Nut butter monster bars – Cocomama recipe contest

Today’s the day!  It’s the Cocomama Recipe Contest! They will be posting all of the recipes on their Facebook page, and the one with the most likes wins.  So, you should probably go there and hit the “Like” button to vote for me.

This is my first ever recipe contest, and I think I have a winner. I’m calling them “Nut Butter Monster Bars”.

And don’t they look good for their big judgment day?

Ingredients:

  • 3 3/4 c. gluten free cereal (I used Nature’s Path Honey’d Corn Flakes, but you could use Chex or rice cereal too)
  • 1/4 c. honey
  • 1/4 c. brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 T. butter
  • 3/4 c. crunchy peanut butter
  • 1/4 c. plus 1 T almond butter
  • 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 c. raisins
  • 1/3 c. white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over low/med heat, stir together honey and brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved.

2. Stir in nut butters, butter, and cinnamon and stir until the mixture is smooth

3.  Stir in cereal (depending on the size of the cereal you may want to crunch it up a bit first)

4.  Stir in raisins and chocolate chips (this would also be great with regular chocolate, and any kind of dried fruit)

5.  Press mixture firmly into an 8×8 or 9×6 baking dish (I have a weird Ikea pan)

6. Put in fridge to set, then cut up into squares and freeze the ones you don’t eat right away!

I’m excited for the contest to start!  You should check it out on Facebook and hit the like button for me!

Good Mexican food in DC?

I’ve heard that there is no good Mexican food in DC.  The only rave review that I’ve heard is for Casa Oaxaca, which I still need to try.  Since most Mexican food is naturally gluten free, it’s such a shame.  I’ve been craving the Veggie Jenga from Pachenga Patterson like woah lately.

After a few hours of checking out the Dog Days Sidewalk Sale on U Street, I was getting hungry. I did score a deal on a vintage bracelet from Junction though, which made me happy on the walk over to El RinconcitoMy foodie friend had heard that it was good and authentic.

Prettiness

The place was a total hole in the wall, but nearly every table was full on a Saturday at 3pm, which was a good sign.

I started with the fried yuca, because I love that stuff.

Then, after I struggled over a language barrier to order and tried to recall something of my five years of Spanish classes, I ended up with hard shell tacos with black beans.

Oh how I love a nice fluffy pile of shredded cheese.

Even though it was really simple, it was still just what I wanted.  Next time I will have to try the pupusas, which everyone else in the place was downing by the plateful.  The manager told me that they were just made out of corn flour/masa, but I couldn’t really understand him, so I stuck to hard shell.

After googling, it looks like pupusas really are just corn flour and water, and naturally gluten free.  I’ll just have to go back!  Since I’m sure as heck not going to attempt to make them myself.  Although Nicole at Gluten Free on a Shoestring sure does make it sound like fun.

Also, apparently pupusas are everywhere in DC, according to the DCist.  They can be found at Pupuseria San Miguel, Irene’s Pupusas, El Rinconcito I & II, or El Charrito Caminante).  Must get some immediately.  Cuz how yummy does this look?

The only thing that would have made my Mexican food experience more complete would have been a margarita, like the one I had the night before at Hill Country.

Only $5 after 10!

Ole!

El Rinconcito

1129 11th St NW
(between N L St & N M St)

Do you know of a great Mexican place in DC? Or how to say “gluten free” en Español? 😉

Muffins at Tryst

Tryst in Adam’s Morgan is like Central Perk from Friends.  Big couches, hip music, eclectic art, and giant coffee cups.  The only thing that it has that Central Perk didn’t is a full bar.  Oh, and gluten free muffins.

Tryst in Admo

Can you see the resemblance?

Central Perk on Friends set

I was hoping to have some of their flourless chocolate cake, but they were out.  So I settled for a gluten-free cherry almond muffin.

Oh, and a giant cup of coffee with soy.  It came with animal crackers, which got passed off to my friend.

The muffin was great, really moist and I loved the toasted almonds around the edges.  I’ll be back for sure!

Tryst

2459 18th Street Northwest
Washington D.C., DC 20009

Crumbs to carry a gluten free cupcake!

In a covert op on Friday night, a friend and I stopped into Crumbs Bakeshop downtown on 11th Street, since I wanted to check if they had a gluten free variety.

The guy working there told us a bit coyly that they didn’t have one, but then said that they should have one by October!

He said that there was already a button for it on the register, so it sounds like it’s legitimate, ven though on their website, they still say that they don’t carry them.

I also took this undercover picture, since I guess you’re not allowed to take pictures in Crumbs?

Hurry up already, Crumbs!

Amsterdam Falafel

Last night I got some really great falafel at Amseterdam Falafelshop in Adam’s Morgan.  It’s a really cool concept – you get a pita (if you can eat one), filled with 3 or 5 falafel balls, and then they let you go to town on the toppings in a topping bar.  With 21 toppings, to be exact.

They also have fries, but they’re not handcut, so I steered away from them.  They do fry them in a dedicated fryer.  There was actually a woman there who was gluten intolerant who was buying them, and swore to me that she didn’t have a reaction when she ate them, but I followed my new pitfall avoidance plan and just ate my falafel, which turned out to be more than enough food.

Yep, that’s slaw, beets, hummus, and falafel balls buried somewhere in there.

Oh, there you are!

One of the best $5 dinners I’ve ever had.  Although next time I will bring my own fork, since they have some weird fork phobia or protest going on where they refuse to offer them.

Amsterdam Falafelshop

2425 18th St NW
(between N Belmont Rd & N Columbia Rd)

DC gets cool – Lincoln and Dirty Dancing

I think I may have finally found a bit of New York City in DC.  Lincoln is a new restaurant right by my work that was actually COOL.  As in well-made cocktails, quirky waitstaff, awesome decor, and delicious simple food – cool.  It reminded me of the many places in NYC that I had come to love and take for granted – where everything on the menu is great, made with fresh ingredients, and not stuck in 1992.  No offense or anything, DC.

When I arrived I was greeted by two of my fabulous friends and a giant bowl of Emancipation Punch!  In a vintage-looking punch bowl.  So cool.

My adorable glass.

The happy hour menu didn’t have anything gluten free on it (their french fries were hand-cut, but weren’t fried in a dedicated fryer).

So I ordered a kale salad and trout off of the dinner menu, which our drunk as a skunk eccentric waiter assured me were gluten free.

Organic kale salad with hazelnuts, dried cranberries, Parmesan, lemon vinaigrette

I have to figure out how to make this at home.

Trout with asparagus lentil salad and whipped avocado

The trout was perfectly cooked, and it was a great light and fresh dish. So I didn’t feel bad at all getting ice cream at the Capitol Yard outdoor movie later from The Orange Cow!


They had a bunch of cool flavors, like white chocolate blueberry.  But I got my classic mint chocolate chip.

And then settled in to watch Dirty Dancing on the big blow-up screen.

Gosh I love this movie.

I will definitely be back to Lincoln at some point soon for more punch and yummy food.  I also learned from Prince of Petworth that Lincoln will soon be doing Sunday Brunch!  With a punch bowl filled with mimosas. woot.

Such a fun night in DC!  I had the time of my life. (hee hee).

Cheesecake for breakfast

No, I’m not going to post a recipe for some kind of healthy breakfast cheesecake.

Just needed to document that I made a rational, grown-up decision to eat cheesecake this morning for breakfast.

Raw, vegan, gluten-free cheesecake from Cafe Green!  That kind of makes it okay, right?

Agave sweetened, with a cashew crust that tasted just like a crumbly Larabar!

I’m guessing that the filling was tofu?  It tastes like a really dense chocolate mousse.

This is it before I got my grubby paws on it:

Cafe Green, you have almost made up for the bland-wich that I got from your sister restaurant, Java Green.

What a great way to kick off a Friday 🙂

Good Things Wednesday

Yes, I know last time it was Good Things Sunday, but I’ve never really been a stickler for consistency 🙂

1.  Yesterday a very good thing happened – my order of Skinny Crisps came in the mail! I loved these the moment I tried them at G-Free NYC, and according to their website they don’t have any retail locations in DC.  So, I bucked up and ordered online – $26 for three bags and shipping, so about $8.50 a bag, which is only a dollar more than they were at G-Free NYC, so I didn’t feel too gypped.

Gimme three! Cheese, Cinnamon (my fave), and Chocolate

2.  I also learned how to actually cook a good steam-fried egg this weekend after reading my friend’s blog!  Usually I end up with the white all over the pan, breaking the yolk, or just giving up and turning the whole thing into scrambled eggs.  I served my perfect egg with salsa and spinach – I was so proud.

3.  I created a new food invention – chocolate almond protein pudding!  I impulse purchased a bag of Better Bowls pudding mix from Giant a couple weeks ago, mostly because of the big yellow “Gluten Free” label at the top of the bag.  They also market themselves as “the healthiest brand of pudding”, so, can’t go wrong with that!

Then I was looking for a good post-workout snack after my group training class at Stroga, and it seemed like a good time to bust it out.  I amped up the protein and yummy-factor by adding some whey protein and almond butter.


Better Bowls Chocolate Almond Protein Pudding

2 cups soy milk plus an additional 1/4 to 1/2 cup

1 1/2 scoops chocolate whey protein powder

2 T almond butter

Mix it all together and let it set for 10 minutes (or 3 minutes in the freezer if you are ravenous and need to eat it right away or you’ll pass out…not that I did that or anything…)

All good things!  I hope Martha Stewart doesn’t sue me for copyright infringement.  Nah – she’s probably too busy flirting with Snoop Dog for that.

Georgetown and Serendipity III

Check out where I was yesterday.  Doesn’t it look almost like Florida?

Well, it wasn’t.  It was the beautiful Georgetown waterfront. Fountains, palm trees, and boats included.

Another great thing that Georgetown has?

Serendipity 3!

Too bad the gluten free meal options were less than robust.  What I was really feeling like was a salad, which my friend got to enjoy.  But the waiter informed me that NONE of the salad dressings were gf.  Say what?  Maybe they just say that to be careful, but it seemed strange to me.  Either way, I played it safe, trying not to have a gf pitfall, and ordered an omelette instead.

Non-gluten free crab cake salad

My Central Park omelette, with coleslaw on the side:

The coleslaw was actually my favorite part!  It was really fresh and crunchy.

I should have asked if any of their monumental ice cream sundaes or frozen hot chocolates are gluten free, but I was too full to think about it.  Because they look amazing.

There’s always next time!

More Michigan Gluten Free

I was so encouraged by the reader responses I got to my best gluten free in Detroit post, that I had to share!

But first, another Michigan favorite of mine: Urban Attic!  How perfectly fun is this?

I will take one of everything. I may even be more prone to gluten free baking if I had these fancy measuring spoons.

Just the sweetest place 🙂

Urban Attic at Ardmore Park Place
26717 Little Mack Avenue – Suite 4
St. Clair Shores, MI 48081

And now for the reader suggestions on more gluten free in the Detroit area!  Mostly of the pizza variety 🙂  For a review of a few gluten free pizza places in Michigan check out this article in the New Baltimore-Chesterfield Patch.

Vince and Joe’s Gourmet Market

My friend says that they have “a ton of prepared gluten free food such as pasta sauce, baked goods including bumpy cake and other heat and serve meals.”

Locations in Shelby and Clinton Township

Dan Good Pizza

Seven locations across southeast Michigan.

Amici’s Pizza

This got the best reviews in the New Baltimore article, “The crust had crispy edges and a soft doughy texture in the middle. It tasted like a whole-grain, thin-crust pizza that soaked up the flavors of the toppings. By far, this was our local favorite, and worth the steep price.”

Birmingham and Berkely locations.

Can’t wait to get home to the mitten to try some of these myself 🙂