‘Allergy friendly’ recipe swap

22 Dec

I started blogging sporadically earlier this year and then server, time, procrastination issues took their toll.  Anyway, I’m back writing now, I’ve changed to WordPress and I’ve been going through some of my old posts.  I decided to re-post this little snippet that I wrote back in May.  I had just  taken part in an online chat about food allergies and it was such an incredibly inspiring experience.   It made me realise that there is so much food you CAN eat even if you have multiple food allergies.

Here it is…

Some of my favourite American “allergy friendly” food bloggers got together this morning for an online chat on TheMotherhood.com.  The theme? 

cookbooks,cooking,dining,preparations,food,household,housewares,tools,kitchens,recipes,wooden spoons

“Recipe swap and tips for cooking and baking delicious allergen free food”

The chat was completely overwhelming and inspiring. There were so many great ideas, tips and recipes shared for allergen free cooking, that they could seriously fill several recipe books.

Recipes ranged from rice milk mayonaise and basil artichoke pesto, to cupcakes, fudge and muffins.

           

Dariy, egg & nut free donuts from Speedbump Kitchen (top) & Cybele Pascal's Red Velvet Cake

Check out Cybele Pascal’s Allergy Free Red Velvet Cake here  Isn’t it gorgeous!  Hard to believe that it is free of ALL the top 8 allergens.

The ‘chat’ was a text based conversation with such a flurry of advice, recipes and questions that it was hard to keep reading, typing and saving all the information.  Thankfully the lovely hosts at Motherhood.com have posted a summary here . Make sure you check it out! It’s a veritable gold mine of information for families who have children with food allergies.

A HUGE thanks to all the lovely people who took the time to share this morning.  I am very very grateful.  It’s going to take me years to try out all the recipes!  

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Cookbook Sundays and Marshmallow Treats

17 Dec


Marshmallow Crispy Treats


‘Cookbook Sundays’ is an initiative that’s just started over at Couscous & Consciousness .  It involves making a  new recipe every week from a cookbook in your collection.  Given that I have a mountain (or more of an exploding volcano) of cookbooks next to my bed, what better motivation to dust them off and give some of the recipes a go?!
Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
I recently got given a copy of Deceptively Delicious.  Simple secrets to get your kids eating good food by Jessica Seinfeld (and it happened to be at the top my cookbook mountain) so I decided to start there.

Now, hiding vegetables in food is not a new concept.  I know many parents who resort to such trickery in an attempt to get their kids to eat more vege.   I remember being horrified as a teenager, when I discovered that my mum’s ‘secret bolognaise’ sauce contained whizzed up carrots and celery.

At first glance, the combinations in most of the savoury recipes seem quite straight forward.    However some of the combinations used in the breakfast and dessert recipes are quite surprising – I’m no stranger to beetroot chocolate cake or carrot and zucchini muffins… but hot cocoa with sweet potato puree?  Brownies with carrot and spinach?   Banana bread with cauliflower puree?   I’m intrigued!  Can that really taste good?! Maybe I’ll test those out another day.

The recipe that really grabbed my attention today was for ‘Marshmallow Crispy Treats’.  It reminded me of the rice bubble cake my mum used to make (and I happened to have all the ingredients in the cupboard).  I’ve been wanting to make rice bubble cake for my lil’ man, but given he can’t have dairy or honey (and the jury’s still out on coconut) I’d thought it was out of the question.

The great thing about this marshmallow version is  that it’s super quick to make – so it’s easy if you’ve got visitors or looking for allergy friendly treats to take to a birthday party.  AND it contains brown rice and ground flax-seed, so I like to imagine the kids are still getting some goodness out of it!!

Marshmallow Crispy Treats

Most brands of marshmallows available in NZ contain wheat.  The ‘Mr Mallow’ brand (available in most supermarkets) and Dandies (from the Cruelty Free Store) are gluten-free. Or you could make your own.

What you’ll need:

Nonstick cooking spray

1 Tablespoon  soft tub margarine spread

1 (10 ounce/280 gm) package of marshmallows

6 cups of Brown rice cereal

¼ cup flaxseed meal

Coat an 8 x8 inch (20cm x 20cm) baking pan with cooking spray/oil (or line with baking paper.

Melt the margarine in a large pot over low heat.  Add the marshmallows and stir until completely melted.  Remove the pan from the heat.

Add the rice cereal and flaxseed and stir until the rice is well coated with marshmallow. You could also add a few drops of vanilla and some dried fruit here if you wanted.

Press the mixture into the baking dish and let cool before cutting into squares.  (Just a word of warning here – the mix is super sticky so you need to work fast.  I found it was easiest to push the mix into the baking pan with my fingers.  But coat your hands in a bit of oil first to avoid a really sticky mess!)

While it’s the slice is cooling, why not head over and check out some of the other ‘Cookbook Sundays’ submissions? (click on the pic below).

CookbookSundays

Once cooled drizzle with allergy friendly chocolate or sprinkles.  Enjoy!

Speedy Chocolate Pudding

4 Dec

I’m always on the look out for new ways of getting calcium into my lil’ man’s limited diet (and for allergy friendly treats!).

Traditional sources of calcium like dairy, nuts and fish are off the menu and I don’t have much luck with getting him to eat green vege (apart from peas and kale for some reason?).  He does drink soy milk and we tend to eat a lot of dairy free custard made with soy or rice milk and soy yoghurt, but I wanted to find something else.

While flicking through the book ‘Cooking Free’ by Carol Fenster, this recipe caught my eye.  Carol says that this chocolate pudding is her favourite comfort food AND of all the recipes in the book this is the one she makes most often. So i thought it was worth a try.

There was also the added bonus that this chocolate pudding looked super quick to make.  You could double or triple the dry mix and keep it in an airtight container for ‘pudding emergencies’.
Here’s a slight adaptation of Carol’s recipe – I used Equagold Dutch Cocoa powder which is dairy and nut free, Ceres Organic Corn starch (as most others I’ve found contain traces of nuts/wheat) and Sweet William dairy & nut free chocolate drops. If you’re using rice milk, increase the corn starch to 3 tablespoons (or add more chocolate!)
Chocolate Pudding

1/3 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons corn starch

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups milk alternative

1/3 cup dairy free chocolate chips

Mix the sugar, corn starch and cocoa powder in a saucepan.  Slowly whisk in the milk alternative.  Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring constantly.  Cook for 1-2 minutes, keep stirring!  Then remove pudding from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted.  Cool.

Here’s the first taste test…

The first slightly apprehensive mouthful was followed by lots of “mmm’s” and lips smacking and the chocolate pudding was quickly devoured!  Success!

                      

We’ve since discovered that chocolate pudding is also pretty good when topped with sliced banana, poached pears or canned peaches/plums.

Hope you like it too!

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