Almond pulp (gluten free) apple and peach cobbler

I saw Christmas decoration in store last week. Seriously? At least wait until I've had my turkey and pumpkin pie guys!!!! I haven't even thought of a Halloween costume yet!!!

We are having Indian summer this week and it's beautiful outside. I love that there are red leaves everywhere but it's hot and sweaty which definitely makes it easier for me to stop denying that fall is here. Soon, everything will be about stews and roasts, pumpkins and sweet potatoes, apples and cobblers.

HMMM.... Cobblers.....I. LOVE. COBBLERS!!!!

As I have been eating sans gluten, cobblers would have been hard not to have anymore. It's like a poem, you know? A beautiful fragrant to start, a bite of the soft sweet apple chunks to lure you into the story and then the buttery crunch. Without that buttery crunch, the poem doesn't finish well. It's still good, don't get me wrong but that crunch... oh that crunch..

Ehem... sorry.. I got a little distracted there... But I'm back! So as I am on a roll with this almond pulp thing, I thought why not use almond pulp instead of flour? I went to ask my close friend Google and I found one that sounds really really good, and I went on from there.

This recipe is really easy and fast I can assure you that. It was inspired from Cinnamon Eats and I substituted a couple of things and made it the lazy way.

Gluten free almond pulp cobbler
-5 apples
-3 peaches (optional. I had peaches left over so I just threw them in there)
-juice of 1 lemon
-2-3 cups of almond pulp (yield from 1 cup of whole almonds when I made the milk)
-1 Tbsp ground cinnamon (use less if you prefer. I like mine cinnamon-y)
-a few shakes of ground cloves
-a few shakes of grated nutmeg
-1/2 cup butter
-1/4 cup honey (I used raw because that's what I had)
-a handful of raw pumpkin seeds

Turn oven to 350F
Slice the apples and peaches and toss them with the lemon juice in a glass baking dish (I used a 9x11 because I couldn't find the 8x8)
Mix almond pulp and spices.
Melt butter and honey and add into dry mixture. Spoon on top of fruit slices and spread.
Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds. Bake for 50 minutes then turn the oven off and leave it in there to keep warm

4-ingredient almond pulp cookies

Hi there! :) How have you been?

Yes, I know I've been away for quite a while... but let's just pretend that my last post was a couple of weeks ago, shall we? After all, I'm sure life has been very exciting for you so you probably didn't miss me too much, right?

What?

Oh... I was hoping that you'd say you did miss me so so much....

Well, in any case, I  am going to try to buy back my time with you with this cookies recipe. I promise they are good. Scout honor.

So this whole time away I made movies, I made cakes and I made almond milk. Delicious plain and chocolate almond milk. There is nothing really special about my almond milk compared to yours, no. Just good old four cups water to one cup raw almonds. This means that I was accumulating almond pulp and I must say, I started to freak out a little bit. It was my guilty conscience telling me I was supposed to make delicious stuff with it really fast and my lazy brain whispering: "You don't have a dehydrator... Do you really want to mess around with this crumbly wet pile?"

Needless to say, the world wide web had many suggestions. My brain was right, drying almond pulp??? Oh hell no! As I realized that most of the recipes required extra ingredients that my wallet shook its head to and the amount of almond pulp used was not as much as the pile was growing, I decided that I'd just randomly mix things into my crumbly wet pile and made cookies.

O.M.G. SO. GOOD. My colleagues love them. I love them. The texture apparently reminded one colleague of camping bars (delicious ones obviously!) They are gluten-free and vegetarian friendly!!!

So without further boring you, I am sharing one of the two recipes I came up with as the other one needs to be tested again.

Almond pulp banana cookies:
(about 20-24 cookies)

-3 cups almond pulp (plain or chocolate)
-1 large banana
-1 egg
-1/2 cup sugar

Turn your oven to 350 F
Mix everything together well. Line your cookie sheets with parchment papers. Scoop 1 tablespoon  of mixture for each cookie, flatten them slightly with the back of a spoon or fork. Bake for 20 minutes or until there are golden specs on top. Cool cookies on racks, keep them in a tightly closed tupperware in the fridge for a few days (Mine never last more than 24 hours... LOL!!!!)

Good luck eating just one!!!! :P

Inspired from lack of inspiration...

I'm sure it happens to you too sometimes... You really don't know what to make for lunch, but you know you have to brown bag it because the day before, you took a taxi to work instead of the bus so the "daily allowance" is gone with the wind.

...*sigh*...

So in times like this, I raid the fridge & try to be creative. Once in a blue moon I end up with a case of "wtf?" but usually, it's ranged from "OK" to "WOW I didn't expect this!"

Well, today was a "WOW I didn't expect this!"

Give it up for quinoa ladies and gentlemen. Leave it up to these little seeds that look like tiny little condoms when cooked to save the day (Seriously, I didn't make this up, loads of people said this before me, and it's so true!) Toss in a bit of this and a bit of that, and you're ready to put on your healthy attitude face while chomping away in front of the PC.

So here it is, my Saved By The Quinoa lunch salad:
(serves 2-3 people depending as side or main)

• 1 cup quinoa, cooked as according to package (I used red & white, 1 1/2 part boiling water, then throw in 1 part rinsed quinoa, simmer 15 minutes til all water is absorbed)
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled & chopped
• a handful of almonds, toasted, chopped
• a handful of dried cranberries
• a pinch of sea salt

• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• a few shakes of garlic powder
• a couple grinds og black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard

Mix the 1st five things together, with 2 forks, so the quinoa stay fluffy. Then whisk together the last five ingredients until well blended, and drizzle into the quinoa salad. Toss and serve at room temperature.

Almond Mocha Waffle Bowls

I love gadgets. No, it has nothing to do with me being Asian because there is no Hello Kitty on any of them...

I'm talking about kitchen gadgets. I once paid $20 for an ice cream scoop, and when my bf asked me what is so special about it, I went on for a good 2 minutes about the shine, another 2 minutes about the rubber grip, almost 3 minutes on the curves, and then about 1 whole minute on the way the "tongue" pushes down.

I could have continued for a long time but the blank look on his face made me stop.

...*sigh*...

So, today, the waffle (cone) machine came out to play. I've always had a love & hate relationship when it comes to rolling a waffle into a cone. Why? Because after it's baked, you have FOUR seconds to roll it around the cone thingy to take shape. It's burning hot and of course, I have no gloves. After the 4 seconds, it begins to harden and will crack if you try to bend it...

So, I made the bowl version as well.

Almond Mocha Waffles
(adapted from the recipe on the box of my Rival Waffle Maker)

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted & cooled
• 1 tsp almond extract
  
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup ground almond
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp instant coffee granule

Beat eggs and add sugar slowly until well incorporated. Add butter & extract.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl, sift if needed. Then blend into egg mixture until smooth.
Bake as directed then roll into cones with utensil provided.

To make the waffle bowls:
You will need 2 bowls, same size. Turn 1 bowl upside down and drape the just-baked waffle over the bottom. Immediately stack the other one on top, also upside down, to shape it. Let sit for about 30 seconds. Remove and cool completely.

They taste soooo good!!! With or without the ice cream, as a bowl or a cone, whole or broken, I accept them unconditionally.