Broccoli Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

Growing up I was not a huge fan of scalloped potatoes and ham. It was a dish my mom made often enough for me to remember though. Since then I have grown to like it but have put my own twist on the dish plus have had to make a few substitutes! It's a nice and cheap meal with the bulk of it being potatoes and I love using red potatoes because it's easy to leave the skin on and not mess with all the peeling!

1 medium onion
1/2 package (6 oz) steamer broccoli florets
1/2 lb. deli ham (Land O Frost black forest ham)
2 cups rice milk
1/4 cup Soy Free Earth Balance Butter Spread
1/4 cup brown rice flour
6 small red potatoes or about 3 medium to large potatoes
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 cup Daiya cheddar cheese style shreds

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan. Chop onion, thawed broccoli, and ham, setting each ingredient aside in a separate bowl. Slice red potatoes leaving the skins on. Melt butter and place melted butter, brown rice flour, garlic salt, pepper and milk in a separate bowl. Whisk with a fork until the flour is well blended. Place a single layer of potato slices in the pan followed by half of the broccoli, half of the onion, half of the ham and half of the cheese. Gently pour half of the milk mixture over top. Then layer the remaining potatoes, broccoli, onion, ham and cheese. Pour the remaining milk mixture over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until a fork can easily pass through the potatoes.

Disclaimer: It is always important to read labels because brands frequently change their ingredients. These ingredients and brands work for my family but some may be processed in the same facility as wheat, soy, dairy and/or eggs and therefore depending on your severity may or may not work for your family.

Crock Pot Pizza Casserole is What's For Dinner Tonight

I love pizza and I love spaghetti so why not mix the two? Tonight Oliver had swimming lessons making for a late dinner and a desperate need for food to be ready the minute we walked in the door. So I pulled out the new crock pot my mom gave me for Christmas and made this delicious pizza casserole! Buying spaghetti sauce involved reading labels when it was just my allergies because many have dairy in them but I really liked most of the Ragu flavors so I have been using that brand for the last 5-6 years. Now with Lola's soy allergy I've had to find a new sauce which hasn't been easy. Don't get me wrong, there are some decent options out there, they just happen to be more expensive ones and aren't exactly the cheap, off brand ones I usually gravitate to in order to save some money. Lately I've been enjoying some of Classico's flavors but they are $2 a jar and I'm used to paying only $1 a jar. This week I found my $1 sauce though! Target's Market Pantry brand sauce has soy oil in it....unless you buy the 23.5 oz jar of traditional sauce that says "heart healthy" on it. For some reason this one specifies canola oil instead the dreaded "and/or soy oil" language which is awesome! The regular traditional one had the "and/or soy oil" language on it so you have to be super careful and again....read labels!! Tonight I used the "heart healthy" sauce for this awesome dish. I accidentally bought spicy sausage so it was a little on the spicy side but Oliver was a good sport about it.

Crock Pot Pizza Casserole
Yield: 8-10 servings
-1 jar (24 oz) spaghetti sauce (beware of soy oil and dairy, see above)
-2 packages (8 oz each) of fresh baby Bella mushrooms, washed sliced and cooked.
-1 lb. ground sausage, cooked
-1 package (6 oz) pepperoni (We like Hormel because it's labeled gluten free.)
-1 package (8 oz) Daiya mozzarella shreds

-1 lb gluten free spaghetti cooked to package directions and well rinsed (I prefer a 100% corn one when its going in the crock pot or oven for further cooking. Rice or rice blends seem to get mushy. Tonight I used rigatoni by Sam Mills.)

Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of your crock pot. This helps prevent that first layer of noodles from sticking to the bottom. Then proceed with these layers: half of the noodles on top of the sauce, half of the mushrooms, half of the pepperoni, half of the sausage, half of the cheese, the remainder of the noodles, then sauce, mushrooms, pepperoni, sausage and finally cheese. Put the lid on and cook on low for 4 hours. I wouldn't cook it much longer than that because the noodles can start to get mushy. It's a bummer gluten free noodles don't hold up as well as wheat ones do in these types of dishes.

Tonight we paired this pizza casserole with a salad and this homemade French dressing along with a side of grapes.

Disclaimer: It is always important to read labels because brands frequently change their ingredients. These ingredients and brands work for my family but some may be processed in the same facility as wheat, soy, dairy and/or eggs and therefore depending on your severity may or may not work for your family.