Gluten free tuna mushroom lasagna

Created this recipe for a yummy comfort food dinner.

1 package of gluten free lasagna noodles (I prefer brown rice but others like corn noodles. Either will work.)
1 8 oz package of fresh mushrooms - washed and sliced
1/4 cup onion - chopped fine
1/4 cup celery - chopped fine
1/4 cup roasted peppers for color
2 tablespoons butter (margarine if lactose intolerant)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3/4 cup of milk (almond milk or soy milk will work as well)
1 can of gluten free condensed mushroom soup - I use Health Valley or Pacific
2 cans of flaky white tuna - I use the water based pouch.
2 cups of ricotta cheese
1 egg
11/2 cup parmesan cheese (or lactose free substitute)
Gound pepper to taste

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cook and drain noodles per the package. In 2 qt saucepan melt butter, cook onion and celery and mushrooms until tender. Stir in cornstarch to make a rue. Add milk, peppers and soup. Cook until bubbly.
In a bowl mix ricotta cheese and egg and 1/2 c parmesan cheese.
Spray 9x13 pan -layer noodles, tuna, 1/2 sauce, 1/2 c parmesan cheese. Repeat. Top with parmesan cheese and if desired crushed potato chips.

Bake for 30 minutes. Pull out of oven and let rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Enjoy with steamed veggie of your choice. (adds color to the meal.)

Enjoy! Can be frozen for later.

Gluten-free Monday

Caramel Maple Pears

gluten-free recipe of the week  - this one is from Betty Crocker and one of many on my "Gluten-free Yum!" Pinterest board.

Ingredients:

6

yellow- or red-skinned pears, cored from bottom leaving stems attached

1

cup caramel ice cream topping

1/3

cup real maple syrup

Grated lemon peel

• 1Spray 5- to 6-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Place pears upright in cooker. (If all pears do not fit in bottom of cooker, place remaining pears suspended between 2 others in cooker.)
• 2In small bowl, mix ice cream topping and syrup; pour over pears.
• 3Cover; cook on High heat setting 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours 30 minutes.
• 4Remove pears from cooker; place upright on serving plate or in individual dessert dishes. Spoon about 1/4 cup topping mixture over each pear; sprinkle with lemon peel.

Announcing...

This is one of the few places I have not yet announced my latest sale. I have sold a Cozy Mystery series to Berkley Prime Crime in a three book deal. YAY! *flings confetti*

The working title of the first book is "Gluten for Punishment." I asked for titles on my Facebook page back in November- explaining that I was about to write a Cozy Mystery set in Kansas in which a gluten-free bakery owner finds a dead man at her door. Unfortunately the dead man is a wheat farmer who protested at her Grand Opening just days before and our heroine is suspect number one.

I had a number of really great title suggestions, but simply had to use Jaci Charbonneau's "Gluten For Punishment." Thanks Jaci!

The book features our heroine, Toni Ryder who returns to her small town Kansas roots after her mother dies and leaves the rambling Victorian family home in Toni's care. Always one to make the best of a situation, Toni opens a store front for her already booming on-line gluten-free bakery business. But Toni left OilTop, Kansas right after her high school graduation because she never quite fit in. Now she is back twenty years later and is still a fish-out-of-water. Her loud, large and creative family plus a dead man at her door does not help Toni blend in. Add in a newspaper reporter out for a story, a good-looking lawyer, a handsome rancher and a best friend whose life is falling apart and Toni has her hands full. Will she be able to figure out who did it and clear her name before the killer gets too close?

This book was a whole lot of fun to write. Plus I am putting some of my own gluten-free recipes in the back so it's been fun playing in the kitchen as well. The book's release date is yet to be set, but I imagine sometime in early 2013.

Meanwhile- don't forget THE COUNTERFEIT BRIDE is out this June. For a fun, sweet western romance, about a gal who makes up a husband to legitimize her business then a man appears, calling himself her husband and she is stuck trying to figure out who he is and what he wants before she loses everything...including her heart. Preorder now!