Oat Flour and Brown Rice Tortilla Chips

Oat Flour and Brown Rice Tortilla Chips – Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan – Tostadas

P1070082

When I first went gluten free I really missed having something crunchy to dip into hummus, or top with egg salad like a cracker.

When I came up with this recipe I found that it checked lots of carb-y, crunchy boxes.

You can eat these chips with guacamole or hummus. You can mix flax seeds and chia seeds into the dough to make multigrain crackers. For cheesy herby crackers, you can add some granulated garlic, parsley, oregano, and nutritional yeast into the dough and they bake up a treat.

Another thing that you can do with this dough is make tostadas. The tostadas bake up super crunchy and you can top them with anything that makes your heart happy.

I tried making tortilla chips and crackers in all kinds of ways before I came up  with this recipe, but it turns out that leftover brown rice was the key to making a great crunchy oat flour tortilla chip.

If you have leftover brown rice in the fridge, this is a perfect way to use it up. Making these chips / crackers are also so much cheaper than buying gluten-free crackers in the store, and I promise that they taste so much better. And if you can’t tolerate corn chips, this recipe is a great alternative. These chips also go great with my creamy lemon garlic black bean dip.

Brown Rice and Oat Flour Tortilla Chips (Baked)

Makes 10 chips (about 1 generous serving)

Ingredients

1/3 cup cooked short grain brown rice

1/3 cup oat flour

½ tsp olive oil

pinch of salt

1 -1 ½ tsp water

 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mash the brown rice into the oat flour with the back of a fork. Squeeze the mixture together in your hands so that the rice incorporates into the oat flour and forms a nice dough. If the dough feels a little dry, add a little water to the dough. If the dough feels too sticky, add a little more oat flour.

3. Divide the dough into 10 equal sized pieces and roll each piece of dough into a ball .

Wet you hands lightly press each ball of dough into a 1/8 inch thick disk onto a silicone baking mat. The mixture won’t spread so the chips can be baked close together as long as they don’t touch.

4. Bake for 15 minutes, then take the chips out of the oven and use a spatula to flip over each chip. Bake for another 15 minutes until crisp.

Let them cool on the silicone baking mat for about 10-15 minutes. They will crisp up even more as they cool.

You can also use this same mixture to make about 3 tostadas about 4-5 inches in diameter (1/8 inch thick). Bake the tostadas for 15 minutes per side at 350 until crisp.

Kitchen Tips – How To Use Every Drop Of Olive Oil

P1070675

One ingredient that I use almost everyday is olive oil.

I use it in salad dressings for it’s peppery bite, drizzle it over soups and pasta sauces to give them richness, and add it to hummus for a smooth and silky texture.

Inevitably, at some point, the bottle runs empty save for a few teaspoons of that beautiful green oil that you can never seem to shake out of the bottle.

If you too can’t stand the thought of letting any food go to waste, this is my solution for getting every last drop of precious oil from the bottle.

Take a wide mouth mason jar and put it inside of a 1 quart measuring cup. Then turn the bottle of oil upside down and place the mouth of the bottle inside of the mason jar. Leave this to sit in an area where it won’t be disturbed for a day or two and all of the oil that’s left over in the bottle should drain into the mason jar.

(Putting the mason jar inside of the big measuring cup makes the bottle of oil and mason jar less likely to tip over.)

Use this reclaimed oil within a day or two, as it has been exposed to air and light and won’t keep for too long before oxidizing.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Cooking!

Chocolate Banana Soft Serve Ice Cream – Refined Sugar Free, Dairy Free, Vegan, Paleo

P1080366

When I think of chocolate desserts, I want something really decadent and rich, with a deep chocolatey flavor.

This Chocolate Banana Soft Serve Ice Cream definitely fits the bill. It’s super easy to make, and takes almost no time or effort. It’s so creamy and delicious, and it’s pretty incredible that blended up frozen bananas can turn into such an amazing treat!

When I was working on this recipe, I thought about the rich and creamy chocolate ice cream that would occasionally eat before I went dairy and refined sugar free.

I really tried to get a similar flavor with this recipe, so it does have more cocoa powder and vanilla extract than you would expect it to have, which gives the banana ice cream a similar flavor to the store bought chocolate ice creams of my younger days.

Banana ice cream also cuts down on food waste because it’s the perfect thing to make when you have overripe bananas that you don’t know what to do with. No need to throw them away! Just peel them, and freeze them, and you can have ice cream whenever you want. How cool is that?

You can also adjust the flavor of the ice cream to your liking really easily. If you want it a little sweeter (or if your bananas could have used a little more ripening before you froze them) you can add a little more maple syrup, or more cocoa if you want a deeper chocolate flavor.

However you make it, I hope that this ice cream brings a little more joy to your day.


Chocolate Banana Soft Serve Ice Cream

Makes 1 serving (about 3/4 cup)

Ingredients

1 thawed frozen banana

3 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder *

2 1/2 tbsp + 1 tsp maple syrup

2 tbsp + 2 tsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

tiny tiny pinch of salt

 

*I didn’t use a heaped tbsp, just sort of slightly higher than a level tbsp. The cocoa powder that I used was the Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder.

Instructions

1. Cut the thawed banana into half inch slices with a paring knife. If the banana is too hard to cut, then let it thaw for another 5 minutes or so before trying to cut it again.

2. Add all the ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.

If you want a firmer texture, you can spoon the mixture into a bowl and put it into a freezer for another 15-20 minutes.

For garnish, I just used a paring knife to shave pieces off a slightly thawed frozen strawberry. It gives it a nice color and a bit of little flair, and the strawberry flavor goes well with the banana and chocolate flavors of the ice cream.

P1080371

Happy Eating!

 

Vanilla Extract

Kitchen Tip – Easy Way To Get The Cap Off A Vanilla Extract Bottle

vanilla

 

If you’ve ever known the struggle of baking cookies and not being able to get the little cap off of the vanilla extract bottle, this one’s for you.

Here’s the secret –

Wrap a few thin rubber bands around the cap of the vanilla extract. The rubber bands make the smooth metal of the cap easier to grip. The bottle of extract should be a breeze to open after that.

I use the rubber bands that come wrapped around vegetables like kale, or green onions, or bunches of cilantro or parsley. It’s a thrifty solution, and makes baking with vanilla extract much much easier.

This idea for this came to me when I was testing the recipe for the maple vanilla sugar cookies. For a moment I was concerned that I was not going to be able to get the cap off of the bottle of extract, and I actually thought for a second “Do I really need vanilla in this recipe?”

The answer was “Yes. You do need vanilla in maple vanilla sugar cookies.” So I had to come up with a solution pretty quickly, and here we are!

I hope that this kitchen tip helps you to never again be held back from your baking dreams by another difficult to open vanilla extract cap!

Happy Baking!

 

blueberry muffins

The Best Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins Recipe – Made with Oat Flour – Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free

I love blueberries, and I also love blueberry muffins. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t love them.

P1080289

Lots of us have fond memories of baking them with our families, and there is just something incredibly comforting and nostalgic about them.

A good blueberry muffin is one of the things that I most wanted to eat when I went gluten free, and I’m so glad that I finally came up with a recipe for them!

These delicious blueberry muffins are made with oat flour, and taste just like the muffins that you remember eating when you were a kid.

They are such a treat, and there’s nothing like biting into a freshly baked blueberry muffin on a cold morning with a hot cup of tea.

P1080248

Heaven.

These blueberry muffins taste amazing, and are so good that you won’t believe that they are gluten free, refined sugar free, and dairy free.

They have a really great texture, just like a normal muffin, and aren’t gummy or funny textured at all.

P1080244

They use coconut oil instead of butter, but they don’t taste like coconut at all. They are perfectly sweet, and the bright flavor of the blueberries really shines through each delicious bite.

You won’t miss gluten / dairy muffins after you eat one of these, promise.

I hope that you give them a try!

 

The Best Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

Makes 8 muffins

 

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup of oat flour (135g) *

½ level tsp of baking soda

1 ½ tbsp ground flax seed (6g)

tiny pinch of salt

 

¼ cup water

1/8 level tsp of psyllium husk powder**

 

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup melted coconut oil***

1 egg

 

1 cup of blueberries – I used frozen, but fresh will work too.

 

* For the best results, measure out the oat flour and ground flax seed by weight on a digital scale.

I grind rolled oats in a blender until I have a pretty fine flour. Don’t use a food processor for this as the flour won’t be fine enough. If I have any extra flour, I just put in into an airtight container to use for another recipe. I grind the flax seeds using the same method.

** If you don’t have the psyllium husk powder, you can just omit it. Just add the water in with the rest of the liquid ingredients. The muffins will still turn out well, just slightly more crumbly.

*** The coconut oil makes the muffins more solid at temperatures below 76 degrees, but you can heat them up in a toaster oven at a low temperature and they will become soft again. If you want the muffins to be soft all the time, you can probably substitute a neutral flavored oil that’s liquid at room temperature for the coconut oil.

 

Instructions

1. Grease and flour 8 of the wells in your muffin pan with some coconut oil and oat flour, or you can skip this step and just pop 8 muffin liners into the muffin pan.

2. Mix together the water and psyllium husk powder in a small bowl, and set aside the bowl aside for 5 minutes to allow the psyllium husk to gel.

3. In a large bowl sift together the oat flour, baking soda, salt, and ground flax seed.

4. In a separate medium sized bowl beat the egg, and add in the maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and the psyllium husk mixture and stir until well combined.

5. Add the melted coconut oil to the flour mixture and give it a good stir. Add in rest of the liquid ingredients to the muffin batter and stir until well combined.

6. Set a timer for 15 minutes and let your muffin mixture rest.

7. Preheat your oven to 350.

8. When the timer goes off, put your blueberries into a sieve and using your snap mesh tea strainer (or you can use another sieve or even a tablespoon) to sift oat flour over your blueberries until they are well coated in the oat flour. Shake the berries in the sieve to get any excess oat flour off of them.

Coating the berries in the oat flour makes it so that the berries don’t sink to the bottom of the muffins while as they bake.

9. Fold the blueberries through your batter (try not to stir the mixture too much, as too much mixing will cause the frozen blueberries to turn the muffin batter purple), and divide the batter equally amongst the 8 muffin wells.

One note about this, because we’re using coconut oil and the berries are frozen, the batter will seize up on you because coconut oil turns solid under 76 degrees F (24 C). If the berries are fresh you shouldn’t have this problem, but it’s fine.

Just do the best you can to divide the batter up as equally as possible, and don’t worry if the mixture looks lumpy when you put the muffins into the oven. The muffins will smooth out in the oven and will bake up beautifully.

9. Pop the muffins into the oven, and bake for 25 minutes, turning the muffins 180 degrees after they’ve been in the oven for 13 minutes. You don’t have to do this, but it helps the muffins to bake more evenly.

Some of the muffins will look like they are baking more quickly than others. Don’t worry about this as they will all bake up evenly at the end.

11. After the 25 minutes, turn the oven temperature up to 375, and turn the muffin pan by 90 degrees. Allow the muffins to bake for another 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

If you test the muffins with a toothpick, it should come out pretty clean with just a few crumbs here and there.

Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each muffin and pop them out onto a plate and serve.

 

P1080263

Happy Eating!

 

 

Shrimp Pad Thai

Weeknight Shrimp Pad Thai – Easy and Quick Recipe – Refined Sugar Free

P1080345

Pad Thai is the kind of dish that you love to eat, but are not quite sure how to make yourself.

At least that’s what I thought until I found a really easy recipe for pad thai on Goop.

What I really loved about the recipe from Night + Market on Goop was how simple the recipe was. I love pad thai, but most of the recipes that I found online had a lot of specialty ingredients that I would have to go a little out of the way to find.

I never attempted to make it myself before, but that recipe looked so easy, and with a few swaps, I knew that I could make a pad thai that would work with my dietary restrictions.

P1080307-2

This pad thai is made from ingredients that you can find at your local grocery store, and can be made in about half an hour. Perfect for a weeknight dinner.

Also great if you’re craving pad thai, but don’t live anywhere close to a Thai restaurant…

I used wild caught pink shrimp from Oregon (which I was able to find at my local supermarket in the display case at the seafood section, but I’ve also seen it sold at Costco as well). I only buy this kind of shrimp these days because it’s sustainably harvested, and also because it doesn’t contain any preservatives or ingredients that many other frozen shrimp are processed with.

The working conditions for people who catch, farm, and process shrimp around the world can also be very harsh and inhumane, so by purchasing domestically caught shrimp, I hope that I’m supporting more ethical working conditions for people who work in the shrimping industry.

You can find more information about Oregon Pink Shrimp here. This isn’t an affiliate link, just more info in case you’re curious about how the shrimp are caught.

P1080304

This type of shrimp is pretty inexpensive, at about $8 – $9 per lb, and it’s also just as tasty as the larger shrimp which makes it a good buy in my book. The amount of pink shrimp in this dish cost about $1, so while this pad thai feels very luxurious, it’s actually really budget friendly.

For more information on what to look for when buying shrimp, you can check out this article here.

About the fish sauce, I use the Red Boat brand fish sauce, because it’s only made from anchovies and salt (and therefore paleo, and refined sugar free). You can find it online, but I managed to find a bottle of the 500 ml (17 oz.) size for about $7 at my local Asian market, so it’s worth checking out your local Asian market if you have one nearby to see if they have it cheaper than online.

The noodles that I used were Fettuccini Style / Pad Thai noodles from Tinkyada which I found at my local grocery store. They weren’t organic, (but hey, it happens, you do the best you can). They were also on sale, which was definitely a plus, and the noodles worked great for this recipe.

brown rice noodles.jpg

There is a decent amount of maple syrup in this recipe, so if you’re watching your sugar intake, this may not be a meal that you eat every night, but it is certainly a really amazing and tasty dinner to have as a treat every once in a while.

If you’re planning on eating a few sides along with this (like a salad, fruit, etc.) this recipe makes enough for 2 smaller servings, but if you’re just eating it by itself, then it’s really just enough for one person, especially if you’re really hungry.

I hope that you give the recipe a try! It’s so good, and you’ll be super proud that you made a dish that you once thought that you could only enjoy in restaurants.

 

P1080350

Weeknight Shrimp Pad Thai

Adapted from this recipe.

Makes 2 servings, or 1 larger serving for a very hungry person.

 

Ingredients

4-5 oz of dried brown rice noodles *

4 tbsp of maple syrup

2 tbsp of fish sauce

2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup of frozen pink shrimp

1-2 eggs (depending on how hungry you are)

2 green onions, thinly sliced

 

1 lime, cut into wedges for serving

 

* Note – If you hold the noodles between your thumb and forefinger, the circle that 4-5 oz. of noodles should make will be about the size of a quarter.

If you can get your hands on some bean sprouts, then definitely add those in too, as they add a nice crunch to the dish. I just couldn’t find any at my local grocery store, but the dish was still incredibly tasty.

 

Instructions

1. Make a skillet non-stick, and scramble your eggs. Tip the cooked eggs onto a plate and set aside.

2. Put the shrimp into a strainer and rinse under cool water. Place the shrimp into a medium size saucepan and cover them with about an inch of water. Bring the water to a boil and let the shrimp cook for a minute or two before draining. Set the shrimp aside.

The shrimp is already cooked, I just do this because it brings the shrimp up to temperature, but also kills off any potential pathogens that it may have picked up while it was sitting in the display case with raw fish.

3. Fill the medium saucepan with water and then cook your noodles. The directions for this package of noodles said to cook them for 10 -11 minutes, but I only cooked them for 6-7 minutes. You want to undercook your noodles a bit, as you’re going to finish cooking the noodles in the pad thai sauce. Drain the noodles and set aside.

4. Stir together the apple cider vinegar, fish sauce, and maple syrup. Add the sauce to the skillet along with the cooked noodles and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until the noodles have absorbed all the sauce.

5. Add in the green onions, cooked eggs, and shrimp and stir them through the noodles, and continue to cook them for another 30 seconds or so until the eggs and shrimp are warmed through.

6. Spoon the noodles into a bowl (or two bowls) and serve with lime wedges, and a little bowl of red pepper flakes on the side.

 

P1080354

(I ate half of the pad thai before I realized that I had forgotten to photograph the lime wedges as well… Whoops. It was so good…)

spring rolls and peanut sauce

Vegan Thai Peanut Sauce and Veggie Packed Spring Rolls – Vegan, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free, Peanut Satay Sauce

P1080067-2

When I was in high school, our “wild night out” on the weekends (more often during the summer) was going bowling, and then going to eat shrimp spring rolls at the Thai restaurant that my friend’s family owned.

The spring rolls were actually a Vietnamese dish, but I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that these spring rolls were amazing! They were one of the best things that I’d ever eaten, and we always ate them with the Thai peanut satay sauce.

When I moved away, the shrimp spring rolls and peanut sauce was the dish that I most associated with that time in my life.

I absolutely loved eating those spring rolls, and I could never find a restaurant that made them the same way. I wanted to make them myself, but the most difficult part of recreating that dish was trying to get the peanut sauce right.

I never did get the recipe for that peanut sauce. I managed to recreate the sauce a few years later through trial and error, but it did have a lot white sugar in it, so I wanted to create a version that was refined sugar free.

And this version is vegan to boot.

P1080074-2

It tastes very similar to that peanut sauce that I first had all those years ago, sweet and mildly spicy, rich with the flavors of ginger and chili, with just a hint of salt to round out the flavor. The extra salt replaces the savoriness of the fish sauce, and the sauce is so good that you won’t miss the fish sauce.

This peanut sauce is also easier to make than the traditional version (this one you don’t have to cook, just stir it all together), but still tastes incredibly similar.

You can make this peanut sauce in advance, and it will thicken and become creamier in the fridge as it chills.

I usually make extra sauce, as you can dip vegetables in it, or spread it over noodles, and I usually eat more than one serving of spring rolls at a time, so having extra sauce on hand is great.

Vegan Thai Peanut Sauce

Makes ¼ cup of peanut sauce (1 serving)

Ingredients

3 tbsp. + 1 tsp unsweetened natural peanut butter

1 level tsp of red curry paste (most supermarkets carry it these days, I used the Thai Kitchen Brand)

3 tbsp maple syrup

4 tbsp hot water

¼ tsp – ½ tsp sea salt (to taste)

 

¼ tsp. crushed dried mint* (optional)

1/8 tsp ground coriander seed* (optional)

 

*If you don’t have a few leaves of fresh mint and cilantro to put into your spring rolls, you can add these spices to the peanut sauce to give it a similar herby brightness.

 

Instructions

Ideally, your peanut butter would be room temperature, but if it’s cold from the fridge, that’s ok too. It will just take a little more mixing to get everything to combine.

Stir together the peanut butter, curry paste, maple syrup and optional spices until smooth. Add in the 4 tbsp of hot water, and still until well combined. Add salt to taste (I added ½ level tsp of sea salt).

 

P1080069-2

Veggie Packed Spring Rolls

For the spring rolls, I wanted to make a more colorful version, because it’s January, and spring rolls are a good way to eat lots of vegetables without having to think too hard about it. You can fill them with whatever you like really, that peanut sauce tastes amazing on pretty much everything.

I’d count on making about 4-5 spring rolls per person if you’re want to make them a main course, and 2-3 spring rolls per person if you want to make them as an appetizer.

You can cut them in half on an angle if you want to show off the colorful vegetables inside, or just leave them whole (which does make them a little easier to dip into the sauce, or you can spoon the sauce over the spring rolls instead).

I used Three Ladies Brand of rice paper wrapper in the 25 cm size (which is non-GMO and gluten free), but feel free to use your favorite brand of rice paper wrapper.

I would make the spring rolls right before you plan to eat them. They texture of rice paper wrapper changes after it’s been refrigerated, so it’s better to make them fresh. You can also pre-cut your vegetables in advance and assemble them right before serving to save time.

 

P1080070-2

 

Ingredients

(For each spring roll)

1 rice paper wrapper

¼ cup lightly packed baby spinach leaves

4-5 slices bell peppers

1-2 pieces of roasted sweet potato (cut into ½ inch thick strips)

 

2-3 mint leaves (if you have them)

3-4 cilantro leaves (if you have them)

 

To make the spring rolls, dip one rice paper wrapper into warm water for about 20-30 seconds. It should just begin to feel like silk between your fingertips. Spread the rice paper onto a plate, place the mint and cilantro leaves on first, followed by the baby spinach, then the bell peppers, and roasted sweet potato.

Wrap each roll like a burrito, so the sides get folded in first, then the fold the edge closest to you over the vegetables, and roll until the spring roll is closed, and then set the spring roll aside onto another plate, and start the next one.

Here’s a good visual lesson on how to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfI1wMeDXhg

 

Before I moved away, I did have the foresight to buy some spring rolls from my friend’s restaurant, and take one home. Here’s what was in it:
1 1/2 teaspoons of bean sprouts

1 Sprig of Cilantro

2 one inch long pieces of mint leaves

3 pieces of Halved Shrimp (shrimp cut in half length ways)

3 teaspoons of rice noodles (possibly cooked in chicken broth, as they were light brown in color, I seem to remember my friend mentioning that they may have mixed the noodles with a bit of oyster sauce).

6 teaspoons of shredded romaine lettuce

1/2 teaspoons shredded carrots

 

My friend’s family has since sold the restaurant, and I make simpler version of these spring rolls now at home (which I will post on the blog another day), but I thought that I’d include the recipe just in case you were curious.

Happy Eating!