Christmas with food allergies

Wow, I'm just going to say that Christmas time (or any holiday in general) is really hard on us mamas with kids with food allergies.  The gluten free part has become second nature since Hadley has been GF for several years now.  This is our first year having eliminated gluten, yeast, dairy, egg yolks and limited sugar.  I decided before all the parties and madness started, I wasn't going to allow all the candy and junk that turns my daughter into a different person.  But I also wasn't going to allow her to be sad about it and feel left out.  Our days of making cookies this year were totally different than years past.  Before, I would've stocked up on butter, flour, sugar, more butter, more sugar, and lots of milk chocolate.  This year, it was nuts, dates, dried fruit, GF flour and agave.  I doubted how this day of baking would turn out, but I've got to say...not bad.  And the best part?  We have all been snacking on the healthier desserts instead of wolfing down a whole pan of fudge in an evening.  I feel so much better than I usually do this time of year, and can actually button my jeans.  So here are some of the treats we made this year.

We made these grain free sugar cookies today.  We put red and green sprinkles on them and left some out for Santa.  Mama loved these...we'll see if santa likes healthy sugar cookies ;)

These were my favorite.  I grew up making pecan sandies with my mom.  She always made them in a ball and rolled them in powdered sugar after they cooled a little.  I didn't miss it a bit.  In fact, I liked this version better!  Shhhh...don't tell my mama.  Oh, and Alex even liked these, and he usually turns his nose up at my GF treats.

The kids absolutely loved this version of gingerbread people.  I actually didn't have tiny gingerbread cookie cutters, so I just rolled them into balls and served them in little mini-muffin paper cups.  These have such a wonderful ginger flavor, and they were fabulous!  I packed these in a sandwich baggie for the park, and they are a great little snack.  We have also made many of the other larabar recipes on this site, and are quite in love with them.

These blondies were da bomb dot com.  For reals.  One problem.  They had brown sugar in them, and made my daughter cra cra.  I really wanted to try to substitute the sugar for agave, but they were already so gooey, that I don't think it will work.  I loved these so much, and they were Eli's fav.  And I promise, you can't taste the chick peas...pinky promise.

These pillow cookies were a hit with the kids, but not my favorite.  I substituted the whole wheat flour for my GF flour mix I keep mixed up in my pantry.  I also didn't roll the cookies in the sugar/cinnamon mixture since I was avoiding sugar.  Instead, I added cinnamon to the dough, and it turned out tasting like a snickerdoodle.  If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit smitten by Chocolate Covered Katie.  She doesn't know it, but she's my new bestie, and has made my daughter very happy.

By the way, I had the nerve to serve all of these healthy cookies for dessert at bunko last Tuesday night.   Unless my friends are great liars, they loved them!  If anyone is interested at all in recipes, I'll share with you all what I served for dinner that night too.  Ya'll just let me know.

And last, but certainly not least, I made these lemon cranberry coconut muffins for breakfast on Christmas morning.  Hadley thought these were so pretty that she had to have one for dessert tonight.  She chose that over a cookie.  Eli had one too, and both of them gobbled them up.  So I guess they are good.  We usually cook a really big brunch on Christmas morning, and I thought it might be nice to mix it up for my girl as she is probably getting tired of egg whites and sausage.

Merry Christmas ya'll!  Enjoy celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ with your loved ones!