Gluten Free Ginger Molasses Cookies

Once again I have taken my favorite orange raisin cookie recipe and made some changes to come up with a totally new cookie. This ginger molasses cookie might be lacking gluten but it is certainly not lacking in flavor and sweetness!

This recipe is easy, it is relatively quick, it is gluten-free, egg-free and nut-free (and with a couple of simple substitutions it can also be dairy-free  and corn-free).

Gluten-free Ginger Molasses Cookies (20 small)

Ingredients:

100g gluten-free flour (my gluten-free flour is here) 

1/2 tsp baking powder (or corn-free substitute)

1/2 tsp xanthan gum (can be omitted but this makes cookies more crumbly)

50g cane sugar

1 Tblsp molasses

50g soft butter (or dairy free margarine)

1/2 - 1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp dried ginger

a pinch of salt

(a few drops of water if needed to make the dough stick together)

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, dried ginger, xanthan gum and salt. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and molasses until well combined. It should resemble slightly wet brown sugar. Add the sugar to the flour mixture with the butter and fresh ginger. Rub all the ingredients together with your fingers until they are crumbly. 

Continue to use your fingers to mix just until a dough forms. Do not work it too much, simply combine. (You might have to do just a touch of water if you cannot get it to stick together at all).

Form the dough into a long, narrow log and cut it into 20 (more-or-less) equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Using your fingers or a fork, slightly flatten each cookie.


Bake in the middle of the oven for 13-15 minutes until nice and golden around the edges. Cool the cookies on a rack and store in an airtight container or freeze them. 


Enjoy!

"Non-Tomato Tomato" Sauce

My kids are allergic to tomatoes so this sauce is my go-to "Non-Tomato Tomato" sauce for pastas and lasagna and pizza and about everything else that needs a sauce. I also tweak it a bit and use it for enchiladas or Mexican inspired casseroles. 

The sauce originally came about on pure accident, as I looked in the fridge in hopes of finding anything that could be made into a sauce. I grabbed a little of this and a little of that and ta-da sauce accomplished!

Keep in mind it is not going to be red like tomato sauce, and it is not as acidic either but it does the trick at our house, even for my pizza and pasta loving husband :) Also, you might want to play around with the amount of broth you use depending on how thick you want your sauce.

Non-Tomato "Tomato" Sauce

Ingredients:

- 1 Tblsp fat (chicken fat, oil, butter or whatever you wish)

- 4 Tblsp onion, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 4 Tblsp celery, finely chopped (I usually use the leafy part, but the stalks work too)

- 2" thick slice of a medium sweet potato, peeled and diced small

- 1 cup broth (I use chicken but you could probably use other kinds too)

- Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

- In a small saucepan, heat the fat and add the onion, garlic and celery and  

  sauté for a couple of minutes.

- Add the sweet potato cubes and broth and bring the sauce to a simmer.

- Let the sauce simmer on low until all the vegetables are soft.

- Blend the sauce until smooth with either a traditional blender or an

  immersion blender.

- Season to taste with salt and pepper.

**For pasta or pizza sauce:

          Add ½ teaspoon each of dried oregano and dried basil

**For enchilada sauce:

          Add ½ teaspoon of paprika and 1 teaspoon cumin

Gluten Free Norwegian Waffles

When I think of waffles I think of dessert or a treat, not breakfast. I think of the Norwegian thin, slightly tangy, heart-shaped waffles served with brown cheese or jam. I would dare say that you cannot get more Norwegian than waffles. There has to be a reason why the symbol for the Norwegian Seamen's Church is just that....a waffle heart! Every Norwegian knows (or at least should know) how to make them and all Norwegians big and small love these heart shaped treats! 

My Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix (Wheat, Corn, Bean, Potato and Soy Free)

There are probably a million recipes for gluten free all purpose flour and there are quite a few ready-made varieties on the store shelves too. However, I have had a hard time finding one that is wheat, corn, bean, soy and potato free and that tastes good. So what do I do when I cannot find what I want? I make it myself.....so here you go!

Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix 
(Wheat, Corn, Bean, Potato and Soy Free!!)

Ingredients:

**Make sure to measure by weight**

- 200 grams Sweet Sorghum Flour

- 200 grams Oat Flour (Gluten Free)

Rice and Oat Muffin (aka No-Corn Gluten-Free 'Corn bread')

I have this inability to leave a recipe exactly "as-is" and therefore end up with lots of total flops but also some hits. This recipe is an example of such a hit. 

Though the change, in this case, is minor it makes a big difference! I took my Wheat Free Pancake Recipe and tweaked it just a little and ended up with a muffin recipe. It is not sweet so I would use it as a substitute for a roll or a piece of cornbread with dinner or instead of a biscuit with breakfast. Served warm and with butter they are quite delicious!

Rice and Oat Muffins 
(aka No-Corn Gluten-Free 'Corn bread')

Ingredients:
- 2 large eggs, divided into whites and yolks

- 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour

- 2 tsp baking powder (I use this homemade version which is corn free)

- 1 tsp baking soda

Wheat-Free Pancakes

I found this wheat-free recipe for pancakes on Bob's Red Mill and it is great! The pancakes are golden and slightly crispy on the outside and fluffy and moist on the inside.

Rice and Oat Pancakes

Ingredients:
- 2 large eggs, divided into whites and yolks

- 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour

- 2 tsp baking powder (I use this homemade version which is corn free)

- 1 tsp baking soda

Corn Free Aluminum Free Baking Powder

There are a lot of different baking-powder recipes out there, but here is the one I use.

Corn Free Aluminum Free Baking Powder

Ingredients:

1 Tblsp baking soda

1 Tblsp arrowroot powder

2 Tblsp cream of tartar

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!

I am kind of excited that I have figured out a way to do pizza even on my new and restricted diet!

I am not eating wheat, which in most cases would mean I should be able to eat a gluten-free pizza.....well..... I am also not eating potato, soy or corn either and let me tell you that really limits the gluten-free choices out there! And yes I know that pizza is not a necessity by any stretch of the imagination but that does not mean that I don't enjoy eating a slice every once in a while. 

I am not going to pretend like I invented this new, revolutionary, never-before-tried recipe for amazing pizza crust. As a matter of fact it has been around for a while and I found the original recipe here on a blog called The Lucky Penny. Check it out, there are pictures and such! 

Quinoa and Lentil Curry with Broccoli

So here is the deal…..I am, as of recently, on a low-inflammation diet. It is a healthy, balanced diet with a decent amount of restrictions. Though I am glad there are a lot of great foods on my "yes" food list, I am still stomped at times when trying to come up with dinner. Today I am cooking dinner out of our stash of food so as it turns out none of us are eating the same! What my kids and my husband are eating I cannot have so ....what is mamma having????

Once I had cleared out the fridge for my husband's and my kids' dinners I did one last fridge/pantry/freezer raid in a desperate attempt to find some dinner for myself. And that is how this Curry recipe was born! Hope you enjoy J

My New Favorite Flourless Chocolate Chip Blondies

A friend of mine sent me a recipe for Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies with Sea Salt from Ambitious Kitchen and I made them for dessert yesterday. I am in love!!

The recipe is grain-free and gluten free and it can be dairy free, corn free and egg free etc. but what it lacks in ingredients it makes up for in flavor, gooey-ness and deliciousness! And, it is actually pretty healthy too so I hope you give it a try :)

Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies

Ingredients
Cooking spray (or butter if not dairy free)
1 can (15oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup all natural almond butter or other nut-butter (I used almond)

Jan 5th - The first phase of the challenge has come to an end

Even though we still technically have food left in the fridge, freezer and pantry I have decided to wrap up the challenge for this time.
I finally headed to the grocery last night and I will post about that later, but for now here are the details about the day yesterday:

Breakfast:
- oatmeal waffles (new batch made with flaxseed instead of egg)
- sun butter
- almond butter
- home-canned pear

Jan 3rd - Still Cookin'

3rd day of the food clear-out challenge......our meals are definitely taking on some character but we are not starving :P 

As I am preparing meals and all 5 of us are eating I am amazed at the amount of food we still have. I am thinking I might stretch it past Monday.....we will see, as there is a limit to the amount of beans we can eat in a row.

Breakfast: 

- Oatmeal Waffles that were pre-made and in the fridge

- Sunbutter

- boiled apple

Brownies with fudge icing

This brownie recipe came about because I got a craving for donuts....logical right? Well, I really wanted donuts but was not about to start a hunt for some dairy free ones at the store because I knew I most likely would come up short and be disappointed. Therefore I searched for a dairy free donut recipe in order to try to make some. Well, I do not have a fryer so I modified my search for the baked kind and I came across a recipe on brooklynfarmgirl.com which seemed very promising.

I made a couple of modifications and decided to try to bake them in a brownie pan since I do not have a donut pan anyhow. Despite them not having any resemblance to a donut they turned out a success if I may say so myself.

They are a cake-like, not fudge-like, allergy friendly and very good brownies! They are quick and easy and they are dairy free, corn free, egg free, nut free and salicylate safe. They could probably also be chocolate free if you use carob powder, and gluten free if you substitute the regular flour for gluten free. And even though they are free of a lot they are full of chocolaty flavor and they were a hit with both kids and adults at our house.

Not Just Any Oatmeal Cookie

I baked some yummy oatmeal cookies last week and I want to share the recipe with you. You have to keep an open mind about these because they are quite good, despite their somewhat odd list of ingredients. Most importantly, they are the perfect protein boosted treat/snack for my food sensitive children.

The original recipe for Lady A’s Oatmeal Cookies can be found on my friend Kristi’s Baby Food Steps blog here. She gets all the credit for coming up with these! Also, if you want to learn more about salicylates which is the latest food sensitivity we are tackling then take a look here. Kristi explains it better than I ever could.

Back to the cookies…I have made them exactly as the recipe states on Kristi’s blog, and both our family and our friends liked them. My only “complaint” was that they were a bit too sweet for my taste which is why I came up with this modified version:

Lady A’s Chicken Oatmeal Cookies with Applesauce and Maple Syrup

Homemade Chicken Liver Pâté

I have wanted to learn to make liver pâté from scratch for quite a while and now seemed like the perfect time since neither my kids nor I can eat the store-bought kind anymore. I grew up eating pâté on bread and my kids have eaten their share as well and really like it.

The original recipe is from zerowastehome. However, since we have various limitations including dairy and salicylates** I had to make quite a few changes and here is what I came up with:

Homemade Chicken Liver Pâté

2 oz chicken fat (can use butter if dairy is not an issue)

2 oz homemade lard (can use butter if dairy is not an issue)

1 lb organic chicken livers

Orange Raisin Cookies - The Most Versatile Cookie in the Whole Wide World

This recipe is for my most favorite cookie in the whole wide world! It is easy, it is versatile, it is quick, it is  allergy friendly (or at least can easily be). With a couple of substitutions it can be dairy-free, egg-free, corn-free, nut-free, chocolate-free, gluten-free or whatever else free too probably.

The original recipe is from one of my favorite blogs called Attic24 and you can see it here but I have also included it below just for easy reference.

Orange Raisin Cookies (12 small)

100g all purpose flour (or gluten-free substitute)

½ tsp baking powder (or corn-free substitute)

50g soft, light brown sugar

50g soft butter (or dairy free margarine)

Coconut Crusted Tilapia

We are trying to be mostly grain-free and I wanted to find an alternative for breading some baked tilapia. I decided on using coconut which turned out quite ok if I may say so. And the bonus was that my kids really liked it too. I know there are several recipes out there already with coconut crusted tilapia, but most include some type of bread-crumb too. This one does not and therefore it can also be gluten-free by substituting the regular flour for something else.

Coconut Crusted Tilapia

Tilapia filets, thawed and patted dry with a papertowel

Flour (May be substituted for gluten free options)

Egg, whisked

Coconut, finely shredded and unsweetened