Julie, Parenting Children with Special Needs Blog - Are you challenged by desserts because of your child’s special diet? Me, too. Last year I made a milkless, eggless cake. And while it was “ok” – it truly wasn’t that yummy and no one, except the birthday girl, was interested in eating it. So I decided to try something else. LuLu, my daughter, and I concocted [dairy-free] cups of dirt to share with her friends for her birthday. You may be familiar with this, but if not…it’s a good party idea.

Our version is casein-free, so the pudding was made with rice milk instead of cow’s milk. And the basic recipe calls for Cool Whip, and I could find no casein-free substitute within 25 miles of our house (I’m guessing the health food store would have had one.) What might have worked, if our grocery had not been out would have been vanilla-flavored soy yogurt. But we had no options, so we just made the pudding.

Note: be sure to check the ingredients of the cookies and pudding you use, to ensure that they meet your special diet needs / allergies.

Dirt Cups:

6 cups of Rice milk (soy milk would probably work too)
2 packages of Oreo cookies, crushed (reserve 1/3 of the crumbs for top of cups)
2 large packages of Jello instant pudding, chocolate
1 pkg of sweet gummy worms or other gummy critters

Crush all the Oreos in a ziplock plastic bag (we did them in three batches to make sure they were crushed finely. We used both our hands and a rolling pin and released some major stress.)

Make instant pudding according to directions on package, using rice milk instead of cow’s milk. Stir in oreo crumbs and spoon mixture in cups. Top with a layer of the crumbled cookies and garnish with a worm (or frog, or whatever critter you chose). Refrigerate until ready to serve.

One cute way we’ve done this before is placing the whole mixture in a flower pot (lined with foil) and placing a stemmed silk flower down into the mixture. Then serve the pudding with a brand new trowel.

But for these kids, having the worms visible will be an “oooouwwww” treat! Now for those who are avoiding all additives, food colorings, etc. (Such as those on the Feingold Diet), this wouldn’t work, because the gummy worms are loaded with colorings and artificial flavorings; and so is the chocolate pudding mix.

Cups of Sand Option: For a chocolate-free version, uses vanilla pudding and vanilla sandwhich cookies instead of the Oreos.  Skip the gummy worms, and top with gummy fish instead!  If desired, serve in a little beach pail with a shovel. 

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