Fighting Flare

Kabocha Squash "Sweet Faux-tato Casserole" - (SCD & Paleo)

I know Thanksgiving recipes are SO last Thursday, but since I didn't get a chance to finish my T-Day recipe blast, I'm just going to keep sharing them now and you can try them for Christmas or Hannukah...or next Thanksgiving...or next Tuesday...  ;)

Before starting SCD, I used to make the most amazing sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving....every year.  And every year, people would ask me for the recipe.  Even people who don't normally like sweet potatoes loved this casserole.  And why wouldn't they??  It was full of cream and butter and sugar...naturally, I had to find a way to adapt it for SCD.  Welcome to the world Kabocha Squash "Sweet Faux-tato Casserole!"

My original plan was to sub butternut squash for the sweet potatoes, until I tried kabocha squash for the first time and realized that it's taste and texture was nearly identical to a sweet potato.  I decided to give it a whirl in this dish and it turned out fantastic.  It's similar to a pumpkin, but slightly sweeter.  If you can't find kobucha squash, a sugar pumpkin or butternut squash would work well too. 

I subbed coconut milk for the cream and honey for the sugar and then came up with a totally new topping completely devoid of brown sugar, yet still managing to take on that wonderful caramelized flavor.  The best part...it doens't taste like honey or coconut...a rare feat for SCD sweets!!

 

INGREDIENTS:

Casserole:

1 large kabocha squash (approx. 5-5.5 lbs.), roasted
3/4 - 1 c. honey (depending how sweet you want it)
1 14 oz. can light coconut milk
1 c. salty butter, cubed
4 eggs, beaten
2 T. vanilla

Topping:

12 medjool dates, pitted
8 oz. pecans
1/4 c. coconut oil, melted

And yes, that giant vodka bottle in the back of my ingredients picture is my vanilla extract...go big or go home, baby!  We don't mess around in this house!!  It's actually sooo easy to make your own vanilla extract...just buy a big bottle of cheap vodka and cram a handful of good quality vanilla beans into it.  (Slice them lengthwise before you drop them in for maximum vanilla bean flavor.)  Then let the bottle sit in a cabinet and forget about it for a few months...when you come back, you'll have a very impressive bottle of homemade vanilla.  (FYI, I do usually class things up a bit and decant it to a smaller bottle, but I thought this would be more fun to show you.)

DIRECTIONS:

In the interest of simplicity, such as it is with SCD, this recipe utilizes a simply roasted squash.  The easiest way to roast a squash is to cut it in half (Ha ha...like that's easy!), scoop out the seeds, place the halves cut sides down on a parchment lined baking sheet, brush with a little olive oil and roast at 400 degrees until it is soft...anywhere between 30-50 minutes depending on the size of the squash.  You can go do something else while you're waiting for it.  When the squash is soft, let it cool enough to handle, then scoop out the flesh and proceed with the recipe.  Alternatively, you could peel and cube the squash, then roast it for a deeper, caramelized flavor, but it's a lot of work to peel and cube a squash, so I prefer the lazy roaster way.  ;)

Important to note...cutting a squash in half is hardly what I would call easy or simple.  In fact, I frequently feel like a homicidal maniac when I'm stabbing and fighting with a winter squash...be careful!

Once you have wrestled with and roasted your squash, combine the warm squash, honey, coconut milk, egg, butter and vanilla in a large bowl.  Break up gently with a wooden spoon and mix...do not overly mash...leave some chunks.  This will be very liquidy...don't panic.  Pour mixture into a shallow 4-quart baking dish.  (You can also split it into two smaller baking dishes if you need to.)

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes to firm up slightly.  While baking, make the nut topping.

To make the topping, pulse dates and pecans in food processor until they become a coarse crumb. Drizzle in melted coconut oil to coat.

Take casserole out of oven, gently spread nut topping over the surface of the casserole.  Return to oven and bake uncovered for another 12-15 minutes. 

Remove when nuts start to brown and casserole is set.  Let the casserole rest a bit before serving to firm up even more.

That's all there is to it.  The topping comes out with a nice, caramelized toasty chew from the dates and the whole thing is just d'lish.  This casserole can be made ahead and baked at the last minute or baked and re-heated.  It also makes an amazing breakfast dish the next day paired with eggs and bacon...oh yum! 

I hope you like this recipe and would love to hear about your favorite SCD holiday foods.  I'd also love to know how it turns out if you make this casserole.  Feel free to share your comments below or share pics on my Facebook page or tag them with #FightingFlare on Instagram or Twitter.  Be sure to check out my Broccoli Cheese Casserole and check back soon for my Roasted Garlic Mashed Cauliflower, Cranberry Sauce and Turkey with Roasted Onion Gravy.  XOXO, Cindi

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Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Forget the bird, broccoli cheese casserole is the real reason I show up for Thanksgiving dinner.  I don't even like broccoli all that much, but I love broccoli cheese casserole.  I grew up with this on my Thanksgiving plate every year, so when we switched to SCD, I knew I would have to find a way to adapt my mom's recipe or Thanksgiving would never be the same.

As it turned out, there were only two problematic ingredients in the original recipe...breadcrumbs and cream of mushroom soup.  The breadcrumbs were easy enough to leave off and as it turns out, the casserole is just as good without the mushroom soup....in fact, it's a lot less greasy.  I happen to really like mushrooms though, so I like to add fresh chopped mushrooms instead of the soup.  If you don't like mushrooms, leave them out. 

This recipe is super easy to make and can be made ahead to be baked or reheated just before dinner.  I like to double or triple this recipe because it goes fast and I REALLY like to have leftovers.  I'm not even kidding, I will gobble a whole bowl of this for breakfast.  

I'm going to share the easy version first, then I'll give you some tips to glam it up in the notes following. And FYI...this is not a "lite" version...it's still chock full of fat, which is why it tastes so good.  ;)

 

INGREDIENTS:

2 pkgs. (10 oz./ea) frozen chopped broccoli, cooked & drained well

1 large onion, diced

1 c. fresh mushrooms, sliced or chopped (optional)

1 c. mayo

1 stick butter (salty), melted

4 eggs

1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded, plus extra for topping

almond flour (optional)

 

DIRECTIONS:

Mix broccoli, onion, mushrooms, mayo, butter, eggs and 1 c. cheddar cheese in a large bowl, then pour into a shallow 8" baking dish.  Sprinkle extra cheddar over the top.  Dust with a sprinkling of almond flour if you wish.  Bake at 350 degree for 30 minutes.  That's it!

When it comes out of the oven it will be looking all toasty and fabulous...

NOTES:

If you want to glam it up, you can use fresh broccoli or a combination of broccoli, romesco or cauliflower.  Just chop and steam until tender before using.

If you are using mushrooms, you can play around with different types.  I like to use shitakes when I'm feeling fancy, but criminis are good too.  I've also used chopped black olives instead of mushrooms, but I like the mushrooms better.  You can throw them in raw or steam them with the other veggies to release a little water before assembling the casserole.

If you want to play around with onions, you can do that too...leeks are a great alternative.  The white and light green parts can go into the casserole raw, but you may want to soften any dark green parts before using by tossing them in with your other veggies to steam before assembling the casserole.

The mayo I use is Spectrum Canola Mayo, but you could also use homemade.  Spectrum is not 100% SCD legal due to the fact that it contains "lemon juice concentrate", but we've used it since starting SCD without any problems.

Feel free to switch up the cheese.  Try a white cheddar or a smoked gouda...or any combo of flavors that you like.  It's an easy recipe to tweak. 

I will link this to my Deliciously Easy SCD Thanksgiving Menu, so you can easily find it.  You can also find it under Thanksgiving on the Happy Holidays tab at the top of my blog. 

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my SCD-legal version of Kabocha Squash "Sweet Faux-tato Casserole."  Don't miss it!!  Thanks for stopping by!  XOXO, Cindi

 

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A Deliciously Easy SCD Thanksgiving

Wahoo!  It's turkey time y'all!  Next to Halloween, Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday of the year...because, well...food!  And guess what?  I have great news.  It's really easy to do a delicious Thanksgiving on SCD.  The only major traditional foods you have to give up are stuffing, which admittedly is tragic, and potatoes.  I haven't found a decent replacement for my mom's stuffing yet, but potatoes are an easy fix.  Turkey and the rest of the trimmings are easily adapted to SCD.

The hard part may be that you're not hosting the dinner and you're not sure if there will be anything you can eat.  Fortunately, Thanksgiving dinners are often pot-luck affairs, so chances are good, you can just bring whatever you want to eat.  And there is no rule that says you can only bring one dish.  No one will turn you away if you show up with an armful of casseroles and salads.  As a hostess, I'm thrilled when people bring extra food because that means there will be more leftovers, which means I don't have to cook the next day.  ;)

If you're not going to a potluck and you're worried that someone will be insulted if you show up with your own food, call ahead and explain the situation.  Ask if you can bring some side dishes...that way you can tweak them to your dietary needs and no one will be the wiser.  Chances are good you will not be able to eat everything that is served, but you will at least have something you know you can eat.

The exception to this would be if you're eating at a restaurant and in that case, you will need to call ahead and find out what the situation will be. Fortunately, most restaurants are used to working with food allergies at this point and should be able to help you.

If you are hosting Thanksgiving yourself, that is really the ideal situation because you will have much more control over the menu.  You may still have guests who bring things that you won't be able to eat, but at least you'll know that there will be plenty that you can eat.

So, that brings up the question of what to make??   Honestly, the possibilities are endless, but I've pulled together all of my favorite holiday receipes into one easy menu.  Whether you just need a side dish or are looking for an entire meal, these recipes are all winners.  There are options for every dietary need you can think of and I'll be sure to share adaptations when possible.  I'm posting the menu here and will link to the recipes as I share them.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised about how delicious (and easy!) an SCD Thanksgiving can be.

THANKSGIVING MENU 2014

Oven Roasted Turkey

Cranberry Sauce Three Ways

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Kabocha Squash "Sweet Faux-tato Casserole" 

Roasted Carrots and Olives

Garlic Smashed Cauliflower (Instead of Mashed Potatoes)

Massaged Kale Salad

Dessert: TBD

 

I'd love to hear about your favorite holiday recipes and survival strategies so feel free to leave links or comments on this post or chat me up at any of the links below.  Check back soon for the recipes!!  XOXO, Cindi

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Photos via Tanya Lolonis on Pinterest

Sugar-Free SCD Halloween 2.0

Well, we did it!  We survived our second sugar-free Halloween on SCD and while there were some tough moments, it was so much better than last year.  We knew what to expect this time around and we were prepared.  I made plenty of SCD-legal sweets, hashed out an exciting candy trade-in plan and even found a honey-sweetened candy that my daughter could have. 

Waaaay down on the bottom of the candy wall at PCC, I found these honey sweetened peppermint patty-like candies from Heavenly Organics.  There are only three ingredients...unsweetened dark chocolate, honey and ginger extract.  It's not technically SCD-legal because of the chocolate, but we tested cocoa powder a while back and have been able to bring it back into my daughter's diet.  This was a huge score!  I thought the ginger was a bit overpowering and would love to try their other flavors, but it was a great surprise to stick in her goody bag.

We hosted our annual Halloween party on Halloween night, which was one of our best yet.  Since it was a Friday, people stayed late and we had a blast dancing into the wee hours.  I made two pots of chili, one with turkey and one vegetarian, and set out all the fixins' so people could make their own perfect bowl.  I also provided several crazy veggie trays and then asked everyone to bring some fingers finger foods to share. That way, I was sure that there would be at least one dish that everyone could eat and there would be plenty of food without me having to kill myself to get it all done.  As it turned out, most people brought SCD-legal foods anyway.

Here's my crazy eyeball veggie platter...

...and my bizarre cauliflower head veggie platter...this is what you call using your head to make veggies more fun.  ;)

A girlfriend made these wonderful little Paleo nut cups...

...and these almond butter brownie cupcakes complete with mashed banana "frosting" and cinnamon RIP details.

These are the frozen pumpkin "fudge" bars that I forgot to put out...recipe to come soon.

For drinks we had plenty of booze along with apple cider served in jelly jars and paper Halloween straws...

Here is a great shot of the potluck table and another great veggie platter... and how cute are the tangerine pumpkins??  Please note, there are edamame beans, chicken wings and some pita chips in this photo that are not SCD-legal, but everything else was.  :)

By the end of the night even my skeleton got into the spirit.

You may be wondering if we had any tears this year.  The answer to that is yes, but they actually came a few days before Halloween, but they weren't as intense as last year.  My daughter's GI also consented to her having a small amount of "real" chocolate on Halloween night as a one-time treat.  Coupled with the Heavenly Organics candy I found and the sweets we had at the party, it didn't seem nearly as hard this year.  She chose a dark mint chocoloate bar from Theo Chocolates and was allowed to have two squares.  Theo's is organic, fair trade, locally made in Seattle and very clean with only a few pure ingredients...cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla extract and mint extracts. 

This is the last in my series of Halloween posts that seems like it's gone on FOR-EVAH.  I really think this is the hardest holiday to deal with on SCD, so I put a lot of effort into making it as much fun as possible for my little one...sharing all of that takes a lot of posts to cover.  Hopefully, these posts have been helpful and will make your next SCD Halloween a little easier.  XOXO, Cindi

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Bone-jour! The Trials and Tribulations of Skeleton Day

Halloween is generally a fun time of year at any school, but this year, my daughter's teachers took it to a whole new level.  I already shared about how they tied their Egyptian Studies in with an appropriately timed Mummy Party, but they didn't stop there.  A week later, there was a Skeleton Party in celebration of their anatomy studies in science.  As usual, I offered to provide sweets, so that my daughter wouldn't feel left out.  There were a few other parents helping with this, as well...one brought fruit cups and the other a brilliantly clever veggie platter that looked like a skeleton.  I didn't see it, but I believe it was based off this idea:

I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing, knowing my daughter would be able to eat everything, except for the fact that the teacher specifically wanted skeleton cookies as the sweet because it tied into a book they were reading.  Had to be skeleton cookies.  Truthfully, I'm not much of a baker and I loathe rolling out dough...especially nut-flour doughs because they are impossible to work with.  And on the heels of my miserable Mummy Cookie experience, this was not a project I was looking forward to. 

I decided to try a new sugar cookie recipe and add some cocoa powder to make tiny chocolate "gingerbread man" shapes, that I hoped I could pipe some kind of skeleton-looking icing onto.  I was VERY nervous about this b/c I felt like I was setting myself up for failure from the get-go.  Why do I do this to myself???  Oh yes, love....  ;)

The dough rolling and cookie cutting went better than expected and I had a huge tray of tiny little people which I stuck in the oven and promptly BURNED!  Oh yes, burned the crap out of them.  It was hard to tell how dark they were getting because they were chocolate, but when I took them out, they tasted like they had been scraped off the side of my chimney.  That lead to my making a second batch of dough without cocoa powder which I managed to bake without burning...problem was, they tasted like chipboard.  Gah!!  So, there went 5 cups of my precious blanched almond flour and several hours of my life that I'll never get back. And I was no closer to having an SCD-legal treat that I could take to this party.

It was getting late, so I ultimately decided I would call around to grocery stores the next day and just get some kind of cookies to take and would send something else for my daughter.  I couldn't let the whole class down because of my mistakes.  Well, easier said than done.  NO ONE had skeleton cookies or bone cookies of any kind.  Whaaat??  Back to the drawing board...or Pinterest, to be totally accurate.  I ended up finding a cute little bone "cookie" made from two mini-marshmallows stuck on the ends of a pretzle stick and dipped in white chocolate.  Looked easy enough, so I hit the store, got what I needed and made them just in time for the party.  But my daughter couldn't eat them, so it defeated the whole purpose!!!  I still had to send her something different.  (They did turn out pretty cute though, no??)

As an aside, I was determined to make an SCD-legal version of these cookies, so I played around when I got home and came up with a pretty good alternative.  The recipe still needs some work, but hopefully, I'll be able to share this with you in time for next year...

Now I just had to get through making cupcakes for the school Halloween party the next day...oh ya, we're moving on to school party number THREE.   But not before a visit to the ER...cause x-rays seemed appropriate on Skeleton Day.

As if my day hadn't been stressful enough, my little one somehow managed to choke on (and then swallow) a penny while I was making dinner.  This resulted in a frantic trip to the ER where they scanned her with a metal detector just like at the airport...OMG.  It got to her tummy and started beeping...I died. 

She was still wearing her skeleton pj's from Skeleton Day at school, so the nurses and doctor's could barely keep a straight face with her.  Fortunately, no lasting damage was done and we were told the penny would pass straight through with no problems.  I am guessing pennies are not SCD-legal, but it did indeed pass through.  I was laughing that night about needing to get a stool sample for my daughter's next calprotectin test and thought it would be funny if I left a note telling the lab techs they could keep anything they found in the poo...kind of like a tip...LOL!

So, that's how Skeleton Day went down.  Never a dull moment!  I will wrap up my 2014 Halloween coverage in my next post where I share some final thoughts about our annual Halloween party and how things went on Halloween night...then it's on to some new topics and some awesome recipes for the holidays.  Thanks so much for hanging out and reading along.  I love getting your comments and feedback, so don't be shy.  XOXO, Cindi

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12 Scary Good Halloween Lunches (Paleo & SCD)

Yah yah yah... I know Halloween is SO last week, but you didn't think I'd let it pass without sharing some spooky lunch ideas, did ya?   I actually intended to post this last week, but you know how life goes...I'll fill you in on all the drama in the next post.  If you follow me on Instagram, you already know I was busy crafting Halloween lunches for the two weeks leading up to Halloween, but for those of you who don't, I'm recaping my favorites in this post.

As you can see from the photos, I had a lot of fun making lunches for Halloween. I tried to plan ahead and mostly focused on the colors of the food and my trusty silicone muffin cups to keep things looking Halloween-y.  I also have a small stash of 1" cookie cutters that make quick work of slicing foods into pumpkins, bats & cats. 

You'll notice some little toys and props in some of the lunches...I collect stuff like that as I find it and hoarde it in a rarely used stock pot in the back of my kitchen cabinet...then I raid my stash when I want to add a little treat.  

You'll also notice that I was a wee bit obsessed with eyeballs this year.  Somewhere along the way I saw some cute bento picks with goofy little eyes, but they were like $6 plus $8 shipping...not gonna happen.  I made my own with plastic cocktail pics, google eyes and my hot glue gun.  Easy Peasy.

So let's look at the lunches!  This was a monster inspired lunch...the colors were inspired by the little finger puppet.  I got the idea for the apple monster mouths and the ham tongue from the geniuses on Pinterest.

This lunch is all about the eyes and vibrant Halloween colors.  We were testing mozzarella during this time, which is not SCD-legal, but made excellent eyeballs.  The eyes were inspired by this post, which uses straws to cut the little circles. I didn't have any straws on hand, so I used the end of a tiny funnel to punch a little circle in the cheese and then cut matching black circles out of black olives.  After that, it was easy to pop out a circle of cheese and replace it with the black olive.  You can easily do this with any SCD legal cheese, or other ingredients for that matter.  Colorful produce made it all really pop. (Side note: The mozzarella test was not successful...caused stomach pains and lethargy.)

This was my attempt at a "starry night at the pumpkin patch" scene.  It features a variety of foods in traditional Halloween colors of black, orange, green and yellow.  The star fruit is naturally shaped like a star, so that was fun to play with.  We also started testing rice crackers along with the mozzarella cheese, so that is what is shown under the bat cheese.  Rice crackers are not SCD-legal, but my daughter tolerates rice well and hasn't had any trouble with them. 

Here is another monster puppet inspired lunch.  I made the eyeball skewers with 3" plastic cocktail picks and giant googley eyes.  On the eyeball skewers, I speared little waffle sammie bites which are basically a ham and cheese sandwich made on waffles and then cut into little squares.  Yummy!

This is the lunch I made for Mummy Day at school.  (You can read my sob story about Mummy day and get the recipe for the Grain-Free Mummy Cookie you see in this lunch here.)  The yellow mummy-ish things in the top left are carrots with a little melted cheese...I got the idea off Pinterest (shocker!) but they were stupid.  They were fiddly to make and my daughter didn't eat them, so don't waste your time on those.  The mummy apple was another Pinterest idea, but the mummy brie bite was all mine...LOL.

More eyeballs!  And a Frankenstein rubber duck...that glows in the dark and swims in applesauce!  I made the egg eyes using the same technique as the cheese eyes and then sprinkled a little paprika around to make them look bloodshot.  The green stuff in the top left is mashed avocado with a bit of lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt. 

Sorry for the poor quality of this photo...not sure what happened.  This lunch is all about traditional Halloween icons with a brie ghost, provolone bats and cheddar pumpkins.  The eyes & mouth on the brie are black olives and the pumpkin leaves are basil, which for some reason my daughter loves to eat.

Back at it with the eye balls in this one...these are the tiny eye ball picks I made...only about an inch long. The skeleton hand was part of a pack of 4 hair clips that I got out of the dollar bin at the drug store.  I popped the clips off, gave them a good wash and voila!  I love hands coming out of the food!!

This lunch was my ode to vampires.  I used 3" eye ball pics that I made with pink eyes...whoooo ooooo.  I borrowed my color scheme from the little vampire duck...primarily black, white, red and pink with a smidge of green. The pomegranate seeds are supposed to be drops of blood.  ;)

This lunch is all about the creepy crawlies...spider rings with the rings snipped off and a plastic cockroach up the creep factor of an otherwise pretty normal looking lunch.

Here is where I totally started to lose steam...running out of ideas!  I had intended for this skeleton lunch to be much more black and white, but I didn't plan ahead and didn't really have enough to fill it, soooo...it became a hodge podge, with a skeleton finger puppet and some bone-shaped food thrown in for good measure...LOL.  The little treat in the cupcake liner is a peppermint-patty-ish treat that I made to have for post-trick-or-treating...these turned out AWESOME.  Will definitely be sharing this recipe soon because it will be perfect for the holidays too.

And, last, but not least, a zombie lunch on Halloween day to go with my little one's zombie Katy Perry Halloween costume...LOL.  The zombie finger puppet inspired the colors of black, green, pink and red. I saved up all the gross looking food I could including the moldy-looking sage derby cheese with green veins running through it, some guac and spinach feta chicken sausage.  You'll recognize the skeleton hand from a few lunches back.

That's all folks! I hope you enjoyed this post and found some ideas you can use to jazz up your lunches.  As you can see, it's really pretty fun to play with your food!  I won't lie though, I'm happy to be moving on from Halloween.   Time to come up with some fun ideas for turkey day.  ;)

If you want more information about my lunches and the lunchbox I use, check out my Planetbox Lunchbox Review and my tips for How To Pack SCD Lunches Kids Can't Resist.

Thanks for stopping by!  XOXO, Cindi

 

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Grain-Free Mummy Cookies (SCD & Paleo)

Soooo....it's almost Halloween and the 2nd grade is studying Ancient Egypt...where everyone knows mummy's were all the rage.  Can you smell that class mummy party brewing??

As the parent of a child who usually can't eat what the rest of her classmates are eating, I like to supply food for class parties, so my daughter can have what everyone else is having and doesn't feel left-out (or singled-out) because I had to bring her something different.  It doesn't always work out, but I'm not ashamed to admit that when it does...I feel like a rock star mom. 

Even though I'm not an "allergy" mom, per se, I love that Ryan understands what I'm going through...

I know that my daughter will like whatever I make, but I always worry that the rest of the class will see me coming with my sugar-free, grain-free, mostly tan "treats" and run the other way...LOL.  So, I try really hard to step up my game in terms of presentation. 

As usual, I scoured Pinterest for cute mummy snack ideas and shared them with my daughter.  She, of course, wanted cookies.  Most of the mummy cookies I found were made with lots of white icing piped on to look like bandages.  I've yet to master SCD frosting or icing of any kind, so I didn't want to go there. I felt that my best chance for success was probably to manipulate the dough somehow. 

Ultimately, I was inspired by the look of these mummy cookies from Life Made Sweet, but used Danielle Walker's Paleo Sugar Cookie recipe from Against All Grain as the base.

To make the cookies, I made two batches of sugar cookie dough.  I rolled out the first batch and cut out little circles for the bases.  Then, I slathered homemade cherry butter on each circle.  After that, I rolled out the 2nd batch and cut it into thin strips which I layered across each cookie to look like the mummy bandages...trimming the edges of each as I went.  It took forever.  I noticed after the fact, that the smart blogger from Life Made Sweet, rolled out her dough, applied her filling all at once and then did long strips over the whole thing before cutting out each cookie.  Yup. That would have been much easier. 

After the cookies baked, I added pumpkin seeds for eyes, by cutting the seeds in half and sticking them cut-side up into the still warm cherry butter.  Again, this took forever...LOL.  The seeds kept shattering and breaking.  I tried pistachios too, but didn't care for the taste.  I eventually managed to cut enough seeds in half to make it work and I thought they looked pretty cute.

As it turned out, another mom (new to the school and unfamiliar with our diet) wanted to help with snacks, so I explained briefly about my daughter's dietary restrictions, not wanting to overwhelm her with all of the things she can't have, and tried to coordinate with her...I thought she was just planning to make a cookie, but she ended up bringing gooey chocolate-y things, popcorn hands with candy corn finger nails and mummy wrapped juice drinks of some kind.  I was so annoyed.  Scratch that, honestly, I wanted to cry.  My daughter couldn't eat any of it.  And no one wanted my mummy cookies when there was all that other stuff.  Who could blame them?  But what can you do?  My daughter got to have as many of those mummy cookies as she wanted (although I was proud when she told me she stopped at three because she felt that was plenty.)  There were even enough cookies left over that she was allowed to deliver the extras to all the teachers, which she loves to do.  And I get a sob story for my blog.  So it's all good, right??  ;)

I still think the cookies are cute and if you want to make them, follow the link above for the sugar cookie recipe and check out my recipe notes below for some extra tips:

• I didn't think the cookie dough was sweet enough...might have been better with frosting all over it, but as a cookie with just a thin schmear of fruit butter in the middle, it needed to be sweeter.  If I ever try this again, I'll add more honey.  If you already have a favorite rolled cookie recipe, by all means use it.

• The recipe also tells you to sprinkle some coconut powder over the dough after you roll it so the cookie cutter won't stick.  I wasn't a fan of the dusty texture it left on the cookies after they were baked, so I might skip that step next time and try just wetting the edge of my cutter to keep it from sticking. 

• Also, without meaning to, I made my two batches of cookie dough slightly differently and one turned out way better than the other.  For the first one, I had forgotten to add the coconut oil until after I had already mixed everything else, so I just sort of worked it into the dough and it turned out pliable and easy to work with.  For the second batch, I mixed everything together at the same time and the result was much drier and more crumbly.  It was a lot harder to make the strips with the dough from the second batch.  So, for better dough, try mixing everything except the oil into a dough ball and then work in the oil last.

• If you don't have homemade cherry butter on hand, you could use any SCD-legal jam or fruit butter, or even a nut butter if you wanted.  It's your cookie.  ;)

Hope that helps you in your search for a fun Halloween treat that you can make for your kiddos.  I'd love to hear what you come up with if you decide to make some, so feel free to leave your comments below, share on my Facebook page or tag your photos #FightingFlare on Instagram.  Thanks for stopping by and good luck with those school parties this week!  XOXO, Cindi

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Gratuitous Ryan Gossling pic via Pinterest

Switch Witch, Trade-Ins and Other Tricks to Make Candy Disappear

As a parent of an SCD trick-or-treater, you will have the unenviable job of confiscating all of your child's hard earned Halloween candy.  It's a terrible job, but one you must do to keep your child healthy.  (Read this post to find out how we survived this experience last year.) Fortunately, there are ways to make the job a little easier.  The way I see it, you have two options: bribery or magic.

Bribery is the most honest approach. This works best with older kids.  Bascially, you negotiate a deal and offer to buy-back the candy with money or let your child trade it in for a prize of equal or greater value.  (Yes, I said greater...have a heart.  Halloween candy is tough to give up.)

You have lots of flexibility with this and are limited only by your bank account and imagination.  One of my Facebook SCD friends is offereing to buy the family an ice cream maker in exchange for candy. I love that idea because it replaces a non-healthy sweet with the potential for healthy ones.  Another SCD mom will be taking her kids toy shopping to pick out their trade-in toys...this is a great way to give kids some measure of control in an otherwise out-of-control situation.  

At our house this year, we will be utilizing bribery...indulging in a Minecraft bonanza of extra screen time and a rare exception to the "no-in-app-purchase" rule so that my daughter can "change her appearance" in Minecraft.  We may also surprise her with a Minecraft handbook she's been wanting.  Shhh...don't tell her.  ;)

Other moms I've talked to are offering to buy back candy at a per piece or per pound rate...something along the lines of $1/lb. or .10/piece.  This probably needs to be adjusted depending on how much candy you have, child's age, how thick your wallet is...

If you're lucky, you may live near a dentist who participates in a candy buy-back program in conjunction with Operation Gratitude.  You dentist will offer cash and prizes in exchange for candy, which is then sent along with toothbrushes to troops overseas.  This is a great program because it gives kids a chance to help someone else, which in turn can take away the sting of their own loss. Check out HalloweenCandyBuyBack.com to find a participating dentist near you. 

Your second option is magic.  This is more geared towards younger kids and involves the Switch Witch, The Candy Fairy, The Great Pumpkin...your choice.  We have non-SCD friends who do this every year and their kids think it's great.  Much like The Tooth Fairy, The Switch Witch (or one of her cohorts) will visit your house at night and leave a treat in exchange for your candy...the more candy, the bigger the treat.  Here's a video that explains it in a little more detail: 

 

A little hokey, yes, but it's cute for the little ones and may even become a beloved tradition.  ;)

So bribery and magic are your options for getting rid of candy, but what if I told you there was a way to avoid getting the candy in the first place!  Yes, it's true!  There is a way...

Change The World!  Most of us (well, at least those of us born in the 70's) remember toting a little orange box around on Halloween, collecting coins for Unicef.  I'm happy to tell you that tradition lives on!  You can still do that!  One of my SCD mom friends shared how her son goes trick-or-treating without a candy bag and just raises money for Unicef instead.  I think this is a really nice way for kids to participate in the fun part of racing around the neighborhood, while doing something great for other kids in need.  I also think this one can be a self-esteem booster because being a helper is good for the soul. 

You can order supplies or download collection materials straight off the Unicef website and then deposit your coins at any Coinstar for free.  And by all means, reward your child for his or her efforts with a special treat afterwards.

Last, but not least! I'm excited to tell you about a new way to avoid candy while trick-or-treating:  The Teal Pumpkin Project, sponsored by FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education.)  This just popped up on my radar a few days ago.  Some of you may already know about it.  Basically, it's a nationwide movement to offer non-food treats on Halloween, so that kids with food allergies have some safer options in trick-or-treating.  SCD obviously isn't an allergy, but I'll jump on the Teal Pumpkin bandwagon anyway!

All you need to do to participate is paint a pumpkin teal and leave it on your doorstep as a sign that you are offering non-food treats.  (Don't panic, you can still offer candy too - you're just indicating that you are offering some alternatives. ) You can also find printable signs on the Teal Pumpkin website that you can hang on your door if you don't want to paint a pumpkin. 

Suggested non-food trinkets include all the plastic tchotchky crap parents luuuv....spider rings, glo sticks, bubbles, vampire teeth, stickers, etc. A trip to your local dollar or drug store will more than likely provide you with all the booty you need to fill not just the kids buckets, but some grateful parents' hearts, as well.  (Side bar: The environmentalist in me cringes when I think about the ramifications of everyone handing out cheap plastic do-dads but, the mom in me wants everyone on board so my little one can have fun too...I am considering my non-plastic options and will let you know what I come up with.)

That's it!  Those are my ideas.  What are yours?  Be sure to check out those websites for more information about any of those programs and let me know what's happening in your neighborhood this year.  Have you seen any teal pumpkins?  Are you printing out Unicef labels?  Will the Switch Witch be stopping by?  I'm curious, so let me know.  Cheers!  XOXO, Cindi

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Trick or Treat? How We Survived Our First Candy-Free Halloween on SCD

Let's face it.  The reason most kids get excited about Halloween is because of trick-or-treating.  Costumes are fun, but the promise of candy...ho boy!  To be fair, I do think half the excitement comes from running around in the dark knocking on doors...the air is charged with the electricity of anticipation and there is a feeling that magical things could happen.  But, the other half definitely comes from the candy.

Anyone who's gone trick-or-treating knows that kids bring home a LOT of candy.  Under ordinary circumstances, I would never let my daughter eat all of it, but on SCD, she can't eat any of it.  Not one bite.  How on earth is a parent supposed to make that ok for their child?

I wasn't exactly sure how to approach this aspect of Halloween last year, until someone suggested we do a candy trade-in for a toy of my daughter's choosing.  Lots of families do this, I was told.  It seemed like a great idea to me, so I asked my daughter what she thought and she said she was all for it. 

Her toy of choice was a much coveted Strawberry Shortcake Berry Bitty Market...ironically, it came with all kinds of little pretend sweets, but she swore that's what she wanted.  She was chomping at the bit to play with it and couldn't wait to get back from trick-or-treating to trade in her candy.  I was shocked at how easy this was turning out to be!  We set off with our friends and she enthusiastically zipped from house to house collecting the candy she knew she would never eat.

Everything went according to plan...until we got home.  We'd been on this strict diet for two months without so much as a crumbs-worth of cheating and suddently, there was all this candy sitting in front of her...candy she had collected...candy she really wanted to eat.  And I mean, REALLY.  Even though no one else was eating candy in front of her, she knew that the other kids would eventually get to eat theirs.  We made a point of explaining how our friends with the nut allergies wouldn't be able to eat most of theirs either...she countered back saying that they didn't even like nuts and have never been allowed to eat candy with nuts, so they didn't really know what they were missing.  She, however, knew exactly what she was missing.  Even at seven years old, she had the clarity to make that distinction.

As I explained a few posts back in SCD Celebrations, she became inconsolable and we hit the very lowest point in our SCD journey.  To those of you who may be thinking that it's a bit dramatic to be so upset about something as minor as candy...it really wasn't about the candy.  It was about being sad about her illness, sad about her utter lack of control, sad that she felt different and left out, sad that she had to sacrifice somthing she loved to stay healthy and sad that she was forced to deal with this at the tender age of seven.  It was a searingly painful loss of innocence.  For me, the weight of it all was something I will never forget.  I've faced some pretty sad things in my life, but that was the one that made my heart ache with a weight I've never known. 

So, we hugged, snuggled, told her we loved her, explained why not eating the candy was the best course of action and we hoped that the Strawberry Shortcake toy could somehow make up for the loss she was experiencing.  (Riiiight.)  We tried to focus on the positives, like the fact that she was healthy and was feeling good enough to celebrate the holiday with her friends.  We talked about our next visit to the GI and the possibility of adding a non-SCD food back in.  We told her she was brave, we agreed that it wasn't fair and we let her know that she was strong enough to get through this.  (At the time, I questioned whether or not I was.) 

In retrospect, I royally underestimated how hard it would be for my daughter to trade in her candy.  I was naive to think that a toy would solve all our problems. It makes me sad to think I didn't realize that sooner, but I wanted to believe that we had this all figured out.

Lessons learned from last year?  Never underestimate the depth of your child's feelings.  They may not always be able to express what they are feeling, but that doesn't mean they aren't thinking deeply about big things.  Ask the hard questions.  Don't be afraid to pry and really try to figure out if they are telling you what they want you to hear or what they think you want to hear.  Big difference.

Cut yourself some slack.  No one has all the answers.  You can only do the best you can do, given the information and resources you have available.  If you mess up or get it totally wrong, just learn from it and move on.  Don't beat yourself up for it.  All of your actions are coming from the best possible place and that is exactly what your child needs from you right now. 

Make sure there are at least some safe sweets around for your little one to eat.  As I mentioned in my last post about our Halloween Party, I didn't serve any sweets at all.  I figured everyone could just eat their own candy after they left the party.  I did this, in part, simply to downplay the importance of sweets, but also so that my nut-allergy friends wouldn't accidentally eat one of our nut flour cookies and end up in the ER.  This was a huge miss.  I should have had something set aside for my little girl for later.

What's the plan for this year?  I did a bit more digging this year and asked my daughter how she wanted to handle the candy.  I offered her trade-in toys or money.  Offered to stay home with her and do something else special if she'd rather not trick-or-treat. I asked her if she had any ideas of her own.  She concluded that she really does enjoy the trick-or-treating part and isn't really thinking about the candy in the heat of the moment, so, yes, she wants to trick-or-treat.  As for a trade-in, she wants to "change her appearance" in Minecraft, so we're going to let her pick a new character...or whatever that involves. She seems content with her decisions, but we'll see how it goes. 

I am hoping that this year will be slightly less painful, but I'm not in denial like I was last year.  I am bracing myself for whatever level of sadness is sure to wrap it's smothering arms around my baby on October 31st.   Until then, I'll keep focusing her attention on her awesome costume and how much fun our party will be.  My SCD sweets repertoire has improved dramatically since last year and we can eat cocoa powder now, so that means German Chocolate Black Bean Brownie Cake and other yummy treats are back on the menu.  Fingers crossed for more treats than tricks this year!

Stay tuned for my next post chock full of trade-in ideas, new traditions and other ways to de-emphasize candy on Halloween.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I'd love to hear your comments on this topic and definitely your ideas for how to handle candy.  Feel free to e-mail, comment below or reach out on any of my other social networks at the links below.  XOXO, Cindi

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Halloween on SCD...It's a Pirate's Life for Me!

Arrrgh, maties!! Shiver me timbers...I've had total writer's block the past few weeks.  I've been wanting to get on here and share so many things, but I haven't been able to figure out where to start.  So, with October almost over, I figured I better at least get some Halloween posts up and will sort out my other thoughts later.  Today, I'm going to show you how we navigated SCD to celebrate Halloween last year. 

That's me up top in my half-pirate/half-octopus costume that didn't really know what it wanted to be...standing next to the pirate torture cage-thing my husband built for the party. (We know how to have a good time, eh??)  Jokes aside, it was our first Halloween on SCD, so it was *really* hard on my daughter not being able to have any candy.  I touched on this briefly in my post about SCD Celebrations, but to reiterate, it was awful. Arrrgh.

At this point, you may be wondering why we didn't just boycott the whole holiday.  Why create even more hoopla and add salt to the wound?  Allow me to explain.  In my opinion, Halloween isn't just about candy.   Halloween is about costumes, spooky decorations, imagination and a little dark magic.  It's about getting together with friends for some laughs and making memories that go waaay beyond candy.  Ever since we bought our house, we've had a huge Halloween party on Halloween night.  Our whole neighborhood shows up in costume (and some "adopted" neighbors, as well)...and when it gets dark we all trick-or-treat together....40+ of us!  It is something we all look forward to and there was no way we were going to let IBD take it away.  We wanted to have all the same fun we've always had...just with different food.

But, whew! The food was a kicker. I've mentioned before that we have lots of friends with food allergies/issues, so we are always careful to plan menus that everyone can eat.  As a hostess, I never want my guests to feel left out.  So, here we are on the eve of our annual Halloween party, which was Pirate themed, and here's what we couldn't eat due to everyone's combined food issues: nuts, dairy, sugar, grains, soy, red meat or anything processed.  Sounds like the makings of a foodless Halloween party, doesn't it?? 

Fortunately, the pirates at our party were from the Carribean, so fresh produce and grilled seafood were a perfect fit for our party cuisine!  Game on!  And yes, my mission was to make this party every bit as spooktastic as usual, so we wouldn't feel like we were missing anything and no one would leave...hungry...

I did end up bending the rules a smidge and put out some cheese that one friend couldn't eat, served a hummus my daughter couldn't eat (but wouldn't eat anyway) and some hotdogs that the vegetarians wouldn't eat, BUT, there was still something for everyone and no one felt left out. 

I also didn't serve any sweets.  I know, that sounds insane at a Halloween party, but I just didn't want to go there.  I figured all the kids would get plenty of sweets from trick-or-treating and that was that.  So, what did we serve? 

KIDS TABLE:

Thank you Pinterest, for this banana kiwi palm tree platter inspiration...

...and the insanely clever hot dog octopus idea...served with homemade ketchup.

...and the apple wedge pirate ship brilliance.

This baby, however, is all mine...LOL.  I have had this weird head for several years and find a way to work it into my theme every year.  This year it was sporting a pirate's eye patch and a head full of pirate sword skewered grapes in a variety of colors.  Kids think this is HILARIOUS.  And to be honest, so do I. ;)

 

COFFEE TABLE SPREAD:

This is where I showcased the veggies and four different dips...store-bought SCD-legal artichoke tapenade, store-bought illegal hummus, homemade white bean dip and homemade guacamole.  I've got to thank Pinterest again for the bell pepper octopus idea...not that they really look like octopus (octopi?) but just go with it.

I love to place a tall focal point in my veggie platters...I think the height makes it more interesting, so this hook was just right.  Plus, it tied the veggies into the theme.

Another shot of the non-octopus looking bell pepper octopus swimming in guacamole. 

 

FRUIT AND CHEESE BUFFET:

This was the focal point to my living room and honestly, doesn't even have that much food on it...but it looks cool, right?  I love me some skeletons and candles! (Which by the way are a bad idea that close to a sheer curtain panel...just sayin'.)

Note the cheese speared with pirate swords...I lined some baskets with parchment paper to give it a more rustic look.  You can't really see what's in the other basket, but it's full of three cans of TJ's black olives...my favorite. 

Decadent cascade of grapes...not sure if these are even remotely pirate-y, but I liked the way they looked. 

Brie with craisins...

Somehow I missed getting a photo of the grilled seafood, but basically, all we did was grill up several bags of frozen mixed shrimp, scallops and calamari from TJ's.  My sweet hubby actually went out back and grilled them up for me...probably with butter and garlic if I had to guess.

For party favors, we had little pirate themed treats for the kids with bandanas, eye patches, doubloons and strings of beads...I even found some pirate bath scrubbies for the babies in attendance.

And of course, we always have a big bowl of glow-sticks, which we display under a black light in the bathroom during the party and then give to all the kids before we head out trick-or-treating. (It's not as gross as it sounds...lol.)

So, that what how we did it.  Everyone had fun, had plenty to eat and there were no problems with the lack of sweets.  The kids wiped out every morsel on the kids table and had plenty of energy to zip around the neighborhood.  The adults ate all the fruit, cheese and seafood, but the funniest thing happened with the veggies and dips...it's like people had no idea that you should dip the veggies.  I've never in my life had leftover dip at a party when it's served with chips or crackers, but with just veggies, it sat.  Go figure.  Maybe they were just crappy dips??  ;)

So, the takeaway from this post should be, live your life, celebrate the good stuff and don't let IBD take anything else away from you.  Where there's a will, there's a way.  Be creative.  Look for fun ways to present your safe foods and don't lose sight of the fact that Halloween is about more than just candy.

That being said, yes, I know that candy is a big part of Halloween so in my next post, I'll talk about what happened after trick-or-treating when we arrived home with a huge bag of candy that couldn't be eaten.  (Let me just say...it wasn't pretty.)  I'll spill all the gory details and will tell you about how we turned it around for the better. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I would love to have you come back and visit any time.  Please leave your comments or drop me a line via e-mail.  I love hearing from you and finding out what info is useful to you.  You can also join me around the web at any of the sites listed below.  XOXO, Cindi

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