Enjoy Life Fruit and Seed Mix - Review

Enjoy Life Not Nuts! Seed and Fruit Mix is available in Mountain Mambo, and Beach Bash.  Both are available at our local grocery store, which is where I purchased the Mountain Mambo variety to review. 

Enjoy Life Plentils - Review

Hey everyone!  It's "Review Friday," so let's get down to the nitty gritty!  Today, I'm reviewing "Enjoy Life Plentils."

I recently attended the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference, in Las Vegas.  When I arrived to register at the conference, I was greeted with two bags of swag!  Coupons, pens, magnets, magazines, and oh so many samples of allergy friendly products, including Garlic & Parmesan Plentils! 

My children love Enjoy Life products and I really wanted them to try these, but I had a 4 hour wait at the airport on the way home from the conference...the Plentils were gone well before I got on the plane.  That should give you a hint as to their taste and quality....

Pros: Crunchy, flavorful, and satisfying!   Free of the top 8 allergens, Plentils are safe for every person in my household. And, these tasty chips are made from lentils, so they are packed with protein and deliver goodness that an ordinary potato chip can't.    

Cons: My local grocery store doesn't carry them. 

Bottom Line:  I'm a fan, and I'll be ordering some so my children can enjoy them too!

Click HERE to check out all the awesome products that Enjoy Life Foods has to offer!  All free of the Top 8 Allergens! 

 As always, from The Allergy Safe Kitchen, I wish you "Good Cooking, and Safe Eating"!

Dessert Hobo Pies

Ok, ok...wipe the drool off your face, and start gathering up the firewood for this camp classic!

At least once a summer, we break out the pie irons, and make pizza hobo pies.  We use homemade sauce, Earth Balance to grease the irons, safe bread, turkey pepperoni or sliced Al Fresco chicken sausage, and Follow your Heart Vegan Cheese Alternative.  Delish!

This year, we really wanted to make dessert pies too, and here's what we came up with:

*This recipe is peanut-free, tree nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free,  fish-free, and shellfish-free. As always, check this ingredient list and your local products to make sure that this recipe is allergy safe for your family and/or friends!

"Not S'mores"  (we couldn't come up with a better name, it was late...)

Ingredients: (makes 2 dessert pies)

4 slices white sandwich bread
Earth balance bars
graham crackers
enjoy life chocolate chips
Sunbutter - creamy
Dairy-free mini-marshmallows
Cinnamon Sugar
Cast iron pie iron (ours is a double, so that's how I'm writing this recipe)

Directions:

1. Make a campfire!  Let it burn down a little.  You won't need a big flame, but you will need hot coals. Also, make sure you have a safe place to put the iron down when it comes out of the fire, and also a potholder or "Ove' Glove". 
2. Heat the pie iron in the fire.
3. Pull the iron out and open it.  Grease the inside of both sides of the iron with Earth Balance.
4. Place two pieces of bread in the cavity of one side of the iron.  
5. Place a graham cracker on each piece of bread.  Top generously with mini-marshmallows chocolate morsels.  
6. Spread a layer of Sunbutter on the remaining two slices of bread and top off the sandwiches in the iron. 
7. Carefully close the pie iron and place among the hot coals of the campfire.  Do not put the iron in the direct flames, it will burn the bread. 
8. After a few minutes, flip the pie iron.  
9. Cooking time will vary depending on how hot your coals are! Check after 5 minutes.  The pie is done when both sides are golden brown.
10. Remove pie irons to your heat safe surface.  Open the irons and slather just the top side of the pie with Earth Balance.  Then, sprinkle on a generous amount of cinnamon sugar!
11. Serve and enjoy!!!

 As always, from The Allergy Safe Kitchen, I wish you "Good Cooking, and Safe Eating"!

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods

The Superbowl is near and the children of our household are all aflutter!  It isn't because we are die-hard football fans, (although I do love a good football movie!), it is because it's the only day of the year we let the kids eat dinner in the family room!  As soon as Superbowl time draws near, the pressure to create a fun and tasty football feast is on!  

One of our family favorite, salty and sweet snacks for game day is a perfect one for parents and children to make together: Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods! 

A Love Note about "Enjoy Life" Mini Chips

Finding allergy friendly chocolate is SO difficult!  When Aidan was first diagnosed with food allergies (about 7 years ago), there weren't that many companies that specialized in making allergy friendly food.  When Enjoy Life came on the scene in our local grocery stores, it was right around Easter (several years ago).  I couldn't afford to send away for the expensive "safe" chocolate bunnies, which you have to order WAY in advance, so  I was trying to find creative options for the kids' Easter baskets, and browsing through the tiny organic section in our local chain supermarket. My eyes fell on a new product:  "Enjoy Life Mini Chips".  The other organic chocolate morsels our store had always carried were dairy-free, but they had the dreaded "may contain" statement for peanuts and tree nuts.  But HERE was a beautiful bag of hope in the form of mini chocolate chips!  I read the label 5 times, just to be sure I could trust what I was seeing!  Enjoy Life products are free of all top 8 food allergens!!!  My kids could finally have chocolate in their Easter baskets? I could concoct CHOCOLATE CHIP cookies?  I could put morsels in our rice flour pancakes as a special treat?  My mind went spinning with birthday desert possibilities!  I am not ashamed to say that I cried right there in organic section.  It was like we were being gifted with a small bit of what other families would describe as "normalcy".

An acquaintance from church saw me and I was so excited that when she asked if I was okay, I could only choke out "They can have chocolate!"  I really don't think she knew what to make of the whole situation, but she knew our children had life-threatening food allergies, so she gave me a big hug and said something along the lines of "I'm sure that's wonderful news!"  As anyone on the inside of a food-allergy lifestyle knows, those on the "outside" don't always understand how hope-filled these seemingly small triumphs can be.  I am grateful that this particular acquaintence just "went with the moment" and shared my joy. 

We have used this one ingredient to create countless special treats, birthday desserts, molded chocolates...we used them in the Peppermint Patty recipe featured earlier on this blog! 

So, from my family to the Enjoy Life company:  Thank you.  We love you! 

 As always, from The Allergy Safe Kitchen, I wish you "Good Cooking, and Safe Eating"!

Peppermint Patties

As I watched the snow finally fall outside, I felt the urge to bake something.  Since we'd all recently had our fill of cookies, I got out a recipe for Peppermint Patties that I had tucked away.  This recipe originally came from Family Fun magazine, and I am sorry we waited so long to try it! These little beauties are scrumptious, and better yet, ALL the kids loved them!