We had a ninth birthday here last week. Among other things, the birthday girl received a doughnut necklace, handmade cards with doughnut drawings, and homemade doughnuts for her birthday breakfast. I think it’s safe to say that people know what she likes.

I bought doughnut pans on a whim, and it’s been really fun to make our own doughnuts at home. This recipe is a favorite because it’s so simple and easy to adapt. And these have to be better than fried doughnuts, right?

Dairy-Free Vanilla Doughnuts

2017-01-31 13:59:52

Serves 12

Soft baked cake doughnuts are a dairy-free treat

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Ingredients

1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 3/4 cup white sugar
3. 2 teaspoons baking powder
4. 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5. 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6. 1 teaspoon salt
7. 3/4 cup almond milk
8. 2 eggs, beaten
9. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10. 1 tablespoon shortening, such as Nutiva
11. Glaze Ingredients
12. 1 cup confectioners' sugar
13. 2 tablespoons hot water
14. 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Lightly grease two six-count doughnut pans with baking spray.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.
4. In another bowl, stir together the almond milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and beat together until well blended.
6. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 3/4 full.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the doughnuts spring back when touched. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.
8. Place the doughnuts on a cooling rack.
9. To make the glaze, blend together the powdered sugar, hot water and almond extract in a small bowl.
10. Dip the doughnuts in the glaze and then place back on the rack.
11. Decorate with sprinkles if desired.
12. Store any unused doughnuts in an airtight container.

Notes

1. These are also good with a chocolate glaze. To make the chocolate glaze, add 1/2 cup melted chocolate chips to the glaze recipe.
2. You can also replace the almond extract in the glaze with vanilla extract.

By Sarah Hatfield

Adapted from Allrecipes

Adapted from Allrecipes

No Whey, Mama http://nowheymama.com/

“The Summer has ended

The Summer has ended.

Notice, if you will, the swirling leaves….”–A Year With Frog and Toad

How was your summer? Ours was wonderful. It was great to slow down and enjoy one of the eighteen summers we get with these kiddos. We had so much fun, and I’ve been a whiny girl about school and activities starting up again. Catherine Newman even made peace with the fall before I did this year. What can I say? I miss the kids when they’re in school, and… I miss activity-free evenings.

I’m almost ready to embrace fall. It is the first official day of the season, so I guess it’s time. We visited the apple orchard last week. I bought some mums to replace the begonias on the porch. I also made pumpkin butter and plan to make Oatmeal Apple Butter Bars with apple butter from the orchard. 

If you’re looking for some back-to-school recipe inspiration, Katherine and I recommend Peanut Butter Protein Balls (with nut-free option) for snacks and Freezer Pancakes for busy mornings.

What do you do to celebrate fall?

Photo courtesy of The Empire State Building

I want to take this, the last day of Food Allergy Awareness Month, to say thank you. It has been a wonderful month made especially great by the efforts of Turn it Teal. It was So. Cool. to see the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center turn their lights teal for food allergy awareness right after we’d been to visit New York City. 

There are two people I want to thank this year: Our band director and our middle school principal. They approach food allergies in two different yet successful ways.

Our band director doesn’t know much about food allergies, and, more importantly, doesn’t pretend he knows much about food allergies. I would much rather have someone say, “I don’t understand, I know I don’t understand, and I am happy to do whatever I can to make things safe,” then not speak up and just assume they know what’s going on.

Mr. H has done just that, repeatedly saying, “Sure, whatever you need!” And then giving us whatever we need without question. If he mistakenly arranges something in an unsafe manner, he happily changes things. He just wants his kids with medical issues to be able to participate safely, which we know K. will be able to continue to do for the next four years.

The other person I want to thank is our middle school principal. Mr. C has been K’s principal for three years. Next year she moves to a new school. He has been very involved with K’s needs: picking up safe pizzas and ice cream for class parties for her himself, calling me when an issue arises, talking to the cafeteria staff, etc. He asked for permission to schedule and then run her 504 meeting for the fall because he wants the hand off to go smoothly. He believes, quite correctly, that there are some administrative issues that he can explain to the other principal more clearly than I could. Also, he is invested in her and wants to help things go well with her move to the high school. This level of involvement from an administrator is such a gift. We will miss him very much.

I am thankful for these two men and their commitment to keeping their students safe, each in his own way.

We had a wonderful time in NYC and got home without any incidents. We already want to go back!

But I wanted to share some things that happened as an illustration of why I think allergic teenagers still need an adult advocate with them on a big trip like this, where they are at the will of the tour guide company and there is one nurse for 80 kids.

The tour guide company wants to try to plan the allergen-safe meals themselves because you are paying a lot of money for their service. You decide to let them try because you know you will be along for the trip. Someone in the office calls you to give a progress report. “I have spent HOURS on the phone tracking down this information. I asked for the ingredients in the meal at the first restaurant and the person on the phone LAUGHED.” She then tells you, in so many words, not to sue them if things go wrong.

***

You packed some food but are unable to bring food into many venues due to heightened security. You do not return to the hotel until nighttime each day. You are in a large group and are not able to go off on your own to buy food very often. You make sure to have small prepackaged desserts and some nut butter packets for protein, being very careful of your nut allergic friend and using lots of hand wipes.

***

You have poured over the entire trip schedule making plans for each meal. The very first stop on the interstate is listed as a choice of two restaurants. Your bus pulls up in front of a third choice with nothing else nearby. 

***

You find the manager at the first dinner restaurant and ask if there is dairy in either meat being served to the group. “No. No dairy.”

“You’re sure.”

“Yes.”

“No milk, cheese, butter….”

“Oh yeah, there’s butter in the rib marinade.”

You get a double order of chicken.

***

Because you are in a group of 100 people being served a limited number of choices, the dairy-free options are often gluten-free and vegan as well. Plain roasted vegetable salad is not a big hit. 

***

Your small group also includes a nut allergic child, necessitating at least two stops for lunch during free times: one for a nut-free meal and one for a dairy-free meal. These girls have been friends since Kindergarten, and happily coexist eating each other’s allergens.

***

Your tour guide often says you need the “gluten free meal” instead of the dairy-free meal, and mistakenly tries to order you a bun-less cheeseburger like the one the gluten-free teen on your trip is eating.

***

Because your meals are prepared separately, your group is often the last one to eat, sometimes having to leave food unfinished. Your chaperon may or may not have lost her mind during the last meal and told you to sit and eat because they aren’t going to leave without you. 🙂

These incidents are all par for the course and not worth getting upset over, but I do think they are too much for an eighth grader to deal with alone. Adults sometimes don’t take kids’ concerns as seriously as they should. It pays to have an adult allergy spokesperson who won’t take no for an answer.

This Pennsylvania Dutch treat is one of my favorite pies. It is often served for breakfast, and who am I to argue? It’s so good with a cup of coffee and uses ingredients you probably have in your house right now.

Of course I’m posting this for Pi Day, but I’m also posting it in honor of my Aunt Jenny, who passed away in January. We are having her memorial service this coming weekend, and of course she is on my mind. Jenny was, among many other things, a fabulous cook. If I ever served her something and she asked for the recipe, I was immensely flattered. In recent years, I served Shoofly Pie to Jenny, and she said she’d never had it before. I couldn’t believe I’d found something my well-traveled, well-fed aunt had never eaten!

There are many, many variations of Shoofly Pie. I found this recipe years ago on the now defunct BeanPlate blog and made it dairy free. Enjoy, happy Pi Day, and I love you, Jenny.

Today Eli is ten. Double digits. Goodness. To celebrate, we are on year seven of a John Deere cake for dessert and year six of ninjabread men for a school treat. He’s a man who knows what he likes. And you can’t say I haven’t gotten my money’s worth out of those purchases.

Parenthetically, this also means that I’ve been blogging for nine years. 

The cookie recipe I use is the one from the back of the ninjabread men box, altered to be dairy free. Here is the dairy-free icing I make every year to decorate the ninjas. It sets up hard and glossy, perfect for transporting treats to school. Corn syrup is the magic ingredient that makes it work.

Happy Birthday, Eli.

Helen is eight today. EIGHT. Wasn’t she just born? Didn’t I just post her first picture, like, three years ago? 

In her own quiet yet determined way, she chose not only her birthday dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup, using Daiya’s great newly improved cheddar shreds for the dairy allergic) but also her lunch for school (mac n’ cheese) and her breakfast (pancakes like Perkins’ Rainbow Pancakes). Parenthetically, I’m noticing a trend where the dairy eaters request dairy-full items for their birthdays as we don’t often eat them. Fine with me.

Her big sister was kind enough to make her special birthday breakfast. Katherine cooked the pancakes yesterday using Bisquick (Yes, it’s dairy free), eggs, and dairy-free milk. She added sprinkles to each pancake while they were cooking. This morning I reheated the pancakes and topped them with additional sprinkles and Vivian’s Live Again Creamy Whipped Topping. Our favorite dairy-free topping is So Delicious CocoWhip, but we were out. Unfortunately, the closest store that carries it is 45 minutes away. Vivian’s is great because it’s shelf stable and takes 5 minutes to make. No chilling time required and easy to keep on hand.

If your eighth birthday falls on a Monday and you have to get up to go to school, you might as well start celebrating first thing. Happy Birthday, Helen.

Here is a list of some of the things I do to make December less stressful and more pleasant. I want to remember them, and I want to share them with you. Of course I’d also love to hear your ideas!

• We switched to making large amounts of simple cookies and candies instead of small batches of fussy ones, such as dairy-free chocolate covered marshmallows. Two of our favorites are Nicole’s Chocolate Barks and Katherine’s Chocolate Chip Shortbread. Parenthetically, Katherine is the newest member of the Go Dairy Free crew! It’s so much fun to do a monthly column with her. Here’s the first one–a great holiday roll recipe.
  

  Dairy-free chocolate covered marshmallows

• I started sending New Year’s cards last year, and I am never going back to Christmas cards, at least while there are kids in the house. We don’t travel at Christmas, and Scott has the whole week off, so I have lots of time to spend on writing out cards. 
• I finally ‘splurged’ on a timer for the outside lights. No more wading out in the porch snow to turn them off every night. See also: one of those big button things where you or a child can easily turn the tree off and on without crawling back to the outlet. Life changing.
• We let our nine-year old be in charge of the camcorder at Christmas concerts and other events. Sure, the quality might not be the best, but it keeps him entertained, we don’t have to do it, and who really watches their old middle school band concerts, anyway?
• We celebrate St. Nicholas Day. This has turned out to be a great time to give new Christmas shirts, or PJs, or a new Christmas book or movie. Also, I make Santa Claus pancakes with dairy-free whipped cream. If you make the pancakes ahead of time, you just have to heat them up, decorate them with whipped cream and fruit, and serve. It’s a nice way to do something festive early in the month before you blink and it’s December 18. 
• I shop online as much as I can.
• Aside from shopping, I spend less time online. Something has to go in December, and blogging/tweeting/pinning is it.
• At the neighborhood Christmas party, we make graham cracker gingerbread houses, not real ones. And we make them ahead of time. The kids just decorate them, which is the only part they care about. 
  

  Gingerbread Houses

• And of course we talk about the Christmas story. One of my favorite ways to do so is through our yearly reading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which gets me every time. I must say I find parts of it even funnier now that I’m an adult. I really empathize with Mother, who ends up in charge of the pageant against her will. And the writing is hilarious. “The spotlight swooped back and forth and up and down till it made you sick at your stomach to look at it and, as usual, whoever was playing the piano pitched ‘Away in a Manger’ so high we could hardly hear it, let alone sing it. My father says ‘Away in a Manger always starts out sounding like a closetful of mice.” Last St. Nicholas Day, I gave them the TV movie version of it, which I loved as a kid.

Merry Christmas!