I Feed the Bears

Sun Butter Cups

2011-10-31T22:31:00.001-07:00

Ingredients

2 cups chocolate chips Enjoy Life chips or chunks, you could also use broken up Enjoy Life Rice Milk Bars
2 tablespoons Spectrum shortening
1/2 cup Soy Free Earth’s Balance
1/2 cup Sunflower Seed Butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup S’Moreables graham cracker crumbs (process crackers in food processor or crush them in a ziplock using a rolling pin)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In saucepan combine chocolate chips or broken bars with the shortening. Cook over low heat, stirring often, until melted.

2. With pastry brush, coat inside mini-paper cupcake liner evenly with about 1 teaspoon melted chocolate to about 1/8-inch thickness, bringing coating almost to top of cup, but not over edge. Repeat until 30 cups are coated; refrigerate cups.

3. In saucepan combine Soy Free Earth’s Balance margarine and Sunflower Butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted. Stir in confectioners' sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Press about 1/2 tablespoon filling into each chocolate cup.

4. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon melted chocolate on top of filling; spread to cover. Chill until firm. Store in the refrigerator.

Super Sniffer Needed

2011-10-09T22:55:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

My son Lincoln has had life-threatening food allergies since he was a baby.

Instead of outgrowing them like we had hoped, they are unfortunately getting worse. When he has a reaction his lips swell, his throat closes, shutting off his airway, and during his latest reaction, he started having cardiac arrest symptoms. It is surreal to see a 10 year old boy having symptoms of a heart attack. The doctors have told us that his reactions are getting worse and the time frame in which we have to get him to the hospital is getting smaller and smaller.

I write this because we want to get Lincoln an allergy assistance dog. These are dogs which have been trained to find hidden allergens not only in foods, but also in the environment. To make it even more complicated we need a hypoallergenic breed dog because both kids are allergic to dogs. The total cost of a trained hypoallergenic breed allergy dog is $20,000.

I am a portrait photographer; I specialize in family and children’s photos. From this point forward all session fees will go towards an allergy dog for our family, you will get beautiful keepsake photos and we will be one step closer to a safer world for Lincoln. Thank you for sharing this with your friends and passing on my information.

Beth, Brandon, Lincoln and Reagan

www.bethcaudle.com

Allergen Free Pantry

2011-01-22T22:48:00.001-08:00

Things we keep on hand for allergen-free baking and cooking:

Earth Balance SOY FREE Margarine
Gluten Free Vanilla – I buy this at Costco
Pamela’s Amazing Bread Mix – I make pizza crust, bread, rolls, pie crust, cinnamon rolls and more with this mix – it is awesome. I buy this in bulk and use the subscribe option to get more of a discount from Amazon.com
Pamela’s Luscious Chocolate Cake Mix – just plain yummy – I make the egg-free version on the package.
Daiya Mozzarella Style Cheese – this is soy free too!
EnerG Egg Replacer EnerG site
Gluten Free Spray Oil – I get olive oil or canola oil spray and I always read the bottle to make sure their is no flour – some sprays have gluten in them.
Cherrybrook Kitchen Pancake Mix – these taste amazing! The pancakes were good, but I didn’t love the other mixes we tried from this brand.
Brown Rice Tortillas from Trader Joe’s

I will keep adding to this list as I think of more items.

Poprice Corn-free Popcorn Substitute

2011-01-11T23:54:00.001-08:00

I LOVE popcorn. Love it. So when we had to give up corn because it made me sick and my son act like a lunatic I mourned the loss of my salty greasy snack. I came up with something that is salty and yummy, even though it isn’t exactly the same as good old popcorn. My kids love “Poprice” even their friends ask me to make it now :)

1 Package of Rice Cakes – my favorite for poprice are Trader Joe’s brand, they come in a blue and white package, this brand seems to be the lightest that I have tried.
Olive Oil or Grape Seed Oil
Salt or Garlic Salt

First break up the rice cakes into a large microwave safe bowl, break them up into bite size pieces a little bigger than popcorn size – they will break down a bit during the prep.

Next microwave the bowl of broken rice cakes for 1 minute on high, then drizzle oil (probably 1-2 Tbs) over the warm rice cake pieces, then sprinkle with salt to taste and stir well. Serve in cute popcorn containers :)

Allergen-Free Rocky Road Fudge

2011-01-11T23:42:00.003-08:00

2 Cups of Chocolate Frosting
1 – 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips
2 cups of Homemade Marshmallows or Whole Foods Brand marshmallows (the ones made without corn syrup) You can also omit the marshmallows and just make fudge :)

Grease a 8x8 size pan or line a pan with foil or wax paper.

First cut the marshmallows into miniature size marshmallows.

Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, use 30 second increments and stir well after each 30 second interval. Be careful not to over cook the chocolate.

Mix the melted chips and frosting thoroughly, then add in the marshmallows and stir well. Press into the prepped pan, then chill for an hour in the refrigerator.

If you feel so inclined you can turn them out and cut them into nice squares – I just eat it straight out of the pan in most uncivilized fashion.

Fudgy Chocolate Frosting

2011-01-11T23:42:00.001-08:00

Ingredients

1/2 cup Earth Balance SOY FREE Margarine
3 Heaping TB’s of Hershey’s Cocoa Powder
1 pound powdered sugar – corn free is sold at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods
1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
3/4 rice milk

Directions

Melt margarine in the microwave or in a pan on the stove. In a large bowl or using a mixer, combine powdered sugar, vanilla and 1/2 cup of the rice milk. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture. Add remaining milk, a little at a time, until desired consistency is achieved. It will thicken as it cools.

Cheese Enchiladas, Dairy Free GF Vegan

2011-01-11T23:08:00.001-08:00

Ingredients

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 package brown rice tortillas
1 (8 ounce) package Daiya cheese – I used the mozzarella
1 onion, diced
1 (6 ounce) can sliced ripe olives

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl combine tomato sauce, tomato paste, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder and salt.
Warm tortillas one at a time on a hot skillet – just warm them a little on each side so they are pliable – if you over cook them they will break apart; then immediately dip them in the tomato sauce mixture and lay them in a 9x13 inch casserole dish. Fill each tortilla with cheese, onion, olives; roll. Repeat until dish is full. Pour any remaining sauce over the top then sprinkle a small amount of cheese on top.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the center is warm.

Flourless Sunflower Seed Butter Cookies

2010-05-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

These cookies are simple to make and so yummy. They are an amazing peanut butter cookie replacement.

1 Cup Sunflower Seed Butter
1 Cup Sugar (I used organic cane)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon Flax Meal combined with 3 Tb. Hot Water in a seperate container- let it soak while you are combining the other ingredients it turns into a egg white consisestency OR 1 Egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon sea salt.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Cream the sunflower seed butter and sugar in a bowl by hand. Beat in the baking powder, salt and vanilla. Add the flax mixture or egg. Mix until it is all well combined.

The dough will be sticky. Roll some dough into a ball. The smaller the cookied the better it holds together during the pan to rack transfer. Roll the ball in sugar. Line a baking sheet, covered in parchment paper, with sugary balls of dough. I used a Pampered Chef stone cookie sheet and lightly sprayed it oil.

Bake in the oven for about ten minutes (my oven took 15 minutes) Take the tray out of the oven and let the cookies rest for at least five minutes. Afterwards, carefully transfer them to a cooling rack. After ten minutes or so, they will have hardened.

Sunflower Seed Butter can be purchased at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Raley's and many other health food stores. The best price of course is Trader Joe's.

Allergen-Free Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T22:09:00.001-08:00

During the holidays we get asked quite a bit what we eat since we have a limited diet due to food allergies.

I decided to go ahead and post our Thanksgiving Menu.

Appetizers:
Hummus
Carrot Sticks
Olives
Chips
Pickled Asparagus
Pickled Garlic
Celery Sticks
Grapes
Artichoke Hearts

Thanksgiving Dinner:
Turkey (not for Lincoln and Reagan, they are allergic)
Potatoes
Mushroom Gravy
Stuffing (made from brown rice bread)
Garlic and Mushroom Green Beans
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls & Safe Butter
Smoked Salmon (for Lincoln)

Desserts:
Pumpkin Pie
Sunflower Seed Pie (like pecan pie)
Rice Milk Whipped Cream

I will be posting recipes on my recipe blog I Feed the Bears

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Magic Cookie Bars!

2009-10-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

I have always been a fan of layer bars and magic bars - I just found a recipe on another blog and altered it to make it gluten-free, dairy-free. It is delicious!

1/3 cup margarine, melted

1-1/2 cups Enjoy Life Brand Snickerdoodle Cookies, processed into crumbs equal to 1 box.

1 cup chocolate chips

1-1/2 cups coconut

8 ounces of brown rice syrup (I did stir a 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp vanilla into the brown rice syrup - this is optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour margarine into 8x8 baking pan. Sprinkle snickerdoodle cookie crumbs over the top of the of the margarine. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over those, then spread the coconut over the chips. Drizzle brown rice syrup over the top.

Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool before cutting and serving.

(I will post a picture as soon as they cool enough to cut, if there are any left that is...they are so yummy!!)

Allergen-Free Waffle Cones

2009-09-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Allergen-Free Waffle Cones

2 tablespoons Ener-G Foods Egg Replacer
6 tablespoons warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup of brown rice flour
1/3 cup of white rice flour
1/3 cup of tapioca flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
4 tablespoons cooking oil (I used grape seed oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg replacer and warm water until light and foamy. Add the salt and sugar and mix well. Add the flour and xanthan gum and stir until flour is moist. Add the oil and water, mix well. The batter should be thick like muffin batter. Follow the directions of your waffle cone maker.

Tempura Batter

2009-01-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

1/4 C rice flour
1/4 C tapioca starch
1/4 C arrow root starch
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp garlic powder
dash sesame oil
water or club soda enough to make a thick batter

Dinner Rolls or Pizza Crust

2008-12-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

These rolls are easy, quick and fantastic!

3/4 cup white rice flour

1 3/4 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

2 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1 Tb. yeast

1 tsp. salt

2 Tb. sugar or sweetener of choice

2 - 2 1/2 Cups of warm rice milk

2 Tb. olive oil

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the dry ingredients to a mixer or food processor. Add add oil and vinegar and 1 1/2 Cups of the rice milk, mix, if it needs more rice milk add more until it becomes the consistency of a very thick batter. Use a large ice cream scoop to spoon into each muffin tin.

Bake around 15 minutes. The bottoms should be browned, cool rolls on a cooling rack - not in the muffin tin or they will get steamed up and a little gooey on the bottom.

UPDATE: This makes a great pizza dough. Simply spread the the thick batter into an oven proof skillet or a cast iron pan also works great. Bake for 10-15 minutes (until it is golden brown on the bottom when you lift it up with a spatula, depending on thickness it may take up to 30 minutes), top with your toppings then bake until toppings are done.

TIME SAVER TIP: This is a great recipe to make a mix with. Simply add all dry ingredients to a container or ziplock, make several bags at a time. Then when it is time add the wet ingredients. It is a great time saver and a wonderful roll!

Pumpkin Muffins

2008-12-17T21:18:00.000-08:00

INGREDIENTS:
2 T. Ground Flax
6 T. hot water
1 (15 ounce) can 100% pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 Cup Canola or other safe oil
1 cup dark brown sugar (use your sweetener of choice - I used organic cane brown sugar)
1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour or Starch
1/2 Cup Rice Bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

DIRECTIONS: Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 425 degrees (350 for large muffins). Spray 36 mini-muffin cups with vegetable cooking spray (Or large Muffins cups). Mix ground flax and hot water in a small dish, set aside. Bring pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon and cloves to a simmer in a medium saucepan until puree thickens enough to start sticking to pan bottom, 6 to 8 minutes. Turn hot puree into a bowl. Whisk in brown sugar and oil, then slowly beat in flax and water mixture.Meanwhile, whisk the flours, bran, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; whisk into pumpkin mixture until just combined.Divide batter among the muffin cups and bake until golden and cooked through, about 10 minutes for mini - 15-25 for Large Muffins (the tops should be cracking a bit). Let stand a few minutes, then transfer mini-muffins to a wire rack to cool.

Magically Delicious Allergen-Free Marshmallows

2008-12-17T01:09:00.000-08:00

This recipe is a winner! I hope you enjoy it as much as my family has.

Please note that this recipe is one of my few recipes that is not completely vegan due to the gelatin. I have not tried the alternative gelatins in the this recipe. If you try it with an alternate gelatin will you please let us know how it turned out by leaving a comment?

Magically Delicious Allergen-Free Marshmallows

3 Tablespoons or 3 packets of plain gelatin
½ Cup Cold Water
2 Cups of Organic Cane Sugar
2/3 Cup of Brown Rice Syrup (Lundberg brand is gluten-free)
¼ Cup of Water
¼ teaspoon of sea salt
1 Tablespoon of Gluten-Free Vanilla

Corn-Free Powdered Sugar and Tapioca Flour (or cornstarch if you can do corn) Mixture for dusting.

Grease a 9x13 pan and give it a light dusting with a mixture of powdered sugar and tapioca starch.

Put the cold water into a mixer bowl, then sprinkle the 3 T. of plain gelatin over the water. Allow the gelatin to soften about 10 minutes.

Place sugar, brown rice syrup and water in a heavy sauce pan. Bring the mixture to boil. Turn down to a slow bubble, stir constantly. Continue to bubble and stir mixture until the temperature passes the 250 degree mark.

Run the mixer at a low speed while drizzling in the hot syrup – be careful not to burn yourself! Once the syrup is mixed in add the salt, slowly increase the speed of the mixer to the highest speed – be especially careful to monitor the speed so that you don’t splatter 250 degree syrup on yourself. I used a Kitchen-Aid Mixer and used the splatter guard when doing this recipe.

The mixture will begin to fluff up, scrape the sides to make sure that the gelatin is not sticking to the bottom, add the vanilla and continue to run the mixture at the highest speed for about 8 minutes.

Pour the marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan, smooth with a silicone spatula. Let them cool overnight. Once they are completely cool, turn them out onto a cutting board dusted with a powder sugar and tapioca starch mixture. You can cut them with cookie cutters or cut them into squares with a pizza cutter. If it gets a little sticky spray the utensil you are using to cut with give it a quick spray of spray oil.

After cutting them place a few at a time into a container with a lid containing the powder sugar tapioca starch mixture. Shake the marshmallows to coat them with the powder so that they won’t be sticky to handle. Shake off the excess powder. Store in an airtight container.

Yields about 40 square marshmallows.

TIP: We really enjoyed cutting them into star shapes with cookie cutters. The parts that were the trimmings after cutting them with the cookie cutters we cut into bits and pieces that are the perfect size for hot chocolate rice milk!

Enjoy!

Please review the recipe below. I would love to hear how it worked for your family.

Beth

Sugar Cookies or Graham Crackers

2008-12-16T22:18:00.000-08:00

These cookies are wonderful! The taste is wonderful and they are so fun to decorate. If you bake them a little longer they brown and taste similar to Graham Crackers!

1/4 Cup of Butter or Margarine or Flutter (Flutter is a dairy-free, soy-free, corn-free margarine recipe)
2 Tb. Honey
1/2 Cup Organic Cane Sugar
1 Tablespoon Gluten-Free Vanilla Extract
1/4 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2 Cup White Rice Flour
1/3 Cup Tapioca Flour or Starch
1 Teaspoon Xantham Gum
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 T - 4T. Water - see below before adding water.

In a mixer cream butter, honey , sugar, and vanilla for about 1 minute. Scrape bowl sides as needed during the process. Add the dry ingredients. Continue mixing and scraping sides. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time until it is no lonber crumbly and can form a ball.

Shape dough into ball, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut ball in half and leave 1 half in the refrigerator, roll into 1/4" thickness between two sheets of waxed paper and have been lightly sprinkled with tapioca flour.

Bake on baking stone OR spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or use parchment paper on a cookied sheet. Place cookies 1" apart. Bake for 10-12 Minutes for standard sugar cookies. For graham cracker style bake for 16 minutes or until a nice tannish brown color.

After removing from the oven allow to cool 2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Once it has cooled decorate!

TIPS: For graham crackers you can use a square cookie cutter or fun shapes. We are making smores with star shaped homemade marshmallows and star shaped graham crackers!

Please leave a review for this recipe below. I would love to hear how this worked for you!

Beth

Flutter Butter/Margarine Substitute

2008-12-16T00:49:00.000-08:00

My son has many, many food allergies. He is allergic to every butter/margarine on the market. It either has corn, soy or dairy in it. I have worked for a couple of years and finally came up with "Flutter," in the taste tastes I have conducted with non-allergic friends and family they have not been able to tell the difference between Flutter and butter.

We named it Flutter because we were calling it Fake L. (my son's first inital) Butter and we shortened it to Flutter.

Flutter Butter/Margarine Substitute

1 24oz. Tub of Palm Oil Shortening (I use Spectrum Organic or the 365 Brand from Whole Foods)

1/2 Cup of Flax Oil (for buttery goodness spread) OR Grape Seed Oil (for baking)
1 1/2 to 2 tsp of salt

Put shortening in a food processor and process until creamy looking, about 30-60 seconds, then while continuing processing slowly pour in the flax oil, add salt and continue to process for about 1 minute, stop and scrape sides of the food processor as needed. Continue to process until it looks completely blended.

The mixture will be very soft, after refrigeration it will firm up and become the consistency of butter. I like to pour it back into the shortening tub that it came in. When using as a buttery spread on toast or rolls it works best to let soften at room temperature. I usually scoop a small amount into a cute dish to let a small amount soften for dinner.

TIPS: If you find that your butter is harder than you would like, allow the tub to soften and once softened place back in food processor. Add about 3 T. more of the liquid oil you are using for a softer spread. I personally like it to be more like real butter that needs softening before use. I am a lover of real butter.

Please review the recipe below. I would love to know how it works for you!

Beth