Sweets We Can Eat!

So a few more allergies to now add to the list:

Safflower
Mustard
Flax Seed

This is beyond ridiculous.

Things have actually been going OK...we are thriving (thanks for thinking of us Becky!) and more into the swing of things with this restrictive diet. It's not easy and I'm getting tired of acting like a pioneer making everything, but it's going and Kyson is growing. So I guess that's all that matters.

I have to admit that I find resources for our specific allergies to be particularly challenging...most allergy cookbooks feature gluten-free items (can't avoid gluten now! It's my lifeline!) and they all seem to include every other allergen that we have to avoid. And raw cookbooks aren't much help since there are so many nut recipes. Most vegan cookbooks are just a tease - they are filled with soy in so many ways. Thankfully cookbooks like Vegan Lunch Box and Veganomicon/Appetite for Reduction feature a soy-free recipe index that helps eliminate some of the recipes we have to avoid. I think I have to write a soy free vegan cookbook! I think it might be the only vegan cookbook not currently out there!

Getting back to food, just because Kyson is severely allergic doesn't mean he can't enjoy his birthday! He celebrated one year with a tweaked agave cupcake from VCTOTW topped with an avocado/melted chocolate chips/agave mousse-like frosting. Here he is eyeing up the goods:



I think he enjoyed it:


I realize this is pathetic blogging about this now, but I only recently uploaded all the pics from my iPhone and camera onto the PC. I made mini-cuppies for Canada Day that I presented in a maple leaf flag:



The base was my strawberry cuppie from a recent post and the icing was a mix of avocado, icing sugar and strawberry jam. I have to work on the frosting since I'm not sure if it was the recipe or the heat, but it was a little too glossy. I topped each cuppie with a homemade white chocolate dipped strawberry - I basically melted some cocoa butter and added icing sugar and scraped vanilla bean bits. Of course each was also adorned with a little Canadian flag!



In the past I've been used to finding new recipes to try week after week as I prepare my meal plan. I've been adjusting to sticking to some tried-and-true things that picky toddlers and preschoolers eat (different noodles with homemade pasta sauce with every veggie under the sun tucked in/homemade pizza) and rotating between some other recipes. Having said that, week after week I have to make a few staple items:

Blue Ribbon Bread from Vegan Lunchbox - it makes three loaves which is great for freezing and pulling out all week, never mind changing up the shape to breadsticks, burger buns, loaves and mini-loaves. I use quinoa as the grain in the recipe.

Vegan Lunch Meat from Vegan Dad - this is pretty much my only source of protein. I've changed up the recipe quite a bit since I can't use beans but I'll blog about that shortly. You wouldn't believe how I can use this all week in different ways!

Spaghetti/Pasta Sauce - I throw in lots of veggies and fruits in both fresh and jarred baby food form, puree and presto! Instant yummy sauce that the kiddos gobble up on pasta or pizza.

I'll devote a future post about my seitan dishes, but for now this is Jerk Seitan using my veggie lunch meat as the chunks - I prefer this texture more that making seitan the traditional boiled way.