GF Peanut Butter Cookies

 

INGREDIENTS

1C peanut butter

1C brown sugar

1 egg

1t baking soda

1/2t vanilla extract

1C chocolate chips, optional

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients (except chocolate chips) together well; fold in chocolate chips last, if using. Form dough into 1-inch balls and place on parchment paper or untreated cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling. 

Makes about 18 cookies

Ashley’s Gluten Free Flour Blend

 Measure out 5 1/2 cups of gluten free almond flour and 1 cup of gluten free cornstarch into a big mixing bowl. I used a whisk to make sure they were blended together THOROUGHLY.

Then I simply measured out what I needed for my cookie recipe (they turned out great!) and poured the rest into a container to keep in the pantry for later!

[I use the Blue Diamond brand of almond flour and the Argo brand of cornstarch; both are marked GF.]

Shrimp and Grits

SHRIMP AND GRITS

INGREDIENTS

1C gluten free grits (*see below)

3C chicken broth

Butter

Shredded cheddar cheese

4C cherry tomatoes

1 bunch green onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined 

1t Old Bay Seasoning

Stir three cups chicken broth and the grits together in a large microwaveable bowl. Cook five minutes, stirring once, or until done. (Don’t let them boil over!) Stir in butter and cheese.

While grits are cooking, slice your cherry tomatoes in half. Dice green onions, separating the white and green parts. 

Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add tomatoes, garlic, and the white parts of the green onions, stirring until the tomatoes start to release their juices. Add the shrimp and Old Bay Seasoning, and keep stirring until the shrimp turn pink and are done.

Place your grits in a serving bowl. Top the grits with the shrimp/tomato mixture. Top everything with the green parts of the green onions and more shredded Cheddar cheese. 

*A note on the gluten free grits: while grits are corn, most grits are ground on machines that grind other grains and so are NOT gluten free! If you need your grits to be gluten free, you need to find grits that are MARKED gluten free. Bob’s Red Mill makes Gluten Free Corn Grits/Polenta that I buy online. I have occasionally run across gluten free grits in grocery stores around here, but none that I have found keep them in stock regularly. 

 

Almond Flour Brownies

We are trying our hand at brownies tonight… this is a total mash-up of about three recipes, two I’ve found on blogs online and one from the almond flour bag! So! It turned out pretty well, in the end, even if it took two batches to get the cooking time right!

I needed some stress-baking and some chocolate tonight, because work is getting stressful, and that won’t let up for probably the next month for so. 

As a by-the-way for my celiac and other gluten free readers, I have just been made aware that NOT all nut flours are gluten free. Some are “processed-in-a-facility” and carry a “Contains: wheat” warning. So be careful! I buy Blue Diamond Almonds brand almond flour, and it is marked GF. 

ALMOND FLOUR BROWNIES

Dry Ingredients:

1C cocoa powder (Hershey’s is marked GF)

1C almond flour (Blue Diamonds is marked GF)

1/2C cornstarch (Argo is also marked GF)

3/4C white sugar

1/3C packed brown sugar

1 1/2t baking powder

1/8t salt 

Wet Ingredients:

4 eggs

1/2C canola oil (or some kind of light oil, vegetable oil or melted coconut oil would do, too)

2t vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350. (I forgot this, as usual!)

Measure all your dry ingredients into a bowl, and mix well.

Measure all your wet ingredients into another bowl, and beat with a fork. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix until blended. 

Pan spray a 9x13. Pan spray it WELL. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes. If you bake them for 12, they will be a bit fudge-ier; if you bake for 15, a knife will come out clean and they will be a bit more cake-like.

Tiramisu Overnight Oats

 

I’ve never jumped on the overnight-oats bandwagon yet - I have always liked my oats hot, microwaved in the morning! - but this is good enough I might just change my mind. It’s definitely worth adding in to the breakfast rotation at least!

A note on the ingredients for the gluten free friends:

I use Bob’s Red Mill gluten free oats. My preference is the Old Fashioned Rolled Oats. I don’t have any trouble with oats; some celiacs do still have trouble with them.

DeLallo Instant Espresso Powder is the one I found labeled Gluten Free.

Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder, ditto. 

Yogurt is a bit easier to find gluten free - just be careful of oat gum in the low fat and no fat varieties! I am using Walmart’s Great Value brand here; it was labeled.

TIRAMISU OVERNIGHT OATS

The night before, mix up: 

1/2 C oats

1/2 C milk

2 T vanilla Greek yogurt, and 

1/2 t espresso powder. 

Cover this and leave in the fridge until morning. 

In the morning, when you’re ready to eat, top with:

3 T vanilla Greek yogurt, and

1/2 t unsweetened cocoa powder.

Voila! Breakfast is ready, simple as that. 

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Fresh Tomato Sauce

This is one for the freshest tomatoes of summer - the tomatoes from your garden, the ones from the farmers market, I used the little ‘flavor bomb’ cherry tomatoes in mine here! The first ones I could get of the season turned into this sauce, tonight. 

It’s also one of the quickest tomato sauces there is.

My Marinara Sauce sits on the stove and simmers a couple hours. That’s part of the reason I make it in big batches and freeze it!

But no, this one you don’t want to cook too long. The tomatoes are only on the heat long enough to ‘burst,’ in culinary terms - long enough to turn ‘sauce-y,’ in regular parlance. If you have your tomatoes cut into bite-size pieces already, it will go together in the time your pasta is cooking.

You will want to use some kind of pasta shape that ‘catches’ the sauce, here. I used Tinkyada’s little shells;  if you don’t have to stick to gluten free pasta, something a little fancier like orecchiette might be fun. 

If you’re lucky enough to have fresh basil? Use it! 

FRESH TOMATO SAUCE

4 cloves of garlic, diced

2 T tomato paste (the Cento brand that comes in the tube is gluten free)

4-5 cups of fresh tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

2 T balsamic vinegar

1 t sugar

Several good shakes of dried basil, or fresh chopped basil leaves

Fresh Parmesan, for serving

Coat a skillet with pan spray. I used my largest cast iron skillet.

Add the garlic and heat until simmering. Add the tomato paste, and stir until the tomato paste turns dark red - be careful, you don’t want to burn it! Add your fresh tomatoes. Stir occasionally until tomatoes burst and turn into a sauce, about four to five minutes. 

Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar. Let the sauce simmer another minute or two while you stir that in. Add your basil right at the end, before you toss it with the pasta. (Save some if you’re using fresh.)

This should be enough for 14-16 ounces of pasta. Toss with hot pasta, and serve with fresh Parmesan and some of the fresh basil, if you have it. 

Cacio e Pepe Pasta

 One of the very simplest. Translation? ‘Cacio e Pepe’ is ‘Cheese and Pepper.’

It’s got a few more ingredients, but not many!

Buy a good cheese. I got an Asiago to go with some Parmesan I had; a Pecorino or Romano would be good, too.

You can see I tossed it with some fresh steamed broccoli to cut the calories, too!

CACIO E PEPE PASTA

14oz Tinkyada fettuccine 

4T butter (1/2 stick)

2T olive oil

6oz Asiago or another good cheese

2oz Parmesan

Lots of freshly ground pepper

Fresh Parsley, if you have it

Cook the pasta according to package directions, saving two cups of the pasta water when you drain it.

Cut the butter up into small chunks in a four-cup measure or small bowl. Add the olive oil, and whisk in the pasta water when the pasta is drained. Whisk until the butter melts. 

Toss this simple sauce with the hot pasta, grated cheese, and freshly ground pepper. Top with fresh parsley, if desired.