Food Centered Holidays & PKU

As another "food centered" holiday approaches I can already feel my mind racing. Trying to think of ways to make Luke feel like he has choices at dinners and that he can feel included in all the Easter goodies. Chocolate is high phe, so I will be going to Micheals this weekend to get some chocolate molds to fill with his low-phe chocolate, I will bring some to dinners and some will be for his Easter basket. I am also going to try my hand at his special buns - he is a carbohydrate lover like his Mommy so I know that I will likely have success having him eat those. 

I don't want to make it sound like we don't have marvelous families because we do! Our families understand, they always help us include Luke friendly foods and want to make the holidays special for him. We are truly blessed to both have supportive parents and siblings AND extended family who love to shower Luke with love & fun! 

Luke is not trusting when it comes to food, this makes him VERY reluctant to try anything new.... meaning in the grand scheme of things he isn't going to care what everyone else is eating at family dinners because chances are he will be too busy not eating what I put on his plate for him. So am I borrowing trouble by worrying about how he feels? Probably. Will that stop me from worrying? Not likely.

There are Easter treats that are low phe, Peeps for example, and we will have a wonderful basket for Luke. I am even going to try my hand at making Luke some low phe Roll Out Cookies, so I decided to share the recipe that is on the amazing CookforLove.org website!! Here is what her recipes look like:

Photo credit: Cookforlove.org Brenda Winiarski

Roll Out Sugar Cookies

Author: Brenda Winiarski

Ingredients

• 390 gm (3cups) wheat starch [31 mg]
• ¾ tsp xanthan gum [0 mg]
• ½ teaspoon table salt [0 mg]
• 1 teaspoon baking powder [0 mg]
• 50 gm (1/2 small box) Jell-o vanilla instant pudding [0 mg]
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8½ inch pieces, at room temperature [48 mg]
• 4 tablespoons vegetable shortening, at room temperature [0 mg]
• 30 gm (2 tablespoons) cream cheese, room temperature [120 mg]
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract [0 mg]
• ¾ cup sugar [0 mg]
• 25 gm (1/2 large) lightly beaten egg [170 mg]
• 30 gm (2 tablespoons) water

Instructions

1. In a medium sized bowl, combine wheat starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and pudding mix, set aside.
2. In the bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, add the butter, cream cheese, and shortening. Mix until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, creaming until light and fluffy. Add the egg, water and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix until the mixture forms a dough.
3. Divide the dough in half, placing each half in a gallon sized Ziploc bag. With the top unsealed, lightly roll the dough with a rolling pin to 1 inch thick. Refrigerate until they begin to firm up, 20 to 30 minutes. (Can be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen up to a month; defrost in refrigerator before using.)
4. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out 1 dough disk to even ⅛-inch thickness between 2 large sheets parchment paper; slide rolled dough on parchment onto baking sheet and chill until firm, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, repeat with second disk.
5. Using cookie cutters, cut shapes from one piece of dough and bake on parchment-lined baking sheet in 350-degree oven until light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and transfer (on the parchment paper) to a rack for 5 minutes. Remove from parchment and allow to cool completely
7. TIP: If the phe content is a little too high for you, replace the egg with egg replacer & replace the cream cheese and vanilla pudding with 2 tablespoons shortening, a full package of cheesecake flavored instant pudding and reduce the sugar by ¼ cup. The cookie will be a little more fragile, so roll it to ¼ inch instead of ⅛ inch and cook an extra 2 minutes.