It's beginning to look a lot like christmas

Hello, hope you all are doing well.  This move has been filled with all sorts of unexpected surprises. The oven in our new house had an electrical short and caught on fire. No kidding! Well, we all survived and our oven is now functioning properly again. 

My daughter turned five this last week. She requested a cake with oreos in it, so I began experimenting. What I ended up doing is making my chocolate cake mix and topping it with an Oreo frosting.  It took 2 tubs of tofutti better than cream cheese, one tub of ricemallow cream, and 20 crushed oreos.  It's crazy sweet, and a calorie wasteland, but it was pretty delish. I placed it in the fridge overnight and it was even better the next day.  

OK, on to Christmas!  Check out these gingerbread houses. I have tried making some from scratch the last two years, but it never turns out very well. This year, thanks to moms crafty space we'll be making graham cracker houses instead. Now, their icing recipe is not safe. Here is a safe one. Obviously, skip the almond flavor and use vanilla.  We are using smarties, dots, and gimbals jelly beans for the sides and frosted mini wheats for the roof.

Here is another super cute option from katherine marie. I think the straw is made of colored, shredded coconut.  The sheep are jumbo marshmallows with black licorice, and maybe the people are dots?

On makenmold I found a couple cute ideas, but their recipes just won't work for us.

I am just going to dip pretzels in melted enjoy life chocolates, then use food coloring on some "safe" white chocolate to drizzle.  Now, you are asking, "Were am I getting white chocolate?" More on that in a minute.

I absolutely LOVE these reindeer! Once again I'm going to use some of the white chocolate to make the white of his eyes, and color a bit for the dot on his nose.

Lastly, are these snowmen. I'll be using 3 jumbo marshmallows, white chocolate for the body and nose, and finally, enjoy life chocolates for the eyes, mouth, and arms.

Now, where am I getting my white chocolate, you ask?  Well, premium chocolatiers has recently released their first white chocolate bar. It goes by the name polar dream. All their products are milk, egg, nut, and gluten free. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

German Chocolate Cake

German chocolate cake is another one of my favorites from childhood.  I never even considered trying to make it safe, figuring it was just too hard.  Well, guess what? It's easy.  Ok, the cake is super simple, but the frosting gave me a bit of trouble.  Yes, you heard right, I actually made my own frosting, and it's delicious!  Like really delicious! I mean my husband ate 1/2 the cake in 24 hours and I was eating the leftover frosting with a spoon.  It is a variation of the recipe from Alice's Tea Cup in NYC.

Cake

3 1/2 c. flour

4 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 c. cocoa powder, unsweetened

1 c. sugar

2 cup soy milk

1 c. canola oil

2 c. maple syrup

1 tsp. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 and have two 9" round pans greased and ready.  Combine all dry ingredients, then incorporate the wet. Stir until just combined. This recipe is using baking soda and vinegar as the egg replacement, so it you over stir, if won't rise correctly.  Pour equal amounts into each pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Frosting

1/2 c. soy milk

1/3 c. corn starch (or other thickener if allergic to corn)

2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. coconut milk

2 tsp. vanilla

3 or 4 c. shredded coconut

Combine the soy milk and corn starch and set aside.  Now, in a medium sauce pan, combine the brown sugar and coconut milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring quite often, until it starts boiling. Turn the temperature down, until it's just simmering and continue to stir for 5 minutes.  Now pour in the soy milk, corn starch mixture and continue to stir and heat this mixture until it thickens.  This is where I messed mine up.  I got a bit impatient (it was taking forever) waiting for the frosting to thicken and I took it off too soon.  All that happened was that my frosting wouldn't stick to the sides of the cake. If you run into this problem too, just pile it in between layer and on top.  It's still awesome.  Anyways, back to the recipe.  Once thickened, stir in the shredded coconut, and then place it all in the fridge to cool.  

Once you cake and frosting are both cooled, stack and frost them.  You may top with a drizzle of melted chocolate if you would like.  I did, and while it doesn't replace the nuts, it did add a bit of a crunch.  I didn't measure this, but I'm guessing I used about 1/2 c. enjoy life chocolates combined with 1 Tbsp. canola oil.

Give this one a try on your extended family or friends that are not typically allergy free. Everyone who tried some, said it tastes "normal" and that's about as good of a compliment as anyone could give me.  Hope you all have a great week. 

Chocolate Covered Katie

One of my favorite bloggers is doing an amazing for the hurricane sandy victims and I just wanted to share it with you.  Chocolate Covered Katie is donating the extra money she earns from her blog to those who have lost their homes to the hurricane.  All you have to do is spend a few minutes browsing.  Click around for a bit, find some awesome recipe's, and you are helping out!  How simple.

All Katie's posts are vegan and I have always subbed Wow butter for pb and it turns out great.  She even has some that are wheat free.  So please spend a few minutes checking out her site.  You won't be sorry.
Here's the link and below is a bit of temptation to help convince you to click.

Farmer's Cake

I made the easiest, most delicious cake the other night.  The recipe came from my great aunt, and man, it was good!  As some of you know, in the last few months we have moved and I killed my laptop by banging it against a wall.  Why am I telling you this, you ask?  Well, I don't have any pictures because I have to find the disk to download my camera software,due to the new laptop, but haven't found the box.  So you're just going to have to take my word for it.  This stuff is good (did I already say that) and it's super easy, so you won't be out anything for trying it.

 Farmer's Cake 

2 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 eggs replaced ( I did 2 Tbsp. flax + 6 Tbsp. water)
1 stick margarine (blue bonnet light)
1 Lg. can of pie filling
  Cherry, blueberry, whatever you like.  I did peach. YUM!

First, preheat your oven to 350*F. Mix your dry ingredients and then stir in the replaced eggs and sick of melted margarine.  Once combined, add in the pie filling.  Bake in an 8x11 pan for 35-40 minutes.


* I thought for sure I was screwing this recipe up, because when I added the egg replacer and margarine, the dough was still so dry and crumbly.  Once the pie filling gets added to the mixture it will look much better.

Hope you all will give it a try.  We all fought over this one and it disappeared in just a couple days.

Pumpkin Crazy!

So I was on pinterest the other night looking at pumpkin bread recipes and every single one called for massive quantities of eggs.  Now I can replace an egg or two, but I'm not big on changing up a recipe that calls for 5 eggs.  Yes, that's right, I said 5!  It made me wonder, if we can use pumpkin as an egg replacer then why in the world would pumpkin bread need so many eggs? IDK.  Well that sent me off on a mission to find some "safe" pumpkin treats for our house, and I found a lot.

Here is a pumpkin french toast recipe that is almost perfect.  I only need to switch the almond milk for rice or soy. Nuts are optional (as seen in the pic.) but I'm obviously skipping those.  I found it at piarecipes.

From ohsheglows is some pumpkin butter.  I've been slathering it all over my toast every morning for breakfast.



Bread pudding is for breakfast, right?  Even if it has chocolate? Well, it is in our house.  Chef Chloe has given us another great recipe.  I love this sight so much, it is bookmarked.  If you haven't been there before, check it out, do a little browsing, and I bet you'll find something else you like.




OK on to the really good stuff (aka dessert)  After finding all the recipe's above, I finally stumbled upon a cake recipe that doesn't call for tons of eggs.  Actually, it calls for ener-G egg replacer.  I will have to make a couple changes though. The recipe calls for walnuts and cayenne, which I will be omitting.  It even includes a butter cream frosting, but by now you all probably know that I'm frosting lazy and just buy the pillsbury cream cheese frosting.  Oh yeah, I found this at healthy happy life




Even though I found my cake recipe, I couldn't stop myself, I just kept finding more and more "safe" pumpkin options.  Here are some pumpkin oatmeal cookies from family fresh meals.  This recipe does need adapted.  Here is what I will do to change it.  I will use enjoy life chocolate chips, blue bonnet light for the butter, and 1Tbsp. flax + 3Tbsp water to replace the egg.  Now, for the pumpkin pie spice I just added some nutmeg, cloves, and ginger, because I don't really know what's in it.  Oh, and you'll notice this recipe also calls for white chocolate, which up until now, I have been unable to find.  I was introduced to premium chocolatiers this week and noticed immediately that they have white chocolate.  I sent them an email asking if they would consider selling white chips since there are none on the market.  I got my response this morning saying they will be introducing a white chocolate bar next  week called polar dream and hope to release chips some time in the future.  I'm going to be first in line to buy those baby's up!



the baker chick has these amazing looking frosted pumpkin spice cookies.  They also need adapting.  I'm using earth balance for the butter and egg replacer for the egg.  I think a flax egg would put chunks in this smooth batter and of course I'm using bottled frosting.



I even found pumpkin custard.  The recipe is already safe, but I'm going to try subbing arrowroot for the agar, since it's already in the house.  I figure worst case scenario we'll be enjoying pudding instead.
I found this at food fitness fresh air




I was the most excited about finding this one! It's a pumpkin spice latte, also from healthy happy life.  Really, you can find so much there.  Now I don't have a foaming tool so I'm topping it with a vegan pumpkin whipped cream I found at family fresh cooking.  Once again, I'll just use cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves for the pie spice.

Halloween Party

Hi all, I survived surgery, recovered, and have made my way across three states since the last time we talked.  With Halloween just a few days away I'm figuring out what we are going to do.  Last year we knew all our neighbors, so I packaged "safe" treats and delivered them to our friends and then I went home, picked up my daughter, and we went trick or treating.  She had a blast and was super excited that she got to actually keep everything she received.

This year, we don't know anyone so I've decided that we are going to have our own party at home this year, treats included.  My hope is that this will turn into a tradition for us.  Here are my plans.

Games

First up from no time for flash cards  is a spider web walking game.  I like this one because it can be adjusted based on your child's development and it is a way to earn treats. 

It's written on the walls has a TON of games to look through.  We are doing the witch hat ring toss

and the pumpkin bean bag toss.  We are going to use our leftover moving boxes to make this as a craft project this week.

Techy Teacher made a punch a bunch board.  What I like about this is that it's educational, fun, and the kiddos get a prize.  I'm stuffing our bowls with little glow sticks, plastic bugs, and cheap toys.

If you haven't seen anything you like yet, check out kimboscrafts.  She also had a bunch of party games. 

We're doing the spiderweb obstacle course

and a mummy race

I've actually done the mummy race before with a bunch of adults and it's a blast.

Crafts

We're definitely painting our fingernails

http://www.craftymisadventures.com/2012/10/tomato-cage-ghosts.html

 and making Bat o lanterns

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/bat-o-lanterns-674621/

and there is no way I could miss out on glitter bombing a pumpkin.

http://www.parents.com/holiday/halloween/crafts/nocarve-pumpkin-ideas/#page=2

Food

sprinkled with flour made these ritz pb spiders.  I'm using ritz crackers, sunbutter, enjoy life chocolates, and idk maybe smarties for the eyes.

I saw these kabobs at where the cookies are and figured I would make them with with surf sweets gummy swirls and spooky spiders along with the ghost peeps.

Lastly, we are going to make a cake.  I'm going to use my hummingbird cake and pillsbury cream cheese frosting.  Here are a couple of the decorating ideas I'm thinking about. Which one should it be?

http://www.aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com/2011/10/monster-mash.html

or

http://www.sprinklesandgrins.com/Recipes/236/Monster-Cake

or this one is really cool, but I'm not sure if I'm that talented.  We'll see...

http://snowybliss.blogspot.com/2011/09/polka-dot-cake.html

I hope that no matter what you all choose to do this year, you have a fun, safe holiday.

Halloween

Hi guys, I'm going to be in and out for a while.  Having surgery tomorrow, so please be patient with me.  I wanted to pass along some haloween ideas I found.  First up is a super simple idea for treats to pass out.  Take some cuties and a sharpie simply draw a jack-o-lantern faces on them.  I found this at under construction.  

Next up are zombie marshmallows.  Yes, you heard me right.  I found them at the decorated cookie

Here are a couple spooky variations for rice crispy treats. The first one didn't have instructions, but I'm assuming they just used food coloring and a bit of frosting with pretzel rods and marshmallows. 

and these pumpkin ones are fairly simple.  For the chocolate cookies I'll be using oreos and a fat pretzel rod 

for the stem. 

 http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/2011/09/pumpkin-rice-krispies-treats.html

I have a few more things I found, but have to run off to swimming lessons. The next post will have some party ideas on it as well.  This year we are having a party instead of trick or treating.  I think it'll be a blast. 

S'mores bars, fudgesicles, and a new take on rice crispy treats

Hello friends.  I have to apologize for not being around so much lately.  I am finally unpacked and have my kitchen in order as well as most of the rest of my life, but you see I'm guilty of ignoring this blog, not because of unpacking, but because I was reading again.  Nothing in my life gets done when I pick up a book.

Anyhow, here I am with a few internet finds.  All three of these will have to be modified a bit to fit our lifestyle, but it can be accomplished quite easily.  First up are a new twist on rice crispy treats.  For these I use sunbutter and mixed in a bit of not nuts trail mix just because.

From kumquat I found a recipe for fudgesicles!  On a side note, what is a kumquat?  This is another one that calls for peanut butter.  I used wowbutter this time.  Obviously, make sure you are using dairy free chocolate chips as well.  Oh, and if you don't have/use coconut oil, canola works just the same.

And last, but certainly not least, S'mores bars!  I haven't made these yet, but they have to be great.  I'm  actually looking forward to my stroll through the cereal isle this week.  There are a few substitutions for this recipe as well, but it is super easy.  Dairy free chocolate instead of the regular chips, margarine for butter, and make sure to read your marshmallow bags!  They are not always safe.  

Hope you saw something delicious tonight.  See you in a few days with a homemade treat!

A few thoughts from me

So quite a while ago, valentines day to be exact, I had a revelation.  We were at gymnastics, and a little boy came in, running enthusiastically toward my daughter with a card and candy.  He was so excited to be able to give a gift to his friends, and my daughter was incredibly happy to receive her first valentine.  I, on the other hand, was sitting on the bench thinking not so nice things like  "Who is this lady letting her kid bring candy into a class that has never involved food?" and  "Why isn't my daughters teacher taking it away?"   I didn't step in, instead I listened to see what my little girl would do.  She turned her big doe eyed gaze upon the teacher and asked if it was safe for her to eat.  The teacher told her to bring the candy to me and let me decide.  That sent my snarky  mind right back into action.  I was thinking, "Great, this teacher let another child give my daughter candy that she won't be able to eat, and now she is sending her over to me so she doesn't have to be the bad guy."  One of my friends was sitting nearby, also listening, and asked me if she was going to be able to have the candy.  I laughed out loud and exclaimed, probably not, clearly still annoyed.  My daughter gets to me, shows me the candy, and it was safe.  Perfectly fine for her to have.  

She ran back, hugged the boy, thanked him profusely and went on enjoying class.  I however, spent the rest of the class thinking I'm a crazy, rude allergy mom jerk.  A quote by Peggy O'Mara came to mind.  

I spent the next few days, wondering how much my attitude had already affected her.  I spent so much time keeping my daughter out of situations like this because I thought I was protecting her.  Now I realize I was just isolating her.  Sure, she was never feeling left out, but I wasn't allowing her to completely live her life.  The reality is, life has just as many disappointments as it does victories.  What really matters is how you decide to view them.  I don't want my daughter to grow up feeling like a victim of her allergies.  I'm sure as she ages there will be some resentment issues, but I'm hoping that by having a positive attitude about everything I can, maybe  she will pick it up too.  

We all know that there are some situations where our kids do get left out or feel different.  You can't really put a positive spin on a four year old not getting a surprise ice cream treat that all the other kids get, and it causes my heart to both ache and burst with pride when she turns down the treats that are so often offered to her at the bank and store.   Not to mention the parties and family get togethers that almost always end in her saying, " I just wish I could eat the same food as everyone else."   Of course I am compassionate, and let her know that I'm sorry that she can't eat all the same things as our family members or friends, but I have also set time aside to make sure she understands that every person on this earth faces challenges.    She knows about diabetes and has even spoken to a child with an insulin pump.  Before I decided to stay home, I worked with disabled adults so she has seen feeding tubes and seems to understand that we are all the same in that everyone has to face their own challenges. 

We tell her that if she can dream something, then she can do it.  We say that there is no reason to let her food allergies hold her back.  I taught her at a very early age how to politely refuse food and advocate for her needs.  Now I get to watch her flourish.  Sometimes she dreams up things that make me nervous, but I try my best to quiet that voice in my head and let her live her dreams.  I can't wait to see where the journey of life takes her.

Lunch Box Ideas

I finally got my internet hooked up last night!  I missed you so much computer.  I noticed this morning that a lot of moms are looking for school lunch ideas for their kids.  My daughter is still to young for school, but we have been eating out of a cooler quite a bit lately, so here are some of the meals I have been packing.

1. Make a hot dog octopus, place fresh fruit on a swizzle stick for kebabs, pretzels, and an enjoy life chocolate cookie.
2. My daughter really loves pancake sandwiches.  Take two pancakes, and put some sunbutter and/or jam in between.  With that she has grapes and carrot sticks.
3.  Another option is packing sunbutter in a silicone cupcake liner, along with crackers, fresh veggies, and your choice of soy or coconut yogurt.  Pack a bit of homemade granola to sprinkle on top for a sundae.
4. How about an avacado, chickpea wrap.  I put a drained can of chickpeas in the food processor along with an avacado, a bit of lemon juice, and a couple shakes of cumin.  It is seriously my favorite.  Anyways, spread it onto a tortilla, wrap, and enjoy.  I packed strawberries, cucumbers, and pretzels with that.
5. Bagel with tofutti better than cream cheese, raisins, enjoy life not nuts, fruit leather, and celery
6. Sunbutter banana and honey sandwich,  mandarin oranges, and chips
7. baked chicken breast cut into cubes, jello, baby carrots, and fresh strawberries
8. Finally, make your own lunchable.  Pack safe crackers, whatever meat you choose (john morell has safe bologna that you can cut to size) and daiya cheese to sprinkle on top.  Send a soy or coconut yogurt along with a few sprinkles to make it special

Do you have to pack snacks as well?  Here are the ones I packed.

1. Banana bread made in muffin tins
2. Any dry cereal you choose.  My daughter LOVES cookie crisp and I won't let her have it for breakfast, so this was our compromise.
3. Enjoy life, sunbutter or coco loco bar, and a banana
4. strawberry, grape, and pear fruit kebabs
5. crackers topped with tofutti better than cream cheese with a bit of sugar and cinnamon mixed in, and a handful of raisins.
6. Teddy grahams
7. and finally, brothers all natural freeze dried fruit is not too expensive and is already individually packaged, so all you have to do is throw them in.  

One other product that I have talked about on here before, is the Go Picnic lunch box.  It comes with crackers, sunbutter, enjoy life cookie, enjoy life not nuts, and fruit chews.  It's great if you are in a jam, or heading out for a field trip, but at $5 plus a box, I wouldn't recommend it as an everyday kind of meal.  Hope this helps you out a bit.  Oh! one more thing.  When my daughter was in day care, they let me send in boxes of Ian's chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and fish sticks.  They were kept in the freezer there, and then the teacher would microwave them for her right before lunch.  That is another easy option if the school is willing. Hope  you all have a great week!

Double chocolate cookies, ice cream sandwiches, and S'mores pie

Hi everyone,  I didn't get to do any baking again this week because we are in the middle of moving.  I actually pulled a cookie sheet out tonight, baked chicken, and when the timer went off I realized I had packed the hot pads and towels already!  So we had some chicken for supper, and no dessert, but you don't have to.  Tonight I thought I would share a couple more finds with you.

First up are these amazing double chocolate cookies from the allergic kid.  Libby actually won the Divvies Cookie Contest with this recipe.  

Next, from speed bump kitchen, comes ice cream sandwiches.  The recipe calls for cake flour and the only two boxes we had here said may contain peanuts so I made my own.  To do that, place 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch into the bottom of a one cup measuring scoop.  Fill the rest with flour and sift it twice.  I also have to say, this is the simplest ice cream recipe I have ever seen.  Give it a try.

Finally comes S'mores Pie, because what could be better than chocolate and warm, gooey marshmallows?   We don't have ricemellow cream here, so my plan of action is to just dump a bunch of mini marshmallows on top for the last 5 minutes.  Hope it works.  Looks delicious right?

I'm going to be offline until we get our new cable/internet hooked up.  Hope it's not too long.  Have a great week.

7 Different Doughnuts!

A local magazine did an article about this super cute doughnut store we have downtown and there were pictures. Tons of them, in all their glorious color and deliciousness.  I was thinking about sneaking out of the house to get some, but then changed my mind.  If the baker in the store can make delicious doughnuts, then so can I!  Mine are going to be so awesome that I won't even miss those silly $4 doughnuts downtown.  Who cares if it is the size of your plate?  Not me!  Anywho... I got to work on my computer to find some safe recipe's to test.  The first one was a bomb, like the worst thing I have ever eaten.  Straight to the trash they went.  Here is the list of all the other safe recipe's I found if you want to give any of them a try as well.

This one is from sexy vegan mama.  It has fake tofu bacon on it that I am skipping.  Ick!  I am thinking about making some chocolate glaze and safe vanilla pudding to fill them.

She also has a jelly stuffed sugar doughnut.  It sounds good to me, hope it tastes good as well.

I'm going to roll the dough a bit thinner than hers. 

You would not believe the beautiful danish pastries I found on maple spice.  The only changes that need to be done here are to omit any nuts, and make vanilla glaze instead of almond glaze.

On vegan heartland I came across a recipe for vegan krispy kreme's.

This one I am looking forward to!  Strawberry cake doughnuts!  You will have to do some substituting to this recipe.  Soy, Rice or whatev. for milk, dairy free margarine for butter, and egg replacer for one egg.  But if it tastes anything like it looks, this one is going to be worth it.

Found these at the food allergy chronicles and they are milk, egg, peanut, tree nut, and soy free.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to be testing these out and deciding on a favorite.  What happens if they all bomb you ask.  Well then I guess we'll be eating these.

I found this on pinterest last week and was so disappointed in myself.  Why didn't I think of this!?  I grew up on those pop n fresh biscuits.  We would smash them, make a circle cut out with the vanilla lid and fry them.  I knew that the biscuits aren't safe, and I knew that the pizza dough was.  Oh well, even if I didn't invent it, I'm glad it's out there.  Have a great week!