Hello, Gluten Free bakery friends!

Well, greetings, my friends. It's almost 10p.m., so I must make this quick, or at least just a start..I can always add more later, right?

I shall tell you how I thought of this, and my inspirations and aspirations for the future.

The beginning of 2012 brought on a big goal for me: Lose the 50lbs of baby weight that I was still carrying from giving birth in July of 2011. I had heard from Dr. Joel Fuhrlman that food sensitivity was one of thie biggest causes of weight and mood related issues, so I turned to my diet and examined what could be removed.

In many of my other blogs about food, diet and nutrition, I have mentioned hat there are 8 main allergens, and they are: Soy, Corn, Eggs, Wheat, Dairy, Shellfish, Tree nuts, and peanuts.

I have successfully cut out Soy, Corn, Egg, Wheat, Peanuts and Dairy. I am a vegan (most of the time), so shellfish is not an issue. I am in love with all types of nuts: cashews, almonds, walnuts, pecans...etc. so I am not there yet with those, but as long as I am strong about keeping the other things out of my diet, then a little inflammation, here and there, from the tree nuts seems to do me just fine. Plus, being vegan, it's hard to cut out nuts, because that is where I get a lot of my protein from. To combat any inflammation, I arm myself with 10 grams daily of vitamin C. The results: I've lost 30lbs in 6 months, merely from diet and moderate exercise.

The dilemma I was facing, though, was the sweet tooth that would crop up from time to time. Not to mention my love affair with bread! To remedy this, I began buying store bought GF (gluten free) items, but many of them still contain egg, so that was a no go. I had to find a way to make tasty treats, at home, for less money that I could pay for at the store. WELL, FOLKS, I'VE DONE IT!!!

Here is where my obsession with gluten free baking comes in. I should really say vegan baking, because I don't use egg or dairy, either, but people get scared when they see the word vegan, like it's the plague or something. Those of you who are vegan, congrats--and thanks for having my back.

Today was the second day that I have gone to Uptown Cafe, and I decided to try a menu item. I chose to have a salad, but was dismayed that there were no options without meat. Then I looked to the sandwiches and saw a gluten free bread option, so my interest was peaked. The manager, who was standing right there, also told me she had GF pizza dough, so I decided to try one. Without the cheese, of course. It was good, but I could tell it was packaged. She told me she used Udi's for the bread, but I don't know where the dough came from for the pizza.

After sitting back down, I was inclined to find out if she had any other GF items, and sadly she said no. Long story short, I told her that I had submitted an AP, and that I was interested in bringing in samples of my GF baked goods, to see if she would be interested in selling them. She said YES, so I am now on a mission to make the top ten best GF (vegan) cookies to *HOPEFULLY* be sold there. Wouldn't that ROCK?!?!?!?! Yes, it would.

So, here is my list so far:

oatmeal raisin with and with out walnuts
oatmeal chocolate chip
banana, walnut, chocolate chip
ginger lemon
chocolate chip, oatmeal, date
pumpkin spice with pumpkin seeds
dark chocolate coffee almond
double chocolate mint with coconut
sesame, cashew and honey
cashew/almond butter

If you have any suggestions, or additions, or just general comments, PLEASE leave them. I never get comments :(

Okay, well I will post the recipes/pics/progress as it happens. WISH ME LUCK.

...Amelia...