The Best Almond Butter Cookies - Only 4 Ingredients!

Okay, I blew it on this one!  I used real sugar (had a craving), but everything else is okay for the Food Intolerance Diet!  Oh, and they are not Vegan.  I won't be eating these all of the time, just for a splurge. ;)

 Dangerous to have in the house - Almond Butter Cookies

These cookies are awesome, quick to make (only 4 ingredients), but so good they are dangerous to have in the house.  

When is the best time to eat a cookie like this?  After a high-fiber meal (like a green salad with baby kale, chard, spinach, veggies and coleslaw mix).  Why?  Because it will help keep your blood-sugar from spiking from the sugar.  The high-fat and protein content (from the almond butter and the egg) will also help with this.

Ingredients: 
1 Cup Almond Butter
3/4 Cup White Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees - Makes 13 cookies.  13 is a lucky number for me; if you are superstitious you can make 14 smaller cookies. ;)

Blend egg and sugar together with a fork. Add vanilla and blend in almond butter.

Spoon onto a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Press down with a fork dipped in sugar (crisscross pattern like for Peanut Butter Cookies). 
Bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes.  Remove when they start to get brown on the edges.  They get crispier when they cool.  Oh so good!

Spicy Almond Butter Sauce

I've been making this sauce for several weeks, but I'm just now getting around to writing it down. It's a modification of my old Peanut Sauce recipe.  This is a great sauce for stir-fry, coleslaw salad or a dipping sauce for spring rolls.  I rarely use a real measuring spoon.  It's okay to adjust the ingredients to your own tastes, but don't skip any.  It has the perfect blend of fat, sweet, spicy, savory, salty, and sour.  You can use any nut butter you like.  

Tonight, we had this sauce over a quick stir-fry with a couple cups of coleslaw mix, about 5 handfuls of spinach and a package of steamed broccoli.  It's a very easy recipe!

Almond Butter Spicy 'Peanut' Sauce

(2 servings)

2 T Almond Butter (or peanut butter, cashew butter, etc.)
2 tsp Coconut Crystals (or other natural sweetener)
1 T Chili Garlic Sauce 
1 T Ginger Garlic Paste (see how to make it in the video below)
2 tsp Coconut Aminos (or soy if you don't have a sensitivity to it.)
2 tsp or more lemon or lime juice or white wine vinegar
Water to thin.

Mix everything together with a fork.  Add water to thin to desired consistency.

This is how you make the awesome ginger garlic paste!

Mushroom Butter Nut Squash Coconut Curry

This doesn't look like much, but the flavors EXPLODE in your mouth.  It's so good!

Saute:
2 T ghee or light olive oil
2 T garlic/ginger paste (see instructions here or see video below)
3 cups or more sliced mushrooms (I used white button mushrooms & baby portabellas)
Cook until the mushrooms start to release liquid.
Add:
3 small sliced zucchini
Cook until they start to get soft.

Add:
1 T Red Curry Paste

1/2 can coconut milk (If using light coconut milk, use a full can and omit water.)

1/2 cup or more water 

2 cups shredded cabbage

2 cups fresh spinach

2 cups steamed butternut squash, cubed

Cook until the spinach is wilted and all ingredients are heated through.  

This makes a filling meal on it's own (due to the squash), but it can be served over brown rice to add more fiber to the meal.

Pinto Bean Soup

 

Ingredients:

5  cups cooked pinto beans
2  14-ounce vegetable broth
1  large onion, chopped
3  cloves garlic, crushed
1  teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon or more green or red chili powder
1  14-1/2-ounce canfire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained

Juice from 1/2 medium size lime

Cook onion in ghee until transparent.  Add cumin, garlic and chili powder.  Cook for a few seconds, then add fire-roasted tomatoes, beans and broth.  Cook until heated through.  Add lime juice and serve.

Gluten Free Almond Coconut Cookies

These cookies didn't turn out as planned.  In fact, I forgot to add the baking soda!  I don't think it will make that much difference, but I will post another picture later if it changes them drastically. 

Ingredients:

2 cups fine ground almond flour

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup coconut sugar crystals

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

2 T flax meal

1 scoop pea protein powder (optional)

3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

2 tablespoons ghee melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup or more water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix well.

Put the coconut oil and ghee in a small bowl and heat until melted (very short time) in the microwave or stove top.
Add the oil, ghee and vanilla to the dry mixture.  Mix.  Add 1/4 cup or more water until the mixture become moist and holds together.  It will be moist, but not sticky.

Roll out on wax paper and cut to size.  Put on lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.  Watch them closely!  Thinner cookies won't take as long. Remove when they are light brown around the edges.

Leave cookies on the cookie sheet until cool. They are fragile, but they firm up as they cool.  Let them cool completely before you try to remove them from the cookie sheet.

Nut Butters and Almond Flour

I made Cashew Butter and Hazelnut Butter the other day. It's so easy and it only takes about 5 minutes in the food processor.  I also made almond flour.  That only takes about 30 seconds in the food processor.  Price cashew butter at the health food store and you will discover how much money you can save!

Ghee Is Good For You?

Hmmm, I never thought I'd be making ghee after all of the bad press about saturated fats.  It's also not something a vegan would normally eat.  I'm not a strict vegan and I eat a vegan diet for health reasons (even though I don't agree with the unethical treatment of animals used for food). 

I found a great video that shows step-by-step how to make some lovely ghee!  You can watch the video below.

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

After the butter has melted, the milk solids start to sink to the bottom and some foam rises to the top.

More milk solids are starting to sink to the bottom and 

the bubbles are getting clearer.  

It's starting to smell like caramel at this point.

 Ghee after most of the foam is scraped off of the top.

 You can see the milk solids at the bottom of the pot.

Straining beautiful ghee into a jar.  It will keep for about 6 months.

After it cools, it looks like this:

See the video from 'Show Me The Curry' here: