Gourmet Garden Herbs

Like most lovers of food, I adore herbs. I herbs fresh from the garden or farmers market but most of them seem not to have any. Therefore when my local grocery store had a BOGO event on, I went crazy for these little wonders....refrigerated herbs in a tube by Gourmet Garden. Of course I only bought a few varieties, they have several more (10 to be exact).



Now I know that something from a tube is not as good as something fresh. I know it will have more stuff in it than just the herb. But all in all, I think they're pretty good. And no where on the ingredient list did I see something with a good chance of glutening me...sweet! I have been putting these babies to work for me. Tonight they made a piece of Tilapia palatable to me. Fish, I hate it, but must learn to eat it. This goes fantastically with lightly fried zucchini, steamed broccoli and baked fingerling potatoes. And makes a very simple and quick to prepare meal.

Herbed Tilapia

(For 1, increase as necessary for additional people)

1 fillet tilapia

1 Tbsp peanut oil

1.5 tsp garlic

1.5 tsp chili

1-2 tsp champagne vinegar

Whisk together oil, garlic, chili and vinegar in bowl. Coat Tilapia with this mixture.

Fry tilapia in a small amount of Olive Oil until opaque and firm, flipping once.

Serve with veggies of your choosing and enjoy :)

Waffles

I hate spending money, but I keep wanting to try all the GF goodies on the market.  After all, so far I can only make so many things on my own, and really, I can only eat so much cornbread.  Well, on Friday I lucked out.  My good friend John had a present for me when I got to his place to help him out.  He told me to look in the freezer, and what did I find?  Van's Waffles!  

I'd heard of these, I'd seen these, but I'd never tried them.  I could hardly wait until Saturday morning to try them out.  And damn, they were good.  They're way better than I remember Eggo's to be.  Not that I think that is the most amazing recommendation, but hey, for a frozen waffle, Eggo's weren't bad.  My only problem, the cost.  The box holds 6 waffles, and I think they're around $5 a box!  Those are some pricey waffles.

Enter my slowly developing GF cooking skills.  I hunted down my favorite pre-GF waffle recipe, and went to work.  Okay, so I didn't do much, I used the flour recipe I found somewhere on-line - if you recognize, please let me know where it is from so I can give due credit - and that was about it.  I also made them non-dairy, but I'm pretty sure any milk/milk substitute would work.  But hey, they turned out great, I made 15 waffles, and I swear it cost me way less then $5.  

Gluten-Free Waffles

3 large eggs

1 cup rice milk

1/2 cup oil (originally called for melted butter, but I'm too lazy)

1 tbsp vanilla

2 cups GF-flour**

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar

Beat eggs with electric mixer until thick, approx. 5 minutes.  Beat in milk, oil and vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients together and slowly add to liquid mixture.  Cook in waffle iron.  Serve warm, or freeze for later use.

**GF-Flour

Combine:

3 cups rice flour

3 cups corn starch

2 cups soy flour

1 cup corn flour

Transfer to an airtight container and use as needed.  Recipe can easily be increased or decreased in quantities.