Gluten Free Strawberry Mango Buttermilk Pancake Muffins

I love making treats for the hubs to take to work. Since one of his coworkers can’t have gluten I’ve been enjoying the challenge of making gf goodies. I really wanted to make a fruity pancake in muffin form and I think I succeeded. Even better it is uses still frozen fruit, woo, for being lazy!  These came out really blonde, I think from using coconut flour.

Ingredients

Wet Team

• 1 C Buttermilk
• 1/4 C Vegetable Oil
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 C each white and brown sugar.
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Dry Team

• 2 C of GF Baking Blend of choice.  I used a mix of Trader Joe’s GF AP Flour, Oat Flour and a bit of Coconut Flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch each of nutmeg and mace, ground (optional)

Chunks

• 1 C each frozen slice strawberries and mango chunks. Don’t thaw

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 f and paper 12 muffin cups
2. In a big bowl mix all the wet ingredients together.
3. Since these are Gluten Free I just dump the dry ingredients in and mix well. The batter is really thick.
4. Fold in the frozen fruit.
5. Dish into prepared muffin pan
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes until done.
7. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn them out on a rack to cool completely.

Hearty Meatless Chili with Lentils and Black Beans (Vegan Friendly and Easy)

 

We love chili in this house, and my challenge was to make a meatless version that both of us meat eaters would love. I also wanted to try to get lentils in something, though the Husband doesn’t like them. I made this and am happy to say both of us like it as much (or close to as much as my meat heavy version) It’s also pretty fast, which is very good on a week night. I also love that it’s easily adjustable based on what I have on hand and what we’re in the mood for.

 

Ingredients

• 8 oz dry brown lentils. ( I’ve never measured this, just dump about 1/2 of a 16 oz bag)
• 1/2 C of oat groats or barley groats (optional but nice)
• 32 oz Veggie stock, I’ve also used v8 type juice in a pinch
• 12 oz bottle of beer (optional. I often use an unfiltered wheat beer.)
• Between 4 and 8 C of water
• 2- 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes (We prefer a mix of fire roasted and petite diced with garlic)
• 1- 8 oz can of tomato sauce
• 2 14.5 oz cans on black beans, drained and 1 of kidney beans, drained
• 4 cloves of garlic minced (reduce or omit if using garlic tomatoes)
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce
• Chili Powder, Paprika, Salt and Pepper to taste.

 

Directions

1. In a soup pot cover lentils and grains with the veggie stock, garlic, and beer. I sprinkle some of my chili powder on now, about a tsp.  If you have time you can let it soak for an hour or just skip the soak. Lentils are forgiving.
2. Add enough water to come just over halfway up the side of the pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until the lentils are tender. Keep an eye on this and add water as needed to keep things good an soupy.
3. Add the rest of your ingredients and let simmer for a few minutes. I go easy on the chili powder and we add it to taste at the table.

 

I really do love this chili with corn bread muffins or reheated with tortilla chips like a cross between frito chili pie and a dip. Let me know your favorite ways to serve leftover chili.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy No-Knead Bread with Flax

Even with my stand mixer there are just days I don’t want to deal with doing much more than dumping ingredients into the mixer. This bread is for those days, I’ve also hand mixed this and it comes out beautifully every time. This is a tender, fine crumbed bread.

I added ground flax seeds for the earthy mild taste and texture along with the Omega 3 it adds. I do my best to get lot’s of Omega 3’s and other good fats to help my migraines.

Ingredients

• 3 C Flour (I use AP about half the time instead of bread flour)
• 1 tsp Instant Yeast
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 C sugar (or honey, but if honey reduce total liquid by 1/4 C)
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Egg or egg substitute
• 1 C water

Directions

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer with hook attachment dump all the ingredients and mix thoroughly. The dough should be stickier than normal bread dough. If you are hand mixing dump everything into a large bowl and mix with a silicone or wooden spoon until mixed thoroughly.
2. Spray a loaf pan with a bit of oil and press dough in with wet fingers. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm area for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until cooked through and nicely crusted. Let cool in pan until easy to handle then turn it out of the pan.

Gluten Free Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies (Vegan Friendly) with Oat, Chia, and Flax

When I was 3 I walked up to the breakfast table one morning and declared to my Mama that “I don’t eat porridge!” She always wondered where that came from, but to this day the sight/ texture of cooked oatmeal grosses me right out. I’ve tried numerous times over the years to get past it, but I just can’t. Lucky for me that it’s not the only way to get the health benefits of oats. These little cookies are like little nutrient bombs, that taste like junk food. These are gluten free, and can be completely vegan just by swapping out the honey with more maple syrup. I think next time I make these I’ll replace the nut butter with apple sauce or something.

Ingredients:

Wet Team:

• 1/4 C each raw honey and maple syrup
• 1/4 – 1/2 C brown sugar (optional)
• 2 large carrots grated
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 C nut butter (I used chunky peanut butter)
• 1/2 C water + 1/4 C in reserve

Dry Team

• 1/4 C flax meal
• 1/4 C chia seeds, ground
• 1/2 C Almond Meal
• 1 C Oat Flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 T cinnamon (To taste, we love cinnamon)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl (I use a stand mixer) mix the wet ingredients together. they should look about like this.

In another bowl whisk all the dry team together (I do all my grinding in a spice grinder as I go)

Mix the dry into the wet, about 1/3 of the mix at a time. Because it’s gluten free you don’t really need to stress about over mixing. It should look like a wet cookie dough, if it’s dry add the reserved water.

Using a small disher (I used a #40 scoop) scoop dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake 15-20 minutes until they’re set.

Cool and store in tightly sealed container. Grab on the way out the door or in my case on the way into the home office!