Thrifts - The Pantry: A bonus post

My mom is responsible for the two jars in the front left, and the remaining jars came from one of my friends.  (From left: quinoa, lentils, polenta, oats, wheat germ, two types of chai tea, and a black tea.)

The copper containers came from an antique store for $8.

Eats - Corn Bread

But anyway, my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner, and they've not been eating gluten.  We made beef stew, (In the pressure cooker we're still learning to use.  It was delicious.) and I wanted to have corn bread with it.  I figured that wouldn't be so hard to do without gluten.  But try finding a recipe that doesn't have 4-5 weird flours in it.  Or coconut butter.  And I DO have a lot of weird flours and grains in my pantry (I should really show a picture of my newly reorganized pantry.  It's cute.)

Anyway...I came up with something.  It does have one weird flour, but only spelt.  That's pretty easy to come by.  After some research, I was led astray.  Apparently it's not completely gluten free, but has a low amount of more digestible gluten, and so is sometimes ok for people with allergies, but not people with celiac disease.  I'll keep trying.

Eats - Fancy freezer pizza

So, for my first how-to-make-something-quick-and-yummy post - fancy freezer pizza.

My boyfriend and I are suckers for sales on freezer pizza, so we almost always have a stock.  This one was a Tostino's pepperoni, but really I prefer plain cheese.

So, start with your cheap freezer pizza.  Add a variety of fresh (or at least fresher) ingredients and some spices.  Bake as usual, or maybe a tad longer if you add a lot of veggies.

For this one - fresh spinach, goat cheese, onion, dried basil, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper.

Excuses, excuses

I have been unforgivably absent from my blog since *gasp* October.  I have good reasons - new home, new job, new diet, all within a two week span, not to mention hosting two family Thanksgivings and three family Christmases.  Swamped, I tell you.

But life is starting to settle down.  Maybe there will be a flood of brilliant, inspired entries over the next month or so....

But back to the new diet.  I must say, it's hard to think of food in the same way when eating a rigid selection of small meals, six times a day.  It's too much work to make each of them (or really any of them) fabulous.  I blame that for my continued silence.  But I've decided to turn it into a challenge - post simple but healthy and delicious meals.  Starting with what I made tonight, but that'll have to wait.  I already have a couple of entries lined up.

By the way, my next blog entry is not diet-friendly.  One day a week, I get to eat whatever I want.  Now you want to know why I can't use THAT day to make fancy food.  I will, I will.  Stop nagging!  But this one is a throw-back to my last 6+ weeks of insanity that have kept me from really cooking.  A suggestion for making something frozen and dull into something awesome with very little effort.  Teaser.

Notes

Last night I got a real treat.  One of my good friends read my lasagna post and invited me over for a variation on my recipe.  She used polenta instead of the noodles and put sauteed peppers and mushrooms and onions in it.  And she didn't forget the ricotta.  It was delicious!  And what an honor to be treated to a dinner this blog inspired!

Regretfully, I did not take pictures.