Mr. Krispers

I was cruising the grocery isle's and in the snack section of HEB I saw a bag that said Baked Rice Krisps. Since I had just been whining that I had wanted to serve some cracker like snacks for Thanksgiving this was great!

If you are like me and do not seem affected by cross contamination, these little crispy snacks are absolutely wonderful. Since my oldest son and I are avoiding wheat these were a great alternative for us.

Mr. Krispers are yummy and taste like thin crackers! They are perfect served with cheese, or cheese alternative. :)

Our fast food

A quick simple easy-fast food-meal in our house is a big pot of chili. In my part of Texas chili is generally made with pinto beans, ground beef and tomatoes. I am not one to mess with a good thing. :)

Sams club-Pinto beans, and Crushed tomatoes. These are the huge cans and are 111 ounces! (use the crushed tomatoes-for some reason they are brighter in color that the whole tomatoes and make the chili look more homemade)

Ground Turkey-Sam's club-2 packages

5 stalks of celery-I chop mine VERY small in the food chopper

2 onions-again chopped VERY small in food chopper

3 tbs of Cumin

1 cup of chili powder

1/4 cup of garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Cook Turkey with salt and pepper, add chopped onions and celery last 5 minutes to soften.

Open cans of beans and crushed tomatoes, put into pot along with cooked turkey and veggies

I let mine simmer 1/2 hour

Add all seasonings and re-season last 10 minutes to taste

This makes a HUGE pot of chili. I freeze half and also use the next day for baked potatoes.

Super easy, super good!

The taste of fall

When I think of fall I think of comfort foods, hot foods, foods cooking for hours in the oven while the delicious smells permeate the house...

While watching the Food Network I caught the show Tyler's Ultimate...man was I happy! I decided to do the featured recipe-only alter it to make it allergy free for me.

Braised Cabbage

Followed the recipe as suggested-left out chives because kiddos do not appreciate.

Pork with baked apples and cider gravy

Used a cheaper cut of meat and bought bone in pork chops. Baked for 18 min and broiled for 1 min.

Instead of hard cider I used organic apple cider and spiced it up beforehand by adding 1 juice of an orange, cloves, and a pinch of cinnamon-strain before using.

For the stuffed apples I added 1/2 lb pork sausage to a package of Bob's Red Mill-gluten free corn bread mix. This is a great mix!!

For the gravy I used Bob's Red Mill-all purpose flour

Busy Cook Tip: Do like me and cook the corn bread and sausage the day before to save time!

The whole family loved this and made me promise to make again.

A vent and some comfort food

I have never been really upset about my own allergies. I try to be grateful and appreciate that I can still still eat a lot of variety. I have kept my love for cooking and being in the kitchen.

This past Saturday though, my 11 year old son began having an allergic reaction. This is my child who is never sick and he ended up in the ER twice. Once to get the steroid shot and a second time after his face swelled so I could insist on an epi pen for him. I have no idea what his allergies could be since he had Halloween candy and we went out to eat.

He is seeing an allergist and will be tested when the antihistamines wear off. I am very upset on his behalf and feel so bad that I possibly passed this down to him. I hate that he now has to worry about his health every time he eats. I hate that he has to be different in this way and I find this all extremely unfair. I know we will get through this though and I am very glad I knew what was happening and responded so quickly. Thank goodness I had my good friend "D" to call. She has a child with allergies and is the founder of SAFER Houston an allergy support group. She kept me sane and answered questions as best as she could. Thank goodness for her!

Tonight I really needed some comfort food. I made Chicken pot pie, salad and apple spice bars. Pot Pie is a recipe I adapted-I found using the search engine and came up with one on the Bob's Red Mill site.

I used milk and cream in mine so you could adapt this recipe for your allergies to suit your needs.

Comfort Chicken Pot Pie

For the filling:

1 lb skinless cooked Chicken, cubed
1 cup chopped Carrots
1 small chopped Onion
2 chopped Celery Stalks
2 Tbsp. of garlic powder
2ups low sodium Gluten Free Chicken Broth
2 Tbsp. Tapioca Flour
3 Tbsp. Water
1 tsp. of dried rosemary

Heavy whipping cream

For the crust:

1-3/4 cups Beth's all purpose flour

2 tsp. of Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. dried Rosemary
4 Tbsp. of utter or margarine (room temp)
1/2 cup Milk

2 tsp. of honey

1 large egg, beaten

Filling:

1. Boil cubed chicken, chicken broth, carrots celery, onions, and garlic powder. Put salt and pepper to taste. Cook until chicken is cooked and veggies are tender. I used my chopper on the veggies and this cooked super fast.

2. Mix tapioca flour with 3 tablespoons water until paste forms, then stir into skillet slowly. Simmer until thickened. Add in whipping cream stirring until blended. Pour filling into baking dish-I used a large pie pan

Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Combine dry ingredients (flour to rosemary) in a large bowl. Add butter, milk,and egg, and mix together thoroughly.2. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepared filling. 3. Bake 25-35 minutes or filling is bubbling and topping is nicely browned. Serve immediately. Makes 12 Servings.

Apple Spice bars

I love finding new products! My local Kroger store starting carrying 1-2-3 Gluten Free products. They seem extremely allergy friendly and have a dedicated facility.

I bought the Sweet Goodness Pan Bars there is a recipe on the back of the box for apple spice bars. I added cinnamon for extra spices and chopped raisins just because it sounded good. They are so good but not really bar like. Cut it into squares and call it cake if you like :)

Do like I did and serve on paper plates for once-spend the extra time with your family.

Football and Preggo-allergy friendly dinner

It is probably time to say-we have a little one on the way! We are very happy but these past four months have been plain torture for this pregnant chick. I of course have been craving EVERYTHING I can't have. Not only that, but I have been having food aversions to to all meat- except for chicken wings. :)

Today is Sunday so it's football day for the hubby. My husbands favorite team-the Texans play today so I usually make an early dinner filled with little snacks and finger foods. This is my version of the football and preggo-allergy friendly dinner.

Menu:

sage and garlic grilled tomatoes-delicious and great in your salad the next day!

What you will need=

6 tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
cracked black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage, plus 12 whole fresh sage leaves

Instructions=

Brush the tomato halves all over with olive oil. Season them to taste with salt and pepper, then sprinkle the garlic and chopped sage over them. Press a whole sage leaf in the center of the cut side of each tomato half.

Cook the tomatoes, on an indoor grill-I use my George Foreman indoor grill but you can cook them on any grill. You could broil these in the oven as well but I like the grill marks for presentation.

Serve on a platter and drizzle with any left over olive oil.

Note: I have used dried sage as well, but you would use a lot less sage if it is dried.

Mr. Spice Hot Wings

What you will need=

Enough chicken wing pieces to feed your family

A bottle of Mr. Spice Hot Wing Gluten-Free Sauce-this stuff is good!!

Sea salt

Cracked pepper

Instructions=

Salt and pepper wings

I use my indoor grill and cook chicken pieces for 6 minutes on each side on high heat, I then dip or brush chicken wings generously with Mr. Spice Hot Wing Sauce. Cook wings for another 4 minutes on each side.

Serve with or without dressing of your choice!

Note: For a crispier texture use your outdoor grill or deep fry then dip in sauce. Cooking times vary according to thickness of wings and cooking method you use.

Ultimate Oven Fries

What you will need=

6 large baking potatoes(feeds my family of seven) cut into this wedges, small wedges will burn so be careful.

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of Chile powder

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of sea salt

1 teaspoon of cracked black pepper

Instructions=

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F for 10 minutes

In a large mixing bowls combine and whisk the olive oil with all the spices. Using your hands coat the potatoes in the mixture tossing several times.

Carefully transfer coated fried to preheated pans

Increase temperature to 450 degrees F and cook for 15 minutes. Carefully flip fries with a spatula and cook another 5 minutes.

Note: If you do not have dairy allergies these fries are great sprinkled the last 5 minutes with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy and GO TEXANS!!!

A hello and some favorite rice dishes

It's been so long!

Hurricane Ike destroyed our cable lines. A month an a half later and we just got our Internet two days ago.

It was rough after the storm but we are fortunate in that our home is fine and we are all safe. To donate to the hurricane relief fund click here.

To get back into the blogger mindset I am doing a blog today on rice dishes.

Rice is a side dish and main dish in our household. We eat it at least three times a week. I have three recipes that are my favorite that I thought I would share.

Parmesan Rice: Stir in 1 cup of chopped parsley, 1/4 cup each of sliced green onions and grated Parmesan cheese into 4 cups (this is for my family of seven) of hot rice. Salt and pepper to taste.

Spicy Rice: Saute half a small white onion, two cloves of garlic and two seeded jalapeno peppers To 4 cups of hot rice add 1 cup of chicken broth, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin, and 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro. Salt to taste-use fresh ground pepper to really make this rice stand out.

Cucumber mint Rice: Make a dressing using 3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add 1/2 olive oil in a stream, whisk until everything in combined. Add dressing to 4 cups of cold rice. Toss in 3 seeded, chopped cucumbers with 3/4 cup of fresh minced mint leaves.

Enjoy!

Product Review: Allergaroo

I love to try things that are new to my grocery store, and picked up a couple of packets of Allergaroo. The package is what caught my attention. It is cute huh? The alligator with the chef hat and cute red shoes, plus the bright purple package is something kids would love to see.

Even better it is all natural and free of the eight most common allergens. So today for lunch I opened them. They open easy and microwave fast at just 60 seconds. The portion is a perfect lunch size.

I personally did not like them. Some of the noodles are extra al-dente and the others mushy. I also expected little bits of chicken but did not taste any. The tomato sauce is a little too tangy for my taste.

On the other hand my one and two, two year olds and six year old liked it a lot.
My ten year old was like me and did not appreciate them.

So for me I am giving them a 1 Star but my little ones give it a 5 for packaging and taste!

So kids like them and they are a better alternative to those other microwave meals-food allergies or not. I am thinking they could also be for very young toddlers who are just starting out on table foods. :)

Walking for a cure

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network
Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure™

Dear Family and Friends,

I will be participating in the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network’s (FAAN’s) Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure. The event will be held on September 06, 2008, in Houston, TX . The FAAN Walk for Food Allergy is designed to raise funds to find a cure for food allergy and to educate others about its impact.

Please support my fundraising efforts with a donation. Your tax-deductible donation will make a difference in the lives of many! It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make your online donation by clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. If you prefer, you can send your tax-deductible contribution to me (make check payable to FAAN), and I will send it in.

Any amount, large or small, helps FAAN continue Moving Toward A Cure! I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

Sincerely,
Traci


To make a donation online, visit my personal fundraising Web page.
To send a donation make all checks payable to FAAN mail to: FAAN Walk for Food Allergy11781 Lee Jackson Hwy, Suite 160Fairfax, VA 22033-3309
If mailing in a donation please include a note indicating the walker and location to which the money should be credited.

Hell yeah, chocolate brownies!

I had to give these brownies a big, Texas, Hell Yeah! Last night I tried Pamela's Products chocolate brownies mix. Oh. My. Gosh. These are to die for. They are super easy to make from this mix. I really enjoyed that it looked like brownie mix, the dough looked like brownie mix and it baked...yep, just like a brownie mix.

It was my first time to use Pamela's Products and after the taste of these brownies it will not be the last. My kids commented that they liked these brownies better than "the old one's."(they mean the ones with flour) I am very pleased that after you bake these they re-heat beautifully and most important they taste good cold. A lot of gluten free products HAVE to be warmed up or softened in the microwave and that is not the case with these brownies. And on the web site they have an awesome suggestion to use the mix to make chocolate waffles. I am trying that this weekend!

I do think they should snazz up the name a bit and hope they consider the name in my title. lol

I give these a 4 out of five *'s

A new start and a better attitude

Note: I apologize for the funky pictures. Something is up with my camera and it needs to be replaced.

Today I decided to put up lunch and dinner. I have been skipping lunch because I was not interested. I am being a copy-cat cook this week and found some great recipe's on other blogs I wanted to try.

The mom at YummyAllergenFree has a great recipe for Asian lettuce wraps. I had to go school shopping today so I cooked this early this morning to eat for lunch at a park. I do not feed the toddlers lettuce so they had the turkey with rice. I loved the taste of this! The meat was so flavorful that I did not miss having a tortilla for the wrap. Everyone loved the meal so I am very pleased it turned out so well. The only thing I changed was to use mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar.

Dinner is beef stew. I cooked this in my crock pot using my own recipe. I have a family of seven so you could adjust the amount for your own family.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs of grass fed beef cut in stew chunks-I just use mine frozen and do not have to thaw this-easy peasy.

6 small red potatoes cut in chunks

10 carrots cut in chunks

6 tomatoes from my mothers garden

1 large onion

1 small can of tomato sauce.

2 cups of frozen green beans

sea salt to taste

pepper to taste

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon garlic powder

Potato flour-added last as a thickener

I chop all the veggies and put them in the bottom of the crock pot along with the spices. I add the meat on top and put the crock pot on for 6 hours. I add the green beans the last hour and a half of cooking.

Even frozen the beef always turns out tender. To thicken the stew I used one cup of cold water and mixed in 1/2 cup of potato flour. I mixed this in 30 minutes before serving. Everyone loved dinner and asked for seconds. :)

When the passion fizzles

With any great love affair there can come a time when things can fizzle out. Well, I have lost my passion for food.

I have always been a foodie. I have great memory recall and remember specific times as a young child trying new foods for the first time. I had a Grandma that made everything homemade and from scratch. I clearly recall the taste of her egg noodles with chicken soup and hot waffles with sausage and eggs.

I remember the first time I tried oatmeal from a package. I was three years old and we were at a friend of my mother's house. I think we were staying there and one morning we had apple cinnamon oat meal.

At five I tasted fried veggie sticks in the school cafeteria and I have many, many more memories of my first tastes of food.

Not too long ago when I was having trouble conceiving my third child, I discovered my passion for cooking. To relieve stress I would make two or three loaves of bread everyday. I was a dedicated fan of the food shows and owned over fifty cook books. I would research exotic dishes at the library and put my own spin on them when I could not find the ingredients I needed at local markets.

I used to have a pretty sophisticated palate for someone who was not well traveled and cooked things I wanted to try on my own. Now I eat chips and salsa for lunch. For three days in a row I had the hubby go to the local Mexican Taqueria to buy me chicken tacos with corn tortillas for dinner. Granted, these are some great tacos, and one of the only ready made foods I can eat at a restaurant-but I miss cooking!

I think I am having a food mid-life crisis. I created this blog in the hopes that it would force me to get excited again. My kids love my cooking and have actually been complaining that I have not cooked all week. They are sick of Chick fil A and say their poor little tummies are hurting from all the junk food.

I miss my love affair with food. I miss that enthusiasm I had. And, I want. it. back.

I vow to research this weekend and at least try two new dishes using foods safe for me. I want at least one Wow! And one Ohhh, from the family. I want the feeling of peace I had that I was helping to provide good and nutritional meals for my family. I know I am very fortunate to have the luxury of being able to cook for my family, I am fortunate in so many, many ways in spite of these allergies. There are people that are much more restricted than I am.

I vow to get back that loving feeling!!!

No such thing as quick

So I tried to buy store bought potato salad. Big mistake. I need to get it through my stubborn head that there is no such thing as quick and easy anymore. :(

I wanted to have an easy meal to prepare for July 4th. My hubby made grilled chicken, grilled corn and I bought potato salad. My stomach was so upset and just plain yucky for 2 days afterward.

I did not think it would be a big deal since I do not have dairy or potato allergies but evidently there was something in there that did not agree with me.

It is very frustrating to think that I can't even have one convenience store bought food, just one time.

Okay bitching session officially over.

Blondies have more fun!

I wonder if I will get any hits to my blog just because of the title of this post?

Anyway, I have been excited about trying to make a gluten free desert from a mix. My kids love cookies and cookie bars and I could make them with flour since the kids do not have allergies-but it is just easier to cook everyone the same thing isn't it?

I used a mix called Blondies from Namaste Foods-It says the mix is free of Gluten, wheat, soy, nuts, potato, corn, dairy and casein.

I followed the package directions and mixed with eggs, oil and water. (if you make these using egg replacer please post how they came out or I am happy to link to your blog or website or even post your review.)

They dough looked a little strange to me. It looked a little runny and not-well doughy like I expected. I let them sit about ten minutes and the consistency seemed to improve. These were super easy to make and I just put them in the pan and baked them.

They came out of the pan pretty easy and held together in the bars I cut them in. I can't recall having blondies before so this was my first taste of these. If they are missing something I would not know it. Here is the finished product.

My review: I give it a four out of five *. First because they were easy and second because they were darn good. The corner pieces were crispy on the edges like you expect and chewy on the inside. I bet they are so good as a base for ice cream or even making ice cream or rice cream sandwiches. Best of all everyone asked for seconds so it passed the kids and hubby's taste test as well. I am excited to see if my local grocer has other Namaste products to try! I am off to hide the blondies so we do not eat them all.

Fried Chicken...please work!

Let me start by saying...fried chicken is really important to me. I know, I know, but I am southern-is that an excuse? I love to cook and I love to cook fried chicken.

When I could have wheat it was a big process. I would let my chicken sit overnight in a the flour mixture to get the crust just right. I took it very seriously.

So I was a little leery of cooking this chicken as I did not want to be disappointed. I used the Kinnikinnick Gluten Free Crispy Chicken Coating Mix. Note: Produced in a facility which uses Sesame Seeds, Soy, Eggs, and Tree Nuts.

I rinsed the chicken and put it directly into the coating mix. The coating seemed to cling nicely to the chicken as you can see below.

As I started to fry the chicken in canola oil I was a little sceptical as there seemed to be a lot of separation of the coating from the chicken. This might have been because there seems to be a lot of paprika in the mix but not sure. The oil was pretty gritty right off.

After 6 minutes the chicken got pretty dark, so I decided to take it out and finish baking it in the oven. I did not want burnt looking chicken! I did not mind the extra step as long as it tasted good. The above picture was the chicken after cooking for six minutes.

And the picture above is the finished product after baking in the oven. I was a little disappointed but I am thinking maybe if I used some type of egg wash first it might turn out better. The chicken was not crispy and the mix did not add any special flavor. It needed a little sea salt as well.

So my review for the mix is a 2 out of 5 * but I will give it another shot.

Note: I got lazy after having to do the two step cooking for the chicken and did not make my green beans. lol

Birthday Pizza and Ice Cream

Today is my birthday so I am indulging in Pizza and homemade ice cream. I decided to blog about my lunch since it seems more interesting than dinner. :) My hubby knows me SO well. Most people would probably not be happy getting an ice cream maker for their birthday, but I am just thrilled! I have so missed ice cream and I can't wait to try it out.

I am trying the first of the Gluten Free products I bought. I made pizza using the frozen Nature's Highlights brown rice pizza crust. I would love to give them some credit for their product but I can not find any info except pdf catolog files for gluten free products.

In the picture above I thawed the crust as per the package directions. It only took 10 minutes so it was pretty quick. It looked pretty good and "normal" so I was excited to put the pizza together.

My camera is a little wacked out but I promise there is not as much olive oil on the crust like it appears! lol The suggestion is to brush with olive oil and heat crust with just the oil. I let it cook on 450 for about 8 minutes while I sauted my pizza toppings and cut my fresh tomatoe slices.

Just like in the oil pic the amount of pasta sauce looks exaggerated. I SWEAR! I used a very light layer of tomato sauce because I was not sure how well the crust would hold up to moisture.

I do not have any dairy allergies so I shredded some mozzerrella.

This was for the kids and I, so I used a good amount of toppings to make it hardy. I am glad I did as I think light toppings might not have been as good. I used mushrooms, garlic, onions, and leftover beef patties of jalepeno and cheese that my husband had made the night before.

And wala! The finished product.

My review: The crust sounded really crispy as I cut it. I took my first bite about 5 minutes later after serving the kids. The crust was warm and a little crunch but had some chew to it. The crust holds together really well. It really held all the toppings I had added. I might have been able to add more sauce and it still would not have been soggy-I like that. I'm not sure if I would have appreciated the taste of the crust by it's self. I would probably next time add sea salt as well as the olive oil.

I tried a second slice about 15 minutes later. The more this crust cools off the more it gets chewy, but not in a gross way or anything. I do not think any leftovers would have been good though.

It did satisfy my craving for pizza and I have another crust so I know I will make it again. :)

I give it a 3 out of 5 *

Feel free to leave a link to your own pizza using products safe for you or your family.

Note: An update. Allergies suck! As I finished writing this I felt itchy and had a yucky tummy. I took some benedryl and now need to find out if it was the crust or one of the toppings. I am suspecting maybe tomatoes-but I had tomato basil soup yesterday with no problems. It was a very mild reaction but a reaciton non-the-less.

My allergy free spree

Welcome to my new blog! I hope this blog can help me to remember recipes I try, products I try and to occasionally rant about my feelings on living with food allergies.

My local Kroger store is awesome!!! I had not been to my local store in over a year since I started having food reactions. Well I stopped by there today for a few things and discovered the bounty of Gluten Free and allergy free products. I will try one of these products a day and do a review of them here on my blog. Please stop by and visit your local Kroger store to see if they carry the products you need. I was told by the cashier that you can request items by stopping by the courtesy desk and asking for a form.

Pic of what I bought!

1) Health Valley Rice Crunch-Ems cereal

2) 20oz EnerG Rice Flour

3) 20oz EnerG Tapioca Flour

4) 16oz EnerG White Rice Macaroni Pasta

5) 4oz EnerG Wylde Pretzels

6) 12oz Perky's Nutty Rice cereal

7) 16 oz Notta Pasta Linguine

8) 8 oz De Boles corn spaghetti pasta

9) 18 oz KinniKinnick Crispy Chicken Coating Mix

10) 2lbs Namaste Foods Blondies

11) Some kind of Crackers! I swear I bought rice crackers and now can't find them. I will list as soon as I do. :)

12) Nature's Highlights Brown Rice frozen pizza crust-I looked and looked for a link to this product but could only find pdf files for odering it. I will credit them as soon as I find something.

13) Vans Mini Waffles

I will update give a review of these products as we try them :)