I'm a Survivor

When the going gets tough, the tough go out and play on the swing.

~Rodney Rathbone

So >sniffle< I tried to make cinnamon rolls.

EPIC FAIL

I did everything the recipe said to...........sorta. I added some sweet rice flour in because all it called for was potato starch and arrowroot powder (sub for cornstarch) which makes baked products way too starchy for me. I also had to substitute guar gum for the xanthan gum (derived from corn). 

Sadly, guar gum has a very distinctive flavor, and it's yucky. My rolls looked just like the pictures until I tried to cut them and put them in the pan. I was able to sorta manhandle them into the pan, but they looked like blobs instead of luscious cinnamon rolls. I baked them, hoping that they would be good anyway. The first bite confirmed that the guar gum was too powerful for the delicate bread (that turned out to be the consistency of a very soft biscuit). The parts that were really cinnamony and sugary were ok, but nothing to do a happy dance for. :(

So later on in the day I suddenly had a hankering for chocolate chip cookies. I just bought some chocolate chips I could eat and it has been months and months since I had a good cookie. :) That, and I hate leaving the field of battle in defeat. ;) >sigh< Unfortunately, this battle turned out to be a truce.

I based my recipe on this recipe with a few additions.

1 1/4 C almond flour

1/3 C oatmeal 

5 T oatmeal flour
1/4 C brown sugar

1/4 t salt

1/4 t baking soda

1/4 C grapeseed oil

1 egg

1/3 C mini chips

Stir dry ingredients together, stir wet ingredients together. Mix. Form into balls, place on a baking pan and bake in a 350 oven for 7-10 minutes.

They turned out fairly good, and I enjoyed them after going a long time without. I forgot that when you use oil instead of butter in cookies that you need a wetter dough so I added too much oatmeal flour. Next time I'd reduce it to 1-3 T. The cookies still turned out good, just more of a thick cake texture instead of a more moist gooey cookie.

 

Finally, at the end of the day things worked perfectly for me. :)

I bought a box of spring mix at Winco on Saturday, and it inspired me to try going a more sweet direction with my salad. I topped the mix with some grape halves and chopped pecans and finished it off with an orange vinagrette.

1/4 cup orange juice

2 T balsamic vinegar (make sure it's without caramel color if you can't have corn!)

1 T of dijon mustard (I used a horseradish one - Yum!)

honey to taste

dash of salt and pepper

Mix and drizzle over salad!

Victory!!!!