Dairy Free Rice Pudding

One of Eric's favorite things to eat was rice pudding.  He's gone without it for almost 4 years now.  But recently, I found a recipe to make it dairy free.

The ingredients:
2 cups of cooked jasmine rice
1 2/3 cups almond milk
1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

 Cook the jasmine rice as it says to on the bag.

After that is done setting up, add the rest of the ingredients.  Cook it for 18 minutes, stirring every 6 minutes. It should get thicker as it gets closer to being done.

This, my dear friends, is the finished result.  Sprinkled with some cinnamon of course.  :)  Eric says it tastes exactly how he remembers it.  I wouldn't have known how it tastes.  I've never had it!  I tried it, and it is really yummy.  

Make your own Almond Milk (-Kim-)

When Eric found out that he was allergic to dairy, it took a long while to find a different source of non-dairy goodness for his cereal and other things.  He finally came to the conclusion that Vanilla Almond Milk was his favorite.  He's been drinking that for about 6 months now.

I came across a recipe of sorts to make your own almond milk.  I had to try it.  I mean, seriously?  How awesome is that!?

Here's what you need:
Raw Almonds
5 cups of water
A cheesecloth

That's. It.

No, seriously.  Other than adding a teaspoon of vanilla to it, per Eric's request, that's all you need!

We bought a bag of almonds at Kroger.  They were near the produce section.

Measure out a cup of the almonds and put them in a covered dish of water.  Let them soak over night.  We left ours soak for almost 24 hours.  Oops, time slipped away from me!

 After their nice soak, drain them and rinse them off.

 Now, add 5 cups of filtered water to your blender and then add the nuts.  I noticed there was a floating nut AFTER I took the picture.  That bad boy was fished out though.

 Turn on your blender.  I put it on medium speed for about a minute and a half.  It got a little frothy at that speed.  So watch yours.  Once it starts to froth, stop blending.

 After you are done blending, place the cheesecloth over a jar.  We used a quart small mouth mason jar.

 Waiting....waiting...waiting....

Screw it! We switched over to a measuring bowl.  I didn't have the patience to wait for a small amount of liquid to drain through a small space.  After a few times of pouring, the almond meal started collecting.  Eric had to start squeezing all of the milk out of it.  I've heard that you should save the meal for like, bran muffins...or other baking possibilities.  But honestly, I don't think I would have ever used it.  It would probably sit in my cupboard for months.  So, we tossed it.

All in all, the bag of almonds we bought had about 3 cups in it.  Which will make a lot of almond milk.  IF Eric can keep his hands off of them.  The one cup of almonds and 5 cups of water filled a quart jar and a pint jar.  So there was a lot to be made from such a small amount of nuts!

The verdict:
I'll let you know.  Eric tried it, and didn't have an opinion on it.  It was still warm, and he doesn't like warm milk.  So tomorrow, after he uses it with his cereal, I'll update!

Allergen Free Lemon Cake and Frosting! (-Kim-)

Eric doesn't like everyday, run of the mill cakes.  He likes variety.  Every year, on his birthday he asks for a different cake.  This year, we tried a Gluten Free Lemon cake recipe.  But changed things up and made it allergen free too!  

Here's what the original recipe called for:

• 4 large eggs*
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup coconut milk or milk of choice
• 1 cup mild vegetable oil of choice
• ¼cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2½ cups Mary’s Flour Blend  or gluten-free blend of choice
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon fine-grind sea salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

The gluten free part is great and all...but the eggs are a no go, as is the coconut milk (Eric find that to be a bit too sweet).  If you CAN have eggs, leave the recipe be!  More power to you! :)

This is where we started substituting things.  The eggs we replaced with the Ener-G Egg Replacer.  We bought that at Kroger, and it's been a life saver when it comes to baking!  I also replaced the coconut milk with Vanilla Almond Milk.  

Now, it's ready to be allergen free.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two 9-inch round cake pans.

2. In a heavy stand mixer with a whisk attachment or with a hand mixer and a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar for 3 to 5 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, combine coconut milk or milk of choice with oil, lemon juice, zest and extracts.

4. In another bowl, whisk together Mary’s Flour Blend (or any other gluten free flour blend...like the one we used and blogged about earlier!), xanthan gum (side note: if your homemade gluten free flour already has xanthan gum in it...you do NOT need to add more to it!), sea salt and baking powder.

5. At low speed, slowly add dry and wet mixtures to egg and sugar mixture just until combined.

6. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Place in preheated oven and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until cake center springs back to touch. For 6-inch rounds, bake 28 to 30 minutes. For 12-inch rounds, bake 40 to 45 minutes.

Flip the cakes out onto a cooling rack and let them come to room temperature.  In the meantime, the frosting needs to be made!

Here's the allergen free recipe:

1 cup of shortening

3 cups of powdered sugar

1/4 cup of almond milk 

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1/4 teaspoon of salt

I like to blend the shortening with a little powdered sugar until it's completely incorporated, then I add more powdered sugar.  Let's say 1 cup at a time.  That way the powdered sugar doesn't fly everywhere when you turn on your mixer!  After that, I add the other ingredients.

Now frost the cake!!!  It's sooooo yummy!  I normally don't like lemon cake, but this one was very yummy. :)

Gluten Free Flour (-Kim-)

Gluten free flour can be found a most supermarkets in the baking aisle.  I have noticed that it's a bit pricey to buy a 1 pound box of it though.  There are natural food stores that sell it too, but they make it themselves.  Which got me to thinking....why not make it ourselves?  If they can do it, I'm sure we can pull it off.  Right?

Well, I've searched the internet high and low for Gluten Free Flour recipes.  Some of them looked absolutely intimidating.  Others, not so much.  It can be quite simple to find the ingredients that make up the Gluten Free Flour of your choice.

There are many different flour blends that I have found on my hours of searching.

I found this easy recipe on the Land O Lakes website:

2 cups of rice flour (we used brown rice flour)

2/3 cup of potato starch (NOT flour)

1/3 cup of tapioca flour

1 tsp. xanthan gum

Whisk it all together and store it in an air tight container.  It can be used in place of flour in regular recipes.  (1:1 ratio too, so no complicated math in the kitchen!)  This recipe can be 
doubled or tripled.

Bob's Red Mill carries all of the above ingredients.  You can also do a search for a local health food store.  They might have their own bags of  these things.  Most of these things at our local store are about $5 per bag.  The xanthan gum is a bit more than that.  BUT it will last a long time.  All of the recipes that I've found that need xanthan gum only require a teaspoon or two.  

If you are lucky like we are and live next to an Amish community, these things are even cheaper.  You just need to do some searching.  I think that you get more for your money when you make it at home.  That way you know exactly what is in your food.  

How the allergen free journey began (-Eric-)

It all began after numerous trips to the ER in 2008. At first, the doctors told me I just had indigestion. Really? Like I don't know the difference between that and what I was experiencing. I would never wish that pain on any of my worst enemies. So, after seeing a GI, they finally found out what was wrong after numerous test and procedures. My allergies for certain foods were off the charts. No wonder I was having such gut wrenching pain. The food I was eating was LITERALLY killing me slowly. I was told to steer clear of those foods/items so I wouldn't do any further damage to my digestive tract. Those foods are: wheat, gluten, all dairy/dairy based, beef, and eggs.

Sounds easy enough right? Given all the different things we can eat. WRONG! At first, the hardest thing for me to give up was dairy. I had my cereal every morning, cook with it, etc. You get the idea. Up until recently, I had not found any "milk" that tasted ok to me. Either too sweet or just plain nasty. So, with that said, I cheated on my diet. I did what the doctor said for the first few months. Then I couldn't take it anymore. I had to have bread and milk. I limited my intake to start, but then let it get out of control after awhile.

Flash forward to May 2012. My health has declined once again. No thanks to me for not doing what I was told to. The extensive damage has now affected my mental state of mind. I have now been diagnosed with panic attack disorder and severe anxiety. Was eating that food worth it? In retrospect, not really. As of then, I have now followed a strictly allergen free diet. Sure, it can be troublesome at times, but I now realize the error of my ways. It has been hard finding good alternatives to things, but we are learning and it gets easier each day. So that is why we are doing this blog. For those out there like myself, or with even worse conditions. I know how frustrating it can be at times to find a good recipe, me especially since I am particular about taste. I love to cook. It may not always look pretty, but can taste good. Same goes the other way, it may look delicious, but taste like crap.

About Us (-Kim-)

Hello!  Thanks for visiting our blog!

My name is Kim.  I'm a 27 year old stay at home mom.  I do not have any food allergies.  I have adapted most of my eating habits to the diet that Eric is on.

My husband's name is Eric.  You will read all about how this journey started with his food allergies on the next post.  He's on a strict diet now.

Jeremiah is our oldest, he is 8 years old.  He doesn't have any food allergies that we know of.  He loves pizza in any way he can get it.  He enjoys drinking the Almond Milk just like his dad.

Logan is our middle son, he's 4 years old.  He does not have food allergies either, that we know of.  He will try anything we put in front of him though.  We haven't found anything that he doesn't like...yet.

Rowan is the baby.  He's almost a year old.  Rowan has to have soy formula.  We noticed he was very gassy and REALLY grumpy with milk based formulas.  It took us about a month to get him on the right track of drinking soy formula.  Other than that, he's not old enough to be tested for food allergies.  Or to even really try any "real" food.

At the end of each post title you'll see who wrote it (-Kim-) or (-Eric-).  It might help to know who wrote it, just in case you have any questions that are specifically directed at either of us.  Eric is more into cooking, I'm the one who bakes.