Gluten/dairy/sugar free Chocolate Cookies!

Quick note before we get started, by “sugar” I mean cane sugar… this recipe contains coconut sugar. Onward!

Ingredients / Things you will need

1/4 cup canola oil or other liquid fat
1/2-3/4 cup coconut sugar
2 eggs + one egg white (optional)
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup all-purpose gluten free flour (I used one heavy on pea flour and potato starch, if in doubt just use more brown rice flour)
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
3-5 tbsp. cocoa, depending how much sugar you use and how dark you want your chocolate cookies

1 bowl
1 whisk
1 spatula (rubber)
1 spatula (metal)
1 cookie sheet
coconut oil or other fat to grease the cookie sheet

Process

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Whisk the canola oil and coconut sugar together in the bowl until they are completely combined
Add two eggs. If your eggs are small or you want extra protein, add an extra egg white. Continue whisking until combined.
Heat your cookie sheet by placing it on your ovens vent

Dump the measured flours atop the wet ingredients in a slight sweeping motion, creating a dry island
Supplement the dry island of flours with the xanthan gum and and baking soda
Whisk dry ingredients together and then combine with sugary wetness below
Switch to the spatula as the mixture becomes too sticky to whisk and add the cocoa

Trust your taste buds add additional cocoa and/or coconut sugar until the batter tastes like it will make delicious cookies.
Spoon large heaping tablespoons of batter onto t in a well spaced 3×4 pattern

Place cookie sheet inside oven
Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
Bake cookies for 8 minutes if you want a cooked but gooey inside, 9 if you want them more solid. Careful! Overbaking will ruin the moisture balance that is so important in gluten-free baking.

Let cool on the pan for about 5 minutes and then remove with a metal spatula to a plate or cooling rack.

Wait another few minutes and they should be cool enough to enjoy!

The xanthan gum is the most key ingredient in this recipe. Most of the other ingredients could be substituted out but due to the amount of moisture from the eggs and oil we need to keep this recipe xanthan gummy. Happy baking!

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Gluten Free Crustless Quiche!

I know it’s been awhile since I posted a recipe (or anything on the topic of food), so here’s one of the things I usually do when I find my self with too many eggs, a few leftover vegetables, and no other sources of protein.

Gluten Free Dairy Free Paleo-Opitioned Crustless Quiche!

Ingredients / Things you will need

4-5 Eggs depending on size
3-4 Tblsp olive oil or your preferred fat source
1/4 Cup Brown Rice Flour (use almond meal or omit for Paleo, it is not necessary but adds a nice starch)
0.5 tsp Baking soda (again omit if Paleo)
0.5 tsp Xanthan gum (I’m not even sure if this is Paleo or not, but certainly it’s not necessary, helps the flour though)
1-1.5 cups chopped vegetables. I used yams and onions because I had nothing else!
Salt and Pepper, other spices to taste. I chose turmeric and curry!

A Bowl
A Pie Plate or other bakeable vessel you wish to Quiche in
Coconut Oil or other fat source to grease the pie plate
A Whisk or other implement for beating
Oven Mitts. SAFETY FIRST!

(Not quite everything is present but this gives the idea!)

Process

Preheat your oven to 350 Degrees Farenheit
Crack 4-5 eggs into the bowl
Add 3-4 tblsp olive oil
Beat them (with the whisk) until eggs and oil learn to be friends and make bubbles
Casually Toss In 1/4 cup of Brown Rice Flour and about a half teaspoon each of baking soda and xanthan gum
Beat it all until the rice and xanthan and soda are so scared they spread out and hide amidst the liquids
Spice to taste. I used salt, pepper and about three teaspoons of turmeric and one of curry. Great for anti-inflammation!
Beat until absorbed.

Grease Pie plate with coconut oil
Pour Mixture in to pie plate
Carefully add the chopped vegetables and push them down so the egg mixture at least partially covers them.

Bake at 350 Degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown as pictured above and below.
SAFETY FIRST use the oven mitts to take it out

Let Cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting. A butterknife should do the trick.
Cut into triangular slices and serve.

You can throw pretty much anything in a quiche! Beans, broccoli, cheese if you’re lucky enough to digest such things.

Questions and comments are welcome! If you’d like to follow my blog on facebook here’s a link to the page.

Perfect Homemade Pancakes

Just today I was thinking I need to start photographing the things I cook so I can post pictures on here. Of course, I still forgot to do that when I made gluten-free coconut pancakes tonight. I’ll have to commit to posting some pics the next time I make these.

Pancakes are enough of a staple around here to be a stereotype, and I’ve always enjoyed them but had issues with their lack of nutrition even before I went gluten/dairy/sugar free. I once referred to them as “fluff and syrup”… but the recipe I offer you today is much heartier, and still full of fluffy deliciousness.

Warm a large frying pan on a medium-low heat setting.

Combine in a medium bowl…
3/4 cup gluten free flour (use a store-bought mix or your own, this should be a low fiber mixture)
1/4 cup coconut flour (naturally gluten free an high in fiber)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum (not necessary if using a flour mix that contains it)
3 tsp cinnamon (adjust to your taste buds)

Beat in a small bowl or measuring cup…
2 tbsp canola oil (or sub your preferred oil)
1 tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
1 tbsp vanilla (extract works)
1 egg
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your preference)

Pour wet mixture into dry and mix thoroughly. It will undoubtedly be a thick mixture, and you should add water or an equal parts solution of almond milk and water to thin it from here on out. I like to get the batter to a consistency where it almost folds out of the bowl when poured, rather than running like a liquid.

Beat batter until well mixed and then fry up your pancakes. Unlike regular pancakes, these are usually ready to flip when the first few bubbles burst through. Press in blueberries while the first side cooks if desired. I like to top these with earth balance or almond butter and a small flood of maple syrup.

Serves 1-4 people depending on if you’re a middle school barbershop quartette or an adult athlete with a firestorm for a metabolism.

Pictures to come soon, hopefully. Time for bed now. Delicious pancakes make me sleepy.

The Nutritional Unicorn: Chocolate Superfood

Anyone who has ever made an effort to control their diet has probably had the same fantasy: healthy dessert. Foods that satisfy all the cravings accrued over days or weeks of careful self control, but won’t bitch-slap your GI tract like an iron gauntlet.

For me, it’s almost not dessert if it’s not chocolate. Chocolate was my favorite flavor of everything growing up, and still holds the championship in most cases. Off the hop, it seemed like I was screwed. How do you get a rich, genuinely creamy chocolate taste without milk products? The answer is surprising. I’ve had a lot of success with blackbean brownies and stovetop donuts, but there’s no recipe I’ve found that can match Chocolate Avocado Pudding for richness and ease of preparation, as well as a simple option to change it from dessert to meal supplement. It is vegan, dairy free, gluten free, and (cane) sugar free.

Ingredients – all items with brackets beside them are optional

2-3 ripe avocados, depending on size
1/4-3/4 cup honey or maple syrup, depending on desired sweetness
1/4-1/3 cup cocoa powder, depending on desired darkness
A Dash of salt

2 tsp coconut oil (extra richness and a faint coconut taste)
1 tsp cinnamon powder (for a little zing)
A Dash of cayenne powder (for extra zing)
1-2 tsp vanilla extract (for a more robust flavor)
Unsweetened Almond Milk (preferably chocolate, used to thin if needed)
A scoop of vegan protein powder (again preferably chocolate, if added the protein makes it a complete meal replacement.)

Method
Simply combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. If this seems difficult due to the model or power of the machine, blend only the avocados and liquid ingredients, then transfer the mush to a bowl and beat in the remaining ingredients.

I used all of the bracketed options, and my pudding turned out fantastic. I didn’t really taste the coconut, cinnamon, cayenne or vanilla. These things help replace that full flavor that is usually unobtainable without dairy. It seems like an odd substitution, but it works.

Having a good quality vegan protein powder was the key to turning this recipe from a decadent dessert into a functional (if scandalous) meal. This is not only healthier than say, take-out or boxed mac-and-cheese, it’s also tastier and actually fulfilling. The first time I made this it ended up replacing my usual dinner and late night snack. I used small bowls of pudding to turn myself into a Pavlovian dog, performing all sorts of tasks I usually put off in order to get to my next dose of energy enhancing superfood.

Please note, I’m not encouraging you to make an entire batch of this and eat it in one day. But I’m not exactly discouraging the action, either.

Thoughts on Food

Since it’s 1:35am and my brain won’t shut off, I figured I’d make notes on my current self-experimentation in nutrition. I’m considering starting a series of youtube videos that would be one part cooking show, one part nutritional seminar, and one part holistic life lessons. It will contain information and easily learned skills I wish I had when I went to University, and that I wish my parents had when I was growing up. Wisdom I wish we all had in Katimavik, eating plain (and on occasion, burned) rice five nights a week. Meals can be cheap and efficient without being dull, or tasteless, or lacking in calories.

I’m hesitant to call it a diet, but that’s such a popular word these days. This could be called the “Beans and Rice diet” or “the Zombie Apocalypse Diet”, or any number of things related to wilderness survival. The purpose was to come up with something that I not only could eat every day, but that I would eat every day. Something to make it easy to stay away from gluten, dairy, and sugar. Regardless of how poor I might be, or picky, or craving of new flavors. I went back all the way to Asia’s ancient staples. They certainly make for interesting breakfast.

Day 1: Lentils and rice, rinsed and cooked with a few drops of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a healthy dose of curry and cayenne pepper. I love spicy food and I’m a wild man when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen. This turned out delicious but might have blowtorched the throats of some. I ate it with a vegan protein shake and realized, if I’m going to share my ideas I’m going to have to measure.

Day 2: Lentils and rice. I’m using a white long grain basmati because I happen to have that on hand, but I’d prefer something brown with some fiber. It’s really a non-issue though, because of the fiber content in lentils. Incidentally, lentils are my favorite legume. They have a very neutral, appealing flavor, cook up much faster than other dried beans, and come highly recommended from a number of sources. Cooked a quarter cup of each with an approximate teaspoon of olive oil and an eyeballed tablespoon of curry powder. Remembering to measure is hard.

Day 3: Lentils and rice. I cut the rice serving to an eighth of a cup because I don’t need that much empty carbohydrate in my morning meal. Today I decided to go “non spicy”, since some people can’t handle the heat at all, and I may want to cook for or share this with them. A (approximate again!) teaspoon of olive oil, but I measured the spices, I swear! A teaspoon of rosemary, one and a half of turmeric. A half helping of cumin and a quarter of sage. A dash of cinnamon. Always salt and pepper. Ate it on a bed of spinach and red lettuce. Delicious.

Day 4: I’m becoming confident I won’t tire easily of this meal. A quarter cup lentils and an eighth cup of rice. I kept the same spices as yesterday but prepared something special. Frozen shrimp, rinsed just enough to get the ice off, and tossed in to cook and blend with the other flavors for the final 5-10 minutes of simmering.

Recommended Protein sources: Pre-cooked shrimp worked well, but I imagine tofu (or even marinated tofu) would work the same way. Pre-cooked chicken or lean cuts of pork would also be tasty, and hard-boiled eggs could be added easily at the end. Serving with nutrient-dense vegetables is ideal, but not necessary for overall effectiveness as they add considerable cost. I do love my spinach though. Generally I try to eat at least 25-30 grams of protein at breakfast, as recommended by my nutritionist and many modern diets.

Notes on cooking: Rinsing dried goods like rice and lentils prior to cooking is important to remove sulfites and other junk. The oil is not necessary but makes rice stick to the bottom of the pot less, and adds important essential fats (and calories). Spices are essential as they add a smorgasbord of nutrients as well as the flavor that keeps the meal fresh. I prefer to cook all the moisture up so the dish can be served on a salad or added to something else like a stir-fry, however the base meal could easily be made a soup simply by adding more water and oil if desired.

That’s it for now… good night and good eats.