Monster Cookies (gluten free)

These are hands down my favorite Christmas cookies. Every year, my best friend's mom would make these and save some just for me, as she knew I liked them so much.

Well, the last few years since I've gone gluten free, I have really missed these cookies making their appearance during the Christmas season. This year I decided to change that and create a gluten free, refined sugar free version (except for the M&M's of course) that tasted just like the ones I remember from my childhood.

I am so happy to report success in this venture. My kids love them, my friends love them, my hubby loves them, and I love them! The only complaint my eldest son had was that they didn't look like monsters (after all, isn't that what a monster cookie is anyway?)!

I took my cue from Lori's recipe (aren't her photographs wonderful?), changing several things to fit my dietary profile, and here are the results for your Christmas (or anytime) enjoyment.

Monster Cookies (gluten free)

3/4 cup almond butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
3/4 cup xylitol
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon powdered stevia
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 1/2 cups gluten free rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch cinnamon and salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 M&M's*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three large cookie sheets** with parchment paper.

Mix almond butter through stevia in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Once creamed, add eggs and vanilla and mix again to combine. Add oats, soda, cinnamon, and salt and mix with a large spoon to combine. Lastly add the chocolate chips and M&M's and stir once more to combine.

Drop in large rounds onto cookie sheet and press lightly with the palm of your hand to flatten. Bake for about 12 minutes, until the bottoms are just golden. Cool on wire racks for about 10-15 minutes** to "set" the cookies a bit before enjoying.

Makes approximately 3 dozen.

*If you are super sensitive to sugar, swap the M&M's for dark chocolate chips or chopped walnuts.

**If you'd rather make these into bars, you can press the batter into two 8x8 inch square baking pans or one 9x13 inch pan and bake for about 35 minutes until the sides start to get golden.

Chocolate Chip (or Raisin) Cookies- Grain Free/GAPS Option

We've been in GAPS mode for a few weeks now, after having completed the GAPS intro diet for 7 days. I'm loving this diet! It's completely free of grains and sugar, with the exception of honey, and the food on the diet is just so nourishing. My skin is loving it too. I don't think my face has ever been so soft as it was after the intro diet.

We began it as a way to jumpstart the renewing of our bodies through nutrition, to clean out our guts, and to hopefully just feel better overall. I can say that both my husband and I do feel better, lighter. For a few years now, I've been in and out of a grain-free phase and I seem to keep coming back to it time and time again. Using my body as my guide, it tells me that I do better on a meat-and-veggies-diet more than anything else, so for now, that is what I am going with.

The GAPS community is growing too. Any google search will prove that. I think more and more people are realizing the connection of nutrition and health and it is exciting to read about the amazing results people are having when they truly commit to healing their bodies through nutrition!

While the bulk of the GAPS program is bone broth-based meals, including meat and veggies, there are GAPS "legal" ways of getting to enjoy the occasional treat, such as these cookies. They are so good, it's hard to believe they are so good for you. My husband actual words were "so phenomenal" (a high praise for a no-holds-barred critic of my cooking!). So whether you are following a GAPS, grain free, paleo, primal, etc. diet or lifestyle or just want a tasty, healthy, high protein treat, these cookies are for you!

Chocolate Chip (or Raisin) Cookies- Grain Free/GAPS Option

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
2 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons shredded coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 drops liquid stevia

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips or raisins for GAPS option

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one extra large or two small cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. In a separate, smaller bowl, melt coconut oil and add honey. Stir. Add vanilla and stevia and stir again. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined. Add in chocolate chips (or raisins for GAPS option) and stir until fully incorporated.

Using you hands, shape dough into small rounds about an inch in diameter, place on prepared cookie sheets and flatten slightly with your palm. Repeat with remaining dough. You should have approximately 14 cookies.

Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before eating.

(Sugar-less) Sugar Cookies

We all need a good sugar cookie recipe, and gluten freer's/sugar freer's no less. It's funny now that I think about it... this isn't really a sugar cookie at all since there is no sugar in it. But the taste is out of this world good (and just like it's inspired sugar-laden twin). The key here is in the lemon juice. Just the tad bit that is used makes all the difference in the world. It gives this cookie it's punch.

I decided to leave these plain (so boring, I know) because I just enjoy a simple cookie now and then. But I did intend to frost them for Christmas, so feel free to experiment with a colored frosting to match the occasion, whatever it may be (birthdays, Easter, sports themed, etc.).

Either way, frosted or not, I know you'll enjoy this delightful sugarless, sugar cookie.


(Sugar-less) Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 oz. cream cheese
2/3 cup Xylosweet (Xylitol)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup gluten free baking mix (I used Arrowhead Mills)
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt coconut oil in saucepan or microwave. Add cream cheese and Xylosweet and cream together with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy (a few minutes). Add egg, vanilla, and lemon juice and mix again.

Add baking mix and xanthan gum and mix again until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Make dough into approximately 1 inch balls with your hands (wet your hands first) and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet about two inches apart. Flatten the balls with your wet palm.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges become slightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Enjoy plain or frost for a festive occasion (Christmas, birthdays, Easter, etc.).

Makes approximately 16-18 cookies.

Sunflower Cookies

I had this random thought today: what would it taste like if I made cookies out of sunflower seeds? Well, I decided to find out. I had just bought a bunch of sunflower seeds in bulk from my local coop, and being as they are brimming with nutrients and a wonderful (under-rated in my opinion) mild nutty taste, I thought it would behoove me to incorporate them into a delicious, high protein, low carb, no refined sugar cookie snack.

And let's just be honest, how can a name like "sunflower cookies" just not make you smile? It sure made my taste testers smile... and eat... a lot of these... in one sitting. In fact, they were such a hit, they only lasted two days at my house (one of my best friends, Sarah, a gypsy cowgirl, was in town and got to enjoy them. She's trying to get off of sugar, so I told her to indulge herself silly in these as there is no refined sugar in them at all. And I think she liked 'em... she finished them off for us! I'll make her another batch when she's in town next.)

So share the sun... share the flowers... share the sunflower cookies and smile!

Sunflower Cookies


1 cup raw sunflower seeds, ground into a flour using a flour mill or Vitamix dry blade (makes 1 1/4 cups ground sunflower seed flour)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons shredded coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper (you might need two baking sheets if one is not extra large).

Combine sunflower seed flour through salt in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over low heat, stir coconut oil, agave, and vanilla until melted. Add coconut oil mixture to flour bowl and stir. Add raisins and shredded coconut and give one final stir to combine.

Spoon out onto baking sheet in 1 inch balls. Press each ball down with the back of a spoon or your hand to flatten slightly (these will be pretty greasy).

Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes on the baking sheet over a wire rack.

Makes 16-18 cookies.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

When you want a cookie, you just want a cookie. Right? My son was on a cookie kick today; he started asking at the breakfast table if we could make chocolate chip cookies today. I told him after nap time we could, after all it is Friday and it is a bit gloomy. Cookies will give us a reason to celebrate the weekend while being stuck inside our house (it's amazing how you can justify any craving this way... my personal favorite, "Let's bake a cake because today is somebody's birthday?!")

So we baked our cookies after nap time (which wasn't really nap time at all, it was more like, "Mommy, I just played in my room," time. Huh. Little stinker.) And I must say, they did seem to brighten our moods, and crazy enough, just as we finished eating our cookies, the sun came out! Hallelujah!

May these gluten free cookie goodies bring a little sunshine into your day too.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon molasses
3/4 cup gluten free oat or sorghum flour
3/4 cup gluten free rolled oats
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt
2/3 cup Xylosweet or agave
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk oil, egg, vanilla, and molasses in a medium bowl. In another bowl, mix oat or sorghum flour, oats, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and sweetener until combined. Fold dry ingredients into wet and stir again to incorporate. Fold in chocolate chips.

Using your hands, form into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Press down each ball with the palm of your hand to make them into semi-flat rounds.

Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool an additional 5-10 minutes on a wire rack.

Makes 16-18 cookies.