Garlic Cashew Chicken with Sauteed Veggies and Quinoa

Garlic Cashew Chicken with Sauteed Veggies and Quinoa

Ingredients:
2TBSP fresh garlic (or minced garlic from a jar)
2 TBSP butter (I use Earth Balance Vegan Butter)
2 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
1 Individual package of Cashews (can be salted or unsalted, whole or pieces)
1 small yellow pepper, cut into small cube pieces
1 small red pepper, cut into small cube pieces
1/4c mushrooms chopped
1/4c onions, chopped
green onions chopped
1 lb chicken, cubed and cooked
1 cup Quinoa cooked according to package (you can also use rice)

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, saute peppers, mushrooms, onions, green onions, garlic and cashews in EVOO.
3. Remove veggies from pan and set aside. Thoroughly cook the chicken in the same pan using cooking spray or EVOO (whatever you choose)
4. Once the chicken is cooked, add the veggies back into the pan. Add in the butter and simmer until the butter is melted.
5. Mix with Quinoa.

***Sometimes I add sweet and sour sauce to mine or a little bit of soy sauce...depends on my mood.

The Reason

Lately I've had a lot of people ask me about my gluten, dairy, & soy free cooking, and I thought, where better to put it then on a blog... that way I don't have to email this recipe to 5 different people, and that recipe to 3 different people. Here it is folks, plain and simple. I'm not technical about how to make things. Some directions may say: "throw the dry ingredients together, and then mix up the wet stuff and add it with the dry ingredients." You get the picture, you are smart enough to read the ingredients, figure out whats considered wet or dry. I won't waste my time or your time with the step by step tediousness that I can't stand when reading recipes. But some may have that tediousness there, all depends on how I'm feeling that day ;)

A lot of the recipes I have came from other gluten free blogs that I've adapted to be dairy and soy free. While some have come from dairy/soy free blogs that I've adapted to be gluten free. Others have just come from "accidents in the kitchen" throwing stuff together, all ingredients just so happen to "be free" and it TASTE FABULOUS!

Why do we go gluten, dairy and soy free. It all started with my sweet beautiful 2 year old. He has a milk, soy protein intolerance, which we discovered the milk at 4months, the soy at one year and then it wasn't until he was 2yrs old the gluten aspect of it all. I had one of the most miserable babies on the face of the earth for a year, once we got rid of all milk & soy products he slowly starting to improve, but man oh man, did he still cry A LOT!!! He never slept....at 7 months old, a diagnosed insomniac! He has had quite a few health issues, concerning the GI tract over the past 2 years, and we had him tested for Celiacs, test came back inconclusive, but his liver panel suggested otherwise so the doctor told us to take away the wheat/gluten and wouldn't you know, that little turkey started sleeping through the night! My boy, who never slept more then 4 hours in a 24 hour period....sleeping 10-11 hours a night. Holy Cow! Also, his liver panel set it self straight after a few months of being gluten free. He has also started talking more, and his behavior has dramatically improved.Sometimes when a kid is autistic their body can't handle/process certain foods. Keegan is a living testament to this statement. We've seen him grow leaps and bounds since going gluten free. Its been amazing, but we can ALWAYS tell when he's had something he shouldn't have eaten!

I just remember how LOST I felt when I first started this journey. I had no clue what to feed my little boy....now that things are becoming clearer and easier, I wanted to make this blog so I would have a place to post these recipes to make it easier for other parents, so they don't feel hopeless and helpless...because its an awful, awful feeling.

Right now I have a bunch of recipes and no pictures. I will do my best to take pictures and figure out how to post them on here, after all I am fairly new to the blogging world!