Happy New Year 2015

Big Brother planned out our New Year's dinner menu with me yesterday: short ribs (he likes braised meat dishes for festive meals), broccoli and brown rice.  Grapes would be for dessert like we have every year in line with the Spanish tradition of las doce uvas de la suerte. While playing this afternoon he reminded me that he was going to help me cook and that we were going to need appetizers to help us along. Before starting the short ribs, we put out dates, raisins, roasted chickpeas, green olives and some jamón serrano. 

The first step in preparing dinner tonight was getting Baby Brother's seperate pot of short ribs on the stove.  His were made with homemade turkey stock, rosemary, carrots, celery and kale.  We haven't introduced red wine, tomatoes or bay leaves yet.  Oh, nor onion.  We will be doing a skin test to onion at our next allergist visit. Onion is on the top of my scary list. No garlic was used this time, as we no longer keep it in the house or cook with it.  

While we didn't make it to midnight to eat our grapes, Big Brother insisted that he'd be old enough next year.  I loved that he helped me with each step of the short ribs as well as stringing the grapes on the popsicle sticks.  

Tomorrow we will have leftovers for lunch with sweet potatoes and sautéed spinach. Whatever sauce is leftover will be combined with some crimini mushrooms and sautéed kale to be thrown on top of a bowl of polenta.  Are we ready to introduce corn to Baby Brother?

Baby Brother Turns 2

waffle Birthday cake with Baby Brother's favorite toppings

Today we celebrated Baby Brother's second Birthday.  Big Brother was overly excited about building the waffle "cake" we had planned together for this morning's celebratory breakfast.  We decided to top the waffle tower with Baby Brother's favorites: wild blueberries, coconut flakes, hemp seeds and maple syrup.  Baby Brother loved his special and yummy family Birthday breakfast.  He shouted "hooray" when we sang to him and kept asking for "more" singing and "more" blueberries. These waffles are the same ones we make every Sunday morning.  Since Baby Brother and I are now avoiding eggs, we keep them out and instead add a giant scoop of apple sauce. After breakfast, we opened up gifts and then took a ride in the cardboard box boat which Big Brother had been working on the past few days in preparation for his little Brother's special day.  

here is the boat being finished up for Baby Brother's Birthday ride

and then later on for dinner, we had one of Baby Brother's favorite meals.  It happens to be Big Brother's most requested meal as well: grass-fed steak, sweat potato fries and broccoli.  We are loving the new placemat that Grams and Pops sent. Check out the squishy persimmon and seasonal citrus.  

Saturday Lunch

I look forward to Saturday mornings. There is no place I'd rather be at 9 am than the farmer's market. When I get home, I feel energized and hungry for a giant salad made up of what I found that very morning.  On the side, we always have rice, lentil and spinach pancakes fried up in coconut oil.  Right now,  I am loving salad greens with seasonal citrus and crunchy radishes and cucumbers. And a handful of sprouted pumpkin seeds and roasted chickpeas take these simple salads to the next level. The highlight of this week's Saturday lunch was Baby Brother crunching on cucumber slices along with the rest of us.   We had a rocky start with introducing cucumber this past summer.  The two times we gave him a piece of cumber, he got several hives on his belly and a red rash around his mouth.  So we stopped giving him cucumber until this past week. We were bummed that we couldn't share a family favorite.   Can you believe that he stole one from my plate the other day and that I had to fish it out of his mouth half-chewed? Papi, who named me "allergenista" because of how seasoned I am with allergy safety, was shocked. I had made a huge mistake in leaving my abundance bowl at the edge of the table with allergic Baby Brother so close by. I was terrified one moment and totally relieved 30 minutes later when my little guy showed zero reaction.  So something good came out of this major allergy error.  Thank goodness I didn't make the same mistake with cheese or Big Brother's glass of cow milk! As a result of the non reaction to the stolen cucumber slice, we decided to give him cucumber with dinner the following day.  He has since tolerated cucumber every day this week.  

Baby Brother's lunch without cucumber

Both Brothers eating cucumbers.  Big Brother loves cucumber
towers drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice

A plate of spinach, lentil, rice pancakes in the middle of the table
for us all to grab

Baby Brother's cutting board can now include
cucumber.  No need to slice on a separate
cutting board to avoid cross-contamination

Our Thanksgiving Meal

carving our local, heritage turkey from Tejas Heritage Farm:
olive oil, rosemary, satsuma and real salt

"Abundance", "feast"and "enough" are words that have been swirling around in my head lately. They are particularly loaded with meaning for me during Thanksgiving.  Is it still abundance when there are so many restrictions?  Do our allergic restrictions make me feel like I don't have enough comfort food and in turn not enough joy?

This year, there was enough food at our table.  It was a feast: A turkey, and a mighty fine one in fact.  There were salads and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes and even pumpkin-lucuma ice cream.  The food was local, simple and homemade. We had a bowl of squishy persimmons and freshly picked satsumas. We even had a pot of turkey stock going the following day to help nourish us during the flu.  

I told a dear friend that I would refocus and live in the present: this meal would be delicious despite all of the ingredients left out.  

Perhaps I should start to feel proud instead of sad and nostalgic.  We eat pretty well despite so many food allergies.  

In order of appearance: 1) homemade cranberry sauce 2) Baby Brother eating
along with the rest of the family 3) Big Brother eating on his second helping,
4)turkey soup with veggies and rice pasta 5) allergy friendly waffles with 
chicken sausage and homemade cranberry sauce 6) bowl of persimmons
and assortment of oranges 7) Boys making me turkey soup

Homemade Hemp Milk

This takes 5 minutes :)

Hemp milk is super nutritious and surprisingly easy to make at home.  Who knew that I would be whipping up coconut milk and hemp milk several times a week!  It's amazing the changes we have gone through with our diet because of food allergies. 

Back in Toronto, when Big Brother was two-years-old we would bundle up to go take a mile-long walk to Kensington Market in freezing-cold weather. That's where we would pick up local goat milk and cow milk in glass bottles along with delicious cheeses.  A favorite activity when we got home to our warm apartment was turning the milk into butter and the butter into a treat.  We still keep dairy in the house in the form of Mill King milk and cheese for school lunch sandwiches, but we no longer cook with dairy.  Too much risk of cross-contamination.  Still, even just to eat a piece of cheese or take a sip of milk, there are a lot of safety rules in place in order for it to be allowed in the house. 

Baby Brother simply cannot be in direct contact with dairy.

 He turns two this month and he still prefers to be nursed (which also means that I continue 100% to avoid dairy in my diet); it's quite a difficult task to get him to drink milk from a cup.  So far we have been trying non-dairy non-soy and non-nut: coconut, hemp and brown rice.  I like hemp milk the most for him, as it is packed with vitamins and minerals.  I have not been thrilled about his disinterest in drinking any of these homemade milks in cute sippy cups or his favorite stainless steel mugs. There is no quitting or giving up, but I can't drive myself crazy either.   This week I've been mixing into the hemp milk some blackstrap molasses.  This boy will down a tablespoon of pure blackstrap molasses, but isn't so excited about drinking molasses flavored milk?.  Hmmmmmm, any suggestions?  Toddlers keeping their parents on their toes!

Have you ever tried hemp milk or seeds?  I enjoy hemp seeds, but the first few times I ate them I wasn't so sure.  I found them to taste a bit grassy for my liking.  With a limited diet, I find myself giving new foods a big chance.  My favorite way to eat them is in pumpkin, date and cacao smoothies, our family-favorite date and hemp bliss balls and sprinkled on top of baked carrot oatmeal.  I'll be posting these recipes soon.  

with a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses mixed in
Go ahead now, drink!

What you need:
one cup of hemp seeds
one cup of pure water
one generous tablespoon maple syrup (hemp and maple make it extra Canadian)
one generous tablespoon of coconut oil
pinch of real salt

What to do:
Combine hemp seeds and pure water in TM Bowl
Blend 2 minutes, speed 9
Strain with nut bag, but it's not really necessary since there isn't really any pulp
Add in coconut oil, maple syrup and salt. Add vanilla and other flavorings as preferred.

For more ideas, click here 

Trail Mix

Baby Brother likes to be outside in the backyard mid-morning digging in the dirt. He often asks to sit and have a snack at the picnic table, and I then bring him a mug of this trail mix. Lately, it's a mixture of coconut flakes, dried mulberries, raisins and hemp seeds. Sometimes we toss in some roasted, salted chickpeas too.  

Homemade Crunch Bars

3 ingredients and very little mess with my Thermomix

Do you go out trick-or-treating for Halloween? We did again this year.  Do you eat any of the candy?  We don't due to food allergies and gross ingredients. Big Brother doesn't even ask to eat any of it because he prefers what we make at home, he just wanted the pack of bat-shaped pretzels.  I could handle that request; I just had to vacuum up the crumbs and wash hands/face immediately since Baby Brother is allergic to wheat.  Would I have felt differently if he had wanted a peanut butter cup?

Will Big Brother always have the same palate and preferences? This little guy loves 88% dark chocolate! I hope he continues to prefer quality ingredients and want keep his little brother safe at the same time. He said such endearing things as he put his Halloween candy in his pumpkin: " My Baby Brother is allergic to this so we don't actually eat it."

What should we do with all that candy? Would you consider giving out allergy friendly or ingredient friendly treats?  Or maybe even non-food treats?  Here is something to read. 

These homemade crunch bars totally hit the spot last night. Thank you, my special recipe sharing friend,  for sharing this simple and awesome recipe with us.  

Perhaps we will make into popsicle ghosts next year, using coconut butter as the white frosting and 2 chips for eyes.

What you need:

2 bags of Enjoylife chocolate chips.  I used one bag of the mini chips and one back of the dark chips
2 cups of Rice Crispies.  I used the Whole Foods 365 brand Brown Rice Crisps.  The allergen information states: 'may contain wheat and soy.  Produced in a facility that processes peanuts and tree nuts." So this cereal is not safe for Baby Brother. Baby Brother hasn't had chocolate yet, and this treat was just for Big Brother.
Flaky salt or fleur de sal for sprinkling on top


What to do: 

Add one bag of chocolate chips to TM bowl.  Heat for 4 min, 50 degrees, speed 2. Add in second bag of chocolate chips and heat accordingly.  I did for another few minutes at 50 degrees, speed 2. Click here for instructions on Tempering Chocolate in Thermomix.

Add in 2 cups of rice crispies and mix speed 1, reverse spoon.

Pour into baking pan, I used a brownie pan lined with parchment paper.  

Sprinkle salt on top.  Maybe I'll add some cacao nibs next time

Place in freezer to set

Eat when you come in from Trick-or-Treating, but first remember to move from freezer to fridge so that they are not rock hard and you have to wait.  

Waiting for us for when we come home from trick-or-treating

Big Brother loves scooting around neighborhood
all month to see decorations
This is a favorite

What sweets do you want to make this time of year?
Here is our list:
Double Dark Chocolate Macaroon tart, vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free
Gooey Pumpkin Spice Latte Chocolate Pudding Cake
Pumpkin Fudge Balls
Blender Pumpkin Coconut Oatmeal Cups
Halloween Sweet Potato Fries
Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins
Pumpkin Coconut Fudge
Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal
Pumpkin Donuts
Pumpkin Granola Bars
Pumpkin Coconut Mousse
Glowing Ghost Gummies
pumpkin pudding

Bento Box

Big Brother planned his lunch menu for his first day of Kindergarten:
leftover grass-fed sirloin, sliced cucumbers with lemon juice,grapes
a slice of homemade rosemary foccacia
(made from oats, rice, chickpeas and potato flour)
 and lots of melon

Big Brother enjoys participating in packing his lunch.  It is fun to fill up the compartments together.  Here is a glimpse of what his bento box lunch has been looking like.  We purchased our lunch gear from Mighty Nest.  15% of the purchase goes to my son's school.  Check out here how to get great lunch gear and how to support your school at the same time.  

Stir-fry is another favorite. Leftovers make great lunch for all of us

Close up: upper right-hand corner is Big Brother's favorite coconut
t-rex treat who hangs out with a date representing a giant rock. I will
be posting how to make these dinos.

Big Brother loves leftover ground turkey meat from Thursday night
turkey tacos.  We ran out of spinach tortillas though for lunch the
following day.  He still likes it with leftover rice. 

Another favorite to assemble: farinata cut in triangles with sliced
avocado and a whole baby cucumber

Leftover Soaked Morning Oats

Frying up in some coconut oil.  Baby Brother has his
own cast iron pan and silicone spatula to avoid cross-contamination

A bowl of hot oatmeal is a favorite breakfast in my house.  While we prefer it on colder mornings, it is still enjoyed on warmer days.  Are there even "colder" mornings in Houston?  It's all relative coming from Toronto and being from New England! Do you ever have any leftover porridge?  Would you like to turn that leftover porridge into oatmeal cakes without much effort?  I know that you don't ever want to throw out any of your leftover overnight soaked oats!  Here is a trick: stir in a tablespoon or so of coconut oil into your leftovers and leave in fridge.  When the oats cool down in the fridge you can cook up some oatmeal "cakes" since the coconut oil will solidify when cold.  Then it's easy to roll into balls and flatten in a cast iron pan.  Baby Brother is a big fan, at least for now; he ate 3 whole cakes with a big smile the first time I made them.  No other flavors were needed to be devoured, the coconut gives the perfect sweetness.  If there are leftovers for me, I sprinkle some cinnamon on top.  I love such simple, warming breakfasts and snacks.  Try it, tell me what you think!  You can also blend up the leftover oats with some coconut milk and spices and make a yummy cold, non-dairy oat pudding.  Do you soak your oats overnight?  Check out how and why to soak oats and make oatcakes here.  This blog post came to the rescue as I was scratching my head about how to continue to serve oats as a new and interesting food for my Baby Brother.  

While they don't necesarily brown up for me at this point,
I did get a crisp "chip" which Baby Brother adored.

Carrot Cake Overnight Soaked Oatcakes.  Baby Brother ate 3 today
for morning snack.  That's homemade coconut milk with "boo berries"
Baby Brother likes to play with his coconut milk rather than
actually drink it.

Oatmeal Rusks

We recently introduced Baby Brother to oatmeal: "hello, Baby Brother, please be able to eat me without a reaction!"  We started this introduction process with a skin test with his allergist using both the serum and natural oat: no reaction.  I was nervous to introduce oats and barley after reacting to the wheat skin test.  The first way I made oats was a simple porridge using just oats and water.  Then I mixed in a little homemade coconut milk.  He ate a few bites for a few days,  but wasn't very interested after that.  I did make some leftover soaked porridge pan fried cakes that were successful.  I will be posting that next.  From there I wanted to make two ingredient oat cookies; something to nibble on really. I found this recipe and gave it a go.  They are actually made similarly as these oat biscuits I used to make a few years ago. These particular rusks are cooked for some time, yielding a very hard biscotti-like log biscuit.  I like that they are shaped perfectly for little hands.  I didn't intend for Big Brother to like them them more than Baby Brother.  Then again, Baby Brother is at a toddler stage that makes introducing new foods even more challenging. More than actually eating the rusks, Baby Brother reaches for one like he wants it and then just leaves it or throws it at my head.  I'll keep trying, but hopefully not for long before I can try our family oatmeal breakfast cookies with egg.  One thing I'd like to do to improve this recipe is to soak the oat flour overnight before baking.  Do I need to add something acidic like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, or do you think that water is enough to help with digestibility and nutrition? 

What you need:
250 grams oat 
100-200 grams of boiled water, cooled.

What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
3. Blitz oats in TM, speed 9 for 30 seconds. Scrape down. Repeat
4. Add 100 grams of water
5. Blitz speed 5
6. Drizzle more water until you form a dough. It should feel a little sticky and hold its shape when rolled into a ball
7. Shape into logs, I make around 12-14
8. Make dents with your finger so that it's easier for toddler to hold on to.
9. Bake for 30 minutes
10. Turn down oven to 300 degrees
11. Bake until hard: 45-60 minutes
12. Store in brown paper bag.  I like these.  They stay dry stored this way, even in humid Houston :)

Homemade Coconut Yogurt

I love having an individual glass jar for each day of the week.
Perfect served with fresh fruit and a drizzle of local raw honey

Homemade coconut yogurt has been something I have wanted to be part of my weekly kitchen routine since Baby Brother's discovered dairy allergy: probiotics, good fats from coconut, grass fed gelatin, no additives and zero sweeteners.  I knew that once I got the process down, that it would become second nature. There has been a learning process involved, about which I could go on at lengths about.  I knew that I wanted to make a creamy, full-mouth feeling coconut yogurt.  I was interested in using gelatin as the thickner and a non-dairy starter such as this one.  How was I going to make this happen? With guidance from a few blogs and from Cultures For Health, these posted instructions have been working for me.  It took a few attempts to get the hang of it; sometimes, with patience and extra curiosity, the mysteries unravel and make sense.  With email help from Cultures For Health, I figured out that I needed to warm the coconut milk with the gelatin to 50 degrees since heating to 37 degrees didn't seem to be working for me. I also learned that I could not halve their yogurt starter packet while cutting the quantity to only 2 cans of milk, as I had done.  What I had to do was use the whole packet and the 4 cans of coconut milk. Please note, that I ended up buying this second tier for my yogurt maker along with extra glass jars to accommodate the 4 can quantity.  As usual, I give my Thermomix a happy little hug for helping me make fresh, homemade food; it's my special allergy friend in the kitchen.  I am planning on purchasing this non-dairy starter from Custom Probiotics, as it is also gluten free in addition to dairy free. Compare the allergen warnings on these two dairy free starters to see which one works best for your family.  

What you need:
4 cans of coconut milk.  I use this one.  
(I haven't tried with homemade coconut milk yet)
1 tablespoon of  this gelatin
1 packet of Cultures For Health non-dairy yogurt starter

What to do:
Put the butterfly into the Thermomix bowl and make sure it’s locked in place. 
Heat the coconut milk for 6-7 minutes, 50 degrees, speed 3 
Remove one cup of milk and whisk in the gelatin*
Add mixture back to TM bowl, mix 2 minutes at 50 degrees speed 3
Let cool down to 37 degrees and then add in probiotic starter – making sure it is not caught on the butterfly
Mix, speed 3 for 20 seconds
Pour into Yogurt Machine's glass jars and follow machine's instructions
Incubate for 14 hours (added 2 hours for top tier)

*I'm working on having the gelatin fully mix in, as I do get some clumps
**I have only been making coconut yogurt for one month, so I could revisit this post with some tweaking: please contact me if you have any suggestions or questions--teamwork :)

Farmer's market peaches topped with coconut yogurt and coconut flakes

For More Guidance: http://www.pinterest.com/DeniseZfinds/yogurt-making/

I am going to look into the starter listed in this post

Zucchini Spaghetti With Pumpkin Seed Pesto, Peaches and Tomatoes

Raw fruit is something new for Baby Brother, and raw peaches have recently been introduced.  It is such a treat to go to the farmer's market right now and bring home a basket of  juicy, sweet peaches for us all to enjoy together.  The best part, really, is that I can actually give my little guy what he is asking for when he cries out "peach, peach, peach." We also have been bringing home lots of zucchini, enough to fill up one crisper drawer along with tons of carrots and baby cucumbers for Big Brother.  Zucchini happens to be one of Baby Brother's favorites, as he has it daily this summer in his bone broth, so I look for many ways to use it: zucchini slice, stir-fry and a new favorite-zucchini spaguetti made with this sprializer.  This summer, I was inspired by this recipe from The First Mess.  It combines zucchini noodles with a delicious pumpkin seed pesto and fresh peaches. For my lunch, I added in vibrant tomatoes since I like the flavor combination and combined juiciness of tomatoes and peaches together with fresh basil. I also add a hard boiled pasture egg-since egg is tolerated by everyone right now, and I make several daily *Baby Brother only has eaten yolk so far and Big Brother is not so keen on the texture of the white.  For the pesto, I have swapped out the garlic for some green onion and lemon zest-I add lemon zest to just about everything since it's free flavor.  Also, I use sprouted pumpkin seeds that my local Whole Foods places aside for me before hitting bulk bin.  I am comfortable with this practice with my personal tree nut allergy.  Would you be ok with it for your tree nut/peanut allergic child ? 

What You Need For Salad:
4-5 zucchini, spiralized into spaghetti
2-3 peaches, sliced in wedges
2-3 tomatoes, sliced in wedges

What You Need For Pesto:
1 cup of pumpkin seeds
1 cup of basil leaves
3 tbsp olive oil
splash of water
1 tbsp lemon juice, plus the zest
1 scallion, sliced in small rounds
salt and pepper to taste

How To Make:
First step pesto:

Place pumpkin seeds in TM bowl and process, speed 7, until you reach coarse breadcrumb consistency

Add in the rest of ingredients and process, speed 7, until you get desired paste-like texture.

You may have to add another splash of water or olive oil to help move along.  You also may need to scrape down sides with spatula after a few seconds before continuing. 

Second step spaghetti:

Spiralize Spaguetti and place in a big bowl and toss with a pinch or two of salt.  Let sit to soften while slices peaches and tomatoes

Third step assembly:

Toss the spaguetti with the pesto.  Add in the tomatoes and peaches with some torn up basil leaves.  Add some extra bits of pesto and lemon juice to taste. 

A zucchini set aside away from prep area to make sure that
Baby Brother's noodles for his chicken soup are free
of cross contamination as the pesto was being prepped
I hesitate to use cucumber in the spiralizer at this point since
it appears as if Baby Brother does not tolerate them
Problem being that Big Brother eats tons of cucumbers and
shuns zucchini....

Baby Brother's noodles

Love that the veggies and produce are all local and from Urban Harvest 

Planning Week's meals around fresh ingredients

Juicy