Holiday Cookies

This year I was determined to get some baking done with the girls, and being that things have been stressful and I haven't been feeling well...I decided to cheat a little!

Through my buying club, I bought Cherrybrook Kitchen's Gluten-free Sugar Cookie Mix. Since I had to buy in bulk, I received 6 of them (which ended up being a good thing-lots to practice with!)

Our first batch was done according to the directions on the box, with a few modifications, using canola oil instead of margarine, hemp milk instead of soy milk. The girls have a current obsession with Frosty the Snowman, so our goal was to make snowmen. Once the batter was mixed, I began to add some all purpose gluten-free flour to the mix in order to soak up some of the oil in order to make the dough easier to roll out.

The girls had a blast, and we used Enjoy Life chocolate chips for eyes and some dried fruit and raisins to decorate.

Today we made another batch of cookies, only this time our goal was to make candy cane cookies. I did things a bit differently-I added almost a cup of the all purpose gluten-free flour while mixing the batter, and we also added some peppermint oil for that "candy cane" flavor.

Once the batter was ready, we divided it in half and added red food coloring to half of it. The dough was still pretty oily, so we were not able to really roll it out like traditional candy cane cookies. Instead- I made two long rolls-one white and one red, and then broke off chunks in order to make my candy canes.

The girls really enjoyed this, and made lots of creations on their own.

*The only thing I would do differently next time is add some xanthan gum to the batter when I added the extra flour. I think adding so much extra flour through it off bit, and some of the first batch didn't stick together as well as the second batch (when I sprinkled some in).

Recipe: Vegtable Stir Fry

Here is a quick and simple meal I threw together last night. It went over much better then I expected! You never know how new foods will go over over with little ones, but I did some things to help make it more appealing. I used corn spaghetti noodles-which they love, and I used vegetables they were familiar with. It really is beautiful with all the colors- I really wish I had taken a photo so you could see!

With this stir fry, I gave the girls some tuna fish (made with canola mayo and chopped up celery), and some black beans. For Mara, I just added the black beans into the stir fry and she ate it all up!

Ingredients:

• 1-2 carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup broccoli
• 1 stalk celery
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 cup green beans
• 1/4 cup corn
• 1-2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 tsp basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1-2 tbsp alternative bread crumbs (I used Orgran's All Purpose Crumbs)
  
• corn spaghetti, or any other alternative pasta

Cook pasta as directed. In a wok or frying pan, add the canola oil and carrots. Cook for a few minutes to soften the carrots, and then add the rest of the vegetables. As the vegetables begin to soften, add salt and pepper to taste. When pasta is finished cooking, add it into the vegetable mix. Add the basil, and then the bread crumbs. With the bread crumbs, I just added a bit at a time, stirring and adding until noodles were completely coated.

Very simple and delicious!

Sorry

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted! I wish I could say that I was out decking the halls and enjoying the holiday season, but sadly, I have not! I have been having the worst luck, with not feeling well due to allergies flaring up, and then I threw my back out last week which left me unable to do anything at all for awhile.

So again, I am sorry, and I promise I will be back! I have one final paper left to write and turn in tomorrow and then I am completely down with school for awhile. I had my finals last weekend, and am so looking forward to having a break!

I will hopefully post some recipes this weekend. Hope your all enjoying this holiday season!

Recipe: Broccoli Salad

Here is the broccoli salad I made for Thanksgiving. It was delicious! I found this recipe on The Kids Wellness website, and the only thing I changed was the type of mayo used and we omitted the onions. We had actually ran out of the safflower mayo we normally used, so my husband made some home-made safflower mayo for me. It was delicious, and probably made the salad even better :)

Ingredients:

6 cups chopped broccoli

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion (optional)

3/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries or raisins

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, (or chopped walnuts, or any nut of choice)

3/4 cup light mayonnaise of your choice

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons flax seed

In a large bowl place broccoli, onion, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and flax seed. In another bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar and sugar. Mix well. Pour over salad, toss well. Chill before serving.

Its been awhile....

Sorry it's been so long since i have posted! My classes are winding down and I am preparing for my finals next weekend. Then, I can breathe! It's been a long semester, and I look forward to having a break.

Our Thanksgiving went well. I had made three new dishes to take with us: a broccoli salad, sweet potato bake and pumpkin pie. The only thing I personally loved was the broccoli salad, which I'll post the recipe soon. The sweet potato bake was too sweet for me, although I received quite a few compliments on, and the pumpkin pie recipe I used just didn't do it for me.

Mara loved the pumpkin pie, but refused to eat the sweet potato bake. This was funny to me, as it has orange juice in it, and she absolutely loves oranges. On the other hand, Analese, who hates all fruit but avocados, loved this dish! My girls are truly opposites, its hysterical.

Anyway, I will try and be back on to post soon, but please be patient with me the next few weeks as my head will be buried in my books :)

Busy Playing Food Detective

Once again, Mara has been having digestive issues and we are scrambling to find the cause. She hasn't been introduced to anything new, so it's either a matter of her getting a hold of something she shouldn't-like crumbs from her sister's bread, or something she has been eating is now causing her poor tummy to react.

So it's time once again to play food detective!

This week I will begin a food diary for Mara, writing down everything she has eaten, what time, she has eaten it, etc. I also plan to write down any signs of tummy distress-mucousy stools, fussiness, etc.

Hopefully this will help clue us in as to what is going on with our little Mara. I feel like every time we begin to relax, something reminds us that we really cannot.

Not just yet.

Hopefully someday.

Recipe: Shepherd's Pie

I have been debating whether or not to post this today, as I have been posting so many recipes with ground turkey. However, we just made this last night so I wanted to post it while it is still fresh in my head! This is my family's favorite meal, so I hope your family enjoys it as well! I just wish I had gotten a photo of Mara eating this dish-she inhales it, and it shows!

I have been playing around with this recipe for quite some time, and I think I have finally gotten it right! The mashed potatoes recipe is from "The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook"- the only thing I changed is the type of potato-I use sweet potatoes instead of baking potatoes.

I usually double the recipe in order to freeze some for a quick meal later on. The recipe below usually just feeds my small family of four, so you may want to double it if feeding more then that. I really don't add exact measurements, so feel free to play around with it as well! I found that you really cannot go wrong.

*If you can have onions, I would also suggest adding in a small, diced onion to your ground turkey.


Ingredients

Mashed potatoes:

• 3 large sweet potatoes, chopped (we do not peel ours, but peel if you prefer)
  
• 3/4 cup hemp milk (or any other acceptable milk)
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2-1 tsp salt

Filling:

• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup broccoli, chopped
• 1/2 cup corn
  
• 1 cup of frozen mixed veggies (feel free to add more fresh vegetables-adding the frozen just helps cut down on the chopping time!)
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 -1 1/2 pounds of ground turkey (again, any ground meat will do!)
• 1- 1 1/2 cups of hot water (I usually save the water I cooked the sweet potatoes in to use for this)
• dash of salt
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp red wine (I have been using sherry)
• 2-4 tbsp gluten-free ketchup
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf

Chop up sweet potatoes and place in pot. Add enough water to completely cover them, and boil until potatoes are really soft. While the potatoes are boiling, chop up carrots, celery, and broccoli and set aside.
Using large, deep skillet, brown turkey in olive oil. Add carrots, celery and broccoli and sauté for a few minutes. Add frozen vegetables and water.
Add the salt, red wine vinegar, and red wine. Add the ketchup, and stir until completely mixed up.
Pour into a baking dish. Add the 3 cloves, and bay leaf

Time to make the potatoes. Place all ingredients into mixing bowl and mix until potatoes are nice and creamy. Spread potatoes on top of meat mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, until the potatoes are nice and brown on top. Enjoy!

* When feeding your children, always look for the cloves and bay leaf on their plate before they eat it!

Recipe: Baked Apples

I just realized that is Wednesday already and I haven't posted a thing! Sorry about that-things have been hectic with my two girls, and I have been spending all of my "free-time" (do you ever really have free time after having kids?) studying, as I am also taking two classes this semester as well.
I have also been gathering up recipes to try so that hopefully I can bring some new dishes to Thanksgiving next week! So I'll keep you posted as to my successes with that.

Tonight the girls helped me make baked apples for our dessert. We rarely have a dessert after dinner, so this was a special treat. I really love cooking with them. Mara does a dance around the kitchen when I ask them to help me.

This recipe is just so simple, taken from "The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook". This was the perfect recipe to cook with helpers. They helped add the ingredients, mix it up and then took turns filling each apple. They gobbled these up, which was kind of surprising to me since neither child likes applesauce (but love plain apples). So this was exciting for me, and we will be making these again!



Ingredients

4 apples
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 strips of orange zest (I also sprinkled in some McCormick's orange peel)

Core the apples, leaving the bottom in tact. Place into a small baking pan. Mix up the rest of the ingredients, and pour liquid into each apple.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1-1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. Apples will be done when tender.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Curried Chickpea Salad

This is our favorite dish to bring to a party, and it seems everyone loves it as much as we do! My girls love this-Mara can eat a whole bowl full, which is amazing to me. We usually bring pita chips with this dish for other guests to enjoy. At home, it's great over a bed of lettuce.
I got this recipe from Whole Foods, and haven't done too many changes to it except leave out the onions (which I kept in the recipe below).

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 4 cups cooked chickpeas (two 15-ounce cans)
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2/3 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cilantro or parsley, chopped
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds

In a small mixing bowl, stir together vinegar, lime juice, olive oil, curry powder, maple syrup and salt. Add raisins and set aside. Combine chickpeas, bell pepper, onion and cilantro in a medium bowl.Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat and toast cumin seeds until slightly browned and fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir cumin seeds along with dressing-raisin mixture into chickpea salad. Season with additional salt if desired.



Enjoy! This dish is so much better the next day :)

A little excitement

I found a new cookbook tonight that I am really excited about. It's called Balancing the Bowl, a food allergy cookbook: recipes free of wheat, rice, barley, egg, milk, soy, peanut, tree nuts, shellfish and fish by Susan Kelley Delaine.

I ordered it tonight, and cannot wait to get it! I have such a desire to cook great food that my family will love, a desire to prove that we are not missing out on truly eating. I have been in such a rut lately with food, and I hope this will help snap me out of it.

Another reason I have such interest in this book is due the fact that it is rice-free. I think we have too much rice in our diet right now, from rice cakes to a side dish. I am ready for a change.

If anyone has used this book, let me know what you think! Hopefully you love it as much as I think-and hope, I will!

A simple Toddler Breakfast

You would think with having two young toddlers that I would have learned how to multi-task by now. But I haven't, and quite frankly, I really stink at it! This morning I could not stir Analese's oatmeal and Mara's quinoa cereal at the same time without having the room fill up with the smell of burnt vanilla hempmilk from overzealous stirring!

Sigh, maybe some day I will get it together....

Mara had one of her favorite breakfasts this morning. It's our version of fast food. I cook her some quinoa cereal using quinoa flakes and vanilla hemp milk. I added in some chopped up raisins, and a few minutes later...done! I add the cereal to a bowl of smoothed banana, stir and serve.

Mara eats it right up.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cookies

I love to cook with the girls, although right after dinner was not the best decision I made today :) They bring so much joy into cooking-every step is so exciting for them. I hope they never lose their joy for cooking.
This was the first time making this recipe with the modifications for Mara. They turned out really good! Next time I want to play around with reducing the amount of brown sugar used. The biggest difference I have found in using gluten-free all purpose flour is that the cookies tend to crumble easily, and tonight was no different. The girls did not mind, enjoying their cookie before heading off to bed.


Ingredients:

1 1/2 c (15 oz can) Pumpkin
2 large eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Canola Oil
2 tbsp Molasses
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups gluten-free all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease 2 large baking sheets.

In a large bowl, beat together the pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar and molasses. Add the salt, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Beat until blended.
Add the flour and beat for 1 minute. Scrape sides and bottom and beat again until fully blended.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop the batter and drop onto baking sheets, 2 inches apart to allow for spreading.
Bake 10-12 minutes, until they feel firm to the touch. Remove and cool on rack.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Turkey Meatballs with Honey Mustard Sauce

If your children are anything like mine, they love to dip! My girls are somewhat obsessed with honey at the moment, dipping everything from their broccoli to eggs! So I made this meal especially with them in mind (as always). The dip was too sweet for Mara, but she loved the meatballs. Analese loved the dip (they are such opposites)
I modified this recipe to fit our needs. I also slipped in 1/2 tbsp of garbanzo bean flour to pump up the nutrition, and used precooked rice to hold the meatballs together. Once again, I am using turkey, but beef or ground chicken would work as well. The original recipe calls for 1/4c onion mixed in with the meat, which we omitted but I think it would be really good!

* This recipe calls for an egg, but we didn't use one tonight and it was still great. So I put it in the ingredients as optional

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 tbsp garbanzo bean flour
1/4 c cooked rice
1 egg (optional)
2 1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp tarragon
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tbs potato starch

Mix thoroughly: turkey, gb flour, rice, egg, tarragon and 1/4 t of the dry mustard.
Shape into small balls. Place on a greased baking sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.
In a small saucepan, stir remaining dry mustard, pineapple juice, honey and potato starch. Cook over medium-high heat until sauce thickens and begins to boil. Serve as dipping suace for meatballs.

Enjoy!

Milk Alternative: Hemp Milk

I always find it funny to see people's reactions when they hear about Mara's allergies. The most common question I get with the "no dairy" restriction is "So what are you doing to replace it?"

My response? Nothing. She does not need cow's milk in her diet, nobody does. What she needs is a good source of fat and calcium, which many people get from dairy. We get to be creative :)

With Mara, soy milk is out so at first we used rice milk. While it tasted good, there really isn't much to it and I wasn't too impressed with how it cooked. Plus in Mara's case, we needed to get as many calories and nutrition in every bite or sip she took. While shopping through a health food store, we saw hemp milk. Comparing it with rice milk, I was impressed that it had 4 grams of protein compared to 1 gram in rice milk. Calorie-wise, hemp milk has 30 more calories per 8 ounce cup (hopefully I can finish Mara's story soon, and you'll see why every calorie counts!)

For calcium, we have always used Kirkman's calcium powder. We sprinkle it into her milk, food, everything. It was exciting to see that hemp milk has even more calcium then cow's milk! It contains 46% of your daily intake, compared to 30% in cow's milk. It also contains many things not found in either cow's or rice milk.
Each serving contains:

700 mg Omega-3

2600 mg of Omega-6 with GLA

All 10 Essential Amino Acids

4 grams of Protein

Essential Vitamins A*, B12*, D*, E, Riboflavin* and Folic Acid

Essential Minerals Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Iron and Zinc

So we decided that we had to try it out.

For taste, hemp milk wins out for us. We use the vanilla for drinking, and I love it. I even prefer this over the soy milk we used to drink. The chocolate is my special treat :) It is thicker, and seems a bit heavier then rice milk. Beware-shake it up before you pour it or you'll get this clear, oily mixture that is not too appetizing!

For cooking, the plain hemp milk wins as well. It has been great in everything we have tried, especially scrabbled eggs (which we eat every morning). The vanilla is great in desserts and other "sweet" dishes.

The only downside to drinking hemp milk? The price. It's a bit more expensive then rice milk, but the price does seem to be coming down a bit. Also- we found it cheaper to buy it in bulk though our buying club, so that may be an option as well.

Oh-and you have to watch it in sippy cups. We usually keep a cup in the fridge for Mara and fill it as needed. In a sippy cup, it will go sour, and the taste is horrible-like drinking vinegar. So be sure to check those sippy cups before giving it to your little one if it's been in the fridge!

So grab a glass of hemp milk today and let me know what you think!

We use the brand Living Harvest because that was the only option when we first started buying hemp milk. At the Green Festival, we saw a few other companies now selling it as well! Maybe a future post will be on comparing the brands.... :)-

Recipe: Chicken with Apples and Cranberries

My girls love apples, and I thought this would be perfect.....but it was not. The original recipe called for tart apples, which was a bit too tart for them. Next time, I am going to try a different type of apple. The original recipe was also for a whole chicken, and was to be baked. I changed it a bit to make it easier and faster for us. My husband and I thought it was very good!

Ingredients:

4 skinless chicken breasts, cut up into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp pepper
4 apples, peeled and diced
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1-1 /2 cups of apple juice

Heat the oil in a frying pan, and add chicken. Cook chicken until its almost done. Add apples, cranberries and apple juice. Sprinkle cinnamon, salt and pepper over mixture.
Heat to boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes, until apples are soft.
Serve over rice or pasta.

We used Mrs. Leepers rice vegetable twists with this recipe. I added them right into the chicken mixture, and it worked well. The best thing is that this pasta is not one we usually save for leftovers because it doesn't save well. But adding it into the dish worked well, and we could eat it for lunch the next day.

Our Halloween Week

Sorry I haven't been posting this week... the girls have been sick, and it looks like I am next. Mara sealed my fate yesterday by coughing right into my mouth!
Our Halloween festivities turned out great, with no tears from Mara. We took them to a Halloween party at a local restaurant on Saturday, and just decided to forgo the "free food" and arrive an hour later for the magic show. The girls did not even notice the food, and both enjoyed dressing up in their costumes. The magic show was cute, and we left soon after that. So no problems there!

On Halloween Day, Mara was still sick so Greg was going to stay home with her so that I could take Analese to a Halloween party that morning. However, our plans changed once Analese woke up coughing as well! That evening, we went to a friend's holistic studio where they had stations set up for treats. All of the treats were healthy and organic. I sneaked in beforehand and gave them "Mara-safe" treats, which they put into her bag. I cannot explain how happy I was that she was able to eat everything in her bag!

We came home and carved the pumpkin before going to a couple neighbor homes..basically just a chance to visit and say hi.

Hopefully next year will go just as well! I found a great pumpkin cookie recipe that I think I can change a bit to work for us..I'll post it if successful!

Porcupine Meatballs

This recipe is a combination of two recipes. The ingredients for the meatballs have been adapted from "Sophie-Safe Cooking" by Emily Hendrix.
Our family does not eat beef, so we use ground turkey in its place. Onions would probably be good as well!
Also-you may want to play around with the spices a bit...every family has different tastes. I made this last night for dinner-the sauce has a bit of a bite to it, which surprisingly went over very well!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rice, uncooked
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (reg. vinegar works as well)
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 tbsp basil
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
1 egg (optional)
one 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped with juice
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups cooked rice

1. Put the tomatoes, oregano, basil, pepper, salt and bay leaves into a pot and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, cover and reduce to simmer.
   
2. Combine the turkey, egg, uncooked rice, vinegar, and mustard. Squeeze together with your hands to really mix the ingredients together. Shape into balls.
   
3. Heat olive oil in frying pan. Brown the turkey balls (if time is an issue, you can just skip this step and place balls into sauce, cooking on simmer for 25 minutes)
   
4. Add the meatballs to the sauce, cooking for another 10-15 minutes. Remove bay leaves.
   
5. Serve over rice.
   

Halloween

Halloween can be such a fun time, but also one of great stress for those of us having children with food restrictions. Everywhere we go, be it the bank, post office, even my older daughter's speech assessment this morning had someone whispering "Can they have a treat?" At least most have whispered, making it much easier for me to just say no.

And Halloween is still a week away....

Granted, Mara is only 21 months, so I really am not keen on her having candy period. While we do not restrict our girls from having it, we do not encourage it. Easter baskets are filled with toys rather then candy; same goes for Christmas stockings. They do however, have grandparents who provide them with more then enough! In the past, we have usually allowed our oldest have a few treats, and then the rest just disappears. But that was before we knew what was going on with Mara.

Now that Mara is older, and a bit more aware of things around her (especially in regards to her sister) things will be a bit trickier! This morning, Analese's dance teacher gave them all candy instead of the usual stamp on the hand. Analese, of course, wanted to eat it right away, as most of the other children were, so I let her.

Mara was not happy, and kept putting her hand out for some. I had to tell her the "this will hurt your tummy" speech that she doesn't understand. But she did stop asking.

So our plan this year in regards to trick-or-treating: We had gotten gluten-free lollipops awhile ago, and plan to stick one in Mara's trick-or-treat bag before we leave. Once we get back to the house, the girls can each have one treat, and that will be Mara's treat. Let's hope she goes for it.

As so how to handle the Halloween parties? We're still working on that! We may go to one on Saturday, and have another next Wednesday. I was thinking about buying some cute containers-possibly Halloween themed, to put some of her favorite snacks in (just to make it feel special). I also have some cupcake ideas as well...I'll let you know what I come up with!

Recipe: Peared Chicken

I have had this recipe for so long, I cannot remember where I got it from. This is a simple, quick and easy meal. For variation, we also use mango pulp instead of the pears, which my family likes even better. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

3 pears, peeled and cubed
2 to 3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 to 2 Tbsp vinegar
4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

(You don't have to be exact with measurements-I used 3 Tbsp of maple syrup with 2 Tbps of vinegar)

Directions:
Stir together maple syrup and vinegar. Pour over pears in a medium sized bowl.

In a pan, fry chicken breasts. When chicken is cooked through, add the pears and their juice. Cook on very low heat, covered, for 10 more minutes.

Serve over white rice.

Welcome!

I started this site as a way to help those living with food allergies, and to admittedly, help myself as well! Living with food restrictions can often lead you to feel like your stuck in a rut in terms of what you can eat, the meals you can prepare, etc. Hopefully I can help open the door to new ways of cooking and eating, and help bring the enjoyment back into food!

I should note that I am certainly not a great chef. My husband is the cook in this family, but I have managed to tweak quite a few recipes to meet our needs! The recipes I share will be ones that have been tested on my family, and ones that passed the test! With a 3 year old and 21 month old with very different tastes, finding something they both like is exciting.

Our family began living with food restrictions when my youngest was only a few weeks old. It has been a very long journey in discovering all of the foods affecting her, and I cannot say we know them all right now. As of right now, our restrictions are on dairy, soy, gluten, onions and coconut.
We hope that one day some, if not all, of her food issues will go away. But , until then, life goes on.....