Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Two desserts that I cannot stay away from are cookies and any peanut butter/chocolate combination. Combine all three of those together and I am in heaven. I adapted this recipe from a blog but I have no idea where it was, so sorry my credit is lacking.

Ingredients

2 3/4 cup GF flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks of Earth Balance, softened

2 cups of light brown sugar
3 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla
 extract
1 1/2 cup of DF chocolate chips
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 big spoonfuls of peanut butter

Directions

Pre-Heat Oven to 350 degrees.

Using a mixer cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time until mixture becomes creamy. Mix in vanilla extract. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combine. Stir in chocolate chips, oatmeal, and peanut butter.

Spray a 9X13 pan with cooking spray.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is golden brown. With my oven, after 40 minutes the cookie is a little under baked which is perfect to me. If the top starts to brown too quickly cover with foil and continue to bake.

Soft Pretzel Sticks

I would be a liar if I said I didn’t miss a mall pretzel drizzled with ooey gooey cheese, so when I stumbled on this recipe for soft pretzel sticks from Valley Natural Foods and I could not wait a single day to make them.  Armed with a friend who is also restricted with her diet due to Lyme Disease, we strapped the kids into the van and headed to our local Natural Food store to buy the necessary ingredients.  An hour and a half later we were devouring these warm bites of pretzel-breadstick deliciousness. 


As you will see the recipe calls for powdered milk.  Adapting this recipe to make it dairy free came with much thought as the natural food store we were at did not carry a non-dairy powdered milk substitute.  Amanda came up with the great idea to warm almond milk and substitute milk for the 2/3 C water to activate the yeast.  By sheer trial and error we tried it and it worked!  I will leave the recipe as is, as it should be fairly easy to find a non-dairy powdered milk.  However I have added an “optional” list if you are unable to find a substitute for powdered milk.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. yeast, active dry
2/3 C. water, warm
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 C. sorghum flour
1/2 C. tapioca flour
1 Tbsp. milk powder (non-fat dry)
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. unflavored gelatin powder
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 egg white
2 Tbsp. milk
2-3 Tbsp. Kosher or coarse salt
OPTIONAL
Substitute the 2/3 C warm water with warm almond milk
while omitting the milk powder.

DIRECTIONS

Combine yeast, warm water, and sugar in a small bowl, set aside for 5 minutes or until yeast is foamy. In medium mixer bowl, blend flours, dry milk powder, xanthan gum, salt, onion powder, and gelatin powder on low speed. Add yeast mixture, olive oil and vinegar; beat on high speed for 3 minutes.

Place dough in a large, heavy-duty plastic resealable bag that has 1/4” opening cut into one corner (makes 1/2” circle). Squeeze dough through opening onto baking sheet that has been coated with cooking spray. It works best to hold the bag upright as you squeeze the dough out. You may make traditional pretzel shapes, but straight 3” sticks are easiest. Brush lightly with beaten egg white, then sprinkle with coarse salt.

Place pretzels in warm place to rise for 10-15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake until pretzels are dry and golden brown, about 10-13 minutes. When cool, store in airtight container. Makes 2-1/2 dozen pretzel sticks.  These are best devoured the day you bake them as they got more and more chewy as the days went on.  We agreed that next time we would try to freeze them and only take out and thaw as we needed them.

Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour

I'm not going to put too many bad reviews on here but Kristie and I felt it was necessary. Back when we were first trying the whole GF life, I bought this flour and tried to use it as a substitute for all purpose flour. Every recipe left me with an after taste that I couldn't handle. I find this flavor in many GF mixes. Justin, being so used to eating GF, doesn't notice it but as soon as I taste a recipe that has it, I instantly know. It took me a couple years to finally figure out what it is: bean flours! I read that bean flours are often added to mixes to add protein. This mix contains garbanzo flour and fava flour. Doublely bad in my mind.

I know this mix is convenient, and it can be hard to find other pre-made GF flour mixes. I can't say you should never ever use this. If you have a recipe that only calls for a very small amount of flour, it should be fine. But I would never make a cake or anything that is flour based.

If you have a GF flour mix that you like and works well, I'd love to hear about it!

Arrowhead Mills Pancake & Baking Mix

Arrowhead Mills is by far the best pancake mix I have found. They have a sweet vanilla flavor and are a bit denser than a gluten full pancake which just makes them more filling. When following the recipe on the back, I have found that the batter is way too thick. I come close to double the amount of milk (I use almond milk) that they recommend to make the batter nice and runny.

Last time we made them we added chunks of bananas and I also added chocolate chips in mine. So delish!!

Summer Pasta Salad

I am quickly realizing that when searching for a recipe that is gluten free and dairy free starting with a search for a vegan recipe opens my options up to a whole batch of easily adaptable and “safe” recipes.  I did just this when looking for ideas for a pasta salad, and came up with a refreshing salad that was easy to adapt to fit not only our diet needs, but also our tastes.  This was adapted from a recipe found at VegWeb.com.  I added some summer sausage (definitely not a Vegan ingredient) as well as black olives.  The great thing about a vegetable pasta salad is your ability to add whatever type of veggies you enjoy.  If you increase the amount of vegetables drastically you may want to increase the amount of dressing you make in order to ensure a creamy and great tasting salad.



Ingredients

1 bag (12 oz.) of Tinkiyada Rice Pasta
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 bell pepper, any color, chopped
1 large cucumber, quartered and then chopped
1 can (8 oz.) of sliced black olives
1 cup of chopped summer sausage
1 cup Italian Dressing
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon Dill Weed
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Directions

In a separate small bowl whisk together the Italian Dressing, mayo, Dijon mustard, dill weed, and salt and set aside.  Cook the pasta according to package instructions making sure to rinse with cold water when complete and add to a large bowl.  Add the chopped vegetables and coat with 1/2 of the dressing mixture.  Refrigerate both the salad and dressing mixture overnight. Before serving the salad add the other 1/2 of the dressing tossing to coat evenly. 

Rhubarb Cake

This time of year I am always looking for different things to make with the abundance of rhubarb from my garden. I tried a rhubarb cake that I adapted from The Rhubarb Compendium. The site is pretty great and has tons of different recipes.

Ingredients

2 cups Rhubarb cut into chunks
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup Earth Balance
1 cup applesauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups GF flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream sugars and Earth Balance. Add egg, salt and mix. Stir in applesauce, baking soda, vanilla, and flour. Add rhubarb. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking pan. Mix 1/4 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

I topped the cake with whipped Richwhip and peaches, but any ripe fruit would go well with it. The cake is very moist and doesn’t need an addition topping but who doesn’t love some whipped cream?!