Clean Eating Meets Gluten Free

Before my family panics, no we are not going gluten free (yet)! Ha ha!  I had a work meeting on Friday and I volunteered to bring a sweet treat.  You may be noticing a trend here, I'm pretty much obsessed with sweet treats! One of the members of my team is gluten-free, so this sweet treat needed to be gluten-free so she could enjoy it as well.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.  A gluten-free diet helps to treat celiac disease and others have found it helpful in treating other digestive issues, such as IBS.  It has become a trendy diet and I have friends who have gone gluten-free because they just think it is a healthy way to eat.  I am currently in the camp that believes we do not need to be gluten free unless there is a medical reason to do so and no one in my little family is really dealing with digestive issues, so we plan to keep gluten in our lives at this point.

My mission: create a clean and gluten free sweet treat that also tastes phenomenal!I gladly accepted and set out on a Pinterest journey to find one that looked super yummy, but also did not have a million ingredients and would be easy to whip up.  I found this recipe for Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars from littleleopardbook.com.  It looked relatively easy and I could easily clean up the ingredients.  I used organic peanut butter, Enjoy Life chocolate chips mentioned in a previous post, sucanat for the white sugar, and organic brown sugar instead of regular (organic brown sugar is not completely clean, but it is better than non-organic and falls into my 20% for the week).

This recipe was very easy to make, however, an "arctic blast" was brewing outside (people have to laugh at us Texans when we consider 40 degree weather with no sleet or snow an "arctic blast") and Livi was having a hard time staying asleep. To minimize noise when she finally fell asleep I ended up having to make this in our study because it required use of a mixer.

Yes, that is a mixing bowl on my desk! The things we do when we have kids!

I took these to work the next day and they were a huge hit! Everyone loved them and couldn't believe they were clean and gluten free. I was able to sneak a bar home to Nick and Livi and they agreed as well. They are rich, chocolaty, and devine!

I have some leftover gluten-free flour so I may experiment with some more gluten-free recipes. Stay tuned!

Have a clean weekend and Sic 'Em Bears!!