The Caveman Diet and Attempts at Cookery

I cannot believe I have not yet blogged about something very big in my life that happened a few months ago! Well, to spare you boredom, I will be brief. I had my blood tested for food allergies, and found out I'm allergic to 32 foods. Yes, you read that right. The big allergies are wheat, gluten, eggs, yeast, and sugar (which eliminates almost everything delicious since I'm pretty much addicted to bready things and sugary things). The other things are superfluous, except for blueberries and citrus fruits. Hopefully it's only temporary and I'll gradually be able to eat real food again. These food allergies make finding "easy" dinners next to impossible.

  By now I mostly know what I can have for all my meals, its just coming up with ideas for snacks and sweet things that stump me. So I have been trying allergy-free recipes every now and then. Looking online for gluten-free, sugar-free, egg-free recipes, I came across what is called "the Caveman Diet". Apparently that is what my kind of diet is called. Its more formally called the Paleo diet, but I'm sticking with Caveman diet as it makes me laugh.

   The first Caveman recipe I tried was called something like Caramel Cinnamon Walnut Clusters. There wasn't anything caramel-like about it. When you first popped it in your mouth, it tasted really good, but when you swallowed it, it was like a freight train of cinnamon hitting your mouth. They really should have called it Cinnamon Explosion. 

     Next thing I tried was Banana-Nut ice cream, sweetened with honey and maple syrup. Surprisingly, it was pretty good. After that was the caramel attempt, which ended up in burnt caramel which tastes utterly disgusting...

    The best thing I've made so far are the Pumpkin Cookies. Oh heavens! You have to try it! The recipe is originally gluten free, but I replaced the eggs and sugar with what I can have.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cookies

-3/4 cup shortening

-2 eggs (replace with flax gel) 

{to make flax gel, stir 1tablespoon flax meal into 3tablespoons warm water; let sit for 10 minutes or until thickened, enough to replace 1 egg}

-1 cup canned pumpkin

-1 tsp vanilla

- 1 cup sugar(or 3/4 cup grade B maple syrup)

- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1 1/2 tsp baking power

- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

- 1 1/4 cup rice flour

- 3/4 cup potato starch

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degree f. Cream together shortening, eggs, pumpkin, vanilla and sugar. Add baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, rice flour, and potato starch. Mix well. Spoon out on cookie sheet (greased lightly) about the size of a walnut. Bake for about 15 minutes.

   And oh my goodness, prepare yourself for happiness.

When making these I didn't realize that it's best to use grade b maple syrup instead of grade a, since grade b is sweeter. Thus, they weren't very sweet and ended up more like pumpkin biscuits instead of cookies. Despite that, they were really scrumptious!

Oh, and fair warning- do not eat or smell the dough. You will become disappointed in your work of art and become nauseated. Trust me.