Healthy Lunchbox 2012: Gluten-Free Gigi

Have you met my friend, Gluten-Free Gigi? Gigi is a scientist turned health specialist and I simply adore and always learn so much from her “A Side of Science” series. 

Gigi was one of the guest-bloggers for last year’s Healthy Lunchbox series where she shared a delicious chocolate chip mini-muffin recipe

This year she made me smile when she sent me an e-mail saying “Of course, amid all the veggies and healthy deliciousness, you can count on me to make a cookie. ;)”

To which I replied, “even the healthiest diets deserve a cookie every now and then. ;)”

No doubt your healthy lunchbox will deserve one of these grain-free, dairy-free, peanut-free and tree-nut free cookies, too!

Thanks, Gigi! Xo

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What a happy surprise when I opened an email from Sunny inviting me to be part of her Healthy Lunchbox series again this year! It’s a real honor to join Sunny and her awesome bunch of foodies again. I love seeing how each one makes lunchtime a little healthier.

In my home, because we home school, there is no “lunchbox” and lunchtime can happen at any time.

Sometimes our tummies tell us we need a veggie stir-fry at 11AM. When that’s the case, we take advantage of the “teaching moment”. Learning to put together a healthy, in-season veggie dish with what we have on hand, practicing knife skills (slicing and dicing the veggies) and fine-tuning our cooking techniques are important parts of our home school days.

Other times, we’re caught up in activities and projects (as we have been lately creating a hummingbird habitat in our backyard) and lunch comes late in the day. When that happens, we make up funny names like “linner” or “dunch” for that meal that fits neither into the “lunch” or “dinner” category. One of our favorite hearty late lunches is simple roasted chicken with garlic and lime, cauliflower mashed “potatoes”, and spinach salad with a tangy lime vinaigrette.

Regardless of how erratic our lunch schedule, one thing remains constant. We must have dessert. Every day.

Because we are cookie lovers to the core, we spend a lot of time revamping traditional recipes to fit our gluten-, dairy-, soy-, peanut-, tree nut-free household and to make the recipes just a bit more nutritious.

We each have “our” cookies – recipes developed especially for each of us. We also like creating cookies to mark occasions like our giant tooth cookies we leave for the Tooth Fairy and the autumn leaf cookies we make to celebrate the first day of fall each year. And of course, with each new school year, we create a brand new “Back to School” cookie.

To kick off this school year, my Little Chef (she’s 11) and I developed a new (healthier) version of one of her favorite flavor combos – chocolate and peanut butter!

When we created the recipe, I knew it would be perfect for sharing with you. It fits multiple special diets, is grain free and uses very little natural sweetener.

The recipe is so simple to put together and these substantial little cookies bake up moist, chewy, and delish, yet are sturdy enough for packing into a lunchbox to make the school day a little sweeter!

 

Little Chef’s Gluten Free Back to School Cookies

Grain free, dairy free, peanut free, tree nut free

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sunflower seed butter (I make my own from unsalted roasted sunflower seeds; you can find out how here. You can also substitute any nut or seed butter you like – store-bought or homemade.)

2 Tablespoons organic coconut oil, soft

2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener of your choice, like honey or agave nectar)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (Look for Rodelle brand grain free vanilla.)

4 Tablespoons tapioca flour

3 Tablespoons coconut flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks (We use Enjoy Life Foods gluten free allergen free chocolate.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a baking pan or line with parchment.

2. In a mixing bowl, stir sunflower seed butter, coconut oil, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla together until smooth.

3. Add flours and salt. Stir until smooth.

4. Stir in chocolate pieces.

5. Spoon batter onto prepared pan in 1/2-Tablespoon rounds, about 1 1/2-inches apart. Do not flatten.

6. Bake approximately 10 minutes.

7. Remove pan from oven and allow cookies to cool on the pan.

Comments

  1. Sunny,

    Thank you, again, for inviting me to share! 🙂

    I’m sending everyone I know here to see all these wonderful recipes and suggestions for making lunch a bit more health (and tasty!).

    xoxo,
    Gigi 😉

  2. Love this recipe! Thanks for sharing and having Gigi back again this year 🙂
    Cindy

  3. Sunny, thanks for asking Gigi back this year. I adored this post! Being a veteran homeschool (I homeschooled both of my boys for 18 years). I was thrilled to see a mom doing such a wonderful job with her children. It brought back so many memories of my children’s younger years!

    The great news is that no matter how old your children are, they will still cook with and for you. Families are transformed by the power of cooking and eating together. From my own experiences, cooking and eating together strengthens relationships stronger and quicker than any other way.

    As a child who could not even say her name, I know the power of a strong family!

    Gigi, I can’t wait to make these cookies! Thanks so much for sharing! Keep shining!

  4. Mildred Rogers says

    Good Morning! Thanks for all your wonderful recipes. I recently purchased Company Coming cookbook for Gluten Free recipes and they all call for pea starch, pea flour and other derivatives of the pea family. Do you know where I can find a source of the pea products in Canada?

Trackbacks

  1. […] Healthy Lunchbox 2012: Gluten-Free Gigi […]

  2. […] have a great new (healthy) gluten free cookie recipe that was published as my contribution to the “And Love it, Too! Healthy Lunchbox 2012″ […]

  3. […] I said back on Gluten-Free Gigi’s HLB guest post, even the healthiest diets deserve a cookie every now and […]

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