There was a strong, strange trend on foodie blogs a few years ago of using canned chickpeas in dessert recipes as a complete or partial replacement for the flour. Surely you've heard of Black Bean Brownies (Chocolate Covered Katie's are my favorite). But have you tried them? Or maybe you've tried the delicious Chickpea Cookie Bars pictured below (recipe found here at The Honor System): I adapted the recipe linked and pictured above by reducing the maple syrup to 1/2 cup and the chocolate chips (I used chopped German semisweet baking bars that are dairy free) to only 1/4 cup pressed on the top and they were delicious!
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We don't eat dairy during family meals due to allergies and I've been wanting more ways to incorporate foods with calcium into our kids' meals. I'm just not sure how much of the supplements or the added calcium in their nut-based milk is actually abosorbable for them, so I thought why not add more broccoli into our diets?
Maybe because we don't really like broccoli? We tolerate broccoli in dishes, but we don't enjoy it. The best way for me to tolerate cauliflower is roasted, so I figured, let's give it a try. And I'm so glad we did! I found a recipe here which roasts cut broccoli with minced garlic, but the garlic falls right off when baking it. Here's what we did instead: 1. Wash broccoli, cut off florets and slice them in halves or thirds depending on size. 2. Drizzle grapeseed, olive, coconut or oil of choice over them and toss them. 3. Spread on a baking sheet, cut side down when possible (they get a nice brown that way). 4. Sprinkle heavily with salt and then garlic powder, then lightly with onion powder and pepper. 5. Bake at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes or until stalks are tender. Stirring them once at the 10 minute mark is a good idea and keep an eye on them because your oven may cook faster or the florets may be chopped smaller, etc. 6. Serve immediately (well, as soon as they are cool enough you won't burn your mouth!) I usually run from recipes with vinegar based dressings. I tried this at my sister's house and loved it. When she generously sent me home with some of her garden fresh cucumbers this summer, I asked her for the recipe. She used THIS recipe on Betty Crocker's website.
I changed it up a tiny bit (I wanted to tone down the vinegar a bit more and also reduce the sugar) hoping a milder flavor would appeal to my kiddos. They tried it and didn't balk, but they really love plain or salted cucumber slices and prefer those. That's okay- more for my husband and I to enjoy! Slice 2 cucumbers extremely thin. Take your time with this and make them thinner than some of the ones you see near the top of my picture. I was in a hurry, but the thinner ones (aim for as thin as you can without them breaking) had SUCH better taste and delicate texture. Thicker slices don't absorb the flavors as well. Stir together: 1/3 cup water 1/4 cup vinegar (white or apple cider vinegar, I prefer ACV) 1 1/2 T. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt just under 1/8 tsp. pepper Dump the mixture over the cucumbers. Here's where my directions differ greatly from the website. I cover these and do not taste them for at least 24 hours, and I think they taste best after 48 hours. I do NOT drain the liquid from them, but allow them to stay in it since we eat them slowly. If I were serving to adults and expecting the whole plate of it to be consumed in one day, I might drain off some of the excess juice and reserve it in the fridge in case leftovers needed to be returned to it. The longer the recipe sits, the more the flavors mingle together and the vinegar mellows. Since I've never liked vinaigrette's I was surprised at how often I kept sneaking into these after they'd set! Yum! Allergy Friendly Recipes with Historical Ties- Hands on American History (Gluten, Dairy, Egg Free)10/6/2016 I've seen many great cookbooks that can be used alongside American History studies. They are filled with kid-friendly recipes and can be a memorable supplement to most any curriculum. This year, the curriculum we chose for homeschooling has weekly time set aside to make recipes from a recommended cookbook, but I didn't bother ordering it after a quick preview indicated the recipes were laden with white flour, eggs, (in some cases loads of sugar) and dairy. I figured this would just be another case where my kids would have to "miss out" because of the limitations on our diet. We were reading "The Courage of Sarah Noble" for school and the main character is a young girl. At one point, she was cooking johnny cakes, which are somewhat like cornbread cooked in small round patties. It turned out to be one of our vocabulary words and I decided there HAS got to be a way to make these. Sure enough, I located this recipe for Johnny Cakes, which has no frills, but I feel that is more appropriate to have a simple meal since our family is not wealthy now, nor would likely have enjoyed the luxuries of wealth had we lived in an earlier time period. I adapted the recipe to be dairy free: Allergy Friendly Johnny Cakes Recipe- A recipe early settlers with limited supplies could make even if they were lacking the sugar (can be omitted) or milk (can sub more water)2 cups fine ground white or yellow cornmeal (yellow looks more appealing IMO) 1 T. sugar 1 1/2 tsp. salt 2 cups boiling water approx. 1/2 cup almond or rice milk oil or butter substitute for frying in (you will need generous amounts, butter substitute is recommended over oil as it will add some flavor to the otherwise very bland johnny cakes) 1. Stir together cornmeal, sugar and salt. Stir in boiling water to form a paste. 2. Gradually add milk while stirring until you have a thin mashed potato consistency. 3. Melt generous amount of butter substitute (or pour oil) onto cast iron pan or griddle. Scoop a Tablespoon or so of batter onto the pan and use the back of the spoon to spread it out to 2-3" diameter. Allow to cook until browning at edges before flipping over (much of the middle will cook when browning the first side, so it will take less time to cook the second side) and browning the second time. If they are coming out with uncooked centers, you need to reduce your heat and let them cook a bit longer before flipping them. Add more butter substitute as often as necessary to be sure they are able to soak some up while cooking and not stick during frying. 4. Serve with butter substitute or plain with most meals as a biscuit, would pair well with any meal you would usually eat cornbread with. I found them very bland, my family enjoyed them (likely because of the excitement of eating something so 'old fashioned'). Succotash - Grown with the "Three Sisters" (beans, squash, corn) Native Americans planted together and taught early settlers how to plant The simplest recipe: 1 butternut squash, 2 cans corn kernels, 1 bag frozen lima beans, butter substitute, salt & pepper to taste Peel, remove seeds, and chop into cubes one butternut squash. Put the squash cubes into a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat, cover and simmer until cubes are tender. When squash is tender, add 2 cans of corn kernels and frozen lima beans. Allow to cook until corn and lima beans are tender. Drain water and top with butter substitute, salt & pepper to taste. There are some recipes that add in tomatoes, and some even fancier ones (probably tastier!) that have ham and seasonings, but they don't include the squash like the basic simple, recipe above. It's up to you which one you choose to serve, and you can always serve baked butternut as a side dish. Just wash the squash, chop it in half lengthwise (might want to knock the stem off first for easier cutting), scoop out the seeds and bake it on a baking sheet cut side down for 30-50 minutes at 350 degrees until it is tender when pierced with a fork. The longer you cook it, the softer/mushier it will get. I throw a piece of parchment paper under mine for easy cleanup. We bring the whole cookie sheet to the table, flip the squash cut side up, scoop out what we want and add our own substitute butter. Don't feel the pressure to be fancy, we make the simplest ones for the experience of what it would have been like to eat without all the frills (ketchup, garlic powder, etc, etc) available to us these days. Likewise, if you feel making the simple recipe would result in great waste, and want to go the extra mile- feel free! Toasted Pumpkin Seeds- While many modern Americans use whole pumpkins primarily for decoration, the "waste not, want not" attitude of olden days can be demonstrated to students in many ways today. This recipe can use the seeds from a carving pumpkin or pie pumpkin.The simplest recipe: Prepare the seeds by scooping them out of the pumpkin, rinsing them and picking out any orange fleshy strings that are attached. Dry them by spreading out on a paper towel for a few hours. Then remove the damp paper towels and let them dry overnight in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Lightly toss seeds with oil, adding just enough to coat seeds while stirring (so add it slowly!). Alternately, you could spray the cookie sheet with oil spray, then layer the seeds and spray them thoroughly. Shake salt heavily over them (it won't likely stick if you add it after, and much may fall off on the pan) and bake at 250 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes, until lightly browned. This can take anwhere from 30 min to an hour. I take them out when I first see a few starting to brown. Allow to cool before tasting. (They crisp up) More involved recipes usually call for butter, but you can use a butter substitute that you like the flavor of. For really flavorful ones that may remind you of chex mix, try using the following seasoning per 1 1/2 cups of raw seeds: 4 Tbsp. butter substitute 1/8 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 3 drops hot sauce 1/4 tsp seasoning salt 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/8 tsp celery salt 1/8 tsp salt Corn tortillas and Fresh Salsa- Studying the Spanish settlements or South and Central American groups?With only 2 ingredients and a cast iron pan, you can make fresh corn tortillas! Check out the recipe with great reviews here! Fresh Pico de Gallo is a simple salsa that would be very kid friendly to make. As long as you don't have a genetic aversion to cilantro that makes it taste like dish soap, you should be able to customize this recipe to fit your palate. Kettle Corn (Popcorn)- Why all the corn in these recipes? Scholars believe corn (and popcorn) originated in the Americas. Read "Popcorn: Ingrained in America's Agricultural History" to glean some additional facts to share with students.We make kettle corn often, but we do not add sugar to ours. Here's a recipe utilizing sugar. If you want to omit the sugar, follow the same instructions, but know that it is NOT as urgent to shake the pot constantly if you're not using the sugar (attend it and give it a few shuffles, but not the end of the world if you set it down a bit). Also, we don't bother spreading our kettle corn out on a cookie sheet to cool. We just dump it into a large bowl and dig in. There is a knack for getting to be able to do it consistently with most all the kernels popped and no burnt ones, but the learning curve is not huge and it's a forgiving process. Pea Soup- Pea soup has been around a long, long time. A chef in Canada traced pea soup all the way back to French explorer Samuel de Champlain. Listen to a 4 minute interview and see some additional recipes here.Simpler recipes don't call for ham, many call for potatoes and carrots which are not necessary but give a nice texture to an otherwise baby-food consistency soup. The bare bones-basic pea soup will have onions, soup, water/broth and salt, it will be mostly flavorless. I suggest going the extra mile and adding carrots (at least) and some spices. We often omit the potatoes, it is a versatile soup and IMO tastes best with ham involved. Here is a good recipe to try out if you don't want to use ham. This recipe utilizes ham for flavor but leaves out the carrots and potatoes (don't use the butter for sauteeing, just use a preferred oil). Pumpkin Bread- This article explains that America's first folk song "New England Annoyances" includes a verse about how MANY pumpkins early Settlers ate. While this may have been dull, it was nourishing when other crops failed.Here is the recipe we use to make pumpkin bread, muffins/cupcakes OR cookies! The hands-down best pumpkin pie recipe we have found is here, and I have served it to individuals with no food allergies who DIDN'T like traditional pumpkin pie and they loved this. Julienne Soup- "Julienne" is a French word describing how to cut vegetables into a small, thin match-stick like shape. Julienne soup was popular enough to make it into early cookbooks in France with Americans writing about the new dish.The idea behind the soup is simple enough, cut various vegetables, such as turnips and carrots into julienne sticks. Add some petite crescent slices of celery and chop thin French beans to 1-2" and if you desire. Put them into a clear vegetable stock. You may desire to use a beef or chicken stock instead, just make sure that if you use unsalted stock you add salt to taste. Bring these up to a low simmer until vegetables are tender. You can toss in a handful of small peas for the last 5 minutes or so of cooking. This should be a quick soup, one that would've been easily made from a summer or fall garden and the pantry staple of stock. "Bullets in a Pot" (Beans)- During WWI, dried beans from farmers were sent along supply lines to feed soldiers. Do you think soldiers enjoyed flavorful, varied menus?Allergy Friendly Potato Soup- My grandmother lived through the Great Depression and she often made potato soup by peeling and chopping potatoes and cooking them slowly in milk. It was served with a dollop of butter and salt and pepper.I have dressed up the recipe a bit by adding sausage, but that is completely optional and easy to omit. I missed the recipes my Grandmother made, so I found ways to adapt Potato Soup to our diet. We love this hearty soup that would likely be considered a chowder in consistency. If you're studying Norway, or how immigrants brought traditional foods with them, you may want to check out my post for gluten-free, dairy-free lefse. This is not an easy project for beginners, and although I gave the most thorough instructions possible (my grandma taught me to make Norweigan lefse before she passed away), lefse is often more successful when cooked with a another party experienced in making it. Additional recipes- I am adding recipes that can be made gluten, dairy, egg free to my board "Elementary American History" on Pinterest. It has taken me a while to sift through and find them, so if I can save you some time by sharing links, I want to do so!1 lb. asparagus spears
4-6 mini sweet peppers olive oil Tuscan Garlic seasoning (or seasoning blend of choice, Louisiana Cajun Seasoning would be good as well) First, select and prepare fresh asparagus spears. Then, snap or chop into halves or thirds to desired length (make sure you snapped off and discarded the tough thick ends prior to this). Clean, remove seeds, and chop mini sweet peppers to bite sizes. Put 1-2 T. of olive oil into a nonstick skillet and add vegetables and seasoning (we add it pretty heavily since some will inevitably end up staying in the pan or getting left on our plates). Cook, stirring frequently, over medium heat until tender but not soft or limp. Serve immediately while hot as these cool off pretty quickly when removed from heat. This is a very basic meal idea that was born on one of those days when I really needed to head to the grocery store but didn't have the time or motivation to accomplish it before feeding my 3 boy sand myself lunch. The possibilities to customize it are endless. Add in corn,black beans and/or garlic, use onion powder or diced white or vidalia onion, etc. Ingredients:
White potatoes, diced spam canned luncheon meat, or use diced ham chopped green onion olive oil salt & pepper to taste Slice and then fry the spam until it is crisp- this makes a world of difference in terms of texture. Remove spam from pan and add potatoes and onion in olive oil, cooking until potatoes are tender, then toss in spam & season to taste. This is so simple, I can't believe I didn't think of it months ago when we first started increasing the number of times we eat sweet potatoes. I'm sure others have thought of it as well. If you haven't tried it yet, it is a quick, simple, surprisingly flavorful way to use up a leftover baked sweet potato chunk sitting in your fridge. Just to clarify, we make our baked sweet potatoes using the "baked potato" button on our microwave, but you are certainly welcome to use the oven as well. Either method will work, just don't over bake your sweet potatoes until they are mushy! Ingredients:
leftover baked sweet potato, chilled oil or butter substitute you prefer for frying ground cinnamon Turn on the stove to medium or medium-high heat and add your desired oil/butter substitute to the pan. (I used a nonstick pan) Allow the oil/butter sub. to heat up. and then drop in chopped pieces of sweet potato, I made mine just under 1". Fry, stirring gently when the side that is down has started to brown. You can control the crispiness by letting it get darker, like mine is above, or just let it get a bit browned. Either way is very tasty, so it is just personal preference. Remove to a plate/bowl and sprinkle evenly with cinnamon before serving. I am horrible at remembering to defrost meat from our deep freezer. Since I typically cook meat from frozen at least 10 times per week, you'd think I'd get better at this... If you can relate, this recipe is compatible with our non-defrosting ways!
I found a recipe that makes delicious crispy skinned chicken thigh and leg quarters over on The Bacon Thief's blog. Check it out HERE. I made only half the recipe as directed, and subbed paprika for the chili powder when I realized I had none part way through cooking. (I think my 6 year old appreciates the substitution as well.) The directions and cooking times were spot on for me and since this is a recipe we will be adding to our rotation, I thought I would share it with all of you & will be adding it to my directory of gluten, dairy, and egg free recipes. The Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook Review: From a Family with Allergies Not Worried About Weight Loss12/22/2015 When you're gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and flirting with sugar-free (I only said flirting... no contract here!) and cooking for a large family, finding a single location with multiple GOOD from-scratch recipes is a gold-mine. I will start off by saying this: I am not trying to lose weight. No one in my family is. I have not read The Trim Healthy Mama Plan, nor do I plan to. I am also not a fan of ANY fake sugars. Any. I toy with stevia, but mostly prefer to reduce our sugar by omitting it, or make it 'healthier' by reducing sugar and subbing maple syrup. This is just my personal taste and research-based preference. Wondering what research I did? Don't wonder, do your own! You don't need to take my word for anything. But since you're reading my review... This is a heavy book, with beautiful photographs, but not overdone with pictures to the point that there aren't enough recipes. While the cover boasts of more than 350 recipes, my personal use is limited due to our allergies. The beginning of this book has an introduction which doesn't get into the details of the plan. It does not describe very well what the Satisfying, Energizing, and Fuel Pull recipe labels mean. If you're not interested in losing weight or following their plan, just ignore them. The intro also gives a little heads up that some of the ingredients and terminology in this cookbook are uncommon and may be unfamiliar. Several ingredients I had never heard of, such glucomannan, which is referred to as "Gluccie" and is used as a thickener. This item isn't sold in grocery stores, but of course, THM has an online store that offers it. They also sell "Not Naughty Noodles," which are a type of noodle made from konjac root. These can be bought in regular stores, but may have a fishy smell (!?!) that needs to be rinsed off. After reading that you are advised to drink a minimum of 8 oz. of water with them to avoid a choking/internal blockage of the esophagus or intestine hazard, I gotta say, I'm not interested. Recipes also call for Integral Collagen, and "on plan sweeteners" which refers to a mix of stevia, erythritol, and zylitol called "Gentle Sweet." I wasn't about to go buy any weird ingredients, so I was glad to see that some recipes are marked "NSI," which stands for "No Special Ingredients." The authors made an effort to identify dairy-free recipes as "DF," but their execution wasn't perfect. They do label many of their recipes DF, but they omit the label on some that would very easily be adapted (ie. use coconut oil instead of butter and both are listed as options in the ingredients) to DF without compromising flavor. A vast majority of the recipes are already gluten-free. Another area that I felt there was room for improvement was in the directions. A friend who's more familiar with THM said that many of their recipes used to not list measurements at all. I guess they've come a long way, since measurements are listed, but the directions aren't always accurate. If you're familiar with cooking, hopefully you'll catch the mistakes quickly. For example, several of the crock-pot recipes say to cook on low "all day" or high for 6-8 hours. Every crock pot may be different, but anything cooked on high is well done after 4 (and on low after 8) hours in mine, even if it was frozen solid when I started it. Cooking thawed drumsticks on high for 8 hours would have resulted in soup. No way would we have lifted them out of the crock-pot intact, no matter what utensil we used! We tried the following recipes so far, which were all labeled NSI, DF: Ridiculous Meatballs & Spaghetti: I loved the idea more than the taste. I think we'll make it again using our own personal favorite sauce from the store and plain ground turkey rather than seasoned. Wipe Your Mouth BBQ: We really enjoyed this slow-cooker recipe that makes a sauce blend of tomato, pineapple and seasonings (we used only 1/8 tsp. cayenne and enjoyed it), and next time we will double the meat so we don't have as much excess sauce and we'll have leftovers! My entire family enjoyed dunking tortilla chips into the meat or eating it over rice. Definitely a make-again recipe. Lemon Herb Drummies: This was one of those crock-pot recipes that makes your mouth water when adding the ingredients and smelling them cook all day, but the end result is mild. The meat didn't take in any flavor, and when we used rice to cook up the sauce, we decided this recipe wasn't worth making again. Egg Roll in a Bowl: Knowing our children aren't cabbage fans, we halved the recipe for my husband and myself. We enjoyed it, and have been making similar recipes of fried cabbage with sausage in the past. There was a flavor lacking to make it taste more like real eggrolls, but I'm not sure what it is. A good meal if you like cabbage, but this won't curb a craving for egg rolls like we'd hoped. Papster Thighs: Hands down excellent recipe. Budget friendly, very little prep, and the end result is restaurant-good. One could easily vary the seasonings to taste. Green Fries: I really dislike green beans, and this is the only way I've found I like them other than in small amounts in soup. Enough said. Sweet Potato Fries: We enjoyed the seasoning on these, but even following the "tips" only the fries that were less than 1/4" in width were at all crisp. Still, this was better than a similar recipe we tried. Will make them again and try cut thin and evenly. Apple Crumble: I did not make this using "Gentle Sweet" because I'm not buying specialized ingredients for one recipe, so I am reviewing this having made it with straight up unhealthy white sugar. Less than 4T. sugar to serve my whole family dessert is still pretty darn good! This was okay. Half the family preferred another recipe which gets a more crisp top that is reminiscent of streusel instead of this recipe. I enjoy that this cookbook has a lot of recipes that are already calculated to serve 6-8, but also includes sections that are "single serve." Having them organized well makes it easier for individuals to locate what they're searching for in a hurry. Despite all the ingredients that I will probably never buy, I appreciate the wholesome ingredients that are used to make sauces and other components from scratch. I can find suitable substitutes, such as rice, GF noodles, or experimenting with cornstarch as thickener to make these "diet" meals fit our budget and lifestyle.
I would recommend this book to others searching for real food gluten-free recipes, regardless of whether they are looking to lose weight. If you cannot eat eggs or dairy, like us, you may want to borrow a book from a friend or the library before deciding whether to purchase it, since the number of recipes available to you will be greatly reduced. I have heard there are THM Allergy support groups online. If you're interested in losing weight, though, you may need to purchase "The Trim Healthy Mama Plan" by Pearl Barrett & Serene Allison separately to understand the premise behind these recipes to try manage your weight. ***In the interest of full-disclosure: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. I was not required to give a positive review; my opinions are my own. |
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January 2022
Blog Hopping?I am not much of a blog reader. There's only a couple I check on occasion:
HisPoetry.blogspot.com Love this girl's writing... feels like she's a long distance friend. Well, her sister is my long-distance friend, so that probably helps. Either way, what an inspiration and encouragement- you just need to check out some of the places life has taken Leah and be strengthened and inspired by the love that oozes (yes, oooozes) from her heart for Jesus, His people and His creation! chocolatecoveredkatie.com If you like nummy recipes, or have special dietary needs (or both!) check it out. ALL of her recipes are Vegan, and many can be made gluten-free. I stumbled upon it when searching for dairy/egg free treats to make for my kiddo and have gotten hooked on several recipes. Okay, "hooked on" doesn't portray it well enough. How about "addicted to"? That's more fitting. Will definitely be going back for more! |