Here’s the menu for the week!

Menu:
Monday: Italian
Corn Pasta and Vegetarian Pasta Sauce

Tuesday: Thai
Rice noodles in Peanut Sauce with veggies

Thursday: Japanese
Vegetarian Vegan Onigiri Rice Balls and Miso Soup

Friday: Italian
Chebe grilled pizza

You can find more great menus over with Org Junkie. As always, many thanks to Cheryl for temporarily housing the Gluten Free Menu Swap at her blog.

Last week Cheryl hosted the swap with a carob theme, and this recipe is for her. I was inspired to make a dairy-free rice milk, and although I wanted to make Only Sometimes Clever’s Rice Milk recipe I didn’t have many of the ingredients. Luckily looking around online I found an easy alternative- a mexican cold rice beverage called horchata. I took my inspiration from a recipe I found online that used a lot of high protein almonds along with rice as its base, and cut the sugar so it could be sweetened (or not) to taste. For Cheryl, I made the following recipes, and enjoyed a nice, creamy cup of hot carob cocoa made with dairy-free (lactose-free, casein-free) homemade rice milk. The DH does not like carob so it wasn’t his thing, but I really enjoyed my healthy caffeine-free chocolatey recipe.

Gluten Free Rice-Almond Horatcha Milk Recipe Rice  Mexican

Ingredients 1 cup long grain white rice like Jasmine Rice (not basmati) 2 cups blanched, skinless almonds 1-inch piece cinnamon stick/bark 7 cups water 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract Sweetener to taste (up to 1/2 cup sugar) Ice (optional) Directions Rinse your rice and drain it thoroughly. Clean a spice grinder or electric coffee grinder by running some old, raw rice you don’t care about through the mill and then wiping it out. (This will get rid of old spice remnants and coffee). Grind your rice in batches until it is as fine as possible. Then, place in a large bowl with almonds and cinnamon. Pour 3 1/2 cups water over the rice, almonds, etc. and cover bowl with a towel or cling wrap. Leave overnight. The next morning, blend in batches in a blender, adding 2 1/2 cups water to the mixture as well as your vanilla extract. When mixture is well blended, strain through a metal strainer and then a very thin towel or double layer of cheesecloth. Add 1 cup water or more to get the desired texture. Serve on ice with liquid sweetener to taste (agave, honey, or simple syrup works well) or use in a recipe such as my Hot Carob Haratcha recipe. Notes The leftover rice/almond sludge reminds me of the leftovers after making tofu (okara). I’m going to look for recipes using it…

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Based off of Gale Gand’s Food Network Recipe with some modifications. Please do not replicate without my permission. Recipe ID:  1405 Added:  April 30, 2009 Last Modified:  April 30, 2009

Gluten-free Rice Almond Milk Hot Carob Drink Recipe Rice  Mexican

Ingredients 2 cups freshly made unsweetened horchata (Mexican rice-almond milk) 2 tbsp. carob powder 2 tbsp. honey or agave nectar 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder dash salt 2 tsp. raw sugar (less or more to taste, or sub extra honey or agave) Water to adjust thickness cinnamon stick, grated nutmeg to taste Directions Combine horchata, carob, honey, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a heavy bottomed small pan and gently heat on medium low. Whisk to combine ingredients and get a little foam. Taste as it starts to warm and add any raw sugar or additional sweetener to taste. If you find it starts to thicken, you can whisk in some additional water to make a smoother brew. Serve in a cute cup with cinnamon stick (if you want) and freshly grated nutmeg on top. Notes This one’s for Cheryl! Caffeine-free, and a great way to use carob powder in a casein-free, lactose-free recipe! You can also adjust sugar to taste (make it less or more sweet)… I’m going to try it chilled, too… Might also be good with more cinnamon and even a little chili pepper for kick..

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Inspired by carob container recipe but my own original creation. Please DO NOT replicate anywhere without my permission. Recipe ID:  1406 Added:  April 30, 2009 Last Modified:  April 30, 2009