Thank you to everyone that purchased Kakookies for the Butte Fire relief.   We sent off 12 dozen Kakookies; they were greatly appreciated, especially by families and children following restricted diets!

Help send Kakookies to fire fighters and evacuated families in Jackson, CA. "The Butte Fire has burned 65,000 acres and is only 15 % contained. Sixty-seven fire crews with almost 3,300 firefighters are on scene, along with 383 fire engines, eight air tankers, 17 helicopters and 62 bulldozers, according to Cal Fire."

We have close family living there and know the area well.   Relief stations are set up at Jackson Rancheria Hotel, San Andreas Town Hall and the Calaveras County fairgrounds. Local churches and organizations are donating and preparing meals, but there is always a need for healthy grab n go foods.

We have Kakookies to send to the fire fighters and evacuee relief stations, but shipping from Minnesota to California is very expensive . I have set up a 50% off discount code. If you place an ORDER with the code BUTTEFIRE, you will be charged $15 . (Each $15 order sends one dozen Kakookies.) You will need to type in your personal address for the order to be processed, but Kakookies will be sent directly to the relief stations.  A list of donors will be sent with each Kakookie shipment.   

For more current and local information, follow the Amador Ledger Dispatch FB  or Cal Fire FB pages.

Articles and Interviews:

Pedal-powered cookies:  Bicycle-inspired Kakookies offer a healthy alternative; AURI News

Local Food Entrepreneur: Sue Kakuk, KaKookies; University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management Blog

Meet Your Baker:  Sue Kakuk's Kakookies; The Feed Blog

KARE 11 North Star Grand Prix Collegiate Quinoa Cups Cooking Segment; June 2014

KARE 11 Nature Valley Grand Prix Ruby Red Salad Cooking Segment; June 2013

KARE 11 Nature Valley Grand Prix Black Rice Mango Salad Cooking Segment; June 2012 

Pure Clean Ruby Red Salad is one of my favorite salads.   It offers a beautiful presentation especially for a Valentines Day Dinner.  I prepared this recipe on KARE11 in June 2013 using Pure Clean beet juice powder.   

Pure Clean Ruby Red Salad

Vinaigrette:

2          Tbsp orange juice

2          Tbsp Balsamic vinegar

1          Tbsp PureClean Beet Juice Powder *

1          tsp Dijon mustard

1/2       tsp kosher salt

1/8       tsp fresh ground black pepper

2-4       Tbsp olive oil

For the Salad:

2          cups thinly shredded red cabbage

1          small red onion, thinly sliced

 2          cups torn red leaf lettuce, or mixed baby greens

¼         cup coarsely grated fresh beet or carrot, or both

2          oz (approx. ¼ cup) fresh feta cheese, crumbled

2          Tbsp dried cranberries

2          Tbsp pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds) or toasted pecans

1. Prepare Vinaigrette: In Medium bowl, combine orange juice, balsamic vinegar, beet powder, mustard, salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in oil until well combined.

2. Combine cabbage, onion, and beets/carrots with vinaigrette in bowl. Marinate for 15 minutes.

3. Just before serving, toss lettuce greens with cabbage mixture.   Divide evenly between 2-4 salad plates, depending on appetites

4. Garnish each salad plate with feta, cranberries, and pepitas or pecans.

*Beet juice powder is an optional ingredient but will add richness, depth, and natural nutrients to this vinaigrette. Athletes often drink beet juice because the natural nitrates can help improve blood flow and performance as well as cardiovascular health. Convenient PureClean organic beet juice powder is great blended into smoothies, juice, and salad dressing. For more information and to order online, visit.  http://www.purecleanpowder.com 

To watch the cooking demonstration, (and learn how to speak Minnesotan!), or to earn more about the North Star Grand Prix, visit KARE11link

Meet Your Baker:   Sue Kakuk's Kakookies

Sue Kakuk is the creator of Kakookies, possibly our newest favorite thing to try not to eat fifty of. We really do love them. We asked Sue, who is also a Pillsbury Bake-Off Finalist, some questions about her cookies, so finally you can meet the baker behind the best cookie around.

Tell us about how you came up with the idea for a cookie? There is just something about a cookie that is more comforting to eat than an energy or protein bar.  It could be memories of baking with your Mom, grabbing a handful to share with your friends, or sneaking cookies from the cookie jar. Even big kids get their hand caught in the cookie jar! Cookies are a hand-held serving that travel well. Cookies say you care!

Why a gluten-free cookie?  read the rest of the interview at The Feed Blog

I just found a Kakookie in Jay’s travel backpack leftover from his trip to China 3 months ago.  It is still intact and fresh!  Most other cookies or snack bars would be crushed and crumbled after such an adventure.   Kakookies are a convenient snack or meal replacement while traveling.   Our family never leaves home without one or two! 

My friend Lee packed Kakookies for her recent trip to Kenya.   When they arrive Amsterdam at 5am, food vendors are not yet open, so having a pre-packaged Kakookie helped hold them over for a few hours.  They also came in handy when trouble arose while checking bags with the Skycaps.  “Would you like a cookie?”  she offered.  Everyone smiled and they were soon on their way.

Remember to pack a Kakookie the next time you travel… Just in case….

Welcome to my Kakookie store!

These cookies have quite a history.   They started out as a whole-wheat granola type breakfast cookie that I was sending to my daughter, a collegiate cyclist in Vermont.   They were tasty, traveled well and provided better nutrition than the fast food they were consuming before races.

A few years later, we hosted Nature Valley Training Camp for the Pro Chase and Collegiate All Stars teams. Two of the 12 cyclists were following Gluten Free diets and since I was in charge of cooking all the meals for some talented athletes, I experimented with my trustworthy breakfast cookie recipe, replacing the whole wheat flour with a donated box of GF Bisquick mix and Rice Chex cereal. They were a hit. Because the packaged products were an expensive cooking ingredient, I decided to mix up my own gluten free flour mix.   Again, the cookies were yummy and disappeared quickly, but I didn’t like all the white refined powders (garbanzo bean flour, rice flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, etc) and I wasn’t happy with refined carbs and added sugars from the processed cereal.   In a quest to “clean up” this cookie, I simply replaced the flours and processed cereal with oats and nuts. They were delicious!

The following year of hosting Nature Valley Pro Chase and Collegiate All Stars Training Camp, I was eager to challenge myself to accommodate a dairy allergy and a vegan diet.   My recipe had been so forgiving, I confidently switched out the butter with Earth Balance Spread and the egg with Ener-G powdered egg replacement. It worked, and the cookies, once again vanished.   While I had succeeded in creating mouth watering gluten free and vegan friendly cookies, I began to question the use of the powdered starches and man-made products as good fuel for these amazing athletes.   I had strayed from my original focus of that first breakfast cookie I was sending to Vermont ~ A healthy cookie that offered better nutrition and healthier calories, not empty ones.

After redeveloping my recipe to meet my original goals, and sending samples across the country to my willing taste-testers, I am pleased to offer Kakookies; “Nutritious AND Delicious”, home-style cookies that just so happen to be gluten, dairy and egg free.   Unlike other GF baked goods, I am not trying to copy a traditional recipe by substituting flours and calling it a GF chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie. Rather, I have created splendiferous flavors that rely on the wholesome ingredients to deliver expressive and distinctive flavor.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson