Allergen free Gingerbread boys and Cutout Sugar Cookies

Two iconic Christmas cookies that you would spend big bucks on in an allergen free bakery are much less expensive to make your self but, fair warning, they are time consuming. As a matter of fact if you have anything else to do don't try to make more than one kind of cookie in one day!

For both you will need the all purpose flour mix of
4 cups white rice flour (I really like the bulk bags at Natural Grocers, it results in a very good texture, not at all grainy)
1 1/3 cup potato starch
2/3 cup tapioca flour
   This mix needs to be stored in the fridge.

Gingerbread boys
 3 3/4 cup all purpose  flour mix          1/2 cup spectrum shortening (or Earth balance soy free butter)
1 tsp xanthan gum                              make sure to soften this!
3/4 tsp baking soda                               1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp salt                                                1/2 cup agave nectar or sugar            
1 tbsp cinnamon                                   1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1tbsp ground ginger                            
1/2 tsp ground cloves


1. Combine flour mix, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in mixer, add shortening and applesauce until the consistency is like fine meal. While mixing add in agave and maple syrup. If you find the mix has not come together with a good elasticity add in small amounts of canola oil until it does.

2. Divide the dough into two balls, and place each between two pieces of wax paper.

3. Roll out the dough until and place in the freezer for 20 min.

Preheat oven to 350
4. Remove from freezer and cut out with cookie cutters. Move to baking sheet lined with parchment paper with a spatula.

Bake for no more than 10 min .  Cool for a few min before moving to cooling rack to finish cooling.

Decorate with raisins, allergen free choc chips, sugar etc.

With leftover dough roll out and refreeze and repeat the process.

Cut out Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour                          1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp and 1/8tsp  xanthan gum                  1 1/2 tsp egg replacer mixed with 2tsp rice milk (or just 1 egg if
3/4 tsp baking soda                                        you can have eggs)
1/4 tsp salt                                                  4tbsp rice milk
3/4 cup spectrum shortening, or Earth Balance soy free butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons brown sugar

Whisk together flour, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt. Set aside
With a mixer cream shortening  sugar and brown sugar for about 10 min. Add your egg or egg replacer and vanilla and mix for about 20 more seconds.
Add in the flour mix and rice milk in three alternating batches. (rice flour, 1 tbsp rice milk, rice flour, 1 tbsp rice milk, rice flour, 1 tbsp rice milk) If you find the dough hasn't come together add the last tbsp rice milk and work with your hands.
Divide dough into 2 balls and chill in fridge for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350.

Sprinkle more flour onto work surface  and rolling pin. Roll out dough and use cookie cutters. Save scraps and repeat.
Bake  for just about 10 min. Cool before decorating.

Spicy Chicken and Replacement Reese's

Here's another freezer meal! We made it incredible easy by also buying some Birdseye brown rice which cooks up just right in the microwave, best quick rice ever we think, and it is just rice, no pesky allergens to worry about with that stuff.  So here it is! 

Spicy Chicken

       In a freezer bag place the desired number of chicken breasts, I used 3, a can of un drained black beans, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of tomato sauce.  (yet again, Yay for Aldi) 

    Also add  a pinch to a quarter tsp (depending on the heat your going for, I go by smell of the mixture, odd I know) of Garlic powder, Paprika, Cumin, pepper, Onion powder, Oregano and Thyme. 

    Then throw it in the freezer until you need it. The night before take out to thaw and in the morning empty it into the crock pot and cook 8 hrs on low(I also tossed in some frozen peas during the last half hour of cooking). When it is done cook your steam bag of rice, shred the chicken in the pot, stir once and then serve over rice YUM! 

Replacement Reese's :) Yes, you did read that right! I don't know if you have missed those yummy candies as much as we do, they are my hubby's favorite, but ,this year I finally got a good recipe  that satisfies the cravings! I think one of the reasons they have worked out so well is because of Trader Joe's Sunbutter. We have tried several kinds over the years, but think that Trader Joe's is the best. It doesn't have any kind of soy in it! You will need. 

For sunbutter mix

1/2 cup sunbutter

4 1/2 tsp Earth Balance butter (in the red tub)

1/2c corn free confection sugar

1/2 tsp salt.

Mix all together until smooth and set aside 

For chocolate

1 cup Enjoy life chocolate chips or chunks

1/2cup sunbutter

Combine and microwave in thirty second intervals, stirring until smooth. 

Line a mini muffin tin with muffin liners. Place a 1/2tsp chocolate mix, followed by 1tsp sunbutter mix, and topped with 1tsp chocolate mix. Then refrigerate until set. Tada! You will love! 

Tomorrow we will have allergen free Sugar Cookies and Ginger Bread boys! 

Brown Sugar Pork with Apples and Pears

This is one of the great freezer meals! I had a 4lb pork loin that I cut up into thirds to make some of these meals and this is one of them. Please forgive the very inexact measurements :) Feel free to use more if your goal is to feed more than 4 people or if you want lots of leftovers. We got 4 meals out of this.

You will need
1 1/2lbs (ish)
1 apple washed and sliced
1pear washed and sliced
 1cup brown sugar
1 tbps cinnamon
1 tsp dry mustard

For freezing: place the pork in a freezer bag and slice apple and pears and place on top. Write dry ingredients to be added when placed in crock pot on the bag.

Thaw freezer bag the night before you want this meal. Also mix your dry spices and cover for quick morning add in. In the morning dump into the crock pot, add just enough water to cover the bottom of the crock pot. Pat or sprinkle your spices over the roast then arrange some of the pear and apple slices over the top. Cook on low 8hrs.

We also had squash with this meal, if you are busy and working all day it would be advisable to cut up your squash in advance and just put it in the crock pot. I do mine in the oven by slicing it in half placing it on a baking dish and covering the bottom on the dish with water. Then I bake it at 350 for about an hour, the rind should be wrinkly looking or browned and the squash should come away from the rind easy peasy when it is done. I mash it up and mix in some allergen free butter, Earth's Best in the red tub, and brown sugar. Serve the pork roast over the squash. You can also throw a bag of steam able veggies in the microwave for another allergen free side.
Enjoy!

First try at allergen free freezer meals

Ok so FREEZER MEALS have been a big scary unattainable aspect of cooking in my life for a few reasons. 1) I don't have a huge freezer   and 2) Most of the meals you can find online to freeze have some sort of milk or soy ingredient in them so they are out. 3) Spending all that time chopping  sorting, cutting and bagging with the thought of my children having run of the house was just plain petrifying.

However, the past couple of weeks we have found some great deals on plain meats and frozen veggies, potatoes and such so, in order to keep those deals from ending up in the trash before we got around to eating them, I decided to take the plunge and FREEZE!

This morning we sorted through the pantry and found  the fixins for 8 different allergen free meals.
Chili
Brown Sugar Pork Roast
Potato Nachoes
Spicy Chicken and Rice
Broccoli Soup
Cranberry Pork
Potato Soup
Herbed Pork Roast
                              Not all of these had to be frozen, only 5 to be exact but it was nice to know I won't have to go to the store for at least the next week if not longer.  All this week, and maybe into next, depending on how quickly we eat! I will post recipes and let you know how they turned out. For today we will start with Chili I have to give a shout out to Aldi, so many of their prepared foods are made without junk and make my life so much easier, as is the case  with this dish. Non of these cans of beans or tomato products have any wheat, soy or corn hidden in them-they are just plain food. 

1 can Dakota's pride mild chili beans
1 can Dakota's pride black beans
1 Can Great Value chickpeas
1 can Happy Harvest Chili Style diced tomatoes (puree before adding if you don't like tomato chunks)
1 can Happy Harvest tomato paste
1tbsp Chili powder
pinch of dried onion
              Combine all beans and there juices in large pot or crockpot, add in tomato paste and stir adding water as needed until desired consistency is reached. Add in the diced tomatoes. Add your spices and simmer for 20-30 min or leave on low for 8hrs.

This is one that you could make ahead and pour in a bag to freeze then defrost and throw in a crockpot. But, since it is just opening cans and adding spices, and I am home all day, I didn't feel the need.

Enjoy!