Savory lentil muffins

If you or your kids have a restricted diet and breads are a thing of the past, you have to try these simple-ingredient muffins!  These are a staple in our home.

Let me start by telling you what is NOT in them before we get to the ingredients.   No gluten, no casein, no eggs, this is a lower oxalate and Failsafe bread!!  

What IS in them?
-1 cup of red lentils (soak overnight, they will be more than one cup once soaked) 
-1 tsp sea salt
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp cream of tartar
-spice(s) of choice (I chose chives)

Put all of the ingredients into a blender, add water so that it is at about halfway up to the height of the lentils.   Blend, fill cupcake cups about 3/4 full and bake on 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Makes 8 muffins. Voila!

Salty Sweet White Chocolate bars

These bad boys are GFCFSF, egg-free, low oxalate and low salicylate!!

We made them on the saltier side, so I reduced the salt by half for this recipe, and if you like sweets, you may even want to increase the xylitol.  It was a unique flavor with the interesting balance of salt and white chocolate, like combining hot and sweet, a combination of flavors that seem to almost contradict each other, but in the end, prove to compliment each other nicely.



I imagine they would be really tasty with nut butter or sunflower seed butter too.

 

The face of pleasure!

Ingredients

• 2 rice cakes - crumbled
• 1 pear - peeled and shredded
• 1/3 C cocoa butter - melted gently
• 2 Tbs ground flaxseed
• 2 Tbs birch derived xylitol
• 1 Tbs sunflower lecithin
• 1 Tbs tapioca flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

In a small bowl, mix the crumbled rice cakes, shredded pear, ground flaxseed, xylitol and salt. 

In an even smaller bowl, whisk together the already melted cocoa butter, tapioca flour and lecithin.

Pour this mixture into the ingredients in the larger bowl and blend well so that all of the ingredients mingle evenly.

Press into a small casserole dish, size depending on how thick you want your bars to be.

Refrigerate until firm.  They will still be fairly soft and can fall apart, so I like the smaller square size which are better for kid size hands anyway.  =)

 Voila!

GFCFSFEF and low oxalate pancakes!!

These rock!  Going on the LOD and being free of every baking ingredient known to man-kind makes it a challenge to find a good pancake recipe.  I am big on avoiding rice whenever possible too, so these are actually rice-free too!!  I have been tweaking this recipe to make it hold up to good old fluffy boxed pancakes.  Sorry, these aren't quite as easy to make though.

We like a lot of flavor in our pancakes. These are hearty and flavorful and they fluff right up when cooking even without eggs or gluten!  We like the flavor enough to just grab one in our hand and eat it up.

They are nice and fluffy and they even cook just like boxed pancakes, if you leave the batter thicker.  No uncooked gluten-free goo here!

When I am batch-cooking pancakes, I like to make my batter a little on the thin side, because I like our pancakes thinner, to stretch further.  I usually will triple this recipe and freeze enough for three to four more breakfasts!  I just toss them in the toaster and voila, done in seconds.

Wisk the dry ingredients into a medium bowl
-1/2 C. black eyed pea flour (grind dry beans on grain grind setting in blender or food processor)
-1/2 C. pumpkin seed flour (grind in blender or coffee grinder)
-1/4 C. water chestnut flour (you can get this at Asian markets very cheap, it's a must for volume)
-2 Tbs chestnut flour (this gives an awesome hearty flavor to the pancakes)
-2 Tbs coconut sugar (or swap and add coconut nectar into wet ingredients)
-1 Tb garbanzo bean flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp cream of tartar (I rotate this out by swapping it with apple cider vinegar occasionally, but I prefer the cream of tartar)
-1/2 tsp salt

In a smaller bowl, wisk the wet ingredients together
-1 C. water (I usually start a little less and add more as I need it so I have a desired consistency)
-1 Tbs vanilla
-2 Tbs oil of choice (we like macadamia nut)
-Add any substitute liquids (ie - coconut nectar or apple cider vinegar)

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and wisk until smooth.  Let this sit for a good 15-30 minutes until the consistency thickens up enough, it WILL thicken over time!  This is usually when I turn the griddle on and let it slowly heat up to temp so it's good and hot when I start.  You will have flat flabby pancakes, if you try to cook them on a less then hot griddle.  I should have taken THOSE pictures so you can see how many times I have rushed and ruined the whole first batch, lol.

This is the finished product without doctoring, thick and hearty!  They can be used as bread, topped with ghee and/or VCO and fruit or even eaten just like they are.  My kids have had them each of those ways and they NEVER get bored of them.  With a diet so restricted, that says a lot.  We have only three breakfast options that we rotate and they always look forward to their pancake days!  They love to make sandwiches out of mango slices and their pancakes.

Cauliflower....cookies???

Let me explain first, hahaha.  Our boys are on a low oxalate diet and carrots are high oxalate, so when I found a simple carrot cookie recipe, I decided to use something similar in consistency and loved the idea of sneaking a veggie into the cookie, which is something I try to do frequently!  These are not very sweet, but you could increase the sweetener, if you would like.  They are very tasty like they are though and feel free to swap out ingredients (like carrots for the cauliflower or a different flour), if you would like.  You don't taste the cauliflower at all.

Dry ingredients
1/2 c. black eyed pea flour (I just use the grain setting on my Blendtec to turn these into a flour)
1/2 c. garbanzo bean flour
1/3 c. arrowroot or tapioca flour (be aware that tapioca is corn-based)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar or 1/4 tsp unbuffered vitamin C crystals
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (we eliminate this ingredient since it's high oxalate)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c. cauliflower pulsed in a blender so it looks like small kernals, like rice (or substitute grated carrots)
1/3 c. raisins or dried cranberries

Wet ingredients
1/4 c. coconut nectar (you could substitute agave or honey)
3 Tbs oil
3 Tbs apple or pear sauce
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

PREHEAT OVEN TO 325 degrees
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl and dry in another then
combine.

Fold in cauliflower and raisins/cranberries.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown then move to a rack and cool.

Store in a paper bag and use within a few days.

Recipe - low oxalate pumpkin blueberry muffins

I have been experimenting with flour mixes to make a tasty blend that works for muffins, since this is always something I can sneak veggie puree into!  Going low oxalate turned my world upside down and took my kitchen by storm, literally!!  I am in experiment mode which is always messy, my poor husband!

So I took a bunch of different recipe ideas and created this one tasty muffin with my own flour mix...I'm sure it's not the first time this mix has been formulated, so when I say that I created it, I mean that I am just using our needs to tailor the flour mix so that it works for us.  I am not a fan of using too much white rice so this flour mix was created with that in mind, although no low oxalate, GFCF flour mix is complete without some rice flour, lol.  I also think that garbanzo bean flour (moderate oxalate) is a bit strong.  So I blended it's competitor, the lower oxalate black eyed pea, into a flour using my baby, uh, I mean...my blendtec!  Talk about an appliance that does it all!

Ok, back to the muffins, here is a picture and you will find the recipe below it.  It is light and fluffy and doesn't have that I'm-not-made-with-wheat taste! 

In a large bowl, whisk together:

1 cup eyed pea flour (I used my blendtec to make this flour from dried beans)
1 cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup white rice flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon guar gum

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Put the following into a blender and whip for a few seconds until nice and fluffy:

1 cup sweetener of choice (I chose 1/2 cup coconut nectar and 1/2 xylitol)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
2 eggs 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
 
Mix the ingredients together and if it requires more liquid, add up to 1/2 cup of coconut milk.

 

Fold in 1/2 cup of your choice of blueberries, banana chunks, apple chunks or dried cherries.

 

Fill 12 lined cupcake tins almost full and bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown or until a toothpick comes out of the center of the muffin clean.