Candy for Special Diets

With so many holidays celebrations that include candy and other treats that the kids can't eat, I'm always on the lookout for products that meet our needs. I think I hit the jackpot today! I haven't ordered from them yet, but I'm definitely going to.

The company is Natural Candy Store.com. They have a huge selection of candy and they label every single type of candy as to whether it's allergen-free, gluten-free, vegan, organic, suitable for Feingold Stage 1 or 2, corn syrup-free, Kosher, and Made in the USA.

Natural Candy Store.com offers all sorts of different types of jelly beans, gummy candies, hard candies, and gum, all without any of those artificial colors that drive my kids (and ultimately, ME!) up the wall. They even sell cotton candy, which is something I didn't think I'd ever be able to give my kids!

None of the candy is manufactured on site, but they do include all allergy information given to them from each company whose product they distribute. Works for me!

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GFCFEFSF Chocolate Cake

That's Gluten-free, Casein-free, Egg-free, Soy-free...in case anyone was wondering!

This is the cake I made for Nate's birthday. I used the recipe from my favorite allergy cookbook, The Super Allergy Girl Cookbook by Lisa Lundy. She has the recipe for Delicious Chocolate Cake posted on her site.

Delicious Chocolate Cake

This makes one great chocolate cake, and it is easy to mix up. This recipe does not work well with some flours like amaranth, sorghum and quinoa. For this recipe I would suggest the rice, tapioca, or potato flours and maybe even the garfava flour.

Preheat oven to 350°.

3 cups gluten-free flours (for example 1½ cups rice flour and 1½ cups tapioca flour)
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2½ teaspoons xanthan gum
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1¾ cups cold water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add liquid ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 9” x 13” ungreased baking pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick or cake tester or if top bounces back if touched lightly with your finger. This cake freezes well. Promptly freeze any leftovers.


I made a few changes to suit our family:

Delicious Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350°.

3 cups gluten-free flours (I used 1½ c rice flour, 1 c tapioca flour, and 1/2 c potato starch)
2 c sucanat
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking soda
½ c unsweetened dark cocoa powder
(Since I had only dark cocoa powder on hand, I also added
1 1/2 tsp baking powder)
2½ tsp xanthan gum
¾ c expeller-pressed coconut oil (I know that Lisa is allergic to coconut, so she would never use this, but it works well for our family.)
2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c cold water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add liquid ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 9” x 13” ungreased baking pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick or cake tester or if top bounces back if touched lightly with your finger. This cake freezes well. Promptly freeze any leftovers.

I frosted half of the cake with Chocolate Frosting and the other half with Cream Cheese Frosting. Both recipes are in Lisa's cookbook. I wanted to note that both of them have soy in them. We're not allergic to soy; we just like to limit it for health reasons.

Honestly, the cake is so moist that it would probably be good without frosting, or maybe just a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

We hadn't had any sugar at all for awhile, and Nick also got some of our favorite Stewart's Root Beer, so we all had quite a sugar rush afterwards!

Ricemellow Crispy Bars

I made these for the kids for Thanksgiving because they can be made gluten and casein-free. They do, however, have soy in them.

I got the recipe from the Ricemellow Creme website. I doubled the recipe and I also melted some extra chocolate chips with a little bit of Spectrum Organic Shortening and then iced the bars with that.

It was a big hit with the kids. :)

Ricemellow Crispy Bars

2 generous cups Suzanne's Ricemellow Creme
1 Tbsp butter substitute
2 cups dairy-free chocolate chips
6 cups gluten-free crispy brown rice cereal

Heat butter or substitute in small saucepan.

Add Ricemellow Creme and stir until smooth.

In a separate bowl, combine cereal and chocolate chips.

Gently mix warm Ricemellow into cereal mixture.

Moisten hands and press into 13 x 9" pan.

Chill until firm.

Cut into squares; store in refrigerator.

Eczema Relief Salve

Poor JJ has had such a tough time dealing with eczema recently. I've tried everything, but I think that he has a food allergy/intolerance that is causing, or at least aggravating it.

I want to get him tested using Optimum Health Resource Laboratories but I just don't have the funds right now.

Until then, I'm keeping his skin well moisturized. JJ is very fussy about what I put on his skin. He doesn't like any creams, saying that all of them burn. I was using coconut oil mixed with some lavender essential oil, but he didn't like the oiliness. So, I made the following salve for him the other day. It seems to moisturize well, and it provides some relief from the itching. While I won't say that he likes it, he tolerates it. That's good enough for me!

Salve

2 parts shea butter
2 parts cocoa butter
1 part beeswax
1 part expeller pressed coconut oil or other natural oil
1 Vitamin E softgel capsule
Lavender Essential Oil (I use Young Living)

Melt shea butter, cocoa butter, beeswax, and coconut oil over low heat, stirring constantly. When everything has melted, remove from heat.

Using a sterilized needle, puncture the Vitamin E capsule and add the contents to the salve, stirring well. Stir in a few drops Lavender Essential Oil, adding more if desired.

Immediately pour into glass jars. Let cool and cover tightly.

Gluten-Free Play Dough

Play-Doh has gluten and dyes in it that affect JJ and GracieGirl, even if they're just touching it and not eating it. (I could be wrong, but to my knowledge, the only person in this house who currently tries to eat Play-Doh is E!) Anyway, we make our own gluten-free play dough. I really dislike the smell of Play-Doh, so I love the homemade stuff almost as much as the kids do! Sometimes we add a couple drops of lemon or orange essential oil, but we usually just make the plain old, regular variety!

Gluten-Free Play Dough

½ cup rice flour
½ cup cornstarch
½ cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon oil
Natural food coloring, if desired
Extra rice flour

Mix all ingredients, except additional rice flour, in a medium saucepan.
Cook and stir over low heat for several minutes, until it forms a ball. When cool,
knead well, adding additional rice flour, if needed, until dough is no longer sticky.

Store in a zippered plastic bag. I keep ours in the refrigerator.

JJ made pepperoni pizza and spaghetti with play dough. I think that E messed up the spaghetti before I could get a picture, but that pizza looks good enough to eat!

W.M.E.S.

Yep, it's Worst Mom Ever Syndrome, and I've got it, big time.

First, of course, the excuses:

1. I was tired. I remember when I used to say I was tired. I was clueless. I had no idea what tired really was. Tired is when falling asleep at 2:00am is considered early. Tired is getting woken up, time and time again, by pain and by children, during the few hours that I'm actually in my bed. Tired is feeling nauseated and light-headed, solely because of lack of sleep.

2. I was in pain. Meals have not been going very well around here. Sometimes, I just want to be able to throw a pre-made dinner in the microwave and call it good, instead of having to make everything from scratch, all the time. Nick has had to make all of the meals, and between the cooking and taking care of the kids and me and the house, dinner is often really late, which doesn't make for happy kids or happy parents! So, yesterday, I decided to help out. I got up and made Italian Meatballs and put them in the crockpot. I made another crockpot full of BBQ Chicken. I made Sloppy Joes, and Ranch Dip, and cookies, and bread. Since I can't usually stand long enough to make half a meal, this was a huge undertaking, and despite sitting down every few minutes and rolling around in my desk chair on wheels whenever possible, I was paying dearly for my efforts. Ouch.

3. It was just a little bit hectic in the kitchen. I was trying to get ready to go on a date with Nick. Yep, we were going to the bank together. It may not sound too romantic, but compared to last week's date at the dentist's office, I was looking forward to it. So, our wonderful mother's helper was here, and her little sister was here, and it was too hot to go outside so they were all underfoot, and loud, and hungry.

That's when I was hit with W.M.E.S. I was doling out food to the poor, starving children...and I gave E a slice of bread. The bread is the only baked good that I still make that has eggs in it, since Jay loves it so much, and I just haven't come up with an egg-free version that doesn't resemble a brick!

So, I gave E the bread, with eggs in it, and E is allergic to eggs.

What's really sad is that I didn't even realize what I'd done until later, after the romantic trip to the bank, when I was putting the bread away! I looked at the bread, caught my breath, and went to tell Nick what, as Worst Mom Ever, I'd done.

Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, E obviously didn't have a huge reaction. There are two eggs in the whole loaf of bread, and he sure didn't react the way he did when he actually ate a portion of scrambled eggs. He did get some hives, and this morning, he's still itching away. He's doing it with a smile on his face, though. Yes, he still loves me.

So, E is suffering with hives and I'm suffering with Worst Mom Ever Syndrome. I wonder which will last longer, his hives or my guilt...

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Gluten-Free Rice Flour Blend

3 cups brown rice flour (I use Lundberg Farms)
3 cups white rice flour (I buy from our local Asian or Indian grocery store)
2 cups potato starch (not flour)
1 cup tapioca starch

Mix all ingredients together with a large whisk. Store in refrigerator or freezer. Whisk or shake before using.