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Today I felt like cooking

To be honest, cooking is not my favorite thing to do but there have been a couple of things I wanted to try and so I did them today.

For lunch we had acorn squash and polenta lasagna.

Oh yes, we did.

It was something I have wanted to try ever since Katrina at GlutenFree Gidget posted about it. I even mentioned it to Hubby but he looked at me like I had grown another head. He is not that adventurous with food.

But I was excited because I love, love, love winter squash, Katrina used butternut which is my favorite but I had an acorn squash wanting to be used. Since we are diary-free as well as gluten-free I couldn't figure out what to so for cheese because lasagna isn't lasagna without cheese. Right?

The cheese was not missed because there was a yummy faux ricotta layer.

And the noodles were not missed because polenta was used instead. A

nd the kids requested I make it again, and maybe even make it for dinner. And my kid who hates onions, corn meal (corn in any form), and spinach, didn't notice the onions, corn meal or spinach. My daughter would like the spinach layer to be increased because she thought that part was really good.

This is a definite do again, although I will be increasing it to make a 9X13 pan so that we have leftovers and may just use homemade polenta.

Then for supper we had something completely different. Have you ever heard of Pupusas? I hadn't although around here we mostly have Tex-Mex sort of things like tamales, enchiladas, that sort of thing. Pupusa comes from El Salvador and is somewhat like a thick corn tortilla stuffed with meat or beans or cheese.

I found this recipe through a round about way. Book of Yum hosts an Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger event where you pick a gluten-free blogger, try one of there recipes and then blog about it. Well Book of Yum spotlighted one of the adopters here and told about what Heather had posted about. So I went over to Heather's Blog Celiac Family and read about her making the papusas and thought that I had to try them. So I got the recipes from Diane's blogThe W.H.O.L.E. Gang where she posted the pupusa recipe here and the accompanying Spicy Slaw here.

To be honest, the recipe called for cooking pork and I just didn't want to do that.

This Texas girl used brisket. And not just any brisket, but a pre-made frozen brisket bought from Sams. But my kids loved them. They really loved them. They didn't turn out very pretty, we will have to practise at it more but they were definately tasty.

They were less impressed with the spicy slaw (yes Mom, I made cabbage slaw and even ate some without gagging). They ended up sprinkling it with sugar for a sweet and sour slaw that was actually really good. To be honest, I liked it a bit better with the sugar too but I liked it without as well.

Really the slaw was a bit stretch for me because the one food I have always refused to eat is cole slaw. I don't really like ham, bacon, sausage, raisins and mustard but I will eat them. I don't like to look at cole slaw or smell cole slaw or even think about it. My kids picked up from me that slaw is disgusting so I am impressed that they ate it at all.

Anyway I will be making this meal again, and next time I may even try a more traditional filling. Or I may just keep eating it with brisket.

All in all, it was a good day in the kitchen.

Comments

  1. YAY!!!!! I'm so glad you had a fun day in the kitchen! I agree with your daughter. Next time I will probably increase the spinach. I may even add sauteed mushrooms to that layer.

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