Being GF and in this economy is tough. I'm very thankful that I found out about Celiac in this modern day when there are so many products and information that is out there that helps make living with this disease manageable and even enjoyable. I wish products still didn't cost so much and maybe by the time my daughter is old enough to leave home that the price of GF products will have come way down so they will be more affordable for her. But in the meantime things are tough. I try to keep meals simple to use very little ingredients, that are easy to make and avoid having to buy a lot of specialty products. Which is why you've seen simple recipes and more product reviews, because I don't have a lot of money to make elaborate meals or baked goods using 15 ingredients. This is good news for those of you just starting out with being gluten free or those of you who are also broke like me.
However, I have found comfort in simple reminder from more simple times - the great Depression. Here was a time when many people found them selves on hard times. My mom and I have talked a bit about the Water Soup her mother would talk about eating frequently as a child. After some research I learned that this soup was basically a vegetable soup, but without broth, just water for the base, hence the name. I think about the meals that were made from this time period and the recipes that were passed down. They were simple, meat and potatoes kind of simple. Not a lot of of fancy cooking, just the basics that life requires: protein and vegetables.
In hard times I also find it interesting what people need to feel secure. My mother in law use to tell me when she was newly married with young children that she always felt alright if she had flour in the house. I asked her once what she use to do with it when she didn't have much else in the house; unfortunately, I didn't get much of a response to that question. When times are really tough I like to always have Pamela's Baking Mix in my pantry, I guess that is my gluten free version of flour. I also must have rice, soy sauce, and eggs. I can at least make fried rice with those ingredient. I can also make pancakes with the baking mix water and eggs. I also have a since of security when we have toilet paper in the house. I told my husband once "Forget flour, you're screwed if you don't have toilet paper." You can have all the food in the world but if you don't have toilet paper then you're really in a terrible situation.
With all the things that are happening in the world I wonder what people grab out of their house when disaster strikes. With all of the earthquakes, wars, hurricanes, floods and such; I wonder if I were in those situations what would I grab? Obviously, I would want clothes, important documents, maybe even a photo album or two and my family, including the pets; but, what about food. If I lived in a part of the world or country that didn't have much in the way of allergy free food would I also have a supply of food or would I just give up and eat whatever to survive? I wonder how many people living on the streets would benefit from soup kitchens or church pantries that would supply allergy friendly foods. I wonder if there is a great enough need in the country and the world to supply these types of food items for when disaster strikes. Is there a family some where on the East coast that has been displaced by the flood water of hurricane Irene that are having to bypass parts of the buffet table at a local shelter because of extreme food allergies that could cause death. This is something I pray about that maybe I can help change this or that someone has already though of this and is taking care of families in these situations.
From now on I will try to donate what I can, even if it is one item at a time, to food drives so that people like us will not go hungry because of their limited diets. I did this two years when our church did a Thanksgiving food drive where they gave us lists of what one family would need to have a complete Thanksgiving meal. I took the list and decided to do an allergy friendly organic meal. I bought everything on the list from my health store. I wished I could have bought more then one meal that was allergy friendly just in case there were more families out there that would appreciate the extra step of an allergy free meal. I know I would. Even a person with diabetes would benefit from an organic gluten free meal. Since then our family hasn't been able to afford being able to do this, but I still try to give something, because something is far better then nothing.
So to try to tie this all into the recipe that I am posting in this blog, I wanted to make a sweet snack for my family. I didn't have a lot of ingredients to use, and I like simple. I also want something I knew my daughter would want to eat. She is very picky about her food, even cookies. Sometimes having a picky eater when money is tight can be painful (all the more reason to try to do what I just suggested above). So this recipe I used the basic sugar cookie recipe from
Pamela's Products. I wanted to use Sunbutter because I didn't want to use all of my butter (Earth Balance) on this one recipe and I wanted some extra health benefits for my family. The Sunbutter gives this recipe some great protein and it's something we don't go through very fast so I don't feel bad using much of it in one recipe. I also chose to use honey too because I'm trying to get away from refined sugar and I was also out of sugar. I added the colored sugar because it is something I had on hand for cake decoration, and I knew my daughter would love the different colored cookies, plus it's just fun to make things special for those that I love.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together Sunbutter and honey or sugar together. Add the egg and vanilla and baking mix. Beat until well combined. Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to drop the cookies onto parchment lined baking sheets. Space cookies 3 inches apart, because they will spread out a bit. Sprinkle colored sugar on to each cookie if you desire, cinnamon sugar would go great too*. Bake for 12-15 minutes, they are done when edges are golden. Move to cooling rack to cool. Makes 1 dozen.
*The original recipes said to use egg whites to make the sugar stick, but I found that it wasn't necessary with the Sunbutter, because it makes it sticky already.
