Necessity: The Mother of Invention

Also known as the children ate some of the ingredients you needed ...

Peanut Butter Cheerio Bars

This is what I made tonight for the family.  It was supposed to be Rice Krispie Treats, but someone ate my Rice Krispies. I am in the melting butter stage and not too happy to find I have only 3 cups of Rice Krispies when I need twice that.  The box was in the taboo-touch-you-die cabinet and should have had enough for two batches of Rice Krispie treats.

 So what to do ... Hmmm.  The voices in my head go to town and start talking to each other.

   "I have Honey-Nut Cheerios." 

   "Oh, I think some creamy peanut butter will go with that.  

   "We aren't allergic, are we?"

   "No, it's the other stuff we can't have."

   "Great!  Let's mix the peanut butter with the marshmallows.  How much do you think?"

   "One-third cup?"

   "Nah, I like peanut butter.  Let's do one-half."

  "Cool!  That sounds good to me!"

So on the advice of my voices, I continue to the melting marshmallows stage and put in half a cup of creamy peanut butter.  I mix the two together before pouring in 6 cups of said cheerios and mix.

   "Chocolate!  Chocolate is always good."

Yeah, that chocolate?  Those are the occasional brown spots in the picture.  The kids got into and ate most of my chocolate chips too.

The results are in:  It was a hit, and the family loved it the "strange-looking Rice Krispie treats." Once mixed, be sure to place into a greased (with butter or spray) 9x13 pan and cool.  Have a glass of milk ready because they are a bit rich.

Allergy-Friendly Birthday Dinner & Cake

My youngest is allergic to dairy, eggs, grapes, rice and we think we can add red dye now too (had a reaction this weekend). It makes for some extra planning when it comes to cooking. Eric loves food thankfully so doesn't seemed phased unless told he can't have it.

Yesterday Eric turned one so a cake was in order. Eric recently discovered Oreos (and can actually have them). So starts his love affair with chocolate. The trick was to find a cake recipe that he could eat. I found one (gotta love Google). It is on Recipezaar.com and called (surprise) Egg-free Milk-free Chocolate Cake. What the name lacks, the cake makes up for in taste. I am not a big sweets fan so the amount of sweet was just right for me. Hubby has a major sweet tooth so it wasn't sweet enough for him. There were no leftovers so that is the better judge. I didn't have it frosted (ran out of powdered sugar earlier making pancakes ... oops) so that would add to the sweetness.

Eric is a fan of peas, chicken and noodles. What else could I serve but Chicken and Noodles? I used this recipe using chicken instead of turkey. I had cooked up some chicken earlier so had it on hand. I had some egg-free noodles as well as peas & carrots. Oh, yeah I add more black pepper than called for as well as garlic powder. It is a quick and filling meal. Eric loved it. It does call for milk. Pre-Eric days I would make it using evaporated milk for a creamier taste. Yesterday I used plain soy milk and crossed my fingers. It turned out so yummy. Eric loved it as did the rest of the family especially hubby. I served it with a simple salad of Romaine with grated carrot and radishes.

So begins my journey into the world of cooking allergy-free for Eric. It was worth though seeing him enjoy the dinner and cake so much. It is good to have a success for the trial run. I'd hate to start discouraged.