This garlic paste is out of this world. Few recipes have made such an impact on me but this one has totally revolutionized my cooking. Not only because I cook with garlic almost every day and using garlic paste saves me tons of time, but it also makes the food taste way better.

You see, having the garlic paste, rather than just a million little pieces of garlic, infuses its flavor into the food much better. It works great almost on anything but when making sauces the garlic paste really takes the recipe to the next level! Remember this spinach pasta with homemade tomato sauce recipe I posted a few weeks back? Well this is the recipe I tried with garlic paste that made me want to make my own, as my best friend gave me some of hers!

Granted when making this recipe you are going to be pealing garlic for at least 10 minutes, but what are 10 minutes when you are going to be saving tons of time for weeks to come?

I have tried many store bought garlic paste varieties before to find than none of them really actually tasted like garlic. So what did I do? Totally trash them. Now, I am not the one to throw food away but I just couldn’t bare to add none of the disgusting none sense flavor into my food.

This time around I made quite a bit of garlic paste so I froze half of my batch and placed the other in the fridge to be used immediately. I have been told that this will last for at least 3 months, both in the fridge or freezer so will see how it goes. So far so good.

I anticipate making the same thing with ginger. I cook a lot of Asian recipes and almost always I add ginger instead of garlic. I can’t wait to give that version a try so when I do I will let you know. For now I leave you with this simple sensational recipe that will sure revolutionized your cooking like it did to me.

Enjoy!

Garlic paste

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 16 oz

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 5 heads of garlic
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp celtic salt

Directions:

Peel the cloves of garlic from all 5 heads. This will take you about 10 minutes but be patient, you will not be peeling garlic for a long while after this.

Place the pealed garlic cloves in your blender with the extra virgin olive oil and salt. Blend for 15-20 seconds and place in 8 oz glass jars. Freeze some of your batch if you like for up to 3 months. Stored in the fridge don't keep for longer than 2 wks to prevent botulism from developing.

NOTE: 1 tsp = 1 garlic clove

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At last I am sharing this homemade puff cereal recipe. I shared the pictures long ago but today you can enjoy the recipe, or recipes that is. I actually made two different versions of this homemade puff cereal recipe.

I made a vanilla version as well as a chocolate peanut butter kind. They were both equally great.

I have tried store bought puff cereal before. I have found them to be more crunchy than my version but the reason for that is that store bought kinds have a lot more sugar. I hate when cereal is loaded with sugar. When I buy any store bought varieties for my kids I make sure that they don’t have more than 7 grams of sugar per serving and that they do contain at least 5 grams of fiber.

If you are looking for a bit more of a crunch for these puff cereal use half  unrefined sugar and half maple syrup. This way it will be more crunchy.

I used brown rice flour, almond flour and gluten free flour mix for my homemade puff cereal version but you can use any other type of nut flour. Hazelnut, as well as pastry whole wheat flour, will work. I wanted to maintain my cereal gluten free though.

This recipe is perfect to make with your children. My kids loved rolling the cereal out and when they were ready to eat they were super excited. The process is a bit tedious but fun. You can have these puff cereal with milk but we also have them as a snack.

I hope you get to make these puff cereal. They are way better than store bought, fun to make with the kids and delicious.

Enjoy!

Here is how the mixture looks like. It is kind of like play dough consistency.

Here are my two versions for the puff cereal. One is vanilla and the other one is protein peanut butter and chocolate.

Rolling the puff cereal is a bit tedious but fun, especially when the kids are helping. Make this recipe with your children, they would love to make their own cereal.

Homemade puff cereal

Yield: 14-16 servings

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Vanilla puff cereal

• 1  cup almond flour (you can use other nut flour of choice)
• 1 cup all purpose gluten free flour (you can also use whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/3 cup maple syrup, or honey
• 2 tbs Greek yogurt, or vegan yogurt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp almond milk
• 2 tsp real vanilla extract

Peanut butter protein puff cereal

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose gluten free flour 
• 1/2 cup chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 2 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 2 tbsp almond milk
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp organic peanut butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Place vanilla puff ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture comes together. Transfer the mixture to a small mixing bowl. Place the peanut butter puff cereal ingredients in the food processor and pulse. Transfer to another bowl.

Form little balls the size of small grapes and place in a baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper.

Bake for 12-14 minutes shaking the pan half way through the baking time to make sure they cereal doesn't burn. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely in the baking sheet.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the fridge for 1 week.

Adapted from Running to the Kitchen and Cook Republic

The post Homemade puff cereal appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

OMG these gluten free oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies are out of this world. These have become one of my ultimate favorite cookies. I truly can not believe these are gluten-free. Next time I am going to double the batch.

These gluten free oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies are going to make it for my Christmas goodie bags. I think my family and friends will love them.

With this amount of batter I got 26 cookies. Mine were way larger cookies so I am sure you will be able to get many more cookies if you keep the cookies on the medium size. Also, when I placed the batter in the baking tray I always press the cookies with the back on my hand. I like my cookies to sort of spread out a bit so to make sure I almost always do these with my cookies.

I am on the hunt for new cookie recipes for Christmas. I will like to make them all gluten-free. I might just leave one or two recipes regular but I am finding that I enjoy baking cookies gluten-free lately.

I find that baking cookies with brown rice flour works really well. You can’t even notice the cookies don’t have regular flour.  The taste is sensational and it is better for you than regular flour. I think I am going to experiment a bit more with it. I have these other double chocolate chunk cookies in mind that I can’t wait to try with brown rice flour.

Even if you are not on a gluten-free diet baking with brown rice flour is healthier so give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

Enjoy!

I used a medium cookie scoop for this cookies but they were larger because I added more to each one. These were large so I obtained 26 cookies but if you keep it to the medium cookie scoop amount you will get more cookies.

Gluten free oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 26 large cookies

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 organic eggs
• 1 cup olive oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup unrefined sugar
• 2 cups brown rice flour
• 2 1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 tsp aluminum free baking soda
• 1 cup chocolate chunks, more if you like

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line two baking cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, with a wire whisk, mix the eggs, oil, coconut and sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the remainder of the ingredients. Combine well. I do this step with a spatula but you can use your stand mixer.

With a medium cookie scoop place cookies apart 2-3 inches. Flatten with the back of your hand and bake for 10 minutes. If you have large cookies like I did it will take about 12 minutes. Leave the cookies in the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring them to a cookie wire rack.

 

Nutrition facts calculated based on the recipe giving 26 cookies.

The post Gluten free oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

This is the first time I have had such a combination with these oatmeal chocolate cookies. While the cookies weren’t too crunchy because of the lack of so much sugar, they were still superb. I hate when I bite into a cookie or a cake and all you can taste is sugar.

The oatmeal chocolate cookies texture is light and soft. Not a crunchy type of cookie. I like to make cookies like these once in a while so I hope if you get to try them, you like them.

I pretty much have a few favorite cookies that I keep making over and over. They are just too good to go on for a while without having them.

Anyhow, there are only 4 weeks left for fall to begin. I feel like time is just flying by. I think the older I get the faster it goes. Let’s face it, I am getting old…well older :-) it is fine…it is part of life, so I am OK.

On another note, I have the best giveaway waiting for you. I am super excited because this giveaway is a really nice powerful piece of equipment. Most likely I will have this offer in the next week so stay tuned.

I am starting to get back to my routine after spending 2 months away this summer. My schedule this fall is going to be one of the craziest ever so I hope I can keep up posting great recipes for you guys.

Until my next post, that hopefully it will not be too long from today…

Enjoy!

I didn’t have much shredded coconut while making the cookies. I wish I have had more. If you like to add more be my guest. I think the cookies will be even better with it.

Let me know if you get to try them. I hope that you like these oatmeal and chocolate cookies.

Oatmeal chocolate cookies

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 16 cookies

Total Time: 20 minutes max!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup unrefined sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 organic egg
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 tsp aluminum free baking soda
• 4 oz baker's unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, with a wire whisk, whisk together the egg, olive oil, coconut oil and vanilla. Add the remainder of the ingredients and with a spatula mix until the ingredients are well incorporated.

With a medium cookie scoop, place batter onto the cookie sheets leaving some room in between the cookies as they will expand while they bake. I kind of flatten them with the cookies scoop just a little bit.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Leave cookies for a couple of minutes in the cookie sheets before transferring them to cookie wire racks to cool completely.

Nutrition facts calculated based on the recipe giving 16 cookies.

The post Oatmeal chocolate cookies appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

Last week, on my last post, I mentioned that I was in Spain…yes, that’s right, I am in Spain. Is like I am in a dream, and sort of a surreal one because I haven’t visited Spain for the past two years and that for me is just a very long time!

I must confess that I am beyond the moon, excited and having the time of my life…and I think so are my kids :-) For those that don’t know me, Spain is where I was born, grew up and lived for the first 18 years of my life. England and the USA followed.

The last time I was in Spain, which was in 2011, was a bit of an ordeal. My youngest was a year old at the time, which required breast-feeding, strollers, diapers, bottles and everything and anything of that nature. Now, since she is already three, we are past that, and I couldn’t be more excited. It makes traveling a hell of a lot easier! For those that are on that boat know exactly what I mean. The simplest outing can turned to the biggest production.

This time around, we are visiting  family and friends, but we are also doing some tourism. We are enjoying eating good local food, and visiting some historic towns all around. Since our kids are now older, we are able to enjoy this kind of trips much more.

For instance, last week, I had the chance to spend the day with my only sister. We were able to go to this beautiful place in Asturias, North Spain, and spend 7 hours just hiking. It was breath-taking, amazing and extremely inspirational. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Raw nature to its finest.

The cliffs were scary at times, however, I forgot about them. The place was so beautiful that I kept getting distracted by the overall beauty of the place. The cliffs didn’t matter after a while.

I have never hiked that long in my entire life and that night my legs were pretty much none responsive. I work out on a regular basis but because this trail was pretty complex with different terrain, hills and such, I used muscles in my legs that I though I never had, a good feeling!

I will keep posting some pictures of the different trips we will be taking throughout the summer here in Spain. I will also try to share some more Spanish authentic dishes but for now I leave you with this gazpacho, a chilled based vegetable drink/soup that is super healthy, simple and very reminiscence of Spain.

I hope everyone is having a great summer, so far we are.

Until my next post,

stay safe and enjoy!

The Cares hiking route is a must. If you ever visit Spain and you are into hiking I strongly suggest you come. Just be careful with the falling rocks, besides that, you will love this place.

This was right before arriving to the higher altitude areas. The scenery is just breath-taking. Horses, cows, sheep, are all around. Fisher man, people kayaking and bikers also predominate the area. There are many outdoors activities to do in the area as well as places to explore.

This time around I used an immersion blender to make the gazpacho but you can use your regular kitchen counter blender if you like. Either method is just fine.

Make sure you serve the gazpacho chilled. When you make it you can adjust the gazpacho according to taste. You can add more garlic, vinegar, olive oil. I always use quadruple the amount of garlic :-)

Spanish gazpacho

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 6 servings

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs very ripe tomatoes
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 large green pepper, chopped
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves
• Pinch of Celtic salt

Directions:

In your blender place all of the ingredients and blend until smooth. I never peeled the tomatoes but some people do. The fiber and certain nutrients are included in the peel. If you blend the gazpacho well the tomato skin shouldn't be a problem.

Note that you can also use an immersion blender to make the gazpacho if you like.

Serve gazpacho chilled and keep left over covered in the refrigerator.

Nutrition facts calculated based on the recipe giving 6 servings.

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