Nana’s Shortbread Cookies

My great grandmother’s shortbread cookies are a must-have Christmas treat. When we were kids we had so much fun getting to decorate these cookies with tons of icing and sprinkles. We cut shapes of snowmen, candy canes, and holly. So when I finally gave in and bought special, wheat-free flour this recipe was at the top of my list to try.

These cookies are SO good and the recipe is SO simple. As you can see this recipe card has been well used through the years.

Shortbread recipe

The jury is still out on the flour until I try it in a few more recipes. I’m using it very sparingly since the package of flour was so expensive. I only made half of the recipe, just to see how they turned out.

Namaste flour

The only thing I noticed was that it didn’t bind together as well as normal flour does. So I had to add a bit more butter than the recipe called for. This changed the taste of the cookies slightly, but they weren’t bad. Extra butter rarely makes things bad. 😉

Cookie mix

Since all I had was circle cookie cutters, I thought I could make the cookies look like tree ornaments. I decorated them with my soy-free chocolate chips before baking.

Decorating

I sampled a few and the rest went into the freezer to savor throughout the season. Since I only made a few, I don’t plan on sharing! The rest of family will have to eat the ones made with normal flour. 🙂

Finished cookies

These are super easy and fun… give them a try! Enjoy!

Enjoy Life Foods: Seed and Fruit Mixes

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!

Allergy Free Holiday Recipes: Stuffing

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!