Puppy Chow for One

It's been a rough few months. And I have a rough few more ahead of me before school is over. Some day soon, I will have only my full-time job to keep me busy.

In the meantime, I need a steady supply of snacks. And if you're like me, you'll eat exactly as much of this as you make. So in an effort to at least curb my stress eating, I decided to make a single serving at a time. That way, at least 4 minutes of preparation stands between me and more of it. Because it is so good. So full of peanut butter and chocolate, one of the best combinations that exists on earth. So addictive.

So go ahead. Join me in an attempt to eat just a little of it. And enjoy every bite.

Puppy Chow for One

1/2 cup Honey Nut Chex
1 tbsp. natural peanut butter
1 tbsp. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 -3 tsp. powdered sugar

Melt the peanut butter and the chocolate chips together for 1 minute in the microwave. Stir the chocolate chips and peanut butter together, then add the chex. Stir to coat.

Put the powdered sugar in a small baggie. Pour the chocolate-coated chex into the bag and shake it to cover with the powdered sugar.

Store in the refrigerator...if you can wait that long to eat it.

Blackberry Sage Coffee Cake

You know what the perfect accompaniment to a super cold Boston day is?  A good friend, a hot cup of tea, and a piece of this coffee cake.  Particularly if you've spent the afternoon baking it together.

I love the smell and flavor of sage.  It's one of those herbs I never really ate before, for some reason.  It wasn't until I tried Republic of Tea's Blackberry Sage tea that I even knew what it tasted like.  And after that?  I was hooked.

I think sage is a lovely complement to blackberries, and so when my friend Kate showed up at my door with a bag of fresh blackberries, ready for an adventure in gluten-free baking, we decided we'd try our hand at inventing a blackberry coffee cake.  And all it took for her was one whiff of my jar of ground sage to convince her that it needed to be part of our recipe. 

So we pulled out my trusted copy of Ruhlman's Ratio and got to work using the ratio for sponge cake. 1:1:1:1 (fat : egg : flour : sugar).  "Should we substitute applesauce for part of the fat?" I asked Kate, holding a stick of butter.  "Yes," she said, nodding.  "Then we can eat more of it and not feel guilty."

Great minds think alike.

Trust me, you'll be glad you built in a guilt-free way to eat more of this cake.  It is heavenly!  The only thing I might change is to chop the blackberries or add more of them so they were more evenly dispersed throughout the cake.  But the flavor was still wonderful, the soft flavor of sage spreading across my tongue - but not overpowering it - and the blackberries melting in my mouth.

Divine.  You won't be sorry, trust me. (Unless you hate sage. Then you might be sorry.)

Blackberry Sage Coffee Cake
Makes a 9x13 coffee cake

For cake:
4 oz. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
4 oz. smooth applesauce
8 oz. white sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2.5 oz. sorghum flour
2.5 oz. brown rice flour
3 oz. tapioca starch
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
2 - 3 tsp. ground sage (depending on how strong you want the flavor to be)
1 cup blackberries, chopped into small pieces if desired

For topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup brown rice flour
2 tbsp. melted Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp. ground sage

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray a cake pan with cooking spray.

Cream together the butter, applesauce, and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate, then the vanilla and lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Add bit by bit to the wet ingredients, mixing well.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and smooth with a spatula.  Press the blackberries into the dough, spacing evenly.  You can leave them whole, or cut them into smaller pieces for more even consistency.

Place in the oven.  Assemble the crumble topping.  After 20 minutes of baking, as quickly as you can, open the oven and sprinkle the crumble topping over the cake as evenly as possible. Continue to bake for anohter 15 - 30 minutes, or just until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool completely before serving.

Cream Cheese Stollen

You probably didn't think this was possible. Gluten- and dairy-free cream cheese stollen. But, friends. It is.


My mom has made this (well, a glutenful version) every Hannukah for as long as I can remember. And up until 4 years ago, I joined the rest of my family in stuffing myself to the point of immobility with it the night of our Hannukah party. There was certainly enough of it to be had - I remember one year, she made something like 16 of them. In one day. And that was the same morning that she made about a dozen loaves of challah bread. The woman is a machine.

This year, I was lucky enough to be home for our Hannukah party (I've missed it a few times over the last several years because I was either out of the country or at least out of St. Louis when Hannukah fell). The house smelled heavenly. It smelled heavenly because of a bunch of food I couldn't eat. It was torturous to watch everyone slather jam or butter onto thick slices of soft challah, and to watch everyone wander into the kitchen to cut themselves piece after piece of cream cheese stollen. I never, ever cheat and eat gluten. But I have to be honest -- my mom's challah and cream cheese stollen are two of the things that tempt me the most.

The funny thing is, my mom is gluten-free, too - although she isn't quite as sensitive as I am to it. Yet she still makes these treats for the Hannukah party the way she always has, with wheat flour. I asked her at the party if she had ever tried to make a gluten-free version of the cream cheese stollen. She said she hadn't. And I vowed in that moment that someday very soon, a gluten-free version would exist.

And now it does, and it rocks. I'm actually a little surprised myself at how well this turned out. Even the chef has doubts sometimes - I mean, it is dairy-free cream cheese and gluten-free dough that I couldn't knead like the original recipe calls for. How close could it really get to the original? But it turned out beautifully - the dough wasn't difficult to work with at all, and it all baked up into a wonderfully soft and flaky-on-top pastry. The smooth cream cheese filling is the complement to the slightly sweet and yeasty bread, and the end product is a delightful dessert that is sweet (but not too sweet) and melts in your mouth.

Granted, it's been many years since I tasted my mom's cream cheese stollen. But this is seriously delicious. I brought it to work, and my co-workers proclaimed it to be "out-of-this-world good." And I'd have to agree.

Cream Cheese Stollen
Makes 1 Stollen
*You can double this recipe very easily. 


For the dough:
1/4 cup margarine or butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. vanilla coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 egg
1/4 cup warm water
2 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup brown rice flour (plus another 1/4 - 1/2 cup for when you roll it out later)
1/2 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato or arrowroot starch
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. xanthan gum


For the cream cheese filling:
12 oz. gluten-free and vegan cream cheese
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 egg
2 tsp. vanilla
dash salt


For the glaze:
1.5 tsp. boiling water
3/4 - 1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. lemon juice


Melt margarine or butter.  Add sugar, salt and coconut milk.  Continue heating until lukewarm. 


In a separate bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in warm water until foamy.  Stir in milk mixture, egg and half of the flour, beat until smooth.  Stir in remaining batter to make a stiff batter. Stir well, put into an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in warm place for about a half an hour or until roughly doubled in size. 


In the meantime, make the cream cheese filling by beating together all of the ingredients until it is very smooth. Set aside.


Punch down dough, then turn out onto a greased piece of parchment paper (make it easy on yourself and do this step on the surface you're actually going to bake the stollen on - it's hard to transfer to a new surface without breaking it once it's formed!). Sprinkle liberally with brown rice flour, and then use your hands to form the dough into a rectangular shape (about 9” by 13”).  Brush with beaten egg, spread on the cream cheese filling, and roll in from each side, meeting in the center. (Tip: take a thin cutting board and use it to roll each side in - it will help keep it from falling apart.). If you didn't do this on a grease baking sheet, transfer it now to one, or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Then cut diagonal slits along the sides, brush with egg, and let rise for another half an hour.  


Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until browned. If you have the instant read thermometer, you can again test it for doneness, by poking it into a non cheesy section to see if the temperature is anywhere between 190 degrees and 210 degrees.


Allow the stollen to cool slightly on a cooling rack, and then spoon on the glaze.  After glaze has set and stollen is completely cool, you can wrap tightly in saran wrap. If you store in the fridge, be sure to warm it up for 10 - 15 seconds in the microwave before serving.


To make glaze: Add boiling water and lemon juice slowly to confectioner’s sugar and mix thoroughly.  If you don’t use this mixture pretty quickly, it will thicken too much, so use within 5 minutes of making it.

Lower-Fat Chocolate Chip Vanilla Blondies

I am a die-hard brownie fan. You can ask my cousin Erin how safe a pan of brownies is if I'm within a 50-foot radius of it. (The answer is: not safe. Not safe at all.)

But there is something about vanilla that I adore as well, and the allure of these blondies is pretty much on par with that of a pan full of straight chocolate. These are essentially like chocolate chip cookie bars, just bursting a bit more at the seams with vanilla flavor.  I substituted applesauce for some of the fat (although these are not even close to being fat-free) and the results were pretty excellent - still a moist crumb, but it held together very nicely and didn't fall apart.  These are a great treat for "mixed company" (that is, gluten-eating and gluten-free folks alike) -- if they even make it out of your kitchen.

Lower-Fat Chocolate Chip Vanilla Blondies (Adapted from the Allergen-free Baker's Handbook)
Makes one 9x13 pan

4 tbsp. Spectrum Shortening
4 tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
4 tbsp. applesauce
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (or more!) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Spray a 9" x 13" pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Cream the shortening, butter, and applesauce together with an electric mixer.  Add in the sugar and continue to cream until well mixed. Add the egg and vanilla and mix in.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt.  Add 1/3 at a time to the wet ingredients using the electric mixer.

Stir in the chocolate chips and then spread evenly into the pan. Bake for 35 - 45 minutes or just until a toothpick or knife inserted into the middle of the pan comes out clean. If anything, you want to underbake these instead of leaving them in for too long, so definitely keep an eye on them after 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.  Cut into pieces and either serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 2-3 days on the counter.  If you are storing them for longer, keep refrigerated or frozen until ready to serve.

Chai Latte Cashew Cookies for the Ratio Rally

Cookies are woven into our culture. Images of chocolate chip cookies, warm from the oven at grandma's house. The classic Tollhouse recipe. The cookie jar. The cookie monster. Girl Scouts sell them. Web browsers have them. They're everywhere, when you think about it.

And with good reason.  Friends, it's because cookies rock.  And that's why I'm so excited that this month's Ratio Rally recipe is for cookies! This is what you've been waiting for. For years, you've been tethered to your classic Tollhouse recipe. But now - now you can create delicious, chewy, buttery cookies (and as many or as few as you want) using a simple ratio.

I thought long and hard about what kind of cookie I wanted to create. There are such endless possibilities. Should I go classic chocolate chip? German hazelnut jam thumbprint? Peanut butter with chocolate? Pumpkin? Sugar? My mind was spinning (and my stomach was growling).

Then I noticed a forgotten little package of cardamom in my spice cabinet that I had never gotten around to using before. And I knew what I was going to make.

Chai Lattes. In cookie form.

There are a few different possible ratios for cookies. I originally tried the 1-2-3 ratio, but those ended up being cakier than I preferred. So I went for a ratio closer to the 1-1-1 ratio (1 part each of butter, sugar, and flour) and they came out much more like traditional cookies. Buttery, soft, and with a nice texture. And delicious. These really did taste like little chai lattes - I brought them into work and they got great reviews! And cookies are a piece of cake (ha) to throw together, so they'll be making your house smell wonderful before you know it.

Many thanks to Caroline of The G Spot Revolution for hosting this month's Ratio Rally for cookies!  See below my recipe for a list of all the other fantastic cookie ideas the other Ratio Rally members came up with.

And get ready for a chai latte - just not the kind you're used to.


Chai Latte Cashew Cookies
Makes 24 - 36 cookies

1.5 oz butter

1 oz brown sugar

1 oz white sugar
1/2 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

.75 oz brown rice flour

.75 oz sorghum flour

.5 oz potato starch

1/8 tsp. xanthan gum

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped cashews

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and vanilla and beat together. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix together. Add to the butter-sugar mixture and mix until combined. Add the chopped cashews.

Drop by teaspoonful onto the lined cookie sheet (no greasing necessary). Bake for 7-9 minutes, or just until the edges are slightly browned. Remove from oven and leave on hot cookie sheet for another 2 -4 minutes or until firm enough to move to a cooling rack. When completely cooled, remove to an airtight container.

Take a look at the fabulous recipes the other Ratio Rally folks came up with!

Amanda | Gluten Free Maui | Simple Shortbread
Amie Valpone | The Healthy Apple | Grapefruit Sugar Cookies
Brooke | B & the boy! | Candy Cane Shortbread
Caleigh | Gluten Free[k] | Mulled Spice Cookies
Caneel | Mama Me Gluten Free | Cardamom Date Cookies
charissa | zest bakery | Coconut Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Caroline | The G-Spot | Double Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies
Erin | The Sensitive Epicure | Spritz Cookies with Jam
gretchen | kumquat | Classic Sugar Cookies
Irvin | Eat the Love | Apple Brown Butter Bay Leaf Spice Cookies
Jean | Gluten Free Doctor Recipes | Reindeer Cookies
Jenn | Jenn Cuisine | Basler Brunsli
Jonathan| The Canary Files | Vegan Salted Oatmeal Cherry Cookies
Karen | Cooking Gluten Free! | Mexican Wedding Cakes
Lisa from Gluten Free Canteen | Molasses Rum Raisin Cookies
Mary Fran | frannycakes | Pinwheel Cookies
Meaghan | The Wicked Good Vegan | Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Meredith | Gluten Free Betty | Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Morri | Meals With Morri| Stevia Sweetened & Grain-Free Thumbprint Cookies with Apricot Preserves
Pete & Kelli | No Gluten, No Problem| Belgian Speculaas Cookies
Rachel | The Crispy Cook | Melomakarona
Silvana Nardone | Silvana's Kitchen | Old-School Italian Jam-Filled Hazelnut Cookies
T.R. | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies | Cinnamon Lemon Cookies
Tara | A Baking Life | Walnut Shortbread

Featured in Shape Magazine!

Remember these?  My delicious Banana Rum Cupcakes with Rum Glaze that resulted from the "cake" round of the Gluten-free Ratio Rally?

Well, I do. I have made them a few more times since posting about them for the Gluten-free Ratio Rally. They've turned out wonderfully every time - and not only are they based on a Ruhlman ratio, but they are also (relatively) guilt-free. So you can make - and EAT - as many as you like.

The people at Shape Magazine seem to agree with me, and they've included this recipe in their recent piece, "The Best Healthy Cupcakes We've Ever Seen."  Check out the other cupcakes that made rank - they all look pretty amazing, and there are a few other gluten-free recipes included as well that I can't wait to try out. Thanks so much to Shape.com for the feature!!

And just in case you were thinking of not making a batch of these immediately after reading this post, I'll leave you with this:

Yeah. You might want to start preheating the oven.

Aunt Maggie's Pumpkin Spice Pie for the Gluten-free Ratio Rally

There's nothing more quintessential to me about fall than pumpkin pie.  And luckily for me, I have a family who loves it just as much as I do.  Which is why I decided to feature my Aunt Maggie's amazing recipe for pumpkin pie for this month's Gluten-free Ratio Rally.  Her pie is legendary and is one of the things our family looks forward to most each fall, and it will make your house smell like the season. 

Many thanks to Lisa from Gluten-free Canteen for hosting this month's Ratio Rally!  

The filling for this comes together so easily, so that part will be a piece of....pie?  You can literally just dump it all in a bowl and mix it up with an electric mixer in less than 5 minutes.  Done.  And even though making a pie crust from scratch may seem daunting (I know it did for me!), it's really much simpler than you might expect.  And it will be so delicious, you'll be glad you took the extra 20 minutes to do it - I promise.  This crust turned out wonderfully firm and flakey (like a good crust should be), and the filling set beautifully thanks to a milk substitute of So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk.  We always have this pie (erm, several of these pies) at Thanksgiving, but you can use any excuse to make it anytime.  For example: It's Friday.  Bam - good enough reason to make a pumpkin pie.

It worked for me, anyway.  And it disappeared just as quickly as it came together.

Aunt Maggie's Pumpkin Spice Pie 

For the pie crust:
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour (plus about 1/2 cup more for dusting when rolling out)
1/2 cup potato starch
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. butter
1 large egg
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

To brush on top:  1 egg white, beaten

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  Spray a 9-inch pie dish with cooking spray.

Combine the flours, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt.  Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it's small and crumbly.  Beat the egg and vanilla together, then add to the crust.  Mix with a fork, and then with your hands to form it into a cohesive ball.  Add extra brown rice flour as needed so that it's not sticky.  Cut in half and roll into two equal size balls, and wrap into saran wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Place in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.  If you're making two pies, remove both balls of dough from the freezer; if you're just making one pie, remove one of them and leave the other in the freezer until you're ready to use it another time.  Place the dough (one ball at a time) on a surface dusted with brown rice flour.  Place the sprayed saran wrap (spray side down) on top of the dough and press down.  Using a rolling pin, roll to a thin consistency, about 1/8 inch, adding more brown rice flour as needed to avoid sticking.  As best as you can, place the sheet of dough into the pie dish.  Don't worry too much if it falls apart; just scoop up the pieces and press them down into the bottom and about 2/3 of the way up the pie dish.  Brush the pie crust with the beaten egg white and place in the oven to pre-bake for 7 minutes, then remove from the oven to add the pie filling.

While the dough is chilling, prepare the pumpkin filling.  You'll need:
3 tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 cup white sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 can pumpkin
3 eggs
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 cups So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

Melt the Earth Balance and beat together with the sugars and pumpkin.  Add the eggs one at a time and blend in, then add the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and nutmeg (more of each to your own taste, if desired).  Add the So Delicious Coconut Milk 1/2 cup at a time.  The filling will seem rather fluid; that's ok!

Pour the pumpkin pie filling into the pre-baked pie crust.  Return to the oven and bake for about 1 hour, or just until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  After about 30 - 40 minutes, check to make sure the top isn't starting to get burned; if it is, use a piece of tin foil to create a little tent over the pie to protect the top but still allow the filling to set.

Remove from oven and let cool completely.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.  Serve plain or with gluten-free whipped cream topping.


Check out the rest of this month's Ratio Rally's delicious pie ideas:

TR from No One Likes Crumbley Cookies Chocolate Mousse Pie
Jean Layton from Gluten-Free Doctor Cheese Crusted Apple Pie
Charissa from Zest Bakery Apple Galette with Pisco Soaked Golden Raisins
Kate from katealicecookbook Kale & Zucchini Tart
Jenn from Jenn Cuisine Sweet Potato and Duck Pot Pie
Caleigh from Gluten Free[k] Leek and Potato Pie
Rachel from The Crispy Cook Maple Walnut Pie
gretchen from kumquat deep dish chocolate bourbon pecan pie
Claire from Gluten Freedom Autumn Pumpkin Spice Pie
Morri from Meals With Morri  Spinach – Prosciutto Ricotta Quiche & Muffin Tin Pie Variations
Silvana Nardone from Silvana’s Kitchen Chicken Potpie
Caneel from Mama Me Gluten Free Green Tomato Pie
Meredith from Gluten Free Betty Blueberry Pie
Shauna from Gluten-free Girl and the Chef Fresh Pumpkin Pie
Meaghan from The Wicked Good Vegan Vegan Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie with Pumpkin Seed and Ginger Topping
Erin from The Sensitive Epicure Chess Pie
Mary Fran from frannycakes Pumpkin Mousse Pie and Apple Maple Cream Cheese Pie
Brooke from B & the boy! Pot Pie
Lisa from Gluten Free Canteen Frangipane Apple Tart 
~Mrs. R from Honey From Flinty Rocks Mock Apple Pie
Irvin from Eat the Love Double Butterscotch Apple Pie

Low-fat Lemon Poppyseed Cupcake Muffins

I'm not sure precisely why I had a sudden craving for lemon poppyseed muffins today. Given the amount of candy I ate last night at the movies, there was no good reason to be craving anything sweet.  But suddenly it hit me, and I really, really wanted some.

Now, knowing my propensity to eat my way through more than my fair share of a regular batch of muffins, particularly mid-semester, I decided to use my handy ratio for cupcakes to make a neat little pack of 4.  And they turned out to be lovely!  I reduced the fat in these by even more than I originally had, substituting in some applesauce, and they ended up being moist and slightly denser than cupcakes. These are based on the original ratio for cupcakes, but turned out having the slightly more dense and healthy-feeling texture of muffins (and no icing!).  My compromise?  I'm calling them cupcake muffins. (Honestly, throwing the word "muffins" in there just makes me feel slightly better about eating four of them.)  Give these a try - you won't be disappointed!

Low-fat Lemon Poppyseed Cupcake Muffins
Makes 4 muffins


15 grams Earth Balance Buttery Spread
35 grams applesauce
50 grams white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. fresh lemon rind (rind from ~1.5 small lemons)
20 grams potato starch
10 grams tapioca starch
30 grams sorghum flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. poppy seeds

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Melt the butter and mix with the applesauce, egg, vanilla, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon rind.  In a separate bowl, combine the potato starch, tapioca starch, sorghum flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds.  Stir into the wet ingredients and mix well.

Pour into the muffin tin liners and bake for 13 - 16 minutes, or just until they are slightly browned at the edges and spring back when you touch the tops lightly.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Flourless Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Oh my GOD were these good.  I scarfed down more of them than I honestly care to admit, although I did give a significant portion of them away, too.  So at least there's that.

Trader Joe's makes gluten-free oats now - did you know that?  I just discovered them recently - and not only are they certified gluten-free, they are also a lot cheaper than their competition - by several dollars.  AND they come with a recipe for oatmeal cookies on the back.  What more could you want from a bag of oats, celiac friends?

I modified the recipe quite a bit, of course.  I added a few different ingredients, reduced the fat, etc. (all my usual courses of action).  And they turned out to be fabulous - they were chewy, moist, and full of flavor.  Everyone who tried these loved them, and I suspect you will, too.

Flourless Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen medium cookies

1.5 tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1/4 cup fig butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sunflower butter or peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups gluten-free oats
5 tbsp. unsalted roasted sunflower seeds
3/4 - 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whip together the Earth Balance, fig butter, and white and brown sugar until well-mixed.  Add the egg and mix together well.  Add in the sunflower butter or peanut butter (depending on your own taste/tolerance) and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, and salt.  Stir them into the wet ingredients and mix well.  Add the sunflower seeds and chocolate chips and stir in to combine.

Scoop the cookies out by the teaspoonful or tablespoonful onto the cookie sheets and space 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes (JUST until they start to brown on the edges), then remove from the oven.  They probably won't look completely done - that's ok.  Let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for another 3 - 5 minutes or until you can scrape them off onto a wire rack without their falling apart.  Cool completely, then store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Slow-roasted Cranberry-Apple Pulled Pork Tenderloin

This is a dish chock full of the fall flavors of cranberries and apples, and also full of the simplicity needed around this time of year, when everything seems to be happening 100 times faster than you think it should.  It's a recipe for a slow day - at least, a slow day for your crockpot.  While it's wonderful to be in the house to smell it turning into its wonderful self, this is one that will take you a mere 10 minutes (possibly less!) to throw together.  Then you can go out for the day, and when you come back, a dinner you'd swear had been slaved over is waiting for you.  The broth simmers with a depth of flavor that can only come with the kind of time your crockpot will be putting in for you with this one.  I didn't actually know this would turn into pulled pork until I opened the crockpot when I got home last night and found it to be so tender that it fell apart when I took a knife to it.  But what a lovely surprise!  I served this with mashed sweet potatoes with a little thyme and agave nectar stirred in and sauteed brussel sprouts with garlic, but you could also serve it in sandwiches if you'd like.  I cooked mine for so long (9 1/2 hours) that the broth had reduced and thickened enough for me on its own, but if you can only cook it for 6 - 8 hours, you can thicken the broth by simmering it with a cornstarch slurry (see recipe below).  I can't imagine this going over badly with anyone, unless they happen not to be fans of pork, of course.  And honestly - if they don't it?  That just means more for you.

Slow-roasted Cranapple Pulled Pork Tenderloin
Makes 3 - 5 servings

1 1-lb pork tenderloin
2 tsp. salt
1 jar Trader Joe's cranberry sauce (or a can of your favorite gluten-free cranberry sauce)
1/2 cup cranberry juice or cranberry cider
1/2 cup white sugar
2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 large onion, cut into slivers
2 stalks celery, diced into large pieces

Salt the tenderloin and place it in the slow cooker.  Add the diced apples, onion, and celery.  In a small bowl, combine the cranberry sauce, cranberry juice, and sugar and pour over the ingredients in the crockpot.  Cook on "low" for 6 - 10 hours.  (I cooked mine for 9.5 hours and it was extremely tender.)  Lovely served with sweet potatoes, or you could make pulled pork sandwiches out of it as well.

To thicken the broth, combine 2 tsp. cornstarch with 2 tbsp. water and mix together until there are no lumps.  Place the broth in a small saucepan and add the cornstarch slurry, stirring constantly until it is thickened.  Remove from heat and serve over the pork tenderloin.