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.

Emily wants Broccoli in hers please!!

Last week Wednesday I asked the Twitterverse where should I take Princess tomorrow for dinner? I was answered by Tamara Wudinich who runs the blog Serendipindots if Emily Likes Mac n' Cheese. She heard of S'Mac in NY and that it was a good Food Allergy friendly place. I have heard of S'mac before and even tasted some of their Mac n' Cheese at a street fair a long time ago. So the decision was made. My co worker and good friend Kim who runs the site Virago Inc. (This one is for the grown ups;) One of the many people who kidnap my princess whenever I bring her into the office treated me and Emily to S'mac once I told her about the place. We stopped to get some Vegan Chocolate cake before getting to S'mac.  I asked princess what she wanted in her Mac n' Cheese and gave her the choices of hamburger meat, broccoli or chicken to go in her vegan noch size pan of mac n' cheese. She chose the Broccoli. I love that she loves it as much as I do. Kim got vegan mac n' cheese with Spinach and Garlic and I got American and cheddar cheese with broccoli and mushrooms. You have to be careful the pans they bring out your orders in are very HOT! So let them cool a bit before digging in. Emily Loved her order but then saw the "Ketsup" sitting on the table and wanted some on hers. I put a tiny bit at first to see how she would like it. Of course she loved it and made me put it on the whole thing. After eating this Delish! Mac n Cheese Dinner it was time for Cake! I must say this cake was a little sweeter than the other one we had before. Emily went through it like no tomorrow afterwards Jetting out of S'mac! She was on a sugar rush running and climbing every set of steps spinning and jumping. It was toddler Parkour. 

Emily's Allergies Chocolate Bliss

OK so every weekend I have with princess is always a great one. We had a great time at my my mothers (booboos) house for her Birthday. Ate until we all dropped, But the highlight of the weekend for Emily was Death by Chocolate Cake! I have had my fair share of chocolate cakes but nothing like this. We went to Atlas Cafe. A vegan and non vegan hole in the wall Mecca. They get there desserts from Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, PA. A co worker of mine put me on to them and Atlas Cafe. So I had to share this with Princess. I ordered a Vegan Philly Cheese Steak and a piece of Death by Chocolate Cake. Emily went straight for the cake :) I have to admit I was skeptical at first thinking how could something be soooooo god and vegan. So watching Emily indulge herself in this chocolate paradise looking at her face waiting for her to break out from an Allergic reaction. Nothing happened thankfully she ate some sandwich also but was more into the cake. They have a variety of treats from Strawberry Shortcake to Coconut Cake :) I recommend Atlas Cafe to anyone for a good meal (vegan or not) and make sure you save room for Desert! Princess always has room.