Gluten Free Chicken Strips :)

So again I'm slacking on the blog front! I went crazy with sewing projects and doula stuff and getting ready for events last week and didn't find the time, this week the excuse was I was on vacation! well part of it lol! some of it was doula stuff. Ahhh business...takes away so much blogging time. But anyways I decided that tonight I had to share the recipe for my husband's super awesome chicken strips (gluten free of course!!!) I don't have a picture of them though...The lemur and koala and Mommy & Daddy scarfed them down rather quickly....yep thats right they're all gone! But here's the sort of recipe:

Coating:
Oat flour
White rice flour
Corn meal
curry powder to taste
cumin seeds to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Other ingredients:
Chicken Breasts
Eggs
Milk

Instructions: cut chicken into strips. Beat eggs and milk together in a bowl to form the "bath" for the chicken. Place the chicken strips into the "bath" and let them sit for a couple minutes while you mix up the coating. Dredge bathed chicken strips in the coating and deep fry until done. (You could probably bake them or fry them too if you were trying to be healthier but we really weren't tonight!)

supper yumminess!

I am a Celiac and as such I'm always on an adventure in baking and cooking gluten free. Yesterday my mom asked if I could make a gluten free treat for her to serve at her get together this morning. We didn't have alot of gluten free goods in our house so I dug out my cookbooks and searched for a recipe that didn't use alot of flour in it. I found this wonderful recipe for fudgy brownies and so I decided to try them using the Bob's Redmill Gluten Free All Purpose Mix instead of the flour they called for and well they turned out to be the best brownies I've ever eaten!! They were crunchy on the outside and perfectly soft, moist and chewy on the inside. I'm definately considering making more today since I only got to have a taste test of them yesterday. And I am going to share the recipe :) I got it from the 125 Best Gluten Free Recipes cookbook and I made a couple adjustments to the recipe so I will post the cookbook version and then my version.

Fudgy Brownies (the cookbook way)

1/3 cup yellow pea flour
2 Tbsp potato startch
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp GF baking powder
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup shortening
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Glaze
2 tsp shortening
2 oz White chocolate

In a large bowl or plastic bag combine dry ingredients and walnuts. Mix well and set aside. In a large bowl, microwave shortening and chocolate on medium for 3 minutes until partially melted (or melt in a saucepan over hot water). Stir until melted, add eggs one at a time, stirring to make sure its blended. Stir in Vanilla extract. Slowly add the dry ingredients, stirring until combined. Spread evenly in a prepared pan and let it stand for 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with little moist crumbs on it. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Let cool for 15 minutes on the rack and prepare the glaze.

Glaze:
In a small bowl partially melt chocolate and shortening. Remove from heat and stir until completely melted. Spread onto brownies and enjoy!


Fudgy Brownies (my way)
1/3 C + 2 Tbsp Bob's redmill gluten free all purpose mix
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp GF baking powder
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 C soft margerine
1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

In a large bowl combine dry ingredients, mix well. In a small microwavable bowl, melt margerine and chocolate chips on high for 3 minutes or until the chocolate chips are partially melted. Stir until melted the rest of the way. Add eggs and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix well, make sure the batter is nice and smooth. Add chocolate mixture and mix well. Pour into prepared cake pan (an 8 inch square pan works great). Bake in a 350 F oven for 10 -15 minutes until the top is starting to get crispy but its still really soft and doughy. Turn off the oven and let it bake indirectly for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the brownies are fairly firm. Remove from oven and let cool in pan. You can glaze or ice them if you wish but I found they were perfect just the way they were.

And the piece de resistance....the yummy yummy brownie...

Wind Wind Go Away...

So a typical day here usually includes some sort of wind...and I'm not talking about a little breeze, I'm talking gale force winds! Today happens to be one of those horribly windy days...with good weather comes the wind, it's the curse of the Canadian Rockies Chinook *sigh* so that cancels our trip outside to the park with our friends today. Instead we will be doing mountains and mountains of laundry and on my less than 6 hours of sleep I felt inspired and compelled to share my homemade laundry soap with you. We make our laundry soap in a powder form (you can make it into a liquid if you so choose) and it works great plus its cheap and not too chemically :) so here's the recipe:

4 litres of water (warm so that powders dissolve better)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1/4 cup baking soda
I use about 1/2 cup per load. I mix it before I use it each time.

I also occassionally use oxyclean on the whites.

We don't dissolve it in water and we add about 1-2 tbsp in with the wash on a cold wash cycle. Although we don't use this on our cloth diapers, we use Dr. Bonner's Pure Castille Soap as the borax can break down the PUL in diapers.

Just for fun! What do you use for your laundry? If you make your own soap please do share your recipe! Leave me some tips or funny laundry stories :)