Allergen Free Olive Garden at home!

The past few weeks have been a blur of travel for a funeral and hosting/attending graduation open houses, so I haven't done to much "cooking". It's been sunbutter sandwiches, chips and veggies or grilled Trader Joes hot dogs (yay for allergen free under 5 bucks a pack!) or Jennie O Turkey burgers, which my son has fallen in love with! But yesterday was the hubby's birthday and I just couldn't reheat leftovers for that. He loves Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, but that isn't something that is safe to have in the house and the time and money for a trip to Olive Garden just were not available. What's a girl to do? I grabed my copy of Cyble Pascals' Allergen Free and Easy  and found a recipe, but I am not much of a Whole Foods shopper and we can't have corn so the recipe got tweaked to reflect my family's needs and available food stores. *Side note, I love how this woman has revolutionized the way people with food allergies can eat, her cookbooks are great starting points for learning the alchemy and science of how to cook without "normal" ingredients, but if you don't have some sort of "whole" grocery store around you it can be very frustrating to follow her recipes.
Everyone loved this and we didn't leave the table still wanting the dairy and fat laden alternative!  I also did a garden salad with a Parmesan vinaigrette and garlic bread.

Fettuccine Alfredo
1 box brown rice fettuccine, we like Deboles or Tinkada Joy
1 package gluten and nitrate free, uncured bacon ( I scored a package at Natural Grocers this week for under 4 bucks!) (cut into small pieces before cooking to get a better crisp)
Garlic powder
Vegan rice Parmesan
1 tbsp rice flour
1 cup rice milk, room temp
1/2 cup vegan tease mozzarella cheese replacer (this is a new find for me and we really like it)
1/4 cup vegan Jack Diaya cheese replacer
pinch nutmeg
1/4 cup chicken broth, room temp

In a non stick skillet cook the bacon until nice and  crispy, almost burned even b/c you don't want it to go back to a mushy state in the sauce.

Cook your pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.

Drain all but 1 1/2 tbsp of the bacon drippings from the pan. Add in a few shakes of garlic powder and vegan parm and cook on med-low, stirring, for a min or so. Add in the brown rice flour and stir another minute. Add rice milk and stir until sauce begins to thicken. Pour in your cheeses, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Stir until the cheese melts. Add in your chicken broth and stir for another minuet or so. Add the crispy bacon pieces back into the sauce and then toss your pasta in the sauce.

Parmesan Vinaigrette 
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4c vegan rice Parmesan
Rice milk added a tbsp full at a time at the end of blending until desired consistency is reached.

Add all ingredients to blender and mix well.

Enjoy!

Allergen Free Black Bean Tostadas

I am finding that Spanish and Mexican cuisine is some of the easiest to adapt to the allergen free diet. Thankfully it is also some of my husband and kids favorite kind of food so whenever I create something using taco seasoning they are happy :)
 Looking thru the fridge to use up some leftovers was how this yummy meal came to be.

Black Bean Tostadas 

1 can black beans drained

(optional) 1/2 a large,cooked, chicken breast shredded

1 tsp cumin or allergen free taco seasoning

1 cup cooked sweet potatoes

1/2tsp cinnamon

Desired toppings, lettuce, diced tomatoes, pico de gayo, slasa, avacado, Diaya pepper jack cheese shreds

Brown Rice or Udies GF tortillas

In a medium pot combine the beans, chicken and cumin/taco seasoning. Stir well and heat thru then set aside.

Mash or puree sweet potatoes to a smooth consistency and stir in cinnamon.

Preheat oven  to 300

Place tortillas on a cookie, or other baking tray, and spread a layer of sweet potatoes over them, like where the re-fried beans would go on a regular tostada.  Add a scoop of the bean and chicken mixture and sprinkle with teh Diaya Pepper Jack Cheese Shreds.

Place in oven for 15-20 min then remove and the rest of your toppings. Serve with a side of fruit.

Enjoy!

Allergen Free Sunbutter Cocoa Muffins

I frequently go into the kitchen knowing that I need to make something for my kids that is both good for them and will fill them up. They are eating machines right now! But I also frequently flip through my cookbooks with despair realizing that I don't have one or two ingredients and, sigh, am not in the position to just run to the store. And that is how most of the recipes on this blog happen. These super yummy, light and moist muffins are nothing short of the result of my forgetfulness in the grocery store :)  I try to make sure that snacks involve fruits or veggies, but when my kids are in an eating everything in sight phase adding protein in to keep them full for at least 2 hours is a must! This is one of the things I love the most about Sunbutter, and now Hemp Milk. We tried out the  Tempt brand in chocolate flavor this week, I figure it is best to east the kiddos into a new food by covering in chocolate when possible :)! It has a better texture than rice milk and the kids didn't blink, just asked for more.  So since I had Sunbutter and chocolate hemp milk on hand they were the basis for this recipe.

Sunbutter Cocoa Muffins

In a small bowl mix 1/2 cup rice milk with 2 tsp cider vinegar and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350, grease or line a regular muffin tin and a mini muffin tin or you could use 2 regular muffin tins, I like to use a mini for my little ones.

In a separate bowl mix 1/2 cup Trader Joes Sunbutter, 1/3 cup canola oil, and 2/3 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix well.

In yet another bowl mix 1 1/4 c Trader Joes GF flour mix, (as an aside I don't like this mix for pancakes, but in this recipe it worked great), 1/2tsp xanthan gum, 1tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt

Combine the dry and wet ingredients and mix on low speed until fully combined.
Add the Cider Vinegar/rice milk mixture and mix again.
Now add in the Chocolate hemp milk, a splash at a time, until your batter is almost soupy in texture.

Pour into muffin tins and bake. About 10 min for mini muffins, 20ish for regular ones.

Mine didn't have that rounded top that most muffins do, but inside they were light and fluffy so it didn't matter.

Enjoy!