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.

Calling all Parents with children with Food Allergies

A few days ago I was contacted by my older sister. She told me she had a friend who had a son with an illness that left him with a very limited diet. I contacted Gladys to ask her what  exactly her sons condition was. I was in for a surprise. She told me that her son was diagnosed at 18 moths with Eosinophilic Esophagitis and Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis. I have ran across this disorder in my mass research on food allergies but never looked more in depth into it until now. It is a disorder ( like food allergies) but its when the body rejects food like it would the flu. Eosinophils are a type of white blood cells that triple in numbers when they think something foreign inters the body ( for him its food). Eosinophilic Esophagitis is the high number of Eosinophils in the esophagus. Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis effects the stomach and small intestine. 


The symptoms include:

•  Nausea or Vomiting
•  Diarrhea 
•  Failure to thrive (poor growth or weight loss)
•  Abdominal or chest pain 
•  Reflux that does not respond to usual therapy (which includes proton pump inhibitors, a medicine which stops acid production)

•  Dysphagia (Difficulty swallowing)
•  Food impactions (food gets stuck in the throat)
•  Gastroparesis (Delayed emptying of the stomach)
•  Anorexia (poor appetite)
•  Bloating
•  Anemia
•  Blood in the stool
•  Malnutrition
•  Difficulty sleeping

There is no cure for EE or EG, but treatment can help alleviate symptoms and help prevent more damage to the gastrointestinal tract. Her son is going through dietary therapy. Its a testing of food allergies as a guide for an elimination diet. An elimination diet is avoiding the foods that test positive on allergy testing. He is on an amino acid formula called Elecare. It is protein based that has absolutely NO allergens. Along with that her son who's name is Daniel by the way can now have pork, potatoes, apples, corn, broccoli, cod or tuna and bananas with the exception of a few more I haven't been updated on. She can only cook with 100% corn, vegetable or olive oil and season with honey, salt, pepper, pure maple syrup and Fleishman's margarine. She is a dedicated mother and is giving it her all and I think she is doing a damn good job. So I'm reaching out to everyone and anyone who has information on EE and EG. For more information on EE and EG click here. 

   

      Thanks, 

          Danny Brown.

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 :) 

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.

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.

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.