Success!

Even better than the last batch, we made pancakes again today! I only did a half batch this time (enough for 3 fun pancakes for Buggy and 3 small ones for me).

I learned that I need to learn to photograph food better. A LOT better. Today's lesson: turn flash off when taking pictures on the griddle. With flash you see every little droplet of oil used and it makes it look like a lot more. So if you'll forgive my horrid food photography skills, here's the pancakes and recipe.

This recipe contains none of the following allergens: peanuts, beans, wheat, beef, chicken, rice, corn, dairy, eggs, shellfish, sesame, ginger, lemons, soy, nightshades.

This recipe DOES contain the following allergens: oats (I use GF, you can use a different GF and/or allergy friendly flour), almonds, apples (can be subbed with bananas or any egg substitute)

Allergy Free Pancakes for Buggy

70g (just over 1/2 cup not packed) gluten free oat flour
35g (just over 1/4 cup not packed) almond flour
pinch of himalayan salt (or fine sea salt)
1/2 tsp allergy friendly baking powder (click here for how to use cream of tartar and baking soda)
1/2 tbs cane sugar
1/4 cup allergy friendly applesauce (this is an egg replacer, you can use 1/4 cup banana or any other safe egg replacer)
1/2 cup water (we were out of allergy friendly milk, you can sub any kind of milk in here -it will change taste though-)

Procedure:

1) Mix thoroughly flours, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl.
2) Add applesauce (or other egg replacer) and water (or milk), mix until smooth.
3) Cook on griddle at 250F lightly greased with olive oil to prevent sticking.
4) Enjoy with coconut oil, fruit, and 100% maple syrup or any kind of toppings you love : )
5) (Optional, but appreciated) Comment below and let me (and everyone else) know how well these did or did not turn out for you!

Yield: 3 small pancakes for the mama, and 3 fun shaped pancakes for a toddler/baby/child (see pics below)



This is where we learned NOT to use flash when photographing food on the griddle. Oops! The one on your far right is my sad attempt at an Alaska shaped pancake ; )



Flipped 'em over, looking good!



My pancakes.



Buggy enjoying her fun pancakes and the left over homemade applesauce (we used Earligold apples, but you can use any you like)

mmmmm vegan pancakes...

... now if only I could remember how I made them.

I made some pancakes yesterday for the family, and they scarfed them down! We had a few left over so Buggy and I ate those today - and they were even better! (pretty sure that just means I should have let them cook just a smidgen longer since all I did today was microwave them for 25 seconds)

I will try to make them again tomorrow and write down the recipe to share. They are very simple and allergy friendly - at least for us. They DO contain almond flour though, so if you're allergic to almonds, you'll have to substitute a different flour. I topped mine with some coconut oil, strawberries, and a light drizzle of 100% maple syrup so these pancakes (even with those toppings) are free of the following allergens: all legumes including peanuts, wheat, beef, chicken, rice, corn, dairy, eggs, shellfish, sesame, ginger, lemons, soy, and nightshades (things like tomatoes, potatoes, and bell peppers). I will also post pictures tomorrow, because I don't trust recipes this allergy free to taste good without pictures first!

We welcomed sleeping in and an extra scrumptious breakfast this morning because we've had some recent setbacks with Buggy's allergies. She had allergy testing last week, and to say it went bad would be an understatement. The doctor literally GUESSED what she might be allergic to! In his defense though, I wouldn't have been able to even guess - her entire back was red and inflamed from where the tegaderm was holding the patches on. There were a few patches of clear skin where I'm guessing patches that she wasn't allergic to might have been? But your guess is as good as mine on this one. He threw out a few suggestions the first day the patches were removed and then completely different suggestions the next day, at which point he said he was sticking with those and to remove them from her diet - but don't add any of the old stuff back in yet - for the next 6 weeks and he'd see us again in 8 weeks. After this 2 month trial, we can start attempting to add foods we think she tested negative to this time but she was positive to last time. Comforting. At least we have corn free diphenhydramine (anti histamine. Think hypoallergenic benedryl) now though!

One of the other things was that she had an endoscopy the week before that and they found eosinophiles in her stomach, which means she's still consuming something she's allergic to. I'm hoping the doc was right with his guesses, but we'll see.

Finally, yesterday she broke out in hives 6 times (no joke). 4 times were after eating foods she's had at least a dozen times before, the other 2 times she hadn't consumed anything for at least 45 minutes to an hour. One time was when her daddy was making popcorn, so I'm wondering if maybe her corn allergy has taken another turn for the worse? He says no way, but what else was there? Nothing that I saw. I guess we'll see.. tomatoes were one of the things she broke out from yesterday, so my husband wants to trial those today and see if she breaks out; she was also eating a pluot, some red grapes, and lettuce at the time. We picked tomatoes as the most likely culprit since the doctor suggested a potato allergy and both of these vegetables belong to the nightshade family. So, if she breaks out in hives today from JUST tomatoes, then I'll be more confident in the doctor's potato allergy guess. Our other guess is cross contamination. We only have a handful or less of things in the house that contain corn. We used to have more than that, but as her corn allergy became worse, some products had to be replaced with hypoallergenic ones. Soda is no longer allowed in the house because my poor Mt Dew loving husband left the cans in Buggy's reach one too many times. She's pulled them down on herself on 3 different occasions, and anywhere it touches breaks out immediately and looks more like a bad burn in pictures. After the first time I told him to make sure he puts them up or disposes of them, after the second I said if it happens one more time no more soda here - then she did it a third time.

The only other thing I have to share today is that I invested in a scale for my kitchen yesterday! So now I'm trying to figure out the perfect mixture of flours for us since a lot of gluten free recipes recommend using a mixture of flours rather than one. I have decided I will not use any quinoa flour in there though... I used 16g of quinoa flour in a 140g mixture and when I bit into the muffin, all I could taste was the quinoa flour. Maybe we'll try again tonight.

What do you feed your kid?

That's what I get asked every time I pull out Buggy's allergy list. I have also asked myself many times a similar question - what on Earth do I feed her? In the era of fast food and processed foods, it's hard to imagine there is anything left for people with multiple allergies. But think healthy! There are tons of options.. granted, most are fruits and vegetables ; ) but there's also things like quinoa, gluten free oats, homemade bread, and sun butter! Well... maybe not the last one. Today, while we were shopping, Buggy enjoyed a tasty single serving packet of Sun Butter which she LOVES! But when I went to wipe her face off I found hives everywhere.... I'm crossing my fingers, hoping there was just cross contamination somewhere (hard not to get that with all her allergies), but since she recently had an endoscopy done and allergy patch testing, I'm going to give her a break for a while before trying it again to see. I plan on getting up both a list of no-no's for allergies and a list of good foods to have because I know the hardest thing is trying to find foods while looking at a list of can't haves. Like I said before, our list of Buggy-friendly foods has been a life saver. In the meantime though, there are three cookbooks I have found tremendously helpful in getting her fed (and keeping her healthy) that I'd like to share with you:

Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis - Raw foods... are delicious foods! No real "cooking" in this book, they use a dehydrator, a blender, and a few other tricks to make things like almond milk, almond flour, macadamia nut cheese, tomato and zucchini lasagna, and some very scrumptious looking desserts :) One of my favorite cookbooks because even with all of her allergies, my daughter can eat almost everything in the book without substituting things

Allergy Self Help Cookbook by Marjorie Hurt Jones, RN - One of my favorite parts about this book that sets it apart is it's description of all the different flours. I spent a lot of money and time trying to figure out which wheat free flour to use for pancakes, breads, etc that could have been saved if I had bought this book first. For each flour, there is information on flavor and color, breading (how well it makes bread), thickening (how well it works for things like sauces and gravy), baking (for some, it recommends only using 25-50% of the called for amount in one flour, and use the other 75-50% in a different flour), and a section called comments, where anything else she has to say about that flour falls in. The book is labelled as being free of all common allergens - corn, gluten, sugar, wheat, egg, milk, soy, and yeast :)

And last, but not least - the first cookbook I bought when I found out my daughter is pretty much just allergic to the world *drumroll please*

Allergy Proof Recipes for Kids by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger - These tasty, kid friendly (and husband friendly) recipes are wheat, gluten, nut, egg, and dairy free, but also low in sugar! I love this book, and truth be told I actually purchased it because of my husband! He is somewhat picky about what he eats, but generally ate like a kid at the time. I didn't want to be cooking 2 or 3 different meals every day so I figured this was my best bet for getting everyone eating food that is Buggy-friendly! I have to make some substitutions because she has so many allergies, but overall this is a great book (and most kids don't have as many allergies as mine does). This book has many kid favorites like mac and cheese, chicken nuggets (we sub turkey and it's still awesome), corn dogs, and who could forget - cakes and cookies :)