Life, Gluten Free

Maple Meringues

If you've never made meringues before, you should definitely give it a try. It's a fun project to do with your kids. My daughter really enjoyed making these, it was our first time making meringues! They are tasty and store well in an air-tight container. Let us know if you try these.

Maple Meringues

Servings: 24

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

1/3 cup organic maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch fine sea salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees fahrenheit.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, add egg whites, maple syrup, vanilla and sea salt.

Beat on high with an electric hand mixer until stiff peaks form (this can take about 3 minutes or longer).

Once well beaten, add to a piping bag with star tip.

Pipe onto the baking sheets. 

Bake at 200 or 2 hours.

Do not open oven (this can cause the meringues to collapse).

After 2 hours, turn off oven and keep them in for another hour or so.

Enjoy and store in air tight container! 

 

Grain Free Apple Cider Donuts

Ingredients:

2 cups Organic Apple Cider

1 1/4 cups Cassava Flour

1/3 cup Organic Cane Sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoons Sea Salt

1/2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice

2 eggs

3 tablespoons Avocado Oil

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 teaspoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Directions:

Measure out 2 cups of the organic apple cider and simmer in a sauce pan over medium heat for about 15 minutes. This will reduce it and concentrate the flavors. Once reduced, measure out 1 cup and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin spice and salt).

In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, 1 cup reduced apple cider, avocado oil and vanilla.

Slowly incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry. Add the apple cider vinegar as you do this, and mix until well combined.

Grease a donut pan with avocado oil. I use this silicone donut pan.

Use a spoon and evenly distribute the batter into each donut mold. This makes 6 donuts using the pan I have.

Bake donuts for about 15 minutes, until just golden brown and tooth pick comes out clean.

Remove the donuts and let them cool on a plate or a cooling rack.

Whisk the apple cider glaze ingredients together. Once the donuts are still just a bit warm, you can dip the tops into the glaze. 

Apple Cider Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup Powdered Sugar

2 tablespoons Organic Apple Cider

1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

We've also made these donuts and dipped them in a homemade marshmallow glaze!

Photo below. We hope you enjoy these grain free donuts.

Allergy-friendly Halloween Candy

Halloween is coming! And while it may look different this year due to uncontrollable circumstances, there are still opportunities to have fun. What is everyone planning on doing this Halloween? We'd love to know.

We ordered some fun fall-themed "easter eggs" to fill with treats and do a scavenger hunt. We also LOVE to decorate our house for halloween, go to the pumpkin patch and carve jack-o-lanterns.

Since my daughter has food allergies, it's really important that we make sure the candy she eats is safe. I am always on the hunt for new allergy-friendly candy, especially when it's also naturally flavored and naturally colored. I've compiled a list of our favorite candy. Hope you enjoy the list and be sure to grab some yummy allergy-friendly treats for your family!

We are super excited about this list as it contains allergy-friendly gummy bears, fruit chews, CANDY CORN, lollipops, chocolate bars, bubble gum, bubble gum filled pops and more! Click the links to order!

Torie & Howard Fruit Chewies (we especially love the sour ones!)

• Assorted flavors variety pack 
• Sour Apple
• Pomegranate and Nectarine
• Lemon & Raspberry

 

YumEarth Candy (nut-free, peanut-free, organic, gluten-free, dairy-free)

• Giggles (These are so GOOD and a healthy alternative to skittles)
• Candy corn
• Sour Beans (love these sour jelly beans)
• Giggles Individual 2oz packs
• Sour Giggles
• Lollipops
• Super Sour Lollipops       
• Vitamin C Lollipops               
• Sour Twists
• Lemon Drops
• Fruit Snacks
• Assorted Hard Candy Drops
• Citrus Grove Candy Drops
• Gummy Worms
• Black Licorice
• Pomegranate Licorice
• Strawberry Licorice
• Peach Licorice

Enjoy Life Chocolate Candy (Free from gluten, wheat, dairy, soy, sulfites, lupin, fish, crustaceans, peanuts, tree nuts, casein, egg, sesame, mustard, and shellfish)

• Dark Chocolate Halloween Mini Bars
• Chocolate Halloween Candy Variety Pack
• Rice Milk Halloween Chocolate Mini Bars
• Chewy Chocolate Bars
• Dark Chocolate bars
• Rice Milk Crunch Bars

 

Surf Sweets Candy (top 8 free, gluten-free, organic, non-gmo). 

• Sour Worms
• Gummy Worms
• Watermelon Rings
• Jelly beans
• Fruity Bears

 

SmartSweets (low sugar, top 8 free)

• Sourmelon bites
• Swedish fish
• Variety pack 6 flavors (swedish fish, peach rings, sour blast, gummy bears, fruity bears, fruit chews)
• Peach rings
• Sour blasts
• Fruity Gummy Bears
• Variety pack 4 flavors (swedish fish, peach rings, sour blast, gummy bears)

 

Made Good Granola Bars (Top 8 free, a super tasty nut-free granola bar). They come in bars and also cute little round granola minis!

• Halloween Chocolate Chip Mini Granola Bars
• Made Good Granola Bars Chocolate Chip
• Made Good Granola Bars Variety Pack (cinnamon apple, berry)
• Made Good Granola Bars Cookies and Creme (love these!)
• Made Good Granola Bars Chocolate Banana
• Made Good Granola Minis Variety Pack
• Made Good Granola Minis, Granola Bars and Crispy Squares Variety Pack (try them all!)
• Made Good Strawberry Granola Minis

 

Tree Hugger Gum (our favorite all natural allergy-friendly gum)

• Variety Pack
• Variety Tube Pack
• Bubble Gum Filled Pops (WE LOVE THESE!)
• Mini Gum Sticks

 

Try their Bubble Gum Filled Pops if you haven't!

SO good.

 

 

 

Bear Real Fruit Yoyos (all fruit, no added sugar)

• Sour Mango Apple Yoyos
• Strawberry Yoyos
• Sour Raspberry Apple Yoyos

 

Don't see your favorite allergy-friendly candy on the list? Let us know if we missed any! We are always looking for new options to try :) Happy October and Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (dairy-free, nut-free)

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This cake is essentially my pumpkin spice cake recipe, which can be found here. Except in boxed form! I spotted a gluten free non-gmo pumpkin cake mix at the store a while back. I decided to buy it just for a time when maybe I needed to make something quickly. Well that time came sooner than later! 

My daughter needed a couple of treats to bring to her homeschool program this week since there are a few birthday celebrations. I decided to go ahead and try out the mix I bought: Sun Flour Mills Pumpkin Cake Mix. 

I have to say, this is probably the first box mix that I was pleased with. Granted, I've only ever tried maybe three or four mixes.

I would definitely buy it again to have on hand for those moments when you need something quick.

So here's what I did:

I followed the directions on the box and combined all the ingredients (including 3 organic eggs) and I used an electric hand mixer to blend everything well. One thing I did add extra was more pumpkin spice (by Spicely) because we like a lot of spice.

This makes a lot of cake! My daughter wanted cupcakes, because who doesn't? I only have one cupcake pan that makes 12 cupcakes. This mix states it makes 32 cupcakes. So I used a round cake pan for the rest of the batter.

*One thing to note about this mix is that it rises pretty high. My cupcakes almost overflowed, which resulted in some crispy edges that my daughter really enjoyed.

Frosting:

1/2 cup softened butter (I used organic earth balance)

8 oz softened cream cheese (I used daiya dairy-free cream cheese)

2 cups organic powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine and beat on low speed until light and fluffy.

Tip: Have a cute helper assist you with the icing of the cupcakes!

 

Happy Halloween!

Boy have we been busy! Homeschooling, crafting, and in general enjoying this Autumn season.

Sophie had her annual Halloween party with friends and it was a blast. For the cake, she wanted me to make a 2-layer vanilla bean cake. 

Above, Sophie painted the spooky cat at an art class! We love it.

We've been making pop-ups cards and she made a haunted house pop-up card for a friend.

If you need us, you'll find us at our craft table:

That's where we have been spending most of our days.

This morning we woke up to a small bit of snow, and we spent some time outside.

When we came in, Sophie had her usual post-snow warm coconut milk with cinnamon and maple (sometimes honey). This time there was a spider in it. Not really sure how he got there.

After that we made a fun, last-minute Halloween spider craft!

The spiders are our fingerprints, the web is watercolor resist.

We used dental floss for the spiders to hang from, and black embroidery thread for their little legs.

Happy Halloween! We hope you have a spooktacular day!

Roll a Pumpkin Game

Halloween is almost here and I wanted to share wih you a fun game that we've been playing.

It's fun for all ages, and we've even played it long-distance with family on Skype!

All you need is:

1) a pair of dice

2) paper

3) markers

4) the instructions which you can print here, which is courtesy of Julie at Happy Home Fairy.

Plus this game helps kids hone their counting skills!

One of our favorite parts of this game is when someone rolls a 10, which means you get to pick a person and draw a part that is missing from their pumpkin.

Like the picture above where my husband is drawing eyes on Sophie's pumpkin...

and this one below, where she drew a bunch of teeth on his pumpkin :)

Here's one of my pumpkins:

If you roll a 7, you have to draw a fun accessory on your pumpkin. We decided it could be anything-- a hat, scarf, earrings, hair, eyebrows, arms, etc.

It's a game with lots of laughs :)

Halloween Treats that are Nut-free and Gluten-free

It's that time of year again! Time for trick-or-treating and sweet treats.

Luckily I've got a handful of halloween treats that are both yummy and free of the top allergens.

Apple Fries

Cake Bars with Plum Icing

Boo-Nannas

Candied Orange Slices

Chocolate Banana Truffles

Spooky Chocolate Cheesecake Bites

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Still want more ideas? Check out last years post:

Halloween Traditions for Kids with Food Allergies.

 

Happy Halloween!

Our Jack-o-Lanterns are carved and we're ready for the trick-or-treaters to come this evening.

Hopefully no one spooky, no one frightening or gory!

We hope for princesses, some frogs here and there, friendly ghosts, fluttery butterflies and nice witches.

My butterfly and flower pumpkin

My husband's came out SO well! "Mr. Botkins King of the Pumpkins"

And we have our very own.... Rapunzel!!

Homemade Rapunzel costume and hair, thanks to my dad's wife Linda.

HUGE thanks :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Traditions for Kids with Food Allergies

As I mentioned before, I love hallowen! Yesterday I shared some allergy-free hallowen recipes and now I am going to let you know how we celebrate Halloween in our allergy-free house.

1) We have a Halloween Party every year for Sophie and some of her friends. Sophie LOVES it and looks forward to it every year. It's really important for kids with food allergies too, because you are able to easily control the environment (knowing that all the snacks/treats you serve are safe).

2) We always carve pumpkins together (pictures in another post!)

3) We hand out non-food treats to trick-or-treaters that come to our house: stickers, pencils, erasers, etc. Sophie loves this part, because she can hand out to kids and see all of their costumes.

4) Trick-or-Treating. This is where problems can arise, but we've found away around it. We are going to let her trick-or-treat at a few houses in the neighborhood - just for fun - and then when we get back, we have safe food treats and goodies to give her and we arranged to give the trick-or-treat candy to a neighbor. (here's a pic of some of the fun books I got this year for her treat bucket)

(Pumpkin Soup, Make-a-Face Stickerpad, Fancy Nancy's Halloween and Dinosaur Train Spooky Scavenger Hunt)

5) We BOO our neighbors.

6) We always do a variety of Halloween Crafts, which can be very safe and lots of fun.

We made puppets to go along with the song 5 Little Pumpkins

Halloween Puzzles (idea from dana made it)

and of course, the Halloween Party was a big hit!

Homemade caramel on apple slices

Homemade fruit salad, homemade fruit punch and plantain chips

We set up a craft table (this year we decorated wooden halloween-themed magnets)

Owl-themed treat bags this year :)

with fun goodies...

And there you have it. A safe, fun and simple halloween!

We're ready for the trick-or-treaters!

Recipes for Allergy-free Halloween Treats

Halloween just happens to be my favorite holiday, and October my favorite month.

Which is why I am kinda sad it's almost over!

If you are still looking for something yummy to make, I am going to share with you some fun allergy-free hallowen recipes from my recipe stash!

Chocolate & Banana Truffles

Spooky Chocolate Cheesecake Bites

Candied Orange Slices

Boo-Nannas

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Also, I found a few fun allery-free recipes from other bloggers to share:

Banana Mummies from Lexie's Kitchen (too cute!)

Chocolate Apples from Manifest:Vegan

Orange Snack-o-lantern Fruit Cups from Pink Parsley ** (I am making these on Halloween to surprise Sophie!)

** Allergy-free is a term I use loosely, since you can be allergic to just about anything. However, the recipes I shared above are free of some of the top allergens such as tree-nuts, gluten, sesame, eggs, etc.

Have a safe Halloween with healthy, allergy-free treats!