caffeine day wednesday

Food thought for Wednesday: Alcohol is easy to cut back on. Caffeine is not.

Mmm, toddler leftovers.

Breakfast: I wasn't too hungry after a big dinner on Tuesday night so I just nibbled some of the muffin and banana from Muffin's breakfast plate. When I sliced her apple for her school snack and ate about half of it. I had a cup of coffee with milk.

Second Breakfast: While Muffin was at school I sat at a coffee shop and read. I had an iced mocha (aka the Mochachillo at this particular chain) and I brought a Pamela's gluten-free almond anise biscotti.

Pre-lunch: Drinking chai (made by Muffin and my housekeeper) while catching up on emails and blogs.

Lunch: Homemade baba ganoush on Orgran quinoa crispibread with cucumber and red pepper slices. I put the extra cucumber slices in a bowl with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper for a little side salad. I set aside the extra pepper slices to use as a pizza topping later on.

Snack: Half an Udi's gluten-free bagel with peanut butter and a banana.

Dinner: Pizza with a Chebe bread crust, olive oil, tomato slices, feta cheese, garlic, onions, red peppers, and fresh basil. There's no photo available. The family was so hungry we ate before I remembered to take a photo. I also had a glass of white wine. I wasn't planning on one tonight, but I burned my thumb on the baking pan and Muffin insisted on sitting on my lap which made for messy eating. I felt I deserved it.

Snack: I had a little chocolate before bedtime.

double chocolate pomegranate cookies

I read this recipe at MADE recently and realized that pomegranates are in season here, too. With a few modifications to make the cookies gluten-free and to allow for local supplies, these cookies were a success in our house.

Here is the recipe as I modified it. If you live in the United States or another country were basic ingredients are easily found, or if by chance you stumbled upon this blog but you are not gluten-free, you can read the original recipe at MADE.

2 cups Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (or half cup butter and half cup shortening, if shortening is available to you)
3/4 cup castor sugar (a finely ground white granulated sugar)
3/4 cup demerara sugar (a brown sugar substitute here that I really like -- it has more of a burnt sugar flavor and the large granules provide a nice texture)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I horde this stuff and buy it whenever I'm in an extract-selling country to bring back with me)

2 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or if you're like me and are unsatisfied with your local chocolate chip selection, chop up some chocolate bars; I chopped four 80-gram bars)
1 cup pomegranate arils, or seeds (you can slice a pomegranate in half and whack at it with a wooden spoon to get the arils out)

Do the standard cookie-backing stuff.

Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.

In one bowl blend together the baking mix, cocoa powder, and salt.

In another bowl, cream the butter then add the sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture. Then add the chocolate chips and pomegranate.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet. I like to line my sheets with parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes then allow them to cool on a wire rack for as long as you can keep your family's paws off of them.

Yum.

If any play group moms are reading this, I froze half the dough and will be making a fresh batch for brunch on Friday.

There were a few shady moments were I wasn't certain these cookies would be completed. I didn't soften enough butter at first and when I grabbed my second box out of the fridge, I opened it up to find mold! I'd never even heard of mold on butter. Of course India could provide that experience for me. We had a small bit of table butter, which has salt in it, but I added it to my unsalted cooking butter in order to save Mike a nighttime walk to the local grocery, which probably wouldn't have had unsalted butter anyway. The cookies turned out not to be too salty, as I feared, but perfectly salted for the chocolate and pomegranate.

I was also dancing around on a cruddy floor. When I was pulling sugar out of the cupboard I was so relieved Muffin was distracted and not trying to help me that I didn't notice at first what distracted her. She'd dumped a box of loose-leaf tea onto the floor and was having fun walking on it in her bare feet. I have yet to get it all swept up. I am not having as much fun stepping on it in my bare feet.

Earlier in the day Muffin had a glue incident. The tea leaves were not spilled anywhere near the faint glue spot still on the floor.

I forgot about all of that when I started eating cookies.

I couldn't get a good photo of the cookies, but if this isn't a good endorsement, I don't know what is:

It's cookies like this that have encouraged me to join the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge. I run to eat baked goods. At least these cookies have vitamins and antioxidants, right, due to the pomegranates? There's still time to sign up for HBBC. Come join me!

labonel fine baking

The people of Hyderabad like their sweets. There is no shortage of chocolate cakes at bakeries, coffee shops, grocery store bakery counters, and restaurants. It's been difficult, being a gluten-free chocoholic and having to face cakes every time I leave the house. Some places offer a chocolate mousse, and I've been eating my way through the mousses of the city, but those are a topic for another post.

A couple weeks ago Mike came home and announced he'd found a gluten-free bakery. They are not specifically gluten-free, but the head baker is familiar with the gluten-free diet and has perfected a few treats with the local flours. For Mother's Day, Mike brought home a chocolate cake from Labonel Fine Baking.

Labonel uses millet flour as the base for their gluten-free cakes. The texture was great, but the flavor was a little off. I loved the chocolate icing, but the millet lends sort of a grassy flavor to the cake. It grew on me, though, and we've been picking away at the cake all week long.

Whether gluten-free, eggless, or "regular," Labonel's treats are only available as custom orders. They are a little tricky to find, being that the office is on the side of a house behind a gate with no sign. It's like a secret society. A secret, chocolate-cake-loving society. You can find their products and directions to the house on their website.

on sale for celiac awareness month

I'm a little late in telling you that May is Celiac Awareness Month, but it's not too late to take advantage of some yummy sales at Amazon.com Groceries. I stocked up on a few things earlier in the month and I'll be going back for round two before the month is over.

Some of my favorites:

It's gross, but Fruity Pebbles one of my favorite cereals from childhood. I'm not quite ready to fill Muffin with so much sugar and artificial color yet, so these will be a special treat for me after she's asleep for the night. Save 15% when you enter code POSTGFO5 at checkout. Plus, save an additional 15% when you combine the instant rebate with your Subscribe and Save order--bringing your total savings to 30%.








KIND bars are my go-to, stuck in the car, didn't get breakfast because the baby didn't nap, snacks. Save 15% when you enter code KINDMAY5 at checkout. Plus, save an additional 15% when you combine the instant rebate with your Subscribe and Save order--bringing your total savings to 30%.










It's too hot to light the oven, but I still want some cookies to snack on every once in a while. I love the Pamela's shortbread. Save 10% when you enter code PAMGFMAY at checkout. Plus, save an additional 15% when you combine the instant rebate with your Subscribe and Save order--bringing your total savings to 25%.









I am an Amazon affiliate. If you purchase from these links or from my store, I will receive a small kickback.

chocolate banana milkshake

Milkshakes aren't generally regarded as health food (don't even think about SlimFast or anything related). But as a weekend treat for myself, I've figured out a pretty good combination of bananas, unsweetened cocoa powder, and nonfat milk. How do you get a thick creamy milkshake out of nonfat milk? Freeze the bananas!

Frozen bananas are my latest food obsession. Several times a week I send my housekeeper out to buy bunches of the baby bananas we have here. They are very sweet and taste better than any banana I've ever had in the United States. And they are a perfect size for adding to smoothies and shakes without having to cut them up. Not that it's not difficult to cut up bananas, but every bit of time saved seems to help these days. When I get my bunch of baby bananas I peel them all and put them in a bag in the freezer (which also keeps the ants away from them!). Then each morning I pull some out to add to my daily blender beverage. I only use two in fruit smoothies, because there's plenty of other fruit. But four or five added to the milk makes for a cold, smooth, creamy treat that is exactly as if you've added ice cream.

I don't really measure and sometimes I end up with enough for two (or three, depending on if you're counting both Mike and the baby). I use 1 1/2 to 2 cups of nonfat milk (I use Bob's Red Mill Nonfat Milk Powder to make my nonfat milk), four or five frozen baby bananas, and a heaping spoonful of cocoa powder. Blend it up and pour it into tall glasses. It's super-fantastic, if you like bananas.

If you are in the United States, you may be able to find these baby bananas at an international grocery store. I'd get them at an Asian grocery store in Falls Church, Virginia, and I'm pretty sure I saw them at some of the Mexican/South American stores in the area also. They really are tastier than the oversized, over-produced, under-flavored Chiquita or Dole bananas you'll find at Stop & Shop.

bob's red mill gluten-free specials

There are more yummy treats on sale from one of my favorite gluten-free vendors!

Monthly Specials at Bob's Red Mill:

Brownie Mix

Chocolate Cake Mix

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Shortbread Cookie Mix

Vanilla Cake Mix

Rolled Oats

Note that not everything on the Monthly Specials page is gluten-free. Read the product information carefully.

Enjoy!

I was not compensated for this post in any way. I'm just a fan of Bob. Image from BobsRedMill.com.

dolce senza grano tortes

"Sweet without wheat" is what it says on these frozen cakes at Trader Joe's. I tried the tiramisu torte and the black forest torte. I preferred the black forest, but it's low on cherries. You may want to consider serving with some canned or fresh cherries or some other fruit sauce or compote. The tiramisu is tasty, but the cream left a funny, sticky feeling on the roof of my mouth. Both of these are sickeningly sweet, creamy, cakey, and gooey, just as you'd want a decadant dessert to be. While neither are as good as baked from scratch, these will do in a dessert pinch.

These cakes come frozen and the box instructions recommend thawing for 4 hours in the fridge or 2 hours at room temperature. I did one in the fridge and found that 4 hours wasn't quite long enough. Two hours on the countertop was fine for the other cake. These are both a little messy to serve, especially the black forest. The little chocolate shavings fall off the top and get all over the place. While you can take a slice and put the rest in a large ziploc bag and back in the fridge, the messiness may put you off that strategy. (But they will keep well in the fridge for a few days.) I suspect these are best eaten in one sitting, like at the end of a dinner party.

They do not try to mask themselves as health food. They are full of dairy, sugar, and fat. But no gluten.

I bought these at Trader Joe's and I haven't seen them anyplace else. They are imported from Italy. Trader Joe's rotates its stock often so before you make a trip specifically for one of these cakes, give them a call.

(Click on the photo to see the larger size on flickr.)

glutino chocolate dreams

Glutino Chocolate Dreams -- I'd say they're more like chocolate passing thoughts. When I imagine chocolate dreams, I imagine much richer, thicker, higher-quality chocolate. But these are good little cookes. The cookie is dry and best when dipped in a glass of milk or cup of tea. The frosting in the middle is super-sweet, like the filling in some of those generic sandwich-cream cookies that it seems like you always had a grandma or older aunt who would buy them instead of Oreos.

Ingredients include corn starch, soy flour, and cocoa. The box warns they may contain traces of tree nuts and milk. (But what doesn't give a warning like that nowadays?)

I found them at Whole Foods and they can be purchased from a number of online merchants.

They come in little packages, 2 to a pack. But note that the nutritional information says that a serving size is 3 cookies. You have to eat a smaller serving size or a larger one, because no one in their right mind would open one of those little packs and eat just one cookie from it. Unless you are a parent who puts just one pack in your kid's lunchbox and doesn't let her read the serving size information. These would be handy for a road-trip, too, because you can easily put a pack or two in your day bag.

enjoy life soft baked double chocolate brownie cookies

I have a backlog of product reviews I've been working on and this morning I made my monthly trip to Whole Foods to stock up on gluten-free cookies and crackers. They had some of my favorites on sale and they had some new things I hadn't tried yet. So now I have a cupboard full of new foods to eat and review.

Today's victim: Soft baked double chocolate brownie cookies from Enjoy Life. Phew, what a name! With all those descriptors, you'd expect the taste to be, well, chocolatey. (More on that in a second.)

Enjoy Life does a great job of package labeling, letting you know exactly what isn't in their products. They pride themselves on allergen-free foods. And that's good. More companies should practice better labeling. These cookies can be eaten by nearly everyone (except those with a chocolate allergy). They are vegan and kosher. They're free of dairy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soy, fish, shellfish, casein, potato, sesame and sulfites. (You wouldn't expect most of those things to be in a cookie anyway, so there's a little bit of alarmist jargon going on here.)

You're right to be suspicious and wonder what's in them, if they're absent of all that good stuff. There is cocoa and sugar, but not nearly enough of either. The chocolate chips don't taste like chocolate at all. You know how stuff sweetened with fruit juice just doesn't taste the same as stuff sweetened with sugar? These are sweetened with a lot more fruit juice than sugar and that's evident in the taste. And wouldn't you expect double chocolate brownie cookies to be dark brown, like brownies? They are tan. A tan brownie cookie should have been my first red flag. I thought maybe the photography on the box was just not very good.

The texture is decent. Not Chewy Chips Ahoy soft, but softer and chewier than I expected.

On a green note, they are packaged in a cardboard box, a plastic bag, and a plastic tray. And all the cookies fell out of the tray and stuck together anyway, so the tray is evidently useless.

I just didn't find these cookies satisfying. If you grew up eating low-sugar health food stuff and don't know an Oreo from a Keebler Elf, then you might enjoy these cookies. If you're on an extremely limited diet and have few snack food choices, then these might do it for you. But if you are a card-carrying junk food junkie who is newly adapting to the gluten-free diet, pass these by.