She Comes By It Honestly

This kid loves chocolate like, well, like I like chocolate. She comes by it honestly. And really, can you blame her? The kicker is that because she's dairy free, she has excellent taste in chocolate. She can't eat any milk chocolate, only the very dark, very high quality chocolate. There's no messing around with this kid, give her the good stuff!

I did a little dairy test this last weekend. I tried making pancakes with real milk (one of my accounts gave me a gallon of milk). I miss pancakes made with milk. Lily got a stomach ache and diarrhea from it. She also seemed to get a minor rash "down there." Now that she's out of diapers we don't have the same obvious signals we had before. My question is, how do we know if it's still an allergy or if it's an intolerance? Maybe it doesn't matter. I'm not sure that it would change the way we live right now. If it hurts the kid to eat dairy, then I'm not going to serve it. If I get her tested again for the allergy, am I doing it just for myself?

A Snugg - a- licious Day!

This morning as everyone was waking up and getting ready, Addie asked if she could have a Snuggle-a-Bration. I asked her if she had heard the word before or if it was one she made up. "No Momma, I heard it in my head."

I loved the word and I'm doing my utmost to get it out into the world.

So go, curl up with your loved ones and have your own Snuggle-a-bration. And eat this while you're at it! I'll have to figure out how to make it dairy-free. Give me a day or so and I'll get back to you on it.

Sugar High! Flourless Chocolate Cake

My old college roommate is hosting a bake along on her site. The rules are that you can bake anything you want, it just has to be gluten free. Post a photo, a recipe and let her know what you've done. It all has to be done by May 25.

Since shortly more than 2 years ago I attempted to go gluten free & dairy free, I happened to have a favorite recipe in my stash. I can't tell you how happy I was to learn that Lily was only allergic to dairy - the wheat was a real killer for me. One of the things that I absolutely craved was baked goods. Bread, yes. Cookies, definitely. Brownies, oh man I wanted them. Cake, the absolute most. It was a blessing when I found this recipe. Plus, it has all my favorite things: chocolate, butter, coffee, and eggs!



Flourless Chocolate Cake
From America's Test Kitchen
1 lb semi sweet chocolate, chopped (obviously the better the chocolate, the better the cake will be)
16 Tbs butter
1/4 Cup strong coffee
8 eggs

Set up: Preheat oven to 325. Spray a springform pan with Pam, line the bottom with parchment paper. Wrap the outside of the pan with 2 sheets of aluminum foil. set inside a large roasting pan. Bring 2 pots of water to boil on the stove.

Mix:
Mix chocolate, coffee and butter in glass bowl. Microwave until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside.
Beat eggs for 5-10 minutes. (the recipe says until doubled in size, but I think 5 minutes is a better measure since my eggs rapidly doubled but were not beaten enough).
Fold in 1/3 of the egg mixture into the chocolate until just a few streaks of egg remain. Continue adding egg mixture and folding until it is completely incorporated.

Pour into prepared pan. Pour boiling water into roasting pan and place in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until internal temperature is 140. Cool at room temperature for 3 hours, then place in refrigerator overnight.

Enjoy!

Tips:
The water bath is key, it allows the cake to cook slowly and evenly and helps maintain the smooth texture.
The other must is beating the eggs long enough. I actually set a timer for 5-7 minutes, otherwise I get too impatient. This ensures that the eggs are frothy enough and helps with the smooth texture. If you don't beat the egg long enough, the cake will taste a little custardy in spots.
Use good chocolate!! I use the best tasting dairy free chocolate that I can find, which is difficult as they all seem to taste a little off.

Dairy Free Rice Pudding

It's been a long time since I've posted a recipe. Tonight seemed like a night for comfort food. I needed (ok, wanted) something rich and creamy, but I'm trying to take off a few pounds I put on over the holidays. I adapted this Weight Watchers recipe to be dairy free. The original recipe called for skim milk, mashed banana and no cardamon. The points value was 2 per 1/3 cup serving. It came to 105 calories per serving. I would guess this version is slightly less.

1 Cup soy milk (or almond milk would be yummy)
1 Cup cooked rice
pinch salt
pinch ground cardamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Bring soy milk, rice, cardamon, and salt to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer and stir occasionally until the milk is reduced and creamy. (about 15 minutes) Take mixture off the heat and stir in the vanilla, almond extract and cinnamon. Let cool to room temperature and serve.

I took this off the stove and threw it into the refrigerator while I put the girls to bed. When I came back downstairs the pudding was cold, but it was still really good. I think this will make a really good treat for the girls tomorrow. :)

Finding Nemo

I promise that I will blog more about Addie's birthday and her party. It was a great time and I think everyone went home full and happy. We had hot dogs and brats, fresh veggies and dip made with Tofutti sour cream, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, potato salad, chips, and fruit salad. And cake. Lots of Barbie cake. As usual it was all Dairy Free. For now, if you want to hear more about it, you'll have to go to Dana's blog.

In a surprise move, Nemo (also called "Memo" by the younger members of the family) has come to live at our house. He is a beautiful red Beta. Some readers may remember that Nemo (of Finding Nemo fame) was trying to escape captivity. However, he seems to have landed in a nice little fish vase at our house. A little jealousy errupted over the ownership of Nemo (I said he belonged to no one but himself, Addie said he was her birthday present and Lily seemed to think that he should belong to her. After all, Addie got all these other cool presents, shouldn't Lily get something?) So Adam played peacekeeper and decided that we would take a family trip to the Wal of Mart. We found a nice little female fish to keep Nemo company. In keeping with the Finding Nemo theme, she was named Dory. Dory is a blue short finned Beta. However, because Beta's tend to be loners and because we don't really want little Dory's and Nemo's floating around, they are in separate vases.

Any bets on how long the fish will survive?

Let My People Free

I hope she doesn't get used to being behind bars.

I just read this post on Go Dairy Free and I'm a little freaked out by it. I could feel my heart rate going up as I read it. Basically it says that there has been a rise in Milk Allergies in children since farmers began treating their cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Other countries have banned the hormone, but the US has not.

I have heard of children who are allergic to milk having no problem with raw milk from organic farmers who do not administer rBGH to their cows. I've always been scared to even try it. I have an appointment with a naturopath on Thursday and I'm going to chat with her about it. She's by far the most knowledgeable in our community about allergies. She's the one who originally helped me narrow down Lily's allergy to either milk or wheat.

"D"-Licious!

Our friend D loaned us an ice cream maker this summer. We've been putting it to work - making great sorbets that Lily can eat. The first thing I made was chocolate sorbet and it was a huge hit. We brought it to a birthday party so Lily and 2 vegan friends would have some ice cream to go with their cake. Mmmm... it was good - very rich. I found the recipe here.


This time I blended up some strawberries and made Strawberry Sorbet. Lily ate all of her bowl and asked for more! You don't need an ice cream maker to make sorbet, my grandma used to make it for me by just stirring the sorbet every 1/2 hour or so until it was all frozen. This breaks up the ice crystals so it is lighter and fluffier instead of being a solid block of ice (like a huge strawberry Popsicle).

Thanks D! This spoon's for you! I'm looking forward to making a few more types of dairy-free ice cream this summer. Now that it's getting hot, I'm going to branch out and make a custard type ice cream with eggs and soy milk. I'm sure I'll post reviews and recipes here.

Dairy Free Weekly Menu April 13-19

We're in the midst of a crazy winter storm today that's supposed to last through Saturday afternoon. We lost power for awhile this morning and I wouldn't be surprised if we loose it again at some point. The winds are whipping away out there at 55 mph!



Sunday- Pork Artichoke Pasta


Monday- Stir Fry


Tuesday- Souper Veggie Soup


Wednesday- Burritos


Thursday- Diablo Fish


Friday- Orange Crock Pot Chicken


Saturday- Leftovers & Baking Day



Pork Artichoke Pasta

I love artichoke hearts. I don't know what it is about them, but I absolutely love them. I know they're not everyone's thing though so you could certainly leave them out of this recipe without hurting anything. You may want to add some extra spices if you do though, because the artichoke marinade has lots of seasoning in it.



1 jar artichoke hearts

4 pork chops (or pork loin) sliced into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup diced onion

1 clove garlic

3/4 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup white wine

1 tbs cornstarch

Your favorite pasta



Cook pasta. Saute the pork in a saute pan until browned. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic and cook until onions are translucent. Drain artichoke hearts (reserve liquid) and add to the pan. Stir together broth, artichoke marinade, wine and cornstarch. Add to pan and stir, bring to a boil until thickened. Serve over pasta.



Stir Fry

1 lbs your favorite protein (tofu, beef, pork, chicken, shrimp)

1 bag frozen stir fry mix

1/4 Cup hoisen sauce

2 Tbs soy sauce

1 clove garlic

1 Tbs ginger

3 Tbs water

Rice



Cook rice according to package directions. Brown meat in saute pan. Add vegetables and cook until tender. Add remaining ingredients. Heat through and serve over rice.



Veggie Soup

Addie is a big fan of reading Stone Soup lately. This is very much how I make soup, I throw in a little of this and a little of that and cook until everything is tender and tasty.

1 quart beef stock

1 onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

2-3 carrots, diced

1 can diced tomatoes, I like the seasoned ones

1 1/2 tsp tyme

frozen mixed veggies (I use the Mediterranean type with zucchini, summer squash and kidney beans)

green beans, white beans, pasta, etc - whatever you like in your soup.

I dump everything into a stock pot and cook until the veggies are tender. You could also put it all in a crock pot and let it simmer all day.

Burritos

1 lb ground beef (we often use ground venison) or diced chicken

1 can black beans (or low fat refried beans)

1 onion, sliced

8 tortillas

1 pkg taco seasoning mix

1 sm can green chilis

salsa, cheese (we use Dairy-free cheese), sour cream (Lily likes the Tofrutti Better than Sour Cream smeared on hers) for garnish

Preheat oven to 350. Brown meat and onions. Add taco seasoning and water according to pkg directions. Cook until sauce starts to thicken. Spray 9x13 pan with oil spray. Into each tortilla put some meat mixture and beans, roll into shape and place in the 9x13 pan. Sprinkle chilis over the top (we leave them off the girls side) and bake for 30 min. Serve with any garnishes you like.

The girls like this version because the tortillas get a little crunchy on the top. If you don't like yours that way, you can always pour a jar of enchillada sauce over the top before baking.

Diablo Fish

6 fish fillets

1 can roasted diced tomatoes

1 can sliced black olives

1/2 onion, diced

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 clove garlic

1 sm zucchini, diced

Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a large skillet over med heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, pepper, and olives and simmer about 4 min. Add the fish. Cover and simmer until fish flakes easily. Serve with rice or couscous.

Orange Crock Pot Chicken

This is adapted from Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner.

6 oz can of orange juice concentrate

1 chicken (whole or pieces)

1/2 tsp tyme

salt and pepper to taste

1 clove minced garlic

1/4 cup water

2 Tbs cornstarch

Place chicken in crockpot. Stir together orange juice concentrate, tyme, salt and pepper, and garlic. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for approx. 8 hours. When chicken is done, remove and keep warm. Pour the sauce into a saucepan on medium. Stir cornstarch into water and stir (I put it in a little tupperware container and shake it until there aren't any more lumps). Add cornstarch to juice in pan. Stir and cook until sauce is thick. Serve over chicken or as Lily likes - on the side as "dip" for her chicken.

Help Me Martha

Martha Stewart is doing a poll on her blog to determine what the next "Big Idea" is. One of the suggestions from a staff member is that they publish a Allergen Free magazine. I think this is an amazing idea. It would be wonderful to have someone as popular as Martha Stewart bringing attention to food allergies, especially in children. This might get the attention of big companies (see my rant against Gerber) to take the top 9 allergens out of food marketed to children. Right now it's the winning idea, please help Lily out by going to Martha's blog and voting for the allergen free idea.

The Great Pumpkin

The Great Pumpkin came to our house Halloween night. It took all the chocolate (non Lily safe) candy and left a few presents instead.

The best part was not actually the presents, but taking out and putting back things from the pumpkin.

Hmmm... let's see, what do I have in my pumpkin...









Ahhh... a kitty I took off the coffeetable, a Mommy and Daddy action figure (also off the coffeetable) and Addie's fairy Godmother figurine.








And what did Lily get from the Great Pumpkin? A froggy that she immediately threw on the floor and ignored. Nice!






Look Mom, a purse! I look just like you!

Deceptively Delish!

I bought the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld the other day on a recomendation from my little sis. The idea (in case you're living inside a cave and haven't heard about this book) is that you make fruit and vegetable purees and you hide them inside regular dishes so that your kids get a healthy amount of vegetables every day. Jessica also says that you should serve whole vegetables along side the meal just like you normally would so your children get used to seeing and eating them this way.

I'm not going to get into the controversy that this is plagerized - I have no idea. I think this is a fairly brilliant idea and I know many people who have been doing this forever. I tend to hide things in my spaghetti sauce and lasagana anyway. I also feel the need to say that my kids are very good at eating their vegetables. Their favorites are broccoli, peas (still frozen even) and squash. But I feel it never hurts to add more vegetables into their diet.

I've tried 2 recipes so far... the "Buttered" noodles and the spaghetti sauce. The noodles call for margarine, squash puree, milk and parmeasan cheese on the noodles. I made it without the cheese and with soy milk instead so that Lily could eat it. It was fantastic! The squash I used was acorn squash out of my garden. My husband doesn't normally touch squash and he had seconds of the noodles. In fact, he asked me what was in it since he knew it couldn't be cheese. I served it with a chicken & olive skillet thing that I make and it really went well. The spaghetti sauce was just jarred sauce with broccoli puree. Again, the kids ate a ton of it!

Since I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, I'm branching out tonight. We're going to have pancakes with fruit puree in it. I'm hoping that this turns the pancakes a nice pink color. :) Not much different than putting whole fruit in pancakes, but still yummy and slightly different enough. There's a banana french toast recipe that is begging to be made also.

Food Allergy Special

The Food Network is doing a special on Food Allergies:

Edible Enemies
"Edible Enemies is a one-hour special report that looks at the mysterious increase in both the number and the severity of food allergies in the United States. 12 million Americans now have food allergies. There is no cure. There is no treatment, other than a shot of epinephrine in an emergency. We will hear from the parents of small children, and from teenagers and adults living with life-threatening food allergies".

AIR TIMES:
October 13, 2007 4:00 PM ET/PT
October 19, 2007 10:00 AM ET/PT

Thanks to a different blogger, I got a recipe for Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie that I'll have to try out for Thanksgiving. Yummy!

Shave and a Haircut, 2 Bits

Nope, not a post about my new haircut/hair color. Just a post about the girls. If you ever want to see two little girls enthralled for long amounts of time... say over a half hour (which is an amazing amount of time) get out a cheap can of shaving cream.

You just put a blob of shaving cream on the high chair or table top and let them go at it. It was great! Lily tried tasting it, "yucky." Lily then tried to shake it off her hands. Then she squished... and squished and rubbed it all around. By the end she was packing shaving cream into her ears! She had two little shaving cream/hair horns sticking out from her head.

Addie on the other hand got into it right away. She smeared it all over the table and then drew pictures in it. I was instructed to take pictures of her pictures. Too cute!

Hopefully I can get those pictures off the horrible will not download camera and put them up soon.