Sweet Potato chips

I'm always excited to find new foods that Abigail can eat (she's got the allergies, lots of them). SO when I find one on SALE I usually have to try it.. Well here was one that we tried and I have to say, THEY ARE HORRIBLE!! As Abigail said after tasting just one "mom, these are just NAaaaassttty" They sound like a good idea, but Sweet Potato chips it turns out, are NOT... I guess we will stick with pretzels for now!!

Homemade Larabars

I was suppose to post this a few days ago, but what can I say. I'm a busy women!!

So my MIL found some really great bars at Sam's club and got excited and had to tell me about them. You see, they are all natural foods, and my daughter with all the allergies can have them. I admit, they are pretty good, but they are also pretty expensive, even at Sam's Club. So my SIL decided to do some research and found some recipes online. There are many sites about making homemade Larabars. This one is my favorite:

http://enlightenedcooking.blogspot.com/2008/02/home-made-lara-bars-energy-bars-part-3.html

The basic idea is it's all a mixture of nuts and dried fruit. You can add spices to add more flavor. The basic proportion is 1/2 c dried fruit to 1/3 c. nuts.

Of course I LOVE creative recipes, and had to experiment. I bought a variety of nuts and fruit and tried a few. The first priority was to use up some prunes I had. So I made some Mixed berry and peanut ones

5 prunes (1/4 c.)
1/4 c. Mixed berries N Cherries
1/3 c. Peanuts.

They tasted pretty good, so we chilled them for later.

The second ones I made were even BETTER (I did some tastes test with friends lol)

3 prunes (all I had left)
1/3 c cherries (basically just enough to make 1/2 c. of fruit)
2/3 c. Cinn. Roasted Almonds (I did more than the 1/3 c, since the cinn and crunchy outside took up more space than just plain almonds)

These were the favorite. They were really yummy.

I found some dried apples and am going to try some apple pie flavored ones, I will add some cinn and maybe cashews?? I'm not sure which nut. My SIL did some with peanuts and cherries and they taste JUST like PB&J.. If you can't find some dried fruit, you can always dry them yourself. That way you won't have the extra sugar they add to the store ones too. SO to make it simple, here's the steps.

1. find some dried fruits and nuts

2. In your food processor (my SIL used her meat grinder) process the fruit first. Till it's mush. Remove the clump, but don't scrap the blades or bowl. Put the fruit aside in a bowl.

3. Process the nuts, till crushed into small pieces. Add any spices you wish to the nuts.

4. Mix the two parts together

5. form into balls, or small bars.

6. Chill in the fridge or freezer. I just put them in a Ziploc bag I labeled. But you can wrap them individually if you want.

7. ENJOY!! and don't forget to write down what you did, so you can make the same ones again lol!

A few more variations we rolled around in our heads but haven't tired:

Add some choc chips or baking cocoa
roll them in powdered sugar to make them less sticky (all though they really are not that sticky)
Use some oatmeal

Don't forget to share what you've tried.

Dairy free, Soy free cheese!

http://www.daiyafoods.com

The non-dairy, soy free cheese I found for Abigail. I found it at the health food store in Lansing. It was about $5 for a 8 oz bag.. It was the ONLY soy free/dairy free cheese they had.. I was SO excited to find it, but wished it tasted better..

Yummy Calzone!

I've been looking thru my cookbooks on my shelf and have come across some YUMMY recipes to add to our collection!. Here is the latest one, Calzones!

I overstuffed them a bit (OOPS!! lol), or like someone suggested, I could just make them bigger with the same amount of filling next time! I would like to try them on the grill. One of them did stay all together and I think may have worked on the grill. But I'm not sure I want to risk that mess..

I LOVE versatile recipes and this is one you can really change up pretty easy!

The dough is easy, it's bread dough.. You can use [gasp] frozen, store bought or just make some fresh!!!! Either way, all you need is bread dough.

Separate the dough into how ever many servings you need. My recipe calls for 8 per loaf of bread, but I only got 4 LOL..

The filling can be a variety of things. We made them pizza this time.
Pizza sauce
Pepperoni or chicken
Mozz cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Parm cheese
mushrooms
olive... or whatever you like on your pizza

OR

Sausage filling
cooked sausage
chopped onion
minced garlic
basil
oregano
tomato sauce
mozz cheese
parm cheese

Mix all but the cheese into the cooked sausage.

How to make the Calzones
Take your dough and roll one at a time into a circle. Be sure to get it thin, but not so thin it makes holes.
Take your filling and put it on half of the dough. Adding cheese last.
Moisten the edges of the dough with water.
Fold the dough over the filling half and press the edges to seal them.
Use a fork to crimp the edges.

I used melted butter to coat the outside, than places them on a pan.

Bake 425 for about 25 min.

Remember, the inside food is all cooked, its the dough you need to cook, and the cheese needs to be melted. Don't over cook them!

To make this dairy free, egg free, soy free and oat free for Abigail, I used goat cheese instead of regular cheese in hers. I also used her soy free pizza sauce (Dei Fratelli) and in my bread recipe I always use Canola oil instead of Vegetable oil.

ENJOY!!!

Butterfly Pretzels

On Monday April 12 we went to the Fredrick Meijer Gardens to see their Butterfly Exhibit. It was AWESOME!!! We had a great day. We went with a huge group of area homeschoolers. Final count was 24 families, 120 people total with 90 of them being kids. We had a great time. If you are in the area you should check them out. They have some great outdoor activities as well as the indoor butterfly exhibit. You can see more about the Butterfly exhibit by visiting their website here!

I'm disappointed to say, I didn't get very many good pictures. I guess keeping track of 5 kids kept me busy lol.. Some of the other friends that went did get some great pictures.

As a follow up to the butterfly field trip, we did a review of sorts at our local group meeting today (Wed.) Some of the kids told us their favorite part of the trip and than we learned about the life cycle of butterflies. We made a butterfly puppet and of course we had to have a butterfly snack. I found this idea online. I LOVE having the Internet to surf lol, I get so many great ideas from it..

My pretzels didn't turn out as nice as the picture, but I didn't hear any complaints so I guess it didn't really matter.. Here is where I got the idea.

Of course, I didn't do things exactly like the recipe, what fun is that?? lol. I used the Candiquik blocks of chocolate and vanilla instead of chips. I tried adding oil to it the first time, but it was TOOOOO thin, so the second batch I left it out and it worked better. The first batch I did I also used the bag like they said, and it melted in the microwave, so after that I melted it in a glass measure cup. I decided after a few times that the bag was pointless as well. SO what worked the best for me, was melting them in a glass dish, and using a spoon to drip it onto the pretzels. It didn't harden up too fast, so I was able to go back and push the pretzels together and fix the antennae. I than went back with a different batch and put a glob on the wings and added the M&M spots.

Of course I couldn't leave Abigail out and since she can't have chocolate or M&M's, I made some a little different for her. I used her chocolate chips (Enjoy life brand), which are dairy and soy free. I just melted it the same way as the Candiquik stuff and spooned it onto her pretzels. Instead of M&M's I used some jelly beans cut in half. It worked well, except that I didn't put them on wax paper and they stuck HARD on the pan. Eventually we got them off, but it was pretty tough lol.

So yes, it was a cute, easy and very YUMMY treat!!

Apple Sauce Raisin cookies

I was looking thru my cookbook to find a cookie recipe that would easily adapt to be dairy, egg and soy free. I found this old one from Grandma Dugan. I'll post the original and the 2 variations I tried. I found that it works well with our without raisins and if you omit the spices, chocolate chips would probably work great too (the expensive dairy and soy free kind)

Apple Sauce Raisin Cookies. (original)

1 C soft Marg/butter
3/4 C brown sugar
3/4 C white sugar

2 eggs
1/2 C applesauce

3 1/4 C flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves

1 C of raisins, plumped (in warm water) and drained

Bake 350 for 12 -14 min.

Applesauce Raisin cookies, using goat butter (@ $5 a LB. EEK), egg, dairy and soy free

1/2 C canola oil
1/2 C softened goat butter

3/4 C brown sugar
3/4 C white sugar
1/2 C applesauce
3 T. water

3 1/4 C flour
3 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves

1 C Raisins, plumped and drained

Bake 350 for 12-14 min.

I only added 1/2 C raisins, and they were still good. These were very much like a cookie texture.

Apple Sauce Raisin cookies, butter, soy and egg free.

1/2 C canola oil
1/2 C mashed banana
1/2 C applesauce
3 T water

3/4 C brown sugar
3/4 C white sugar

3 1/4 C flour
3 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves

I omitted the raisins on this one, and made some into muffins. My SIL said they were "heavenly". The kids begged for more and since they were cheap to make (no $5 lb goat butter) I said sure. They freeze well too. The dough is VERY sticky for this last recipe. The cookies turn out SUPER moist, almost like a bread rather than a cookie.

If I try some variations I let you know how they taste. Sorry I can't add pictures, my laptop is in the shop, so I can't upload them from my camera.

Items you don't expect to contain soy, dairy, egg or oats

Yes there are some products you want to assume are fine and are surprised are not. So here's a list of some of the items I was surprised to find soy, dairy, egg or oats in. Some seem SOO obvious now..


Vegetable shortening and oil: It's all made from soybean oil. I've yet to find a solid shortening I can use that does NOT contain soy in one form or the other. Coconut oil, Canola oil and Olive oil are the only alternatives I've found. Unless you go to Goat butter..

Chicken bouillon and broth: They all seem to contain some form of soy as a preservative.

Cream of ... soups: Cream of Mushroom, chicken, broccoli any canned cream of soup contains dairy.

Meijer Organics Rice Milk: contains soy, try Rice Dream or Westsoy instead.

Country Time Lemonade mix: Pink and regular both contain soy.

Most Cake mixes, pancake mixes and cookie mixes: all seem to contain eggs and/or dairy in the mix. See my post of items you CAN use for alternatives.

Premixed spices. I have a few that are my favorites, but have now found that, they contain soy as a preservative. So watch your mixes, or just make your own.

Sherbert ice cream: I always thought it was an alternative, but no, actually it's not. it does contain dairy. Schwans carries a strawberry Sorbet that is dairy free and Popsicles are a great alternative too.

An update

So as you've probably noticed, we've been having to re work out whole kitchen philosophy. Our youngest daughter was recently, well about 2 months ago now, diagnosed with several food allergies. I noticed she was wheezing alot. It didn't seem to stop after we made it thru winter and thru a few colds and teething. I had to admit that, yes maybe she was allergic to something. First we tried dairy. All the milk went away from her diet. She stopped wheezing, it was wonderful. Than as we started down the road of dairy free, adding soy and rice milk and other replacements, she started getting diarrhea, ALOT.. So I decided to take her to the allergist and get a test done. I have several allergies, none to foods, but all environmental allergies. My son seems to have inherited them. We also have food allergies in the family (my sisters, niece and such), so it was worth checking out. They did a test right than, the kind where the pick your back will several different things. YES it hurts for a minute, but she was fine after a few minutes. So the results were taken and to my surprise She was just as allergic to SOY as she was to MILK (casein). Also to Egg yolk, dairy and shell fish (we'll just lump that with seafood). Of course she has all the environmental allergies as well. So we are off and on our journey to making her healthy.

I've talked to several people with food allergies and have very much appreciated all the advice. I am now a label reader lol. I stand and read EVERYTHING, every time I buy it almost. I was shocked to find that Meijer Organic Rice milk contains Soy. I'd bought it, when they were out of the normal brand I was buying (Rice Dream). I was using Peanut Butter in some cookies instead of Marg and found that not all peanut butters are alike. The nice big jar from Gordons, has Soybean oil in it, I can use Save-a-lot brand tho. Go figure, the cheaper brand is better for her.. Our beloved Ragu spaghetti sauce is no longer our most used. I have found a few less popular brands that have a few flavors that don't contain some form of cheese. Pizza sauce is another one we have to substitute. And BREAD, there is NO bread i have found that doesn't contain either Milk or soy, so I have to make my own bread for her. I have found that I don't use it much anymore. If we have burgers, I just give it to her with ketchup, if we have sloppy Joe's, it's (homemade mix) and just on the plate for her. There is a few brands of tortilla shells I can use for her. They are kinda hard for her to chew, she's not even 2 yet..

Going out to eat is pretty much out of the question, unless it's a buffet with a salad bar. There are a few fast food options, but we try to avoid them. So we have a few fruit cups in her bag and always keep some snacks on hand for her, in case we get stuck out on a long day. Something else I have in the truck is a Ziploc bag with some plastic silverware and napkins and plastic cups. If all else fails we can go to a grocery store and find some ready to eat fresh fruits and vegis..

So I'll try to collect all the tips and bad ideas we've tried on here. If you have any, I'd love to hear them.

Food products that are Dairy free, egg free, soy free, Oat free

I'm going to collect the names of the brands and mixes, broths, and well everything I find that I've found I can use in cooking and baking..

Since Abigail is allergic to Milk, Soy, Egg and Oats and fish, they will all be free of these items.

I do use rice milk instead of milk, bananas, apple sauce or PB instead of Marg and Canola oil instead of Veg oil and melted marg. I'll list any other substitutions I use as well. I will just keep adding to this list as I find more.



Baking Mixes:

Meijer Naturals, Vanilla all natural cake mix: I use 1 -2 mashed bananas instead of melted butter. Made them into cupcakes for a breakfast muffin for her.

Bisquick HEART SMART Pancake and Baking Mix: (WATCH the labels, the regular one contains soy? I believe)


Canned products:

Spartan ready to serve Beef broth: (NOT the chicken, it does contain soy)

Panner (Save-A-Lot brand) Peanut butter: NOTE: Jiff, Peter Pan, Wal-Mart brand and every other one i've looked at contains soybean oil)

Snack foods:

Enjoy Life brand cookies and snacks (Meijer carries a small selection, our local health food store carries a larger variety, or you can find Enjoylifefoods online).

Better Made Special Potato Chips: it's a off brand I find at Wal-Mart and a few other stores. I know the plain flavor are fine, not sure if there are flavors or not.

Gummy candies, so far all the brands I've seen are fine. BUT watch the labels, some may use some form of soybean oil.

Marshmallows, store brand and name brands seem to be fine

Hershey's Syrup (ONLY Hershey brand, the store brands all seem to have dairy in it)

Meijer Sourdough nuggets pretzels (NOT all of their kinds are soy free, read your label)

Cereal:

Rice and Corn Chex: Great Value (Wal-Mart) and General Mills brand are both fine.

Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheat's: (I know the frosting would make you think it's got dairy, but it doesn't)

Cream of Wheat

Ralston 100% Wheat Hot Cereal

Kellogg's Rice Crispies

Kellogg's Raisin Bran

Sauces:

Di Campania Classico Pasta Sauce: Traditional Sweet Basil & Roasted Garlic are both fine ( I find these at Meijer)