Gluten Free Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

My awesome friend Laura recently gave me a head's up that Trader Joe's is carrying now carrying bags of Cashew Meal. She knows I use TJ's almond meal in so many of my breads, muffins and cakes as it's a high protein, gluten free and grain free flour. Baking treats with more protein seems to help us to metabolize them better without nasty sugar highs and lows. However, a lot of my Feingold friends cannot use almonds as they are a higher salicylate food.

(Speaking of Feingold friends, Candy has an interview with Cindy Harrell who, among other things puts the Feingold Food List together. Check it out for a great, quick overview of the program which we joined in 2005. We found Joe's migraines were triggered by food dyes and by following Feingold we've relieved a host of other issues.)

Other nuts can be used very successfully in baking. You can grind your own nuts and I've done that making the delicious Leah's Pecan Paleo Bread and my own Pecan Pie Muffins! Purchasing specialty nut flours online is easy but they're pricey and waiting for delivery isn't always convenient. Trader Joe's charges $4.99 a pound now - that's less than half what my online source charges.

Cashews are a wonderful choice because their mild taste won't overpower other ingredients and TJ's cashew meal has a really fine texture and bakes to a nice consistency. Coconut sugar gives a nice brown sugar flavor and has many nutritional benefits. I've made these with coconut oil and with butter and both were very well received. The butter made for a slightly softer bar than the coconut oil version. I've used flax meal rather than eggs and if you use coconut oil you'll have yummy gluten free, casein free, grain free and vegan bars. The best part is they come together in about five minutes.

Gluten Free Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 13 x 9 pan.

1 lb.   Cashew Meal
1 cup Coconut Sugar
6 T.   Golden Flax Meal
1 cup Water
3 T.    Coconut Oil or Butter, softened
1 T.    Gluten Free Vanilla
1 t.     Baking Soda
dash   Salt
1 cup  Mini Chocolate Chips - I use Enjoy Life

Mix together everything but the chocolate chips. The batter will seem very wet until the water is absorbed by the flax meal. When well combined mix in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into pan and bake for approximately 30 - 40 minutes or until set in the middle and as golden brown as you like. Enjoy!