Enjoy Life Foods: Seed and Fruit Mixes

November 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

Enjoy Life Foods has done it again! They’ve made another great product… that I will be hooked on. I just love how great their snacks taste and I love that they are all made safe for people with food allergies. I was so excited when Enjoy Life Foods sent me a package of both varieties of their no nuts, seed and fruit mixes to try.

Seed and fruit mixes

These mixes make a great snack whether you’re on the go or just need something to munch on after dinner while watching television. I’m actually not even allergic to nuts, but I will still buy these again for sure since it’s hard to find a mixture that doesn’t have something I’m allergic to in it. These have a great mixture of salty and sweet, crunchy and chewy yummy-ness.

Each variety had a great mix of flavors, but I have to say that the Mountain Mambo was my favorite. It has a mix of sunflower kernels, pumpkin seeds, raisins, apples, chocolate chips, and cranberries. I could seriously eat the whole bag in one sitting if I let myself.

The second flavor is called Beach Bash and was also very tasty. I was surprised at how different it tastes despite having mostly the same ingredients. This one was a mix of sunflower kernels, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and apricots. This one lasted long enough to try out another one of the recipes on Enjoy Life Foods’ recipe page… Beach Bash Brittle.

Recipe

I started by mixing sugar a water together and heating it in the microwave to dissolve the sugar. I made only half of a recipe since I only had half of the trail mix leftover.

Heating sugar

I continued heating the sugar until it was a dark amber color, like the recipe directed. Then I mixed in the trail mix.

Mixing trail mix

Working quickly, I poured the mixture onto a cookie sheet as soon as it had stopped bubbling.

Poured onto sheet

After allowing it to cool completely, I then broke it into bite size pieces and transfered to a serving dish.

Ready to eat

This came out great! Being that this was my first time making a candy-like treat, I was a little nervous that I might end up with my spoon hardening onto my measuring cup or something like that. But this was super easy to make, and such simple ingredients too. What a yummy, sweet snack!

Thanks to Enjoy Life Foods for yet another great, allergy-free snack that I can enjoy!

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Allergy Free Holiday Recipes: Stuffing

November 16, 2011 By 6 Comments

If I had to choose one holiday dish as my favorite, I think I would pick stuffing. It’s always been one of the best parts of the holiday meal. Of course, it’s all bread… meaning it was no longer on my list of foods I could enjoy. Then I came across a recipe for allergy-free and gluten-free stuffing on Enjoy Life Foods’ recipe page. I couldn’t wait to try it out at our Thanksgiving dinner.

It was pretty simple to make and overall a very tasty dish. However, even though it tasted really good, it didn’t really compare to real stuffing. I still think it would be worth making again when I want stuffing, I just have to think of it as its own side dish instead of a stuffing replacement. I did like how my dinner plate looked like a whole Thanksgiving dinner instead of having to skip out on all the items containing my allergens. This stuffing was just what I needed to complete my meal.

Ingredients

I started my soaking the flax cereal in warm chicken broth. After about fifteen minutes it had puffed up from all of the moisture.

Soaking cereal

After melting butter over medium heat, I sauteed onions and celery together until they were translucent.

Cooking onions

Then I added my grated carrots and chopped mushrooms.

Grated carrotsAdding veggies

After all the veggies were nicely cooked I added them along with my spices to the soaked cereal, and mixed well. Then I transferred the mixture to a casserole dish for baking.

Ready to bake

Note… I used a lot more spices than this recipe called for as I thought it might be a little plain. I think it definitely needed it. My mix was the mix my mom would use on her normal stuffing and included poultry seasoning, thyme, sage, garlic pepper, salt… I’m not even sure what else she mixed up for me.

My family enjoyed this dish… let me know what you think of it.

Finished stuffing

Enjoy!

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Allergy Free Holiday Recipes: Green Bean Casserole

November 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Can you believe that green bean casserole is not a dish that I grew up eating? It wasn’t until we moved to Florida and were invited to a friends’ house for Thanksgiving that I was first introduced to its yummy-ness. It’s been one of my favorites since then.

I came across an allergy-free and gluten-free version of the recipe on Enjoy Life Foods’ recipe page and could hardly wait until Thanksgiving to give it a try. I was very pleased with the result. It didn’t taste too much like green bean casserole I’m used to, but it was very good. Also, it was a LOT more work… compared to mixing a can of mushroom soup with a can of green beans. Maybe it will be easier when I make it for a second time.

Ingredients

I started by chopping up a small carton of mushrooms. I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of mushrooms… in fact, this is the first time I’ve ever bought any type of mushrooms. Usually I would skip the mushrooms in a recipe, but since it was really a main ingredient this time I thought I would brave them. Since they are so soft, they were super easy to chop up into small pieces. I felt like a professional just chop, chop, chopping so quickly!

Chopped mushrooms

I sauteed the mushrooms in some olive oil until they were softened.

Saute mushrooms

Then I added the spices and the chicken broth. I used arrowroot instead of rice flower to thicken the broth since I already had that on hand.

Add broth

Once the soup had cooked I transferred it to the blender to puree the mushrooms.

Puree mushroom soup

Then soup mixture was mixed with the green beans and poured into a casserole dish. I sprinkled Enjoy Life flax seed cereal on top before baking.

Green bean casserole

We really liked this recipe. The main difference to the traditional recipe is that the soup was a broth instead of a cream, but it was still a great mix of flavors. And I got to have my casserole back again!

Finished casserole

I hope you enjoy this one!

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