A couple of years ago my mom went primarily gluten-free. She is not super strict about it and does not have celiac, but she definitely has a sensitivity and feels much, much better when she avoids gluten. She is also, in many ways, a more adventurous cook than I am and so she immediately set to figuring out ways to make great gluten-free desserts—her sugar cookies are amazing and she has now mastered the gluten-free fruit crisp. Honestly, I like it better than the fruit crisp I grew up with! It is fantastic! This recipe is so simple, so delicious, and surprisingly healthy (I had no qualms about letting my kids have thirds at dinner and then polish off the rest for breakfast the next morning). You can make it with any fruit you have on hand- apples, pears, peaches, rhubarb, even frozen fruit (peaches and blueberries are amazing), or some combination.

This recipe is also a wonderful example of how great cooking can be so simple. If you have good ingredients and can master a simple technique, the variations are endless! So try out a batch of this and serve it for dessert and/or breakfast. You won’t be disappointed! And if this type of cooking appeals to you, then sign up for my next 10-Day Cooking Challenge which starts April 13! Find info here.

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Mom’s Gluten-Free Fruit Crisp

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 4-5 cups chopped/sliced fresh or frozen fruit apples, pears, peaches, berries, etc.
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½-1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch salt
• ½ cup chopped nuts walnuts, pecans
• 1 stick of butter
• cream optional

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350.
• In a food processor, pulse the rolled oats until they are a coarse meal.
• Add almond flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.
• Add chopped nuts and pulse once.
• Add butter, cut up into chunks, and pulse until the butter is broken up (some small lumps are fine!).
• Put the fruit in the bottom of a baking dish, top with topping, and put in oven for 40-45 minutes, or until top is just starting to go golden.
• Serve warm with a drizzle of cream (optional) or at room temperature.

Notes

If you are using frozen fruit it may take a bit longer to cook.

<p>The post Mom’s Gluten-Free Fruit Crisp first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

I have to give credit where credit is due. There are two secrets to this oatmeal: butter and salt. The butter, was my mom’s genius idea. That tiny bit of added fat, that melts in really makes the bowl taste so much creamier. The salt, came in a moment of inspiration for my husband and it really boosts the flavor to a whole new level. It also brings all of the flavors together so that this healthy breakfast really feels like a warm, nourishing, decadent treat.

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"Oatmeal Cookie" Oatmeal

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 cups whole milk or ½ cup water and 1 ½ cups whole milk
• ½ cup of walnuts chopped
• ½ cup of currants raisins, or dried cranberries
• Unsalted butter
• Maple syrup
• Sea salt
• Cinnamon

Instructions

• In a medium saucepan, combine the oats and milk. Heat on a medium heat and bring to just below a boil, stirring occasionally.
• When it gets just short of boiling, turn it down to low and let it cook slowly, continuing to stir occasionally.
• As the oatmeal cooks, chop up your walnuts.
• When the oatmeal has absorbed all or almost all of the liquid, take it off the heat and distribute among four bowls.
• Top with the walnuts, currants, a little bit of butter (about ½ a teaspoon, or a thin slice from a stick of butter), a drizzle of maple syrup (or more, depending on how sweet you like your oatmeal), and a sprinkle of sea salt and cinnamon.
• Mix together and serve.

Notes

Kids Note: Instead of assembling each of the bowls, put the nuts and currants out on the table in separate bowls and invite everyone to make their bowl how they like it, then help them to top with the butter, syrup, salt, and cinnamon.

<p>The post “Oatmeal Cookie” Oatmeal first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

While it has been a major pain in the butt, it has also been sort of a good wake-up call about how dependent we are upon others for our food. I was chatting with the cashier at the supermarket and he told me that customers had started asking for the names of farms they could contact to buy eggs directly (really, what we should be doing anyway, but that’s another topic for another post). The other perk of fewer eggs is that it has also forced me to be creative and that is how “muffones” were born.

I wanted to come up with an egg-free baked good that I could have on hand for breakfasts and lunches.  We’ve done a variety of scones, but I wanted something with oats and something that I could make as muffins, which do better in lunch boxes.  I decided to do half oats, half flour (in this case, spelt but whole wheat would also work well) as I often do in muffins, but to use buttermilk, as I would in scones, to help them to rise. This morning, when I came down the boys were happily diving into what they and my husband had decided to dub, “muffones”—half muffin, half scone. They are delicious! Hearty enough to keep you going for a morning, but not as bready as scones. They are great with some butter, jam, and/or honey. Enjoy!

Also, if you have any egg-free options to share, please do so in the comments. I’d love to hear them!!

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Oatmeal "Muffones"

Course Breakfast, Snack

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cups mix of chopped nuts and dried fruit walnuts, pecans, cranberries, sultanas, etc.
• 1 cup buttermilk or 1 scant cup whole milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, left to sit 5-10 minutes until thickened/starting to curdle

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 390. Put liners into muffin tins.
• In a large bowl blend flour, oats, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Mush in the butter with your fingers (great thing to do with kids!). When well combined, add in the mix of nuts and dried fruit. Add in buttermilk and stir until just combined with a wooden spoon. Distribute the batter amongst your muffin tins. (NOTE: If you want really big ones, you could distribute just amongst 6 or 8 cups, but if you want smaller ones, say for lunches for little kids, all 12 would work well.)
• Bake for 20 minutes. Let muffones cool on cooling rack. Eat or freeze for later use.

<p>The post Oatmeal “Muffones” first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

Then we spent a late evening with an old friend, playing cards and laughing a lot. It was a wonderful reminder that even as time goes by, even the closest relationships that continue to grow and change.

And then the weekend ended with a family dinner with all the cousins running around (4 boys in 4 years). Similar to the friends gathering, the kids were off entertaining themselves, having an amazing time, and the grown-ups could watch from a distance and enjoy each other.

This feels like a major milestone in parenting—that time when the kids are off entertaining themselves and you can (sort of) trust that no one is going to fall from a great height or poke their eye out. It feels like the time just flew by, and yet I am SO GRATEFUL to be here now.

Along with all of these gatherings was a lot of cooking—because you have to have food to share with one another!! Part of that cooking extravaganza was a huge, and I mean HUGE, batch of black beans. I figured while I was cooking for 16, I might as well make some extra for our family as well. So beans were soaked overnight and out came the biggest le Creuset pot I’ve got (an inheritance from my grandmother). As the they were cooking and I was stirring this ridiculous vat of beans, I thought I might have gone off the deep end and, indeed, there are a lot of beans left over. Of course, some beans are going into the freezer for a later date, but as I was getting ready to put them all away, I decided to use this as an opportunity to try something different with the beans: Black Bean Burgers.

All the recipes I found seemed kind of blah. Black beans, onions, and spices. A good start for sure, but I wanted something that had more pop to it. And then I discovered a number of recipes for Sweet Potato-Black Bean Burgers. Now, I don’t know about you, but sweet potatoes and black beans is one of my favorite food combinations of all time.  The sweet, the salty, the smoky. Mmmmmm. So I pulled inspiration from a number of the recipes and came up with my own version. I have to say, they are amazing (I couldn’t wait until dinner to try them).

I’d recommend making a double batch and then freezing the raw patties. Then you’ve got frozen veggie burgers on-hand for busy nights! To freeze them, lay the patties out on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for an hour. Then take out and put into a Ziploc bag, in layers divided by the parchment paper you used on the cookie sheet, which you can cut in half to fit into the Ziploc bag.

Enjoy!

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Sweet Potato-Black Bean Burgers

Course Dinner

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lb sweet potato peeled and chopped into 2-inch chunks
• 2 tbl coconut oil or olive oil
• 1 cup cooked millet could also use brown rice or quinoa
• 2 cups cooked black beans or a 15-oz. can rinsed and drained
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• ½ cup finely diced onion
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp salt
• cayenne pepper to taste
• Oil for cooking the burgers

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425. While the oven preheats, peel and chop your sweet potatoes. Toss the pieces in 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and a little bit of salt. Roast on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes, or until soft. Set aside to cool.
• If you don’t have leftovers of an already cooked grain on hand, toast 1/3 cup of millet in a saucepan over a high heat until they start to pop and take on a nutty smell. Add 2/3 cups of water and some salt. Bring the water to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer and cook covered for 15 minutes. Then turn of the heat and allow the millet to sit, covered for 10 more minutes.
• In a small pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil on a medium-high heat and sauté the onions until they are just starting to brown. At the last minute, throw in the minced garlic and stir.
• In a food processor or blender, grind the oats until they are slightly broken up, but not turned into flour.
• In a large mixing bowl, mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher or large spoon, add in the rest of the ingredients and stir/mash until well mixed (it is ok if the black beans get mashed up). Or, if you prefer, put all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse until just combined (don’t overmix).
• Scoop a scant ½ cup of the mixture and shape into a patty. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a cast iron skillet or non-stick pan, pan fry until starting to brown, about 3-4 minutes per side. Serve on buns or toast and with your favorite toppings. Enjoy!

Notes

NOTES:
-A great place to include your kids in the cooker is at the mashing part. Let them mash away! They will love it!
-I recommend making a double batch and then freezing the raw patties. Then you’ve got frozen veggie burgers on hand for busy nights! To freeze them, lay the patties out on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for an hour. Then take out and put into a Ziploc bag, in layers divided by the parchment paper you used on the cookie sheet which you can cut in half to fit into the Ziploc bag.

<p>The post Sweet Potato-Black Bean Burgers first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>