Carob Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

Here is another recipe for your carob cravings and since this is a chocolate free cookie feel free to share with your dog. For some reason my oldest dog, Mina, was going nuts for these!

Please note this recipe does call for oat flour which is not always gluten free so be sure that you either verify that the oat flour you are using is gluten free or make your own from whole gluten free oats. Trader Joes sells affordable gluten free oats, just dump the bag into the food processor and blend till grainy flour texture. I return the blended oats to the original bag and store them this way on the shelf.

CAROB PEANUT BUTTER OAT COOKIES

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup carob flour
• 1/2 cup gluten free oat flour 
• 1/8 cup brown rice flour
• 1/8 cup potato flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Mix butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla extract in electric mixing bowl.

3. Combine flours with baking soda and salt. 

4. Add dry to wet mixture and beat till combined. 

5. Roll into balls and place on foil lined but not greased cookie sheet.

6. Flatten balls by pressing fork in crossing pattern. 

7. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven but let cool on sheet.

8. Remove from baking sheet and enjoy!

The resulting cookie is a little bit delicate but definitely soft and delicious. 

Enjoy! xoxo- Iris

Kefir Water

From left to right: ruby red grapefruit with ginger kefir soda on second ferment,  lychee kefir soda, pomegranate kefir soda and then in the mason jar kefir grains with sugar water on day 2 of initial ferment.  

I'm very proactive with my pinterest use. At least once a day I sit on my ipad perusing 2 sections: "DIY & Crafts" and "Food & Drink." I'm fairly conservative with my repinning because I actually do/make the items I mark.

One day a pin for Water Kefir Flavor Guide came up. I just discovered my love of Kombucha this last summer while selling my baked goods at the Brentwood Farmer's Market so this Kefir water stuff definitely intrigued me. While the information available online seems less than thorough the basics are that Kefir water is a bacteria that works symbiotically with yeast to create a fizzy probiotic drink. This is done through the fermentation of "kefir grains" with sugar water and then after a second ferment where juice is added for flavor.

Hydrated kefir grains in coffee filter.

I promptly ordered myself a batch of "kefir grains" from Cultures for Health. In total it cost me $20 but that includes the shipping, etc. My dehydrated kefir arrived by the end of the week. The good news about these grains, which are actually not a grain at all, is that as long as I keep them happy, healthy and fed I will never need to replace them and in fact they may even begin to multiply at which time I can make larger batches or share with friends.

Aside from the digestive and gut benefits of the water kefir, which is basically like the non-dairy alternative to the kefir you find in the grocery store (the yogurt drink,) it really is refreshingly delicious and lower in sugar than soda beverages. The kefir grains essentially eat up the sugar in the water so your final product will have less sugar than the initial sugar water mix.

Once you follow the enclosed directions to rehydrate the grains you are well on your way. I got some swing cap style bottles for my finished kefir sodas and used a quart mason jar for the first ferment step. First add 1/4 cup sugar, I used organic cane sugar, to the mason jar. Add about 1 cup of warm water, use filtered or mineral water, not tap water. Slosh water and sugar around to get the sugar to dissolve. Now add just enough water so that you are about 3 inches from the top of your jar. This also will bring your water temp down to about room temperature so that its safe to add your water kefir grain. Dump in the grains. Cover mason jar with a dish clothe or coffee filter and secure with either the metal band that comes with the jar or a rubber band. You still want the mix to breath but to keep it safe from bugs or other potential contaminants. Place in a warm but not hot, safe area off to the side in your kitchen.

Let the kefir grains and sugar water sit for 48 hours. After 48 hours you should be seeing a few small bubbles popping up from the grains. Your drink will not be fizzy yet, this won't happen till the second fermentation.

Now that 48 hours has passed you want to strain out your kefir grains. I used a funnel and a plastic coffee filter, you want to avoid metal touching your grains at any point. Make sure your bottles are very clean and pour while filtering the kefir water into the bottle.

You should have kefir grains sitting in your filter and a bottle of kefir water with no grains in it sitting on your kitchen counter now. Take the strained kefir grains and follow the steps above to get another batch going of kefir water. Cover and set aside.

You are going to prepare the bottle of strained kefir for its second fermentation at this point. This is also the stage where you add flavor and the carbonation will become active. Depending on the flavor you choose to add will really effect the overall outcome of the flavor in the end. What I mean by that is that is that if you choose to add an organic juice, for example pomegranate, grapefruit, apple juice or a berry juice you can expect the sugar in the juice to continue to ferment and your final product will be very bubbly and have a slight fermented almost cider like quality to it. The alcohol content will be negligible, I've read around .64 so thats not what you are creating but the smell and taste will be that of a fermented beverage. However, if you add lemon and ginger, one of my favorite combinations, there is less sugar to be fed on, it takes a little longer to get to the fizzy stage and perhaps its just the strength of the ginger but I find that it has less of a cider taste and more of a ginger beer taste.

Pomegranate kefir soda on ice. 

Add enough juice to your kefir water that you still leave the neck of the bottle empty and maybe about an inch below that, you can see what I mean in my picture at the top. You can also add fresh ginger slices or lemon juice. Basically add juice flavors and combinations that appeal to you. You are probably looking at adding an additional 1/2 cup to a 1 cup of juice or flavor to your water kefir. If you add fresh ginger slices be sure the slivers are big enough that you can get them out of the bottle to empty and clean the bottle once you have drank all the soda.

Seal tightly and place kefir mixed with juice in a dark warmish area to have its second fermentation. Depending on the sugar content of the juice you have added the second ferment time with vary. I check in on my soda every 24 hours to see how bubbly it has become and as soon as it reaches the level I want I put it in the fridge. Do not let it go too long as it can explode if the carbonation builds up to much. I like my drink fairly fizzy so about 72 hours generally works for me.

Once you get this process going in a cycle you should always have a kefir water going and one on its second ferment and a few in the fridge and you will have a continual supply of soda.

Enjoy and experiment! xoxo - Iris

Carob Bark

Let me start off today by saying that I had an excellent food weekend. Friday I tried out my new spiralizer and made zucchini pasta, this was accompanied by a homemade sauce of crushed tomatoes with olive oil, garlic and fresh basil, topped with parmesan cheese. I also had garlic bread on the side, a recipe I fully intend to share soon but have been holding off because I really want it to be my first cooking video.

 Tamales w/my enchilada sauce from last week.

Saturday I had enchiladas for breakfast topped with a fried egg. The enchilada sauce was my homemade batch that I made a few weeks ago and froze. I was so pleased to find out how insanely easy it is to make your own homemade enchilada sauce. Mine was made with 6 dried ancho chiles, 2 dried guajillo chiles and 2 small dried chipotle peppers, simmered in water with 3 garlic cloves and some cumin seeds. Once the chiles were rehydrated I turned off the heat and let it cool, blended it in the blender with one 6 oz can of tomato paste, salt to taste and added water till it got to the right texture. I've been living off this stuff ever since, its great on enchiladas, tamales, as a dip for corn chips, everything!


The weather was so nice that I went with a friend over to check out the old historial Evergreen Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Los Angeles (est. 1877,) located in Boyle Heights. It was a perfect day for it. The neighborhood is actually really interesting and the cemetery grounds are beautiful, lots of large oak trees and shade.

When we got back to my place we ate pie and butter pecan ice cream. I had made a gluten free pie with pumpkin apple butter filling and the butter pecan ice cream was from a few weeks ago, it had a coconut milk base, sweetened with brown sugar and pecan pralines.

Same pie, just this slice is topped with a dollop of whipped cream.

Saturday night for dinner I made a vegetarian tempura soup. I simmered shitake mushrooms, and kombu seaweed for a few hours. I removed the mushrooms and kombu and added some ginger slices, a little vinegar, tamari sauce, sugar and a garlic clove and let it continue to cook on a low heat while I made my tempura. The batter was simple, 1 egg, beat with 1 cup gluten free flour (I did my standard brown rice flour, potato flour, corn starch blend) and one cup sparkling water. I made tempura sweet potato, green beans, tofu, zucchini and shitake mushroom. I ate the broth on the side with the tempura dipped in the broth and also in a sweetened tamari sauce. I can't even remember the last time I was that full but it was AWESOME.

Sunday I had toast, eggs, and potatoes for breakfast with some of my homemade catsup sauce. The rest of the day was spent thrifting and on a mission to find gluten free carob chips. Which leads me to the point of this post...

A friend of mine texted me yesterday asking about where to find carob chips. I believe she was using them to make dog safe treats. Carob is an excellent safe substitute for special doggy treats. As soon as she mentioned the word carob I immediately needed to have something with carob! Once my mind gets hooked onto something my body goes into full craving mode.

I haven't really eaten carob since I was a kid living in upstate NY. I confess to once eating a carob  Three Dog Bakery oreo cookie that was intended for dogs and admittedly it was tasty. So you ask what are the health benefits of carob? I'm not really in the camp that its a substitute for chocolate, to me it tastes very different, smokier, however it is caffeine free. Carob is already naturally sweet so it needs less additional sweetener, it regulates your blood glucose levels and lowers cholesterol. Carob also is an excellent antioxidant, anti-viral, anti-allergetic, anti-ceptic and anti-bacterial agent and aids in the digestive process as it reduces acids... thats a lot of antis! And if that doesn't sound good enough yet, ladies, a study published in Plant Foods for Human Nutrition Journal indicated that the flour has the capability to attack and target specific cervical cancer cells.  More here on the benefits of carob.

I bet just reading this you've already begun craving carob.

I tried calling over to the Ralphs around the corner, it took them about 15 minutes to confirm they do not stock carob, there was a lot of confusion as to the fact that carob was something and not a brand. My only option was to trek over to the Whole Foods in Pasadena (this became justified by my decision to also check out the Pasadena Goodwill, never miss an opportunity for potential thrifting.)

The Whole Foods in Pasadena is pretty shi shi, its two stories high, there are multiple juice, cheese and beer bars, and frankly in my opinion its completely confusing as there are about ten different places that one item could potentially be shelved. In my search for carob chips, at this time I was imagining baking up a batch of oatmeal carob chip cookies, I headed over to the baking section.

I found a bag of Sunspire sweetened carob chips, but my excitement was quickly squashed when I found that the first ingredient listed on the back is "malted corn and barley." GAH! not gluten free!

No one in the store seemed to have any idea where to direct me for gluten free carob chips. I function in the world of food sensitive restrictive dietary habits so its hard for me to imagine that I am the first person to ask for this at Whole Foods. I will say in his defense the guy who was helping me did say he had just started working there and apologized for not being able to provide me with more information.

So there I stood, in the baking section of Whole Foods with not a carob chip to my name... when suddenly I saw it: Bob's Red Mill Toasted Carob Powder.  I will warn you that the bag clearly states "Manufactured in a facility that also uses soy, wheat, and milk." however the only ingredient is ground toasted carob so for myself personally I feel its fairly safe.

So I bought the bag with no real direction as to what I would do with it... enter, carob bark!

CAROB BARK

• 1 cup coconut oil
• 3/4 cup toasted carob powder
• 1/4 cup Lyle's Golden Cane syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup roasted salted cashews
• 1/4 cup chopped apricots
• 1/4 cup raisons (I like golden but use whatever is available and looks good.)

1. Melt coconut oil in double boiler.

2. Add cane syrup and then mix in vanilla and carob powder. Do this all quickly or the mixture will seize up and separate.  

2. Pour onto pan (think pie pan, or small brownie pan, should be deep but not huge) covered with plastic wrap.

3. Sprinkle nuts, chopped apricots and raisons over the mixture. Do not stir in.  

4. Cool in the fridge or freezer. 

5. Break into pieces. Keep in the fridge so that it doesn't melt. 

I think you can probably change this up depending on your personal preferences, maybe different dried fruits or nuts. Stick to the ratio and order of the first part though, this was surprisingly difficult to make and my first crack at it the coconut oil separated from the carob. Tasty yummy but didn't look so hot.

Be healthy, happy and eat well! xoxo - Iris

Eating 5 Days a Week!

Lately I've been posting a lot of things for those of you who are just becoming gluten free. As much as I love sharing my recipes I also know that for the other 5 days a week you just want to stay full, fed and healthy. So today's entry is an example of food planning for the week.

These are just some basic suggestions, I'm vegetarian so I've also made recommendations for proteins to accompany the dishes for those of who are not. Also I don't address desserts or sweets really here but its always good to have some chocolate, sorbet, gluten free cookies on hand during the week for when a craving hits.

MONDAY

BREAKFAST: Warm gluten free oatmeal with butter and brown sugar. 

LUNCH: Egg salad or tuna salad scoop on top of leafy green salad with vegetables of your selection.

SNACK:  cheese cubes, apple slices, almonds

DINNER: Steamed rice with stir fry of mixed vegetables seasoned with garlic, olive oil and italian spices, or go asian with it and add sesame oil, sriracha sauce, garlic and tamari sauce. Add tofu, chicken or other protein of your choice.

TUESDAY

BREAKFAST: scrambled eggs with salsa on a warmed corn tortilla with cheese and avocado. 

LUNCH: left over stir fry from prior night's dinner.

SNACK: hummus with vegetables and corn chips 

DINNER: Sauteed pre-cooked polenta topped with marina sauce and parmesan cheese. Add vegetables to your sauce or meat to make it just a bit heartier. Side salad.

WEDNESDAY

BREAKFAST: fresh fruit, berries, sliced bananas, or other seasonal fruit on top of greek yogurt with honey drizzled on top. 

LUNCH: Crustless quiche, side salad with vinaigrette.

SNACK: Olive topenade and feta mixed with olive oil, chopped garlic and paprika or pepper flakes, spread onto corn chips. Slices of cucumbers. 

DINNER: Smashed Potatoes, stuffed zucchini. Can be served with a protein for those of you who are meat eaters, like a piece of steak or something like that. Side of veggies, think green beans, corn, whatever is seasonal. 

THURSDAY

BREAKFAST: Scrambled eggs, with spinach and onions and a sprinkle of garlic salt. Side of sliced tomatoes. 

LUNCH: Shepherd pie, use the left over potatoes and meat from the night's prior meal. Place diced meat and veggies in bottum of tupperware and top with potatoes. Can be reheated at work in microwave. 

SNACK: fresh fruit, celery sticks with peanut butter or cream cheese. 

DINNER: Enchilada casserole with beans and rice on the side. Enchilada casserole is essential corn tortillas layered with cheese, onions and beans. Pour premade enchilada sauce, store bought or made ahead and frozen. Cook plain rice seasoned with salsa and heat up a can of beans. Serve with sour cream and avocado slices. 

FRIDAY

BREAKFAST: Fried eggs, pre-made hash browns, topped with katsup and side of fresh sliced avocado. 

LUNCH: Left over enchiladas. Top with fried egg or boiled egg sliced up. 

SNACK: Mixed nuts, dried fruit, fresh juices like carrot or a green mix.

DINNER: Cauliflower Mac and cheese with side salad. Also for the meat eaters add baked chicken.

Hope these suggestions help, of course there is always a can of soup and a salad if you are in a bind... healthy, happy eating to all!

xoxo- Iris

How to grocery shop gluten free...

I was chatting a bit ago with a friend who has recently gone gluten free, she has been struggling, as I hear a lot of people do, when adjusting to a gluten free lifestyle. I say lifestyle because there is a huge adjustment one must make when becoming gluten free, so much of our socialization centers around going out to eat and consuming food with family and friends. When you suddenly find that your diet is restricted you need to make accommodations in a lot of places in your life. Many restaurants are becoming more sensitive to the needs of the gluten free consumer so luckily while eating out there may now be a few more options available. But lets talk now about  a basic trip to the grocery store, how do you feed yourself throughout the week? especially if you have a busy schedule and can't always spend a whole night preparing a gourmet meal from a gluten free cookbook or blog...

Vegetables: The good news here is when you are in the produce section you can go crazy! Think salads, stir fry, carrot sticks and other sliced veggies for munching on throughout the day. Fruit, lots of fruit! Apples, oranges, whatever is seasonally available.

There are also vegetables that make excellent substitutes, for example thinly sliced zucchini is wonderful quickly boiled and used as a pasta for any marina or cream sauce that you would typically toss a wheat pasta in. I have also heard of spaghetti squash being used for this purpose too but have not done it myself.

Starches: Potatoes, which can be prepared a ton of ways, boiled, mashed, fried, baked, potato salad... don't forget potatoes aren't just russets either. There are baby potatoes and fingerling potatoes, red and white potatoes, even purple potatoes and each is excellent. I love boiled potatoes (any variety except the russet) tossed with boiled green beans dressed in pesto sauce. Serve warm or cold its awesome.

Rice... white rice, brown rice, jasmine rice, wild rice. This is the time to become a fan of risotto. Saute garlic, onions, carrots and other vegetables in a pan, toss in a little white wine, simmer down, throw in your rice, arborio is the rice of preference as it become creamy but you can use short grain regular rice, now add vegetable stock (I'm vegetarian, this would work with chicken or meat stock too I assume.) Once the rice is cooked stir in a ton of Parmesan cheese. Salt, pepper... herbs, anything to taste.

Other excellent and easy uses for rice, make it like mac and cheese, use it as a base under a stir fry, rice pudding, or brown rice cooked up and served like a warm porridge.

Alternative grains like quinoa are great but are not always available at all stores.

Breading: right now my favorite way to bread things for frying or baking is corn. It is fairly easy to find Masa Harina and the grocery store. You'll find it in the Spanish section, it is a corn flour used for tamales or homemade corn tortillas. If you wish to make breaded mushrooms, zucchini or perhaps fried chicken I suggest salting and herbing some buttermilk and tossing the vegetable or chicken into the buttermilk and then rolling till covered in seasoned masa harina. By seasoned I mean salt, pepper, whatever you like. You can fancy it up by adding some garlic powder or paprika, personally I like adding this to the buttermilk and keeping with just a little salt added to the masa, I find it seasons the food but the spices have a tendency to burn. Fry your food in corn or canola oil till crispy and cooked through.

Baking: For basics it helps to have a few things around like butter, eggs, sugar but in place of wheat flour I always keep corn starch, brown rice flour and potato flour on hand, which I use as a blend as a flour substitute  I have an earlier post where I sing the praises of Bob's Red Mill products, if you are not able to find these at your local grocery store you can purchase them online (amazon.com) and also you can use gluten free instant potatoes ground finer as a replacement for potato flour.

If you are not a baker and want something instant I will confess its readily available and not bad, check out the Betty Crocker line of box mixes. http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/gluten-free-baking-mixes The cool part is Betty Crocker's gluten free line is actually way nicer than their other products with none of the weird unpronounceable ingredients. How ironic, eh?

Condiments: be wary of salad dressings and mustards, they can contain wheat... look for soy sauce, wheat germ things like that, do not buy those products. The good news is some very basic brands now clearly label themselves as gluten free. Hidden Valley ranch dressing, gluten free. :) My personal preference is to stick to things like oil and vinegar, toss a salad in a basic herb mixture and then some nice quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar, its very lovely.

Remember soy sauce comes from wheat but Tamari does not and is exactly the same thing. Some folks are using Braggs amino acids, which is a brown sauce, I've never used it but it is popular. I also like things like sriracha and sesame oil for seasoning my Asian style dishes.

You are pretty much safe with all pickles, olives and things of that sort. Heinz Ketsup... yup, its gluten free. http://www.heinz.com/glutenfree/products.html

Salsa, this is always safe, keep a jar in your fridge at all times, can't go wrong with some chips salsa and guacamole, but it is also great scrambled in eggs and topped with cheese in a corn tortilla (breakfast tacos.)

Cheese: Buy blocks of cheese, do not buy grated Parmesan cheese or shredded cheese, there are starches and powders and "cellulose" added that are not gluten free and questionable at best. This is used to prevent the cheese from sticking together, grate your own cheese fresh, it will taste better and be safe. Other than that you are pretty safe, there is some debate on blue cheese so I personally avoid it and don't eat cheeses with beer added, that goes with out saying.

Eggs: Of course eggs are safe... you can make omelettes with veggies and meats or scrambbled eggs to eat with potatoes. Or even breakfast tacos...

which leads me to...

Breads, etc.: I personally like Udi's gluten free white sandwich bread, its also reasonably priced at trader joes. Always keep some corn tortillas on hand. Easy to make a corn quesadillas for lunch or breakfast tacos for, well, breakfast. Also a warmed up corn tortilla makes a lovely side with any breakfast that you otherwise would have had toast with.

Beverages: You should be pretty safe to drink nearly anything. No beer though. Also none of those fancy wine cooler malt beverages. Stick to things like tequila, wine, vodka(potato vodka only, Absolut vodka is made with wheat)... non alcoholic things like juice are safe and all Hansen sodas are gluten free. Beware of carmel color in sodas.

Candies: Watch out for wheat hidden in candy, that means no more jelly beans. There is wheat syrup and gums used in a lot of candies, chocolate are pretty safe but also keep an eye out for things that contain malt. Skittles are gluten free though and you can see that they label clearly which always makes me happy.

Other snacks: potato chips, NOT BBQ, all pretty safe, just check the ingredients if you are getting the seasoned ones. Corn chips, cheetos, SOME but not all Doritos.

Things to avoid, if you see any of this listed in ingredients it either means the product does or could contain wheat or wheat products:

• Cellulose
• Glucose Syrup (can be made from wheat or potatoes, barley or rice, no real way to know if its "safe")
• Soy Sauce (in the US its made from fermented wheat, so if you see it listed as an ingredient its not "soy." Look for this in marinades, salad dressing, etc.)
• Triticum vulgare (wheat)

• Triticale (cross between wheat and rye)

• Hordeum vulgare (barley)

• Secale cereale (rye)

• Triticum spelta (spelt, a form of wheat)

• Wheat protein/hydrolyzed wheat protein

• Wheat starch/hydrolyzed wheat starch

• Wheat flour/bread flour/bleached flour

• Bulgur (a form of wheat)

• Malt (made from barley)

• Couscous (made from wheat)

• Farina (made from wheat)

• Pasta (made from wheat unless otherwise indicated)

• Seitan (made from wheat gluten and commonly used in vegetarian meals)

• Wheat or barley grass (will be cross contaminated)

• Wheat germ oil or extract (will be cross contaminated)

• Vegetable protein/hydrolyzed vegetable protein (can come from wheat, corn or soy)

• Modified starch/modified food starch (can come from several sources, including wheat)

• Natural flavor/natural flavoring (can come from barley)

• Artificial flavor/artificial flavoring (can come from barley)

• Caramel color (now considered a safe ingredient, but if you're in doubt, check with the manufacturer)

• Modified food starch

• Hydrolyzed plant protein/HPP

• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein/HVP

• Seasonings

• Flavorings

• Vegetable starch

• Dextrin and Maltodextrin (both sometimes made from wheat)

Also please be aware that the FDA does not presently monitor what food or standards a product must meet to be considered "gluten free." That means don't trust labeling because that can just be marketing. The industry accepted standard is that the food must fall below 20PPM (20 parts per million.) This means your "gluten free" food product may contain wheat ingredients, so check the nutritional list anyways, if you are like me you will avoid food with wheat in them at all not just 20PPM, that is a personal choice and depends on your sensitivity.

If you ever are not sure call the number listed on the container, most companies will be fairly educated and transparent when you say that you want to know if the product is gluten free. If they can not or will not give you the information don't eat it... companies should be proud of what they are putting in their food and if they don't know or won't tell you then to me that raises a red flag anyways. 

I may think of more things but this is it for now... safe eating, safe shopping and safe consumption. 

xoxo- Iris