Two No Bake - Gluten Free Cookie Recipes!

I have been trying to keep more healthy choices at my fingertips these last few weeks.  Let's face it, breakfast never goes beyond peanut butter toast most days and when a snack is needed it gets even tougher. How many vegetable sticks can one consume?  They get unappealing pretty fast.

SO............last Sunday I put together 2 easy to grab breakfast options that last in the refrigerator for 4-5 days: Overnight Oatmeal for when I want something hot and Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding for when I'm okay with cold. Both are delicious.  I made too much this time around so need to cut the recipes if I'm going to make them both at the same time again.

One new snack I have embraced is hummus with sliced English cucumber rounds.  For some reason that is working for me.  But there are times I crave a sweet bite.  Fortunately, as I don't eat a lot of dessert and drink my coffee black, it doesn't have to be very sweet to satisfy my cravings.

The easy to embrace idea that drew me in were no-bake cookies with no flour or dairy.  So far I've tried the 2 recipes here. I think the oatmeal cookies from Caroline Phelps on the Pickled Plum blog are the most cookie like. I made them a lot smaller and put just 3 regular size DARK chocolate chips on top - one for each bite. The Dark chips are less sweet and sugary and the flavour more intense. These are a cross between a really dense, heavy fudgy brown and raw cookie dough. Of the 2 I think the first will probably have a wider appeal, but the 2nd will have it's aficionados. 

My next cookie came from a fabulous site called Delighted Momma. I have made many of her recipes and each has been wonderful. This she calls 4 Ingredient No Bake Brownie Bites (Paleo), but if you count the salt, there are actually 5.  I made them the first time with walnuts, but think I over processed it as the dough was dripping with oil. The second time I used Pistachios and was more careful with timing so avoided the problem. I also liked the green flecks in the dough createdy by the pistachios and my husband thought the flavour was more interesting. 

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No Bake Oatmeal Cookies
12 cookies suggested in original recipe, but I chose to make 24 smaller snack size cookies instead.

Ingredients  -
½ C            Creamy Peanut butter
1                 Ripe Banana, mashed
5 T             Honey
3 T             Unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp           Vanilla extract
¼ C            Unsweetened Rice or Almond milk 
¼ tsp          Salt
3 C             Quick oats
Dark Chocolate Chips - 3 per cookie (original recipe used mini-chips)

Directions - 
Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. 
From Pickled Plum with and
without chocolate chip.

In the microwave, warm the peanut butter slightly just until liquid (could use small pot on stove).  Put peanut butter, banana, honey, cocoa power, vanilla, Rice or Almond milk and salt in food processor and pulse until smooth (this step can be done by hand as well, I just wanted the banana fully blended).  Scrape out into a bowl and add the quick oats. Stir until fully mixed.

The original recipe says to scoop out 2 T of mixture and shape into a round cookie, then place on the parchment paper.  I made smaller balls, about 1 inch I would guess, placed them on the parchment paper and flattened into a cookie shape.  This made 24 instead of 12 cookies which I prefer. When finished I topped each with 3 DARK chocolate chips.

Place cookie sheet uncovered in the refrigerator and cool the cookies for at least 2 hours. Place in an airtight Tupperware container and store in the refrigerator. YUM!

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No Bake Brownie Bites (Paleo)
Note - original recipe was with walnuts. I tried that once and then once with Pistachios. While both were good, I think they had a more interesting flavour with the pistachios.
Ingredients - 
1 C             Pitted dates
1 tsp           Vanilla
1/3 C          Unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt 
1-1/2 C       Pistachios (original recipe used walnuts)

Delighted Momma version made with walnuts


Directions - 
Add first 4 ingredients to your food processor. Process until fully combined. (Note - Delighted Momma put it all in at once. I don't know if I just over processed the dough, or if it was my walnuts, but the balls were uber oily. So changed to adding them a little later to make sure I didn't do it again. You could try it all at once, but just be careful.)

Add the pistachios and continue to process just until you have a sticky consistency. If you over process, the oil starts to come out of the nuts. If your brownie mix seems a little dry you can add a few drops of water. 

Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Roll out into bite size balls and place them in a an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator. 

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