Cheeseless, allergy friendly lasagna and our amazing family!

Who knew cheeseless lasagna could be this delicious?!

The idea came from my mother-in-law, Claudia. And she's part Italian, so she knows good lasagna! I'm really happy she came up with this because I plan on making it a lot! It's really good and so much better for you than regular lasagna recipes. You don't have to feel guilty about eating it.

While we were visiting her last month she made every effort to cook foods that were safe for Cody. I can't fully express how grateful I am for this. It's not easy to do, but just the knowledge that the food around Cody was safe made for a much more relaxing and enjoyable vacation.

We also stayed with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for a few days and they also went above and beyond to accommodate us and make sure Cody was in a safe environment.

For holiday dinners the whole family was very understanding about the food changes that were made. It was all still really delicious thanks to my mother-in-law's awesome culinary skills which probably helped! :) She has a bed and breakfast in Michigan City, IN. If you are ever going to be in the area and want a nice, relaxing getaway visit Tryon Farm Guest House.

I am so very grateful, probably more than they know, and feel so lucky that both of our families are incredibly supportive and understanding. I know some others are not so lucky.

Ok. Back to the lasagna. We tried some cheese replacement options that were just not working, so Claudia decided to make it cheeseless and that was a really good decision. I'm a big fan of the dairy-free cheeses, but in something like lasagna, these options just don't quite work. Believe me, try this, it works!

Enjoy!

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 (if you omit the ground meat).

Lasagna

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 zucchini, sliced and quartered

1 yellow squash, sliced and quartered

1 small eggplant, sliced and quartered

1 bunch kale, stalks removed and chopped

1 package spinach, chopped

1 8 oz. package plain hummus (or see my sesame free-hummus recipe here)

1/2 cup basil, chopped 

1 lb. ground beef or bison (optional)
3 cups Tomato Sauce, or use 1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce

1 package oven ready rice lasagna or other gluten free, allergy friendly lasagna noodles.

Salt and pepper

In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. 

Sauté the zucchini, eggplant, kale and spinach until tender, about 5 -7 minutes. 

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and stir in the hummus and basil.

If using the ground meat, return the skillet to medium heat and add the meat.

Cook, breaking up meat into small pieces, until browned.

Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spoon 3/4 cup of the sauce into a baking pan or dish. 

Place a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles over the sauce. Do not overlap noodles. 

Spread half of the vegetable mixture and half of the ground meat over the noodles. Top with 3/4 cup of sauce.

Repeat noodles, vegetables, meat and sauce.

Add the final layer of noodles and cover with the remaining sauce.

Cover and bake for 1 hour. 

Remove from oven and let stand 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Here is a picture of my little assistant helping me out. :)

Allergy Friendly Tomato sauce

I have some recipes coming up that use tomato sauce . For a long time I have made my own because I prefer it to buying sauce in a jar. It's really easy and I make big batches and freeze it.

Whenever we don't have time to cook, we can just take some sauce out of the freezer and make spaghetti.

I don't do this when making sauce for Cody, but if I'm just cooking for Josh and myself I add a really big splash of good, Italian red wine.

Enjoy!

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.

Tomato Sauce
 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon fresh, chopped oregano

1 large can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoons fresh, chopped basil

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.

Sauté the onions until tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in the tomato sauce and oregano.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Simmer, covered over low heat for at least 30 minutes, but the longer, the better!

Remove from heat and stir in basil.

Adjust seasoning.

Allergy Friendly Hearty Vegetable Stew

Hi everyone, I'm back! Hope you all are having a fantastic start to 2014.

I know many of you are having a very cold start to the year. We were in Chicago and luckily left before it got really cold. Even here in Florida we had a couple of days of temps in the high 20s. Nothing like the -30s and -40s some were having, but still brrrr!

Cold weather makes me want soup and stew and I love using my crock pot to make these. It's so easy. You just throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot, stir and let it cook all day.

I made this and served it with some of my leftover pumpkin rolls I had in the freezer. Perfect for a cold night!

You can also replace the rice with rice pasta or other gluten free pasta, but just make sure you wait until the end to add the pasta or it will be too mushy.

Enjoy!

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.

Hearty vegetable stew

4 cups vegetable broth

2 cans diced tomatoes 

2 small zucchini, diced

2 medium potatoes, diced

1 cup uncooked rice

1 can cannellini beans

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon chopped, fresh thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot.

Cook on low 8-9 hrs, or high 4-5 hrs.

Letter from Santa

This is such a cute idea from FARE, I had to share! It's a letter from Santa to a child with food allergies that you can personalize.  I'm printing one for Cody now.

http://blog.foodallergy.org/2013/12/06/a-letter-from-santa-to-your-child-with-food-allergies/

Allergy Friendly Chocolate Cookies with Peppermint Icing

I saved my favorite holiday cookies for last. I can't think of many things that go better together than chocolate and peppermint! I started making these before Cody came along and adapted them to make them allergy friendly.

You'll need crushed candy cane for this recipe. TruJoy Sweets makes a good one that is allergy friendly.

This will probably be my last post for the year. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

See you back here in 2014!

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.

Chocolate cookies with peppermint icing

Cookies
1 1/2 cup oat flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/4 cup applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing
I use this recipe: "Best White Icing Ever"

Use peppermint extract instead of vanilla, and I used pomegranate juice instead of water to make the icing a little pink.

Crushed allergy friendly candy canes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt.

In another bowl combine the shortening, applesauce and vanilla.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients.

Roll dough into one inch balls, place on a prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly.

Bake 8 -10 minutes.

Let cool completely and use a knife to spread the icing on each cookie.

Sprinkle crushed candy canes over the top.

Makes about 20 cookies.

Allergy Friendly Ginger Cookies

As promised here's another recipe for holiday treats. We all love these and Cody asks for them all the time!

The first time I made these, I had another one of my baking misadventures. I love using parchment paper. It makes baking so much easier. I use it to line baking sheets and to roll out dough, but this time I accidentally used wax paper instead of parchment paper on the baking sheet. Not good! I knew something was wrong when it smelled like the kitchen was on fire. I opened the oven and it was full of smoke. Luckily nothing was on fire, but it made for a smelly kitchen and most sad of all is that the cookies had to be tossed. The moral of the story is, don't confuse wax paper with parchment paper!

Enjoy!

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.

Ginger cookies

2 cups oat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons fresh, grated ginger

1/4 cup molasses

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In another bowl mix the remaining ingredients.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients. 

Place the dough on a surface with parchment or wax paper and roll out using a rolling pin.

Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes.

Place on a prepared baking sheet.

Bake 8-10 min only. Don't overcook. These cookies will harden as they cool.

Let cool and decorate with the icing.

Here's the link to the recipe I use for "Best White Icing Ever".

To make drop cookies using maple syrup instead of sugar:

Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups

Replace sugar with maple syrup

Don't add water.

Combine ingredients and place spoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheet. 

Cook as directed above.

Allergy Friendly Caramel Apple Pie

Hi, I'm back!

I wore myself out with all of the Thanksgiving recipes, so I took a little break. Below is a picture of Cody at the table with our top 8 allergen free Thanksgiving meal. We had a great day and it made me feel good to know Cody could try everything I made, even if he didn't like it. :) 

I am just going to post a few recipes for holiday treats I wanted to try.

The first is apple pie. Apple pie is my husband 's favorite, so I wanted to come up with a good one. Plus I really wanted to use some of that great caramel I made and posted about earlier. He thinks this came out delicious and so do I. So far Cody will only try the topping. He didn't spit it out, so that's a good sign!

Enjoy!

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.

Caramel Apple Pie

Pie Crust

1 cup oat flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chilled vegetable shortening (I like Spectrum Organic shortening)

4 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling

10 apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons oat flour

1/2 cup caramel (click here for link to recipe and my substitutions for ingredients)

Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup oat flour

1/4 cup shortening 

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Crust

In a food processor, combine the flours and salt until well blended.

Chop the chilled shortening into pieces, add to the food processor and blend until you have small clumps (like breadcrumbs).

Slowly add the cold water 1 tablespoon at a time until a ball starts to form.

Test by pinching some of the dough between you fingers. If it stays together it's ready.

Place the dough in the pie pan and use your fingertips to press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

Filling

In a large pot combine the apples and other filling ingredients (except caramel). Stir until apples are coated.

Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are softened.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Melt the caramel (if not already melted) in a small saucepan.

Stir caramel into the apple mixture.

Topping

Put all of the topping ingredients in a food processor and pulse until just combined.

Pour apple filling into the pie crust and sprinkle topping over the apples.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for another 30 - 40 minutes until topping and crust are golden brown.