Lessons Learned in gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan baking: volume 1

1. My mini food processor is not powerful enough to turn tapioca pearls into flour.
2. When substituting liquid sweeteners for granulated ones reduce other liquid in recipe.
3. Tapioca pearls partly ground do not act like flour.
4. Adding flour that you just discovered you had after all after brownie-like substance has already been cooking for 20 minutes doesn't help.
5. Carob brownie sludge likes to stick to the pan.
6. I should buy ener-g egg replacer and stop wasting my delicious organic Central Market brand applesauce.
7. Why didn't my $30k patisserie education prepare me for alternative baking?
8. Number seven was not a lesson, but I like this numbering thing.
9. These mistakes are expensive.
10. I'm still craving carob brownies. No I'm still craving gooey, chocolatey brownies, but I can't have those so I'll crave carob ones instead.
11. Sigh.

Date Sugar

Why is date sugar so hard to find int his town? With four seemingly good all-natural grocery stores you'd think one of them would sell it, but no. They've had 'a ton' of requests, but for some stupid reason this doesn't mean anything to them. Ugh! I suppose I'll add that to my list of food stuffs ordered over the internet. Anybody have a favorite website to buy natural food items like date sugar and coconut oil?

Gluten free Sugar free and Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

Sounds disgusting right? They are actually quite chewy and yummy. It's not my original recipe, but I did adapt it to get rid of brown sugar. Here's a link to the original recipe by Karina, the gluten free goddess, and below is my version. Enjoy!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy:

2/3 cup Spectrum Organic Shortening
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 + 1/6 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup unsweetened organic applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup agave

In a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients:

1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup vanilla rice protein powder
1 teaspoon xanthan/guar gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, beating to combine.

When the dough is smooth, add in the following, by hand, and mix well:

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup carob chips (raisins might be better. Ooh or even dried cranberries.)

Use a spoon or ice cream scoop to measure out the dough. They will spread so give them plenty of space.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 9 to 13 minutes, until they are golden. They will be quite soft until they cool.

New Love

I have a new love. Her name is Rebecca Wood. I found her sight when I was looking for almond butter recipes. The recipe list is small, but looks so yummy. I can't wait to make the honey fried pears.

Diet Day 2

I didn't cheat today. I thought about it, but I held off. I need help. I need recipes for baked goods that are gluten-free, vegan and sugar-free. It is a tall order, but I know good recipes are floating around out there. Please pass them along if you have any. I'm desperate.
I have noticed what difference protein makes. For lunch I had a salad and soup from last night. The only protein came from a 1/4 cup of kidney beans on my salad. After two hours I was starving and grumpy. All I could think about was chicken. I didn't realize how much my body relies on the protein from the dairy I normally eat with each meal.
I went shopping and bought some chicken thighs and organic turkey breast. I am also going to experiment with making almond butter. Buying it already pureed was twice as expensive as buying bulk almonds. I just put it in a blender and whir, right?
Oh, dear.

Diet Day 1

I've decided to just take the plunge. If I don't do it now when will I, right?
My day began with my smoothie. One scoop of this powder, a small banana, 1/4 cup of frozen pineapple, 6 oz. apple juice and a tsp. olive oil. The olive oil adds much needed fat I guess. It's pretty tasty. Really. To finish off breakfast I'll have one serving of Bare Naked granola with hemp milk.
I tried hemp milk yesterday for the first time. I was nervous, but it is delicious and now I'm convinced. I'm not a fan of soy milk. I don't like the taste and it makes me bloated, plus all that info about mimicking estrogen spooks me. Rice milk doesn't have enough nutritional value for me so (and this was before my acupuncture appointment) I decided to give hemp milk a chance. It's loaded with omega 3's, very helpful for mental health.

Snack: cinnamon Lara bar

Lunch: mixed greens salad with kidney beans, roasted red pepper, carrot & avocado

Dinner: Potato, carrot & pea soup with millet. Millet is quite easy and pretty good too, bland and fluffy.

For dessert I'm having almond sunset tea.
Not bad so far. Tomorrow I must go grocery shopping.

Ancestral Diet

My acupuncturist talked about how it isn't easy to correct blood sugar when you are vegetarian. She talked about how our bodies need animal fat and protein to function properly. Lately I've been seeing articles about an ancestral diet. This is a diet mimicking what we as a species ate before industrialized agriculture. We mostly subsisted on what we could gather and hunt. It certainly correlates with eating locally and seasonally, but not with being a vegetarian.
I remember when I was in college the first time around. I was a vegetarian who was sick all the time. I know other factors were involved, but I remember quite well going home and eating meat that my Mother cooked. I always felt better. I felt stronger and healthier. I would return to school and go back to being a sickly vegetarian. As part of my elimination diet I will be eating meat, mostly chicken, but I'd like to try some locally raised lamb and even bison. If you've got good recipes for lamb or bison please pass them along.

Thanks Sis!

My big sister, author of Yarn Unravelled, gave me a Kreative Blogger award. Here I go to try to pick my favorite blogs.

The rules are

1. copy the Kreativ Blogger award to your blog

2. put a link to the person from whom you received the award

3. nominate 8 other blogs

4. and link to them

5. then leave a message on the blogs you nominated

It's going to be hard to pick just 8 but I'm going to try. And if I've left you out it doesn't mean I don't love your blog too!

1. On Fiction
2. Writing Companion
3. Cabinet of Wonders
4. Mind Freedom
5. The Trouble With Spikol
6. Wellness Writer
7. Beyond Meds
8. This Mama's Dharma

Texas wants to drug its children

I found this article today about a couple of disturbing bills in the Texas legislature. At the end of the article there are links of who to contact in case you want to help.

May not be feng shui

I love rearranging furniture. It still amazes me what a difference moving furniture around can make. I was starting to become very unhinged by the state of my space. It was cluttered and busy and full, but I need every piece that's in here. Two desks may seem a bit much for some people, but when one is entirely taken up by a computer it is hard to do any work on it. It would be nice to have more space, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon so last night around 9:00 pm I started moving. If only I had a few elves who could come round and clean for me.