Smile and Say, “ Red #40 ”

Smile and Say, “ Red #40 ”!

In celebration of our daughter’s 4^th birthday, we made her a birthday cake, (we = she and I), including the frosting; all home made with butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar. I tried to talk her into a birthday cupcake, thinking I could get by without the temptation for Nicolas, but – she wanted a layered pink cake. Being the mother who easily takes on much guilt – I obliged. Chocolate cake with pink frosting. She was so excited about the cake, and it was good.

I couldn’t think of how to get the frosting pink, without using… RED FOOD COLORING. Knowing that the cake was off limits for Nicolas, I figured, why not – use the red. I mean he can’t have it anyway due to the flour, butter, sugar, etc… Well, look at what we got after the birthday princess ate her cake and all of her grandpa’s frosting too:

Birthday Princess to Birthday Brat! OMG!

It’s not just Nick who reacts to it. Ugh…

My conclusion is that red #40 is evil. Evil I say! E-V-I-L. At least for my 2 youngest children. Self not included…

I did make a special alternative dessert for Nicolas, which he likes! WHOOOO-HOOOT! This is the first of all my gluten-free and dairy-free creations that he has liked. It’s none other than cheesecake. A curly-haired friend (those curly girlies are so thoughtful) lent me a gluten free cookbook and I was thrilled to find cheesecake in it. Bonus – it smelled awesome when it was baking and is also sugar free! I had all the ingredients on hand, and since it is still below zero, I was glad to not have to run out to the store. As long as you haven’t had “real” cheesecake recently, I think this tofu one isn’t bad... not bad at all. I’ve never eaten tofu before and bought this organic tofu at Trader Joe’s. I was going to use it in a pasta salad. Oh well. The recipe has bananas, pineapple, lime juice, orange zest and smelled great. Did I mention that it smelled great? Uh – yeah…Anyway, doesn’t matter what I think, the boy likes it and that’s all that counts.

The rest of the menu consisted of fresh lettuce salad with lots of fresh tasty vegetable toppings, (rice) spaghetti and sauce (low sugar) with meat, garlic bread (none for Nicolas) and a mouth-watering fresh fruit salad. Yum. My mother brought the fruit salad and she may have started a new tradition. The kids are still talking about the fresh blueberries, pineapple and cantaloupe. (Cantaloupe? Is that how to spell orange melon?)

We made it through our first celebration with a safe meal. Whew…

Now, if we can get through Valentine’s Day? That’s going to be a hard one. And Easter. Our lives revolve around baked treats and candy, eating and parties. I will need to figure something out.