Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Energy Bars

I'm running a half marathon with my sister in May. We've built our mileage to 6.5 tomorrow. We need good GF energy treats. So I made this. I substituted half of the sugar for honey and used chopped 85% dark Lindt bars for the chips. I also threw in a handful of craisin and slivered almonds. Then I cut them into small bars and wrapped them individually for running snacks.

The whole family loves them.

two week report.

We've been trying the gluten free diet for two weeks. I can see that my girl is much less swollen. Her face is not as round, nor her stomach. She's even lost a few pounds and her pants are fitting better.

Her omega 3-6-9 has arrived and we are taking that along with a multivitamin supplement.

She has been doing better at speech therapy and in real life she has had a few growths that give me hope the gluten free (much healthier b/c all junk food has gluten) diet is helping.

At school, she went up to her teacher and said, "I need water."
At speech she said to the therapist, "I want you push me," when they were playing on the playground.

Both reports were that she said things clear as day.

a glimmer of hope...

Dining out gluten free

So many things to think about when eating out. Fat, calories, portions and now gluten.

This site is super cool. It shows you how to find the GF information for the restaurants that you want to eat. Chipolte has a chart (everything is GF except flour tortillas), Chili's has a new printable GF menu every other week on their website. Pretty cool resource.

The science of GF cooking

I love the library! I've been reading about gluten free cooking. The best book so far, in terms of explaining the best replacements for wheat flours is this book. Bake Deliciously by Jean Duane.

She explains that to transfer a recipe to a GF one the cook needs to replace
50% of the flour with a grain based flour (like rice,)
25% of the flour with a protein flour (like almond), and
25% starch (corn starch or potato.)
She explains that the baker must also use 25-50% more leavening,
and a teaspoon of acid (vinegar or cocoa powder)
and a 1 of gums (guar gum or xanthan gum.)

So far I'm only working with protein based flours, coconut, almond and flax. I will try other flours eventually.

I'm working on the fococcia bread recipe I posted.

I think adding pumpkin for some of the oil will really help the overall texture of the bread. also if a savory bread is desired, I think that adding olive oil and crushed garlic to the top of the bread during the last 5 minutes of cooking would be delicious.

The flexible gyro bread I made this weekend has been a big hit for sandwiches. Sierra ate it without hesitation right out of her lunch box. She'll have it as her bun for her turkey burger tonight. :)

Weekend Plan

I will make some bread this weekend. For grain, my girl has had rice noodles, brown rice, potatoes and rice cereal this week. I thought some variety for next week would be nice.

This is what I'll bake:
Gyro type of bread
Flax Focaccia

On a side note, I'm adding these breads to my diet next week as well!!! :) I'm starting the next phase of my diet plan! I am excited to have more variety starting Monday.

It is nice that we can all eat the same things because I'm not making two kinds. My man and my boy will benefit too from less gluten! :) Less carbs for my man and more nutrients for my skinny boy!

Pancake People

My girl, my boy and my man are pancake lovers. My huge boxes of grain arrived yesterday so what's for breakfast?

Almond Meal Pancakes- add way more liquid than this recipe calls for and it's perfect.

coconut flour...

Very interesting alternative to regular flour.

What is coconut flour? It is not a grain. It what is leftover after making coconut milk. It is extremely high in fiber and high in protein. This makes it lower carb and very filling. Click here for more label info.

The flour smells delicious and it is more affordable than other specialty flours. $3 or less a pound. The great thing about it is that you only need 1/2 c for a dozen cupcakes because it is so dense.

My girl goes to preschool. That means lots of gluteny treats. For birthdays mommies bring treats and cupcakes for their children's birthdays. I don't want my lovely girl to sit there sad when the other kids have a cupcake and I don't want the poor teacher to have to enforce a sad rule. I asked the school if I could bring some GF cupcakes to keep in the freezer. They said that was fine. Problem solved. All happy hopefully! :)

So today I made these from Comfy Belly. The author there is a mommy that is a magician with gluten free food. They are super easy, it took about 10 minutes to mix and 20 minutes to cook. Just as easy as making other cakes from scratch.

I topped them with a mixture cooked honey and natural peanut butter and slathered it on top for frosting.

They are out of the oven and they smell and look delicious. I'm not eating treats currently, so I need a taster... how convenient, the delicious chocolate cake smell brought the man and our boy running. Let me have them try it.



Both ate one. They both licked the plates clean.

They say, "It tastes like Reeses peanut butter cup cake." Our favorite is Reeses, so I that's a big compliment.

Just for my information:
I am also interested to see if I can make gluten free cooking and baking affordable. I'm convinced I can make a better product than the expensive box mixes!

So bear with me as I figure out how much this batch cost.
Coconut flour is about 12.5 cents an ounce.

1.5 oz coconut flour ( 20c), eggs (1.05), honey (40c), plus baking staples made this batch of cupcakes cost less than 2 dollars. They are completely pure as well, sweetened with honey and no fake ingredients.

The cheapest on amazon.com including shipping is $4. So this is a winner!