You Know You're From Texas When...

fried potatoes are comfort food. but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

when i found out that soy sauce isnt gf, i panicked. i love sushi and chinese food and all asian food. its absolutely my favorite. (it also rarely turns out right at home.) i breathed a sigh of relief when i found out i could by tamari, which is a gf soy sauce. it tastes pretty much the same. (whew.) as far as eating out goes, sushi is gf friendly and pf changs has a large, special menu for it. for sushi, ill have to bring my own soy sauce, but pf changs has it on hand. ive never been to pf changs, but i bet it wont be long before i go.

so the other day i tried my hand at chinese food at home. spicy sesame orange chicken, veggie rice, and steamed broccoli. i put the rice, some diced carrots and onions, and some chicken based in the rice cooker to do its thang. steamed the broccoli in there too. in the meantime, i got to work on the chicken. i diced up some chicken breasts into nice big chunks, and tossed it with the tamari, orange marmalade, rice vinegar, and red pepper flakes. oh, and some honey. then i just made a nice thick slurry of cornstarch and tamari to thicken it up into that signature weird gelled texture of takeout. mix it all up and into the oven! i tasted the sauce about twenty minutes into it, and added brown sugar and red pepper flakes.

(i know there was a lot of sugar in this dish. i wasnt making a super healthy version of takeout, though, i was doing something that TASTED like takeout.)

it browned and thickened and got delicious!

except it was so.dadgum.spicy.

it made excellent leftovers too. for those of us who enjoy chinese takeout cold straight from the fridge. dont judge me. though next time, i will add WAY less red pepper. my nose is running just thinking about it.

in case youre wondering, i served it on some dishes my mother in law gave me for my birthday. they are beautiful!

last night (because i ate so much leftovers at weird times during the day...) i wasnt hungry until a weird hour. we were going to do salmon (now we are doing that tonight) but ended up doing a fend for yourself type thing. the hubby had cream of wheat...mmmm, so not gf. and i had a terrible time figuring out what to eat. we were out of eggs. gf bread is weird and i was feeling a little sorry for myself.

that brings us to the fried potatoes thing. i fried a couple of tiny potatoes in some smart balance not-butter, a small onion, and a defrosted apple sausage. i seasoned it with just some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder. easy.

i ate it with ketchup and nutritional yeast, for the nutritients and that not-quite-cheesy flavor it adds.