Dairy Free-Wheat Free- Sugar Free

Corn Free-Egg Free-Pork Free

I know what you're thinking...what will you eat?!? Well, actually there is quite a bit of food out there! And it is pretty tasty!

Let me break it down:

Dairy-free:
Yes that means no cheese, milk, sour cream, butter, and all the other delicious dairy products out there.

Wheat/Grain-free:
Means no flour, bread, chips (with the exception of potato chips), tortillas, rice and pastas.

Sugar-free:
Ahhh, there is organic sugar that I can have in limited quantities. Yes, there is a God! But it still means no candy bars, chocolate and the millions of other products I have found out there since becoming a label reader! Watch out for those "organic" and "vegan" foods, they can be deceiving!

Corn and Egg free:
This one is pretty self explanatory, but yes...it includes popcorn.

Pork free:

That's right the entire pig has been banned.


But to look on the bright side, I do have over 200 cookbooks at my disposal to modify recipes from. I have found that it isn't really that hard to find food to eat. But it is a little more of a time consuming process.

Substitutions:
Milk - Rice or Almond Milk
Flour - Potatoes
Butter- Ghee (clarified butter)
Sugar - Agave Nectar (cactus honey), Pureed Fruits
Egg- Banana, Applesauce, Pumpkin (for the sweet stuff)
Pureed veggies (for the savory stuff)

So, see...it isn't soooo bad. I do get cravings to be "bad". But- when I look at the fact that I feel better and I have lost 7 lbs in the last 2 weeks...it has to be worth it. I will be posting a couple of dishes I have cooked up along with the recipes. So keep checking back!

Valetines Day With My Boys

Ahhh the smell of roses!

Yesterday my wonderful husband surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of roses at work. I was very surprised with the early gift. He is so sweet that he even got my friend - the only other female in the company- flowers too. Very thoughtful! I'm not big on surprises or being the center of attention, so I was relieved when we both got something.

The big gift came later that night...he got me a website domain:

cookingcinderella.com & cookingcinderella.net

So, now all we have to do is to have our friend host it, and start setting it up. It is something I had been talking about getting for a long time. It won't be set up for a little while, we have so many things going on- it is insane! But as least I have it and am looking forward to getting it up and running.

And of course what Valentine's Day is complete without some chocolate! I made my boys Chocolate Covered Strawberries, and Rocky Road Bars Brownie Bars.

Recipe for Chocolate Covered Strawberries:

Ingredients:

Strawberries

Wilton's Candy Melts

Directions:

Place Wilton Candy Melts in microwavable glass container and microwave at 30 second intervals stirring between each on. Do this until you get the smooth consistency for dipping. Then dip each strawberry and place on a cookie sheet. They set pretty quickly, but you can hurry them along by putting them in the refrigerator.

Recipe for Rocky Road Brownie Bars:

(from Betty Crocker)

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker Supermoist milk chocolate cake mix

1/2 cup butter melted

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup chopped nuts

3 cups miniature marshmallows

*1/3 cup Betty Crocker Rick & Creamy chocolate frosting

*I used caramel and chocolate syrup for the drizzle instead of the frosting.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray 13 x 9 pan.

2. In large bowl, stir together half of the dry cake mix, butter, water, brown sugar and eggs

until smooth. Stir in remaining cake mix and nuts. Spread in pan. Bake 20 - 25 minutes.

Sprinkle with marshmallows.

3. Bake 10 - 15 minutes longer. or until marshmallows are puffed and golden. *In microwavable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on high 15 minutes, drizzle on bars. Cool completely about

1 hour.

*In this step, I used caramel and chocolate syrup for the drizzle instead of the frosting.