Recipe: Gluten-free Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, gluten-free peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. How’s that for a mouth full?

And trust me, if you had a plate of these cookies, your mouth would be full, for days, because they’re so good, I can’t put them down and I’m allergic to peanut butter! (talk about a bad combination..)

I’m not sure what it is, I suppose the free time that comes with the lack of employment, but I haven’t stopped baking this weekend. First there was oatmeal. Then, cornbread. A failed attempt at gluten-free focaccia. And finally? These cookies. (.. and a peaches and cream baked oatmeal in the oven, as I type)

In fact, between the boredom, the baking and Trevor’s voracious appetite, I’ve been at the grocery store a lot. Yesterday, my favorite cashier mentioned that I might want to join in on their sweepstakes game since my daily trips would warrant a lot of game pieces. Today, I was teased for shopping every day and only leaving with five things in my cart. Apparently it’s not normal to survive on a diet of oatmeal, watermelon and the occasional cup of Chobani. (I finally got bit by that greek yogurt bug. Why did I hold out this long?)

With the stress of installing a new vanity and doing the plumbing ourselves, I thought that Trevor could use a treat, though. My first attempt at a reward was the focaccia but when that plan fell flat (literally), I scrounged up all the pantry items I could find and looking for a recipe that would combine them all into something sweet but free of flour.

Unfortunately for me, Trevor loves peanut butter. When there is gluten-free bread in the pantry, I can’t seem to make a jar last more than four days but with the bread-baking disaster, there was plenty of crunchy peanut butter left for these cookies. (Of course there was no baking soda, so a trip to the store was needed anyway - like I said, Albertson’s sees a lot of me.)

After doing a lot of recipe searching - I’m so particular about cookies - I stumbled upon this one from Averie Cooks. If you haven’t been introduced to this blog yet, I advise you to set aside hours because once you catch a glimpse at her light, airy photography and to-die-for recipes, you’ll never get anything done.

So with some high altitude modifications and some ingredient substitutions, this is how it turned out..

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter
1/3 cup of peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup stevia (you can use sugar, if you wish)
1 egg + 1 yolk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups of gluten-free Bisquick
1 cup of gluten-free old fashioned oats
3/8 tsp of baking soda
1 1/4 cup of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips

In her original preparation, Averie chose white chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. I was looking to use ingredients already in my pantry (and to minimize the peanut butter content) so I chose to just use milk chocolate chips. You could easily substitute white chocolate, dark chocolate, dried cherries or nut pieces, instead. Also, I chose to use Bisquick but for those of you who aren’t restricted - all purpose flour will do just fine. And finally - if you’re at sea level, round your baking soda off to an even 1/2 tsp.

Directions: 

For high altitudes, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
For everyone else, preheat to only 325.

Melt the butter over medium heat on the stove, once it has melted, add in the peanut butter and stir until evenly mixed.

While this mixture is still hot, stir in the brown sugar and stevia.

You will want this mixture to come to room temperature before adding your eggs - I let it rest in the freezer while I measured out the dry ingredients.

After the mixture cools, whisk in the vanilla, one egg and one additional egg yolk. Mix until smooth.

Then, add in the oats, the bisquick, and baking soda. After thoroughly mixed, fold in the chocolate chips.

I found this blend of ingredients to produce the right texture (not too wet or too dry) but you can always follow Averie’s suggestion of adding more flour or more peanut butter, to suit.

To bake, simply roll the dough into balls - you should get about two dozen cookies from the ingredients listed above, but the recipe could easily be doubled. Place the balls of dough evenly spaced out on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 12 minutes if you want a soft, chewy cookie. If you’re a fan of crispier cookies, I suggest leaving them in the oven for about 15, instead. For low altitudes, you may need to adjust these times by two to three minute.

(My very chewy cookies seemed to stay together better when left on the cookie sheet to cool.)

After they’ve had a chance to cool (or maybe before, if you’re inpatient like me), you will want to pour yourself a glass of cold milk and consume as many as possible before your significant other gets home. Okay, that might not be the best advice but really, they’re that good.

When Trevor bit into the first, I watched his face light up with surprise. Then he made a snarky comment like “well, maybe you don’t know how to bake gluten-free bread but you have this cookie thing down.” I was mad for a second before I realized that well, he was right, and then he proceeded to brag how the cookies could definitely win a recipe contest.

I guess you could say my baking served its purpose, he was delighted. Even if the cookies didn’t appease him later, as our bathroom pipes flooded our new floor. Twice.



So tell me, what do you like to add to your cookies? Walnuts? Peanut butter chips?

Oh Happy Days.

Even looking at these pictures makes my heart skip a bit. 
Somedays, I can’t get over how lucky I am.

The days have been long and busy this week but what happy days we’ve had. Okay.. maybe I began the day yesterday with a frustrated text to a best friend proclaiming my homesickness.. but my feelings changed quickly, much like Montana weather does.

Lately, the daylight sun is unbearable and sends even Buddy seeking out shade. The afternoons pass by with hail storms, and umbrella-breaking winds and the nights have fallen below forty all week. We wake up snuggled under a pile of blankets, our feet still cold.

Trevor has found himself busy with late nights at work, while I’ve found myself busy organizing and cleaning, baking cookies and doing laundry. No matter how many days pass here, I still find myself anxiously waiting for a text that Trevor’s on his way home. I frantically finish what I’m doing as soon as my phone vibrates with the “homeward.” text. Then, eventually, Buddy wakes from his snoring couch slumber to wait for his papa at the door.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that while I hate late nights, I don’t mind finishing them with home cooked dinners and hard cider. This week we’ve been busy revisiting our favorite television show (and regretting that we haven’t invested in cable as the second season is quickly approaching). Even more, I enjoy starting the next day with hot baked oatmeal and both of my happy boys in the kitchen.

Oh happy days.

Bubbly in the Bathroom

Today’s a big day. 
The kind of day that’s going to end with me drinking a bottle of champagne in our bathtub, that is.

As you know, we’ve been working away in our bathroom since the first days that I arrived in Montana, and at that point, weeks of work had already been put in. Needless to say, it’s been a slow moving process spread over many days, many hours, many people (the majority? me).

While there are many things I believe in and enjoy doing myself, like party decorations or herb gardens (the next project on my list), I don’t know that bathrooms will ever make that list. Thankfully in the beginning weeks of the adventure, our landlord and his son - a contractor from California - made the seventeen hour drive to our tiny town to make sure that we had a working shower, solid glass windows and an idea of what to do next. (I may or may not have a crush on these two - we seem to always luck out with landlords.)

Thankfully, I grew up in a house where DIY wasn’t the preferred way, it was the only way. I helped mud drywall as we remodeled the living room; I schemed colors and shower curtains for the new bathroom; I painted walls after the house fire. Add to that experience two moves which included plenty of installed curtain rods and built furniture and you get one prepared girl (relatively speaking, that is).

While the boys of the project wouldn’t let me touch anything for a few days, they quickly realized I was capable of doing more than cooking their breakfast. Soon, I was measuring dimensions for drywall cuts better than they could do it themselves. Then, they let me cut sheet rock. And hang it. And mud it. And sand it. And prime it. And paint it. And paint it some more.

And the lesson I’ve learned from all this?
It’s no wonder girls act dumb sometimes - if not, you’ll end up remodeling a bathroom on your own.

But, there’s something rewarding in it all. And like I say, if Trevor and I can survive having no working shower, then no hot water, and two months of remodeling together? We’re set. Plus, this girl loves to choose paint colors - even if our choices weren’t exactly conventional. As Trevor would say, “a white ceiling is too Martha Stewart, this is my house and I don’t want things to match too much.” Yes, that’s what he said - he doesn’t want things to match too much. In case you were wondering, this doesn’t sit well with my obsessive tendencies.  But like they say, opposites attract and so we’ve got turquoise walls and yellow ceilings.

This week, we managed to install the medicine cabinet and vanity lighting. Meaning that I can mark “minor electricity” off of my list of DIY skills - but don’t worry, the electrician was just here to make sure that everything checked out. Though he did leave us with a heater to install but that’s a blog post for another day. That day, we also had the pleasure of hosting the floor installers to inspect our bathroom and then, the gas company repair man for the second time in a week.. not that I’ll complain since he brought us hot water after a week without. And in Montana? It’s a miracle that your cold water lines don’t freeze in the midst of summer so, that left Trevor and I with a lot of pots of water boiling on the stove.

Today, we will be receiving a few other visitors.
Our flooring and trim is being installed.
The roofer is coming to evaluate our missing siding.

And you know what that means? All that remains on the list is the installation of our sink & vanity and the hanging of decorative trim. But then there’s the ongoing debate of where to put the toilet paper holder. For some reason, Trevor believes that the back of the bathroom door is a great location but then again, he does want a clear shower curtain so, I’m not surprised. Opposite attract, remember?

Little does he know, I plan to finish the bathroom while he’s away next week.
(I’m hoping this good girlfriend task, combined with dog sitting, will earn me a trip to the fair.)

But for now, I will celebrate a covered floor.



This just in, folks: 
(Just in, as in “just installed” - clever, right?)


We have a floor.

And, our local liquor store found us Gruet.
A bathroom champagne celebration is definitely happening.

Recipe: Baked Sweet Cherry Oatmeal

It’s hard to imagine that today marks the second day of August. Of all the seasons, summer seems to come and go the quickest - and with the beautiful weather of Montana that statement is all the more true. With a full course schedule and a possible return to Pennsylvania looming (and the internship I start next week!.. more about that later), I’ve started to feverishly scribble to-do lists and mini-vacation plans into the brown paper journal that never leaves my side. I’m aching for a summer fair and after watching this video, I’m sure you will be too. Nothing signifies the end of summer quite like sticky cotton candy fingers and the bright lights of spinning and twirling carnival rides. (Plus, a little bird told me that the fair is coming to Missoula next week and I’ve already sent approximately 54 text messages to Trevor begging that we go.) But, I digress. 

The point is - there are certain things that will always mean summer to me. And while country fairs and swimming holes are two of those, sweet cherries are another. Summer time is perhaps the only time when these delicious babies make their way into my budget and onto my grocery list. After spending a few hours coupon clipping, loading savings to my shoppers card, and scratching our weekly list into my notebook, Trevor and I headed to Safeway for our weekly argument over what to buy. While he was busy sneaking a party size bag of Peanut M&M’s (42oz. I kid you not.) into our cart, I was wavering on what greens to buy (I’m a spinach girl. He likes spring greens) and that’s when I saw them.

Sweet cherries - $1.99 per pound.

I dug through the bags to find the one with the crispest, brightest cherries and turned to Trevor with puppy eyes. After all, this girl has no job and that means begging for cherries. Thankfully, I’m spoiled and Trevor said of course as he tossed them in the cart. (Though I didn’t get the Dairy Queen I wanted.. )

We had barely gotten the groceries unloaded before I had filled a stainless steel mixing bowl with a pile of cherries. As, Trevor worked on his homemade balsamic dressing.. I ate. and ate. and ate. cherries until my lips and fingers were stained pink. Thankfully, someone in this house had enough sense to push a turkey and cheddar salad beneath my hands before I filled my stomach with fruit. (As for the greens? We got both - we’ve been eating a lot of salad around here.)

While I love cherries for their taste and texture and how perfectly cool and refreshing they can be, I think my real love is because they remind me of my grandmother. I don’t know that we ever had cherries in my house growing up. But every time I’d visit my grandma (which was often), there were cherries to be eaten. I feel the same way about fresh peeled potatoes (and eating them raw) and stale marshmallow peeps - I think that I could eat them until I’m 92 and still think of my grandmother.

Though it had been 92 degrees in the shade on our way to the grocery store, I had made a note-to-self to grab ingredients for baked oatmeal. Oatmeal seems to be my food of choice lately and I’d never had the baked variety - though the diner I worked in as a teenager always sold it. I’d also seen this new fad of overnight oats sweeping through the food blogosphere and thought that I could kill two birds with one stone.

Then, I woke up today with the best of ideas: Baked Sweet Cherry Oatmeal.
And now? After eating it? I still think it was the best of ideas.

If it’s too warm for you to be eating hot oatmeal for breakfast, I have to say that it’s a delicious snack served cold. And, topped with french vanilla ice cream? Then you’ve got dessert. Personally, I’ve eaten it all three ways today and it’s only mid-afternoon.

If you want to make some for yourself (and I know that you do), here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:
3 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats (if you’re gluten-free, make sure you buy oats that are certified GF)
1 1/4 cups of brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs (or for allergies, 1/2 cup of applesauce)
1 cup almond milk (though you could make this recipe with cow’s milk or soy milk)
6 tbsp butter, melted
1 1/3 cup sweet cherries (or another type of fruit, if you prefer)
1/2 cup whipping cream (can also be replaced with the milk of your choice)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a container of your choice - I used a glass pie dish but an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish will work, as well.

Remove the pits from your cherries and roughly chop them - saving a few halves for the top.
Melt your butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
In a large mixing bowl, while the butter melts, lightly wisk two eggs.
Add melted butter, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar and vanilla to the bowl.
(At this point, I recommend tasting the mixture to see if you need more cinnamon or sugar for your tastes - I originally began with 1 cup of brown sugar and added the extra 1/4 cup because I like my oatmeal sweet.)
Add oats, almond milk and cream - mix thoroughly.
Then, fold in your chopped cherries.
Pour the mixture into your dish and neatly place the remaining cherry halves on the top.

After completing these steps, your oatmeal should look like this:

While this may look unappetizing, I wanted to include a “before” photo to comfort you after you mix all the above ingredients together and panic, for a moment, thinking that it is much too wet. It’s not. The oats soak up the moisture as it bakes (I was nervous too, especially since this is my first shot at baking from scratch at a high altitude.)

For low altitudes, I recommend baking for forty-minutes at 350 and checking to see how the oatmeal looks. I found that I baked my oatmeal for nearly an hour and fifteen minutes to get it to the texture that I wanted. Not to worry though, if you leave it in longer - it won’t burn. Simply check it at 45 minutes and then in 10 minute intervals until your oatmeal looks like the one pictured above the recipe. It should be thick and spongey with a glossy texture on the top.

When you take this out of the oven, it can be served right away! Like I said, it’s also great cold.. In fact, I’ve got the entire pie dish sitting next to me as I munch and type, at the same time. The best part of baked oatmeal is that it can be easily cut apart and reheated for breakfast throughout the week - I like mine with a splash of almond milk and a sprinkle of brown sugar. 30 minutes of prep time on a Sunday will yield you a healthy, yummy, sweet breakfast for busy mornings before work, school, the gym - whatever you might be doing. Plus, it also makes a great late night snack to satisfy your sweet tooth!

I’m planning to make this a weekly habit. Next time with fresh peaches and cream, perhaps!
What are your favorite mix-ins for oatmeal? Have you ever tried overnight oats? 

WIAW: Summer Staples

While this may be the first time I’ve participated in WIAW here at Live Beautifully, I did have a chance to join in last week’s fun when filling in for my friend Marisa. If you don’t know the premise - WIAW, or What I Ate Wednesday, is a link up to share a full day of eats hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons! Really, that’s all there is to it. (But if you want to know more, and perhaps you want to join in on the fun, too.. then jump over here and take a look.)

Each month, there is a new theme. Last month’s? Exercise.. August’s? Summer staples. While my boyfriend may drag me to the gym each and every morning, I don’t think my measly three miles are worth bragging about and so, I’m glad to be starting off with a theme I know all too much about. 

But let’s get down to it, huh? Here’s what we ate on Monday:


Breakfast

Scrambled Eggs with Shredded Cheddar

& Cheesy Grits with Crumbled Bacon

An Organic Chai Latte with Almond Milk

[a summer (and fall.. and winter.. and spring..) staple]

Truth be told, we love grits. Last week, I thought I was struggling with corn as a potential new food allergy. I mourned for a few hours over losing the ability to eat Mexican food and grits. Then, I decided to give it one more shot with tacos. (Hey, I had already bought the ingredients earlier that week! And I was dying to try out a new roasted corn, avocado & tomato salsa recipe!) Apparently, the problem isn’t corn so for this morning, grits were back on the menu.

Lunch

Turkey Burger with Stone Ground Mustard, Mayo, Lettuce, Tomato & Onion

Roasted Red Potatoes

[and lots of ice water - a definite summer staple in our dry climate!]

Each week, we make a trip to Butte. Though it isn’t much, I anxiously await it every week as a chance to get out of our little town, a chance to go out to eat and a chance to spend some time in the car with nothing but pretty scenery, some good music & Trevor. This week we went back to the Hummingbird Cafe and, I remembered my camera. While we love their outdoor seating, I begged for an inside table - lately, I’ve had no luck. Montana has been full of hail-bearing thunderstorms for the past two weeks and I wasn’t about to me caught in one for the third time in a week. While I think the Hummingbird wins for cutest decor in the area, I was disappointed with my lunch (and their chai) and I don’t know that we’ll be back.

Afternoon Snack

Watermelon will always be my favorite summer treat - always. Thankfully, Trevor isn’t a fan so that means enjoying an entire small watermelon every two days by myself (okay.. I share some with Buddy.. he loves it!). I had spent the entire day begging for a sweet and cold treat - but the only ice cream option in town is Dairy Queen (not my favorite.) I truly wanted frozen yogurt but in rural Montana? I don’t think so. Thankfully Albertson’s has featured small watermelons for $1.99 all week! This was my second in four days. I might have a problem.. but at least two watermelons is healthier than two containers of ice cream.... right?

Dinner

Grilled Sirloin with Seared Diver Scallops

Served over a Broccoli Puree

and Sweet Tea

[another summer staple.. and one that you can make yourself]

Our main reason for visiting Butte yesterday was to choose bathroom flooring (finally), but luckily for us - the flooring store is located right next to one of the best butcher shops in the area, The Meat Block. Our friends had been raving about their prices and quality and when we saw the location, we couldn’t believe the odds. After deciding on a neutral stone textured flooring and talking over the next steps of installation, we stopped at the Meat Block before heading home. To our surprise, we found scallops! Yes, they were frozen but they were fresh frozen rather than processed and produced by a large corporation. We also picked up two huge sirloins and decided on Surf & Turf for dinner. Though Trevor insists I can’t tell the secrets of the broccoli puree, he told me to point out that we soaked our scallops in almond milk.

Speaking of that boyfriend of mine.. he’s making me out as a liar since just last week, I claimed that I don’t eat red meat often and now, steak, two weeks in a row? I’ll blame it on my newest stomach problems. After ending up at the emergency room this weekend, and getting terribly sick from most everything I try to eat, it seems that meat, fresh vegetables and lots of fruit are it for me. (And well, Trevor just loves steak.) Plus, we had company as our friend Pat and his dad, who is in town from upstate New York, came to join us. 

Dessert

Unfortunately, I was still sick from lunch and so we didn’t enjoy any real dessert. (This girl needed a nap before company arrived.) I had been eyeing up this recipe for Honey Roasted Peaches and a little dinner party seemed like the perfect occasion. Perhaps they’ll make an appearance next week?

Instead, we treated ourselves to an off-roading adventure through our favorite paths. (Sadly those paths including driving through the local cemetary. I always feel awkward but last night, we saw a gentleman taking a jog through the aisles of graves, so I guess being in a truck is somewhat better..?) When I say we treated ourselves, I really mean a more literal translation of "Trevor treated himself". I ended up covered in mud, as did the Tahoe.

Fortunately, I did get to have my own treat for the night - a 97% on a finance exam and even more luckily, I made Trevor promise me ice cream if I aced it... but of course, Dairy Queen was closed. Instead, he treated me to a back yard camp fire and the way I saw it, I figured if I aced that exam, the world must be ending and so I wanted to do it right, so I snuggled into a blanket and sat outside with my boys and a Crisp Apple Hornsby’s Cider (yum). But, two days have passed and we’re still here, so I’m hoping that means the ice cream I was promised is on the agenda for tonight! Even if it is from Dairy Queen....