I can assure you, this is not a Paleo cookie. It is not even a Primal cookie. It is a special occasion cookie --a wonderful treat to serve at a gluten free Super Bowl party. It also makes a great holiday cookie (think gluten free Valentine's Day dessert). Lately, everyone who has been over to our house --gluten free or not --has been gorging themselves on these Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Whatever your thoughts about the healthfulness (or lack thereof) of this treat, when you're going to have a big dessert such as this, it's great to slow down all of the sugar with some high protein almond flour, which this chocolate chip cookie contains.

All in all, these cookies are a super easy homemade treat that will wow your friends. And family. My husband liked 'em so much that he asked me to bake up a batch for a business associate of his. Now that's one mighty big metaphoric seal of approval.

If you are looking for healthy gluten free cookies, leave the white and milk chocolate chips out of this recipe. The result?  A double dark chocolate chip cookie, made from high protein almond flour and anti-oxidant rich dark chocolate. Or try my gluten free Chocolate Chip Cookies if you're not in the mood to tinker with this recipe.

I made (and nibbled on) these cookies during the holidays last month on Colorado's "Everyday" Show (straying from my regular Paleo fare). This clip was broadcast on our local channel FOX 31 (KDVR) in Denver. You can watch the video below:

I think this may be the most decadent dessert that I make. What is your most indulgent treat?

I really enjoy using almond flour --almonds are a superfood and highly nutritious. However, every now and then, someone requests a nut free dessert recipe for some type of gluten free baked good. At other times, folks are looking for an egg free recipe.

There are as many allergies out there as there are colors in the rainbow. This brownie recipe is for all the nut free, egg free, refined sugar free, gluten free, primal vegans in my life. You keep me on my toes! And I love it.

This recipe uses sunflower seed butter, which is actually similar to a nut butter (though nut free). Sunflower seed butter is gluten free, high protein and made from highly nutritious sunflower seeds --you didn't think I was going to use rice flour, did you?! I'm still as grain free as I've ever been since I gave up grains 11 years ago. All of the recipes on this website are gluten and grain free recipes.

These brownies are based on a gluten free brownie recipe that Amy Jelley posted on my facebook page a couple of weeks ago. Thanks Amy! Her recipe used a ½ cup of honey which is a little much for where my blood sugar is at these days; so I decreased the amount of honey and added in some xylitol and stevia. I also increased the fat and made a couple of other minor changes to the recipe along the way.

This is a very fudgey brownie --it won't seem totally cooked through when you pull it from the oven. I took mine out when the edges were just about to burn, that was how I determined it was done.

Now, a word of caution. Do not feed this dessert to your pets. Chocolate and xylitol are highly toxic to animals. Have any of you been feeding my other desserts to your pets? If so, why are you doing this? Please leave a comment and let us know!

Healthy yet tasty gingersnaps are a deliciously addictive traditional holiday cookie. My gluten free, grain free version contain a good dose of anti-inflammatory ginger. I'm passionate about creating desserts that please the palate and contain super foods as well --a win-win situation for myself, my family and my readers.

These cookies are one of those rare vegan, yet primal friendly treats. These nutritious cookies are the perfect primal friendly treat. I won't call them Paleo as I believe many peeps will take the opportunity to point out that this is not a perfectly Paleo cookie recipe --pretty close though.

My children and I have been baking quite a lot of gluten free, grain free cookies lately. I find this ginger cookie recipe especially easy to make and so do the boys. That's why I will be preparing these cookies live on Colorado's "Everyday" Show. The program will broadcast on our local FOX affiliate KDVR, tomorrow, Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 at 10:45am (MST).

I went on Twitter last night asking folks a few questions about the holidays. You see, I'm Jewish and was having trouble deciding which cookies are appropriate for Christmas. The verdict was that my Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies are indeed a Christmas treat. I want to thank everyone who responded to my religious-culinary inquiry.

In the next couple of weeks I'll be tweeting a lot about what I'm making for the holidays this year --feel free to join the conversation.

Update: here's the video for aforementioned above!

Because I've been getting quite a lot of requests lately for healthy dessert recipes and because I had a pound of organic prunes that needed to be used up, I decided I would develop a gluten free prune cake recipe.

After a string of successful and not so successful prune cake experiments, I had a different, yet satisfactory result: Chocolate Prune Bars.  All in all these are basically fudgey prune brownies.  Whatever they're called, I like 'em.

In fact, as I drove home from a lunch in Denver this afternoon, I was thinking about eating one of these little Paleo/primal friendly treats.  Prunes or no prunes, a chocolate dessert recipe is a chocolate dessert recipe, and when it's an easy dessert recipe that tastes good too?  Well there's nothing better than that!  I walked in the door grabbed a chocolate prune bar and it was as good as I had recalled.

So here I am sharing it with you all. And don't be afraid of prunes, they're just another dried fruit, and are actually the dried version of European plums.

If you want to make this dessert into a chocolate prune cake, bake it up in a 9-inch cake pan, which should work just fine.  I tried this in one of my test batches, though can't recall how long I baked it for so if you do so please leave a comment for all of us with your baking time.

Now, a brief commentary on the ingredients in this recipe.  You will notice that rather than agave, I have chosen coconut sugar as the sweetener for this recipe (if you do want to make it with agave, feel free, however I'm not sure how much it would need, or if it would actually work as I haven't tried it myself).  I also used coconut oil (of which I am a huge fan) rather than my staple grapeseed oil (feel free to experiment with your oil of choice).

Finally, a little bit about prunes, or "dried plums" as they are often now referred to.  Prunes are a very tasty and healthy food, full of unique phytonutrient antioxidants, potassium and soluble fiber.  So don't be shy, grab yourself some prunes, or try to hide them in this deliciously chocolatey dessert and fool your children, big and small.

More healthy recipes with prunes:
-Chocolate Prune Truffles
-Fruit Pudding
-Roasted Chicken with Olives and Prunes

What are your feelings when it comes to prunes?  Like? Dislike? Or don't care?  Leave a comment below with your prune history.

These peanut butter cookies are gluten free, grain free and vegan to boot.  I based them on Heidi's Peanut Butter Cookie recipe over at 101 Cookbooks, one of my favorite websites.  Though I did cut the amount of sweetener in half and make a couple of other changes.

I have been on a bit of a peanut butter kick lately.  I didn't eat peanut butter for a long time.  I just didn't feel great when I ate it, however, I'm feeling a lot stronger these days, so peanut butter is back.  Last week I posted a recipe for Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies and next week I will be posting my Peanut Butter Protein Shake recipe.

Some people don't ever eat peanut butter; my friend Kelly, over at The Spunky Coconut uses sunflower butter in its place.  I find that peanut butter and sunflower butter taste quite alike, so I think it might be worth your while to try out this substitution.  I haven't though, so I'm not sure if it will work in this recipe --please let me know if it does.

Here are some more yummy vegan recipes for bars and cookies you might like:
-Chewy Magic "Peanut Butter Middle" Cookies from Alexa of Lexie's Test Kitchen
-Chocolate Raspberry Cookie Bars from Kelly of The Spunky Coconut
-Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Alisa of Alisa Cooks

Last night I had a hunkering for gluten free peanut butter cookies. I went over to Elise's site, Simply Recipes, and found a yummy looking recipe for gluten-filled Peanut Butter Cookies. I experimented a bit, made a couple of changes to her recipe and came up with a nice gluten free cookie dough. I then decided that it might be fun to make a gluten free peanut butter and jelly cookie.

So here you have it, high protein, gluten free peanut butter and jelly cookies, the product of my insomnia and late night experimentation. When I pulled these out of the oven, I was thinking about breakfast the next morning. What else is there to think about than the next meal? And I thought to myself, these cookies are healthy enough for a quick, on the go bite, maybe even breakfast. They have a good amount of protein and fiber (from the almond flour and peanut butter) and still a bit more protein from the egg.

That all turned out to be in theory, though, because this morning I had a peanut butter protein shake.

Yes, I am on a peanut butter kick, as you can see. If you do not want to use peanut butter, you could try experimenting with sunbutter or creamy roasted almond butter. In terms of finding a replacement for the egg in this recipe, I'm not sure what would work. If you have a good solution, please leave a comment below.

Generally, I use Fiori di Fruta jams, however, my boys have been on a sugar kick lately and so in this recipe I used Cascadian Farms jam which is organic and sweetened with sugar rather than juice.

More gluten free flourless cookie recipes from other food bloggers:
-Flourless Almond Butter Cookies from Alta of Tasty Eats At Home
-Flourless Oatmeal Cookies by Shirley of Gluten Free Easily
-Flourless Nut Butter Cookies by Kimi of The Nourishing Gourmet

Apricot Power Bars are a great grab and go breakfast or the perfect pick me up on the way home from the gym.  Kid-friendly (with white chocolate) and Paleo-friendly (with dark chocolate, or no chocolate at all) I've made these gluten free bars each and every way.

I used white chocolate chips from my local Whole Foods when I made these for the boys.  The chips come in a little unmarked plastic tub --sorry I don't have more info on that.  If you'd like to find out more you can try calling the Whole Foods in my neighborhood (it's actually called Ideal Market and is the smallest Whole Foods in the country) at 303-443-1354.

I love apricots because they are just a bit lower on the glycemic index than other dried fruits.  Further, they're high in vitamin A, vitamin C, tryptophan and full of good fiber.

If you're looking for more ways to get your daily dose of apricots and gluten free cake is your thing, try my magically moist Cherry Apricot Cake recipe. Or, if candy is what you've got a hunkering for, check out these Cranberry Apricot Truffles (one of my all time favorite gluten free recipes).

Here are some more gluten free treats made with apricots that you might like:
-Apricot jam with noyaux, spices and bourbon by Sean of Hedonia
-Simple Roasted Apricots with Honey Mascarpone by Joy of Joy The Baker
-Thumbjams by Dan of Renegade Kitchen

I'm absolutely thrilled that Lillian of Lillian's Test Kitchen, made this video of my Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies.  Lillian, a professional actress and the best vlogger I know, creates videos of her favorite gluten free recipes --what could be better for those on a gluten free diet?

In this video Lillian demonstrates in her own inimitable, wacky way, how to make gluten free cookies from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook. For more great video recipes make sure to head over to Lillian's site. In addition to being a professional actress, she is a lovely person all around.

I hope you enjoy this little bit of entertainment guest starring my gluten free recipe in Lillian's Test Kitchen.

By the way, the cookie section of The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook just might be my favorite.  The recipes are not only super quick and easy (with very few ingredients) they are for the most part, vegan, and all are very high in protein, while lower in sugar and low on the glycemic index, with a low glycemic load.

Of course there are other fun parts of this gluten free cookbook such as the entree section, which features my husband's all time favorite recipe for gluten free Eggplant Parmesan, as well as other healthy high protein gluten free recipes.

Meantime, enjoy Lillian.  She's a blast on camera, and the same in real life --if you're lucky enough to meet her, that is!

The winner of yesterdays giveaway for a copy of Amy Green's cookbook Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free: 180 Easy and Delicious Recipes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less is Ary!

I was working my way through the Cook's Illustrated website the other night and came across an amazing recipe for Triple Chocolate Espresso Brownies.  As soon as I laid eyes on that recipe I knew I had to create a high protein, gluten free version.  While my husband enjoys all of my gluten free chocolate recipes, this is his fave.  He even left a special love note on the fridge for me late last night after sampling them.

Of course this is also a dairy free recipe for those of you who are learning how to cook without dairy; and has no agave in it for those avoiding agave.  If you wish to try out other permutations to accommodate your individual needs, feel free to do so; just be sure to leave a comment and let us know if your substitutions worked!

The winner of last weeks giveaway for a copy of the book Go Dairy Free by Alisa Fleming is Holly!

Here are some more gluten free brownie recipes from other food bloggers:
-Hazelnut Brownies from Lexie of Lexie's Kitchen
-Gluten-Free Coffee Cranberry Pistachio Brownies from Melissa of Gluten Free For Good
-Rockbrook Espresso Brownies from Lori of Gluten Free Best Friends Forever!

These gluten free Chocolate Almond Joy Bars were inspired by Carrie of GingerLemonGirl.com who wrote a recipe for Almond Joy Impossible Pie.  Who doesn't like the combination of chocolate, almonds and coconut in the form of a high protein, gluten free treat?

I don't generally discuss nutrition because I assume most people who find this site know that that my recipes are different than most other gluten free offerings.  Ingredients such as almond flour and coconut flour do not compare to other gluten free flours (even those that are whole grain).  Almonds are a superfood, high in protein, fiber and good fat.  Coconut flour is wonderful as well, given its incredibly high fiber content.  When crunching nutritional numbers in my spreadsheets, gluten free flours such as brown rice, tapioca, sorghum, cornmeal, and ingredients such as potato starch don't compare to almond and coconut flour.

Personally, I love using almond flour for gluten free desserts like cookies because while my children think they're getting sweets, I know that I'm sneaking some high protein grub into them.  It's also nice to know that with all the good protein in my desserts that the boys won't get cranky from a sudden drop in blood sugar (that's what all that good fat and protein does, it stabilizes blood sugar levels).

I like to eat these gluten free bars for breakfast if I'm in a hurry and need some "grab and go" goodness.  In addition to the nutritious almond and coconut flours, they contain protein from eggs and another dose of good fat from coconut milk.  Of course they're lightly sweetened and dairy free as well.  Whenever I eat these before heading over to the gym, I have a great workout, especially important when I'm training with a Marine --but that's a story for another day.

Here are some yummy nutritious desserts from other food bloggers that you might enjoy:
-Chocolate, Cardamom and Coconut Power Bars from Naomi of Milk for the Morning Cake
-Chocolate Raspberry Cookie Bars from Kelly of The Spunky Coconut
-Double Chocolate Clementine Vita-Mix Cake and Cupcake from Diane of The WHOLE Gang