Gluten-free Chicken Tenders

Chicken tenders were a big part of my diet growing up in the Bronx. But thy were unfortunately from McDonald's and I'm not sure if they were really chicken after all. But I thought I'd never be able to enjoy my love for the small but mighty chicken tender again, until....

There's a stand in town called the cultured Caveman and I had the best checken tenders there. They are a very unique cart and fry their tenders in beef tallow. Needless to say, I wasn't about to go out and render some beef tallow and I figured coconut oil is about the healthiest way to fry if you're gonna fry to begin with. Success! The kids and my honey ate them all up. These can be reheated the next day if needed. You can use either coconut or brown rice flour, I think coconut works best. 

Gluten-Free Mac and Cheese!

I have to admit something embarrassing, I've never had home made mac and cheese....until tonight!

And it was as good as it looks. The ultimate in comfort food but with no wheat to speak of. Here's how. 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Gluten-free elbow pasta (I like Ancient grains quinoa pasta, tastes lovely and not gummy)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 tbs. butter (1/2 stick)
• 3 cups grated mozzarella cheese 
• 4 cups milk ( I used goat for better digestibility)
• 2 tbs. arrowroot
• 2 tbs. brown rice flour
• 2 tbs. tapioca flour (also called tapioca starch)

Note: If you'd like to make it super easy, just use some Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Baking Flour in place of ingredients after milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Cook noodles until almost done.

In a saucepan, bring milk slowly to a boil and then shut off heat. Make sure not to burn!

While milk is heating, melt butter in a small pot and stir in flour, cook for 5 minutes.

Pour in milk and whisk until sauce thickens up, about 4 minutes.

Next, put noodles in a baking dish.

Pour sauce over noodles, put half of cheese over top and mix lightly. Put the rest of the cheese on top.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Increase heat to broil and bake for 6 minutes more. 

Best served hot! I'm going for seconds now, see ya' later. dddddd

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Banana Cake

                                     

It's high time that I tried another banana-chocolate chip combo. This is much like my old stand by banana chocolate chip bread, but bunt style and a bit moister. And my absolute favorite part about this ake, is it's great texture!

This recipe is adapted from the great Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gormet Cooks Comfort Foods. She has a great guide to gluten-free flour mixes that is simple and has always turns out great. I made this a mini-bunt cake simply because I thought it'd look really cute. And I was right. I also made a cupcake and a mini loaf version to and they turned out perfect! 

Ingredients: 

• 2/3 cup and 1 tbs brown rice flour
• 2/3 cup and 1 tbs tapioca flour
• 2/3 cup and 1 tbs arrowroot
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large very ripe mashed bananas
• 2/3 cup buttermilk, or milk alternative (add lemon juice to milk if not using buttermilk, but recipe works best with diary milk.)
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup coconut sugar (use 1 and 1/2 cups sugar if not using stevia)
• 10 drops liquid stevia
• 2 tbs ground chia-flax seed mix
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped sunflower seeds
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 340 degrees. Use a greased or non-stick bunt pan. 

In a medium bowl, shift all dry ingredients. 

In a large bowl. cream sugar, stevia, and butter. Then add in ground seed mix, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well.

Add in mashed bananas and mix with an immersion blender or hand mixer if you have one (cuts down on mashing time). 

Add in flour mix a bit at a time until it's all a nice consistency. Mix for about 1 minute.
Stir in nuts, seeds, and chips.
Pour into pan and bake for 40 minutes. Bake for 55 minutes if making mini loaves.
Let cool a bit before turning over onto a plate. Powdered sugar or your favorite glaze would work well, but we just do it plain and love it. Marvel at your creation!
Now go eat!