The Very Best Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Guys, stop what you're doing because I made the absolute very best gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookies in all of the world. I have very little experience with gluten-free baking and up until now I've avoided it at all costs. I had my jar of all-purpose wheat flour, so why would I go out and buy 10 different gluten-free flours to make a cookie that would more closely resemble crumbly cardboard than a cookie? Now that my cupboard is full of all sorts of flour alternatives and my husband was craving some chocolate chip cookies, I figured I'd give it a try.

I decided to start off with my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and make substitutions rather than find an existing recipe online. Mostly since I knew I've perfected my chocolate chip cookies to exactly suit my tastes. I threw in all sorts of gluten-free flours in a somewhat educated manner and oddly enough, my concoction worked on the first try (which never happens) and the cookies turned out great.

This recipe makes super soft, non-crumbly, perfect cookies that you wouldn't even know were vegan, let alone gluten-free. They have even been likened to a "chewier Chips Ahoy" (direct quote from my husband).

Heart Windowpane Cookies - Gluten-free and Vegan

You could make a simple jam thumbprint cookie and call it day, but why would you do that when you could make painfully adorable heart windowpane cookies instead? Assuming you're not too sick of Valentine's Day mush yet, I think these cookies would make a perfect gift for anyone on any day. That is, if you don't eat them all before they make it out your door, which tends to be my problem.

More than Gluten-free Mac n Yease

When we started this elimination diet, one of the first things I thought of making was Mac n Yease. Veggie Grille and Plum Bistro here in Seattle both make a pretty delicious gluten-free Mac n Yease, so I figured making the soy-free version would be a cinch, as long as I could find some gluten-free pasta that wasn't mush. Plus it's fun to say Mac n Yeezy instead of Yease.

After a little research and some grocery aisle scouring, I found maybe my most favorite gluten-free pasta to date, Tinkayda's Brown Rice Shells. Like the package very proudly boasts, this pasta is "not mushy" has a "good texture" and cooks "al dente"! I haven't checked at Whole Foods, PCC, or some of the other health markets, but I just found it at my local Safeway and you can also definitely get it online.

As for the recipe, I adapted a copy of Plum Bistro spicy Mac n Yease recipe I found from Vegan Richa. Her recipe comes pretty close to tasting like Plum Bistro's, and it was a great starting off point for figuring out how to make a gluten and soy-free version.

Vegan Black Beans and Rice

As a vegan I get a lot of questions about my protein. How do you get protein if you don't eat meat, dairy, or eggs? The thing is though, yes, meat and eggs by themselves are complete proteins, meaning they have the nine amino acids our bodies can't produce on their own, but meat and eggs aren't the only way to get complete proteins. We don't need every essential amino acid in every bite of food. Even though beans and rice by themselves are not complete proteins, when paired together they have all the nine amino acids our bodies need. Which is great, because they make a delicious pair!

Vegan Raw Berry Pie with Almond Crust and Coconut Cashew Cream

Lunch Break - Wednesday

COCONUT THAI CURRY / vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, sugar-free, paleo / Delicious leftovers from last night's dinner. I couldn't find a Thai curry paste that met all the restrictions, so I kind of winged it and it turned out great! I'm going to try to recreate it and write down what I do this time so I can share the recipe.

GRILLED CHICKEN / gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, sugar-free, paleo / Just some free-range, organic, local chicken for the ol' husband.

WHITE RICE / soy-free, nut-free, sugar-free / I know brown rice would have been better, but I have a Costco-sized bag of Jasmine rice, so you know...

BERRIES / fresh and raw / Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

Lunch - Monday

CHICKEN FRIED RICE with BUTTERNUT SQUASH and PEAS / gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free / Another repeat of last week's lunches. Who knew 2 cups of rice would last so long?!

PISTACHIOS / vegan, paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free /

APPLE COBBLER / vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free / The real star of today's lunch, since it was the only one that required any sort of effort. I experimented with three different toppings. Mostly because the recipe seemed to make about 1/4 of the cobbler that I felt should be on my 9x11 pan of apples and by the time I realized the disproportions, I was too lazy to make another batch according to the recipe, so I took the opportunity to wing it. All three versions were okay, but still definitely had that somewhat powdery, not substantial taste gluten-free flours tend to have.

Lunch Break - Thursday

MASHED POTATOES / vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free / The stars were seriously aligned when I made these. The only thing I did differently than my pre-crazy diet days was use almond milk instead of vegan sour cream, so maybe that was it. Or maybe it was fairy dust. I don't know. If it was the almond milk, I'm a newly converted almond milk in mashed potatoes girl from here on out. I took regular peeled and boiled russet potatoes, blended with a bit of soy-free Earth Balance and unsweetened almond milk, added a touch of onion and garlic powders, and then a fair amount of salt and pepper. That's it! Magic, fairy, unicorn mashed potatoes.

OVEN ROASTED VEGGIES / vegan, paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free, nut-free / Oven roasted broccoli and asparagus with shallot oil and Coconut Aminos. I was on the fence about Coconut Aminos, but with the shallot oil, some salt and pepper, it was pretty tasty on these roasted veggies.

BAKED SPAGHETTI SQUASH / vegan, paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free, nut-free / Leftovers from spaghetti squash dinner the night before. Nothing fancy, but spaghetti squash, is always a winner.

TERRA CHIPS / vegan, paleo (I think), gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free / These are some of the few packaged snacks (that we've found) that are soy-free, corn-free, sugar-free, wheat-free, oat-free, etc. Luckily, they're delicious and perfect and it's way too easy to eat the entire bag in one sitting.

YOGURT AND RASPBERRIES / vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free / Refer to Tuesday's lunch. This is just unsweetened coconut yogurt, with agave syrup and vanilla extract, topped with raspberries.

Lunch Break - Wednesday

This lunch took about 10 minutes to put together. Leftovers, fresh fruit, and crackers for the win!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO // This is actually a pre-packaged mix from Costco. It takes forever to make, but it is tasty. Which is a good thing, because we have about 10 lbs of it.

TUNA AND PICKLES // This is real tuna since it's for my husband, but I just found some vegan "toona" at Whole Foods made from pea protein, that I'm pretty excited to try.

RICE CRACKERS // By the people who brought you wheat thins, the saltier, less addicting cracker. They're great with things though. Such as tuna. Or chickpea tuna.

APPLES // Nothing fancy here, just apples.

Italian Bean Balls and Spaghetti Squash

This meal is a family favorite and probably one of the easiest so far to convert to adhere to all the rules of the elimination diet. I made the tomato sauce from scratch, as I usually do. If you're more of a canned type of person, I think there are a few brands that don't have sugar, but you're going to have to look a bit. As for the bean balls, this is one of our favorite recipes. I've made it in the past with white beans and regular oats. But since oats are banned, I used gluten-free all purpose flour instead and because I had no kidney beans or white beans, I used black beans. I haven't tested this theory yet, but I'm pretty sure you could use any type of beans or nuts that you like and they would still be amazing. I did puree the mixture a bit too much since I was being lazy and trying to make it all in one batch in the food processor, so ignore the consistency in the pictures. One of those do I as I say, not as I do sort of situations.

Lunch Break - Tuesday

From left to right:

CHICKEN FRIED RICE // Includes broccoli, carrots, peas, Cocnut Aminos, sesame oil, and a teeeeeensy amount of chili garlic sauce. Also some chicken, because my husband eats chicken on occasion and with this diet he's eating whatever he can, but you could easily leave the chicken out for a vegan fried rice. It was decent, but I still need to figure out a better mixture of sauces. Coconut Aminos is good, but it doesn't deliver the same flavor punch as soy sauce.

CHIA SEED YOGURT PUDDING // Unsweetened coconut yogurt, which I sweetened with agave syrup and vanilla extract. This is easily kind of gross if you don't add some sort of flavor to the yogurt. So you must add flavor. You must! Almond extract and maple would also probably be pretty tasty. Chia seeds left to soak overnight making a nice pudding consistency. And blackberries on top.

VEGGIES AND HUMMUS // Grape tomatoes and carrots with homemade hummus. Most store-bought hummus - including our usual favorite, Sabra - add soy ingredients, or sugar, or who knows what else...womp womp.  After some research I've found that to up this to Sabra level, I maybe should have creamed the tahini and lemon separately before adding to the chickpeas. Nevertheless, I was pretty pleased with how this turned out. I event went through the trouble of taking the skins off of every single little chickpea! Despite my inexperience in the art of hummus, this was definitely above average. I will post a recipe later!

Vegan and Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole

Holidays are a funny thing right after you get married, suddenly you have to figure out how to combine the traditions you spent the better part of your life upholding. Fortunately for us, Thanksgiving didn't present too much of a challenge since we both had a pretty standard menu growing up. Turkey (later replaced by tofurkey for me), mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing/stuffing, and so on. But one thing I never had growing up that he did, was a green bean casserole. My dad does not believe in "ruining good vegetables" in a cream sauce, and since he did most of the cooking in my house, the creamy green beans were never offered. Luckily for my husband though, I do not have the same hang ups with ruining vegetables and was happy to incorporate his family staple into our Thanksgiving.

I wasn't really sure how to go about making this recipe without the cream of mushroom soup since my cream sauces are mostly soy milk based and I didn't want to have that flavor profile in the casserole. But after a little Googling, I found a recipe that I thought might do the trick. I altered it slightly by reducing the vegan sour cream and mayonnaise since I personally found it to be a bit too runny and a little too rich for my taste, but other than that I kept true to Beth's original recipe (thanks Beth!...also check out her site, Delectably Free, she offers a lot of vegan, gluten-free, and sugar-free recipes!). 

If you are looking for the Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and canned green beans taste, look elsewhere. But as my husband said, this version is better and tastes more fresh. I'll take that as a success.

Vegan Apple Pie with Crumb Topping

Apple pie is pretty much a staple around these parts during the holidays (evidenced here, here, and here), but lately I've been a bit discouraged by how runny my filling has been. So for this year I decided I'd try cooking the apples on the stove with some corn starch before putting it in the crust. I'm so happy with how it turned out, I don't think I'll ever go back to my old ways. 

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe got its beginnings up in Troy, New York while my mom was getting her Masters in math (she's a smarty). She bought a bag of Price Chopper store brand semi-sweet chocolate chips and because she was away from home decided to use the recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the back of the bag rather than trying to hunt down the one we normally used. As luck would have it, the cookies ended up being way better than the ones we normally made. As soon as she got home, the old recipe was out and the Price Chopper chocolate chip cookies were in. We've since then made some modifications and improvements making it what it is today: the recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever have...added bonus: they're cholesterol free!  

A Little Love

image

Happy Valentine's Day!

P.S. Instructions in case you want to try a hand at making the above heart cake yourself.

P.P.S. My favorite vegan marshmallows from Sweet & Sara are over 50% off if you buy the coupon from Groupon. But hurry, the deal ends at midnight tonight!