Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

It’s time to get the green sugar sprinkles out for cookie decor!

I used the delicious @sweetlorens sugar cookies again this year to make Little Miss’ #allergyfriendly cookies so she can have cookies with her classmates. 🍪 #inclusionmatters  And I topped the cookies with Duncan Hines vegan cream cheese frosting underneath the green sugar sprinkles.

 I tried to get creative with the green sugar sprinkles, but find the cookie loaded with sugar sprinkles (on your right in the middle of the picture below)…..yeah that was a failed attempt for trying to make a shamrock out of the green sugar sprinkles!

Overall, it was fun making these St. Patrick’s Day cookies for my daughter!

I am assigned to bring cheese puffs for Little Miss’s  class. Good thing Hippeas has a yummy vegan version of  these cheese puffs favorites!

And here’s a pic of Little Miss enjoying a cookie after school!

If you are not wear green, *Pinch! Happy St. Patty’s Day!

 

Since my daughter was getting tired of cupcakes, which I make using the allergy-friendly Duncan Hines cake mixes and the Sweet Loren’s cookies, it was time to come up with another allergy-friendly dessert.

I had a box of organic rice cereal, vegan marshmallows, and vegan butter, so I thought I could make some crispy rice cereal treats! And I added colorful sprinkles to make the treats extra special!

Once I greased my glass pan with vegan butter, I melted a cup of  vegan butter and the whole bag of vegan marshmallows in a pot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: It did take longer than expected for the vegan marshmallows to melt. Then, I added 2 cups of rice cereal to the pot of melted butter and marshmallows.

I felt like I was doing an arm workout with all the stirring I had to do to get the rice cereal mixed with the fluffy marshmallow plus melted butter mix.

   

And I added colorful sprinkles as I was mixing the rice cereal batter.

Finally when the mixture was all stirred up, I placed it in the greased pan. I tried not to push the mixture into the pan so the treats would not become too dense.

And I added more sprinkles on top of the treats before I let the pan cool.

The crispy rice cereal treats turned out so yummy and colorful!

And my daughter enjoyed the crispy rice cereal treat with sprinkles!

Have you made vegan crispy rice cereal treats before?

 

When we found out that my daughter was allergic to eggs, I was not sure how to add more protein in her diet. However, I am glad she is not allergic to soy because I learned how to make “egg scrambles” using tofu.

    

Surprisingly, my daughter loves the Turmeric & Greens Scramble I prepare and have on hand in the freezer for breakfast. I do feed my daughter her breakfast before I drop her off for preschool because I want to make sure she eats something in the morning. Also, it’s one less meal I have to worry about that she eats at school.

The Turmeric & Greens Scramble contain tofu, chopped greens like organic kale or spinach, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), garlic salt, turmeric, & ground pepper.

First, I add the EVOO to the pan. Then, sometimes I sauté the greens (chopped kale or spinach) in the pan first with the garlic salt seasoning. Here I threw in the chopped tofu first. It doesn’t really matter what you throw in the pan with EVOO first because both ways you season the tofu and greens with garlic salt, turmeric, and ground pepper. All seasoning (garlic salt, turmeric, and ground pepper) are to taste, but I wouldn’t use more than 1 tablespoon of turmeric in this dish. Turmeric is a known anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant spice and it gets activated by black pepper. Read more about turmeric here.  And the turmeric provides a nice yellow color for the “egg” scramble.

 

After mixing all ingredients in the pan, I allow the scramble to cool before I place them in the storage pods for the freezer. These storage pods are helpful freeze food for my daughter so I have it ready during the school week. After the food is frozen, I pop out the food pods and place them in a Ziplock bag to store in the fridge.

My daughter eats this with chicken sausage, her Minnie Mouse waffles, toast with jam, etc.

Have you made an allergy-friendly scramble?

Last month my daughter asked for pizza out of the blue! She has had the frozen Daiya roasted veggie pizza, so I wanted to make a homemade pizza for her.

On my next Trader Joe’s trip, I gathered the following ingredients:

Traditional Indian Style Flatbread, Trader Joe’s pizza sauce, & Organic Broccoli Florets

On hand, I had the organic chicken sausage (from Costco) and Daiya vegan shreds (kept frozen in my freezer).

Since most of the ingredients are already cooked, I heated the chicken sausage and broccoli so I can cut them in bite-size pieces.

I assembled the pizza by spreading the pizza sauce on the flatbread. Then I added the Daiya shreds, chopped broccoli, and bite size pieces of chicken sausage.

I put the pizza in our toaster oven at 350 degrees and left it in there for about 20 minutes to melt the Daiya shreds.

The pizza was a hit and my daughter loved it! This will be a new meal on our rotating menu for my daughter!

Have you tried making your own allergy-friendly pizza at home?

 

It’s Christmas in 3 days and I was feeling festive when I googled “vegan hot chocolate cookies.” I wanted my toddler to enjoy the season, even though this week she is at home (her preschool is closed this week due to the holidays) and I have been working non-stop!

So when I googled “vegan hot chocolate cookies”, I found Purely Kaylie’s  delicious recipe. And the end product was delicious and did not take very long to make! I did have to modify recipe: I only used 1 cup of sugar and no vanilla extract since I didn’t have any. Also, I had miniature marshallows, so the cookies looked different from the  recipe blog post.

I even added some crushed candy cane dust in my second batch to add more color and flavor to the cookies!

Overall, the cookies turned out delicious and the recipe was easy to follow in less time!

 

For the Thanksgiving holiday this year, my brother and I made our traditional American Thanksgiving lunch at our parents’ home in Central Florida.

I made a fresh green salad with fresh pear strips and calamansi (Filipino tiny oranges) vinaigrette,  vegan cornbread stuffing (see the product post) and vegan sweet potato casserole (see the recipe below). And my brother cooked an organic turkey and lechon kawali (Filipino fried pork belly). 

For the salad dressing vinaigrette, I just mixed some of the freshly squeezed calamansi juice (about a 1/3 cup) with 1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil, and salt to taste. I made sure to add and mix in the freshly sliced pears to the dressing mixture to add some sweetness to the vinaigrette. Also, I made sure the pear pieces were coated with the vinaigrette. Then I tossed the bagged salad mix with the vinaigrette dressing.

The vegan sweet potato casserole was easy to make. I boiled about 5 large sweet potatoes and took off the skins. Then, I combined the mashed sweet potatoes with oatmilk (my favorite brand of oat milk is by Pacific Foods) and 2 tbsp vegan butter (I prefer to use the Earth Balance brand vegan butter sticks). Then, I top the casserole with the Trader Joe’s mini marshmallows. And right before we sat down for lunch, I broiled the top of the casserole for the yummy melted marshmallow goodness.

Overall, we had a delicious Thanksgiving lunch this year!

September is always a busy month in our household. It’s my birthday month and our wedding anniversary. My daughter has been asking for “cake” since I discovered (from countless blogs) that I did not have to add eggs to a Duncan Hines cake mix, and this is how I make “homemade” cakes that are allergy-friendly! And, the Duncan Hines “cream cheese” frosting is also allergy-friendly. REMEMBER: Always check the labels on everything to make sure your allergens are not present!

 I just add the 1 cup water, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and an applesauce pouch (or 1 cup of applesauce) to the Duncan Hines cake mix. Then, after the cake/cupcakes are done, I top them off with the allergy-friendly frosting. Please note: The cake may require to stay in the oven a little longer than what is published in the box directions.

           

And, yes I did get a cake that my daughter could not eat, but she didn’t notice! She enjoyed her allergy-friendly pineapple cupcakes with “cream cheese” frosting!