Dairy-Free Oreo Smores, aka S'moreos

This fun concoction comes from my seven-year-old neighbor girl, Lilly.  :) 

While hosting the neighbor kids at the fire pit this past weekend, little Lilly asked if we have had S'moreos before.  I think I laughed hysterically.  Then after I thought about it...cookie equals graham cracker, icing equals chocolate.  Hey, why not?!  

Does Lilly happen to be a food connoisseur for this one?  Or is this a common treat, and I'm just out of the loop?  

At any rate, they were a huge hit with all the kids, and I can see making these again!  

Dairy-Free Greens, Chicken, & French Dressing

Summer is a great time to throw together quick salads for dinner.  No heating up the house, less time in the kitchen, and more time playing outside.

I love to use leftover chicken from Roasted Chicken Night to complete our salads with some good protein.  I am so fortunate that my little boys will eat this, too...as long as they can dress it with my homemade Ranch Dressing.  Other favorite kid-friendly toppings are raisins and ground flax (I call the flax "salad sprinkles" and they fall for it every time).

I also add almonds to my own salads.

What kind of summer salads do you enjoy?

Dairy-Free & Egg-Free Oreo Brownies

I recently revamped my homemade, dairy and egg free brownie recipe.  Oh, they were really good "plain".  But then I decided to step them up a notch or two...just because I could!  :)  It's no secret that many milk allergy families go a little crazy with Oreos.  And that's what I did.  Homemade brownies, meet Oreo.

First, I started with my homemade brownie.  Mix them up according to the recipe and feel free to add some crumbled Oreos to the batter before baking.  I skipped this step, but you don't have to!   Any dairy-free flavor of Oreos will do.  Mint Oreo would be the bomb!  Once your brownies are baked, with or without Oreos mixed in, let them cool.  

Then ice the brownies with dairy-free and egg-free icing like Pillsbury Supreme or make your own.  See my new favorite icing recipe below.  

Top the iced brownies with crumbled Oreos.  

Serve these to your milk allergy kids, and they will think you are the best person in the whole wide world.  Serve these to guests, and they will have no idea this sugar-laden goodness is milk and egg free.  I once served a huge pan of these at a churhc picnic, and they got completely devoured.  Our pastor was in aw.  

DAIRY-FREE & EGG-FREE ICING

1/4 cup chilled dairy-free margarine

1/4 cup chilled shortening

1-3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix chilled margarine and chilled shortening with a mixer, in a chilled bowl.  Add vanilla.  Slowly add powdered sugar.  Put in frig to chill before icing brownies, if necessary.  

Dairy-Free & Egg-Free Strawberry Muffins

This is a post update from April 2009.  My recipes and photography have gotten just a little bit better, and this recipe was worth updating!  

It's strawberry season, and this is a great recipe for using up strawberries on their last leg.  These little muffins make a great breakfast or a treat any time of the day.  

The recipe was inspired by Betty Crocker's basic muffin recipe.  

1-1/2 cups flour (or use half wheat flour)
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
raw sugar for sprinkling on top

3/4 cup dairy-free milk
1/4 cup vegetable, canola, or coconut oil
1 Tb ground flax mixed in 3 Tb warm water OR 3 Tb applesauce OR 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400

Grease twelve muffin cups or line with paper cups.

If using flax/water egg replacement, mix ground flax and water.  Let sit for 5 minutes until mixture reaches egg-like consistency.

Mix flour, sugar, powder, and salt. Make well in center. In another bowl, combine egg or egg replacement, milk, and oil. Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Spoon batter into cups. 

Sprinkle tops with a little raw sugar

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Store in the refrigerator.

You could also use blueberries if you wanted.

Dairy-Free and Egg-Free Brownies

When Miles was first diagnosed with egg and milk allergies, I remember trying a few brownie recipes that turned out to be complete disasters.  Then Miles and Graham outgrew egg allergies, and I started doing Duncan Hines boxed brownies with egg.  But NOW Miles has proven allergic to cashew so I can't do Duncan Hines mix anymore because it's processed in a plant with nuts.  Shoot.

In recent years, I did find a great homemade brownie recipe, egg-free and milk-free, at Speed Bump Kitchen.  But I decided to "healthify" the brownie recipe a bit with some wheat flour, less sugar, and coconut oil.  Don't be too proud of me...because as you will see later...I have added tons of sugar to this recipe with icing and Oreos on occasion!

Also, doing the flaxseed (egg) keeps the brownies from crumbling which is great!

DAIRY-FREE & EGG-FREE BROWNIES

1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup Enjoy Life Chips
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 Tb ground flax mixed with 3 Tb warm water

If you want to use all white flour, you can.  You could probably omit the chocolate chips.  And it would be fine to use regular salt instead of sea salt and canola or vegetable oil instead of coconut oil.  I would hope that one egg could replace the flax+water...but I can't promise that.  ;)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a square baking dish.

Mix the ground flax and water.  Let sit.

Whisk together the dry ingredients.  You can even do this ahead of time and have stored in plastic bags to conveniently have on hand as "pre-mix".

Add wet ingredients:  water, oil, and flax mixture to the dry ingredients.

Mix just until moistened.

Pat batter into greased square baking dish and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Don't over-bake.  Gooey, egg-less brownies rock!  :)

Dairy-Free Birthdays!

In case you didn't know, Milk Allergy Mom has a Facebook page that has been steadily growing since we started it last fall.  It's been such a great community for sharing questions and ideas.  We have families brand new to milk allergies, seasoned milk allergy families with allergic teenagers, adults who have recently discovered their milk allergy, and everything in between!

The reader interaction on Facebook helps me identify popular issues and questions among milk allergy families.  That's especially helpful since we are no longer in the infant stages of food allergies.  Sometimes I forget that we didn't know how to transition from breastfeeding, how to handle play dates, and how to have a safe, first birthday party!  :)

I am often referring Facebook readers to our blog posts about our allergy-safe birthday parties.  So I decided to make "Birthdays" it's own tab at the top of the blog last night.  It's only fitting that we have this tab...as our birthday cake recipe our number one blog post every single day.  ;)

I cleaned up the birthday posts, got a little choked up about how much my boys have grown, and put them all in one convenient place for our readers.  I think we have a lot of good tips and options to share...from the cake recipe, the icing we use, how we have done an open house, a backyard water party, a park party, themes we have used, homemade decor and games, menus we have used to feed guests, and more.

I am ever thankful to readers who help us keep our information relevant and meaningful.  This little blog can use a lot of tweaking and fixing up, and our readers motivate us to make it better and better...slowly but surely.  Thank you for your patience as we try to be more helpful to you.

So now...feel free to peruse the new BIRTHDAY SECTION of our blog!  I can't wait to show you what we have brewing for this year's July and September birthdays.  Although, I do want to keep my boys 5 and 7 for a little while longer.  ;)

Dairy-Free Kid Lunch Tray ~ Meat, Cheese, Crackers

Hello, friends!  Today I have another lunch tray post for you.  :)  

This lunch includes:

Wheat Thins 

Go Veggie! Cream Cheese

Hormel Naturals Turkey

Peas

Strawberries & Bananas

Homemade Banana Bread

Dairy-Free Unsweetened Almond Milk

I think my wheat thins are Target brand.  And the fun thing about these little cracker, cheese, and meat concoctions is that the kiddies can build them themselves.  Ever since the boys were toddlers I would pick up little cheese spreaders because they were the perfect size for toddler hands to use as little knives.  My boys always loved trying their hands at spreading their own nut butters, jams, etc.  And with this lunch, they could spread their own dairy-free cream cheese.  Boy am I glad we have some of those on the market now!  Go Veggie, Daiya, and Tofutti all have dairy-free cream cheeses now.  If you purchase Go Veggie, get the dairy-free PURPLE packaging.  Go Veggie green and blue packaging contain milk.  

Also, our Dairy-Free and Egg-Free Banana Bread recipe is one of our top 5 posts here so be sure to check it out!  We have used the same recipe for zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, and apple bread, too!