Not Much Time..

for posting recipes or trying new things in the kitchen. Lots of other stuff happening that needs my full attention, so when it comes to kitchen chemistry, I'm *coasting* on the "tried and true" this week. I may actually take the easy way out and get Thai take-out from a local restaurant tonite. They have been absolutely awesome in learning the boys' dietary challenges and respecting my instructions regarding food preparation and contamination.

I don't advocate for eating foods not prepared in your own kitchen when you have children with complicated food issues like mine. It is a risky proposition. But I've been getting food (sticky rice, chicken satay, chicken coconut soup - no soy, no peanut sauce, no peanut oils, no MSG, no ginger, no garlic, etc etc etc) for close to 3 years now, and I have never ever had a problem.

Allergy Grocery Fresh Baked Goods

I am soooo disappointed..

I am currently on the Allergy Grocery mail order web site (as I need to restock a few flour mixes I use frequently), and I got so excited when I saw their announcement for their new fresh baked goods with a picture of a pile of gorgeous looking bagels.

So of course I immediately drilled down into the ingredients, begging the Universe that, just for once, all ingredients used would be a match with the boys dietary requirements.

See, Potatey doesn't really miss bread at all.. he never really was exposed to breads much. But Salamander does remember (and miss) our Sunday morning breakfast jaunts to the local bagel place (this was before Potatey was born and before I realized the extent of Salamander's digestive issues), and I would have so much liked to be able to surprise him with a bagel treat.

But alas.. no such luck. Here are the ingredients:
White rice flour, non GMO modified tapioca starch, water, GF yeast, unrefined cane sugar, non GMO canola oil, guar gum, salt.

While the fact that yeast is used is not ideal, we have gotten to a point that the boys digestive systems can now handle a little yeast on a very infrequent basis. Canola oil however continues to be absolute poison for Salamander. Why, oh why could they not have used safflower or sunflower oil.... Ya think I should write them and ask that question?

Honey Suckles

LINKY THINGIES ADDED - SORRY FOR CONFUSION

Just discovered Honey Suckles on one of my favorite mail order websites, Digestive Wellness!!!!

Every year, after the boys and I come back from our annual apple picking adventure, we stop by at this little farm stand that sells organic honey, organic fruit jellies, wonderful Indonesian spices, Sambal, loempias, etc.

And every year I buy the boys a few honey suckles, at $2 a piece (yes, ouch ...).

So imagine my delight (and the boys are super excited as well; they were looking over my shoulder as I was ordering) finding them at a much more *palatable* price!!!!!

These will make great, every once and a while, additions to the lunch boxes too...

Chocolate Brittle

This one went over really well with Salamander. Not so much with Potatey - he really is a food purist. As in, do not mix different foods and textures together. As in, make a dish that's based on one food, and one food only.

1 bag Enjoy Life GFCFSF chocolate chips
1/2 tsp safflower oil
1/2 cup organic blanched almonds
1/2 cup organic whole cranberries
1/2 cup organic Thompson raisins
1/2 cup organic red flame raisins
couple of tbs spoons of pignolia nuts
couple of tbs shelled organic pistachio nuts

Grease (I use Spectrum Cooking Spray) an 8 x 8 inch Pyrex glass dish.

Put almonds, cranberries, raisins, pignolia nuts and pistachio nuts in a bowl and mix

Pour chocolate chips in microwave safe container, and mix thoroughly with oil. Put in microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue to melt chocolate chips in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds.

Once chocolate chips are fully melted, stir in fruit/nut mixture. Spread chocolate mixture out in greased Pyrex glass dish into about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick layer.

Place in fridge to allow mixture to set up.

Remove chocolate brittle from dish and break in small pieces.

Delicata Squash...

Am about to start experimenting with Delicata Squash... will let you all know how things turned out..

Things are turning out very, very well... I fully admit I am not a huge big squash fan (and I am going to have to change that as my farming co-op has a bumper crop of winter squash in all kinds of varieties this year), but the Delicata Squash is DELICIOUS!!!!

Unfortunately, the boys weren't too keen on it. Potatey took one bit and flat out rejected it. Salamander ate most of what I gave him for lunch, but finally "confessed" that he gave it a "40/60" (as in he liked it 40%, but didn't like it 60%). Ah well, you can't win 'em all..

I'm going to post the recipe anyway...

1 delicata squash
olive oil
garlic salt, pepper
1.5 cup pear juice
1 cup water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar


Peel squash with vegetable peeler (not as easy as it sounds - the skin of the delicata is quite thick; it took me about 25 - 30 minutes to completely peel the darn thing..)

Cut lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Cut each piece again in half lengthwise, and then crosswise in 1/2 inch thick pieces.

Coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil. Add garlic salt and pepper. Let mixture oil/spice mixture come to temperature on medium heat (you'll see some bubbles in the oil).

Add squash pieces and stir fry at high heat for about 5 minutes. Add pear juice, water, cider and a little more salt. Stir. Cook for 20 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, on medium heat at an even boil until the pear juice is starting to boil in and the squash is getting soft. Then cook for another 10 minutes on high heat until the pear juice is boiled down to a glaze and the squash is tender (you can cut it with a fork). Taste and season with additional salt or pepper as needed.

Serve warm (although it's pretty tasty cold too).

Match Me If You Can...

I had made myself the promise that I wasn't going to mix the purposes of my two blogs up. But as I am getting a sense that I may be getting hits here that I am not getting on my main blog, I am going to make an exception. And the only reason is that I feel very strongly about this particular cause. So if you dropped in here directly, please check out this post on my other blog.

And match me if you can...

So Sorry..

for not having posted any new recipes. Not that I don't have more stuff to put up, I just haven't had the time (it's one thing to put a quick, rambling, blog post, but quite another to put up a recipe that can actually be replicated!!).

That being said, Salamander did thoroughly enjoy a few twists I made last night to his dinner salad.

I replaced the lettuce with baby spinach
And I added pignolia nuts
(and I had ran out of grapes, but he wasn't missing them at all)

The grin that broke out on his face, when he discovered the pignolia nuts, was priceless.

And oh, yes, I DID make chocolate cupcakes using this mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen (Potatey was in hog heaven.. ).

Tasty Chicken Tenders

I made these in the same skillet as I had just used for the baked apple.

9 chicken tenders (but you can use how ever many you want)
almond oil
salt
Garam Masala (Indian Spice)
agave syrup

Coat large skillet with almond oil. Add chicken tenders. Sprinkle chicken tenders with salt and Garam Masala. Stir fry at high heat until chicken is slightly browned. Turn chicken frequently. Drizzle agave syrup over the chicken.

Let cook at low to medium heat until chicken fully cooked and evenly browned on both sides.

(Salamander ate a few with dinner. I am sure the left overs will be great in a salad, or as a protein in tomorrow's lunch box)

Baked (fried?) Apple

Growing up, my mom used to make baked apple as part of Sunday Dinner. I have not been able to replicate her exact recipe. I came up with my own tasty variation instead.

4 small to medium sized apples (It's apple season in New England right now, so I plenty apples laying around); skinned, cored, quartered and sliced
almond oil (sunflower oil works too)
agave syrup
handful of organic cranberries
handful of organic raisins

Coat the bottom of a large skillet with almond oil.
Put raisins and cranberries in skillet. Keep it all at medium to high heat and let the fruit *toast* for a bit.

Add the apple slices. and let *toast* at medium heat for about 10 minutes. As apple slices start to get soft and slightly browned, turn heat to low. Drizzle agave syrup over the fruit mixture.

Let *toast*/*poach* for another 10 - 15 minutes at low heat (do flip the apple slices over frequently).

Salamander ate about 1/3 of what I made for dinner. I am sure that the left overs will be great with breakfast.

(if I were able to use cinnamon and walnuts, I would have added those. But alas)

Beef and Vegetable Stew

I'll admit it.. I am very much a *Jewish/Italian mother*... when I am upset or emotionally off kilter, I take refuge in the kitchen. And yesterday afternoon I definitely was upset...

So I worked on tweaking my beef and vegetable stew recipe. Salamander LOVED the end result (as in, cleaned off every last bit). His words? "The Quality Control Department gives this a double thumbs up." Have I mentioned yet that I adore this kiddo?

Making this stew definitely takes time. But most of the time is simmer time, and yes, you can walk away and do other stuff (I do).

Beef chuck or stew meat
Pacific Natural Foods Free range Chicken Broth
garlic salt
pepper
Garam Masala (Indian spice)
Sambhar Curry Powder (Indian spice)
Ketchup (I use my own)
Handful Baby carrots
Handful Frozen peas
4 tbs kidney beans
Handful frozen green beans

In medium sauce pan, pour about 1 inch of chicken broth. Add cubed beef. Add garlic salt, pepper, pinch of Garam Masala, pinch of Sambhar Curry, 3 tbs of ketchup. Mix it all up thoroughly.

Simmer the beef/broth/spice mixture, first at medium then at low heat, for 1.5 to 2 hours, until the beef is soft and tender. The broth/spice mixture will thicken. If it gets too thick, feel free to add some water.

Remove the beef from the broth/spice mixture and set aside.

Add another 1 inch of chicken broth, and an addition 3 tbs of ketchup. Add baby carrots and frozen peas and bring all back to a boil. Cook on high for about 15 minutes (you want to soften the carrots).

Add kidney beans. Turn mixture down to medium heat (beans will actually help thicken the stew mixture).

Add beef back in mixture. Add frozen green beans.

Cook on low to medium heat for another 10 - 15 minutes.

Serve hot. I didn't have any tapioca buns available yesterday, but next time, I may try making garlic bread out of a toasted and sliced tapioca bun, spectrum shortening and garlic salt.

(oh, and I used the left over kidney beans to make Salamander his baked beans for today. I let them sit overnite in my usual ketchup/honey mixture, and then cooked it all up for lunch today)

Salamander's Salad

3 to 4 leaves of green lettuce, shredded
3 to 4 leaves of arugula lettuce, shredded
handful of organic walnut halves
handful of organic dried cranberries
2 grilled chicken tenders; sliced and diced
1/2 apple; peeled, cored, sliced and diced
15 green or red seedless grapes

Mix the shredded lettuces, walnut halves, cranberries and chicken together in a salad plate (or a small bowl). Sprinkle with cracked pepper and dried or fresh parsley. Serve diced apple and grapes on the side (Salamander likes to toss these into his salad himself).

For a salad dressing, I make my own using Hains Lite Safflower Mayonnaise, mixed with a little olive oil and some dried parsley. We also discovered Maple Grove Farms of Vermont All Natural Maple Fig dressing (I'll add a linkie thingie as soon as blogger will let me) this week, and Salamander tried it tonite. So far, so good.

What Do The Boys Drink....

Truthfully? Mostly water.... filtered water (I have a filtration system on my water supply) or Penta water.

Potatey also drinks Apple Juice - Stop & Shop's (yes, a *local* grocery store chain) Nature's Promise Organic Apple Juice (no calcium added, no vit C added - my boys DO NOT tolerate anything that has calcium added - they go kooky)

Salamander drinks the Simply brand juices - Lemonade, Limeade, and Orange Juice (again, no Calcium added); he gets these diluted with Penta water.

My boys do not really drink milk. And no, they are not calcium deficient. They both take vit D, vit K and chamomile supplements. And together with the calcium they take in from their food (think leafy green veggies), we are doing just ducky in the calcium department.

We do use almond milk or hazelnut milk for cereal, baking and pancake batter.

Turkey Sandwich

Salamander likes one of these, especially when I have made soup (soup and a sandwich).

1 Tapioca Bun (we like the Ener-G Tapioca Hamburger Buns)
Couple of Slices of Deli Turkey (we recently discovered Hormel Natural Choice Oven Roasted Deli Turkey - yes, a few of the ingredients are less than ideal, BUT the boys don't get this every day. Rotation, rotation, rotation...)
1 tbs Mayonnaise (I use the Hains Lite Safflower Mayonnaise)
Couple of Lettuce Leaves
4 strips Orange (or Yellow or Red) Bell Pepper

Salamander likes to build his own sandwich, so I make sure he has all the ingredients, and then he *goes to town*.

On Seafood....

I am sure many are going to crinch in horror, but yes, I DO feed my boys fish.

No shellfish though.. off limits for Salamander, and momma doesn't do too good with it either.. which is really too bad, as I LOVED steamed muscles at one point in my life. I also ate fish and seafood through pretty much my entire pregnancy with Salamander (hey, he's from the years when obgyns recommended that you ate tuna fish at least once a week - and I was friggin' clueless) .. until the last trimester that was, when out of the blue, the smell of Friday's clam chowder in the work cafeteria made me run faster than any 7 month pregnant woman should be running... interesting eh?

Anyway, back to fish. My boys will have wild caught Salmon probably once a month. I will NOT feed them farmraised fish. On occasion, they'll also eat flounder, cod fish, or mahi mahi.

Buckwheat Pancakes

This is a recipe the boys' dad came up with, so it contains more sugar than I would have liked. But at once a week, it's probably OK. I just haven't had a chance yet to figure out the right amount of honey or agave syrup to replace the sugar with.

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/8 cup egg replacer
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
water as needed for consistency

The boys tell me that all ingredients get dumped into a mixing bowl and mixed together until it's a nice slurry. Sometimes some *safe* cocoa or a handful of chocolate chips get tossed in too.

This batter makes a BIG batch of pancakes, so there are typically plenty left overs for Friday's lunch boxes (as a sandwich substitute), and sometimes even for Friday's dinner.


If you make the batter thinner, you end up with pancakes that are more crepe like. Potatey loves taking *jelly roll-ups* to school for lunch. Take one of the crepe like pancakes, spread on a thin layer of organic fruit jelly (WFM 365 brand has several very tasty jellies), and roll it up nice and tight. I do place each roll-up individually in a plastic ziploc bag BEFORE placing it inside Potatey's lunch container, as, well, unrolling does happen....

You can place sliced turkey, or sliced ham on these too, and then they make perfect *sandwiches* for the lunchbox (neither of my boys is missing *regular* bread, so there isn't a huge need for what looks like a *real* sandwich ...pancakes and waffles work really well here as a bread substitute)

Meatballs

I use a 1 to 1 blend of organic ground beef and organic ground turkey. You can adjust, or use different ground meats to your preference. For a while, I was using ground buffalo instead of ground beef

1 package ground beef
1 package ground turkey
salt
pepper
3 tbs ketchup (I use my own ketchup).

Blend beef, turkey, salt, pepper, ketchup well in a food processor. Roll into balls.

I either cook these in a large skillet, or I cook them in the oven. Depends on how much time I have, what else I may already have in the oven, on the stove top etc.

If I want to use the meatballs for a pasta dish, or as a side to mashed potatoes, I like them to be a little more crispy, so I will fry/bake the meatballs in some olive oil. If you decide to do that, you got to keep an eye on things and keep rotating the meatballs, or they'll burn.

If I want to use the meatballs for a soup, I will cook the meatballs in about one (1) inch of Pacific Natural Organic Free Range Chicken Broth (I use both the regular and the low sodium one - depends on how well stocked the store is).

Typically, the boys will be little piggies over these on the day that I make them. Left overs get stored in a, you guessed it, glass Pyrex bowl in the fridge, and get used up over the course of the week. The boys don't mind eating them cold, so I use them for their protein in the lunch boxes.

Baked Beans

Salamander LOVES baked beans, but as legumes are a high glutamate food, we do need to be careful. But I'll typically try to make him these *Baked Beans* once a week.

My version is a stove top version, haven't developed a good oven based version yet.

I use canned organic kidney beans (either the light ones or the medium red ones - while the dark red ones are yummy, they may just tip the glutamate/salicylate scale too much), or canned organic pinto beans. I am sure you can use dried beans (which you will need to soak then) as well.

1 can organic beans
1/2 cup ketchup (I use my own ketchup for this)
1 tbs honey or agave syrup
Pepper, salt to taste

Mix beans, ketchup and honey in a medium sized sauce pan. Simmer over medium to low heat for about 45 minutes, until the beans are nice and soft and the flavors are all well blended. And viola. Done.

If I have them, I'll serve these beans with uncured, antibiotic free, etc etc beef hotdogs.

I am very very picky on my beef hotdog brands; the Applegate Uncured Organic Beef Hotdogs have consistently worked well for us. Quite a few of the other GFCF etc approved version, both Applegate and from others, have triggered projectile vomiting out here.. I don't think it has anything to do with the hotdogs, it's just that my boys' stomachs and intestines are, well, what can I say....

The thing is, these hotdogs are uncured, so they don't keep long. When I buy a pack (typically during a raid of a WFM), I make sure that I used them all up within a 3 to 4 day period. I tried buying in bulk and freezing. Doesn't work. Boys inevitably get stomach upsets, including vomiting, from frozen and then defrosted hotdogs. Again, I don't think it has anything to do with the hotdogs themselves....

Ketchup....

Especially Potatey LOVES ketchup... and any gluten free, soy free, dairy free etc free store bought ketchup I would bring into the house would inevitable become the PRIME staple of what he would eat. EVERYTHING would get doused in ketchup. And I have no idea why (maybe the sweeteners? maybe some traces of corn?)

So I started making my own. And lo and behold, Potatey still likes his ketchup, but it is now truly a condiment/side -dish, NOT the main course.

I either use 2 cans of Muir Glen Organic Chunky Tomato Sauce (28 oz), or 4 cans of Muir Glen Organic Tomato Sauce (15 oz can). If I use *the chunky*, I run it throw the blender first so it becomes a nice, smooth paste (yes, defeats the purpose of chunky, but this is what I do).

I pour either the blended 2 cans of *chunky* or the 4 cans of *not chunky* in a large cooking pot (I am sure a crock pot would work too, haven't tried that yet).

I add 1 table spoon of Spectrum unpasteurized Apple Cider Vinegar, some salt and pepper (and if I have them, a few bay leaves), stir it all in and then I'll let the mixture bowl down and simmer (first at medium heat to get it going and then at low heat) for about 1 to 2 hours. You'll end up with a nice, thick sauce.

Once it's boiled down, I add two table spoons of honey. And a little more salt and pepper, as needed, to taste.

Voila, ketchup is ready. I make a batch probably once every 5 to 6 days. And I put the ketchup in glass jars and store it in my fridge. I should probably can the stuff properly, but as I go through it fairly quickly, I haven't had a batch go bad yet.

[I am currently experimenting with making ketchup from fresh tomatoes. I'll post the recipe once I have it together. One thing I CAN already share; you need a juicer if you decide to use fresh tomatoes]

Almond Flour Waffles

I have tried many many many versions of this recipe without the eggs in a futile attempt to make an egg free waffle recipe, but alas, you NEED eggs to make good waffles. BUT if you replace the eggs in this recipe with 1 - 1.5 cups of apple or pear sauce, the batter will make BEAUTIFUL pancakes (that's what I did in our egg free days).

Because the recipe calls for a lot of eggs, my boys only get these waffles twice a week (almond flour is part of their rotation too).

Recipe adapted from Cooking to Heal Little Tummies - Jenna Roberts & Natalie Hagood

3 eggs
3 egg yolks
water
2 cups almond flour (I LOVE the stuff that is sold by this website - they have lots of other good stuff too)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp gluten free vanilla extract
2 tbs honey


In mixing bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolks well. As I pitch the egg whites of 3 of the eggs, I add a few table spoons of water to get a nice consistency mixture (yes, there is a bit of an art to this).

Add honey and vanilla and beat well.

Add almond flour, salt, baking soda and mix until smooth. The final texture should resemble a thinner yogurt like consistency. As I said there's a bit of an art to this. If my mixture is too thick, I'll add a little more water or a splash of mango puree (if I have it, I get the mango puree from the same website)

Now making gluten free waffles is tricky. And I've burned out and gunked up many a cheapo waffle iron. After gunking up several, I finally spent a big chunk of cash on a super duper Cuisinart waffle maker. And this is the ONLY waffle iron I haven't gunked up so far (yes, you DO need to clean it after you're done baking.. these waffles ARE a bit crumbly, and a build up of crumbs WILL make negatively affect the next batches you make.

If all this shies you away from trying to make waffles (it took quite a bit of practice for me, but then again, when I started our dietary intervention journey I was a really, really lousy cook), you can use the same batter to make awesome pancakes.

I heat up my waffle iron. I have mine on setting 4. And I let the alarm go off twice, so the waffle iron is nice and hot.

I do use a little cooking spray to prevent the waffles from sticking (I tried without.. no go). I use Spectrum GrapeSeed Spraying Oil (I also have their Olive Oil Spray). Be careful which flavor Spraying Oil you pick up.. all the other ones have ingredients that we need to avoid..

Pour about 1 - 1.5 cup of the batter in the waffle iron. I use a spatula to spread the batter evenly over the waffle iron, the stuff does not spread that well on its own.

Close the waffle iron and let the waffles cook. The original recipe says that the waffles cook very quickly. As I adapted the recipe to suit my needs, I have found that to be NOT the case. So I let the waffles sit in the waffle iron until the alarm has gone off twice.

The waffles are a bit fragile, so you need to remove them carefully from the iron.

The batter makes about 12 waffles. The boys usually polish off about 3 each for breakfast (it's their special Sunday morning breakfast treat). Which then leaves me with 6 waffles that they'll eat on Tuesday for breakfast, and for sandwiches in Tuesday's lunch box. I store the left over waffles in another Pyrex glass dish in the fridge.

[can you tell that I LOVE Pyrex glass dishes? I also own a set of their olden days cooking pots (long live eBay). Love 'em, love 'em. Yes, I do cook in stainless steel pots too, but anything that needs slow cooking or prolonged simmering goes into to the glass pots. While stainless steel is pretty inert (as in nothing comes off), some stuff DOES come off, and we have enough toxicity issues to content with]

Ice Cream (Egg based)

This recipe needs a LOT of eggs, so it's a once a week/two table spoons kind of treat for my boys. Salamander misses real ice cream, and he says that this comes as close to the real thing as ever. Potatey never had real ice cream, so this is IT for him.

I've also been told that this recipe works well when replacing the eggs by coconut milk. I have NOT tried that myself (as coconut is off limits for Potatey).

Recipe adapted from Cooking to Heal Little Tummies - Jenna Roberts & Natalie Hagood

4 eggs - yolks split from egg whites
2 extra egg whites (so 6 egg whites total)
pinch of salt
1/4 cup safflower oil
1/4 cup honey

For mint/chocolate chip version (Salamander's fav):
1/2 tsp gluten free mint extract
1/4 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

For chocolate version (Potatey's fav):
1/2 tsp gluten free vanilla extract
1/4 cup chocolate fudge (I make my own - recipe will be posted too)

I have an ice cream maker, and I always keep two freezer bowls in my chest freezer so I can just *grab and go*. Make sure, if you have an ice cream maker, that the freezer bowl has at least been frozen over nite. If you don't have an ice cream maker, I've been told that freezing a glass container (like a Pyrex bowl) works too.

Beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until completely stiff (my test is to put the bowl upside down to see if anything falls out - boys get a tremendous kick out of that). Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs yolks, the oil, the honey, the mint extract OR the vanilla extract (depending on what flavor I am making). Slowly add this mixture to the egg whites and fold in.

Pour it all into the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker. Turn the ice cream maker on and let spin for at least 40 minutes (mixture will become very gooey and creamy - I kid you not). Alternately, you can pour it all in your frozen glass bowl and place the bowl in the freezer over nite.

I add the chocolate chips or the chocolate fudge once the ice cream maker has been running for about 30 minutes. Then I scoop the ice cream mixture in a glass bowl (I have several Pyrex glass bowls - I do NOT like to freeze anything in plastic), and place it in the freezer for at least 4 hours (the mixture will get a little soft as you're scooping out of the ice cream maker bowl - once you put it all in the freezer, it'll set up beautifully).

Alternately, you can omit the chocolate chips and/or add very finely chopped fruits or fruit juice (use the frozen juices - they have the right consistency).

We all LOVE this ice cream here. BUT it doesn't transport well (the stuff starts to melt and then separates within 5 - 10 minutes after taking it out of the freezer). So it's very much a *serve at home* treat.

Easy Mashed Potatoes

Easy, quick and yummy

Potatoes is one of the starches in our 7 day rotation. I try to stay with the Yellow Yukon potatoes as much as I can (if my very fuzzy brain serves me right, I think that particular potato *species* has a fairly low oxalate content).

Skin 6 to 7 medium sized Yellow Yukon potatoes

Half, and then quarter, and boil them in water until they are soft and easily break apart when you stick them with a fork

Drain most of the cooking water of the potatoes, but leave a little

Mash them up (you'll use that little bit of cooking water you left to make a smooth mixture)

Add olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley to taste.

These mashed potatoes also make a great base for Shepard's Pie. Yes, THAT will be a separate recipe post...(oh, I am SUCH a tease..)

Coconut Yoghurt and Ice Cream

Adding a quick link to an interesting exchange of information regarding Coconut Yoghurt. Haven't tried it myself... It would be a no go for Potatey (Coconut is a no-no), but I am seriously considering it for Salamander..

Yes, yes.. more recipes need to go up. I have stacks and stacks of notes, but no time to type them all out!! I did do some more work on our 'problem foods' list and on the list of books that helped me a lot in figuring out the boys' diets.

I hope to be able to wrap up on a paying work project tomorrow mid day, and get a few school related things taken care of tomorrow afternoon (I need to get the boys' art supplies to their schools.. ART SUPPLIES CAN BE HIDDEN SOURCE OF FOOD ALLERGENS). If all goes according to plan (bwahahahahaha.. does it ever??), I should have some time on Friday to just *play* with this blog...

Stay tuned (and I appreciate your patience)

Easy Snack Bars..

Yes, yes, I DO resort to snack/granola type bars for the boys' lunch boxes (just not every day).

Favorites here are:

ANDI chocolate shake bars (boys get a bar each twice a week)

Enjoy Life Caramel Apple Bar (rotate that one too; although if it were up to Potatey he's have one very day)

Enjoy Life Very Berry Bar (another rotation)

For a while, Salamander was very in to the Enjoy Life Cocoa Loco Bars. Not so much anymore, have no idea why...

The Enjoy Life chewy chocolate chip cookies and double chocolate brownie cookies are really good too; I have half the kids in my street raiding my house for these cookies. And I don't think the parents of said kids realize that these cookies are allergen-free (you know how *outsiders* are when you mention allergen free foods to them; their immediate response is 'oh, there can't be much taste to that stuff.' WRONG!!)

I have tried many other brands of allergen free bars as well, but the boys keep going back to the above.

Easy Pancakes

Another quick mix that I like to use is Cherrybrook Kitchen's Glutenfree Pancake Mix (my local Shaw's carries it.. they have a pretty decent allergen-free groceries section.. not in the least due to the vocal praise of yours truly when the first products appeared on the shelf in this store).

The pancakes resulting from this mix are very fluffy and very stackable. Salamander still remembers his pre-dietary changes jaunts to our local IHOP (kid has a memory like a copper pot) -and the first thing out of his mouth when I plopped these pancakes in front of him was "Oh man, it's an IHOP pancake stacker!!!" Now mind you, he hasn't seen an IHOP from the inside in 4+ years!!!!

The ingredients are
White rice flour, evaporated cane juice, potato starch, non-aluminum (very important to us) baking powder, tapioca starch, all natural vanilla flavor (yeah, some Feingold kids have trouble with even the all natural flavors - salicylates; I think I read somewhere that all natural flavors also contain glutamates), sea salt, xantham gum

I use Pacific Brand Original Almond Milk as my milk sub (yes, that one contains soy lecithin.. this particular soy derivative is not an issue for us TG ; believe me, I tested it very carefully). But you can use any milk sub you like I would think. Other things you'll need to add are a little oil and some vanilla.

Serve with agave syrup. Yum, Yum.. Salamander usually eats them faster than I can bake them

(Potatey doesn't care much for these pancakes - he likes my *home grown* potato flour pancake recipe better.. I'll post that one as soon as I have more time)

Easy Brownies

Couple of quick teasers.. as I am in between projects and need to do something FUN for a few minutes.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Namaste Brownie Mix. TG my WFM carries it (but I see that the Namaste website allows buying in bulk.. hmm, not a bad idea for Bday parties and class room parties)

Here are the ingredients (yes, it DOES contain rice. Salamander is fine with rice, I need to limit it for Potatey. That's why rice is part of my 7 day starch rotation):

Organic evaporated cane juice, sweet brown rice flour, Dutch cocoa, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, salt, and xanthan gum.

The mix calls for adding eggs, water and oil. Salamander was egg free for almost 2 years, but now eggs are back in (but only once a week). I have made this mix in the past using 1 cup of apple sauce of 1 cup of pear sauce. When you do that, the brownies are not quite as gooey (and Potatey likes his brownies gooey), they are a little more *bread* like. Still delish though..

Oh, Salamander and I also adapted a recipe from a kids' cook book (published by US Borne, I posted about the book itself on the OurTravelsInBiomedland blog). I need to find my notes back, and once I do I will post that recipe too.

It Has Been Suggested...

that perhaps I should create a separate section under my OurTravelsInBiomedland blog to post all of my kitchen chemistry experiments (also known as recipes.. LOL). And I happen to agree with this suggestion wholeheartedly.

Now it's gonna take me a while to get all my recipes up. And I also have to figure out a way to make this particular blog searchable (as the chemistry experiments will get posted helter skelter in whatever order they happen to have seen *the light*).

Bottom line, this blog is under construction. Stuff will be added as I have time (Jeanne, stop snickering!!).