Food Allergy Awareness Week - #TealTakeover

Today is Teal Takeover day. Post your pictures with #TealTakeover to show your support!

Food Allergy Awareness Week - Food Allergies in the U.S.

Food allergy awareness week is here. Please share this infographic and let's raise awareness!
For more information go to FARE or Kids with Food Allergies.
Tomorrow is Teal Takeover. Wear teal and share your photos with #TealTakeover.

Happy Cooking for Cody 2nd Anniversary!

Yesterday marked the 2nd anniversary of the Cooking for Cody blog!

Thank you so much for reading and following! I really hope this blog has helped others. It has definitely helped me. It has helped me find my food allergy voice.

You see, when Cody was first diagnosed I knew I was going to have to learn to talk about severe food allergies in a way I never had before. Even though I have lived my entire life with a life-threatening allergy to fish, I still was not very good at talking about it. And it's just different when you have a child entering school with multiple, severe food allergies.

I knew that I had work to do in order to effectively advocate for him and to teach him to advocate for himself with confidence, and to try to keep him from being overly fearful. I was going to have to find my food allergy voice in order to help him find his. This blog was my way to do that and to practice as much as possible before sending him off on his own to school. 

Severe food allergies require a lot of discussion and advocacy because of the constant presence of food, the life-saving medicine that has to go everywhere with him and instructions for use of the medication, and also because there is often a lot of misunderstanding that surrounds serious food allergies as a real medical condition.

This blog has helped me gain confidence in talking about our food allergies and hopefully I'm passing that on to Cody because I feel it is crucial that he has confidence when talking about his allergies. 

Again, thank you! You have helped us so much and I hope we have been able to pay it forward and help others!

Here's to another year of good, fun cooking and recipes and approaching severe food allergies with confidence. Cody still loves cooking with me, making his favorite foods, eating the dough and I love that!

Below are some of my favorite recipes from the last year. All are free of the top 8 allergens (peanut, tree-nut, egg, dairy, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish).

Brownies

Easy Yeast-Free Pizza Crust

Southwest Pasta and Quinoa Salad

Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Biscochitos

Corn Bread

Allergy-Friendly Brownies

It took me a really long time to attempt to make allergy-friendly brownies. I'm not quite sure why except that I think I was afraid they wouldn't turn out good and brownies are my favorite. 

Well, they came out better than I expected. Yummy, gooey, chocolate-y goodness!

Must. Stop. Eating these!

I have started to bake more and more with sweet potato. I think it gives baked goods a better texture than using applesauce alone.

Also, get ready, May is allergy and asthma awareness month and May 10th - 16th is food allergy awareness week! For more information click here to go to FARE's Action Month website, or Kids With Food Allergies' awareness month website. 

This recipe is free of the top 8 allergens (egg-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free, soy-free, fish-free and shellfish-free) and vegan.

Enjoy!

Brownies

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup oat flour or other flour/blend of your choice

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I use Vermont Nut-Free)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup melted dairy and soy-free spread (I use Earth Balance Soy-Free)

1/2 cup sweet potato purée (I use baby food)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

1/2 cup allergy-friendly chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugars, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

Stir in the melted spread, sweet potato purée, applesauce and vanilla.

Pour into a greased 8 inch baking pan.

About halfway through baking, pour the chocolate chips over the top. 

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Dyeable Craft Easter Eggs

Cody got to dye Easter eggs this year!

I found out you can buy dyeable craft eggs.

We got ours from Michael's. To dye the eggs we used rice, food coloring and ziplock bags. Just put some rice and food coloring in a ziplock bag and shake it up to coat the rice. Then put in the egg and shake.

Cody thought this was really fun!

Have a safe and Happy Easter!

Allergy-Friendly Irish Soda Bread

Since it's almost St. Patrick's Day I thought I would try making Irish soda bread. Traditional Irish soda bread only has a few ingredients, so I thought it would be pretty easy to change to make it allergy-friendly. 

It was very easy to make and it turned good. Best of all, the very picky Cody likes it. Always a victory when he approves!

Enjoy and have a happy St. Patrick's Day!

This recipe is free of the top 8 allergens (egg-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free, soy-free, fish-free and shellfish-free) and vegan.

Irish Soda Bread

3 1/2 cups oat flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups oat or rice milk

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. stir in the oat/rice milk and vinegar until well combined. 

The dough should be just slightly sticky. You may need to add a little more flour or oat/rice milk to get the right consistency.

Form into a round loaf, cut a large X in the top and place on a baking sheet.

Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes or util golden brown.

Allergy-Friendly Orange Beef Broccoli

I love Asian food, but with peanut oil, fish sauce and oyster sauce it's pretty much an allergy nightmare for our family. And if you're allergic to soy, forget it. 

But you can make your own. It's still delicious and free from all those allergens.
Feel free to add more veggies. I used broccoli, red pepper, bok choy and scallions in the one pictured below.

For use in other recipes, I often replace soy sauce with a combination of beef or mushroom broth, molasses, rice vinegar and salt.

This recipe is free of the top 8 allergens (egg-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free, soy-free, fish-free and shellfish-free).
For a vegan version, omit the meat for a veggie stir-fry.

Enjoy!

Orange beef broccoli

Vegetable Oil
1 lb. lean beef or buffalo meat

1 lb. broccoli florets

1 clove garlic minced

1 teaspoon minced ginger

Juice from 1 large orange 

2 tablespoons white or rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon molasses

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Rice

Slice the meat into thin strips.

In a large mixing bowl combine the orange juice, vinegar, brown sugar and salt. Add the meat to the bowl and marinate for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator. 

Prepare rice according to package directions.

Remove the meat from the marinade, but do not discard it. Heat the oil over medium high heat  in a wok or large skillet.

Cook the meat until browned on both sides.

Transfer the meat to a plate.

Add more oil to the wok/skillet if necessary.

Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds.

Add the broccoli and cook until almost tender, about  7 minutes. 

Add the marinade to the skillet and bring to a boil. 

Add the beef back to the skillet.

Cook until the meat and broccoli are done and the sauce is thickened, about 2-3 minutes.

Adjust seasoning.

Serve over rice.