Grain Free Granola

Grain Free Granola

2 cups sliced almonds

1 cup each sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (raw and unsalted)

3/4 cup each unsweetened coconut and raisins

1/2 cup each sesame seeds and ground flax meal

1/4 cup each honey and butter or coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine nuts, seeds, flax meal, coconut and raisins. In a small saucepan, combine butter and honey and heat until melted. Add vanilla and almond extract to the butter and honey, and pour over the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Spread granola onto a large baking sheet and cook for 30 minutes. Let the granola cool, then break into small clusters. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Dairy Free Stuffed Shells

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 16 ounces extra firm tofu
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 10 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted
• 1 box jumbo shells
• 1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce

Instructions

1. Drain the tofu and pat dry with paper towels. Crumble into the bowl of a food processor or high-speed blender along with olive oil, salt, oregano, garlic and nutritional yeast. Process on high until smooth and “ricotta-like”.
2. Add the defrosted spinach to the blended tofu mixture.
3. Cook shells in boiling salted water until el dente. Drain
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour about ½ cup pasta sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Stuff shells with 2 T of filling and place in pan, seam side down. Repeat until all shells have been stuffed.
5. Pour remaining pasta sauce over shells, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Serve!

From: PBS Food

Gluten Free Porridge

2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 tablespoon chia seeds
¼ cup walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup boiling water
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt (I like things super salty, so you may want to reduce this)

1.Combine all ingredients in the dry container of a Vitamix2.Blend until finely ground (you can try a coffee grinder, I have not, so not sure if it works)

3.Transfer mixture to a bowl

4.Pour hot water over mixture, stir, then let sit for 5 minutes to thicken

5.Garnish with raisins, sunflower seeds or treats of your choice

6.Serve

From: Elana's Pantry

Easy Gluten Free Black and White Cake

1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao (if you want to use a bar, it's about 6 ounces)
½ cup coconut milk (canned)
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Melt dark chocolate chips and coconut milk in a small saucepan over very low heat
2. When chocolate is completely melted, remove saucepan from heat
3. Stir eggs into saucepan containing chocolate/coconut milk mixture
4. Next, stir in almond flour, salt and baking soda
5. Fold in ½ cup of the white chocolate chips
6. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish with oil of your choice
7. Pour batter into baking dish, then sprinkle remaining white chocolate chips over batter
8. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes
9. Cool and serve

From: www.elanaspantry.com

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls {Pao de Queijo} - Gluten Free!

1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup tapioca flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch)
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 C grated cheddar cheese* (preferably medium or sharp)
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
*you can play around with the cheese.  I've used Monterey Jack, low-moisture mozarella, swiss, and even gruyere in place of the cheddar.  All great!


Optional:  extra cheese to sprinkle on top and any herbs/flavorings you'd like to add.  Try rosemary and or garlic powder, my favorites!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place egg, milk, oil, tapioca flour, and salt in blender and blend until smooth.  Add cheeses and pulse 2 times.  Immediately pour batter into a mini muffin tin (if your muffin tin isn't non-stick, spray lightly with non-stick spray first), filling each well about 3/4 full, or just slightly less.  If desired (and I recommend), sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese on top and/or a tiny sprinkle of kosher salt.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden.  Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before removing rolls from pan.  Serve warm. {Que Gostoso!}

Yield: anywhere from 16-24 rolls, depending on how full you fill your muffin pan. I fill  mine pretty full (a good 3/4 full) and I generally get about 16-18.


From: Our Best Bites

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

These are my current obsession. I ADORE them. I tagged the recipe as a main dish because that's how I've been eating them lately!

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t coriander
1 t kosher salt
1 t parsley
fresh ground pepper (about 10 turns of a pepper mill

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet lightly with cooking spray. Don't use a silpat, or parchment, or anything like that. You want them right on the cookie sheet. Slice your sweet potatoes into french fry shape and size. I like mine to be 1/4", or maybe a tad bit bigger.

It's important that all of the pieces are evenly sized to ensure even cooking. So toss any irregular pieces aside (or eat them in another dish). When you're ready you'll have something that looks like a pile of carrots.

Put the sweet potatoes in a bowl and drizzle the olive oil over them. Use your hands to make sure each one is coated. If you've got more than a pound of sweet potatoes, add a little extra olive oil. They should all be glistening, just eyeball it. Then sprinkle on all of the herbs and spices and continue to toss until well coated. Place the fries on the baking sheet. It's very important that they are not touching, but can place them pretty close together.

Place cookie sheet in pre-heated oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. Don't open the oven door, not even for a peak! Let them do their thing. After 15 minutes take pan of oven and flip the fries. If you try to do it one at a time it will take forever, I take a long spatula and get a bunch at at time. It's super quick. Just flip, and then make sure they're spaced out again. Be careful because at this point they're quite soft.

Put the pan in the oven and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Just keep an eye on them. They should be nice and golden brown.

From: ourbestbites.com

Gluten and Dairy Free Mini Muffins- (a work in progress)

1 cup coconut flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
¼ cup agave nectar
¼ cup grapeseed oil

In a large bowl, combine coconut flour, salt and baking soda. In a smaller bowl, blend together eggs, agave and oil. Blend wet ingredients into dry. Scoop batter 1 tablespoon at a time into greased mini muffin tins. Bake at 350° for 7-8 minutes. Cool then remove from muffin tins and serve.

Adaptations:
- Replace agave nectar with brown rice syrup. You should add more syrup than the amount of sweetener called for- twice the amount of syrup when replacing agave.

-Replace eggs with flax. 2 T ground flax plus 6 T water equals 2 eggs. Let the mixture sit before adding to recipe. I tried making with eggs this time and it was the first time I've tried them in a while. I got sick. Don't know if it was the eggs or if it was something else, but hopefully I'll find out when my tests come back. This will probably work just as well with the flax.

- Add 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary and 1 tablespoon lemon zest- packed and heaping. This is what the recipe originally calls for, but I thought it was way too much rosemary. I'm wondering if it was a typo. If I try it again, I'll update the amount I actually use.

-Add pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices. I added pumpkin to the unchanged recipe and then added spices and vanilla and the oil should have been reduced or eliminated. They were still good though. I will certainly be trying to improve this one. I miss eating pumpkin laced treats.

Still a lot to work on before perfecting this one. I served them at a girls night the other night and made a double batch. I forgot to not double the baking soda. They were disgusting. I threw them away. But the pumpkin ones I made this morning worked pretty well. Poor girls night friends. I wonder if they will ever eat my food again.

Adapted from: elenaspantry.com

Banana Sweetened Granola

1 ripe or frozen banana
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoon brown rice syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup almonds, chopped
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tablespoons flax seeds
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375° F.Using a blender, blend together banana, water, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, and sea salt until very smooth.Toss banana puree together with rolled oats and nuts. Lay everything out in a single layer on a tinfoil lined baking pan (it may stick a little). Bake for 40 minutes until oats are starting to brown. Stir 4 times throughout, breaking up any clumps that are forming.Add shredded coconut when there are 12 minutes left of baking time to lightly toast.Remove from oven and add the flax seeds and raisins. Serve with milk or yogurt or as a snack on its own.

Adaptations:
Replace banana with 1/2 c pumpkin. Increase cinnamon to 1 T, add 3/4 t allspice, 1/2 t cloves, and 1 1/2 t ginger.

Gluten Free 10 Minute Flat Bread

1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup water
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp oil

Combine all ingredients except oil. Heat a 6" NONSTICK skillet (must be nonstick) fairly hot. Spread 1 tsp oil into skillet, then add the thin batter. Cover and cook 2 minutes. Uncover, spread with 1 tsp oil and cook uncovered 5 minutes. Flip the bread and cook another 5 minutes uncovered and serve. You can keep cooking/flipping to get it as crispy as you want. Any flour will work, but some may need more water to get a thin batter. Can be used as a tortilla, sandwich 'bread', crispy bread, pizza crust, etc.

Note: I don't use as much oil. I add just enough to the pan so that the bread doesn't stick and then I skip the step of adding more oil before flipping. I then use the bread as a tortilla for open faced tacos.

Allergy Free Muffins

No wheat, dairy, egg, or sugar- but tastes great!

1 T ground flax seed
3 T water
1 c oat flour (put oatmeal in a coffee grinder or food processor to create flour)
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 T rice syrup or other sweetener
1/3 c almond milk
1 T oil
add-ins: blueberries, peaches, etc.

Mix ground flax seed with water and set aside. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients. Once the flax seed combination becomes gelled, add it to the wet and dry ingredients. Mix in add ins. I love peaches in mine. Cook for 15 minutes at 425. You will be surprised by the taste and light texture.

Do you have any suggestions for add-ins? I'd love to know what you put in yours.