Day 5 of Allergy Free Meals

I made it a whole week cooking meals free of soy, dairy, eggs, peanuts, and legumes!  Overall, I think it was a positive experience.  Zach enjoyed some of the meals but due to his age, he's not super into variety.  He tried everything I cooked which was a plus.  I will just have to make sure to continue offering him different types of foods so when he starts to diversify his tastes, he'll be ready to partake more fully of what I prepare.

Breakfast today was a bit of a failure.  I attempted to make vegan strawberry yogurt.  The recipe I used was pretty basic.  Only three ingredients.  The process started out well enough...

Soy Free Vegan Strawberry Yogurt

When the "yogurt" finished setting, I threw it in the blender with some strawberries.  Once I turned my blender on, I knew this was not going to work out.  I definitely needed a food processor.  Unfortunately,  my food processor stopped functioning a few months ago.  It was very disappointing to be so close to finishing but not having what I needed to get the job done.  Note to self: buy a food processor. 

Lunch was haystacks (a taco salad of sorts).  Ingredients I used were corn tortillas chips, kidney beans, brown rice, spinach, tomatoes, green onions, and vegan sour cream.  A food processor would have also been helpful for the sour cream recipe.  I was desperate to not throw this recipe out as well so I pulled out my coffee grinder and gave it a whirl.  It worked well enough but definitely would have worked better with a food processor.  On the plus side, it tasted great! 

Haystacks with Vegan Sour Cream

Vegan Soy Free Sour Cream

1 cup raw cashews (must not be roasted or salted)--I didn't have a whole cup of cashews so I used almonds and cashews to complete the measurement.

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 -2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 small lemon, juice of

Cover cashews with water and soak for a few hours, or overnight.

Pour off all water, and place nuts in food processor.

Add 1/4 cup cold water, salt, vinegar and lemon juice.

Puree for 3-4 minutes or until completely smooth and creamy in consistency.

Use in any recipe that calls for sour cream.

Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to a week.

For Dinner today, Mike wants to treat me to a meal.  I'm not sure where we will go but I'm excited not to cook!  

Food Budgeting 

To conclude my week of allergy free cooking, I wanted to share with you what I spent on groceries for the week.  Before I bought groceries on Sunday, my fridge was pretty bare.  I did have some staples on hand but not a whole lot.  

I don't know about you but budgeting for groceries is somewhat stressful for me.  My husband has an opinion on how much I should spend which is always lower of what I think is reasonable.  This week I wanted to do some research and find out what other people spend on groceries for the month.  I found a broad range from $250/ month to $1064 to feed a family of four.  Mike and I tend to be middle of the road people so I figured $500 was a reasonable goal for us.  My sweet husband of course thought this was a bit high.  He wasn't convinced with my research.  

A little irritated I dug deeper to find some answers.  I came across a website put out by the USDA on what it costs to feed a family at home. They even divide it into four plans (thrifty plan, low budget plan, moderate plan, and liberal plan).  After looking at the numbers, Mike and I had an interesting conversation and decided to revisit our food budget plan for the month.   We agreed that we would  shoot to stay under $600.  Although this seems a bit high, I think it's reasonable for us since we buy mostly organic, higher quality foods.  

My food bill for the week was $190.55.  I knew it was going to be a bit high because I had to buy some staples I normally don't purchase every week.  I anticipate the rest of the month will even out.  I'm curious what some of you spend on groceries.  What is your monthly/weekly food budget?  How do you save money on food?  

Day 4 of Allergy Free Cooking

I have a problem with making too much food for our little family.  I always have a lot of left overs and end up throwing food away.  Estimating how much our family of four will actually eat at a given meal is something I am slowly starting to figure out.  It's funny because when I have larger groups of people over, I end up underestimating how much food we will eat.  Anyway, I tell you all of this because this morning as I was thinking of what to make for breakfast I realized how many leftovers I had in the fridge.  Instead of making something new to add to my already mounting amounts of food, I decided to use up some leftovers.

For breakfast we enjoyed some breakfast burritos with some of the potato & zucchini filling from earlier in the week.  Add to that a bowl of fresh fruit and breakfast was complete.

Lunch was a vegan vegetable pizza with homemade coconut cheese. It was delightful!  The pizza dough I made does not contain yeast or oil.  It's actually one of my favorites to use.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place pizza dough with sauce and veggies into oven for 12 minutes. Add cheese and bake for another 3-5 minutes.   For the pizza toppings I used spinach, yellow squash, green peppers, and crumbled coconut cheese.

Vegan Vegetable Pizza with Coconut Cheese

Dinner was Jamba Juice.  I was still full from lunch so I decided on a lighter dinner.  Zach ate some pasta and veggies before we headed out.  At Jamba Juice, Zach and I shared the Orange Carrot Karma.  It's made from fresh carrot juice which gives it an earthy taste.  Zach didn't seem to mind. He loved it!

Stay tuned for my last post of allergy free cooking at the end of the day!  I'll tell you about a new recipe I tried this morning and will share my total food bill for the week.

Blessings!

Day 3 of Allergy Free Cooking

Today ended up being a fairly simple day in regards to cooking.  I think I spent a total of 30 minutes in the kitchen all day.  Even with this small amount of time, I made a super yummy recipe that will probably become a family favorite!  I love when recipes turn out.

I woke up really tired this morning.  My brain wasn't ready to try something really complicated in the food department.  I decided on oatmeal for Breakfast.   I threw in some apples and agave nectar to spice it up a bit.

Oatmeal with Apple Chunks 

After Zach went down for his morning nap, I started on a new recipe for lunch: vegan quesadillas with coconut cheddar cheese.  I have to say I was very excited to try it out.  I first came across this recipe on the blog, Sweet Roots.  This is an amazing food blog that makes you hungry every time you visit it.  Mary is an incredible photographer and talented cook.  I'm privileged to know her and excited to hopefully cook with her one of these days. 

I was surprised at how easy this cheese was to make. Cook time was under 15 minutes.  The cheese needs to set for 2 hours but since I made it right after breakfast, it was ready to go by lunch time.  This cheese was absolutely delicious! It actually melts which is wonderful.   Zach enjoyed it to and didn't have an allergic reaction to the coconut milk.  Big relief!

Vegan Quesadillas with Coconut Cheddar

For Dinner I took the boys to the soup kitchen our church puts on every Wednesday night.  They were celebrating a birthday and we wanted to celebrate the birthday girl!   The menu was mac-n-cheese, bread, green beans, salad, and fruit.  I fed Zach before we left in case there was nothing there for him to eat.  He ended up eating some veggies at the soup kitchen and diving in to grab some cake.  Luckily I caught him before he grabbed a handful of frosting. 

Be sure to check out the Sweet Roots blog for some amazing recipes.  I know I'll be trying more of Mary's wonderful creations soon!

Day 2 of Allergy Free Cooking Creations

Cooking without soy, dairy, eggs, nuts, or legumes is somewhat daunting.  This week I fully committed to making all the meals we eat at home free of these allergenic foods. If you have read my previous posts, my son Zach has multiple food allergies.  My motivation is to make sure he has a variety of healthy food options every day.  He is only 1 year old so he isn't very interested in trying a lot of new foods.  All the meals I share with you this week are offered to him, but if he's not into that particular food, I revert to some of the foods I know he loves.  At this point in his life, I want to expose him to healthy options every day and build my cooking skills so that when he's older, I will feel more competent in cooking free of the foods he's allergic to.  

I am two days into the week and I feel pretty good about the meals I  have cooked.  They are simple but tasty.  I'm amazed at how many options I actually have when I focus on all the foods Zach can eat instead of the ones he's allergic to.  It's possible I may end up enjoying cooking for him after all.  

For breakfast today, I decided to make avocado and tomato toast.  We also enjoyed some fresh pineapple and bananas.  Zach didn't care for the pineapple to much but gobbled up a banana and some toast. 

Avocado & Tomato Toast

This recipe is pretty straight forward.  Simply mash up some avocado, slice some tomato, season with salt and a little pepper.  I used Ezequiel 7 Grain Sprouted Wheat Bread.  Most of the bread you buy at the grocery store contains either milk or soy.  This is the only one I have found, besides brown rice bread, that is free of allergens. 

At around 10:30am, I started to get a little hungry so I decided to make a midmorning snack.  Zach loves smoothies!  A great way to get a rich nutrient boost is through juicing.  Since toddler's tummies are sensitive, I didn't want to give him straight fresh juice, so I juiced apples, spinach, carrots, and an orange and used it as the base for a smoothie. I then added strawberries and a banana (to add fiber) to make a smoothie.  He happily drank a whole cup and his system tolerated it just fine.  

Fruit & Veggie Smoothie

I absolutely love sandwiches.  If I could choose two foods to live on for the rest of my life they would be sandwiches and salads.  They are my fav foods for sure.  For lunch, I didn't feel like cooking so I whipped up a turkey (no, I'm not completely vegetarian) sandwich with spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce.  For the spread I used Earth's Balance Soy Free Spread.  I chose not to give it to Zach because it's made with pea protein.  Zach's lunch was left over potato & zucchini mix from yesterday.  He loved it! I also threw in a little brown rice to the mix for him.  He ate it like a champ.  

Turkey & Spinach Sandwich

 Dinner was stir-fry with brown rice.  This one was a bit tricky because I didn't know what to season it with.  Soy sauce is obviously out and Bragg's Amino Acids are soy based as well.  So I ended up using canola oil and salt.  It tasted like vegetables and rice which isn't bad, but it definitely did not have the taste of stir-fry.  Zach gobbled it up which was a plus! Anyone know of  any good stir fry seasoning that isn't made with soy?


Stir-Fry with Brown Rice

Overall the day felt easy in regards to food preparation.  Having a plan definitely helps and blogging about it helps keep me accountable.  I'm excited about tomorrow and trying out a new recipe!


Be blessed!

Day One of Allergy Free Cooking

My first day of allergy free cooking was a success!  Zach is fighting a bit of a cold so he wasn't super hungry today, but he still partook of all of my creations.  I started the day trying out a new recipe for vegan pancakes.  I ended up adapting some of the ingredients but it still turned out super yummy.  Zach took a few bites.  The texture of the pancake was new for him so he spit out the first bite.  After he experimented for a little bit, he ate more. This is a meal I will have to continue offering.  I think he will really take to it after a few more exposures.  

Vegan Pancakes {My Adapted Version}

1 cup flour (whichever kind you prefer)
1 tablespoon sugar (I used stevia)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup rice milk
2 tablespoons canola oil

You can use any fruit as topping. I used blueberries and bananas.  I also drizzled a bit of brown rice syrup on top.

For prep instructions click here. 

Lunch was my favorite meal today. It was light and super tasty.  Zach loved it as well!  I made my very own creation (I don't love using recipes so cooking using my own creativity feels very liberating to me.)  I'll try and give you a general recipe if you want to create your own version.

Potato & Zucchini Burritos

4 medium potatoes

1/2 white onion

1 medium sized tomato

2 medium sized zucchini

1 medium sized yellow squash

Salt (not sure the quantity but salt it to whatever taste good to you :)

1 Tbsp Olive oil 

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 cup of water

Dice up potatoes, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. Sauté onions, tomatoes in olive oil until tender. Add in zucchini and yellow squash.  Sauté for a minute or so and then add in potatoes.  Add salt and paprika. Mix well.  Reduce heat to medium and add water.  Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are soft.  I usually will tilt the lid and let the water evaporate when the potatoes are almost done.    You know you've timed it right when the water is gone and the potatoes are cooked.  Use mixture as filling for burritos. 

For the tortilla shells I used the uncooked tortillas from Cosco.  I was going to make my own but I ran out of time by the time lunch rolled around. 

Lunch also included a strawberry & banana smoothie with a tablespoon of Udo Oil. 

Dinner was left overs.  I made some pasta Sunday night and wanted to use it up.  I steamed some broccoli and dinner was ready.

All in all, meal planning felt easy today.  I loved my food option board!  Not eating soy, milk, nuts, or eggs helped reduce unnecessary snaking on my part which is a good thing.  I'm excited about tomorrow and sharing my creations with you.

Be blessed!