Halloween Vegan and Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

They appear more orange in color in person

My sweet husband put this recipe together for my daughter who suffers from some common and some not so common allergies. This recipe was adapted from THIS recipe which looks to be adapted from another recipe. I love how creative we all can be! My daughter loves them. Enjoy.

1/4 cup Tapioca Starch

1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour

1/4 cup Sorghum Flour

1/4 cup Potato Starch

1/4 cup Coconut Palm Sugar or Rapadura

1/4 tsp Xanthan gum (non GMO)

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Real Salt

1/4 cup Red Palm Oil (this gives it the orange color), or for regular cookies use Coconut Oil

1/3 cup Pure Grade B Maple Syrup

1 1/2 tsps Pure Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup Chocolate Chips (check out how to make your own HERE)

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheet(s) with natural parchment paper or silpat.

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add liquid ingredients individually by hand or with mixer. The dough may be thin. Fold in chocolate chips and let dough stand for 10 minutes to thicken.

Drop cookie dough mixture by tablespoon onto your prepared cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes. Let cookies rest on cookie sheet for another 2 minutes. Move cookies to cool on a cooling rack.

Store in airtight container. This should make 16-18 cookies depending on the size you choose.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

By Guest Blogger: Jena Demarco

Mini loaves for the adults and mini muffins without chocolate chips for the children.


1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
¾ cup Oatmeal Flour
¼ cup milled Flax
1 Tablespoon Wheat Germ
1 teaspoon Baking Soda (aluminum free)
½ teaspoon Real Salt
½ cup Egg Beaters*
2 cups Mashed Bananas
½ cup Honey
¼ cup Applesauce
1 Tablespoon fresh Lemon Juice
½ teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Chocolate Chips or Carob Chips(optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Combine wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake mini muffins at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes or until done. For large loaves bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes or until toothpick/knife test comes out clean.

*Note: I leave out the eggs and just add a little more banana and flax seed. I have yet to notice a difference in the banana bread.

Half Baked Pizza

This is a great recipe to bake up and freeze for later. Also, we love to use the same recipe to make a traditionally baked pizza. Enjoy!

2 cups Wheat Flour, unbleached (you could also use a combination of whole wheat or spelt with the wheat flour)
½-1 tsp Real Salt or Himalayan Salt (depending on how salty you'd like it)
2 tsp non-aluminum Baking Powder
2/3 cup Water
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and thoroughly mix together until fully incorporated. Pour the wet ingredients in and with a spoon or hands mix wet and dry together until it becomes a nice dough. Lightly flour a clean surface. Roll dough out in desired shape; make even thinner by hand tossing it if you'd like.

Place rolled out dough on pizza stone or jelly roll and bake for about 25-30 minutes until lightly browned on edges. Now it is ready for your favorite toppings!

For this pizza my girls and I had for lunch we topped it off with our Pesto Sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes, red peppers, and an overly ripe avocado I was needing to use up. You could also top it off with rice cheese or goat cheese. Yum!

Whole Wheat Tortillas

We love, love, love, LOVE these!

2 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup Ground Flax Seed
1/2 tsp Real Salt
1 tsp aluminum free Baking Powder
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1 cup hot water

Start by mixing all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the Olive Oil and mix well with your hands. The mixture will start to form into little pea shape balls. Then add the hot water slowly and start to knead until smooth. You may need less or more water so be careful and just add it slowly. You want your dough to be moist and soft but not sticky.

Next form your dough into golf ball sized balls. This recipe makes about 17 tortillas.

Before rolling out your tortilla, it makes it easier if you take a dough ball and flatten it a little in your hand to make a 3 inch circle.

Then flour up the surface you will be using and roll out your tortilla. You can make them as thick or as thin as you like. After you have one rolled out place it in a warm pan and brown on both sides. No oil in necessary in your pan because of the oil in the tortilla. These can also be frozen.

I make these all the time. They are surprisingly quick and easy to make. Try them out and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Breakfast Flax Muffins

This is a great mildly sweet muffin, perfect for your morning meal. We made these muffins with golden raisins, my favorite. Also if you notice, there is no oil used in this recipe. Ground flaxseed can be substituted for cooking oil and shortening with a ratio of 3 to 1 in baked goods (1-1/2 cups ground flaxseed can replace 1/2 cup butter, oil, or margarine) and will still end up surprisingly moist.

1-1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
¾ cup organic Flax Meal
¾ cup Oat Bran or Oat Meal
1 cup Honey
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Real Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1-1/2 cups Carrots, finely shredded
2 unpeeled, shredded Apples
½ cup Raisins (optional)
½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
¾ cup Rice Milk
2 beaten Eggs, Egg Substitute, or Egg Replacer
1 tsp Vanilla

Mix all of your dry ingredients together starting with the whole wheat flour and ending with the cinnamon. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a Vita Mix and blend thoroughly. Pour wet ingredients into the dry mixture and fold gently. DO NOT OVER MIX. Mix until ingredients are just moist. Fill muffin cups mostly full. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Makes about 12-15 muffins.

Blender Pancakes

 

Easy, Fast, Nutritious and little clean up!

1 cup red or white wheat kernels
1 1/4 cup water
1 egg or 1 Tbs ground flax seed
2 Tbs apple sauce
1 or 2 Tbs honey, maple syrup or agave
1/2 ts sea salt
1 Tbs baking powder

Blend the wheat kernels and water in your blender in till smooth. (I promise this won't hurt your blender) Then add the next 4 ingredients and blend till all the way mixed. Lastly add the baking powder and pulse your blender a couple time. The batter should foam up a little bit and become somewhat airy. Then pour right onto your hot pan.

You can also use this batter for waffles. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Berry Pancakes

My husband makes these every Saturday morning. The kids love them!

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbs aluminum-free baking powder
3 Tbs ground flax seed
3 Tbs sugar
3/4 tsp sea salt
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups milk or alternative (I used soy)
3 Tbs apple sauce
1 Tbs vanilla
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups berries, fresh or frozen (I used white raspberries this time)



Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and flax in a bowl. Add the egg yolks, milk, apple sauce and vanilla and mix well. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form. (as shown below) Fold the egg whites into batter.



Beat in your berries.



Now your ready to cook them up. Depending on if you use fresh or frozen berries you may need to add a little more milk to make it the consistency you like. We like to eat these with pure maple syrup. Enjoy!