When it comes to holidays and baked treats, there are no clear cut rules for name brands. Research is crucial during this time of year and it’s when my Kitchen Aid mixer gets a real workout. First up, Halloween! To avoid the use of Epi-Pen at school, I ALWAYS bring my own baked goods. And enough to share. I try very hard to make these items look like the other cool items available at classroom parties so nobody feels left out. This year, I found these adorable ghosts that are made in a facility that DO NOT contain our allergies, pn + tn. Wilton brand is notoriously NOT safe for…
Halloween Treats
This list may come in handy if your kids go to a nut-free school, or have allergy recommendations in place for snack time / holidays. Also, this might be helpful if you have a co-worker who is allergic to nuts. Or maybe you’ve decided to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project this year for having allergy friendly / non-candy treats to pass out at your door! Please note that the Teal Pumpkin Project is 100% allergy free snacks. For these snacks, please use the Snack Safe Guide to ensure your treats are free of the Top 8 allergens. OR, 1-click shop Amazon Prime for easy Halloween treats; I purchased this: Bulk…
NYT Rhubarb Crisp
My sweet sweet neighbor Maryellen gave me a TON of fresh rhubarb last week. We love rhubarb season. Today’s cookout was the perfect opportunity to debut this New York Times Rhubarb Crisp recipe. (I LOVE the New York Times recipes, they ALWAYS are fabulous. And I love reading the paper. A dead medium, I know. But it’s relaxing to me). Usually during this time of year we make rhubarb cake, but I wanted something a little lighter, faster and less cakey. Needless to say, this crisp was a crowd pleaser. My only regret is that I didn’t make a double batch to share with more friends! This dish is a…
What the PEEP?!
Note! Not all Easter Peeps are nut-free!! Forgot to mention this, but the Peeps Pops / suckers are made in a facility with nuts! The only safe peeps that I have found are the plain packaged peeps that I have already shown on the blog under “Easter candy” — check labels! SNEAK PEEK OF EASTER PREP COMING TONIGHT!!! Happy Monday!
Easter Sunday Menu
This weekend we are prepping for our big Eater Party next weekend with family! How exciting. The kids are super into it too – Chloe is making center pieces out of peeps and daisies, Carter is working on decorating a cake with chocolate eggs. LOVE it. For the food – keeping it classic and simple. Here’s the menu with links for recipes. Easter Sunday Brunch: Slow cooker cheesy breakfast potatoes – Breakfast Potatoes Valentine Coffee – Valentine Giada homemade biscotti (making this 1 week in advance, store in air-tight container) – Giada’s Biscotti Fruit salad (whatever you have + 1 cup of plain greek yogurt, salt, pepper and dash of vanilla, stir stir…
Carrot Cake Cupcakes & Cream Cheese Frosting
I cheated tonight. On my cupcakes. Usually for Easter I make homemade carrot cake batter with shredded carrot – and tonight, I’m just tired. I picked up a few Betty Crocker Carrot Cake mixes for “stand by” in case I did not have time to do the whole big thing. Turns out my plan B saved me today! Honestly though, I’ve had a lot of carrot cake, and this mix is a very good stand by. Tastes homemade! So there’s the scoop on the mix – a picture of the box is in my previous Easter blog post if you’re interested. The packaging is kind of deceiving since I’m a…
Easter Candy
Some of our favorite nut-free Easter candy!!!! And don’t forget Vermont Nut-free candy!!!! Note that the Hershey kisses are in the “classic” bag and not the holiday bags. Holiday bags are NOT safe. Only classic. Annie’s also makes fruit snacks that are safe, just not shown here.
'Twas the week before Spring Break!
…and we’ve totally got this! Most important news first: Did you catch last nights final episode of Big Little Lies?! I don’t want to give it away, but it was AMAZING! This series was by far my most favorite TV series to date. The entire cast did a wonderful job – the chemistry was remarkable. The final scene was very touching – a bond between girl friends and the support they give, just really hit home. Loved it. I’m a day late on posting this weeks menu since we were very busy having FUN this past weekend. We had a sitter for Saturday to attend my little man’s Fundraising Gala.…
Grocery store nut-free cookies!
It fills me with utter GLEE when I stumble upon new nut-free items at the grocery store! Lofthouse Bakery makes sweet treats in a nut-free facility. The two we decided to try for Easter are sugar cookies with sprinkles and chocolate layer, and lemon meltaway cookies. These sweet treats are so good and I actually prefer the lemon cookies. They melt in your mouth and have a very distinct ? flavor. So if you’re out and about looking for a “safe sharing snack” for school church, or play group, or just a desert among friends, Lofthouse Bakery is 100% nut-free! Lofthouse Bakery items can be found at Target and Metcalfes…
Nut-free Easter
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing my Easter basket ideas for a nut-free fun Easter! I ordered these jammies a few weeks ago from Chasing Fireflies. Yes, they were a small fortune, but I just love watching my two bunnies come hopping down the stairs on Easter morning to find their baskets in matching jim-jams.
Mint Chocolate St. Pats Cupcakes!
Usually for St. Patrick’s Day, I make my all-time favorite recipe, Guinness chocolate chip cupcakes with a chocolate ganashe. The only problem is that I don’t like to serve these to the kids, for the obvious reason (even though the alcohol is baked off, it just sounds bad, right!?) On St.Pats this year, I did the traditional big dinner; braised corned beef, cabbage with balsamic reduction, roasted carrots and potatoes. For dessert, I waited 3 days before FINALLY getting to it, (hey, I was busy with my daughters fundraiser) chocolate cupcakes with buttercream mint frosting. The dinner turned out great, and I used Pioneer Woman’s recipe from FoodNetwork. It was…
Valentine's Cupcake Topping
Quick post live from the Dollar Tree (where is has a weird smell….). These will make perfect topping to our mini cupcakes for the event we are going to tonight! Enjoy your Wednesday!
Chocolate Covered Pretzels
My Mom and I have a few things we “bake” each December. I say it in quotations because it’s not really baking. More like coating pre-made things in chocolate that we can then say we “made” or as Food Network’s Sandra Lee commonly says, “Semi-Homemade.” Here’s one of our favorites, pretzels with a melted chocolate with a Vermont Nut-free skipper on top to smush all the chocolate into the pretzel. Once it cools, you have a very tasty little sweet and salty treat that’s easy to package up and gift, or travel with. Chocolate is difficult this time of year since so much of it is just not made in…
Allergy-Free Candy Canes
“I love candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.” Buddy the Elf If you follow me on Insta, you saw that yesterday I was making chocolate covered pretzels when I suddenly ran out of chocolate skippers to top each pretzel with. Some quick thinking led me to an entire unopened box of candy canes in our pantry. I did not know why they were sealed shut, or if they were even safe? Who knows – when I clean up after the holidays, things get crazy and I just start chucking stuff. So I decided to find out who the heck Bobs Candy’s Canes really is. After some research, Bobs is…
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