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