Wellness Wednesday: Cinnamon Cookies + Ice Cream Crumble

You may have gathered that I've been on a Chocolate Chip Cookie kick for a while now. I'm by no means tired of them (is that even possible?), but I recently decided I needed to make cinnamon cookies. Cinnamon tastes awesome and is awesome for you, so why not make some cookies with it? However, Pinterest failed me when I went looking for recipes; I did try one but it wasn't awesome. So I decided to just modify the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Of course! If it ain't broke...

As with the Chocolate Chip Cookies, the original recipe is from the Bloomfield Farms Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix box, of course with changes to make it much more allergen-friendly and healthy.

You'll need:
1 1/4 cup flour (I use 1 cup of King Arthur Gluten Free Flour and 1/4 cup Bloomfield Farms Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix as I've found that results in a better texture--not too thick and not too runny.)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 heaping tsp cinnamon (feel free to use less or more based on preference--I recommend this for cookies, less for ice cream topping [see below])
3/4 cup coconut sugar (I use this or this)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup coconut milk (the cold kind in a carton--I use this)

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2) Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3) In another bowl, mix together the coconut sugar, egg, vanilla, and milk.
4) Combine the ingredients from the two bowls and mix. It is crazy how different this dough looks from the chocolate chip cookie dough, with the only difference being the addition of cinnamon. It's almost grainy--but not in a bad way.
5) Lightly grease a baking sheet (I use olive oil spray). Scoop out the dough with two spoons--one to scoop and one to rake the dough onto the sheet.
6) Bake for 10 minutes. One batch gets me around 12 cookies. (So I like to double it. ;)

These cookies come out with a delightful texture--bordering on crumbly without actually falling apart. And the cinnamon is present but not at all too strong.

I highly recommend microwaving them when they're not fresh anymore.... :D

But this recipe has an extra perk to it. It's just as worthy for the purpose of making an ice cream topping as it is for cookies!

And it belongs in a bowl of this chocolate ice cream and this vanilla ice cream by So Delicious. Aka Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl. ;)

Looks kinda like sawdust, tastes amazing--way too good to be gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, and sugar-free. ;)

And now, unlike last year where my dessert was mostly this awesome chocolate, maybe I can show up to Thanksgiving and Christmas armed with not one, not two, but now three kinds of cookies?? :D

I have all kinds of healthy + yummy recipes on

my newly picture-filled recipe page!

Check it out! :)

Wellness Wednesday: Allergen-Friendly Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okie dokie, you guys, I tantalized a few of you with my reference to these on Monday. And I just happened to make more that night (4th batch this month I think?), so here ya go! Gluten-free, soy-free, refined sugar-free, and dairy-free if you don't call eggs dairy. Yep, I'm happy to be eating eggs again now. (You could use banana in place of it if you want, like I did in these cookies, I just haven't tried these that way.)

Now, before I start, I need to mention that I got the original recipe from the box of flour I use--Bloomfield Farms Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix--but I made several changes to make it much more allergen-friendly and healthy. As always.

You'll need:
3/4 cup coconut sugar (I use this or this)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup coconut milk (the cold kind in a carton)
1 1/4 cup flour (In this recipe I used Bloomfield Farms Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix, which makes for very thick batter. For runnier batter, try King Arthur GF Flour, and for a happy medium, use1/4 cup Bloomfield Farms and 1 cup King Arthur GF Flour.)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I use these)

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2) Mix together the baking mix, salt, and baking soda.
3) In another bowl, mix together the coconut sugar, egg, vanilla, and milk.
4) Combine the ingredients from the two bowls and mix. For some reason, I don't know if it's the coconut milk reacting with the baking mix or what, but the dough gets very thick--unlike your average gluten-free dough. Which is awesome, and makes for thick cookies.
5) Add the chocolate chips and mix.
6) Lightly grease a baking sheet (I use olive oil spray). At this point, you could use spoons to drop smaller portions of the dough onto the tray, but I like larger cookies (and when Daniel makes them, he makes Starbucks-sized cookies, which is amazing, but these are about half that size), so I dip out the batter with my hands to make them bigger. The dough is very sticky, so getting just a little water on your hands will help.

7) Baking time varies greatly based on the flour you use. These went for 19-20 minutes, since they are so big and use just Bloomfield Farms flour. Obviously if you make them smaller than this (you know, like a normal person), then they won't need to go as long. And if you combine the flours, they only need to go 10-12 minutes. One batch of these got me 9 cookies. (So I generally double it anymore. ;)

Okay, am I the only one who noticed the cute little smiley face on the one in the front right away? Oh my word!

All done! When we first made them, I tried to figure out what cookies they remind me of. And I think it's these (even though I was thinking they were in a red bag). Except better, and better for you. ;)

 Filled with chocolaty amazingness...

Yeah, I think they're pretty amazing. Considering their healthy ingredients and the fact that they don't make my stomach hurt? I need them every day.... I think they've replaced my addiction to these, and based on cost per day, these are probably cheaper!

P.S. Linking up with Delicious Dish Tuesday, Real Food Recipe Roundup here and here, Time to Sparkle, Share Your Stuff Tuesday, Share It Link Party, Do Tell Tuesday, Thursday Favorite Things,Creative Exchange Link Party, Link Love

No-Bake Coconut Whipped Cream Pie with Strawberries (Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free, Grain-free, Sugar-free)

I am soo excited to share this pie with you guys, which I pulled from a couple of different recipes to come up with. Based on the title of this post, you're probably wondering what on earth could possibly be left to put in this pie to make it taste good. Coconut of course! ;)

Last week I shared my super easy recipe for Coconut Whipped Cream, which held so much potential that I had to come up with another use for it. As promised, here it is!

Coconut Whipped Cream Pie

You'll need:

For the crust (originally from here, tweaked slightly):

1 cup banana chips (recipe below)

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

3 Tsp. coconut sugar (like this)

2 Tsp. vanilla

3 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted

pinch of salt

For the filling:

Coconut Whipped Cream (Note that you don't have to stick exactly to the ingredients in that recipe--there is a lot of freedom with it. But keep in mind that the flavor will decrease slightly once it's refrigerated, which is why it may seem like I use a lot of the sugar, etc.)

Optional:

Sliced strawberries

1) First we are going to make banana chips for the crust. You could buy these. But why do that when you can make them at home for a lot cheaper and know they're free of any questionable ingredients? Right? Slice up two ripe or very ripe bananas into app. 1/4-1/2"-thick slices (if you do them too thin, they won't come off the pan) and place them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and greased. (I use olive oil spray.) Bake at 200 degrees for 40 minutes.

2) Then flip the banana chips over and heat for another 40 minutes.

3) Place the banana chips, coconut flakes, sugar, vanilla, melted oil, and salt in a blender and blend well. You'll have to move the mixture around with a spoon every so many seconds to make sure it all gets blended.

 

4) Then press the mixture into a pie plate. As you can see, I never make very much because I'm the only one who eats this (and I usually can't sacrifice that many bananas!), so to make a whole pan, just double the ingredients.

 

5) Pour the whipped cream mixture into the pan. As you can see, and as I mentioned last week, it turned out really lumpy and I don't know why but assume it's because I made it on a very hot day. It's never done this before and still tasted great.

 

And even though I only make enough crust for half a pie, I always make enough filling for a whole one because I end up eating it too, with strawberries on top. Go figure. ;)

 

6) Finally, refrigerate for several hours. The longer the better, but at least 3. The filling will harden and become reminiscent of cheesecake.

 

Now, I've made this several times and just recently discovered: it needs strawberries. Oh my gosh.

It's certainly good without the strawberries, but they're just the extra touch that makes it perfect. Like, I love this stuff. And I also discovered that this seems to get better the longer it's in the fridge--it was even better on days 3 and 4.

And now I really, really want some... And it's all gone by now, of course. I think more will be in my future. ;)

This recipe was featured! :D

P.S. Linking up with Delicious Dish Tuesday, Real Food Recipe Roundup here and here, Time to Sparkle, Show Me What Ya Got, Share Your Stuff Tuesday, Share It Link Party, Do Tell Tuesday, Creative Exchange Link Party, Be.You.Tiful Link Party, Thursday Favorite Things

Coconut Whipped Cream

I think I’ve mentioned on here in the past how amazing coconut is. If I haven’t, it’s amazing. I haven’t even ventured into the world of coconut flour yet and have been helped immensely during my time on this repair diet by using coconut sugar, coconut flakes, and coconut milk. And today, I want to share yet another way to use coconut to make a healthier version of something that's not so healthy. As always, this recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free.

Coconut Whipped Cream

You’ll need:

3 cans of coconut milk

2 tsp. cinnamon, plus an extra sprinkle ;) (I use McCormick because it's gf)

8 tsp. coconut sugar (like this)

4 tsp. vanilla

(I've seen all different combinations of things added to this, like maple syrup, lemon, just sugar and vanilla, etc. This is just the version I've settled on. Obviously you could just do one can and lessen the other ingredients accordingly.)

1) Place the cans of coconut milk in the freezer for 10 minutes. (I read everywhere to refrigerate them for 24 hours, but I've found that makes the milk way too hard, and also, who can wait that long??) At this point, the milk will have separated, with the harder half on top (though I have had the harder half stay in the bottom before--go figure), and you'll scoop out and use the hard part.

2) Place the coconut milk, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and mix well until all is combined and relatively fluffy.

That's it! Just store it in the fridge, and you can use it for whatever you want. It will harden some in the fridge, and I like to scoop it out and put strawberries on it. That's pretty tasty.

I wanted to mention that I've made this a few times and never before has it turned out this lumpy. It's usually very smooth even after it's refrigerated, so I'm not sure what could have caused it, but I'm wondering if it was because I made it on a very hot day in a very hot kitchen.

Of course this whipped cream was such an easy trick, I just had to figure out more ways to use it, so next week I'll be sharing another--even tastier--way you can use this recipe!

P.S. Linking up with Delicious Dish Tuesday,Show Me What Ya Got, Time to Sparkle, Share Your Stuff Tuesday, Share It Link Party, Do Tell Tuesday, The Creative Exchange Link Party, and Real Food Recipe Round Up here and here.