Gluten and Dairy Halloween Candy

It's October! I am going to try to be more here the month of October and give you lots of neat ideas and recipes for gluten and dairy free Halloween treats. I'm starting off with a company today that I have worked with in the past and I love the selection they have. The Natural Candy Store has a great selection of gluten and dairy free candy that you can swap out the candy they get trick-or-treating. Out here camping they do three weekends of trick-or-treating plus we go out for Halloween. That is a ton of candy that my kids gather. They have no problem handing the candy back out to other trick-or-treaters but a few pieces of candy are nice to have. There are several different candies that I ordered this year to trade out along with some candy I can buy at my local health stores. We don't do many sweets but when all the other kids are having something special it is nice to be part of that group.

Here are some candies that I love from them.

 Gummi Jack o Lanterns they are corn free too!
Sour Worms
Gummy Spooky Spiders
Natural Candy Mix suckers, gummy worms and gum

I also order my food coloring from them and I have not had a problem with any colors. In fact I prefer the natural food colors over the ones I can buy locally because the colors are more true colors.

Black
Orange
Yellow
Red
Green
Blue
Purple

Now I have a challenge for you. I know we all like to get free stuff and as soon as my Facebook page hits 200 likes I will give away an awesome gift box full of gluten free yummies! The faster we reach this goal the more items will go into the box. Help me reach this goal by sharing with your friends and family please.

Caden's Little Einstein Birthday

Today is my baby's birthday. He turns three and for his cake he wanted Little Einstein. If you don't know who they are check them out here. I started with the cake recipe from Living Without which can be found here. I made it just like the recipe said but in the last step I added some natural orange food coloring because Caden wanted an orange colored cake. It turned out great, a bit dense but still tasted great.

Happy Birthday Caden!!

Fast Friday - DIY Steam Bags

I love my local farmers market! I don't know about you but I have a local farmer who is organic and when we stopped in last Wednesday they had both pears and potatoes. Around here organic potatoes are hard to find so I bought a box of them. A few weeks ago there was a post on Facebook that was a link to make your own freezer bag potatoes. The link that was posted was this one and I followed the instructions given but with organic potatoes! I am so excited to try these come winter when it is even harder to find organic potatoes.When you go to use them just poke a vent hole in the bag when you warm them.

Steam Bag Potatoes
What you need:

potatoes (organic if possible)
Seal a Meal (or another similar system)

Directions:

Yes, Caden helped me take the picture.

Peel, cube and boil till almost done. You want to be able to stick a fork into them but still holding their shape. Drain and let cool so it is easier to bag. Place desired amount of potatoes in bag depending on how big of serving you want. I did both large and small bags for just family and holiday meals. Label and freeze for later!

Souper Sunday - Sweet Slow Cooker Chili

I know I have been MIA for a while but it will be worth it. I've been taking some family time and trying to get my pain levels back down where I can cook again. Here is a treat for you to enjoy and it is the start of more fall recipes to come your way.
I received Rudi's new tortilla shells and while they are great as tortilla shells, I wanted to make something different with the too. What I love about their shells is when you warm them the shells puff. Like real tortilla shells! You don't even have to warm them to eat them! I am in the process of trying to convince local stores to carry them so I can have more to experiment with. The recipe that I converted to gluten free was a new one for me but it will be a dish that we will keep making.

Sweet Slow Cooker Chili
adapted from Food Network

What you need:
1-2 lbs of stew meat
1 tsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 (12oz) gluten free beer or soda (I used cream soda)
1 (14-16oz) jar salsa (I used a mild sweet salsa)
4 Rudi's Fiesta tortilla shells, torn into bite size pieces
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
2 cans beans (I used one kidney bean and one black bean)
4 cups broth (veggie, chicken or beef)

Directions:
Add oil to the bottom of a large pot and brown the stew meat. Sprinkle salt onto meat while browning each side of the meat. Remove the meat and place into slow cooker. Add all remaining ingredients to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cook on high heat for 8 hours or until meat is tender. Give a final stir and taste for additional spices before serving. The tortilla shells dissolve into the chili and help thicken the chili.

Souper Sunday - Gluten and Dairy Free Northwoods Chicken Soup

During the month of September I am going to post easy but yummy soups. Today's soup was a favorite of my cooking group and was often in our cooking rotation. This was before my family went gluten and dairy free. As fall is approaching I'm in the mood for soup again and this soup was one I wanted to try again. I am pleased with the results and while it doesn't have the original 1 1/2 cups of half and half, it is still creamy. With using tapioca starch the soup almost gels when cool but if you heat it back up again it will be creamy again. I have not tried freezing the soup like the original one because it did not last long enough. Cameron loved the soup and if I get him to eat and like new foods it is worth sharing. There are some people who do not like the texture of the wild rice and if they are in your family you can use brown rice instead.

Northwoods Wild Rice Soup
adapted from Food.com

What you need:
1/2 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup butter substitute
6 Tablespoons tapioca starch
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed
10 oz chicken broth
1 1/2 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups dairy free milk (I used coconut)
2 cups cooked wild rice

Directions:
In one bowl combine tapioca starch, salt, thyme and paprika. Also have milk, chicken broth and worcestershire sauce together and ready to add to the roux you make. Melt the butter in a large pot and add onion and celery. Saute until the onion and celery is tender. Stir in the bowl of tapioca starch and spices and cook for about a minute, until it starts to thicken. Add in milk and chicken broth and stir, stir, stir! It will thicken into a gel for a second but keep stirring and it will smooth out. Add in chicken, bacon and wild rice and cook till thickened. Enjoy!
If you freeze it let me know how it is please.

Cameron asked for another bowl before bed.

Wonderful Wednesday - Filled Cupcakes

 

I don't know about your family but my boys long for things they see others eating. Cameron has been asking since before we were gluten free if I would make filled cupcakes. So, yesterday while he was in school I decided to try to make some. I was almost late picking him up from school but when he leaned why he was so excited to try one. The cupcake recipe is based off of this one from Elena's Pantry but I used what I had on hand.

Chocolate Filled Cupcakes
What you need for cupcakes:

1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Coconut flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1/4 cup dairy free butter substitute
1/3 cup sugar

What you need for the filling:
MimiCream Healthy Top
1 tsp vanilla
powder sugar to taste

What you need for the chocolate top:
1/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
1 tsp coconut cream

Directions:
Put the Healthy Top into the fridge and a metal mixing bowl into the freezer. Mix together the dry ingredients until combined. Add in the eggs, butter substitute and sugar mixing after each addition. Line 6 muffin tins with liners and add the batter to them. Bake at 350 degrees for 19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and making filling.

Remove the mixing bowl out of the freezer and the Healthy Top from the fridge. Add the Healthy Top to the mixing bowl and whip on high speed till thick. Add the vanilla and powder sugar if desired and whip till combined.

When the cupcakes are cooled take a sharp knife and hallow out the center leaving a plug for the middle. I ran my knife around in a circle and then at an angle to pop the middle out. Fill each cupcake with 1 tsp to 1 1/2 tsp of the healthy top filling and add saved cupcake piece back into the middle. When all six are filled combine the chocolate chips and coconut cream in a small dish. Melt in the microwave 15 seconds at a time till melted and smooth. Frost each cupcake with the chocolate making sure the filling does not show. Add a few spoonfuls of the Healthy Top mixture to a zip top bag and clip the corner off to make a pastry bag. Pipe the swirl design onto the top of each cupcake. You can practice on wax paper before you pipe the cupcakes. Enjoy!

I think these would be a hit at school!

Misc. Monday - Grapes

When I made the butterflies for the school snack I was unsure how many grapes I would need to fill the bags. Needless to say I had more grapes than I needed and after Caden sat on them I needed to use them up. We decided to can them as I only buy US grapes and in the winter they can be hard to find. I'm even going to see if I can use canned grapes in 24 hour salad. They are super easy to do and when I can't find US grapes this winter we will still be eating grapes!

Canning grapes
What you need:

Ripe grapes (2lbs per quart)
light or medium syrup*
pint or half pint jars

Directions:
Ladle a 1/4 cup syrup into half pints or 1/2 cup syrup into pints. Fill with grapes leaving 1/2 inch head space. Finish filling with syrup, remove air bubbles, clean rims and place caps on. The grapes process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. 


*Syrup
Light syrup is 2 1/4 cups sugar to 5 1/4 cups of water
Medium syrup is 3 1/4 cups sugar to 5 cups of water

Directions: Combine sugar and water together in an appropriate size pot and heat until sugar is dissolved.