Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

If you have a mad love of peanut butter, then this is for you!


1 jar of creamy peanut butter
1/2c demarara sugar (original recipe called for 1c but I don't do super sweet too well)
about 1/8-1/4c Ahh-laska (or the equivalent) chocolate syrup
2 TB coconut flour
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder

I scooped with a tablespoon and rolled them like those peanut butter blossom cookies (the ones with the choco kiss pushed in after baking) and pressed them down a bit.  Baked at 350* for 10-12 min til slightly brown.  They lightened up considerably while baking, you'd never know there was choco syrup in the mix.  I might try chocolate or cocoa powder next.  These made 2 1/2 dozen but as they are SO peanut buttery and stick to the roof of your mouth rich, scooping smaller portions out would definitely make this go further.

An excellent first attempt.  The coconut flour gave it a hint of indescribable yum.

gluten free, low carb eating Summer edition!

As the days grow longer (and warmer!) I am looking at what to plant in the garden as well as what will sound good in my belly!  My daughter and I were craving Mexican flavors, she wanted tacos, I balked at the limited and usually overpriced GF, non-GMO options.  So we took a *salad* route-and went with brown rice, organic black beans, fresh squeezed lime juice, organic grass-fed ground beef, browned (she is a cancer patient with a serious meat tooth) with sauteed onion and garlic.  Add to that cumin, chili powder, sea salt, pepper and we had a yummy base to add avocado, some low fat cheese and pineapple salsa and served gluten free, non-GMO tortilla chips on the side.  Still not as low carb as it should be for my needs but it fit the bill for my healing, growing girlie.

So now that I have these cravings for fresh veg, flavor and crunchy goodness with the convenience of a sandwich I am revisiting lettuce wraps again.  I hadn't fully realized the advantages of this back when I seriously low-carbed (ie: pre child) so it was rather unappealing, of course in those days I was fighting a serious carb addiction that has since been eliminated.  So now I dream of flavorful fresh, raw veg wrapped in with pesto, soy-free mayo, tahini or hummus...yummmm.  I am also in love with black beans and plan to tinker with recipes for meals and salads featuring them as well as quinoa. 

I have also found, via my new addiction Pinterest, a coconut flour tortilla that I must find a good recipe for.  It's a great base I think, however after reading on Wheatbelly blog I learned that coconut flour absorbs a ton of liquid and can cause it to stick in one's throat!  So I will try a combo of a small part coconut flour with almond flour and perhaps garbanzo flour. For now, fresh yummy lettuce leaves will be my wraps!

If you have some yummy organic, non soy low carb food ideas please share!  (oh, and must be no shellfish-I'm highly allergic!)

p.s. Speaking of allergies, mowed the grass today, first time this year and on top of seasonal allergies I am still relatively allergy-free!  I have not taken any allergy medicine since March.  Grass mowing has always stirred up massive itchies and congestion for me.  Today it was a mild post nasal drip and a slightly tingly nose.  I love seeing the tangible results of my lifestyle change!  I feel human again!

Bonus of GF living

As Spring settles into New England I am finding in the last few weeks that my usually horrid seasonal allergies are nearly nonexistent! Over the last decade or more my allergies have been getting worse each year.  After a weekend away at the beach late last month I came home to notice my hives, which I believe are connected to my out of control rosacea, have eased up considerably and my environmental allergies haven't bothered me.  It has been a couple of weeks since I took an allergy pill and two of the last three days I have spent around my brother's German Shepherd, who I am rather allergic too, with minimal sniffles and a few hives on my jawline but nowhere near what they once were.  I have to  thank my gluten free lifestyle for this change, I am noticing my immune system is really getting a much needed break from chronic inflammatory responses!  It has definitely sold me on a NO *cheating* GF way of life.  Of course I cannot see it as cheating, because I feel so much better now that it feels more like intentional poisoning than cheating.

In recent weeks I have been working on reducing carbs, when I want my pizza I have been making crusts with almond, sorghum and garbanzo flours.  I have found a Udi's multigrain bread that I like that isn't as high in carbs as most others I've seen and keep a loaf in the freezer for the occasional sandwich.  I am highly frustrated with the weight gain since going GF,even a month after stopping my GF alternative to the extent I was eating them and instead eating much more low carb-lots of veg, some protein...It will get easier when growing season kicks in and I can pull fresh veg from the garden!

pizza crust, redux

So I scrapped the recipe posted earlier, I'll try it eventually however for today I am dealing with a crappy 12 year old coming off of her 5 day cycle of steroids, so I had to make something that sounded good to her ears (this week, any other time she'd be game).

I headed to the kitchen and hauled out my GF flours.  Took a peek at the tapioca flour and potato starch carb counts and WOW, jaw dropping.  As I have packages I'd rather not waste I'll use this on occasion and minimally until gone.  Same goes for the brown rice flour.  I am also looking at non yeast recipes for now as I am struggling with issues when I eat it ever since I was on antibiotics in Feb. I haven't been quite right since despite using probiotics.

So for today I pulled out the chickpea flour, sorghum flour and almond flour and picked apart our fave gluten free pizza crust recipe.  If I recall correctly I added 1/2c sorghum flour, 1/8 c brown rice flour, 1/2 c almond flour, 1 tsp xanthan gum, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, 1/3 c egg whites, 1 tsp sea salt and enough almond milk to make a good looking dough.

I spread it on parchment paper while the pizza stone heated up.  I spread it using baggie over the hand method to prevent stickage and waste.  Popped it in a 350* oven for 10 min to bake and then pulled it out, added the topping and popped it back in for another 10 min.  My daughter ate HALF the 12 inch pizza.  Holy cow.  The crust was divine, I am still trying to place where the crust would also well in baking.  It was sweetish though no sweeteners were added, so I see a dessert in our future using this.

Quest for Pizza, part 4? 5?

My never ending love of pizza strikes again.  BG-F ("before gluten-free") I limited my pizza consumption because of the carbs, when I did make it I used whole wheat flour and tried to keep it healthier.  Now that I am GF I am looking at pizza again in a low carb light.  I have two new recipes to try, tonight it's Socca Pizza Crust from Nourishing Flourishing, which uses chickpea flour.  I also have an almond flour based crust recipe from Ginger Lemon Girl to try next.  The flax meal recipe made last week was enjoyed my my girlie but not by me, leftovers were not enjoyable at all.   When I did baking for a farmer's market back in the day I made a gluten free bread using chickpea flour and it was good, so I have hope for our pizza tonight.  Buffalo chicken for my girlie.

Will be back with a review..

Hello low carb, we meet again....for pizza.

So the newness of gluten free eating is being kicked over with the importance of eating low carb. hmmpmh!!
Having PCOS and needing to eat at a lower glycemic level is paramount for my health.  I found a month into GF eating that while I was feeling better my butt was not getting any smaller, I was sticking to the same weight despite eating healthy. I've been having troubles eating enough.  I am currently at two meals a day and a snack.  What frustrates me is that my caloric intake is low enough that anyone else would be losing weight (and that caloric intake is not intentional, just how its happening) but not here in PCOSland. So I am looking at taking the carb level down more. It's not that I eat a lot of carbs. Right now it's two pieces of Rudi's multigrain bread at breakfast (I am fixated on egg, cheese and chicken sausage sandwiches for breakfast) and that's usually it.  Any other carb comes from a veggie source.  So frustrating.

I am also keeping a food diary and I think part of the subconscious reasoning behind the lack of eating is my rosacea flareups.  They have been ugly and my face is spotted with angry red welts which later turn to dried spots of skin.  It's horrid.  I know this is a huge sign that my immune system is mad as hell and something is setting off these reactions so I stick with the familiar and try to figure out what is setting it off (so far tomatoes and certain types of coffee).

So in my never ending quest for a perfect for me pizza I am looking at low carb, gluten free pizza crust recipes.  Tonight I have this Low-Carb, Gluten Free  Flax Crust currently cooking in the oven. It whips up so fast, no rising needed.  It's on its first baking to cook the crust and then we'll top it with some buffalo chicken sausage and mozzarella and bake it some more. 

I've missed pizza since I read  how the common GF flours out there eff up one's glucose/insulin levels so I stopped my baking and pouted a bit.  Now I am back and ready to find new options.  With this flax meal that is a much needed addition to my diet.  Back tomorrow with a follow up


ETA: Finally remembered where I read about certain GF flours not being healthy for me.  It's over at Wheat Belly

Trial: Gluten-free Waffles

My daughter and I love waffles, I was gifted with a belgian waffle maker last year and when I went gluten free I sadly thought waffles would be a thing of my past. Happily I realized that with all that is available there has to be something for our bi-monthly waffle breakfasts.

I have a couple of recipes I want to try, yesterday I started with Gluten Free Belgian Waffles. While I prefer buying my eggs local (my neighbor!)  the waste of yolks when I bake just wasn't cost effective for me.  So I found egg whites at the store and have been using these whenever I bake.  These waffles get their fluffiness from beaten egg whites, The only trouble I found was that with gluten free baking once you add liquid to the powder ingredients it all glops up FAST.  So folding the egg whites into a firm dough was challenging. I kept at it  and it did mix in enough to look more batter-like.  In the past waffles were made with about 1/3c batter, probably more. I added my usual amount and within seconds it puffed way up and opened the waffle iron.  the waffle was an inch and a half thick!!  so I put a small amount in, maybe 1/4c, probably less, and it came out perfect.  My niece was here visiting and both she and my daughter loved the end result.  We'll be heading to Maine for a few days in a couple of weeks and I plan to make up a batch ahead of time and pop them in the toaster as needed. Needing such little batter per waffle made this batch made 8 waffles, over twice what my usual recipes made. 

Next up I'd like to try Fluffy Gluten Free Waffles.  Ultimately I'd like to get away from the starchy flours and find a blend that is more friendly to my lower carb focus. Even if we only have this once or twice a month I'd like to keep relatively closer to on track.