Here's the bad news: both my husband and I have allergies and because of that, apparently our children each have a 70% chance of developing some sort of allergy. I'm an optimist at heart so I'm all about that 30%. Here's the good news: if any of my children has some sort of food allergy, they've come to the right house. I've been through a lot with my life-threatening allergies to nuts and fish and that makes me pretty well equipped to help others navigate those waters. For now, it appears that my oldest daughter and my son are allergy free. Phew!
Here's where I need help: my new little baby, now 8 weeks old, spits up all the time and is completely distressed by gastrointestinal issues. She's gaining weight beautifully, so I'm not concerned in that regard but I wonder if there's something in my diet causing her such agita. On Monday, I decided to give up dairy for a month and see if it has any impact on her. I've read that dairy proteins take 2 weeks to leave the body so I'm patiently waiting. But 'tis the season to be baking and, well, dairy free is new to me.
Baking Powder Biscuits with Apple - Look gross! Taste just okay. I'm a dairy-free rookie...
Today I looked in a food allergy cookbook called What's to Eat? The Milk-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free Food Allergy Cookbook, by Linda Marienhoff Coss. I picked up this book four years ago when my oldest daughter was 2 and a classmate in her preschool had egg and milk allergies. I did a lot of cooking with the class that year and referenced this book for recipes. This morning, my son and I decided to make Baking Powder Biscuits from that book and adapted the recipe to include cinnamon and pieces of apple. They don't look so appealing but they taste okay. Not great. There's plenty out there to eat that doesn't have butter or milk or cheese or yogurt, don't get me wrong. But I love to bake, and I love to cook with my kids so I'm looking for new great vegan recipes...
Wish us luck and please, send along any spectacular recipes.
In the meantime, here's the recipe that my son and I made this morning, adapted from the What's to Eat? cookbook:
Baking Powder Biscuits with Apple and Cinnamon
2 c flour (I used whole wheat)
1 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 c water
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 large apple, peeled and chopped into small pieces
Preheat oven to 450.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the wet ingredients and the chopped apple and combine well to form a dough. Knead dough 20 times on a floured board and pat down until it's 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 2 inch circles and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops are golden brown.