Peanut Butter Cookies

We made this recipe a few days ago for the first time, (found here: http://glutenfreegirl.com/yum-yum-peanut-butter/) and then again to take to some friends who were bogged down with school work and needed a diversion, and both times it has turned out delicious. Since the primary ingredient is peanut butter, the flavor will depend largely on what kind you get, so get one with good peanutty flavor, and one that is not too oily, so that the cookies will remain cohesive after being baked. It's a very simple recipe, and you can have fresh-baked cookies about 20-25 min after starting to make them.

Ingredients

• 1 cup no-stir peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (about 176 C)
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together peanut butter, sugar, and baking powder using a wooden spoon until everything is well-mixed.
3. Crack your egg into the bowl, and again, mix it in with the sugar/peanut butter mixture until it is well-mixed.
4. Pinch bits of dough, and roll them into about 1.5 inch (3.8 cm) balls, and space out on a cookie sheet.
5. Using a fork, press down the tops of the cookies with the fork tines first facing one direction, then perpendicular, so you get a grid pattern on the top. Press gently, so that you don't crumble the cookies.
6. Place cookie sheet in oven and bake about 10 minutes, until the dough in the indentations where you pressed the fork is the same color as the outside of the cookies.
7. Remove cookie sheet from oven, and let sit for about 3-5 minutes with the cookies still on it.
8. When the cookies feel solid enough, use a spatula to remove them from the cookie sheet, and place on a cooling rack to cool off.

Spicy Tofu Scramble

We've been having some stomach issues in the family eating just a plain egg scramble over the past number of months, so we've been meaning to try something like this out, as we love our breakfast foods. This recipe turned out very well, and I think it may be put on regular rotation in our house.

It's a bit spicy, so you may want to put sightly less cayenne pepper, or just leave out the red pepper flakes if you like milder food, but the taste was very good.

The only thing we would do differently, is with regard to the tofu. We bought a tofu that was not packaged in water, but we still pressed it, and it came out *very* firm, probably a little bit too firm. It was still good, but we would recommend that if you buy a tofu that isn't packaged in water, you probably don't need to press it, and can just crumble it as-is.

Ingredients

• 1 lb extra-firm tofu
• Approximately 1/2 lb mushrooms, or any vegetable you like, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp ground dried shallots (or approximately 1 tsp onion powder)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp celery salt
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 - 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 - 1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. If you got tofu that is packaged in water, drain the tofu, and then press between plates with a heavy object for about an hour, to remove most of the moisture.
2. Crumble the tofu into small pieces.
3. In a skillet over medium to medium-high heat, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
4. Saute the mushrooms (or other vegetables) until they begin to soften, and then add the garlic.
5. Add in the dry spices, herbs, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and cook for about a minute.
   
6. Add a couple tablespoons of water to create a sort of paste with the herbs and spices.


7. Add in the tofu and mix around well so that all the tofu is coated in the spice paste. Add a bit more water, up to about 1/4 cup total as needed depending on how much moisture is in the tofu. You just want enough liquid that all the tofu gets coated.


8. Cook, stirring, until tofu is hot. Enjoy!

Sausages and Sauerkraut

On the topic of extremely easy things to do once you've made yourself some sauerkraut, this is a simple, and very tasty quick dinner we often like to make for ourselves.

Ingredients

• 1-2 sausages per person, depending on how hungry you are
• 1 roll per sausage
• About 1 cup of sauerkraut per sausage (a little more if you like a lot)
• Caraway seed
• Mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (about 177 C)
2. Over medium heat, bring some oil or butter up to temperature in an oven-proof skillet.
3. Brown the sausages a bit, but don't cook them all the way through.
4. Remove sausages from the skillet, and dump in the sauerkraut.
5. Cook sauerkraut in the skillet until some of the brine has evaporated, sprinkle in caraway seed to taste, and stir in a small dollop of mustard (we used some apple mustard we had around this last time - yum!)
6. Place sausages on top of the sauerkraut, and put the skillet in the oven until the sausages are cooked through.
7. In the meantime, dress the rolls however you like - I prefer just a little bit of mustard.
8. When the sausages are done, place one sausage on each roll, top with saurkraut, and chow down!