You Want Me to Eat That?!

A funk!

I'll admit it, I'm in a funk! I've been dealing with food allergies in my children for eight years now! It all started when my youngest daughter was born.  She was sick...a lot. When she was five months old, we discovered she had food allergies. And then the fun began.

I cooked and cooked and tweaked this recipe and that recipe. We had some good days and we had some bad days. We had some great food...and we had some *throw that away as fast as you can food!*

Now she's eight and has outgrown so many of her allergies. She's now allergic to dairy, eggs, tree nuts and peanuts. Ok, I've come a long way in eight years! I know all about dairy substitutes, how to cook without eggs and we just simply have a rule of no nuts in the house. Can you say, Sunbutter? (Sunbutter is an amazing product made from sunflower seeds!)

And then...something amazing happened this past year. Short version is that after ten years of suffering from various symptoms of canker sores, severe pain/cramping in the limbs, stomach pain, skin peeling, bladder issues and so much more...after ten years of this, we discovered that our eleven year old son also is suffering from food allergies and gluten intolerance! He can't have wheat, gluten, tree nuts, peanuts...and soy.

So, now I have to figure out how to cook meals that don't contain any soy, dairy, eggs, nuts, or gluten. Sound hard? Well, for the most part I am able to overcome...but sometimes...oy! I get into a funk.

Try cooking a great loaf of gluten free bread without any eggs! I've gotten the banana bread down thanks to Karina, but regular bread is still a work in progress for me!

What about cake? A cake with no dairy, soy, eggs, or gluten...and tastes great? Well, on my good days, I can try and come up with something...but I'm in a funk!

And I love to bake! I love to cook! I've often said that He must have knew what He was doing when He gave me these kids, because I love to cook!

I know that part of my funk right now comes from just not having the correct baking tools. For instance, have you ever tried to mix a loaf of bread with a $10 hand mixer? A Kitchen Aid is what I need! But alas, I don't have one, so I get frustrated and then my son goes without his fresh bread that he loves.

And it takes time! Who has time when your the mother of five busy children...and you home school a couple of them?!

But seriously, why am I even writing this? It sounds so negative, right? How will this particular blog ever help anyone trying to deal with food allergies and children?

If nothing else, I hope it helps them to know that there will be times when you are in a funk. It happens. Recognize it. And then....

Get up and go make some bread...or something.

That's what I'm going to do. I think I'll go put on those big girl panties and find something fabulous to make for lunch.

Pancakes and Muffins the new way

Living with a child with food allergies is not always easy. Living with two children with opposite food allergies can be even more of a challenge! Throw in two more teenagers who have no food allergies and you can only imagine the requests that I get!

For the most part, I try and make a meal that will accommodate everyone. When the drama queen was very young and the only one with allergies, I'd usually make myself and her a smaller meal and the rest of the family something else. That got old quick though! Once she started outgrowing some of her food allergies, I started converting the rest of the family to our way of living! My oldest son once told me that the reason he is so short is because he stopped growing when I made him start eating healthy!  He does have a point, but he was also just at the stop growing age!

Anyway, this brings us to this past weekend. It was B-Boo's birthday and she had a slumber party. Ten girls wanted pancakes for breakfast and me trying to come up with a great recipe that was safe for the man on top of that was a bit overwhelming! I"ll admit that although I seem to have a grasp on the allergies for the most part, sometimes I do take the easy way out!  That meant that the girls got the cheap Bisquick pancakes (ok, I do spice them up to make it better). The drama queen can have them since I do not put eggs in my pancakes, but it left out the man who is allergic to wheat and follows a gluten free diet. Hmmmm...

One of my new favorite places to be is on Karina's Gluten Free Goddess! She's a fun read and her recipes are divine! She is actually one of those people who can say that her recipes are great and be truthful! (Those of you who have created the allergy free recipes that end up in the wastebasket know what I'm talking about!) Anyway, off to search her site I went. She has some great ideas, but I couldn't find any sweet pancakes. She admits on her site that she just isn't in to them, but rather has some rather scrumptious looking veggie pancakes. I'll have to try them someday, but for now I needed something fabulous that the man could eat for breakfast that was special, too!

I'd read one of her posts on some blueberry vegan cakes that I'd put in the back of my mind to try someday. Since I actually had most of the ingredients and this seemed like the perfect occasion, I decided to give them a whirl.  I was missing buckwheat flour, so substituted bean flour instead, used organic butter since he's allergic to soy, and added in two organic brown eggs since the drama queen had her pancakes. I have to say, these were a hit! They are by far one of the best muffins I've made! Even some of the girls ate them not realizing they were gluten free! I'm going to have to try them again, this time vegan style as Karina suggests, but at least for the day, the man was a happy camper!

Allergy free banana bread that tastes good?

For those of you who don't know me yet, I bake a lot! Why? Well, I like to bake, which is a good thing, because I have two children with severe food allergies. It started out with my youngest daughter, the drama queen. That's for another story, but I will say that now that she is 8 years old, she is down to being allergic to only four food groups: dairy, eggs, tree nuts and peanuts. (I say only, because the list used to be MUCH longer!) I'd grown accustomed to cooking for the whole family keeping these ingredients out of our meals when God decided to throw another one at me! Turns out (again, another story for another day) that my youngest son also suffers from food allergies. He's allergic to wheat, gluten, soy, peanuts and tree nuts.

Ok, so let me get this straight? I now have to cook/bake with out any eggs, wheat, gluten, soy, dairy or any kind of nut and it STILL has to taste good? Yeah, right!

Actually, we're making it! I'm not afraid to throw out something that tastes awful and I'm not afraid to try something new. Which is what brings me to our recent attempt at banana bread.

After much research, I decided to try out Karina's recipe from Gluten Free Goddess . I only made two changes; I had run out of olive oil so used grapeseed oil instead and I added in more chocolate chips. It's true...she really is a gluten free goddess...and dairy and egg free at that! Wow. Everyone in my family loved the recipe. .

Ok, except for me, I'll be honest. But honestly, the only reason was that I put too many chocolate chips in...I love chocolate and decided to add more...BIG mistake. Even the chocolate lover in me screamed it was too much!  Mission was accomplished though; even the wheat lovers in the family couldn't tell the difference!