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.

Day at the Museum for Emily's Allergies

For my thursday dinner with my princess I switched it up. So my lovely friend Jennifer from Jen Eats Life and Tasty Memories told me she once was a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History and had a hide and seek tour I told her she had to take us. Me and Emily got to the museum around 3:45pm Jen was running a little late :) its ok though. The food truck outside the museum had "Fench Fies" on the menu and Emily wanted some. So after checking if the food was prepared with other foods that contain dairy, eggs or nuts to set off her food allergies we got a order of fries to share. Jen came not to long after and took us in and showed us all the secret things of the museum. The meaning of the fire burning in the background meant on one display or how the Male Guerilla in another display was killed by the curator. He didn't want to kill the Guerilla it was about to attack him so he had to. He felt so bad that in his will he stated he wanted to be buried where he shot down the Guerrilla. It was amazing Emily loved every moment except the rainforest part she isn't to fond of dark places. We found Po from Kung Fu Panda sat in a giant Oyster saw the T-Rex she laid down for a quick rest and we played hide and seek but her spot wasn't so good. At the end of our tour we got to take some pics with our Dino friends. After we went to Hampton Chutney. I have never been to this place They are Allergy friendly. Emily and Jen had Dosa with chicken spinach and sun dried tomatoes. I had classic Mosala Dosa. It was great along with the mango chutney it came with.

Weekender on Emily's Allergies

Memorial Day weekend oh how I love you and so does Emily. We had a very nice weekend Friday we spent time in Queens with old friends Saturday we headed over to BoBoos (my mothers) house Sunday went to a family barbeque. They even prepared Allergy friendly dishes for Emily :) after the BBQ we headed to see Jen from Tasty Memories and Jen Eats Life to film and make Pizza's on the Grill it was a first time for me preparing them that way. There was no cheese Just veggies tomato, sweet red peppers, onions and cauliflower nothing that would trigger her food allergies (dairy, eggs or nuts).The sauce Jen made was superb. Made a simple dough of flour, water and yeast. Emily loved rolling the dough and beating it. She was such a good little helper. The pizza came out spectacular and Emily LOVED!! it. Can't wait to show the vlog and future collaborations. Monday we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2. That movie was awesome saw it in IMAX and Princess was blown away. She wants a baby panda now :) so DaDa has to get one.  

                                        SKADOOSH!!!!!

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 :) 

Miss Emi Mac Mac n Cheese (No food allergies here)

Baked Mac and Cheese is one of my favorite things to eat. I felt bad last Thanksgiving when I had to deprive Emily of Mac n Cheese because of her dairy allergy. Dada would fix that though :) I Looked up vegan mac n cheese but nothing I was to amazed of. Thinking of how we made baked mac n cheese I just started replacing Ingredients.

Thus the creation of Miss Emi's Mac n Cheese.
I know it's corny but I thought it was catchy.

I made some Gluten free macaroni according to the box instructions.

• 2 cups of soy milk (rice or coconut)
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 2 packs of Daiya cheese (cheddar and mozzarella)
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup of Earth Balance original buttery spread

Pre heat the oven 350°
Add soy milk, flour and salt to taste in a large bowl and whisk until thickened. Stir in 1 1/2 pack of cheese, 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and macaroni into the mixture.
Add the mixture into a lightly greased baking dish and on the top sprinkle the remaining cheese and bread crumbs and drizzle melted butter over the top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is slightly golden. (you don't want the cheese on top to overcook) It will turn into a hard layer of burnt cheese if you don't keep an eye on it.
This is a great side dish or can even be a main dish if you just want some mack n cheese.
I also need to apologize I have no pictures of these creations. I have a composition notebook with my recipes and didn't think to take pics while making them. In the future from here on I will start taking pictures of princess enjoying all the things i make for her.

Soooooooy Good Biscuits

I'm going  to be sharing one of Emily's favorite things to eat. Biscuits...she can't have regular buttermilk biscuits so I had to come up with a way to work around princesses food allergies. So knowing that my grandma knew how to make some gooooood buttermilk biscuits so i took her recipe and tweeked it for princess. Her recipe was.

• 2 cups of flour 
• 1 tbs of baking powder
• 1 tbs of sugar 
• 1/2 tbs salt
• 8 tbs of butter which I substituted with Earth Balance buttery sticks
• 3/4 cups of milk that i replaced with Soy Milk

Preheat the oven at 450°
In a large bowl add flour, baking powder, sugar,salt and the butter
Mixing it together with your hands is always best for me until the mixture looks like crumbs.
Add the soy milk (or whichever milk you like) and mix until sticky. Place on a floured surface and kneed the dough until the moisture is gone.
Roll out your dough into a 1/4 inch thick layer and fold. Cut out your biscuits and place them on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 15 min or until the tops are golden.
They always come out great. Emily loves biscuits with jelly or Apple Butter :)

I wont let Food Allergies stop the goodness.

Having a child with food allergies can be hard sometimes. You want them to enjoy all the things you did when you where a kid. When i was little one of my favorite things to eat was Banana Pudding. Oh gosh how i loved it so much. I got sick one time from eating it so much :) I took princess to my grandmothers house and my grandma wanted an old fashioned Banana Pudding. You know the cooked pudding the Nilla wafers and the whipped egg whites all layered up and baked so the top is a little brown. Well its a tasty banana pudding but i felt sooo bad because princess wouldn't be able to enjoy the goodness. I had to figure out a way to make a banana pudding for my Emily to enjoy. I found out that the Jell-O brand instant pudding mix didn't have any protein allergens in the ingredient list and i know that Oreos are safe for princess to eat also the golden ones. Nilla Wafers contain milk and eggs.So making the mix using soy milk i started splitting oreos. I didn't want to make it super sweet so i removed the cream and lined the baking pan with the cookie. I needed a cream to layer with the cookies and bananas. I found a recipe for Vegan Coconut cream. I mean wow this banana pudding was amazing. Using these simple replacements Emily got to enjoy a great treat. She wanted more and more but I didn't want her to get a tummy ache like i did when I was young. It was a great desert. Nothing special make it just how you would any other banana pudding.

What does Milk mean to you?

Yesterday I listed the names of ingredients on labels that you may not understand what they are and they contained egg protein. its the protein that trigger allergic reactions when the immune system produces antibodies and histamines to fight off the foreign body. Thus causing maybe a breakout or itchy eyes or throat or even Anaphylaxis. I'm listing ingredients on labels that contain Milk Protein in them so you know what to look out for.

 

• Butter 

 Any type of butter that you see on a label. From Butter fat oil to Natural Butter Flavor.

• Casein & Caseinates 

Anything with these words in it has Milk Protein in it. Casein is a bonding agent that's used for things like cheese. But it can also be found in cosmetic products some pants and adhesive products.

• Cheese

  All types. Even cheese flavor (artificial and natural), Vegetarian cheeses have casein. So i use Vegan cheese like Daiya.

• Cream, whipped cream

• Curds

• Custard

• Dairy product solids

• Galactose

• Ghee

• Half & Half

• Hydrolysates 

• Ice cream, ice milk, sherbet

• Lactalbumin, lactalbumin phosphate

• Lactate solids

• Lactyc yeast

• Lactitol monohydrate

• Lactoglobulin

• Lactose

• Lactulose

• Nisin preparation

• Nougat

• Pudding

• Quark

• Recaldent

• Rennet casein or Rennet

• Simplesse is a fat replacer

• Whey 

• Yogurt 

There are vegan products you can buy so your child doesn't have to be deprived of tasty treats in life.