Undercover Recipes: Gluten and Dairy Free Sugar Cookies

This is our second holiday season spent respecting dairy and gluten dietary restrictions, and we've just now created a sugar cookie that stands up to ones comprised of butter and wheat flour.

I personally wasn't up for the task no matter how deprived I felt of cookies last holiday season (I'm not a baker; I burn toast often and with astonishing consistency), but my computer-genuis-by-day, chef-extraordinare-by-night husband, John, took it on with gusto and vigor.

And that's way better anyway because truth be told he's way pickier about desserts than the rest of the family who simply expects it to be, well, edible, and he will make and remake until perfected nearly every.single.time. {It's about that time that I have to say with bullhorn force to myself: back away from the cookies!}

Anyway, enjoy and indulge a bit on this astonishingly chewy and delectable sugar cookie.

And good heavens -- please remember that it's a *sugar* cookie, which means that while it's free of wheat and dairy it is certainly not free of calories in the form of pure sugar! PSA over.

Ingredients:
1 cup of room temperature coconut oil
3/4 whole sugar
3/4 brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups of brown rice flour
3/4 cup of arrowroot powder
1.5 teaspoons of xanthan gum* (or 1.5 teaspoons of potato starch)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of hot water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Sundrop chocolate candies optional -- not dairy free!
{You could also replace the arrowroot and xanthan gum with 1/4 cup of Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour and add an extra egg as a recipe variation.}

Directions:
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Cream together coconut oil and sugars until smooth.
Beat in the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla extract.
In a separate dish, dissolve the baking soda into the hot water; add it to the existing creamed mixture along with the salt.
In a separate bowl, mix the brown rice flour, arrowroot powder and xanthan gum {or Bob's Red Mill flour} gently with a fork; add the flour mixture to the creamed batter.
Using a spoon, place small balls of dough {about a teaspoon full} on a greased cookie sheet leaving about two inches between each cookie.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, keeping a close eye on the cookies. Leave them in closer to 12 minutes if you like crunchier cookies.
After baking, remove cookies from the baking sheet, allowing them to cool atop of wax paper or a cookie rack.
Decorate or scarf after cooling -- your choice.

*One of my awesome readers asked me what I mean by real food ingredients, and she challenged me to look deeper into xanthan gum, which is a thickener made from fermenting bacteria. I'm not totally sure how much I like it after doing more digging, so I've included recipe variations! Always a challenge this baking and healthy living stuff!

Living Healthfully: Undercover Candy Bars

Especially during summer -- when it seems like we attend parties or festivities multiple times each week -- I'm always on the hunt for quick and easy treats that are not loaded with sugar, preservatives, dyes and other things that go bump in the night and appear in my nightmares.

A friend shared this recipe with me and promised these peanut buttery bars would taste like a candy bar's long lost sister but without all the added gunk. 

I've heard that before, and my husband is notorious for all but dragging out the family tree records to prove, indeed, that the "cupcakes" I made were not even closely enough related to even have cupcake in the name; we settled the argument by calling them cuppins {cupcake muffins that were not good enough to make the blog recipe roll}. 

But this recipe? It's good. {I haven't tasted it yet since I'm still taking baby steps with sugar, but the boys have devoured these bars!}

It's so good, in fact, my hubby even calls them candy-like bars. {See? The word candy is in the name, so they are thisclose to being in the candy bar family.}

Undercover Candy Bars with Vanilla Mango No Cream Ice Cream

Ingredients: 

2 cups of peanut butter {we sometimes use The Peanut Butter Company’s White Chocolate Wonderful}

1 cup of honey

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of Maca root powder 

3 cups of rolled oats

Directions:

Microwave or melt on the stovetop the honey and peanut butter.

Mix in the cocoa powder and Maca root powder.

Stir in the rolled oats and mix really well.

Place in a 9 by 13 inch pan and refrigerate to set. 

Enjoy!

Living Healthfully: Curried Quinoa and Sauteed Vegetable Salad

This versatile dish has been a staple in our house since half of us have bid gluten a not-so farewell.

We love eating this curried quinoa and sauteed veggie dish for a variety of reasons: it's tasty, it's healthy and it's versatile, perfect for eating alone or atop a bed of greens.

We also love taking this dish, adapted from a Body Ecology Diet recipe, to parties and picnics because even gluten lovers think it's fabulous, so perhaps give it a spin this weekend as we celebrate Memorial Day. 

Ingredients:

1 cup of soaked {eight hours} quinoa

1.5 tablespoons of curry powder

1 teaspoon of Herbamare or sea salt

2 tablespoons of extra virgin coconut oil {you *could* use butter, but it's SO much better with coconut oil!}

2 medium sweet onions

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1/2 green pepper

1/2 red pepper

1 cup of peas

Directions:

First begin boiling 2 cups of water for the quiona. Add the quinoa to the boiling water with a bit of oil and simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Fluff the quinoa with a fork and allow the quinoa to sit and continue to fluff while continuing with the recipe.

Chop all veggies into small chunks and put each aside in separate bowls.

In a large skillet pan, melt the coconut oil and add the curry powder and Herbamare or sea salt. After about 30 seconds of letting the spices simmer in the oil, add the onions to the mixture. Simmer until translucent. Place in a separate bowl after cooking.

Add a bit of coconut oil to the same pan, sauteing the squash and zucchini. Mix the cooked squash and zucchini with the curry and onion mixture. 

Boil the peas until tender. 

By this point, the quinoa should be fluffy looking. Remember that sauteeing pan? Add the cooked quinoa to the sauteing pan with a bit of coconut oil and roast it for about 5 minutes. This brings out a nutty flavor. 

In a very large bowl, mix the quinoa with the curry and veggie mix. Add the peas and the chopped raw peppers and enjoy!

{For more awesome gluten-free recipes, like the artichoke asparagus salad pictured with the curried quinoa above, I highly recommend the Body Ecology Diet book! Please know that links to the Body Ecology site are affiliates and if you make a purchase through them {thank you!}, I receive a bit of commission.}

Living Healthfully: Eating a Gluten-and-Dairy-Free Diet

I feel like a new person on the inside.

About a month ago, I severed my love affair with dairy, suspecting that it was adding to some GI issues I first started experiencing this summer after somehow contracting a parasite. (Don't ask; I don't honestly know how I got it, but I've been reassured that most of us live with many little buggers without really knowing it. My little buggers, well, they have been evicted.)

So anyway, out went the dairy and entered in its place almond milk, coconut and olive oils and some crazy, stretchy tapioca cheese-like substance that I'm not crazy about but like well enough when I want to make pizza. {Oh, pizza, why do you have to be so good and so evil?!}

While going dairy-free helped quite a bit, I still was experiencing GI issues, so a few weeks ago, at the suspicion of perhaps having developed a leaky gut during all the GI issues, I went to the next food culprit : gluten.

For my body, it was a pretty quick read: gluten is not my friend. Almost two weeks into my gluten and dairy free diet, I feel normal again. No more bloated, irritated GI tract and away with crabby wife and mommy as well.

Honestly, I feel so much better that I'm inclined to not even want to reintroduce dairy after the allotted time of gut healing has passed. Because who wants to go back to gross after feeling so good?

Been mulling a diet change of going cold turkey {mmm, you can still eat turkey!} with gluten and dairy?

Here are a few things that helped me through the first week:

* Find a friend or two who is willing to walk you through the emotional, chemical and physical changes that occur in your body and in your pantry. The support is key in knowing you can do this!

* Take a trip to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods Market and ask a crew member to brief you on dairy and gluten free options. Most staff members I've come across, especially at Whole Foods Market, have gone above and beyond to help guide me.

* Or browse Amazon for really wonderful gluten-free and dairy free foods like: Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal, apple pie Lara Bars, Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Oats, quinoa and a few other Bob's Red Mill staples that will provide whole grains in your diet without reeking havvoc on the gut.

* Find your happy place with fresh, whole foods like chicken, fish, fruits and veggies. This one is important. Whole, real foods are always better than anything processed, in my opinion!

We often snack on apples and cashews, enjoy slow-cooker chicken with Italian seasoning alongside green beans tossed with almonds and dried berries and sweet potatoes mashed with coconut oil for dinner; we feast on baked apple pie oatmeal for breakfast.

* Take a peak at some of the great foodie blogs for gluten and dairy free eating:

The Gluten-Free GoddessGluten-Free Girl and the Chef {must exchange dairy for almond milk, soy milk or rice milk}

* Find good substitutes for dairy. My favorites so far:

-almond milk in place of dairy milk {goat milk is great for the kids}
-hummus in place of cheese
-coconut oil in place of butter {you will never believe how good it is until you try it. Just do it!}
-olive oil in place of non-stick butters
-Daiya Tapioca is a good cheese-esque replacement for pizza
- coconut or almond milk ice cream in place of regular dairy ice cream

*If it's a packaged food, always double check for gluten by calling and asking if gluten is in the ingredients. Anything with wheat, bran, semolina, bulgar, spelt, tabbouli, orzo, couscous, farina, kamut and barley contains gluten. Defatted wheat germ also contains gluten, for any Standard Process supplement users.

As always, I'm happy to help, too. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

{I was not compensated or asked to talk about any of the products I mentioned. I just like them a lot!}