another allergy friendly cookie!

i know i haven't posted in a while. work always seems to get in the way of life- especially when you're working 80-90 hours/week.

here's a sweet little cookie i've made in the past for kids that have wheat and dairy allergies. i've found that cocoa camino doesn't have any dairy in their chocolate chips, which is a must for those pesky dairy allergies! and bonus- they're fair trade!

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm - so it isn't solid (or alternately, vegetable oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don't worry about it. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. I baked these as long as possible without burning the bottoms and they were perfect - just shy of 15 minutes seems to be about right in my oven.

Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies

free! free! free!!!

my friend's third child, hazel, is allergic to many of the things i bake with everyday; dairy, wheat and soy. it's her 4th birthday and i wanted her to have something special that she could eat that wouldn't give her the itchiest arms on the planet! i texted her mum asking if she could have this product or that one and kept notes. i found a couple interesting recipies but the one i'm showing you now is a very simple one for spelt cookies (here). this cookie is dairy free, wheat free and soy free!
i didn't want to use oil for the cookies, so i got some organic coconut butter and softened it up. the only problem i had with this recipe was the directions. i think you should make these like you would any other cookie: cream the fat and sugar (in this case apple juice and oil) and then add in the flour mixture until just combined. i also think when i make these again i'll substitute the apple juice concentrate for apple sauce. the texture is very dense and combined with these milk free chocolate chips is a really great little cookie!

SPELT COOKIES

Ingredients

2 1/3 cups spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup apple juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup milk-free unsweetened or semi-sweet chips
-- (carob or chocolate) OR
3/4 cup chopped nuts, any kind

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil baking sheet. In a bowl combine the spelt flour and baking soda. In a separate bowl mix the oil and apple juice concentrate, and stir into the flour mixture, until just mixed. Fold in the chips or nuts.

Drop by heaping teaspoonful onto the baking sheet and bake 10-14 minutes or until they begin to brown. Using a spatula, immediately remove to wire racks. Allow to cool.

For sweeter cookies boil down 1 1/4 cups of the apple juice concentrate to measure 3/4 cup.

gingerbread village

we spent a good 3 hours last night building our gingerbread houses to give away. it was a lot of fun with all 4 of us making the 6 houses (including one for us). we got pretty inventive with the candies making trees, logs, and even a sled!

check out last year's houses... and here's the link to the recipe.

snow day

this is our third snowfall and it's been going steady since last night. it's not supposed to snow and stick here, but the kids sure do have fun in it!

happy birthday buddy!

today my favourite little boy turned 5! we got him the tower of doom! and had his party at the local gymnastics club...
everyone had a great time! a big thank you to everyone that came out!
the cake is made from a williams-sonoma "easter octopus" cake mold. i didn't know octopus was a traditional shape at easter... lol... i made dorie's perfect party cake and used orange juice and zest instead of the lemon 'cause that's what i had. i coloured half of the batter blue and put that in first so when we cut the cake the octopus was blue and the sand was white. since i didn't need much buttercream, i just made a very simple american buttercream. after all, most 5 year olds don't appreciate the texture and effort put into a swiss meringue buttercream- they just want the sugar!
i'm still getting used to our new camera- our older trusty olympus point and shoot (yes, all the other pics were taken with a cheap point and shoot!) died a terrible and sudden death (soon i'll post the last pics it took), and unfortunately this new one (nikon coolpix) doesn't have as good of a macro :( but that's okay since hopefully soonish we'll be gettin' one of them fancy shmancy digital SLRs...

school pics

man, my kids are gorgeous!

too much sugar?

all hallow's eve

just when you thought the living room was safe... in walks the "grim rapper"

zombie girl is in trouble!!!

"what?!?! it's just popcorn! where's the brains i ordered?!?"

watch out grim rapper-zombie girl is on the attack! slice'r up with your mad rhymes!

i hope the mail carrier isn't afraid of spiders! eeek!

happy hallowe'en

lac le jeune

lac le jeune is located just north of merritt, and south of kamloops, with an elevation (of 1,280 metres) higher than the toll booth on the coquihalla (elevation: 1140 metres). the bc parks website describes the campsite as, "Nestled among an open stand of lodgepole pine, spruce and fir, Lac Le Jeune Park appeals to campers and anglers seeking an easily-accessible getaway spot." yes, very easy to get to, but because of the pine beetle infestation, many of the lodge-pole pines are long gone, which made hanging a tarp quite the challenge.
there was this really long wheelchair accessable wharf for fishing, that's even visible on google maps! we spent a few hours trying to catch fish......with no success. ah well... there's always next year.
we could hear the loons calling eachother all evening and morning, but the only wildlife we saw was these cows:even though it was totally freezing up there this past long weekend, we had a great time. derek's brother and his wife, shawn and shelley, came with us for the adventure. i think earlier in the season, this place would be great to camp!this is probably the best shot i took:

birkenhead park

our last stop was birkenhead provincial park. talk about saving the best for last! wow! i only wish the weather was better. the lake is surrounded by mountains on all four sides, and those aren't small mountains either! all the sites seemed extremely private- there was lots of lower foliage to block the neighbours' views, and lots of larger trees for shade and to hang the tarp. there wasn't a site across from us, so that was nice. i kept hearing a strange noise though, sounded kinda like a highway, but there was no way i could hear that since to get to the park you had to drive a 17KM gravel road... so i did some investigating:

yup, the birkenhead river! right across from our campsite! wow!

the water system is still being installed and so we had to get our water the "ole fashioned way" and pump it. it was orange due to the amount of run-off from the mountains, and needed to be boiled, but it was fine for dish and hand washing. we did find a pipe from a diverted stream in the parking lot that had crystal clear ice cold water! mmm!even the outhouses were picturesque!on one of the sunny breaks we headed down to the lake trail to, well, the lake for fishing. just before you enter the trail there was a bear caution sign. yikes! ella was very excited to try fishing with her very own $9 canadian tire fishing rod. thank goodness derek isn't squeamish like me about worms. i can handle them if i have my gardening gloves on.
after an unsuccessful afternoon of fishing it was time to find the wood guy. we found him while walking sawyer and told him that we were at site #30. yay! we bought some chicken on the last grocery stop before coming into birkenhead and i just salt and pepper'd 'em and rubbed them with the oil that we brought from home. each fire pit has a grill attached to it and i just covered it up with some tinfoil, held it down with rocks, and watched the chicken cook:
i tell ya, i really got the hang of camp cooking by the last day!
after our wicked chicken dinner, we packed up the fishing gear again and headed back out to the lake. ella was determined to catch a fish, and once there was an audience larger than the family (early 20s guys and gals with beer and rods), she caught one! it was a bull trout, which is being replenished at birkenhead lake, and so we needed to put it back. we couldn't be more proud of her!!! awesome job, ella!
we'll definitely be heading back to birkenhead. be sure to bring some drinking water before you get there, and hang your tarps first!