I am never excited saying ‘gluten free’. It sounds so pedestrian, so sterile, so unhomecookedfoodery. Maybe it’s music to someone’s ears. Not mine, though. However there are many many things I cook that just happen to be gluten free–the phrase certainly doesn’t mean untasty. I think you have to stick with what works though. Brown rice tortillas? Bleck! Gluten-free oatmeal and sunflower seed butter cookies? Yes, please!

My husband is almost gluten free, almost. He’s kind of a no-wheat vegetarian. Makes things slightly tricky. But we love rice, yes we do, and farro and quinoa and oatmeal.

So there I am at 7:30 on a weekday morning, making my son oatmeal when I start reading the back of the Trader Joes oatmeal bag and huh, I never noticed before, but there is a recipe there for gluten-free oatmeal cookies.
‘Not even a little flour?’ I scoff to myself.
‘I’ve never made oatmeal cookies without flour before. Won’t they fall apart?’ I say to myself.
‘One cup of peanut butter,’ I read on.
‘Hmmm. That’s unusual. I don’t have peanut butter but I do have sunflower seed butter. (Which my kids think is gross.) But maybe maybe maybe if I add in chocolate chips they would eat these.’

So I made them. And they were good. Quite delicious. Except for the sugar and the chocolate chips (optional), they struck me as being kind-of-pretty-much healthy. Husband, kids, grandma and grandpa all approved. One child ate four. Well done Trader Joes!