So What Do You Do For Snacks???

This is a question I get asked over and over again. "So with all those dietary challenges, what do you do for lunchbox snacks, what do you take with you when you travel with the kids?"


So I figured I may as well put a list out there of stuff that is working well for us for snacks. I do try to buy organic as much as possible, to buy fruits/veggies that are in season, and to eliminate as many artificial ingredients (i.e. stuff that's been cooked up in a lab) as I possible can.

This list is a work in progress, as I am sure I'm forgetting things. I'll also add webby links to the various products and companies when I have more time.

Here goes:
Fresh fruits are big here - green and red seedless grapes, strawberries, banana (Potatey only), apple, kiwi, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries.

Organic baby carrots - Salamander loves them with some Cedar's Organic Original Hommus. For Potatey I'll make a "quick dip" using Hain Lite Safflower Mayonnaise [this one does have a few *funny* ingredients, so I do limit this], olive oil and organic dried parsley flakes

Sliced fresh cucumber

Celery Sticks w Almond Butter (or the *quick dip* I just mentioned)

Bubbies(R) Bread & Butter chips (Salamander LOVES these)

Dried fruits (make sure no sulfites/sulfates added; preferable no sugar added either), bought in bulk at Whole Foods Market - cranberries, banana slices (Potatey only), mango slices, papaya slices, pineapple slices

Sun Maid(R) Natural California raisins - the 1 1/2 oz. small boxes only. I was told, way back in the days of starting dietary changes, that this size is the only size that's gluten free

Woodstock Farms Organic Apple Sauce, 4 oz cups

Shelled Pistachios

Enjoy Life(R) Caramel Apple bars

ANDI BAR(TM) Chocolate Shake bars

Enjoy Life(R) Snicker Doodle cookies, Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies, Double Chocolate Cookies

Andean Dream(R) Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

Brownies, or chocolate cup cakes I bake using Namaste Foods Brownie Mix or Chocolate Cake Mix

I almost always have some "my own recipe' mini muffins or sweet breads floating around.

Ruffles(R) Natural Sea Salted Reduced Fat Potato Chips

Tostitos Natural Yellow Corn Chips, Tostitos Natural Blue Corn Chips. Salamander loves these with either hommus or with EatSmart (Snyder's of Hanover) Garden Style Sweet Salsa

EnerG(R) Wylde Pretzels (I only buy the one that is soy free in addition to gluten free, dairy free, etc. I wish they would develop a pretzel that's corn free as well)

Honey Acres HoneySuckles Honey Snack

Bare Fruit Bake-Dried Apple Chips, Bake-Dried Mangos

Sensible Foods(R) Crunch Dried(R) Fruit Snacks


And yes, with the snacks too, I rotate, rotate, rotate (e.g. boys don't get the same snack two days in a row; I try very hard to space things 7 days apart and/or to link up with the *starch of the day*).

Chocolate Chip Muffins

I stared making these for the boys when my previous waffle maker decided to take an early retirement (and my replacement hadn't come in yet). They were a rip roaring success (so much so that the boys now ask me to alternate between waffles and muffins. LOL).

2 1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 eggs (or if you need to stay egg free, replace with 1/3 cup of apple sauce)
1/4 cup chocolate chips (we only use the Enjoy Life chocolate chips) (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In large mixing bowl, mix together almond flour, baking soda, salt. Add honey, vanilla, vinegar and eggs (or apple sauce). Mix well and stir in chocolate chips.

Lightly grease muffin tins, or place paper liners in tins.

Spoon batter into tins, filling half full. Makes about 9 muffins.

Place muffin tin in oven. Place baking sheet under muffin tins (in case batter rises above muffin tins and spills over, it's happened to me a few times.. LOL).

Bake for about 20 minutes (may need to bake a little longer if using apple sauce instead of eggs).

My boys love 'em hot, with a little jelly or honey drizzled on top. They make great lunchbox snacks too (but do check with your child's school regarding their nut free policies).

GFCFetcF Chocolate Chip Cookies

Check out these guys, I found their cookies in my "local" Whole Foods Market.

I picked up their Chocolate Chip Cookies, and my boys are loving these. So much in fact, that the box of 12 simply "disappeared" overnite. The cookies are individually wrapped, so make great lunch box treats.
It really took me by surprise how much my guys like these, as neither of them is a big quinoa fan.

The company makes several other "flavors" too. I have to take a good hard look at the ingredients listing for the other flavors; needless to say the coconut versions and the orange flavor versions are out.

Honey Suckles

LINKY THINGIES ADDED - SORRY FOR CONFUSION

Just discovered Honey Suckles on one of my favorite mail order websites, Digestive Wellness!!!!

Every year, after the boys and I come back from our annual apple picking adventure, we stop by at this little farm stand that sells organic honey, organic fruit jellies, wonderful Indonesian spices, Sambal, loempias, etc.

And every year I buy the boys a few honey suckles, at $2 a piece (yes, ouch ...).

So imagine my delight (and the boys are super excited as well; they were looking over my shoulder as I was ordering) finding them at a much more *palatable* price!!!!!

These will make great, every once and a while, additions to the lunch boxes too...

Chocolate Brittle

This one went over really well with Salamander. Not so much with Potatey - he really is a food purist. As in, do not mix different foods and textures together. As in, make a dish that's based on one food, and one food only.

1 bag Enjoy Life GFCFSF chocolate chips
1/2 tsp safflower oil
1/2 cup organic blanched almonds
1/2 cup organic whole cranberries
1/2 cup organic Thompson raisins
1/2 cup organic red flame raisins
couple of tbs spoons of pignolia nuts
couple of tbs shelled organic pistachio nuts

Grease (I use Spectrum Cooking Spray) an 8 x 8 inch Pyrex glass dish.

Put almonds, cranberries, raisins, pignolia nuts and pistachio nuts in a bowl and mix

Pour chocolate chips in microwave safe container, and mix thoroughly with oil. Put in microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue to melt chocolate chips in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds.

Once chocolate chips are fully melted, stir in fruit/nut mixture. Spread chocolate mixture out in greased Pyrex glass dish into about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick layer.

Place in fridge to allow mixture to set up.

Remove chocolate brittle from dish and break in small pieces.

So Sorry..

for not having posted any new recipes. Not that I don't have more stuff to put up, I just haven't had the time (it's one thing to put a quick, rambling, blog post, but quite another to put up a recipe that can actually be replicated!!).

That being said, Salamander did thoroughly enjoy a few twists I made last night to his dinner salad.

I replaced the lettuce with baby spinach
And I added pignolia nuts
(and I had ran out of grapes, but he wasn't missing them at all)

The grin that broke out on his face, when he discovered the pignolia nuts, was priceless.

And oh, yes, I DID make chocolate cupcakes using this mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen (Potatey was in hog heaven.. ).

Coconut Yoghurt and Ice Cream

Adding a quick link to an interesting exchange of information regarding Coconut Yoghurt. Haven't tried it myself... It would be a no go for Potatey (Coconut is a no-no), but I am seriously considering it for Salamander..

Easy Snack Bars..

Yes, yes, I DO resort to snack/granola type bars for the boys' lunch boxes (just not every day).

Favorites here are:

ANDI chocolate shake bars (boys get a bar each twice a week)

Enjoy Life Caramel Apple Bar (rotate that one too; although if it were up to Potatey he's have one very day)

Enjoy Life Very Berry Bar (another rotation)

For a while, Salamander was very in to the Enjoy Life Cocoa Loco Bars. Not so much anymore, have no idea why...

The Enjoy Life chewy chocolate chip cookies and double chocolate brownie cookies are really good too; I have half the kids in my street raiding my house for these cookies. And I don't think the parents of said kids realize that these cookies are allergen-free (you know how *outsiders* are when you mention allergen free foods to them; their immediate response is 'oh, there can't be much taste to that stuff.' WRONG!!)

I have tried many other brands of allergen free bars as well, but the boys keep going back to the above.

Easy Pancakes

Another quick mix that I like to use is Cherrybrook Kitchen's Glutenfree Pancake Mix (my local Shaw's carries it.. they have a pretty decent allergen-free groceries section.. not in the least due to the vocal praise of yours truly when the first products appeared on the shelf in this store).

The pancakes resulting from this mix are very fluffy and very stackable. Salamander still remembers his pre-dietary changes jaunts to our local IHOP (kid has a memory like a copper pot) -and the first thing out of his mouth when I plopped these pancakes in front of him was "Oh man, it's an IHOP pancake stacker!!!" Now mind you, he hasn't seen an IHOP from the inside in 4+ years!!!!

The ingredients are
White rice flour, evaporated cane juice, potato starch, non-aluminum (very important to us) baking powder, tapioca starch, all natural vanilla flavor (yeah, some Feingold kids have trouble with even the all natural flavors - salicylates; I think I read somewhere that all natural flavors also contain glutamates), sea salt, xantham gum

I use Pacific Brand Original Almond Milk as my milk sub (yes, that one contains soy lecithin.. this particular soy derivative is not an issue for us TG ; believe me, I tested it very carefully). But you can use any milk sub you like I would think. Other things you'll need to add are a little oil and some vanilla.

Serve with agave syrup. Yum, Yum.. Salamander usually eats them faster than I can bake them

(Potatey doesn't care much for these pancakes - he likes my *home grown* potato flour pancake recipe better.. I'll post that one as soon as I have more time)

Easy Brownies

Couple of quick teasers.. as I am in between projects and need to do something FUN for a few minutes.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Namaste Brownie Mix. TG my WFM carries it (but I see that the Namaste website allows buying in bulk.. hmm, not a bad idea for Bday parties and class room parties)

Here are the ingredients (yes, it DOES contain rice. Salamander is fine with rice, I need to limit it for Potatey. That's why rice is part of my 7 day starch rotation):

Organic evaporated cane juice, sweet brown rice flour, Dutch cocoa, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, salt, and xanthan gum.

The mix calls for adding eggs, water and oil. Salamander was egg free for almost 2 years, but now eggs are back in (but only once a week). I have made this mix in the past using 1 cup of apple sauce of 1 cup of pear sauce. When you do that, the brownies are not quite as gooey (and Potatey likes his brownies gooey), they are a little more *bread* like. Still delish though..

Oh, Salamander and I also adapted a recipe from a kids' cook book (published by US Borne, I posted about the book itself on the OurTravelsInBiomedland blog). I need to find my notes back, and once I do I will post that recipe too.