Most days the food intolerances my sons and I deal with are not that big of a deal. In fact, they have helped all three of us be healthier so in a way they have been kind of nice. If I could eat gluten, for example, I’d live on bread and such to the exclusion of a lot of other nutrients. BUT, there are days when it really gets…old. Reading every label, dealing with school classroom eating (why do they eat so much at schools? They’ve been back 8 days and already have had a marshmallow party and a cupcake party.) Telling my youngest that no, he can’t have his favorite meal (ever ever again,) and leaving a restaurant wondering if I ate something off-limits, and if so, how bad the reaction will be. (Actually, does anyone know where I can find a recipe for a gluten-free, dairy free, soy, nut, and egg free alfredo sauce recipe? It’s my son’s favorite and that never again thing really doesn’t sit well with me.) It’s tiresome, and honestly I’m just sick of thinking about food all the time, and not like in a tasty way, thinking about what’s in it, how am I going to get variety in my picky sons’ diet, what supplements are we out of, etc… These are the days that call for easy frozen pizza for the boys and trusted comfort foods~ gluten free, dairy free, soy free, nut free, and egg free of course. Thank goodness for dark chocolate.
Category: dairy free
Gluten Free Bakery in Bellevue
Eden B bakery is not your typical gluten-free bakery. In fact I’d bet that it’s the only bakery in the greater Seattle area, gluten-free or not, that could ask, “Would like a Jeep or Dodge with that muffin?” The location, inside a Jeep dealership, makes it an awkward place to stop by, unless you relish navigating between smiling, over-helpful, car salesmen so much that you choose to do so even when not in search of a new car. The place is worth the trip though, because it’s location isn’t all that makes it unique~ they also make salads, sandwiches on gluten-free bread as well as offering a nice selection of muffins, sweet breads, and the like. Some of the goodies are also vegan, but not all (maybe 1/3 of the selection) and my sons both picked the gluten-free, vegan ding dongs. I’ve never seen a homemade ding dong before, and they had never even heard of a ding dong, so that was a fun find. My oldest loved it but my younger, pickier son…not so much. I probably should have guided him to the big gf, vegan snicker doodle cookies that they had because you can can’t go wrong with straight sugar on top, but maybe next time. Along with the sandwiches and bakery goods they also have espresso drinks plus bags of gluten-free chips and such to round out a pleasant lunch. We’ll definitely go back though I’d go back more often if it were in a less awkward place~ something about going to a Jeep dealership for a sweet-fix just doesn’t feel right.
Gluten Free and Vegan Snack
Just a quick note to say that we just discovered Biena roasted chickpeas and they are delicious! My oldest and I are excited about this new allergy-free snacking option. We just have tried the sea salt one so far, but I have hopes that the sweeter ones might even win over my youngest and pickiest. They are great just out of the bag, but they would definitely be a fun addition to a salad. Here’s a picture from their website: 
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Fish and Chips
My oldest does not want to exist in a world without fish and chips so I figured I better start experimenting before we went to a restaurant and he got the bad news that breaded fish is generally gluten and egg covered. I searched the internet but was dissatisfied with what I found, so I decided to just give it whirl myself, and he loved how it turned out (yay!), so here’s what I did. I put about 1 cup of brown rice flour in a big Ziploc bag and added black pepper and Mediterranean salt. The cod I used was frozen so I had to let that defrost in the fridge for about a day and a half, but when it was thawed I cut it into smaller pieces. For the ‘chips’ I just used Whole Foods brand frozen French fries, the skinny kind, which both my kids love, so those went into the oven about the time I started working on the fish. After cutting up the cod I poured canola oil into a pan to cover it about 2 centimeters deep~ this was not a deep fry, but I wanted enough so that when I turned the fish over there was still oil for that side. I put the fish in the rice flour bag, a few at a time, and made sure they were fully covered, then put each piece into the already hot pan until all the fish was used up. I turned the fish several times in the pan, cooking for at least 10 minutes, and just took them out and placed them on paper towels when they looked finished. It worked well~ no egg needed and no bread crumbs (gluten-free or not) needed either. Easy!
Survival Food
This week survival food has had nothing to do with the freeze-dried packs you can get at REI. It does have everything to do with garlic bread sticks, enough to ensure lifelong protection against vampires, protein bars, and corn tortillas. I actually made a food plan for next week and I’m really hoping I’ll look back on it in a few months and laugh at the lack of variety, but for today I was pretty pleased to imagine a few meals that didn’t include garlic bread and would still, very likely, make it into my youngest’s picky little tummy. I also spent some time making a new dish today that at least everyone else in the family likes, so that was a nice score. It’s a lentil dish, and I realized that as often as I’ve made lentil soup, I’ve never just cooked up a batch of lentils, so I did and they are awesome. I cooked them with a small onion, two garlic cloves, two chopped carrots and one chopped leek, plus a bay leaf and some veggie stock. After about 25 minutes I drained the excess water and added Tuscan salt (a blend I buy at whole foods), pepper, olive oil, red wine vinegar and squeezed some lemon over it all. It was surprisingly good~ as my oldest said when he asked for his second bowl of it, “I didn’t expect it to be so tasty since it is healthy.” I ate mine with gluten-free bread that I made fresh today. I used Manini’s
brand but substituted the eggs with applesauce since I learned I have a severe intolerance to eggs. The bread was really good, and it was a great accompaniment to the lentils. (No pic of the lentils b/c they just aren’t that photographic.) For my youngest, he has at least been trying new things on a daily basis. He has found a new cereal he likes, a new gluten-free cereal bar (glutino), pepperoni, and although he wasn’t thrilled to do it, he ate half of a veggie dog tonight. He first asked if it came from a live animal or not, then double checked that it really, for sure, indeed did not. I’m not sure where he thinks bacon and pepperoni come from, but until he eats beans and /or nuts, I’m not going to mention it.
The Devil is in the…Dairy
I knew it would be, but still, the results were harsher than I expected. My youngest is so intolerant to dairy that he can’t even have goat cheese, yogurt, milk which I had recently been relying on. Plus, they are both intolerant of almonds, so there goes the almond milk I use in all my baking, waffle making, etc and it also makes protein bar buying surprisingly difficult. My older one also needs to be off peanuts, eggs, and some other things that don’t really matter for at least six months while their bodies heal from all the damage of ingesting gluten (and dairy) for years. Ah yes, the gluten~ I forgot to even mention that one, but that was a given also. The naturopath thinks my husband is probably also gluten intolerant b/c the kids’ intolerances are so severe. He’s finding out. Fun times at our house. Despite all my prepping for this, I am finding meal times exhausting during this transition period. I know it will get easier, my logical brain was fully prepared for a period of adjustment, some whining and frustration, and some uneaten foods that took a long time to prepare, but my emotional brain can’t seem to keep my own level of frustration in check. When I look at the clock and realize it’s close to a meal time I feel my cortisol levels rise and my mind starts speeding through options~ what can everyone eat so I have to make the least amount of separate meals that gives everyone balanced options and fairly happy and normal and not stressed out while meanwhile I’m stressing out before I even step foot into the kitchen…sigh. I know it will get easier, I really do~ I’m all set to start meal planning with input from every member of the family and to spend some extra time making food such as soups and casseroles that will last for a few days and will be good fall back food, but I don’t feel like I can do that until I have all the bits of information assembled, namely my husband’s and my own intolerances fully understood. We’ll get there, I know. Of course I can say that calmly because it is 1:52PM and I don’t have to make dinner for another 3+ hours…
On a different note, I read a very nice article today that spells out gluten intolerance quite well. For those who have to explain themselves all the time, or are just curious about it, this is a great (short) article to help make that explanation very clear and concise:http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-9739/how-gluten-wreaks-havoc-on-your-gut.html.
More Gluten-free/dairy-free Discoveries
Besides the garlic bread that I’ve been making with the Trader Joe’s flatbread, I’ve also been making pizzas which my sons have declared better than delivered pizza, so that says it all. For the cheese I’ve been combining two goat cheeses together, one is that hard goat gouda from Trader Joe’s and the other is a mozzarella style that I found at Whole Foods. I combine the two b/c while the mozzarella one does indeed taste like regular mozzarella, it almost tastes too much, like mozz on steroids. The gouda has a much milder flavor and tames the other quite a bit to make a very yummy, kid friendly, cheese pizza. Here’s the empty package: 
Today I used Namaste Foods’ pizza crust for the first time and the kids really love that too. I use that same brand for waffles in the mornings (almost every morning for my youngest) and it is wonderfully clean of ingredients that people commonly cannot tolerate. Here’s the package: 
I needed to spread the crust a bit thinner, but this is how it came out:
The boys loved it and commented on the pizza crust specifically. I won’t rely on pizza and garlic bread for too long, but for now, during this transition period, it’s so nice to have easy to prepare foods that the kids enjoy. My youngest son has been open to trying more new foods too, just like the naturopath predicted! She said when kids stop eating foods they don’t tolerate well, their taste buds change. So far my son is eating rice again, like he used to when he was younger but stopped some time around 4 years old. He also has been eating granola which he used to turn his nose up at. Not that these additions are kale and quinoa, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. (Actually two steps!) I’ll take it.
Substitutes for Common Food Intolerances
I know that food intolerances can be cured and granted, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. We haven’t gotten our test results back yet but I’m already trying to get dairy out of our diets, and I’m leery of eggs and soy because they are common problem-makers too. This is not easy for a primarily vegetarian family, but if we can do it, anyone can, and honestly it hasn’t been all that difficult yet. My youngest who used to live on Annie’s boxes of shells and cheese now has a new love~ garlic bread sticks. I make the Trader Joe’s gluten-free, dairy free flat bread pizza crusts into garlic bread sticks by preheating the oven to 425, mix 1T of olive oil (per sheet of crust), with one clove of garlic and a dash of Mediterranean salt. I pour that on the flat bread and rub it until it is all evenly distributed. It says to cook for 6-10 minutes and I am finding 9 minutes works best for our oven. Once I take out the bread I cut it into 3 long strips, like bread sticks he recognizes from restaurants. He loves them, and I love the olive oil and garlic getting into his body. This is what it looks like and it is in the refrigerated section.
Also from Trader Joe’s we’ve been getting goat cheeses of all kinds. I found this goat cream cheese which is perfect on Udi’s bagels. 
If you are watching fat/calories the above goat cheese is more in line with Neuchâtel cheese than cream cheese. Other cheeses I’ve talked about before, also from Trader Joe’s are these goat cheeses: 
The triangle is a hard cheese which is good for shredding and snacking, the others are a soft, spreadable cheese that go well with sweeter foods. I am looking forward to making gluten-free crepes with those cute little medallions and fresh strawberries.
Another substitution I’ve made lately is cooking up Lundberg’s Tuscan Risotto instead of their parmesan one that we used to eat all the time (with broccoli and sometimes smoked salmon on the side.) I was very afraid my oldest would revolt against this change because he adores parmesan risotto, but he actually loved the dairy free Tuscan kind. He said it tasted just the same~ works for me!
These are just quick fixes so far, but it helps to make the task seem less daunting to have easy to prepare meals on hand that the kids really like. Once they are used to their intolerances, we will work on adding in more variety. Watch, they won’t even be dairy intolerant! That’d be fantastic, but less dairy in their lives can’t be a bad thing. My son’s sinuses confirm that. It’s nice we are entering summer too for all the fruits that are available. They add color and variety to every meal in a happy way.
Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Care Free too?
While we are still awaiting the actual results from the naturopath on exactly how intolerant we all are, I’ve already been cutting way down on dairy for the kids and myself and I’m happy to report that a. it’s been easy and b. I see good results. My oldest is less clogged in his sinuses, my youngest’s cheeks are looking smoother (he has that pinkish-slightly bumpy stuff on his cheeks that adults get on the back of their arms. No doctor has ever been able to say why, just that it’s something a lot of people have. The naturopath though says it’s a food intolerance and we’ll fix it~ yay for getting to the root of the issue!) and I’m less bloated without dairy in my life. For my oldest, I have switched to almond milk, the vanilla kind (Blue Diamond unsweetened vanilla) that is in the refrigerated section and he likes it just as well as regular milk. For cheese, I’ve switched to goat cheese for quesadillas and cinnamon toast. The goat cheeses were recommended by my friend who is already dealing with a house of four with food intolerances. She gave me two to try from Trader Joe’s, both carrying the Trader Joe’s name: one is a hard cheese called Goat’s milk Gouda cheese. It comes in a fairly big triangular cut and is surprisingly inexpensive. This is what I’ve been shredding for quesadillas lately and my oldest loves it, plus I’ve been slicing it for crackers and it is delightful. The other cheese is a spreadable goat cheese medallion, which comes in small individually wrapped circles. Both cheeses are mild, but the spreadable one is somewhat more like butter than cheese when spread on toast, which is how I ate is yesterday with my salad at lunch. My friend recommended I top the cheese on toast with some cinnamon sugar, so I tried that for my boys and it was a huge hit with my oldest. I’m still working on my youngest on trying new things, but I’m sure it won’t be long before his palate is less picky. For yogurt I’ve been eating Redwood Hill’s goat yogurt or So Delicious’ coconut yogurt. I like the goat kind better because it has a healthier protein to sugar ratio and the taste is more like regular yogurt that I’m used to. The coconut yogurt is good, but less protein and sweeter. I have a feeling that might be what my kids like better though and it would be good to have as many diverse foods as possible in their diet so I’ll have them try it. I asked a couple of employees at Whole Foods what they saw people buying the most of, and they said the almond yogurt, but it has different texture that you have to get used to. I tried it and did not like it at all. The texture is indeed very odd~ not smooth and creamy at all, but to each his/her own. So, that’s how the dairy experiments are going right now.
Here’s a chocolate chip cookie recipe I modified from the Flying Apron cookbook. It’s gluten-free and vegan and so incredibly delicious you’ll never notice the difference. By the way, neither of my kids really like the taste of coconut, but the amount of oil I used in this recipe leaves such a mild coconut taste it’s hard to even figure out what that extra little something is unless you know. And the boys adore these cookies. With that said, use whatever ingredients you have. I don’t believe in that whole “baking must be precise” myth. Experiment!
Gluten Free, Vegan, Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 cups brown rice flour
- 1.25 cups + 1T gf oat flour
- 1 cup garbanzo bean/fava bean flour (it’s a Bob’s Red Mill blend)
- 1t baking powder
- 1/2t baking soda
- 3/4 sea salt
- 1/2t cinnamon
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1t vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup dairy free dark chocolate chips (I like the smaller ones found in bulk sections)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add all dry ingredients up to and including the cinnamon in a bowl and mix with a spoon. Blend the sugar and oils together in a (bigger) bowl with a mixer. Slowly add the almond milk and dry ingredients to the sugar and oil bowl, alternating the ingredients until well blended. Then add the chocolate chips and mix until well-distributed. Scoop dough onto lined cooked sheets and bake for 17-20 minutes. Enjoy!
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