Chicken Tenders

Ok, enough with the breakfast foods! It's nearly impossible to get GF fried foods, save for french fries at a very few places that have dedicated fryers. Not that fried foods are particularly good for you, but they are pretty tasty and we DO live in the south, after all. We made homemade chicken tenders a few times in college, but, given the mess they create, hadn't attempted them in a few years.

My amazing email group introduced me to Choice Batter. I found it at HEB for $7.99 (!), but it was worth every penny! I was able to use one bag for 4-5 different meals (chicken tenders twice and french fries twice). Instead of using egg and then flour to coat the chicken, you mix the powder with water to make a liquid batter to coat your chicken/potato/etc. It's also pre-seasoned which is quite handy!

We buy the pre-cut chicken tenders because it's easier than cutting them yourself. I used our electric skillet to heat about 1" of vegetable oil at 375º, but a deep fryer would work even better (Christmas present, anyone?). Prepare the choice batter as directed on the package- you can halve the recipe depending on how much you're cooking. The first time I used Choice Batter, it didn't stick to the chicken very well.  This time I dredged the chicken in GF flour before dipping it in the batter and it seemed to do a lot better.

Fry the chicken in the oil for about 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through and browned on the outside. I let them sit on some paper towels to soak up the extra grease before serving them. Another great thing about this batter is it absorbs less oil that traditional batters so it's almost good for you. :)

I like cream gravy with my chicken tenders and mashed potatoes and followed the typical recipe you find online:

Cream Gravy
3 Tbs. oil with meat drippings from frying pan
3 Tbs. flour (I used GF Pamela's flour mix)
1-2 Cups of milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix drippings and flour until well blended. Cook over medium heat 2-3 minutes until bubbly. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil until gravy is thick and smooth, stirring constantly. You can add more flour or milk to change the consistency to you liking. Season to taste.

Yum!

Cinnamon Banana Mini-Muffins

My kids are obsessed with the Hostess mini-muffins (like there will be a huge tantrum if we run out because they reeeeeeeeeeeeally want muuuuuuuuffffffffinnnnnnsss!). I'm a little tired of paying such a high price for them. On Monday, I decided I would try to make my own and, while I was at it, make them GF so I could eat them, too. I didn't have any blueberries around, but I did have some ripe bananas, so banana muffins it is! I love having the kids help me bake and they seem to get a kick out of it. Here's the recipe we used based on a few I found on the internet and the Pamela's site.

Banana Mini-Muffins
2 1/2 C. Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
1/2 C. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 C. (2-3 depending on size) mashed bananas
1/4 C. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C. nuts (optional)
Brown sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix all ingredients together except for the brown sugar. Using a greased mini-muffin pan, fill each cup about 2/3 full. Sprinkle brown sugar on top to your liking. Bake for 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the muffins. Yields about 40 mini-muffins.

I have to say these game out pretty tasty! We all loved them and I don't have to spend a million dollars on individually packaged muffins that my kids will only eat half of, but refuse to share with each other! WIN! I also decided to freeze half of them since it made so many and my kids only eat 1-2 muffins each morning. Hopefully, they will defrost well and still be tasty when we need them.

Enjoy!

A few of my favorite things

There are so many GF products available now that make the diet so much easier than it was even 5 years ago (just ask my mom who was diagnosed in 2005). Here are a few of my favorite things:

• Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix- excellent for pancakes, waffles, and baking almost anything without having to mix different flours together to get the right consistency
• EnviroKidz Peanut-Choco Drizzle Crispy Rice Bars- this is my go-to snack food since I can't have granola bars anymore. Yes, I realize the name has "kid" in it, but I'm a kid at heart, so there!
• Udi's- this company makes amazing bread, bagels, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and more. My mom had given up sandwiches until I introduced her to this bread. It's amazing.
• Boar's Head deli meats- I loved them before, but I love them more now because they are all GF! So delicious, especially on my Udi's bread. :)
• Tasty Classics soups from HEB- the first six months or so, I went without cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup and it was a sad, sad time. I used to use them in so many recipes and didn't want to go to the trouble of making them myself. I stumbled across these soups in my sister's pantry and was floored. They only cost $.70 each! You can't beat that!
• Sprouts GF Deli Pizzas- these are hands down the best GF pizzas I've had. They are around $4 each, which is usually the upcharge for a GF crust at a restaurant that offers them. 
• Mrs. Leeper's dinners- the creamy tuna, fettuccine, and beef stroganoff are my favorites and work great for a quick dinner or something different for lunch. They're pretty similar to Hamburger/Chicken/Tuna helper, but GF and actually tasty. 
• Amy's Cheese enchilada frozen dinners- I have several friends who eat these and don't need to eat GF. They are delicious and another great option for lunch or dinner when we're all scrounging for leftovers. Just as convenient and cheaper than going out for Mexican food (something we used to do A LOT).
• The internet- so this isn't really a product, but it makes my life SO much easier. If we decide to eat out spur of the moment, it's so easy to find a place that has GF options and not feel the need to go home just so I can eat safely. Same thing goes for candy, dinners at friends' houses, etc. I can easily pull out my phone and find out if I can eat what's being offered.
• CenTex Gluten-Free Discussion List- the people on this list are amazing. I've learned so much from them! I highly recommend joining if you're in the area. If not, try to find a support group, message board, etc. in your area. It makes it so much easier to know you're not alone and to learn from other people's successes and failures in eating GF.

Donuts!

During one of my "feeling sorry for myself because I can't eat whatever I want" moods, my amazing husband suggested making a list of the things I miss the most and promised to find a way to make them for me. One of the things on the top of this list was donuts.

This past Friday, he stopped by the store on his way home from work and picked up a donut pan. Sunday morning, we attempted our first batch! I followed the recipe on the pan packaging for the most part, substituting GF flour (duh), leaving out the baking powder since there's already some in the flour mix I use, adding butter instead of shortening because I didn't have any, and adding sugar for a topping because donuts aren't donuts without SUGAR!!

Donuts
2 C. Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix
3/4 C. white sugar
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
3/4 C. milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. butter, melted
Sugar in the Raw or chocolate glaze (recipe below) for topping

Preheat oven to 325º. Lightly grease the donut pan. In a large bowl, mix the Pamela's mix, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt together. Add the milk, eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat until well blended. Fill each donut cup 3/4 full.  Sprinkle with Sugar in the Raw to your liking or leave plain for chocolate glaze post-baking. Bake 10-12 minutes until the donuts spring back when touched.

I was able to make about 10 donuts, but could have made 12 if I didn't fill some of the cups too much...

Chocolate Glaze
1 ounce melted unsweetened chocolate
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Once the donuts were cooked, I moved them to a cooling rack and put a plate underneath to catch the extra glaze. I used a knife to spread the glaze since it had hardened a bit. If you make it right before you need to use it, you could probably pour it on the donuts.

Overall, they were good, but not great. Terry and I agree that they really need to be fried to taste like the donuts I miss so dearly. But, considering it's the first donut I've had in a year, it was a terrific start.

Breaking up with bread

About a year ago (345 days if you want to be picky), I was diagnosed with Celiac disease and was charged with eliminating gluten from my diet. Gluten is a protein that makes food tasty. Well, not exactly, but not being able to eat it presents a challenge in the "making foods that don't taste like cardboard and still taste somewhat like their glutenous counterparts" department. There have been a lot of tears and money wasted on products and recipes that remind me that eating gluten-free isn't always as easy and fulfilling. But, the bright side is that it can be. 

I can guarantee that I will still make foods that are inedible and that some days all I want to do is complain about the hand I've been dealt. Breaking up with bread (and donuts, and pasta, and cereal, and cake, and muffins...) kinda sucks. But, I will say it's made us a lot more creative and adventurous in the kitchen, and Terry and I have both deepened our love of cooking as a result.  

I'm learning to love food made the way I can eat it. It's definitely a long and winding road, but I'll get there.