Creative Cooking by Hart

We've been eating out a lot since we arrived - well, the food is so good, & we are still getting settled. But something has happened which I never thought possible: Justin is getting tired of eating pizza!

Yesterday I took the baby to the market & really took my time looking through the aisles. I cannot believe how many sections of the store are devoted to products made from white flour! After spending almost a whole year eating gluten & dairy free, this has been a real shock for me. It reminds me of when I lived in Costa Rica for 3 months while in college - I had been a vegetarian for a few years, but I knew going into the experience that I wanted to have an open mind - I ate 6 different types of meat in the first 24 hours there because I was with a family & I ate what they offered. This time, I get to make all my own decisions (& luckily eating no gluten & dairy was a choice for me not a medical necessity). So, what to eat?

Here's how I made Italian Mexican food last night:

• warmed/toasted a piadine (like a flour tortilla) in olive oil
• melted provolone cheese on it (this provolone actually has a very strong flavor, unlike the provolone in the states, but it was the most mild cheese I could find)
• added roasted chicken (luckily they have this here, since it's a staple of our diet - someday I'll learn to make my own, but this is too convenient)
• added black beans (yes, I schlepped one can of black beans from home - um, was the extra weight worth it? probably not, but we enjoyed it anyhow)
• then, we all added what we wanted: lettuce, chopped tomato, chopped grilled bell peppers (very popular here), a mixture of zucchini & mushrooms (mushrooms are in season here & are delicious! )that I sauteed earlier, & salsa (I found a mini-jar of Old El Paso at the store, right next to the soy-sauce, which I also bought for the pantry)

OK, it sounds like too much of too many things, but it actually tasted pretty good!

Tonight, back to Italian: pasta (we're having fun taking turns picking out the shape since there are about 100 different kinds), tomato sauce with zucchini & mushrooms, and a salad with chicken. The food here doesn't keep as long as in the states, so my new trick will be to only shop a little at a time & make sure I use the food before it goes bad. Actually, that's a good habit to get into no matter where we live!