Sweethearts Candy Blog's

Next week on May 10, I will be joining in the chat at The Motherhood where we will share our favorite allergy-friendly recipes! I have a few I'm thinking of right now, sond I hope you will gather some of your favorites and join us at The Motherhood Recipe Swap.

This is part of the Cooking Connections series hosted by Lori Sandler of Divvies, and so far the chats have been wonderfully entertaining and informative. Lori is such a warm and knowledgeable food allergy advocate -- she is doing a great job with these chats, so join us!

Here's how the chats work: you register for the chat on The Motherhood web site and then post questions, comments and in this case, recipes and photos of our creations during the live chat.

Parents of kids with food allergies tend to be accomplished cooks and bakers by necessity so please join us on May 10, 1 pm EST, at The Motherhood for what is sure to be a fun and delicious chat experience.

Vermont Nut-Free Coupon Code news:
Also, Friday, May 6 is the last day to use your Vermont Nut-Free Chocolates coupon code exclusively for Nut-Free Mom blog readers. Nut-Free Mom blog readers will receive a 10% discount on all items in the order, excluding shipping charges. Enter NFM10 at the top of the shopping cart in the keycode box. It is not case-sensitive.

Use code and save 10% off your purchase today!

As I've mentioned previously, I am co-hosting a live, interactive class called Navigating Food Allergies: At Camp, On Sleepovers and Playdates on TheMotherhood.com and I hope you'll join me!!

When: Tuesday, April 12, at 1 p.m. ET

Where: TheMotherhood – here’s the link to the page where the class will be held.

What: The class is called Navigating Food Allergies: At Camp, on Sleepovers and Playdates. Join the experts to talk about ensuring your kids have fun and safe experiences in these environments away from home. Lori Sandler, Divvies Bakery (http://www.divvies.com) will lead a discussion with Sandy Rubenstein of Camp Wingate*Kirkland (http://www.campwk.com) and Renee Flax of the American Camp Association (http://www.acacamps.org), who have worked with many families managing food allergies. Come with questions and your own best approaches. The focus is all about making sure your kids are taken care of physically, emotionally and socially so they can have fun!

The class is sponsored by ConAgra Foods and hosted by TheMotherhood.

To find out even more info about The Motherhood as well as the Navigating with Food Allergies series, click here.

Can’t wait, and I hope to see you there!

Please mark your calendars for April 12, when I will be co-hosting a web chat with Lori Sandler of Divvies, the fabulous nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free candy and baked goods company that you've seen most recently on The Martha Stewart Show!

I was so happy when Lori asked me to co-host this discussion with her, as I have been a longtime Divvies fan and I love her cookbook "The Divvies Bakery Cookbook." Lori has done so much for those with food allergies and it's a privilege to share in this web chat with her!

The Motherhood is a terrific web site that covers a wide variety of topics related to parenting. Lori's previous Motherhood food allergy chat was one of the site's most widely attended web chats EVER. It's great to see that so many parents with food allergy concerns are finding each other and supporting each other. In fact, this chat was so successful that it sparked an entire "Motherhood" series on food allergies. My chat is part of this series.

On Tuesday, April 12, Lori and I will be talking about dealing with food allergy issues surrounding Camp, Playdates and Sleepovers. With summer just around the corner, these are very timely topics for many of us. I'm so excited to be able to chat with other food allergy parents on finding workable solutions so that our kids can enjoy all the summer fun they deserve.

Speaking of camp and food allergies, I have heard from FAAN that they need more attendees at the food allergy-friendly Camp TAG in Joliet, Illinois in order to ensure it's availability. Kids from 3-12 can attend and kids will be grouped according to age. This is a week-long half-day camp that caters to food allergies while offering plenty of fun activities for kids with food allergies. Non-allergic sibilings are encouraged to attend as well! If your kids can attend this camp, please click here and enroll now!

I will have more info on my Motherhood web chat as the date nears, but in the meantime, you can attend a web chat on April 5 with Lori and Sloane Miller of Allergic Girl as hosts. They will be discussing coping with food allergies and anxiety. Another great topic, so please attend if you can!

Go to The Motherhood web site and register now so that you can attend what will be very informative and fun web chats!

Some of the most difficult products to find are nut-free granola bars, which is too bad because they make great, relatively healthy snacks for kids and adults.

With that in mind, here are two nut-free granola bar recipes for you to try. The first is my own creation and the second granola bar (nut-free, egg-free AND dairy-free) is generously shared by Lori Sandler of Divvies! If you don't know about Divvies, you should! Lori creates amazing nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free baked treats as well as candy and baking ingredients. The recipe is from her recently released nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free cookbook: "The Divvies Bakery Cookbook."

A word about chocolate chips: both of the following recipes use them. If you want nut-free chocolate chips only, then check out Vermont Nut Free Chocolate for delicious varieties. If you would like egg-free, dairy-free and nut-free chips, Divvies and Enjoy Life Foods sell them.

OK, first off (the bar pictured above) is my granola bar recipe. These are easy to make and I was truly pleased with the result. They tasted a lot like store-bought, only better. :) I guess I was a little too pleased with them, because between me and my family, they have already disappeared!

The Nut-Free Mom's Nut-Free Oatmeal Granola Bars
2 cups old-fashioned oats, uncooked
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ (or in a pinch, use same amount of whole wheat flour)
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (Morton's makes this)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup SunButter brand sunflower seed spread
1 large egg (if going egg-free, use 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce instead)
2 tsp vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey or McCormick's are my faves)

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with Pam.
- In a large bowl with a wooden spoon, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips, wheat germ or wheat flour and salt until blended. Stir in oil, honey, SunButter, egg or applesauce and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Pat mixture into pan with a wet hand (so you won't stick too much).
- Bake until golden around the edges, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.
- When cool, cut lengthwise into bars of your preferred size. I did four strips, each into four pieces for a total of 16 bars.

For those of you looking for a nut-free, egg-free and dairy-free variation (or just a different, delicious taste) here is Lori Sandler's recipe from The Divvies Bakery Cookbook. Thank you, Lori! These look and taste great! I love the addition of the shredded wheat cereal and dried fruit. Lori suggests this as a topping on dairy-free "ice cream," on its own as cereal or mixed into oatmeal. Yum!

Andrea's Mom's Granola Bars (from "The Divvies Bakery Cookbook", Copyright 2010, St. Martin's Press. Recipe reprinted with permission from the publisher)
4 cups oats
2 cups shredded wheat, torn by hand into threads, not dust!
2 cups puffed wheat or puffed rice
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup honey or agave nectar
3/4 cup non-dairy margarine
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup dried fruit of your choice (Lori suggests cherries, blueberries, apricots, apples or raisins)
1/4 cup sunflower seed butter or soy nut butter
1/2 cup Divvies Semisweet Chocolate Chips (www.divvies.com)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. Combine the oats, shredded wheat or puffed rice, brown sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Transfer the mixture onto two lined baking sheets.
4. Bake the granola for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and watching carefully so it does not burn. Rotate the pans on the racks for even heat distribution. Remove the granola from the oven when caramel in color.
5. While the granola is baking, pour the honey or agave nectar into a small saucepan and place over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes until boiling. Turn off the heat.
6. Add the margarine to the honey and stir until completely melted.
7. Once the granola has baked, pour it into a large metal bowl and add the dried fruit. Keep the oven on.
8. Slowly pour the hot honey mixture over the granola. Mix with a spoon (that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) until well coated.
9. Add the sunflower of soy nut butter and mix with the coated spoon until the hot ingredients melt the sunflower seed butter.
10. Pour all the ingredients back onto one of the parchment-lined baking sheets. Place a fresh piece of parchment paper on top of the warm granola bar mixture, then light press the mixture with the heel of your hand, pressing it into a 12 x 6 inch rectangle.
11. Remove the top layer of parchment paper, and place the baking sheet back into the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet twice.
12. Remove the granola bars from the oven and gently press chocolate chips evenly into the top. Let sit for 15 minutes, then cut int thirty-six 3 x 2 inch bars while still partially warm.
Makes 3 dozen 2 x 1 inch granola bars.