Verde Pasta

This is another wonderful adaptation from Simply in Season. My kids wolfed it down, veggies and all!


In a food processor or blender combine
1/2 cup diaya mozzarella cheese substitute
1/3 c rice or hemp milk (plain)
basil and garlic salt to taste,
Pulse a couple times to mix and blend up

Set aside

12 oz rice pasta (spaghetti, fusilli or linguine) cook according to package directions

2 cups broccoli
1 cup green beans
1 cup peas
1/4 cup spinach

Stir the broccoli into the pasta 6 min before it is done,
Stir in the green beans 2 min before the pasta is done
Add the peas and spinach 1 min before the pasta is done.

Drain pasta and veggies, add a little olive oil and toss, then pour your cheese mixture over the top and toss again.

Serve as a meatless meal or as a side to grilled chicken or steak.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Pasta Salad

Chock this one up as a win on both the eat more seasonally available veggies list and the meatless meals list! We have recently gone organic, cage free etc.. on everything. Gulp. But what is the sense in feeding a kid with allergies to wheat, soy and corn, meat that has only every eat whet, soy and corn?? So we are taking the leap and soon we will have a huge freezer in the basement with half or so of a few animals in it :) Feels kinda crazy I have to admit. But I have lost a ton of that extra baby weight that was hanging on and my kids are being less picky as we continually reply "this is what is growing right now, its all there is, eat it or be hungry" Less choices makes for less pickyness, and I can't even tell you how nice it is not to go in a traditional grocery store just from the stand point of not having to hear "mommy can I have...?" Now at the farmers market it is "mom can we have a honey stick?" Why YES you most certainly can! Anywho, on to the recipe :)
 I have recently acquired and fallen in love with the cook book Simply in Season. Everything we have done so far, even with tweaking for allergies, has turned out great. I think the homemade salad dressings might be my favorite part b/c they don't have any junk ingredients and are so simple! So this recipe is an adaptation of one of those.

Dressing
  1/4 c red wine vinegar
  1/2 tsp salt
  1/8 tsp pepper
  1/4 tsp garlic powder
  Whisk well
Slowly add in 1/4 cup olive oil,  whisking all the while
Sprinkle in some fresh or dried basil and whisk again.   Set aside

Cook 1 cup of rice past a of your choice according to package directions
Drain, pour into serving bowl and set aside

Open, rinse and drain a can of chick peas. Pour into bowl with the pasta

Wash and cut up cucumber slices, tomato wedges, sugar snap peas, and broccoli florets (or any other veggie your family eats)  Toss them into the bowl with the pasta.

Drizzle dressing over all and toss to coat, then if you so desire add some cooked and crumbled bacon and toss one more time.

Set in the fridge a few minuets to cool and collect.

Serve with a sprinkle of vegan parm or mozzarella.

Enjoy!

Hiding Veggies: Chicken Teese Quesadillas

My kids really liked the crunch of  these Quesadillas and never knew I hid carrots and yellow squash in it!

1 cup cooked chicken or turkey, diced or shredded

1/4 cup diaya cheddar or teese vegan cheddar
Half a block of Teese Vegan Mozzarella cheese, squashed with a fork (it will look kinda like ricotta or cream cheese)

1/2cup yellow squash puree
1/2cup carrot puree

dash garlic salt

6 brown rice or quinoa tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheets with foil

In a large bowl stir together chicken, cheeses, veggie purees and seasonings.

Spoon into the tortillas and then cut or roll into desired shapes and bake in the oven for 5 min or so.

I serve with a side of white quino and black beans.

Enjoy!

Hiding Veggies : Allergen Free Mac N Cheese

Crazy as it sounds I have had a very very very hard time making a allergen free mac and cheese that anyone around here likes, but surprise, add a few hidden veggies and new cheese and we are in business!

1 package Trader Joes Brown Rice Elbow Macaroni

1 package Teese Vegan Cheese  with the picture of the macaroni on the front

1/2 cup butternut squash puree

1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp white pepper
pinch of nutmeg
Non dairy plain milk to bring to desired consistency

Cook macaroni according to package directions

In a blender mix your Teese, butternut squash and seasonings.

When Macaroni has finished cooking, drain and pour sauce over. Warm and serve.

So simple, who would have  guessed????

Enjoy!

Hiding Veggies:Allergen Free Chicken Salad

I was totally shocked by how much my kids liked this, it is quickly becoming a summer staple at our home. Oh and there is cauliflower hidden in here and my hubby calls this the best chicken salad he has ever eaten!

If you can't have eggs just omit them, but my family can eat them so I include them here. 

2 eggs, cover with cold water, bring to boil, remove from heat and let set 15 min. Run under cool water, peel, remove yolk, chop. 

1lb cooked , cut up chicken,

2 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2cup cauliflower puree

1/2 grapes coarsely chopped

3/4 cup soy free veganaise 

1/4tsp chili powder

1/4tsp paprika

1/4 tsp garlic powder.

In a bowl combine your chicken, grapes, bacon, and eggs if using.  In another bowl combine your cauliflower puree, veganaise, and spices. 

Pour spiced veganaise mixture over chicken, grapes, bacon and eggs. Mix well. Serve hot or cold, as sandwiches or in large leaf lettuce wraps. 

Hideing Veggies while avoiding allergens : Quinoa Balls

Ok  now that summer is in full swing, and all those wonderful veggies and fruits are back on the table, how to get them in the mouths around that table? Particularly those veggies?  I picked up a copy of Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious recently and while it is NOT allergen free, it is pretty easy to adapt. We have added 5 new meals that the kids gobble up without question so far! My 2 year old has eaten more vegetables this month than she has her entire life :) So, for this week I will be posting a new meal Monday thru Friday that is both allergen free and hides at least one serving of veggies.


I admit it- I lie to my kids and tell them these are rice balls, but when I came across the recipe I had white quinoa, not rice in the cupboard so that was what I used. Talk about a protein lift! These and some fruit were all I served and they really kept us full all evening, my hubby didn't even go in search of a snack later when the kids had gone to bed.

Quinoa Balls

3/4 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions

1/4cup cooked chicken

1/2 cup sweet potato puree.
1/4 cup of your favorite vegan cheese shreds, I opt for Diaya or Tease
1/8cup non dairy milk (plain)

Combine the sweet potato puree, chicken, cheese and 1tsp salt in food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl  and add in cooked quinoa, along with some GF bread crumbs to get the mixture lumpy enough to roll into balls.
Roll into balls, place on a pan or plate and set up your wet/dry dipping area like you would for frying chicken.

Pour more GF bread crumbs into a shallow dish and set aside.
In another shallow dish mix 1 egg or flax egg with 1/2cup spinach puree.

Dip your quinoa ball in the spinach "egg" mixture, then roll in the GF breadcrumbs.

Pour oil in a pan, just like you would to fry chicken. Arrange balls in pan and fry, turning to brown all sides. Set the on a plate to drain when all sides have been browned. Serve with ketchup.

Amazing how well those veggies are hidden isn't it???

Enjoy!

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!