Mint Chocolate Brownies (Gluten & Dairy Free)

Here is it - my first recipe post that follows my gluten free, dairy free diet.  I would be lying if I said this wasn't difficult.  I have never read so many nutrition labels with such concentration in my entire life nor have I had to pester so many waitresses to make SURE that smoothie has NO DAIRY (not even milk powder) in it.  That's not even the hardest part, I think that titles belongs to having to say no to friends.  To eat at certain restaurants, restrain from diving headfirst into their sandwich (still on the hunt for a good DF/GF bread) or just seeming like the weirdo with the nitpicky dietary concerns. 

Really though, it's not that bad.  I haven't had to deal with this for years, I don't even know if I'll have to deal with much longer (doctor's appointment is on May 5th) and I live in Seattle.  I think out of all cities to be gluten and dairy free in, Seattle must be one of the best.  PCC, Metropolitan Market AND Whole Foods are my meccas now.  Even Trader Joe's does a pretty good job (I'm a big fan of how well they label things).

And you know what's even better?  NO ONE knew these were gluten and dairy free until I told them!  In my book, that's a a huge success on the GF/DF front.  I brought them to the kickball game last week and everyone (the other team, the ref, my teammates) raved over them, asked for seconds and still contested that the fact that they were GF/DF free.

Update

Hello Blogosphere,

I wanted to write a quick note as to while the Ginger Cook has suddenly become more barren than the Eastern Washington desert.  A few weeks ago, my doctor informed be that she suspects I may have a gluten and/or dairy sensitivity.  Her plan of action was to have me do an elimination diet for a month and then go from there.  As all my recipes suggest, my number one lover is cheese, bread and butter.  That's right, I went through a triple break-up at the same time a few weeks ago.  I've been adjusting, but needless to say I've been in a bit of a cooking and baking funk as I've been adjusting what I can eat.  A few days ago, I made some stellar gluten & dairy free chocolate chip cookies (my co-workers ate all of them), but I've been struggling a little bit.  I hope to get up and running again (i.e. give you all some delicious recipes!) ASAP and I will be posting some gluten-loaded ones that I have stockpiled in my computer.

Thank you for being so patient and if you have any gluten/dairy free suggestions, it would be much appreciated!

Love,
The Ginger Cook