Day 44: White Chocolate Blueberry Crunch Bars (Gluten Free)

After an enjoyable coffee with some great moms, I went about the rest of my day and evening. I picked up the kids from school and Adam and I decided since we actually had a free evening (no practices or activities!) to take the boys out for dinner.

We live in a great city with a vibrant downtown area. Any type of restaurant you desire,we have it. We can walk, drive or even ride our bikes a few miles and have any number of dinner options. After we enjoyed our meal we returned home. On arrival home, Noah notices a package between out doors.

Since Adam works mostly from home, we get things delivered to the house daily. Having a package on our porch is actually the norm around here. But this package was different. As we entered our house I noticed that the brown bag was from one of my favorite local gift shops, Catching Fireflies. Immediately I knew what was in the bag, and who it was from.

At the coffee, my friend had mentioned that she saw this book at Catching Fireflies and wanted to get it for me. The book: 500 Cookies!

I was tickled to receive such a thoughtful gift from a person I hold in such regard.

As I looked through the book, I found a recipe that I could pass a long to my friends that are avoiding gluten. These White Chocolate Blueberry Crunch Bars are easy to make and since there are blueberries in it they are healthy...,right?!

White Chocolate Blueberry Crunch Bars

1 lb white chocolate

1/4 cup of sweet butter

4 cups of gluten free rice cereal

1 cup fresh blueberries

Line a square pan with parchment

Melt the chocolate and butter

Stir in gluten free rice cereal







then blueberries. Spoon mixture into pan.



Refrigerate until set (about 30 minutes) then cut into squares.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5-7 days.

Noah: "Wow, the blueberries are really good"

Dane: "Nice!"

Ian: "Do I have to eat the blueberries??"

As an added bonus, I traded some of these cookies for an important costume prop owned by my cousin Jenny. For Halloween, Jenny was the "box head" from the LMFAO Party Rock Anthem video.

Each year our elementary school hold a talent show. This year my three boys teamed up with our friend's (who are moving to China) three girls. They decided to do a hip hop dance to Party Rock Anthem. Since Noah was making a cameo appearance, Jenny's box head was key. Her boyfriend made the box head, and he did a fantastic job!!! See for yourself.





Day 1: Flourless Natural Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

My husband, Adam, just finished reading  The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson and asked if I could make a cookie that followed some of principals he read about. What that meant was making a cookie with NO flour, NO sugar and using all natural products. Oh, and it needs to taste good too, Ummm...that's not how Grandma used to make cookies!!!

Well, this is a challenge and creating something new will be much more fun then making the same cookies everyday, Right!?

I looked up different flourless cookie recipes online and found a great one by Claire Robinson on the food network website. Since this recipe called for 1 cup of sugar, I had to make one adjustment.

I replaced the sugar with Organic Blue Agave Sweetener (this can be found in almost every market since Dr. Oz mentioned it on his show).

 NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER AND DARK CHOCOLATE COOKIES

(adapted for Claire Robinson's recipe above)

1C Natural Peanut Butter

1/2 C of Organic Blue Agave Sweetener (you can use more or less depending on taste)

1 Organic Egg slightly beaten

1 TSP of Natural Pure Vanilla Extract

1 72% Cocoa Dark Chocolate Bar (Trader Joe's has the perfect size or you can use 1/2 of a Girardelli Intense Dark bar)

Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix the first four ingredients together  

Place the 72% Cocoa Bar in a zipper sandwich bag and break chocolate bar using a rolling pin or the dull side of a meat mallet.

Add chocolate chunks to the mixed dough.

Form the dough into a circle and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Using a fork make a crosshatch pattern. Be careful not to press too hard, the cookie will crumble.

Sprinkle a little sea salt on top of each of the cookies (this really makes these cookies sing!).

Bake for 8-10 minutes

Remove cookies from oven and let them cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet. Then transfer them to a wired cookie rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

 Ian: "Amazing and Amazing!!!"

Dane: was speechless

Noah: "OMG!!!"

Adam worked late that day. By the time he got home there was only one cookie left. Luckily, this was a very simple recipe so I whipped up a second batch for him the next day.