Banana Bread

I have found the most delicious banana bread recipe! Both of my boys can eat it with all of their many food allergies AND I really like it too.

I found the recipe on-line. I only altered it a little. The recipe is so flexible to accommodate several allergy needs. First I will give the recipe as I found it online and then I'll give the exact recipe that I used.

Joy’s Banana Bread

3/4 cup sugar (OR 1 tsp stevia)
1/2 cup butter, margarine or oil
2 eggs (OR 3 tsp egg replacer mixed with 4 TB water OR an extra banana)
1 cup mashed bananas with 1 tsp baking soda mixed in (usually I do 2 bananas and skip the baking soda step, but my sister says it makes a difference)
2 Tb milk (cow, soy, rice)
1 tsp baking powder (OR 1/4 tsp baking soda mixed with 1/2 tsp of lemon juice)
1 3/4 cup flour (wh. or br. wheat, spelt, or rice flour OR my favorite mix: 1 cup br. rice flour, 2/3 cup chickpea flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour – this mix can be used in place of wheat in almost all recipes)
pinch of salt

Bake at 350 degrees. 50 minutes for wheat, 45 minutes for spelt, 40 minutes for rice/chickpea/tapioca flours.

Here's what I did:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Fleischmann's unsalted margarine (dairy free)
1 cup bananas (3) plus 1 extra banana in place of egg
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. rice milk
1 tsp. baking powder
1 3/4 cup rice flour

The bread took about 65 minutes to bake, rather than the 40 minutes the recipe called for, but it is SO moist and... I don't think I've tasted an allergy friendly recipe that I liked so much. We will definitely have fun eating this bread again and again!

An Allergy Update

There have been lots of reasons to celebrate in our household these past few weeks. There have been a couple of disappointments too, but that's okay.

Adam is thriving in more ways than we could ever imagine. Not only is he crawling, but pulling himself up, talking, and eating ALL the time! What is he eating you ask? WHEAT, SOY and WATERMELON!!! Adam is NOT allergic to either of them, which now gives us SO many options that did not exist before. He will even have a REAL birthday cake with REAL frosting on his birthday. (The cake will not have nuts, eggs, dairy, etc..., but it will still be real, compared to our options before now.)

Jason and I are so excited. Adam's list of non allergy foods is growing. He now can eat: bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches, grapes, chicken, turkey, rice, corn, potato, wheat and soy! This week we're experimenting with oats. At this very moment Adam is eating Cheerios! Hopefully we see no reactions.

Our sad news-We decided to reintroduce Owen to wheat at the same time we introduced it to Adam. Unfortunately Owen is still allergic and DEFINITELY has affects from it. Poor Owen. My challenge now is to keep wheat in Adam's diet, but not Owen's. This would be easy if Owen had never had crackers, breads, and cookies before, but he has and LOVES them. He still doesn't understand they make him sick.

I don't want to dwell on the not so fun stuff. So we'll just focus on the fact that Adam is having so much fun with wheat!

Peanut Butter Balls

Tuesday I was in need of a "no baking required" dessert that Owen can eat. Remembering a delicious treat from my past I began to search for peanut butter ball recipes online. All that I found had either wheat or dairy in them. That is until I found these!
Owen LOVED helping me make them. The only thing I would have changed was the type of peanut butter I used. I used Jiff with 33% less sugar, and it caused the peanut butter balls to be REALLY sticky and not harden as well, but they were still delicious. I didn't have any non dairy chocolate, so we didn't dip them in chocolate, but they were delicious without it! Here is the recipe. The picture and recipe are from Little Joys website.



For peanut butter balls:
18 oz. smooth peanut butter
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 1/3 cups ground rolled oats
12 Tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (We used non dairy margarine.)



For chocolate coating:
12 oz. bag chocolate chips (We'll use non dairy chocolate chips.)
2 Tablespoons butter (We'll use non dairy margarine.)


Line a cookie sheet with parchment or waxed paper. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until evenly combined. Scoop the peanut butter mixture by the rounded teaspoon and form into 1-inch balls, arranging the balls on the parchment-lined sheet. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or until very firm. The best way to test is to pick one up, bring it close to your mouth and bite it in half. It shouldn't be at all squishy. Leather hard, if you’re a ceramicist.

If you desire chocolate covering your peanut butter, pour the chocolate chips and butter in microwaveable bowl (or double boiler). Melt the chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally, until they’re smooth and creamy. Coat the balls in chocolate — you can carefully pour it over top of the balls, or you can do what I did and drop one at a time into the bowl, spin it around or spoon chocolate on top until it’s coated, then lift it out with a fork, tapping the fork on the inside of the bowl a few times to let some of the excess chocolate drip off. Replace the balls on the tray and refrigerate again until chocolate is set.



Makes about 48. Probably more if you don’t eat any out of the bowl.

Serving suggestions: These would be fun for kids to make, to give away at holidays, or for girlie bridal and baby showers. These are also really good for breakfast.


I can't wait to make these again. Owen was SO excited!!! They will make a great holiday give away that Owen can help make! Perhaps someday Adam will grow out of his oats, peanut and soy allergies and be able to eat them too.

Peanut butter balls are wheat and dairy free!

Allergy Friendly Birthday Party Preparations

Adam's birthday is in three weeks. I can't believe he's turning 1 year old. Lots of family and several cousins will be here celebrating the event with us. Plans have been underway for months now. I finally understand why Heavenly Father blessed me with the talent of planning and organizing things. In the past three months I have learned that EVERYTHING must be planned out in great detail when dealing with kids with food allergies. A simple trip to the mall can turn into a nightmare when it's time to eat if I haven't packed lunches for everyone. Food court foods are off limits. My husband and I wanted to go out to eat as a family this week. Adam is eating table food now. Running down the list of restaurants that we are familiar with in town, we realized that there is not one place that can provide Adam with an allergy safe balanced meal. Very few if any permit people to bring in their own food. Family gatherings are now very stressful with buffets of dangerous foods, plates and drinks left out everywhere... Adam is now on the move, putting everything in his mouth. Despite these challenges, we're managing quite well.

Adam's birthday party is the biggest challenge I'm facing right now. It is a soccer ball birthday party. We are expecting a crowd of at least 30 people ranging in age from newborn to 83 years old. There will be food, drinks, etc... everywhere. I've decided to make sure all of the food is allergy friendly for both Adam and Owen. Luckily they can both eat plain potato chips and tortilla chips (without soy bean oil). Plain popcorn and an allergy friendly caramel corn are safe too (not necessarily for a 1 year old, but if he accidentally eats a piece left on the floor, it won't cause an allergic reaction). For drinks I was able to find bottled water decorated with sports balls. The bottles are even shaped like balls.

Last week Adam successfully ate Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Dreams Chocolate Cake without any allergic reaction. Besides being gluten free it is peanut free, dairy free, egg free, nut free, and soy free. He LOVED it! We have a cake AND a boy who's not allergic to cocoa!

Unfortunately this week Adam had an unsuccessful trial with soy. Unless anyone has information as to where I can find a soy free, dairy free margarine, the poor boy will not be able to have decorative frosting on his cake. Although I do have a glaze recipe that I may use on his cupcake.

My biggest success lies in the goodie bags. Eleven goodie bags needed filling. There will be six girls, four boys, and a baby. All of the bags are allergy friendly! Just look at the contents:

For the Baby: For all of the kids:

For the boys:For the girls:
It may seem a bit overboard to make sure the goodie bags are allergy proof too, but chances are the children will open them before they leave the house. If there is food in them that Owen and/or Adam can't have and they see it, they'll wonder where theirs is. I'd like to avoid this. The second threat is that if the goodie bag were to have treats that my boys can't have, and one were left lying around somewhere, leave it to one of them to find the bag, empty the contents, and start chowing down. This way all is safe for everyone. I'd be surprised if the kids don't like the contents of their bag.

When I went to one of my friend's children's parties my friend handed out goodie bags to adults and/or families too. I LOVED this idea. Obviously parents go to a lot of trouble finding a gift for your child, bringing them to the party, etc... It will be so nice to have a way to say thank you right at the party. My friend's goodie bags were filled with cookies. Obviously we won't be doing that, but I did come up with another idea. Instead of cookies, everyone will be receiving a 1 year portrait of Adam. Over 75% of the people coming to this party are family, so they'll love an updated photo (especially since the last one they received was when he was 6 weeks old). Those who don't make it to the party will receive the portrait in the mail with a "We missed you!" card.

Here's a sneak peak at the unedited photo taken by photographer Bill Lockhart:

It should be a fun birthday party don't you think? At least in the way of goodie bags and thank yous. More details about the party will be posted after the big event! I can't wait! It truly is amazing that we've all made it through this first year. There are definitely reasons to celebrate!!!

Bradley's Birthday Party

My best friend's son is turning 1 year old next month. Our entire family is invited to the big birthday bash. This will be the first real party that we've been invited to since both boys have been diagnosed with food allergies and are eating solid foods. I am determined to make this a good experience for all of us. A birthday party that's not fun is no birthday party at all!

Knowing that both boys are so young and have such limited understanding of their allergies I have been working hard to avoid as many problems as possible. Luckily, it's my best friend who's throwing the party. She's super supportive and cheering me on the whole way. I don't know what I'd do without her!

The birthday party theme is Sesame Street. There will be hot dogs and hamburgers, chips, a few other sides, and cake and ice cream. Still VERY new at all of this stuff I have been working hard to find alternative food for the boys that they will eat. It's one thing to find an alternative, but another to have them actually like it. Luckily, I've been successful at both!

First the main meal. Applegate Farms makes wonderful turkey hot dogs! Other substitutes we have tried tasted awful, but all of us like these! They are gluten free, dairy free, beef free, pork free, and well free of a lot of stuff! Child II LOVES them. Child I is leary but will deal with it. As for chips-Lays Plain Potato Chips are doing the job! The oil is safe for both kids and the only other ingredients are potatoes and salt. Most importantly the both boys love them.

Dessert was a little bit trickier but I've found a solution. Bradley is having a Sesame Street Birthday Cake. Child I will DEFINITELY want some, especially if it has Elmo on it. So after asking my best friend if it's okay, I went to the Wilton website and found an Elmo cupcake design and decorations. Having some cake decorating experience, I can definitely pull this off! Last night I was able to find the decorations, frosting colors, and Elmo cupcake holders at A.C. Moore Crafts. Child I LOVES cupcakes. If he sees me making them and decorating them, he'll be sure to want one at the party, instead of the cake.

The last challenge was finding a cake mix and frosting that both boys can eat. I'm still working on the frosting, but do have one to two options if I HAVE to use them. Believe me when I come up with my final choice, I'll be sure to post it.

After attempting to make my own gluten free, peanut free, dairy free, egg free, soy free cake and not succeeding I've decided to use Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Dreams Chocolate Cake Mix. Child I loves it and I honestly think it tastes quite good myself. The best part about this mix is that the result actually looks like a cake!

As for ice cream-there is a brand, All Natural So Delicious that makes coconut milk icecream and yogurt that is dairy free, gluten free, and soy free. Both boys LOVE the yogurt. I have no doubt that they'll enjoy the ice cream too. And for the record, I've tasted the yogurt myself and absolutely LOVE it! It's too bad it's so expensive or else we'd buy more.

I'm getting really excited about Bradley's birthday party. The boys will have a fun time despite their food allergies. Best of all they'll be eating what everyone else is eating, just a safer version of it! I'm noticing that birthday parties or parties in general that the boys are invited to will be a lot of work for me, but I know in the long run it will be worth it. Hopefully every parent will be as supportive as my best friend is! (Chances are slim I know, but I can dream right?)

The week after Bradley's birthday is Child II's birthday! Stay tuned for all of the wonderful plans for that party! We're going to have LOTS of fun!

Applesauce Muffins

I have been meaning to write a post, actually several posts for quite some time now. I'm hoping in the next few day I can write several and get caught up. Child II has another allergy appointment tomorrow with more testing. I have a long list of questions and concerns. Hopefully the doctor will take me seriously. Last time we were there he refused to believe that Child II actually was allergic to so many foods. But experimentation along with accidents have proven otherwise since our last visit.

Still very new at this I try to keep a running list of child II's allergies in my head, but sometimes I miss one. Last week was one of those times. Child II had not physically tasted or tried oranges before, nor did I remember him being tested for them. So I experimented with a Gerber Baby Food: Banana & Orange Medley. He vomited every time he had some. Although sadly I didn't recognize it as an allergy sign, I thought he was sick with something else. Sure enough when I spoke with the allergy office about his next appointment and mentioned I wanted him tested for oranges they confirmed that he had already been tested, and yes, Child II is very allergic to oranges. To say the least I felt like an awful Mommy that day.

Yesterday Child I asked if we could make "cupcakes." He thinks anything with a cupcake liner is a cupcake. Little did he know we were making GF Applesauce Muffins found on kraftfoods.com.
The muffins do have eggs and soy, but no gluten, nuts, or dairy. Child I LOVES them. Honestly I think they're okay, and definitely tolerable with powdered sugar on top, but I'd love to find a better recipe both boys can eat.

Child II ate about 9 "cupcakes" yesterday, stealing one or two every chance he got. I didn't mind because he's such a picky eater. Whenever I can get him to eat, I let him eat all he wants. But on one occasion mid afternoon, while I was in the living room, Child I decided he was going to share one of his "cupcakes" with Child II. Child I called for me from the kitchen. As I walked through the play area and dining area I could smell vomit. All I saw were pieces of wrapper and crumbs on the floor. I had no clue how much muffin Child I gave Child II. Not to mention I had no clue how much Child II ate. But there he was sitting in a puddle of vomit. His clothes were drenched with it too.

I cleaned up what I could quickly, grabbed the Benedryl, and then called the doctor. Poor Child I didn't know what was going on. He thought he was being a great big brother by sharing his snack. I, on the other hand was really rattled by it all. This was the first experience where I hadn't given Child II the food he reacted to. It was the first time I realized how VERY hard this whole allergy thing is going to be. Some of it is completely out of my control.

Once things had settled down I talked very calmly and lovingly to my 2 1/2 year old little boy. I explained in as many was as I knew how that only Mommy and Daddy can give Child II food to eat. "Cupcakes" are yummy for Child I, but they make Child II very sick. Honestly in the end I think he actually understood. Today while eating his "cupcake" he reminded me that Child II couldn't have one because he would get sick.

Though Child II's reaction to the Applesauce Muffins was a negative experience. Child I and I always have fun making his "cupcakes." And now I have someone else who has become very protective of his little brother, just like Mommy. I think that will be a big help, even if he is just 2 1/2.

Peanut Butter & Jelly

I can't remember the last time my oldest son had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He was diagnosed with his allergies about two months ago, so it was definitely before that. It was my goal to make a bread that both of my boys could eat with their allergies. My first attempt was a failure. Rice flour recipes are so sensitive to water. I learned that when using too much, the entire loaf of bread caves as soon as it's out of the oven.

Yesterday was attempt two. There was still too much water but not enough to ruin the recipe completely. The second lesson I learned is to wait until the bread has completely cooled before cutting or breaking into it. At first glance my oldest son refused to eat the bread. But my youngest had his mouth open wide and absolutely loved it smiling the whole time.

Today I brought some of the bread for the youngest to snack on while we were in church. My oldest son found the container and to my surprise decided to take a bite. He loved it! In seconds the piece of bread was devoured. When he woke up from his nap today he saw peanut butter and jelly on the counter and asked for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I made it with my homemade bread and he ate it, enjoying every bite. I've never been so excited about peanut butter and jelly before, but knowing he had been asking for it for weeks... It was so worth the effort!

The recipe comes from The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread, by Bette Hagman. It is called New Allergy Rice Bread. The bread is gluten, egg, dairy, and soy free.

It uses the author's Featherlight Rice Flour Mix which includes:

1 Part Rice Flour
1 Part Tapioca Flour
1 Part Cornstarch
1 tsp. per cup Potato Flour

There are other ingredients as well, but that's the bulk of it. Can I just say I'm so excited my oldest son can still have fun eating one of his favorite meals: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!