

As for pickles, I chopped my hamburger pickles into fourths and tossed them into the salad. I ended up adding a few extras to my salad because it just seemed like the right thing to do.  As you can tell, I decided to keep this whole salad really chunky. I wanted to have the full-effect of a Big Mac, so everything went into the salad in hefty portions.

As for the “special sauce,” that’s none other than a bottle of Thousand Island dressing. If you have to eat gluten-free, too, be sure to read the label and make certain the dressing is gluten-free.

One of the most distinctive flavors of a Big Mac are the sesame seeds on the bun. Truth be told, they’re one of the funnest things about the whole situation, aren’t they? I didn’t have any gluten-free hamburger buns on hand when the craving hit, so I simply lightly buttered some gluten free bread, tossed some sesame seeds on top, and toasted them – making, in effect, sesame seed croutons for the salad.

I cut up plain old American cheese slices and threw them into the salad. When trying to copy cheeseburgers you fall in love with in fast food restaurants, the American Cheese slices are the way to go. Sure, the fancier cheeses are delicious for everything else, but go with the old familiar plastic-wrapped slices for this sort of situation. It makes such a huge difference.

Because I’m an anal food-blogger always looking for the best picture, I also added shredded cheese on top (as you can see in one of the pictures above). HOWEVER, the best taste came from the American cheese slices. When you get a fork filled with the cheese, beef, lettuce, pickle, crouton, and sauce…. it’s just amazing.

It sent my brain and taste buds right back to a booth in the McDonald’s in my hometown and it was a very tasty trip.


Gluten Free Version of Texas Roadhouse Rice

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Gluten Free Version of Texas Roadhouse Seasoned Rice

Gluten Free Version of Texas Roadhouse’s Seasoned Rice

When it comes to this particular rice dish, I have to whip out the tired, old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Admittedly, it’s not really all that pretty. As you can see, I tried to “pretty” her up a little with a little sprig of parsley.  Rest assured, however, this is uncommonly delicious – to the tune of mind-blowing.

It’s filled with several layers of flavor and makes an ideal side dish for chicken, fish, pork, or steak. I believe my husband could make a meal out of the rice, itself.

As with any recipe, feel free to adjust the seasonings to suit your own taste. I’m not overly fond of spiciness, so I may use a little less pepper than you’d like – if that’s the case, add a little more.

Not too much, though, since you do want to actually taste the other flavors!

If you don’t have to cook gluten free, then feel free to replace the tamari with soy sauce.  If you do have to eat gluten free, just a friendly reminder: Always make sure you choose chicken broth that says “gluten free.”

Gluten Free Version of Texas Roadhouse Seasoned Rice

Gluten Free Version of Texas Roadhouse Seasoned Rice

Ingredients

  • 2 cups long grain white rice
  • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
  • 1/2 cup Tamari
  • 1/2 cup chopped curly parsley
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 stick no salt added butter
  • 4 cups gluten free chicken broth
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

  1. Dice onion and finely chop fresh parsley.
  2. Melt one stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat..
  3. Add 2 cups of rice to the melted butter, stirring frequently, until rice turns golden brown (5-6 minutes).
  4. Stir in diced onion, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt and pepper.
  5. Continue cooking for a few minutes, stirring often.
  6. Add the chicken broth and tamari.Stir well.
  7. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook until rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed (10-15 minutes).

Trust me, this rice is out of this world delicious.

Knock-Off Recipe: Bang Bang Shrimp

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Knock Off Recipe for Bonefish Grill's Bang Bang Shrimp

One of the most popular items on Bonefish Grill’s menu is their Bang Bang Shrimp.  As is the case with great restaurant dishes, knock-off recipes by the hundreds are easily found.

I’ve used a couple of different techniques over the past year and have hit upon a combination that we’re MAD about.

I serve this Heavenly shrimp on a bed of leaf lettuce, Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, sliced cucumber, chopped green onions, and celery in a tortilla bowl (look in the refrigerated aisle of your favorite grocery store – the tortillas come with little foldable paper stands that you drape the tortillas over before baking. They are SO amazing and versatile – you can serve them with taco salad, grilled chicken salad, Chef salad, pasta salad, tossed salad, etc.).

One of my daughters added Italian Dressing to her salad and I believe another added Ranch dressing.  If I’m not mistaken, I think my husband added a  little Catalina dressing to his – but, as for me and my shrimp, we went bare, as in dressing-free. If you have a little extra Thai Sweet Chili Sauce, you could splash a little of that on top of your salad.  Frankly, I could drink it right out of the jar…. it’s that freaking good.

You really HAVE to try this as soon as possible – it’s extraordinary.

Knock-Off Recipe for Bonefish Grill’s Bang Bang Shrimp

1 lb shrimp
1/2 cup mayonnaise
pinch of salt
1/4 cup Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
3 drops hot chili sauce (like Sriracha)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup Zatarain’s Fish Coating

Vegetable oil for frying.

  1. Mix the mayo together with the chili sauces. Add a small pinch of salt.
  2. Combine the cornstarch and Zatarain’s fish coating. Bread the shrimp (shelled and deveined) in the mixture.
  3. Heat enough of the oil to deep fry the shrimp in a deep pan.
  4. Deep fry the shrimp for 3-4 minutes.
  5. Drain the shrimp well on paper towels.
  6. Place the shrimp in a bowl and coat with the delicious chili sauce and mayo mixture.

Knock Off Recipe for Bonefish Grill's Bang Bang Shrimp

I put my shrimp into a disposable aluminum pan to play in the chili sauce mixture (above).  I love these disposable pans because I can just toss them out along with the rest of the trash. Convenience is a close friend of mine.  As you can see, the shrimp are as beautiful as they are delicious.  You could honestly serve them as appetizers completely by themselves.  Smaller shrimp would be really cute served with little appetizer picks or even toothpicks.

This shrimp is truly something you’ll want to try asap, it’s perfectly excellent.  As a matter of fact, I have trouble leaving them alone long enough to get them to the table! I”m something of a shrimp fanatic, anyway, but when they’re all decked out in this remarkable chili sauce mixture, forget about it.  It’s a shrimp party waiting to happen and, frankly, I don’t want to invite anyone else to the party.

Inspiration: Bonefish Grill and their excellent, excellent food!

Different Uses for Guacamole and Getting Creative Without Fresh Tomatoes

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Avocados - The First Step Toward Guacamole!You know what sounds good right now – I mean really, really good?  A bowl of homemade guacamole and some really fresh, crunchy tortilla chips.  Ever since the Attack of the Infested Tomatoes started playing out, my obsession with salsa has understandably faded.  It’s been challenging to find ways to substitute what was always a frequently used staple in my kitchen.

I never really realized just HOW frequently I used tomatoes until now.  Sliced on sandwiches, cut up in salads (which my family eats just about daily in some fashion or another during the warm months), in tacos, cooked with pasta, and…sigh… in salsa and pico de gallo.

With salads, I’ve been replacing tomatoes with radishes and/or red pepper.  Some people like sun dried tomatoes in salads, but I’m still on the fence.  I think they’re amazingly good in pasta dishes, though.  They can fill the void nicely.  Then, too, there’s always the cannded tomatoes.  They mingle well with pasta. 

I also stir the petite diced tomatoes into taco meat for tacos.  They’ll do in a pinch for salsa, too.

But back to my overwhelming desire for guacamole.  I love this stuff and can’t get enough of it.  At the moment, I want it to show up for lunch with it’s tortilla chip friends, but it’s versatile enough to show up with a lot of other sidekicks.

For Example, you have to try the following:

  1. Lightly toast some quality bread.  Spread the inside with guacamole.  Add a few sliced of smoked turkey, a slice of swiss cheese (optional), shredded lettuce, and a few slices of bacon.
  2. A South of the Border Burger:  Grill, fry, or bake your burger patties.  Lightly toast your buns.  In no particular order, add your meat, sliced onion, a dollop of guacamole, jalapeno peppers if you’re brave, and a teaspoon or so of store bought picante sauce (I usually get Pace.)  Serve with fresh tortilla chips and enjoy being alive.
  3. Toast a wheat english muffin.  Spread on some fresh guacamole.  To this you can add either a little picante sauce or hot sauce, if desired.  Now top it off with a poached egg.  Oh, come on now!  It’s good, I promise.
  4. Cut up some cooked chicken.  I most recently used mesquite roasted chicken (YUM!), but grilled or baked chicken are delicious, too.  In a bowl, combine the chicken, some guacamole, and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Add as little or as much guacamole as you desire.  Use your chicken mixture to stuff lightly toasted pita pockets or wrap a warmed tortilla around and create a delicious wrap.
  5. Serve guacamole beside your grilled steak or chicken.
  6. Use guacamole as a potato topper – give sour cream the night off.
  7. Slather on top of baked potato skins.
  8. Serve with the Ruffles Pinch of Salt Chips and/or Frito Corn Chips I told you about in the last post!

Did you know that early Spanish settlers called guacamole the “butter of the poor?”  It got the name because it was flavorful, could be used a lot of different ways, and was inexpensive to make.  At least it’s still diverse and flavorful!

 

Amazon is So Much More Than Books!

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When I was killing time in Target yesterday, I thumbed through the new Top Secrets Recipes Cookbook by Todd Wilbur: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2: More Amazing Clones of Famous Dishes from America’s Favorite Restaurant Chains. Great stuff! Some of the restaurants featured are: Applebee’s, Bennigan’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s, Denny’s, Hard Rock Cafe, IHop’s, Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster and more.

It’s such a great cookbook that I zipped over to Amazon.com this morning to grab a link to put on Buttermilk Press (it’s on the left, below the navigation, along with a link to the first cookbook as well). While I was on Amazon, I got to looking around at their kitchen gadgets, pans, appliances, etc. Holy Cow! I swear, it won’t be long before we can all do ALL of our shopping at Amazon.com. Books, jewelry, clothes, toys, groceries, electronics, etc.

I noticed that they had a cool new widget you could put on your website, listing the different goodies they had in different categories. Below is the one featuring Kitchen/Housewares. Hover over each for a picture of the item, then click for more information and a closer look. Pretty sweet!