Barkers

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

As in "Meet the..."? No. The full name of this recipe is Matzah Bark, and it's something that we make annually at Passover (it's a Jewish holiday in the spring and for eight days, everybody gives up flour, bread, yeast, and pretty much anything that rises or expands). 

We made this again this year, and ate almost all of it before the kids got anywhere close to having a nibble. Which made us think of a radical concept. Maybe you've heard of it? It's called PORTION CONTROL. 

For Passover, we make this on sheets of matzah, an unleavened bread resembling a really large cracker. But for year-round enjoyment, you could easily make this on Saltines. (No trademark offense intended, we just don't know what else to call those square salted crackers that you eat when you have morning sickness. If we called them Morning Sickness Crackers, that would just be gross.) The added bonus: built-in PORTION CONTROL.

Since you can make this on either matzah or crackers, we're not calling it Matzah Bark. From now on, it's just Barkers.

Ingredients

• Four to six sheets of matzah, or as many as needed to completely cover your baking sheet OR
  
• Enough Saltines to cover a baking sheet
  
• 1 cup butter or margarine (Earth Balance, natch!)
  
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed (one of us likes it as is, the other would prefer a little less sugar, like maybe as little as 3/4 cup)
  
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, or whatever sort of chocolate you like that suits your allergy situation
  
• Salt, to taste
  

Steps

• Line a cookie sheet completely with parchment or waxed paper.
  
• Fill the lined cookie sheet with matzah or Saltines.
  
• Combine the butter/margarine and brown sugar in a 3-quart, heavy bottomed sauce pan. 
  
• Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. 
  
• Continue cooking for three more minutes, stirring constantly. 
  
• Remove from heat and pour over matzah/crackers.
  
• If you're using matzah, this is a good time to put just a bit of salt over the sugar/butter. You don't want a lot, just a bit to offset the sweetness of the sugar/butter and chocolate.
  
• Meanwhile, melt chocolate in the microwave, in a double boiler, or just with direct heat (just make sure it doesn't burn!).
  
• Once the matzah/crackers have been coated with the sugar/butter combo, pour the melted chocolate on top and spread it around to cover all of the pieces as best as you can. This can get a little tricky if you're using crackers because they're small and may jump around a bit.
  
• Put the entire tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate sets up again.
  
• If you're using matzah, once the chocolate has hardened, break the matzahs up into bite sized pieces. Crackers shouldn't have to be broken up anymore as they're already somewhat small.
  

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Try to control yourself.

Rolling Scones

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Yes, we are the first to admit that our blog has gotten, ahem, stale. Very stale. Nasty-old-bread-that-you-don't-even-want-to-turn-into-French-Toast (if you don't have an egg allergy, and in which case you would use nutritional yeast) stale. In other words, it's been awhile.

But, like our waistlines, it's back. Yes, the interminable time on the treadmill and fierce calorie counting has been paying off, and at long last we can fit into last summer's shorts. 

In celebration of this feat, we're back in the kitchen to bring you more egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free goodies, like this awesome scone recipe we got from HungryGirl.com. The author, Lisa, is not allergy prone, but she is hungry, and like us, seems to have a problem controlling her mouth. So she turned to Weight Watchers, and started blogging what she ate and how she converted fat-laden recipes to figure friendly ones. She didn't set out to make this recipe friendly for folks like us, but yea for us (!), it is.

We really enjoyed this with the blueberries called for in the original recipe, but then branched out and tried it with Craisins and orange zest. I think we liked the second edition a little better, but try it both ways, so you can decide for yourself.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup uncooked oatmeal (not instant)
  
• 1/3 cup Bisquick Heart Smart Baking Mix (Did you know this is egg- and dairy-free? It does contain wheat and soy, though, so beware if you avoid these, and always read the label in case they change up their ingredients)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons Smart Balance 37% Light Buttery Spread (of course, we used Earth Balance because it's dairy-free, but if dairy doesn't offend you, use what you have)
  
• 1/3 cup light vanilla soymilk
  
• 3/4 cup blueberries
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  
• Mix first six ingredients (everything but the berries) in a bowl.
  
• Fold in the blueberries.
  
• Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and form four mounds of batter on the sheet. (Leave room in between the mounds - they expand.)
  
• Bake for 10 minutes.
  

Notes:

• Our scones didn't really expand the first time we made these, but did the second time. Go figure. 
  
• When we substituted dried cranberries for the blueberries, we were calorie conscious (did we mention how much time we've been spending on the treadmill?) and calculated how many calories were in 3/4 cup of blueberries (answer: 62) and substituted a calorically equal amount of cranberries. Since there were so few, we chopped them up before folding them in to the recipe.
  
• If you go the zest route, zest to taste. Too much orange zest makes our mouths feel numb.