Chocolate Peanut Butter Flourless GFCFDF muffins

In our expedition into the world of GFCF cooking, I've been looking for recipes that don't try to mimic gluten-based baked goods.  I've been looking for recipes that are natively gluten- and dairy-free, that don't use a ton of substitute ingredients.

This is one of them. Yay!

These are incredibly delicious.  And sneaky with the veggies.  You seriously would have no idea that there was a vegetable in these guys.

The only tricksy part here GFCF-wise is the chocolate chips...if you want a totally dairy-free recipe, you have to find specialty dairy-free vegan chocolate chips. Which exist. But not at my regular grocery store.  I chose to use regular white chocolate chips because we still had some hanging around that needed to be used up, and our need for dairy-free foods is not as absolute as it might be with, say, a true food allergy.  You could leave them out altogether (though you'll lose a muffin or two in terms of yield), or use something like chopped nuts instead.

As always, do what works in your kitchen and household.

A note on butternut squash puree...I actually did see this in a can on the organic-and-other-oddments part of the canned vegetable aisle at my grocery store.  I personally used 2 cups of boiled butternut squash, which was about 1/2 of a medium-sized squash.  The main difference I suspect is the remaining moisture content of the two...the homemade puree will likely be moister than the canned, and will possibly take longer to bake (this was my experience).

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Peanut Butter 'n' Candy cookies

Or, How Prepping Ahead Makes Cooking With Kids Fun Instead of Stressful!

My older son's favorite phrase right now is "Mama, I haf an IDEA!"  Today's IDEA was to make cookies.  We picked out a peanut butter and chocolate kiss cookie recipe, but we didn't have any chocolate kisses.  We did have caramels and bags of Halloween candy (yeah, yeah, I cracked the H-ween candy already, but only for this recipe!) so I give you peanut butter and assorted-candy cookies LOL  This is a great thing to do with any leftover candy bars after Halloween.

It took about 15 minutes to prep while the boys watched a little Sesame Street.  Then Boy #1 helped me combine ingredients and shape cookies while Boy #2 got to play with all the toys that Boy #1 usually snatches away from him...good times all round!  I found the toddler help most useful in rolling formed cookie dough balls in sugar and putting them on a baking tray (I needed to rearrange them for baking ofc).  The finished product is not going to win any pretty food awards, but somehow the cookies are tastier when they're ugly b/c your kids helped you make them.

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Peanut Butter Oven-Baked French Toast

Another recipe pilfered from my husband's grandma's 1944 home ec cookbook.  Back in the day, this recipe was called "Peanut Chops", another attempt to pass off an alternate protein source as being "just like meat!!".  The virtues of this recipe in 1944 were being inexpensive, offering protein when meat was rationed, and bearing a passing resemblance to actual pork chops.  Today's virtues are that it's inexpensive, freezer-friendly, kid-friendly, easy to cook (think oven-baked French toast), and it does actually feel like an oven-fried pork chop in your mouth...strange, huh?  Actually they remind me of a vegetarian oven-baked chicken nugget.

My husband is still commenting on how filling this meal was...I guess he had expected differently?  But with 18g of protein and 5 grams of fiber (or more, if you use whole wheat crackers and whole grain bread), who is surprised?

The original recipe calls for cutting 6 slices of rye bread into "fingers".  I used 1/2 a loaf of "cocktail rye", you know those tiny 3"x3" loaves you see up by the deli.  The slices are easy to handle and are perfectly sized for the recipe, but feel free to use regular slices of rye, or even pumpernickel. 

You can also substitute any nut or seed butter you wish to make this recipe allergy-friendly to those with peanut sensitivities.

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Peanut-butter oatmeal slices

My husband and his grandfather are the only two people I have known in real life who didn’t like dessert.  And my husband can be persuaded to eat some.  You need dessert in the freezer arsenal, end of story.  It's are also handy to have something like this in the freezer when you need a quick thank-you gift for a neighbor who keeps snow-blowing your sidewalk for you, ferinstance.

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