Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! We hope you all have a great day planned today with loved ones. However, holidays like today can be especially hard for those with food allergies. While our little guy is only two and doesn’t fully grasp the idea of Valentine’s day, soon enough he’ll realize everything that he’s missing.
Since Jonathan is allergic to milk, eggs and several nuts – eating most Valentine’s Day candy is off limits for him. While his sister can eat whatever she wants, he has to sit there and wonder what she’s eating. So, you may be wondering how do we handle this unfairness in our house? As Jonathan has gotten older and more aware of his surroundings, we try to focus on the things Jonathan CAN eat and how we can make the holiday fun for everyone. This year, this means making vegan heart shaped cut-out cookies that even Jonathan can eat.
When looking at recipes that would be acceptable for Jonathan I’ve found the easiest path is to look for vegan recipes. They don’t include eggs and already have a substitute built in (like unsweetened applesauce, etc). If the recipe uses a nut ingredient like almond milk, almond flour, etc I just replace it with items Jonathan can have like soy milk or all purpose flour. I’ve also had a little bit of luck with regular recipes and swapping in vegan butter and soy milk. However, I made some super awful oatmeal raisin cookies a couple weeks ago for the Super Bowl, so not every recipe is a winner.
The vegan sugar cookie recipe I chose this year was from Loving It Vegan. We used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, soy milk, and omitted the almond extract. The addition of vegan butter sticks have really been a game changer for us. Jonathan can eat them without issue and it makes baking so much easier. I’ve found them locally at Meijer, Target and Kroger.
Usually Jonathan has to stay out of the kitchen when I’m baking, but this time he was able to be an active participant. As you can tell was more than happy to help. I mean who wants to make cookies when you can play with forks and spoons?!
He was however, VERY interested in testing the final result. They seem to have his seal of approval as he ate this one in no time.
This new Vegan Sugar Cookie recipe was a hit in our house with everyone and a recipe we can easily modify for each holiday. Little Man was able to feel included and I feel good knowing we were able to do something special for him on Valentine’s Day.
