Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Bars

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal

 Cookie Bars

Gluten Free & Dairy Free

So My aunt posted a healthy paleo recipe for chocolate chip cookie squares on facebook the other day and I really wanted to make them, but when I went to the recipe I didn't have the right ingredients, but at that point I was already craving cookie bars so badly so I made up my own version, they aren't a healthy recipe but they ARE gluten and dairy free :)

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Bars
1/2 cup gluten free oats
1/2-1 cup gluten free flour (add more til you are happy with consistency)
(I used a premixed gluten free flour blend that contains xanthan gum, add 1 tsp xanthan gum if your flour blend doesn't have it)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup shortening or palm oil (or butter if you aren't dairy free)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli, the ones I buy don't have milk in them)

In mixer blend peanut butter,shortening, sugar, egg and vanilla.  Add gluten free oats, gluten free flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.  Press into a 8x8 inch baking dish and bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. (baking time may vary as I used the convection setting)

So no these aren't paleo or sugar free or anything awesome like that, but I did add the peanut butter and oatmeal to make them a little more hearty and satisfying :)

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Easy Gluten Free Breakfast

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Eating Gluten Free and Dairy Free can be a big chore most of the time, it involves a lot of baking and cooking from scratch so it's nice to be able to have short cuts once in a while!  That's why I love the GF DF pancakes at Trader Joes!  They are inexpensive and you just pop them in the toaster and you've got pancakes!  I do have a great pancake recipe that I make often as well that is great but for those mornings I don't feel like making pancakes all morning or before bed and I need a little sweet snack...this is a good fix!

The frozen Trader Joes gluten free pancakes come in packages of 3 so what I like to do is just pop all 3 in the toaster and when they pop up, I spread the first one with peanut butter and sprinkle on some mini chocolate chips, add the 2nd pancake and add another layer of peanut butter and chocolate chips and then add the 3rd pancake with a little more peanut butter and real maple syrup.  It is soooooo yummy!

The mini chocolate chips melt between the pancake layers and mix with the peanut butter and syrup in the best possible way!

Yes.....I have an obsession with chocolate and peanut butter.......

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chocolate Easter Eggs

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Eggs

gluten free and dairy free

For Easter this year, we had to make our own chocolate treats to avoid gluten and dairy.  I saw multiple blogs that had made peanut butter chocolate eggs but I've made peanut butter balls before and wasn't interested in the 1 cup peanut butter to 3 cups powdered sugar recipe.  I then looked up "chocolate chip peanut butter balls" and found this video on youtube for raw vegan peanut butter balls and that kind of inspired me to create these.

Chocolate Covered Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Balls (Eggs)

Peanut Butter (I use Natural Jif or Skippy)

Raw Almonds

Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

honey

vanilla

a little powdered sugar (optional)

There are no exact measurements, you just add dry ingredients until you get the dough the to right consistency for being able to roll into balls.

In a food processor (this is a mini one) grind up your almonds to make almond meal, leaving some small bits intact as in the photo below.

 In a large bowl (or kitchenaid mixer if you have one) add a bunch of peanut butter.  This is probably around 1 1/2 cups or so...doesn't really matter.

 Add a tsp of vanilla and a tablespoon or so of honey, then add in all your almond meal and mix together.

After adding all the almond meal, it wasn't quite thick enough and since I didn't feel like grinding up more almonds (my cheap processor is going to make me go deaf!) I just turned to mixer on low speed and slowly added a little powdered sugar until it formed into a ball, it didn't take very much at all....maybe a 1/4 cup?  And you could leave out the powdered sugar and just add more almond meal for a healthy snack.

Roll into small balls (or ovals to make easter eggs) and place on a tray or plate, cover with plastic wrap and set in freezer.  You can enjoy these just like this, they are not too sweet but still a super yummy treat.  You'll satisfy your sweet tooth without feeling sick after because the peanut butter is decently sweet and that little bit of honey adds some sweetness as well.

 To take these a step further...and it's worth it...add a cup of your chocolate chips to a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute, stir, then microwave at 30 second intervals stirring each time until smooth.  Using a fork, roll your chocolate chip peanut butter balls in the melted chocolate and then set back in the tray.

Once they are all covered, set in the freezer again to harden the chocolate.  We just kept ours in the freezer and ate them cold because they were so yummy like that, kind of like eating frozen cookie dough but better, and they were still soft, not too hard from being frozen.

My husband is not big into sweets but he was totally into these and my daughter was obsessed with them as well, so I was pretty excited with how yummy they turned out without having to use anywhere near as much sugar as traditional peanut butter balls.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Gluten and Dairy Free

One of the things my kids and I share a deep love for is MUFFINS!  I have fond memories of my childhood going to the mall with my mom, smelling the wonderful smell of fresh baked muffins and sniffing my way to a MMMuffins! I chain in Canada where I always found my favorite treat...a big chocolate chip muffin!  I mean, just check out this muffin...wouldn't YOU want to dig in?  You have no idea how good these muffins are....unless of course you've had them...

mmmuffins

Then in my young adult years (up until I gave up gluten and got my joints back...I'm still 27...till my b-day in a week and a half...that's still young adult right??)  I would indulge in the chocolate chip muffins from Dunkin' Donuts when we made trips to the East Coast and then more frequently when we moved to Dallas.  Now....If I want to buy a good muffin, I'll pick up a 4 pack of Udi's blueberry muffins...but I'm not really allowed to eat them, my 4 year old will disown me  unless I sneak it, she's pretty possessive of her muffins....wonder where she gets that from!!!

Udi's blueberry muffins

So when it comes to having muffins enough to share, yummy enough to still want to hoard all 12 of them to yourself anyways, muffins that don't contain gluten or dairy and also don't break the bank we make our own.  We have a few good recipes we've shared previously such as

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffin with Coconut Struesel
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins
Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

And our newest favorite ....

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

gluten free dairy free

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup flour gf flour blend*

3/4 cup sugar

1 TBsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 applesauce

3/4 milk (coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc)

2 tsp vanilla

1 large banana (mashed)

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (ghiridelli semi sweet are dairy free)

*I use Silvana Nardone's Gluten Free Flour Blend if you have another gluten free flour blend you like, just use that but if there is not xanthan gum already in your blend, add 1 tsp xanthan gum to recipe.  I just love the texture of Silvana's blend, just like regular flour, light and smooth.

Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 cup muffin tin with paper muffin cups

Combine dry ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl.

In separate bowl, combine wet ingredients

Mix all together, add chocolate chips and gently fold and mix till just moistened

Divide into muffin cups and bake for 22-25 minutes til slightly golden on top.

Dig in while still steamy and chocolate chips are melting all over your face and hands......dare I say....mmmmmmmm....muffins!!!

Before you go, enter my current giveaway HERE!!!

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Also Dairy Free

OK so maybe this isn’t the best recipe to be posting the first week of the new year when so many of use are trying to be healthier, but sometimes you need things like this to get through certain things….okay…yeah, we don’t NEED food to cope with things, but sometimes, if I can just eat something chocolate…I’m a much better person.  Anyways, the kids love ‘em too.  For some reason I got thinking about muffins and those jumbo chocolate chocolate chip muffins you can buy at Costco or other bakeries and I just really missed being able to have that.  So I pulled out the best muffin recipe I have ever used (including pre-gluten free days) and just made one change to it to make these delicious gluten free chocolate chocolate chip muffins or double chocolate chip muffins….however you want to say it!

Here is the gluten free muffin recipe, but to make them double chocolate, just like the ones from the store, you are going to subtract 1/3 cup flour and replace it with 1/3 cup cocoa powder.  Then add a cup of Ghirardelli semi-sweet or 60% cocoa chocolate chips (they are dairy free and I use coconut milk when making these).

Gluten Free Homemakers Basic Muffin Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

• 1 2/3 c. gluten-free flour mix
• 1/3 c cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1  Tb. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla or other flavoring
• 3/4 – 1 c. milk, juice, or water
• up to 1 c. chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and sugar.  In a smaller bowl, or measuring cup, combine the oil, eggs, vanilla and milk.  Add that to the dry ingredients and whisk together until moistened.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Divide into lined muffin cups and I like to sometimes sprinkle a little sugar on top like the bakeries do.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.  Usually best served warm.

(note: I use Silvana Nardone's GF blend and leave out the xanthan gum when making this recipe since her blend already has the xanthan gum in it.  I just love her blend and all her recipes!  

I love this recipe because it is so versatile!  I've also used this gluten free muffin recipe to make

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Strawberry Muffins

Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Muffins with Coconut Streusel

Gluten Free Coffee Cake with Maple Frosting

Gourmet NutRageous!

Gourmet NutRageous

Gluten Free and Dairy Free 
and better than the original (according to hubby)

Ok, so NutRageous has always been my favorite candy bar.  I remember one summer on vacation in Madison, CT my hubby and I were looking high and low at the various drug stores and grocery stores to satisfy my craving and when I was pregnant with B, 2 Christmas' ago, my husband got me a big box of NutRageous chocolate bars from Costco!   I had been craving them all pregnancy, but in Dallas we couldn't find them anywhere so when we were back in WA for Christmas, that big box of NutRageous bars was way better than a tiny box with something sparkly.  

SO, ever since I had B (now 18 months) I have been off dairy and now gluten, so I couldn't have a NutRageous even if I could track one down in Omaha, but I was really craving one last week while driving in the car and suddenly I knew what I had to do....

so here is what I did.....

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

mix pb, sugar and egg and then form cookies and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  let set for a few minutes then transfer to wire cooling rack.  I formed my cookies with a "canal" in the middle, pushing the length of my finger down the center rather than flattening with a fork, to hold the caramel.

I placed the cookies in muffin cups after making them, but you could start out making them in muffin cups to create a more uniform shape.  Line the cookies up on a cookie sheet.

Later that day when the cookies were cool and i had a minute, I made my mom's caramel corn recipe, her caramel corn is my favorite because the caramel is soft and doesn't break your teeth...perfect for a candy bar!

Dairy Free Caramel (make with real butter if you can have dairy)

2/3 cup sugar (all white or 1/2 white 1/2 brown)

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup butter (I use best life buttery baking sticks they are dairy free)

1 tsp vanilla

combine sugar, butter and corn syrup in a small pot. Melt to boil then boil for 3 minutes while stirring.  Add Vanilla.  I let the caramel cool and thicken a little bit and then spooned it on top of the gluten free peanut butter cookies.  

NUTS

Top caramel with a generous amount of peanuts and gently press into the caramel.

Set aside and let caramel set up completely, (a few minutes)

CHOCOLATE

In a microwave safe bowl, put a bag of 60% cocoa ghiradelli chocolate chips (they're dairy free) in bowl and microwave for 1 minutes.  Stir with a fork then microwave another 40 seconds, stir with fork and then microwave another 40 seconds and stir till chocolate chips are all melted.

Spoon melted chocolate over the cookes and spread around covering the entire surface.

Cover cookies with plastic wrap or foil and place in the fridge so the chocolate will harden back up.  Keep refriderated and remove from fridge 10-15 minutes before serving so they can soften up a bit.  The chocolate melts really fast so having the nutrageous in a muffin cup helps keep the hands cleaner.  For my daughter we put on a cutting board and cut the candybar into bite size pieces and that made it easier and less messy to handle.  Personally...I don't mind having to lick the chocolate off my fingers after I've polished off one of these babies!

It may seem like a lot of work, but it was really just a couple easy steps that I just came back to when I had a spare moment here and there yesterday.  I mean, take the easiest ever cookies recipe and the easiest fastest ever caramel recipe and that's the hardest part!...yeah not very hard :)

Chocolate Chip and Strawberry Muffins- Gluten Free Dairy Free

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Dairy Free

Strawberry Muffins

Gluten Free and Dairy Free

We are muffin lovers, that was one of the hardest parts about changing our diet to gluten free dairy free...no more muffins. Until we found the yummy Udi's muffins but they are pricey!  My daughter and I used to always bake muffins together, and we have been finally enjoying more muffin making together again.  We have been using the Basic Gluten Free Muffin Recipe by Gluten Free Homemaker that we used to concoct our amazing Blueberry Muffins with Coconut Topping.  We most recently used the basic recipe to make chocolate chip muffins (using ghiradelli mini chocolate chips they have no dairy) and  strawberry muffins by adding cut up strawberries to the batter.  We sprinkled sugar on top to make our muffins more like the ones from the bakery.  These are so good they do not last very long at all around here!

Basic Gluten-Free Muffin Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

• 2 c. gluten-free flour mix
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1  Tb. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 – 1/2 c. oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla or other flavoring
• 3/4 – 1 c. milk, juice, or water
• up to 1 c. additions (see note)
• optional ingredients (see note)

In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  In a smaller bowl, or measuring cup, combine the egg, flavoring,  and liquid.  Add that with the oil to the dry ingredients and whisk together until moistened.  Stir in additions.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.  Usually best served warm.

(note: I use Silvana Nardone's GF blend and leave out the xanthan gum when making this recipe since her blend already has the xanthan gum in it.  I just love her blend and all her recipes!  

Morning Mocha!

Morning Mocha...

I don't know about you guys, but when I wake up in the morning I want/need 3 things...A big glass of RO water (with my Swansons MultiOmega EFA's, New Chapter Organics Prenatal Vitamin (still nursing) and Swansons methylcobalamin B Vitamin), coffee and something to eat.  I have to eat breakfast.  I love my morning mocha because it is so good, easy, fast and saves me a bunch of money since starbucks is extra expensive for me since I always ask for soy milk.  I may never sleep through the night again (kids to blame), plus with having Hashimotos I really need something to pick me up in the morning to get going or I'm sluggish all day.

This Deliciously easy mocha only requires 3 things

Ghirardelli Premium Hot Cacoa-Double Chocolate (it's dairy free)

Instant Coffee 

Vanilla Coconut Milk

Put the kettle on the stove with water. While heating water, put 2 Tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tsp (or however much  you want) of instant coffee granules in coffee mug.  Add boiling water.  Top off with Coconut Milk for a creamy, tempting mocha!  

And my favorite breakfast to go with my dairy free mocha is a chunk of my homemade Granola Bars that we keep stocked with.  I don't have to bother with reading labels on energy bars and protein bars to see if they are gluten and dairy free...I just always have a batch of these made and ready to go!  And they taste better than any packaged granola bar, protein bar or energy bar that I've had.  My BIL (Bro in law) said they reminded him of chex muddy buddies...which I've never had but I'm sure they are good...although I think these are a bit healthier :)  They are definitely filling and keep my hunger at bay, think of it as eating a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, but it tastes better and you are getting healthy almonds, flax seed, brown rice and protein from the peanut butter.

Chocolate Chip and Roasted Almond Granola Bars (modified to be GF and Dairy Free)
1 to 1 1/3 cup peanut butter (I just eyeball it..I probably do a bit more..so decide if you like your granola bars more moist and chewy or more dry and crumbly when adding PB)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup Honey (or corn syrup if you don't have honey)
2 tsp vanilla

3 cups old fashioned oats (Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats)
2 cups puffed brown rice

1 cup cereal (rice chex)
3/4 cup cold milled ground flax seed (I order mine from Swansons)
3/4 cup toasted whole almonds
1 cup chocolate chips (ghirardelli semi-sweet or 60% both are dairy free but always check)

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 inch baking pan.  (i line mine with foil because it's easier to take the bars out and cut them up.)

Mix first 5 ingredients together.  Then add the oats, wheat germ and ground flax (optional).  Stir in chocolate chips, almonds and cereal.

Spread mixture into baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.  the let cool.