Valentine's Day Treats

Looking for something to make with your little one for Valentine's Day? Here are a few quick and easy ideas free of many of the top allergens...

• Microwave Brownies cut into heart shapes and dusted with powdered sugar! (see recipe below)
• Candy Cane Hearts! (place 2 mini candy canes on a wax paper lined tray so they form a heart and fill with safe melted chocolate and sprinkles)
• Rice Krispies Treats cut into heart shapes! (swap some of the Rice Krispies cereal with Pebbles cereal for a little extra flavor and a pop of color)
• Melt some safe chocolate chips and pour into heart shaped candy molds. (I used Enjoy Life Mega Chunks)

Microwave Brownies
1 banana, mashed
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour (can use 1/2 cup white & 1/2 cup whole wheat)
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Mix all ingredients well and pour into a greased 8x8 glass pan. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Reindeer Pops

Here's a quick and easy Christmas treat you can make with your little elves!

Dairy-Free Reindeer Pops
Large Marshmallows
Mini Pretzel Twists
Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting (or make your own)
Red Food Coloring
Lollipop Sticks

Insert a lollipop stick into the side of each marshmallow.  On a wax paper lined cookie sheet, lay out sets of 2 pretzel twists so they are touching each other.  Melt chocolate chips in double boiler or microwave.  Dip each marshmallow into melted chocolate, tap off excess.  Place the flat side of each dipped marshmallow onto a set of pretzel twists.  Chill for 10 minutes.  Color a small amount of frosting red.  Spoon the white and red frosting and also the remaining melted chocolate into 3 decorator bags fitted with a small round tip or spoon into Ziploc sandwich bags and cut off the corner to make a very small opening.  Use these to add eyes and a red nose to each reindeer pop.

(I originally found this idea on Pinterest, which then took me to this website... http://www.makenmold.com/Create/Projects/Christmas.aspx )

12 Days of an Allergy Free Christmas - Kyle Dine

A great Christmas song by the awesome Kyle Dine!

Recipe of the Month

Who doesn't love having their house filled with the smell of pumpkin bread fresh from the oven?  This recipe makes about 50 cookies so it's perfect to have on hand for any fall festivities you may be attending!

Pumpkin Bread Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing
(dairy, peanut, tree nut-free)
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg*
15 ounce can pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar.  Add egg, pumpkin, and vanilla and beat until creamy.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Drop onto baking sheet by tablespoonfuls.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool and frost with the Cream Cheese Icing.  If desired, sprinkle frosted cookies with extra cinnamon!

Cream Cheese Icing
1 (8 oz) container Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
4 Tbsp Fleischmann's Unsalted margarine
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine the cream cheese and margarine. Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla and blend until smooth. 

*Note*: To make this recipe egg-free, replace the egg with 1 Tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 3 Tbsp warm water.

Pinterest Love!

I've mentioned before that I love cooking/baking and I absolutely adore browsing through any cookbooks I can get my hands on to search for recipes that I can easily adapt to fit my son's food allergies.  Then I stumbled upon Pinterest.  Oh. My. Goodness.  This online "pin board" quickly became my latest obsession and has been for a while now. 

If you're looking for some new recipe ideas feel free to follow my Food Allergy Recipes board where I list easy ingredient subs to make the dish free of milk, eggs (unless it is baked-in, which Brody can have), peanuts, and tree nuts! 

http://pinterest.com/foodallergylife/food-allergy-recipes/

I'm Back!

Where has the time gone?  I seriously can't believe it's been 5 months since I lasted updated the blog!!  So much has happened in that time frame.  Here's a little overview...

• At the end of April my husband and I decided to finally put our house up for sale and start looking for our dream house.  Okay, maybe not "dream house" but we definitely needed more space for our boys.  They had been sharing a bedroom their entire life and are now 12 and 15.  It was time to move on!  Luckily we found a house we absolutely love and our old house sold in just 2 weeks from putting it on the market!  I really think it was all meant to be!
• In May Brody and I went to Washington DC for his sixth grade class trip.  This was extremely stressful, especially amidst the process of selling/buying our house!  I will definitely be posting more about preparing for the DC school trip with food allergies.  Ay-ay-ay!!!
• In June we spent a week relaxing in Eagle River before the total chaos of packing up and moving to the new house would take place at the end of June/beginning of July.
• July consisted of settling in to our new house and loving every minute of it! :)  My husband and I also started training for our first 5k run coming up in October.  Very excited about this!
• August was quite a busy month.  We helped out with the annual Food Allergy Awareness Walk hosted by the Food Allergy Association of Wisconsin, I met with Brody's new teachers for 7th grade to discuss food allergy symptoms and how/when to use an EpiPen, I started a new job, AND....Brody got braces!  Again, this is definitely something I will be posting about separately as it certainly adds a whole new dimension to daily life with food allergies!
• And finally that brings us to September.  Josh started Driver's Ed and just today he passed the test for his temps!  Wow, I'm still not sure how I'm feeling about that!  At one point in Josh's life we weren't even sure if he would ever be able to drive because of his vision, but here we are!  We still don't know for sure if he will have a restricted or unrestricted licence, but at least he will have some independence with driving throughout his life!  He's nervous, we're nervous...we'll just take it slow and see how it goes.

So, that's what I've been up to the past 5 months.  I promise I will try to keep updating more often from here on out, but sometimes life just gets a little hectic and crazy!

Easter treats

                    Happy Easter! 

I hope the Easter Bunny found some yummy safe treats to bring your little allergic kiddos!  I decided to make Chocolate SunButter Eggs with my boys today and we had a hard time not eating all the dough before dipping it in the chocolate!

Chocolate SunButter Eggs
4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups SunButter (or soybutter)
1/4 cup dairy-free margarine, melted
3 Tbsp rice milk (or soy milk)
1 pkg. dairy-free chocolate chips
1 Tbsp shortening

Mix together the powdered sugar, SunButter, and melted margarine.  Add the rice milk and mix until it becomes a workable dough.  Form the dough into egg shapes and place in the freezer for 1 hour.  Place the chocolate chips and shortening in a bowl and microwave until completely melted.  Dip each egg in the melted chocolate and place on waxed paper until set.  I used 2 forks, one to lift the egg out of the chocolate and the other to help slide the egg onto the waxed paper.   If you want to decorate the eggs, quickly add sprinkles before the chocolate sets.  Place the eggs back in the fridge until completely set.  Enjoy!!