Imagine Organic Tomato Soup -- Review

My little ones used to love eating their grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup (Campbell's), so obviously we haven't had that since the diet change.  I know, I could just make soup, but, the whole point of even having the soup was having an easy throw together lunch that requires little effort.
Well, Saturday when I was grocery shopping and buying more of my favorite chicken broth (Imagine Organic Free-Range Chicken Low-Sodium Broth), I found this soup (Imagine Light in Sodium Creamy Garden Tomato Soup).  My older son was so excited to try it, I didn't realize he was missing tomato soup so much. 

So, this soup was really incredible.  It's just a heat and serve, so no adding water, etc.  It's gluten, soy and dairy-free, and really, really yummy.  My older son loved this soup so much, he not only dipped his sandwich in it, he actually ate the soup by itself as well (which never happened with the Campbell's soup, back in the gluten days). 

I got the soup on sale for $2.87/quart and it was worth it.  It's getting 10 out of 10 from me.  Also, if you go to their website, you can get a $1.00 off coupon. :)

Blondies

I love blondies, or butterscotch squares, which is what we called them growing up.  They are so versatile, a simple bar cookie, or change it up with chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, anything really. :) This recipe is super easy, and it's really tasty.  My favorites are still the corners, so nice and chewy, just like I remember. :) 

Funny thing about this recipe, I totally forgot about the whole, melt the butter and add in the sugar thing that is typical for blondies, and it still tasted incredible.  So, you know what, I'm leaving that step out, because it's less work for me. :)

Blondies
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

2 cups packed brown sugar
2/3 cup dairy-free margarine
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups gf flour blend
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
optional add-ins: 1-1 1/4 cups of total of dairy-free chocolate chips, walnut pieces, coconut, etc.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 13x9x2 pan, set aside.  Cream together brown sugar and margarine.  Stir in eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl mix together flour blend, baking powder, and baking soda. Slowly add flour mixture to sugar mixture.  Stir in any additional add-ins you desire.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool slightly in pan.  Cut into bars while warm. Makes 24 bars.
 

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I have a lot of cookbooks from my past life, and I still like to look through them and try to convert those recipes that I really like.  Tonight, I happened to be looking through my copy of Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook and found this recipe that uses no flour and is so easily adapted for our allergies.  I have it below with the allergy friendly ingredients, but you can see from the ingredients that it really is already pretty easy to convert, and really easy to make.  The really awesome part about this is that its a whole grain (quite literally) treat.  I figured it out, and if you cut your pan into 16 bars, one bar will contain about 18g of whole grain (that's a full serving of whole grains!), how awesome is that!?!

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

1 cup dairy-free (soy-free if needed) margarine
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups uncooked gf rolled oats (pulse a few times in a food processor to make them more like quick oats)
1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter

Directions
Grease a 9-inch baking pan.  Melt margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add sugar and vanilla, mix well. Stir in oats.  Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, until ingredients are well blended.  Press half of the mixture into the prepared pan.

Melt chocolate chips either in a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir in peanut butter and pour the chocolate mixture over the oat mixture in the pan, make sure it is spread evenly. Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer. Cover and refrigerate 2-3 hours or overnight to harden.

S'mores Cookies

I have a problem...I really like cookies.  So, when I should be cleaning the house, or looking for my son's library book, or any number of other things, I'm baking cookies.  At least my family doesn't hold it against me, they in fact enjoy eating cookies as much as I enjoy making them...I don't know if that's good or not, but at least we're having fun, right?

I had an open box Kinnikinnick Smoreables in the cupboard that has been sitting there for too long, and I just can't throw them out, they just cost too much to do that, so it was time to get a little creative.  Or have someone get creative for me, then I can convert the recipe and use it. ;)  I found this recipe and knew I had to try it.  There are some major changes, obviously making it gluten-free, but I added twice the amount of flour, more cinnamon, and of course made it dairy and soy friendly as well.

By the time I finished making them it was nearly bedtime, but my little ones still managed to down two cookies a piece, and my husband tried one and shockingly said, "Wow, these are really, pretty good!"  And had at least 4 or 5 more. :)  So, they are pretty good, and they do taste like a cookie version of s'mores.

I have this on Cybele Pascale's Allergy Friendly Friday post for March 25th, check out the other allergy-friendly links here. :)

(And yes, the marshmallows are even toasted on top...s'more perfection!)

S'mores Cookies
1/2 cup dairy free (soy free if needed) margarine
1/2 cup palm oil shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups gluten free flour blend
1 cup gf graham cracker crumbs (I used Kinnikinnick smoreables that I put through the food processor)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 package (~2 cups) Enjoy Life dairy-free chocolate chips (mini ones)
1-1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
5-6 Enjoy Life Rice Milk Chocolate Bars, chopped

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large mixing bowl, cream margarine, shortening, and sugars. Add vanilla and eggs, and mix well.  In a separate bowl mix together flours, crumbs, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Slowly beat in the flour mixture until well mixed.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Roll into 1-1 1/2" balls (or drop by tablespoons) and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes and remove from oven.  Push 2-3 pieces of candy bar and 2-3 marshmallows into each cookie.  Return to the oven and bake for another 3-4 minutes until fully cooked.  Cool cookies on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.  Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies...with Oreos

For those of you that know me, last year I made these cookies for St. Patrick's Day.  So, I converted my recipe and made them again this year, but I had to up the ante--I stuck a kinnitoo (gf oreo) in the middle of some of them....holy cow, yum! But, yeah, you shouldn't eat more than one of those, because each one is pretty much three cookies...just so you know. ;)  I also had a bunch that were just regular mint chocolate chip cookies and they are excellent that way as well. Here's also the Allergy Friendly Friday link to Cybele Pascal's blog, so you can view other fantastic finds as well.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup dairy-free margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg (I actually was out of eggs, so I used Ener-G egg replacer: 1 1/2 t mixed in 2 T water)
3/4 teaspoon mint extract
~14 drops food coloring
3 cups gf flour blend
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups dairy-free chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream margarine and sugars together. In a separate bowl mix egg, mint extract, and food coloring, then add it to the margarine mixture. In a medium bowl mix together flour, baking soda, and salt, then slowly add it to the cookie dough. Stir in chips and roll into 1-1 1/2" balls and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 11-13 minutes. Yield: 3 dozen. :)

Note: If you want gf oreo centers, take two 1" balls and sandwich the oreo in the middle, and press the cookie dough together around the cookie until it is completely covered. I cooked mine for 13 minutes and they were done, so they don't need to be cooked that much longer, if at all.