Friday, April 15, 2011

got food allergies?

The challenge at my house: find food and prepare healthy meals that do not contain garlic, onion, artificial ingredients, molasses, chocolate, tomatoes, several fruits, certain corn derivatives including corn syrup, not to mention the biggies: gluten or dairy.  And of course, make sure to stick to a budget while doing this.  Finally, the food has to taste good or no one will eat it.  If that happens, we're really in trouble because it's pretty difficult to find an allergy friendly restaurant to run to if my cooking efforts fail.

Thankfully, one recipe at a time, I've learned to cook for a family of food reactors.  And what we eat is usually good!  Still, we miss some of the good, less healthy versions of the American diet.  Like...doughnuts.  We have a Krispy Kreme in town and their doughnuts seem to show up as birthday treats at school as well as a morning snack at church quite often.  I'm proud of my kids for refraining because I know how much they like them.  Yet they seem to know how much they like feeling well.

Someone shared a website with me: www.allergygrocer.com.  It's pretty nifty: you simply place a check in a box of allergens to avoid, and they display products you may actually be able to eat.  We found biscuits, pretzels, pastry puffs (no idea why the 12-year-old insisted on these!), bread, bagels,...and doughnuts!!  The mixes aren't badly priced, and my rational was that having a mix was one step closer to the finished product.  If it's a hit, I'll try and find a recipe and do it all from scratch.

The doughnut mix sat in my cupboard several weeks while I gathered courage to use my deep fryer for the first time...ever!  But one hot April evening I didn't want to turn on the oven, so the fryer and mix came out.


I fried the doughnut holes until they floated and were brown, hoping for the best.  A small melon ball scoop was perfect for the job of forming doughnut holes.



The mix made a huge amount: almost 50!!




I considered making glaze, but rolling 50 doughnuts in powdered sugar easily won the "less fuss" idea. 

Verdict: these were absolutely delicious, especially while still hot.  I'm not sure I could make this recipe any better from scratch, but we'll see if I can work up the courage to try!

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