Hippity Hoppity

This year I agonized over Easter a little bit.  It's a tough holiday for food allergies.  Here's an incomplete list of Easter confections Hazel can't partake of:  Eggs, chocolate (unless it's dark), marshmallows (peeps anyone?), jelly beans, ham, cheesy potatoes and gelatin (jello).  I scoured the internet for ideas and found a few good ones.

Cannon got underwear, a disc shooter, and a Thomas bath toy.  Hazel got two ponies, underwear and a pink ball and mitt.  She promptly named the big bright pink pony "daddy pony".  Very fitting.

I found a recipe for peanut butter balls free of milk, eggs and tree nuts.  As a bonus, there are only 3 ingredients.  Sweet!  Basically you crush some cheerios, mix it with organic peanut butter (organic usually hasn't been processed with other nuts) and cover it in dark chocolate.  We used 70% cacao.  Easy and interactive.  I think we decided to make it a tradition.  Hazel and Cannon used their plastic hammers to crush the cereal while I melted in the chocolate in a double boiler.  Jarom helped them mix the cereal and peanut butter and formed them into balls.  I coated them in chocolate and put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Voila!  These balls kind of remind me of eggs, too.  You know, like the chocolate outer shell.  Okay, yes, it's a stretch. 



We did a few colored eggs with Cannon.  Okay, I kind of HATE dying eggs.  It's messy.  Really messy.  I had no idea I was such a clean freak until we had six cups of colorful dye on the kitchen table.  I almost hyperventilated a few times.  It's just too stressful for me.  This is one Easter tradition I'm not sad to part with.  

Then we decided to fill the Easter egg hunt eggs with these little tiny squishy animals that Hazel loves called Squinkies.  My mom has some at her house and every time she's over, Hazel runs straight for the container and plays with them.  It was a genius idea.  She loved it. Cannon loved it.  Success!



For dinner, I made a green bean casserole that was quite yummy.  I used this cream of something soup recipe and combined it with green beans and french fried onions.  It tasted so much like the original version.  Yum!  Hazel scarfed it down and Cannon enjoyed his ham and cheesy potatoes care of Grandma.



In a way it's kind of fun to reinvent our traditions.  I don't know if Hazel will outgrow her allergies, but in the meantime we're making the holidays just as special for both our kids.  I think it's safe to say they had a happy Easter.