Oatmeal, tigernut flour, and chia are great foods for getting different types of fiber into our diets. Fiber is what helps build diversity in our gut microbiomes – and there is growing evidence that this is pivotal for preventing food allergy. It’s possible that microbiome therapies may help correct and treat food allergy too, along with many other conditions. But how do you get picky eaters to go there?
Cookies! Here’s an easy recipe to use all three of those foods in one. Tigernut flour is easy to work with and gives baked goods a warm earthy flavor and texture. Combined with oats ground in to flour, it makes an easy texture for a nice twist on the usual oatmeal cookie that anyone can enjoy. Even kids with conditions like Crohn’s disease, food allergy, celiac, or other inflammatory bowel conditions where sweets, eggs, dairy or gluten can wreak havoc will enjoy these cookies.
Everyone needs a cookie now and then! Pack these in your kids’ lunches or enjoy as snacks. No cane sugar, no eggs, lots of fiber and minerals. If your gang can roll with (GF CF no sugar) chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or raisins, add those too. Option to leave oats whole for coarse texture, or grind oats into a fine flour in a food processor for easier digestion in tender or toddler tummies. I have a mini-size food processor in my kitchen to make this task simple and fast. Lastly, see below for why stevia is included – here’s the one I recommend. It is pure organic plant extract, no fillers, in glycerite (not alcohol).
Oatmeal Tigernut Flour Cookies
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Soft, chewy, oat-y cookies that work with all kinds of elimination diets. See amazon links above for hard to find ingredients.
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking sheet with coconut oil. Lay a piece of baking parchment on top. Set aside to soak for at least five minutes, or til other ingredients are ready.
Place the chia seeds in a cup or small bowl. Add the water, so that chia seeds are covered. Press any that stick to sides of cup or bowl down into the water with a spoon or spatula, so they can soak. Set aside.
Measure 1/4 gluten free oats and place in a food processor. Process into a fine flour. Use this in your dry ingredient mixture. Make sure it measures 1/4 cup when ground.
In a medium size bowl, mix together dry ingredients: Tigernut flour, oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Blend til evenly combined.
In another bowl, combine wet ingredients: Melted coconut oil, vanilla, honey, and stevia drops (why stevia? See note below!). Mix with electric mixer or whisk with a fork or whisk until these are evenly blended. Then add the soaked chia seeds. Stir until all are evenly blended.
Stir wet ingredients into dry, and combine all till evenly mixed. If you are adding chocolate chips, nuts, or raisins, stir these in now.
Place on baking sheet, bake x 15-20 minutes, til slightly browned on bottoms and tops. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
White chia seeds have a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids than black chia seeds - which have more protein than the white ones. The omega-3 fatty acids can have a bitter taste, hence the extra help from stevia in this recipe. If you want to go for the slightly bigger protein boost, use black chia seeds instead - they will look like poppy seeds in your final product, which some picky eaters may object to ("what are THOSE? I don't like 'bits'"). They white ones will disappear!
Tigernut flour is something I had heard of often, but never used, until I needed an option without almond flour, gluten, any grain flours, or nut flours. I also had to omit eggs in this case, which are substituted here with “chia eggs” – and it worked! This is a dense, moist bread, almost crumb cake like. If your kids are missing muffins on an elimination diet, give this a try in small muffin tins. I’ve baked it here as a sweet bread.
This tigernut flour recipe is easy on the gut – it’s compatible with auto-immune Paleo (AIP) and modified Specific Carbohydrate Diets (some SCD users can comfortably enjoy this flour).It’s low FODMAPS too – which means it may work for toddlers emerging from FPIES restricted diets. Of course, always check with your care team before going forward.
Tigernut flour is not from nuts at all, but from a root vegetable which is roasted then ground into a fine powder. Tigernuts were a food source for humans thousands of years ago! The flour yields a nutty earthy taste and texture. It’s a great source of gut-helping prebiotic fiber as well as minerals like iron, zinc, potassium, and magnesium – plus some protein too.
This flour can be a little hard to find, but it can be had on line. In my region in Boulder, Colorado, I found it at my favorite Natural Grocers. It’s also always available on amazon and Organic Gemini Tiger Nut Flour is the brand I have tested in this recipe. If it just isn’t available, the recipe works well by using 2/3 cup potato starch flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, and 1/3 cup coconut flour instead (omit the oat flour).
Tigernut Blueberry Peach Breakfast Bread
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A moist, sweet, dense treat for breakfast or snacking. Bake in a bread pan or in small paper lined muffin tins.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a bread loaf baking pan with coconut oil. Line with parchment paper.
Combine chia seed with water in a small bowl and set aside. Allow chia seeds to gel for at least five minutes while you prepare other ingredients.
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, mix to blend evenly.
In another bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, vanilla, almond milk, and honey. Then stir in the chopped peaches and softened blueberries, followed by the soaked chia seeds. Make sure fruit is room temperature or warm, otherwise it will cause melted coconut oil to harden and it won't blend well.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix til evenly combined.
Scoop batter into prepared baking pan. It will be sticky. Press to smooth to an even surface in the pan. Dust cinnamon lightly on top. Option to drizzle thin strand of pure maple syrup on top also, and spread into thin layer.
Bake x 30 minutes for bread, and 20 minutes for muffins. Top and edges should be browned and toothpick will come out clean except for fruit. Bread will have hollow sound when tapped and top will be firm.
Recipe Notes
For peaches, you can use canned as long as organic and thoroughly rinsed of all packing juices. You can use frozen thawed fruit as well if preferred.
Substitutions: If avoiding all grains and you would like to omit oatmeal, option to substitute oat flour with 1/4 potato starch flour and 1/4 cup tapioca flour; or, sub oat flour with 1/3 coconut flour instead for SCD compliance.
Enjoy these GF CF double chocolate chip cookies with boosts from nutrient-dense sprouted pumpkin seeds (protein, healthy fats, minerals), organic cocoa (zinc, antioxidants), and reduced cane sugar! There’s no shortage of junky treats for kids who can’t eat gluten or dairy, with little more than cane sugar in them. No need to go there… Kids need and deserve random food celebrations, and this one can be enjoyed with confidence. A little more work than a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, but worth it. This recipe is a variation from one I’ve found in The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, a favorite book in my kitchen. Modifications here make it safe for most kids with nut allergy, and enhance texture with the addition of egg and a different gluten free flour strategy. I’ve also shifted the profile of sweeteners for more nutrition from sources that give some minerals with the sweet, and deliver a lower glycemic index. Favorite ingredients that I’ve tested and liked for this recipe include Bella Gluten Free Mix (a Boulder original), Lily’s GF CF stevia sweetened chocolate chips, and Navitas Organic Cocoa Powder.
Double Chocolate Chip Gluten and Dairy Free Cookies
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A semi-crisp cookie treat with cocoa-y goodness, dotted with chocolate chips. Stir in walnuts as a last step with the batter, for even more crunch and nutrition.
Double Chocolate Chip Gluten and Dairy Free Cookies
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A semi-crisp cookie treat with cocoa-y goodness, dotted with chocolate chips. Stir in walnuts as a last step with the batter, for even more crunch and nutrition.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two baking sheets with coconut oil and line with baking parchment.
Place coconut oil, maple syrup, agave, ground almonds, ground pumpkin seeds, sugars, salt, egg and vanilla together in a stand mixer. Blend on high for about 2 minutes.
In a separate bowl, combine Bella GF baking mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, and xanthan gum.
Add dry ingredients to wet in the stand mixer. Use a dough hook to mix at slow speed until evenly blended. It will form a stiff, wet cookie dough.
Fold in chocolate chips, and walnuts if you're using them.
Form dough into balls in the palm of your hand, then flatten gently, and place on cookie sheet. If desired, press a half walnut, half a dried cherry, or an almond in the center of each cookie. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Cookies will harden as they cool.
Recipe Notes
Many of the super-sensitive kids I work with don't like the stronger flavor or aroma of virgin coconut oil. It works just as well to use refined coconut oil, as I've done here.
Add ground or finely chopped walnuts as a last step, for kids who are nut-safe and for extra flavor and nutrition. The original recipe also suggests trying dried chopped cherries too.
A mini-food processer or coffee grinder works well to grind nuts or seeds in this recipe.
I'm at altitude, so baking time was only 8 minutes to make these just right. You may need more time.
This recipe makes something between a stiff batter and a dough - a wet stiff dough, which still needs rolling in your palm to make the right shape and texture for the cookies. Your palms will get good and sticky with chocolate batter!
Don't skip the step of rolling the batter in palms then flattening on cookie sheet with a spoon or fingers. Spooning the batter directly to baking sheet will create sharp peaks or uneven lumps for you that won't feel good to eat.
For for kids with egg allergy, omit the egg. This will make a more dry dough, so reduce baking time. For me, this step made too dry and crumbly a texture. If you want to omit egg and keep more chewy texture, use ground chia seeds. Here's how.
For a more chewy texture, use 2 eggs instead of 1, if you find that the final product is more dry than you'd like.
If even almonds are unsafe for you child, you can use 1/2 cup of the ground pumpkin seeds, or use 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds with 2TBSP ground flax meal or 1 TBSP ground chia seed.
Lily's brand chocolate chips are GF, CF, and sugar free, with erythritol and stevia as sweeteners. Enjoy Life brand has some cane sugar but is GF CF. Both are non-GMO verified.
I have no affiliate relationships with any products mentioned here.
This recipe is modified from a very delicious butter mochi made by a friend of mine who is kama’aina Hawai’i. That is to say, though she isn’t of Hawaiian extraction herself her family has lived there for generations. And she knows how to bake some delicious stuff, local style. Somehow, I spent several years living there and never made this myself. But when I asked for her recipe, she generously shared it, and I’ve given it a try with some changes so kids I work with might be able to enjoy it too.
If you’ve spent much time in Hawai’i, you surely know mochi – not the kind you see at Whole Foods in the freezer cases, but the real thing, super gooey, super sticky, and super sweet, a cross between custard and chewy fudge in consistency.
It’s a recipe that isn’t exactly healthy. It calls for a lot of sugar, butter, and refined glutinous sweet rice flour. But, it offers a wonderful treat for kids who can’t eat dairy foods or grains like corn or wheat. So, mochi! Give this a try for an after school sweet if you’d like a gluten, dairy and soy free option that has a lesser evil sugar in it (coconut or palm sugar), which lightens the sweet a little but still makes it yummy.
A note about sweet rice flour or Mochiko. Don’t use brown rice flour or plain white rice flour as a substitute; the recipe won’t work. Sweet rice or Mochiko flour is glutinous, that is, it mimics the stretchy consistency of gluten, but has no wheat or gluten in it. Other rice flours don’t do this and won’t create the right consistency for this recipe.
Coconut Butter Mochi
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Gooey, sticky goodness, for when a treat is in order that has bonus ingredients like coconut milk, eggs, and grass fed butter. Coconut sugar creates a darker finish product and a more caramel-y taste than cane sugar.
Gooey, sticky goodness, for when a treat is in order that has bonus ingredients like coconut milk, eggs, and grass fed butter. Coconut sugar creates a darker finish product and a more caramel-y taste than cane sugar.
Set oven to 350. Generously grease a pyrex baking dish (8x8" or 7x10") with coconut oil.
Blend the sweet rice flour, coconut or palm sugar, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
In a smaller bowl, blend the almond milk, coconut milk, flavor extracts, stevia, and melted butter. Add the eggs and beat til all are evenly mixed.
Add the liquid ingredients to the dry in and mix on medium speed til evenly blended.
Pour the mixture into the baking dish. Sprinkle the grated coconut generously on top, and press it gently down into the mixture.
Bake for 40 minutes. The mochi will puff up nicely and brown slightly on top. It's done when a toothpick comes out clean. Cut into squares when cooled and enjoy.
Kids love starchy starts in the morning like cereal, pancakes, muffins, toast… and waffles. The trouble is these can spike blood sugar early, then drop it in an hour or two, leaving kids droopy, crabby, and inattentive at school. Make this type of breakfast worth it – less empty starch, more brain-powering protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Stir up a batch of these and freeze ahead. On school mornings, give them a light toasting for a fast and nourishing option. Credit to Boulder Bike Life Magazine for publishing the inspiration version of this recipe in their Spring 2016 issue.
If juicing the carrots is out of the question, buy fresh carrot juice, leave out the carrot pulp, and increase the hemp hearts by adding an extra tablespoon. You’ll still get a boost of healthy sweet and beautiful carotenoids! Check out this primer on carrot pulp here. For nut flours, you can buy these already ground (pricey), or grind them in an instant to fine powder from fresh whole raw organic nuts yourself. Use a coffee grinder or an immersion blender with the cup attachment (pictured below). For the fat in this recipe, I prefer ghee for its rich and lightly sweet taste. Ghee is well tolerated by most dairy sensitive children in my practice, but see other options below.
Grain Free Carrot Waffles
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Deliciously sweet thanks to the carrot, easy to prepare in about 20 minutes plus juicing time, or prepare ahead and freeze for fast breakfast on school mornings.
Deliciously sweet thanks to the carrot, easy to prepare in about 20 minutes plus juicing time, or prepare ahead and freeze for fast breakfast on school mornings.
Plug in your waffle iron and oil it, so that it is at ready temperature when your batter is mixed.
If grinding flours yourself, combine almonds with coconut flour, hemp hearts, and/or hazelnuts. Grind to a fine powder. You can use a coffee grinder or an immersion blender with its cup attachment like the one shown here. If you're using nut flours already ground, blend them thoroughly together in a medium bowl. Either way, combine nut flours and hemp hearts. Add remaining dry ingredients, and mix together.
In a separate small bowl, whip the separated egg whites to soft peaks. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine carrot juice, egg yolks, and melted ghee.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and mix until flour is thoroughly incorporated. Add carrot pulp - the batter will be a little lumpy. Your carrot pulp will look like this:
Fold the egg whites gently into the batter.
Spoon batter into each waffle form to nearly but not completely fill it - batter will expand when pressed. Cook til steam stops escaping from the waffle iron and edges feel crisp to touch. If you have extra batter, repeat and make smaller waffles - don't over fill the waffle iron as the batter will spill and be wasted.
Makes 4 large waffles. Serve immediately from waffle iron with favorite toppings - or slice on some banana, drizzle with sesame tahini, cinnamon, and a dash of maple syrup. Or, let cool then store in freezer for later use.
