Sunbutter Fudge

In an effort to wean myself from my Cadbury Mini Egg addiction (I know I'm not supposed to be eating them, but they appeared in our local grocery store before Christmas! How am I supposed to resist them for 5 months straight??!!), I've been searching for an easy dairy free fudge recipe. Several recipes I found had way too many ingredients- I want SIMPLE- but I did find one that I thought would work, so I gave it a try. Unfortunately, it wasn't creamy or very yummy. After a bit more searching I found this recipe that looked promising. I like plain and simple fudge, so I ommitted the apricots and orange zest, and I made a couple tweaks so it would be in line with what we should and should not be eating (and what I had in my cupboard- I didn't have any agave nectar). The result took all of 10 minutes to make and has great texture and flavor. Yum!

Sunbutter Fudge

3/4 c. Enjoy Life chocolate mini chips or mega chunks

1/4 c. sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)- creamy or chunky
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. honey

Carefully melt chocolate chips over a double boiler or in the microwave. If you do it in the microwave, make sure you stir frequently so the chocolate doesn't scorch.

Once melted, stir in sunbutter and vanilla.

Then stir in honey.

As you stir, the mixture should thicken up nicely.

This batch fills this silicone brownie pop pan I found on clearance at Target a few years ago.

If you double the batch, you can spread it in a lightly greased or parchment paper-lined 8"x8" pan. Refrigerate an hour or so till set and hardened, then enjoy!

Sunbutter Fudge

3/4 c. Enjoy Life chocolate mini chips or mega chunks
1/4 c. sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)- creamy or chunky
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. honey

Carefully melt chocolate chips over a double boiler or in the microwave. If you do it in the microwave, make sure you stir frequently so the chocolate doesn't scorch. Once melted, stir in sunbutter and vanilla. Then stir in honey. As you stir, the mixture should thicken up nicely.

This batch fills this silicone brownie pop pan I found on clearance at Target a few years ago.
If you double the batch, you can spread it in a lightly greased or parchment paper-lined 8"x8" pan. Refrigerate an hour or so till set and hardened, then enjoy!

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, egg free, corn free, peanut free, nut free, coconut free, soy free (depending on the brand of sunflower seed butter- check the label if this is an issue for you), and {of course} free of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, sorghum, tapioca, and shellfish. Always check labels before using to make sure the ingredients and/or manufacturing conditions haven't been changed.

Faux-Mato Sauce

One of the many things LMS and I can't eat is tomatoes. Initially this didn't seem like too much of a problem- just don't put them on our salads or our {bunless} hamburgers. Then we realized that it also meant no chips and salsa (well, we can't eat the chips, either, so no big loss), no pizza (who would want to eat pizza without cheese, anyway?), or spaghetti. Ok, that last one was a bit of a problem. We do like spaghetti once in a while. Mr M did some research and found a company that makes and sells a "Nomato Sauce". However, it was very expensive, which meant we wouldn't be trying it anytime soon. Mr M looked at their ingredient list, then did a bit more research and came up with this recipe for Faux-mato sauce.

For 1 batch of sauce:

1 medium beet
6 carrots
3 stalks of celery

Peel and cube beets, add to a pot of water. Peel and slice carrots into small chunks, add to pot. Slice celery into small chunks, add to pot. Water should cover the vegetables. Bring to boil, continue to cook till all veggies are soft.

When all veggies are soft, drain most of the water. Move veg to blender, including the reserved cooking water (you can do multiple batches depending on blender size and capability). Blend well. ( A Blendtec or Vitamix is great for this) Sauce will be thicker or thinner depending on how much liquid you add to the blender. We tend to leave it pretty thick, then thin as needed when we actually use it.

We make 4 or 5 batches at a time and put the sauce in pint jars and freeze. I imagine you could also run them through a water bath to can them, but that's just too much effort :)

Once you have the basic sauce made, you can do different things with it: tomato sauce, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, and BBQ sauce.

For a tomato sauce substitute: leave the sauce plain

For a tomato paste substitute: return sauce to pot after blending and cook on medium heat till very thick

For a spaghetti sauce: add Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste. You can also add minced garlic, chopped onion, and other chopped veg (mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, etc) if you like that kind of thing (we do).

For a BBQ sauce: I'll get back to you on this one. Mr M tends to throw things in the pot and cook by smell, so it's sometimes hard to pinpoint what he used and how much. We tried to keep track with the last batch, but it didn't taste as good as the previous batch, so we'll keep trying to replicate that so we can share the recipe.

You must be wondering:

But how does it taste????!!

Can it really taste like tomatoes???!!

What about those beets??!!

The answer: yes, it does taste like tomatoes. I only have a memory of what tomato sauce tastes like, but it tasted like it to me. Mr M, who still eats tomatoes when he gets the chance, said it tasted very much like tomato sauce. Some {unsuspecting} friends we had over for dinner didn't notice anything till we mentioned what was in the sauce :)

I will say, though, that the beets do give the sauce a very faint pinkish cast, and if left to sit, will turn your noodles or chicken a bit pinkish. Which is a little weird, but it doesn't affect the flavor.

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, egg free, corn free, peanut free, nut free, coconut free, soy free, and is also free of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, sorghum, tapioca, and shellfish. Always check labels before using to make sure the ingredients and/or manufacturing conditions haven't been changed.

Gluten free frog eye salad recipe with egg free option

I've been meaning to post my gluten free frog eye salad for awhile, but with our added food restrictions I haven't seen the point in making it (we can't eat the marshmallows, cool whip, tapioca pearls, or eggs, and the oranges are on the iffy list) and I couldn't quite remember how I'd done it before- it's been a year and a half since I last made it. Mr M convinced me to fudge things a bit for Thanksgiving so I decided to go ahead and make some frog eye salad so I could finally post the recipe.

I've been able to eat small amounts of corn products without too many problems, so I was willing to fudge most of the ingredients, but I wasn't willing to eat eggs. I tried eating some last month and it was not pleasant. So I tried making the custard with a flax egg, and it actually turned out pretty good. While it's not as pretty as an egg custard, it tastes very similar to what I remember it tasting like, and Mr M agreed.

Gluten free, Egg free Frog Eye Salad

EF Custard

½ c sugar

1 tbl fine brown rice flour (I used Authentic Foods)

¼ tsp salt

1 cup pineapple juice drained from 20 oz can of pineapple that you use later

1 flax egg (1 tbl ground flax seed + 3 tbl boiling water, let sit for a few minutes to thicken) or use 1 egg if you're not egg free, beat the egg well

2 tsp lemon juice

Whisk together dry ingredients then whisk in pineapple juice and flax egg. Heat over medium heat , stirring occasionally. Bring to boil and continue to cook for a few more minutes till thickened. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Allow to cool, it will “gel” as it cools, so stir occasionally.

The custard as it cools and gels. The brown flecks are bits of ground flax.

GF “acini de pepe”

1.5 c large tapioca pearls

Bring water to boil in a large saucepan/pot. Whisk in tapioca pearls.

Stir occasionally and cook till most of the pearls are translucent (about 17 min).

Turn off heat and let sit for another 5 minutes or so till the pearls have only small bits of white left in the centers. Carefully dump tapioca into a fine mesh sieve and gently rinse the gel from around the pearls (I had to do it in three batches because my sieve isn’t big enough to hold it all).

rinsing the tapioca pearls

Allow pearls to cool in bowl.

Bring it all together

1 20 oz can crushed pineapple (juice drained and used in custard)

2 11 oz cans mandarin oranges, drained (juice can be used in custard if needed to make 1 cup)

1.5 c mini marshmallows

8 oz tub cool whip

Once the custard and tapioca are cool, gently fold together.

Carefully add pineapple, oranges, marshmallows, coconut, and cool whip and mix together. Refrigerate overnight.

Enjoy!
My previous posts on gluten free frog eye salad are here and here.

If you make it, let me know how it turns out for you!

This recipe is gluten free, egg free, peanut free, nut free, coconut free, and is also free of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, sorghum, and shellfish. Always check labels before using to make sure the ingredients and/or manufacturing conditions haven't been changed.