Banana Flax Pancakes: NO gluten, cow's milk, egg, soy or nuts

I LOVE Pancakes and so does the rest of my family. I make them on the weekends, when we don't have the usual morning rush. Banana makes these tasty and really takes over the role that eggs usually play in traditional pancakes. The flax meal is so good for you.  Flax seed meal has high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids as well as protein, dietary fiber and lignans. Studies show that flax meal may help in the fight cancer, lower cholesterol, and improve digestive health

I came up with this recipe attempting to make more pancakes so I could freeze them to eat during the week. The funny thing is, they all end up gone no matter how many I make. I'm going to just have to make two batches and get the second out of sight and in the freezer before the little hands in my household can get to them.

 

Banana Flax Pancakes: NO gluten, cow's milk, egg, soy or nuts

Makes 16 pancakes (1/4 pour of batter).

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Ingredients:

1 banana (or 1 cup of a fruit or veggie puree.)

1 tbsp. vanilla

2 tbsp. flax meal

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 cups So Delicious Coconut Milk

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

2 1/2 cups Bob's Redmill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour

(optional: Earth Balance for pan or for on pancakes.)

Directions:

Measure and pour ingredients in order listed above, from wet to dry in your blender and blend until smooth. You may need to blend some as you go with a regular blender. I am using a Vitamix here.

 

Once it's blended, you can put the batter in the fridge to chill or just set it on the counter while you heat up your frying pan to medium heat.

Here is what the batter will look like.

I put a little Earth Balance, about a 1/2 tsp. in the bottom of your non-stick pan for the first pancake. Once it bubbles, you know the pan is hot enough to start cooking your pancakes.

Pour 1/4 cup of batter in the non-stick pan per pancake. Wait until you see bubbles form before you flip the pancake with a spatula. If bubbles don't form, your pan isn't hot enough.

This is what your pancakes should look like when you flip them over. Cook on the other side until cooked though. You will get a feel for the timing after your first pancake.

WARNING: The first pancake is usually your tester to see if your pan is hot enough or to hot.

Serve immediately or refrigerate even freeze to eat later. Top with your favorite pancake toppings, syrup, jam, chocolate. I like 100% maple syrup. I've been known to use the pancakes to make a sandwich with Sunbutter and honey to pack in our kids lunch boxes.

Enjoy!

Pomegranate Banana Chocolate Cupcakes and Pomegranate Blueberry Frosting: NO gluten, dairy, egg, soy or nuts

Each year I look forward to our Playgroup Summer Potluck, where we celebrate each year since having our first children. Our Playgroup was introduced at the hospital and nearly nine years later, we are still friends. It's fun to see the kids playing together, remembering when they were tiny babies.

I signed up to bring the cupcakes. I swung open the fridge and was instantly inspired by the cute little bottle of POM Pomegranate Blueberry juice, the ripe bananas waiting patiently in my fruit bowl, and a Bob's Redmill Chocolate Cake Gluten Free recipe. I made my own modifications and a brand new cupcake emerged. 

   

Pomegranate Banana Chocolate Cupcakes with  Pomegranate Blueberry Frosting:

NO gluten, dairy, egg, soy or nuts

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Makes 12 cupcakes (Recipe can be doubled.)

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

1/2 cup Cocoa Powder, unsweetened (I used Chatfields All Natural Cocoa Powder)

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Xanthan Gum

3/4 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 banana, pureed with 1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup Spectrum Canola Oil (emulsified by blending in the Vitamix)

1 cup Organic Evaporated Cane Juice Sugar (You can also use brown sugar or other sweetener in same amount.) I get mine at Costco.

1/2 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk

1 tbsp. vanilla

1/4 cup POM Pomegranate Blueberry juice.

3 tbsp. coffee (to enhance the chocolate flavor) or 3 more tbsp. POM juice.

Optional: Marshmallow Fluff can be used for the inside of the cupcakes if you and your guests can tollerate egg whites.  You can also get rice whip by searching on Amazon.com.

(WARNING: Including Marshmallow Fluff will make your cupcakes contain chicken eggs.)

Directions:

Puree (by hand or in a blender or mixer) 1 medium to large size banana with 1 tsp baking powder and set aside in your refrigerator.

In Kitchenaid or other mixing bowl add oil, sugar and mix on high speed until combined and the oil is emulsified.

Add to the mixer, the banana puree mixture, So Delicious Coconut Milk, vanilla, and POM juice. Add coffee or additional tablespoons of POM if desired.

In a seperate bowl combine your dry ingredients with a whisk.

Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients a bit at a time until well combined.

Fill a cupcake pan with cupcake papers.

Scoop 1/4 of batter into each cupcake paper.

Bake at 350 for approximately 15 - 18 minutes, or until a tootpick inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Cooking time will depend on your oven so watch closely.

Remove cupcakes immediately from baking pan and allow to cool on a cooking rack.

Optional: (Marshmallow Fluff contains egg whites.): Once cupcakes have cooled completely, fill a sandwich bag with Marshmallow Fluff, cut the tip of one of the corners, poke a hole in the center of the cupcake with a gloved finger, and fill each hole with the Marshmallow Fluff. Frost the top of the cupcakes with Pomegranate Blueberry Frosting, recipe follows.

Pomegranate Blueberry Frosting: gluten, dairy, egg, and soy free

4 cups - up to 2 lbs/32 oz bag of Powdered Sugar

2 tbsp - up to 4 tbsp Earth Balance Soy Free

2 ounces - up to 4 ounces POM Pomegranate Blueberry juice.

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp creme of tartar

Directions:

In your mixer bowl first add your Earth Balance Soy Free, vanilla, and powdered sugar and mix until combined.

Add your POM juice until you've obtained your desired consistency.

If the texture is too liquidy, add more powdered sugar.

Decorate Cupcakes with India Tree Natural Decorating Sugar (I found it on-line and at Whole Foods Markets).

I used a spreader to spread the frosting on, so I didn't pipe on too much, and then gently dipped and turned each cupcake in a bowl filled with India Tree Natural Decorating Sugar.

You can see the technique I used for frosting and decorating the cupcakes in a previous post by clicking here. 

Copyright 2011 Kendra Hubbell Best Friend Food Project

S'mores: No Gluten, No Dairy, No Nuts

 

Ah, check out that gooey marshmallow, melting chocolate, and crispy cookie. It can only mean that it's time for S'mores! The traditional campfire treat of roasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker is usually off limits for people dealing with food sensitivities or food allergies. Don't let that get in your way, just get creative. Below is a solution that I came up with. If you find yourself going to a BBQ elsewhere, you can bring along your own chocolate and cookies to go with the marshmallows.

We recently moved out of our home and our family's farewell ceremony consisted of roasting marshmallows in the fire pit that my husband built years ago. The kids really wanted to make S'mores but I wasn't about to make allergy friendly graham crackers in the middle of moving. I found Mary's Gone Crackers Ginger Snaps at the grocery store.

 

I also got our favorite vegan Theo's Chocolate. They are Organic, Fair Trade, and have several bars that are vegan, wheat free and nut free, depending on your needs.



I bought regular old Jet Puff marshmallows at the grocery store. Remember to check the ingredients list when buying your own marshmallows.

S'mores: No Gluten, No Dairy, No Nuts

A favorite summertime treat!

 

Ingredients:

Mary's Gone Crackers Ginger Snaps

Theo's Chocolate Bar, Vegan

Marshmallows

a stick

a camp fire, gas or charcoal grill, or even a microwave

Directions:

First have a responsible adult start a controlled fire in a fire pit or grill.

Set out your cookies and your pieces of chocolate so they are ready for you when your marshmallow is done cooking. We like to set the cookies with piece of chocolate next to the fire so the chocolate can begin to melt.

Find a long stick and put a marshmallow on the end of it. Be sure the stick is long enough for you to safely hold the marshmallow over the fire.

If the marshmallow catches on fire, don't freak out. Calmly blow it out or have an adult blow it out. If that doesn't work, just stick the marshmallow in the fire, let it burn and just get a new marshmallow.

When your marshmallow is cooked to your liking place the marshmallow between two Mary's Gone Crackers Ginger Cookies and a piece of Theo's Chocolate.

Enjoy the melted marshmallow goodness with family and friends!

If you are really feeling adventurous, you can make your own marshmallows.

Check out Alton Brown's recipe on the Food Network website.

You could even make your own allergy friendly graham crackers.

Check out my Alton Brown Inspired Graham Crackers: No Gluten, No Dairy, No Eggs, No Soy.

Enjoy!

Polenta Veggiola: no gluten, no dairy, no cow's milk

This one is for you "Seuss-Seuss", my very OLDEST BFF (yes it's a Dr. Seuss reference and yes, that is what we called eachother when we were little.) She's not really old, we've just known one another since we were in-utero ;-)

A couple of nights ago we were just home from vacation and I needed to whip something up for dinner. My daughter was asking to help cook and wanted to come up with something new. We looked at our inventory together, which was looking pretty low, and found that I had a nice little tube of polenta sitting there in the fridge. "Cheater Polenta" I like to call it. I knew that thing would be there for me when I needed it! I always buy those things to have on hand for quick appetizers. I'll have to post those up here eventually. I do have a container of dry  polenta grits sitting in my pantry. I managed to pick up the kids cold myself so I decided that this was not the week to make everything from scratch. My daughter pointed out peas in the freezer. I pulled out my favorite Italian cookbook and had her look up peas for inspiration. Peas are a really common ingredient in Italian cooking. You'll often find peas sauteed with garlic and onions. Simple and yummy. A veggie here and a veggie there and all of a sudden Polenta Veggiola was born. You can also add sauteed chicken or tofu to this if you'd like some added protien. My daughter isn't eating meat these days, so we left it out.

Polenta Veggiola: gluten free, dairy free, soy free

Ingredients:

1 tube Food Merchant's polenta

1 container home made tomato sauce (2-4 cups) or 1 jar store bought tomato sauce of your choice.

olive oil

1 bag frozen organic peas

yellow bell pepper

1 large carrot

1/2 - 1 small red onion

1 - 2 cloves garlic

fresh cilantro or basil

Pecorino Romano (sheeps milk cheese) (You can use whatever cheese you can have or use no cheese at all)

optional: Trader Joes Almond Meal (for topping)

Directions:

Cut the red onion, garlic, bell pepper, carrot, into small, bite sized pieces.

Chop up the cilantro or basil and set aside.

In a frying/sautee pan, drizzle some olive oil at the bottom of the pan.

Add the red onion to the hot pan and cook over medium-medium high until tender.

Add the garlic, carrot and bell pepper, frozen peas and cook until tender.

Add in your chopped cilantro or basil and stir then turn the heat to low and let it sit while you prepare the polenta.

In a 2.2 Quart or 2 Liter Pyrex dish or comprable, drizzle or spray with olive oil spray.

Cut a small slit in your polenta tube and drain the water in the sink. Remove the wrapping.

Slice your polenta into thin rounds and line the bottom of your baking dish with them.

Add a layer of your sauteed veggies, aka: veggiola topped with a generous layer of tomato sauce topped with Pecorino Romano.

Add a second layer of sliced polenta, if you have enough followed by another layer of veggiola, tomato sauce and Pecorino Romano.

For that top layer of Pecorino Romano, you can also add some almond meal to the top to create a nice cheesy/crunchy top. It helps to combine the Pecorino Romano and Almond Meal for the very top in a small bowl before adding it to the top of your dish.

Bake in a 375 - 400 oven for 30 minutes or so. If the top begins to burn before it's done, you can top it with aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes or so of baking. Remember, all the ingredients are cooked already, you are pretty much just heading up and melting it all together. It sure smells great when it's baking!!!

Here is what the top looks like when I mixed almond meal with Pecorino Romano.

Enjoy!

Oat'n Almond Meal Chocolate Chip Cookies: Wheat/Gluten free, dairy/cow milk free, vegan

Sing it with me, "C is for COOKIE it's good enough for me, hey! and REPEAT!" No wonder why I'm not loosing any weight these days. I'm obsessed with baking things that everyone can eat and will actually enjoy! Besides, it's always nice to have "treat" recipes on hand when you need to bring something special to someone's house for dinner and not have to worry about bringing multiple options for people with food issues. It gets insane, it really does. I'm always happy to bake or bring options, especially since my family are the high maintenance ones. ;-)

The ultimate comfort food for me, and many others I've compared notes with, is the good ole chocolate chip cookie. They are requested by my kids almost as often as pancakes. Years ago I used to love going to PCC (a natural food store in WA) to get some yummy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. I thought maybe they'd have a recipe for them on their website. With a quick search, I found a recipe on their website for Wheat-free Chocolate Chip Cookies  that I've linked to here. The recipe was originally created by Post-Punk Kitchen. I changed a few thing to add my own nutty/coco nutty/super vanillaee twist and the result are some insanely yummy cookies. I'm actually eating one, um two, while I type this. To note, my recipes will always be heavy on the vanilla since our family motto is "you can never have too much vanilla".

My kids can eat nuts at home (away from the insane amount of kids at school who can't.) I really love the health benefit for nuts but my kids don't like whole nuts baked into their cookies. So, I'm taking a cue from my "Blue Velvet Blueberry Muffins" , I decided to use blended nuts (almond meal) instead. I've been wanting to use some of my Trader Joe's Almond Meal that was sitting in my pantry stash anyway. The taste is so "nutty", go figure ;-) and I love the stuff.  Elana's Pantry, a gluten free site which uses primarily almond flour, recommends using almond flour and not the almond meal because the almond flour uses blanched almonds and the almond meal does not. She's talking mainly about her own recipes.  I like the unbalanced almonds though, so I thought I would just try using it in my cookies, to see what would happen. I decided to use a combination of Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Oat Flour and Trader Joe's Almond Meal as my flour in these cookies, instead of just using Oat flour.

I'm a huge fan these days of So Delicious Coconut milk. At 90 calories a cup and a texture that foams, it's an excellent replacement for cow's milk. It's really smooth and creamy, just like the container says.

 A chocolate chip cookie is only as good as the chocolate chips that are used it them. You can quote me on that. ;-) I've been using the Guittard brand for years since it was one of the only ones, for a long time, that didn't have any dairy derivitaves it them. They do contain soy lecithin in them. There are brands, like Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips, that don't have any ingredients that are known allergens.

Oat'n Almond Meal Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Inspired by PCC's cookies and Post-Punk Kitchen's recipe with my adjustments and personal twist.)

*if you can't have nuts, go with their recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup Gluten Free Oat Flour, Bob's Redmill

1 cup Almond Meal, Trader Joes (You can also make your own almond meal if you have a Vitamix.)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon flax meal

1/4 cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut milk. (I LOVE this stuff, It's so creamy and delicious. It's great to bake with.)

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

1/2 cup organic evaporated cane juice (sugar)

1/3 cup organic canola oil

2 tablespoons vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips (check ingredients)

Directions

In a bowl combine all dry ingredients, oat flour, almond meal, baking soda, salt, and flax meal in a bowl with a wisk.

In a mixer or other bowl combine sugars, oil and vanilla until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.

Fold in chocolate chips with a spatula.

Place batter in cookie sized balls, onto a baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until they look done.

Remove from oven and allow the cookies to cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Thanks Post-Punk Kitchen for the inspiration! You are truly yummy!

"Violet Blue" Berry Muffins or Blue Velvet Cupcakes: no gluten, no cow's milk, no eggs, no soy, no nuts

When my brothers and I were little, we would watch the movie, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" over and over and over again at our Grandparent's house. We used to eat fudge pops and imagine what it would be like to be in that candy factory, drinking from the chocolate river, taking a bite of a Wonka Bar, and eating that scrumptious gummy bear.

Just last week at our kid's elementry school, the Fifth Grade play was "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". One of my kids most favorite parts was when the gum chomping character, Violet, turned into a great BIG BLUEBERRY, after chewing a piece of gum, that wasn't quite ready to be chewed. "Violet, you're turning violet!", her Dad yelled in the movie. Instead of asking for fudge pops, like my brothers and I did, my kids asked for blue berry muffins in honor of Violet, the great BIG BLUEBERRY girl.

A few months back, I made some blueberry muffins inspired by Erin McKenna's recipe for Gluten-Free Muffins. I altered some ingredients, used my own flour mixture, and changed some of the amounts. My daughter loved them! My son didn't like the whole blueberries in the muffins and picked them all out. He is super sensitive to texture but loves the taste of blueberries in a smoothie.

So, I decided to use my Vitamix (you can use your blender) to blend the blueberries in rice milk and the rest of the wet ingredients, before putting them into the muffins. Viola, actual BLUE, or shall I say Violet, berry muffins that smell, taste, and look great! You just might very well be able to get away with calling these a cupcake, if you put some sort of topping or frosting on them. ;-) They sort of remind me of Red Velvet Cupcakes but blue instead. Blue Velvet Cupcakes or Blue Berry Muffins, whatever you want to call them.

"Violet Blue" Berry Muffin or Blue Velvet Cupcakes:

no gluten, no cow's milk, no eggs, no soy, no nuts

Ingredients: (Makes 12 muffins)

2 cups All Purpose Gluten Free Flour such as Bob's Redmill ( I used 1 cup sorghum flour mixed with 1 cup gluten free oat flour.)  

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup oil (I used Spectrum canola)

1/4 cup apple sauce

2/3 cup organic evaporated cane juice sugar (or favorite sweetener of your choice)

1/2 cup rice milk (or milk of choice)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blue berries.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Combine all dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and cinnamon in a bowl. Wisk to combine.

In your blender or Vitamix, blend the blueberries, rice milk, oil,  apple sauce, vanilla, and sugar together until well blended. (If your blueberries are frozen and you have a regular blender, thaw your berries slightly before blending.)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. You can do this by hand in the dry ingredients bowl, to save dishes, or in your mixer.

Your batter will be very blue! ;-)

Fill sprayed or muffin cup filled muffin tins with 1/4 - 1/3 cup of batter in each cup.

You can sprinkle the tops with a bit of sugar for decoration if desired.

Bake in your 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. (You can rotate the pan after 15 minutes).

Muffins are done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

 

Alton Brown Inspired Graham Crackers: No Gluten, No Dairy, No Eggs, No Soy

My family LOVES Alton Brown, host of the Food Network shows Good Eats, Iron Chef America, Feasting on Waves, and Feasting on Asphalt.

 "My kids have been fascinated with him and his show, "Good Eats", since they were very small. They are a little bigger now and still love him and his show. He's all about cooking and the science behind it. He makes cooking and science interesting and fun with his yeast sock puppets and his interesting camera angles. He's what "Bill Nye The Science Guy" would be if he has a cooking show. Watching his show makes you feel like you can make anything. Even though he hasn't done a lot on gluten or dairy free, his show has really inspired me to get to the point where I'm at now, feeling like I can transform anything into something that my entire family can eat.

October 2009 Lake Forest Park, WA Good Eats: The Early Years book signing tour. My kids get to meet and have a decent chat with Alton Brown.

My son shares with him his idea for a show on dyeing Easter Eggs. Alton thinks it's a good idea, pulls out his wallet, writes the idea on a sticky note and sticks his wallet back in his pocket.

My daughter says that it was her "life long dream" to meet Alton Brown. Look at how she's looking up at him in this picture, priceless!

This week the kids and I decided to try to make graham crackers from scratch that are gluten, dairy, egg, and soy free. We started out with Alton Brown's recipe for homemade graham crackers.

Mr. Brown advocates using a kitchen scale to weigh your flour so you'll notice that the flour is listed in ounces by weight. I also try to estimate if you are using cups. I'll try it using cups next time and will fine tune this if needed.

Here is my take on Mr. Brown's Graham Cracker recipe to make it gluten and dairy free.

Graham Crackers: No Gluten, No Dairy, No Eggs, No Soy

(Inspired by Alton Brown)

Ingredients:

8.4 ounces sorghum flour (try 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cup) 

1.8 ounces Bob's Redmill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour (try 1/2 cup)

3 ounces dark brown sugar (you can use raw sugar, turbinado sugar, organic pure cane sugar, honey or whatever your favorite non-chemical sweetener is.)

3/4 tsp aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

3 ounces  Earth Balance Soy Free

2 1/4 ounces molasses

1 1/2 ounces rice milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Add your flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into the bowl of your food processor, Kitchenaid or Vitamix, which is what I used. You could probably do this by hand in a regular bowl too, if you need. :-)

Add the Earth Balance and pulse or blend until the mixture is combined.

Add molasses, rice milk, and vanilla extract and mix until dough forms, about 1-2 minutes.

Mold the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator and place it on a big piece of parchment paper and then put a second sheet of equal size on top. You can put all this on top of a sheet pan for easy transport to the oven later.

 

Roll the dough out until it's about 1/8 inch thick.

  

Remove the top sheet of the parchment paper and cut the dough, using a knife or pizza cutter into 2 inch or so square pieces by using vertical and horizontal cuts. You can trim off any excess and roll any extra dough out on another sheet, if desired.

 

Using a fork, poke holes all over the top of the dough. Leave the crackers on the pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until the edges start to darken. I baked them for 20 minutes and they were a little more crispy than I wanted on the edges.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment with the crackers on them onto a cooking rack. You can later remove them off the parchment to test coolness. You can store them in an airtight container for a few weeks. My kids backed these for their snack at school the next day and then finished them off for snack after school. They said that they reminded them of gingerbread cookies. I'm sure they would be amazing used as smores, with marshmallow and chocolate! Alton Brown even has a recipe for homemade marshmallow!

Enjoy!