Peach Crisp (GF/DF)

   I love peaches so living in Georgia is awesome during peach season...which is now, so I'm about to post a couple of my favorite peach recipes; although my favorite way to eat them is plain. Peach cider is amazing too (I like drinking it with champagne (bellini much?) or with Bacardi Razz rum. However, this peach crisp is delicious. It's gluten and dairy-free too!

Ingredients

Peach filling:

• 6 peaches
• 1 tbsp gluten free flour mix
• 2 tbsp agave
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinammon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Crisp topping:

• 6 crumbled gluten/dairy free sugar cookies- not chewy (Enjoy Life or Lucy's are great)
• 1/2 C of rolled oats
• 3 tbsp gluten free flour
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp of dairy free spread (Earth Balance) or butter

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Peel and thinly slice peaches. The easiest way to peel peaches is by putting them in a pot of boiling water then plunging them in ice water after a minute. The skins should just rub off.
3.  Mix all crisp topping ingredients in a bowl then use a pastry knife to cut butter into the mix. If you don't have a pastry knife (I don't) use two knives to cut butter in bowl alternating directions until it's in tiny clumps. For an example see this youtube video. You're welcome. 
4. Mix all peach filling ingredients together in a separate bowl. Pour into a small baking dish (I used a square 9x9)
5. Cook peaches in over for 10 minutes, remove, and pour crisp topping on top covering completely. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until brown. 
6. ENJOY! I served mine with coconut vanilla ice cream. Store leftovers in fridge :) Enjoy again!

Easy Banana Muffins! (GF/DF)

So today I was going to finally use those overripe bananas that I've been storing in the freezer to make banana bread. Then I realized, I don't have a bread loaf pan...so I decided to make banana muffins! Some people know this (but my blog is for the beginner!) but overripe bananas are the best to use for baked goods. When your bananas get too ripe to eat (the outsides black) but they're not rotten, throw them in the freezer and defrost them for your next banana bread or in this case banana muffins! They turned out pretty good. I did mine the gluten-free and vegan way but that's because we ran out of eggs (but not flax powder go figure haha this is my life now) and I can't eat dairy or gluten. If you don't do it gluten free or vegan, use an egg instead of the "flax egg", and use normal flour in place of the gluten-free all purpose flour. So easy either way! Which is just the way I like my muffins. The nice thing about this recipe is it's so flexible you can just keep adding ingredients (cinnamon, raisins, chocolate chips, yogurt chips, etc!)

I forgot to take a picture so this one will have to do

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour or gluten free flour blend
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped nuts OPTIONAL (I used walnuts)
• 3 ripe bananas (if you're bananas were frozen or not extremely over ripe, pop them in the microwave for a bit so you can easily mash them)
• 1 "flax egg" or 1 egg ***
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

***you can make an easy and healthy substitute for eggs in baking. For substituting one egg- take 1 tbsp of ground flax powder (if you have flax seeds you can put them in a food processor to grind them up yourself) then ADD 3 tbsp of water (the water HAS to come 2nd). Mix then set in fridge for 15 minutes until consistency is thick and somewhat...well...egg-like.



 Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mash bananas then add remaining wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix well.
3. Spoon into muffin cups filling about 1/2-3/4 of the way full.
4. Bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
5. Enjoy!