Dairy Free Spritz

As many of you know, my eldest daughter, Lu, is allergic to milk and tree nuts. I have never attempted baking Spritz Cookies until this Christmas. I was so pleased the Fleischman's Unsalted Margarine worked as an excellent substitute for butter. I was worried it would either jam up the spritz gun and/or taste odd. Luckily they came out beautifully! Chilling the dough a bit helped.  I used the America's Test Kitchen Recipe substituting 1 tbs. Soy Creamer for Cream and 2 sticks Fleischman's Unsalted Margarine for butter. I did one batch using vanilla extract and one with orange extract. The adults preferred the orange extract batch and the kids preferred the vanilla.

Dairy-Free/Egg-Free Chocolate Cookies

Finally! A recipe that is not only dairy (we use soy butter) and egg free - it is sooooo easy! Oh yeah, and doesn't taste like dirt. Don't get me wrong, the addition of real butter would make these taste even better but for a kid who doesn't know what real butter tastes like (Paula Dean's worst nightmare!) she thinks these are pretty scrumptious. Wahoo!

The recipe originally found in Reader's Digest is a Nigella Lawson recipe. It is not available on the RD site but I found it on Oprah's site. Click here for the recipe, Chocolate Shortbread Christmas Cookies.

One of the best features of this recipe is that you simply dump all the ingredients in a food processor. This made it so fast and easy. I helped Lu measure and dump the ingredients. I closed the food prossesor and let Lu press the button. After that you simply scoop (use a mini ice cream scoop with a release button makes it even easier!), flatten & bake! Love it! I may be crafty but I am not even remotely skilled in crafting cookies, cakes or pies. Too precise of a science for my artistic spirit! These are so easy I am making another batch before Christmas since the girls and hubby are making their way through these.





After you bake them and they cool you mix up an easy glaze/frosting and then add sprinkles...



Can you tell I let the girls loose with the sprinkles!

Dairy Free Chocolate Bunny Pops and Popsicle Craft

I have to thanks M, a mom I met at my friends son's birthday party. Her son has more allergies than my daughter! I told her how I spent $8 on a dairy free chocolate bunny and $7 shipping! just so my Lu could have a chocolate bunny at Easter! It is so hard to see her staring at them in the store and then look up at me so sweetly and say, "I can't have those because I'm allergic to milk, right?" Well M. proceeded to tell me how she makes her own. Duh! I can't believe I didn't think of that before I spent $15 on a small chocolate bunny. $1.47 candy mold, some dairy free chocolate chips, Rice Crispies, some lollipop sticks and we were in business! I melted the chips, mixed in some Rice Krispies, spooned the chocolate in the mold, Lulu put the sticks in, and a bit more chocolate at the base. Easy, fun and cheap! Surprisingly they tasted great! Like a dark chocolate Nestle bar...but a bit softer in texture. Recommend storing them in the fridge after you wrap them up. Even if your kids don't have allergies try making your own chocolate some time. There is something so fun about popping your creation out of the mold!

Thought I'd leave you with our second popsicle stick person. Click here if you want to goto the original post. Lulu loved making the first one so much we had to make one for her swim teacher. Miss T. wears a long sleeve dark blue rash guard in case you were wondering why she had long sleeves on. This one Lu was able to do most of the coloring, gluing and assembling. I drew the swim suit on with a black sharpie and Lu colored it in. My main job was getting that pony tail to look right! In case your wondering why she is hanging cockeyed it is because she is suppose to be swimming. I had to punch the hole in her hand otherwise the hole would have been on her boob! She already looks a bit troubled to begin with!

I'll post the 5 winners of my first giveaway later today!

Tuesday: Random Ideas

We found that Pharmacists do not put the refill/info sticker directly onto some prescription containers (mainly due to the size or shape constraints.) When you have more than one child and a terrible memory this is a problem. I discovered that Paper Tape solves this problem. It is semi transparent so you can see info underneath but it takes a permanent marker beautifully. I put the child's name and the dosing instruction on the tape.



When yogurt companies stopped putting the lid on top of the yogurts I started saving them. A year later I can't find a single one. I think our dishwasher is eating them. Well I discovered that the small Gladware top fits perfectly. It is a time saver. I know I am lazy and could easily put the yogurt into another container but if this saves a step...

**Allergy Tip: I have tried almost every type of egg replacement solution, applesauce, commercial egg replacer, oil, baking soda... I finally tried plain soy yogurt. It works beautifully for baked goods. It gives baked goods the right texture, moistness and doesn't impart a yucky flavor. So if your wee one is allergic to eggs try this in his/her muffins!

Friday: Random Ideas

We hung up some sentence strips in the kitchen with Lulu's name, address, age, phone number... to help her with name recognition. It is more there for her to look at and not something we drill into her.

We have sung her name to the old Mickey Mouse song since she was a wee one.

Who's the girl that mommy loves, who cute as cute can be...
L-U-C...I-N-D...A...K-I-N-G, Lucinda King, Lucinda King...

We also sing the Muffin Man song for her address.

Do you know Lucinda King, Lucinda King, Lucinda King
Do you know Lucinda King, she live on insert street?



Allergies: Milk, Eggs, Nuts & Seeds

We love Cherrybrook Kitchen Cake Mixes. They are a little expensive but sometimes we catch them on sale and stock up! They are great for pure convenience. There are so many instances when Lulu is invited to a family gathering, birthday party or a class party and we need to bring something for Lulu in replace of cake or dessert. We make a batch of these and freeze them for just such an occasion. We recently discovered Tropical Source Dairy Free & Gluten Free semi sweet chocolate chips (http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgmenbr=172832&cgrfnbr=447959) that taste very close to the real thing. We mix them into the Yellow Cherrybrook Kitchen cup cake mix. Yummm! Even dairy/egg eaters like these.

Dollar Store Love

Check out these cute kid size scoops! 3 for a dollar ( in the housewares aisle) at our dollar store. Yeah I can reclaim my measuring cups from Lulu's Lentil tray.

Projects This Week: Valentine Treats

Heart-Shaped Rice Cereal Lollipops



Thought I would share with you our plans for Lulu's Preschool Valentine's Day Party Treat. We are waiting until the day before to make them so they will be fresh which is too late if you want to try making them yourself. Lulu is allergic to dairy so we use Fleischman's Unsalted Margarine or Earth's Best Soy Garden Butter. At holiday times it is difficult for Lulu when kids hand out candy and treats she can't eat so I try to provide something fun and yummy she can eat. I found some strawberry flavored pink marshmallows and this great heart shaped mold at our local craft store. You may notice I am addicted to the Craft Store! I'll post pictures of the finished project later this week.