Almond Butter Thumbprints with Salted Caramel

My mom, my boyfriend, and I are really grateful to Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories for introducing us to these amazing cookies.  I know it's a bit hard to believe because this was a pretty big batch, but we ate them all between the three of us.  I was not interested in sharing with anyone else because they were too good.

Even though they're paleo cookies made with almond butter, they taste very similar to traditional peanut butter cookies, and the crumbly, buttery cookie and creamy salted caramel are an unbeatable team.

5 Essential Paleo Flavor-Boosters for a Delicious Whole30 (Day 3)

We got a lot of snow in Boston last night, and the temperatures are hovering right around zero.  I've been staying inside and cooking up a storm, mainly testing out recipes for my review of Cooking with Coconut Oil by Elizabeth Nyland of Guilty Kitchen, which will go up this weekend.  I've made two meals from the book so far and loved them both!  Since I don't have a brand new recipe to share today, I wanted to point you towards five paleo flavor boosters to make or buy and have on hand for an extra delicious Whole30 (if you've never heard of a Whole30, check out yesterday's post where I explain things briefly).  Even if you're not Whole30-ing this month, stocking your pantry with these delicious items enables you to indulge while still being healthy!

Also, guess what?  I found another blogger doing a Whole30!  Even though she's across the country in Austin, I'm still so happy not to be in this alone! Stop by Quarter Life Crisis Cuisine to say hi to Ashley and see what she's cooking.  She recently posted a Paleo taco casserole with sweet potatoes that looks amazing.

1.  Ghee--This stuff is amazing.  No wonder Indian food is always so delicious, since almost every recipe starts with ghee!  It's easy to make your own ghee at home.  It smells so good, and tastes even better.  Seriously, you might want to eat it with a spoon.  It's the only kind of dairy allowed on the Whole30, and I am so glad to have it.  Non Whole30ers, you should still make this!  It has a much higher smoke point than butter, so you can cook with it and not worry about it burning.  Also, the flavor is just superior to regular butter in every way.  Best of all, ghee is free of lactose and casein, so people with dairy intolerances are often able to enjoy it.

Learn how to make ghee with these step-by-step instructions from Nom Nom Paleo.  If you're looking for a Whole30-approved way to drink your coffee in the morning, you might want to try this Bulletproof Coffee from Stupid Easy Paleo that's made with ghee and coconut oil.  I also use my ghee to fry eggs and saute meat and vegetables.

Cherry Blondies & Homemade Almond Butter (Paleo, Gluten free)

These are so good!  Elana of Elana's Pantry is a total genius, because she figured out that almond butter, eggs, and honey will magically bake up into BLONDIES.  Yes!  Fudgy, delicious blondies.  When you read the recipe, you'll think there must be a mistake.  I am here to tell you there isn't!  Almonds prove themselves here once again as a miracle food.  I promise you will love these.  You don't even have to add cherries; you can just make them without for regular blondies.  And don't worry about the almond extract.  I was trying to play up the almond flavor a little, but it didn't really come through.  So you could leave it out, leave it in, or even try a full teaspoon if you want that little hint of marzipan flavor.

Cherry (Chocolate) Almond No-Churn Ice Cream

I am SO excited about this post.  This ice cream is ridiculously good, ridiculously healthy, and ridiculously simple, and I have made it three times since I invented it two days ago.  There are five ingredients, and you don't need an ice cream maker.  There are also NO sweeteners.  This is the stuff dreams are made of.  Well, my kind-of cheating whole30 dreams, at least.

Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

Have you ever seen quinoa flakes?  I got a package of them, fascinated not by the fact that you can eat quinoa for breakfast as a hot cereal, but by the fact that you can use it instead of oatmeal to make cookies.  There's a recipe right on the back of the bag!

I was looking for an excuse to make more cookies, and for a way to make them seem sort of healthy.  Chocolate chip quinoa cookies--done and done.

I'm bringing these to this week's link party at Shaken Together Life.  Check out all the other great things people are making!

Do you like to try back-of-the-bag recipes?  I usually find they're pretty good.  This particular one didn't call for chocolate, but I knew I needed chocolate chunks in my cookies.  I substituted almond butter for the peanut butter the recipe called for because I had some and I like it so much.

The cookies turned out great.  The almond butter gives them the great texture that peanut butter cookies always have, the quinoa adds a little crunch but is less obtrusive than oatmeal, and the honey and brown sugar combine to make a flavorful but not-too-sweet cookie.  To make these vegan, you could use margarine (the original recipe calls for it) and agave (you might need less than 1/4 cup).  To make them gluten free, use rice flour (also called for in the original recipe).

This dough is dangerously delicious (almost better than the baked cookies).  Try it without fear since it's egg-free.

Feel virtuous about all the nuts and grains in your chocolate chip cookies!

Ingredients (adapted from the back of the Ancient Harvest bag; makes two dozen):

1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips (or use more or less to taste)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the honey, brown sugar, almond butter, and vanilla.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, quinoa flakes, baking soda, and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl and mix until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto the parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes, until just golden on top but not burned on the bottom.  Let cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or so, then transfer carefully to a rack.  The cookies will seem very unstable, but firm up as they cool.