MELT Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies and MELT Buttery Baking Sticks and Spreads

Have you seen or heard of MELT Organic?  It’s a company that makes organic coconut oil baking sticks and spreads. They sent me some samples.  They are really good!  They are made of all organic ingredients and are vegan.  This is good news for me, since my 14 year old is trying out being vegan right now.  Not sure how long he’ll go on with that diet plan, but it’s been interesting for me to try to keep him fed.  He seems to be living off peanut butter sandwiches right now.  But I hadn’t realized these baking sticks and spreads were vegan, so I can’t wait to tell him to have some toast!  It’s kind of a family joke—whenever the boys tell me their stomach hurts and that they’re hungry, I tell them to have toast.  It became such that they were really annoyed every time I’d say that.  So now lately whenever they have any issues at all, a stubbed toe, sunburn, headache, you name it, I tell them the best thing for them is to have toast.  They LOVE it. (eyeroll)  Try it next time you have any ailment, have some toast.  Try it with MELT.  I’ve made a couple grilled cheese sandwiches with it (with gluten free bread for me).  Good stuff!

 

Hello, back to cookies—you know, really what life is all about.

Since I have My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies already, I simply used the MELT Organic baking sticks in place of the coconut oil in the recipe and they turned out delicious and perfect.  I love them.  They are all for me.   One thing I realized as I made them a couple days ago, they seem to be better with age.  Which is quite the opposite with regular chocolate chip cookies.  If you’re looking for a grain free, refined sugar free chocolate chip cookie recipe, you should definitely try mine that I’ve linked here.  Try them with MELT! 

 

Want a cookie?  I’ve got plenty.

 

But hurry, they won’t last long…………..

 

Guess what, MELT also makes a Chocolate MELT Organic Spread!  (It’s not vegan, as it has some honey), but it’s good!  I actually haven’t tried it on just some toast, but all the sudden that sounds really good and now I must.  MELT Organic mention that even their spreads can be used for baking, so I have tried the Chocolate MELT Spread a couple times with a brownie recipe.  But I’m still tweaking it.  I don’t think it’s the MELT that is causing me to not be perfectly in love with the recipe yet, I think it’s my substitutes for regular granulated sugar (using coconut sugar and raw honey) that I haven’t gotten just right yet.  My goal (and we should all have goals, right?) is to keep making brownies, brownies, brownies until I get it right.  Then I’ll share the recipe.

 

Thanks for the samples, MELT!  Toast, cookies, brownies and grilled cheese sandwiches, gluten free and all pretty healthy.  Sounds good to me!  Check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have had My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe for years now.  I’ve tried so many different recipes over the years, even since finding THE one, but the one I always make holds true.  It is a perfect cookie dough and makes perfect cookies.  I’ve used the recipe to add all kinds of things to the cookie, including peanut butter yumminess, coconut and nuts, and freeze dried raspberries, just to name a few.  I adapted the Jacques Torres/New York Times recipe years ago and have made this one my go-to.  Everyone loves the cookies.  Check out the link for lots of mouth-watering pictures.  There was a problem—now that I don’t eat gluten and refined sugar, I knew I was really missing out on one of my favorite things.  In the meantime, I’ve tried many gluten free and grain free chocolate chip cookie recipes.  They are usually okay.  They usually “do the trick” for me, you know, get me over that “I need a chocolate chip cookie” fix. 



I need to tell you though—I’ve found My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookie and need to share it with you all here.  I almost always make the regular ones into huge cookies, they are just perfect that way.  I give them away to lots of happy people and hear many compliments.  I recently needed to give some good gluten free chocolate chip cookies to someone who can’t have gluten (at all, I cleaned everything well and kept it well away from anything gluten), so I created this one and it’s the best one I’ve made.  Perfect combination of chewy on the inside and crisp edges and the flavor is great with what I think is just the right amount of sweetness from coconut sugar and a little honey.  Must make these again!



My Favorite Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina Smith, Baking and Boys!
 

1 cup almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons coconut oil
½ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup raw honey
6 tablespoons almond butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract (optional)
1 large egg
1 ¼ cup Enjoy Life chocolate chunks and mini chips (ingredients in the chocolate—evaporated cane juice, natural chocolate liquor (non-alcoholic), non-dairy cocoa butter—dairy, soy, nut and gluten free)
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium sized bowl, combine the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the coconut oil, coconut sugar, honey and almond butter. Beat until well combined. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks/chips with a spatula. Scoop the dough into cookies on the baking sheet and bake for 10-14 minutes (depending on size of cookies). Let cool on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
 

You know you want a bite.  Or maybe even your own cookie (s )!

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day—My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies!

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!  Probably my favorite treat, although now I usually make healthier versions, like these Real Deal Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Danielle at Against All Grain.

or these Grain Free Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

There is just nothing quite as satisfying as a chocolate chip cookie.  Want something a little different?  Add other fun things to the mix, like these--

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hunky Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Overload Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almond Joy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I mean really, could there be anything better? 

I almost always have chocolate chip cookie dough balls in the freezer ready to bake.  You just never know when you’ll need a few to give to someone for a thank you gift or birthday or when you’ll need to pop a few in the oven for chocolate-hungry family.

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

This link is an older post for these cookies that I make ALL the time.  Not the greatest photos on the post, but the recipe you NEED.  I could make these cookies in my sleep, they are often highly requested by family and friends.  Heck, if I could have a blog and just keep posting these cookies over and over, I would, but that would get a little old.  Anyway, today is the day—make chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I saw King Arthur Flour post their 2015 Recipe of the Year and that it was cookies—these Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and they looked like the perfect cookie that I needed to make for my family this week.

Kind of bummed, I went to the store to specifically get some King Arthur Flour, but I’ve looked before and was just wishful thinking—the stores near me here in Utah don’t have King Arthur flour available, so I almost hate to use their name for these cookies, but I did stick to their recipes almost exactly, so I do want them to get all the credit for these.  I will tell you, the recipe calls for their unbleached all purpose flour and I do have and use a good name brand unbleached flour for almost all my baking. 

This recipe has a lot of chocolate chips.  It suggested semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I used mostly milk chocolate chips and added some dark chocolate chips.  I wish I would have just stuck with the milk chocolate, as the boys really like the cookies but said there is too much chocolate in them.  Oh well, it’s not stopping them from eating them.

I wish I would have taken a before picture of these cookies on the baking sheet because I want to let you in on a little secret—when some (most) cookies come out of the oven, they are often not nice and perfectly round (as you see in the photo), but one of my tricks is as soon as I remove a baking sheet from the oven, I immediately take a metal spatula and go around the edges of each cookie, pushing in the areas where they aren’t nicely rounded.  Sometimes I do it when the cookies still have a minute or two in the oven then finish the baking. Once they are done, leave the cookies sitting on the hot baking sheet for a few minutes until they set up a bit more.   These cookies did seem to be the type that spread into other shapes a bit more, I often call those kinds “amoeba” cookies. ;  )  Just do my trick of quickly forming them back in to circles and you’ll be happy.  It has always worked great for me. 

These cookies have perfectly browned and crisp edges but are chewy in the centers.  I can’t believe I haven’t taken a single bite of them, but it’s because I can tell they are the kind of cookie I’d really like and have a hard time not eating more!  I love a good oatmeal cookie.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (220 grams) light brown sugar

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 large egg yolk, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups (240 grams) unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup quick cooking oats (or old fashioned)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

12-18 ounces chocolate chips (I used 12 ounces milk chocolate and 6 ounces dark chocolate)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Put the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until well combined, about 2 minutes.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Scrape sides of bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Add them to the creamed mixture and beat together just until combined.  Scrape sides of bowl and stir in the chocolate chips (In the future I will just use 12 ounces as my family thought 18 was too much.)

Scoop cookie dough onto baking sheets spacing them about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 10 minutes, cookies will be browned on the edges and still a little doughy on the insides.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven and using the edges of a metal spatula, form the cookies where needed back into rounds pushing lightly around the edges of each cookie.  Return the cookies to the oven for another 2 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 5 minutes, they will set up and the centers will bake a little more on the hot sheet.  Move the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes about 30 cookies.

Grain Free Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a hankering.  I’ve been so deprived lately.  ha  Part of my problem is I often don’t feel like making something.  I want to have something, but don’t want to go through the steps to make it.  Yesterday, I wanted chocolate chip cookies.  I could deny myself a treat no longer.  Nice thing is, I whipped these up in no time. 

Thinking of something similar to a flourless peanut butter cookie, I came up with these using almond butter.  I decided to add a little coconut flour when the dough wasn’t quite as firm as I wanted.  Easy peasy.  At first I thought I didn’t really love the flavor, but after I few hours, I think they’re great!  I added a little almond extract, which really brings out the almond flavor.

Grain Free Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 cup almond butter

3/4 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup raw honey

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon salt (only about 1/2 teaspoon if your almond butter has salt)

1/4 cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  In a large bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut sugar and honey.  Stir together well.  Add the egg and extracts and stir to combine.  Add the coconut flour, salt and baking powder.  Once combined, add the chocolate chips and stir until evenly mixed.   Scoop cookie dough on to baking sheet spaced about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Let sit on baking sheet for a couple minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes 12-16 cookies depending on size. 

These have a great soft, chewy texture and are a much healthier chocolate chip cookie!

Peanut Butter Overload Chocolate Chip Cookies

You ready for these?  I mentioned in my last post about the Almond Joy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies that I also made some with lots of peanut buttery goodness.  Well, here they are.  I know, took me long enough.  Trying to get my blogging mo-jo back. 

The reason for these cookies was because I’d bought a couple bags of the mini Nutter Butter cookies and after eating so many of them, the boys decided they were tired of them.  So I watched another bag of them just sit in my baking cupboard.  I decided to chop them up and put them in My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, yes—these:

But that wasn’t enough.  I put an entire bag of peanut butter chips and Reese’s Pieces in them, too, along with chocolate chips.  Overload, I’m telling you.  If you are a peanut butter and chocolate fan, you’ll love these!  These were well liked at Kevin’s surprise 40th birthday party I had for him a couple weeks ago. 

Peanut Butter Overload Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

8 ½ ounces cake flour (2 cups minus 2 tablespoons) (lightly spooned into the measuring cup and swept level with a knife)

8 ½ ounces bread flour (1 and 2/3 cups) (lightly spooned and swept)

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt

2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter, room temperature

10 ounces (1 ¼ cups) light brown sugar

8 ounces (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup Nutter Butter cookies, roughly chopped

10 ounce package peanut butter chips

10 ounce package mini Reese’s Pieces candies

8 ounces milk chocolate chips

3 ounces dark chocolate chips (you can use any combination and/or amount of chocolate you’d like)

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Then add the vanilla and combine.  Scrape the sides of the bowl. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Put the mix-ins in the bowl and carefully fold together with rubber spatula just until combined.  Scoop with a 2 ounce (1/4 cup scoop).  You should get 24 scoops.  Put them on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  Cover with foil and freeze (or refrigerate).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and put the cookies on an air bake sheet, only 5 cookies per sheet.  Bake from frozen for about 12 minutes.  Check the cookies, remove from the oven and with the sides of a metal spatula, if any of the cookies are misshapen and not nicely rounded, push the spatula lightly on to the cookies where they need rounded around the edges.  Decide if they need another minute or two in the oven.  Sometimes I think they do, sometimes they are perfect.  Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack to cool until you can’t stand it anymore and have to taste one.  (If you have a convection oven, you can bake 2 or 3 cookie sheets at a time.  Every oven is different, but even though baking on convection you should lower the temperature 25 degrees, I still leave mine at 350 for these.)  Test yours for best results.

If you haven’t before, try kicking things up with chocolate chip cookies, be creative, add things to change them.  Mmmm!

Here’s some others I’ve done before with the same recipe.  (It’s the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, I’m telling you!!)  These are a favorite by many when I have freeze dried raspberries available to put in the cookies.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almond Joy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sure wish I shoulda-woulda-coulda tasted one of these cookies.  Okay, I could have, but didn’t.  I made a big batch of these using My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe—you know—these--

I got this wild idea to make cookies with Almond Joy in them.  It was Kevin’s 40th birthday recently and I surprised him and had many friends over, some that he hasn’t seen for years and some of his favorite people, as well as some of his current friends.  He had no idea.  He just thought we were having our usual celebration of goodies with two of his sisters and their families.  It was such a fun evening and worked better than I thought it would. 

I also made some peanut butter overload cookies using the same recipe, but with lots of peanut buttery add ins, like chopped up Nutter Butter cookies, Reese’s pieces, and peanut butter chips as well as some chocolate chips.  Stay tuned for a post for those cookies!

Kevin loves Almond Joy cookies and likes pretty much anything with coconut, so I knew he’d like these and that others would, too.  

I’ve mentioned and posted before (link above) about my favorite chocolate chip cookies, they are my take on the famous Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies, I’ve made a few slight changes, but a few things that make those cookies so good is that instead of all purpose flour, they have cake flour and bread flour.  I really think that these flours make all the difference in how the cookies come out, besides using the best chocolate chips you can find (I use Ghirardelli 60% chips, which are bigger and flatter, like the disks of chocolate Jacques uses).  I have had friends and family rave about my chocolate chip cookies for years, so I’m sticking with this recipe.  It’s worth it to me to always have bread and cake flour on hand.  As often as I make these cookies, I decided it was time to try them with other things added to them.  Yep, they turn out perfectly!  So I’m telling you, try the chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Once you do, you’ll never go back to another recipe. ; )

Almond Joy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

8 ½ ounces cake flour (2 cups minus 2 tablespoons) (lightly spooned into the measuring cup and swept level with a knife)

8 ½ ounces bread flour (1 and 2/3 cups) (lightly spooned and swept)

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt

2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter, room temperature

10 ounces (1 ¼ cups) light brown sugar

8 ounces (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 ounces (1 cup) dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips are what I always use)

11.3 ounces (1 bag of fun size, or the equivalent) of Almond Joy candy bars, roughly chopped

1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

(I was out of almonds, but would have added some more chopped, toasted ones if I’d had them)

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Then add the vanilla and combine.  Scrape the sides of the bowl. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Put the mix-ins in the bowl and carefully fold together with rubber spatula just until combined.  You don’t want to overmix the candy bars.  Scoop with a 2 ounce (1/4 cup scoop).  You should get 24 scoops.  Put them on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  Cover with foil and freeze (or refrigerate).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and put the cookies on an air bake sheet, only 5 cookies per sheet.  Bake from frozen for about 12 minutes.  Check the cookies, remove from the oven and with the sides of a metal spatula, if any of the cookies are misshapen and not nicely rounded, push the spatula lightly on to the cookies where they need rounded around the edges.  Decide if they need another minute or two in the oven.  Sometimes I think they do, sometimes they are perfect.  Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack to cool until you can’t stand it anymore and have to taste one.  (If you have a convection oven, you can bake 2 or 3 cookie sheets at a time.  Every oven is different, but even though baking on convection you should lower the temperature 25 degrees, I still leave mine at 350 for these.)  Test yours for best results.

These turned out just as I’d hoped they would!

Ruttan and Law Family Recipes—The Secret Recipe Club

Big Fat Delicious Clone of a Cinnabon

Guess what?  For this month’s Secret Recipe Club assignment, I FINALLY got one of my favorite blogs and one that I’ve been waiting for well over three years to be assigned.  It has been a party at our house as I have made a ton of recipes from Shelby’s blog, The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch.  Going out with a bang here, but I’ve made the decision to not be part of the Secret Recipe Club anymore.  I have been with it from the day Amanda created it more than three years ago.  I have never missed one month.  It has been so fun, such a great time, and I have made some great friends along the way.  I’ve been feeling for a number of  months now that it will be time to move on once I finally get Shelby’s blog.  That has been what has kept me going, the excitement of waiting and wondering when I’ll finally get THE assignment. 

Brownie Biscotti

Shelby, Shelby, Shelby—what a wonderful woman!  We’ve “known” each other (haven’t met in person yet) since way back in about 2008 when we were both involved with Tuesdays With Dorie and baked our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours in a huge weekly-posting group.  Those were the days, weren’t they?!

Throughout this last month, I have had the fun and pleasure of seeing how many of Shelby’s recipe from her blog I can make.  I have not been disappointed with a single one!  I loved the brownie biscotti and made it gluten free and used organic cane sugar to make myself a treat.  Can’t wait to make them again!

Way back when she posted these unique chocolate chip cookies, I made them.  I looked back through all my photos and my blog and never did put them on the blog.  But I did find where I wrote some notes after making them that Kevin really liked them.  This recipe, that Shelby posted back in 2009, was one she found on a handwritten recipe card that her family believes was from her Grandmother Lottie.  They have no butter and are made with cream instead, which is probably because cows’ milk/cream was more at hand back in those days than butter.  I made these to take to a get together we were having with some friends along with a couple other goodies and they were gobbled up.

 Grandmother Lottie's Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookies

I didn’t want to only make treats or desserts from her blog, so I have turned to it for dinner inspiration over the last month.  I made a great chicken recipe weeks ago that was well liked here at my home.  I will not hesitate to make it again.  Just like when Shelby made it, I served it with rice (and for me quinoa).

Chipotle Chicken Skillet

My family LOVES cinnamon rolls, which Shelby has mentioned she can’t resist either.  It only seemed right to make the recipe she has pictured at the front and center of her blog.  These just might replace my cinnamon roll recipe, which I’ve used for years because the boys all really liked them.  How could you not like a giant cinnamon roll that is similar to Cinnabon?!  (Wish I could have had one!)  This recipe, which is similar in size of ingredients to mine, makes EIGHT rolls.  They are huge, and I think I rolled them the wrong way (from the long side of the dough instead of the short side, which would make each roll bigger).

Big Fat Delicious Clone of a Cinnabon

I really enjoyed looking all through Shelby’s blog and ended up having to make another recipe from her family file and settled on these date treats made by her Aunt Helga.  I changed up this recipe for candied date balls so I could eat them (no one else here will eat anything with dates!) and made the recipe with coconut sugar and raw honey instead of sugar and coconut oil instead of butter.  I also used some organic brown rice crisp cereal instead of Rice Krispies.  I enjoyed making some different with unsweetened coconut, chopped walnuts and even adding a little chocolate to some.

Aunt Helga's Candied Date Balls

Another awesome recipe I made were a quick-change version of Shelby’s Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies.  I had the brownies all ready to make and was getting out the ingredients for the peanut butter caramel, which called for smooth peanut butter and found that we were out.  Staring at me in the cupboard was some nice, smooth Nutella.  So I made the caramel sauce (which came from a Bobby Flay recipe) with Nutella!  After making the caramel and once it cooled, I will have to admit I tasted a little bit, for quality control purposes, you know.  It was good!  The caramel was swirled in to the brownies.  They made for a yummy dessert with ice cream on top.  It seemed necessary to take a bite of the one photographed here, so I can really attest to their deliciousness.  I’m a bad, bad girl, I know. ; ) 

Nutella Caramel Swirled Brownies adapted from Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies

The 9x13 inch pan of brownies lasted a few days around here.  One of Kevin’s 18 year old nephews was over and had one of the brownies and said they were SO good.  He asked for another.  Then he said I definitely had to make those for the next family get together. 

Nutella Caramel Swirled Brownies with ice cream

Wait, there’s more!  It has been strangely cool and quite rainy for an August in the Utah dessert here, so I was recently in the mood for chili.  Shelby to the rescue!  She has a great, simple White Chicken Chili on her blog!

White Chicken Chili

Another night for dinner, I had some more chicken I wanted to use.  Our dinner that night was Apricot Glazed Grilled Chicken from The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch.  Mmm, it was good!

Apricot Glazed Grilled Chicken

I made the glaze with some apricot jam my friend gave me that was made with agave instead of sugar!  I’m so blessed to have friends that care about my dietary needs.  My dinner included some sauteed sweet potato and portabello mushroom hash and a caprese salad.  Delicious dinner!

I saw Shelby’s post for Spicy Mango Lime Salsa with Pears and just like she said she had to when she saw it posted somewhere and had to make it, I did, too!  I also made homemade tortilla chips.  I made some with flour tortillas (not pictured) and some with corn tortillas, which I loved!  The boys couldn’t eat the flour tortilla chips fast enough and want more soon!  The salsa was supposed to be made with finely chopped red onion, but since I knew I was the one who was going to eat most of it (Kevin doesn’t like fruit in salsa), I left out the onion and added chopped jalapeno instead.  Yum!

Spicy Mango Lime Salsa with Pears and Homemade Corn Tortilla Chips

Are we there yet?  You know, how when you’re on a long trip and the kids complain and ask if we’ve arrived at our destination yet?  I’m almost done.  But aren’t you starving now?  Yeah, get over to Shelby's blog for all these delicious recipes.  Finally, I ended the month recently with another biscotti, which is the same thing I made first when I got my assignment (the brownie biscotti).  Since Shelby is from upstate New York and they love their maple syrup there, I wanted to make something with maple syrup, so I settled on her Maple Walnut Biscotti.  I have simply loved having so many treats this month, a lot of them I have adapted to gluten free and refined sugar free when it was something I wanted to be able to eat, like the biscotti.  I will spend the next month or so sharing individual posts for my adaptations for all these recipes.  For now, all the links to the recipes I used from Shelby are under each photo. 

Maple Walnut Biscotti

Shelby dipped her biscotti in a white chocolate glaze, I added some Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips to some of mine.  I’m not a coffee or tea drinker and don’t dip my biscotti in anything, but sure love it!

This Sunday night for dinner, I planned ahead and made one more recipe from Shelby’s blog—Pot Roast and Onions.  While I don’t like onions, my family does and I knew I’d be okay putting an onion in the slow cooker with a roast.  Loved this simple recipe and the gravy it made.  When it comes time to eat, my family is not happy to wait for pictures, so I got them all eating, then snapped this quick one of my dinner.  (They had mashed potatoes, but I don’t eat potatoes anymore, so I had a sweet potato.)

Shelby's Pot Roast

Is it over?  I mean this “era” in my blog life of being part of the Secret Recipe Club?  Let me just say that I’ve sure been torn from one day to the next, even one hour to the next throughout this last month.  I will still be checking in on reveal days as much as I can.  One of the reasons I feel like it’s time to let it go is because I just can’t seem to get around to as many blogs as I’d like and it doesn’t seem fair.  I’ll definitely still be here in food blog land, so never fear!  Peace out!  And we will meet someday, Shelby, my sista from another mista!

An InLinkz Link-up

Banana Apple Bread (Gluten Free) and Rachel’s Chocolate Chip Cookies—Secret Recipe Club

I was SO happy to find this banana bread recipe on my Secret Recipe Club blog assignment for this month.  I’ve been dying to find a banana bread recipe that looked like it would be easy to make gluten free and refined sugar free and decided this was it.  Thank you Chris and Rachel from The Keenan Cookbook (my secret blog).  This is perfect.  NO ONE would ever know this is gluten free.  I also made it with coconut sugar and you can’t tell.  Perfect for me.  My silly boys, who love banana bread, turned up their noses and wouldn’t even try it when I told them it was gluten free.  This is my way of hoarding the loaf for myself.  I savored it for days.  Because of the bananas and the apple and some applesauce, this bread is nice and moist and the walnuts I added were a perfect crunch. 

Banana Apple Bread (Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free), adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys! from The Keenan Cookbook (Check out the link for their “unadapted” recipe.)

1  3/4 cup gluten free flour blend (I used Premium Gold ancient grains blend, found at Costco)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1  1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon unsulphured molasses

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 large eggs

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 tablespoons almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large bananas, mashed

1 medium apple, peeled and finely grated

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped and lightly toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spread some coconut oil evenly in a 9x5 bread pan (I also love putting nonstick foil in the pan first, but still usually coat it with coconut oil, you can spray with cooking spray, too).  You can also make this batter in to muffins, spread oil in each muffin cup.  Set aside.  In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Whisk together.  In another bowl, combine the sugar, molasses and coconut oil.  Stir together until well combined.  Add the eggs and applesauce and stir to combine.  Stir (or whisk) in the almond milk and vanilla.  In a another bowl with a fork, or small food processor, add the bananas and pulse until mashed into a puree.  Add the bananas to the wet ingredients and grate the apple into the bowl.  Stir to combine.  Fold in the walnuts.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.   Let bread sit on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then carefully turn the bread out onto the wire rack to cool completely. 

I love banana anything.

Instead of bread, I usually make muffins because they bake so much faster, which means you can be eating banana bread sooner.  So I tried that with this recipe.  Great muffins!

I made the bread weeks ago and the muffins just last week.  I have more bananas on the counter, ready and waiting to make this bread again soon!

Mmmm!  THEN just because I like looking at cookies on blogs and because my family is “suffering” with my new health changes with my baking less (poor, poor family), I saw the Keenan’s also posted their favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe and I had to make that—for my family and because it was chocolate chip cookies.

I didn’t even taste them, but they were gone in a day or two.  They are definitely simple to make.  Rachel has taken the original Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe and added an extra cup of flour, which is think is brilliant because I’ve never cared for the Nestle recipe (still love the company and Ruth Wakefield and her invention of the chocolate chip cookie).  I’ve always thought the cookies turn out too flat and a bit greasy.  I know many like their chocolate chip cookies that way, and that’s fine.  But what a simple idea and an easy way to make a thicker, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie—just add a little more flour.

Thank you, Rachel, for that idea.  I didn’t change a thing from her adapted Nestle recipe, so get it at The Keenan Cookbook.  I really enjoyed their blog.  They both share in the cooking and baking, she photographs the recipes and he writes up the posts, sharing their yummy recipes and their thoughts about being parents to two little boys.  Hey, I know a thing or two about that times two.  ;  )

I love being a part of the Secret Recipe Club.  Check out all the yummy stuff below!

An InLinkz Link-up