Fork and Beans

Making food fun for the family

Special cookies for a special girl…

by

Today’s post is dedicated to someone very special to me.

She is one of the brightest little lights I know

(with one of the BEST laughs ever).

**Man, I really love hearing that giggle!**

My beautiful niece Cambria

has struggled with severe food allergies since birth.

She is one of my biggest motivators.

Despite her on-going health problems,

she still loves and lives her life to its fullest.

She also loves her Auntie Kookie.

And because she has one of the biggest hearts,

right after I was bummed out about my recent diagnosis,

she couldn’t wait to help her Kookie out and tell me that I’d be okay.

This touched my heart so, so deeply.

From that point forward,

I stopped feeling sorry for myself

and started becoming proactive with understanding my diet.

All because of the love of one little girl.

So just for Cambria,

I wanted to make a fun Thanksgiving snack

that she could enjoy:

 Egg, milk, and nut free (sans gluten as well!)

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

  • 2 Lucy’s Sugar cookies + 1 cookie cut into a beak
  • 5 Gluten Free Snyder’s pretzel sticks, cut in half
  • 2 Tbs Enjoy Life chocolate chips (melted) + 2 chips for the eyes
  • 1/2 dried cranberry for wattle

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Spread melted chocolate on both cookies. On one, place pretzel sticks as seen above.
  2. Sandwich cookies together. Place eyes, beak and wattle on the face of the cookie with melted chocolate as the “glue”.
  3. Freeze for 5 minutes just to allow the chocolate to set.

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

For those who can eat nut butter and prefer that over the chocolate,

here is another version:

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

  • 2 Lucy’s sugar cookies
  • 1 Tb peanut butter (or other nut butter of choice)
  • 7 almonds
  • 2 chocolate chips for eyes
  • 1/2 dried cranberry for wattle

Assemble as seen above and below.

Eating turkey cookies never tasted so good.

About Cara

Based in Chicago with her husband and son, Cara is the creator behind the site Fork and Beans: A place where kids can have fun with their food.

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Cara

      Oh Mandee, thank you. 🙂 It always melts my heart whenever I get a text saying “Hi Kookie! I miss you!!!!” like I did today. THE best!

  3. naturalnoshing

    Your niece is PRECIOUS and I LOVE her name, a lovely name for such a sweet face! Sorry to hear she has to struggle with food allergies too 🙁
    Umm and AHHHH SO cute cookies! Such an AWESOME aunt you are Cara 🙂

  5. Your biggest fan!

    I’ve missed you for the last couple of days! Then, while trying to catch up on your blog you give me this! Now I’m blubbering all over the place, literally becoming a puddle! How precious you both are (and cute too!) Okay, enough with the exclamation marks!!! I can just imagine what your sister (yes, Sherry, you are becoming your Mom! – oh no!) and Cambi did when they saw this one and you know what? I’ve got that giggle saved on a voice mail message hee! hee! hee! Now I want a cookie!

    • Cara

      My sister just cursed me because my niece made her promise to make these this weekend. hehe. That is what happens when she decides to move far away 🙂 So glad that you found Fork & Beans and that you like it! Make yourself at home over here…

    • Cara

      That took a lot of precision on my part to pronounce but I think I just might be spreading that word around now. haha. Ridicadorbs. hahahahaha *Love* it, Katie!

  8. CinnamonQuill/GlutenFreeFeed

    I would’ve totally begged my mom to buy me one of these cookies…if they sold them at the grocery or local bakery. Why don’t they?!

    You and your niece are gorgeous–so sweet that you are able to share kitchen adventures!

    And how are those Lucy’s sugar cookies? I tried the chocolate chip and was a little disappointed…yet not so disappointed that I couldn’t eat two in one sitting.

    • Cara

      You are my kind of girl, Jenn! My problem with the foods I make for the blog is that I don’t usually eat processed or heavy sugary foods but I usually have to take another bite and another bite *just to make sure* that I really didn’t like it. Then I realized I ate 3 of them.

  11. Dawn

    Those cookies are adorable, but nearly as cute as Cambria!! Being an aunt is one of the best jobs in the world and I’m so glad you enjoy it <3

  12. The Sister

    “Dear Auntie Kookie,
    I love your blog. You are the best Aunt. I love you so much! When are you going to send me those cookies? I love you so much and I love it when you say that you love my giggle. You made my mommy cry. I want those cookies. So much. Come visit me soon! I love you!
    Love,
    Cambria”

    • The Sister

      DUUUUUDE! I sobbed like a baby when I read this to her. Of course, I reminded myself of MOM and she just rolled her eyes at me (which, in turn, reminded me of me and you). She doesn’t get that she *inspired* you … but I think it’s pretty special that you memorialized that conversation and dedicated a special cookie just for her. (P.S. – Now you actually have to send them to her, lol.) I do consider myself to be one of the luckiest moms because my kid is so awesome and such a trouper in the face of adversity. And I think this is a great reminder to her that you can bemoan food allergies or you can turn lemons into lemonade! Yay Sissy – another great blog!

      • Cara

        HAHAHA! What a wuss. You *are* like mom (and so am I, it’s just fun not being the sobbing mess this time). hehe. Your kids are rather amazing. And I am one lucky auntie! Oh, and why can’t you make these cookies with your kids, again???

    • Cara

      Dear Cambria, I knew you would like the part where I said that I love your laugh. You really do have THE best laugh ever! It makes me so happy to hear it! I will make you some cookies and send them to you, you betcha! Tell your mommy that she is a big baby for crying. haha. Just kidding. Don’t tell her that–we will just giggle at her instead 🙂 I love you!!!
      Love,
      Kookie

  14. Amanda

    I love the picture of you and your niece! How sweet! You are both beautiful! 🙂 I love the turkey cookies as well! Since I am a newer follower, were you diagnosed with Celiac disease? I was over a year ago.

    • Cara

      Hi Amanda! I actually am gluten-intolerant, not Celiac, but none-the-less, a huge change has undergone in my life in the past 3 months. Just out of curiosity, what made you finally decide to get tested?

  15. choirqueer

    This is so sweet (literally!) 🙂

    Another idea – how about caramel corn? No eggs, milk, nuts, or gluten. I posted a recipe for it the other day — you’d probably want to leave out the curry powder unless she’s into spicy, and the coconut milk could also be omitted. It’s fun and sticky too, so you can probably make some clever sculptures with it if you can hold off eating it long enough! 😉 http://choirqueer.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/choirqueers-coconut-curry-caramel-corn/

    • Cara

      Oh you are just so adorable! I love that idea and will head over to check out your marvelous caramel corn creation. Thanks for that Oliver! xo (and no, I would not be able to sculpt anything because as you said, I would so eat it all up before I had the chance!) ha

  16. Laurel

    Cambria is such a beautiful girl. She definitely deserves her own cookies! I could even eat those if they were soy free as well. Of course, I’d have to have Amy’s cookies and those pretzels somewhere closer than Toledo but that just means more for her. Go Cambria. You show them girl.

  20. coldandsleepy

    Aw sheesh… that’s way too sweet, literally and figuratively. I love that she was like, “nah kookie, don’t worry about it, we can DO this thing.”

    Also now I really want some turkey cookies. Gobble gobble… GOBBLE *nom nom nom*.

    • Cara

      That little girl is way too sweet (and so are the cookies, you are right!) I ate one and felt sick for the rest of the day. When will I learn that I cannot eat that much sugar? NEVER! 🙂 I will leave you and your gobbling noises to yourself now… haha

  21. Babs

    You always impress me on what you create…I can never visualize what you tell me you’re going to post, but they look yum…I’ll take mine with no peanut butter….I’m getting flash back just typing about it

    Damn you Food For Life!!!!!

    • Cara

      Yeah, you know, I think I am getting sick of peanut butter rather quickly myself. We’ll see… Thanks “Babs” for that insanely sweet, spice and everything nice compliment 🙂 Maybe I should start surprising you from now on? 🙂 xo, Love you!

  22. Jacqui

    Oh, Cara.. these are adorable! I just showed them to my little monkey and she is so excited to make these! We love Lucy’s cookies here too!

    Thank you for posting an allergy safe recipe!

    • Cara

      I just got introduced to those cookies by my niece too–they are pretty good aren’t they?! So glad that you and your little one can make these treats, Jacqui! xo, Cara

  23. Caitlin

    so cute, cara! your niece sounds like such an strong and amazing girl. she’s so lucky to have you as an aunt to make her delicious, allergy-free treats! 😉