As most of you know, I've been dairy & soy free since Thanksgiving so that I could continue breastfeeding Travis. Just in the past couple of weeks, I've had several requests from friends or friends of friends that wanted to chat about doing the same thing for their little one. Truthfully, it really hasn't been that bad. Eating out is a chore because you can never be 100% certain that what you are communicating to the waitstaff makes its way back to the cooks. For the most part, I've just avoided eating out (except for at Sonic - I'll get to that in a bit). My family has been super supportive. When Lovey comes down, she always makes me a few big protein items (roast, brisket, etc.) so that I can freeze them, and Pepper has been researching and coming up with her own recipes to satisfy my sweet tooth and need for baked goods. She located these recipes for Oatmeal Cookies and Lemon Bars. Both are awesome! Rice Crispy treats made with canola oil aren't half-bad either. I often just google what I want to make with dairy free soy free in front of it and see what pops up. We've had pretty good luck substituting crisco for butter and almond milk for regular milk. Jiffy cornbread mix and Bisquick are both cool. Orowheat makes a whole wheat bun that is okay (although their bread is not). My go-to cornbread recipe is 1 Box of Jiffy, 1 egg, 3 tbsps. of olive oil, and 1 can of creamed corn - makes 12 muffins - bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes (also a Pepper recipe). :) My sweet friend Anna made me some banana nut muffins by substituting flax seed and apple sauce for the butter requirement - they were excellent and healthy!!
This is Pepper's cake/cupcake recipe that I thought people might want to have. They are so yummy and I like making the big mess only once!
CAKE MIX RECIPE:
Note: This recipe is equivalent to 4 boxes of cake mix. 4 cups of this recipe = 1 box of cake mix.
Ingredients:
10 cups flour
6 cups sugar
1 1/3 Tbsp salt
5 ½ Tbsps double acting baking powder
1 cup vegetable shortening
Preparation:
1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Put 2 cups of the flour mixture in a food processor together with shortening. Process until mixture is very fine.
2. Add remaining flour mixture and stir well. Store in air tight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month or in the freezer up to 3 months.
LEMON CUPCAKES:
Note: Since the original recipe called for a yellow cake mix, I added a few drops of yellow food coloring to the following recipe. I also added some lemon zest to the mix and the glaze.
Ingredients:
4 cups of cake mix
1 box lemon instant pudding
¾ cup oil
¾ cup water
4 eggs
Glaze (recipe follows)
Preparation:
Mix all together. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool and ice with glaze.
Glaze:
Lemon juice
Confectioners’ sugar
I dumped and stirred until I thought I had enough glaze for the cupcakes.
These are so good! She has also made a strawberry version, and I've made a peach version - both also delicious, but lemon is my favorite.
Sonic is one of my favorite fast food spots because of this iPhone app. A lot of restaurants especially fast food joints have their allergen info on the web (Freebirds does too, btw), but it is handy to have this info easily at your disposal. I just have dairy and soy marked as my allergens and it tells me what I can eat. McDonald's french fries have dairy in them. Weird, right?
A few caveats if you are trying to be dairy and soy free. Learn all of the derivatives and be a scrupulous label reader. Brands differ and ingredient lists are always changing so check the label everytime. One can of canned black beans may be fine, but the brand next to it may have soy. If you have doubts, stick to protein and vegetables that you cook at home. Pasta and rice are okay, but some pasta sauces are not. Olive oil is safe and tasty, and you get real creative when you cook a huge roast in the crock pot. I can turn the same roast into tacos, spaghetti, and bbq in the same week!
If you have any questions that you think I may be able to answer, please just let me know! I'd love to share what I've learned!!
Xoxo,
Gara
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