Lemon Chicken

Here's the recipe I made for dinner last night. It was SO YUMMY!!!
Footnotes as to what I would do differently to follow:

1 cup lemon curd
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (I left this out of the curd mixture)
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces (you could use firm tofu)
1 large red bell pepper, cut into matchsticks
2 bunches scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces

Batter:

1 cup water

3/4 cup GF flour (I used Pamela's)

2 T GF flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In medium bowl, whisk together the lemon curd and vinegar and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together water, 3/4 cup flour, cornstarch, baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. In another bowl, toss chicken pieces with 2 T flour and 1/4 tsp salt. Coat the chicken in the batter and deep-fry in about 2-inches of heated oil for approximately 5 minutes, or until golden brown. (I ended up just dumping the chicken into the batter and mixing it around and then pulling out each piece with tongs and placing it into the oil. It took about 3 batches and I had to turn the pieces over midway through the cooking process.) After the chicken is cooked, add the pepper and scallions to the oil and fry until crisp-tender. Add the veggies to the curd sauce. Arrange the chicken on a platter and pour the lemon sauce over the chicken.  Serve with rice and maybe a side of sugar snap peas sauteed in butter and garlic!

Okay, now, what I would do differently. I  would GRILL the chicken and veggies. I didn't really like the veggies deep-fried. I would prefer them roasted.  I also thought the deep-frying added WAY to many calories and grease to the dish. For a healthier version - go for the grill. Another thing you could do is just dust the chicken in cornstarch and fry it. That would eliminate a few more calories with the batter and still give you the crispy texture.

Pina Colada Trifle

I got this recipe off of Pinterest, posted from Food.com. I tweaked it to suite my gluten free diet for our Easter celebration. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! No one even knew it was gluten free either! I also increased the amount of ingredients in the cream. That's the thing about a trifle, you can never have TOO much cream!

CREAM
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp rum extract
1 large jar (13 oz) Marshmallow Cream
1 large can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, drained, reserve liquid
4 large bananas
1 jar Maraschino Cherries
2 cups flaked coconut

Whip heavy cream until stiff. Add rum extract. Combine marshmallow cream and drained pineapple. Add 1-2 tablespoons of reserved pineapple liquid to marshmallow cream. Fold marshmallow mixture into whipped cream.

Bake 1/2 cup coconut in 350 degree oven in a pie tin, or something, until golden brown. You can stir it every few minutes.

BLONDE BROWNIE
2/3 C melter butter
2 C brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 C Pamela's Gluten Free Flour Mix
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp Vanilla extract

Combine melted butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla extract, then mix until blended. Combine dry ingredients and mix into wet ingredients until just barely blended. Do NOT over mix. Bake in buttered 9x13-inch pan at 350 degrees for approximately 25-30 minutes. Cool completely. Slice into small squares.

LAYERING
Small amount of cream, then 1/3 of the brownies, then 1 sliced banana, about 8 maraschino cherries, then cream, 1/2 cup coconut--- 1/3 brownies, 1 sliced banana, cherries, cream, coconut---1/3 brownies, then remaining cream, 2 sliced bananas, remaining cherries and toasted coconut on top.