So, y’all are drooling over goulash the Old Fashioned way but you’re gluten free? No worries. I have worked on this for about a year now, and I finally have the answer.

I know many of you are also dairy free and this recipe could easily be dairy free with just elimiatining or changing to a dairy free cheese. In my family, we’ve done enough healing to eat cheese again on occassion, and we buy good quality cheese. It’s hard to live without cheese, that’s why healing is important, now we don’t have to. I wasn’t living without pizza. There was a time that we did avoid cheese and gluten while we were healing, but that’s something we can tolerate in moderation now.

Most of what I cook doesn’t come from a recipe. I tried to cook that way in the past, but I always end up missing ingredients and having to improvise (not good for someone that doesn’t really cook, hehe) or I’d burn it and that just left us hungry or calling for carryout.

In recent years, I’ve started learning more about nutrition, holistic nutrition, not counting calories or grams of protein, but the effects of food on our body. I’ve learned food makes us well or food makes us sick. There is a lot of truth in the statement Let Food Be Thy Medicine (or thy toxin).

I used to eat anything I wanted, still kind of do, but that’s taken some healing and discipline. I don’t even want a lot of things that I used to eat. It’s true that our taste changes and we can learn to like different foods. Proud member of the Picky Eaters Club that is learning to eat veggies in my mid-40s! We can also develop aversions to foods when they make us feel bad. If something causes pain enough times you just stop doing it, right? That’s why I don’t eat a plate of spaghetti, or a cinnabon treat from the mall. The thought of either makes me want to double over in misery. Actually, just the smell in the mall takes me back to the days of constant stomach pain and burning. I’m so glad I don’t live like that anymore.

Pain is a powerful thing. I lived in pain most of my life because I didn’t realize what was causing it. When I learned I could control most of my pain with food, I started paying a little more attention to what I was eating. If you want to know more about my history, check out a few of my other blog posts. I’d be happy to help you learn how to heal your pain; it’s easier than you think.

Once healed, you can eat things like goulash, which is why you’re reading this in the first place, so let me see if I can share what I do for goulash…

Here’s what I use:

Measurements are estimated, I don’t measure, I just sprinkle it as I’m cooking. Please season for your taste.

• 2 small/med sweet onions
• 4 small sweet peppers
• 2-3# grass fed beef
• Large can of diced tomatoes (28 oz)
• 2 cans of tomato sauce (15 oz)
• 1 box Gluten Free Penne pasta
• Cheddar cheese from pasture raised cows
• Ghee/Butter from Pasture raised cows
• Himalayan or Sea salt
• Black Pepper
• Turmeric
• Oregano
• Garlic

*We use all organic ingredients unless they aren’t available. Eating organic will make a difference in your health.

To get started, add approx. 2 tlbs of ghee to a 12” skillet and melt. Dice 2 sweet onions, and add to melted butter/ghee. Add additional ghee if the skillet gets too dry. As onions cook down, season w Himalayan salt or Sea salt, Black pepper, turmeric, oregano, and garlic powder. If you want measurements I’m going guess: 1/2 tsp salt/pepper, 1/4 turmeric, oregano and garlic. Stir occasionally until onions are half soft.

Move onions to outer area of skillet and add 2-3# grass fed beef. Repeat seasonings: Salt/Pepper/Turmeric/Oregano/Garlic. Cook beef, drain. Add in 4 small chopped sweet peppers (orange and yellow have such great flavor, but one red will spice it up a bit). I use the center of the skillet to cook the peppers until soft and then mix everything together and brown the beef a little longer.

Add 1 large can of diced tomatoes and 2 cans of tomato sauce. Stir everything together. Cook on med heat for 15-20 min, until tomato sauce is hot and starts to boil, then turn heat down to low.

In separate pot, boil water w H salt to cook penne pasta. Cook paste a few minutes less than cook time on the box. Drain. Add to skillet w meat/tomato sauce.

As all of the above comes to a boil, shred fresh cheddar over entire skillet and remove from heat. Let stand for 10 min. Serve.

I’d love to hear how yours turns out, so be sure to keep me posted!