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!!!!!

Late Easter Post Sorry :-/

I have to apologize for my late post. It has been a busy week. Had a great early Easter last Thursday with my Princess. (the reasons ill explain in another blog) Everyone here at the loft threatened me to bring Emily to the office. Its a very kid and pet friendly office. So hiding Emily's Easter basket that my older sister made for her under a desk. We put Emily on the hunt for it. She looked under pillows on the couches and in file cabinets for about 2 minutes before giving up. She is a want it now kind of girl so i pointed her in the rite direction. I have never seen jelly beans get inhaled so fast. My sister did a great job going around Emily's Food Allergies filling the basket with toys, jelly beans, twizzlers and peeps (yes there safe). So after playing with hopping bunnies and giant bubbles in the office i ask princess what she wants to eat. I get a whisper in my ear "Flafle". (Falafle). So we went and got Flafle with hummus for princess. I had a great surprise for her after our Falafle to go to Baby Cakes. You could see the glow on her face arriving at the bakery. She had agave filled Brownies and a Red Velvet cupcake. She has her little tradition of dipping the brownies in the icing of the cupcake :) The Baby Cakes girls where so sweet to Emily giving her a complementary glass of Soy Milk. WE LOVE YOU BABY CAKES!  Sorry I don't have the chocolaty face pic of her :( After are sweet fix at Baby Cakes we went to the park to work it off. Walking in Soho we came across a garden that we strolled through they had a Pétanque court and GIANT Chickens. She had a Ball. A time spent Happy is time well spent. And I'm always happy when I'm with my princess.

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. 

April Food Allergy Fools! (My Weekender)

Soooooo yesterday was April first (April Fools) I made some delish Vegan sugar cookies for Emily. She loved them so much. Nothing seemed to be wrong with them by her standards but there was something a little deceiving about them. Maybe it was the cauliflower i steamed and pureed and added to the batter ;)
Yes i did it i added veggies to my princesses yummy treat. Even though it wasn't a really good april fools attempt. I still liked the fact she was fooled by thinking she was just getting a treat that was just something sweet to eat. I used a simple recipe you can find here.  Just break off about 2 bulbs of cauliflower steam them puree and add to the batter. It doesn't change the taste at all. If it did Emily's picky tongue would figure it out. I say give it a shot. Maybe add it to a cake. And if you don't want to use an egg replacer like Ener-G you can always use a banana smashed and mix it in with the batter. I hope you all had a great april fools.

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.

Do you know?

When reading labels to make sure none of your child's allergens are in the ingredients do you know what all of those long words mean or if they have the allergen in them. My princess is allergic to eggs plus other things but today i want to list how they may label egg ingredients.  All of what im listing contain egg protein in them.

•  Albumin
• Apovitellin
• Cholesterol free egg substitute
• dried egg
• egg, egg whites
• yolk 
• egg wash 
• eggnog
• fat substitute
• globulin
• livetin 
• lysozyme 
• mayonnaise
• meringue powder
• ovalbumin
• ovoglobulin
• ovomucin
• ovomucoid
• ovotransferrin
• ovovitelia  
• ovovitellin
• powdered eggs 
• silici albuminate 
• simplesse
• trailblazer 
• vitellin