I totally am supposed to be writing about a different topic right now…but I need to just share a few gluten free successes I have been having — because in my world they actually don’t happen too often.
Deep Fried Stuffing
As a family we have been working to “eat down the freezer”. I have gluten free leftovers in there that are perfectly good and need to be eaten. In our case, this week we tackled a huge gallon bag of left over wild rice dressing from Thanksgiving 2013. That dressing is super yummy, involves no bread– but admittedly it is some work and makes a lot. Click here to see the recipe.
So, Monday night, I thawed chicken breast and the stuffing. I was bored with my usual cooking and thought I would just quick Google what to make with leftover Thanksgiving stuffing. This post from HalfHourMeals.com popped up: Leftover Stuffing Recipes: 7 Great Ideas. The website does not cater to gluten-free, but it had good ideas!
Monday, I tried the deep fried stuffing. I made up some gluten-free bread crumbs and followed the directions–add an egg to the stuffing, make into balls, then add the breading and deep fry until golden brown. Everyone in the family loved them! Wahoo! That was success #1.
But I still had half of the stuffing leftover, even after this dinner. I knew Thursday night I needed to do something with it or prepare to throw it out. Another idea on the stuffing article was to do a swirl meatloaf. Hmmm it sounded good. Hamburger and stuffing what could go wrong?
Meatloaf experiment
After thinking about it for a bit, I decided not to do the swirl part of it. Instead I grabbed a pound of ground beef (which also helped us eat down the freezer), I mixed in some minced onions and an egg. Then I added roughly three cups of the stuffing to it. I liked the idea because it had all the components of things people add to make meatloaf — a little salt, and a “filler” in this case various kinds of rice.
I worked it all together and put it in a bread pan to bake for about 55 minutes at 375 degrees. I wonder if I could have baked it in a little less time. But 55 minutes was good.
We sat down to eat and Grace thought it was okay, but my husband and I thought it was pretty good. And of all people, my lovely picky eater (and my gluten-free gal) Emma, gave me two thumbs up that it was really good! YES! I just had success #2! Seriously, I often fail when I experiment — which is why I don’t write as much about my activities in the kitchen.
And ultimately, making meatloaf was SOOOO easy! Sometime I might want to explore some kind of sauce with it. The meatloaf itself was not dry, I wonder if the leftovers might be. But we will see how they go.
If you have any tips for using gluten free leftovers, or successful experimentation stories– please share below!
Tags: baking, celiac, cook, cooking, dressing, experiment, free, gluten, gluten-free, recipe, stuffing
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