Allergy Free Foods We Use Regularly

Here are some of the products we regularly buy that are gluten free, dairy free, etc.  I will try to keep the list updated as I think of more things.  I hope this helps even just one person!  When we were first starting out, I had a few people come along side of me (thanks Alicia & Tom Moore & Mary Lou Hom!!!) who were able to point me to certain products that were helpful in starting our overwhelming journey of changing the entire way we eat.  Yes, at first it is overwhelming, especially if you have never shopped at, say, Whole Foods, but after a while things get easier, you know where things are in the stores and you find yourself experimenting with all sorts of crazy ingredients you may never have even heard of until recently!  We have been on this food journey less than two years as of now, and I am still learning new stuff almost every day.  But, I hope what I have learned can help those of you who might be just starting out.  I remember those first months and how helpless I felt.  Anyhow, the Lord has really taken me by the hand and led me and given me much peace.  I still struggle at times (esp lately when we seemed to have regressed in our progress or to have developed some NEW allergies) but I am confident that the Lord will see us through it.  Take the Lord by the hand and let him lead you in this journey.  He will carry you and comfort you and he will show you that you are NOT alone in this.  HE is always with you and will give you the strength you need moment by moment!  I have learned to lean on him much more than I ever have had to before in our journey with food, and I thank him that he has used this for his glory.   

Products We Use That Are:

Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Peanut, Egg, Almond, Garlic, Amaranth, Lentil, Shellfish FREE

-         OrganicVille Organic Ketchup

-         Daiya Cheddar and Mozzarella style shreds

-     Daiya Cheddar Style Wedge (you can slice the cheese for sandwiches!)

-         Earth Balance Butter (we use the soy free in the red container)

-         Once again Organic Sunflower Seed Butter (it is contaminated, so Silas can't have it...I make his myself)

-     Cashew Butter (I can't find an uncontaminated brand for Silas to have, but I make my own)

-     Kettle Brand Hazelnut Butter (can't have this anymore, as Si is allergic)

-         Glutino Gluten Free Pretzels (YUM!)

-         Enjoy Life soft baked cookies (they have all sorts of flavors!)

-         Enjoy Life Chewy on the go Bars

-     Lara Bars (If you can have nuts)

-         EnerG breads (make sure to toast them before you eat it!)  We like the tapioca loafs & brown rice loaf the best

-         Edward & Sons Baked Organic Brown Rice Snaps

-    Quaker Rice Cakes (plain & salted) are a new gluten free addition to the list!

-         Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (use it to bake, fry, use it as butter, etc!)

-         Bob’s Gluten Free Red Mill Oats

-         Chex cereals (rice, cinnamon, and corn, & now chocolate which are newly dairy free)

-         Envirokids Organic cereals (Panda Puffs, Koala Crisp, Amazon Frosted Flakes, and Gorilla Munch)

-     Enjoy Life Cereals:  Very Berry Crunch Granola & Cinnamon Raisin Crunch Granola

-         Kix

-         Real Foods Corn Thinks (organic, original)

-         So Delicious Coconut yogurt

-         So Delicious Coconut Milk (I like unsweetened best)

-         So Delicious Coconut Ice Cream  (We usually buy plain Vanilla, chocolate, or Mint Chip)

-Luna & Larry's Organic Coconut Bliss

-         Organic Rice Milk  (I like unsweetened best)

-         Premium Gold Organic Golden Omega Flaxseed (for use instead of eggs in baking & I buy the preground stuff at costco)

-         Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening (palm oil) (for use instead of Crisco soybean shortening)

-         Coconut Secret Raw Coconut Aminos Soy Free Seasoning Sauce (as a substitute for soy sauce)

-     Guittard Chocolate Chips (regular chocolate chip or dark chocolate chip, although these DO CONTAIN SOY LECITHIN and were manufactured on equipment that once had dairy on it.)

-     Bob's Red Mill flours for baking - Tapioca Starch, Rice Flours (white, sweet white, brown), Potato Starch, Sorghum Flour

-    Bob's Red Mill GF pancake mix

-    Bob's Red Mill GF brownie mix


-    Bob's Red Mill GF pizza crust mix


-    Bob's Red Mill GF cornbread mix

-    Edward & Sons:  Let's Do Gluten Free Sugar Cones or Ice Cream Cones

-   Oscar Mayer Selects hot dogs

-   Garden Veggie Crisps

-    Kettle & Lays plain potato chips (not made with soybean oil)

-    Brown, Batsami, & Jasmine rice, quinoa, buckwheat groats, millet

Meals I make regularly

I thought it might be helpful to write down some of the meals I make regularly.  Some of these meals do not work well on the rotation diet that Silas is on (because they contain too many ingredients), but when we don't have to worry about sticking to the bare basics, this is a list I pull my ideas from.  I hope it can be helpful to at least one person out there.  If anyone wants a recipe, please ask!  I will try to get the recipes up for each of these meals that require a recipe, but in the meantime, I can get one to you sooner if you ask. 

Gluten & Dairy Free Dinners that I regularly make

1. Roast with potatoes, carrots, beans, tomato sauce
2. Stew with leftover roast
3. Spicy walnut chicken & batsami rice (use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce)
4. Turkey tacos with homemade corn tortillas
5. Hot dogs & hamburgers (Silas is bun free) & potato chips
6. Split pea soup with ham, carrots, & celery
7. Chicken & rice soup with potatoes, carrots, celery, onions
8. BBQ steak with baked or mashed potatoes & veggies
9. Apple Pork chops with curry baked potato wedges & veggies
10. BBQ chicken with baked potatoes, fresh veggies with homemade hummus & ranch dip
11. Pizza (gluten, dairy, egg, garlic, soy free for Silas)
12. Carne Asadas with corn tortillas (use coconut aminos instead of soy for sauce)
13. Spaghetti with corn or brown rice pasta
14. Bacon Avocado Pasta
15. Chili & cornbread (gluten/dairy/soy/egg free for Silas)
16. Baked ham, sweet potatoes, veggies
17. BBQ fish, baked potatoes, veggies
18. Sweet Potato black bean enchiladas
19. Coconut Curry Chicken with jasmine rice
20. Pork Roast with applesauce/apple chunks, veggies,
21. Squash, potato, or veggie soup (use rice or coconut milk)
22. Teriyaki Rice King Chicken, Veggies, & rice (homemade teriyaki sauce with coconut amino instead of soy)
23. Boneless Pork Spare Ribs with BBQ sauce (homemade sauce)
24. Veggie Soup
25. Black Bean Soup
26. Chicken with curry mustard sauce, rice, veggies
27. Fajitas (with gluten free tortillas for Silas - corn or brown rice tortillas) with veggies sauteed in coconut & olive oil
28. Baked potatoes with all the fixings (we use Daiya Cheese, Earth Balance Butter, salsa, broccoli, onions, bacon, etc.)

Gluten free sugar cookies

45 min.prep time 2:25total time

3 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 cup Land O Lakes® Butter, softened  (I used soy free Earth Balance Butter since we are dairy and soy free)

2 Land O Lakes® All-Natural Egg yolks  (I used ground flaxseed - 2 tbsp plus 6 tbsp of water)

1 1/2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla

2 1/4 cups Gluten-Free Flour Blend (see below)*

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Combine sugar and butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour blend and salt. Beat until well mixed. Cover; refrigerate until firm (1 hour).

Heat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough on surface sprinkled lightly with gluten-free flour, one-half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/4-inch thickness. I actually roll my dough out in between saran wrap.  I do this with pretty much all my gluten free recipies (that require being rolled out) and it works every time.  I spray the saran wrap with canola oil or I use flour, depending on the recipe.  For this one, I believe I used white rice flour.) 

Cut with 2 1/2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely.

*  Gluten-Free Flour Blend: To make flour blend, combine 2 cups rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour and 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. Use appropriate amount for recipe; store remainder in container with tight-fitting lid. Stir before using.

for the flour, I used:

• 1 cup rice flour
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ cup tapioca starch
• ¼ cup sorghum flour
• ¼ cup potato flour
• 1 1/8 tsp xanthan gum

The only reason I used the mixture that I used was because I ran out of rice flour and I do not own potato starch as of yet (still need to buy some).  So, I did my own little experiment & it turned out beautifully!  I want to encourage you to try your own mixture, esp if you don't have what the recipe calls for!  I almost always modify and do my own thing and I have never once had a flop yet (knowing a thing or two about what each gluten free flour does is important, though)!  Success every time (ok, I am sure the flop will happen one of these times, but for now I can boast of my success!)

Here is my link from Landolakes where I got my recipe:

http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/1527/star-cut-out-cookies-gluten-free-recipe/print#

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!!

Today is my baby girl's first birthday!  In honor of her, I am going to post my cake and frosting recipes that I used.  I decided to go with a gluten, dairy, soy free chocolate cake so we could all eat it.  I used duck egg in the recipe, so it isn't egg free but it is chicken egg free (which Silas can't have). 

Delicious Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup organic extra virgin coconut oil (palm shortening, or softened earth balance butter or a mixture of all three)
16oz powdered sugar
2-4 T coconut milk (rice, soy, almond milk)
1-2 tsp gluten free vanilla
*1/4 cup cocoa powder (plus add a little more liquid or mixture will be too dry)
Add more milk (or water) or powdered sugar if your mixture is too dry or wet.  My whole family LOVES this frosting & it is creamy enough that the vanilla version can be used on carrot cake.

*leave cocoa powder out for vanilla frosting (or you can add another flavor to spice it up)


Chocolate Cake

I adapted my recipe for cake from food.com.  It is called "One Bowl Gluten Free Chocolate Cake."

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 c gluten free flour (I have used 1/2 c sorghum flour, 1/2 c white rice flour, 1/2 cup tapioca starch AND 2/3 cup white rice flour, 1/3 cup potato starch, 1/2 cup tapioca starch - I liked the second mix best)
1/2 c cocoa
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (I used xanthan gum)
5 T cooking oil (I used olive oil)
1 tsp gluten free vanilla
1 egg (or 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed & 3 tbsp hot water combined)
1 c water

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl
Add all liquid ingredients and mix well (I mixed for about 2 minutes on medium speed.)
Bake in a greased and floured (I used organic extra virgin coconut oil and dusted it with white rice powder) 9" square pan (or lined with waxed paper), at 350 degrees, for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.


I can't wait to watch my baby girl dig in!  :o)  The cake smells wonderful, it is springy and it looks like a winner!  Happy birthday, Micaiah!!!!

Gluten Free Banana Bread Muffins

Banana bread has been a favorite at our house for as long as I can remember.  I vowed to try my hardest to find the best recipe possible once Silas started having foods that became "off limits."  First it was the wheat & dairy, then the gluten, then eggs, nuts, soy, etc! We have been able to adapt my favorite recipe to the point that even our friends who don't eat gluten free enjoy them!  I just tried the recipe with duck eggs & it was SO GOOD we couldn't stop eating them!  Update: since we can't have eggs at all any more, we use this recipe with flaxseed instead, and they are still amazing!

I adapted my recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book. 

Banana Bread Muffins

Makes 2 dozen regular sized muffins.

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup teff flour
(or try another flour combo... try coconut flour**, quinoa flour, etc)
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (if you are sensitive to this, just leave it out)
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs (duck or goose work well) OR two flax eggs (2 T ground flaxseed, 6 T water & let gel)*
2 cups mashed banana
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup olive oil (or just a drizzle; feel free to omit)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp gluten free vanilla (this can be omitted)
1 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
1 cup dairy free chocolate chips (Guittard or Enjoy Life), raisins, seeds, nuts, or other addition. 


1.  Grease the bottom of each muffin cup in a muffin pan (coconut oil works well).  Set aside.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flours and xanthan gum and sift well.  Add the baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and sift. Set aside.

2.  In another bowl, combine the eggs (or flax eggs), bananas, honey, apple cider vinegar, vanilla, and cooking oil.  Add wet mixture all at once to dry mixture.  Stir until just moistened (batter should be lumpy.)  Fold in chocolate chips. 

3.  Spoon batter into the prepared muffin pans.  Bake in a 350 oven 15 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center of several muffins comes out clean. Enjoy!


* Muffins will be dense if you use flax eggs instead of eggs.  They still taste fantastic, but it definitely changes the texture.

**  If using coconut flour, double the liquid amount of applesauce and olive oil.

The best birthday present EVER!

My sweet, hysterically funny, cute, lovable snugglebug Silas turned FIVE on Easter!  Happy birthday, Silas! 
And, a day later, we got the best birthday present I could possibly think of right now!  Results on his Celiac blood test!  NEGATIVE RESULTS!  We had a lot of people praying, and I think it was a miracle in itself that we even had conclusive results!  I could never get a straight answer from any dr, nurse, or lab tech regarding whether or not the celiac blood test would work being that Silas had been off gluten for an entire year.  He did have a few slip ups in the weeks before he got tested, so I am thinking maybe the Lord allowed that so that he would have enough gluten in his system to make it happen! I certainly wasn't going to feed him gluten on purpose just to HOPE to get conclusive test results, (knowing how much pain and suffering goes on each time he accidentally gets some), so maybe it was good he snuck that dinner roll and ate that graham cracker at church.  Ha ha. 

Anyhow, the dr said that Silas will probably outgrow most of his allergies.  Some may always stick with him, but hopefully we can get his body out of this hypersensitive "funk" and then the allergies he has hopefully won't cause such violent reactions when he is exposed.  We are working on that right now.  The dr has Silas on Quercetin which is something like an anti inflammatory supplement to lessen his immune response when he is exposed to an allergen.  Hopefully this will cut down on how long he is sick & how violent he reacts.  For instance, he has had gluten & or soy FIVE times in the past 5 weeks and his body reacted worse each time until the last time he finally ended up with a fever with a headache, stomach ache, explosive & urgent stools, and terrible rashes/eczema around his mouth, tooshie, and all over his body.  The first time he just had the rash around his mouth & toosh, a small headache & tummy ache.  Each time it got progressively worse until it peaked with the fever.  This is the same pattern we have noted for years while he was eating all the allergens.  He has been gluten & dairy free for an entire year and had virtually no slip ups until the past month & a half.  I think he is getting to the age where he realizes that it stinks to be him when he goes to church or a party or when he is around his friends & they are all eating different stuff than him (that he wants!)  It must be so hard to be five and deal with this!

Anyhow, we look forward to the future and soon we will start challenging the allergens to see if the quercetin is helping heal Silas up enough to endure adding things back into his diet.  I will give updates as we go through this journey. 

Banana Oat Pancakes

So, on the rotation diet, one day the only grain Silas can eat is oats.  Silas happens to HATE oatmeal and honestly, I am not very creative when it comes to cooking.  We have had a very difficult time working around this dreaded day (day two in the rotation, shudder!)  I am FORCING myself to learn and forge a path through this undiscovered territory.  My mom & I discussed different ways we could make a pancake type bread that could be used as a pancake or in the form of a sandwich.  Mom mom created the recipe & I tweaked it & discovered what works & what doesn't work.  Now, I wouldn't say this is perfect, but if you want to try it & let me know what you think (and how to possibly improve it), I would be delighted!

I did NOT use egg replacer in this recipe, rather I used banana as the agent which holds the masterpiece together.  Feel free to experiment with that.  On our oat day (in our 4 day rotation diet), we need to stay away from the ingredients in egg replacer, that is why I opted for the simple ingredients in this recipe.  Another thing worth mentioning is that I tried both baking soda and baking powder in different combinations and neither of them works in this recipe.  They do make the texture fluffier, but the banana's properties which hold the pancake together seem to become pointless when these ingredients are added.  Turning the pancake becomes nearly impossible! 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups Oat Flour (I ground up Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats in my blender)
1 banana
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp gluten free vanilla
3/4 cup rice or coconut milk*
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Blend up one banana until it is light & frothy in the blender (or mush it with a fork until it is as mushed as you can get it.)  Add all ingredients & stir until well mixed.  Heat a pan & make sure to spray it so the pancake won't stick (spray it again when you flip the pancake.)  Pour a small scoop (six inches or less when it settles).  Spread it out more with a spatula or spoon if it needs to be thinned a bit.  Flip & cook the other side, then when both sides are done, enjoy!  This is mighty tasty with some earth balance dairy & soy free butter topping it, by itself, with jam, etc.  Makes "Oat Day" something for us to look forward to!!!

*If the first pancake seems too thick & has a hard time cooking all the way through, add more milk to the batter for the rest of the batch.