Been Awhile

Tonight was a try of Food Network's Skillet Pork and Peppers. Totally skipped the sauce -- it didn't really sound that good. But I loved how everything came together without it. Definitely will be making this one again!

Birthday Baking

Thanks to a cake mix from Cherrybrook Kitchens, the basics of today's traditional birthday confection were easy to come by. Then the question of icing -- possibly an allergy-free marshmallow topping would have been fine, but I opted to simply dust the cupcakes with cocoa powder. Dairy free ice cream? Hmmm... fresh strawberries dusted with sugar seemed more fitting. The results were wonderful; the cupcakes were so very moist, almost brownie-like. Impressively delicious!

This was my first use of my new silicone cupcake cups, and they worked wonderfully with this recipe.

Venturing into the World of Tofu

Armed with some basic knowledge of tofu, thanks to AB's TofuWorld episode, I took the plunge this week. AB's Tall and Tangy Tofu Thangy looked like a wonderful way to introduce children to tofu, and it was all I hoped it would be! Of course, I modified it to be allergy friendly. Based on some of the comments on the recipe page, I chose to blend tofu, cranberry juice, and a banana. It was a nice texture, though I think next time I will freeze some of the cranberry juice into cubes ahead of time.

The helpful website over at Food Network popped up this yummy BLT Pasta recipe as I was perusing AB's recipe. I made the recipe as suggested, though I used drained canned tomatoes -- they always taste better in my opinion, but maybe that's just because I didn't have to chop them! To keep it allergy-friendly, I used rice pasta, left the sour cream/mayo part separate, and substituted it with a pureed tofu/chopped green onion mixture. I will definitely be making it again!

On the Fly: Tarragon Turkey Penne

One of the standard back-up meals at our house (say, leftover night but nothing allergy-free is leftover) is pasta with some turkey pulled out of the freezer tossed together with olive oil. Here's the same pasta and turkey but my first try at a dairy-free "cream" sauce. 1 tbsp rice flour whisked with 1tbsp olive oil, then 1 cup ricemilk/soymilk blend whisked in and brought to a simmer. The ricemilk/soymilk blend had a touch of sweetness that seemed to beg for 1 tsp tarragon, and a dash of salt and pepper. The sauce came out a bit thicker than I expected; I think next time I will use just 2 tsp rice flour. So good to finally have my pantry well-stocked with some allergy-free staples and be able to experiment a little!

How to receive updates to your Facebook page

If you are reading my blog, thanks! Do you want to have previews of new posts automatically appear in your Facebook feed? If so, click on the link to Allergy-Free Gourmet -- in the right-hand column in the Networked Blogs box, select "Follow".  And viola!

Summer Staple

Finding good sources of calcium for my daughter's diet has been challenging. Calcium-enriched OJ? Nope. Tums? Nope (contains corn starch). My first effort at adding non-dairy sources of calcium is to add Spinach-Strawberry Salad to our weekly menu (no fancy recipe -- just spinach and strawberries). We especially like Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette on this salad... and on just about everything else.

Next on the list to increase our calcium is to try tofu. It is sitting in the fridge just waiting for the perfect recipe to come along. An article in this month's Taste of Home (that sadly I cannot find on their website) suggests dry-roasted nuts, dried figs, salmon, great northern beans, and apple/cinnamon oatmeal as good sources as well. I love to use great northern beans, but that will have to be another post!

Travel

Soon after we found out the allergies my daughter has, we left for a week-long trip. As much a reminder to myself as it is advice to anyone else, one huge help as we went was to bring along pre-packed food -- veggie chips, cooked rice, etc. Almost anywhere we could find some grilled meat and a salad to go along with those. When we ate out, award-winners are:

Best: Cheesecake Factory! Loved the little banana and bread (minus the bread) plate they bring out for kids.

Worst: Wendy's! I had researched a number of possible eateries before we left home, but when it came time for lunch, none of those were available. How bad could Wendy's be? Take a look at their website and see for yourself. An amazingly long list of ingredients for a grilled chicken fillet.

Obvious in Retrospect

There is a recipe for grilled turkey tenderloin (from the previously mentioned, well loved issue of Taste of Home) that is positively glorious. But alas, it is an apple juice marinade. Weeks after contemplating this sadness, it occurred to me that pear juice would likely be a satisfactory substitute, and I tried it with much success! My marinade came out something like 1 cup pear juice (I used a juice box -- might as well use the whole thing), 1/4 cup veg oil, then vanilla and spices as called for in the recipe.

In my weekly menu planning, I recently have been planning one night of grilled meat with pasta and grilled or steamed vegetables. This dish went wonderfully with some rice rotini and green beans. I froze the turkey tenderloin after purchasing it, and it was nowhere near thawed when I was ready to use it. So instead of grilling, I put the entire pan, marinade and all, in a 300ºF oven for two hours, turning midway through and uncovering for the last 15 minutes.

Flash of Brilliance

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or in between. Sliced by themselves or atop a nut butter of choice, blended in a smoothie... What is this wonder food? Frozen bananas! Rescue a spotted banana from certain doom by peeling it and putting it in the freezer.

Variation: slice half a non-frozen banana down the middle and spread with nut butter. Very messy, but yummy!

Essentials: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recently I picked up a copy of Flying Apron's Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking Book. I think I will be going back to this volume regularly, but what better place to start than Chocolate Chip Cookies? Many gluten-free recipes still call for eggs and often apple cider vinegar. However, in this particular cookbook, a good portion of the recipes suit my daughter's allergy needs as written.

They aren't the gooey-sweet of a traditional butter/egg-based cookie, but certainly pleasing. I had white rice flour on hand instead of brown, but other than that I stuck to the recipe (minus the nuts -- no thanks). On a recent trip we picked up a bag of Vegan Chocolate Chips at Whole Foods, and they worked wonderfully in this recipe.

Next time I make these cookies, I will use parchment on the pans. The second round of cookies stuck way too much on greased pans (even though I re-greased the hot pans). I dusted the cookies with cocoa powder as suggested, which is about the appropriate amount of time for the cookies to set before trying to de-pan them.

Paella (Without the Guilt)

Of course paella isn't real paella unless it has lots of little beady eyes looking back at you. Which is exactly why I had never made paella before today, and never eaten it since it was prepared for me in Spain in 1992. However, this recipe (note: in my browser I had to scroll way down to see the recipe) was too easy to pass up.

No modification needed to keep it allergy-free, and it's so wonderfully spiced it is easy to forget that we are eating rice (again). I misread the recipe before shopping and purchased chicken breast instead of chicken or turkey sausage, but it turned out great.

I cooked the rice and grilled the shrimp and chicken at lunch time, then stuck them in the fridge for later. The sauce came together quickly; while it cooked I chopped the chicken. I dumped everything (rice, shrimp, chicken, sauce, frozen peas) in the crock pot on low while I ran some errands and had a hot meal waiting that everyone ate. Success!

From the newlywed days: Roast Beef Potato Salad

One of my favorite movies growing up was "The Princess Bride", so in the spirit of Inigo the drunken Spaniard, I'm going back to the beginning. Appropriate for the start of a blog I suppose. When I got married, I couldn't cook much more than chicken salad and hamburger helper. I immediately subscribed to Taste of Home magazine, and this recipe was in the first issue I got. I pretty much tried all the recipes in that issue because, well, those were the recipes I had.

It only took a little effort to accommodate it to my daughter's allergies -- we ended up buying a horseradish mustard instead of horseradish. We couldn't find a horseradish without allergens.

I haven't made this recipe in years (my son wouldn't eat white potatoes for the first six years of his life), but we enjoyed it and I think it will be showing up regularly on our menu.

Basics

So I've been cooking allergy-free for about two months. Here's the low down on a few of our staples/favorites to this point, especially my daughter:

Milk substitute: Refrigerated Vanilla Silk is the beverage of choice, preferred over the UHT Vanilla Silk carton. Often I will mix half rice milk or coconut milk and that goes over pretty well. Coconut milk is a little intense to have by itself, and rice milk wasn't a winner at our house.

Pasta: whenever we visit a city with a Trader Joe's, we stock up on rice pasta! It is available in our local grocery store, but much more expensive.

Bread: I keep a loaf of Food for Life White Rice bread in the freezer, but I don't use it much as it is extremely expensive.

Snacks: Terra chips. Oh, my, oh yum. Mary's Gone Crackers has some good choices, too.