Homemade Marshallows

I've been wanting to make these ever since I saw them all over Pinterest. And then I made some smore gifts for my co-workers which means I had those big bags of Kraft marshmallows in the house for a few days and the kids have been asking non-stop for them. Unfortunately those kinds of things aren't allowed on Feingold. Blue #1 and a bunch of other junk that we are not eating right now are in the ingredients list. There are some approved marshmallows out there somewhere but for $5 or $6 for a bag, no thank you! The recipe was VERY simple. I was intimidated by using a candy thermometer and it being potentially messy but it ended up turning out great. Oh and to top it all off, this recipe is corn syrup free! So hop on over to http://littleaustinite.com/2010/01/homemade-marshmallows-easier-than-expectedeva/ and enjoy!

We're back & on Feingold

Time flies when you're having fun (or just living life with 2 kiddos). Anyway, we're back after a little over a year. Our DAN! dr. said we could challenge the GFCF diet after several years of eating that way. We started eating GFCF when Austin was a little over 2 years old and to be honest, it was very difficult to tell what was progress from the diet and what was progress from maturity and therapy. We had no baseline of what his real behavior was like and knowing that some people can eventually tolerate eating gluten and casein, we wanted to try. We ran all the panels again and they came back pretty normal so the Dr. said to eat what we wanted for a year and then to come back and run the panels again. Oh boy! At first things did not change at all - success, right? I think I ended up being wrong but only time will tell. I have no idea when I noticed but Austin's behavior was out of control. He was extremely hyper and driving me bananas on a daily basis. Not only this, but at school, he started the year off okay but has regressed over the school year. In February, we started the Feingold diet (read more @ http://www.feingold.org/). This seemed to help at first as Austin became very calm and was no longer jumping on the couch or climbing the stairs constantly. He was also walking around instead of in constant motion. But as time went on, those things slowly returned even though I was very strict about his diet. Other followers of Feingold say that this is much like peeling an onion - there are layers. So Feingold was enough to get started, then we eliminated corn syrup, msg, and nitrates. Now it's time to go another step further - back to GFCF. I will miss eating all this "normal" food but after coming back to my blog and all the other GF(CF) blogs that I used to follow, I know I can do it again. Hopefully we will be back on track again very soon!

Austin turns 5!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy! This is us eating at Pizza Fusion - a wonderful organic place that also carries GFCF pizza. This is the first year he had an actual party with friends. We had a great day!

Delicious Lemon Sugar Cookies

The fabulous cookies I made (filled with frosting) using a recipe from this cookbook. Did I mention I love this book? I've made several things and not one thing is bad! The donut recipe is such a treat for the kids especially now that I'm equipped with my very own donut pan!

What's an aebleskiver?

So I got the most wonderful invention for Christmas - an aebleskiver. I found out about it from another mom who has her kids on the GFCF diet. She was making pancake puffs for breakfast and I thought how neat and different for the kiddos. She told me all about the pan and I instantly asked for it. You just pour your favorite GFCF mix in the cups and flip when they bubble up and come away from the edges and presto! These are extra good for kids because they can use their hands and dip the puff into syrup.

A new cookbook and baked donuts

I was excited this morning to have some baking success. I received a new cookbook from my mother-in-law while we were visiting this past month. So far, we have tried a cookie, brownie, and donut recipe and all 3 are fantastic. The cookies are the best GFCF cookies I have ever tried so I think this cookbook is worth taking a look at. It's called Allergy-Free Desserts by Elizabeth Gordon. The recipes are all made to be GF, dairy free, egg free, soy free, and nut free. I'd say that its pretty perfect for us. Additionally, the author has her own baking mix but she does use a lot of Bob's Red Mill GF flour in her recipes. Anyway, here is a picture of my donut holes. I didn't have a donut mold like the recipe called for so I used a mini muffin tin. I actually filled them too much so they were pretty large but there was one that was perfect size because I had ran out of batter and only filled it about half way.

Birthday Cake!

We celebrated Kaitlin's 2nd birthday this past weekend and I knew we needed to have something that everyone could eat. I really wanted to try a new cake mix and thought about Cherrybrook Farms but after reading mixed reviews on Amazon, I went with our favorite from Pamela's. I've only made cupcakes with her mix before but they are always excellent. This is more of a dark chocolate flavor cake. What is also great is that the mix can be made several ways all listed on the package including an egg free version which is perfect for us. Beside the egg replacer, all that is needed is oil and water. I made the frosting from earth balance shortening, confectioner's sugar, salt, water, and a tiny drop of red food coloring. I would have preferred not to use it but I haven't had much luck in locating the natural food coloring here. I thought the cake came out perfect - I baked it using the preferred method which said to do so in two 8in. round pans.