Pumpkin Quinoa Cookies - For Breakfast?

Pumpkin cookies with quinoa flakes. Like oatmeal- but better.

Karina's Pumpkin Quinoa Cookies - For breakfast?

Dear Reader (yes, Babycakes, I'm talking to you)- you know how I feel about you, right? I'm crazy about you. I read your kind and thoughtful comments on Facebook. I am humbled by your generous,  warm and giving e-mails (I save them). 

Your feedback and support keeps me going and inspires me.

I started this whole crazy blogging adventure back in a village on Cape Cod famous for quaint. One of those slow paced leafy communities with whitewashed churches and a town grist mill. Salt weathered shingles and white picket fences and roses in June. You know, historic. Beachy. The magical stuff of regional painters and windswept poets prone to melancholy.

Then an empty nest ignited the urge for going and my husband and I moved west to the rural high desert of New Mexico where the cobalt beauty of an oceanic sky met the hot iron of isolation and a certain individual's proclivity toward brittle bones. My broken hip changed my body forever.

Four years later (relocated to Los Angeles) I am profoundly grateful to live by the ocean again. I am wrestling with new ideas and facing certain limitations (still waiting for Margaret Mead's promise of zest). Days are often a stew of conflicting realities, losses and gains stirred so close together they emulsify.

There are days I feel thirty and days I feel eighty. Sometimes in the same single moment. 

Forgive my habitual drift into philosophical territory here, but here's the thing. A growing, deepening awareness of how little we actually control has sparked my need to surrender. And shake loose some assumptions. Including the perception of Other (risking a messy and complicated expansion of the heart, the awareness of Yeah, I am that too). Which startles you with a sharp clean view of what is valuable and true. 

What is bare bones rock bottom important.

Important not in some airy-fairy New Agey or even dyed-in-the-wool religious way. I chafe inside any system and its man-made rules (key word: man-made). I'm old enough now to look back upon decades with an estrogen-free seasoned eye. I see the need behind belief. I see the old paradigm. I see why people judge and separate, critique and belittle. I see the reason why unruly concepts are snipped down to size and labeled and tucked safely into rehearsed little packages of fear whisked with a pinch of faith. The Ego rules. And the Ego loves conflict.

I also see the powerful few doling out platitudes to the millions who struggle with so much less. And we are not blameless, either, we who are so willing to consume what masquerades as inclusion when it is anything but.

So here's the thing.

Before I share my recipe today, before I conjure words about cookies and yummy flavors and how much vanilla to beat into the dough, allow me some food for thought, if you will.

We are all given moments of grace.

Far too many of these moments are missed, floating by the fuzzy edges of momentum, a stream of invisible assumptions. And needs. Life guarantees change, but really, what else? Opportunity (what are you going to do with what you've got?). Choice. Self explanatory, right? We cut a swath of choices every single day. Trivial choices (would you like whipped cream on that?). And loaded choices (some requiring nothing less than moral courage to execute). Each and every choice spins us off in a direction, a trajectory with consequences.

And what I am coming to realize, even cherish, now more than ever, is this. The choices boil down to a choice between love (connection) or fear (separation). So what will you choose today?

Think about it.

As for me?

I vote for love.

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Dark Chocolate Brownies- The Best Gluten-Free Recipe

Why bake a gluten-free brownie from scratch and not a mix?

Chocolate Brownie Love.

While baking mixes are perfectly acceptable in a pinch, and no doubt a boon to busy cooks on a gluten-free diet (well, honestly, who isn't busy these days, I ask you?), your taste buds will tell you why. In a heart beat, Darling.

A dark chocolate brownie made from scratch is deeply delicious and decadent. Impressive, even. Company worthy. Dare I say, date night worthy. I'm not kidding. This brownie recipe is swoon inducing.

You know what they say about chocolate.

But here's the best part. Throwing this recipe together takes only a few minutes longer than opening up a box. You can whip up these luscious gooey babies in a mere ten minutes. In less time than it takes you to scan your Pinterest feed. Or catch up on Facebook. Seriously.

So what is more rewarding? Watching kittens on YouTube or stirring together this rich, tender, dark chocolate brownie recipe, one of the most loved recipes here on Gluten-Free Goddess? 


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Gluten-Free Rice Crispy Treats

Gluten-free brown rice crispy treats, GFG style.

Crispy Rice Goodness

Sunday seems to stir up all kinds of sneaky devils and hungry ghosts in the guise of food nostalgia. I dreamed up my last post about Zucchini Gratin on a Sunday, stirring up a bread crumbed casserole of desire fraught with secret emotions and sticky attachments. Food as familial. Food evoking a warm embrace. Food as a way to connect our twenty-one grams of soul to this earth. The ground of being.

I think I know why I'm tip toeing in the garden of nostalgia lately.

My tribe is expanding.

The family my husband and I created when we held hands and promised I do through a veil of mutual tears is now plus one. I have a new daughter-in-law I regard with deep affection. She brings a fresh focus to our four-squared history. And I see us in a slightly altered light, looking at our shared quirks and wrinkles and dreams with renewed optimism. Our clan now feels stronger. Our humble, wacky tribe feels enriched.

And more than a tad sweeter.


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Almondy Almond Butter Cookies

Gluten-free almond butter cookies await.

Almondy Cookies

Rumor has it baking weather is just around the corner. Though you'd never know it by looking out the window here in Southern California. Texting skateboarders whip by in short shorts, bikini clad surfer girls are paddling out on their long boards, and jewel-studded flip-flops remain the shoe du jour. It feels more like July than September. It's hot.

And it feels good.

It was a coolish summer for those of us on the South Bay coast. June Gloom stuck around long past its expiration date. Until this week, in fact, I was walking my morning ritual loop in my thickest hooded sweatshirt, fingers tucked up inside the sleeves for warmth (what visitors to Los Angeles assume is smog is actually fog that hugs the coast, blanketing our beaches- and west side- with a fuzzy soft marine layer). It's lovely for baking. But chilly for fingers and toes.

So I bake. In UGGs.

And my latest experiment is cookies.

Just because.


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Gluten-Free Bread Machine Tips

Warm, gluten-free bread with sorghum flour, just baked.

Need to troubleshoot a gluten-free bread machine disaster? Here's a few key tips on baking gluten-free bread in a bread machine.

Match your g-free bread recipe or gluten-free bread mix to your bread machine (pan sizes vary). Are you baking a 1.5 pound loaf? Or a 2-pound loaf? Check manufacturer's instructions for loaf sizing. Often, "short" loaves are the result of not enough dough for the size of the pan.

Use a good recipe. Or a tasty gluten-free bread mix with superior ingredients (sorghum flour, brown rice flour, almond flour, millet, to name a few). Not all recipes and mixes are created equal. A bread based on white rice flour and potato starch is never going to be amazing. Honestly. Remember that starches are dirt cheap for manufacturers (hence their popularity). But they're also devoid of nutrition, texture and flavor. So choose wisely. Because the cheap stuff still sports a hefty price tag (the gluten-free market is booming, after all). So why not go for the higher protein, more flavorful gluten-free flours?

More tips:

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Spiralized Raw Zucchini Pasta in Curry Cream Sauce

Raw zucchini pasta- angel hair style, with a Joyce Chen spiralizer..

Spiralizer Yum

I'm not usually one to focus a recipe around a cooking gadget. Though heaven knows, I love me my kitchen power tools as much as any scratch cook out there. A gluten-free goddess has gotta have some fun, after all. And sometimes, to change things up, you need to break out of your routine and try something completely new. 

Which, not surprisingly, brings me to pasta.

I love pasta. Especially gluten-free pasta. But I don't love cranking up the gas stove to boil bulky pots of salted water when the kitchen is already steamy with late summer heat and I'm faint and famished (and did I mention, hot flashing like some cussing heaving alligator from the swamps of wherever it is they film True Blood. I may idly dream of gleaming white porcelain bowls heaped with creamy mounds of angel hair spaghetti kissed by a delicate white sauce, but I'm not inclined to heat up my kitchen just to satisfy this culinary craving.

I get prickly and sticky just thinking about it.

So I started investigating raw pasta. Which led me to discover a modest little kitchen tool that makes magic happen. A spiral slicer that turns August's ubiquitous zukes into tender strands of pasta. And not like, puny three inch strands. 

I'm talking long, lovely, curvy strands of angel hair spaghetti.

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Gluten-Free Breakfast Bars

Gluten-free breakfast bars with quinoa flakes.

A Tasty Gluten-Free Breakfast Bar

Tired of gnawing on gluten-free toast or slurping down a bowl of gluten-free cereal for breakfast? Me too. I'm in a rut. An almond butter on toast rut. And though I hate to complain (the simple truth is, I adore almond butter with the white hot passion of a thousand suns, so chowing down on it daily does not qualify as drudgery or sacrifice), I used to start my day a little sexier. I used to indulge in these rich and dense Quinoa Breakfast Bars or this orange infused Quinoa Breakfast Cake. Both are beyond delish.

But alas they contain sugar.

And me? I'm still on the sugar-free train. Life just tastes sweeter without added sugar (my taste buds have come alive going sugar-free). After two solid months of strictly all-sugars-free, my one make that two indulgences are an occasional nibble of dark chocolate. The darker the better. And a drizzle of pure maple syrup once in a blue moon, when the mood strikes me.

So I started thinking about a gluten-free breakfast treat using pure maple syrup as the sweetener. And I dreamed up these little beauties studded with dried cherries and yes, a few dark chocolate chips (which you are free to leave out if you prefer). The result is a light and delicately flavored cereal style breakfast bar with the triple proteins of quinoa, hazelnuts, and brown rice. No starches. No xanthan gum. No sugar. No dairy. But Darling, big on taste and texture- due to the pleasant chewiness of hazelnut meal and quinoa flakes.

I hope you like them.

I add dark chocolate chips to mine. Just sayin'.

Gluten-Free Breakfast Bars Recipe with Quinoa Flakes, Hazelnuts and Cherries

Recipe posted August 2011.

These delicately flavored breakfast bars have zero xanthan gum. Baking without xanthan gum makes the bars a bit more fragile- but for those of you shunning gums, the happy tummy pay off is worth it, right? Freezing the bars helps bind the texture. Served cold they are really quite tasty.

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup hazelnut flour, packed
1 cup Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3 organic free-range eggs or egg replacer
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup organic coconut oil
1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2-3 tablespoons almond milk, as needed
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions:


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x9-inch baking pan with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients- brown rice flour, hazelnut flour, quinoa flakes, baking powder, cinnamon, sea salt, and ginger.

Add in the eggs, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and almond extracts, and beat to combine. The batter should be thickish, clumpy and sticky. Add in the almond milk one tablespoon at a time, until the batter becomes smooth.

Add in the dried cherries and dark chocolate chips. Stir to combine.

Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the surface evenly. Place the pan into the center of a pre-heated oven and bake until golden and set - about 20 to 23 minutes until the top and the center are firm. Insert a thin knife to check if you are unsure to make certain the center has baked thoroughly.

Cool on a wire rack. Using a thin sharp knife, cut into squares; wrap them in foil; bag in a freezer storage bag. Freeze. Delicious warm from the oven, or slightly chilled. Great to keep on hand for on-the-go breakfast treats and snacks.

Cook time: 20 minutes

Yield: 15 bars

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

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Notes:

These maple sweetened cereal bars are gently sweet, and they are lovely with coffee or tea.

Instead of almond milk, any non-dairy milk will work. Use a vanilla flavored milk for a touch of extra flavor.

If you prefer using almond flour to hazelnut flour, go ahead Darling. It will work.

If you prefer, leave out the dark chocolate chips and add chopped walnuts instead.

Instead of dried cherries, dried blueberries or chopped dried apricots would be fab.

For egg free, an egg replacer such as Ener-G egg replacer works like a charm.

If xanthan gum is not an issue for you, feel free to add 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (or guar gum, as you prefer).

For nut-free, you'll need to experiment with your own whole grain high protein gluten-free flour mix.