Meal Planning Monday - The Gluten Free Week

Little known fact that one of us in the house is intolerant to gluten.  It's not been diagnosed as full on Coelliac disease but a gluten free diet certainly helps.

So every so often I go all out to try and cook gluten free meals for a week.

If you've tried Gluten free meals, you will understand how a) difficult and b) monotonous this is.  Gluten free food is typically dry and the processed food often tastes metalllic.  Don't get me wrong there are wonderful gluten free foods out there such as Warburtons new Gluten Free Bread Range and the Tesco Free From Range is very good.  But it really is trial and error in finding the good stuff.

So this week, we will be eating:

Monday:
Slow Cooked Gluten Free Hot Pot

Tuesday:
Chicken and Mushroom Pie with Mash Topping

Wednesday:
Roast Dinner
(No great skill required on this one - just use gluten free gravy mix)

Thursday:
Gluten Free Chillli Con Carne with Rice

Friday:
Tesco Free From Fish Fingers, chips and home made mushy peas (why? cos the tinned ones can have gluten in)

Saturday:
It'll all go Pete Tong with a Takeaway!!

Gluten Free Chilli Con Carne

This dish really does taste exactly the same whether gluten free or not.  It can also be made in the slow cooker or just on the hob.  I tend to make it on the hob in the morning, then I can have it on a Jacket Potato for dinner and with rice for tea.

This makes an absolute pile of the stuff.  I usually get at least 3, usually 4 freezer portions out of it.  So value wise it's also fab!!

Ingredients:

1.5kg Minced Beef

3 tins of plum tomatoes

1 carton of pasatta

2 tins of red kidney beans

1 sachet of Mild Chilli Powder (If you buy the refill box, it's one of those sachets)

2 Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pots

Method:

1.  Brown the mince in batches and drain off the fat

2.  Put the mince in a large stockpot and sprinkle over the chilli powder.  

3.  Put the tomatoes, the pasatta and the rinsed (don't forget to rinse!) kidney beans  in the pan.  Chop the plum tomatoes up with a pair of scissors (I use plum rather than chopped tomatoes as I find it provides a richer sauce rather than watery)

4. Mix it all up and stir in the jelly stock pots

5.  Cook for about 2 1/2 hours on the hob or 6 hours in the slow cooker.

6.  Serve with rice.

I usually taste it after about an hour and if it's not spicy enough, I add more chilli powder.

This tastes great after its been frozen.