The Holidays have started and it is all about the food! ~Palm Sunday!
In my big, loving, Italian family this is a
favorite! It’s usually set at the beginning of spring. It’s sunny and a bit
warmer with a little chill still hanging around. Just enough chill for the kids
to run around outside with their mothers chasing them to put their jackets back
on. Of course the opposite is happening inside. Inside the house the windows are cracked
begging for a breeze to come in as some conversations may be full of “hot air” and
warmth from the oven with burners all going at “full steam ahead.”
We always overdo it. You can hear the meatballs and sausages
bubbling in the sauce. Your senses are overloaded with Baked Ziti and Lasagna baking
in the oven (one with sugar and one without) and always a protein waiting in cue.
This time my sister made lamb. Other times it could be a pork dish or a roast. It
will end with coffee and espresso and “S” Cookies and Italian pastries for
desert. Festa!
But for me there is one big problem. Gluten! Gluten to the
left of me! Gluten to the right of me! Gluten everywhere! In the crispy Italian
bread. In the bread crumbs in the meatballs. In the pasta. In most of the
delicious food that the family had lovingly prepared. I wouldn’t dare to eat
any of it even though I can still remember the taste. So I had to come
prepared.
I always make sure I prepare something the night before. I
don’t want to fight for space at the stove top or the oven. That is when you
find out what they mean by “Too many cooks.” I decided to make myself my
favorite rosemary lemon chicken with organic brown rice.
This is one of my favorite dishes. I prepared it the other
night for my friend Stacy London and her little dog Dora. They both loved it.
Dora likes to yip and bark and run around. Unless she is eating chicken. Then
she sits like a little angel and waits to get a tidbit.
It is a very simple dish. I am using all organic, non-gmo
ingredients. No Gluten. No Corn. No Soy. No Dairy. First, coat the bottom of
your baking dish with olive oil. Then lay out sprigs of fresh rosemary. Take
two large lemons and slice them into round lemon slices. Place them in the dish
over the rosemary. Rinse off the chicken and place it on top of the lemons. I
like to use chicken tenders as it is easy to maneuver and cooks all the way
through much faster than a leg or a breast. Sometimes if you cook it long
enough to cook through a leg the rosemary and lemon start to burn and disintegrate.
I add some garlic (chopped garlic in oil works best.) Coat all the tenders
liberally. Then I cover the chicken with gluten free breadcrumbs. It will give
the dish a crunchy top which is really tasty! I put it in the oven for one hour
at 400 degrees. Pretty hot, I know, but you want the chicken to cook. The trick
is to take two large lemons, squeeze all the juice out of them and have the
juice ready to pour over the dish at the half hour mark. It will moisten the
dish and stop it from burning. Keep checking that it doesn’t get too dry or
that it doesn’t burn.
The lemon chicken is then served over a simple brown rice
dish. I start with sautéed onions and green peas in olive oil. Then I add brown
rice and keep turning it until it is all coated with oil and mixed together.
Serve a scoop and put the chicken right on top, accenting with slices of roasted
lemon. It is heavenly.
I prepared the dishes the night before and brought them to
Palm Sunday. I just had to pop them in the oven to heat up and I had a great
little meal. So good that my nieces and nephews wanted some. They didn’t care
that it was gluten free. They just loved that it was delicious. Isn’t that the
goal? Eat well and be happy. It just takes a little prep.
I still miss the prosciutto bread. But hey what can you do?
I just want to keep living gluten free and loving it. You
can too!
