Oh Deer!

I cannot eat beef. For all intents and purposes I have a beef allergy. Really, it is that my stomach cannot process it correctly, among other things. So I have to avoid beef. I will occasionally make it for my family, I simply eat the other items that I make. But I use a lot of chicken and turkey, including ground chicken or turkey to replace ground beef in my recipes.

But you know that on some things you can't swap turkey for beef, the flavor simply isn't  there. Which got me to thinking about alternatives. Deer is something I had never eaten. But I have heard in the blog world how good it is and good for you to boot.

Growing up my dad and brother didn't hunt. My husband has never hunted. And I was even a vegetarian for a while in college. So for my family to hear that we had gotten a deer, well some were in shock.

We have a good friend of ours who enjoys hunting. My husband put the bug in his ear about getting one for us. He was all for it. All we had to pay was the processing fee.

The next week, we got a call that he had gotten one for us. The photos above don't show all of it as we have eaten quite a few roasts and ground deer already. Not to mention I spared you any more boring photos of my freezer.

I was very hesitant at first, not knowing what it would taste like. My oldest was leery, thinking solely of the cute deer she was about to consume. This was a shock to her dad and I, as she is very much a meat lover. In the end, her curiosity won out and I am happy to say that we all love it, including my oldest

I made my roasts just like I would a beef roast, same with the ground meat. I have made chili, barbecue and taco meat with the ground meat. It has all been very good. And honestly I compared what we paid for processing to what I would pay for organic beef and we paid almost half that. I figured this is closer to organic that not.

So far we have been very happy with the deer. And very thankful that our friend was willing to get one for us. And thankful that his wife went without him for a day or so.

Most importantly, my stomach has had no issues with the deer meat. That was a great bonus and for that I am very grateful.

This post is linked to GratiTuesday.

Bacon Penne Pasta with Garlic

The ingredients above make one of my kids and my favorite meals.  It is so simple to make and very frugal.

I take about 1/3 of the bacon (bought on sale for $1.99 a pack) Now that bacon has gone up around here to $5 a piece, I only buy it on sale. But that is beside the point. Yes it has gotten expensive but yes my family loves bacon!

Can't you just smell the bacon frying? In a perfect world, I could eat bacon all day every day then have a big chocolate cake for desert. But I don't live in that world. In my world, I gain 10 pounds to my hips just looking at bacon!

Fry the bacon with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic. Cook until the bacon is crispy. Then add one can of tomato sauce. Mine is organic from Coscto, for 60 cents a can! The olive oil and garlic I buy in bulk from Costco so I have no idea what the cost breakdown is. But not much. Be careful when you add the can of sauce, it can pop. Stir it up and then simply let it simmer while waiting on the pasta.

While this is going, cook the pasta as directed on the box. We use whole wheat pasta, but I have used plain white pasta in the past.

Once the pasta is finished, drain the water and put it back in the pot. Then pour the bacon and sauce mixture over the pasta. Mix. (Sorry forgot to get a photo of this part.)

Here is the finished product, plated and ready to eat. It is so good, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Everyone eats more that one helping, even my little man. This is one dinner that we never have leftovers of.

Can you tell his belly is full? He did eat 4 helpings of penne pasta and broccoli!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Recipe of the Week--Hambuger Lo Mein and buns

This week we tried something that I got out of Mary Ostyns's book.

I love this book. It is filled with great recipes. This recipe we tried was for Hamburger Lo Mein. I changed it around just a tad based on what I had on hand in my pantry. But we loved it. It was very good.

 
You use Mary's homemade Terriaki sauce and it is to die for.
 
I would love to share the recipe with you but can't, as it isn't mine to share. But check out her book, you will find it plus much more in there. It is totally worth the price.
 
I made mine with homemade biscuits/buns though and I will share that recipe.
 
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp water
1/3 cup water
 
4 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 c water
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tsp vinegar
4 1/2 cups flour
 
Mix the first three ingredients and let sit for a few minutes. Then add the rest mix. Then kneed until soft and doesn't stick. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes. Punch down. Let rise for 30 more minutes. Shape into buns/biscuits and let rise another 2 hours, or the amount of time that you have on hand. Obviously if you let them rise completely they will be bigger. However I have been in a hurry and only let them rise for 30 minutes and they have been fine.
 

This recipe is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Homemade Fried Chicken

My oldest daughter has been asking for fried chicken. I didn't have any chicken that was on the bone, so I decided to cut up some boneless, skinless chicken that I had in the freezer.

I cut it into chicken plank sizes. Dipped them into a mixture of flour, salt and pepper. Made sure it was nicely coated. Then I dropped it into my cast iron skillet that had about an inch of canola oil boiling in it.

I cooked it on one side then flipped, as the chicken wasn't entirely submerged in the oil. It took about 10 minutes total to cook the chicken.

See the golden color? Oh my goodness but it was good! There was not a speck left, even the 21 month old loved it! He ate 4 helpings!

With this I also made homemade hash browns. Wish I took a photo, but as soon as they were finished the kids were starving, so I plated the food and we then ate! I had 3 leftover baked potatoes. For those that don't know when you make hash browns from scratch, don't use raw potatoes, they do not work. Using leftover baked potatoes tastes wonderful, is super easy and reduces waste!

I simply shredded my leftover baked potatoes, skin and all. Then I took a skillet and heated up a little bacon grease that I had leftover, a teaspoon of vegan butter(food allergies) and a tablespoon of olive oil. Funny thing about bacon grease, I used to just throw it away. But honestly if you are trying to eat a healthy, from scratch, whole diet, it is definitely something to try. And man, does it add some wonderful flavor. I used about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.

I had the skillet on high and after all the fats melted together, I added the shredded potatoes. You want to let them cook for a while without turning them, you are wanting a nice crispy bottom before you turn it. I flipped my potatoes a few times and broke them up a little with my spatula each time I flipped.

There were not leftovers of any kind. We had fried chicken, hash brown potatoes, broccoli and a salad. There was nothing left. This is definitely one to add to my list of dinners my family likes.

There is nothing that makes me happier than cooking for my family and have them enjoy it.

This post is linked to Finer Things Friday and Tasty Tuesday.

Recipe of the Week-Gumbo

As I said before, I am trying a new recipe every week. This weeks recipe was for homemade Gumbo. I thought it would be a very hearty dinner one night, combining meat with veggies.

Turns out the gumbo I made was pretty expensive. I used about 10 chicken legs and a pack of smoked sausage. I am sure you could use leftover chicken, but in a family of 6 we don't have meet left over very often.

Here is the recipe I used, I found on on the web and like usual, tweaked it to suit our tastes.

10 chicken legs
salt and pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 pound of smoked sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup flour
5 tablespoons margerine
1 large onion, chopped
8 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 cup celergy chopped
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
4 cups water
5 beef boillon cubes
1 can diced tomatoes

Cook the chicken with the oil. When that is finished, remove and cook the sausage. Remove when finished. Add 3 tablespoons of the butter and the veggies and saute them until soft. Add the rest of the margerine and the flour and stir all together, this will thicken it. You get kind of a big glop of veggies. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir, stir, stir to loosen up the glop! Add the meat back in and simmer on low for about 2 hours.

This was pretty good but the taste of Worcestershire sauce was very overpowering. I love that stuff, but it didn't seem right. So while we ate it, I would not make it again.

This is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Egg and Dairy Free Brownies

I have been struggling for ever to find a egg and dairy free brownie recipe that was moist. They are always too dry or worse, they don't set at all and remain liquid.  I think on those I have the ratio of wet and dry ingredients off.

In addition to tasting great, I needed the recipe to be quick, not have too many steps and be frugal as well. Especially since brownies only last a day or two in my house!

I came across a recipe on the internet the other day that was labeled as a "vegan" brownie recipe. I altered it a slight bit so that it fit our needs.

I can honestly say this is the best one to date. It is pretty moist and doesn't have a horribly sweet chocolaty flavor. So they are very light. My daughter that doesn't like chocolate even liked them. So that is a plus. These brownies barely last a day when I make these.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. Tasty, fast and frugal!

2 cups flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir the dry ingredients together then add the wet. Mix until blended. Pour into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Cool and enjoy! I thought these tasted better the next day because I do not like my brownies warm. But that is a personal preference.

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Friday

So Friday I spent the morning making copies of the kindergarten newsletter. Almost 900 copies. That took a little over 2 hours. While keeping my 17 month old son occupied. It was okay, thank goodness since it is a monthly thing for me. But honestly, I am happy I can help. I enjoy volunteering at the schools.

When I came home, I opened every one of my new windows. It was heavenly. The high today was only 79 and there was a very strong breeze. It made the house very nice and breezy it was wonderful.

It makes me feel like fall is on it's way. I love fall, it is my favorite time of year, no contest.

In the fall, my favorite thing to do besides cook is bake! So instead of cleaning the bathrooms like I should have been doing, I decided to do some baking!

I baked two new recipes to me, Gingersnap cookies (my favorite since I can't eat chocolate chip anymore) and vinegar cookies, which reminded me of a kind of sugar lace cookie.

Gingersnap Cookies

Vinegar Cookies

I love to bake! Unfortunately I also love to eat them, so I do have to practice self control.

Slow-Cooker

I love my slow-cooker. I use it all the time for a number of reasons.

I use it for the days that I work, when I want to come home and eat a nice home-cooked meal but don't have all night to fix one.

I use it on the days that we have soccer at the time that I would normally be cooking dinner, that way it is ready when we get home.

I use it to keep from heating up my house in the summer. For me, there is nothing worse than having the oven on in the summer. Especially since the sun shines all afternoon on our kitchen which makes it the warmest room in the house anyway, without the oven on.

I have make spaghetti dishes, pork roasts, beef roasts, whole chickens, sourkraut and sausage, you name it, I have made it.

Most recently I made chicken legs. I added no water, simply placed them on the bottom, covered the lid and cooked. About half way through I covered them in barbeque sauce.

When they were done, they were delicious. I made a couple different vegetables and some rice to go with it and dinner took 10 minutes.

That definately works for me.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Delicious Egg and Dairy Free Pancakes

I have been searching for a pancake recipe that we would all eat. In the past, I have always made a store bought mix and then a baking mix from the health food store that was egg and dairy free. I kept thinking I needed to find a recipe that I could make for everyone.

Well, I have found it, after a little tweaking with the multiple recipes that I have found. I combined them and came up with one that we all love.

I made 12 pancakes for my 4 kids, thinking I could freeze a few after breakfast. While there wasn't as much left as I expected, I was able to freeze 4 for another time.

Here is the recipe.

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 T butter (melted)

1 1/2 cup water

2 T soy flour and 2 T water

Mix all together in bowl. I cooked on a non stick skillet with some Pam spray. However, they tend to burn easily so make sure you burner is on low-medium.

Enjoy.

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Our Garden Firsts!

See this lovely salad above, it was made with vegies from our garden. That's right, the lettuce and radishes are from our garden! They are the first things to be ready to be eaten!

I don't know about you, but I love a salad when it is hot outside.  And a salad with vegetables that you grew yourself, even better!

I wonder what will be ready next?

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Chewy Granola Bars

I love granola bars, so do my kids. But unfortunately most contain eggs, dairy or peanuts, which means that I won't can't buy them. So I have tried many over the last few years and one ever turned out very well.

Until now.

I stumbled upon the base recipe here, if you are not family with this website, Laura has awesome recipes. I almost always have to alter mine due to food allergies, but she has some fabulous recipes that I use as my base.

Here is the recipe that I came up with based on what we like here.

1/2 cup sunbutter

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup rice cereal

1 cup oats

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup coconut flakes

chocolate chips sprinkled on top

Melt the sunbutter, honey and coconut oil on the stove top in a pan. Once it is all melted together, add the vanilla, mix together with the oats and rice cereal. Let it cool a little bit, then add the coconut.

Flatten into a pan lined with wax paper and put in fridge for about an hour or so until it hardens. This makes roughly 8 bars. Or seven if you are like me and have to do a taste test right when you cut them up!

These are delicious and so good for you. I sprinkle the cocolate chips on, that way you don't use as much.

This recipe is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap.

I Tried Hummus and Loved It!

Okay, so I have been trying really hard to feed my family healthy meals. More healthy than usual, especially since we are trying to limit our snacks to healthy ones or none at all. But still make them appealling and delicious.

I have been wanting to try to make and eat hummus for years. It looks so easy. However I didn't want to make it using tahini paste. I am leary about sesame seeds, I guess since we have multiple food allergies in the house, it just makes me nervous, even though no one is allergic to that in particular.

Not to mention I didn't have any at the time I wanted to try and make hummus!

So I altered some recipes that I found and this is what I made:

1 can garbanzo beans
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 T olive oil

I blended in food processor and added some liquid from the can to make it a little smoother. Can I just say YUM! Not only did I love it but my kids loved it also. Hubby liked it.

This is so healthy also! Beans, olive oil, garlic? Hello! We dipped some corn chips that I had and some celery and carrots and it was so good.

I am glad I finally tried it, this will be a staple in our house. Definitely something I can feel good about feeding my kids. Not to mention it is food allergy free for my two little ones!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Homemade Noodles

When I was little growing up, my mom always made homemade noodles when we were having homemade soup. I remember we used to sneak the noodles that my mom would have drying on the table. My mom always cut them and let them dry for a while before adding them to the soup.

There is nothing better than homemade soup made with scratch noodles. Only her recipe was made with eggs and I cannot use eggs. So for the longest time I didn't make homemade noodles.

Then I found this recipe.

I made this the other day with leftover turkey. I added the gravy and the rest of the turkey stock, vegies and the homemade noodles (which I had precooked first).

Man was it delicious. Everyone loved it and really enjoyed the noodles. It was a great way to use up the leftover turkey.

That was until the dreaded stomach virus hit and everyone got to see it a second time. So it was requested by all that I don't make it again . . . for a long time. Good thing I don't have a turkey in my freezer.

I did have a photo but for the life of me, I cannot seem to find it in my folders!

This is not only a healthy alternative to store bought but it is super cheap. I personally don't think this pasta works for spaghetti dishes. However for turkey or chicken and gravy or for a soup, they are perfect.

This is linked to Frugal Friday.

Tacos with Turkey and black beans

Around here we love homemade tacos, tostados and burritos. We eat one of them about every other week.

I usually have the usual toppings: lime rice, black beans, refried beans, lettuce, cheese, salsa and tomatoes.

However I kept noticing that we always had the black beans leftover, only 1-2 people would eat them. Even I never put them on my tacos.

So I decided to start adding them to my ground turkey. They take on the taste of the taco seasoning.

This is such a healthy meal. We use ground turkey instead of ground beef. We have eaten it this way for so long that a couple of months ago, I didn't have any and had to use ground beef. My family asked why the taco meat tasted funny!

This is a great way to get more fiber in their diet. Not to mention a wonderful way to stretch your meat, which I didn't think about at the time.

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday, Ultimate Recipe Swap and Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap.

Allergy Free Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

My kids love cinnamon rolls. Especially homemade cinnamon rolls. I used to make them with eggs, when it was just the two girls and before we found out my third daughter had a food allergy to eggs.

I have since come up with a recipe that includes soy or rice milk, soy flour and dairy free butter. However they take quite a while to make. And while they are totally worth it when you take a bite, I don't have 2 1/2 hours in the morning to make them. So I have figured out a few short cuts.

First of all, I am making some right now for tomorrow morning. We have 2 girls staying the night tonight. They love my cinnamon rolls and request them every time. So what I do is I make them tonight all the way up to cutting them and putting them on the pan. But then I put them in the refrigerator.

Then in the morning, I pull the pan out and let it rise the last 45 minutes while I am getting everything else ready and wait for the oven to heat up.

In a pinch, on a morning when I have forgotten to make the dough, I have used my pizza dough recipe in place of the sweet dough. It worked and the kids ate it. But they did ask why they tasted different.

So, here is my recipe, which is peanut, treenut, dairy and egg free:

1 cup soy or rice milk
1/2 cup margerine ( I use Fleischman's Unsalted)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons yeast
3 1/2 - 5 cups flour
1 tablespoon soy flour and 1 tablespoon water (this is the egg substitute)

The filling is
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup margerine (Fleischman's unsalted) softened
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Heat the milk in the microwave (about 2 minutes) then add the butter so that it melts. In a large bowl combine sugar, salt, yeast, 1 cup flour and the butter/milk mixture. Mix in the egg and 2 1/2 cups flour. You may need to adjust if your dough is too moist. Kneed on a floured surface for 10 minutes. Cover and let rise for one hour.

Punch down the dough and let rise for 15 more minutes.

Roll dough out flat, try for a rectangle. Spread the room temperature margerine on the dough and sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up into a log.

Cut into 1 inch slices and place on a pan. Cover and let rise another 45 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes. When cooled glaze with 1 cup powdered sugar and enough soy/rice milk to make desired thickness. I start with 1 tablespoon and work then add more if I need it.

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday, Ultimate Recipe Swap and the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap.

Homemade Pretzels

I know they don't look like pretzels, but I always let the girls make whatever shapes they want to. Notice one is kind of like a heart and there is one that resembles a turkey as well!

Anyway, this is the pretzel recipe that my mom made for us when I was little. I love it, we would make it for any special get together.

In our house, we used to make them only for our "girls-night" which was when daddy was out. However, we have added a little boy to the mix and changed it to "kids night". Not only that but I now make them not just for nights like that, but also make them so that they are coming out of the oven when my older two get off the bus in the afternoon. They are a wonderful snack.

They would even be great as a lunch paired with a fruit or vegetable.

These are so tasty and good for you.

Here is the recipe:

2 1/4 tsp yeast

pinch sugar

2 tsp salt

4-5 cups flour ( I use white or wheat depending on my mood)

1 1/4 cup water

Dissolve yeast in 1 1/4 cup water with the sugar. Add salt, yeast and flour. Kneed until not sticky. I do this in my Kitchen Aid mixer for about 5-6 minutes.

Cover and let rise 45 minutes.

Boil 4 cups water and 4 tsp baking soda to a boil. Drop the pretzel dough in one by one until they float. Take them out and place on a baking sheet and salt as desired.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 475 degrees. I like mine to be soft and chewy on the top and inside and crunchy on the bottom!

We can make a batch and barely have 1-2 pretzels left. We make them all the time for sleepovers. My kids and their friends love them.

This recipe is not only allergy safe for my daughter but frugal as well. Totally a winner recipe in my book.

Enjoy!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

This is a recipe that I found years ago and tweaked it so that it would be safe for my daughter. It is so delicious and not too bad for you, it only has 1/2 cup of brown sugar  and 1/4 cup white sugar and makes 18 muffins. This is a great way to use up old bananas, which is what I use it for.

1/2 cup margerine (again I use Fleischmans Unsalted)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups very ripe bananas mashed up
1/4 cup water
2 tsp vanilla
3 T water, 3 T oil and 2 tsp baking powder mixed together
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour
3 T unsweeted cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 T wheat germ (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 and line muffin tins with paper liners. Combine butter and brown sugar and cream together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Spoon into the muffin papers and fill about 3/4 full. Sprinkle sugar on top. Bake 20-25 minutes. These freeze well.

This post linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap.

Homemade Bread--Stress Reliever

I LOVE to bake. I have always loved to bake. And I especially love to bake for my family. And I especially love to bake for my family when they LOVE the recipe.

Well, I have found it with this Honey Wheat Bread. I got the recipe at Tammys Recipes. I make it exactly like this except for I omit the tablespoon of milk. You all know of my daughters food allergies of course!

I have found that I really like kneeding the dough. It is a huge stress reliever. And for those 10 minutes, it is just me and the dough. I can think of whatever I want, even if it is nothing. There is something so peaceful about this mindless task. And boy, is it good for the arm muscles. This is me kneeding a triple batch of the bread. The triple batch was a request from my oldest daughter. We go through atleast a loaf and a half at a meal. Everyone loves this bread, from the 10 month old to the 37 year old daddy!

This is the giant ball of my triple batch. Just waiting to get put in a bowl so that it can rise to double it's size.

Aren't they beautiful? This bread is so delicious. And it is fool proof, I have yet to make a bad loaf with this recipe. And for me who doesn't even like bread, there is nothing better than eating a piece still warm from the oven.

Do any of you have an tasty bread recipes to try?

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

What do you do when your back is killling you?

What do you do when your back is killing you? You bake.

I wrote here about being in the emergency room on New Years day. Needless to say, it didn't get any better, it only got worse.

By Monday it was awful, I couldn't do anything and would wake up with the horrible pain of what felt like sever charlie horses down my right leg.

I was at my chiropracters that morning. And I felt great when I left. But after a few hours I was right back to the constant pain in my right leg and if I moved it a certain way, the horrible charlie horse pain. So after work I went back to the chiro and they adjusted me again.

By Wednesday I was still in the same pain, so I went to my general practioner's office. I just love them there, they are so wonderful, the doctor and the nurse practioner are just perfect. So there I was given another shot of  steriods and pain meds. And was sent with an order for x-rays. However I had to get back to work so I thought I would go another day to get the xrays. However we got a bunch of snow, so that was pushed back to this coming Monday.

I left the doctors office with 3 new prescriptions. One for a steroid to help with inflamation. One was 800 mg ibuprofen to help with the pain and a muscle relaxer for at night. At this point I hadn't really slept in almost a week. I was staying up later and later because I knew I would wake up to a horrible charlie horse.

That day after work I went to the chiropractors office again and he was baffled as to why the adjustment was not staying. So this time he gave me a lift to put in my right shoe. He also gave me exercises to do at home. My hips have been off balance and it is the thought by both doctors that something was squeezing the nerve that ran down my right leg.

I don't know if it was the medicine, the exercises, the lift for my shoe, the shots or simply time that has eased the pain. But I do know I am feeling almost back to normal. It is only sore and stiff in the morning but as the day goes on I feel pretty normal.

So back to the baking. What did I bake you ask? I made pumpkin bread, honey wheat bread (2 loaves), zucchini brownies and taco soup. I know soup isn't a baking item, but it is something that allows me to stand up. Because sitting and laying down were too painful.

Here is the fruit of my labor:

Pumpkin bread

Honey Wheat bread

Zucchini Brownies

Taco Soup

So there you have it. That is what I do when my back is killing me and it hurts to lay down or sit. Iam very glad to be feeling mostly myself again. It is horrible to not be able to take care of your family.

I have been told that it could come back at any time. I hope not too soon!

Allergy Free Monkey Munch

Around here, we do not eat peanut products. My youngest daughter has various food allergies, including peanuts. But that doesn't stop me from making any recipe that calls for peanut butter.

I simply use Sun Butter, made from sunflower seeds. I originally tried Soy Butter, but that has a very strong taste that isn't condusive to sweet things. Then I found Sun Butter and not only is it delicious on crackers but wonderful in any food that calls for peanut butter.

Some may say that it confuses my daughter and lets her think that she can have peanut products. But I beg to differ. She only eats this when I make it, she knows that she cannot have any other snacks that are from someone else. Not only due to the peanuts but her egg, dairy and treenut allergies.

You can find this recipe all over the internet, I found my base recipe here. I think there is even one listed on the Chex cereal website. I simply did a search for the recipe, found one that looked like it could be altered and through a little trial and error, found one that works for us and tastes delicious.

Here is my recipe:

7 cups Chex cereal
1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup Sun Butter
1/4 cup butter (Fleischman's unsalted sticks)
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Measure the cereal in a large bowl. Melt the chocolate chips, Sun Butter and butter in microwave for about 1 minute. Stir. Then heat again another minute. Stir together until smooth then add the vanilla and pour over cereal and mix until all is coated. Measure the powdered sugar into a baggy and then dump the cereal in. Close the bag and shake around until all the cereal is coated with the sugar.

Then eat. I can honestly say that this is one treat that I eat as much as the kids do. Enjoy!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.