Emily's Allergies: Favorite Banana Pancakes on Fathers Day

It's Father's Day and there is nothing like a great breakfast with that special lady in your life. I love pancakes. I can eat stacks of them. Emily loves bananas as well; she would have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if she could. Her allergies to milk and eggs make it impossible for her to enjoy pancakes outside of the house, which is a bummer because I would have loved to take her to some of my favorite diners for breakfast.

For this recipe, I picked up some Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Dreams Pancake Mix at Whole Foods. It's dairy, nut, and egg free. I love this stuff. I just followed the directions on the box. Next, I chopped up 2 large bananas - one for the mix itself and the other for topping. They suggest rice milk, but I used Vanilla soy milk instead. I also added a pinch of cinnamon and sugar to go with the banana. Emily had a blast mixing for me. You can see the focus in her face.



She ate most of the bananas in the preparation process; so by the time I served her the pancakes, she only ate a few pieces. That's O.k. Dada is always there to "clean up" after her. After she was done, it was time for drawing before we headed out to Central Park to play and get wet. That's where my cell phone tragically leapt into a watery grave. I hope all the Dads out there (mothers also) had a wonderful Father's Day. I know I did.

Scalloped Potatoes (Recipe Suggestion)

So here it is. Last week I asked on twitter are there any recipes that you may want your little ones to have but can't because of their food allergies. The tweet was answered by  Shayna Graham. She wanted a recipe for scalloped potatoes without gluten, yeast, mushrooms, dairy,eggs or nuts. So I took the job and went researching at Whole Foods and got a few things and came up with a great recipe that came out superb (Emily loved it!).

• 5 tbs of Earth Balance Buttery Spread
• 1/4 Soy Flower ( or any other to fit your allergies)
• 2 cups Soy Milk ( or any other to fit your allergies)
• 8 oz Daiya Cheese
• 4 large Russet Potatoes (sliced 1/8 inch thick)
• 1/2 Natural Nectar Crackle Bread (Crumbled into crumbs)

Preheat oven to 350°. In a sause pan add the butter and whisk in flour on low heat. After butter and flour are mixed well start to slowly whisk in milk and let come to a simmer. 

While simmering gradually start mixing in 6 ounces of the cheese while stirring slowly. salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. In a baking pan I used an aluminum one (hey I'm a single dad bare with me) Grease and add a layer of potatoes first then sauce and sprinkle some remaining cheese. the layers should start with potatoes at the bottom and end with sauce and cheese on top.

Sprinkle crumbs on the top. The flavor crackers I use where sun dried tomato and oregano. Bake for an hour and about 15 min uncovered until golden brown and potatoes are tender.

I hope you enjoy it Shayna as much as me and princess did. Also sorry about the pics its my first time being a food photographer. If anyone has any questions or input I would love to hear from you. 

Recipe Suggestion around Food Allergies #1

I asked on twitter are there any recipes that you may want your little ones to have but can't because of their food allergies. I got a request from Shayna Graham for Scalloped Potatoes without gluten, yeast, mushrooms, dairy, eggs and nuts. So I am going to make it my weekend project to make this recipe going around those allergies. I will take Photos of the process and ingredients (bare with my I'm no photographer). I'm EXCITED! hopefully Emily will like them. I'll keep you posted :)