Super rich, fudgy, chocolatey, and not at all eggy paleo cupcakes with a secret ingredient. No one would know these divine cupcakes are secretly paleo! JUMP TO THE RECIPE. I first made this recipe as a cake with zucchini for my sister’s birthday, but we all agreed later that the zucchini flavor was a bit too strong and didn’t pair well with the peanut butter. In the end we switched in carrots instead of zucchini. None of us could taste them at all and no one would guess that these paleo ...
Gluten Free Recipes
Balsamic Molasses Marinated Skirt/Flap/Blade/Flank Steak
I would like to make a confession. I am an amateur. At what, you ask? Well, pretty much at everything, life included/especially. But I’m referring specifically to the fact that I’m an amateur when it comes to cooking meat. Confession #2: I have never, ever even cooked a steak until today. Which is sort of embarrassing, since I do live on a cattle ranch. My family produces beef. I remember one time we were at a friend’s house, and they were wanting to fry a steak. They ...
Apple Pizza
One lovely morning I got out of bed thinking all was right with the world. Until I went downstairs and found my sisters. Hungry sisters. “Linnaea,” they said, “We are hungry.” (Actually they said it in Pig Latin. I’m translating here). Merciful sister that I am: “Don’t worry, angels, I shall feed you.” (It didn’t sound quite so good in Pig Latin). “Oh, thank you, Linnaea, and in return, we will serve you forevermore.” “That’s not necessary, my darling sisters.” Okay, fine. ...
Taste Guru–A Review
A few weeks back I was contacted by the people at Taste Guru and asked if I was interested in testing their product and writing a review. Well, YEAH, I was interested. I mean, who doesn’t want to taste food, take pictures, and then write about it? So here I am, fingers poised over the keyboard, about a million pictures loaded onto my camera, full of information and not quite sure where to start. So I’ll just start by telling you what exactly Taste Guru is. It’s a lot like a magazine ...
Gluten Free and Can Be Paleo No Bake Cookies
These tasty gluten free, can-be-paleo no bake cookies are perfect for everything from parties to your afternoon chocolate fix. :) You can't succeed in life without a no bake cookie recipe. Okay, fine, that might be an exaggeration. But it is true that I was having some serious difficulties without a sugar free no bake cookie recipe. Well, actually, just serious difficulties without an easy sugar free dessert. Because sometimes even I get sick of drowning myself in ...
2-Serving Paleo Chocolate Mousse
Let me establish something right off the bat: This paleo chocolate mousse does not taste like straight up coconut cream. I get it, I get it. Coconut cream thickens nicely. Coconut cream tastes good with chocolate. Coconut cream is easy to turn into a mousse. But it's easy to get tired of coconut cream mousse. Sometimes you just want regular, honest, silky smooth chocolate mousse that doesn't even hint of coconut. Yes, I use coconut cream in this recipe, but, no, you can't ...
Berry Clafoutis
I stumbled upon this French custard dessert a while ago on Pinterest. Of course, I just had to do it my way and made it with chocolate rather than fruit. Then, while updating some of the recipes on my blog the other day I came upon the chocolate clafouti recipe and realized that I never did make a real gluten free fruit clafouti. I was also looking for something to make for breakfast the next morning (yes, even though it’s a dessert). So I decided to go for it. I’m not normally ...
Fruit Sauce
I originally used this fruit sauce on these lemon crepes, but have since then used it so many different ways that it deserves its own page. I updated the recipe, tweaked it a bit to perfect it, and now here it is. Blueberry Sauce Print Prep time 5 mins Total time 5 mins Fresh, flavorful fruit sauce for anything from pancakes to cheesecake. Author: Linnaea Recipe type: Sauce Serves: 1½ cups sauce Ingredients 1 cup frozen or fresh strawberries, ...
4 Years of Gingerbread Houses
I've made it a tradition for the past few years to make a gluten free gingerbread house with my sisters every Christmas. I figured today (by the way, happy new years everbody!) I'd share four years of gingerberead houses (and improving photography skills let's hope). First off, here’s the recipe. Make one of your own. If you can't wait until next year, try it for valentine's day. So, 2011: I think that year someone gave us a huge bag of m&ms (normally we don't have much candy in ...
Butternut “Pumpkin” Pie
CLICK HERE for an updated version of this post! I took it into my head that this year I wanted to make a pumpkin pie without any of that toxic white sugar. Of course, I haven't completely given up on white sugar. Yesterday's fudge post should be proof of that. But either way, this pumpkin pie is sugar free. I also ran out of canned pumpkin and didn't realize it until I had started the pie. I could've backed out even then, but you see, I'd already decided to make pumpkin ...
Fudge
The perfect thanksgiving or christmas dessert (we also put this fudge in christmas baskets to give to friends, which when you think about it is a bit mean because we're basically poisoning them with sugar)! Anyway, this recipe is super easy, super sweet, and everything fudge ought to be. And what is this time of year for besides eating all the unhealthy, really delicious food you possibly can? Fudge Print Prep time 15 mins Total time 15 mins ...
Gluten Free Gingerbread Muffins
These amazingly soft gluten free gingerbread muffins have just the right of molasses and spice. Perfect for cold winter mornings...or all year round! With winter in the air, I’ve suddenly wanted spicy, wintery foods. Like these gluten free gingerbread muffins. Or pumpkin pie (recipe soon). Or Or maybe some insanely good cinnamon rolls. I guess it’s just this idea of what winter is supposed to be. Am I the only one picturing blankets, those weird-looking slippers, a mug of hot ...
Gluten Free Poppy Seed Muffins
You can never have too many muffin recipes...and this gluten free poppy seed muffin recipe definitely adds to the collection! On this blog I already have Cinnamon Nut Muffins, Coconut Pecan Carrot Cake Muffins, Lemon Blueberry Muffins, Yeast Muffins, Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, Paleo Banana Muffins, and Pumpkin Muffins. So now here you have some delightful little gluten free poppy seed muffins. Cook them up some cold Saturday morning. Enjoy. Vanilla Poppyseed Muffins ...
Gluten Free Apple Cobbler
You've gotta have gluten free apple cobbler. It's just one of those necessities of life. Like chocolate or books. Books. I've been on a book marathon lately. Except not really a marathon. It's just that sometimes I'm hungry for food and other times I have a voracious appetite for books. Sometimes both. I think I read three books yesterday. And after that I read a bunch of short children's stories. Yes, I still read children's books. No, I'm not ashamed. And anyway, ...
Lemon Blueberry Muffins
I needed a perfectly amazing blueberry muffin. You see, when you hear the words "Blueberry Muffin" there is a very definite idea of what that should be. It should be light and mildly sweet, and plain enough that the blueberries are in the spotlight, but not so plain that they are flavorless. The barely perceptible strain of lemon flavor in these muffins adds that tiny bit of extra flavor, but the blueberries are very much the spotlight. I've made a lot of blueberry muffins ...
Gluten Free Coconut Cake (dairy free and refined sugar free options)
This gluten free coconut cake is everything you know a coconut cake should be: it's light, soft, sweet, full of coconut flavor, and has a nice tender crumb! Sometimes I feel like writing and sometimes I don't. Today I don't. So I probably shouldn't, because I'll end up writing something really weird about aliens or extinct mammoths, and then I'll come back here later and look at it and wonder how I even started thinking about extinct mammoths. So instead, I'm going to ...
Yam Salad
Okay, I just need to let you know before we get started: This could very well be a sweet potato salad instead of a yam salad. My sisters and I have been arguing about yams vs. sweet potatoes for a long time now. I looked it up on the internet but there were varying definitions, so I’m still not completely certain which is which. It’s a sad world when you don’t know the difference between a yam and a sweet potato. I’m of the opinion that yams are orange and sweet potatoes are ...
Chuck Roasts
My family once had this weird discussion starting with “If you had been starving for two weeks on a desert island, and you were finally rescued, what would you most want to eat?” Nobody really said much about sweet desserts or chocolate. Most of the responses included “good thick bread with butter” and “very creamy mashed potatoes.” All responses included some kind of meat. I mean, we grow beef for a living. Of course we’re going to eat it. A high number of the responses included a ...
Flourless Fudge Brownies
I feel so disloyal. You see, I have another brownie recipe. A good brownie recipe. A brownie recipe that I’ve sworn by for at least seven years. A brownie recipe that has never once disappointed. But we were out of flour yesterday. We needed a dessert. (Yes, you heard me. We needed a dessert. This is a basic human right that we’re talking about here). So I had to make dessert. It had to be quick and it had to be flourless. The result? Flourless fudge brownies. I ...
Paleo Pancakes Without Bananas
I figured that if I’m going to have some paleo recipes on this blog, I should have a pancake recipe....a recipe for paleo pancakes without bananas. Something I’ve noticed about paleo people: They must all love having bananas in their pancakes, because pretty much ever recipe I've seen contains bananas. I hate to disappoint them. But there are paleo pancakes without bananas. So in other words, you won't take a bite of these pancakes and get your mouth filled with ...
Gluten Free Dutch Baby Pancake
A Dutch Baby, as near as I can figure, is a baked pancake that puffs up and turns a delicious golden brown. It sounded good to me. I had to experiment a few times. The first one didn’t puff quite like it should’ve, the second one was too eggy. But this one was good. So enjoy. This recipe makes one 10 inch gluten free dutch baby pancake. Cover it with maple syrup, cinnamon, butter, and a dash of cloves. (And, yes, you'll notice that I changed my recipe format--Hopefully ...
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten-free flours have less “hold” than gluten flours. Obviously. I’ve found that this is a problem in cookie and pie making because all of the butter in the mix just melts all over the place because there’s nothing to hold it together. With my pie crust, I finally got the perfect recipe with cream cheese. Cream cheese is firmer and doesn’t melt as much, so that way I was able to keep the crust firm without compromising that sweet buttery flavor. I was having the same “melt” ...
Lemon Cake
Yes, yes, I know it’s been a while since the last recipe. But you know that cold that has been sweeping across the entire world? Yep. I’ve had this lemon cake recipe ready for a while, but haven’t gotten around to posting it. Until now, of course. For some reason I’ve developed a fondness for lemons. Maybe it’s just the idea behind a lemon—sweet but sour, tangy and romantic—or maybe it’s that I read a book about lemons. Now you’re weirded out. Who reads books about ...
Gluten Free Breakfast Casserole
I actually made this gluten free breakfast casserole last week, but haven’t gotten around to posting it until now. I’ve been experimenting a lot lately with different breakfast recipes, and I even considered the hated quiche (hated by me, anyway. You probably love it and I’m really sorry for offending you just now). This is sort of an adaption of quiche, made with potatoes, meat, spinach, and cheese to break up the “egginess” of it all. Of course, you can make it as quiche, but who would ...
Lemon Vanilla Crepes
I really should stop going on pinterest. A few days ago some beautiful lemon vanilla crepes flashed before my eyes, and suddenly I remembered that I hadn’t made crepes for a long time. But these ones were gluten-stuffed. And sugar stuffed. And they were too hard to make. And you had to let the dough refrigerate for a whole hour, or (gasp!) overnight. I don’t usually plan ahead the night before, and I especially will not get out of bed an hour earlier. Will not. So I made my ...
Gluten Free Strawberry Crisp
My Mom recently bought a whole bunch of strawberries for a really good price. We enjoyed them very much, but even a family as big as ours failed to eat that many strawberries in just a few days. My sisters and I polished off the last few (anything that wasn’t completely rotten we managed to use) in this easy and delicious gluten free strawberry crisp. I made the topping oat free, so if you don’t eat oats there’s not a problem. If you do eat oats and you’d prefer an oat crisp, use the ...
Chocolate Birthday Cake Frosting & Decorating
For my little sister’s 11th birthday this week, I made a two layer chocolate cake with my new favorite icing (BUTTERCREAM)! The results were delicious and now my entire family is on sugar withdrawal. Earlier today, hoping to tempt my little sisters to go to town with us, I told them that we would buy them ice cream and everything (an impressive bribe, considering that they hardly ever get to buy ice cream). My youngest sister piped up: “No, I don’t want ice cream; I’ve had too much sugar ...
No Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bars
I’m not a big date lover. For some reason dates remind me of dried figs and dried figs remind me of what my Dad used to tell us: Figs are filled with small, disgusting worms that crawl around inside your throat after you’ve eaten them. I apologize for telling you that. You’ll probably never eat figs again either. But all the same, dates aren’t figs. They might remind you of figs, but they aren’t filled with disgusting worms like figs are. And even though I don’t like them plain, they are ...
Paleo Carrot Cake
Lately I’ve been experimenting a little more in the world of paleo. It’s a strange world, full of aliens like coconut flour and chia seeds (still not real sure about the chia seeds but everyone else loves them so that’s terrific for them). I’m not even going to say that half (or a third) of my paleo baking attempts are exactly successful, but I can say that this one is. So, here you have it. Paleo Carrot Cake with some Coconut Spice Frosting. Dig in. Ingredients ¼ ...
Chocolate Smoothie
You didn’t think I’d dare to go and post a recipe for cold chocolate smoothie when it's still freezing at night out here. But I dared. Mostly just to be mean. Hopefully you’ll make this smoothie, and, realizing how good it is, you’ll drink it all before you realize how cold it is. And then you’ll sit there shivering in a blanket. The best thing I can recommend is that you buy one of those blankets with sleeves that everyone has been raving about lately. Those things aren’t exactly beautiful ...
A Week of Eating Gluten Free
So recently I’ve had a bunch of people asking me what we eat for meals. I didn’t really think about it before, since usually breads and pancakes and desserts are what people miss, but really it is hard to make good, healthy gluten-free main dishes. Cooking used to be so much easier, right? On nights you didn’t feel like it, you could just make some mac and cheese or hamburgers or go out to dinner. Now you can’t do that anymore. So anyway, last Wednesday I decided to take a week to track ...
Breakfast Pizza
I’m really excited to give you this new recipe for gluten free breakfast pizza.. I’d thought that I had exhausted the breakfast possibilities, but really breakfast can be much more interesting than just eggs and pancakes. You can have pizza for breakfast. Honestly, what could be better? I was delighted with the flavor of this pizza. I’m usually not big on cooked eggs (I hate keesh), but the spinach, yeasty dough, and cheese toned the eggs down and made them delicious. The ...
Stuffed Apples
It's a blizzard outside. That may have been a slight exaggeration. But it’s cold and windy and there’s snow blowing everywhere. Our big white Great Pyrenees may be impervious, but the rest of us would rather stay inside, thank you. On a day like this, you need something warm stuffed with cinnamon and little juicy bites of apple. You need this. You need it with a flood of cream on top. Uh-huh. Stuffed Apples: Butter a small pan. I used a glass pie ...
Paleo & Nut Free Vanilla Cupcakes
I made these with very low expectations. Shocking, right? I expected it to fail before I even tried. But pretty much everything paleo that I’ve made (except for the few paleo recipes on this blog) has not turned out very well. There just isn’t much to work with. If you asked me what is in these cupcakes, the honest answer would be “nothing.” Because I myself have absolutely no clue how these cupcakes even existed. The only proof I’ve got is one solitary, lonely little ...
Chewy Granola Bars
I’ve made so many batches of non paleo, somewhat paleo, and completely paleo granola bars that I'm surprised anyone dared to eat these at all. It isn’t that the former batches were bad. They just…weren’t…good. They had all the granola bar flavor, but none of the “stick-together-ness.” Actually, never mind. I was intending to make breakfast granola every single one of those times. Not granola bars. Crumbly breakfast granola. That’s it. Even though I did perhaps mistakenly call it ...
Four Layer Cheesecake
Yesterday was my youngest sister’s birthday. Last year, my second-to-youngest sister ordered a two-layer cheesecake for her birthday, which at the time was quite the request. Not to be beaten, this year my youngest sister asked for a four layer cheesecake. I confess that I’m afraid of what will happen next year. This cheesecake was quite an effort because I had to make it in two batches since I only had two pans. So if you wish to attempt it, please have four pans. Believe me, your ...
6 Great Chocolate Recipes for Valentine’s Day
Hey! I've assembled this quick list of chocolate recipes for valentine's day. These six recipes, out of all the chocolate recipes on the blog (there are a lot of them) are probably my favorites: Chocolate Recipes for Valentine's Day 1. Chocolate Caramel Lava Cakes These things are smooth and rich. Best of all is breaking through the surface and discovering that runny chocolate center. 2. Basic Brownies This is pretty much the easiest recipe ever. Only five ingredients to ...
Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting
Yes, I confess. This is a recipe for chocolate cake. It would be rude of you to mention that I already have several chocolate cake recipes on the blog (I think five, but even I have lost count). Will you stop giving me that look? THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CHOCOLATE CAKE. I’m not going to say that this one is the best chocolate cake recipe on here, because that would probably result in some hurt feelings (I’m talking about the other cakes here. They’re oversensitive ...
Gluten Free Fried Doughnuts
I should have called these “Gluten Free Fried Doughnuts that Aren’t Gross,” because that kind of sums it up. I’ve made a lot of gross gluten free fried doughnuts. These are different. Last week I had no yeast, so I tried doughnuts with baking powder. Can I say POINTLESS? If I’m gonna fry the suckers, they might as well be the real deal. I’ve heard about baking doughnuts. I have, really. They look perfectly good baked. But the whole IDEA of a doughnut is to fry it. In oil. Then ...
Single Serving Apple Pie
This might not be qualified as an actual “post” since in reality it is only a quick how-to. Really it’s just me showing off my adaption of the recipe into single serving pies. The reason you only see one pie in the pictures is that we ate all the rest of them the night before I took pictures. I try to avoid taking pictures at night AT ALL COSTS. The light is horrible. It would turn my mediocre pictures into awful ones. And the YELLOWNESS of the resulting images. Bleh. Another thing: I ran ...