Top 8 Free White Chocolate and Make Your Own Easter Bunnies - Guest Post for KFA

Are you tired of all the allergen warnings on Easter chocolate?

I am too, which is why I decided to make my own chocolates this year! Head over to the Kids with Food Allergies Blog to see how easy it is to make Easter goodies you know you kids can enjoy!

Make your own Chocolate Easter Bunnies!

All pictured sweets are Top 8 Free!

http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/blog/how-to-make-allergy-friendly-chocolates-easter-bunnies

But that's not all! You can also read Part 2:

Top 8 Free White Chocolate Recipe!

That's right, you can make and sculpt your own white chocolate! Go see how it's done!

http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/blog/how-to-make-dairy-free-white-chocolate

White Chocolate recipe will be shared on Allergy Free Wednesdays and Gluten Free Fridays

Keeping Green Eggs out of the Classroom

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday, which has nationally become known as Read Aloud Day. This is a great opportunity to increase literacy in younger children by sharing Dr. Seuss's extensive collection of great kids books. Many preschool and elementary school teachers include crafts inspired by the books as a way to increase excitement and student involvement with the stories.

Unfortunately, the mass popularity of Green Eggs and Ham sometimes leads to the exclusion of kids with egg allergies when real eggs get involved.

Nobody likes to see their child get excluded--especially when a dangerous item gets brought into the classroom. If your child has an egg allergy, it's not too late to ask your child's teacher what her/his plans are for the day, and to steer them towards a safer way to celebrate.

Here are some great suggestions, and a Google search for "Dr. Seuss crafts" will point you towards dozens more!

Cat in the Hat hats

These are easy to make and involve only a paper plate, large sheets of red and white construction paper, glue, scissors, and a stapler.

Cut out the flat center part of the paper plate. Cut red stripes roughly two inches wide from the red construction paper (this can be done in advance for younger kids.)

Glue red stripes onto a white piece of construction paper. Curl the striped paper into a tube and insert the bottom 2-3 inches into the hole in the paper plate. Glue or staple the tube together.

Cut 2 inch slits in the bottom of the tube and fold the resulting flaps under the rim of the paper plate. Staple the flaps to the plate to secure the two pieces together.

Bingo! It's the Cat's Hat! (You could secure it with string or elastic if the kiddos are going to be wearing it for a long time.)

Cat mask courtesy of my seven-year-old

Handprint Thing 1 and Thing 2

What child doesn't like to paint with their hands? These are fun to make and a great keepsake to remember how small their hands are!

Start by painting the child's palms and all fingers EXCEPT the middle finger with red paint.

Have them place their hands on a piece of paper with the fingers towards the edge. Having an adult press down on the top of their hands before lifting will make sure fewer gaps are left. Have the child wash their hands and then return.

Paint the child's palm white and their fingers blue, getting a little blue onto the perimeter of the palm as well. Flip the red handprints upside down and line up each hand so that the red handprint is a Thing's body, the new white palm will be the head, and the fingers are the hair. Again, have the child wash their hands.

Once the paint is dry, add a white spot to the center of the body, and then draw features on the face. Write "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" in the white circle once that paint is dry.









Toilet Paper Tube Horton with Clover

This loveable elephant is easy to make, although younger kids may need an adult to cut out Horton's features.

Have the children paint toilet paper tubes gray. Allow to dry.

While waiting, have the children cut out Horton's ears, trunk, and make a black fringe for hair. You can use construction paper or craft foam.

Glue these in place, and then use a marker to draw Horton's features.

Glue a pom pom to the end of a chenille stem for the clover, and glue a speck of paper for the dust speck, if you like.



With a little creativity, there's no need for any children to be left out of the Dr. Seuss Day festivities. Remember, the moral of Green Eggs and Ham is that we should be willing to try new things! That goes for educators too!

Credit where credit is due: I got the hat ideas from this blog, the handprint things from this blog, and Horton from this blog.

Slow-Cooker BBQ Pork

I love my crockpot! It's so nice to dump all the ingredients in one big pot and let time do the cooking all day. I'll use it any time I get the chance!

Another thing I love is pulled pork. I've shared my Hawaiian Pork recipe before, so today I'll share how to make a succulent barbecue pork in your crockpot!

The crockpot also makes this a great party food! I served it at our Superbowl Party, and the crockpot kept it warm and safe throughout the whole game!

Slow-Cooker BBQ Pork

Recipe by Eileen Rhoadarmer - 2nd Generation Allergy Mom

Top 8 free! (At least, it is if you're using safe bbq sauce!)

Prep time: 15-20 min
Cook time: 18 hours**
Total time: 19 hours**
Ingredients

• 1 pork shoulder or butt roast
• 2 onions, sliced
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• barbecue sauce of your choice

Cooking Directions

1. Layer one sliced onion in the bottom of your crockpot.
2. Place pork roast on top of onion.
3. Pour vinegar all over roast.
4. Layer second sliced onion on top.
5. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours**, turning if necessary. (I've never turned mine.)
6. Once tender and shredable, siphon out the juices. Discard, or allow to separate if you'd like to add a little back in or keep for another purpose. Once separated, discard the fat.
7. Using two forks, shred the pork. Remove any bones or large pieces of fat that remain (most of the fat will have cooked down, and you removed it with the juices.)
8. Stir the shredded meat until evenly distributed with the onions in the crockpot. Add approx. 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce, or more to taste. Add back some of the strained juices if you want to give it more tang. Stir again to distribute the sauce.
9. Cover and continue cooking on low for 4-6 more hours**, or until flavors have married.
10. Serve plain or on a bun and top with more of your favorite sauce, if desired.

This is really all you need!

Layer one sliced onion in the bottom of your crockpot.

Place pork roast on top of onion. Pour vinegar all over roast. (I didn't have quite enough apple cider vinegar left, so I made up the balance with white wine vinegar. Still came out great!)

Layer second sliced onion on top.

Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours**, turning if necessary. (I've never turned mine.) It'll come out looking like this.

Once tender and shredable, siphon out the juices. Discard, or allow to separate if you'd like to add a little back in or keep for another purpose. Once separated, discard the fat. (I suppose this step isn't 100% necessary, but it removes fat, and the pork would've been really sloppy with all that juice!)

Using two forks, shred the pork. Remove any bones or large pieces of fat that remain (most of the fat will have cooked down, and you removed it with the juices.)

Stir the shredded meat until evenly distributed with the onions in the crockpot. Add approx. 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce, or more to taste. Add back some of the strained juices if you want to give it more tang (I added back maybe 1/2 cup.) Stir again to distribute the sauce.

Cover and continue cooking on low for 4-6 more hours**, or until flavors have married.

Serve plain or on a bun and top with more of your favorite sauce, if desired.

**A note on cook times. I have an older crockpot, with just "high" and "low" settings. With the newfangled ones out there, cook times probably do not need to be as long. Instead of starting it the night before, you could start it in the morning for an evening meal. Just make sure it shreds easily after the first cook time, and give it a few hours with the bbq sauce to let the flavors marry.

Linking up at Allergy Free Wednesdays and Gluten Free Fridays

Top 8 and Gluten Free Cut-Out Sugar Cookies with Aquafaba Royal Icing

This pair of recipes came out of the need to provide safe food for my family at two different events. The first was for Zax's class Gingerbread Party. The sign-up sheet came home, asking for parents to provide icing or decorations for the party. I signed up for icing and then chatted with the teacher the next morning. I know that oftentimes, Royal Icing is used for gingerbread houses because it dries very hard and strong, making a good "glue" for the houses. Was the recipe going to involve egg?

Royal Icing was the original plan and Zax's teacher had been searching the internet trying to find a safe alternative. I told her I knew of a way (aquafaba) to make Royal Icing without the egg, and then I wound up volunteering to make a batch for each table in Zax's classroom, because I didn't want anyone in the classroom using a sticky frosting with egg in it.

The second event I needed safe food at was Kal's preschool's Winterfest--an evening winter carnival to celebrate the holidays. I signed up to bring gluten free cookies because I needed to make something also be egg free, and all of the regular cookie slots were filled. Plus, I had TONS of gluten free flour left over from my top 8 free Pumpkin Bundt Cake experiments, and some soy-free Earth Balance too, so I decided to make my cookies top 8 free for the benefit of anyone with allergies!

Gluten-Free Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Top 8 free!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Soy-Free Earth Balance (3 sticks) or similar dairy-free "butter" substitute, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 Tbsp Ener-G egg replacer + 8 Tbsp water (or 4 eggs equivalent of your favorite egg replacer)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 5 cups gluten free flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

Cream Earth Balance and sugar.

Beat in Ener-G and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until fully combined.

Cover/wrap and chill 1+ hours.

When ready to bake, heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll out cookies and cut. I would've dusted the surface with gluten free flour, but I tried rolling them out on the plastic wrap I had refrigerated the dough in, and it worked well to keep them from sticking to the table. I did dust my cutters with GF flour before cutting though.

Place 1 inch apart on cookie sheet. Since my cookie sheets normally bake things containing gluten and I needed these to be truly gluten free for others at the preschool party, I lined my baking sheets with parchment paper first. Just in case.

Bake for 6 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool completely.

I transferred the parchment paper directly to the cooling racks. I don't think my racks carried as much cross contact risk, but this was easier. It made clean-up easier too!






Now to decorate!

Aquafaba Royal Icing
Top 8 free and vegan!
Put together from multiple recipes shared on the fabulous Facebook group, Vegan Meringue Hits and Misses

Ingredients

• 1 can Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) -- you'll need 11 Tbsp of the liquid (aquafaba)
• 2 lbs (one full bag) powdered sugar
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp clear vanilla

Directions

Drain the liquid (aquafaba) from your chickpeas, carefully reserving the liquid. Pack away the chickpeas for later use, you won't need them for this recipe.

Measure out 11 Tbsp of the liquid into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl.

Add the powdered sugar...

...cream of tartar...

...and vanilla.

Stir together at low speed until all ingredients are moistened, to prevent it from flying everywhere.

Once incorporated, increase speed to high and beat for 7-10 minutes, until stiff. A butter knife drawn through it should leave a line behind.

Spoon into a piping bag and remove all air. You can do the same with a ziploc bag for children, just snip off the corner. This is what I did with the frosting for Zax's class.

Be aware, this is very thick and hard to manipulate. This frosting is like cement!

And here's a trick for piping bags, if you haven't seen it already! This has made cleaning up frosting sooooo much easier for me!

Start by tearing off a large piece of plastic wrap and laying it flat on your counter. Place your icing in the middle of the piece.

Fold the plastic wrap over the frosting and squeeze any air out the ends. Then grab the ends and spin it around. This seals the icing inside a special little "pouch" of icing. Tie one end off to prevent the icing from leaking out.

Insert a coupler into your icing bag and then place this plastic wrap pouch into your icing bag. Grab the end of the plastic wrap and pull it through until the icing is in place.

Cut off the end of the plastic wrap and then insert a tip.

Pipe as usual. When you're done, you can pull the plastic wrap pouch right out, and there is very little mess inside the icing bag to clean up!

Use your icing to glue together a gingerbread house...

...to make flowers or other small designs to dry and use as decorations...

...or to make pretty designs on your cookies!

Happy baking and decorating! We're very close to Christmas, have a Merry and Bright, not to mention Safe, Holiday!

Linking up at Allergy Free Wednesdays and Gluten Free Fridays