A rave and a recipe

We recently had an unexpected windfall in the form of an Amazon.com gift card, so we decided to use the majority of it on gluten-free fare. We got some bread mixes which we had tried before and liked and we also got a three-pack of Pamela's Baking Mix. I had never tried the baking mix and was a little leery because getting it on Amazon meant buying a bulk package of three. It's amazing. Really really good. It's somewhat like bisquick. It's a combo of GF flours, buttermilk powder, almond meal, baking soda and baking powder. Unlike bisquick it does not contain shortening or oil. There are recipes on the package for pancakes, waffles, muffins, banana bread, cookies, corn bread, etc, but you can also sub it into your own recipes with very little tweaking. I made the Baker's One Bowl Brownies and subbed the mix in for the flour. They rose a little on the sides but aside from that (ha!) they were excellent. I've made waffles twice with them and they are hands down the best GF waffles we've had. I also made the banana bread recipe and you can't even tell that it's GF. Great flavor, great texture.

And, here is another really easy really fast GF cookie recipe that uses (mostly) NORMAL ingredients!!! (Note: I use chocolate crisp rice cereal with these because I can find a "normal" brand in the "regular" cereal isle that doesn't contain malt. Malt is made from barley and barley has gluten.)

GF Peanut butter-Chocolate Rice Krispie Bars (adapted from Cooking Light)
2 T butter or margarine
1/4 Cup or so peanut butter (I don't measure)
1/2 a bag of mini marshmallows (so, about 6 oz)
3 cups GF chocolate crispy rice cereal: I *think* cocoa pebbles is the one that is GF (as opposed to cocoa krispies) but read the label for yourself. Malt = gluten. Tonight I used a dedicated GF cereal because that's what we had.)

*Melt the butter and peanut butter together in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds or so. Add the marshmallows and continue to melt and stir until everything has melted into a nice gooey mess. Add the cereal, stir, and dump into an 8 or 9 inch square pan that has been coated with cooking spray. Press down, cool and eat. You can also double this recipe for a 9 by 13 pan.