Orange Creamsicle Slush {Dairy-Free}

In my quest to find healthier snacks and meals for my family, I came across Super Healthy Kids a few months back and have since found several yummy snack ideas. The site is not an allergy-free site, but it has good ideas that I can adapt. I decided to make a Dairy-Free Orange Creamsicle Slush today for my girls and they loved it. Here’s the recipe!

1 cup Vanilla Soy Yogurt {or another alternative such as coconut milk yogurt}

1 cup Orange Juice {100% orange juice}

24 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients in the blender and serve. With a straw. Yum! Really tastes like a creamsicle!

Pumpkin Doughnuts {Dairy-/Egg-Free}

My girl’s K5 class is having doughnuts as a special treat tomorrow so I have been looking for a good donut recipe that I could adapt to an allergy-free donut. Well, I found it! I am happy to report that these could very well be my favorite donut. They are, in fact, the first donuts I’ve ever made and they are DE-LISH! These are a must-try! I will not tell you how many I’ve already eaten. These could be my demise. And my husband’s. Yes, they are THAT good. Mr. Picky Pants himself has given them two thumbs up.

So, here’s the recipe. I adapted this from a Martha Stewart Recipe in the October 2001 issue of her magazine. {I knew hoarding old issues of Martha’s would come in handy somewhere down the line!}

2 3/4 c self-rising flour

1 tsp cinnamon (or more)

1 c fine cornmeal

3 large eggs {Substitute egg replacer here, I used 2T cornstarch for each egg}

1/2 granulated sugar

1/2 c sweetened condensed milk {Substitute 1/2 c Almond Milk + 3/4 sugar, heat til dissolved}

1 c pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin {not canned pumpkin pie filling}

4 T unsalted butter, melted {Substitute 4T Smart Balance Light – dairy free)

8 cups vegetable oil, for frying

confectioners’ sugar

1.Sift flower, cinnamon together. Add cornmeal; mix until combined

2. Mix egg substitute and 1/4 c sugar together about 3 minutes. Add Condensed Milk Substitute, and beat well. Add pumpkin and butter, beat until combined. Add reserved flour mixture, and mix until dough holds together. {I had to add a little more flour to mine, but just eyeball. You want the dough to stick together pretty good.} Cover and refrigerate overnight.

3. Heat vegetable oil in fryer or a large deep pan over medium heat until deep-frying thermometer reads 365 degrees.

4. While oil is heating, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/3 inch thick. Using a 3-inch cutter, cut out doughnuts, and set aside. {Use a smaller 1 inch cutter for cutting out doughnut holes.} Mix together cinnamon and powdered sugar in a small bowl, and set aside.

5. Add doughnuts to hot oil; fry until golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn donuts over; fry until golden brown. Transfer donuts to several layers of paper towels to drain. Repeat until all donuts have been fried.

6. Roll half the warm donuts, one at a time, in cinnamon/sugar to coat. Transfer to a serving platter. Dust remaining donuts with powdered sugar. Serve warm.

What are you waiting for? Go put on your favorite pair of stretchy pants and then enjoy these delicious donuts!

Birthday Cake {Dairy-/Egg-Free}

A couple weeks ago, my girl turned 5! She was so excited and as you know, the 5th birthday is quite the milestone. So, I knew I would have to do something special in the cake category. The day before her birthday, I made cupcakes for her K5 class and she would be having cupcakes again for a joint birthday party with her BFF who shares the same birthday. Cupcakes are yummy, but I decided I needed to do a non-cupcake kind of thing for the day of her birthday. So, I went to the store and bought the Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake Mix {I use Ener-G Egg Replacer instead of the eggs called for in the directions}. It turns out pretty good, but it is a moist cake and that tends to be a bit of a challenge when it comes to holding together. Without eggs, it really wants to crumble. The cupcakes turn out okay, but a sheet cake or anything else would be difficult to do. I began brainstorming and decided I would try to bake individual cakes {bigger than a cupcake, but smaller than a cake pan} in waffle cone bowls. My local Publix has a store brand of waffle cone bowls that have none of my daughter’s allergens in them, so I bought them. I made the cake according to the directions, only substituting the eggs. Then, I placed 6 waffle cone bowls into a 9×13 pan and filled each bowl 2/3 full with cake batter. I don’t remember how long I baked them, but I know I baked them longer than you would bake a cupcake and possibly as long as a sheet cake, maybe longer. I just baked until I thought they looked right and then inserted a toothpick into one and it came out clean. You’ll just have to eyeball it, if you try this. The bowls will take the shape of the pan they are in and mine turned out kind of square. But I thought it looked cute! Once cool, I frosted them with a chocolate icing (store-bought and dairy-free) and then sprinkled the colorful sprinkles on top.

The most important part was that my 5 year old loved it! I never tasted it, but they all got eaten up pretty quickly.

I think I will be trying a made-from-scratch allergy-free cake recipe soon to see if it holds up better than a cake mix and if it does, I will let you know!