Allergy-Free Potato Salad Recipe Round-Up

By Kelley Lindberg

It’s summertime, which means picnics and barbecues are in full swing. While the focus is usually on whatever’s on the grill, everyone knows the perfect side dish can make it all that much better! But the problem, of course, is that many of those picnic go-to recipes are loaded with dairy and egg ingredients. If your allergies include those, the ever-popular pasta and potato salads become landmines on the table.

This German Potato Salad is free from the Top 8 allergens,
and it's vegan, too! Recipe and photo credit: EarthyFeast.com.

That’s why I took to the web to find some allergy-friendly pasta salads and potato salads that will be welcome additions to the picnic table. (And no one will notice they’re free from milk, egg, and nuts!) This week I’ll spotlight some potato salad recipes. Come back next week for some tasty pasta salads that will brighten your potluck gathering!

German Potato Salad: Great news! German potato salad is ALREADY free from the Top 8 allergens. Throw together some potatoes, bacon, and onions, then dress it with some vinegar, sugar, mustard, and salt, and garnish with a little fresh parsley or chives. Ta-da! Here is a traditional recipe for the Food Network's German Potato Salad, but if you want a vegan version without the bacon, try this super-delicious German Potato Salad recipe from Grace over at her EarthyFeast.com blog.

Roasted Potato Salad with Mustardy Old Bay Dressing + Chive Blossoms: This recipe from the “With Food + Love” website suggests roasting the potatoes (yum!), but boiling them would work just fine for a more traditional potato salad texture.

Roasted sweet potatoes and avocado take
potato salad to a whole new level. Recipe
and photo credit: EatingBirdFood.com.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad: Holy cow, this recipe from Brittany and her EatingBirdFood.com blog looks amazing. This will take that old potato salad idea and knock it clear out of the park. Roasted sweet potatoes, spinach, avocado, red onion and dried cranberries are all dressed simply with a little apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. What’s not to love?

Potato Salad with Avocado and Dill: Over at “Forks Over Knives,” I found this creamy potato salad recipe that gets its “creaminess” from mashed avocado. Even traditional potato salad lovers will love this combination. What a great idea!

Classic Potato Salad with Dijon and Vegetarian Bacon Bits: Of course, the easiest way to make an allergy-friendly traditional creamy potato salad is as simple as swapping out the regular mayo for an egg-free mayo, like Vegenaise. While the original Vegenaise flavor contains soy, they also make a soy-free version! This recipe from About.com adds balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing for an extra kick that should add just enough flavor interest to disguise the fact that you used Vegenaise instead of regular mayo!

Light and Fresh Potato Salad: If a traditional potato salad seems a little blah to you, check out this version from MyRecipes.com, which adds a rainbow of garden veggies and a light vinaigrette dressing instead of mayonnaise. 

Allergy-Free Thanksgiving Recipes, 2014

By Kelley Lindberg

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching, and if you have food allergies in your family, you’re

Yes, it's possible to have an allergy-safe Thanksgiving dinner!

probably already wondering how to make the traditional meal safer. Every year I look for new recipes that are free from the Top 8 allergens, or can be made that way with simple substitutions. So here are some recipes I’ve found this year. (And by the way, when I’m listing all the things I’m thankful for, the internet will be on that list. I can’t imagine how much harder dealing with allergies would be without the internet as a source of support, education, and recipes!) I hope this recipe round-up helps simplify your holiday cooking!

Looking for more allergy-safe Thanksgiving recipes? Check out my earlier posts: Allergy-Free Thanksgiving Recipes 2013 and Allergy-Free Thanksgiving Recipes 2012.

Turkey:

• First on the menu? The turkey, of course. Turkeys, especially the self-basting kinds, are injected with solutions that make them tender. However, those solutions can harbor allergens like milk, wheat, soy, or corn. So check labels before you buy. Read the very helpful article at about.com called “Before You Buy a Thanksgiving Turkey” for some great advice.

Stuffing:

• Traditional Sage Stuffing: For all you traditionalists, this version uses olive oil instead of butter and skips the eggs. Use your favorite type of bread (sandwich, French, or gluten-free bread would all work just fine). 
• Cornbread Stuffing: I come from a long line of Texans, so I love cornbread stuffing. This recipe mixes cornbread and white or whole wheat bread, but you can substitute your favorite gluten-free bread for the white/whole wheat. (My grandmother always used crumbled white biscuits—heaven!) If you need a good cornbread recipe to use in your cornbread stuffing, try this one for Albers® Corn Bread, which I’ve been using for years. However, skip the sugar (unless you like sweet cornbread—but I prefer savory, especially for stuffing). Also, you have to make two or three substitutions: replace the egg with Ener-G egg replacer or other egg substitute, replace the milk with a safe milk, like soy or rice (I use rice milk, and it works great), and you can replace the white flour with your favorite gluten-free blend. 
• Quinoa Sage Stuffing (Gluten-free and Vegan): Dressing without bread? You bet. This one uses quinoa instead, along with olive oil, vegetable broth, and plenty of savory herbs.

Sweet potatoes:

• Sweet Potato Marshmallow Casserole: The popular way to make them is to mash them with safe margarine and spices, then top them with marshmallows. This recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole II adds 3 T of orange juice for an extra little bit of flavor.
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes: Not a fan of marshmallows? Try these Twice-Cooked Sweet Potatoes—the recipe is much easier than it sounds! Just fry sweet potato cubes in safe margarine, then roast them in the oven with some brown sugar, salt, and sage leaves.

Potatoes:

• Mashed Potatoes: Use any basic mashed potato recipe and replace the butter with a safe margarine and replace the milk or cream with rice milk or soy milk. Or, ditch the whole butter-and-cream idea completely and use chicken broth instead to flavor them. Here is the super-simple recipe from Campbell’s Kitchen for Skinny Mashed Potatoes. 
• Garlic Roasted Potatoes: Simple and flavorful! 
• Vegan Scalloped Potatoes: This recipe calls for flour and soy milk. I wonder if it would work with a gluten-free flour blend and another type of safe milk. If you try it, let me know!

Gravy:

• Allergy Free Gravy: I post this recipe from EatingWithFoodAllergies.com every year because it’s simple and it works. It explains the steps well and you can use either regular flour or gluten-free flour. YouTube has lots of videos showing how to make turkey gravy if you’re not sure of the process.

Cranberry Sauce:

Sure, you can dump it out of the can. (And let’s be honest, we like it that way!) Or you can try these versions:

• Traditional Cranberry Sauce: The easiest recipe is the one printed on the bag of Ocean Spray cranberries you pick up in the produce section. Water, sugar, cranberries. Boil for ten minutes, and voila! Cook it up a day ahead and refrigerate it. Perfection! 
• Cranberry Strawberry Relish: Add in some frozen strawberries, and you’ve got something a little bit different and even more delicious. 

Green Beans:

• There are a gazillion delicious ways to make green beans that don’t involve cream soups and French-fried onions. Here are a few:
• Bacon-smothered Green Beans: I mean, really. Bacon-smothered. What more do you want? 
• Green Beans with Ham: Okay, ham is good, too. 
• Green Beanswith Caramelized Onions and Tarragon: Can’t do pork? Here’s a meatless version that looks lovely and elegant on a platter.

Pumpkin Pie:

• It’s just not Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie on the table. So here’s a recipe for Vegan Pumpkin Pie that looks delicious! You can use a regular pastry pie crust, but I like a graham cracker pie crust for my pumpkin pies.
• Gluten-free Pastry Pie Crust: If you need a gluten-free pie crust, try this recipe. 

Allergy-Free Breakfast Recipe Round-Up

By Kelley Lindberg

Lately I’ve been looking for breakfast ideas that are higher in protein than my usual

Protein Pancakes from
Meme Inge's Living Well Kitchen

high-carb routine of cereal, granola, milk, and fruit. So I put on my Stetson, my boots, and my bandana, and I went out into the wilds of the internet, lassoing up some new breakfast ideas that go beyond the usual eggs and bacon, and avoid most (if not all) of the Top 8 allergens (peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, soy, wheat, fish, and shellfish). I haven’t tried any of these recipes yet, but I’m a-fixin’ to give ‘em a whirl soon! If you try one, let us know how it worked for you!

• Sweet Potato and Bacon Hash – Although Meme Inge’s Living Well Kitchen blog isn’t geared towards food allergies at all, but more towards healthy recipes in general, she actually has a few recipes that fit allergy needs and sound good, like this recipe for Sweet Potato and Bacon Hash. She tops it with a fried egg, but of course you can leave that off. Other than the egg, it’s free from the Top 8. 
• Protein Pancakes – Here’s another one from Meme Inge. I love to make pancakes on the weekend, but I know I need to find healthier versions. So this one looks good, plus it packs more protein in than my usual recipe. It’s only free from 7 of the Top 8 (it uses cottage cheese, so it’s not suitable for milk allergies). I can’t wait to try the pumpkin variation next weekend! 
• Breakfast Oatmeal Cupcakes To Go – So what do you get when you cross a cookie with a cupcake? These! Another make-ahead, enjoy-all-week option, and you can make it free from the Top 8. 
• Sausage-Flavored Breakfast Beans and Grits – Surprise! They don’t have any sausage. It just uses the herbs and spices usually found in sausage to flavor cannellini beans. She suggests cooking the beans in a crockpot overnight, but I don’t see why you couldn’t use canned beans and cut out that step. Anyway, she ladles the beans over grits in the morning, and voila! A savory breakfast that’s free from the Top 8, and it’s vegan, too.
• Almost Instant Breakfast Quinoa – Now here’s something I hadn’t thought of. Instead of oatmeal or cream of wheat, try quinoa for breakfast! The recipe recommends making up a batch of quinoa the night before, so you can just microwave it with your choice of safe milk (rice, soy, etc.), sweeten it with some maple syrup, honey, or brown sugar, then top it with your favorite fruit, spices, etc. Of course the recipe recommends topping it with nuts and seeds to add more protein, but you can certainly leave those off, or use something like Sunbutter or soy butter if that works for you. 
• Loaded Blueberry Muffins – These muffins are packed with blueberries, zucchini, and bananas, elevating them from “cupcake” to “health food” in my opinion! This recipe is gluten-free, as well as free from the Top 8. Bake up a batch on the weekend, then grab one and go on those weekday mornings! 
• Breakfast Banana Pops – Okay, this is NOT a high-protein breakfast. But I just had to include this one because it looks so fun for kids! If you use a safe granola (like Enjoy Life Foods brand or your own recipe) and you have a safe yogurt you can use, freeze up some of these pops for a totally unique way to get your kids to eat their breakfast!  

  

  Breakfast Banana Pops from
  www.ChocolateCoveredKatie.com

Allergy-Free Donuts

By Kelley Lindberg

A couple of weeks ago, I tried a recipe from Allergymoms.com’s Facebook page for cake donuts. The first time I tried the recipe, the donuts tore up when I tried to get them out of the pan, and the chocolate glaze was a granular mess. So Michelle Fogg, fearless leader of the Utah Food AllergyNetwork (UFAN), told me how to get the donuts out of the pan without falling apart. That made all the difference! So the recipe was basically sound (thank you, Allergymoms!,) but some of the instructions just needed a little tweaking. Then I experimented with some different glazes, different cake mixes, and different flavors. I finally came up with some good variations that were easy to make and met with rave reviews from the group I made them for (teens, tweens, and adults).

So here is my adapted recipe. The main differences from the original Allergymoms.com recipe is that you absolutely must FLOUR the greased pan, and let the donuts cool completely in the pan (instead of the one minute the original recipe called for), and instead of using melted chocolate chips to make the glaze, just add a teaspoon or two of cocoa powder to the powdered sugar glaze. And you’ll need more powdered sugar to glaze a dozen donuts than the 1 cup called for in the original, so make sure you have at least half a bag on hand.

As a bonus, I tried freezing the donuts (because I was taking them on a camping trip and they had to stay good for 2 days), and they freeze and thaw really well, even with the glaze on them.

I tried both Cherrybrook Kitchen and Duncan Hines cake mixes (several DH flavors are nut-free, egg-free, and milk-free, but read the label carefully because not all flavors are safe). I prefer Duncan Hines – the cake was lighter and softer, but held together well through the glazing process. I made them nut-free, milk-free, and egg-free, but I did NOT use the gluten-free variety of either brand so I can’t vouch for the gluten-free version (although I have used Duncan Hines gluten-free cake mix in the past to make other recipes, and it has worked great). If you use the Duncan Hines cake mix, just substitute a safe egg replacer for the eggs called for on the box. See “Replacing Eggs in Recipes” for egg replacement ideas.

Another trick: when the cake mix calls for water, I use rice milk instead. It makes the cake a little richer and more moist. This works great when making cupcakes, too.

Okay, here’s the corrected recipe, with variations:

Easy Milk-Free, Egg-Free, Peanut-Free, Tree-Nut-Free Donuts

(Original recipe credit to Allergymoms.com, adapted by Kelley J. P. Lindberg, FoodAllergyFeast.com)

1 box of safe cake mix (plus ingredients called for on the box)

Rice milk (optional – use instead of water in the cake mix)

3 c. safe powdered sugar

Few tablespoons water

Safe margarine or shortening for greasing pan

Few tablespoons of safe flour for flouring greased pan

For optional variations:

Safe chocolate chips

Safe cocoa (powder)

Maple syrup or other flavoring extracts

Safe sprinkles

Safe food coloring

Prepare the cake mix as directed on the box, with the following substitutions: try using rice milk instead of the water, and if using Duncan Hines cake mix, use an egg replacer to substitute for the eggs called for on the box. If you’re at high altitude (like in Utah), be sure you follow the high-altitude directions on the Duncan Hines mix (there aren’t any on the Cherrybrook Kitchen mix).

Grease and flour a non-stick donut baking pan. (Be sure you grease AND flour it – otherwise the donuts may tear up when you try to get them out of the pan.) Then pour the batter into the pan, filling each donut mold about 2/3 full.

Bake 10 – 15 minutes at 350 degrees until the top of the donut springs back when you touch it gently with a fingertip.

Let the donuts cool completely in the pan (10 minutes).

To glaze: In a cereal-sized bowl, mix about 1 1/2 c. safe powdered sugar with a small amount of water (start with a tablespoon or two, then add a teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency, which should be thin enough to drizzle from a spoon, but not watery). Then dip one side of a cooled donut into the glaze, then set it on a rack (glazed side up) and immediately top with sprinkles (if using). If the glaze is too thick, it may be hard to dunk the donut and then get it back out of the glaze without tearing, so you may have to add a little water to thin it. Conversely, if the glaze seems too thin, just add a little more sugar. When you’ve used up that glaze, make more. Repeat until you’ve glazed all of your donuts.

Eat immediately (best!) or freeze in a single layer in an airtight container. To thaw, let sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.

Duncan Hines mix makes about 2 dozen donuts. Cherrybook Kitchen mix makes about one dozen donuts.

Variations:

Yellow cake donuts: Use a yellow cake mix, glaze with white powdered sugar glaze, then immediately top with sprinkles while the glaze is still warm. Alternatively, you can glaze the donuts with white glaze, then make another bowl of glaze, adding food coloring to this batch. Then use a spoon to drizzle the colored glaze in a zig-zag pattern over the glazed donuts.

Chocolate cake donuts: Use a chocolate cake mix and prepare according to the instructions, but add 1 c. safe chocolate chips to the batter. To make a chocolate glaze, add a teaspoon of safe cocoa powder (such as Hershey’s cocoa) to the white powdered sugar, then mix with a small amount of water. Taste the glaze – add more cocoa if necessary to achieve your desired taste. Top donuts with sprinkles or Enjoy Life Foods mini chocolate chips if desired.

Maple-Spice cake donuts: Use a Duncan Hines spice cake mix. To make a maple-flavored glaze, add 3-4 tablespoons of maple syrup to the powdered sugar first, then add a small amount of water to thin the mixture to glaze consistency. You may add more maple syrup to taste (if it gets too thin, just add more sugar!).

Blueberry cake donuts: Start with a yellow cake mix. Drain 1 can of blueberries and rinse well (or use 1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh blueberries). Add to cake batter and bake as usual. When glazing, dip in white glaze first. Then color a second bowl of glaze with blue food coloring and drizzle the blue glaze over the glazed donuts in a zig-zag pattern. The blueberries will make these donuts more moist and sticky, so they may be a little gooier when eaten.

Chocolate chip cake donuts: Use a yellow cake mix, and add 1 c. safe chocolate chips to the batter. Glaze with white glaze, then add a small amount of cocoa powder to the remaining glaze, and drizzle the chocolate glaze over the glazed donuts in a zig-zag pattern.

Allergy-Free Frozen Treat Recipes

By Kelley Lindberg

Hot, hot, hot. Sun, sun, sun. And did I mention hot?

You know what’s really good when it’s this hot outside? Frozen treats! So here a few frozen treat recipes I’ve found that look really good, and they are all free from the Top 8 allergens. I’m going to give some of them a try this week!

Martha Stewart's Melon Sorbet

• Frozen Chocolatey“Nana-‘Nutters”: From Enjoy Life Foods, this recipe for frozen banana slices topped with Sunbutter and dipped in melted Enjoy Life Foods chocolate chips looks amazing. (And you can leave out the Sunbutter and just coat the banana slices in chocolate!)
• Frozen Melon Sorbet: Martha Stewart offers this super-easy recipe that calls for fresh melon that you cut into cubes and freeze. Then when you want to make your sorbet, you use a little water, a little sugar, and a food processor.
• Strawberry Sorbet: VeganBaking.net has this good-looking recipe for strawberry sorbet that uses a bag of frozen strawberries, water, sugar, and lemon juice. You use an ice-cream maker to make it that perfect consistency! (Substitute a bag of frozen raspberries for the strawberries to make raspberry sorbet.)
• Banana Faux “Ice Cream”: Frozen banana chunks, blended with a little fruit juice and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, makes a frozen treat that actually looks like ice cream, but without the dairy! It sounds fantastic, and it says you can add other frozen fruits to flavor the banana however you want.
• Frozen Fruit Cups: This recipe from CookEatShare.com has 4 ingredients: strawberries, pineapple, banana, and orange soda. Sounds perfect for kids! You can make these in a cup with e popsicle stick, or if you have popsicle molds, use those. (You can also try kiwi and watermelon.)
• Strawberry Lemonade Ice Pops: One can of frozen lemonade concentrate, a bag of frozen strawberries, 3 cups of cold water, and your popsicle molds… voila! Summer on a stick!
• Root Beer Float: If you’ve got a favorite brand of ice cream that is safe for your family, don’t forget to pick up some root beer to make this time-honored summer favorite! Just scoop some of the ice cream into a glass, then slowly add the root beer. (It’s also fun to swap out the root beer for orange soda, Dr. Pepper, Cherry Coke, or other favorite soda.)

Stay cool, stay safe, stay happy!

 

 

Allergy-Free Cookies for National Cookie Day!

by Kelley Lindberg


Good news! This week we get to celebrate National Cookie Day! That’s right, December 4 is National Cookie Day, a time when we come together to remember all those cookies that have made a difference in our life. After all, where would we be without them?

In honor of this most venerable of holidays, I blew the dust off my recipe box and went on a treasure hunt for one of my son’s favorite cookie recipes. I got this recipe for Cherry Cookies from the Salt Lake Tribune several years ago, and it’s credited to Pam Pettigrew. Of course, I had to make a few alterations to make it allergy-friendly. It does contain coconut and wheat flour (although you can probably substitute your favorite gluten-free flour), and there’s corn syrup in the maraschino cherries (maybe you could try a safe cherry preserves if you're avoiding corn?). My son and his friends love them.

Do you have a favorite allergy-friendly cookie recipe you’d be willing to share? Post it in the comments (or post a link to its website if your favorite recipe is online) and please give credit to the source where you found it, or tell us if you invented it yourself!

Remember, as you’re baking cookies for National Cookie Day, bake up an extra batch or two (or three!) and put them in the freezer for all those holiday parties, co-worker gifts, and neighbor gifts that are coming up. Cookies freeze really well, assuming you have any left over to freeze. That doesn’t happen often in my house.

And one more tip: Don’t have time to bake? There are allergy-friendly cookies on the market now, like those from Enjoy Life Foods (available at Whole Foods and other markets). If you have a favorite allergy-friendly store-bought cookie, share that with us, too!

Thanks for sharing your favorite recipes. Hope you enjoy this one, and have a happy National Cookie Day!

Cherry Cookies

(source: Pam Pettigrew, with modifications by Kelley Lindberg)

• 2 c. flour
• 1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 c safe shortening
• 1 egg substitute *(see below)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 T rice milk
• 1/2 c. maraschino cherries, chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 c. shredded, sweetened coconut

*(For an egg substitute, I like to use Ener-G egg replacer, but I’ve also used 1 tsp baking powder mixed with 1 T white vinegar and 1 T water, and that works great, too. I haven’t tried using 1/4 c. applesauce, but that might work, also. Use whichever egg substitute you prefer when baking.)

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add shortening, egg substitute, vanilla, and rice milk and mix well. Stir in cherries and coconut. Drop by spoonful on cookie sheet. (I like to line a cookie sheet with parchment paper so the cookies slide right off.) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Allergy-Free Thanksgiving Recipes 2012

by Kelley Lindberg


Are you ready for Thanksgiving? Don’t worry. Neither are any of the rest of us. But if you’re still looking for ways to make this traditional feast allergy-friendly for your family, here are some recipes I’ve found that might help reduce your stress. In many cases, making recipes safe can be as simple as substituting safe margarine for the butter, soy milk or rice milk for the cream/milk, and your family’s favorite safe bread for whatever bread the recipe calls for. But I hunted for recipes that come closest to being allergy-safe without modification, because we all need as much help as we can get this time of year!

And while we’re talking about Thanksgiving, let me just say that I’m extremely thankful that I live in a time when finding recipes, tips, support, education, and kindred spirits is just a mouse-click or two away. I can’t imagine having gone through my son’s food allergies in an earlier time without the magic of the Internet at my fingertips. Thank you to all who make the internet food-allergy community a loving place to belong.

Turkey: First things first. Because many turkeys are “basted” or “self-basting,” they may contain allergens (most commonly dairy, soy, and wheat) in the solutions that are injected in them to make them tender. Natural turkeys should contain nothing but the bird and perhaps some water. Read “BeforeYou Buy a Thanksgiving Turkey” from About.com for more information and some guidelines for purchasing a safe turkey.

Stuffing: I admit it, stuffing is my favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner, and I’m particularly partial to cornbread stuffing. But some people prefer traditional bread stuffing, while others prefer wild rice or other options. So here are some variations to try (be sure you substitute safe ingredients, such as your family’s favorite safe bread, for whatever the recipe calls for): Bryanna’s Traditional-Style Vegan Bread Stuffing, Vegan Quinoa Stuffing, Cornbread and Wild Rice Stuffing, and Wild Rice and Cranberry Stuffing (you can leave out the walnuts).

Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes are usually loaded with butter and cream or milk. To make them allergy-safe, replace the butter with a safe margarine (like Earth Balance, Spectrum, SmartBalance Light, or Nucoa), and replace the milk with rice milk or soy milk. Or, ditch the whole butter-and-cream idea completely and use chicken broth instead to flavor them. Here is the super-simple recipe from Campbell’s Kitchen for Skinny Mashed Potatoes.

Gravy: My husband is the official gravy-maker in our family. He’s got that whole browning-the-flour thing down pat, and it’s something he can do while the rest of us get the other dishes prepped for the table. But it’s really not that hard to do. (But if I tell him I’ve learned how to make gravy, he might stop, so I’ll never admit to knowing how to do it.) Here is a recipe for a simple Allergy Free Turkey Gravy from EatingWithFoodAllergies.com that explains the steps well. You can use either regular wheat or wheat-free all-purpose flour in this yummy Thanksgiving staple. YouTube has lots of videos showing how to make turkey gravy if you’re not sure of the process.

Cranberry Relish: Sure, you can dump it out of a can, and for some of us, that can-shaped mold of cranberry sauce holds a warm spot in our hearts. But if you’d like to make something a little bit more special for your dinner, try this easy and delicious recipe for Cranberry-Apple Relish, from Cooking Light magazine on MyRecipes.com. One pan, 15 minutes, and you’re done (and you can make it a day or two ahead).

Sweet Potatoes: You can’t beat those traditional mashed sweet potatoes topped with golden-toasted marshmallows (try this recipe for Marshmallow Yam Casserole, but substitute safe margarine for the butter, and rice milk or soy milk for the cream), but this recipe for Healthy Butternut Apple Bake looks awfully tempting, too. And how about layering pineapple and sweet potatoes with a little maple syrup, in this Yankee Sweet Potato Casserole, or adding crushed pineapple and mandarin oranges to mashed sweet potatoes in Easy Allergy Friendly Sweet Potato Casserole/Souffle?

Green Bean Casserole: If you miss the traditional green bean casserole, you might try this recipe for The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole. You might have to do a few substitutions, though. It calls for soy creamer or full-fat unsweetened soymilk, but if you can’t find that, you might try Tofutti’s soy sour cream. Rice milk might work, too, but it doesn’t thicken at all, so you might try adding a little cornstarch if you’re an adventurous cook. I haven’t tried this recipe, so I don’t know how well it will work. Also, it calls for French’s French Fried Onions as a topping, but those carry a milk contamination warning, so you may want to try something different as a topping, such as safe bread crumbs, safe Panko bread crumbs, crushed Chex cereal, crushed potato chips, or dried Chow Mein noodles.

Pumpkin Pie: Looking for a pumpkin pie that doesn’t contain eggs or milk? Try this recipe from the Kids with Food Allergies website for “Mom’s Pumpkin Pie.” This recipe is in the “free recipe” section of the website, so you don’t have to be a member to access it!

Allergy-Free BBQ Recipes

by Kelley Lindberg


With the 4th of July coming next week, barbeques will be firing up all over the place this weekend. So I went hunting for allergy-free recipes for all of those festive get-togethers or family fun, and found some delicious-looking options that are free from the top 8 allergens (or can be made that way easily by substituting safe brands), and best of all, they look EASY.

So light up that grill and put on your reddest, whitest, and bluest togs, and celebrate our nation’s birthday in allergy-free yet super-delicious style!

Garlic & Lime Grilled Chicken Skewers (from Campbell’s Kitchen)

Spicy Beef Skewers (from Campbell’s Kitchen)

Guacamole – choose from a variety of recipes from the official California Avocado Commission website (if these guys don’t know jack about guac, who does?)

Snap Pea Salad with Basil Pesto Vinaigrette (from Shanon Hilton’s “Food Farm Health” blog)

Vegan Potato Salad (from Savvy Vegetarian)

Southwestern Bean and Rice Salad (from Allrecipes.com)

Louisville Rice Salad -- but leave out the almonds (from Allrecipes.com)

Grilled Zucchini and Squash (from Martha Stewart.com)

Raspberry Mousse (Dairy Free) (from Shanon Hilton’s “Food Farm Health” blog)

Chunky Peach Popsicles (from The Kitchen Daily)

Allergy-Safe Mardi Gras Recipes

by Kelley Lindberg


Tomorrow is Mardi Gras, a great time to indulge in some delicious food, even if you’re not in New Orleans. (It also happens to be National Margarita Day—happy day!) So in honor of such a food-oriented day, I thought I’d search out some allergy-friendly recipes that fit the New Orleans theme. (Last week I posted a recipe for a safe Three Kings’ Cake. So today I thought I’d post some idea for the rest of the dinner!)

Jambalaya – this dish is a mix of whatever meat you have on hand (traditionally chicken, Andouille sausage, ham, and shrimp), rice, and some veggies (usually tomatoes, celery, onion, and bell pepper). It’s a wonderfully forgiving recipe, and it lends itself to endless variations. Allergic to shrimp? Leave it out. Don’t have any ham or bacon? Don’t worry, just toss in some chicken instead. Can’t stand celery? Leave it out. Love okra? Add it! Here is a recipe for Bubba’s Jambalaya.

Shrimp or Crawfish Etouffee – Etouffee can be made with shrimp, crawfish, catfish, or other seafood, and it’s usually served over rice. If you’re not allergic to seafood, it’s a yummy, fairly simple dish. There are a million versions; everyone’s grandmother made it differently. So hunt around until you find one that works for your allergies. Here is Emeril Lagasse’s recipe for ShrimpEtouffee. Here is a simpler one that uses flour to thicken the sauce: Louisiana Crawfish Etouffee. And here is one that uses cornstarch instead of flour: Shrimp Etoufee III

Muffuletta – Muffelettas are sandwiches made by hollowing out a loaf of French bread and filling it with your choice of cold cuts, cheese, and an olive salad. If you can’t have cheese, leave it out or substitute a safe soy cheese or Daiya cheese, if you’d like. Here is a delicious-looking recipe: Hearty Muffuletta.

Gumbo – Like jambalaya, gumbo is very forgiving, and you can use whatever meat your family likes, from chicken to sausage (usually Andouille) to shrimp. It’s more soupy than jambalaya, and it’s usually served over rice. Here is an authentic-looking recipe: Good New Orleans Creole Gumbo. It calls for beef bouillon cubes – if you can’t find safe cubes, substitute 3 cans of safe beef broth for half of the water called for in the recipe. This recipe also calls for crabmeat and shrimp – if you have seafood allergies, try cooked, cut-up chicken instead.

Gumbo Joes – I stumbled across this Cajun-flavored variation of Sloppy Joes, for something a little different! Gumbo Joes.

Hush puppies – These little cornbread balls are yummy, but usually call for eggs and milk. Here is a vegan recipe that may work for you (you can probably substitute rice milk for the soy milk if necessary). And if you don’t like your hushpuppies spicy, leave out the jalapenos. Vegan Hush Puppies.

Have fun celebrating Mardi Gras, or just celebrating good food in general!

Dressing Up Rice

by Kelley Lindberg


Rice. White rice, brown rice, Spanish rice. Okay, that pretty much covers my repertoire of rice cookery.

Apparently I’ve been a little restricted in my thinking.

A friend sent me this link to an article in The Atlantic, “The Rice Principle: A Reminder That We Share Similar Appetites,” and it made me realize that there’s a lot more to love about rice than I realized.

Especially for people with gluten or wheat allergies, rice quickly becomes a staple – but how can we dress it up so that it’s not always the same old thing? Food fatigue can be such a problem, even for people without food allergies (I run out of dinner ideas by Tuesday every week), and it’s an even bigger problem when you’re restricted in the foods you can eat.

This article, by chef Tamar Adler, rattles off an amazing number of ideas for jazzing up rice with simple, easy-to-find and easy-to-cook ingredients – of course, some of her ingredients are common allergens like egg or nuts, but by the end of the article, I was convinced that rice dishes are infinitely flexible, totally forgiving, and worth a second look. She even includes a recipe for Rice and Lettuce Soup. Really? Really! And she makes it sound good!

With a few easy substitutions, like using safe margarine or olive oil instead of real butter, her on-the-fly recipes sound like they’ll come together quickly even on a busy school night. And since rice is one of those foods that most kids like, that’s a plus.

The author offers several methods for cooking rice, and takes us on a quick trip around the world with her story – from Asia to Italy and several places in between. And even though she covers a lot of territory, she doesn’t even mention Spanish paella or Cajun-country jambalaya, both of which are filling dishes that let you toss in whatever veggies and meats you have on hand, regardless of what the recipe might actually call for. (Can’t eat shrimp? Toss in chopped chicken instead!) And don’t forget Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf (search for a vegetarian version if you can’t have chicken broth). 

So if rice is on your list of safe foods, check out her article, and like me, maybe it will help you start thinking outside the Minute Rice box.

And if you have a great rice-based recipe, share it with us in the Comments section!

Allergy-Free Soup Recipe Contest!

By Kelley Lindberg


Brrr. January has come early this year. Most of November was unusually cold, with temps in the single digits and piles of snow in the parking lots. December hasn’t warmed up much. It looks a lot more like Minnesota than Utah, if you ask me.

All this cold weather has put me in the mood for a nice, hot bowl of soup. Doesn’t that sound yummy… a pot gently simmering on the stove, filling the house with delicious smells…

The only problem is, I’m tired of most of my soup recipes. So let’s share some soup recipes! Pull out your favorite soup recipe that doesn’t have any of the Big 8 allergens (or which can use easy substitutions, like gluten-free noodles instead of egg noodles). Just post your recipe in the comments section, and remember to say where you found the recipe (or if you made it up!).

And here’s the best part. After a week or two, I’ll have a random drawing from everyone who posted a recipe, and the winner will win a food allergy cookbook. (I haven’t decided which one yet, but I’ll pick a good one, I promise!)

To get us started, here is a recipe I really like.

Rustic White Bean Soup
from Mr. Food Diabetic Dinners in a Dash, printed in an American Diabetes Association’s publication

1/2 lb. hot Italian-style turkey sausage, casing removed (or any safe sausage)
2 medium onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans (15.5 oz. each) white navy beans, undrained, divided
2 cans (14 oz. each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (or home-made safe broth)
1 package (10 oz.) fresh spinach
1/4 tsp. black pepper

1. Coat a soup pot with nonstick cooking spray; heat over medium heat.

2. Add the sausage, onions, and garlic, and sauté for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the onions are tender and the sausage is no longer pink, stirring to break up the sausage.

3. Mash 1 can of navy beans until smooth. Add to the soup pot along with the chicken broth and the remaining can of whole beans; bring to a boil.

4. Add the spinach and pepper, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the spinach is wilted.

5. Ladle soup into bowls and serve.

Replacing Wheat and Gluten in Recipes

by Kelley Lindberg


What a treat I have for you today! Shelley, a gluten-free expert and frequent participant on the UFAN email forum, has graciously agreed to be my guest blogger today. She is continuing my series of allergen-replacements for recipes by writing today’s article on gluten-free cooking. You will LOVE what she has to say… Thank you, Shelley! Be sure to check out Shelley’s blog, at http://www.enjoythelittlethings.wordpress.com/

*****

To be honest, when my oldest son was first diagnosed with a wheat allergy (along with several other severe allergies), I had never heard of gluten. At the time, I was just a few weeks away from giving birth to my second child, who I was told was likely to have the same allergies as my son and my best bet was to avoid the top allergens while nursing her. I was totally overwhelmed.

Lucky for me, my mom was scheduled to come and visit and she just happened to have a degree in food science and nutrition. She knew exactly what gluten was and started reading everything she could get her hands on. I don’t know how we did it back then, before blogs and Google and everything we take for granted. She showed up at the airport with two huge suitcases (remember when you could take those on airplanes?) full of gluten-free cookbooks and bags and bags of gluten-free flours.

For the next 2 weeks we spent every day in the kitchen, trying every recipe in The Gluten-free Gourmet and making up our own. It took a lot of patience and a good sense of humor because more of our creations ended up in the garbage than in our tummies – but I learned a lot.

Flash forward four kids later, my youngest was done nursing and I was ready to start eating “normal” again, only to find out the hard way that the gluten issues weren’t entirely my kids’ problem. I immediately began having problems and my doctors realized for the first time in my life that gluten was my problem as well.

So here we are 11 years later, and with a house full of gluten-free eaters, I have some tips to share:

Tip #1 - Xanthan gum or guar gum
Gluten-free cooking just doesn’t happen without them. They are the glue that gluten-free flours are missing. Without them, the only thing your gluten-free baked goods will be good for is bread crumbs. A good rule of thumb is 1 tsp of xanthan or guar gum per cup of gluten-free flour in your recipe. If you are using eggs, you may not need as much, and if you are replacing eggs, you may need a bit more.

Tip #2 - Know your alternatives.
One of the cool things about gluten-free cooking is all the alternatives we have to regular old flour. With a little effort and creativity, gluten-free living really opens the doors to a healthier lifestyle than you probably had before.

**A word of warning - when trying any of these flours for the first time, use it in a pancake or something simple and watch for reactions. I try to rotate the flours I use and there are a few that just don’t work for us – but work great for many of my friends. Buy the small bag the first time and if you like it, go back and buy it in bulk!**

Gluten-free flours need cool dark storage; most store best in the freezer. I store many of the whole grains in sealed buckets and put the freshly ground flour in my freezer if I am not going through it fast enough.

Quinoa (pronounced Keen wa) – This is an ancient grain, really high in protein and high in amino acids. It adds structure to gluten-free breads. I use this a lot.

Amaranth – The seeds of this plant are also unusually high in protein and amino acids, adding flavor and structure to the dough.

Sorghum – A really popular grain, kind of sweet without much of an aftertaste.

Teff – High in dietary fiber, protein, calcium and iron, this is a nutritional powerhouse. It has a slightly sweet nutty flavor that adds a lot to gluten-free baking.

Buckwheat – Not a grain; it’s a fruit and has nothing in common with wheat other than the name. This is my favorite grain. It’s hearty, has a familiar taste, and adds lot of nutrition to your breads.

Millet – A fabulous source of the B vitamins, it does have a stronger flavor but combines well with other flours in baking. I use this quite often.

Brown Rice – I use this flour often, too – especially in cupcakes and other treats that I serve to unsuspecting wheat-eaters. It has a familiar taste and the whole grains offer fiber and vitamins. Using this flour entirely on its own results in a gummy-grainy texture, so always mix with another flour or starch to prevent this. You can also use white rice flour; it acts more like a starch and has little nutritional value, but certainly can be incorporated into gluten-free bread making if you choose.

Corn – Corn flour is much finer than corn meal, but it still tends to be a bit heavy to bake with so always combine it with other flours. Makes fabulous corn breads with a little potato starch or quinoa flour!

There are all sorts of bean flours. I am only going to mention the most common:

Garbanzo bean flour – High in protein, and it’s easy to use. Be warned it has a stronger taste so it works best mixed with other flours and can go rancid if not kept cool.

Fava bean flour – I don’t usually see this alone (although you can order it). Often it’s marketed as Garfava flour, a mixture of garbonzo and fava beans. It has a lot of protein and adds great structure to bread, but like Garbanzo bean flour, it has a stronger taste and turns rancid in less than ideal conditions.

Soy flour – I almost forgot to mention it. We don’t use it at our house as soy is a major allergen for us (and many others), but it is also high in protein and has a strong flavor like the bean flours, so go easy.

Starches – Not really known for their nutritional value, starches come in handy when you need some help binding ingredients and making your bread light enough to rise. There are some great commercially available breads out there that rely almost exclusively on starches. I struggle to use a lot of these because the last thing my kids need is empty calories – we need nutritional powerhouses in every bite. But on vacation and in a crunch they sure make life easier. Starches all are fabulous thickeners as well – use like corn starch in soups, sauces, and gravy.

Potato Starch – This is totally different than potato flour. It’s light and has a really “normal” taste. It does tend to get gummy if you use too much, but a 1/2 to 1 cup in a recipe can really lighten things up.

Corn Starch – Acts a lot like potato starch. It’s a great binder and smells great when cooked. Too much makes your bread gummy in the middle, but a bit here and there can make a big difference.

Tapioca Starch – Often called tapioca flour. A little bit of this goes a long ways. I find the best prices at local Asian markets that sell it in tiny packages. While you could never make an entire loaf from tapioca starch, I find I can’t bake without a cup or so in my recipe. It really helps hold things together, gives a nice flavor and lightens up a recipe.

Sweet rice flour – Can be used in place of sugar in some recipes. Be careful, a little goes a long way – but that is a good thing.

Arrowroot flour – I love this stuff but have a hard time finding it in our current home town. It is great to bake with and makes a fabulous thickener that doesn’t change the flavor. If you are fortunate to get a good deal on it, don’t pass it up!

Bonus tip- Flax seed (ground) – Okay, I know it’s not a flour, but adding a few tablespoons to a batch of bread or muffins adds a fabulous nutty flavor and a punch of omega 3s. It’s also a great egg-replacer. (See Replacing Eggs in Recipes.)

Tip #3 - Gluten-free dough is actually more like a batter.
This was hard to get used to after years of making wheat products - but as a rule, gluten-free breads generally turn out better if the dough is more like a cake batter. It just needs more moisture.

Tip #4 - Start small.
This was probably the best thing I learned from my mom. When we would make a batch of muffins or cookies the first time we would only cook a few of them. That way, if it just didn’t turn out, we could add more water, flour, xanthan gum, or whatever and have a chance of saving the batch. The other thing she taught me is to not be afraid to throw it out and start over if it really isn’t working. Really, on a tight budget, you will spend more time and money making a bigger mess out of your dough than you will by just getting rid of it and starting with a different recipe.

Tip#5 - Most of your old recipes will adapt well.
I spent years trying all these elaborate recipes I found in special cookbooks and on the internet. But the ones we like the best are the old stand-bys from our pre-gluten-free days. Once you find a mix of flours that work for you, add some xanthan or guar gum and a little extra moisture, and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to cook gluten-free.

Tip #5 - You Are Not Alone.
That is the coolest thing about living in our generation. With the internet, we are all practically next-door neighbors. Maybe we can’t run and borrow a cup of buckwheat flour, but we can certainly share recipes and tips and struggles. Since our diagnosis 11 years ago we have lived in 3 states and 6 different towns and I have never been the only one. In fact, I am usually the first call for many as they find their children developing allergies. Today I can walk into most eating establishments and ask for a gluten-free menu, and the aisles of most markets have at least a handful of items marked gluten-free.

Some of my favorite sites include:

http://www.glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/ (recipe section and check out the comments on many recipes, people post their adaptations for many allergies)

Google-groups and support groups are like life-lines when you are getting started, so don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. You’ll be surprised how many others have stood in your shoes – and you can always call on me – I’m happy and thrilled to help. I still remember how hard it was, worrying every day what I would feed my growing children, and working to educate teachers and family members and friends on a continual basis. But I am here to say that it works out, it is worth it, and my first-born, failure-to-thrive baby is now almost my height, a state-ranked competitive swimmer, and anything but malnourished.

Shelley

Replacing Dairy in Recipes

by Kelley Lindberg


Last week, I offered some suggestions for replacing nuts and peanuts in recipes. The week before that, I discussed replacing eggs in recipes. This week, let’s talk about dairy!

Milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, sour cream… lots of recipes use dairy products. Whether you can replace them with a safe substitute depends in part on the recipe, but I’ve had some good luck with some of these replacement ideas:

In baked goods, I use rice milk (Rice Dream) instead of regular milk. No one can tell the difference, and it bakes identically in everything I’ve tried. You can also try soy milk.

I’ve also used rice milk in a few soups that call for milk, and it seems to work okay. The only thing rice milk doesn’t do is set up – so you can’t use it to replace real milk if you’re making pudding or a pie, for example.

There are a few dairy-free margarines that I like. Smart Balance Light and Blue Bonnet Light are completely dairy-free (the other varieties of Smart Balance and Blue Bonnet all have milk, so be sure you get the Light version only). Both spreads are great for using on the table to butter bread or flavor vegetables, for example. However, neither one is great for baking. Spectrum margarine is dairy- and soy-free and okay to use on the table, but not for baking.

For a margarine that works extremely well in baking, use Nucoa margarine (it comes in sticks). You can also use safe shortening or vegetable oil instead of butter in baking recipes. Or use Spectrum shortening if you need to avoid soy, too. You can also replace half of the oil or margarine called for in a recipe with applesauce, to reduce the fat. The baked product won’t rise quite as high as the original recipe if you use applesauce, but it will still be yummy.

To replace sour cream or yogurt in a recipe, try a soy yogurt or Tofutti soy sour cream (your best bet is health food stores or Whole Foods or Good Earth Markets). Just check the ingredients carefully on soy yogurts – some have milk ingredients. I haven’t found any soy yogurt in a plain flavor – just vanilla, which is somewhat sweet for most recipes – so you might prefer looking for that Tofutti sour cream instead.

Rich’s makes a couple of versions of a non-dairy topping that you can whip yourself or buy in a tub like Cool Whip. Rich’s also makes a non-dairy creamer that’s a liquid designed to use in coffee, but you can probably use it to replace milk in other aspects. (All are made with soy.) Rich’s products can be elusive to find, however, so ask your local grocers if they carry it. A friend of mine buys the version you whip, and she adds Jell-O pudding mix as she’s whipping it to make it set up a little thicker. If she adds a whole box of Jell-O pudding mix, it becomes a sort of mousse. (Make sure you get the regular Jell-O pudding mix, and not the sugar-free kind, because the sugar-free kind has milk.)

Looking for milk-free chocolate chips? Try the Kroger “Value” brand (the store brand for Kroger and Smiths) which is both milk-free and nut-free. Enjoy Life Foods also makes chocolate chips free from the top 8 allergens, and you can find them at Whole Foods Markets. Can't find those? Lots of online grocers sell allergen-free chocolate chips, so just search online for what you need.

Pie crusts? Believe it or not, most of the premade graham cracker crusts at the store are milk-free, egg-free, and nut-free, and so are Pillsbury’s refrigerated pie crusts (the kind you unroll). Just double-check ingredients to be sure.

As for cheeses, there are soy cheeses that are milk-free, but the taste is usually different enough from regular cheese that most people can tell. I’ve found it’s perfectly alright to just leave the cheese out of some recipes. For instance, our group of friends often has tacos, burgers, chili, or other foods, and we just skip the cheese. It may seem a little “un-American” at first, but when we’re all sitting around eating and gabbing, nobody notices and nobody cares.

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to replacing dairy ingredients in recipes. Please feel free to share your own dairy-replacement ideas or recipes! I’ll tackle gluten-free ideas for recipes sometime in May, so stay tuned…