10-year well visit update:
Because most of my daughter's care has naturally transferred to her allergist, her well visits at the pediatrician are surprisingly simple these days. Basic vitals, run down of the year, etc. This year, friends and family all thought she'd grown quite a lot, and we got a happy confirmation of that in the doctor's office: not just on the growth chart but actually on the curve! I don't put 100% confidence in the curves, of course---they're just guides, after all, not individualized predictions. But it's great to see my daughter moving in the right direction as she grows. If she stays on the same curve, she'll end up just about my size. But, who knows?!
Although my oldest had some unusual and somewhat fleeting allergic reactions as a toddler, it was my second daughter whose allergies really shocked our family. From day 1, she struggled with nursing, with formulas. She was losing too much weight to continue nursing and be discharged from the hospital, and she remained small enough to not be on a growth curve even after we found a formula that she mostly tolerated. In fact, she didn’t make it onto a growth chart at all until she was 8 years old.
If you’re like us, your lives have been upended and (I hope) resettled because of severe food allergies, and a surprisingly large challenge---aside from avoiding anaphylaxis!---was keeping a good nutritional balance in a growing child with such strict dietary limitations. The temptation to stick with ground beef, oatmeal, and green beans, for example, every day is strong, especially in those busy early years. And a lot of those boxed allergy-friendly products just don’t fit into a good nutritional diet, especially if you have to rely on them for every meal.
As we have all grown, and as our allergies have changed and our tastes expanded by necessity or interest, we’ve learned a lot about what nutrients bodies really need to feel tip-top, and some creative ways to get those in.
But dinnertime often remains an unending circle of what to make that is a) interesting b) tasty c) safe for everyone d) affordable on our budget and e) nutritionally sound in at least one way. It’s easy to see why that last one drops off when times get busy, money gets tight, kids get picky, parents get too busy to grocery shop for new ingredients when there are hot dogs and tater tots in the freezer. Anyway. I found all of this daunting even though I write about nutrition and nutrients for a living. Here are some highlights of what we as a family have learned, pulling from research but making options that are live-with-able, too. Every family will have their own favorites, safe foods, and more, and I won't tell you the exact foods you should eat. But these ideas could help you fill your nutritional gaps as you build your family’s safe food world. I've added links to a few free resources I like below each section.
Vegetarians and vegans
Sometimes we tell people that our daughter eats "vegan + meat" to really get the no-dairy point across. It also is a good reminder that she won't get the iron, protein, and B vitamins she needs without some extra attention to her diet---and the converse, that she can rely too much on red meats instead of dairy to fill her up, especially with a nut/tree nut allergy thrown in.
Diets low on traditional Western sources of protein should focus on plant sources of protein instead, as well as pulses and beans. Luckily, this is getting easier every day as food options become more globally available. Plant and bean proteins have a huge extra benefit, too: a ton of fiber that is filling, helps digestion, and helps the body absorb nutrients from other foods. They're often low fat and low sugar, too, so their benefits pretty much extend to everyone: one family meal.
Vegetarian diet: staying healthy
Vegetarian diet: benefits and risks Useful research from specialists Getting iron, B vitamins, and protein Gluten-free needs
Luckily for my family, I have a wheat allergy, not celiac disease. Still, I spent awhile walking around with rice crackers and chocolate chips for snacks while my family ate English muffins or cookies. Making wheat-free versions of favorite foods has been an adventure; I had been eating whole grains with almost every meal, and I didn't anticipate how carefully I would have to watch the replacement items.
Starches, white flours, and gums not only upset my stomach at first but also didn't give me the type of energy or heart protection that my body needed. This effort, for me, is still a huge work in progress, but adding brown rice flour, oat flour, and potato starch have been my early modest improvements. Crushing freeze-dried vegetables like beets into my flours has given my meals a fiber lift, too (and the kids have no idea it's there!). Boxed, trending, or processed pre-made foods
There are so many off-the-shelf allergy-friendly items now in regular grocery stores, and that's a blessing and a curse. It's great to have instant(ish) meal or treat options. And many of them are made with great nutritional focus, too. But others add extra salt or sugar, rely on refined grains or high-fat oils, or---more often than I expected---at least three nonreplaceable eggs. On top of all of that, the costs compared with "regular" versions can be triple or higher, so they certainly don't fit in everyone's budget.
Anyone with food restrictions has heard the solution before: cook at home, bake from scratch. I had those both modeled for me when I was growing up, but I get it that "scratch" sounds terrifying, or just not worth the time, for many people. If that's you, then seek out the healthiest prepared items you can, at least for now. Find some favorites [shameless plug here for Bob's Red Mill products!]. For example, one thing I'll never make from scratch is cornbread, so we tried four different brands without gluten before we all agreed on one that met my healthy ingredient standards and everyone's taste. It takes forever. You toss out a lot (don't call it waste---it's an experiment!). But you'll get there...and then everything will change again. Good luck! ;-)
Linked on Free-From Fridays' Changes and Challenges post. I've certainly learned that, versus a solvable problem, food allergies change and challenge us constantly. Bring on the experimenting!
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My family and I made it through a fun but overly hectic December---multiple orchestra performances and solo recitals, amazing school projects and group music jams, and mostly positive kitchen experiences. We followed that up with a really lovely holiday break: multiple museums, plenty of time at the House of Musical Traditions "petting" instruments I could blow my budget on in a day, and lots of fun movies and games with my two double-digit--aged kids. I couldn't have asked for much more! What I didn't do was spend any planning time on work or fun-blogging. :-) So I'm starting the new year out with a pretty traditional approach: putting my resolutions in writing: Continue swimming, lifting, and rowing In 2017, I joined the IronHeart Foundation Triple Crown Challenge to extend my exercise and health routine beyond completion of cardiac rehab. I met the goals of 100 days, 100 hours, and 100 miles of exercise. I loved the motivation, the flexibility, and the cost (free!). In 2018, I plan to continue that motivation on my own time with the Achievement app. It's a program that connects to other apps and rewards you with points when you meet health goals. Eventually, you cash in the points. My biggest hurdle here will be that I'm too low tech to get started: I don't have any devices (or their apps), like FitBit, to connect yet! My cardiologist will be thrilled if I meet this goal, though, because he's been asking me for years to upgrade from my analog-like pedometer. :-) Continue rosary walks Even before heart surgery, I was a huge proponent of walking as one of the best cardio exercises. It's free, easier on joints than running, accessible to all ages and ranges of health, and can be done anywhere---even in place. During cardiac rehab, I walked daily; after recovery, I was thrilled with the places I could go! Hills? No problem! Bags of groceries or books? Didn't even slow me down. My challenge? Walking, by itself, is just a tad too boring. I don't 100% enjoy walking and talking, and, ideally, I like to have a destination. To keep my walks going after rehab, I combined them with my daily rosary. Calming, productive, peaceful, quick enough to fit into any day. In 2018, I want to continue these walks. They clear my head, and they get me out of the house on busy work-from-home days that blow by. The rosary walks are nice, but short. My goal is to extend them by adding in a podcast or two afterward. I've never managed to get into podcasts, though I'd like to and have a long list of ones to try. Popping in ear buds and walking to the library seems like a great way to keep me walking this year. Organize a blog and media calendar Right. This one will be a challenge, not because I can't plan but because I LOVE to plan, to the exclusion of implementing the plan. In 2017, I learned more than I could imagine about online media: scheduling blog posts, calculating nutritional content, tweeting and replying to tweets, posting to facebook in different locations, adjusting photo sizes and uploading in different places, sharing and labeling pins, joining link-ups (who knew?!), designing my own infographics and PDFs, and so much more. I also learned something surprising: I truly enjoy this online community! The steep learning curve (especially for a devoted Luddite like me) to interact online was more worthwhile than I could have imagined. I am continually inspired and impressed by others' kindness, creativity, openness, and generosity. It's been an unexpected blessing to connect with people around the world, to learn from them and to share experiences. In 2018, I want to get away from my haphazard approach to these interactions. Right now, I fit them in around work and family schedules. Although this blog isn't a part of my business, per se, it is an important part of my week, and devoting time to it just makes sense. In particular, I'd love---at a minimum---to coordinate scheduled, prewritten blog posts with tweets and other shares, to figure out Tailwind for pinning, to set aside dedicated time to write thoughtful yet focused posts, and to have a real editorial calendar. I may have set my aspirations too high. This list doesn't even include my fun goals, like learning a new instrument, or at least playing the one I do know (piano) every week. Oh, and the knitting goals...don't get me started. It wouldn't be a January without outsized resolutions and optimism, though, right? And it wouldn't be a good food blog if I didn't add some sort of recipe! This one has been tested a few times already and went up just before the Christmas holiday on Bloglovin' and Freedible. The chocolate peppermint bread is free from wheat, dairy (milk and milk products), eggs, peanut, tree nuts, seeds, soy, and preservatives. If you are celiac, this is gluten free, too (it's not necessarily 100% gluten free from my kitchen, though; we're still using rye flour in shared bowls and pans...for now). Check out the downloadable version, also indexed here on the blog:
Linked to my first FreeFromFridays of 2018
If you've followed the blog in 2017, you might notice that this recipe and its download file are derived from my holiday strawberry bread. The new recipe incorporates some gluten-free truths I learned so far, either from others or the hard way (sadly trashing first try recipes), including use of lower cooking times, different amounts of liquid, and measurement by weight instead of by cup scoops. The strawberry bread has the same free-from ingredients (except wheat). If you aren't wheat free, I suggest giving that recipe a try first. It's moist and yummy with any type of fruit or veggie! If you are visiting my site and blog, or social media accounts, for the first time at the end of 2017: Welcome!
This is a quick post, just to say that I mostly met my challenge goal of blogging and/or media chatting every week in 2017...until the winter holidays, when I realized: 1) how much time I (love to) spend holiday prepping 2) how lucky I am to have such amazing kids and wonderful husband 3) how time consuming it is to rework a diet---again---during holiday treat fests. So, I haven't disappeared permanently, but I have decided to take the winter 2017 holiday time loosely off media and purposefully low-tech at home. So far, it's been delightful. And I'm even taking off much of my professional work at the end of 2017, so I should be ready to be full-on in 2018. My challenge goal for food/blog/media hobbying+writing in 2018? Having a true schedule and plan for content, recipes, and FYIs to share and maintaining some kind of coordination across all of these techy platforms. And maybe printing paper cookbooks, because sometimes I like low-tech better. ;-) If you're interested in some recipes that are tried and true for your holiday baking, check out my Kitchen Adventures and Cookie Chemistry books, in particular, on Amazon (or search the titles on iTunes if you're an Apple user). Until 2018, wishing you all warmth, joy, and love---and delicious #freefrom foods, N. First as a pharmacist, and then repeatedly as a new mom, a parent in playgroups, a heart patient, and a person heading toward middle age, I notice a trend when the conversation turns to health. Even when the conversation is about a specific health problem, like arthritis, the discussion ends up on diet. Diet in the sense of the foods and nutrients we are taking in, but also diet in the sense of weight loss---and how to do it. As for the weight loss part, I don't have many answers. I can tell you that completely eliminating wheat will cause the pounds to drop! But I can tell you as a health professional that a drop like that isn't a good one. In fact, I worked with my new wheat-free constraints to get more calories and more nutrients regularly each day until my weight, energy, and GI system stabilized to the new norm. I'd really like to spend some time on this blog about the nutrition end of eating with food allergies---in particular how to understand where our nutrients come from and how to get the macro and micro-nutrients we need when we adapt ingredients. Why? First, because changing diets affects not just the allergic person but also the entire family and even the wider circle. Second, because it's hard to see what you are missing in daily or weekly nutritional needs when you're really focused on the safety, and it's easy to redo a diet (for any reason) to one that can hurt you more in the long run---like one that doesn't give you enough protein to keep your body going all day. Moderation is key, but that doesn't mean it is easy when common foods are eliminated as options. For today, I'd just like to share a few resources that have come my way from other food allergy (or just mom-friend) families and from health searches I've done before to help out friends and family who changed their diets, often for non-allergy health reasons. It's almost impossible to find sources that are reliable but not scary or intimidating by just random Google searching these days. Most of the top hits revolve around fad diet trends, famous personalities, or "Dr. X" websites that may or may not be written by medical doctors or people with graduate degrees in a health field like medicine, nutrition, or dietetics. Check out these links, and let me know if you have any favorites to add. You can find links to other reliable resources on my Useful Resources and Tools I Use pages, too. Happy Monday, everyone! DietSpotlight.com A reader whose kids have food allergies and who works to teach other kids about food allergies shared an article from this website with me a long (too long) while back: https://www.dietspotlight.com/diet-watch-common-food-allergies/. Marion and daughter Ashley, thank you! The direct article link will take you to a page with a thorough but not overwhelming list of reliable sources of information about food allergy reactions, precautions, medical information, and more. I loved that these were collected into one easy list and included places like MayoClinic.org, which I use for personal and work research every week, and the latest ChooseMyPlate materials, including the one aimed at kids. Although DietSpotlight the company is focused on weight loss products, its approach is well researched, transparent, educational, and friendly. Really, what all medical communication should aim for. I don't use or endorse products for weight loss specifically, but I also realize that many people look for supplements to help them, especially when personal efforts or traditional medicine just aren't enough. So, I scanned through the rest of the site, and I found a lot to like:
Certified or verified vitamins and supplements Almost 70% of Americans take over-the-counter supplements. Although people should (theoretically) be able to obtain the nutrition they need from daily food intake, the reality is that not everyone---by choice or necessity---eats to make that happen, and numerous chronic diseases can sidetrack the ability to get sufficient nutrition from foods. So, vitamins and supplements can be good. But. Many people don't realize that these products are not held to the same standards as medications, even over-the-counter medicines. Instead, manufacturing standards apply more often. That doesn't guarantee the quality or quantity of the ingredients, nor does it speak to the success of that ingredient to improve health. A few organizations are trying to change that, though. In addition to places like Consumer Labs, the US Pharmacopeia rigorously tests vitamins, herbs, and other supplements to confirm the accuracy of labeled ingredients. Products submitted for approval can receive a USP Verified stamp. An example is the NatureMade line of products. You can find an updated list of verified products at the Quality Supplements website (www.quality-supplements.org/verified-products). If you are looking for more information specifically on herbal medicines, you can find researched facts about different herbs---searchable online at The Herbal Medicines Compendium---and a list of supplements at the USP websites, too. Finding Help to Fix a Diet
Sometimes the amount of information out there, or the number of health problems you are trying to balance, becomes just too much. Registered counselors and dietitians or nutritionists are experts in the many reasons and safe ways to rework a diet. The Chrysalis Group serves the DC metro area and offers specialized support for kids with food allergies. Perhaps even more useful, the "Find a Health Professional" website has a database of dietitians who focus on food allergies, wherever you live. Ah, another Friday and I have yet to finish the blog post I started on Monday night. 2018, that’s going to be my year of planning ahead, I hope! I’m aiming in 2018, and really now too, for the mantra “get it done, not perfect” ---with encouragement from the Mamapreneurrevolution Instead of that nutrition post (still in the draft folder), which really just isn’t done, I’m going for a get-it-done post today. Last night, I needed to use up a lot of random foods for dinner, and I had to make it in just a few minutes if possible, without a lot of prep time. As my kids get older, my husband and I find ourselves all over town with them in different directions---a somewhat new occurrence for us. I needed a dinner to lay out ahead of time that I could toss together when we all got home, hungry and ready to eat right away. And, instead of planning that dinner, I spent the morning looking at carrot cake recipes. Let me explain: I don’t actually like carrot cake. Or at least I don’t think I do. I have a dear friend in Florida who adores it, though, and a neighbor friend who makes the most amazing cake I’ve ever seen…and it’s carrot. I trust these two an awful lot. And I found pre-shredded carrots at Trader Joe’s. And I found a gluten-free carrot cake bread-loaf recipe at ElaVegan, and I’m pretty desperate right now for a good slice of quick bread for autumn mid-mornings. Naturally, I started searching for more examples of carrot loaf cakes, because the one I found looked amazing but wasn’t quite what I was going for. Then I started brainstorming about what I might do with the recipe. And I realized that I’ve almost never explained how or why I remake recipes---trying to balance the art and science of cooking and baking without any professional kitchen experience whatsoever (like most of you, I hope!). Thus, this post was born. Most of my "recipes" these days are made up on the go as we tease out the true allergies in the house. So, today, you get a walk-through of how I start to build a recipe-creating/converting grid AND a recipe-free method for the quickest allergy-safe dinners ever. Maybe I’ll get to that nutrition post by 2018…. Converting and Creating Allergy-Safe Recipes If you’re like me, you have a ton of recipes from your past that you adore and can’t make as is anymore because of food restrictions. That’s a natural place to start converting ingredients to safe ones, of course. Also, though, I tend to find recipes on favorite food blogs/sites or even on allergy-friendly sites that just don’t quite fit our needs. Maybe they’re dairy-free but not egg-free, or they’re wheat-free but not dairy-free. You get the idea. When that happens, I grab the recipe that inspired me, search for a few more examples that might replace other allergens, and line them all up in a table with the same/similar ingredients on the same rows. Like so: Then I aim for my own version, which uses the ingredients I know are safe and work for us, and which usually relies on ingredients I already have on hand. For example, if it’s a fruit or veggie product, I might use juice instead of milk. If the original has nuts, I might replace them with dried fruit or just leave them out. If peanut butter is key, this recipe might not be for me! But it can still work in some cases with another thick spread or oil, if I’m lucky. If the recipe has 1-2 eggs, I’ll use one of my favorite egg mixes (applesauce, starch, and water), might increase the oil or fruit/veggie content a bit, and might add some extra leavener (baking soda) if it’s a baked good that should dome. If my final version is quite similar to one of the originals, then it’s ALWAYS called an adapted recipe if/when it goes on my blog or in a book. If the final differs pretty substantially (a qualitative statement, I know), it’s simply inspired by, or maybe acknowledged in another way. A lot of my recipes come out of my family archives, but I get more and more inspiration from friends and families lately, too! Here are a few lessons I’ve learned during my baking grid experiments so far: 1) If the recipe calls for coconut oil, or is a no-bake recipe, you really can’t replace the coconut oil with a liquid oil. Semi-solid oils are crucial for holding together batters after they cool. You can try to lower the amount of coconut oil, though, for heart healthy purposes. 2) Recipes with 3 or more eggs are really tough to convert to egg-free versions. Sometimes it’s worth cutting the original in half and making smaller batches at a time instead. 3) Recipes without the fatty mouth feel of dairy and eggs really need some extra kick sometimes, even if you get that texture from oils or fruit sauces/butters. We have “accidentally” used double the amount of cinnamon, vanilla, and many other herbs with a lot of success. 4) Too much baking powder gives you bitter cookies. Baking soda and powder are both important. Don’t use just one if the recipe calls for both! If I’m replacing eggs in a recipe that calls for just one, I try to use the other option for a better balance. Don’t forget the extra lemon juice or vinegar if you add soda to a recipe, though, because the acid isn’t built into that leavener. Since I “wasted” much of my morning browsing around carrot cake ideas, I really had to stretch to pull off our Recipe-Free Dinner. You know what’s funny, though? Everyone thought it was delicious (even the kid who won’t eat food that touches each other, usually). This dinner was made in one pan and was served in individual bowls right from the pan. I measured just about nothing and went for the Rachael Ray eyeball-it method. Minimal cleanup necessary. Hectic Day Dinner Ingredients Pick a sautéing oil (we love olive oil, always on hand) Pick a veggie (we used pre-frozen sliced peppers, defrosted, but fresh will work well here of course) Pick a protein (we used 1 pound of stir fry beef, defrosted, but beans or fish or another meat will do) Pick a sauce or liquid vehicle (we used a leftover half-empty jar artichoke red pepper dip because I needed to get rid of it. To thicken it all up, I added a dusting of cornstarch, too) Pick some seasonings (we used a huge scoop of minced garlic, unmeasured, and a ton of shakes of a Bavarian spice mix from Penzy’s) Pick a healthy (low GI) carb (we used thin sliced farm red potatoes from our WGG delivery that morning) Pick a leafy green (we used romaine on the side but a collard/kale green shredded into the bowl would be ideal if it’s on hand) Directions Warm some olive oil in a medium covered pan on the stovetop. Add the veggies on medium high. Add the meat, cut into small dices, and saute briefly; then cover and turn the heat to medium to steam. Add the sauce or liquid, cornstarch, and garlic. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil, then return to medium and add the seasonings. Wash and thin slice the potatoes, then cut slices in half and add into the pan (or stir in broken up rice noodles, instant rice, couscous, or other carbs if you choose). Cover the pan and allow the steam and liquid to cook the potato slices. When they’re soft, dinner is ready. Ladle some of the meal into each bowl and add the greens on the side or shredded into the mix. *You can make this an even faster dinner by using leftover cooked meat, drained beans or tofu, and vermicelli-style Asian rice noodles or tiny Italian pasta (pastine). So, what would you use in your version?! Next year, my goal isn't going to be just to blog each week; it's going to be to blog on the same day each week! I'll get there...maybe. This week, I was so excited to post my successful wheat-free brownie recipe...or my first-try wheat-free chocolate chip cookies...or a discussion about glycemic load and the carbs in different wheat-free grains...and on and on. Instead, thanks to a great read I happened upon over at The Kitchn, I decided to post an actual well-tested recipe. It's inline with a downloadable PDF again, because updating my software and templates is just so far down on my to-do list these days. This recipe is for leftover jam cobbler. It's inspired by the Pomona's Universal Pectin recipe for any kind of jam and oatmeal bars. Their delicious recipe uses butter and flour; my adaptation turns the bars into more of a crumb pie/fruit crisp with oats, wheat-free flours, and a small amount of applesauce and oil. Extra bonus, if you make your own jams or not: you can use this recipe with any type of fruit preserves, so save the dredges of your containers and mix them all together into this yummy dessert...or breakfast...or midnight snack. You might notice that I'm relying heavily on oats now that I'm afraid to open the APF jar in my kitchen. Are oats enough to replace wheat? Simple answer: no. Even GF oats, for my friends with celiac. First, you will get tired of them quickly! Second, I've learned fast that it's better to mix flours for texture and for nutrition. But, oats are easy. And I'm just starting to not panic about the joy of cooking without so many old favorites. So, here's another oat-and-almond success. Enjoy! INGREDIENTS Crust: 3/4 cup gluten-free oat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill) 1/3 cup tapioca starch (any starch will do) 1/3 cup almond flour (or replace with more oat flour or chickpea flour for almond allergy) 1 cup brown sugar (you can reduce this to taste if you watch glucose levels) 1/2 tsp salt 1-1/2 cup rolled oats 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp vanilla scant 1/2 cup canola oil scant 1/2 cup jarred, unsweetened applesauce FIlling: 1 cup leftover jams (runny remainders are great for this, but thick new jams work too) 1/4 cup cornstarch (use as little as 1 Tbsp for thick jams and the cobbler will still bake up) BOTTOM CRUST DIRECTIONS Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a medium casserole dish. I use a 7 x 10 Corningware-style dish. In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to combine the dry ingredients of the crust. Make a small well in the mixture and add the vanilla, oil, and applesauce. Use two forks to drag the liquids through the crust mixture to make a crumbly texture (similar to cutting in butter). I like to turn the forks over and pull them away from the middle of the bowl in different directions. Use your hands or a spoon to scoop almost exactly half of the crust into the prepared dish. Wet your fingertips and press the mixture lightly into a crust shape, from the middle toward the edges of the dish. This crust should be just thick enough to cover the bottom, not thicker. FILLING DIRECTIONS In a separate bowl, combine the jam and cornstarch, stirring or whisking until cornstarch is evenly distributed and not lumpy. The mixture will thicken with the oven heat. Use a spoon to spread the filling across the bottom crust, leaving about 1/8-inch edge without filling. TOP CRUST DIRECTIONS Wet your fingers again and drop the rest of the crust mixture onto the filling in small sprinkles or crumbles. This will not look like it's going to work! You should have enough crust mixture left to almost cover the filling, with some holes. It's most important that your edges are covered with the crumble (but the result tastes just as good if the filling leaks out!). If you have a hard time with the wet mixture, it's okay to incorporate a bit more oat flour to the top crust mixture, too. The entire recipe is very forgiving of measurement estimates (which could be why I like it so much!). Place the dish uncovered into the oven for 20 minutes (or until the edges are dark brown, if you like crispy crusts). Remove the dish to a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes. This can be served warm with spoons, or it can be chilled and sliced later on. I have grand plans to make or find some favorite wheat-free flour mixtures to keep on hand. I think this one will come in handy for the autumn crisps and maybe even for winter pies. If I decide to try vanilla powder, I can mix it in with all of the crust's dry ingredients and have a ready-made crust that just needs a liquid to come together. I'm seeing apple juice and canola with my fruit crisps, orange juice and olive oil with a sweet potato pie...so many possibilities! I wish I were organized enough to put them here as updates to the post when I try them. Maybe that will be the writing goal for 2019. :-) What will you make with the crust? Do you have a favorite jam or other filling to try? |
Hi, I'm Nicole. ABOUT THE BLOG An apothecary is a person or a place. Either one implies healing and relates to pharmacy in its truest sense, as a source of treatment and advice. This blog is my way of uniting my pharmacy training with my efforts to provide a healthy and safe lifestyle for my family. In true apothecary form, I research and prescribe alternative ingredients that work just right in each specific recipe, and I would like to share the results with anyone who needs help making their own family’s kitchen allergy safe and heart healthy. Categories
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I made the 2017 Top-40 Food Allergy blogs!
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