Safe Sugar Cookies ... yummm

Earlier this week a couple of our friends came over for the day. My friend and I are going to start doing more kid-exchanges ... I watch her kids on school holidays (like Monday) while she works and she will watch my kids on a day when I have to go out of town for work (a day I normally am off).

Anyway, the kids are the same ages as Big Guy and Little Guy, so they have lots of fun together.
I decided it would be fun to do a baking project with the kids since I know I have the right "safe" ingredients here at home. Whereas when she has the boys it will be harder to find non-allergy foods for a food project. Not that she doesn't' try! She's the one who made rice krispy treats for the boys at her daughter's party in Miracle Margarine.

So, I used Cherrybrook Kitchen's Sugar Cookies mix and Pillsbury frosting (dairy-free, unlike some other frostings) AND Halloween decorations. See how much fun the kids had decorating the cookies ....

(Oh and NO teasing about the newspapers on the counter. Yes, I am anal about getting the place too messy.)

and eating the cookies!

They were very easy to make -- yeah! The little guys could even roll the dough themselves. And the decorating was lots of fun. A successful (and safe) baking project.

Another Call

10 minutes ago ...

Ring Ring

Me: Hello

Little Guy's teacher: Hi. Little Guy grabbed another child's vanilla wafer today and just ate a bite. Do you want me to give him benadryl?

Me: (inward groan) Can you get a look at the ingredients first? They might just be all sugar. If you can't get the ingredients, go ahead and give him a dose ... lord knows he gets enough of it. But be forewarned he might barf.

Little Guy's teacher: I know he did before. I'm really sorry I don't know how he grabbed that cookie so quick.

Me: It's okay. He did the same thing to me the other day. He grabbed a piece of muenster cheese from his brother. I immediately yelled at him to spit it out. So, at most he swallowed a piece the size of a half a dime. But still, 10 minutes later he barfed.

Little Guy's teacher: Okay, I'll check the box and call you back.

5 minutes later .... Ring Ring

Little Guy's teacher: So far he is okay, but the cookies did have milk in it so I gave him the benadryl.

Me: Good. Hopefully he'll be okay. I'll be there soon.

Wish me luck!!!!!

Christmas Cookies He CAN Eat

Unfortunately, I can’t give my kids many of my favorite Christmas cookies from when I was a kid … peanut butter kisses, gingerbread cookies, fudge, or sugar cookies. Most of the cookie recipes call for an egg or two (or evaporated milk or cream cheese). I could use the Ener-G egg replacer, but for some reason I haven’t used it much.

But I am happy to say that I do have some yummy recipes to share with you. Big Guy, Little Guy and I made both of these cookies this weekend. (Thanks to my sister-in-law for the butterscotch shortbread recipe! We’ve been enjoying it for 2 years now.)

Butterscotch Shortbread

½ cup margarine, softened
½ cup shortening
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Beat butter, shortening and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour and salt. (Dough will be dry and crumbly; use hands to mix completely.)

Roll dough into rectangle, 15 X 7 inches, on lightly floured surface. Cut into 1 1/2-inch squares, or use cookie cutters to make shapes. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 25 minutes or until set. (These cookies brown very little, and the shape does not change.) Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Note: I don't have the patience to frost and decorate these after dealing with all the work of cut-outs, so I sprinkle green and red sprinkles on them before they go in the oven.

The next recipe, Holiday Oatmeal Cookie Brittle, was new to me. I found it on the Quaker Oats Web site when I was looking for info for my last blog entry, Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips (which happen to be dairy-free). I did use white chocolate chips for the marble effect, even though they contain some milk. I know Big Guy can tolerate that little bit of milk and I decided to give it a try for Little Guy. There are so few white chocolate chips in it and I don’t expect Little Guy to be eating large amounts of these treats.

(That is the strange thing about food allergies. Every person is so unique. It’s not always black and white … although for some people, it is black and white—any bit of the allergen can have severe effects.)

Another idea to make these cookies look fancy/Christmasy if you want or need to skip the white chocolate chips is to use other decorations, such as red and green sprinkles. The chocolate chips are really the main source of sweetness.

Holiday Oatmeal Cookie Brittle

2 cups Quaker oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small pieces (I used Miracle Margarine)
1 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups (12 oz.) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup white chocolate pieces

Edible gold dust (optional) (No, I did not use this stuff.)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two large cookie sheets with aluminum foil.
2. In large bowl, combine oats, flour and baking powder. Add butter. Beat on low to medium speed of electric mixer until crumbly. Add powdered sugar, brown sugar, water and vanilla. Beat on low speed until dough forms.
3. Divide dough in half. Place one-half on one cookie sheet; flatten with lightly floured hands into 13 x 9-inch rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat using remaining dough and second cookie sheet. (The Boys LOVED this part!!)
4. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until golden brown, rotating cookie sheets after 12 minutes. Remove cookie sheets to wire racks.
5. Sprinkle 1 cup dark chocolate pieces evenly over each large, warm cookie. Let stand 2 to 3 minutes. With spatula or knife, spread softened chocolate evenly over cookies. Sprinkle white chocolate pieces evenly over smooth chocolate on both cookies; let stand 2 to 3 minutes. With the tip of a knife, run through the white chocolate pieces, dragging them into the dark chocolate, making marble-like streaks. Sprinkle with gold dust, if desired. Cool completely. (Refrigerate 15 minutes to set chocolate, if necessary.)
6. Remove large cookies from cookie sheet and peel off foil. Break each into 24 pieces. Store tightly covered in a cool place.

I will stay on the look-out for Christmas cookie recipes that are okay for people who allergic to dairy, egg, peanut and tree nuts, but I’d also love to know if any of you have any recipes to share!!!

Creatures of Habit

Thanks to the blog, many of my friends have been asking me how Little Guy likes wheat since we got the go-ahead to add that to his diet from our allergist (see he CAN eat that!!!)

I think everyone (including myself) imagined that we would be stuffing him with wheat products all day long. But, in reality, old habits die hard and I haven't changed his diet too much.

PLUS, I have all those expensive non-wheat items to finish up. (No way am I throwing them out ... he WILL eat them.) For example, we found the Ener-G pretzels pretty good ... although my husband thinks they taste like stale pretzels, Little Guy LOVED them. And we have to finish off all the wheat-free pasta and cookies and the Nature's Choice breakfast bars, etc. etc.

I will say those breakfast bars must have been pretty darn good because when Little Guy was learning to talk, "Co-Co" was one of his first words (which actually says a lot about me as a mom). Co-Co meant cookie and he would stand under the cabinet where we kept them and point to cabinet shouting "Co-Co, Co-Co, Co-Co!" until we got him one.

Another reason I haven't given him a lot of wheat products is because most of the bread we currently have in the 'frig has a small amount of whey, casein or milk in it (whey and casein are products of milk). Big Guy can now tolerate that small amount in his bread, but I've got to get new bread for Little Guy .... I really have to do that.

It would probably also be good to get a few other grocery items since our refrigerator looks barren ... one sad yogurt, three sips of milk that are about to go bad, a bruised apple and some wilting broccoli. I'm a GREAT mom.

Anyway, I'll let you know what bread I find that has wheat but none of the other "taboo" ingredients.

P.S. Thanks to my loyal readers, Alma and Lynn, who encourage me to keep up this blog. :-)