Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Protein packed Rice Crispy Treats

Ok, my kids love love love marshmallows  and I hate hate hate the ingredients. They are just junk, and even the ones found in natural food stores have some ingredients that make me nervous (gelatin from a fish source??) My son also really enjoys rice crispy treats and of course one of the main ingredients is marshmallows  so this week I decided to revamp the way I make rice crispys in order to get away from the marshmallows.

1cup brown sugar
1cup honey
3/4c Trader Joes Sunbutter
6c crisp rice cereal

In a large pot combine the brown sugar and honey and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves  Reduce heat and add in your Sunbutter and stir until smooth.  Pour in your rice cereal and stir to combine. Press into pan or make shapes if you desire. Then refrigerate for a few hours to to set.

Enjoy!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Tasty Pork

This one is a keeper! I love finding recipes that I can use just as they are. I wrote this one down years ago, but came across it again over the weekend. Everyone liked it so it will be making an appearance on the regular menu.

2lbs pork roast
1 can whole cranberry sauce or you can boil  and mash your own
3 shakes chili pepper sauce
2tbsp brown sugar

Place your roast in the slow cooker, mix the cranberry sauce, chilli sauce and brown sugar together and pour over the meat. Cook on low for 8 hrs.
Serve with brown rice and a green veggie

Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

What to eat when there's no electricity?

Here in the Midwest we are supposed to get a fair amount of snow mid-week. In this house we were warned that the power goes off pretty easily, so a storm bringing lots of ice and snow leaves me wondering just how and what I will be feeding my kids in the dark and cold that might happen.  Thankfully we do have a gas stove, but I don't want to be opening the fridge if the power is off!
So here is what I came up with, not the most nutritious things, but easy to find and prepare came first! And you can always get some gummie vitamins, the bear shaped ones are allergen free! Hopefully this can help you think thru food you could serve in a electricity or gas free environment :)
Breakfast
Cereal plain and simple. We never ever have it around here because one of my kids can go thru half a box in one sitting and there isn't all that much nutrition in it. But we grabbed some GF chex (the chocolate and cinnamon kinds don't have any milk or nuts either) and GF Rice Crispies and are all set.

Lunch
This will be sunbutter (Trader Joes brand doesn't contain any soy)  and honey sandwiches, we like Udi's bread, and potato chips. I also grabbed some raisins, bananas, apples and boxes of apple juice.

Dinner
Soup. There are many different options out there, even Walmart carries some organics now! Just do your due diligence and read the ingredient list and find ones you and your family will enjoy! If you have a fireplace or gas stove this is a great option. If you don't, sticking with the sandwiches and fruit might be the easiest rout.

If the power does go out my kids are going to think they have gone on vacation!

Enjoy!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Simple Stroganoff

My hubby loves Beef Stroganoff but I hadn't attempted it since having kids  with food allergies. However, on this journey of menu planning I am trying to add some of his favorites back in, and this was given the thumbs up! It was also surprisingly simple to do :)

I threw some leftover roast (about 1/4 lb) in the food processor and pulsed to resemble ground beef

In a pan I melted a tablespoon of butter and added onion powder. Stir for about a minuet  Add in 2 tbsp of flour and stir for another minuet.

Add in 1 cup of rice milk stirring to prevent lumps. As the mixture thickens add in 1/2 of beef broth and 1/2c more of milk along with a pinch of nutmeg and a couple dashes of white pepper.

Stir and serve over brown rice fusilli noodles, cooked according to package directions.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Valentines Day Allergen Free

So Valentines Day is tomorrow and the easy route (or at least compared to what we do now) has been dinner out, nice chocolate that easily bought in stores everywhere, or fancy desserts,also easily accessible in stores. But, no more. Now those things are just nicely wrapped trips to the hospital.  So I have developed a few sweet treats and a main meal that still give those iconic valentines day feelings, and also allow your creativity to flow!

First, Dinner. One of the nice things about Valentines day was of course, not needing to cook. Well, unless you have a magic allergen free meal service, which is not a bad idea by the by, this is the next best thing. If you are doing a family meal you may want to use a full roast, but if this meal is just for you and your  sweetie you can use steaks.

Dredge your meat in a mix of rice flour with a few turns of white pepper.
Sear the meat in Earth Balance soy free spread, and transfer to baking dish or crock pot to make it even easier. Also place your potatoes and other veggies around the meat.
In the pan you seared the meat in mix about a cup of beef broth with 3 to 4 shakes of onion powder. Pour in about 1 cup of white wine. Whisk and then pour over your meat and veggies.  If using the crock pot, cook on low 8 hrs. If using a baking dish, cover and cook at 325 for 3 hrs for a roast and check at 1 1/2hrs  if using steaks.


Next, Dessert.  For the Kiddos check out the sugar cookie recipe and grab a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate ...yep that's what we are using. Chocolate Covered Strawberries, and Chocolate Candy here we come!

Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips are going to be your best friends for this, but if you can't get a hold of those then some stores have semisweet chips that will work, just make sure to read those ingredients, but you will need to add in sugar as you melt them and taste along the way!
Wash and cut your strawberries in half, place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper
Place chocolate chips in a bowl and melt in 30 second increments stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. I like to add vegan shortening or Earth balance to give it a creamier texture.
Using a fork spear the strawberries on the cut side and dip them into the bowl of chocolate  Carefully place them on the wax paper.
Repeat until all the strawberries are done and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 min.

To make your own candy, well your imagination is your only limit! Add some orange zest, ginger, ho-made caramel or organic raspberry jam, I could go on and on.... You can get fancy and use candy molds, easily found even at Walmart, or just use mini muffin tins.
Melt your chocolate using the method mentioned above.
For strait chocolate just spoon the melted mix into a plastic baggie and snip off the tip, then squeeze into the mold.
If you are adding orange zest, ginger or chili powder stir them into the chocolate after melting and then put into the molds.
 If you want to make candy with a caramel or jam center then squeeze a layer of chocolate into the mold, followed by a small dollop of the caramel or jam covered with another layer of chocolate.
Let the molds sit in the fridge for an hour or so and follow the manufacture instructions for how to get them out.

Enjoy !






Monday, February 11, 2013

Easy, Inexpensive Allergen free snacking

If the prices of the store bought ready made allergen free snacks make you feel like screaming, throwing up, or just not eating then these ideas are for you! My children (almost 2 and 4) spend there time doing one of two things, or at least is feels this way to me, eating or talking about eating. I hungry, or Mom when are we going to eat? are frequent questions, and I am getting tired of baking three times a week and seeing the amount of sugar they consume. So we have recently come up with some healthier  less time consuming and more wallet friendly options.

Hummus filled grape tomatoes
For a light tasting, protein filled snack.
Hollow out the desired number of grape tomatoes, all you need to to is slice off the end where they were attached to the vine and go around the inside in a circle with your knife to remove the seed and innerds.
Using a small spoon,, or medicine dispenser, or plastic bag that you fill and cut the tip off of, fill with desire type of hummus. We like roasted red pepper or plain around here.

Sunbutter fruit dip.
My mom made a great fruit dip when I was a kid, however it was full of dairy and I haven't managed to remake it allergen free yet. But, I did come up with this last week and the kids loved it, my oldest was licking his plate at the end!
Trader Joes Sunbutter (it doesn't have any soy in it, and is the only one that doesn't break my son out) put it in a small bowl by the spoon full (I used about one large serving spoon full to make enough dip for 2 sliced apples)
1 regular spoon full of powdered sugar
Drizzle Honey to taste and splash of rice milk to thin it out.
Stir with a fork until all ingredients are incorporated and smooth enough to dip out without that clumpy sticky texture.

Quick Smoothie
What kid or adult doesn't like a smoothie? Just toss a banna, some frozen fruit and a splash or two or rice milk in the blender and voila! You can even make it more like a dessert and add some allergen free chocolate chips  or syrup to the mix.

Rice cake "Popcorn"
If you can't have corn and miss something to munch with your movies this one is for you.
Break up a rice cake into bite size pieces
Melt some Earth Balance soy free spread and drizzle over the top.
Gently mix to coat.
You can sprinkle on an other topping you desire, cinnamon sugar, vegan rice Parmesan cheese or add in some Enjoy life chocolate chips.


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Maple Chicken- a meal steeped in cinnamon

We are having a warm week around here, but I'm not quite ready to give up on my fall and winter menus, especially not one this good! It is like a whole meal full of dessert, but since it uses lots of cinnamon and honey it has tons of nutritional benefit and hides the veggies the kids just can't wait to eat up!

Maple Chicken
2 chicken  breasts
4tbsp pure maple syrup
2tbsp vegan butter
1tsp paprika
1tsp cinnamon

Melt the butter, mix in the syrup and spices and baste chicken. Place in oven on 350 for 30 min, then baste chicken again. Continue basting every 20 min until you have a good coating.

Cinnamon Butternut Squash
1 cooked and mashed up small butternut squash. Or you can buy frozen pre-chopped squash and just mash it up after steaming in the microwave. Add a small amount of butter. 1tbsp brown sugar and 1/tsp cinnamon and mix.

I also serve  steamed broccoli with this meal and make a fruit cobbler with cinnamon in the crust mix for dessert.

Quick Fruit Dessert.
1cup GF bisquick
1 1/2c fruit of choice
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp vanilla
1/4c applesauce
1/2tsp baking powder
sprinkle of salt
1tbsp oil
Rice milk

Mix the bisquick, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the applesauce, oil, vanilla and stir. Add rice milk until all in well mixed, but still a thick batter. Stir in your fruit and pour into baking dish. Bake at 350 until golden brown on top. Serve with a sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon on top.

Enjoy

Monday, February 4, 2013

National Pancake Day

Tomorrow may be my son and husbands favorite non nationally recognized holiday :) These two love pancakes and I mean LOVE. It is one of the most often requested foods around here and we make them many different ways. So for my two men we will be having pancakes at all three, yes you did read that right, all three meals tomorrow. But we are not going to have the same plain, tho yummy!, pancakes at all three meals, these will be a mix, some using veggies, some using fruit.

For your pancake base you can make it easy on yourself and use Bisquick's Gluten Free mix, one of your favorite allergen free boxed mixes  or you can  use this recipe.
1 1/3c allergen free flour mix 
2tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1 egg or one of these egg replacements 
1tsp pure vanilla extract
4tbsp canola oil, or all vegetable shortening (room temp or melted)
1/3 c rice milk

Whisk together your dry ingredients  In a separate bowl beat together your egg sub, oil, vanilla and milk  Add your dry to the wet and mix well. Add in more milk if needed to achieve desired consistency   Getting lots of air into the mixture is key to it rising well!

For breakfast we are going to have
Strawberry Lemon pancakes
For this recipe if you are using above pancake mix, omit the cinnamon and vanilla and add in
2/3c sugar
1/4tsp salt
Zest of 2 lemons and thier juice
 You will also need 1/2 quart of strawberries sliced, but don't put it in the mix.
Always adjust your dry and wet ingredients to achieve your desired pancake consistency, some people like them runny some like them thick!
Combine your pancake mix, grease griddle or pan appropriately and pour out your pancakes, I like to use a tablespoon sized measure to do this. While one side is cooking, place slices of strawberries on the pancake. Flip and cook the other side when the first side is golden brown.
You can dust these with powdered sugar, strawberry syrup (recipe to follow) or pure maple syrup. Serve with eggs for protein!

Strawberry Syrup
In a small sauce dish place washed and cut strawberries covered in pure maple syrup. Bring to a boil until fruit is mushy and releasing its juices. Reduce heat to low. Mash fruit, add a tad of sugar and lemon juice. Stir. If you like your syrup smoother you can pour mix into a food processor or blender and mix until desired consistency is reached.

For lunch we are doing
Sweet Potato Carrot Pancakes with apple sausage links
Use your basic pancake mix, be sure to leave in the cinnamon or add it if you are using a store bought mix. Also add
another tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp ginger
1/4c cooked carrots and 1 cooked sweet potato (you should puree these together)
2tsp honey
Always adjust your dry and wet ingredients to achieve your desired pancake consistency! 
Cook these the way you would any pancake :)

Apple Sausage Links
1 apple peeled, cored and chopped fine, super fine!
1 lb or plain pork sausage or Jennie o turkey sausage.
1 tsp salt
1/2tsp sage
1/4 tsp savory
1/8tsp ginger
1/4tsp pepper
2shakes thyme
1tbsp oil
3/4tsp honey

Mix all in a bowl. You can roll them into links, balls or patties. Cook thru in a skillet.

And for dinner we will be having the all American breakfast for dinner, Pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes with some orange slices. Who says people with food allergies can't eat well?? If you can't have eggs you could also serve baked beans as a side, and use turkey bacon or tofu bacon  the options are rather endless.
You will want to use your basic pancake mix at the top, and serve with warm pure maple syrup, another great product to get cheap(er) at Aldi btw! and a dollop of vegan butter. YUM!

Enjoy!





Friday, February 1, 2013

Allergen Friendly Superbowl Food

If you have food allergies you are no stranger to the worry and maybe, guilt that comes with eating with those outside your home. It can be hard to ask others to omit ingredients or buy expensive items to accommodate your food needs.  This worry can grow exponentially if there are kids involved and you have to worry about people touching things your child will touch, or just plain touching your child. So this year here are some simple ways you can make the Super Bowl or other gatherings a little easier.
First, host. This leaves you in charge of food and allows you to pass on simple allergen friendly tasks to your friends, like fresh veggie or fruit trays, paperware or drinks.
Second, here are some easy main snacks/ entrees and desserts you can make that will taste so great no one is even going to notice or think about them being allergen free.  Sorry that there aren't many exact measurements here, but I am an eyeball-er.

BBQ Sliders
If you are hosting a large get together you should use 3 to 4lbs of your choice of meat.
Famous Daves Rib Rub, it is allergen free and just makes things easier.
Allergen friendly BBQ sauce, we like Trader Joes, but make sure you read ingredients or you could make your own, I haven't found the right mix on my own yet, but it is a work in progress!
Udi's french Rolls, or other allergen free rolls you like.

Morning of rub your meat with Famous Dave's and place in crock pot with small amount of water.
Cook on low 8 hours. In the last hour open crock pot, shred meat and pour BBQ sauce over.
Cut your rolls in half and toast.
Spoon BBQ meat onto one half of the roll and top with the other half.



Bacon Cheddar Potato Skins 
In order to save on prep time, bake the appropriate number of potatoes the day before.
Cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the insides, gently!
Cook bacon until crispy, or just use some bacon bits
In a large bowl mash potatoes with a little vegan butter, add in  1/2 c to 1 c depending on amount of potatoes of Diaya cheddar.
Mix in your cut up bacon. (you could also add in veggies like broccoli and tomato, to make vegan if you wanted)
Spoon mixture back into potato skins
Broil on high for 5 min. If you are doing a large batch keep an eye on these and add time as needed.

Coco Crunch 
1 box rice Chex
1 package enjoy life chocolate chips
Earth Balance soy free spread

Using 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to 2tbs spread melt in the microwave in 30 second increments until mixed smooth, stirring every 30 seconds.  Just repeat this process whenever you run out until you have covered as much cereal as needed.

Put your chex on a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with the chocolate mixture and place in the fridge until set. Then transfer to a bowl. If you want a salty sweet mix you can sprinkle the chex with sea salt before drizzling the chocolate.


Hope you have fun! Enjoy!