The ingredients in this salad are very simple, nothing fancy, yet still taste marvelous together.
I am a huge fan of Taco Salad. And Mexican food is one of my favorite food styles aside from Asian food. I probably cook Mexican cuisine at least once a week since I love it so much!
And a bonus — This meal can be prepared in 30 minutes or less!
So I use to like L&L’s Hawaiian Barbecue. Ever since I found out I was allergic to chicken and gluten, I haven’t eaten there in years. This Macaroni Salad recipe is a copycat version of their mac salad. It is so tasty that my husband LOVED it and kept raving to people how great it was. Now that made me a happy cook that is for sure!
Anyhow, here is my take on L&L’s Hawaiian Barbecue’s Mac Salad.
So on Monday my husband and I packed the car, then the kids and ourselves into the Prius and drove 400+ miles to Anaheim to visit Disneyland. We normally would stay for 3 days at the parks, but decided to save money and bought two-day park hopper tickets this time instead. Uh, having two days seemed very rushed. And even though we didn’t make it onto every ride we had planned, the kids still had an awesome time!
Once we arrived into town we went to Walmart and bought lunch supplies and dinner supplies for one night. Even though the food is quite tasty at Disneyland, and being gluten intolerant isn’t even an issue — the only food we purchased inside the park was a Dole Whip cause you can’t go to Disneyland without having a Dole Whip!
My family isn’t really into traditional tomato pasta sauce… we love Alfredo Sauce. Tonight I threw together what I had in the fridge and every person at my table raved and my youngest even had 2 helpings of pasta… this is a kid who HATES pasta night. So I will take that as I did really well.
So I made meatloaf the other night for dinner and over estimated HOW MUCH I was making. I normally make a one pound loaf, but for some odd reason I figured I should make a two pound loaf. WELL… lets say I had a lot of meatloaf leftover.
Now, my wheels were spinning on what to do with the leftovers. I love stuffed bell peppers and immediately figured I could transform the meatloaf into stuffed bell peppers easily especially since I had leftover rice in the fridge as well.
I have been on a kick of making my own rubs lately. I think the reason being is that my husband is so sensitive to MSG and Sodium Nitrates. But many people don’t realize that when they read the ingredients list and see Celery salt or Celery Juice or anything celery for that matter that in HIGH concentrations Celery acts exactly the same as MSG. And that unfortunately is how companies can market their products MSG free.
Anyhow, we learned the hard way and now it is easier to make my own rubs and seasonings than it is to buy packets at the store.
I absolutely love shrimp and am always experimenting for dinner time. I also like curry so instead of doing a a Thai Shrimp Curry I decided to give Shrimp Scampi a kick and so glad I did!!
The day before Christmas vacation started my daughter had a cookie exchange for Girl Scouts that we needed to contribute 4 dozen cookies.
My first thought was Spritz Cookies since you can knock out like 30 cookies a cookie tray with a Cookie Press!! And since they are quite easy to prepare, 7 dozen would be a breeze. And on top of it we even dipped the cookies in Ghirardelli Dark Melting chocolate to make the cookies yummier and prettier when presented.
These cookies are delicate and crisp with a rich, buttery flavor that will keep you coming back for just one more… and then another, and then another…. LOL!
While this isn’t our first time at Disneyland nor is it our first time there eating Gluten Free, I am quite excited to go and be there and see what they have going on for the 60th Anniversary!
My Husband, Kids and I have saved up our birthday and Christmas money to make this trip happen. And for the last 3 trips (over the last 6 years), my parents have joined us at the Happiest Place on Earth!
SO, it is official… WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND in 30 days! Total countdown mode now!!!!!
My son Aden is very excited cause we’ll be in the Happiest Place on Earth for his birthday… Yeah lucky kiddo! 🤗💓
I am thinking I will have to celebrate my son Arik’s birthday as well since his Birthday is only 5 days prior to Aden’s and well we are leaving for our trip 3 days after his birthday. SOOOO, I will have to see what I can do to make it special for Arik as well.
We didn’t plan ever to go on one of our kids birthdays… it just happens to fall on the week Disneyland is deemed to have the least crowds of the year. So we picked that week to avoid waiting in massive lines.
Now mind you the last time we went to Disneyland, we went on Christmas 2013 – THE BUSIEST DAY OF THE YEAR. And will NEVER do that again. Nevertheless, we used Touring Plans (touringplans.com) and the app mapped out our best wait times and stragedies for which rides at what times for us including meal breaks and fastpasses. So the most we waited in lines on the Busiest day was 20 minutes.
Even though we are heading there on a least busy day, I am still gonna use Touring Plans App again cause it was a snap to use and I rather get through the park with ease, especially with three kiddos!
I love everything Disney and wish I could live at the Happiest Place on Earth. I mean I wouldn’t starve there especially since they are up on their Gluten Free awareness and you can go to City Hall and get a listing of where to eat Gluten Free. AND we already have a Character dining reservation at PCH Grill for the night of my son’s birthday and they are making (for an additional fee) a gluten free birthday cake to bring him out after dinner. I can’t wait to see how they present his cake!!! I am just beside myself!
Anyhow, T-minus 30 days.
My husband came home from work last week saying a customer had given him cookies that were stuffed with Rolo Candy and wanted me to see if I could make them. I said yeah I’ll look in to it.
Anyhow, looks like it is a basic chocolate chip cookie where the chips are replaced with the Rolo candy. Soooooo, the challenge was on!
I took out my best gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe and omitted the chocolate chips and went from there.
Anyhow, the cookies came out soft, chewy and oh so yummy!
