Oven Baked Bean and Cheese Taquitos- Vegan, Wheat, and Soy Free

  This is such a simple recipe that I debated for a long time if I should even post it. It's sort of like posting a recipe for cereal. But these were so tasty and I did learn one little trick (adding oil to the tops so they don't crack right open) so I decided to post it anyway.
  Also, at Central Market they have an enormous bulk foods section (I mean bulk like you scoop it from bins into bags, not bulk like Costco size stuff), including instant soup mixes, a lot of which, like the corn chowder and split pea, are free of dairy, wheat, rice, soy, etc. etc. Last time we were there we found "Instant Refried Beans" which sounded weird but was Jack-friendly so we bought them. OMG they were amazing! But you can make your own 'refried' beans, I'll include my recipe, or buy pre-made vegan refried beans.
  These were crispy enough for my 17 month old and 3 year old to eat without them falling apart, so that was a total plus.
  Anyway, here goes!

Vegan Baked Bean and Cheese Taquitos

We served ours with chipotle lime sunflower sour cream. Mmm!

12 small corn tortillas
1 cup (or so) vegan refried beans*
1/2 cup Daiya Pepper Jack or Cheddar cheese shreds
1 Tbl olive oil

Preheat oven to 400.
Wet a paper towel and squeeze out most of the water. Wrap 2-3 tortillas at a time in the damp paper towel and microwave for 15-20 seconds. On a flat surface, plop about a tablespoon of beans onto one half of a warmed tortilla and minimally spread it. You don't want it to go all the way to the edges but you also don't want a big ball of beans. Sprinkle with a big pinch of cheese shreds and roll the tortilla up, starting with the bean side. Lay the taquito on a cookie sheet with the free edge down. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
Lightly brush the tops with olive oil.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the tops begin to turn golden brown.
Roll them over so now the free edge is up (though it shouldn't try to unroll anymore) and brush again with olive oil. Return to oven for another 8-10 minutes or so.

*"Refried" Black Beans
1 can black beans, drained
1 can garbonzo beans, drained
1 Tbl Earth Balance Soy Free buttery Spread
1 tsp ground cummin
1 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp salt

In a medium saucepan, heat beans. Remove from heat. Add butter and seasonings and stir well. Using a potato masher, mash to desired consistency. I prefer some larger pieces of beans in mine so I don't use a food processor, but you could use one if you like smooth beans.

Quinoa and Black Bean "Taco" Burgers - Wheat and Soy Free and Vegan

 When I set out to make these I was sort of picturing something like a flat taco flavored falafel eaten in a tortilla with shredded lettuce and other taco toppings. Well it didn't quite work like that, what I ended up making were black bean/quinoa burgers that were flavored spectacularly and topped with Daiya pepper jack shreds and a (now Jack friendly) dairy free chipotle sour cream that was absolutely fantastic. These would have been great topped with fresh salsa and shredded lettuce also, and we certainly will be making these again.

Vegan Quinoa and Black Bean Taco Burgers

2 cups cooked quinoa (cooked in vegetable broth instead of water)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, diced
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbl chili powder
1/4 tsp oregeno
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup Daiya Pepper Jack Shreds (plus more for topping, optional)
2 Tbl ground flax meal
3 Tbl cold water

In a medium skillet, heat olive oil. Saute onion, bell pepper, and garlic until onion is transparent and bell pepper begins to lose it's vibrant green color, about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a measuring cup or ramekin, mix flax meal and cold water and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mash black beans with a fork or potato masher. It's not necessary to smash up every one but get a good amount of them smooshed. Stir in quinoa, sauted onion mixture, seasonings, Daiya cheese shreds, and flax gel, making sure to evenly mix everything. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.
Heat a griddle to 375. Form dough into ping pong size balls and them flatten to form patties. Grill about 5 minutes on each side.

Serve with 1 Tbl Sunflower Seed Sour Cream mixed with 1/4 tsp chipotle powder and 1 tsp lime juice.

Sunflower Seed Sour Cream

3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (you can use roasted unsalted seeds, the flavor will be a tad nuttier though)
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder

Blend until completely smooth (if you have a Blentec, the "Sauces" button works perfectly for this.) Keep refrgerated in a tightly sealed container for up to a week.

Bacon Cheeseburger Macaroni - Wheat, Dairy, and Soy Free

  So let me preface this post by saying that I have tried for quite some time to find a reasonable tasting 'cheese' sauce to make vegan macaroni and cheese. I've found recipes calling for tofu, I've found recipes calling for heaps of nutritional yeast flakes and flour, I've found recipes that call for copious amounts of mustard and it all tastes terrible. And even those in which the flavor is at least decent, it's nothing like cheese.
  Today I was making lunch for the boys and this just came to me. It's so simple... this recipe surely must already exist but if it does I have never come across it in all my vegan cheese searches. AND IT ACTUALLY TASTED LIKE CHEESE!

 I knew I had to do something with it this very night and so I settled on a version of one of Chris and my favorite dishes from our past life: Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper. How can you go wrong with ground meat, noodles, and cheese??

Bacon Cheeseburger Macaroni



1 small white onion, chopped
1 Tbl olive oil
1 lb lean ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced
a few dashes of Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce (optional)
3/4 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
3 Tbl Soy Free Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 cup Daiya Cheddar Shreds (plus more for topping)
1 tsp sea salt
a dash of turmeric (optional, mainly just for color)
3 tsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 Tbl cornstarch + 2 Tbl cold water, mixed until there are no lumps
12 oz cooked corn pasta elbows, spirals, or shells
2 slices Food For Life White Rye bread
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 slices turkey bacon, sliced into pieces

Pre Heat oven to 350.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add onions and garlic and saute until onion is transparent, about 3 minutes. Add turkey and Worcestershire sauce, if using, and brown about 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain if excess fluid remains, though with lean turkey there really shouldn't be much.
Meanwhile in a small sauce pan, heat butter and almond milk over medium heat until steaming and butter is completely melted. Add Daiya and stir frequently until shreds are almost all melted. Add salt, turmeric, and nutritional yeast and stir well. Slowly stir in cornstarch/water mixture and continue to stir until cheese sauce has thickened.
Pour the cheese sauce into the skillet and stir until the turkey and cheese are mixed well. Add pasta and toss to coat everything evenly.
Pour the pasta mixture into a large casserole dish. Set aside.
In a blender or food processor, process bread slices and salt into bread crumbs. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of pasta mixture, then top with a small handful of Daiya Cheddar Shreds and turkey bacon pieces.
Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until turkey bacon is crisp and bread crumbs are toasted. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

Go Raw Super Cookies

 Sorry, this is not a recipe. Yesterday while in Central Market, I was wandering down an isle and saw an area I'd never seen before: the raw food section. Now while I personally think that raw is best, (obviously raw foods contain more nutrients, fiber, and enzymes than cooked foods) we do not actively strive to eat a mostly raw diet or anything because frankly it seems super daunting and all I imagine is carrot sticks and salads. Well, and yummy green smoothies, but I digress.
 So as I'm just casually looking at the raw food area, I see something called "Super Cookies". There were roughly 10 different flavors (Super Chips, too!). What really caught my eye was that they posted the ingredient list in large print right on the front of the package. That's bold and screams to me "We're PROUD of this stuff." There's no hard to pronounce chemical preservatives, no funky fillers that make you scratch your head pondering their presence (like the time we found milk as an ingredient in plain pre-cooked chicken breast strips...wtf?). Just simple organic ingredients, and thankfully no rice, or oat in most flavors.
 But the real question is, how do they taste!? We tried the Masala Chai flavored cookies and first of all, these little things are only about the size of a quarter, and the serving size listed on the package is 18 pieces, yikes! So for my $6 there's really only 3 servings, but thankfully Jack is not interested in eating that much of anything all at once. They taste sweet but not cloyingly so, nowhere near it. They have a spicy, earthy flavor. They are crispy, but both boys seemed not to be put off by that in the least. I'd say that these were a big hit. And another MAJOR plus... they don't crumble, there are no crumbs coming off these babies!
 So for a quick healthy snack that packs a major nutritional punch and that fits in the diaper bag easily and isn't messy, these are well worth the semi-ridiculous price tag, in my opinion. I'm sold!!

Arepas with Chipotle Lime Sauce-Vegan, Soy, Wheat, and Gluten Free

It's Meatless Monday! Arepas is a dish made from cornmeal popular in Columbia. I found a version of this recipe posted on Meatless Monday's FB page and made these but I had to make a lot of substitutions. These were REALLY good. Chris said it's his favorite Meatless Monday recipe so far, however, I don't think these turned out like arepas are really supposed to be. I looked at pictures online and some look almost like pitas, though some looked like ours did as well. Who the heck knows, who cares! All I know is these were yummy!

The chipotle lime sauce was super good on top, but it uses Soy Free Vegenaise which contains rice syrup. Chris and I are just trying to finish off the big container of it we bought before we found out it was not Jack safe.

Vegan Arepas

1 cup cornmeal (grits work in a pinch, it just needs longer to sit and soften up)
1/2 cup Daiya Cheddar Cheese shreds
2 tsp sea salt
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 Tbl soy free Earth Balance buttery spread
1/2 cup corn kernals
1 tsp dried cilantro
a dash of smoked chipotle chile powder (optional)
*1/2 cup mashed potato flakes
3 Tbl peanut or other neutral oil for frying

In a bowl mix cornmeal, daiya, and salt. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat almond milk on medium-low heat. Once it begins to steam (about 3 minutes), add Earth Balance and allow to melt. Slowly stir in cornmeal mixture and stir until it's pretty thick, 1-2 minutes. Fold in corn, cilantro, and chipotle powder. Allow it to sit about 15 minutes. *If after 15 minutes the mixture is still to thin to be able to roll into balls, add mashed potato flakes.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.
Roll arepas dough into ping pong ball size balls and then flatten. Fry them a few at a time for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Daiya has a tendency to burn easily so keep your eye on them!
Remove to a paper towel lined plate to absord excess oil. Serve alone or chipotle lime sauce drizzled on top!

Chipotle Lime Sauce (CONTAINS RICE)

3 Tbl Soy Free Vegenaise
1 Tbl fresh lime juice
1 tsp smoked chipotle chile powder

Stir all ingredients together. That's it!

Tamale Pie -Dairy, Egg, Wheat, Soy Free

Ok, so don't judge tamale pie on it's lack of photogenicity (yep, I looked it up and that's a real word)! It may not have great presentation but it was very easy and tasted great.
I thought I had enough cornmeal but ended up being about 1/4 of a cup short so I added corn flour and a Tbl of ground flax to make up for it, but you could definitely just use 1 cup of cornmeal.

Tamale Pie

Filling
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbl olive oil (plus some to grease dish)
1 lb ground turkey
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 tsp salt
a few cracks of fresh ground pepper
1 tsp chili powder (or more... I sort of over did it in our recipe so I made a more conservative estimate of how much might be better)
Crust
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 Tbl flax meal
1/4 cup corn flour
4 cups water, divided
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
Shredded Daiya cheddar (optional)

Pre heat oven to 350.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic and saute until onion is just tender. Add turkey and brown, being sure to break it apart into small bits. Once browned, add tomato, salt and pepper, and chili powder and stir well. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, add 3 cups water, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp chili powder. Bring to a boil. In a bowl or measuring cup, mix cornmeal, corn flour and flax and slowly stir in 1 cup of water until there are no lumps. Whisk the cornmeal mixture into the boiling water. Stir continuously for 5 minutes. The mixture will really thicken up, so bring your muscles! Cover and set aside.

Grease a casserole dish with olive oil. Pour half of the cornmeal mixture into the dish and spread it evenly across the bottom and partway up the sides. Place the casserole dish in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour in the meat mixture, then cover the top with the rest of the cornmeal mixture. I used a spatula lightly oiled with olive oil to spread the top. It does not have to completely cover the top but give it the ol' college try.

Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle with Daiya cheddar and return to the oven for another 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Crispy Quinoa Tots - Vegan, Wheat/Gluten Free

 It's Meatless Monday! I was all set to make quinoa burgers following a version of this recipe from Including Cake, but I just really wasn't feeling it since we had turkey burgers last night. Plus once I saw how nicely the ...uh... dough? allowed itself to be molded, I just HAD to try to make tots. I'm so glad I did!
 While there's nothing necessarily un-allergy friendly about most tater tots, these are much healthier and were so yummy, and I actually had fun making them. They came out perfectly, crisp on the outside but soft and yummy on the inside. Jack and Ben both really enjoyed these, and I think they would very easily freeze to be cooked later. Also, I fried these in our Presto Cool Daddy fryer and peanut oil, but you could probably bake these or pan fry them in olive, peanut, or corn oil. Feel free to leave out the seasonings (except salt!) for a more traditional 'potato-tot' flavor, but the flavor of these was very subtle.

*For those with potato allergies, you can substitute corn starch, arrowroot, tapioca flour, or other starches for the potato starch to make these tots completely potato free.

Crispy Quinoa Tots

2 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 rounded Tbs flax meal
dash of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce (optional)
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sea salt
4 Tbs potato starch*
3 Tbl corn or olive oil if pan frying


If using a fryer, preheat to 375. (If pan frying, heat oil in a large skillet on medium high heat when you are about 3/4 of the way done shaping your tots so the oil doesn't burn but is hot by the time you are ready.)
In a medium/large bowl, mash chickpeas with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. If you cooked the quinoa immediately before starting this process as I did and it's still hot, leave it all to sit until mostly cool. Shape 1/2 Tbs at a time into cylinder shape by rolling them into balls and then pinching the top and bottom slightly and pressing in the sides a little. No need to get fancy unless you are a perfectionist or trying to impress someone ;)
If using fryer, fry in two batches for about 4 minutes each, until golden brown. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. If pan frying, add 1/4 of the tots at a time and roll them in the oil so they brown evenly on all sides. Remove to a paper towel lined plate.

Dinner Gravy- Wheat/Gluten, Dairy and Soy Free and Vegan

If you like onions, this is the gravy for you! I was making turkey burgers for dinner tonight, but since wheat free buns generally contain rice flour and taste sort of awful, we were just going to eat them without buns. I decided to try to find a gravy recipe so we could eat them sort of like Salisbury Steak but every recipe I found for vegan gravy contained soy or loads of mushrooms (which I'm not against, we just didn't have any). So I decided to try my hand at just making a gravy and managed to impress my husband, and he can be a tough sell. This is going to become something we make often because it tasted great on the burger patties and mashed potatoes tonight and I bet it would be super good on meatloaf, boiled potatoes or even on steamed veggies.

Onion Gravy

1 medium onion, diced
1 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tsp sea salt
several cracks of fresh pepper
2 Tbl cornstarch mixed with about 4 Tbl cold water

In a small saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until fragrant and onion is translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add vegetable stock, salt, pepper, and bring to a boil. Stirring frequently, allow mixture to cook down for about 7 minutes. Place mixture in blender and pulse several times until onion is mostly pureed (this is optional, if you don't mind the texture you can leave the onion as is). Pour mixture back into pan and whish in cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil, stirring contantly until almost desired thickness, gravy will thicken slightly as it cools.

Eat Like Jack For a Day!

National Eosinophilic Awareness Week is May 13th-19th this year! I have challenged my friends and family to try to eat like Jack for just one day (May 14th), to get a glimpse into what will likely be a life long struggle for Jack, and to help raise awareness, compassion, and understanding for all those individuals affected by Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders (EGIDs). Scroll to the bottom of this page to learn more about EGIDs.

 Now it's not enough to just avoid milk, eggs, wheat, soy, rice, oats, apples, coconut, beef, pork, and chicken. Nope, You also have to read labels. That favorite pasta sauce of yours? I can almost guarantee it has soy in it. Mmmm, turkey bratwurst! But wait... it's wrapped in pork casing. Alright then, well I'll just have Corn Pops in Almond Milk....ah, but Corn Pops are manufactured on equipment with items containing wheat, milk, and soy and some almond and hemp milks contains rice syrup. By the way, anything containing 'vegetable' oil almost surely contains soy. What the heck, WHAT CAN YOU EAT?!
Well without having everyone go out  to specialty stores and buy ingredients they probably will never use again (like Daiya Cheese, Nutritional Yeast Flakes, or Wheat Free bread), here's a list of things to get you started. Every time you think "There's nothing to eat!" remember that for you, it's just today. For people with EGIDs, this feeling never really goes away.

Again, make sure to read labels!

Oscar Mayer turkey bacon
Nathan's turkey hot dogs
Turkey Spam
Hormel Turkey Pepperoni
Butterball turkey cutlets and ground turkey
Jenni-O ground turkey and ground turkey breakfast sausage (which is good in pasta sauce)
non-breaded fish fillets
Zatarain's Southern Fish-Fri (I recommend this on fish, or on turkey cutlets cut into nugget sized pieces!)
Slap Yo Mama! spicy fish-fry
Almond Breeze almond yogurt
Almond Breeze or Silk almond milk
quinoa
barley
lentils and beans of all kinds
fruits other than apples
all veggies (try roasting fresh green beans with a little olive oil and garlic salt for 20 mins at 400 degrees, yummy!)
Ghirardelli Twilight Delight dark chocolate
cocoa powder
Corn chips such as Fritos or corn tortilla chips (read labels!)
some corn tortillas
some hummus, or make your own!
non battered french fries (no seasoned curlies, sorry!)
some brands of hashbrowns
grits/polenta
Kirkland, Bertolli, Classico pasta sauces (other than those containing cheese)
corn or corn/quinoa pasta
vegetable broth (read labels)
Bush's Grillin' Beans in Southern Pit BBQ, Bourbon and Brown Sugar, and Steakhouse Recipe
Idaho instant mashed potato flakes (prepared with just water and salt, or vegetable broth)
Corn Chex, regular Kix, Honey Kix and Berry Blast Kix, some corn flakes maybe

Condiments, Seasonings, Etc: French's (and some other) mustards, Heinz ketchup, pickle relish, some syrups (butter flavored ones can contain milk), Stubb's bbq sauce, honey, McCormick Cocktail sauce, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, A1 Steak Sauce, some Italian or vinaigrette salad dressing, sugar and spices, herbs, and extracts (no taco seasonings or chili starters, but you can make your own)

I will add more as I think of things that are available at a typical grocery store, and you can always browse around this blog to find ideas. You can also search for vegan, wheat, rice, oat and soy free recipes online if you are feeling adventurous! (You don't have to eat vegan, you can eat turkey or fish, but if it's vegan you can be sure it also doesn't contain egg or milk or hidden meat by products). Thank you SO MUCH for participating!!!


Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders are rare allergic diseases in which an individuals immune system attacks specific parts of the digestive tract in reaction to food proteins. A difficult part about EGIDs is that those affected can literally be allergic to anything, and generally children affected by EGIDs have multiple allergies. Eosinophils are white blood cells that usually help your body fight infection. In typical food allergies, the body mistakes certain food proteins for harmful intruders and attacks them. This causes runny noses, itchy eyes, swelling of tongue and lips, and even breathing trouble. But with EGIDs, the attacks occur, not systemically throughout the body, but in one specific place. Each of the diseases are named after the area affected:

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE)- the esophagus
Eosinophilic Gastritis (EG)- the stomach
Eosinophilic Enteritis (EE)- the small intestine
Eosinophilic Colitis (EC)- the large intestine

The effect of having large numbers of eosinophils present is chronic inflammation, pain, and eventual scarring and atrophy of healthy tissue. When not aggressively treated, EGIDs can lead to malnutrition, growth restriction, and in some cases eventual loss of ability to eat by mouth.

Treatment for EGIDs includes swallowed topical steroids, allergy and reflux medications, avoidance diet (avoiding the specific things you are allergic to. It is not rare for kids to have only 1 or 2 'safe' foods), elemental diet (removing all foods and relying soley on a special formula for nutrition), NG and G tubes (tubes that put liquid foods directly into your stomach or intestines), as well as routine eondoscopies and biopsies done under general anesthesia which are invasive and generally no fun.

To find out more about EGIDs and what you can do to help, please visit Apfed.org and CUREDfoundation.org.

Green Bean and Portobello Saute

The green bean and portobello saute is a Rachel Ray recipe that I did not have to adjust, a rare occurrence! I adjusted it anyways, but I didn't HAVE to, lol. This is a good vegan side dish and a great way to use up the rest of the green beans we got from the Farmer's Market the other day and the portobellos that were just calling my name at the grocery store this morning.

Green Bean and Portobello Saute

1 1/4 lbs green beans, trimmed and cut in half 
coarse salt to taste
2 cups water
2 Tbl olive oil
1 Tbl Earth Balance soy free butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 portobello caps, sliced and halved
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 clove minced garlic
several cracks of freshly ground black pepper

In a deep skillet, bring salted water to a boil. Carefully add green beans and boil about 6-8 minutes. Drain and remove green beans, set aside. Completely dry pan with paper towels, then return to medium high head, add oil and butter. Once heated, add onion and garlic and saute 2-3 minutes. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook another 3-5 minutes. Stir in green beans and vegetable stock. Cook 2 more minutes to heat everything through and cook down some of the vegetable stock, serve.

Cookie Dough Hummus - Vegan, Wheat Free, and Deeelicious!

Close your eyes and imagine chocolate chip cookie dough, will you? The perfect balance of sweet and salty, crunchy and soft, awesome and delicious. But then there's the wheat, butter, eggs, milk chocolate part... yeah, super bummer.

We recently found a Bob's Red Mill chocolate chip cookie mix that, once baked is pretty darn good, but the dough is icky icky icky. Can't a girl just get some cookie dough?!

Enter: Cookie Dough Hummus! Whoa, who the heck woulda thought? It's raw, it's vegan, it's no bake, and it only takes (drum roll please....) 5 minutes to make!

Cookie Dough Hummus

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed thoroughly
1/4 cup cashew butter (or almond or peanut butter if you don't have cashew and need to try this recipe tonight and can't wait to run to the store... not that anyone would do that or anything)
1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup agave nectar (more if desired)
1 Tbl organic cane sugar
3 Tbs flax meal (finely ground flax seed)
1 Tbs vanilla extract
dash of sea salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips (such as Enjoy Life brand)

Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor and blend until as smooth as possible. Scoop it into a large bowl, fold in chocolate chips, and serve!! This might be yummy on slices of apple, we just ate it with a spoon, but it's very rich. A little goes a long way!