When I traveled in Israel, I fell in love with the food. Unfortunately, it didn’t always love me back. No matter how hard I tried, eating out as often as I had to meant that it was impossible to avoid accidental glutenings from cross contamination here and there and by the end of the trip I had a seriously rumbly tummy. Fastforward six months. I hear from Israeli friends about this amazing hummus cafe that was started in Palo Alto by a successful Israeli business man out of the love in his heart for true, authentic hummus. Apparently he imported all the traditional equipment and best ingredients to make hummus and created this restaurant in the heart of Palo Alto on University Avenue. I was very, very tempted, but very, very leery. I kept thinking of all that flatbread and tabbouleh and just the thought of it made me nervous. One day I was browsing around yelp and decided to check out the reviews, in case a gluten-free person had reviewed the place. Imagine my surprise when I found out by doing a search for “gluten-free” that the place actually had a gluten-free menu! What?!! An authentic Israeli hummus place that actually “got” gluten-free? How cool! So, I finally got up the courage to go with the DH and go on a hummus adventure.

The first time we went, I was nervous, so I didn’t dare go straight for the (gf labeled falafel.) Instead I thought I’d start slow with the classic hummus, and the gluten-free labeled shakshouka, a traditional Israeli breakfast dish I eyed longingly many mornings, but didn’t dare try because I couldn’t confirm its gluten-free status at most hotels. The hummus made me swoon. I hadn’t had such amazing hummus since we had some in Akko, drizzled with lovely olive oil and pine nuts. Oren’s classic hummus is silky smooth, with a rich drizzle of tahini in the center of it. The DH likes it topped with a hard-boiled egg, and ordered it that way. For me it is all about the yummy tahini, and I was completely satisfied on that count. The Shakshouka was all that I thought it would be- homey, warm and savory goodness. The best thing of all, though, was the service. When I told the waitress that I couldn’t have gluten, she was really careful to keep the gluten-bread that the DH ordered far away from me. I got the GF dipping basket of raw veggies instead ($2.50), which consisted of raw cabbage leaves, raw sliced carrots, and sliced cucumbers and it was wonderful with the divine hummus. But our waitress really earned points with me when she considerately brought the green harissa sauce and the red sauce freshly served from the back rather than the cross contaminated red and green sauce servers.

Best of all? After eating all this delicious, authentic Israeli food, I didn’t feel even a twinge of gluten-poisoning that night or the next morning. Finding a great, truly safe gluten-free friendly restaurant with international cuisine is pretty much like winning the lottery, and this place is exactly that.


The next time, I brought my dear friend JM along with me. JM has to follow a gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free diet, and that makes eating out quite a challenge. But I told her that I thought that Oren of Oren’s Hummus would probably as soon burn the place down as put soybean oil in his gourmet hummus, and we bravely stormed the place for a gluten-free ladies Friday Night Out.

If we hadn’t both been delirious from grueling study schedules, we might have indulged in wine, but since we were both deliriously tired and starving, we just dug into some incredible food. For those who avoid soybean oil, you can take heart. They use rice bran oil at Oren’s Hummus to fry the falafel as well as the fries. The fries are not actually gluten-free, but since according to our waiter they are fried in separate vats, we were happy to order two servings of the naturally gluten-free falafels. The falafels are small but perfect, and interestingly enough they reminded me more of my favorite fried Southern indian dal fritters than of the falafels I’d had previously, but they were delicately seasoned and drizzled in tahini with fresh green parsley garnish.

I couldn’t decide between the chickpea hummus or the fava bean hummus when our waiter drew my attention to the so-called “triangle hummus” which is the classic hummus topped with a fava bean mixture, tahini, and chickpeas too. Somehow my eyes had just drifted past that thinking of all the gluten-based triangles that are off limits, like samosas. The fava bean topping was delicious and savory, and the chickpea topping was very fresh and homemade tasting, but for me, I think I like the classic hummus all by itself. All by itself topped with delicious, delicious tahini that is.

JM also ordered the baba ghanoush and kindly shared some with me. To my delight, it was an amazingly smoky, delightfully creamy dish that was definitely on par with some I’d had in Israel, where I had loved pretty much every eggplant dish I tried. It didn’t just taste roasted, but tasted smoky, like wood chips and grills. It was immediately one of my favorites. She had the classic hummus, and loved it.

After our highly successful girl’s night out, I went home to a sleepy little Toddler Yum and a hungry DH, who was bummed when he discovered I hadn’t brought him back any of the hummus that you can take home from Oren’s in a little to-go container. *Note: We both felt no ill effects from gluten OR soy afterwards, so it was a smashing success.

The positive side to the DH’s hummus envy is that not two days later when I “casually” suggested we go for hummus for dinner, the DH was only to happy to drive all the way to Palo Alto from Sunnyvale. This time we finally ordered the sampler with six of their favorite side dishes, including labane (the thick yogurt sauce) with spices, seasoned cooked carrots*, lightly seasoned beet cubes, (my favorite) baba ghanoush, another roasted eggplant dish with red peppers, and some of the same red tomato sauce they use as a base for the shakshouka.
We ordered my new two favorite dishes- the classic hummus and the falafels. This is the third time I’ve eaten at Oren’s and so far so good! The last two waiters were not as aware of potential cross contamination issues and didn’t bring special harissa or red sauce (Even though JM requested it), but luckily we, being two experienced and mildly paranoid gluten-free ladies, knew to avoid it. By the way, I don’t usually like cooked carrots, but these had almost Indian-type spices and it was my favorite surprise of the sampler. The DH was a big fan off the beets and labane.

To conclude, everyone I’ve brought to Oren’s, gluten-free, special allergies, and not, has been thrilled with the food and the experience. Well, actually, Toddler Yum has fallen asleep in the car on the way there both times and slept through most of the experience, but all of the adults I’ve brought have loved it. And, plenty of kids in the restaurant look like they are loving the food, so I feel confident recommending it for kids too. Best of all, my hyper-sensitive gluten-free tummy and internationally hungry taste buds love this place too.

*It is easy to eat on almost any diet here. Gluten-free is a piece of cake, with more selection than I’m used to. Add dairy-free, and it takes the labane off the menu, but not too much more, as far as I can tell. There are tons of vegetarian options, and the tabbouleh is made from quinoa so gluten-free and grain-free too! I think once the gluten-free community discovers this place, we just might have ourselves the Israeli “Risotteria” of the West Coast!

I’ve properly started writing my dissertation (at a dissertation bootcamp, no less).
The DH had to rip out our bathroom shower and we ended up doing the world’s most frugal, do-it-yourself bathroom remodel of our circa 1950s bungalow.
I am taking Japanese conversation classes to get my speaking back up to speed.
The dear Toddler Yum has been insisting on my attention whenever I’m not doing one of the other tasks.
I’ve been finalizing plans for an upcoming 3 month trip to Japan for fieldwork.

So, it has been busy. And, it isn’t going to get quieter anytime soon. This is a cry for help, actually. If you have always wondered what it is like to host Adopt a gluten-free blogger, these next few months would be the perfect time to try it and find out! If you’d like to host for any month (including the current one!) just post a comment indicating that and I’ll be in touch.

I’m also looking for anyone who might be interested in doing a guest post while I’m overseas. I thought about setting an “international recipe” challenge, or an “allergen-friendly” recipe challenge. If you’d be interested, let me know. The only requirement would be that the recipe be gluten-free, vegetarian, and oat-free.

Thanks my dears! And with no further ado, here’s the amazing collection of recipes that were reviewed this month.

Kalinda of Wheat-free Meat-free adopted Zoe from Z’s Cup of Tea and made this gorgeous grapefruit olive oil cake. I can’t help but want to try this recipe because Toddler Yum adores grapefruit and it just sounds so tasty! The cake also looks like it is glowing, too, which makes it just that much more tempting. Yum! Both Zoe and Kalinda struggled a bit with the bitter pith of grapefruit, but it sounds like they worked it out. Zoe also made an orange version that got around the bitterness issue. Either way, I have to try this!
Recipe:
Grapefruit Olive Oil Cake

After years of hearing wonderful things about Maggie’s blog at She Let them Eat Cake, I finally went ahead and adopted her, trying two brilliant recipes. I made her nutty bread with home-ground walnut meal and her amazing egg-free, flourless morning glory muffins. The latter are likely to become a staple, if I can just remember to keep zucchini in the refrigerator!

Recipes:
GF CF EF Morning Glory Muffins
GF CF EF Nutty Sandwich Bread

Alta Mantsch adopted Kalinda of Wheat-free, Meat-free and tried 4 recipes of hers. She tried braised celery, dill pickle soup, braised brussels sprouts in mustard sauce, and a bok choy bell pepper stir-fry.

Recipes:
dill pickle soup
braised brussels sprouts in mustard sauce
bok choy bell pepper stir-fry
braised celery

Paula Decaria adopted Cassidy from Cooking Gluten (& Dairy) Free and made her ‘The Best Cinnamon Rolls’.

Recipe:
Gluten-free and Dairy-free Cinnamon Roll

Shannon adopted Joyful abode and made not one but three delicious recipes. These recipes have adorable names as well as tasty ingredients, from Good Chicken Salad with Grapes and Pinenuts,Yummus Hummus, and Grain-Free Gluten-Free Sugar-Free Cookies of Awesomeness. They sound so good!

Recipes:
Gluten-free Grain Free Awesome Cookies
Good gluten-free Chicken Salad with Grapes and Pine Nuts
Yummy Gluten-free Hummus

We welcomed first-time adopter Desi, who adopted Pure2Raw and made beautiful and tasty Lemon Coconut Bars.
Recipe:
Lemon Coconut Bars

Alma adopted Shauna the Gluten-free Girl and made Chocolate Banana Bread with Teff Flour.

Recipe:
Chocolate Banana Bread with Teff Flour

Sunita adopted Ali at Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and made Gluten-Free + Vegan + Sugar-Free Cake and Gluten-Free Gingerbread Muffins. If you look at her post you can see Sunita’s dear boys enjoying an absolutely darling cake and read some very funny stuff about her experiences with prunes.

Recipes:
Gluten-Free + Vegan + Sugar-Free Cake
Gluten-Free Gingerbread Muffins

Cheryl of GF Goodness adopted the delicious wendy of celiacs in the house and made her ginger compote.

Recipes:
Ginger Pear Compote with Currants

And, I am blushing here, but vegan cookbook author Kim of Welcoming Kitchen adopted me at the Book of Yum and made chocolate mousse, a raw foods marinara, and chili garlic roasted broccoli.

allergen-free chocolate mousse
raw foods marinara
Roasted chili garlic broccoli

What a great turnout! Let’s hope we can keep it up.

The Celiac Bay Area Yahoo support group has been hopping lately with the news of a new restaurant in Palo Alto with a completely gluten-free menu. Not only is everything in the restaurant naturally gluten-free, but it is a vietnamese-influenced asian menu that is often off limits to gluten-free diners due to wheat based soy sauce. They use gluten-free wheat-free soy sauce at the Asian Box, and seem to be very dedicated to creating a safe and delicious dining experience for their gluten-free patrons. Their menu is the creation of “Executive Chef Grace Nguyen, formerly of Charles Phan’s famous Slanted Door and Out The Door’s Bush Street location.” (Asian Box Web Site)


They just opened recently, and the restaurant is not completely finished yet, with inside tables missing their counters at present. Do you see the big gluten-free sign on the wall? Small details like that really make me feel comfortable eating at a restaurant. Besides that, the staff is young, helpful and cheerful and the food is fast and absolutely delicious. Speaking of the food, the menu isn’t on their web site, which is currently as sparse as the inside of the restaurant seating area. However, I found a photo on twitter that shared the menu, so here it is for you to enjoy:
Asian Box Menu:
Pick a base :
Short Grain Brown Rice
Long grain Jasmine Rice
Asian Vegetable Salad
Rice Noodles
Pick a protein:
Chicken (6 spice)
Pork (lemongrass)
Beef (garlic and soy sauce)
Tofu (coconut curry)
Shrimp (Lime Basil)

Finally, Top with Vegetables (steamed or spiced), and pick as many garnishes as you like (jalapeno, bean sprout, fried shallots, scallion oil, chopped peanuts, fresh herbs, pickled veggies, fresh lime, and caramel egg).
Then pick a sauce from tamarind, sriracha, fish sauce, Asian street dust, hot box sauce, and peanut sauce.

A few of the toppings (caramel egg, peanut sauce) cost extra, but otherwise your meal price is based on the protein you select.

I picked the coconut curry tofu and paired it with brown rice, peanut sauce, and all the garnishes except jalapeno and caramel egg. I also had them add the “Asian Street Dust”, a spice blend.

This was the finished dish. When it arrived, I dove in enthusiastically and was not at all disappointed. As the DH said, this dish had some of my favorite flavors and could have been something I made at home, but with a little more variety added by the pickled vegetables and bean sprouts. The fried tofu was perfect, and I loved the combination of flavors. I have always been jealous of the DH when he goes to vietnamese sandwich shops here, not so much because of the sandwich but because of the yummy and interesting pickles that he gets to add on to his order. I was making “nom nom nom” noises just like the Youtube cat, and ended up having a friendly conversation with another diner who said she had heard from Vietnamese friends to “watch for Asian Box” because it will have really authentic and tasty food. She loved it too! You can also order slushee machine type vietnamese coffee (that some reviewers on Yelp said had a chickory taste), iced tea, and lemonade. We just stuck with water, though. I will definitely be back. One thing I would say is that I don’t know if the other dishes will be as perfect for me as this one was. However, I’m eager to try the different bases like the rice noodles, and can’t wait to try the side spring rolls, although I may be harder to impress with those because they are so easy to make at home. Although it isn’t my thing, other people on the Celiac Bay Area boards also raved about the (non veg) jerky.

Town and Country is turning into quite the gluten-free destination with Calafia and its gluten-free menu, Trader Joe’s, and now Asian Box. The latter is bound to turn into my go-to place to eat in Palo Alto. I will note that it isn’t the most filling portion ever, but actually, given the tendency of fast food restaurants to overload their customers with empty calories, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Wouldn’t you like to have some?

As I was making the muffins, I could tell that they were going to turn out well due to the elasticity in the dough, not to mention the yummy smelling cinnamon and the raisins. I don’t like walnuts in my muffins so I left them out of the dough and just put some on top of the muffins before baking them. Somehow finding walnut in the middle of a bready bite does not make me happy, but when I know I’m biting into a nut on top of the muffin I feel like the muffin is better somehow. Is that weird? I did find that I had to bake the muffins longer than Maggie suggested, and even then they were a little on the moist side. I noticed that Maggie often makes them in mini muffin tins and I think that would be a perfect solution. However, both the DH and I gobbled them up so I can’t really say this moistness was a problem. Instead, the problem was that I didn’t make a double batch! Next time I might make mini morning glories, just because they are so darned cute and faster to bake. And yes, there will be a next time. Oh yes, there will be more morning glory muffins. Now, please.

Because I love bread and found Maggie’s recipe very compelling, I just had to try her Nutty Sandwich Bread. I used all sorghum flour because sometimes garfava is a little tough on my stomach, and I used walnut meal that I ground in my clean spice grinder. The batch came together quickly. I noticed that Maggie used two bread pans but when I mixed up the batch, I felt like I could easily just make one nice fat loaf, so I used one 8*4 pan. It rose beautifully and baked up even prettier, so I was happy with my decision. I sprinkled the top with sunflower seeds and just looking at that gorgeous loaf (not to mention smelling it) made me smile.

It made the perfect loaf of bread for toast or sandwiches. Toddler Yum enjoyed it freshly made with the crusts cut off and some dairy-free margarine. I liked it with baba ghanoush, avocado and garden lettuce, with almond or peanut butter, and also in a super yum creation of mine involving hummus, sliced lyndsay olives, and organic arugula. *drool* The DH also gave it thumbs ups.

The one thing about it was that either the walnut meal or the baking soda made me feel weirdly like I was eating banana bread without the banana. Something about the texture felt more like a quickbread than a yeast bread, but the flavor was terrific. I would definitely make this again any time I needed a good gluten, dairy, and egg free recipe. No wonder Maggie is such a powerhouse in the blogging world, with these terrific recipes! I’m so glad I finally adopted her and explored her yummy baked goods.

You can find more of Maggie’s recipes at the site she co-founded with Amy Green of Simply Sugar and Gluten-free, The Balanced Platter.

I am thrilled by Toddler Yum’s new school, and it seems to be really good for her. She has friends, learns fun things and gets to try all sorts of new activities. She comes home literally singing, and little tidbits that she has learned leak out in between her toddler chatter. Last month she learned the days of the week in a cheery little song. Last night at the dinner table, she started belting out the months. She told me buenas noches with no prompting, out of the blue. It seems like a great environment and fit for my active little social bunny.

Unfortunately that great environment comes with a silicon valley price tag. We have her at half days, but it still gives our budget pause. Add on to that property taxes, graduate school fees, and utility bills and it ends up hurting a little bit. So, I have sworn off pricey convenience meals for a bit, and that includes those tasty Amy’s Kitchen meals. I decided that a tight budget was no reason to go without my focaccia! I peered at the back of the Amy’s kitchen box for ingredients, consulted with some favorite vegan cookbooks like Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, and started baking up a storm. I made two versions of this recipe, and this one was my favorite. It was not quite as fluffy as the Amy’s version, but it still was strangely addictive. It also passed the DH test, who said that it was yummy and gobbled it down without any resistance. I loved it plain, with earth balance margarine, and used in sandwiches with a baba ghanoush, avocado and lettuce filling. By the way, the avocado came from the tree in our backyard. I just love free avocados! And the lettuce came straight out of our winter garden. California living has its perks!

I may be fooling around with this recipe some more, but I love the flavor. Honestly, I’m a rice girl at heart. I just love the nuttiness of brown rice flour tempered by a little white rice. And the sunflower meal is a very good alternative to the ever-popular almond flour. It gives great flavor, a little punch of protein, and does some good things to the texture too. I think I’ll be using it in more of my recipes in the future. Hope you enjoy!

Dairy-free Egg-free Focaccia Bread Bread  Alternative Grains  American  Italian

Ingredients 1/2 cup brown rice flour 1/2 cup white rice flour 1 cup tapioca starch flour 1/4 cup corn flour (can substitute millet flour, sorghum, or brown rice flour) 1/4 cup ground roasted unsalted sunflower seed meal (i made it in my spice grinder) 1/4 cup potato starch flour (can sub arrowroot or cornstarch) 1/4 cup cornstarch (can sub arrowroot or potato starch) 1 tsp. salt 3 tbsp. olive oil 1 tbsp agave/maple syrup/honey 1 1/4 cup warm water 1 tbsp. yeast for topping: your favorite dairy-free milk or olive oil Bouquet garni or onion flakes/ caramelized onions coarse salt Directions Line a square cake pan with parchment paper and baste sides with palm oil shortening or other preferred oil. Preheat oven to 375F. Mix together dry ingredients in your kitchenaid mixer. Note on the sunflower seed meal- I cleaned my spice grinder by running a batch of white rice through it before I made the sunflower seed meal. You could also try using the small section of your food processor for grinding the meal. Put your tablespoon of liquid sweetener (agave, maple syrup etc) in a small bowl. Add your warm water and your yeast. Combine gently and wait for it to foam. Add to your dry ingredients along with olive oil. Mix with the paddle for a few minutes, and then pour into your prepared pan. Baste top with a little olive oil or your favorite non-dairy plain milk. Sprinkle with bouquet garni herbs or onion topping. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve and enjoy! Notes Great for sandwiches when cut in half. Microwave individual servings for 10-15 seconds to refresh the next day.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Inspired by Amy’s Kitchen recipe and Veganomicon focaccia, but my own creation. Please do not replicate without permission. Recipe ID:  1590 Added:  March 6, 2012 Last Modified:  March 6, 2012

Here’s how you participate.

1) Pick a gluten-free blogger whose recipes you admire and adopt them by commenting on this post with your name, blog name and their name and blog name.

*Blogger’s recipes must all be gluten-free or have a way to sort and read ONLY gluten-free recipes
*Please pick a different blogger every time you participate
*Please pick a blogger that has not been adopted yet this month!

2) Pick one (or two!) of your gluten-free blogger’s recipes to try.

3) Make the recipe, photograph it and write a post in your blog introducing the blogger and their recipe.

*Follow the recipe as written, as closely as possible. And, please don’t print their recipe on your post- just provide your reader a link to their original recipe.
*Provide a link to this event announcement page

4) Email me at adoptaglutenfreeblogger[at]gmail[dot]com with your photo of the recipe, the URL of your post, name of the recipe and the URL of the original blogger’s recipe post. PLEASE SIZE PHOTO TO BE A MAXIMUM OF 500 pixels wide. Otherwise I will have to resize it manually and after the first one or two I start to cry sad tears of weary despair. You don’t want me crying while I post, do you?

5) Post YOUR POST’s URL in a comment to this post, and if possible please try to visit two other blogger’s posts that are posted here (and comment!).

*The goal is to make this event more interactive and fun!

Deadlines:
Sign up BEFORE February 29(loose deadline; late sign-ups are ok)
Post your Review and Email me by March 9th (firm deadline, no foolin’)

If you don’t have a blog, you are still welcome to adopt a gluten-free blogger. Sign up to adopt a blogger, write a review of one of their recipes, including your name (or pen name), the recipe URL and recipe title. Then take a photo of the completed recipe (if you can) and EMAIL ME the review and photo. I will create a special page just for our non-blogging participants and post it for you.

I’ll start the adoptions by adopting Maggie of She let them Eat Cake. Now it is your turn!

Adoption Sign-Up Sheet:
1) Maggie of She Let them Eat Cake (adopted by Sea of Book of Yum)
2) Wendy of Celiacs in the House (Adopted by Cheryl of Gluten-free Goodness)
3) Iris of the Daily Diatribe (adopted by Ellen the Gluten-free Diva)
4) Cassidy from Cooking Gluten (& Dairy) Free (Adopted by Paula Decaria (Live Free, Gluten Free))
5) Zoe from Z’s Cup of Tea (adopted by Kalinda of Wheat Free Meat Free)
6) Lori and Michelle from Pure2Raw (adopted by Desi the Palate Peacemaker)
7) Kalinda of Wheat Free Meat Free (adopted by Alta)
8) Ali at the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen (adopted by Sunita of Growing Healthy)
9) Stephanie O’Dea of stephanieodea.com (Adopted by Shannon of Enjoying Gluten free Life)*adoption changed
10) Sea of Book of Yum (Adopted by Kim of Welcoming Kitchen)
11) Shauna of The Gluten Free Girl and Chef (adopted by Alma of Me Living Gluten-free)
12) you pick!

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
If you sign up and cannot complete this event by March 9th for any reason, please email me immediately at adoptaglutenfreeblogger[at]gmail[dot]com and let me know. Please ONLY use this email account for Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger relevant emails.

Can’t find a blogger to adopt or looking to meet some new gluten-free friends?
Visit my Gluten-Free Blogroll
Example of an Adoption Post (I went a little crazy)

I have a confession to make. I don’t really like brownies. I know that this is shocking, because I love (dark) chocolate and have something of a chocolate addiction that I’m trying to break. But the thing is, I like chocolate. Dark, rich, unadulterated chocolate. The bread-y cake-y chocolate thing is not really my favorite. In fact, unless it is a rich flourless chocolate cake or ganache…. I don’t even like chocolate cake. But the DH loves brownies. He loves cake-y, bread-y, sweet chocolate brownies. In all our years of being married (we will celebrate our 10th this June) I don’t think I have ever made him gluten-free brownies from scratch. I have deigned to mix up the odd batch of gluten-free brownie from a mix, but that’s it. He has never complained, but when he recently whipped up his own batch of gluten-free brownies from the Bette Crocker mix, I felt a little twinge. Why hadn’t I ever made him a good gluten-free brownie from scratch? I bake everything else from scratch, so why not that too, for a DH that has been so supportive of his gluten-free and vegetarian wife’s diet? So I resolved to remedy this error, and soon. Valentine’s Day was the perfect occasion to show my love with a little baking.

What is something your significant other likes to eat that you don’t particularly care for?

Last weekend I took Toddler Yum to Michael’s craft store to pick up supplies for making some homemade valentines for her daycare classmates. I picked up two heart cookie cutters, along with some fun stamps (including an alphabet set for stamping her name), heart ribbon, and more. I’d already bought little notepads with Valentine’s Day messages from Target, and had some scrapbook sheets at home that I planned to use as the base for the Valentines. On Sunday Toddler Yum and I got up early and spent the morning assembling valentines. We used the large heart cookie cutter as a stencil and I cut the thick scrapbook paper into large hearts. Then we taped notepads on the front of the heart and I set Toddler Yum loose with stamps, colored pencils, and crayons to decorate the back. We stamped her name on each one, and I finished the valentine with a little heart bow on the front. Toddler Yum takes her valentines to school tomorrow and can’t wait to give her favorite teachers and friends their cards!


This little craft project left me with these wonderful heart cookie cutters. I used them this morning to make Toddler Yum some gluten-free toast hearts topped with honey-almond butter spread. Then this afternoon after I made a batch of a gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free mexican chocolate brownies, I decided to use the small heart cookie cutter to cut out heart brownies. They were beautiful, and it was so much easier than rolling out cookie dough and cutting out the raw cookie shapes. Toddler Yum was so excited to see me make brownies that she opened her eyes wide and made an “oh my goodness” face with her mouth, clutching her little fists up in the air. “Two thumbs up” she said, pointing her index fingers at the sky. The DH gave these cake brownies a big thumbs up too, and so did my dairy-free mother and visiting father. “These are so much better than the mix brownies,” she said. As for me, I liked my last minute addition of cinnamon that was inspired by spicy mexican chocolate. I almost added chili powder too, but decided that the cinnamon was wild and crazy enough for our household. The DH also appreciated the zesty cinnamon in his brownie. He wasn’t quite ready to say they were better than a box mix, but he said they were “very yummy.” Being a Libra, he doesn’t like to pick favorites.

One extra cool thing about this recipe is that it is truly 100% soy-free, even to the point of being free of soy-lecithin. Unsweetened chocolate or baking chocolate is often quite pure, and doesn’t contain emulsifiers like soy lecithin. Woo hoo! I could even serve this to my profoundly soy-sensitive friend! (Oops, guess my secret plan is out since she reads my blog!)

I hope you enjoy my gluten-free brownie recipe. It was fun and easy to make, and I managed to make a rich and decadent dessert reasonably healthy, with no refined starches and limited amounts of processed sugar. Happy Valentines Day from all of us at the Book of Yum!

More Gluten-free Valentine’s Day Dessert Recipes:
Easy and Allergen-free Chocolate Mousse
Gluten-free Flourless Chocolate Cake and Cardamon Rose Pistachio Ice Cream
Gluten-free Dairy-free Chocolate Cherry Cake with Betty Crocker mix
Gluten-free Dairy-free Cheesecake Pops Recipe
Gluten-free Raw-foods Dairy-free Cheesecake Recipe with Honey Lavender
Gluten-free Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Elana’s Pantry Valentines Day Recipe Roundup
Gluten-free Brownie Valentine Cake Pop Recipe
Allergy-friendly Chocolate Fondue
Chocolate Covered Coconut Cookie Dough Recipe (raw vegan, nut-free, grain-free)
Healthy Valentine’s Day Treats for Toddlers:
Gluten-free, Sugar-free Banana Coconut Cookies

This recipe was entered in Slightly Indulgent Tuesday with Simply Sugar and Gluten-free.

Gluten-free Mexican Chocolate Cake Brownie Recipe Dessert  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients 1/2 cup grapeseed oil 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate 1/2 cup organic white sugar 1/2 cup date sugar, coconut sugar, or more organic white sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/3 cup sorghum or rice flour 1/3 cup almond flour (finely ground, like honeyville) 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon Directions Line 8*8 cake pan with parchment paper in the bottom and grease sides and bottom with a little palm shortening. Preheat oven to 350F. Put unsweetened chocolate and grapeseed oil in a microwavable bowl or double boiler. Melt in microwave on medium power for around two minutes, checking at the one minute mark and stirring if needed. Or, if you prefer, you can melt the chocolate and oil in a double boiler bowl over boiling or simmering water until you can stir it into a creamy liquid. Pour chocolate oil mixture into a medium bowl and add your sugar and vanilla. Let cool while you combine your dry ingredients (flours, baking soda and cinnamon) in another medium bowl. When chocolate-sugar mixture cools, you can add two eggs and whisk to combine. Stir dry ingredients and add your melted chocolate and egg mixture. Bake in parchment paper lined pan on 350 for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan. If you want to make heart brownies, take a heart cookie cutter and cut out heart shapes. The parchment paper lining makes this really easy. You can remove each heart with the cookie cutter and place them on a decorative plate. There will be leftover brownie scraps that I’m sure will go uneaten. NOT! Perfect for chef snacking or treating the kid or other family members with while you save the heart brownies for your valentine.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  The contents of my brain. Please do not replicate without permission. Recipe ID:  1588 Added:  February 13, 2012 Last Modified:  February 13, 2012