Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

For me, one of the best things about having a toddler is that he now has the ability to keep himself occupied for longer periods of time which allows me to play in the kitchen more often. Granted, a lot of times him keeping himself busy includes emptying kitchen cupboards or devising a plan to get up on to the counters, but that is a story for a different day. During one of our more recent "kitchen play days" I decided to satiate my peanut butter and chocolate craving with some cookies!

If ever there was a "healthy cookie" these would be it. On my quest to make cookies, I discovered we had very little flour, sugar, and butter. All of which are pretty standard to a typical cookie. Since we live a good distance from our grocery store now, I made do with what I had. Enter in a plan for some flour free, egg free, peanut butter cookies.

So I talked about what these cookies don't have, but lets talk about what they do have. For these, I turned to old fashioned peanut butter and oats! I have a mixture of rolled oats, and oats ground into a flour. I chose this mixture to achieve more of a cookie texture as opposed to a no bake bar.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
ingredients

• 1 cup chunky natural peanut butter
• 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 
• 2 large eggs 
• 3/4 cup rolled oats (gluten-free if desired) 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Place 1/2 cup of oats in food processor and pulse until just barely ground. 
2. In small bowl mix together the ground oats, remaining rolled oats and baking soda; set aside.
3. In a larger bowl mix peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. 
4. Mix in dry ingredients and then gently fold in chocolate chips. 
5. Roll dough into 2 inch balls. Place onto cookie sheet 2 inches apart. The cookies may not be as round in shape or flatten to a typical cookie shape while baking but that's okay. 
6. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes and remove when edges barely begin to turn a golden brown. Gently, flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork. They may look slightly underdone but will continue cooking as they cool. 
7. Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookie dough.

Avocado Cauliflower Rice

One of the meals we really like is at home Chipotle style burritos. It is quick, fairly simple meal but I started to notice that the flour tortilla paired with a sizable helping of rice started leaving me a little bloated. Back in October 2014, I made the switch to an Anti-Inflammatory Diet (you can read more here), in which I try to avoid eating foods that cause an inflammatory response in my body and bloating is a sign of inflammation.

Since moving away to our rural mountain town, staying on track has been a little harder. When one of our favorite meals starts triggering the things we are trying to avoid, I immediately went on the hunt for an alternative to keep this quick meal option in the regular rotation. This is when I started entertaining the idea of cauliflower rice!

Today I wanted to share the recipe for the rice we use in our Chipotle style burritos. I love using cauliflower rice with avocado and lime, especially on nights we choose to go vegetarian with our burritos. Not only does it add more veggies as a whole, it adds avocado which is a huge plus for this former California girl. The avocado in turn add texture and another layer of flavor! It takes our burritos to a whole new level!

Not only is the avocado lime rice great mixed in, it is also delicious by itself and Tiny Krueger thoroughly approved. The first time I made this recipe, Berkeley was on a work trip and I had a serving leftover. The next day I piled the rice onto some corn tortilla chips and it was amazing! Just as a side note, depending on the color of your avocado, the color of the rice can vary from really green like the rice in my burrito above to more yellowish like the photo below.

Avocado Lime Cauliflower Rice
ingredients

• 2 - 3 cups cauliflower rice 
• 1 medium onion, diced 
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 medium ripe avocados 
• 2 Tbsp lime juice 
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin (or more) 
• 1 small clove garlic, minced 
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil slightly smokes, add the onions, and stir to coat. Continue to cook onion until they are golden brown at the edges and have softened, about 8 minutes. 
2. Add the cauliflower and stir. Add salt and pepper, and continue to cook until the cauliflower has softened about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Mash avocados in a large mixing bowl (I leave mine a little chunkier). Stir in lime juice, cumin and garlic, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in warm cooked rice and serve.

Orange Apricot Quinoa

Continuing with sharing our gluten free Thanksgiving, today is my recipe for a quinoa dish that was the equivalent for stuffing or dressing in this case.

Instead of fiddling with gluten free boxed mixes or using gluten free breads, we just stuck with a grain option that I knew was going to be free of that pesky little protein. The recipe is a little more adventurous with the addition of nuts and atypical dried fruits, but it was delicious! I am hoping to use this recipe as a base for several other quinoa sides to come.

Orange Apricot Quinoa
ingredients

• 1 cup whole-wheat quinoa 
• 1/2 cup water 
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 
• 5 teaspoons apple cider vinegar 
• sea salt 
• 10 dried apricots, thinly sliced
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger 
• 1/4 medium-sized red onion, finely sliced or diced
• 1 medium carrot
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds

directions

1. Pour quinoa into a medium-sized bowl, rinse, and set aside. In a small pot, combine water, orange juice, olive oil, 4 teaspoons vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the dried apricots and ginger. Let simmer for about 1 minute. 
2. After a quick stir, pour the quinoa into the orange juice mixture. Stir just to eliminate any pockets of dry quinoa.
3. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the carrot into ribbons over the couscous, then cover and cook for 25 minutes or until quinoa is thoroughly cooked. 
4. Rinse the sliced onion under running water and then toss it with 1 teaspoon vinegar in a small bowl to mellow the flavor.
5. Lightly toast almonds in a small pan over medium heat being sure to toss regularly to prevent burning. When the quinoa is cooked, fluff it with a fork, then mix in the onion and almonds. Serve warm or chilled.

CrockPot Cranberry Sauce

This week I am sharing some new holiday recipes that were brought to life Thanksgiving 2013. For me, cranberries are essential to my holiday meals. By cranberries, I do not mean the over sugared junk that comes in a can. I am talking cranberries from scratch!

This recipe is for a slow cooker. I find that it is the best way to get homemade cranberry sauce in throughout the hustle and bustle of the kitchen. I love that I can set it and basically forget it until about 20 minutes before the meat is ready.

Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce
ingredients 

• 12oz bag whole cranberries 
• 1/2 cup white sugar 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 apple chopped 
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar 
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick 
• 6 whole cloves 
• 1 large slice lemon (optional)

directions

1. Place cranberries, apples, sugars, and ginger into the slow cooker. Cover with juice and cider vinegar. 
2. Place cloves into the rind of the lemon (or into the flesh of an apple chunk). Place into the slow cooker with cinnamon stick. Gently stir, cover and cook on low for 8 hours. 
3. Halfway through remove lid, remove the cloves and cinnamon. Stir mixture and mash the apple and cranberries.Add the cinnamon and cloves back into the mixture. 
4. After 8 hours, remove the cinnamon and cloves again (they can be trashed now). Break up any remaining whole pieces of apple and cranberry. Place in a bowl and chill until ready to serve. 

Spicy Roasted Sweet Potato and Yam Medley

This year we embarked on a Gluten Free Thanksgiving. That meant no stuffing, no green bean casserole, and no sweet potatoes. Well at least not in the traditional sense. Instead of completely obliterating Thanksgiving, I strived to embrace traditional Thanksgiving flavors but with a twist on their preparation.

Instead of a sweet potato or candied yam casserole like we are accustomed to, I went for spicy roasted sweet potatoes and yams. This was by far the easiest holiday recipe ever! Simply chop, season, and then roast.

Spicy Roasted Sweet Potatoes
ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 medium yam
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• 2 tsp chile powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin 
• 1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt 
• 12 tsp white sugar
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400*F. Line a large baking sheet with foil. 
2. Wash and chop potatoes and yam into cubes. Add to a large mixing bowl and toss with butter and oil. 
3. Combine spices and sprinkle potatoes and yams. Then toss to thoroughly coat. Spread mixture out on prepared baking sheet. 
4. Bake about 25-35 minutes, until tender or to your liking. 

Gourmet Girls Gluten Free Bakery and Bistro

This post, the 500th on this blog, comes to you fueled by Gourmet Girls in Tucson. No it is not a sponsored post, it was just written after consuming their truly delicious Biscuits and Gravy!

During one of our many recent trips down to the Southern end of the state we stopped in with Berke's dad at this completely gluten free bakery and bistro for brunch. I, obviously, ordered the BnG, Berke had a Breakfast Quesadilla and his dad ordered the Philly Cheesesteak. All were items that would normally be filled to the hilt with that pesky little protein.

 Not only did the Gourmet Girls deliver a menu filled with gluten free versions of favorites, they hit them out of the park. My biscuits were fluffy, soft without crumbling and smothered in a rich and creamy sausage gravy. The house made tortilla was the structure for Berke's quesadilla that was packed full. It tasted, felt and held up just like a normal giant flour tortilla would, if not better.

Gourmet Girls serves breakfast and lunch Tuesdays through Sundays. As a result, you can order anything you want. Kurt took advantage of this and ordered the Philly Cheesesteak special. Another winner! In fact, it was better than any other cheesesteak I have had previously.

As we were getting ready to pay, we took a peek at the bakery case. A 6-inch peanut butter chocolate cake was begging to be brought home. Why yes, we did split that cake into 3 wedges and ate it in one night. Although the photo doesn't do it justice (didn't want to go get my camera and just used my phone) it was a two layer wedge of deliciousness!

Now that I gotten myself drooling, and hopefully you too, I urge you to head over to Gourmet Girls Bakery and Bistro located at 5845 N Oracle Rd. the next time you are in Tucson. It doesn't matter if you are gluten free or not, because the food they are serving up is that good!