I have to admit that sometimes I dread special occasions. I know it's going to turn into an endless battle of arguing with my son over treats and candy from whatever holiday or birthday party has just passed. Most of the candy and treats provided have not only gluten and dairy issues but sugar and color dye, as well.  I'm trying to turn that around by developing healthier alternatives. Last Valentine's Day, my "preschool class Valentine solution" was to make the sugar cookies that I never got around to at Christmas. I just changed the shape of the cookies to hearts. While they do have sugar, they are gluten, dairy, egg and color dye free. I used one of my favorite cut out sugar cookie recipes from Cybele Pascal's, The Allergen Free Baker's Handbook. Click here for the full blog. 

I've also started ordering candy from the NaturalCandyStore.com  They have a wide selection of gluten and dairy free candy options. Click on the "special diets" tab and you can shop the following categories: Vegan, Gluten Free, Gluten and Caesin Free, Allergen Free, Feingold (no color dyes), Corn Syrup Free and Kosher. They carefully list all the ingredients and indicate which diet it's compliant to. They even have all natural maraschino cherries, a new natural food coloring by Chocolate Craft (which I have not tried yet) and naturally colored sprinkles by India Tree (as used on my valentine cookie to the left). India Tree sprinkles are also available at Whole Foods Market. Another nice GFCF option is sprinkles by let's do...Sprinkelz. You can get these at Whole Foods and Sprout's Farmers Market. They are organic, dye free and available in chocolate and multi-color. 

The Natural Candy Store also offers dye free marshmallows (Kraft marshmallows have blue dye in them) and GFCF organic chocolate syrup for ice cream sundaes.  Their line of Surf Sweets (GFCF, dye free candies) is larger than local retail stores.  I ordered a bag of heart shaped gummies for Sammy for Valentine's Day. if you're interested in GFCF boxed chocolate, they have a few options for that too. May your Valentine's day be filled with lots of love and healthy GFCF, dye-free sweets!

GFCF Snack Bars - KIND and RISE brands 

(gluten free, dairy free, egg free, non-GMO, does contain soy and nuts)

Here are the ingredient lists for these bars:

KIND Almond and Coconut Bar - Almonds, dried coconut, honey, non-GMO glucose, puffed rice, chicory fiber and soy lecithin.

RISE Breakfast Bar (Crunchy Cashew Almond) - Almonds, honey, cashews, dates, amaranth, crisp rice and salt. 

King Arthur Flour - Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix   

Another OMGoodness rating! Sammy recently celebrated his 5-1/2 year birthday at pre-school. All the other kids have birthday within the school year so his teacher suggested this celebration for Sammy. He announced to me that he wanted a "frog cake." Years ago, I made a "bug cake" for my older son so I decided to apply the same concept but this time with frogs.

Normally I use Pamela's GF cake mix, one of my favorite mixes, but since I have a whole box of King Arthur Flour (KAF) GF products that I am working on reviewing, I went ahead and pulled out the KAF chocolate cake mix. OMGoodness! It is by far my favorite GF cake mix. It was so yummy, I could not stop eating it. It's moist and has an intense chocolate flavor to it. Sammy's teacher and the CO-OP parent for the day were equally impressed with the cakes flavor and texture. His teacher mentioned that this was the first GF cake that she could not tell a difference between it and normal cake. See my blog for full details on this product review and the "frog cake" construction. KAF products are available at Whole Foods Market, Sprout's Farmers Market and some Safeway stores. Sprout's currently has 25% off many gluten free products including KAF.

Sammy's GFCF Frog Cake