Grain-free, Gluten-free, + Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I’d like to think I’m a deliberate person. Not like how Joseph is deliberate–who does everything from cutting tomatoes & ironing his shirts with exactness–but deliberate in that I think ahead, I have a plan, I calculate.

Sometimes though, despite all the calculations, the pros & con lists, I just have a feeling I need to do something, say something, act without fully knowing all the answers. I call it intuition, Napolean Dynamite calls it “listening to your heart.” My intuition has streaks of spontaneity, which serves as a great foil to Joseph’s constancy. Yet, overall, my thoughts & actions are measured, intentional, or so I would like to think.

I like to wake up early in the morning. Really early. Like 4 or 5 in the morning.

I lay in bed for a few minutes, just listening to Joseph’s breathing, the whir of the fan. And I think. Sometimes my thoughts are nothing but to-do lists–today is soccer for Hyrum & Asher, & I need to go to the bank, also there’s story time at the library that I need to make sure to take Salem to & oh the library books, take those too.

Other times I think about more serious things–my relationship with each one of my kids–am I hugging Amalia enough? Am I reading with Asher enough? How is Hyrum doing with school? Am I talking with Salem enough? It’s a stream of “Am I ______ enough?”  The dialogue continues. What should we be doing more of, less of, as a family? I shouldn’t have yelled at the kids yesterday. I hate yelling.

Then I think about our debt, how we’re doing with sticking to the budget. I think about my parents, how they’re doing. Various friends & family. Then I get up & start my day.

Most days are rather insignificant. Get kids ready, morning family scripture study (it’s like a family pep rally, though a bit more subdued), breakfast, make lunches, walk kids to school & the day has begun. The routine of my life revolves around the rhythms of my kids & husband & requires my presence, my thoughtfulness.

The little details of daily life–the hugs, the snippets of conversation, the homemade meals–they add up to create something that I want. What I really, really want. Which is a life that is deliberate, carefully curated, with each day filled with the important stuff.

Because while there are many things I have yet to learn, I know good things take time, & patience, & actions executed with careful deliberate strokes.

These cookies are the grain-free version of last week’s wheat pumpkin cookies (obviously not gluten-free).

I played with spices a bit more & added a bit of molasses. That combined with the nutty flavor of the toasted quinoa flour, you get a rather hearty autumn-infused cookie.

I actually prefer the gluten-free version to my wheat version. Because of the variety of flours (particularly the blend of the toasted quinoa & chickpea flours), you have a multi-dimensional cookie, with textures & a subtle hint of the layers of flavor.

I made my own quinoa flour. My friend Wendy gave me a tip about making quinoa flour, which is to toast the quinoa beforehand. You can find her instructions, here.

I milled the flour in my Blendtec, which does an amazing job of grinding the flour–no sifting out chunks afterwards. I also made my chickpea flour in the Blendtec.

This recipe was submitted to Ricki Heller’s Wellness Weekend. Check it out for more healthy recipe ideas.