Author: Sarah Hatfield

Citrus baked goods are well-loved around here, especially lemon granola bars or lime bars and Alisa’s amazing Iced Lemon Loaf from Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook. Recently, my youngest daughter came home from school raving about lemon cookies her friend brought in for a birthday treat. We thought it would be fun to find a dairy-free recipe to try at home. In the archives, I came across this recipe for glazed lemon cookies from Ramblin’ Amblins and decided to give them a try. The cookies themselves are cake like and have a mild lemon flavor that is enhanced…

My daughter and I were looking for a quick and fun dessert the other night, so we decided to try this recipe for espresso brownies. Don’t get me wrong, I love plain dairy-free brownies made from a mix, but this time we thought it would be fun to turn them into some fancy brownies. Icing on the Dairy-Free Espresso Brownies Cate O’Malley shared a version of these espresso brownies with Go Dairy Free over a decade ago, but the recipe was originally created by Giada De Laurentiis, and we further adapted it to be dairy free. Cate’s photo showed the glaze…

I’m always on the lookout for fun, festive recipes that are easy for kids to make, and this vegan sugar cookie pumpkin cobbler is a perfect Kids Can Cook Thanksgiving recipe. A couple of months ago, I saw a Snickerdoodle pumpkin cobbler recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens recipe booklet. I loved the idea and spent some time altering the recipe for our tastes. I made the topping with homemade sugar cookies instead of Snickerdoodles, since our family likes sugar cookies better. Some pumpkin cobbler recipes use nuts for the topping, but I wanted ours to be nut free. So…

I’m always on the lookout for quick lunch and dinner ideas, and I love Asian-inspired flavors. This recipe for Moo Shu Wraps covers all the bases! It’s a fun, Americanized dinner that comes together in minutes. It was originally shared with us by Kristen Doyle at Paper Palate, who got it from EAT magazine. And I’ve made a few new modifications. Recipe Tips: Moo Shu Wraps Wrap It Up – I upped the nutrition a bit by using Aldi 100% Whole Wheat Tortillas instead of white flour tortillas. You could easily replace the wheat tortillas with gluten-free wraps. Pick Your Protein -…

Our school district still allows sweet treats for school parties, but a healthy snack is also required. Not surprisingly, the healthy snack is often ignored by the kids in favor of the sugary treats. So Katherine and I decided to make some healthy fruit Halloween snacks the kids would want to eat. But we also needed to make sure the snacks could survive the trip home from school in a backpack, would be easy to send into school or to a party ahead of time, and could be made free of the top eight allergens. Katherine and I scoured the Internet…

Alisa’s recent pumpkin spice columns (Trader Joe’s Dairy-Free Pumpkin Goods, 33 Other Dairy-Free Pumpkin Spice Products, and Pumpkin Spice Waffles) inspired me to make a dairy-free version of one of the most popular pumpkin spice items: the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. This dairy-free pumpkin spice latte took me longer to perfect than I expected, but I’m very pleased with the final result. Since I am able to eat dairy, I went to my local Starbucks and purchased a small Pumpkin Spice Latte for comparison. My first surprise was the price! Making these at home enables dairy-free coffee drinkers to enjoy…

When trying to create a Dairy-Free Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, I looked at many, many copycat recipes online. Most of them use water-based pumpkin syrup as an ingredient, with very little pumpkin in the syrup itself. Starbucks lists a condensed milk-based pumpkin spice sauce in the ingredients for its pumpkin spice latte. I followed their lead and created a coconut-milk based dairy-free pumpkin spice sauce to use in dairy-free pumpkin spice lattes. Starbucks also uses annatto in their Pumpkin Spice Sauce to make it a pretty orange color. I added a bit of turmeric to my sauce to brighten the…

This peanut butter popcorn recipe is adapted from AllRecipes. One thing I enjoy about that site is the quantity of helpful comments and reviews you can find for each recipe. This isn’t always the case on the internet! While the original recipe just says to serve the sweet peanut butter popcorn as is, some commenters suggested baking the popcorn for a firmer coating, which is a great idea. The peanut butter popcorn photographed here is cooked the original way, but I’ve included options for baking the popcorn or cutting it into bars, which was inspired by this recipe. No matter how…

For many years, when our children were very young, our friends hosted an annual pumpkin patch party, complete with face painting, magicians, and lots of great food. The centerpiece of the buffet table was always a huge vat of White Bean Chicken Chili, served with plenty of tortilla chips, sour cream, shredded cheese, and love. The chili itself is dairy free, and with a few quick swaps of dairy-free sour cream (we use Tofutti) and dairy-free cheese shreds (Daiya Cutting Board Shreds are great), this hearty dish can be enjoyed by even more people! Some of my children don’t care…

I can’t believe it, but fall is coming, and Halloween will be here before we know it. Since my kids did such a great job helping me compile a list of school lunch ideas, I recruited them to recommend food-free Halloween treats for trick-or-treating and for school parties. You can also use the non-candy items listed below as trade-ins for whatever unsafe treats your children might bring home. The Best Food-Free Halloween Treats Picked By Kids! Many candy-free lists of trick-or-treat treats include a lot of Halloween-themed toys and accessories, but my kids aren’t thrilled to bring a ghost pencil…

Corn Dog Muffins are a favorite lunchbox item at my house. They’re easy to pack for school, are more festive than a sandwich, and can easily be made ahead. They have the taste and fun of corn dogs without the effort–or the oil. Many recipes exist for this simple snack, but most of them use ready-made cornbread mix as an ingredient. My recipe uses a from-scratch dairy-free batter that can also be altered to be egg free and vegan. We usually make the cornbread batter for the Corn Dog Muffins with eggs, but one time I mistakenly left out the…

Every autumn, Clif Bar seasonal selections emerge for the holidays, and last on store shelves into the new year (we’ve even spotted some in early spring!). And guess what – they’re here! Like all of their bar line-ups, the flavors do periodically change. I previously sampled the Peppermint Stick, which was replaced with Pecan Pie. The Pecan Pie flavor became permanent, but then they added Peppermint Bark into the mix. It seems to be the same as the aforementioned Peppermint Stick, but with a new name. The two other Clif Bar seasonal flavors have been a mainstay for a few…

Last week I found myself in the kitchen staring at four empty lunch boxes feeling as if I’d never packed a dairy-free school lunch before. Of course this isn’t true because five lunches a week times four children multiplied by 12 years of school plus a nine-year age spread equals: help. But it was as if all my lunch-packing brain cells went on vacation at the end of May and never came back. Of course my children are old enough to pack their own lunches, but I like to keep the kitchen stocked with foods they like. School days are…

Usually Katherine helps with the Kids Can Cook column, but this month her youngest brother stepped in to help with a favorite recipe of his. Last summer, he and I were invited to an afternoon of swimming at the house of friends of ours. The mom served a lovely array of snacks, but my son’s favorite dish was Grape Salad. He asked me to get the recipe, so I did! Grape Salad is usually made with cream cheese and sour cream, not to mention a lot of sugar. Our friend lowered the fat and sugar levels in her recipe by…

School starts on Monday, and my kids are not looking forward to it. I was searching for some fun lunch recipes to help soften the blow, and I came across these Lunchbox Cookies in the archives. The recipe was shared with us by Janelle from Brown Bag Blues, who writes: I pulled this recipe for lunchbox cookies out of some random magazine a million years ago, then changed it a bit. I was excited to find a granola bar disguised as a cookie; something still a treat but with more of a nutritional punch. In fact, I have been known…

This post is a monthly feature for our Kids Can Cook section by the Hatfields. This month, Katherine and her “mama,” Sarah, have made a classic family recipe dairy free. They call it a rustic, free-form tart, but you might also know it as a blueberry peach crostata. This rustic, free-from blueberry peach tart is a recipe of my mom’s and is something she makes every summer. Mom often makes this delicious tart when we are on vacation, and it’s a great way to feature the wild blueberries the kids spend time picking. It takes a long time to collect enough wild blueberries…

A couple of years ago our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) sent out an email recapping the feedback they’d received from members. The CSA apologized for sending so much zucchini and said they would send less in the coming season. My sister and I were floored. Two or three zucchini a week wasn’t very much, first of all, and second of all, there can never be too much zucchini! Beets, on the other hand … One of my family’s favorite uses for zucchini is this Zucchini Bread recipe from our dear friend and neighbor, Renee. When our oldest kids were…

I love Hawaiian Pizza. At some point during my college years, my roommate and I started replacing the ham with pepperoni, which is also an excellent combination. I loved the idea of this simple Hawaiian Pizza Pasta I found in our archives, but I was skeptical about it tasting like Hawaiian Pizza. Guess what? It does. Now I can have the taste of Hawaiian Pizza in a simple, healthy, easy weeknight dinner recipe–and you can, too! You could use pepperoni or salami in place of the ham (or your favorite vegan sub), or add any other favorite pizza toppings. I…

With so many hungry people in the house, I rarely have overripe bananas. But I did end up with two the other day. And since my favorite banana muffins recipe uses three, I made a batch of banana fritters for breakfast instead. These tiny pancakes are a recipe of my mom’s. They are very delicate and have almost a crepe-like texture. My mom always served them with cinnamon sugar, but we like them with powdered sugar. One batch is enough for a light breakfast for four. They cook up quickly and couldn’t be simpler to make. Just be sure to…

This rhubarb dump cake recipe was given to me years ago by our favorite farm stand owner, Mrs. Taylor. I scribbled it in pencil on the back of a church bulletin that was in the car. Thirteen years later, that is still how it is filed in my recipes. Mrs. Taylor always insisted on giving a treat to my oldest children, whether it was a handful of berries, a new vegetable to try, or most commonly, an apple. One of them even called her “Apple” and drew pictures of apples to give to her. She helped them develop a lifelong…