autumn – Page 10 – GUTSy Performance Nutrition

Chocolate Chip Cookies {gluten + dairy-free}

November 21, 2013March 15, 2017by Rebecca3 Comments

When I first learned to bake, I’d make all the cookie recipes in my mom’s old cookbooks. The vintage Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook were well-worn and loved, so my first cookies came from those books. When we finally got Internet, I branched out and Martha Stewart’s recipes became my favorite. Chocolate Chip was never my go-to cookie, but it was my sister’s, so I ate my fair share.

I had a particular fondness for oatmeal raisin, and while I always made chocolate chip as thank you gifts, I never could bring myself to choose them for my own enjoyment. Until W and I attempted a completely revamped chocolate chip cookie.

These cookies have brown rice syrup and oil instead of butter, and just enough finely ground oats to give them a hint of oatmeal-cookie-texture. They stay soft for days on end when other cookies go dry and crumbly. They have the best flavor. They dunk nicely in a cup of tea, if you’re a non milk-and-cookie person. And they are gluten-free!

These are the cookies W requests, the ones we like to have on hand when friends come for dinner, the ones W liberally talks up to all the relatives, and eats by the stack during long study sessions. The Recipe Redux‘s November theme is holiday mixes, and these are definitely the cookies we will package up into a nice make-at-your-leisure jar snuggled into our holiday gift baskets.

Chocolate Chip Cookies,adapted from Martha Stewart

2 cups gf all-purpose flour

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, finely ground into a course flour or 1/2 cup oat flour, gluten-free if necessary

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup canola oil

1 egg or flax egg

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbs. water

For a packaged cookie mix, measure out and layer dry goods into a large jar. Lay chocolate chips along the top, and seal.
To make cookies, mix dry ingredients in large bowl. In medium bowl, whisk together oil, egg, syrup, vanilla and water.
Stir into the dry ingredients, and mix in choolate chips.
Cover and chill the bowl of batter for about an hour or overnight.
Bake each batch for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Autumn

Autumn Bean & Sausage Acorn Squash Bowl Soup

October 20, 2013by Rebecca2 Comments

When W and I first became engaged, back in the winter of 2011, I was dreaming of an Autumn wedding. Every vision for the day included a leafy branch framing the splendor of the season, billowing in dramatic shades of red, orange, and gold. I envisioned the colors and weather exactly as we have been enjoying these last few days. And when I planned the wedding menu, it involved all of our favorite soups and stews: Hearty Beef & Mushroom, Creamy Fennel, Irish Vegetable, and this savory combination of white beans, sausage, red potatoes, and autumn vegetables, served in a lovely winter squash. The wedding soup menu, a break from the tradition of a formal catered meal, was prominent in my mind as I formulated a blueprint. I wanted our day to be unique to us, and I am happy to eat soup in any season, on any given day, hot or cold. Why not soup on our wedding day, in the crisp autumn when it is a welcome comfort?

Then all my dreaming went askew as we decided to jump our wedding day back to the beginning of June, and all the favorite soups, so fitting for fall were out of place. No one wanted to eat soup served in a winter squash in June. Believe me, I asked. Our venue was confirmed and though perfect in every other way, the location wasn’t conducive to preparing our wedding meal. I gave in. Soup was no longer an option. There would be no red and golden leaves framing our photos.

Though the day did turn out perfect, it was in a different way, celebrating the beginning of a beautiful summer. The soup waited. And now here it is.

This soup is part of The Recipe Redux October challenge, which is to create a No-Casserole Crock Pot recipe. Though I have made this recipe on the stove top in the past, the slow cooker really is a less-intensive option, and after testing the results, I will definitely be saving myself some time by preparing it in this way into the future.

Autumn Bean and Sausage Acorn Squash Bowl Soup, adapted from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook

2 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. dried thyme

2 tsp. dried sage

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

5 cups water or vegetable stock

5 tsp. vegetable stock bouillon powder (omit if using stock above)

1 large onion, diced

8 large carrots, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds

1 celery stalk, diced

12 oz. red potatoes, chopped into 1-inch pieces

8 oz. cremini mushrooms, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces

1 lb. pork sausage

1/4 cup gf all-purpose flour

1 large acorn squash

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup frozen peas

In a large slow cooker, add the soaked and drained beans, bay leaves, thyme, sage, black pepper, stock, onion, carrots, celery, potatoes, and mushrooms. Turn to the highest setting.
While the beans and vegetables are beginning to heat, sauté the pork sausage in a medium skillet, until browned. Drain off the fat, and add the sausage to the slow cooker. When the mixture begins to bubble, turn it down to medium. It can bubble away for the better part of a day (mine cooked for 10+ hours).
About an hour before serving, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the acorn squash in half and remove the seeds and string. If necessary, cut off a small slice from the top so it will set flat on a plate. Dabble a bit of olive oil into the squash halves and rub it all around with your fingers. Then season the squash with salt and black pepper. Place the squash upside down in a glass baking dish and bake for approximately 60 minutes, or until soft.
Thirty minutes before serving, stir in 1/4 cup flour and frozen peas into the soup. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Cover again and continue cooking until ready to serve and the squash is soft.
Remove squash from the oven. Flip the halves onto a plate. Break up the center and edge of the squash with a fork; this way it will melt into the soup better, as you’re eating it. Ladle the soup into the squash bowl, and serve.

Autumn

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 9, 2012December 18, 2022by Rebecca3 Comments

“Good habits are as addictive as bad habits but, you know, much more rewarding.” That simple thought may be my lifeline right now, as I consider the extreme parallel- interests my thoughts have taken lately.

School – Running – Cooking.

Teaching – Running – A Quick and Healthy Meal.

Learning New Curriculum – Running hours before sunrise – Breakfast with pumpkins.

Got to get to that stack of grading – Workout tomorrow – Remember to check the lights on the hydroponics at school – Roast up those pumpkins for cookies.

Welcome to my world. The only thing that has kept my new work life “balanced” is equally obsessing over my other two loves, running and spending quality time in the kitchen.

Weeks ago now, I know, but as I was leaving my parent’s house the week before Thanksgiving, I was encouraged to take two perfect little pie pumpkins. I intended to use them for a pumpkin pie. That week got busy, however, and I pulled out a can instead. Now, a couple weeks later and already full force into the Christmas season, I am busy pumpkin-ing up meals on a regular basis. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin oatmeal, rosemary roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin risotto, the list goes on. What I’d really been meaning to re-vamp for months now are amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They are gluten and dairy-free and even better than the original recipe (less cakey, more cookie-y). Perfect to share for holiday festivities. Or just to warm and comfort on a cold December day!

Going back to that, ahem, good habits and balance thing, I know my diet may be a wee bit heavy on the orange veg lately, but I keep saying to myself, “You are balanced. You have three lovely things to not stop thinking about”. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Culinate

110 gr / 1/2 cup coconut oil

1 egg or 3 Tbs. aquafava

320 gr / 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

200 gr / 1 cup cane sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

330 gr / 2 3/4 cups gluten-free flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

120 gr / about 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a mixer, beat the coconut oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg, pumpkin, and vanilla extract.
In a medium bowl, weigh out the flour and combine with the baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt.
Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture. Fold in about half a cup of chocolate chips.
Pack a cookie scoop level with dough and drop the dough onto a cookie sheet. Add a couple chocolate chip pieces to each cookie.
Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.