So why is the Gluten Free Kid a Vegetarian?
Could you eat this?? Okay so maybe you could and hopefully you are laughing now, but this is the reason the Gluten Free Kid is a vegetarian.
Having grown up in the Midwest, I love the county fair. The sounds of the rides mixed in with the whine of the animals, the smell of hot pavement, cotton candy and well, cow manure, brings back so many memories . . .
To pass these memories along to our kids, we visit the local county fair every fall.
Our excursion this past September including riding the Ferris Wheel, spending way too much money on games we could never win and then walking through the animal barns.
I have to exercise a lot of self-control during this part because I love animals. If not for the time restraints of caring for another being (in addition to the wise advise of my husband), we would probably have a house full of every creature you can have as a pet.
We safely made it past the cute bunnies, the baby goats and we were doing great until we saw the sign, baby pigs for sale, $10 each.
These were the most darling pigs I had ever seen - only about 10 pounds each, pink, relatively clean, they seemed to happily tolerate our cuddling and fondling.
The Gluten Free Kid absolutely feel in love with the baby pigs.
Even Dad was starting to bend and talk about a place where we could put them . . .
Then came the very kind farmer who politely informed us that these pigs were not meant for pets - they were bread to be slaughtered and eaten.
And even though they were cute and cuddly today, in a matter of months they would weigh hundreds of pounds and would not be able to move without the assistance of forklift. He assured us at this point both the pigs and us would be miserable.
So we left the swine barn, somewhat teary eyed.
Thinking "distraction method", we entered the cow barn only to come to the reality that they too were all meant to be slaughtered, and then the chickens . . . well you get the picture.
From that day, the Gluten Free Kid has been a vegetarian. She decided that maybe she could not have a pig as a pet, but she was certainly not going to eat one.
So here is her Favorite Vegetarian Pasta Paella
1 pound GF penne pasta
1 t ground turmeric
3 T olive oil
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 red onion, chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
1/4 pound snow peas (if you do not have snow peas on hand, frozen green beans work well)
1/2 cup pitted and sliced black olives
3 t GF flour (any blend will work)
salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large saucepan of water to boil and add the GF pasta with the ground turmeric. Cook until tender.
Drain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking liquid.
In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and onion until softened, about 3 minutes.
Add the red pepper and carrots and saute for 3 more minutes.
Stir in the snow peas, black olives and cooked pasta, and cook for 3 more minutes.
Sprinkle with the GF flour and stir until combined. Cook for 1 minute, then gradually add a little less than 2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid.
Cook until bubbling and thickened, another 2 - 3 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve while hot.
Adapted from Vegetarian Pasta Cookbook
Okay, here is one more cute animal photo:
All of my recipes are indexed on my website at Gluten Free Mom.com.
