Chocolate banana

Since being on maternity leave I get about 30 - 60 minutes to myself a day and I usually spend it watching the food network channel.  I love watching Giada at home even though almost everything she makes has meat and cheese in it, but I just love watching her cook in her beautiful home with that unbelievable view.

She actually had this banana recipe that is very allergy friendly and so ridiculously delicious!  Best part is, it's so quick to make. 

Directions:
- Melt butter in a pan (good amount)
- Slice the banana in half and then again in half so it looks like a sandwich
- Coat each piece in brown sugar and cinnamon
- Cook the banana until the sugar begins to harden (about a minute on each side)
- Melt some chocolate (enjoy life chocolate chips) and pour over the banana

Btw - I'm totally impressed with how this photo came out! watch out!

French Toast (milk/soy/egg/nut free)

Pinterest seriously rocks! I constantly find awesome allergy friendly recipes on it.  Most recent one was this amazing french toast recipe.  I can't believe how yummy it is, it can almost pass for desert.  It is milk, soy, egg, nut free (you can probably make it gluten free also with the right GF bread).

Ingredients and directions are taken from the "Cook It Allergy Free" blog with some alterations.

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1 Cup of dairy free milk
2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp flax meal
6-8 slices of bread
2 Tbsp Oil or butter for skillet (skillet must be greased in between batches)


Directions:
1.  Blend bananas, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and flax, in blender
2.  Gently dip bread slices into the mix, coating both sides well.
3.  Fry in oil until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side.
4. Serve with maple syrup and fresh fruit

I'm drooling looking at this photo!  The bananas have a natural sweetness to them that you really don't need too much syrup, if any.  

My food allergy pinterest board

Simple Pancakes

Can this get any simpler? 

(milk, soy, egg, peanut free)

• Chocolate Almond milk (rice chocolate milk works just as good)
• HeartSmart Bisquick (white box)
• EnerG Egg replacer

 

It's pretty much the only pancakes I have been making.  It's simple, easy and oh so delicious!

 

I ran out of my oats milk one day and gave chocolate milk a try.    

White Bean Burger (top 8 free)

I have been making bean burgers for a long times. I always play with the ingredients and until today, I haven't found a keeper.  I finally came across THIS video by Emeril Green and have been blown away on how delicious this burger is. It never occurred to me to try making it with white beans, I have always made my burgers with black beans.

The video does not tell you measurements of anything so I pretty much just added as per my liking.  I also wanted to limit my work so I purchased one of those small containers of minced celery / carrot / onion containers from Trader Joes.  You can pretty much omit or add what ever ingredient you want (except for the beans and bread ingredient)

Ingredients...

• 1 can of white beans (completely drained)
• Minced garlic
• Minced onion
• Sweet bell pepper
• Minced carrot
• Minced Celery
• Salt
• Pepper
• White flour (I used panko.. but I'm sure anything GF will work also as long as it soaks up the moisture)
• Olive Oil

Directions...

• Mash the white beans with a fork and leave some of the texture
• Emeril does not cook the veggies first, but I did because I like them softer.
• Add the flour / panko / GF flour until the mixture becomes a bit sticky
• Mold into patties and cook until they start turning color.  
• Mine barely kept shape so next time I'll use a little more panko breading

I added some sliced avocados on top of the burger and made a sandwich (on 7 grain bread) and it was absolutely amazing!  Even my meat eating husband was enjoying it.  My son not so much. He gags from beans and acts like he is being poisoned. He has been tested for lentil / bean allergies and always comes back negative.  I'm assuming he just doesn't like the texture of beans.

I made so many bean burgers in the past and never attempted to make a bean burger out of white beans. So much tastier! and looks better also.

Thanksgiving dinner

I love thanksgiving. It's hosted in my house with just a few friends and family members. 7 Adults and 2 toddlers in total.  Best part about this day is that I am in charge of what is in the food.  I'm just hoping Aiden decides to try something new without it being dipped in "safe" chocolate.

Menu

Appetizer

Hummus

Stuffed mushrooms

Dinner

Turkey

Ham

Veggie patty (for myself since I don't eat meat)

Sides

Broccoli

Roasted asparagus

White potato dish
Sweet potato casserole (altered)

Roasted Carrots

Stuffing

Dessert

Apple crumb

Skinny Snickledoodles

Last years thanksgiving dinner..

Chocolate cake for one

Aiden is asleep, husband is at a concert and I'm 8 months pregnant. Soooo, I want something with chocolate now!

I recently came across this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie. She calls it a One-Minute Chocolate Cake.  I call it pure heaven. 

The preparation took me about 5 minutes and the cooking (microwave style) took about 40 seconds and eating it took about 60 seconds.

It was the most perfect moist cake I have every tasted. I can't believe it's allergy friendly and I can't wait to make it for Aiden tomorrow.

Recipe taken directly from Chocolate Covered Katie's blog

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons spelt flour (or white, or even peanut flour)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 stevia packet (or 1 more tablespoon sugar) - I skipped this
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or vegetable oil 
• 3 tablespoons nondairy milk of choice
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

{I completely missed the directions and just threw everything together (dry and wet ingredients) and whisked it for a little longer and it still came out perfect}

Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. Add liquid, stir, then transfer to a little dish, ramekin, or even a coffee mug. Microwave 30-40 seconds. If you don’t want to eat it straight out of the dish, be sure to spray your dish first (and then wait for it to cool before trying to remove it).

Here is my photo. After seeing Katie's photos, I'm determined to make mine better!

Chewy Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats

I wanted to make a new treat for Aiden. Something simple but not a cookie or a cake.  I decided to make Rice Krispy Treat.  I took the original recipe from the Rice Krispy website and jazzed it up a bit.


Lets name it...

Chewy Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats (sooo not original) 

• 2 T butter (I use milk/soy free earths best butter)
• 3 C marshmallows
• 1/2 C enjoy life chocolate chips
• 1 C Sun butter / Almond butter / Peanut butter
• 5 to 6 C Rice Krispy cereal (gluten free option)

Prep: Use a 9x9 dish or 12x10 dish. Depending how thick I want them to be.  Put was paper on bottom, covering all sides.

Prep: In a LARGE mixing bowl, add 5 cups of rice krispies and set aside.

Cook: In a large pan, melt butter.  Add marshmallows and chocolate chips and stir for a little bit until it starts to melt. Add sun butter/ almond butter/ peanut butter.  Stir until completely combined and marshmallows are stringy.

Combine: Add the marshmallow mixture into the rice krispies bowl and mix together for a minute until all combined (you may need to use your hands).  Add more rice krispies if needed but i like to keep it on the chewy side so I usually use only 5 cups.

Combine: Add the mixture to the dish and with a fork or hand press down on the mixture until it's evenly distributed. Don't forget the edges.  Cover the top with more wax paper.

Place in fridge for about an hour (or overnight) so it sets.

Cut in cubes and enjoy.. mmmm good!

Extra: you can melt couple of cups of enjoy life chocolate chips with some butter and pour on top to make a chocolate icing.

These were done in a 8x8 dish so they came out very tall.  I prefer them much thinner.

This recipe is so easy that you can just eye ball the ingredients and it still comes out delish.

After couple of times doing it, it takes me now about 10 minutes to do this treat.

Crapes gone wild

My Almond butter and jelly crapes were getting too boring so I changed it up a bit.

I added Almond butter (sun butter works great), Jelly, sliced bananas and enjoy life chocolate chips.  Roll the crape and put it back on the grill so that the chocolate chips melt.

Oh my world!  it's like desert!

A close up, just incase you missed the yumminess

Crapes with Jelly

I make this recipe all the times and the mixture can stay in the fridge for a couple of days so you can make the mixture and make crapes for a few days in a row. 

CRAPES
2 Ener-g Egg replacers
1 Cup of Flour
1 1/2 Cup of milk (I use Oats)
1 Tbsp Oil

Beat together and make like pancakes but much thinner.  I usually mess up my first crape and after the first one it goes smoothly.


I love my spray pump. I can put what ever oil I want into it and I know it's safe for Aiden. (Crate & Barrel)

Pour a small amount of mixture on the pan and spread it around by shifting the pan from side to side. It should be as even as possible.

Flip it.  You should know when to flip it if you can shift the crape by moving the pan.

Smear some jelly on one side and Almond butter or Peanut Butter or Sunbutter on the other side (or just jelly). 

Works well with apple sauce also.

Roll the crape...

Enjoy :)

Blueberry Muffins

One of my favorite recipes. Really easy and quick. I sometimes make them in the morning before Aiden is done with his breakfast.  And they freeze very well.  They have a very strong blueberry taste so you have to love blueberries to like these muffins.  

Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 Cup flour
1/2 Cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 Cup milk (I use oats because it's thicker)
1/4 Cup oil

1 Cup frozen blueberries

In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder.   Mix in milk and oil.  Fold in blueberries. 

350 degrees for 25 minutes

That's a whole lot of blueberries!!!!!!!

I am trying my hardest to find where I got this recipe so I can credit them. Once I will I will post it but until than, this is not my own recipe since I don't know how to mix anything together without guidance. 

Allergy Friendly Potato Skins

We started a recipe exchange on one of the Allergy forums that I spend most of my day on.  Below is the recipe I shared. Picture coming soon.

Jared and I went to a pub recently and I ordered potato skins and the first though that came to my mind was I can totally make these for Aiden.

INGREDIENTS
(Portion sizes are to your liking, you can't go wrong with putting too little or too much of anything)

Potatoes
Dayia cheddar cheese
Tomato (diced small)
Onion (diced small)
Plain "So Delicious" yogurt
Salt & Pepper
Diced steamed broccoli

DIRECTIONS
*Microwave or bake the potatoes (I like to microwave first because it's faster)
*Cool and cut in half
*Scoop out a little from the middle to create a boat shape
*Mix dayia cheese, tomato, onion, broccoli, scooped out potato
*Place mixture in the potato wedge
*Bake at 350 until cheese melted
*Sprinkle salt and pepper

you can add bacon or what ever else you like.  I also added some olive oil to the potato so it's more moist.

Almond Butter Balls

I took this from my photo blog.

Aiden lives on his Almond butter balls and it's so easy to use peanut butter or sun butter. Lately I've been including some strawberry jelly in the almond butter mixture for a bit of sweetness.

Almond butter cookies

If someone told me a few years ago that I would be creating a recipe, I would have laughed.  About a month ago I was looking for some cookie recipes using almond butter and couldn't find anything ideal. So I started playing around with a recipe and after a bunch of trial and errors I finally got it right, at least that's what my taste buds tell me.

These  cookies are pretty healthy and full of protein and my son adores them. You can either use peanut butter, almond butter or Sunflower butter, depending on you allergies. I have only tried these cookies using almond butter but plan on giving sunflower butter a try in the next few weeks.  obviously peanut butter is out of the question.

Allergy friendly almond butter cookies

1 1/2 C flour
1 C Almond butter
1/4 C oil
1/4 C sugar
1 t vanilla
1 plain "so delicious" yogurt
"enjoy life" Chocolate chips

In a stand mixer, add all ingredients and mix on low for two to four minutes.
Use an small ice cream scooper and place on an ungreased cookie sheet
Bake at 350° for 12 to 14 minutes
Let it cook before moving
enjoy.. mmmm 

Almond Butter Rice Crispy Treats

I found this recipe for the most amazing Almond Butter Rice Crispy Treats.

My recipe went a little different since I am not a fan of coconut.

This can be modified with sunflour butter or peanut butter

4 cups rice crisps cereal
3/4 cup creamy almond butter (not raw)
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup allergy friendly chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
1. Put rice crisps in a large bowl.
2. In a small saucepan heat almond butter, agave nectar and vanilla
3. Stir until smooth (about 2 minutes)
4. Pour over rice crisps and stir together
5. Add chocolate chips
6. In a square serving bowl, put parchment paper and transfer everything.
7. Press rice crisps into a square firmly and make sure it's evenly distributed and smooth the top.
8. Chill in refrigerator for a few hours
9. Lift the parchmant paper and cut into squares

Allergy Friendly Rice Balls

Allergy Friendly Rice Balls

1 c rice

1 ¼ c rice milk (soy/water is ok)

¼ c rice cheese (daiya) **

(if I don’t use cheese, I use almond butter)

¼ c steamed and pureed veggies **

1 t agave nectar **

½ t cinnamon **

1 c Crushed cereal or breadcrumbs (I use rice crisps or cheerios)

Cook the rice in rice milk (or water)

Stir in rice cheese (or almond butter)

Stir in veggies. I use carrots and broccoli. They should be as dry as possible.

Stir in agave nectar and cinnamon

Add ½ c crushed cereal (I use rice krispies) to the mix

Mix all together

Make small balls out of the mix

Roll the ball in the remainder of the crushed cereal.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes

**Optional (you can leave as much out or add pretty much anything to this)

This is such a versatile recipe. You can bake it, fry it, put it on a pan or toast it. You can add mushrooms, you can use brown rice, white rice or yellow rice.  You can play around with it being vegan or non-vegan.  I use specific ingredients because of my son’s allergies and he loves this!   You can add almond butter or peanut butter or sun flower butter.  Cheese or no cheese. Cereal or bread crumbs.

This is such a great way to add veggies to your child's diet.  Aiden just kept pooping them into his mouth. 

Quinoa with apples

I'm trying different recipes from Intolerant Offsprings and I made a modified version of the Hearty Quinoa with Apples. It was very easy to make and delicious in taste. Aiden seemed interested but not for long, which is a huge success that he even tried it and ate more than one spoon.

Here is my modified version of the recipe...


Serves 2-4


2 apples
olive oil
1 cup of veggies (carrots, peas, corn)
2 cups broth or water (i used water)
1 cup quinoa
cinnamon
2 tsp. brown sugar

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
• Slice apples and place them flat onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top. Bake for 8 minutes. Turn apples over and bake for an additional 5 minutes (or until really soft and slightly golden.)
• Make Quinoa: usually its 2 cups of water (or broth) and 1 cup of quinoa (check the box). I used a little extra water to make it softer. It's like making rice.
• Make veggies: I used frozen packaged veggie mix. I use the one that has chopped carrots, peas and corn inside. Cook these in a separate pan. 
• Combine the Quinoa and apples. Stir both together and then mash the apples (this way the quinoa gets all the flavors from the apples). Add the veggies and mix all together.
  

[Milk, Soy, Egg, Nut, Sesame FREE]