Men, women and children from all of the country are making the switch to gluten-free eating. Some of them are diagnosed with celiac disease; some have issues with ADD etc. At first glance this may mean no more pizza, bread, pasta and even cookies. We’ve come a long way since the early days of living gluten free. There are now hundreds of delicious products and thousands of gluten-free recipes out there that allow you to enjoy all your favorite foods – just in a slightly modified way. Take this gluten free oatmeal cookie recipe for example.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup regular sugar
* 1/2 tsp vanilla
* 3/4 cups gluten-free flour
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* dash of table salt
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon
* 1 large egg
* 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
* 1 1/2 cups gluten free oats
* 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Soften the margarine either by sitting it out for 30 minutes or by sticking it in the microwave for a few seconds. Using a handmixer, combine the butter and both the regular and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add the vanilla and the egg next and blend again until you have a creamy light yellow colored mixture.

Get out a bowl and add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt. Give those dry ingredients a good stir, then work it into the egg mixture. Add the oats and then the raisins (if you are using them) to the batter and stir until they are well mixed in.

Get a large cookies sheet and drop the cookies on, using approximately one tbsp of batter for each. You can either use two soup spoons for this or a melon baler.

The cookies will need to bake for about 12 minutes. A golden brown color will let you know that it’s time to take the oatmeal cookies out of the oven. Let the cookies cool for a good five minutes on the sheet, then move them to a wire rack. Store the finished cookies in a zip-lock bag.

You should end up with about 24 cookies.

Of course you don’t have to bake all your cookies and other gluten-free treats from scratch. You can get all kinds of baking mixes and even finished gluten free products at local grocery stores and online at websites that specialize in gluten-free products. They are a good alternative. You can even find some gluten-free cookies, already baked and everything that taste pretty good.

In other words, there is no reason to give up delicious baked goods when you are living gluten free.

Before you go, I would like to invite you to check out another tasty and healthy recipe. This one is for quinoa muffins which you can make gluten-free by using gluten-free flour. And here are more quinoa recipes for you.