Living La Vida Low Fodmap
Sometimes you just need comfort food
Remember the heyday of Ricky Martin? I do, rather fondly.
So, I’m living la vida low fodmap over here.I had a couple of other posts started but they didn’t feel right to me this morning. I lost a beautiful friend this week to ALS. ALS, right up there in the pantheon of truly horrible diseases, and this loss, far more sudden than I had expected, hit me hard. This morning after our early visit to the oral surgeon (a whole nother story) we came home to eat breakfast. I was puffy-eyed and sad. Ernie was sad but not puffy-eyed and we both wanted comfort food. Ernie went for his beloved runny yolks and I had leftovers from the night before. We felt rebellious and didn’t even have a smoothie.
A few days ago we had made a batch of my Curried Oven Fried Chicken. It was so good but the breasts were ridiculously huge, so we couldn’t eat a whole breast. Not a chicken I’d want to meet in a dark alley.
Side note: we had this with sweet potato. I must admit I usually microwave sweet potatoes. Since this recipe takes about an hour we just tossed a sweet potato on the rack next to the pan. Sweet Jesus but it was good.
Yesterday as we were pondering what to make for dinner, Ernie suggested using the leftover chicken with some pasta. I was less than enthusiastic but shrugged my shoulders and said ok. I didn’t give him a recipe per se, but gave him a few guidelines and he did the whole thing.
Ernie’s Creamy Chicken and Spinach Pasta
Four servings
1/2 box of gluten free pasta (we like the Barilla gluten free pasta and used rotini)
Cooked chicken, about two cups (rotisserie chicken would work well)
2/3 cup yoghurt (normally I prefer Greek yoghurt but none was to be had last time we shopped. I prefer the regular full fat)
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
a sprinkle of red pepper flakes
3-4 tablespoons of butter
1/4 to 1/3 cup grated parmesan
Spinach (about half of a typical 5 oz clamshell package)
Cook pasta per directions.
Pour cooked pasta in pan, add butter, yoghurt and chicken. Don’t worry, you do not need to heat the chicken ahead as it can easily get tough when reheated. The heat of the pasta should warm it and the yoghurt up plenty. Add red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Add spinach and toss until it is wilted. I find it easiest to do this with tongs. Stir in parmesan.
It was SO good. Simple and balanced, light and comforting. Somehow I always read “creamy chicken pasta” as a bit cloying and heavy, and of course it always depends on a lot of garlic, which I can’t have. This, however, was perfect. GO ERNIE!
I swear we don’t eat pasta all the time, but it does come in damn handy when groceries are low. We ate a lot of gluten free gnocchi last spring and summer but haven’t had it for a bit. That box was sitting there in the pantry though, and we had two pieces of bacon left…and some greens….
Pan-seared Gnocchi with Bacon, Spinach and Arugula
Two servings
1 box gluten free gnocchi (This is the shelf stable gnocchi. It’s pricier than regular gluten free pasta but it’s damn good)
Half a tub of spinach and arugula or other spinach mix (2.5 oz)
Two slices of bacon
Parmesan, grated (optional)
Yup, that’s it.
Cut the bacon into small pieces with scissors (or whatever is easiest). Put it in a skillet on low heat and cook until most of the fat has rendered. (You can drain the fat, but then you’ll have to add olive oil to replace it…your choice).
Pour the dry gnocchi (no need to cook first) in the pan and pat it into an even layer with the bacon mixed in. Turn the heat up to medium and let it sit until the gnocchi is getting brown and a bit crisp. Stir and continue to let cook (I don’t have the patience to turn over each and every gnocchi). Don’t be afraid of the brown!
When most of the gnocchi is browned on both sides, add the spinach and arugula and toss with tongs until wilted. Sprinkle with parmesan (optional).
Ok, enough with the pasta, but they were both oh so good. Let me know if you try them.
Despite not having a smoothie this morning, we generally have one every day. It’s such an easy way to get a couple of servings of fruits and vegetables in. And sometimes they are just damned pretty.
I had originally planned to do a post with a few salmon recipes.
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley.
Robert Burns
I had a big piece of salmon in the freezer. I pulled it out, defrosted it and tried a David Chang microwave recipe. Eh, not worth sharing here. It was ok. I’d planned to write up my salmon and quinoa patty recipe but you know, we were going on our wander the next day and it suddenly seemed like too much work for that moment. Another time.
So I looked at my cooked piece of salmon and said, “hmmmm.” And then I made a stupidly easy put together meal of a baked potato with a bit of butter, a good dollop of yoghurt and flaked, cooked salmon on top. Salad on the side.
One of the best things about Superbowl season is all the ripe avocados in the grocery store. And cheap! Breakfast quesadilla (Ernie folds them, puts greens and bit of cheese in and lets it cook enough that the cheese leaks out and gets crispy) with avocado. Delightful.
The day we had to put Hattie down we were, obviously, not in good moods. What do we like at times like that? Frozen pizza and wine.
One of the many, many fodmap mysteries is that sourdough bread (REAL sourdough without yeast) doesn’t tend to bother most folks. Happily, I have found that to be the case for me. It seems as though a lot of stores (I’m looking at you, Schnucks) carry fewer gluten pizzas, except with cauliflower crusts. These do me no good as cauliflower is high fodmap.
Harvest Market (and I think perhaps Common Ground in Urbana) carry an all natural sourdough pizza, Alex’s Awesome Sourdough. Harvest Market carries a plain cheese and one with mushrooms. Sadly, fodmappy mushrooms do not agree with me. We get the plain cheese and doctor it up with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, feta cheese and a handful of spinach. A drizzle of olive oil on top and we cook it at 500 degrees for about 5 minutes less than than the directions say. You want comfort? You got it.
And I end with yesterday’s smoothie.
Happy La Vida Low Fodmapping.
Love,
Cynthia