Food Coloring Allergies & Natural Food Colorings

My husband and kids are allergic to food coloring.  My husband's throat swells and breathing becomes difficult if he eats anything with red #40.  My kids all have different reactions.  One throws up whenever she eats yellow #5 and gets a violent headache when she eats yellow #6.  One gets whiney, one gets hyper,  and one has a Jekyll/Hyde reaction.  So, probably needless to say, we are hyper-vigilant about reading labels and we hardly ever go out to eat.  Even eating at family or friends houses is difficult. Sometimes people think we're crazy because we choose to live such a "natural" life when it comes to food.  Those people haven't seen the results when we slip up!  Believe it or not, children do survive childhood without KoolAid and Jello. 


We've discovered a few things that help to make us feel a little more "normal".  I love to make birthday cakes for my kids.  When they were very little, I learned to decorate cakes.  I never got very good at it, but I really had fun so they became an outlet for my creativity.  The one problem with cake decorating is that most cakes have colorful icing.  I have found a few places that sell natural food coloring but it is very expensive and the colors are not true.  Here are a few things we've used instead:
   Lavender---blueberries
   Pink---raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, pomegranate juice
   Yellow---tumeric
   Green---liquid chlorophyll (supplement) or green food supplement
   Orange---carrot juice
I haven't found a good source for blue or brown or deep red but I keep trying.  The most important thing to know about these natural coloring is that they do flavor the icing a bit so be careful about how much you use.




    

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Twice during the last week, I made Tammy's recipe for pumpkin dinner rolls.  The first time I did it exactly like the recipe said.  The second time, I cut the sugar in half and made the recipe into three loaves for toast and sandwiches.  The bread tasted really good and was such a pretty color.

Apples, Apples, Everywhere

We went apple picking a couple weeks ago and went a little hog wild. We had apples just about everywhere. I didn't think to take a picture until they were nearly gone. We've made pies, crisps, apple butter, apple cake, apple muffins, and enough applesauce to float a boat! Here are a few of t

Peach Pie

We have been on such a peach pie kick. Safeway had such a good sale on peaches a couple of weeks ago so I bought a bunch of them. I thought about making peach jam but my mind kept going back to pie. So I made two. Then a couple days later I made two more. Then two more. And on and on it went. Now, whenever the pie plates are empty my family tries to send me back to kitchen to make more. But, alas, the peaches are gone. I think I'm glad. But they were sure good. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that each time I made pie, I was also asked to make vanilla ice cream to go with it. I enjoyed it, but now I think it's time for all of us to hit the gym and start eating peach yogurt instead. I'll let you know how that works out!

PIZZA NIGHT

Pizza night at our house is always interesting.  We all seem to want different kinds of pizza so we make quite a variety.  I think my favorite is the caprese pizza.  At least for now.  Who knows what next week will bring???  Well, maybe my favorite is the bbq.  I can't decide, but I am making myself hungry.  I wonder if there are any leftovers?

Doughnuts Yum!