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!

Sensitive Sweets Gluten-free Gingerbread House Kit Review

Sensitive Sweets sent us a Gluten-free Gingerbread House Deluxe Kit to try out. We had so much fun putting it together.

First off, let's talk about the company! Sensitive Sweets is a small business created by Melanie, a mom of two boys. Her son Bradley was diagnosed as a baby with severe food allergies and eczema. 

Her story really hits home for me, as my daughter Sophie was also diagnosed with severe food allergies and severe eczema as a baby. Her diet was EXTREMELY limited and since I was nursing her, so was mine. Melanie talks about this same experience with her son. We are both mama warriors, and I am so glad that something amazingly positive came out of her and her sons challenges -- a company that is dedicated to making allergen-friendly products to serve families in the same situation.

Melanie has two bakeries in California, and if we ever find ourselves traveling to California.. this will be our first stop!

Their Gluten-free Gingerbread House Kit is free of dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts and tree nuts. It's made in a dedicated facility.

They have two options: Regular Gingerbread House Kit for $29.95 and the Deluxe Kit for $39.95. The Regular Kit comes with gingerbread cookie walls and roof, icing mix (just add water), plastic holiday trees and rings for decoration. The Deluxe Kit includes all of that PLUS a tub of vanilla frosting and organic dye-free candies.

Now let's talk about the kit and our experience putting it together.

My daughters thoughts on the kit: It was SUPER fun, and the cookies smelled and tasted wonderful!

Full disclosure: I totally goofed up the icing powder. The directions said to slowly add warm water, and I kind of poured way too much water. Luckily, I had a bag of organic powdered sugar so I dumped it into the mix and it fixed it immediately. It ended up making a very nice icing, and perfect for securing the walls and roof together. So if you buy this kit, and make the same mistake I did... just know that all you need is a bag of powdered sugar!

While we waited for the walls and roof to dry, we did some art projects! I highly recommend Art for Kids Hub. We've been following them for a couple years now, a dad and his kids draw and do art together. They share tutorials and it's a lot of fun!

We used cans to prop the walls while the icing dried.

Okay --- so once the walls and roof were secured, we were able to start decorating the house.

Decorating the house is the best part! 

We used the icing that came in the tub to decorate and apply the candies.

Thanks to Sensitive Sweets, my daughter was able to put together her first gluten-free gingerbread house and it certainly won't be our last. This will be a yearly tradition and we will look forward to supporting a local company, created by an amazing mom!

We had to taste test the icing and do quality control checks along the way, of course.

Follow me on Facebook, we went live and you can still watch the video on the gingerbread house kit! You can also follow me on instagram and snapchat (username: lifeglutenfree).

Do you make your own gingerbread house or use a kit? We would love to hear from you, comment below or on Facebook. 

 

Chocolate Fudge (no dairy, no soy)

I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas and a great start to the New Year. We had a relaxing Christmas and then took a small trip for New Years.

We spent time in one of our favorite places, Breckenridge. We snowshoed and enjoyed the beauty around us. We headed to Manitou Springs to ring in 2016. I treasure time with my family and I am looking forward to what this year brings us.

When I was a child, we lived in a place that did not get much snow. It was always our tradition to make fudge whenever it did snow. My dad would make my grandpa's fudge recipe, which was the perfect fudge - rich, velvety and very chocolatey. 

The fudge I made today was so good, and my daughter loved it. The ingredients are very different from when I was a child, and I feel great that I can re-create a childhood memory for my own daughter with ingredients that work for us now.

I hope you try it and enjoy it with your loved ones.

Fudge (no dairy, no soy, paleo-friendly)

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup dark chocolate chips 

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup coconut cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)

1 ripe avocado

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

4 tablespoons maple syrup

dash of sea salt

Directions:

In a double broiler, melt the coconut oil, coconut cream and dark chocolate chips. Once melted, add to a food processor with the avocado, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, maple syrup and dash of sea salt. Process ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Pour into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish. Refrigerate for a few hours until well set, then slice into squares and enjoy!

 

How to Make Fruit Leather

Last Summer we made fruit leather and we are at it again! Fruit leather is simple to make and super fun / easy for kids to help. Sophie loves making fruit leather!

This time we made apple fruit leather with local organic apples. We made one batch with apple and one batch with apple and banana. Sophie prefers the addition of the banana.

There are a couple of ways to make fruit leather, including using your oven. That's not what I do though. We have an excalibur dehydrator. This keeps the oven free for other things and also doesn't heat up the house.

You can use pretty much any type of fruit you want. We've made peach leather and plum leather. I think blueberry fruit leather would be good too, we might have to try that next.

So here's how we do it. We blend fruit with a little lemon juice (helps the fruit not brown) and then spread it onto our dehydrator sheets. We turn our dehydrator on about 105 degrees fahreinheit and it takes about 10 hours. You know when the fruit leather is done because it easily peels up off the sheets and doesn't stick.

Another easy treat to make with your dehydrator is banana chips. Sophie also enjoys helping make those! I think making fruit leather is the perfect activity to transition from Summer to Autumn.

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.

 

Apple Fries

Yesterday was a rainy, chilly day letting us know that Fall is on the way.

We already have some Halloween Decor out. Wer'e ready!

These apple fries are a perfect treat for any day, especially after coming home from playing at the park.

At least Sophie thinks so! She loved them.

Apple Fries

no: gluten, grains, dairy, soy, tree nuts, sesame, eggs

Ingredients:

Coconut Oil

Apples

Cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

Depending on how many people you are feeding, you can use one apple or five. Or more!

I used organic gala apples for this recipe but I'm sure other varities would work well too.

Chop your apples into slices, similar to french fry size and shape.

Heat about a tablespoon of coconut oil in a stainless steel skillet on medium heat.

Start to cook a batch of fries, not crowding the pan too much.

Flip and cook on both sides when the apples are very lightly browned.

Be sure to not overcook them or they will become mushy.

Add more coconut oil if it becomes necessary (they don't use as much as potato fries do).

Serve on a plate with a dusting of cinnamon or any spice you prefer!

4th of July Firecrackers Craft

Our 4th of July included more pie (this time apricot banana) and these special firecrackers that I made for Sophie.

We live in Colorado where some of the fires have been, so needless to say all of the firework shows were canceled. So what better thing to do than improvise! I had everything on hand to make these faux fireworks, except for a few fun things to stuff them with.

So I went to our local toy store and purchased a few things (the total was under $5). I picked out some cute japanese erasers and two plastic figurines (an effiel tower because Sophie wants to go to Paris someday, and a statue of liberty.. which seemed fitting for the 4th of July!).

I also had some St. Claires organic candy pastilles on hand, so I wrapped a few in tissue paper (so they won't roll around inside the firecrackers).

Then I gathered my supplies. These came together really quick -- a quick project that could be used for New Years, Birthdays or just because!

Firecrackers Craft

Supplies:

Double sided tape (you could also use a glue stick, a glue gun or glue dots)

Toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes cut in half

Tissue paper

Pipe cleaners

Treats for filling (stickers, erasers, organic candy, coins, etc)

Directions:

For each firecracker, you want to use 2-3 layers of tissue paper cut into 10x10 squares.

Place the paper tube about half way between the tissue paper, but so there's slightly more tissue paper on one end (this will be the top part).

Using the double sided tape, roll the paper tubes around the issue paper securing it as you go.

Take a small piece of pipe cleaner and twist one end of the tissue paper to secure it. (see photo above)

Tuck in that end, this will be the bottom end of the firecracker.

Turn the firecracker upright and add your treats.

Twist the top piece of tissue paper and use a long pipe cleaner stem to secure.

I twisted my pipe cleaner around a pencil to make it squiggly.

Add stickers, decorative washi tape, ribbon or whatever you would like.

Have fun!

Funny Fruity Easter Bunny

This is our good friend, the funny fruity easter bunny. He took me about ten minutes to configure, and probably about five minutes or less for Sophie to devour. 

Ears: pear & banana

Eyes: banana & raisins

Nose/Whiskers: banana with dried mango cut into whisker shapes

Mouth/Teeth: raisins & carrots

I hope you all have a very Happy Easter! I'll be back next week to share a fun popsicle recipe that I created to celebrate the warm sunny Spring days we've been having (minus the 3 inches of snow we got on Tuesday. But that's just totally normal for here. Carry on.)