Grind away

So, I've been experimenting again. This time with flours. My goal is to find other flours that work in the recipes I use most. I rely mostly on chickpea flour and, in some sweets, sorghum flour. I mix those in with tapioca and potato starches.

I bought some quinoa grain at $2 a pound and some amaranth grain. Mind you, quinoa flour sells for $6/1.5 lbs. Amaranth, just as much.

Anyway, I threw the grain in my coffee grinder on a fine setting and let it rip. Worked out very well. I made my pancake recipe using the quinoa flour -- turned out perfectly. The amaranth is courser and I haven't used it yet.

This opened my eyes to the world of grinding. Grinders of all types are sold. You'll want a stronger one if you plan to grind corn and nuts, etc. There's a nice comparison of grinders at the Walton Feed website.

It's yet another economical way -- in the long run -- to stick to the GFCF diet.

Asian chicken

Another real easy chicken dish. I had made too many recipes based on a seasoning mixture of chili powder, sea salt and cumin that I decided to go another route altogether. This worked nicely.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, cut up
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp cane syrup (I use Steen's. You could sub honey, real maple syrup, Agave syrup, etc. I used Steen's because of the "dark" flavor it has that lends itself well to Asian dishes.)

OK -- heat a pan on the stove. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Toss into pan. Heat until chicken's cooked (or precook chicken and then just heat to serve). Serve with a favorite veggie.

Chicken or beef hash

This is a dinner dish. It's easy and a neat way to introduce veggies.

Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast, cubed
- ketchup
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 2 potatoes, diced or cubed
- garlic
- basil
- sea salt
- 2-3 carrots, cut into sticks
- oil

Heat oil in a pan. Add potatoes and carrot. Cook for 5-10 minutes, tossing every so often. Add onion and garlic. Cook 2 minutes. Add chicken after stirring in 1 tbsp ketchup. Add basil and sea salt. Cook until chicken is done or warmed. Add any other veggies you wish, beans, peas, broccoli, etc.

Enjoy.