Slow Cooking = Easy Cooking

I received an email today from Christina, author of www.ourducksinarow.com, asking about slow cooker recipes. She has used the pork roast recipe from Sophie Safe Cooking multiple times and asked what other things she can cook in her slow cooker. Here is a basic slow cooker meal recipe that can be modified for what you have and what you like to eat.

Slow Cooker Casserole

1 1/2 C uncooked rice
OR
3 C starchy vegetables (potatoes, carrots, etc.)
2-3 pounds of meat (use a roast, a whole chicken, several chicken breasts, or pork chops, etc.)
seasonings that you like (use 1-2 teaspoons of a seasoning blend, or see below for suggestions)
1 C water if using starchy vegetables
OR
3 C water if using rice

Put your rice or starchy veggies on the bottom, put the meat on top. Pour in your water and then sprinkle the seasonings all over the meat and down into the starchy vegetables. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours (always cook on low if you have a tougher cut of meat--the low temperature over time will make for a much more tender meal).

If you prefer, you can cook just your meat in the slow cooker. It will not require any liquid in most cases. With chicken, you will want to reduce the cooking time and keep an eye on things to make sure it doesn't burn or dry out. The seasoning suggestions will work for meat alone or meat with a starch. For example, today I am cooking a beef roast in the slow cooker with garlic powder, salt and pepper. We will be eating it with some veggies and mashed potatoes that I will cook separately just before dinner time.

Seasoning Suggestions:

Onions or Garlic: Most people like to add onions or garlic or both to almost any dinner recipe. My family prefers garlic, so we usually add a couple of cloves of fresh garlic, or 1/2 to 1 tsp. of granulated garlic to a meal like this. If you're adding onions, I would try about 1/2 onion, diced finely, to start. You can experiment and find the right amount for you and your family as you go along.

Salt: 1 tsp. of salt is usually plenty for this amount of food. You can use less depending on your other seasonings, or none if you are using a seasoning mix, especially if it contains salt.

Pepper: 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. of black pepper, and/or use chili powder or red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper.

Italian Style Seasoning: use a mix of oregano, basil, and parsley with garlic and onions, or just use the spices out of this list that you have already on hand.

Mexican Style Seasoning: 1 Tbsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. garlic, 1 tsp. Mexican oregano; you can also add a small can of chopped jalapeno peppers or green chilies. With green chilies, I sometimes omit or decrease the chili powder.

Seasoning for Pork: For pork I love to use a combination of garlic (1/2 tsp.), sage (1/2 to 1 tsp.), sea salt (1/2 to 1 tsp.) and fresh ground black pepper (1/2 tsp.). Replacing part of the water with apple juice or apple cider is also a great touch.

Seasoning for Beef: One of the many options for beef is barbecue style. To achieve this, add a can of tomato sauce to your meal. Season it with 1/2 tsp. ground mustard, 2 Tbsp. brown sugar, 1/2 to 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar, and your garlic or onions or both.

Seasoning for Chicken: Chicken is so versatile--there are a million ways to season it. Some of the things I love with chicken are 1/2 C diced celery or 1 tsp. celery salt, a bay leaf, oregano and parsley.

For this kind of cooking, you should go with your nose--if it smells like it would go well in your dish, then it probably will. You can also reference other recipes that you like and use the spices they recommend. Good luck, and happy cooking!

What, more candy?

What to do with Halloween candy is a dilemma for every parent, and even more so for those of us managing our children's allergies. On average, Americans eat about 23 pounds of candy per year, and much of that is consumed in the weeks leading up to and including Halloween. Each year as the holidays draw near, I have two major food questions on my mind:

1. How can I help my kids to continue to make good eating choices during this time of year?
2. What can I do to help Sophie feel happy and create positive memories despite her dietary restrictions?

Over the years, I have developed a few ideas for managing Halloween candy, and friends have contributed others.

First, since Sophie loves to Trick or Treat, when I purchase Halloween candy to pass out at our door, I generally buy only items that are safe for her. I also set aside some of the safe candy so that when she gets home from Trick or Treating, or from a party or other event, she can give me her forbidden items in exchange for things that she loves and that are safe for her.

Second, I have several friends who pay their children for their Halloween candy. They have a set amount of time during which the kids can eat what they want (maybe 1 or 2 days), and then they buy the rest of the candy. They set a price either per piece or per pound, and it gives the kids a way to earn some money, and Mom and Dad don't have to worry so much about cavities.

Purchasing the candy generally only works for kids old enough to understand and appreciate money, so my third suggestion is an alternative to the candy sale for younger children. For younger kids, or kids who don't care about the value of a $dollar$, purchase a toy that you know your child really wants. You can spend whatever works for your budget. Then, offer to trade your child that toy for their Halloween candy. For many kids, the concrete toy is much harder to resist than the more nebulous dollars and cents.

The fourth idea is simply another version of the third. Rather than offering to trade, explain to your children about the Halloween Fairy. The Halloween Fairy is friends with the Tooth Fairy, as well as the less-well-known Bottle Fairy and Diaper Fairy (courtesy of SuperNanny). They operate in much the same way. All of the fairies come at night. They require a certain offering, in this case, Halloween candy, and in exchange will leave something of value, in this case, a new toy.

Whether you trade your kids for their candy or let them keep it and slowly consume it over the coming weeks and months, you can also find ways to control the eating a little. In our family, we ask each of the children to go through their candy and donate supplies to the Decorating Bag. This is a large ziptop bag used when we make and decorate cookies, Gingerbread houses, dipped candy canes, etc. For the sake of simplicity, I require that all donations to the Decorating Bag are Sophie Safe.

My husband has a suggestion as well: Daddy Tax. Daddy Tax is the tax, paid in candy, which all children must pay their fathers any time the children eat candy in front of them. I'm not sure that his motive is reducing their sugar intake, but it does the job just the same.

I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Food Allergies are a Blessing?!

People often talk about how hard it is to manage food allergies, especially with a list like Sophie's. And it is terribly difficult. When managing food allergies, there are all kinds of steps added to your meal preparation that you wouldn't normally take. For example, reading every label, calling the restaurant or caterer before the meal, being prepared with snacks and treats in case there's nothing that will work or the one safe food gets cross-contaminated. If you didn't have food allergies, would you even know what cross-contamination is? I wouldn't!

And yet, with all of that, managing food allergies is such a simple task compared with so many others. Children with food allergies have literally every physical and educational opportunity that everyone has, unlike children with Downs' Syndrome. Children with food allergies know how to prevent an attack, unlike children with epilepsy. Adults with food allergies typically recover completely after an attack, unlike adults with Multiple Sclerosis. And so, I submit that when compared with other lifelong illnesses, food allergies are indeed a blessing.

Life with Costco

You know, I never went to a Costco or Sam's Club for the first 20 or so years of my life. I don't even know if they were around before then, actually. And here I am, a certified Costco addict. Yesterday I took the girls to Costco because Sophie wanted to eat lunch there and I wanted to fill up my storage room a little more with canned goods. This was my second Costco trip in less than a week, and I managed to spend nearly $300, even though I spent just shy of $200 on Monday!

Since it was Saturday, the taster tables were out in full force, and we discovered something wonderful--rice crackers that are certified gluten-free. And because there was a taster table for them, I already know Sophie likes them and will eat them! We are all so excited to add Crunchmaster Rice Crackers (http://www.crunchmaster.com/) to our tiny list of pre-made foods for Sophie. This almost makes up for last week's let down when a safe cookie I purchased made Sophie's tongue itch. The ingredient list was safe, but it did have an equipment warning. Sophie and I talked it over and decided to try them despite the warning on the label. Risky, I know, but the possible gain seems worth it--this was a relatively inexpensive cookie and could go with her to school for eating when her classmates bring in birthday treats and things like that.

A few years ago, when Costco started to carry soy milk, and more recently when they added Rice Dream to their product list, I moved from being a less-than-once-a-month shopper to a Costco diehard. But now, I've taken the Executive membership plunge. Hmmm...what's 2% back on a box of Crunchmaster Rice Crackers?

Books, Books, Books

I've had an exciting couple of weeks--my books are now being carried in several local bookstores. On Wednesday of last week, I delivered books to the Borders at Flatirons in Broomfield, CO. Today I received an email from the Tattered Cover, and they ordered books for each of their 3 locations in metro Denver. AND, Borders has scheduled me to do a book signing on May 2 from 1 to 3!

In other news, I discovered a program that has the capability to calculate nutritional information for recipes. I spent several weeks entering all of my recipes into the program, and have now added a nutritional information page to my website, with the information from all of the recipes in Sophie-Safe Cooking.

Traditions of Christmas

One of our family traditions is to bake and bake and bake and make candy and bake, and then give all of these yummy goodies to our friends and neighbors in the week or two before Christmas. Some of the things we bake invariably get consumed at home (unfortunately too many by me!) and some are taken to holiday parties and so on. With all of the baking going on, I started thinking, wouldn't it be great if there was an allergy-safe icebox cookie dough recipe? Icebox cookies are those cookie doughs that you make one dough and then use it in different ways to make different kinds of cookies out of it.

So here goes...

Allergy Safe Icebox Cookie Dough
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 shortening (I used Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening, made from palm oil)
2 cups oat flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
up to 3 tbsp. rice milk

Using a mixer, mix the shortening and sugar, adding vanilla partway through. When these are thoroughly mixed, add the oat flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well. The mixture will be relatively crumbly at this point. Preferably with the mixer running, add the rice milk a little at a time, mixing for at least 15 seconds between additions (other wise you won't be able to tell when you've got the right amount of rice milk in the dough). When the dough forms a ball, it is ready to roll out for baking. If you are going to be refrigerating your dough before using it, you may want to add a little more rice milk since food often loses moisture in the refrigerator.

At this point, there are several directions you can go.

Cookie Cutouts
Roll out the dough, half a recipe at a time, on a floured, non-stick surface. Cut it with cookie cutters. You can add sprinkles before baking, or you can bake and cool the cookies and decorate with frosting and sprinkles. Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes. (Cookies baked a little longer will be more crispy, and those baked for less time will be more chewy.) For great frosting recipes, check out my book, Sophie Safe Cooking (sophiesafecooking.com).

Pinwheel Cookies
Working with half a recipe at a time, roll Icebox Cookie Dough out to form a square, probably about 6 to 8 inches across. The dough should be between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Spread a filling over the dough, staying about 1/2 inch from one edge. Roll up the cookie dough and filling, starting with the side opposite the edge with no filling.

If the cookie dough is hard to roll up, there are a couple of things you can try. First, roll on a floured surface. If you don't have to work to get the dough off of your rolling surface, that will simplify things a lot. Second, place a sheet of waxed paper or something else that's flexible (such as a Silpat) on your rolling surface. You can still flour it, and then you can also use the waxed paper to help you roll up the cookie dough. Lift and push the waxed paper, separating the cookie dough from the paper and rolling as you go. The other thing to consider is that if the dough is too dry, it will crack as you roll it (that's what happened the first time I tried it!). If this is the case, make a note that you need more rice milk next time, and add extra milk to the dough that you still have in reserve.

After you have rolled up you cookies, refrigerate the dough until it is firm enough to handle with ease (1-2 hours). If you refrigerate the dough overnight, or if it seems too hard after refrigerating, allow it to sit at room temperature for a little while before you slice and bake it. Using a very sharp knife, slice the dough into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices. Place them on a cookie sheet, 2 inches apart, and bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Pinwheel Cookie Fillings
There are lots of different fillings you can try, and I'm sure you'll come up with your own ideas, too. Here are a couple that I think are great!
Chocolate: melt about 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Allow them to cool slightly, and then spread them on the rolled dough. After refrigerating, slice and bake as directed. If you like your cookies hot, beware of both the temperature and messiness of the chocolate filling!
Cinnamon Sugar: shake cinnamon sugar all over rolled cookie dough, refrigerate, slice and bake as directed.
Cranberry: Mix 1/2 cup finely chopped cranberries, 3 tbsp. sugar, and 2 tsp. orange zest and spread over the rolled dough. Refrigerate, slice, and bake as directed.

Chocolate Cookie Cutouts:
When mixing up your dough, you can make chocolate cookies if you like. Instead of using 2 cups of oat flour, use 1 3/4 cups oat flour and 1/4 cup cocoa powder. You can still use all of the same variations. Delicious!

Giving Thanks

I suppose Thanksgiving has put me in a thoughtful mood, or perhaps it's the fact that I'm trying to figure out what to buy for my already terribly spoiled children, but I've been pondering gratitude. I have much to be grateful for in my life. Many of the things I'm grateful for would be on other people's lists as well--but I have a few extras.

1. I am thankful that I can run. And walk. And see. And play with my kids. You see, a little more than 5 years ago, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was putting pressure on my optic nerve, causing loss of peripheral vision. Because of the placement, I had a craniotomy. Because my neurosurgeon couldn't remove the tumor without risking damage to my optic nerve and other surrounding things, I had 5 weeks of radiation about 2 months after the surgery. And now, 5 years later, I can still see, walk, play with my kids, and I run on a regular basis, which is something I had never done.

2. I am thankful for Sophie's food allergies. The things that are hardest for us are often also the things that make us grow the most. Because of Sophie's food allergies, I have developed skills that I never would have otherwise--such as creating recipes. I have also accomplished things I never would have thought of before--such as publishing Sophie Safe Cooking.

I am also grateful for the usual suspects: my family, my home, God, my husband's job, etc. But I find that I am the most grateful for the things that have been the hardest.