Blondies have more fun!

I wonder if I will get any hits to my blog just because of the title of this post?

Anyway, I have been excited about trying to make a gluten free desert from a mix. My kids love cookies and cookie bars and I could make them with flour since the kids do not have allergies-but it is just easier to cook everyone the same thing isn't it?

I used a mix called Blondies from Namaste Foods-It says the mix is free of Gluten, wheat, soy, nuts, potato, corn, dairy and casein.

I followed the package directions and mixed with eggs, oil and water. (if you make these using egg replacer please post how they came out or I am happy to link to your blog or website or even post your review.)

They dough looked a little strange to me. It looked a little runny and not-well doughy like I expected. I let them sit about ten minutes and the consistency seemed to improve. These were super easy to make and I just put them in the pan and baked them.

They came out of the pan pretty easy and held together in the bars I cut them in. I can't recall having blondies before so this was my first taste of these. If they are missing something I would not know it. Here is the finished product.

My review: I give it a four out of five *. First because they were easy and second because they were darn good. The corner pieces were crispy on the edges like you expect and chewy on the inside. I bet they are so good as a base for ice cream or even making ice cream or rice cream sandwiches. Best of all everyone asked for seconds so it passed the kids and hubby's taste test as well. I am excited to see if my local grocer has other Namaste products to try! I am off to hide the blondies so we do not eat them all.

Fried Chicken...please work!

Let me start by saying...fried chicken is really important to me. I know, I know, but I am southern-is that an excuse? I love to cook and I love to cook fried chicken.

When I could have wheat it was a big process. I would let my chicken sit overnight in a the flour mixture to get the crust just right. I took it very seriously.

So I was a little leery of cooking this chicken as I did not want to be disappointed. I used the Kinnikinnick Gluten Free Crispy Chicken Coating Mix. Note: Produced in a facility which uses Sesame Seeds, Soy, Eggs, and Tree Nuts.

I rinsed the chicken and put it directly into the coating mix. The coating seemed to cling nicely to the chicken as you can see below.

As I started to fry the chicken in canola oil I was a little sceptical as there seemed to be a lot of separation of the coating from the chicken. This might have been because there seems to be a lot of paprika in the mix but not sure. The oil was pretty gritty right off.

After 6 minutes the chicken got pretty dark, so I decided to take it out and finish baking it in the oven. I did not want burnt looking chicken! I did not mind the extra step as long as it tasted good. The above picture was the chicken after cooking for six minutes.

And the picture above is the finished product after baking in the oven. I was a little disappointed but I am thinking maybe if I used some type of egg wash first it might turn out better. The chicken was not crispy and the mix did not add any special flavor. It needed a little sea salt as well.

So my review for the mix is a 2 out of 5 * but I will give it another shot.

Note: I got lazy after having to do the two step cooking for the chicken and did not make my green beans. lol

Birthday Pizza and Ice Cream

Today is my birthday so I am indulging in Pizza and homemade ice cream. I decided to blog about my lunch since it seems more interesting than dinner. :) My hubby knows me SO well. Most people would probably not be happy getting an ice cream maker for their birthday, but I am just thrilled! I have so missed ice cream and I can't wait to try it out.

I am trying the first of the Gluten Free products I bought. I made pizza using the frozen Nature's Highlights brown rice pizza crust. I would love to give them some credit for their product but I can not find any info except pdf catolog files for gluten free products.

In the picture above I thawed the crust as per the package directions. It only took 10 minutes so it was pretty quick. It looked pretty good and "normal" so I was excited to put the pizza together.

My camera is a little wacked out but I promise there is not as much olive oil on the crust like it appears! lol The suggestion is to brush with olive oil and heat crust with just the oil. I let it cook on 450 for about 8 minutes while I sauted my pizza toppings and cut my fresh tomatoe slices.

Just like in the oil pic the amount of pasta sauce looks exaggerated. I SWEAR! I used a very light layer of tomato sauce because I was not sure how well the crust would hold up to moisture.

I do not have any dairy allergies so I shredded some mozzerrella.

This was for the kids and I, so I used a good amount of toppings to make it hardy. I am glad I did as I think light toppings might not have been as good. I used mushrooms, garlic, onions, and leftover beef patties of jalepeno and cheese that my husband had made the night before.

And wala! The finished product.

My review: The crust sounded really crispy as I cut it. I took my first bite about 5 minutes later after serving the kids. The crust was warm and a little crunch but had some chew to it. The crust holds together really well. It really held all the toppings I had added. I might have been able to add more sauce and it still would not have been soggy-I like that. I'm not sure if I would have appreciated the taste of the crust by it's self. I would probably next time add sea salt as well as the olive oil.

I tried a second slice about 15 minutes later. The more this crust cools off the more it gets chewy, but not in a gross way or anything. I do not think any leftovers would have been good though.

It did satisfy my craving for pizza and I have another crust so I know I will make it again. :)

I give it a 3 out of 5 *

Feel free to leave a link to your own pizza using products safe for you or your family.

Note: An update. Allergies suck! As I finished writing this I felt itchy and had a yucky tummy. I took some benedryl and now need to find out if it was the crust or one of the toppings. I am suspecting maybe tomatoes-but I had tomato basil soup yesterday with no problems. It was a very mild reaction but a reaciton non-the-less.

My allergy free spree

Welcome to my new blog! I hope this blog can help me to remember recipes I try, products I try and to occasionally rant about my feelings on living with food allergies.

My local Kroger store is awesome!!! I had not been to my local store in over a year since I started having food reactions. Well I stopped by there today for a few things and discovered the bounty of Gluten Free and allergy free products. I will try one of these products a day and do a review of them here on my blog. Please stop by and visit your local Kroger store to see if they carry the products you need. I was told by the cashier that you can request items by stopping by the courtesy desk and asking for a form.

Pic of what I bought!

1) Health Valley Rice Crunch-Ems cereal

2) 20oz EnerG Rice Flour

3) 20oz EnerG Tapioca Flour

4) 16oz EnerG White Rice Macaroni Pasta

5) 4oz EnerG Wylde Pretzels

6) 12oz Perky's Nutty Rice cereal

7) 16 oz Notta Pasta Linguine

8) 8 oz De Boles corn spaghetti pasta

9) 18 oz KinniKinnick Crispy Chicken Coating Mix

10) 2lbs Namaste Foods Blondies

11) Some kind of Crackers! I swear I bought rice crackers and now can't find them. I will list as soon as I do. :)

12) Nature's Highlights Brown Rice frozen pizza crust-I looked and looked for a link to this product but could only find pdf files for odering it. I will credit them as soon as I find something.

13) Vans Mini Waffles

I will update give a review of these products as we try them :)