Dairy Free Nacho Cheese

Fall.  It is one of my favorite  times of year.  The leaves changing color, the air becoming cooler, and football!  With football comes finger foods, and the best finger food is nachos!  Nachos has been one of our Sunday football lunches for as long as I can remember.  My dad and I would make our nachos and sit together watching whatever game was on. 

Since we are currently on an allergy free diet, traditional nachos is not something I am able to enjoy.  So I went on a mission to find a dairy free alternative.  I searched all sorts of sites, and even took to Pinterest- which is not something I do often!  I tried a couple recipes, one from cashews, but it just didn't quite satisfy my nacho cheese craving.  So I developed my own concoction.  The problem is that it has to be fast to make, because with 3 kids, I don't always have time sit and make a nacho cheese that takes an hour to make.  It also has to be something that my 9 month old, 2.5 year old, and 4 year old can all enjoy, along with a husband who is not fully compliant with our allergy free diet.  I hope you can enjoy this cheese as much as we do!

Servings:
This was enough to make 2 adult plates of nachos, 2 toddler plates, and a small amount to mix with chicken for the baby's lunch.

Ingredients

3 Daiya chedder slices
1/4 Daiya jack style block
3 rounded Tbs nutritional yeast
2 rounded Tbs mild salsa
splash of rice milk

Step 1. Place all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.
Step 2. Microwave on high for 45 seconds.  Stir.
Step 3. Microwave another 30 seconds or until melted and all ingredients are combined.

Step 4. ENJOY!  Drizzle over chips, use for dipping, add chili for chili cheese, etc

Gluten Free, Allergen Free Oreo Cookies

My 4 year old (can't believe he is that old now) is always asking to buy the Oreo-type cookies when we go looking for snacks that he can have.  Since he is currently on an allergen free diet, even the gluten free versions are not an option for him.  It is so hard to have to tell your child, yet again, that he cannot have another something sitting on the store shelves.  I have a great recipe for fig bars, one I am working on for Ritz-type crackers, and have now got a yummy recipe for Oreo cookies that are free of ingredients my son is not supposed to have! I can't lie- I wasn't able to finish making them before sneaking a cookie, or 2!!  I actually prefer these to any store-bought brand, which I find tastes like sweetened cardboard.

Dry Ingredients
1 1/4 cups GF flour blend- I like Bob's Red Mill GF 1 to 1 Baking Flour
1/2 cup Raw cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, room temperature- I used Earth Balance Soy free
3/4 c Organic Cane Sugar
1 Tbs Ground chia mixed with 3 Tbs warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream Filling
2 Tbs butter, room temperature
6 Tbs Spectrum brand shortening
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. In the bowl blend butter and sugar. Add in Chia/water and vanilla and blend.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.

4. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and blend until fully combined.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll rounded teaspoons of batter into balls with hands, and place onto parchment paper. Use the bottom of a glass/cup to flatten the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. (I used my kids' plastic cup that had a slight edge on the bottom of the cup that made nice, contained circles, and also kept the thickness of each cookie about the same.

6. Bake 12 minutes.  Cool slightly, then remove from baking sheet and allow to completely cool.

7. Beat together butter, shortening, and vanilla until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar on low speed.

8. Spread thick layer of filling onto 1 cookie. Place another cookie on top of the cream. Press lightly. Continue until all the cookies have been used.  (The great thing about making your own, is you can use as much, or as little filling as you like to make your cookies, make them different colors, or add different flavors)

9. ENJOY!!!

Gluten free fig bars

My oldest son loves fig bars.  He would eat them a couple times a day- well more often if I would let him!  He was quite distraught when I told him we had to get rid of all the food that hurt his belly and his skin, and that he couldn't have his fig bars anymore.  We are on an allergen free diet, that makes finding snacks the boys like and will eat quite challenging.  So I searched for a fig bar recipe!  I of course lost the site I found the recipe on, so thank goodness I wrote the recipe down.  I altered the recipe to correspond to our current allergen free situation.  While they are not quite the same as the ones he loved, they taste really good and are a great snack.  I also found that these are a great simple snack for my 7 month old to practice with finger food and chewing.  It crumbles enough when given in small pieces so I don't have to worry about him choking, but allows him to practice chewing- which he loves to do! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Ingredients

Fig filling
9 calimyrna figs
16 mission figs
1/2 c. Pomegranate juice
1/4 c.  Cranberry juice
1/4 c. Lemon juice

Soak figs in juices overnight.  After soaking, place in food processor and blend into a thick paste.

Dough ingredients
Wet
1/2 c. dairy free butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. organic cane sugar
1 Tbs Chia in 3 Tbs warm water
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs molasses
up to 1/4 c. water

Dry
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c. white rice flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/4 c. teff flour
1/4 c. millet flour
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp nutmeg

1. Mix all dry ingredients together. 
2. Melt butter.  Add sugars, and mix.  Add chia mixture, vanilla, and molasses and mix.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until blended.  Add up to 1/4 c. water.  Add small amounts of water at a time until you are able to squeeze the dough into balls.
4. Chill dough for 1 hour.
5. After chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Divide dough into thirds.  Roll 1 section to 1/2" thickness on parchment paper on 1 end of the parchment paper.
7. Spoon fig paste onto half of the rolled out dough.  Fold the other half over top of the fig using the parchment paper to help fold it over and avoid breaking. 
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 placing the next section of dough in the middle of the parchment paper and the third section on the other end.
9. Pull parchment paper onto a baking sheet and bake approximately 20 minutes until firm and lightly browned.
10. Allow to cool slightly, then cut into sections.  A pizza cutter works well for this!
11. ENJOY while they are warm or store in an airtight container.  I've noticed they will get a little hard after the initial cooling.  Keep in the airtight container overnight and they will have softened nicely!

Gluten Free Bread

With our change to an allergen free diet, finding a good bread replacement was a priority for me.  The boys liked to have toast for a bedtime snack.  All of the gluten free breads in the store tend to have eggs, and are very dense.  It feels so heavy in my belly, is dry, and a little on the hard side.  I also wanted a bread that could be made in the bread machine since I have no time to be sitting in the kitchen cooking for any length of time. 

Here is the best bread recipe that you would never know is gluten free if I hadn't told you!

Ingredients

DRY
3/4 c. potato starch
3/4 c. brown rice flour
1 c + 2 Tbs tapioca starch
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt

WET
1 Tbs honey
2 Tbs chia seed soaked in 6 Tbs warm water
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 c warm rice milk

Step 1. Combine chia seed and water in a cup and allow to sit for 5 minutes
Step 2. Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl.  Whisk together.
Step 3. Warm milk in a bowl.  Add remaining wet ingredients in with the milk and stir.
Step 4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry.  Stir until combined.
Step 5. Pour mixture into bread machine.  Set on Gluten Free, Dark setting. 

Step 6. When bread is done, remove from pan and allow to cool completely on side. Do not cut prior to cooling, as it will be too gooey!

* I love this bread toasted.  My husband likes to eat it warmed with Daiya cheese melted on it.  We have also grilled it to eat with dinner and my husband used that with his burger.  We have made grilled cheese sandwiches with it using Daiya cheese, and those were pretty yummy!  We have not tried it with regular sandwiches!

Allergen Free Family

It's hard to believe it has been over a year since I have posted anything on here!  Our lives have changed so much in that time.  We have since added a third, beautiful baby boy to our brood.  I thank God all the time that he is mellow and sleeps, because I don't know how we would have been able to handle another challenging baby!

Now that he is here and the other two are older, it seems we have even less time to get things done.  Between working full time and these busy boys, meal planning has become essential, although we still aren't very good at planning ahead.  I have also been trying to get us back on track with eating healthier foods.  We had resorted to quick meals that weren't as healthy as we would like. We have also discovered some, scratch that, MANY dietary issues with the 2 older boys, which has made eating a very challenging task in our home.  I have always had concerns about my oldest and his skin issues and the middle and his belly issues- hard belly, STINKY gas, and sporadic, raunchy poops.  After having some labwork done, it was discovered that both of them were having issues with dairy, wheat and gluten, eggs, coconut, soy, peanuts, and almonds.  That means no ice cream, yogurt, all of their snacks, peanut butter, eggs at breakfast, and our almond milk.  All of the things they love.

We also have a now 7 month old son.  He has been such a mellow baby from day 1.  Woke 1-2 times a night right from the get-go, pretty easy going, pretty easy to settle.  He began taking longer and longer to settle, and then went from waking once per night, to 3 or more times per night, and was very difficult to settle. He was becoming more and more gassy and seemed very uncomfortable.  After changing my diet, the baby settled... sporadic gassiness, settles better overall, but especially only wakes once per night and is back in his bed in 15 minutes!  I never really thought changing my diet like that would have such an effect on my milk.  He only has fruits, veggies, and rice, and "meltable" gluten free snacks to practice chewing!  From my experiences with the older boys, I will definitely be delaying introduction of gluten and dairy products until he is 2 and hopefully avoid some of the issues we've had with the older boys!

We have spent the last 5 weeks finding alternatives, but mostly telling them "I'm sorry, we can't eat that!"  That is the hardest part of this whole change, telling them they can't eat the foods they like, and getting them to understand that.  For the most part they have been very good about not having melt downs over it, but finding alternatives they like has proved quite challenging.  I find recipes, and while I usually enjoy them, the boys are not quite as flexible!

I plan to slowly share some of the allergen free  foods with you that meet the taste standards of our family.  I have allowed small sneaks of things with coconut since their reaction to that food was high, but I think the other foods they reacted to were more of the culprit. 

Kale chips

I have been on a small mission the past couple months to change my eating habits, to eat more natural foods.  That means less processed and attempting to base some of what we eat on the  "Nourishing Traditions" way of eating.  I find it somewhat time consuming, particularly since I am a working mom with two very busy, on the go boys.  We are also a family who needs to include more veggies into our diet, as I'm sure many people do.  The trouble is, we are pretty picky about veggies.  I prefer raw, but i know they are much harder to digest, and we don't necessarily get all the nutrients as when they are cooked.  Many cooked veggies gag me- usually the texture, sometimes the taste.  In my pursuit of healthiness, an acquaintence mentionedIi really should be eating more leafy greens- cooked!  That's worse than most cooked vegetables!  The thoughht of that is just disgusting.  She also mentioned kale. Oh, i eat kale on my lunch wraps- I said.  Her reply, raw greens are really difficult to digest, so you should cook them.  Yeah, I know, just can't bring myself to do it!  So she mentioned kale chips.  Hmmm... Interesting idea.  How do I do that? You just mix them in olive oil and salt and bake them.  Even my 7 year old eats them, she says.  OK, if a 7 year old can do it, so can I.  I figured out how to do it, and guess what?? They are my new salty snack of choice!  In fact, I can't seem to keep them around for leftovers for lunches.

I have been trying to find a salty snack made without processed oils and sugars.  Not so easy to find. Who knew kale chips would satisfy that craving?!?  But, it got me thinking that someone must have been really desperate to think, hmmm let's bake some kale!  Here is the simple recipe for an addicting, yet healthy snack!

1 bunch kale
Approximately 1/4 c olive oil
Approximately 1 tsp sea salt, johnny's seasoning salt, etc

Step 1. Clean and dry kale.  Peel leafy part off the center stem on each side and tear leaves into 1 inch pieces, or so, and place in mixing bowl.

Step 2.  Pour olive oil over kale and mix until coated.

Step 3.  Sprinkle salt over kale and mix.  Add more or less to taste. (If they aren't quite salty enough, i lightly dust as soon as I take them out of the oven)

Step 4. Spread onto baking sheet so that the pieces do not overlap.

Step 5. Bake for 18-20 minutes in a 300 degree oven.

Potty training time?

I was recently talking with a co-worker, and somehow we got onto the subject of potty training.  She was sharing how easy it was to potty train her boys, but her grandson took forever to learn.  She said that when he was around 5 it had dawned on her to find some training pants that were more like what she used when her boys were little, because then they could feel wet, unlike diapers today that wick away moisture.

I hadn't thought too much about trying to potty train yet, as my 2 1/2 year old doesn't show much interest, and doesn't really understand when he pees- unless he happens to watch himself doing it when his diaper is off.  So, i decided to try and find some cotten training pants and start trying.

At first my son was excited, just from the thought that he could earn stickers and cars (his absolute favorite).  I thought this might work, as he hates to have wet clothes, he loves cars, this could be great.  Well, it's not starting off so well, not that i thought it would be easy!  He's peed through 5 pairs of training pants so far, and the more he doesn't earn a car, the less he wants to sit on the potty.  The problem is, that i don't think he completely understands what it is to pee in his potty.  So, he will sit on it and make a "pssssssss" noise with his mouth, and in his mind he has gone potty! Hmmm... Good effort buddy, but that's not peeing in your potty. So now to get him to understand...  No, no, you need to get water in you potty, from your weenie!  Of, course he tries, but he's already peed, so nothing comes.  Hmmm...  This could take a while!