One of my husband’s kung fu students is shipping off to Afghanistan, so we had a small cookout to send him off with warm wishes for safe and entirely uneventful tour. He and his wife are fabulous people, and it was just a small reminder of all of the men and women who are serving every day while we go about our merry ways, totally insulated from the sacrifices they make.
I was a bit stumped at first, since cookouts usually mean hamburgers and hotdogs, and I just didn’t want glutenous crumbs all over the place. DH was a little uncertain about doing things GF, but I promised things would be yummy, so he went along with it. So…we had a gluten free cookout, and people didn’t really notice or miss the wheat in any way!
Generally, if I’m making food I’m going to eat, I have to adapt or create my own recipes, since I can’t do gluten, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, eggs, yadda yadda. So since many of the things I was making were for other people this was a great opportunity for me to make recipes from other GF bloggers!
We had:
- Freshly squeezed mint lemonade
- Guacamole
- 3 bean salad
- Speidie chicken and spice rubbed chicken
- Herb-alicious veggies skewers
- Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Chocolate chip pecan pie (with a nice flaky pie crust)
- Mayan brownies (recipe posted soon)
- Blueberry squares (see below!!)
What can I say, I’m full, and so were all of my guests. Yum.
The first 4 were done freestyle, so I can’t offer much in terms of a recipe. The cornbread was amazing. Despite being hideously seasonally inappropriate, I couldn’t resist making the GF Goddess’ sweet potato cornbread. As usual, she didn’t disappoint! The pie crust was from the Gluten free girl, and my husband asked if there was gluten in it. Um, hello? Have I made anything with gluten for the last 4 years? The brownies are delish AND healthy, a wonderful combo, and I will be posting the recipe soon for the PB exhibition. They’re chock full of brazil nut butter, which is just luscious.
And here are the blueberry squares, a gluten, dairy, corn, soy, egg, sugar and grain free creation of my very own. I was just so inspired by the beauty of the berries at the Farmer’s Market that I just couldn’t resist. They’re light, moist and a quick, easy, vegan-licous seasonal treat.
Blueberry Squares
1/2 cup buckwheat flour OR quinoa flour*
1/2 cup finely ground blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 cup oil
3 Tablespoons apple sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice or 1 teaspoon water with vitamin c powder for citrus allergic
1/2 cup agave* (or 1/4 agave, 1/4 honey)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8X8 with parchment paper. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and mix wet ingredients together thoroughly in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry and mix until combined, then add in the berries. Spoon out into prepared pan and smooth down. Bake for 18-20 min or until browning on top (I don’t remember exactly, sorry)
I will also be posting for the Virtual GF BBQ soon and bringing my ‘nana Skillet bread, which is one of my personal all time faves. I just couldn’t make it today because I’m grain free for the month of June (long story, it’s an exercise for a nutrition conference I’m attending. I’m on day 28 of 30 and I can’t wait!!!)
* for a no amylose version, use agave, quinoa flour and unsweetened apple sauce.
~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.
Stumble It!
these look VERY good cheryl!! you are so creative in your baking without eggs! i am so impressed!!!
What a fabulous cook-out – I hope that your husband’s student returns safely.
The blueberry squares sound delicious!!
Looks lovely! I wouldn’t mind one of those about now… 😉
-Sea
Oh my, you have such wonderful recipes! It’s neat to see someone else using healthful GF flours like coconut and almond meal. Am book-making your site.
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Those are some very sticky, but delicious looking blueberry squares! yum!
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I love blue berries, but my constitution doesn’t like gluten, or dairy, or eggs and really doesn’t like processed sugar, so when I came across you recipe my taste buds stood up and took notice.
Its great to find these types of recipes for those of us that don’t have iron constitutions.
You’re right; it’s great to find good quality gluten free recipes on line. I don’t know if others have found this, but I’m often left uninspired by the suggestions for gluten free cooking, but the blueberry squares were a definite exception to this. I didn’t find that flavour or texture were compromised at all, and despite the long ingredients list they were fairly quick and easy to make! At first I was worried that they might not have been sweet enough due to the omission of sugar, but this certainly wasn’t the case. It just goes to show, it is possible to make a healthy desert that isn’t loaded with refined sugar and unhealthy fats!