• Try the Tortillas recipe in Low Protein Cookery for PKU. They are foolproof and turn out great. A little time consuming, but not difficult at all, and I am no chef! I like to put lo pro cheese on 1/2 the tortilla, fold it over and throw it in the toaster oven to crisp up. It's like a mini quesadilla. My 7-year-old loves them, and I make the same for my other kids using regular tortillas and cheese. They are good served with tomato soup.

• Ore Ida steak fries and tater tots with ketchup

• Frozen pizza with toppings (or plain) from MenuDirect. We add sauce, low pro cheese, and black olives to the plain crust.

• Low pro pastas (elbows, spaghetti, ditalini) with sauce. We add butter to the hot pasta and a little salt before adding the sauce and those additions really makes it so much better tasting!

• Low pro pastas with butter, cut up broccoli and black olives.

• McDonald's french fries as a treat. A small order is about 120 mg phe with ketchup.

• Grilled cheese using Dietary Specialties bread from MenuDirect and low protein cheese slices from MenuDirect.

• Homemade soups using veggies and low pro pastas.

• Side dishes--cooked carrots, asparagus, and broccoli.

• Potato pancakes (these are a bit high so they don't get many), breaded eggplant or any other vegetable, roasted vegetables (onions, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, peppers) Spread on baking sheet then sprinkle on a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Roast at 450 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

• Try adding soups to potatoes. My daughter also really loves the rice & broth soup like they serve in Chinese restaurants.

• We like to use Ragu sauce Old World Style kind, added to grilled green peppers with rice.

• Low Protein Egg Rolls: I have had success using the Sandy’s Favorite Biscuit recipe and deleting a little water. Using a 20gm section, I form into a rectangle, fill with lo pro rice, to which I add sauteed onion, celery and carrots (a lo pro version of egg roll filling), then fold in each side, seal with fork on sides and deep fry until golden brown. They are very tasty and about 4-5mg phe each.

• Try having breakfast for dinner sometime. We have done this before with great success. My girls aren't too big on eating at 6:30 in the morning. We all seem to agree the extra sleep is more important! :) Time is a hindrance for a lot of people. But we have had waffles and fruit with homemade flavored syrups and the whole shebang for dinner and it is great! (and lots easier to do when I am more alert and awake!)

Quick-to-Fix Menus

• Grilled Low Protein Cheese Sandwich, Tomato Soup, Baby Carrots, and Fruit Snacks.

• Low Protein Spaghetti with Sauce, Low Protein Toast, French-Sliced Green Beans, Applesauce.

• Low Protein Tagliatelle (seasoned w/butter & G. Washington's Golden), Broccoli, Low Protein Toast, Applesauce.

• "Smashed" Potatoes (I make them w/Rice Dream Original Enriched), Low Protein Toast, Canned Carrots, Cherry Applesauce.

• Hash Browns, Low Protein Toast, Banana, Apple Juice.

• We found that our girls enjoy making Sandy’s Famous Biscuits recipe, then we push the dough balls into a muffin pan, to form a cup, then fill it with some pizza sauce and a Tbsp. or so of the shredded lo pro cheese. Then bake them, they make nice little pizza pies. We also put them in lunches and use them for after school snacks.

• Don’t be afraid to use spices! A good overall one that all kids seem to like on veggies, macaroni and cheese, bread, etc. is McCormick’s Garlic Season All Seasoned Salt.

• Add 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon Campbell’s Cheddar Cheese condensed soup to 1/2 cup cooked macaroni and heat for quick macaroni and cheese.

• The cheese-flavored sauce mixes from Dietary Specialties and Med-Diet can be used dry, as a sprinkle-on topping for rice, pizza and vegetables for a delicious flavor addition. You can also make good cheese toast by sprinkling it on buttered bread and putting it under the broiler.

• To get individual serving sizes of your child's favorite spaghetti sauce, measure a regular serving size and pour into muffin tin. Freeze. When frozen, take out of tin and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Place in freezer bag or container labeled with serving size and amount of phe per serving. Keep frozen and use as needed. To thaw, unwrap and place in a bowl, or microwave.

• When cooking commercially packaged low protein pasta, I use the biggest Teflon coated pot I have. I use lots of water, I don’t add oil and I boil it for about 10 minutes. It comes out looking and feeling much more like regular pasta.

• Pizza bread. When my son is hungry for pizza and we’re all out, I use low protein bread, spread on some pizza sauce (Ragu) and pop it in the oven for a few minutes until hot. Top with a teaspoon of parmesan cheese (if the diet allows) or crushed cheese crackers or low protein cheese and a little pepper.

• Make personal pan pizzas and use previous pizza boxes for a special effect (Pizza Hut gives us a few from time to time.)

• When pressing out pizza dough on a cookie sheet, first sprinkle pan with popcorn salt. This makes the pizza bottom tastier!

• My kids were watching a kids TV show a few months ago and came running into the kitchen...wanting me to try a new recipe they had just seen. I made a low-pro version that my daughter LOVES. It is really easy, good, and very "portable" (for lunch boxes!). It is now an old favorite!

  Millie's Pizza Cups
  Low protein Pizza Crust (from Low Protein Cookery for PKU)
  Ragu sauce
  Low protein shredded cheese (from MenuDirect)
  
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.. Grease 6 muffin tins with cooking spray. Mix pizza crust as required. Form a small ball with the dough (keep hands lightly covered with baking mix). Stretch the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the tin (don't have to go all the way up the sides. Put a teaspoonful sauce in the bottom. Sprinkle cheese on top (other toppings are optional). Bake until the crusts are firm when touched, approximately 10 minutes (ovens vary, so watch closely). I just lift each one out (do not turn over to remove).Variation: After filling the cup with Ragu and cheese, you can fold the sides down toward the middle, not sealing completely. This makes a cute little pastry. Phe content will depend on amounts of items used.

• For tacos, stuff regular taco shells with low protein rice mixed with a little taco sauce. My son loves it!

• Form any low protein "burger" (mushroom, broccoli, etc.) in a "fried egg ring" from a kitchen store. This gives the burger a nice uniform shape with firmer sides (less breakage). Individually wrap in plastic wrap and freeze.

• Try using parsnips to make French fries for a lower phe item. With ketchup, they’ll fool most kids.

• Peel one medium fresh cucumber and slice into circles. Add 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar mixed with 2 tablespoons sugar. Mix and let stand for three hours. Drain the vinegar and the cucumbers are left soft and tangy.

• For a crunchy cooked food, we like to use radishes. They taste similar to water chestnuts, with a little "zip," and add a nice texture to stir-fries.

• Sandwich spreads and fillings can be made from all kinds of vegetables. A favorite at our house is carrots, celery, dill pickles and sweet peppers chopped fine and mixed with mayonnaise.

• Make soup (broth with veggies); freeze in margarine tubs. When frozen, pop out. Store "frozen soup pucks" in zip lock bag. Add cooked low protein noodles later, as they don’t freeze well.

• Once or twice a month I make a large pot of vegetable stock and use it for all kinds of things: gravy, soup, to cook rice or pasta in for extra flavor, etc. It is much better tasting than bouillon or G. Washington’s broth. I simply rough-cut some celery, carrots, a few onions, a little parsley and other herbs from the garden, salt and pepper. Cover with water and simmer for several hours, then strain out the vegetables and you’re all set with a "free" cooking base that has lots of delicious flavor.

• Use leftover, hardened grease from your other cooking to flavor PKU cooking. For example, bacon grease in green beans, Italian sausage grease on low pro pizzas, ground beef grease with mushrooms and taco seasoning for a tortilla filling. Be sure to strain out any meat bits for a "free" flavor enhancer. Tasty and a pleasurable "mouth feel!"

• Use a small amount (1 teaspoon) of sour cream as a flavor enhancer. A little bit packs a lot of flavor and creamy texture. We use it in potatoes as well as with pasta sauces (a la stroganoff!)

• Try Taco Bell rice with no cheese; it is a favorite of my son. Get the rice "to go" with extra sauce. To lower the phe content, mix cooked low protein rice with it at home and freeze.

• My daughter and I have fun making "pizzas" out of eggplant and making faces with different vegetables.

• Save individual packets of catsup from restaurants. If you run out of tomato sauce, use one or two of these for flavoring pasta (2 tablespoon = 15 mg phe)

• Save individual jelly packets from restaurants for quick sandwiches (or for rolls while away from home).

• In humid areas, recycling Phenyl-Free cans keeps snacks fresh (store an entire box of crackers or cookies in one can!).

• Store four pizzas in gallon Ziploc bags, fully topped and baked, separated by wax paper. Cut each pizza into four pieces. A gallon bag will then hold 16 slices of pizza ready to be removed and microwaved or added to a lunch box to thaw by noon.

• Add 1 tablespoon regular tomato sauce (Ragu, etc.) to 2 tablespoons of prepared Tomato-Flavored Sauce Mix (Dietary Specialties) to increase the tomato flavor; a 1/4 cup of the Tomato-Flavored Sauce contains only 7 mg phe by itself.

• Grate carrots for tacos (it looks like cheese if you don't have low protein cheese). Use Ortega shells since they are the lowest in phe.

• Use a few tablespoons of prepared soup to flavor pasta and rice.

• When I open a can of spaghetti sauce or cream of mushroom soup, etc., I only need a couple of tablespoons. So I take the rest and measure it into an ice cube tray, then freeze. After your leftovers are frozen, pop the cubes into a labeled Ziploc bag. I do the same thing with main dish recipes, except I use a muffin tin. Line it with plastic wrap first. I can measure out up to 1/2 cup servings this way. If you double a recipe every time you make something, soon you’ll have a variety of dishes to easily choose from in your freezer. The Ziploc bags also take up very little space in the freezer.

• Make an extra serving of a pasta or rice dish and put it in a glass cereal bowl, cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. The next night, you’ll already have your  microwave quick supper. 

• I use a gadget used for making Chinese dumplings to make low protein turnovers. Press in one Pillsbury biscuit and put about 1 teaspoon of cooked vegetable filling on top. Close the gadget and bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. You can use cooked sweet potato slices with margarine, brown sugar and cinnamon, or spinach cooked with margarine and salt, or whatever you like.

• Place one Pillsbury biscuit into a greased jumbo muffin pan. Press with a tart press, then put on 1 tablespoon cooked mixed vegetables and a little Ragu sauce. We call them Vegetable Cups.

• Add Rich’s Whip Topping to your mashed potatoes for a fluffy, creamy texture your whole family can enjoy.

• To make "imitation taco meat," finely chop raw mushrooms and cook down in a skillet as you would ground beef. Add powdered taco seasoning and water. Place in a mini-taco shell and top with the usual condiments: lettuce, tomato, black olives, and grated carrot to resemble cheese (or low protein cheese).

• Using the Pilgrims Potato Chowder recipe from Low Protein Cookery for PKU, I substitute canned potatoes and carrots (already sliced) for the raw vegetables. Since my young fellows don’t care for celery and onion, I omit them. These two changes save a lot of time and energy for a quick meal. Although it would require recalculation of phes per serving, I halve the amount of water and seasonings so there is not so much wasted broth (my guys prefer more veggies than broth). I have also found that I can use a lot less Coffee Rich and save a few phes too.

• I experiment with food, modifying our own family favorites to fit my daughter’s PKU diet. My grandmother and mother make a wonderful Green Bean Dumpling Soup (a German recipe). It’s a cream-based soup. I make my daughter’s using Rich’s Coffee Rich instead of whipping cream. The green beans and potatoes are the same. I omit the dumplings and serve with low-pro crackers. Perfect for a winter day! I’ve done similar things with chili, stew and my son’s favorite fruit salad.

• Have your local grocery store stock J.F. Simplot Micro Magic Microwave French Fries. Each box contains 85 g of french fries with no flour-type coating. A box of these fries with ketchup plus a bowl of fruit keeps my two year-old happy for lunch or dinner. We have tried several brands of microwave French fries, but this one is the winner every time.

• Examine any recipe you make and think creatively about how it could be modified for a low protein diet. We will make pasta sauces or soups by putting in the meat, beans or cheese last and reserving some without these ingredients for our 2 1/2 year-old daughter. One of our favorite mashed potato recipes is potato, fresh garlic, chicken broth and parmesan cheese. We save some without cheese for our daughter and she loves them!

• Keep multiple bags of assorted frozen vegetables, pepper & pearl onions in the freezer for a quick dinner on a busy night. Stir-fry assorted vegetables in olive oil, garlic and basil and serve over low protein spaghetti, and over regular spaghetti for family members.

• Boil G. Washington’s broth with noodles. Don’t rinse with water. This makes a gummy pasta that is only slightly seasoned but very tasty and my daughter loves it.

• Boil imitation rice (Aproten) with a vegetable of your choice and add 1 Tablespoon of Cream of Mushroom soup for a great lunch or dinner dish.

• If you have had trouble with "gooey" low protein pasta, here are some suggestions:

  1. More water is better than less when cooking pasta.
     
  2. Add a little oil (say 1 tablespoon to a pot of boiling water).
     
  3. Make sure that you watch the time and don't overcook the pasta, checking often.
     
  4. Make sure the water is really boiling before adding pasta.
     
  5. Be sure to drain and rinse the pasta with hot water. Loprofin pastas from SHS (spirals, penne, and spaghetti) have never become gluey when cooked, even when under or over cooked.

• Since the packages and the Low Protein Food List for PKU only give the dry weights of low protein pasta, sometimes it is handy to know how much the cooked weight and measure will be of the dry pasta. Here are some approximate weights and measures:

  Aproten Annellini: 1/3 cup dry (62 gm) yields 1 cup cooked (186 gm, 12 mg phe)
  Aproten Ditalini: 1/2 cup dry (62 gm) yields 1 1/3 cups cooked (156 gm, 12 mg phe)
  Aproten Rigatini: 2/3 cup dry (62 gm) yields 1 1/2 cups cooked (160 gm, 12 mg phe)
  Aproten Spaghetti: 2 oz. dry (56 gm) yields 1 1/8 cups cooked (158 gm, 11 mg phe)

• Tips for making the favorite Mushroom Burger recipe (p. 234, Low Protein Cookery for PKU)

  1. Add 1 teaspoon Methylcellulose (from Ener-G Foods) to the mushrooms and mix. This will keep them from being so fragile.

  2. To improve browning, coat the burgers in dp Baking Mix or wheat starch before frying.

  3. Pack a 1/4 cup measuring cup with individual burger ingredients. Gently tap out of cup and tap together to hold the shape of the measuring cup. Place in pan of hot grease (do not flatten yet). Fry until desired brown-ness. Turn over to cook other side, and flatten with a spatula.

  4. Squeeze excess moisture from onions and mushrooms before adding, keeping just enough moisture to make them stick together.

  5. I make a double batch of the burgers and add 4 tablespoons of Ener-G Foods Egg Replacer. This makes the mixture SO much easier to work with. You can even pick them up like a regular hamburgers after cooking, cut into quarters and dunk in ketchup. My son loves it this way!

  6. I also weigh out the entire mixture before making it into patties, divide that weight by the number of patties I am going to make so I know how much phe will be in each patty. Then I make individual patties and put them on a non-stick cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F. for 17-20 minutes. They come out so well, using the added egg replacer as #5 above.

• Here is an alternative to Mushroom Burgers: 250 gm fresh mushrooms, 125 gm Dietary Specialties Imitation Rice, 2 tablespoons Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup (condensed), 1 package G. Washington's Brown Seasoning Mix, salt, pepper, garlic, and other desired herbs to taste. Cook rice according to package directions. Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until the consistency is close to meat loaf. Divide mixture and roll into 20 "meatballs." To make "cheeseburgers" flatten into patties. For burgers, fry or place on grill for about 5 minutes each side. For meatballs, fry in a small amount of vegetable oil about 10 minutes, turning frequently. 276 mg phe per recipe (14 mg per patty if making 20 patties).

• The first low protein products that we purchased and experimented with for our toddler were: Wel-Plan Baking Mix (for low protein bread, pancakes, muffins, graham crackers); Aglutella Low Protein Porridge (mixed with oatmeal, cream of rice cereal or grits); Aproten Anellini and Wel-Plan Spaghetti Ring-Style (for "spaghettios"); Prono Gelled Dessert Mix (for a plain and simple dessert). These work great for young children.

• For church fellowship dinners, I always make fresh pasta salads. Follow the recipe on the Creamette Medium Shells package for the high protein version. While the shells are boiling in the large pot, I put on a small saucepan to boil 1 cup of Aproten Rigatini for my son’s low protein pasta salad. I then add measured amounts of the same ingredients as the high protein version, cover and chill. It’s delicious and gives him some variety in case there aren’t any fresh vegetable or relish trays at the supper.

• For what we call "Eggplant Non-Parmesan," we slice eggplant thinly, salt it and let drain 30 minutes, then pat it dry and dredge it in Wel-Plan Baking Mix (with added salt and pepper and sometimes garlic powder) and fry it up. Our four year-old loves it plain or with spaghetti sauce over it.

• A favorite treat at our house is to take vegetarian pasta sauce, spread it generously on a frozen slice of low protein bread, microwave for 30-45 seconds, cut off the crust, then quarter it into triangles so it looks like mini slices of pizza. We call it "pizza bread" and everyone in the family loves it.

• We like to make Tempura Veggies. I make a batter out of Wel-Plan Baking Mix, cold water and a little Coffee Rich or reconstituted CoffeeMate non-dairy creamer. Then we dip onion rings, carrot slices, mushrooms and whatever vegetables we have on hand and deep fry them. The batter fries up light, crispy and just a little bit sweet. Our four year-old son loves to use his chopsticks to dip the veggies into a sauce of 1/2 teaspoon honey, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons hot pepper vinegar, 1 tablespoon water and 1 teaspoon sesame oil.

• Here is a recipe from an Italian cookbook that is great for the whole family. Stir-fry 2 cloves of garlic in about 2 tablespoons olive oil until golden. Add 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and half a head of white cabbage (450 gm). Add salt and freshly ground pepper and fry at a high temperature for about 1 minute. It should still be crispy. This is even better refried as leftovers!

• My son loves my "mock stir-fried chicken": Cut cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and weigh your portion. Cook the cauliflower until barely tender. Then sauté a little chopped onion in margarine and add a tiny bit of soy sauce. It really looks like stir-fried chicken!

• To make fabulous "Chinese fried rice," we first boil Aproten low protein rice, using lots of water to prevent it from becoming gummy. Then put into the refrigerator overnight (this makes all the difference in the texture), or you can slip into the freezer for a few hours. Then, sauté chopped onion, carrot, and celery until soft in some oil. Finally, "deglaze the pan" with a little soy sauce. Then add the rice and a bit more soy sauce and sauté it a bit more.

• I find that using CoffeeMate or Rich’s Farm Rich instead of Rich’s Coffee Rich tastes much better in recipes. This is because it is more like cream and does not have a "sweet" taste. Also, Vance’s DariFree powder (from Ener-G Foods or MenuDirect) that makes into a milk-like consistency is excellent in recipes and does not have a sweet taste.

Cereal, Crackers and Quick Breads

• Here is a favorite recipe for biscuits that can be used in many different ways:

  Sandy’s Famous Biscuits

  1 cup (117 gm) Loprofin Mix (from SHS)
  1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  ½ teaspoon baking soda
  2 tablespoons Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
  ¼ cup Rich’s Coffee Rich (or other nondairy creamer) 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

  In a bowl, cut dry ingredients and Miracle Whip together until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add nondairy creamer and water; stir until mixed. Spoon into four greased muffin tins. Bake at 425 degrees F. for 12-14 minutes. They will look like muffins but have a biscuit-like texture. Per recipe, 26 mg phe; per serving, 7 mg phe.

  The biscuit recipe can be made into Cinnamon Rolls, by adding a little cinnamon and a few raisins to the batter, then frosting with a powdered sugar glaze when finished baking.

  You also can make Personal Pan Pizzas from the recipe, adding an extra 2/3 cup Loprofin Mix and forming a ball. Separate into 6 sections. Then, using your hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball. Press dough into cookie sheet to form a small pizza. If desired, spray with butter spray and the edge will brown just like regular pizza dough. Bake at 425 degrees. F. for 7 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges. If the pizzas are to be used right away, top with sauce of your choice and toppings, then bake another 5 minutes. Otherwise, wrap half-baked pizza in wax paper and store in plastic freezer bags in the freezer. When ready to use, bake at 425 degrees F. for about 8 minutes or until browned.

  Families have also used the recipe to make Hamburger Buns (add some extra Loprofin Mix, until easy to handle dough forms). Divide dough into 4 pieces and flatten each slightly on a cookie sheet to make a hamburger bun shape. Bake as directed. These work great with Mushroom Burgers, p. 234, Low Protein Cookery for PKU). You can also make different shapes for other rolls.

  You can make Belgian Waffles out of the recipe by just pouring the batter into a heated waffle iron and proceeding as you normally would for waffles. Makes 4 to 5 round waffles.

  The recipe also makes a nice Tart Shell. Add a little more Loprofin Mix so you can form the dough into a ball. Then press dough into an 8 inch spring form pan. For an apple tart, top dough with 5 peeled, cored and thinly sliced apples in a circular pattern. Mix together ½ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons soft butter, 1 ½ tablespoons Loprofin Mix and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle over apples and bake in preheated 375 degree F. oven until apples are soft.

• Store 4-6 waffles separated by wax paper in gallon Ziploc bags for microwaving or heating in a toaster over for a quick breakfast.

• Use the applesauce variation of the Waffles recipe (minus the egg) in Low Protein Cookery for PKU (p. 89) for making great pancakes. You add a small can of drained wild blueberries for the best pancakes ever.

• Try adding a few blueberries to Master Mix Pancakes batter (Low Protein Cookery for PKU, p 298). Put a small amount of batter into paper cupcake holders. Bake at 350 degrees F. until done. These are so easy and great when the family is having blueberry muffins (use frozen blueberries or take a few from the can on the family mix box).

• We make pancakes in shapes. These molds are available in teddy bears and dinosaurs from the Lillian Vernon catalog as well as the Betty Crocker catalog.

• Keep low protein porridge on hand to add to any microwave hot cereal. You can microwave this with the not cereal. It will greatly increase the volume without adding any phe and make it more reasonable for your child to have hot cereal. We do a 50:50 mixture of porridge and regular hot cereal.

• When I bake low protein banana bread, chocolate cake, brownies, etc., I bake the same regular item for the rest of the family to enjoy. Our three year-old son eats more of his low protein food if he sees the family eating the same thing.

• When making muffins for my daughter, I always use paper liners for the pan. These "liners" (mini & regular size) are available in some craft and cooking stores and come in decorative patterns. They add an element of fun to the muffins.

• I make delicious chocolate chip muffins all the time using the Blueberry Muffin recipe in Low Protein Cookery for PKU (p. 126). My kids love them! I just substitute 45 grams of mini chocolate chips for the blueberries. They come out to be 1 exchange or 15 mg phe per muffin. I also usually substitute the Wel-Plan baking mix with Loprofin baking mix from SHS and they turn out great.

• To make chocolate chip muffins, I use the applesauce muffins recipe in Low Protein Cookery for PKU, p. 124. I leave out the cinnamon and add some chocolate chips. This is a very good basic muffin recipe and can be used to make strawberry muffins too by adding some mashed strawberries to the mix.

• Use Rich's RichWhip Topping in place of CoffeeRich in all of your muffin recipes. The muffins will rise much higher and are lighter in texture.

• My son really loves the Tortillas recipe in Low Protein Cookery for PKU (p. 108). But when I first tried them, I was in tears over the difficulty of getting them off the waxed paper to cook. Someone suggested that to avoid this problem, freeze them on the paper and just remove before cooking. Now, I have no problem with sticking.

• I have found a great way to make Tortillas (Low Protein Cookery for PKU, p. 108). I found a tortilla press on the Internet and it works great. I divide the dough into about 35 gm. portions, put between the waxed paper in the press and close it and press down. It took a few tried to get the right pressure, but then I did all 18 (I made a double batch) in less than 5 minutes! It doesn't come out perfectly round but more like a scalloped doily, but it is a huge improvement over my early efforts. Now I can make up a double batch and press in just 20-30 minutes. I found mine at LAMEJOR4U@aol.com (a Mexican food supplier), for about $28. Tortillas are so low in phe and versatile that it is definitely worth the investment.

• For crispier crackers, try using a baking stone which absorbs moisture in food leaving the bottoms crispy. (I got mine from The Pampered Chef. Call the customer service department at 1-800-724-7790 to locate the consultant nearest you.)

• To make round snack crackers that look like Better Cheddars use the Snack Crackers recipe from Low Protein Cookery for PKU on p. 104, but instead of rolling them out, pinch dough into small balls the size of a grape. Roll into a ball and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat with all of the dough, spacing the balls about one inch apart. Take a 2 X 4 inch piece of waxed paper and place over two balls of dough. Using a full can of anything (like soup), press the dough flat. Peel off waxed paper and move to the next two crackers. Repeat, pressing until all crackers are flat. Bake as directed in cookbook. Crackers will be thin, crisp, round and won't stick to the cookie sheet.

• To give your homemade low protein graham crackers (Cinnamon Graham Crackers, p. 106, Low Protein Cookery for PKU) a store-bought look, when pricking with a fork, use a meat serving fork (tines further apart) rather than a table fork. Sprinkle with brown sugar cinnamon for a toast-y color and good flavor.

• We make toaster cakes very similar to the ones by Thomas that come in many flavors like banana nut, blueberry, etc. They are round and flat for placing in the toaster. I found a pan by Wilton called the muffin top pan. For our low protein version, I use the Banana Tea Bread recipe from Ener-G Foods (on the Bread Mix box). I spayed each muffin well with Pam and used 1/4 cup batter per well. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees F. They turn out flat and round just like the Thomas version and are great for quick breakfasts.

• The Garlic Snack Croutons recipe (p. 99, Low Protein Cookery for PKU) is an awesome snack recipe! A change I make is instead of dripping margarine onto the croutons, I melt the butter and garlic in a bowl and dip the croutons into it, making it a bit easier to get the croutons evenly coated. Then, I use a toaster oven to bake them. This works great for college students (I am one!) and those who don't want to use a stove.

• Store fully baked Burger Buns (Low Protein Cookery for PKU) in Ziploc bags in the freezer for easy retrieval. Remove, microwave 15 seconds, slice in half and it’s ready for a veggie or mushroom burger.

• Add fresh or dried fruits and spices to Our Own Cream Cheese (p. 88, Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU).

• Combine fresh diced strawberries with powdered sugar and vanilla extract and spread on low protein bagels or Strawberry Bread (p. 122, Low Protein Cookery for PKU).

• Combine apricots, finely diced with cinnamon on Pumpkin Bread (p. 120, Low Protein Cookery for PKU).

• Put chopped olives and lettuce on Herb Bread (p. 58, Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU) or Italian Tomato Bread (p. 66).

• Add sliced bananas to low protein peanut butter (either homemade from Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU, or purchased from MenuDirect). This is great on banana or zucchini quick bread.

• Use Trish's Best White Bread recipe (p. 32 Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU) and put in a french loaf pan to make a baguette. Brush baked bread, sliced, with extra virgin olive oil, fill with marinated mushrooms or red pepper slices, and garnish with fresh herbs (basil, thyme, etc.) Slice a slightly longer section of the loaf lengthwise (horizontally) and fill with submarine sandwich ingredients: green pepper slices, black olives, chopped lettuce, tomato, cucumber, oil and vinegar, hot peppers and dried oregano.

• Use low protein cheese sauce to make rilled cheese sandwiches. Add tomato or imitation bacon bits, as the diet allows.

• For surviving teething, give your child a regular frozen bagel. Keeps kids happy for hours! When done, refreeze. Same bagel can be used again and again (the child will not really eat the bagel; it just serves as a teething ring).

• Take the green tops off strawberries and cut into quarters. Place in a mixing bowl. Add two tablespoons sugar and refrigerate for one hour. Add Coolwhip and you have a cool summer delight.

• We have great success in substituting Loprofin Mix (from SHS) for Wel-Plan Baking mix in the Brownies recipe (p. 370, Low Protein Cookery for PKU). They turn out very light and "cake-y." Both of my children loved these, even the one without PKU. I just used 1 cup of Loprofin instead of the Wel-Plan. Since there is barely a difference in the phe content between the two, I didn't recalculate the difference.

• We use the Basic Sweet Dough recipe in Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU (p. 73) to make wonderful doughnut holes. Just make little balls of dough and deep fry them. They look totally like store-bought donut holes and they taste great! I often don't like the low protein recipes myself, but these were wonderful. I rolled them in some cinnamon and sugar and put them in Tupperware for my son to take to school the next day. On of the parents commented on how much they looked just like the store-bought kind.

• When making cookies, I always use "free" candy sprinkles to fancy them up.

• Use mini-M & M’s on top of cookies instead of the regular size (1 mg phe each instead of 3 mg).

• Top low protein cookies (your choice) with fudge (from Low Protein Cookery for PKU, p. 441). While the fudge is still warm and liquid enough to pour, pour in stripes over fresh low protein cookies.

• We substitute Loprofin Mix for Wel-Plan Baking Mix in the Brownie recipe, p. 370, Low Protein Cookery for PKU. They turn out very light and have a cake-like texture. Both of my children love them, even the one without PKU. I used 1 cup of Loprofin flour instead of the Wel-Plan, the exact amount called for in the recipe.

• When rolling out cookie dough for "cut-out" cookies, I do so by placing the chilled cookie dough between sheets of waxed paper. Once the dough is rolled out between the sheets of wax paper, I place it on a cookie sheet in the freezer for 2-3 hours before cutting out the cookies. Although this process has to be repeated several times (the dough thaws very quickly) the end result is well shaped designs that do not stick to the cookie cutter (this idea was from a past issue of National PKU News, but bears repeating). I always use small shaped cookie cutter as I found large cutter do not hold their cookie shape.

• We make wonderful Peanut Cookies using the Dietary low protein peanut butter. We use the higher phe recipe in Low Protein Cookery for PKU, but replaced the real peanut butter with the low pro version, plus 1-2 tablespoons extra. Everyone in our house gobbles them up!

• Use Fruity Pebbles instead of Rice Krispies in you Marshmallow Rice Krispie Treats. They have half the amount of phe and are a lot of fun because they’re very colorful.

• For great s’mores, use low pro graham crackers (Low Protein Cookery for PKU), marshmallows and a few semisweet chocolate chips. Microwave until melted.

• When making the low protein fudge from Low Protein Cookery for PKU, use Promise margarine and Nestle’s mint chips—only 2 mg phe for a piece of fudge!

• Use Promise margarine when making Rice Krispie Bars (only 12 mg phe per bar).

• Aproten butterscotch and chocolate chip cookies always seem really hard and brittle to me. I found this neat trick to make them soft. Slice a medium-sized apple into quarters and place with four Aproten cookies in a Ziploc plastic bag. Let stand at room temperature for at least two hours. When you return to eat, the apples will have turned brownish, but the cookies will be really soft. (Watch out; the longer you let them stand the softer the cookies will get!)

• I bake all low protein items on an Air-Bake insulated cookie sheet. Even when using another pan or E-Z foil pans, I put them on my Air-Bake sheet. It seems to bake much nicer.

• When making a batch of cookies, bake a few and roll the rest into balls and freeze. When you need a few fresh cookies, remove as many as you need and bake. They will need a few minutes longer to bake when they are frozen.

• Bake and freeze low protein cake, cutting a slice from the frozen cake as you need it.

• Mix strawberry Nestle Quik into whipped Rich’s RichWhip topping and freeze to make quick strawberry ice cream.

• Put a scoop of low protein vanilla ice cream in a glass of apple juice for a refreshing treat.

• Make ice cream bars: Purchase an ice-cream bar mold, then melt some chocolate-flavor almond bark (from Ener-G Foods) and line the mold with it in as thin a layer as possible. Then put in the freezer for a few minutes. Next, fill the mold with low protein vanilla ice cream (I use the recipes in Low Protein Cookery for PKU, p 453 or 461), insert the popsicle stick, and freeze again until very hard. Next, paint on more melted chocolate. This part is more difficult because the cold ice cream makes the chocolate harden quickly, so you have to work fast! The phe content depends on how big your mold is and how much ice cream and chocolate you use. My 10 year-old daughter thinks these are fabulous!

• Hunt out ice cream shops that you would like to frequent and ask them to carry sorbet! Don’t be bashful about asking for something you would like them to carry.

• In the fall, don't forget to make caramel apples. I use a caramel product found in the produce dept. It is make by Concord Foods and the box is yellow, and on the front it says makes 12 caramel apples (it's a caramel apple kit). Just follow the directions and instead of using 8 oz. of milk, use 4 oz. of coffee rich and mix it with 4 oz. of water, which is equivalent to 8 oz. of milk. Follow the directions and very soon you will have great caramel apples for everyone to enjoy. I used the good size granny smith apples, my son's favorite and mine too, and it only made 6 so if you want 12 get small apples. The protein content on the back of the box is zero. Although I know this may contain some protein, I count it as very low (at the very most, it contains 25 mg. phe).

• For caramel apples, we use the Marshmallow Caramel Sauce (p. 62, Low Protein Cookery for PKU) and leave out the 1/4 cup water at the end. This makes the sauce thicker so my daughter can use it as a dip with apple slices like the caramel apple dip they sell in the stores. It is very sweet and works best with apples that are a little tart.

• Substitute chocolate almond bark or use 1/2 chocolate chips and 1/2 almond bark to reduce phe content of many recipes (for example Toffee Bars in Low Protein Cookery for PKU).

• I have used the Energy Option Bars from MenuDirect or Applied Nutrition, melted, for chocolate covered pretzels and topping Rice Krispie treats, etc. It is excellent and very easy to work with.

• When making candy, use 1/2 white and 1/2 chocolate almond bark to make chocolate candy that is low in phe.

• Pudding pops. After making pudding using Rich’s RichWhip Topping, I pour the pudding into popsicle molds and freeze. My son’s favorite is chocolate (1/4 cup = 1 exchange, 15 mg. phe).

• I use Marie's Glaze for Strawberries (in a package, often in the produce section when strawberries are in season, or sometimes near the pancake syrups and toppings), which is "free," for an excellent strawberry pie or quick strawberry dessert topped with whipped non-dairy topping. For a change, sometimes I mix in bananas with the strawberries. The glaze adds a professional look to a fresh strawberry pie and is yummy, too!

• Try Hain Pure Foods Super Fruits Dessert Mix from the grocery store. It is phe-free and comes in five delicious flavors: Strawberry, Tropical Fruit Punch, Berry Medley, Orange Pineapple and Kiwi Pineapple.

• When making Birthday Cake (p. 337, Low Protein Cookery for PKU) or Decorator Frosting (p. 398), try using 1 teaspoon almond extract in place of vanilla. This gives a bakery type of flavor.

• In the Quick-Mix Cake recipe (p. 389 Low Protein Cookery for PKU), I have successfully substituted 4 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer for the medium egg called for. This reduces the phe content by 300 mg per recipe. The cake will be more tender and will not rise as much. Still, it makes a good lower protein cake in my experience.

• My daughter received an Easy Bake Oven for her birthday. Though I was initially worried that we would be able to find a low pro recipe that worked, we were really pleased when we found a great recipe for the oven in Low Protein Cookery for PKU. We used the Coffee Cake Muffins recipe (p. 128, Low Protein Cookery for PKU) without the topping. We measured all of the dry ingredients and weighed it. We then divided it into six equal parts of 30 grams each. We stored this in little bags, labeled with instructions for adding 2 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of water and 1 teaspoon oil. When my daughter wanted to make cake, she just used an egg whip to mix the ingredients. She poured it into the Easy Bake pan and followed the directions for the oven, but used the bake time of the muffin recipe. Her cakes came out better than the Easy Bake cake she made for her Grandpa!

• My daughter and I baked the brownie recipe from Low Protein Cookery for PKU (p. 370) in her Easy Bake Oven and they turned out PERFECT! We only got 1/2 the recipe yield, meaning the batter required to make one brownie in the little round pans made a total of 8 round brownies instead of the 16 in the recipe, which doubled the phe for each brownie. But one of these is really too much to eat in one sitting for her anyway, so I cut it in half, and the phe ends up the same per serving in the long run. I baked for the time that was listed for the cake mix that comes with the Easy Bake ovens (between 12 and 15 minutes; I would suggest checking at 12) and they were great. I also frosted them with store-bought buttercream frosting in the can (free) and they are delicious. They are very nice for a birthday party to send with your child. We make these for school parties now, instead of cupcakes.

Holidays, Birthdays, and Special Occasions

• For Halloween, use a clear plastic disposable glove, put a piece of candy corn into each "finger" as a fingernail, pointy end first. Fill with popcorn. Tie the opening end closed with a twist tie. Put a ring on the finger (any type of Halloween ring). Voila, a hand!

• This year for Halloween I marked the number of exchanges on my 8 year-old son’s candy. He was able to select what candy he wanted without asking me. Whenever he took a piece he wrote the number of E’s on our chalkboard where we keep track of phe. He enjoyed having control over his candy selection.

• For Halloween or Christmas, melt chocolate flavored almond bark and mix in chow mein noodles. Drop by teaspoonfuls into a small baking cup and top with Halloween or Christmas colored sprinkles.

• Make Spider Candies for Halloween: Melt chocolate-flavored almond bark from Ener-G Foods and mix in chow mein noodles (1 tablespoon noodles = 12 mg phe). Drop by teaspoonfuls into a small individual paper baking cup and top with Halloween-type sprinkles. For a Christmas treat, top with powdered sugar and use Skittles candies instead of the noodles.

• Make Boo Pops for Halloween: Purchase plastic Halloween candy molds and lollipop sticks in ghost and pumpkin shapes available at craft stores, and fill with melted phe-free while almond bark to make small candies and lollipops. For Christmas, use holiday molds (Christmas trees and wreaths are good choices).

• For Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, I make a "normal" size pie by quadrupling the Favorite Pie rust recipe on p. 427 of Low Protein Cookery for PKU and the Pumpkin Pie filling recipe on p. 417. I add 4 teaspoon. xanthan gum (from Ener-G Foods) to the dough, which makes it easier to work with.

• If there are any places in your area that make maple syrup and candy, see if they sell maple candy bunnies around Easter time.

• For Valentines Day, my children love low protein pizza made into a heart shape (or you can use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make an impression on the finished pizza before baking, cutting into the crust). They also like it when I use canape bread tubes (from The Bakers Catalogue or from the Pampered Chef) to make Valentine's cookies. I make low pro cookie dough, cram it into a heart shaped bread tube, stick it in the freezer, then punch out and slice. It won't fill up the whole tube. I put my hand into a plastic bag and then push the dough out to slice. You can even color 1/2 of the dough pink with food coloring and put the colored dough with uncolored dough into the tube to make interesting combinations.

• Birthday party tip: My daughter, age three, was invited to a birthday party (her first). The mother had, in addition to cake and ice cream, popcorn, bananas, fresh strawberries, melon scoops. Surprisingly to me, these three year-olds were piling their plates up with popcorn and fruit and going back for more. Most had cake and ice cream, too, but I was delighted to see the other children enjoyed the "good" food, too. My daughter didn’t look different at all! For your own child’s party, try serving such foods and you will likely get the same reaction, and it will be the same positive experience for your child with PKU.

• When we have a birthday for a non-PKU sibling or cousin, we cut a corner of their cake out and put in low protein cake, then use low-pro icing and my son (age 8) feels that he is really included.

• For my daughter’s birthday, I have had our local Carvel ice cream store decorate her cake for me. I purchased a regular ice cream cake from them and brought in a small special low protein cake I made for my daughter (I used the Fudge Circles recipe, p. 355, Low Protein Cookery for PKU) and layered the circles and low protein ice cream and topped with Cool Whip. The shop decorated her cake to look exactly like the store bought one. It was delicious and looked like a mini-store-bought cake.

• For my son’s second birthday, I made a batch of low protein chocolate ice cream and put it in an empty plastic caramel corn container (you could use anything handy). A few days later, I made vanilla ice cream. I layered the vanilla on top of the chocolate. Everyone enjoyed this low protein ice cream with their cake. For his first birthday, I found that one of our grocery chains uses a "free" frosting. I have them bake a regular 1/2 sheet cake and place a low protein round cake on top that I supplied. They frosted the whole cake for me and it looked wonderful; it was the highlight of the party.

• At a birthday party, we had fun (the immediate family) making a mouse using food. Pear halves were the body, ears were semicircles from cucumbers or bananas, whiskers were pretzels, eyes were raisins, and the tail a carrot curl.

• Try cutting a birthday cake into the form of a mouse, an elephant or a child. A 9" round low protein cake can be used for Myrtle or Milton’s head, Ella’s body, or Jack or Jill’s head. Friends and relatives can eat the rest of the parts.

• Every year on my daughter’s birthday I bring all of her cake ingredients to a woman who agreed to make her a special cake, frost it and decorate it. I remember when I first had my child with PKU I worried about what would happen at her birthday parties, but now I don’t have to worry!

• Let the grandparents who want to do something special for their PKU grandchild buy the low protein chocolate Santas and Easter eggs (from SHS North America).

• I have found that you can make a nice fruitcake for Christmas using the Applesauce Cake recipe (p. 385, Low Protein Cookery for PKU). To the batter, add 1 oz. each of candied apricots, candied cherries, candied citron, candied grapefruit peel, candied lemon peel, and candied pineapple (or any combination you wish of candied fruit).

• At Christmas, my children and I make gingerbread houses using graham crackers, marshmallow cream, shredded coconut, and "free" candy as decorations. I know the graham crackers are too high in phe for some but it was a great project for us. All three of my children made one, even Jonathan who is "too old" for things like that.

• For Christmas, have your child make this treat and use it for the centerpiece. He or she will be thrilled: Make Rice Krispie Treats using directions on the box. Put margarine on your hands and mold it into the shape of a Christmas tree, then cover it with vanilla frosting. Put peppermint candies (I used those new life saver kind) in the frosting all over the tree, and you have a masterpiece!

• Use Nestle’s Toll House gingerbread mold for a low protein gingerbread man using the Carrot Cake recipe (from Low Protein Cookery for PKU, p. 387) and decorate. Use these molds for Rice Krispie Treats also.

• For Christmas baking, we make the Basic Cut Out Cookie recipe (p. 354, Low Protein Cookery for PKU), roll dough into little balls, then use a thumb to make an indent in the cookie (you may have to redo this slightly once you take them out of the oven). After they have cooled completely, melt chocolate almond bark (from Ener-G Foods) and fill the hole. They are very attractive and delicious! We also always make peanut butter cups using low pro peanut butter and chocolate almond bark: Put a small drop of the melted almond bark in a mini paper fluted cup and then put a small amount of peanut butter and top with more almond bark. These are always a hit! In fact I put them on a plate for everyone and no one notices anything different. We also make M & M cookies lower in phe just using the Basic Cut-Out Cookie recipe again and adding 3 small mini M & M's to each cookie (time-consuming, but they are right on top so the cookie looks loaded and I can easily calculate phe. I use red and green M & M's!)

• For a great Christmas treat, I use phe-free white almond bark and melt it, then pour into tiny candy paper liners. I fill the middle with a red jelly or jam (like strawberry) and then sprinkle with red and green sprinkles before the bark hardens. The whole family loves these.

Other Nifty Ideas for Food

• If you run out of low protein peanut butter (Steve’s Peanut Butter recipe from Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU), use 1 tablespoon cream cheese (28 mg phe) mixed with 1/8 teaspoon peanut butter flavoring for a quick peanut butter sandwich.

• Some people have had trouble finding the "nut brown" paste food coloring called for the in the recipe for Steve's Peanut Butter (p. 87, Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU). The paste can be located at Michael's Crafts. All of Michael's Crafts stores throughout the country carry different color of browns. You can add a little food coloring of red and yellow to bring the brown color close to the color of real peanut butter. Another craft store chain that carries a brown is Hobby Lobby. Also, WalMart carries brown paste color. With their "Winnie the Pooh" brown color, there is no need to add extra red or yellow. Most cake and candy decorating supply places also have paste colors available. You can also add a little molasses to the peanut butter to approximate the color of peanut butter that paste colors give.

• You can substitute Steve's Peanut Butter in any recipes that call for regular peanut butter. Adding a little more peanut butter flavoring helps intensify the flavor, especially good for when you want to add it to recipes.

• Add some honey to Steve’s Peanut Butter (p. 87, Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU) Makes it a bit sweeter and gives a creamier texture.

• To Steve's Peanut Butter, I found that the temperature of the butter and creamer when you add the cornstarch and water is vitally important. If it is too hot, the cornstarch will clump. It is better to let it thicken slowly. You must stir constantly.

• Mix 1/2 cup Rice Chex cereal (28 mg phe) with 1/4 cup whipped Rich Whip or Cool Whip. (A "most requested" breakfast in our house.)

• A nice idea for toddlers or small children that I adopted from a Parent’s Magazine snack: "Ants on a Log." Instead of using celery, peanut butter and raisins, use celery, miracle whip or cool whip and raisins.

• For adapting new recipes, I have experimented with replacing one egg with just the yolk and egg replacer for half an egg. It usually works quite well.

• Use an old-fashioned ice cube tray to freeze small (3 tablespoon) portions of things like Ragu or spaghetti sauce, crushed pineapple, canned mushrooms. Freeze, then package in Ziploc bags or individually in Saran Wrap with phe content marked. Just heat in a microwave oven when you are ready to use.

• Introduce apple butter to your child at an early age. This is a free food, which substitutes surprisingly well for peanut butter in school lunches and in other social situations. The name sounds a lot like peanut butter and it looks a lot like peanut butter. Our four year-old son will proudly tell his friends, "I don’t eat peanut butter, but I do eat apple butter!"

• Measure and pour liquids into an ice cube tray to use later (spaghetti sauce, Rich’s non-dairy creamer, etc.).

• We have figured out a good way to reconstitute CoffeeMate non-dairy creamer powder. This is just the thing for travelers or for people who use a non-dairy creamer only occasionally: We put 2 1/2 tablespoon. Of CoffeeMate into a small container and add about 1 teas. Sugar (to taste) and approximately 2/3 cup boiling or very hot water. We let it cool, then refrigerate.

Beverages

• Nestle Quick chocolate flavored with Vance dairy's free milk makes an "awesome" hot chocolate according to my 16 year old son. I make individual portions of the dry ingredients and put them in small Ziploc bags. It is great.

• Hot Chocolate
  2 tablespoons Vance's DariFree
  1 tablespoon sugar
  1/2 tablespoon unsweetened Hershey's Cocoa
  
  When ready to serve, add 1 cup hot water and mix. 33 mg phe per cup.

• Hot Chocolate or Cocoa
  1 cup Farm Rich non-dairy creamer (36 mg phe) or 1/2 c. Rich's Richwhip Topping + 1/2 c. water (free)
  1 tablespoon Hershey's Chocolate Syrup (21 mg phe)
  
  I place this in a small saucepan and warm on the stove, stirring constantly to avoid scorching the creamer. You can add more chocolate syrup according to your tastes and phe allotment. Also, any non-dairy creamer will work (I have substituted Coffee Mate when our supermarket was out of Farm Rich).

• We use Coffee Rich diluted, warmed and flavored with strawberry quick and my girls love it.

• Hot iced tea is my son's favorite, especially when with the Scouts on a hike or winter camp.

• My son loves hot Kool-aid! He takes it on camping trips and all the scouts now drink it.

• I usually make my daughter hot chocolate from Coffee Rich and Hershey's cocoa. I put the Coffee Rich in a pan, add cocoa to taste (you'll have to check the Low Protein Food List for PKU for the phe amount), add a little sugar to taste and heat. I pour it over marshmallows.

• We use the hot PKU "milk" (Loprofin Drink Mix from SHS) with honey.

• A great substitute for hot chocolate is cappuccino.

• Heat 2 cups Vance's Darifree or diluted non-dairy creamer until almost boiling. Add about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and stir until melted. Then remove from heat and steep 1-2 Apple Cinnamon flavored tea bags for about 5 minutes. Remove and enjoy! This is wonderful and extremely low phe. Try a family version by using milk instead of Darifree. Makes 2 servings.

• I just mix a little Hershey's Chocolate Syrup into some warmed-up plain flavored Imagine Rice Dream beverage. The Rice Dream is very low in phe, and I can easily control just how much syrup goes into it, so it works out very well.

General and Miscellaneous Tips

• I have found the perfect combination of food colors for making pale low protein baked goods look more natural in appearance. Just using yellow food coloring never produced natural looking results for me. Here is what I use: 2 drops yellow food coloring, 1 drop red food coloring, 1 drop green food coloring. I know this may seem weird adding the green, but equal parts of red and green produce brown on the color wheel. Here is what I do to prevent swirls of color in my baked goods:

  1. Put the liquid for the recipe you are using in a separate container before adding to the dry mix.

  2. Add the food color to the liquid in the container, and mix until distributed evenly. You now have brown liquid.

  3. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix.

  4. You may double, trips, etc. the above mixture depending on how brown you want your food (such as bread) or how light you want it (for things such as cookies). Also, it depends on the size of the recipe. If you are making several loaves of bread at a time, then proportion the mixture until you get the desired color. Trust me, this REALLY works. Your bread and other baked products will no longer be so pale in color anymore!

• We find that you can substitute dp Baking Mix for regular flour in almost any regular make, pancake or cupcake recipe. I actually find that most kids prefer my daughter's dp flour-based cupcakes better than their own!

• We also find you can substitute dp Baking Mix for Wel-Plan very successfully in most recipes. We find you can use 1 teaspoon baking powder for each cup of dp Baking Mix used for best results. This works great for us in making bread. Also, you do have to "fluff" the dp Baking Mix a bit as it is heavier than Wel-Plan. You can also decrease the sugar in a recipe just a bit if you want, since the dp Baking Mix has a little sweetness to it.

• Personally, I like the Loprofin above all the mixes for everyday rolls, muffins, pancakes, and waffles.

• Here are some good "transition foods" for children moving from baby foods to "regular" foods. Double check with your PKU clinic to see if these are suitable or allowable for your child: Applesauce Pancakes, Banana Pancakes, Applesauce Muffins, Coffee Cake Muffins, Mushroom Burgers, plums, pears, mango, pumpkin, potato, corn, carrots, low protein crackers, low protein rusks, snack crackers, Basic Cut-Out Cookies, Motts Fruitsations, applesauce, French fries, hashbrowns, French cut green beans, Hunts Lemon Snack Pack Pudding, Hunt's Juicy Gels, rice cakes, rigatini or anellini low protein pasta , cream of rice cereal with low protein pasta combined, peaches, bananas, grapes. (all of the recipes are from Low Protein Cookery for PKU.)

• Suggestions for finger foods for small children: Rice Chex cereal, raisins, pickles, Cheerios, grapes, apple chips, puffed rice, Cinnamon Graham Crackers (Low Protein Cookery for PKU), Ritz crackers, plain goldfish crackers, sliced carrots. Also, many of the above suggestions for "transition foods" would work.

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