Allergy-Friendly Cookie Trays

When the PTO(Parent Teacher Organization, for those of you without school-aged kids) committee sign up sheet goes out in the beginning of the year, one of the committees I always sign up for is Hospitality.  Baking is an easy, painless thing to do when asked and can be done at my own convenience since most baked goods can sit a spell tightly wrapped in the freezer.

Today, each member of the committee was asked to bring in 2 trays of cookies for Holiday Staff Appreciation.

These are the trays, I'm bringing in.



I baked another batch of Sugar Cutouts and piped them out properly when SB was in school the other day.



And this is the sheet I printed up to lay next to them.  Yes, I realize that I accidentally put Merry Christmas instead of the more generic Happy Holidays.  They're free cookies, anyone with an issue is just going to have to deal with it.

People with food allergies, celiac disease, or other food sensitivities get used to walking past the office break room during the holiday season.  Being surrounded by trays of baked goods can be tough, when you know a bite might make you sick.  I provided the ingredients list, because dairy-free can mean different things to different people.  I'm hoping my cookie trays and cookie map will make it easier for anyone on the staff with food sensitivities.

Thanks for popping in and checking out my cookie trays & cookie tray map.  I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesday.

Reindeer Pillow Cover

Nothing spruces up a sofa quite as quickly as new pillows.  With Christmas quickly approaching, I decided to make a few pillow covers, one of which is this Reverse-Appliqued Reindeer one.

Before

and After

Here's how I made it.  I cut out an 18" square of red felt and 2 18" x 10" rectangles of red felt.  I love using felt for holiday projects, because you don't need to hem the edges.  Yay!  Less work.

I printed out a clipart Reindeer, cut it out, and traced around it with a fabric marker onto the square of fabric.  You can use chalk, but this is the wrong side so, I wasn't worried about the color being seen.

I cut out the reindeer shape from the large square.

I covered up the hole with a scrap of gold stripey silk, (Yes, I know, I have the most ridiculously decadent fabrics in my scrap pile) and pinned it into place.

I used gold thread to outline the reindeer hole, attaching the silk, then sewed the pillow cover together with the flaps of the rectangles slightly overlapping.

Thanks for popping in for this quick & easy makeover.  I'm linking up to these parties.

Proud Mama

Whirling Dervish is one of those kids who can drive a parent nuts.  He's brilliant, but also ADHD, and therefore forgetful.  He scores in the 99th percentile, but has trouble turning his homework in.  He's lightning fast in tryouts, but lackadaisacal once he makes the elite travel team.  He's the kind of kid that teachers and coaches tell you has great potential if he'd just apply himself.

This is why this wrestling season has been so exciting for me as a parent.  When WD's coach told me how impressed he was with him, I thought, "We'll see."  When the coach said that he was such a hardworker and wanted to learn techniques only being taught to the veterans, I thought, "Really? My kid?"  When I would pick him up from practice and he was dripping with sweat and excited to tell me about what he had learned that day, I started to get excited, too.  When the coach said, "I'm putting him on the varsity" after only 3 weeks, I was flabbergasted.  He's a very young 14yo freshman, and most of the other wrestlers have at least 4 yrs under their belts with some of them wrestling since they were 5 or 6.

If you've been following my blog, you know that WD's varsity debut was delayed because he dislocated his shoulder a couple of weeks ago.  Well he just started practicing again on Wednesday.  And yesterday his coach let him wrestle one match at the Campbell-Savona Tournament.



That's my baby on the right listening to the announcer.



Here he is shooting on his opponent.  He was so fast, his foot is a blur.

He locked his opponent up in a cradle, and after 90 seconds pinned him, with his opponent's teammates close in and shouting.

And here's my baby, with the ref declaring him the winner.



Can you believe I'm playing Food Nazi to a kid that small?



This is his first season wrestling.  Ever.  And he's a varsity athlete that won his first match.  Ever.  With a pin.  In the first round.  Technically speaking he's 2 - 0 because he received a forfeit, too.  That's the only match he wrestled yesterday, because his coach was just testing his shoulder out.   Oh, and that kid he beat?  An almost 16 sophomore. 

What can I say I'm a proud, proud, mama.  Thanks for popping in and listening to me brag about my baby.

P.S. If you're wondering - those blue things aren't knee braces, some wrestlers wear pads to keep from getting mat burns on their knees.

Pure Decadence

I've been seeing these Brownie Covered Oreos absolutely everywhere in blogland.  Jenny at Picky Palate created these little drops of Pure Decadence.

Now I know all my gluten-free readers are calling me a giant tease, but I wouldn't do that to you.  These had been on my mind since I first came across them.  Today I figured why not?  Let's give it a try.  Obviously this wouldn't be as easy as dipping an Oreo in a box mix of Duncan Hines, but I like a challenge.  Now we don't have any special Christmas edition Oreos in the gluten-free world, but we do have sandwich cookies with white creme.  I used Glutino's brand sandwich cookies.

For the brownie coating, I mixed 1/2 cup(1 stick) melted butter, 1/2 cup applesauce, 2/3 cup agave nectar, 1/4 cup marshmallow creme, 1/3 cup melted chocolate and 1 tbsp vanilla in the bowl of my stand mixer.

In a separate bowl, I whisked together 3/4 cup garbanzo & fava bean flour, 1/4 cup potato starch, 1/4 cup arrowroot flour, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp salt, 2tsps baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp xanthan gum.

I mixed the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and then added 1/2 cup very hot water.  Be careful if you do not have the splash guard on your machine.  Start the machine up slowly until the water has incorporated then speed it up until the batter is smooth.

I dipped each oreo in the brownie mix, making sure it was coated on all sides

and placed each in a liberally greased muffin pan.

I placed the muffin pan in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.  Run a plastic knife around each brownie coated cookie when you pull the pan out of the oven.

Turn them out of the pan and let cool.  They should just pop right out of the pan.

You can eat them as is(very yummy, I had to eat one at this point for quality assurance) or when they've cooled you can drizzle on some melted white chocolate and sprinkles.

That's of course what I did.  These'll be going into school for the Staff Appreciation trays.  I'm on the Hospitality Committee and volunteered to bring in a few trays of cookies.

Thanks for popping in and enjoying this diet buster with me.  I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesday and Remodelaholic's Recipe Swap.

Stir-Fried Chicken & Noodles

Proper Nutrition is a huge part in what makes a successful wrestler.  Wrestlers who are constantly cutting large amounts of weight because they allow they're weight to bounce way back up in between tournaments suffer from being tired, hungry, thirsty, and cranky.  I've been helping Whirling Dervish stay within a pound or two of his weight class, by offering up nutritious meals that stay within the bounds of 1/4 starch, 1/4 protein, 1/2 vegetables.  This way when his shoulder is completely healed up and ready to go, he won't have 8lbs to drop. 

The trick here is that all the stuff that makes food tasty - salt, fat, sugar - are off the meal plan.  Salt can cause water retention which to a wrestler can be the difference between making weight and forfeiting.  While the body needs some fat, laying on the bacon grease for flavor is not something advised during the wrestling season.  As for sugar, well, those syrupy sauces can be calorie bombs.  And significant calories that don't have vitamins attached are out.

So what's a mom to do who doesn't want to feed her family food that tastes like cardboard?  Bring on the spices.  My half asian children can handle a bit of heat in their food.  CG, not so much.  But a large glass of milk gets him through.  I also make sure the veggies have texture.  Veggies shouldn't be cooked down to mush.  They should still have a bit of snap in the mouth.  Crunch makes a meal tastier.  Here's what we ate last night - A quick & easy Chicken & Noodle Stir Fry.

 Start by boiling a pot of water for the noodles.  I used Hodgson Mills gluten-free Spaghetti.  It's made from Brown Rice and Flax Seed Meal.  I love the addition of Flax Seed for the Vitamin E boost.  One package is only 8 oz.  That 1/2 pound is just the right amount for my quarter, quarter, half ratio.  I love that the starch portion is also high fiber with a vitamin boost.

Meanwhile, I chopped all of my veggies and placed them in ramekins.  Stir frying should be super fast over high heat.  Low heat for longer amounts of time will cause your veggies to steam and lose their crispness.  For this meal I chopped 1 onion, 2 large carrots, 2 stalks celery, 1 red pepper,  1/4 head of cabbage, 1 pkg fresh baby corn, 3 cloves garlic, 1 1/2 tbsps ginger, and opened up a can of sliced water chestnuts.  If you can't find fresh baby corn, you can use canned, but you may want to rinse the corn a few times to reduce the sodium.  I also sliced 1 1/2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts thinly.  Start up your wok over high heat.  Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp seseme oil.  Add onions.

Stir-fry the onions for a minute or 2 then add the ginger, garlic, and chicken.  You don't want to add the ginger and garlic right away, because allowing them to burn will create a pungent flavor that's too strong for most dishes.

Stir-fry for another couple of minutes then add the carrots, celery, baby corn, and water chestnuts.  Stir-fry for a minute.  Add the red pepper, and cabbage.  Stir-fry for 30 seconds.  Add 1 tbsp of black bean-chili-garlic sauce(found in the asian section), 1 tbsp of horseradish mustard, and 1/8 cup of the pasta water.  Add the drained pasta.  Mix thoroughly.  Finish with 1 cup fresh bean sprouts.

A note about the pasta:  Brown Rice pasta is very starchy which is why the pasta water works as a thickening agent vs using a cornstarch slurry.  Cooking brown rice pasta can be a bit tricky if you're accustomed to cooking wheat pasta.  It will stick and clump up if you let it.  Here's how to cook it without clumps.  Use a huge pot with way more water than you think you need - even for just a half pound.  Don't just drop the pasta into the boiling water in one big clump.  Fan it out around the pot.  Keep moving it around.  Get in there with your chopsticks or tongs.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me.  I'm linking this up to Lisa's Gluten-Free's Health Food Carnival, Designs by Gollum's Foodie Friday and Remodelaholic's Recipe Swap Party.