Cereal Bar Treats - Dairy, Soy, Wheat/Gluten Free

  We had lots of cereal that was going (or already) stale on our pantry shelves. I was just about to throw it out when I thought, well, I might as well try to make rice-crispy type things out of them and see how they come out. The worst that could happen was I would still end up throwing it out.

  I just started melting random stuff in a pot and lucky for my dear husband, these came out tasting like crunchy Reese's. "Oh my god.... you have GOT to write that recipe down" is just about the best compliment a wife can get :D


Cereal Bar Treats

1/2 cup honey, agave nectar, or corn syrup
3/4 cup natural peanut butter (or other nut or seed butter)
3 Tbl Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread
1 cup allergen free marshmallows
2 cups cereal of choice (We used a mix of stale Honey Kix, Honey Nut Chex, and plain Corn Chex)
1/3 cup or so vegan chocolate chips
olive oil for greasing the pan
1 pinch sea salt

Generously grease a small cake pan or casserole dish with olive oil. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat honey, peanut butter, and Earth Balance over medium heat and stir until smooth. Add in marshmallows and stir until melted. Remove from heat. Fold in cereal and continue folding until evenly coated. Toss in chocolate chips and stir just a few times, enough to spread  them throughout the mixture. They will melt, but you are trying to keep the melted chocolate from completely mixing into the peanut butter. You want to have a marbled effect so some bites have more peanut butter and some have more chocolate.
Spread mixture into the cake pan and pat with a wet spatula until well packed and level. Sprinkle the top with a pinch of sea salt.
Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until set. Cut into bars and enjoy!

These do not hold up after a few minutes at room temperature, so store in an air tight container in the fridge and serve chilled.

Go Raw Super Cookies

 Sorry, this is not a recipe. Yesterday while in Central Market, I was wandering down an isle and saw an area I'd never seen before: the raw food section. Now while I personally think that raw is best, (obviously raw foods contain more nutrients, fiber, and enzymes than cooked foods) we do not actively strive to eat a mostly raw diet or anything because frankly it seems super daunting and all I imagine is carrot sticks and salads. Well, and yummy green smoothies, but I digress.
 So as I'm just casually looking at the raw food area, I see something called "Super Cookies". There were roughly 10 different flavors (Super Chips, too!). What really caught my eye was that they posted the ingredient list in large print right on the front of the package. That's bold and screams to me "We're PROUD of this stuff." There's no hard to pronounce chemical preservatives, no funky fillers that make you scratch your head pondering their presence (like the time we found milk as an ingredient in plain pre-cooked chicken breast strips...wtf?). Just simple organic ingredients, and thankfully no rice, or oat in most flavors.
 But the real question is, how do they taste!? We tried the Masala Chai flavored cookies and first of all, these little things are only about the size of a quarter, and the serving size listed on the package is 18 pieces, yikes! So for my $6 there's really only 3 servings, but thankfully Jack is not interested in eating that much of anything all at once. They taste sweet but not cloyingly so, nowhere near it. They have a spicy, earthy flavor. They are crispy, but both boys seemed not to be put off by that in the least. I'd say that these were a big hit. And another MAJOR plus... they don't crumble, there are no crumbs coming off these babies!
 So for a quick healthy snack that packs a major nutritional punch and that fits in the diaper bag easily and isn't messy, these are well worth the semi-ridiculous price tag, in my opinion. I'm sold!!

Cookie Dough Hummus - Vegan, Wheat Free, and Deeelicious!

Close your eyes and imagine chocolate chip cookie dough, will you? The perfect balance of sweet and salty, crunchy and soft, awesome and delicious. But then there's the wheat, butter, eggs, milk chocolate part... yeah, super bummer.

We recently found a Bob's Red Mill chocolate chip cookie mix that, once baked is pretty darn good, but the dough is icky icky icky. Can't a girl just get some cookie dough?!

Enter: Cookie Dough Hummus! Whoa, who the heck woulda thought? It's raw, it's vegan, it's no bake, and it only takes (drum roll please....) 5 minutes to make!

Cookie Dough Hummus

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed thoroughly
1/4 cup cashew butter (or almond or peanut butter if you don't have cashew and need to try this recipe tonight and can't wait to run to the store... not that anyone would do that or anything)
1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup agave nectar (more if desired)
1 Tbl organic cane sugar
3 Tbs flax meal (finely ground flax seed)
1 Tbs vanilla extract
dash of sea salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips (such as Enjoy Life brand)

Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor and blend until as smooth as possible. Scoop it into a large bowl, fold in chocolate chips, and serve!! This might be yummy on slices of apple, we just ate it with a spoon, but it's very rich. A little goes a long way!

Vegan Wheat Free No Bake Brownie Bites

This is waaaay off topic, but I worked at Kohl's for about 3 years, starting when I was 18. They would occasionally have lunches or parties for whatever reason, as most companies do. One time, as I was clocking in for an evening shift, I saw that there had been a party earlier in the day and there was a container of delicious fat filled brownie bites, nearly empty, still sitting on the break table. I LOVED those things but didn't have time to eat any and didn't want them to be gone when I took my break, so I wrapped 3 up in a napkin and put them in my locker. I then promptly forgot about them, and as a teenager, I was a total mess all the time. It wasn't until I was cleaning out my locker 2 years later that I found those brownie bites again, hard as little rocks but perfectly preserved.
Aaaanyway, these delicious brownie bites taste nearly identical to those brownie bites of my yester years, but contain no wheat, eggs, or milk, and are loaded with healthy stuff (and then rolled in sugar, cuz you can't win all the time!) These were very simple to make even though I only had raw almonds and had to roast mine first.
BTW, to roast raw almonds, heat oven to 350 and spread almonds onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the outsides have a deeper brown color than they started with and a few have split slightly. Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool.

Vegan and Wheat Free NO BAKE Brownie Bites

15 pitted dates
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup whole roasted almonds
1 Tbl agave nectar (or honey, if not vegan)
2 Tbl water (plus more, if needed)
3 Tbl or so powdered sugar

In a food processor or fancy-pants blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec, process almonds until fairly well ground. It does not have to be like almond flour, but you don't want any huge chunks. Add dates, cocoa powder, agave nectar, and water. Mix until it forms a sticky mass. If it seems to dry or crumbly, add water 1 tsp at a time until you get the desired consitency. Using damp hands (I stood by the sink and rinsed my hands after every 3rd ball), for 1 Tbl dough at a time into a balla nd place on waxed paper. Pour powdered sugar into a shallow wide bowl, and roll brownie bites until completely covered in powdered sugar. If you have too much sugar, roll them between your hands again and a lot will come off. Keep these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Amazing Quinoa Cookies

  Ok, I just said it in my last post but finding a good cookie recipe has been next to impossible since finding out Jack was also allergic to rice and oats. The cornmeal hedgehogs are good, the boys love em, but they aren't really cookies.
  While at a wonderful organic health food store in Weatherford (Abundant Health Nuturally) on Saturday, I came across a product I had never really paid attention to before: quinoa flakes.  The box says "For hot cereal and much more!" I thought for hot cereal it might be really nice, as I can only stand grits so often, so we bought it. Once I got it home I saw the back of the box had recipes for cookies and banana bread muffins. The cookie recipe called for rice flour but I just used corn flour (NOT corn meal) instead and the results were fantastic! These LOOK like cookies, taste like cookies, do not fall apart and are also not hard as a rock, just perfect! I am in love! I can't wait to try out the banana muffin recipe (that will call for substituting egg so it's hard to say if it will work as well or not).

 Some nutritional facts about quinoa versus other grains:

                           Quinoa         Wheat       Rice         Corn        Oats
Protein                   16.2             14.0        7.5            3.5           13.0
Fiber                       3.5                2.3        0.9            0.7           10.6    
Healthy fats            6.9                2.2        1.9            1.0            5.4
Carbs                      63.9              69.1      77.4          22.1          66.1

per 100 grams
Calcium, mg         141.0             36.0       8.0            6.0
Phosphorus, mg    449.0            224.0    143.0         207.0
Iron, mg                 6.6                4.6          0              3.7

Amazing Quinoa Cookies

1/2 cup honey (or agave nectar if vegan)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Soy Free Earth Balance
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup corn flour (or quinoa flour, perhaps)
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1/4 cup Enjoy Life vegan chocolate chips (optional)

Heat oven to 350.
Beat honey, brown sugar, Earth balance, peanut butter, and vanilla in stand mixer until creamy. In a small bowl, combine flour, flakes, baking soda, and salt and mix well. Add to honey mixture and beat until well mixed. Drop by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookies sheet. Bake 12-17 minutes (longer for crunchier texture) or until light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Cornmeal Hedgehogs!

  It's "Fried Friday" at our house and my husband insisted on fried tilapia and hush puppies. While I was making the hush puppies (I use Zatarain's Fish Fri and follow the directions on the side of the box, using Ener-G egg replacer, olive oil, and almond milk rather than egg, shortening, and milk) I thought to myself, I wonder if I can follow these recipe guidlines but make something sweet since there are so few cookies that Jack can have, and he needs all the calories he can get. So I experimented and came up with these! We called them hedgehogs because the dough sunk onto the fryer basket a little and they look a bit like, well, hedgehogs! I'm sure I will improve on this recipe but for now, here it is!

Excuse my not so great picture, I just grabbed a quick pic with my phone.

Cornmeal Hedgehogs

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup barley flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
Egg replacer for 1 egg
2 Tbl olive oil
enough almond milk to make thin 'dough' (I forgot to measure this and instead just poured and stirred)

Heat your fryer to 375. Stir together all dry ingredients. Add egg replacer and oil and stir well. Slowly add almond milk (you could use plain or vanilla) until you have a dough thick enough that you can roll into balls, but not too dry. Roll into balls the size of ping-pong balls and fry 4-5 at a time for about 8 minutes each. They might be tasty sprinkled with powdered sugar before they cool as well!

Flour Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

  Ok, so we were all in love with the oatmeal peanut butter cookies, but after finding out Jack is also allergic to both rice and oats, we were in desperate need of a new cookie! I tried several, including a cornmeal almond cookie that was god-awful. But I found several sites with flour free peanut butter cookies and I decided to give them a try. Boy am I glad I did!
  These were pretty crumbly the first day but the second day these were absolutely perfect! This recipe is ridiculously simple and so yummy...

Flour Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 Tbl flax meal + 3 Tbl hot water
1 tso baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup vegan chocolate chips (Enjoy Life)

Preheat oven to 350.
Stir together peanut butter, sugar, flaxgel, baking powder, and vanilla. Once well mixed, stir in chocolate chips. Roll into 1-1.5 inch balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Flatten cookies as they will not spread. Bake for 12-17 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Vegan and Wheat Free Peanut Butter and Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

  Wow, let me start this off by saying that these are the first cookies I have had since changing to this diet that are actually really good. Usually, wheat free anything means that there will be a bit of grittiness, but since these are oatmeal cookies I think that any grittiness is masked. These were really easy to make and they actually even stayed together without having to be a quarter of the size of a 'regular' cookie like others that I have made. Also I used a jar of baby food pears for the pear puree but half a banana that is well mashed, or any other fruit puree, pumpkin, or even squash could sub in and probably not have much of a recognizable flavor change. Here goes:

The boys enjoying their cookies at the zoo!

Vegan/Wheat Free Peanut Butter and Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup quick cooking oats (make sure you use certified wheat free, like Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup rice flour (I used brown but white would work too I'm sure)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons pureed pear
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup extra crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate or vegan chips

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a small bowl or ziploc bag, mix oats, rice flour, baking soda and salt.
In a medium bowl, stir oil and both sugars together. Mix in pear, peanut butter and vanilla. Add rice flour/oat mixture and stir until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using about 2 tablespoons of dough, form dough into balls and place on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten slightly. Bake until edges are golden brown, about 11-12 minutes (longer for crunchier edges). Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.

Makes about 8 cookies.

I didn't flatten mine very much because I had a previous experience with vegan oatmeal cookies that turned into oat-puddles, so I was hesitant and ended up with pretty fat cookies. They are still super delicious but next time I will flatten them a tad more.