Category: Dinner

Chicken Noodle Soup | Healthy |Gluten Free

This gluten free chicken noodle soup is warming, nourishing and healing. Especially if you make the broth yourself.

You can find a very basic broth recipe here. Chicken broth tip: Save up all your chicken bones in the freezer, then, when you have enough bones, put them all together to make a big pot of broth. Freeze your broth in a silicone muffin tray, or repurposed glass jars. If you use glass jars, make sure you only fill them 3/4 of the way up, and cool the broth in the fridge overnight first, before putting in the freezer.

I always use organic, free range chicken when I can. I get ours from Bostocks, Organic Free range chicken.

Instant pot or pressure cooker

If you have an instant pot or a pressure cooker, you can cook the chicken legs for 10 minutes, then add the veggies and cook for 5 minutes. I prefer to cook my broth in the pressure cooker too, which I have instructions for in the broth recipe. Don’t forget to save your chicken bones from this recipe, to turn into more broth!

You can also use any cut of chicken you like, I chose this one because it has joints, which are great for making broth, and also it’s a great budget friendly cut of meat, especially if you are trying to stick to free range, organic. It’s also fairy hardy, and doesn’t tend to overcook and go tough easily like chicken breast does. You could also use drumsticks as a budget friendly option, or any cut you like really, keeping in mind that chicken breast will need to be removed as soon as it’s cooked through, then added back through right at the end.

If you are a fellow Kiwi (New Zealander) then you can find gluten and dairy free recipes like this, including all the ingredients, for 5 nights, delivered to your door (for a price so good it should be illegal – just saying) from Kete Kai food boxes. All gluten free recipes developed by me, and quality tested by my family, before making their way to you.

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Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup

This gluten free chicken noodle soup is warming, nourishing and healing.
Prep Time40 mins
Course: dinner, Main Course, main meal, meal, Soup
Keyword: allergy friendly, chicken, coconut free, dairy free, egg free, gluten free, gut healing, healing, noodle, nut free, soup, soy free
Servings: 6

Ingredients

  • 2 Whole Chicken legs I use Bostock Brothers Organic Free Range Chicken
  • 1 Onion
  • 1/4 Pumpkin
  • 1 carrot
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 Leek
  • 2 potatoes
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 100 g rice vermicelli noodles optional
  • 2 stalks celery
  • A few leaves of silverbeet or other greens spinach, kale
  • 2 Litres chicken stock or broth
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 Tablespoon Oil
  • 1-2 teaspoons sea salt depending on how salty your stock or broth already is
  • Fresh parsley

Instructions

  • Dice onion and garlic. Cut pumpkin, potatoes and carrot into cubes. Slice the celery and leek.
  • In a large pot, with a lid, fry the onions, celery, leek and garlic in the oil for 1 – 2 minutes.
  • Add the chicken thighs and cover with the water. Put a lid on your pot and let simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes.
  • Add the potatoes, pumpkin and carrots to the soup water, along with the salt and curry powder. Replace lid. Cook for 8 minutes.
  • Remove the chicken thighs from the water and set aside to cool. When the chicken legs are cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and add it back into the soup. (save the bones to make more broth).
  • Add the noodles, salt and juice of half a lemon. Cook for a further 5 minutes with the lid off.
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste 👌

Kayla

Gluten Free Crispy Chicken Nuggets

These healthy, gluten and grain free homemade chicken nuggets are crispy, quick and easy. They are also egg free, dairy free and have an option for nut free as well.

Chicken nuggets, what is it about these little morsels of delight that kids just love. My kids have never had nuggets of the processed type, so it’s definitely something to do with crispy, bite sized pieces of chicken.

Nut free

You can make these nuggets nut free by swapping the almond meal or almond flour for sunflower seed flour. You can buy pre made sunflower seed flour, or you can very easily make your own by grinding raw sunflower seeds into a flour in your food processor or blender. I’ve tried making these with other grain flours such as rice flour or tapioca, and they are just not the same without that courser texture of the almond or sunflower meal.

Do you Really not need eggs?

Nope, you really don’t need eggs to make the coating stick. We no longer have to avoid eggs, but this is how I make our nuggets every time. I recon they come out the best texture and crunch using this recipe. And a bonus in that they are so, so easy to throw together without having to faff around with an egg coating.

These are best served with homemade aioli or mayonnaise, which I have the perfect egg free mayo recipe here.

Oils

Ok lets talk oils for frying in. We personally avoid highly processed oils such as canola oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil, soya oil and ‘vegetable oil’. I fry these nuggets in my deep fryer which we fill with beef tallow or lard (just like the fish n chip shops back in the old days!) You could also use coconut oil. Olive oil isn’t the oil for frying in this recipe, as it doesn’t have a high smoke point, so you will end up smokin out your kitchen when it gets hot enough for frying.

If you try these don’t forget to tag me on Facebook or Instagram

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Gluten Free Crispy Chicken Nuggets

These healthy, gluten and grain free homemade chicken nuggets are crispy, quick and easy. They are also egg free, dairy free and have an option for nut free as well.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time20 mins
Course: dinner
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chicken, chicken nuggets, coconut free, dairy free, egg free, gluten free, grain free, healthy, nuggets, nut free, soy free

Equipment

  • optional – Deep Fryer

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • ½ teaspoon allspice
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon white pepper
  • ½ cup almond meal (or ground sunflower seeds / sunflower meal)
  • 500 g chicken diced into small cubes / nuggets of your desired size
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • Oil for shallow frying, or deep frying.

Instructions

  • Combine all the spices, salt and almond meal in a bowl.
  • Dice the chicken into nuggets of your preferred size.
  • Coat the chicken in the tablespoon of olive oil.
  • Add the chicken to the bowl of spices and toss to coat. Leave them to sit for 5 minutes to soak up the spice mix.
  • If shallow frying, add oil to your pan 1-2cm deep and gently heat over medium heat. If deep frying heat enough oil to be able to fully drop the nuggets in, or use a deep fryer.
  • Fry the nuggets in small batches for best results, and remove after 3-5 minutes or when golden and cooked through.

Kayla

Simple Nourishing Chicken Broth | Low Histamine

This low histamine chicken broth recipe makes a perfect, nourishing base for soups. It can also be added into casseroles, rice dishes, gravies or anything really, it’s very versatile.

When we first started down a path of gut healing for our children with food allergies, all the information was screaming out that bone broth was going to do wonderful things for their health. But many recipes failed to point out that meat stock and bone broth were two different things.

Meat Stock or bone broth?

Broth is bones with no meat, and water, usually cooked for 12 – 24 hours, sometimes longer, depending on the type of bones. This long slow cook produces histamine, and is generally not recommended for anyone beginning their gut healing journey. All of my kids reacted to any moderate or high histamine foods, including bone broth. You can imagine my surprise and confusion when I saw that they were reacting to what was supposed to be a very gentle and nourishing food. Thankfully, you can make something that is just as nourishing and recommended for the beginning of your healing journey, and that is meat stock. Technically meat stock is joint bones, with meat on (not necessarily all the meat) simmered for a few hours, with or without added vegetables.

This chicken broth recipe is a cross between meat stock and bone broth – depending on your need you can change up the bones to include joint bones (more collagen) bones with meat, or bones without. I have made it using only bones, but keeping it short cook and it has worked great as well. To make it even lower histamine, cook in a pressure cooker for 30 mins to 1 hour – the faster the cook, the more histamine friendly it is. This is how I cook it every time now.

If you would like to make the soup pictured with your broth, you can find the recipe here. If you would like more info on meat stock, bone broth and how it works for healing you can find that here.

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Simple Nourishing Chicken Broth

This low histamine chicken broth recipe makes a perfect, nourishing base for soups. It can also be added into casseroles, rice dishes, gravies or anything really, it's very versatile.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time4 hrs
Course: dinner, Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: Gluten free
Keyword: broth, chicken broth, chicken stock, coconut free, dairy free, easy recipe, egg free, gluten free, grain free, main, main meal, nut free, paleo, soup, soy free, stock

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken carcass from a leftover roast chicken or bones from chicken wings / legs / thighs etc.
  • Enough water to cover the bones this will depend on the size of your chicken usually around 1L of water – filtered is best
  • A couple cloves of garlic omit the garlic if you’d like to sneak the broth into things like smoothies and ice blocks 😉
  • Optional: Leftover vegetable peelings, carrot or parnsip tops, celery stalks, and herbs.

Instructions

  • In a large stock pot, slow cooker or pressure cooker, cover the chicken bones with water.

Slow cook:

  • Set on high for 4 hours.

Pressure cook:

  • Set to pressure cook following your cookers directions, for 1 hour.

Stock pot:

  • Simmer on low in your stock pot for 3 – 4 hours. Keep an eye that it doesn't overflow, or reduce too much. You want the simmer to be enough to cook the bones but not so much that it's boiling.

  • Once the time is up, strain the liquid from the broth through a sieve into a large bowl or container. Discard the bones and garlic and keep the liquid. Pour it into a container, i usually use a glass jar. It keeps in the fridge for up to a week, especially if it remains sealed under a layer of fat on top. Or you can freeze it. I use my silicone muffin tray to freeze in blocks which I can take our and use as needed.
  • If you'd like to drink the broth as is, then add some salt, herbs, ginger, turmeric and garlic to taste, before heating and serving. Otherwsie you can use it as a soup base, to cook rice and pasta in, add to casseroles, curries, mince and stews. If you have it unflavoured you can even add it to smoothies and ice blocks!

Kayla

How to eat healthy on a budget | gluten and dairy free food for family of 5 $150 a week.

So last week I set myself a challenge. To feed my family of 5, healthy, gluten and dairy free breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for $150! And I bet you are wondering … did I do it? How did it go? Was it hard? The short answer is yes, we did it. It wasn’t anywhere near as hard as I thought it would be. And with the food I have left over at the end of the week, I would say our food bill has actually come in at under $150!

This is everything we got this week – total: $146.68 – at the end of the week we still had a can of coconut cream, half a packet of peas and corn, some crackers, most of the bag of popcorn kernels, some almonds, half a bag of gluten free flour and some apples, dates and peanut butter left over. There is an exact list of everything I purchased at the end of this post.

Everyone was fed well all week and I didn’t have to spend too much time in the kitchen. Can you do it too? well that might depend, on the age of your kids, where you have available to shop, whats in season and how much time you have to put towards meal prep. The more time you have, the more money you will save!

Here are our particular circumstances –

  • We are a family of 5 – two adults and three children 8 and under. It’s the middle of winter and none of us are living a particularly active lifestyle right now, so we are not requiring a huge amount of extra energy from our food. I still feel like we eat a lot of food, compared to others, especially at dinner, so my servings sizes are quite liberal.
  • I shopped online at our local Countdown so I could see exactly how much I was spending. We don’t have a Pack n Save or a fruit and veggie shop here, so countdown is our most cost effective option. Choose your most cost effective options to maximise the amount you can save.
  • This shop didn’t include toiletries, nappies, or coffee (gasp!) however, given the food we have leftover I think these could be included easily and still keep close to budget. I will write another post for tips on how to save money on these items and general strategies on how to save money on your food bill, especially when you are dealing with food allergies.

If you are interested in trying this out here’s what I did with the money this week. If you would like general tips on how to keep your grocery bill as low as possible I will include general tips on how to achieve this in another post (which I will link here as soon as its done!) – in the mean time, this post here has some tips you might find helpful, I wrote this a few years ago, so not all of it is relevant to our situation right now.

Healthy Gluten and Dairy free Breakfasts

a list of healthy, gluten and dairy free Breakfasts: gluten free toast eggs smoothies homemade muesli with almond milk easy potato hash browns pancakes Feeding my family of 5 $150 for 7 days www.chefashton.com

We got our bread from Venerdi on-line, it was only $3.99 a loaf! I went in with the friend and we shared the shipping. I brought 3 loaves so that will last us 3 weeks.

How do we make 1 loaf of gluten free bread last 3 kids for a week!? I offered them one piece of toast with breakfast and added other things (preferably fats and proteins) to make it go further. This week they had peanut butter on their toast and scrambled eggs. Other times with their toast, they have baked beans, avocado or a smoothie loaded with healthy fats. They don’t have toast every morning.

Two mornings I made them hash browns in the waffle iron instead. I made double batch and reheated them in the oven or toaster the next morning, and served them with poached eggs. They also had pancakes for breakfast in the weekend. I didn’t end up making the muesli, I used the nuts and seeds I brought, in their smoothies instead. On a budget and being gluten and dairy free, sandwiches are just not a cost effective option so we include other filling lunch options instead.

I reached out to a bunch of fellow gluten and dairy free foodies on Facebook to share their go – to gluten and dairy free breakfast ideas, I have picked out their budget friendly options to share here:

  • rice flakes from the gluten free cereal section – make them like porridge and add some protein and fats like peanut butter, seeds and coconut milk + seasonal fruit.
  • banana pancakes – basically a mashed banana and 2 eggs – have a recipe for this here, use the variations to suit your budget.
  • rice pudding – pre cooked rice simmered in milk of your choice until warm, you can add fruit or nuts and seeds.
  • Eggs with roast veggies, or rice instead of toast
  • homemade baked beans using tinned beans of choice, tinned tomatoes, salt pepper and a dash of something sweet. Heat together then add whatever else to jazz it up – chopped spinach, chorizo or sausage, onions or mushrooms.
  • potato hash – basically leftover veggies fried with whatever else you can find. My kids love this and I find a single rasher of bacon or sausage can go a long way adding flavour.
  • If you can tolerate oats (my kids can) then this is great cost effective option – we make honey cinnamon porridge by cooking the oats with a teaspoon cinnamon, honey, coconut oil (for healthy fats). Top with dairy free milk, banana and peanut butter or nuts and seeds.
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Simple gluten and dairy free Pancakes

Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Servings: 5 people

Ingredients

  • 2 cups gluten free flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 eggs (seperate the yolks and whites)
  • 1 ½ cups milk (almond milk, coconut milk or whatever dairy free milk you use)

Instructions

  • Seperate the yolks and the whites of the eggs.
  • Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
  • Add the milk to the egg yolks and stir to combine.
  • Now sift the dry ingredients on top of the yolks and milk and stir carefully to ensure you don't get too many lumps.
  • Add the whites to the rest of the pancake batter and gently fold together to keep them light and fluffy.
  • Heat a pan on medium and lightly brush with oil. When the pan is hot add 1/4 cup of batter to make each pancake. When bubbles start to form on the top, flip the pancakes over and remove when browned on the bottom. You may need to turn the heat down further on your pan after a few pancakes, depending on the type of pan you use and your type of element.
  • Place on a baking rack while you cook the rest, or into a heated oven to keep warm.
  • Serve with peanut butter, whipped coconut cream, nuts, seeds or frozen berries.

Smoothies:

In my smoothies I usually included banana, coconut cream (I froze a can of coconut cream in an ice cube tray to use throughout the week instead of using expensive tetra pack dairy free milks), water, peanut butter, seeds like pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds. The coconut cream provides fats which help to keep us feeling full and satisfied after a meal. The peanut butter provides fats and protein, which also helps to keep us full. And is a great source of energy for active kids. The seeds do this also, as well as provide lots of vitamins. The banana helps the texture and sweetness of the smoothie and offers a great energy source for active kids too.

I would never give my kids a smoothie for part of a meal without adding healthy fats or protein, or they will just be hungry again soon after. You can also add oats if they tolerate these.

Typical smoothie to serve 3 kids:

  • 1/4 cup coconut cream (frozen into ice cubes)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 large banana (also frozen)
  • 2 Tablespoons peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup nuts or seeds

Lunches and Snacks

A list of healthy Gluten and dairy free lunches and snacks crackers and hummus organic corn thins with spread popcorn, salami, mini quiche bites, fruit (apple, kiwi fruit, mandarin, banana), bliss balls, smoothies, muffins. Adult lunches: eggs and leftovers, roast veggies. Feeding my family of 5 $150 for 7 days www.chefashton.com

Lunches – these were mostly lunchboxes. On days that the kids didn’t require lunchboxes I gave them an assortment of what was on the list pictured above, or eggs or roast veggies from my own plate.

You can find my muffin recipe, bliss balls recipe and hummus recipe on my blog. The mini quiche recipe is from my lunchbox planner ebook.

Hubby and I had leftovers from dinner, or eggs and roast veggies.

Here is what the food looks like in a lunchbox or served as snacks.

Sometimes looks can be deceiving. In this lunchbox there is 3/4 cup popcorn, two muffins, 1/4 stick of salami, 1/3 cup peas and corn, 1/2 an apple, a bliss ball and an egg. Put this out on a dinner plate and the whole thing is chocka! Not enough for a teenager, but a lot of good quality, real food for a hungry child.

Healthy Gluten and dairy free Dinner

A list of Healthy gluten and dairy free Dinners: Roast chicken and roast veggies with gravy, chicken and veggie soup, mince chow mein with rice noodles, chicken Thai red curry and rice, cottage pie, chicken wings with greens and rice frittata with roast veg Feeding my family of 5 $150 for 7 days www.chefashton.com

I based our dinner list on what was on special at the supermarket this week. (Bit of a chicken overload ha ha) but could easily sub the chicken for chickpeas in the curry to save even more money. My family are not a fan of legumes unless they are very well hidden in mince, baking or hummus! Chicken wings / drums or nibbles as well as whole roast chicken are super budget friendly choices. Pork leg is usually a really good price too, if I didn’t get a whole chicken, I would have got a pork leg and slow cooked it to make pulled pork instead.

All these dinners are of course healthy, gluten and dairy free. Also most are egg free apart from the frittata, when we were egg free, I would replace that with a slow cooked curry using a cheap cut of beef.

The roast chicken was definitely the most cost effective as I used the chicken carcass to make a broth, and then used leftover chicken and the broth in a chicken soup. The soup fed us all for dinner, and then hubby and I for 4 lunches (2 days each). So all up the roast chicken fed us for 6 meals! It was a size 23 chicken and it only cost $9.

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Roast Chicken and Vegetables with Real Homemade Gravy

This easy to prepare roast chicken and vegetables, with real homemade gravy is so easy to prepare. An allergy friendly, family favourite meal. Use the leftover chicken bones to make a nourishing broth to use afterwards.
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time2 hrs
Course: dinner
Cuisine: Gluten free
Keyword: chicken, coconut free, dairy free, egg free, gluten free, grain free, gravy, homemade gravy, main, main meal, paleo, roast, roast chicken
Servings: 6 People

Ingredients

  • 4 carrots
  • 8 potatoes
  • 1/3 pumpkin
  • 4 mushrooms
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 head broccoli (about 2 cups)
  • 1/2 head cauliflower (about 2 cups)
  • 1 size 18 – 24 chicken (size 18 feeds my family of 5 with leftovers – size 20+ does us for at least 2 meals)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 200°c fan bake.
  • Peel and dice the potatoes, carrot and pumpkin into similar sized chunks. Cut the mushrooms into ¼'s. Place them all with the garlic into a large roasting dish. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt.
  • Rub the skin of the chicken with salt and pepper. You can cook in the slow cooker then finish in the oven to crisp, or just in the oven. Follow the instructions for each option below.

Chicken: Slow cook and finish in oven:

  • I slow cook ours 6 hours on high from frozen – if it’s thawed slow cook for 6-8 hours on low. These time may depend on your individual slow cooker and the size of your chicken. We have a special little rack in our cooker so the chicken doesn’t boil in the liquid at the bottom and steams instead. I don’t add any water. Just the seasoned chicken.
  • Once the chicken is cooked through I take it out to rest, save the cooking water for your gravy! Turn the oven up to high (220°c). Then place the chicken on a tray and into the oven to crisp it up for about 10-15 minutes, or until it’s browned all over. Save any juice that drips out for your gravy.
  • Once browned, take the chicken out to rest for 15 minutes.

Chicken: Oven bake:

  • Place your chicken on a roasting tray, and place into the middle of the oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes for a size 18 chicken. (Add an extra 20 minutes per 500 grams if your chicken is bigger). To check the chicken is cooked, poke a squewer into the thigh, the juices should run clear.

The vegetables

  • Allow one hour for your roast veggies and gravy to be ready for the table. If oven baking the chicken, after the chicken has been in the oven for 1 hour, place prepped veggies in the rack below the chicken to roast for 30 minutes. Or, if your chicken is cooking elsewhere, place in the oven in the middle.
  • After 30 minutes, take the vegetables out, scrape them with a spatula and toss them around. If you give them a good shove around and break them up a little, you will get yummy little roast crispy bits. Place back in the oven for another 15 minutes then check and toss again. Remove them when everything is cooked through, browned and crisp around the edges. This could take anywhere from 45 mins to 1 hour all up, depending on your oven.
  • While the vegetables are cooking, cut the broccoli and cauli into florets, and set aside. Either steam or boil them in water until they are just tender. (Usually about 4-minutes once the water is rolling) when I boil them I never cover with water, only fill the pot up 1/4 and cook with the lid on.
  • Take your veggies out of the oven and place into an oven proof serving dish. Put the dish back into the oven to keep warm while the chicken browns.
  • Pour all the chicken cooking juices into the tray that the roast veggies were in and set on your elements on the stovetop (usually I need to turn on two elements). You want about 1.5 cups liquid, if the chicken cooking juices aren’t enough, add some cooking water from the broccoli to top it up. Let the liquid come to a boil. Squeeze out a roast garlic clove from its skin into the gravy. Add salt a pinch at a time, and taste after each addition until it’s the salty ness you like. Mix 1 Tablespoon of cornflour, tapioca or gluten free flour with 1 Tablespoon water, then add to the gravy. Mix well (you may need a whisk) and it will start to thicken as it continues to bubble. Once thickened, pour into a gravy boat to serve.
  • Your broccoli and cauliflower, should be done now and your chicken and veggies warm in the oven. Serve all together while hot!
  • Use the leftover chicken, gravy and vegetables in a chicken and veggie soup. Don’t forget to use the whole bird and make a broth with the bones.
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Simple Nourishing Chicken Broth

This low histamine chicken broth recipe makes a perfect, nourishing base for soups. It can also be added into casseroles, rice dishes, gravies or anything really, it's very versatile.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time4 hrs
Course: dinner, Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: Gluten free
Keyword: broth, chicken broth, chicken stock, coconut free, dairy free, easy recipe, egg free, gluten free, grain free, main, main meal, nut free, paleo, soup, soy free, stock

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken carcass from a leftover roast chicken or bones from chicken wings / legs / thighs etc.
  • Enough water to cover the bones this will depend on the size of your chicken usually around 1L of water – filtered is best
  • A couple cloves of garlic omit the garlic if you’d like to sneak the broth into things like smoothies and ice blocks 😉
  • Optional: Leftover vegetable peelings, carrot or parnsip tops, celery stalks, and herbs.

Instructions

  • In a large stock pot, slow cooker or pressure cooker, cover the chicken bones with water.

Slow cook:

  • Set on high for 4 hours.

Pressure cook:

  • Set to pressure cook following your cookers directions, for 1 hour.

Stock pot:

  • Simmer on low in your stock pot for 3 – 4 hours. Keep an eye that it doesn't overflow, or reduce too much. You want the simmer to be enough to cook the bones but not so much that it's boiling.

  • Once the time is up, strain the liquid from the broth through a sieve into a large bowl or container. Discard the bones and garlic and keep the liquid. Pour it into a container, i usually use a glass jar. It keeps in the fridge for up to a week, especially if it remains sealed under a layer of fat on top. Or you can freeze it. I use my silicone muffin tray to freeze in blocks which I can take our and use as needed.
  • If you'd like to drink the broth as is, then add some salt, herbs, ginger, turmeric and garlic to taste, before heating and serving. Otherwsie you can use it as a soup base, to cook rice and pasta in, add to casseroles, curries, mince and stews. If you have it unflavoured you can even add it to smoothies and ice blocks!

The Beef Chow Mein was also a great budget friendly dinner that everyone loved. I split a 1kg pack of mince between this and the cottage pie.

The Thai curry was using this recipe – its really simple and only has a few ingredients, a great one to use if there’s limited time to get dinner on the table. That also made enough for leftovers the next day. The curry paste I got from the supermarket ended up containing soy which was a pain – we don’t need to avoid soy anymore – but that means obviously I cannot recommend that to you, in case you are! I’ve found the best Thai curry pastes come from an Asian store, fruit and veggie shops or Binn Inn – they usually come in large packets and have legitimately been made in Thailand. Just look our for processed vegetable oils as these are most likely soy.

The cottage pie I made, I did half cauliflower puree and half mashed potato on the top, as one of the kids and myself prefer cauliflower and the others prefer potato. Let me know if you’d like the cottage pie recipe and I can get that written up too.

The Chicken wings were easy, there was about 900g of chicken wings in the packet, I salted them and baked in the oven for about 40 minutes until they were crisp on the outside and cooked in the middle. I served with a homemade coleslaw (shredded cabbage, carrot and broccoli stalk), homemade mayo (this recipe is for egg free mayo – if you can have eggs, replace the aquafaba with one whole egg and use 1 cup oil) and rice, which I cooked double batch when I made the Thai curry, so only had to reheat it. There was enough leftovers for one extra meal.

The frittata was a simple dish using 8 eggs + 1/2 cup of water, beaten together with salt and pepper, and then adding whatever veggies I had left at the end of the week plus some greens from the garden.

So yeah, in a nutshell that is exactly how I fed my family of 5 healthy, gluten and dairy free for a week on a $150 budget! If you make any of my recipes, or use any of the tips or tricks here, or find them helpful, don’t forget to tag me on Facebook or Instagram. And if you have any questions about anything, don’t hesitate to ask!

Kayla
Beef chow mein with noodles, beef mince, carrot, fresh coriander, broccoli and peanuts in a white bowl with chopsticks sitting on the side

Beef Chow Mein |Healthy | Gluten Free

This healthy, gluten free beef chow mein recipe comes from a collection of budget friendly recipes I created when I challenged myself to spend under $150 (NZD) on healthy, gluten and dairy free food – breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for my family of 5. I did it successfully and this was one of the recipes I used for our dinner that week.

There is quite a few ingredients – but all are necessary to perfect the delicate balance of salty, sweet, sour and spicy that makes this beef chow mein taste incredible.

There some ingredients you will see I have included as optional – one is peanut butter. My kids love me adding the peanut butter, it gives it a delicious satay tang, plus they are huge peanut butter fans. However I realise that peanut butter or satay isn’t everyones thing, or you might have peanut or nut allergies, in which case you can easily leave this out.

Gluten free soy sauce – make sure you use gluten free soy sauce to make it gluten free, or I use tamari.

Soy free / coconut free

To make this soy free, you can replace the soy sauce with coconut aminos. To make it coconut AND soy free (yes, we have been there!) you can use fish sauce instead.

This dish becomes budget friendly because you can actually use any meat you like. So grab whats already in your freezer, or whats on special this week! Mince was a great budget friendly option for us this week. Also you can use whatever veggies are in season, buying whats in season saves a lot of money. Broccoli, carrot and cabbage are great winter options. And if the fresh produce is really breaking the bank, then you can opt for frozen veggies instead. Change them up to suit your budget, season and your preferences.

If you make any of my recipes don’t forget to tag me on Facebook or Instagram. And if you have any questions about the recipe, or anything else don’t hesitate to ask!

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Gluten Free Beef Chow Mein

This Gluten free beef chow mein is a budget friendly dish that the whole family will love. The sauce is made from scratch from simple ingredients that perfect the delecate balance of flavours. It is also dairy free, egg free, and can be made soy free and nut free as well.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time30 mins
Course: dinner, Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese, Gluten free
Keyword: beef chow mein, coconut free, dairy free, easy recipe, egg free, gluten free, main, main meal, nut free
Servings: 5

Ingredients

  • 500g mince
  • 1 small onion – diced
  • 3 cups veggies (I used broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms – capsicum, beans, peas, or any seasonal vegetable works fine)
  • 1 cup grated or juliened carrot
  • 1 cup finely shredded cabbage
  • 100g vermecelli rice noodles
  • 3 cloves garlic (finely diced or minced)
  • 1 tsp ginger (finely diced or minced)
  • ¼ cup sesame oil
  • ¼ cup Tamari / gluten free soy sauce (or coconut aminos for soy free)
  • ¼ cup maple syrup or other sweetener
  • ¼ cup lemon or lime juice
  • â…› cup rice wine vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ cup sesame seeds
  • Optional – ¼ cup peanut butter (highly reccomend!)
  • Optional – chilli to taste (we add chilli flakes and chilli oil after serving as our kids dont like spicy stuff!)

Instructions

  • Sauté the onion and garlic in the sesame oil. When softened, add the mince. Cook until browned.
  • Add the veggies, except the carrot and cabbage. Turn the heat down a little and place a lid on top. Leave for 5 minutes, for the veggies to cook.
  • Once the veggies are tender, remove the lid and add the ginger, tamari, sweetener, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and stir through.
  • Let the liquid reduce over a meduim heat, stirring often. Once the liquid is thickened (around the consistency of a thick soy sauce) add the peanut butter if using. Stir to combine.
  • Cover the rice noodles in boiled water until they are soft – this would usually take about a minute. Drain the noodles well.
  • Take the pot with the mince mixture in, off the heat and stir in the rice noodles, cabbage and carrot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Add the sesame seeds just before serving and optional garnish with fresh corriander and chilli to taste. My kids dont like chilli so we add chilli flakes and chilli oil to our plates after serving.
Text reads 'beef chow mein, gluten free, soy free, nut free, egg free www.chefashton.com'. Picture of beef chow mein sitting in a white bowl with rice noodles broccoli, carrots, beef mince and fresh coriander sprinkled over the top and chopsticks sitting on the side.

Kayla

Gluten Free No Yeast Naan

As with most my recipes, this gluten free naan is quick, easy and has few ingredients. I don’t have time to wait around for yeast to do it’s thing. (plus we use natural fermentation for bread etc here so we have no need for yeast in our cupboards).

As well as gluten free, this naan is also coconut free, and has options to be egg free as well. The egg free version is every bit as delicious, but since we can have egg now, I do that because I don’t have to measure eggs or find a packet in the back of the freezer! Speaking of which, a quick tip: If you use and keep ground flaxseed as an egg substitute, or what ever you use it for – because it’s been ground and now many parts of the seed have been exposed to air, they can turn rancid quickly. Best to keep them in the freezer as soon as you have opened them. You can use straight from the freezer each time. This keeps them fresh and stops it from turning rancid quickly.

Enjoy with your favourite curry, or as a wrap, or on its own! We love ours with Thai curry, or butter chicken.

Print Recipe

Gluten Free No Yeast Naan Bread

This perfectly crafted Naan bread is paleo, and allergy friendly, including coconut free
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Course: Main Course, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: coconut free, dairy free, egg free, gluten free, naan, naan bread, side dish, soy free
Servings: 4 People

Ingredients

  • 1 cup almond meal (you could use ground sunflower seeds as a nut free substitute)
  • 1 cup tapioca flour
  • 2 tsp garlic powder (or two cloves fresh garlic, diced)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder (or â…“ tsp baking soda + 1 tsp vinegar)
  • 1 egg (Egg free: ¼ cup ground flaxseed + ½ cup water)
  • ½ cup water

Instructions

  • Put all the ingredients into a bowl together, and mix well until combined. If using flaxseed, let sit for 10 minutes until the water has been absorbed.
  • Heat up a pan over med heat. Don't oil it (unless you have major trouble with sticking – you know your pan best!).
  • When the pan is heated, dollop 1 – 2 tablespoons of the mixture into the middle of the pan. Using the back of a spoon spread the mixture out to the sides, so all remaining wet mixture ends up spread out over the pan.
  • Add a splash of oil over the top of the naan and around the sides. When bubbles have burst on top and it's browned underneath, it's ready to flip.
  • Flip it over until cooked and browned on the other side, then tranfer to a wire rack while you cook the rest, to prevent them from going soggy.

This is the almond meal I use for all my recipes and baking, I like how its affordable and the smaller bag (as I buy most other things in bulk) helps to keep it fresh, because, like the flaxseeds, nuts, once ground can turn rancid quickly too. 

To make ‘sunflower seed flour’ I simply grind raw sunflower seeds in my blender until they become a fine flour. I use it as a 1:1 nut free replacement for almond meal. You can store almond meal, and a batch of pre made up sunflower seed flour in the freezer, as well, if you are not going to use it within a week or two.

Kayla

Creamy chicken, bacon & mushroom spaghetti

 

You Need

1 250g dried spaghetti pasta – I use Ceres organics quinoa + rice spaghetti*

2 cloves garlic 

4-5 rashers of bacon 

400g chicken sliced 

200g mushrooms, sliced

Seasonal greens – I used asparagus and spinach, could also use broccoli, kale, zucchini, whatever you have. 

Sauce 

1 cup chicken broth or stock

1 clove garlic 

1/2 cup macadamia nuts (could also use cashews) nut free – see below*

2 tsp tapioca flour OR 2 egg yolks 

salt + pepper to taste. 

What to do

Cover the nuts in boiling water and leave to sit. 

Cook the spaghetti as per packet instructions. 

Sauté the chicken, bacon + garlic in some olive oil, then add the veggies and sauté until cooked through. 

Drain the water from the nuts and add to a blender with all the other sauce ingredients. Blend high speed until smooth. 

Drain the spaghetti and add to the chicken bacon and veg. Pour the sauce in and cook over low heat until  everything is combined and sauce has thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

*grain free – you could make zucchini noodles 

*Nut free – you could try replace the nuts with 1 cup steamed cauliflower + 2 T olive oil and either some nutritional yeast or 1 tsp garlic powder and a squeeze of lemon juice. Or you could use the sauce recipe from my everything free Mac + cheese 

Let me know if this doesn’t fit your requirements, and as always, i’ll see what I can suggest for you 🙂 

Kayla

Veggie Loaded Nachoes


You Need

500 – 700g beef mince
1 grated carrot
1 grated zucchini
200-400g mushrooms – blitz to tiny pieces in food processor
1 head broccoli or a few handfuls of leafy greens (spinach, kale, silverbeet) chopped to tiny pieces by hand or in a food processor/ blender.
Optional extra – Up to 1 cup of any other veggie you have lying around that you feel like hiding – i’ve put in grated parsnip, pumpkin, sweet potato, extra greens.
2 T diced garlic
1/2 bottle tomato passata (350g)
1/2 cup water / stock or broth
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp salt
Chilli to taste (we add ours after to the adult dishes)

1 avocado
1/2 lemon or lime
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander
Optional: small clove of garlic or 1 T garlic olive oil

Chips – corn chips (make sure they are just corn, oil & salt)
kumara chips, grilled kumara slices, or baked tortilla wraps (gluten free if needed)

What to do

Brown the mince, add the spices and stir through over the heat for a few minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer, stirring every now and then on a med to low heat for 10-20 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened. Often I put the tomato passata, garlic and leafy greens in the blender, and blend them all up together so the greens disappear into the sauce and I don’t have to chop the garlic! Then pour in to the mince mix.

While it’s cooking, make the guacamole by mashing the avo and stirring through the rest of the ingredients. Or add everything to a stick blender or mini blender (if I use my full size blender I need to double the mix and add some water so it flows freely through the blades, but it comes out super smooth that way.

Put the mince in the middle of your plate, then surround with your chosen corn chips, grilled kumara slices or baked tortilla chips. Top with grated cheese of your choice (dairy free, zucchini cheese or cows cheese). And guacamole, and then at our house the adults add chilli flakes or chilli oil to their plates to taste.

Kayla

Beef Curry in a Hurry

The prep for this curry is super quick and easy – but it does need some love in the form of time, to infuse it’s flavours and make the beef fall apart. So is best done in a slow cooker, pressure cooker, or on the stovetop low and slow.


You Need

700g – 1kg beef stewing steak
2 onions
2-4 cloves garlic
1 thumb ginger
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1.5 tsp salt
3 tsp coriander (dried or fresh)
1.5 cup almond milk (or cashew milk, broth or stock) or coconut milk

If not using coconut milk and nuts are safe – measure out half cup cashew or macadamia nuts (we can’t have cashews so use macadamia) and cover in boiled water and leave to sit min 30 mins, max 4 hours.

Optional – fresh chilli and / or 1 tsp chilli powder or flakes – add with the spoices. We don’t add chilli because our kids don’t like spicy, instead we add chilli flakes to adult plates once served.

What to do

Chop the meat – or if you are lazy like me, chuck the whole slab into the slow cooker (or pressure cooker). Finely dice the onion, garlic and ginger and add to pot with all the other ingredients.

Slow cooker: for 8 hours low or 4-5 hours on high, or until the meat is falling apart, if I haven’t cut the meat, I use two forks to pull it apart.

Pressure cooker: for 45 minutes, and rest for 20 mins (same as slow cooker, cut or use forks to pull apart once rested)

Stove top: I’d recommend dicing the meat for this option, then simmer on low, lid on, stirring every 20 minutes to make sure it’s not sticking. Until meat is falling apart. You may need to add more liquid.

If coconut free and using the nuts, blend with half a cup of water in a high powered blender, until it turns into a cream. Add to your curry after cooking, and stir through.

That easy, it’s done!

Serve with rice, salt and pepper and chilli to taste.

Kayla

Pumpkin Soup


You Need

1 whole crown pumpkin
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 rashers bacon
400ml stock or broth (water also works if you have neither)
1-2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp natural sea salt

What to do

Wash any dirt off the pumpkin and put the entire pumpkin skin, stalk and all into either your slow cooker, pressure cooker or oven.

Slow cook: On high 4-6 hours, low 6-8 hours.

Pressure cooker: Add 1 cup water pressure cook 30 mins and leave to rest 30 mins.

Oven – 180 deg c for 2 hours

Once the pumpkin is cooked, leave to cool. Then peel the skin off – it should only take a minute to get all the skin off and should come away like paper. Pluck the stem out and then cut in half and scoop out the seeds and discard.

Add the flesh to a large stock pot along with the rest of the ingredients and cook until bacon is heated and liquid is simmering. (Usually I pop the lid on and leave to simmer 10 mins).

Blend everything until smooth, I use my vitamix and blend in batches.

Serve with more salt, cracked black pepper and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if you can have it. Fresh herbs that lend well are parsley, chives & coriander.

Notes:

If it seems bland or unbalanced it usually means it needs more salt.

Sometimes I cook the pumpkin then store the cooked flesh in the fridge to make soup later in the week. Sometimes I save some flesh to put in baking (like these muffins or waffles) or to hide in other dishes like mince (my kids don’t like plain pumpkin).

Kayla