Category Archives: gluten free

Gluten Free Almond Cookies

I  made these cookies based on this recipe over the weekend and they were yummy!  John told me to make them again – and soon 😀  Gluten free and grain free!

Very few ingredients, too.  Bonus!

Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookies

 

This recipe makes 10 cookies.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of almond flour/meal
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg white (1 tablespoon liquid egg whites)
  • 10 slivered almond slices (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.  In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the sliced almonds.

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Use a spatula and just keep mixing and mixing thoroughly to get a crumbly dough that will hold it’s shape when you press it together.  It doesn’t seem like much liquid, but trust me, it is.

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It doesn’t look like it will stick, but try it:

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Now divide the dough into 10 equal portions.  I weighed the bowl before and after adding all the ingredients and I came up with a portion of 24 grams per cookie.  So, that is how I portioned it out.  Press each portion of dough into a ball and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

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Now press down on each ball to flatten:

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Press an almond sliver into each cookie.  This is just fancy and you don’t need it 😀

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Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until gloden brown on the bottom.

Gluten free almond cookies

 

These are a nice size little cookies and so tasty!

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Nutritional stats:  Per cookie –  Calories 115, Fat 6 grams, Carbs 12 grams, Fiber 1 gram, Protein 3 grams.

 

Holiday Week Begins!

Countdown to Christmas around here!  It’s going to be a weird week as far as work goes, most likely.

Thanks so much on the book chapter congrats.  I used to think I would write a whole book about me (cause it is all about me, don’t you know), but I just don’t know if I have the desire to do that or want to take the time,  to be totally honest.  Heck – I should just bind and print my blog!  I was very, very honored to be a part of this.  I feel very humble as well.  My blog is such a tiny part of the whole weight loss on the internet, but I do hope that it gives people some kind of inspiration – or at least a good laugh from time to time.

I woke up to hit the trainer for 30 minutes before breakfast today.  I miss the bike being outside already LOL!

Breakfast today was a new recipe I played with based on the 1 minute muffin –

It’s banana flax! I will post the recipe hopefully tomorrow if I get a chance to queue that up.  I topped this with peanut flour, but I think a moister topping would have been much better.  My breakfast had a whopping 30 grams of protein!  Also 450 calories.  (That is for my 1.5 cups of almond milk, the waffle and the peanut flour topping).

Work was sporadic and spotty today.  I did a few more video takes of my guitar playing. It is hard getting everything coordinated and then to actually play without too many mistakes.  There will always be mistakes, so I just need to decide which video bothers me the least LOL! I have 3 little pieces recorded right now.  I might try for 4, but don’t worry, you won’t have to listen to them all the same day 😀

Lunch break almost looked like dinner –

I needed to cook up chicken thighs that were in fridge, so that was lunch.  With some broccoli and strawberries.  Good, good berries, too.

Pixie was quite awake today.  She was playing with her favorite toy – a paper ball, which we throw around for her.  She will carry it out in her mouth and then bat it around.  She then carried it over and dropped it near my chair.

Expectantly waiting…

Sorry kitty, must work!

I did break for lattes, though.  I had the same snack as the other day and forgot to take a pic, so I shall recycle for you.

I love my lattes.  Like I really needed to say that  :mrgreen:

Tonight for dinner, I roasted up some fingerling potatoes. John made his own entree, and I had some shrimp.

I did the cream cheese/butter/milk combo for the sauce.  It is so easy and good and you can adjust the amount to be as much as you need.

I did not talk about my food over the weekend, but I went gluten free the whole weekend.  Even on the usual bagel day.  I brought a 1-minute muffin and then bought some cream cheese and coffee at Panera to have with it.  I actually ate some caloric meals.  In fact, we went out last night to watch the 2nd half of the Broncos game since they were not on in our area.  We had potato skins and a bowl of soup.  Very salty stuff, too, so I was expecting a big sodium bloat on the scale.  Did not happen.  How odd is that?  I also was not snacking on a lot of things because of the no wheat.  Too bad I don’t have the cajones to give up wheat forever.

Hoping the Steelers win tonight.  If they win – I win dinner this week!

Small changes do stick

Another weekend totally zipped by.  At least some of the craziness is done for a bit.  Or the known craziness, that is.  Always some surprise around the corner  :mrgreen:

It was  quite foggy out this morning, which is kind of weird for December.

Today was not a gym day.   I decided to keep the Tues/Thurs gym schedule again.

I made up a banana bread breakfast pudding and topped it off with some homemade lemon curd.

Who knew lemon curd was so easy?  I have been wanting to try this forever, but just never got around to it. I can post about it as I did take some pictures when I made it yesterday.  It took about 15 minutes tops and is so yummy!

Funny thing about making changes.  I had been watching my gluten intake over the last few months.  Then I did my grain-free experiment, and then last month I also implemented grain free days.  All of those changes over time have now gradually worked their way into my daily life without thinking about it.  I seem to now gravitate to the grain free options for food and choosing gluten-free items instead of bread or regular crackers (both of which are in the house).  Like for lunch:

Those are Nut Thins on the side.  I really like these, I have to say.

I used to be such a big bread lover.  I had to have some kind of bread or carby thing like crackers, chips, pretzels with my meal or it didn’t feel complete.  Now I get my carbs mostly from veggies and fruit or potatoes.  And the not so occasional cupcake…

It’s nice to know that change can happen.  Maybe it is best when the process isn’t noticed at all!

Clementines are coming back into season now.  The price has dropped nicely.  I have to have my set of 3!

I cooked up a nice dinner tonight.  Chicken thighs!  They are so juicy. I do like the dark meat.

That potato has some light sour cream on it.  Yum.  I used to only get sour cream on a potato when we would go out to eat.  It never occurred to me to buy it for home.  D’uh.

Time to practice a bit before Monday Night football! I have gone and made myself nervous about putting a guitar video on the blog.  It will be okay, but not perfect – since I have been playing for 1 year and not 10.  But, it’s all for fun.

And, here is a picture for those that come to the blog just for the Pixie hit!

Question:  What small changes have you made lately that have stuck?

Lifting and the simple life.

Hello brand new week – nice to meet you!  I miss the light in the mornings.  It feels much earlier than it really is when I get up.  I decided to hit the gym on a Monday this week.  I have been very flexible with my workouts pending the weather since I joined this gym.  I also like the 7 to 8 a.m. hour at this gym as it is not very crowded.  Yay!

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Lying Leg Press 3 sets of 10 at 100# Lower body
Straight Arm Lat Pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 45# Back
Pushups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Captain Chair 3 sets of 10 Core
Single Leg Straight Leg Deadlift 3 sets of 10 each leg with 15# DBs (30# total) Hamstrings and balance
Prone Cobra 3 sets of 30 second holds Low back
Standing Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 at 70# Calves
Triceps Push Down 3 sets 10 at 30# Triceps

Looking at this, I forgot to do a shoulder move. Funny, because I wrote this out last night to do and still forgot something. D’oh!

Pixie was waiting for me in the window when I got home.

She’s secretly plotting to get some hair in my breakfast…

I made up some pumpkin oats and topped it with coconut butter and a sprinkle of the pumpkin granola I made yesterday.  I am not sold on the recipe for this granola, so I don’t know if I will post it or not.  It’s needs to be sweeter.

Calories for this bowl – about 360, all full of deliciousness!

Work was surprisingly busy this morning.  I ended up transcribing the same 2 doctors all day.  All day.  That is a little tiring on the brain not having any variety.  At least one of them was my favorite  :mrgreen:

Lunch break.  During all my meal prep yesterday, I also cooked up eggs because  I had a hankering for egg salad.  Straight up egg salad for me.  Just mayo, mustard and a pinch of salt.  No pickle, no celery, no pimentos.

Paired with  a cucumber and some Nut Thins.

I am in love with these crackers!  Gluten free and made from almonds.  Yep, processed, but I don’t have the time to make my own crackers, although I would like to give it a whirl.

It was a gray and cloudy afternoon.  Okay, that sounds like the opening of a really bad book...  I was ready for the lattes today!

Say cheese!

After I finished up work, I headed up to practice the guitar before dinner.

I have to say that I am quite enjoying learning the guitar.  I need to write a post on that one of these days.  I have learned a lot from it about not expecting perfection.

I came down to make up some dinner.  I used some of the brown rice that I made up yesterday (our fridge is jammed with food now).  I cooked up some ground beef, added the brown rice and some salsa.

This was actually pretty decent for cooking on a whim.  It reminds me of the filling to stuffed peppers without the peppers!  Next time, I will add some cheese and sour cream – that would be awesome!

We took a walk after dinner and it was darkening up so fast.  The clocks get turned back in another week, right? Then it will be dark before dinner.  Sigh…

Football night tonight and I have a date with one of my pumpkin scones!  I will post the recipe tomorrow.  Just a nice simple day today.  I like those days.

Pink picture of the day.  The wardrobe stylist must have left these here during the photo shoot as I found them when I went to get Pixie’s catnip off of the filing cabinet.

The Breast Cancer Site

Question:  Egg salad lover? And do you like it with ‘stuff’ in it?

Gluten Free Banana Bread

This was my first real foray into an alternative flour blend.  I have used coconut flour with good success, but wanted something with a different texture.  So while out shopping this weekend, I picked up 2 things.  One was xantham gum and one was some Bob’s Red Mill GF flour.  I decided to make the banana bread on the package of the flour with some modifications.

Ingredients:

  • 1.75 cups of gluten free flour (not bread mix, but plain GF flour)
  • 2 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp of salt
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 1 tsp of xantham gum
  • 2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 medium bananas, mashed (approximately 1.25 to 1.5 cups)
  • 2 oz of chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a loaf pan with a parchment paper sling (or use nonstick cooking spray).  Mash bananas and chop pecans and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, blend together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and applesauce.  Beat well.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, xantham gum, salt, and cinnamon.

With the beater on slow, alternate adding the flour mixture with the mashed banana until incorporated.

Then stir in the nuts.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Proceed to lick the spatula when finished.

Bake for about 55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

It was hard to wait for this to cool.  I took my walk and then came back in and made up a slice for the game.  Banana bread and football.  Just like apple pie and baseball, right?

It was also good the next morning with a little neufchatel cream cheese!

Stats for the whole loaf: 2070 calories, 59 grams of fat, 426 grams of carbs, 33 grams of fiber, 41 grams of protein.

My loaf weighed 1 pound 12 ounces (or 28 ounces).  That means  dividing the loaf into ten 2.8 ounce slices would mean 207 calories, 6 grams of fat, 42.5 grams of carbs, 3.3 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein for a slice.  Most people cut a loaf into 12 slices, but not me. I like a big piece of bread. (The slices in the photo above are about 1.5 ounces each).

The xantham gum is supposed to make the bread moist and bind it together, so I don’t know what would happen if you leave it out. I happened to find a smaller bag at my store that was not so expensive, so I bought it.  The Red Mill GF flour is a mix of bean flours and tapioca starch.  There is a lot to learn about how the different flours interact with each other, so I wanted to start out with a premixed blend.  I think I had a good start here and I shall be experimenting more.  I might have to try a yeast bread!

The original recipe called for 1/3 cup of oil, which I substituted with applesauce.  It also called for walnuts instead of pecans and 1/2 cup of raisins.  But raisins are always optional.   :mrgreen:

Gluten-free Monday

Hope you all had a very good weekend.  Mine was quite nice.  It all goes too fast, though.  I won the football picks for the week – so all is supreme in the land of Lori!  I did fix John breakfast this morning because I felt bad about gloating, which is quite unusual (the cooking breakfast part, not the gloating).  I made pumpkin custard oats for both of us!

Mine was topped with some of that lovely maple cream.  My goal was to eat gluten free today.

John got some molasses cooked in with his and pecans on top with maple cream.  Libby’s better get on the ball.  I have 1 hoarded can of pumpkin left.

Did you know that almond milk can go bad?  I did not.  I opened up an almond milk that we bought yesterday a month before its expiration date.  This is what it looks like.  This was supposed to go in my coffee.

Curds and whey anyone? :barf: It didn’t smell, thank goodness, but I did have to go to the store today to exchange it.

I was really productive today.  Much, much better than on Friday.  Must be because I won the football picks.   You know when things go well, they just keep going well, right?

Lunch time!

I really mean it now.  No more tuna for a looooong time.  This was so dry, even though I mixed it with light mayo.  The last of the hurricane Irene stash.  Even if we get some other weather prediction like another hurricane or blizzard or whatever, I am not buying more tuna.

I did, however, enjoy my afternoon latte!

This is topped with a drizzle of honey and some cinnamon.  A miel, in other words.  I don’t sweeten my lattes, but I do like a little drizzle of something on the foam.

Before getting dinner ready, I decided to make some gluten-free banana bread.  I am using Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour mixture.  My first foray into the multiple non-gluten flour blends.  While that was in the oven, I heated up dinner.

Chicken thigh, mango and sauteed brussel sprouts.  This was good!  The mango was just perfectly ripe.  I really should eat mango more often – it is such a tasty fruit.

After dinner I took a walk.  Come with me…

Someone has a tasty dinner planned  😯

Fall decorations abound now:

Sunflowers:

My shadow:

When you are 5 feet 2 inches tall, seeing your legs this long is really exciting!

My Broncos are on TV tonight for Monday Night Football.  However, it is the 2nd game which starts at 10:15 p.m.!  I will be asleep by the end of the first quarter, I think.

So how did that gluten-free banana bread come out?

Triple dipple thumbs up!  Gosh this was good.  You would never even guess it was gluten free, either.  I will post the recipe tomorrow.

 

Go Broncos!!

Banana Bread breakfast pudding (gluten free)

While I am resting up from our 88 mile ride and having a boring day, I figured I would entertain you with my banana bread breakfast pudding!

This is a take on the other gluten free pumpkin cake.

Ingredients:

  • 2 egg whites (or 1 egg)
  • 1 ripe banana, 6-7 inches
  • 14 grams of coconut flour (2 tbsp)
  • 1/4 tsp of baking powder
  • cinnamon

In a bowl, mash the banana until it is liquidy.  The riper the banana, the easier this is and the sweeter it is.

Then add the egg whites and cinnamon

And mix well to combine.

Normally I don’t sift coconut flour, but the brand pictured above is a little clumpy, so I like to sift it to keep lumps from happening.  I have a tiny little strainer that I just plop over the bowl and add the coconut flour and the baking powder to:

All sifted and pretty.

Now mix really well.

Pour into a small baking dish.

Now you could microwave this for a couple minutes, but it really is much, much better baked.  I popped it in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  You could also put it into 2 muffin cups and reduce the baking time (not sure by how much, but start checking at 12 minutes).

I comes out beautiful and puffed up:

Super moist and delicious!

You can top it however you like.  I, myself, love coconut butter and a drizzle of chocolate syrup:

Or even some peanut butter and jam!

This is easy to make ahead and reheat for mornings on the go.

Nutritional stats for the entire cake (no toppings):

Calories: 182

Fat: 1.5 g

Carbs: 33 g

Fiber: 9 g

Protein: 11 g

Linking this post to Fat Tuesday Forager Festival!  Check out other real food recipes.

Socca Bread

I have a bag of chickpea (besan) flour and was not quite sure what to do with it.  Ever wonder why you make those purchases sometimes? :mrgreen:

In trying to do some grain-free days, breads are the things that I was surprised that can be done grain free.  No, they aren’t pillowy and doughy like gluten breads, but surprisingly tasty creations can be made.

I found a recipe for something really simple (which I love) by Dave Liebovitz called socca

I did mine a little differently, but I liked the results, so that is all that counts.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup (120 grams) of chickpea flour
  • 1 cup of warm water
  • 1 tablespoon of oil (I used coconut oil)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • A bunch of fresh ground pepper
  • 1.5 more tablespoons of oil (to be used in cooking)

The only trick with this recipe is that it needs a little prep time to let the batter soak.  I think you could do this the night before or in the morning and let the batter sit.

In a bowl, whisk together the water, chickpea flour, oil, salt and pepper.

Cover and let this batter sit for at least 2 hours.  So setting this up in the morning would probably be good.

After sitting, the batter didn’t look all that different, so I am not really sure what the long soaking time is for.

It didn’t really thicken up that much. It is like pancake batter.

When ready to cook, take a cast iron skillet (10 inches) or probably a pie plate would work – and put it in the oven and add the remaining 1.5 tablespoons of oil.  Turn the oven on to 450 degrees and let the pan get hot.

Once the pan is hot, give the socca batter a stir and pour into the pan.  It will sizzle.

Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes until the socca is set.

Now turn on the broiler element to high and broil the socca for several minutes until it gets brown spots on it.

De pan and cut into wedges.

I cut this into 4 big wedges (you don’t have to be that greedy).

Nutritional stats:

Per wedge:  165 calories, 10 grams of fat, 13.5 grams of carbs, 2.5 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein.

The verdict? Yum!  It is sort of like a flat bread with a bit of soft texture to it.  I think traditional socca might be thinner and crisper, but this held up it’s shape to be topped with BBQ chicken and cheese for a  pizza wedge.

It did well the next day popped into the toaster oven to crisp up.  This was just a basic recipe and I have seen those that put onion and rosemary into the batter, which would be pretty tasty I think (especially if the onions are precaramelized).  I am thinking without salt but using honey, this could be the basis for a dessert.  Thinking like a fruit pie or something.

Lot’s o’ potential with this recipe!

Weekend wrapup and Happy birthday to Colleen!

Sunday is my sister’s birthday!  We did a sister lunch today 😀

We got a lot of things accomplished with the half/bath laundry.  We are getting the drywall up.  The pantry is closed up.

The opening is where the folding doors will go.  We now have to remove these racks to do the flooring.  They come apart, so no problem getting them out.  Now it is just finding somewhere to put this stuff while we are working in there.

Plumbing and electrical closed off.

Underlayment/backerboard down for tiling in the laundry area.   We can do our laundry at home now!

The big opening is for the pocket door.  Our kit was missing the bottom kick plate, so we can’t finish installing that and the drywall around that until the missing piece gets here.  That is why the huge opening.

We decided to go with ceramic tile.  I love laying tile (why yes, I am a dork, thank you).  These are the 3 choices for tile, and I am pretty sure we are going with the middle one.

Pixie has been good with us messing with her litter pan a lot. Thank goodness is all I can say.  I am so glad to have the ugly floor at least half covered up now.  We still have to lay the underlayment/backerboard in the pantry area.

It’s nice now because whatever we do now looks like progress instead of all the plumbing and electrical.   Seen enough?

How about lunch today?  John is out of town for a few days starting today. My sister came up so I could take her out for lunch (I have no car with John gone).  We stopped at Orange Cat.  I had a pear, caramelized onion and brie sandwich on ezekiel sesame bread.  I don’t think this is gluten free, but for some reason I thought it was.  I looked at ingredients at home and it has sprouted wheat.

After eating lunch, we walked over to the Chocolate Mill and picked up a couple desserts to take home.  Chocolate Mill had 4 different gluten free items. I had this gluten free raspberry chocolate torte.

Very good.  It’s nice to know that I can find wheat free products in our small town.

Happy Birthday to my sister!

Not sure where the weekend went.  I have a very busy couple of days coming up with watching the business and doing my own job!