Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting: gluten free, dairy free, vegan

"Mom, what can I bring to Thanksgiving this year?" I ask. Mom says, "Could you please bring a dessert for the Intolerants?" That's what she calls those of us who can't have this or that.
I hang up the phone and start to ponder. Do I go with making a gluten and dairy free version of the pies that will already be there, or do I come up with a dessert that goes with the Thanksgiving theme, but is it's own happy little dessert. Cupcakes! Everyone and their mother, sister and brother are making everything in cupcake form these days. I pulled out my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World cookbook for some inspiration. I love all of the creative cupcake ideas in this book but have yet to bake out of it. This cookbook series lured me in because it's so adorable, with other titles like Pie In The Sky. Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero have some really great cookbooks that you can get on Amazon.com.

Like with any cookbook, I still need to make some modifications with it. As I flip through the pages my eye catches the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing. Yum, pumpkin and chocolate, two of my favorite things. I review the recipe. Let's see here; I'll use less oil and add applesauce, instead of soy milk I'll use coconut milk, instead of all purpose flour I'll use gluten free flour, then I'll add some flax meal to make up for the missing gluten. I like the taste of ginger in pumpkin, so I'll add a bit of that too. Instead of Cinnamon Icing, I'm going to create a vegan maple buttercream frosting. So, here's my take on their recipe.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting: gluten free, dairy free, vegan and nut free
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Ingredients:
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/3 cup apple sauce
3 tsp canola oil
1 tbsp flax meal
1 cup organic pure cane juice sugar
1/4 cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 and fill your cupcake tin with cute cupcake papers.
In a bowl or mixer combine all wet ingredients and mix.
In a seperate bowl, combine all dry ingredients and wisk together.
With the mixer on low, add your dry ingredients to your wet until well combined.
Add the chocolate chips and stir by hand so you don't break your chocolate chips with your mixer.
Fill your cupcake paper lined cupcake tins with 1/4 cup of batter in each.
Bake in your oven on 350 for 25 - 28 minutes.
The cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Immediately and carefully remove the cupcakes out of the cupcake tins.
Cool your cupcakes on a cooling rack.
Frost when completely cooled.


Maple Buttercream Frosting: gluten free, dairy free, vegan, nut free

Ingredients
1 lb. powdered sugar
2/3 cup - 1 stick Earth Balance
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 5 tbsp 100% pure maple syrup

Directions
In your mixer, combine powdered sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla,  and salt.
Mix starting on low, then moving to high speed.
Go back to low speed and slowly add the maple syrup until well combined.
Bring mixer speed back up to high and whip your frosting for a good couple minutes.

Use a piping bag or a plastic sandwich bag with a small bit of the end cut off to pipe your frosting on your cupcake. Here I added a blob to the center of the cupcake.

With a kitchen knife, I patted the frosting as I moved the cupcakes in a circle. I then finished it off with a swirling motion with the kitchen knife. Thanks for the tip, Mom. :-) I topped them with a few chocolate chips to give you an idea of what's inside.

Serve them up to those you are thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Banana Muffins or Banana Bread: vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and nut free

As I type, my house is filled with the aroma of freshly baked banana muffins. My son is happily enjoying a banana muffin as his after school snack, while watching his favorite episode of Curious George. He usually eats bananas every time he watches that show, so why not banana muffins, right?

He got off the bus this afternoon and was hungry, as usual. He asked for banana bread, "like at the coffee shops", he said. As we walked home, I told him that I could try to make some really quickly. What was I saying? Really quickly? I realized that I hadn't come up with my own banana bread concoction yet, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I'm trying to use healthy oils, but in small amounts to create a low fat result. I'm also trying to use less sugar and more fiber. I need these to be healthy for my whole family and not be something that's trouble on my waistline. I use flax meal to not only replace eggs but to add fiber. I just started experimenting with xylitol. In this recipe I used half organic sugar and half xylitol and got great results. I'm super happy with how they turned out. I made them in my Vitamix, poured the batter in my muffin tins, baked them up and in less than 30 minutes, had healthy and delicious banana muffins. I'd call that really quick.

My son said that he liked this particular muffin the best because he thought it looked like a Rock Star. Just as I was taking a picture of it, a little hand suddenly appeared, and took another muffin.

Banana Bread or Banana Muffins:

vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and nut free

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By: Kendra Hubbell

Ingredients:
2 bananas (or about 1 1/2 cups mashed banana)
4 tbsp flax meal mixed with 6 tbsp warm-hot water (stir together separately before adding)
2 tbsp coconut oil (or olive oil or Earth Balance)
1 cup organic sugar or xylitol (or 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup xylitol)
2/3 cup So Delicous Vanilla Coconut Milk (or other non-dairy milk plus 1 tbsp vanilla)
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 cups Bob’s Redmill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour (or other Gluten Free Dairy Free flour mix)

Directions:

Add wet ingredients in Vitamix, (or blender or mixer of your choice) followed by the dry ingredients and blend well. If you don’t have a mixer, you can mix the wet ingredients in a bowl with a whisk. 

Add all dry ingredients in another bowl and stir to combine. Then combine the wet with the dry and mix well. Put ¼ cup of the batter into muffin tins that have been sprayed with your favorite gluten free vegan cooking spray or muffin and cupcake papers.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 – 15 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

To make bread instead of muffins: Bake your batter in a bread pan. Your baking time will be longer, about 25-30 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies: dairy free and nut free

I got a frantic voice message from my friend today, asking how she could make dairy free sugar cookies. Her son is allergic to cow's milk and she's been tasked with baking sugar cookies for his class Halloween party! She said, "I can, and still want to use wheat and eggs though."

Sugar cookies are a great thing to bring to a class party. The kids can decorate them and eat them too. The rough part is that there are so many kids with food allergies or sensitivies these days. In some areas, you can find stores that offer baked goods to accomidate special needs.

Last year, in my son's Kindergarten class, every common allergy was represented. This is when I experiemented many hours to come up with a Sugar Cookie Recipe that was gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free out of necessity. If you are choosing to take matters into your own hands, be sure your kitchen is super clean of any of the offending ingredients before baking.

This year I'm baking dairy free and nut free sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins for my daughter's class. There are just dairy and nut issues in her class, she being one with a dairy issue. This recipe was inspired by a Better Crocker recipe. What's great about sugar cookies is that the treat is also the activity. The kids love to make their own tasty creations.

Sugar Cookies: dairy free and nut free

(does contains wheat, gluten, eggs, and soy)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks

1 tbsp vanilla

1 large organic egg

3 cups all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur Organic All Purpose Flour)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

Mix powdered sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla and egg in your mixer bowl.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheet with cooking spray, Earth Balance or use a Silpat.http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=silpat&x=0&y=0

Divide dough in half and form into balls. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

On a lightly floured cutting board type surface, roll out one of the dough balls to 1/4 inch thick. I often like to "flour" with part flour and part powdered sugar. Using powdered sugar helps you not to over flour your dough. You may mind your dough needs more flour too.

Cut your rolled out dough into desired shapes. I got a great Wilton pumpkin shaped cookie cutter from Amazon.com. I've linked to it here and you can see a picture of it below. I love their comfort grip cookie cutters. I also have one in the shape of a heart for Valentines Day.

Sprinkle with granulated sugar or you can leave it off if you plan to decorate the cookies later.

Bake 7 - 8 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Cool on wire rack.

Enjoy as is or decorate with frosting.

Frosting: dairy free and nut free

2 - 4 cups
powdered sugar
2 tbsp clear vanilla extract (Using clear vanilla keeps your frosting white, if desired. Regular
vanilla extract will turn your frosting a bit off white. You can add food coloring or fruit juice to add color.)
1/4 - 1/2 cup Earth Balance (sticks or spread works)

Mix the above ingredients in you favorite mixer. I use the Kitchenaid for this with the paddle attachment.

Enjoy!

The kids seemed to have a great time at their class Halloween party. We had parents send in items to decorate the cookies with.

Check out this creation! She only took a bite or two and saved it for later.

Butternut Squash Soup with Shallots and Leeks: gluten free and dairy free

Last weekend we walked on over to the farmer's market, just as we do every Sunday to get our produce for the week. At the market the kids picked out leeks, carrots, shallots, and some special jams for their sandwiches for school. Getting them involved in choosing the produce seems to encourage them to eat it. I happen to load up on butternut squash among other things, which also helped inspired our first soup of the rainy season.When I asked my nine year old daughter what we should put in our Butternut Squash Soup she said leeks, shallots, and tomato paste. Okay then. She took notes for me as I cooked.

Butternut Squash Soup: gluten free and vegan

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Makes a lot of soup, you can half this recipe to make less.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash (whole or precut)

6 carrots

1 shallot bulb, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 leeks, chopped

Olive oil

Chicken broth, homemade (or 2 boxes organic broth)

1 medium roll of goat cheese

1 can Organic Tomato paste (or pureed tomatoes from your counter, that are no longer suitable for your salads.)

2 tsp – 1 tbsp Nutmeg to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut the Butternut Squash into pieces and use a peeler to remove the skin.

Cut carrots into rounds. I keep the skin on so I don’t lose that extra fiber.

Boil the squash and carrot pieces for 7-9 minutes or steam them for 6-8 minutes.

In a stock pot sauté the chopped onion, shallots, and leeks until onion is transparent.

Scoop out the squash and carrots with a strainer scoop or slotted spoon and put in your blender. I used my Vitamix and pureed the mixture on high speed.

Add the squash and carrot puree to the onions, shallots and leeks in your stock pot.

Pour in the chicken broth until desired texture.

Break up the goat cheese and add it along with tomato paste, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Heat on high until the mixture bubbles then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook covered for about 20 - 30 minutes.

Serve warm. I like to sprinkle pecorino Romano (sheep’s cheese) on top. Serve warm. I like to sprinkle pecorino Romano (sheep’s

cheese) on top.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cupcakes: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, vegan

Halloween cupcakes, beautifully decorated for Halloween by my children.

I am a huge fan of Bob's Redmill products. Their website offers a ton of recipes to choose from. Many address food sensitivity and food allergy issues. I still find that I have to make my own personal alterations. This post is a great example of that.

My mom loves to have fun with our kids for Halloween. She was so sweet and planned to do cupcake decorating with our kids during our one of our October Sunday dinners. She wanted to be sure to make them so they accomidated my kids, my Dad, and myself, so she asked me for a recipe. I pointed her to the Bob's Redmill site for ideas. She found this gluten free chocolate cake recipe that I link to here that is gluten free.

Here's how I used it as a base and change it into a recipe for gluten free, dairy free, and egg free chocolate cupcakes. This is a great example of how you can make a few subsitutions to accomidate your specific needs.

Chocolate Cupcakes: gluten free, dairy free, egg free

Makes 12 cupcakes.

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Ingredients

1-1/2 cup Bob's Redmill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

1 cup Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar

1/2 cup Cocoa powder, unsweetened

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Flax Meal

3/4 tsp. Salt

1/2 cup vanilla So Delicious Coconut Milk or other dairy free milk

1/3 cup Earth Balance

3 tbsp apple sauce plus 1 tsp baking powder mixed

1 tsp. Vanilla

3/4 cup warm brewed Coffee or decaf chai tea (this brings out the chocolate flavor)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepared cupcake tins with cupcake papers.

Place all ingredients, except coffee, in large bowl and blend with wisk or your favorite mixer. I use my Vitamix and so does my Mom.

Add coffee and mix until thoroughly blended.

Pour batter into cupcake papers in cupcake tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean.

White Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

2 - 4 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp clear vanilla extract (using clear keeps your frosting white. Regular vanilla extract will turn your frosting a bit off white)

1/4 - 1/2 cup Earth Balance (sticks or spread works)

Directions

Mix the above ingredients in you favorite mixer. I use the Kitchenaid for this with the paddle attachment.

Be sure your cake or cupcakes have cooled before frosting them. Spread over your cupcakes or scoop into a plastic zip bag with the end cut, or your favorite piping bag and pipe onto your cupcakes.

Mummy faces created with white frosting and orange and black cake decorating gel.

My son made his own version of a cupcake ghost.

Here are some gluten free, dairy free, egg free mummy cupcakes. My mom got this idea by searching for images of "mummy cupcakes" on-line. There are several interpretations. This is what we came up with.

Enjoy!

Oat'n Almond Meal Chocolate Chip Cookies: Wheat/Gluten free, dairy/cow milk free, vegan

Sing it with me, "C is for COOKIE it's good enough for me, hey! and REPEAT!" No wonder why I'm not loosing any weight these days. I'm obsessed with baking things that everyone can eat and will actually enjoy! Besides, it's always nice to have "treat" recipes on hand when you need to bring something special to someone's house for dinner and not have to worry about bringing multiple options for people with food issues. It gets insane, it really does. I'm always happy to bake or bring options, especially since my family are the high maintenance ones. ;-)

The ultimate comfort food for me, and many others I've compared notes with, is the good ole chocolate chip cookie. They are requested by my kids almost as often as pancakes. Years ago I used to love going to PCC (a natural food store in WA) to get some yummy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. I thought maybe they'd have a recipe for them on their website. With a quick search, I found a recipe on their website for Wheat-free Chocolate Chip Cookies  that I've linked to here. The recipe was originally created by Post-Punk Kitchen. I changed a few thing to add my own nutty/coco nutty/super vanillaee twist and the result are some insanely yummy cookies. I'm actually eating one, um two, while I type this. To note, my recipes will always be heavy on the vanilla since our family motto is "you can never have too much vanilla".

My kids can eat nuts at home (away from the insane amount of kids at school who can't.) I really love the health benefit for nuts but my kids don't like whole nuts baked into their cookies. So, I'm taking a cue from my "Blue Velvet Blueberry Muffins" , I decided to use blended nuts (almond meal) instead. I've been wanting to use some of my Trader Joe's Almond Meal that was sitting in my pantry stash anyway. The taste is so "nutty", go figure ;-) and I love the stuff.  Elana's Pantry, a gluten free site which uses primarily almond flour, recommends using almond flour and not the almond meal because the almond flour uses blanched almonds and the almond meal does not. She's talking mainly about her own recipes.  I like the unbalanced almonds though, so I thought I would just try using it in my cookies, to see what would happen. I decided to use a combination of Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Oat Flour and Trader Joe's Almond Meal as my flour in these cookies, instead of just using Oat flour.

I'm a huge fan these days of So Delicious Coconut milk. At 90 calories a cup and a texture that foams, it's an excellent replacement for cow's milk. It's really smooth and creamy, just like the container says.

 A chocolate chip cookie is only as good as the chocolate chips that are used it them. You can quote me on that. ;-) I've been using the Guittard brand for years since it was one of the only ones, for a long time, that didn't have any dairy derivitaves it them. They do contain soy lecithin in them. There are brands, like Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips, that don't have any ingredients that are known allergens.

Oat'n Almond Meal Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Inspired by PCC's cookies and Post-Punk Kitchen's recipe with my adjustments and personal twist.)

*if you can't have nuts, go with their recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup Gluten Free Oat Flour, Bob's Redmill

1 cup Almond Meal, Trader Joes (You can also make your own almond meal if you have a Vitamix.)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon flax meal

1/4 cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut milk. (I LOVE this stuff, It's so creamy and delicious. It's great to bake with.)

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

1/2 cup organic evaporated cane juice (sugar)

1/3 cup organic canola oil

2 tablespoons vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips (check ingredients)

Directions

In a bowl combine all dry ingredients, oat flour, almond meal, baking soda, salt, and flax meal in a bowl with a wisk.

In a mixer or other bowl combine sugars, oil and vanilla until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.

Fold in chocolate chips with a spatula.

Place batter in cookie sized balls, onto a baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until they look done.

Remove from oven and allow the cookies to cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Thanks Post-Punk Kitchen for the inspiration! You are truly yummy!

Alton Brown Inspired Graham Crackers: No Gluten, No Dairy, No Eggs, No Soy

My family LOVES Alton Brown, host of the Food Network shows Good Eats, Iron Chef America, Feasting on Waves, and Feasting on Asphalt.

 "My kids have been fascinated with him and his show, "Good Eats", since they were very small. They are a little bigger now and still love him and his show. He's all about cooking and the science behind it. He makes cooking and science interesting and fun with his yeast sock puppets and his interesting camera angles. He's what "Bill Nye The Science Guy" would be if he has a cooking show. Watching his show makes you feel like you can make anything. Even though he hasn't done a lot on gluten or dairy free, his show has really inspired me to get to the point where I'm at now, feeling like I can transform anything into something that my entire family can eat.

October 2009 Lake Forest Park, WA Good Eats: The Early Years book signing tour. My kids get to meet and have a decent chat with Alton Brown.

My son shares with him his idea for a show on dyeing Easter Eggs. Alton thinks it's a good idea, pulls out his wallet, writes the idea on a sticky note and sticks his wallet back in his pocket.

My daughter says that it was her "life long dream" to meet Alton Brown. Look at how she's looking up at him in this picture, priceless!

This week the kids and I decided to try to make graham crackers from scratch that are gluten, dairy, egg, and soy free. We started out with Alton Brown's recipe for homemade graham crackers.

Mr. Brown advocates using a kitchen scale to weigh your flour so you'll notice that the flour is listed in ounces by weight. I also try to estimate if you are using cups. I'll try it using cups next time and will fine tune this if needed.

Here is my take on Mr. Brown's Graham Cracker recipe to make it gluten and dairy free.

Graham Crackers: No Gluten, No Dairy, No Eggs, No Soy

(Inspired by Alton Brown)

Ingredients:

8.4 ounces sorghum flour (try 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cup) 

1.8 ounces Bob's Redmill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour (try 1/2 cup)

3 ounces dark brown sugar (you can use raw sugar, turbinado sugar, organic pure cane sugar, honey or whatever your favorite non-chemical sweetener is.)

3/4 tsp aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

3 ounces  Earth Balance Soy Free

2 1/4 ounces molasses

1 1/2 ounces rice milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Add your flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into the bowl of your food processor, Kitchenaid or Vitamix, which is what I used. You could probably do this by hand in a regular bowl too, if you need. :-)

Add the Earth Balance and pulse or blend until the mixture is combined.

Add molasses, rice milk, and vanilla extract and mix until dough forms, about 1-2 minutes.

Mold the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator and place it on a big piece of parchment paper and then put a second sheet of equal size on top. You can put all this on top of a sheet pan for easy transport to the oven later.

 

Roll the dough out until it's about 1/8 inch thick.

  

Remove the top sheet of the parchment paper and cut the dough, using a knife or pizza cutter into 2 inch or so square pieces by using vertical and horizontal cuts. You can trim off any excess and roll any extra dough out on another sheet, if desired.

 

Using a fork, poke holes all over the top of the dough. Leave the crackers on the pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until the edges start to darken. I baked them for 20 minutes and they were a little more crispy than I wanted on the edges.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment with the crackers on them onto a cooking rack. You can later remove them off the parchment to test coolness. You can store them in an airtight container for a few weeks. My kids backed these for their snack at school the next day and then finished them off for snack after school. They said that they reminded them of gingerbread cookies. I'm sure they would be amazing used as smores, with marshmallow and chocolate! Alton Brown even has a recipe for homemade marshmallow!

Enjoy!

The No Pain Cream Solution!

Creamy soup or velvety smooth ice cream, are things that would really ruin my week if I ate them. I simply can't eat anything that has any ingredient that is or was derived from cow's milk. There is nothing more frustrating to me than finding out, too late, that there was cream in a soup. That painful feeling in my stomach is unmistakable and it takes days to get back to normal. After many experiences like this I've learned to always ask this one simple question: "Is this soup cream based?"

In an effort to find cream to use in Pumpkin Soup or to add to mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving, or in cream based sauces, my Mom found this fabulous cream alternative and I've purchased it several times since. It's called Mimic Creme and it's almond based. They have a sweetened and a non-sweetened version and I picked it up at Whole Foods.

I most recently used it to add creaminess to a tomato vegetable soup that I made. I didn't need the entire container, so I filled up my muffin tins with the rest and stick them in the freezer. Once frozen I transferred the little painless cream hockey pucks into a Ziplock bag and put them back in the freezer. They are ready for me to add them to my soups, sauces, or to make some ice cream out of them.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free

Chocolate chip cookies was one of the very first things I wanted to try to make gluten, dairy and egg free, when we found out that my son would have to go without these things for a long time. I love making cookies with my kids, especially chocolate chip cookies! Chocolatey, buttery, with the sweet smoothness of brown sugar is what I desire in a chocolate chip cookie. They are what I crave to make on a cold, blustery day. Come to think of it, they are what I crave to make on a warm spring day. Chocolate chip cookies are my anytime baking project that my kids love to help me with. I never tire from baking these little bits of chocolatey goodness. Which probably explains why I've been working so darn hard on this gluten, dairy, soy, nut free recipe for so darn long. I swear that It's been well over a year. I can't even begin to tell you how many flops and throw away batches that I have had. Many were good but not good enough. For a while, the cookies were just too dry. I thought maybe add more oil, but that didn't work. It turned out that I was adding too much flour. Don't expect doughs to look the same as you were used to before baking gluten free. This is a whole new ballgame. I think this version of the recipe is a nice one worth posting. I'm not saying this is my final version. I'm sure there will be more to come. I still have a few ideas to try.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free

Ingredients:

2 cups sorghum flour, 1/2 cup tapioca flour, and 1/2 cup potato starch

            (or use 3 cups all purpouse gluten free flour mix.)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tbsp flax meal plus 3 tbsp water (If you can't have flax, use 3 more tbsp apple sauce or adding 1 tbsp Sunbutter.)

2 tbsp Vanilla

1/4 - 1/2 Earth Balance Soy Free, canola oil, or other oil of your choice.

1 cup organic unrefined sugar

1/2 - 1 tbsp molasses (instead of sugar and molasses you can use 1 cup of brown sugar instead.)

1/4 cup apple sauce

1/4 cup rice milk

1 1/2 - 2 cups chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life or Guittard Extra Dark, which contains some soy lethicin.)

Directions:

1. In a bowl combine all dry ingredients and wisk to combine.

2. In a small seperate bowl, combine flax and water and let sit.

3. In a seperate bowl or Kitchenaid mixer, combine Earth Balance and sugar, molasses, apple sauce, and flax and water mixture on medium to high for 2 - 4 minutes to cream the ingredients together.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet in the mixer until well combined, 5-7 minutes.

5. Fold in chocolate chips.

6. Spoon the dough onto baking sheet, form into a ball and sprinkle with sugar.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 – 18 minutes.

8. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

The Completely GREEN Dinner. Pea and Basil Soup: gluten free and dairy free

We had a completely GREEN dinner that was first and formost quick, free of gluten, cows milk, eggs, soy, and vegetarian this evening and the kids were thrilled!

One of my most favorite things to cook with and eat is basil. Naturally, one of my favorite recipes is one by Giada De Laurentis that I link to below. It contains olive oil, onion, peas, chicken broth, cream (which I replace with almond or rice milk), salt and pepper. I replaced the butter with olive oil and pecorino romano instead of mozzerella. I mixed some pecorino in the soup as well as put it on top. It's like pesto soup really. It tastes very fresh, clean, and yummy. I've used dried peas and frozen peas with this recipe. I served it up with Asparagus with Shallots (see below).

All very healthy, and very green.

Pea and Basil Soup linked here.

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
I top the soup with Pecorino Romano, sheeps milk cheese.

Asparagus with Shallots

by Kendra Hubbell

Ingredients:

a bunch of asparagus

a shallot

olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions: 

Wash your asparagus. Cut your asparagus in little circles and cut up your shallot. Put some olive oil in a saute pan on your stove on medium - high heat. Add your shallot to the pan and cook a bit, then add in your asparagus and sautee until just slightly crispy still.

Today, my six year old son and I made my Pumpkin Muffins: Gluten, dairy, egg, soy, citrus and nut free. together. I read him the ingredients and he measured, poured, and mixed the ingredients together. He really did most of it himself. I am so proud. They turned out so good. This time we used Bob's All-purpose gluten free flour instead of what I usually use and they turned out great!



Newbie Frustration

Let me introduce myself...I'm the other BFF. I'm the newbie to gluten/egg/dairy free cooking.

We discovered last month that my oldest son is highly sensitive to wheat, gluten, rye, spelt, dairy, eggs, citrus and garlic. Am I forgetting one? I might be. I will just start by saying that so far I find this process extremely frustrating. We are a foodie family. I love cooking. I love mastering family recipes and creating new ones. I love finding a recipe that sounds irresistible, shopping for the ingredients, working magic in the kitchen and watching my family enjoy the end product. I love to cook with butter. I love to make savory cheesy dishes. Over the last year I have taught myself how to cook eggs in every way imaginable (perfectly scrambled, perfectly hard boiled, perfectly soft boiled, perfectly poached, etc.). Two months ago I finally found a pie crust that was simple, fun & easy...and made for a killer chicken pot pie.

My incredible, inspiring, funny and creative BFF has been there for me through thick and thin for almost 15 years. So I was not surprised at all to have her full support and enthusiasm when I called her about DS's new found food issues. She has started this blog to post her favorite tips and recipes...and she answers countless questions when I'm standing in the grocery store aisle or in my kitchen totally overwhelmed and confused.

Right now I just feel frustrated and annoyed. It is very discouraging to spend almost $5 on a bag of gluten-free flour to have a recipe completely fail. Or when I thought I'd buy some "mozzarella style shreds" so DS could feel like the rest of us on pizza night....only to discover none of us could stand the taste or texture.

But I am determined to keep trying, failing and succeeding. And hopefully, someday soon, cooking and baking will feel fun again. I'm starting small and making sure I open a bottle of wine or brew a pot of coffee before I start. My goal for now is to try at least one new recipe a week. My first was egg-free citrus-free mayonnaise. This week I tried a banana bread recipe and next week I think I'll tackle homemade bread...again. I'll update when I can about how things are going and how our family is adjusting to so many dietary changes.

I hope reading about my journey (challenges, successes and everything in between) will help you if you are just getting started.

Bon appetit!