Mashed potatoes

One of my all-time favorite foods is mashed potatoes with white gravy. White gravy isn't something I get to eat very often unless we're dining sans kids, but I still love mashed potatoes. Making them dairy-free is a little different. I don't use rice milk- it just doesn't come out tasting right. Instead, I use chicken broth. And I'm not talking out-of-a-box instant potatoes, here. It's only the real deal here! Think making homemade mashed potatoes is too time consuming for a busy mom? Try making a double batch on a weekend and freezing half for later. They freeze beautifully and come out tasting just like a fresh batch!

Mashed Potatoes

4-5 medium potatoes
1/2 stick dairy-free margarine
chicken broth*
salt/pepper

Wash potatoes, peel, and cut into 1" chunks. Boil until tender. In a mixing bowl, add margarine, potatoes, salt and pepper. Mix together with mixer. Slowly add chicken broth until potatoes are the thickness or consistency you desire.

*Read the labels carefully on canned broth- some contain milk. You can, of course, make your own, but I stick with canned. I do freeze broth after I cook a whole chicken in the crock pot for chicken and noodles. MUCH better than store-bought! Note that I don't specify a measurement for the broth. I just eyeball it. At most, you'll use 1/4 cup. Don't dump the leftover, though! Freeze it in 1/3 to 1/4 cup portions and the next time you make potatoes, you can just grab a bowl from the freezer to use.

Menu planning

Weekly menu planning is one thing that I've found to be essential in our household. Not just from an allergy point of view, but also just out of sheer convenience! I've been planning weekly menus for years. I was tired of sitting in front of the cabinet almost every night, not knowing what to fix, and then when I finally decided, find out that I was missing an ingredient. Since planning, I've cut my trips to the store by half (sometimes more), and also my grocery budget (I can't go in and just buy one thing). Here's what I do:

Every Wednesday I sit down with my recipe file. I look through and decide what I'll fix. I have a list with each day of the week. You can type it, buy special pads, or just plain write it down like I do. Whatever floats your boat. Once I decide on a recipe, I decide which day to fix it based on how much time I have or if there's an after-school acitivity, and list it by that day. I keep my grocery list right by me and write down any ingredients that I need to buy so that when I shop, I make sure to have everything. When my list is finished, I hang it on the fridge for all to see.

On Thursdays, I sit down with my coupons and plan out what to buy and what coups to use. I do my shopping Friday mornings after I take the kids to school. By taking a day to do each step, it's much easier and less daunting. There have been times when I'm too busy to plan on Wednesday, so I have to do it and coupons together on Thursday, and I find myself rushing through it, and not wanting to fix what I planned the next week. Take your time! Also, if you think of something throughout the week that sounds good, jot it down on your list (I use a separate pad for menu and grocery lists) on the page you'll use for next week so that when you sit down to plan, you already have one day taken care of!

Vegetable beef soup

I apologize in advance for no photo to accompany this recipe. We ate the soup too fast, and well, I was just too lazy to grab the camera and take one- that, and it was in the car. It was a cold fall day, and veggie soup with cornbread muffins sounded absolutely delicious, and it was! The kids weren't too wild about it, but they're never too wild about veggies. That is, unless it's Preston going nuts over frozen corn and peas, hard as a rock as they may be!

Vegetable beef soup

Shredded cooked roast beef*
Equal amounts of beef broth and water*
8 oz. can tomato paste
bag of frozen mixed veggies
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large pot, cook on medium for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

* When I cook a roast, I always cook it in the crock pot with water, which yields a lot of broth. I store the broth in quart jars in the deep freeze for later. I also shred the roast and freeze it separately. I rarely buy store-bought broth as some of it contains milk. This also saves money by not throwing it away and having to buy more! Note that I don't have an exact quantity of broth/water. Sometimes it's a full quart, sometimes it's less, but as long as it's close to a quart, and in equal parts, it should turn out fine.

* My grandma, who gave me this recipe, says that she has substituted ground beef for the roast if she didn't have any roast on hand, with equally good results. I'm not a big ground meat fan, so I stick with roast.

As for the corn muffins, I used the recipe on the back of the Aunt Jemima corn meal can, substituting rice milk for milk. I also add a little honey in mine.

Getting Started

When you first get the diagnosis of a food allergy, your first reaction is, "What is he going to eat?" If you're not used to cooking, this can be a bit intimidating, but if you're a seasoned cook, things really aren't that difficult. Simple substitutions can allow you to continue to use your favorite recipes.
Fleishmann's Unsalted Sticks. These margarin sticks are dairy-free, and work very well as a replacement for regular margarine or butter. You can use them in equal measurements called for in recipes with excellent results. Fleishmann's Light in the tubs also works really well, especially for "buttering" bread. The only thing about the tub margarine, is when you use it in baking, it doesn't perform as well as stick margarine.

Rice milk can be used in place of milk in recipes. I prefer Rice Dream Enriched Original because it has just as much calcium as regular milk, and it has a much milder flavor than soy milk. I use it in everything and it always gives me good results.

Replacing cheese doesn't work so well. Dairy-free cheeses just flat out do not melt. So in our case, we just don't buy it, and steer clear of recipes that require cheese. Dairy-free cheeses aren't always dairy-free either. Most contain caesin or caesinate, which are milk proteins, and therefore can cause an allergic reaction. We have found one brand of completely dairy-free cheese, and I can't recall the name. I drove 45 miles to a store that stocked it, only for it to go bad because my son didn't like it.

These substitutions usually yield great results. Many times people have eaten something and are shocked when I tell them that it's dairy-free! They just assume that dairy-free foods aren't going to be good. Luckily, that doesn't have to be the case!

Welcome!

In March of 2004, the day my son tried rice cereal for the first time, he had his first allergic reaction. Of all things, to rice cereal. Then it was oats, barley, peas and milk, all between the ages of 6 and 10 months. To top it off, he's also allergic to penicillin and prednisone! After a trip to the allergist, we were also told to steer completely away from peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish as well. We already had an epi-pen from his pediatrician, so at that point, life seemed to be at a standstill. Can we all say FRAZZLED?

To say that it was overwhelming is a grave understatement, but 5 years later, I can tell you that it does get easier. Easier maybe because we're used to it, and family is still getting used to it, so they're not as argumentative as they were in the beginning. We recently cleared the biggest hurdle when we sent Mr. Preston off to kindergarten in August- me, a basketcase, borderline nuerotic mom, terrified of a reaction. He had his Medic Alert necklace, clearly stating his allergens. He had his snacks and lunch box, with strict orders not to eat anything that I didn't send with him. So far, so good! I'm actually very pleased with the school's handling of his restrictions, and have recently begun to relax... as much as you can with an allergic child.

So what will you find here? Hopefully, lots! I love to cook, and since having an allergic child means that I really have to cook a lot from scratch, you'll find lots of recipes that have been adapted to be safe. Most will be dairy, peanut, tree nut, and shellfish-free since those are the items we have to do without. I"ll also share tips on cooking for allergic children that will save you time and money- something we can all appreciate! There will also be quips about life with food allergies. Overall, though, there will be support. When you first get that diagnosis, you seem so lost and isolated, and completely overwhelmed. I know I was! So jump on in, leave me comments on what you would like to see, and we'll make this a fun place to be!