Gluten and Dairy Free Girl Scout Cookies

It is Girl Scout cookie time! We are getting cookies delivered this Saturday. This is a fun and exciting and busy time at our house. For the last 3 years, Bethany has been involved, but this year has been a challenge because not one of the cookie varieties is safe for my boys to eat. They all have wheat, dairy, and soy in them. We are fine with soy, but my nephew can't eat soy, so I watch for that too. So I found these recipes and just thought I'd share the links. I can't take credit for them, just passing them along. Also, I haven't tried them yet, so I can't say if they work or not. I will definitely try them though. Andrew just asked me to try the thin mints first.


Samoas:
http://angelaskitchen.com2011/02/09/gluten-dairy-free-girl-scout-cookie-makeover-samoas/

Thin Mints:
http://angelaskitchen.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/gluten-free-dairy-free-girl-scout-cookie-makeover-thin-mints/


Do-si-dos:
http://angelaskitchen.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/gluten-free-dairy-free-girl-scout-cookie-makeover-do-si-dos/


Tagalongs:
http://angelaskitchen.com/2011/02/05/gluten-dairy-free-girl-scout-cookie-makeover-tagalongs/


P.S.
If you ordered cookies from us we will be delivering cookies next week as much as possible. My next 4 Saturdays are so full, though, that I'm not sure how we will get it done, but we will sure try. If you didn't order any cookies but want some, you can still get some because the troop always orders extras to sell at cookie booth. Or you can come to our cookie booth on March 12 at the Syracuse Smith's.

Who's Who?

Can you guess which foot is mine and which is Bethany's? She's nine. NINE. I guess she will have bigger feet than me. No wonder Dan is always complaining that he can't tell our socks apart. :) Also, it is very apparent that we are in need of pedicures after a long winter. Sounds like a good girls' day out to me!

Cool Photos

Apparently I left my camera on the scene select setting, and Jorgen got ahold of the camera. With just a spin of a dial he could choose any setting, but happened to pick the color accent and just happened to have it on green. If I didn't know better, I would think he did this on purpose - his two favorite things (trains and the color green).

Snow Day

This is from last Thursday, Feb. 17th. We had a decent snowstorm and the kids went out to play. The boys got cold and came inside, but Bethany stayed out there for awhile and built this little snow gal.

The snow is pretty much melted by now, but this weekend's forecast calls for more snow. I did, however, see some tips of tulip leaves and crocus leaves poking up through the dirt. Spring is coming!

Daddy Daughter Dance

At our elementary school they had a Daddy-Daughter dance, so Bethany and Dan went together. Bethany was pretty excited to go on a date with her dad. From what I hear they even learned how to waltz! She is getting so tall - all of her dresses are looking too short now and I swear I just bought some new ones. Time to go shopping again....

Valentine's Day

We had a good Valentine's Day. I had a lady in the ward bring me a plate of brownies as a thankyou for playing for her at church - and of course they were not gluten free. So I did what any good mom would do and I made some gluten free brownies for my boys to eat. I used a recipe from "Cooking for Isaiah," a great cookbook with some gluten and dairy free recipes. The brownies turned out amazing and maybe even better than the regular brownies, which Bethany and I ate between the two of us. It probably helped that the recipe had more chocolate chips and cocoa than it did flour :) I let the kids help frost the gluten-free variety and they were snarfed in about 2 days.

These are the gluten-free brownies:

These are the regular gluten-full brownies:

Funny story about the candy canes - I was searching my hiding spot for the Valentine's candy and came across a bag full of Christmas candy. I know, I'm so dumb to forget a whole bag of candy! There are Reese's, Dove chocolates, M&Ms, etc. all in Christmas colors. The only thing in the bag that the boys could have was candy canes and luckily they were pink. If you put two candy canes together they form a heart - and the kids thought it was pretty funny and they have almost eaten all of them.

I also found a website that sells dairy-free chocolates, Chocolate Decadence. They were expensive, but for a special holiday treat they were nice. I'm going to try another site for Easter and compare the two.

Bethany made the little Valentine pockets out of construction paper and tape. They even have scotch tape handles. You really can make anything with paper and tape :)

The Godiva chocolates were for me from Dan - and I ate them all and didn't share one bite! :) Not the best idea to eat all those calories, but yummy nonetheless.

Andrew's Volcano

Andrew got a Volcano kit for Christmas, but we kept putting it off. So we finally got around to doing it while we've been off-track. It's amazing how something so simple can captivate the kids' attention for so long. They thought it was pretty cool.

Painting Projects

We have been off-track for a couple of weeks, so I found some little ceramic painting projects at Hobby Lobby and we had a painting day. I don't let the kids paint very often - I just don't like the mess! But once in a while I have to give in. They love painting.

The volcano is from a kit Andrew got for Christmas that we finally got around to.

Bethany's finished artwork:

Jorgen's (minus the green train he did earlier)

Andrew's (he got tired of painting after 3 cars and left the other 3 white)

Dan's Birthday

Dan's birthday is two weeks after mine. He turned 36 this year. I asked him if he feels old and he said yes. I guess if you have a mortgage, two cars and three kids you are old!

As usual, Dan decided to buy himself a birthday present - he upgraded his projector downstairs. That was big enough that he only got to unwrap dollar-store presents on his actual B-day. And luckily he has a buyer for his old projector and we are getting a nice tax return, so the projector is paid for (otherwise he would be in big trouble!)

Bethany picked out this HUGE card for only a dollar:

This time I tried the Bob's Red Mill Gluten free chocolate cake mix. It turned out really good. It makes a double layer, unlike the Betty Crocker, and is very moist and tastes just like chocolate cake should taste! This is very important, since chocolate cake is one of my favorite foods! :) I am not nearly as creative with cakes as my sister-in-law Paula (see here), but it still tastes good. By the way, Jorgen once again insisted on being in charge of the candles. The green candles were supposed to be in the shape of a six, but he insisted on moving them. What a stubborn little kid!

South America Map

Bethany had a stomach bug recently, and it was frustrating for both her and for me. She was really sick the first Wednesday (Jan. 26), then Thursday she was fine, so I sent her to school. Friday she was sick again. Then she was fine Saturday and Sunday, so I thought she was over it. Monday morning came, and she was sick again. She would be sick in the morning and fine by about 11:00 or so. But I kept her home. Tuesday (Feb 1st) she had a class field trip to the Clark Planetarium, and she begged me to let her go, even though she was still feeling not great. So I let her. I know, bad mom sending a sick kid to school, but I thought she's going to be fine later, and she was. Wednesday, she was sick AGAIN! So I kept her home, took her to the doctor. Of course, he said it's "just a virus" and this particular stomach virus could last 7-10 days. He also said she was past being contagious (thank goodness!) So I sent her to school Thursday and Friday so she wouldn't miss the Valentine's party. As long as she didn't eat anything for breakfast, she was fine by lunch time. She is finally feeling all the way better, just in time for being off-track for three weeks.

Strangely, no one else in the family got sick. And she missed four days of school, so I had to bring home her work. One of her assignments was to make a map of South America out of salt dough. Since I have gotten rid of all wheat flour in my house, it is a gluten free map, not that it needed to be, but because that's all I had. It's a rice flour blend. Anyway, it turned out pretty cool and here are some pictures we took to show her teacher: