Home accessories: Sweet Debbie's Organic Treats

Bit by bit, I am trying to learn about how to serve healthier meals to my family. When Foodie Friday rolls around, I always look at the gluten free recipes. Can I make the leap? Am I ready?

I was excited when Harlequin invited me to cook something from Sweet Debbie's Organic Treats, a new allergy and sugar-free cookbook by Debbie Adler. The author is a blogger and owner of the famous L.A. bakery called

Sweet Debbie’s Organic Cupcakes. Gwyneth Paltrow is a customer; and Ray Romano gave the book a rave review: "Debbie Adler is a culinary genius."

Wouldn't you love to cook

Baked Goods That Actually Make You Feel Good?

It doesn't matter if you are a vegan or if you just want to lighten up on sugar, you'll enjoy reading about Debbie's secrets of masterful baking--- without sugar, dairy, soy, nuts, or gluten.

Yes, that’s right: every treat in the book is not only allergy-free (that includes nuts, soy, gluten, and dairy) but are sugar-free, too.

SWEET DEBBIE’S also features plenty of seasonal recipes—whether it’s Halloween treats for allergy kids or guilt free Thanksgiving dessert—that everyone can enjoy. Additionally:

· All the recipes come with complete nutritional facts.

· There are recipes for making your own substitutes—like gluten-free flour mix, vegan chocolate chips, and sunflower seed butter.

· There is also an index of substitutes you can buy in stores—like coconut nectar (instead of refined sugar); quinoa flour (for protein); and chia seeds (for energy and omega-3).

I baked a dozen Multigrain Loafers, a crusty, savory bread that pairs beautifully with soups and salad.

The recipe called for a few new-to-me ingredients, such as amaranth flour, xanthan gum, and coconut nectar. In the back of the book I found a helpful list of online companies.

"In my quest to find the cleanest, most fairly traded, most organic, least cross-contaminated ingredients, I have stumbled upon the sweetest and most caring companies that offer most everything you need to make all the recipes in this book."

--Debbie Adler

The remaining ingredients can be found at any grocery (apple cider vinegar, yeast, gluten-free flour, buckwheat flour, coarse-grind cornmeal, grapeseed oil).

The "loafers" are a cross between a muffin and homemade bread.

Each loaf has 150 calories, 0 cholesterol, 25g carbohydrates, 300 mg sodium,

3 g protein, 3 g fiber, 1 g sugars.

I always find it interesting how food can change a person's life for the better. In Debbie's case, her

son was "allergic to every food in the USDA pyramid."

She marched into her kitchen and began testing and tweaking recipes. She eventually opened a fabulously popular bakery, where "Hollywood's A-list celebrities line up for her delicious muffins, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, donut holes, and savory breads."

Not only are they delicious, they are nutritious.