Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

So my kids are on a gluten-free, casein-free diet. This was definitely challenging when we started almost five years ago. But now, thanks to an abundance of new products and information and resources, we have figured out how to make just about anything we want to eat, within our budget, and healthfully and yummily.

This recipe borrows heavily from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. They are not just good vegan chefs, they are truly inspired and know-what the-heck-they're-talking-about foodies. I HIGHLY reco any of their books.

Preheat oven to 375.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (which you can reuse and reuse basically till it falls apart)

Grind 1 3/4 cups Bob's Red Mill GF oats in food processor till flourlike

Add oat flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp coarse sea salt. Mix in bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup soy milk and 1/4 cup ground flax seeds. Then add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar. Mix. Then add 1/3 cup grapeseed oil and tsp vanilla. Blend together for about a minute.

Add wet to dry and mix. Finally add 1 cup vegan chocolate chips and mix together. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lined sheets, leaving a good inch and a half between cookies. This batter is runny and bakes into thin, crisp cookies. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, till golden. Remove from oven, slide parchment paper onto countertop or other cool surface and allow cookies to set up for a good five or ten minutes. Makes about 2 dozen.

SHOPPERS NOTE: I get grapeseed oil and my organic sugars from Trader Joe's where the prices are very very good. The parchment paper and vegan chocolate chips I get from New Seasons. I like Tropical Source chips, but Whole Foods has a house-brand of vegan chocolate chip that works well, too.

Bob's Red Mill is my number one source for GF baking products. They have an amazing and reasonably priced offering of GF flours and grains and supplemental baking ingredients for the GF kitchen.

I am posting this because I just now made this version for the first time and I have already eaten 6 of these cookies, so I think it's pretty good.

Aladdin's and the Lebanese Lentil Soup

So my husband and I went with another couple to Aladdin's in NE Portland, on 36th, north of the Kennedy School. It was fantastic. The prices were very reasonable, appetizers from about $4 and entrees up to $15, which is good because we are trying to only eat out locally and only a few times a month and as inexpensively as possible.

I had the lentil soup which was light and tomatoey and lemony and really fresh tasting. I also had this pita with feta melted on it and herbs that made the whole meal the Lebanese equivalent of grilled cheese and tomato soup. The grape leaves were great; the veggie skewers came with this saffron rice that I seriously could have eaten a pound of. Our friends ordered the vegetarian mezza for two and the baba ghanouj  was really flavorful, as was the hummus. The felafel were surprisingly, but delightfully, spicy and tasted like garbanzos, not like the sandy premade mixture you usually get with felafel. The only thing I did not like was the taboule, the couscous was too hard. But the flavor was great so maybe it was just an off night for that particular dish.

Oh and the Morroccan tea was delicious. It was sweet and minty and mellow and they kept refilling my cup. For dessert there was a sort of baklava with a gooey cheese middle and honey lightly drizzled on top. My husband had a traditional baklava with really toasty walnuts which made a nice flavor.

Everything tasted very clean and fresh and like mom made it. We got out of there having spent $38, including a $6 tip.

So I was inspired to go online the next day and find a Lebanese lentil soup recipe. Lentil soup is great; it is cheap, full of protein and fiber and iron, and a really easy way to get in lots of veggie servings.

Make a sort of pesto out of 1 tbs olive oil, fistful of cilantro, 1/2 tsp sea salt and 6 garlic cloves. Set aside.

Sautee one chopped onion in olive oil. Add 2 cups lentils. Then add 12 cups water. Boil for a minute or two. Then turn down heat and simmer for 45 minutes. 

Add 2 medium or 1 giant cubed sweet potato or yam (about 4-6 cups). Add one bunch lacinato kale chopped fine (about 4-6 cups). Add 1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Cook until veg are soft.

Add cilantro mix and 6 tbs lemon juice.

You can serve as is or puree batches of it in the blender and then return to pot.

Makes about 8 servings, approx 200 calories and 15 grams protein per serving. I think the fiber is about 50% RDA per serving. And approx 2 RDA veg servngs per serving of soup.

I make a "butter" by melting a cup of unrefined organic coconut oil and adding it to 3/4 cup organic olive oil. It emulsifies back into a sort of soft, fragrant butter. So I had 4 Light Rye Wasa crackers with the coco-olive butter on them to accompany the soup.

My neighbor had made whole wheat muffins with bits of dried apricot in them and that is what my husband ate with his soup. Had the kids try it but they are not about eating anything that is mud-colored yet. The only soup they eat is minestrone so far. But at least they tried it!