Life's Lens: Tastes of being Gluten Free

I am not sure I have blogged yet about our recent change in our diet in the Meier household. And while it doesn't have any thing to do with photography, as a foodie, I can't help to share some yummy recipes every so often. Back in February, I decided to remove gluten from our household. The primary reason for my switch was to see if it's absence would help calm the moods down of my 3 year old son. I have heard that sometimes gluten can be the cause of some behavior meltdowns in kids. Now, I understand--he is 3 and with being 3 comes meltdowns, but I had an inkling to give it a a try and I can for sure say that since being off gluten I can tell a difference in him. His meltdowns don't last as long, happen as often or seem as intense as they used to be. I also have noticed how much better I feel as a result of cutting gluten out of our diets. (Brian and I began this journey with doing a 3 week Detox cleanse, which resulted in us losing 30lbs between the two of us. If you are interested in hearing more about this cleanse, let me know and I will be glad to blog about that too!)

So, back to the yummy recipe right!?!? Knowing that we went gluten free, friends and family have been passing along recipes, which has been a delight! In that spirit a few months back, my dad gave me a recipe that he picked up for gluten free cookies. I will admit, I looked at the recipe, made a face at the ingredients and let it sit on my counter for months! It was basically peanut butter and brown sugar..how could that possibly make an decent edible cookie?!!? I looked at the recipe countless times, even bought the crunchy peanut butter that was needed, but could still not bring myself to make these strange sounding cookies.

I finally gave in yesterday out of pure curiosity. It came from Penzey's spice company and surely they wouldn't hand out a bad recipe, right? That would not be good for business.

OH MY GOSH! I can't believe I had been missing out on these yummy, chewy, simply delightful and soooo easy to make cookies for months, because I was being stubborn!!!!!

I promise they taste as good as they look!!

You probably have all of these ingredients in your kitchen right now, except for maybe the crunchy peanut butter...so go get some and make these for dessert tonight!!! I promise you will not be disappointed!!!

1 Cup extra crunchy peanut butter
1 Cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
1 Cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, baking soda and vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon by the tablespoon onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets and bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes, longer if you like your cookies crispy.

Ok--and so as not to make this post too much longer, but I must also share the recipe for these Gluten Free pancakes/waffles. The original recipe is for pancakes, but made them as waffles as Jacob was influenced by an Eggo waffle commercial the other day and said, "Mommy I want waffles!" They make GREAT WAFFLES!!! So, here you go a perfect gluten free pancake/waffle recipe for you!! =) Thank you Gluten Free Goddess!

Dry ingredients:

1 3/4 cups brown rice flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour (i used sorghum flour)
1/4 cup almond flour (which i just found in bulk at whole foods)
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

Wet ingredients:

1 cup soy milk (or milk of choice) (i used almond milk)
1 cup water
2 organic free-range eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons organic coconut oil (i used canola oil)
1 tablespoon honey or raw agave nectar
1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract (i used regular vanilla)
1 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions:

Heat a griddle on medium-high heat. If your griddle requires greasing, do that now.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add in the wet ingredients. Beat well to incorporate. Your batter should be silky and smooth. Not too thick.

Test the griddle by shaking a drop of water on it. If it pops and sizzles, your griddle is hot enough.

Using a ladle, pour a scoop of pancake batter on to the heated griddle. Repeat for as many pancakes as you can fit at one go.

When tiny bubbles have formed in the batter, carefully flip the pancakes with a thin flexible spatula. Cook a minute or two until firm- but don't over cook. Overcooking pancakes makes them tough.

To keep warm- or eat immediately?

The truth is- gluten-free pancakes are best eaten straight off the griddle- while hot and tender. If you keep these warm in the oven they may toughen a bit.

If the batter thickens as it stands, add a little more liquid to thin it.