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Vegan Pumpkin Bread

November 1, 2011 By 4 Comments

I love fall, partly because it brings with it cooler temperatures that are welcomed with open arms by me and the entire state of Texas after months of 100 degree heat and 100% humidity. But mostly I love fall because of the food. Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, muffins, spiced lattes, hot chocolate, stews, soup and anything I can throw in a crock pot become common place at my house this time of year.

I was originally going to write this post about my Grandma Lena’s Minestrone Soup, which is a family staple for which I finally inherited the recipe for this week. But this fall is different. This year it’s about my family and finding and creating new recipes that my FA son Rowan can enjoy as well. Because fall is a constant reminder of things he cannot eat due to his allergies. Because at Halloween he can only eat Smarties and Pixie Sticks. Because he can’t eat Ella’s birthday cake that I picked up from Target last week. Because he cannot eat the pumpkin cheesecake my mom will buy from Cheesecake Factory for Thanksgiving. Because he cries when we eat something different than him and he doesn’t understand why. Because fall inspires me and because poor Rowan cannot enjoy any store bought baked goods, I bake.

Last Saturday morning, after my two cups of coffee required before I can complete any task which requires a measure of focus, I made dairy and egg free pumpkin bread. Heck, let’s call it Vegan Pumpkin Bread, because that’s shorter.

The kids proudly stood on chairs next to me while I prepped. Rowan happily clanging his mixing spoon into the empty bowl in front of him. Both kids helped me add the ingredients, Ella added the flour and Rowan the sugar. Shumit frantically ran around supervising Rowan through the preparation, making sure he didn’t break the antique canisters on the kitchen counter in front of him, fall off the chair or dump a pound of flour on the floor. This labor of love literally took my entire family of 4 to make.

Waiting an hour for the bread to bake was gruesome! Mostly for me, because I’m impatient and the smell of warm pumpkin wafting from my oven was hypnotizing.

The bread was delicious, awesome, radical, excellent, and (insert any other adjective that could be heard on Wayne’s World).

I look forward to baking every weekend this fall with the kids. Party on.

This post is based on the RemembeRED writing prompt from Write on Edge: Share with us a special recipe but don’t just list the ingredients.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Life as I Know It, Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

Allergy Free Meal Plan (10/31)

October 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

Happy Halloween!!

Below is our meal plan for the week (all dairy and egg free).

The lunches are what I pack for Rowan to take to preschool. If you haven’t noticed by now, his meals basically repeat from week to week. The reason? I am too busy and uncreative to come up with new meals? Yes- in part. Also because I try to follow the same schedule as his preschool’s meals. So on days they serve chicken nuggets, I send him with chicken nuggets. On days they serve chicken enchiladas, I send him with Amy’s No Dairy Burritos. On days they serve macaroni and cheese, I cry a little bit, and then send him with boxed macaroni made with dairy free butter and dairy free cheese.

PS- Yes my handwriting is so messy that when I write the word Thursday, it looks like Thwsday (see above picture). This happens every time. It drives my husband mad, but I like to think of it as an endearing quality, rather than my bad penmanship.

Monday

Rowan’s lunch: Tyson chicken nuggets. Diced peaches. Pretzel sticks. Back to Nature creme sandwich cookies.

Dinner: Minetrone soup and cornbread. My parents are here today to spend Halloween with the kids and my mom and I are making my Italian grandmother’s recipe for Minestrone soup. It is divine. I will share the recipe this week.

Tuesday

Rowan’s lunch: Amy’s No Dairy Burrito. Diced peaches. Corn. BTN cookies.

Dinner: Haystacks (Vegan Frito Pie)

Wednesday

Rowan’s lunch: Turkey sandwich with “cheese”. Diced pears. Pretzel sticks. BTN cookies.

Dinner: Dahl and rice. What the heck is Dahl?

Thursday

Rowan’s lunch: Leftover dahl and rice. Diced peaches. Fritos. BTN cookies.

Dinner: Angel hair pasta with cherry tomatoes. This is a new recipe I adapted from the Better Homes & Garden cookbook. It’s really good. I love pasta so much, I could eat it daily.

Friday

Rowan’s lunch: Soy Nut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread. Diced pears. Pretzel sticks. BTN cookies.

Dinner: Subway.

For more menu planning ideas, visit Meal Plan Mondays at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Filed Under: What's for Dinner?! Tagged With: , , ,

A Month in Review

October 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

It has been a crazy, busy month at my house. Even more busy than usual, and that’s saying something. Let’s recap.

In the past four weeks, the following has occurred in my household:

Lice x2

Sinus Infections x3

Double ear infections x1

Stomach virus x1

Allergies x2

Allergy Testing x1

Bunny sitting x1

Birthdays x1

Trip to NYC x1

Loaves of bread baked x3

I’m sure I’m missing something but the above seems to capture the highlights. Ok, now enough with the excuses..These pictures say it all.

PS- I’m not sure why the gallery below looks crazy like this. In the “preview” of this post they are in perfect 3×3 alignment..StudioPress tech support here I come.

 

Filed Under: Life as I Know It

The Descent

September 30, 2011 By 17 Comments

I am doing something a little different this week and trying my hand at fiction today. The below was based on a writing prompt from Write on Edge. The prompt: write a piece inspired by a picture. What’s not to love about an amazing staircase surrounded by art?

I sat staring at the portrait for what seemed like hours. My curled up legs ached underneath me so I stretched them out before me, pointing  my toes towards the painting and then flexing my heels for some temporary relief.

It was beautiful. They were beautiful. My father, with his slicked back silver hair, Navy custom-fit Armani suit that hugged his broad shoulders, and his winning smile that exuded confidence with an approachability that made everyone want to get to know him. My mother, her long, straight raven black hair and matching eyes that seemed to twinkle with both delight and mischief. She donned a gold and navy color block dress that hit mid thigh and showed off her toned, tan legs and Manolo Blahnik heels. My sister, Maggie and her gorgeous chestnut brown hair, athletic physique and freckled face, sat wearing a navy shirt-dress fastened by a wide buckled belt and white scarf speckled with flecks of gold. And me, with my, mid length mousy brown hair that I could never control. I sat awkwardly next to my sister wearing an A-line navy skirt, white button up shirt with sleeves rolled up to my elbows. My paper white legs crossed awkwardly. We were at the beach house in Cannes, the stunning view of the water as our backdrop. What will I do with that house now, I wondered.

I knew it was time. I took a deep breath in, closed my eyes, and counted to 5 as I exhaled slowly through my mouth. I stood up and headed towards the magnificent spiral staircase that led to the first floor of the gallery. The two story stair case was one of the grandest features of the gallery. It was an ornate spiral staircase, and included 50 steps, 5 twists, custom wrought iron scroll work and Italian marble steps. My hand rested on the smooth banister as I took each step down slowly and deliberately.

I looked around the first floor of the gallery, the brightly lit room filled with original Cezanne’s, Van Gogh’s and Da Vinci’s, all surrounding me. I saw my mother’s art easel and supplies in the far north corner of the room. Her most recent painting, an impressionist iteration of a sunflower, would remain unfinished. The marble steps felt cool under my feet and sent a shiver through my body. I saw the couches where Maggie and I used to sit and watch our mother while she painted, admiring all of the beauty that radiated about her. The gallery, filled with light and hope, was now silent.

My head ached from the thoughts racing through it. Was I prepared for the day ahead? Would I be able to keep it together? Could I stay composed amongst the news cameras, the crowds, the stares? I knew I had to.

I reached the bottom of the stairs just as my cell phone rang. It was Gabriel.

“I’m on my way”, I said into the phone as I left the room.

PS: To my readers: I’ll get back on schedule next week with some more recipes. I have a killer barbecue salmon recipe I’m going to post.  Just need to get the grilling details from my husband, as I have never used the grill myself. Yes, I’m a girl like that.

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: ,

Lies Nutella Told Me

September 23, 2011 By 4 Comments

cc by Allison.Hare

Do you know what Nutella is? Because it seems I’ve been a little bit confused. I thought Nutella was like a peanut butter alternative made with hazelnuts. Something you could spread on your toast. Although I have never tried the product until now, I can clearly conjure images from the Nutella commercials I’ve seen..the happy families eating breakfast together, lots of laughing, smiling. The children in those commercials clearly like Nutella. So I thought it couldn’t be half bad.

I bought my first jar of Nutella last week. Turns out I was wrong. Nutella done lied to me. Here’s the truth.

  1. It is not a peanut butter alternative. It is chocolate.
  2. It is not healthy. It is chocolate.
  3. It is not low fat. It is chocolate.
  4. It’s not disgusting, it is delicious. Because it is chocolate.

Let me elaborate on each of these lies.

  1. It is not peanut butter. Although Nutella would be delicious on a piece of toast, English muffin and other items as encouraged by the Nutella brand, this does not mean that it is, in any way, shape or form, similar to peanut butter. Peanut butter has protein. Nutella is mostly sugar. And it would definitely not go well with jelly.
  2. It is not healthy. I don’t know much about hazelnuts and the potential health benefits of them. However, I don’t see how any sort of potential health benefit from consuming hazelnut could outweigh the unhealthiness of Nutella. The first ingredient is sugar. Followed by Palm Oil.
  3. It is not low fat. There are 200 calories and 11 grams of fat per TBSP. No you didn’t just hallucinate, per tablespoon. I’d bet cookie dough has less calories per TBSP.
  4. It is not disgusting. I gotta give it this. Nutella does taste good. So do cookies, but I’m not going to give those to my children for breakfast. Usually.

I googled “is nutella good for you”. The first article is entitled “Nutella – No, it’s not good for you”. It turns out that there’s a lot of people who agree that the answer to this question is NO. In fact, one mom in California has filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Nutella’s owner, Ferrero. Her claim is that the company’s false advertising indicates that Nutella is healthy, when indeed it’s the “next best thing to a candy bar”. I may want in on that class action. Oh except I was smart enough to read Nutella’s label and decipher that sugar + milk + cocoa = chocolate, and made the decision that I should not give this to my children in a sad attempt to get them to eat bread and english muffins for breakfast (which are high on the glycemic index anyways).

 

Filed Under: Life as I Know It

Dairy Free Meal Plan (9/19)

September 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For all of you regular readers, you probably already know that 1) I haven’t posted in like a week, 2) I should have posted my menu plan yesterday and 3) this is because my internet is down YET AGAIN. Sigh. Very frustrating indeed. A 2nd technician is supposed to come out today to take a look at it. We shall see.

Monday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Soy nut butter and jelly sandwich. Terra sweet potato chips. Back to Nature Creme Sandwich cookies. Diced peaches. I definitely over packed Rowan’s lunch today.

Dinner: Vege Skallops. I know this dish probably sounds odd but it’s really good. I think I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but I’ll post the recipe this week. Although I am not a 100% vegetarian or vegan (at least not yet), I grew up practically vegetarian so it’s not unusual for me to cook with a lot of vege and soy meat products. It’s comfort food to me. Going to make this with Quinoa, which will be a first.

Tuesday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Leftover vege skallops. It’s technically fish stick day at school again and since I have yet to find an egg free fish stick, I’m sending Rowan with leftover vege skallops, which are fried and kind of look like fish sticks, if fish sticks were made of large chunks of soy protein and breaded in corn flakes. A reader did tell me that they think Mrs. Pauls fish sticks are egg free, so I will be looking for those at the store next weekend. Otherwise, I may need to suck it up and just make some fish sticks for the poor boy.

Dinner: Pasta Fagioli Soup (Crock Pot). While it’s still a bit hot for soup (at least in Tx), I LOVE this soup. It’s incredibly delicious and easy to make.

Wednesday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Pasta Fagioli soup. Preschool is serving penne pasta with meatballs this day, but his pasta soup shouldn’t be too far off from that.

Dinner: Grilled “cheese” sandwiches and tomato soup. Obviously I use a vegan cheese for Rowan’s sandwich. (By the way, if you know of a really good vegan cheese, please do send me your recommendations!)

Thursday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Tyson chicken nuggets.

Dinner: Subway. Last Friday I picked up Subway for the kids. I told the “sandwich artist” that my son had severe food allergies and asked him to change gloves before making his sandwich. He looked peeved but did it. Thankfully it worked though, there was no cross contamination and Rowan was fine. :)

Friday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Turkey sandwich.

Dinner: Pita Pizzas. I had this on the menu last Friday, but we had Subway instead. There’s something about Friday’s that just calls for a pizza..

Filed Under: What's for Dinner?! Tagged With: , ,

Shredded Chicken Tacos

September 14, 2011 By 2 Comments

This recipe was adapted from Cooking Light . This one is a quickie. Good for nights where you just want to get it over with. Dinner, that is.

The ingredients:

  • Fully cooked Rotisserie Chicken (Target sells non-dairy/egg ones. Bless them.)
  • Corn Tortillas
  • Corn (I used the SteamFresh microwaveable kind)
  • Avocado
  • Tomatoes
  • Lettuce
  • Lime
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • Salsa (optional)

The directions:

Warm the tortillas on a skillet. Fill them with shredded  chicken, corn, sliced avocado, tomatoes and lettuce.  Squeeze some fresh lime on it. Salt it. Add salsa if you like extra kick. And you’re done. Dinner in 5 minutes.

The result:

Very good and fresh tasting tacos. The kids liked them,  although Rowan’s taco fell apart (he took it apart rather) and he ate everything separately. Expect to see this one in my upcoming meal plan rotations. :)

For more recipe ideas, check out Foodie Wednesday at Daily Organized Chaos.

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Name Bubbles Labels.

September 13, 2011 By 4 Comments

I love labeling. And I love simple, really simple, things. So when I found out there were sticky name labels that I could customize with my children’s name, cute colors and patterns AND with allergy warnings, to affix to the plethora of items that we send to preschool, I was sold.

I used to be a clueless mom. Ok, I’m still kind of clueless. But when Ella started daycare, I had no idea what to bring for her, no clue that I needed to label stuff. I thought that the daycare would naturally know what belonged to Ella if 1) I put it in her cubby and 2) she showed up to daycare wearing it. That’s not exactly how it happens at daycare. Then, appallingly enough, the daycare took it upon themselves to label Ella’s items with a black SHARPIE. They wrote directly on her bottles, on the labels of her clothing, blankets, and pacifiers. I was livid. Ain’t no way I was going to let them marker up her expensive Dr. Brown bottles. Next I tried these plastic bottle label rings that affix to the bottle. The daycare STILL used a sharpie on top of the labels. So now both my expensive bottles and expensive labels had sharpie on them. Disaster. I stuck with these labels for awhile. Until the day that daycare lost Ella’s adorable and expensive pants (ie not purchased on sale) from Baby Gap. Here’s the picture of her on the day she wore them to daycare.

That was the last we saw of these pants *tear*. Alas, I swore that I would no longer be a label-less mom.

Enter- Name Bubbles. I started using Name Bubbles approx 2.5 yrs ago. I started with the Childcare Pack for Ella (this is pre-Rowan days). After Rowan was born, he got his own Childcare Pack as well. And then- after the food allergy diagnosis, Rowan received his own set of Allergy Alert labels through Name Bubbles.

The Childcare pack comes with a wide variety of name labels, all shapes and sizes. My favorites are the Bitty Bubbles, which are small circular labels that you affix to the labels of children’s clothing. I’m telling you this…these labels never come off. You can wash the clothes a hundred times and the labels will stay on. (Disclaimer- they do not withstand a toddler chewing on them.) The Bubble Toes are great as well, they are labels shaped like shoes that fit inside of your kids, well, shoes. I also label the kids’ water bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers and I count the number of times a label has come off of the cups due to wear and dish washing on one hand. And I do occasionally do the dishes.

I love, love the Allergy Alert Labels. Rowan’s labels include his name, ALLERGY ALERT (yes, in giant print), his allergies (eggs & milk products), his symptoms, my cell phone #, and “call 911 if severe” (just in case preschool forgets). See below picture for examples of the Allergy/Medical alert labels that you can customize.

I’ve never lost another article of children’s clothing (or anything else…) at preschool since using Name Bubbles. I also feel some peace of mind knowing that my FA son’s preschool items are plastered with warnings of his food allergies.

THANK YOU NAME BUBBLES for just being so awesome. I *heart* you!

P.S. I did not receive any compensation or free product in exchange for this review. I wrote this post because I truly love this product and it has made my life as a FA mom easier. Now go buy some.

Filed Under: Product Reviews (ie Stuff I love) Tagged With: ,

Non-Dairy Meal Plan (9/12)

September 12, 2011 By 5 Comments

It’s a two-for-one Monday (yeah, that was not as catchy sounding as I’d hoped) posting day. Mostly because I wanted to post my restaurant review of my adventures in Vegan Vietnamese cuisine, and also still needed to post my non-dairy and egg menu plan for the week.

Monday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Amy’s No Dairy Burritos. Seriously, what would I do without these?! I shudder to think..

Dinner: Chicken Tacos. I’m going to make some kind of taco concoction, involving pre-made Rotisserie Chicken (Target’s chicken is non-dairy/egg while no one else’s is. Have I mentioned how much I love Target?), corn tortillas, corn, lettuce, tomato, black olives, avocado, lime and salsa.

Tuesday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Tyson chicken nuggets. It’s fish stick day at school, and while there are no egg-free frozen fish sticks that I know of, I send chicken nuggets, because they kind-of, sort-of, look the same.

Dinner: Spaghetti with mushrooms.

Wednesday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Leftover spaghetti. (It’s spaghetti day at preschool.)

Dinner: Haystacks! Need to come up with some new recipes for my Vege-Burger. I just ordered 6 new cans. I love this stuff.

Thursday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Leftover Haystacks.

Dinner: I have leftover spaghetti on the meal plan, but this may change. I know Rowan will not want to eat spaghetti for the third time. And Ella is so picky she hardly ever eats leftovers. Welcome to the world of Preschoolers.

Friday:

Rowan’s Lunch: Soy nut butter and jelly sandwich. Pretzel sticks. Cookies (Either Back to Nature or homemade chocolate chip. Those are dangerous though..)

Dinner: Subway.

As always, more menu planning ideas can be found at Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

PS: I wanted to update you on a couple things from last weeks menu.

1.  The Stuffed Peppers were atrocious. I’m so sad to have to say that. I was so excited about these peppers. But this was bad. I did substitute turkey for the beef and brown rice for white rice…but otherwise followed the recipe. The texture was mushy and gross and the flavor bland. They went..

<– from this (so pretty)..

 

 …to this (pretty scary)–>

 I promise to find a delicious stuffed pepper recipe and post it in memory of my crockpot stuffed peppers.

2.  My Pita Pizzas last Friday were delicious! And sooo easy. I used homemade pitas that I picked up from the grocery store (HEB). I used store bought pizza sauce (Ragu) and topped them with mushrooms, black olives (of course), and Canadian Bacon. Ok, you caught me…I did add cheese to a couple of the pizzas. Shumit and I ate those.. :)

 

Filed Under: Life as I Know It

Quan Yin Vegetarian Restaurant

September 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So, Saturday Shumit and I were discussing where we wanted to eat. He made a case for what he proclaimed to be the best dim sum restaurant in all of Houston, located in Chinatown. I overruled since I envisioned a foreign menu (I’ve never had dim sum, I can barely even spell it), a wait staff we may have problems communicating with when interrogating  them on whether  their noodles contain eggs, leading to a generally stressful dinner overall. I did a quick  yelp search and found a vegan Vietnamese restaurant right across the street from Shumit’s dim sum place. Case- won.

The place: Quan Yin Vegetarian Restaurant. Chinatown, Houston.

The food: Vietnamese Vegan food.  Yes, it exists. We ordered the Vegan Egg Rolls and Fried Dumplings to start. For our entrees, we had Special Fried Rice and Pan Fried Noodles. We tried to order food that wouldn’t scare the kids when it came out, so we went with pretty safe food choices. The eggrolls and dumplings were delicious. The kids loved dunking them in the sweet and sour sauce. The fried rice had little fake hot dogs in it and fried tofu. Very good. Fried noodles came with a big assortment of vegetables. I thought the noodles were a bit greasy, but I guess that’s to be expected when you order “fried noodles”. The best part was their Thai Sour Soup. It was incredibly delicious. Spicy, but delicious. We had so much food leftover that we took it home and finished it for lunch on Sunday. I think it tasted even better as leftovers.

Allergy Friendliness: This place is good for egg and milk allergies. Definitely. I’m not as certain about how their menu would fare for nut allergies, but I didn’t see anything on their menu that referenced nuts. Soy allergies- BEWARE. Most of their “meats” are made from products containing soy. Same warning goes for Gluten allergies.

The verdict: The best part about this place was that Rowan could eat ANYTHING on the menu. Hallelujah! Even though Rowan was crabby throughout dinner, I’ve never been so relaxed during a meal out since Rowan’s diagnosis. It was heavenly. We will likely return. I have my eye on the Sweet and Sour “Pork”.

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