Buy one get one free...in a bad way

It has been an exciting time in our house with food allergies. My issues with milk have not been horrendous, that is, it could just be lactose intolerance or a mild allergy.

My girlfriend, however, has either developed a new allergy, or is finally showing signs that something new in our diet is an allergen. One of the ingredients in the Apple Buckwheat Muffins appears to be the culprit. If we look at only new additions to our diet, the most likely candidates for the reaction are buckwheat or agave syrup. I'm hoping it's the agave syrup, since we purchased the buckwheat flour to lower the wheat content in some of my baking projects to keep her from inducing a wheat allergy.

Add another one to the list

It started with a headache when I ate soft cheeses and cheese spread.

Then it was migraines.

Then it was migraines also with hard cheeses, but only if I ate too much.

On Saturday I got a migraine after eating a can of spaghettios, which apparently contains milk. Then I ate a granola bar with a milk-containing frosting drizzle (which was the only snack I had packed) and my face was flushed.

We already deal with a mild milk allergy by using rice milk and occasionally using rice cheese, but in general we use real milk products all the time...in granola bars, spice packets for boxed food, butter, chocolate chips, frozen pizza.

Looks like the shopping list just got more complicated.

Carrot Muffins

Sorry these took so long to post! So, through a random series of events, I ended up splitting a 50 lb bag of carrots with a friend. I still have carrots left after lots of chopping and freezing, but I thankfully have a ton of ideas for fun recipes to try out (or ruin as the case has been).

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 c sugar
• 1 1/4 c apple sauce
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 1/2 tsp egg replacer in 6 Tbsp rice milk or "3 eggs"
• 2 c flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 c grated carrots (After grating, I wrapped mine in cheese cloth and squeezed out a lot of the juice.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl combine all of the wet ingredients. Add the grated carrots and mix well. In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients and mix until combined. Transfer the dry ingredients to the large bowl and mix completely. Scoop into greased or papered muffin tins. I wanted smaller muffins, so I filled the muffin cups half full and made a total of 24. Bake 25 minutes.

For larger muffins, just fill the cups 2/3 to completely full. The baking time may need to be extended up to 5 minutes.

Carrot muffins and some upcoming experiments

I have a wonderful recipe for carrot cake muffins and some great pictures, which I will definitely post soon. I have also been checking out a new fun blog ( http://www.pure2raw.com/ ). A large portion of the food is not safe (lots of nuts), but the recipes have given me some fun ideas for nut-free, gluten-fee pie crusts and such :)

I'm still alive

I'm a bad blogger....I just don't have any recipes right now. I either haven't been baking, or I've been baking things that already have recipes posted. I will be back...

Pumpkin Bread :)

As soon as fall hit, I developed an obsession for baking with pumpkin. This is my adventure...

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp egg replacer in 1/4 c rice milk (equiv of 2 eggs)
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 1/4 c pumpkin puree (I used the canned pumpkin. NOT canned pie mix)
• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1/4 c rice milk
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp ginger

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and mix well. In a medium bowl combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients and transfer to a bread pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes.

it still makes me cringe

How do you respond to someone who works in food service when their opinion is that, "People over the age of 21 are adults and should be able to manage their allergies."

Re: serving peanuts and tree nuts in open bowls at a bar.

Eggplant Dip (or spread, take #2)

I think this is now officially a dip and not a spread.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 large eggplant or one small
• 1/4 sauteed onion
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pepper (black and red)
  
• 2 Tbsp chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut eggplant in half and place on greased cookie sheet, cut side down. Bake 40 minutes until soft and skin has started to wrinkle. Remove from oven, and let cool. Sautee onions and garlic with "one shake" of red pepper, transfer to blender or food processor, blend. Scoop out cooked eggplant, add to blender and puree. Mix in lime juice, salt, and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Stir in parsley.


We really like the flavor of the lime juice over the lemon, and leaving out the olive oil makes this almost fat free. This batch was much tastier.

Blueberry rolls

These came out heavenly :)

The dough and baking instructions are the same as for the Vegan Cinnamon Rolls. For the filling, I thawed 3 cups of frozen blueberries (drain well!) and smashed them up with a nice coat of honey.

DRAIN WELL

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls, Attempt #1

I'm REALLY happy with how the dough turned out for these. They were just not as cinnamon-y as I was hoping. I think using less applesauce in the filling, and putting down some loose cinnamon and sugar first would help a lot. I also think fresh fruit with a few drizzles of honey would make an amazing filling.

Ingredients:
Dough-

• 1 c rice milk
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 3 1/4 c flour
• 1 1/2 tsp yeast
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

Filling (this was way too much and way too goopy)-

• 1 c brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 c apple sauce

Dough-
Stir together milk and apple sauce, and microwave 1 minute. In a large bowl, combine 2 1/4 c flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and mix well. Add the warm milk/applesauce mixture and beat together. Add remaining flour in small portions. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and applesauce.

Roll dough out into a 12x9 rectangle. Spread filling over dough (you can also add other filling options such as raisins here if you like). Roll up the rectangle to give a 12 inch roll, and slice into 12 1-inch pieces.(The rolling did not work out so well here. The paper towels were my attempt at containing the cinnamon and sugar disaster.)

Place the individual rolls into a greased muffin tin and let rise for 30 minutes.



Heat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.

The rolls pictured have also been dipped in a glaze made by dissolving 1 1/3 c powdered sugar in 1 c warm rice milk.

Eggplant Spread

This is a recipe adapted from The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal. I left out a lot of the olive oil and the pomegranate seeds, but used more garlic and a little more onion.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 large eggplant or one small
• 1/4 sauteed onion
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut eggplant in half and place on greased cookie sheet, cut side down. Bake 45 minutes until soft and skin has started to wrinkle. Remove from oven, and let cool. In blender or food processor, combine minced garlic and onion and blend. Scoop out cooked eggplant, add to blender and puree. Mix in lemon juice, salt, and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Stir in olive oil and parsley.

Can be served with chips, crackers or on a sandwich. I'm thinking about making some flat bread to go with this, and about using cilantro instead of parsley.

i heart Cascadian Farm

Now that the most ridiculous weekend ever is almost over, and we have gotten past the heat wave, it may time to turn my oven on again. I have a huge mental list of things I would like to make and post.

For right now, I just wanted to say that the only thing that got us through the weekend were the vanilla and chocolate chip granola bars from Cascadian Farm. If I remember correctly they are not milk- or soy-free, but they are the first granola bar I have found that is peanut and nut free, and not processed in a facility or on equipment that is also available at a regular grocery store and tastes good! They were so good I went back and bought six more boxes.

Testing

Just added this blogger gadget to my igoogle page and wanted to see if it would work.

Wheat-Free Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

This is just based on the oatmeal cookie recipe that comes on the oatmeal box. I just made it vegan, used a non-wheat flour, and used cranberries instead of raisins.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c applesauce
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1/3 c granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 c Oat Bran Flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp Xanthan Gum
• 3 c dry oatmeal
• 1 1/2 c dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl combine Oat Bran Flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and Xanthan Gum and set aside. In a large bowl combine applesauce, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture to the large bowl and mix well. Stir in Oatmeal and cranberries. Transfer to a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until firm.

After these cooled, I cut them into ~12 large squares and bagged them for a healthy grab-and-go breakfast :)

Home-made Bug Repellent

I have been way too busy to bake anything new and get a post up, so I thought I would post this recipe for the bug repellent we use.

In 1 1/2 oz of your favorite unscented lotion, mix 10 drops citronella essential oil, 5 drops lemongrass oil, and 5 drops rosemary oil.

The lemongrass and rosemary can be adjusted to your preference, but this mixture works fantastically well (and is allergy safe for us!)

Gluten Free Blueberry Basil Cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 c brown rice flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 1 1/4 c vanilla rice milk
• 4 oz dried blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and soda, basil, xanthan gum and brown sugar in a large bowl. Cut in applesauce and press until it forms a fine meal. Add milk in small (1/4 cup) portions and mix well. Stir in dried blueberries. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake 20 minutes.

These came out amazing! Here's a link to the twitpic. More photos soon.

Gluten Free Rosemary Flatbread

Someone just happened to warm up peanut sauce (or something nutty) in the microwave by the vending machine just before we needed a snack to get us through until lunch. And we are now at home, my gf is passed out after downing a Benadryl, and I am stocking up our supply of allergy-safe snack foods.

This is a modified version of the recipe found here.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 c brown rice flour
• 1 tsp Xantham gum
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pepper and rosemary (or other herbs) to taste
• 2 c water
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Combine all ingredients and whisk until smooth. This combination was thicker than I was expecting...more like thick pancake batter and not thin like described in the original recipe. Heat oven to 450 degrees and let batter sit while it warms up. Spray a cookie sheet or pizza pan with olive oil and place in the oven until warm, then pour batter into pan, smooth out and return to the oven. Bake 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Enjoy!

vegan biscuits

Here is my attempt at making biscuits from a recipe similar to yesterday.

Ingredients:

• 2 c flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pinch of sugar
  
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 4 Tbsp canola oil (olive oil should work just fine too)
• 1/2 c rice milk with a splash of lemon juice

In a small bowl, mix applesauce, oil, and half of the salt (1/4 tsp) and chill.

Preheat oven to 415 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda and powder, salt and sugar and mix well. Add chilled applesauce/oil mixture and mash with a fork until it has the consistency of coarse meal. Add rice milk in small portions. Dump dough ball onto a floured counter top and roll out to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with a floured biscuit cutter and place cut dough onto a greased baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Pictures coming when I finish making these!

update: they are divine :)

cranberry orange scones and biscuits

I made both the scones and the biscuits out of one "batch" of dough in order to get the most out the flour I had left, and to keep us from getting FAT from eating all of these :)

Ingredients

• 2 c flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Pinch of sugar
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 3 T olive oil
• 2 T butter
• 1/4 c rice milk with a splash of lemon juice
• 1/4 orange juice
• 2 T honey
• 1/4 c dried cranberries

In a small bowl, melt 2 T butter and stir in the olive oil and applesauce. Chill mixture in the fridge until solid. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Measure dry ingredients into two separate bowls. Split all of the ingredients evenly except for the sugar. In the bowl that will be biscuits, add only a small pinch of sugar. In the bowl that will be scones, add two large pinches.

Cut the solid butter/oil/applesauce mixture in half and place one half into the biscuit bowl. Squirt ~2 T honey into the other half of the butter/oil/applesauce and mix well before adding to the scone bowl.

Mash the flour and butter together with a fork until it forms a course meal.

To the biscuit bowl, add the rice milk with lemon juice a little bit at a time and mash together. If it is too wet, sprinkle a little flour and continue mixing. Roll out the dough onto a floured countertop and cut with a biscuit cutter. I have a fairly large biscuit cutter so I got 4 large biscuits out of this dough. Transfer the dough to a greased baking sheet.


To the scone bowl, add the orange juice a little bit at a time and mash together. If it is too we, sprinkle a little flour and continue mixing. Fold in dried cranberries. Divide the dough into 4 pieces with a fork and transfer to a greased baking sheet.

Bake 14 minutes or until golden brown.

Thoughts about this recipe:

Baking at a higher temp may make the biscuits and scones more dense and crunchy....or leaving out the baking soda and using only baking powder.



Orange juice did not give the scones a strong enough flavor. I may need to use orange juice from concentrate and orange zest.

Also, I know that these are not vegan :( I am going to try this recipe without the butter and am optimistic about the results. So far, there is not a soy-free butter substitute that we can use. (The latest one uses pea protein which makes it an allergy no-no.)

the search for rice flour

Recently I have had a hankering to try baking with rice flour. I started my search at the grocery store because they had a wide variety of non-wheat flours that I wanted to try. I grabbed a package of Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Flour, checked the ingredients (of course) and went on my merry way.

A few days later, I pulled out the package to test it out, and found the allergy label hidden at the bottom of the package, completely away from the ingredients, stating the flour was processed in a facility with tree nuts :(

Today, though, I found rice flour from Ener-G Foods which was not outrageously expensive and is free of the following allergens: gluten, wheat, casein, dairy, egg, corn, yeast, soy, potato, peanut, tree nut. :)

Now, I just have to come up with a fun recipe to submit to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness Online Recipe Box...