Apples

When Lindsey came to visit last weekend she came baring gluten-free, milk-free gifts! Whahoo! One was a bag of Ginger Snaps by Mi-del. That's a definite yummy in the tummy that I've had before.

Then she brought two packages of cookies that I've never sampled. One box has snickerdoodles and the other one's the "No-oat Oatmeal" recipe. Both are made by Enjoy Life and both have apple (apple sauce to be precise). Ahhh! But I haven't had apple in a long time so it was time to try it out again (based on the elimination diet).

I tried out both cookies on Sunday after refinishing our kitchen cabinets with a fresh coat of polyurethane. And they certainly are tasty! The cookies, that is. Not the cabinets. Moist and chewy! I give them an A+ for yumminess. And did I have a headache on Sunday?

Drum roll please...No!

Alright! Wahoo! Yippidy skippidy! Doing the Katherine celebration dance. HOLD IT! Before we get too excited about apples, I'm going to have to try them again. See the next day, Monday, I did have a headache. But I'm not sure if it's related to the cookies or...

(TMI moment approaching so cover your eyes if you don't want to read and skip down to "Continued")



...because of the monthly bill that I'm currently paying.



Continued...

But I'm very optimistic. Mi familia will will be visiting this weekend. Looking forward to that. We'll probably do a lot of cooking, touring, and maybe a little fall planting. Should be fun!

On the running front, I ran my first sub-8 minute mile this past Monday. Two of them to be precise. Some person, and I'm not naming who (hint: they "tried" to beat my half marathon PR this summer), will need to work out a bit more than just a couple of times before the big Turkey Trot 3 mile. No pressure or anything. :) That would be tacky.

Kind of like...

In the meantime, I hijacked a recipe for fruit oatmeal bars from one of my old gluten-filled cookbooks. It's super quick to make and substitutions galore are possible. I took this batch to work to share as a going away present for one of my coworkers. Nobody seemed to notice that it was cow-milk-free and gluten-free. Yeah! The original recipe calls for a super cool fruit filling, but I tossed that idea out to reduce prep time. Anyway, the recipe was basically calling for a thick, jelly-like substance and that's what I made, super-sonic style.

Fruit Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients

• 1 c. flour (Pamela's gluten free bread and baking mix)
• 1 c. oatmeal
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ cup brown sugar (or half sugar, half brown splenda)
• ¾ c. jelly (orange marmalade)
• ½ butter (coconut oil, or milk; might need less milk than oil)
• 1 tb flour (for jelly filling)
• 9/9/1 pan (sprayed with Pam)

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Mix flour, oatmeal, baking soda, and brown sugar in large bowl. Pour in butter/oil into mixture gradually until you have what looks like a big bowl of crumbs (may need to use hands). Take about a half a cup of the mixture and set aside. Place the remaining mixture in the pan and smooth out evenly.

Place jelly in a small bowl and microwave for about 30-60 seconds or until the jelly is more liquid-like (don’t boil). Add the tb of flour to the jelly and mix well. Spread Jelly over the crumb mixture in the pan. Then sprinkle the remaining half cp of crumb mixture on top. Bake for 30 minutes.