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Gluten-Free Bean Burritos, Enchilada-Style!

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Refried Bean Burritos Enchilada Style.

Refried Bean Burritos Enchilada Style

Needless to say, even though these Enchilada-Style Refried Bean Burritos are gluten-free, you can certainly make them with all the gluten your heart desires. Simply replace the gluten-free flour tortillas with regular tortillas (when you do, you’ll certainly save money!).

These bean burritos are delicious, as well as quick and easy to make. You can customize them to suit your family’s taste, of course. They’re wonderful topped with chopped avocado, chopped green onions, and/or cilantro – I kept them simple in the picture at the top because I was making them for a group of family members and you know how that goes – this one doesn’t like onion, that one doesn’t like avocado, the other one (silly goose) thinks cilantro tastes like soap.

He’s wrong, of course!

I like to serve these with mini bowls of

Gluten-Free Black Bean Burgers

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Gluten-Free Black Bean Burgers and an “Olive Garden” Style Salad

One of my three beautiful daughters is a vegetarian, so I’m more than a little familiar with protein patties and “fake” hamburgers. In fact, I used to love them almost as much as she does! However, when I had to give up gluten/wheat, it meant giving these up as well.

Thankfully there are some outstanding gluten-free breadcrumbs on the market, so I can make my own black bean burgers anytime I feel the urge… which is often because I am addicted to them.

I make black bean burgers differently almost each time I make them, but the recipe below (the way I made them this afternoon) is my favorite. It has the most flavor and I love the  combination of bell pepper and red onion. The Worcestershire sauce (use Lea & Perrins if you have to eat gluten-free) also adds a little extra something something.

{Below is the recipe, if you simply want to see it! More about gluten-free black bean burger options below the recipe, if you’re interested…}

While most people prefer black bean burgers on buns, toasted bread, or in wraps, I prefer mine alongside soup or a salad. For whatever reasons, I’m just not a big sandwich person – but soup or salad? ALL DAY!

For my black bean burgers (and meatballs and salmon patties, too, for that matter), I always use Kroger’s Gluten-Free Breadcrumbs (the original version for black bean burgers and salmon patties, the Italian Seasoning for meatballs.). If you don’t have a Kroger near you, there are other gluten-free breadcrumbs on the market. If all else fails, make your own!

When I make black bean burgers, I never saute the vegetables beforehand, simply because I like the crunch and texture. If you had rather your vegetables be softer, saute them first. Your burgers, your call, by gosh. Speaking of which, feel free add or subtract the vegetables and even seasonings I’ve used. This combination, in my opinion, makes the most flavorful black bean burgers – and, trust me, you don’t get heat from the hot sauce… just flavor.

One final thought about black bean burgers – they’re an EXCELLENT go-to burger if you’re trying to completely give up meat or simply trying to eat less meat. When you add the toppings you normally would to a burger, black bean burgers almost always satisfy the “meat cravings” people normally experience.

 

 

Gluten-Free Meatloaf with BBQ Sauce and Dried Breadcrumbs

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Gluten Free Meatloaf with BBQ Sauce
Gluten-Free Meatloaf with BBQ Sauce

When I had to start eating completely gluten-free (for health reasons), it was hard enough, as an “eater.” Many favorites had to be cast aside, along with favorite restaurants like Fazoli’s, Authentic Asian restaurants, KFC, and (this one especially stung) Taco John’s. I hated the change it created in my life as well as in the lives of my loved ones. However, far worse was the chaos it created in my life as an avid cook, cookbook/recipe collector, and food blogger. ESPECIALLY given the fact that many of my favorite things to bake were homemade bread,  buttermilk biscuits, pies, cakes, pastries…. you get the idea.

It left me feeling like I’d been hit by a train and left on the tracks… craving buttermilk biscuits, at that.

It affected my food blog, cooking, dining out…. everything except my cats, it seems. I actually went for a period of time on the food blog where I simply didn’t post recipes. I found myself eating the same things again and again – things I knew were safe. I found myself in a place where I had allowed this health issue to win – it knocked me down and I was too dazed to get back up.

Over the years, I’ve had my ups and downs with it – you simply cannot have a major upheaval in your life and not, at times, ride the proverbial roller-coaster. However, I ultimately decided that this wasn’t going to get the best of me anymore. I began branching out and developing  new recipes which just so happened to be gluten-free.

You want to know a little secret? It has made me a better cook. When I jumped off the roller-coaster, I didn’t just rediscover my love of recipes, cooking, and being creative in the kitchen, I found that the love for each had actually somehow grown. What’s more, I find that I’m even more creative now than I was then. There’s something to be said for a hard-headed determination not to remain on the short end of the stick.

One of the things I had more trouble perfecting than I’d have ever imagined is meatloaf. I’d always used Saltine crackers before and made, if I say so myself, the best darn meatloaf you ever tasted. On the other side of my body deciding gluten was poison, I struggled to find the perfect balance of dried gluten-free breadcrumbs, vegetables, and wet ingredients. I expected the struggle to be real with breads, pastries, pasta, and baked goods, but meatloaf??

I finally found the perfect combination and have had a delicious time trying different sauces (tomato, BBQ…) and even vegetables. Like a lot of you, I am obsessed with the idea of using as many vegetables in cooking as possible. When you chop them up, the possibilities are endless – you can sneak them into so many places. Meatloaves are ideal for this veggie sneakery.

One of my favorite gluten-free meatloaf recipes I’ve come up with is below.  This particular meatloaf is far less dense than a lot of meatloaves, which is one of the reasons I love it so much. Feel free to add whatever combination of vegetables you prefer – just try to keep the amount similar. I love the way the vegetables look as much as I love the extra nutrition but there’s another benefit to them. They seem to provide even more moisture, keeping the meatloaf nice and moist. Love that.

I often give the brands I use, on the food blog, not as advertisement but simply to give you all the information you can possibly use. Feel free, of course, to use your favorite brands – or whatever ones you have on hand. With this particular recipe, I cannot say how it will turn out with different brands than I’ve listed simply because I use the same each time.

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.