Back in Colorado with a Gluten Free Pasta Recipe from Andy

Hey there. It’s been a while since I last posted here. One day short of 6 months actually. What can I say? Life is busy this year!

We’ve been back in Colorado for 3 months now, working our butts off and “relaxing” a bunch. That is, if you can call 12-mile hikes and 2-hour trips on the paddleboard relaxing! To me they definitely are.

When we arrived in Colorado at the beginning of April, the campground we stayed at was Dutch George Campground in the Poudre Canyon, right around Mile Marker 101. Dutch George is right on the Poudre River, so the noise of the river is something you hear at all times. When we first got there, the Poudre River was at its springtime low. By the time we left the Poudre Canyon to head to Grand County a month and a half later, we had lost 6 feet of shoreline on either side of the river, and Castiel lost all of her fun hidey spots in the sandy bushes along the water.

While we were acclimating, and waiting for our first job to begin, we got some small jobs done around the bus and we did a little bit of exploring around Dutch George Flats, and along the Elkhorn Creek. We also took a few drives to the end of Pingree Park road; one of the most beautiful, yet semi-dangerous, roads to drive down in Poudre Canyon.

One really nice thing about sharing this life (and this bus!) with Andy, is that he enjoys cooking even more than I do. One of the first things he made after we got to Dutch George was his homemade version of Hamburger Helper Lasagna. If you’ve ever had the HH version, you know as well as I do that it is disgusting. You also probably know that it isn’t gluten free, but you may not know that we ARE.

One major thing about being gluten free is that 95% of the time you get to make your food from scratch, because all of the processed GF food is pretty close to being garbage. Very few of what food companies offer for gluten free is actually food that should be given to humans. Because of that, and because Andy’s version of HH Lasagna tastes amazing, I am going to share his recipe here. And remember: You don’t need to use gluten free noodles if you aren’t gluten free… BUT you should really look into how wheat in the USA is processed before you buy anything else with wheat in it.

US food companies are poisoning us, and they’re hoping most of us won’t actually take the time to research what we put into our bodies. Did you know that wheat is saturated with Round-Up immediately prior to harvest so that it dries out, and then it is immediately processed - no cleaning involved. Anytime you eat something that has wheat in it, you are ingesting poison-saturated food. If you don’t have celiac disease and you have gluten issues, you probably don’t really have gluten issues; you have glyphosate poisoning.

The same goes for peanuts as well. Peanut crops are THE MOST glyphosate-saturated food produced in the United States.

I’ve probably said enough about that for now, but the more I see people eating highly processed poisoned garbage, the more I wonder why nobody else cares that their multitudes of ailments and dis-ease come directly from the garbage they eat every day.

Andy’s Homemade Lasagna Hamburger Helper - Gluten Free

Ingredients:

1 medium onion

1 TBSP Tallow (or Butter)

1 Lb Ground Beef (or Venison, Bison, Elk, Moose…)

3 Cloves Garlic OR 1 TBSP Garlic Powder

Salt and Pepper, to taste

1 1/2 TBSP Basil

1 TBSP Oregano

1/2 TBSP Thyme

1 24oz Jar Marinara Sauce

1 14.5oz Can Diced Tomatoes

4 Cups Chicken Broth or Stock

1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese Powder (or more because can you ever have too much cheese?)

1 16oz pkg Tinkyada Pasta, any shape (or any other GF or non-GF pasta you prefer)

Instructions:

Chop 1 medium onion

On Medium-High heat, melt 1 tablespoon tallow or butter in a large frying pan

Add chopped onions to the pan and cook until translucent

Add 1 pound Hamburger to the onions and brown

Turn heat down to low

Add 3 cloves minced fresh garlic, or 1 tablespoon of garlic powder

Add salt and pepper to taste

Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of basil

Add 1 tablespoon of oregano

Add 1 teaspoon of thyme

Stir seasonings, onion, and meat mixture and cover

Cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes

Add 1 x 24-ounce jar of marinara sauce

Add 1 x 14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes

Add 4 cups of chicken broth

Return heat to high and bring to a boil

Add 1/2 cup of cheese powder (Freeze dried cheese)

Wisk in cheese powder until dissolved

Add 16 ounces of pasta and stir

Turn the heat down to low

Cook until the pasta is done to your liking stirring every 3-4 minutes

My Tinkyada GF pasta takes 25 minutes at 8,200 feet of elevation. Your cooking time will vary based on pasta choice and elevation.