Panda Express Orange Chicken

I don't know about you, I L-O-V-E the orange chicken at Panda Express. In fact, just a week before I had to quit wheat, I was planning on going there and getting a HUGE tray of it for $35, it's worth it for me! Well, I was devastated when I thought that I was NEVER going to have orange chicken again! But luckily for me, I found this recipe. (I just had to tweak it a little) When I made it a couple weeks ago... It was good, but it didn't taste the same. I didn't put enough honey in, so you could taste the vinegar. But it was good enough that I wanted to make it again. But when I made it today, it tasted almost the same as the stuff you buy! (That's saying a lot, considering its gluten, dairy, corn and sugar free) Well, it's not that complex, and it tastes REALLY good. But I still prefer the real stuff, but I'd give this one four stars!

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper
Oil (for frying)
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup GF flour mix
1 tablespoon minced ginger root
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 dash crushed hot red chilies
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar (you can use a little water, or white vinegar with honey)
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon potato starch

For the Sauce:

1 1/2 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 Tablespoon water
5 Tablespoons honey
5 Tablespoons white vinegar

Directions:
In large bowl, beat egg, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon oil together. Cut chicken pieces into 2-inch squares, place them in the large bowl with the egg mixture and coat well. In a large dish, stir potato starch and flour together with a sprinkle of Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Add chicken pieces, stirring to coat. In a wok or deep-fryer, heat oil to 375 degrees. Add chicken pieces, small batch at time, and fry 3 to 4 minutes or until golden and crisp. (Do not overcook or chicken will be tough.) Remove chicken from oil with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Set aside. Clean wok and heat 15 seconds over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil, ginger and garlic, stir-fry until fragrant. Add and stir-fry crushed chilies. Add rice wine (or honey and vinegar) and stir 3 seconds. Add Orange Sauce and bring to boil. Add cooked chicken, stirring until well mixed. Stir water into remaining 1 tablespoon potato starch, and mix until completely smooth. Add to chicken and heat until sauce is thickened. Serve at once. This goes quite well with steamed rice.

Honey Cheesecake

So Cheesecake has been sounding really good to me right now, but I of course can't have dairy, sugar or gluten, which are vital ingredients. We have made Gluten-free cheesecake before but making it without dairy or sugar wouldn't be THAT hard, if I could find a recipe... So I was searching and searching, and I couldn't find a single one that met all my food intolerance needs. I finally decided that I wasn't going to find one, I would have to create my own recipe. I found recipes for ones without sugar, and without dairy, and without gluten. But none were without all of them. The only difference from the dairy free ones and normal ones is they call for dairy free cream cheese and sour cream. The gluten free ones have a different crust, and the honey ones have honey instead of sugar. So I used a honey recipe for the filling, but used non-dairy cream cheese and sour cream. Then I got the crust from a gluten free recipe, and it turned out wonderfully! It is SOOOO easy! (Hey! I never said fast)

It will take about 20 minutes of hands-on time; 1 hour, 10 minutes of total cooking time; and 6-10 hours of chilling and cooling. Like with all cheesecake's, make it the day before you are going to need it, and let it chill that night.

Filling:
2 8 oz. pkg. Non- dairy cream cheese (I used the Tofutti "Better than cream cheese" but whatever you have will work)
1/3 c. honey
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 c. dairy free sour cream (I used Tofutti, but like before, whatever you have will be great)
2 tsp potato starch (cornstarch will work just the same, if you can eat corn)
1 T. grated lemon peel (optional)


Crust:
1 1/4 c. GF flour mix*
1/2 c. ground Almonds (or Walnuts)
sprinkle of cinnamon

Directions:
Put the almonds (or Walnuts) in the the food processor and process them until they are slightly smaller than graham cracker crumb consistency. (Make sure it measures to 1/2 c. ground, If not, make the necessary changes) Add the flour and pulse till combined. Then add 1/3 c. honey and 1/3 c. clarified butter or ghee (in the clarifying process the dairy is separated from it, but if you want to stay on the really safe side, you can use margarine or something along those lines) and process until combined. Press into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a 8 inch spring-form pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 or until lightly browned.

Beat cream cheese and honey with a hand held mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs and egg yolks. Add Sour cream, potato starch, and lemon peel (if using). After it is thoroughly combined, pour into prepared crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce to 325 and bake for 40-45 minutes more, or until set. Turn off oven and leave door open for 5 min. then close it and leave it in there for anywhere from 20 minutes, to an hour. Remove and let it cool down to room temperature. Refrigerate it anywhere from 4 hours to overnight. Serve chilled, by itself, or with Raspberry or Fudge Sauce. YUM!!!
Enjoy!

After it is all done and chilled, you can individually wrap them in plastic wrap, stick them in a gallon sized bag, and freeze them. Remove at least 1 hour before eating so it can adjust to room temperature, or you can stick it straight from the freezer into the microwave and defrost it anywhere from 30-60 seconds (just take off the plastic wrap first)




Raspberry Sauce
So I tried to make a raspberry sauce, not knowing if it would work with honey instead of sugar, but IT DID!!! I like it best with just raspberries, but we didn't have enough so I used a mixture that had blueberries, raspberries and a berry that looked like a blackberry, but wasn't. It actually turned out really good!

2 c. Raspberries (or whatever berries you like)
2 T water
1/3 c. honey (taste it to see if its as sweet as you want)

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan, and bring to a boil. reduce the heat and let it simmer for a couple more minutes. Pour into food processor and process until smooth. Pour into a container and refrigerate until completely chilled. Serve cold over cheesecake.

*We make our own GF flour mix, which is; 3 parts millet flour, 3 parts white rice (if you can have brown rice then do 6 parts of that instead of the millet and white rice) 2 parts potato starch, and 1 part tapioca flour. just remember 6-2-1 or 3-3-2-1