{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

Why you should ALWAYS investigate as soon as you realize that there is too much quiet while you are in the other room.


How did my baby girl turn into such a big girl?!


A brownie sandwich made with black bean brownies and peanut butter. YUM!!!
(and for those with milk and egg allergies, there is a way you CAN have brownies, buy a box of brownie mix that has no eggs or milk in the ingredient list, {Duncan Hines has a couple} then puree a can of black beans, add to the mix, add a little water or vegetable oil if the batter is too thick, and bake according to the package directions. I know it sounds gross, but it really does taste just like a brownie...and has extra protein!)

Mint Oreo Balls

One of the worst things about no dairy (beside missing cheese)is no chocolate. But that problem is no more :) For starters...Did you know that oreos don't have milk or eggs? Yes that is right! I discovered that happy fact about a month ago. Yes I was VERY happy. And I have been singing "Ice cold milk and an oreo cookie..." at random times at least every other day since then. My two year old has even started singing that jingle, and she has NEVER seen that commercial. Is that sad, or funny? I'm not sure.

Anyway, back to the point. We went shopping at Sprouts this past weekend because I read that they carry some of the dairy substitutes that we can't find at our Walmart or Kroger. We came home with soy yogurt, soy "cream cheese", veganaise (like miracle whip but with no dairy or eggs), soy "cheddar cheese" slices, coconut milk kefir and dairy free chocolate chips. You have no idea how happy I was about all of these!

Sometime last week I read in the newspaper about oreo ball recipes. I had those before when a friend made them and they are SOOO yummy. Oreos crumbs mixed with cream cheese and coated with chocolate. MMMMMmmmm!

So I decided that I would try a dairy free version. I started out with 4 ounces of the soy "cream cheese", a half package of mint oreo cookies (crushed with a rolling pin into crumbs), 1/2 tspn mint extract, and a package of choclate bakers squares (read the package carefully, some have milk but some don't...and it was a LOT cheaper for that than it was for the chocolate chips!) I mixed the cream cheese, mint extract and crushed oreos. I ended up adding more oreos, and ultimately used 3/4 of the package. The mixture was still very soft, so I refrigerated it for about an hour, then rolled balls of the mixture and placed them on waxed paper. The balls went back into the fridge for an hour.

I melted 2 bakers squares, following the directions on the package. (I did end up using the whole package, it just works best to do a small amount at a time so that you aren't reheating the chocolate too many times.) The chocolate wasn't quite sweet enough, so I added about a half tablespoon of powdered sugar, then microwaved it for about 10 more seconds. I dipped each oreo ball into the chocolate, rolled it in crushed peppermint candies and placed in back on the waxed paper. Then they were refrigerated for at least 3 hours and came out looking like this.

Not quite as good as with real cream cheese, but definitely yummy! And I had chocolate again :)

Tomato Eggplant Pasta

Looks great, doesn't it? This was dinner last night :) My wonderful hubby has been working hard to think outside the box and find new things for us to eat...especially since nearly everything we used to eat involved cheese.

So, for those who are interested, here is the recipe he used:

olive oil
1 med onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large eggplant (about a pound), peeled and cubed
1 bell pepper, cubed
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatos
1/2 cup cooking wine
1 tsp dry basil (or 2 Tbsp fresh)
1 tsp dry oregano (or 2 Tbsp fresh)
salt and pepper to taste
spaghetti or another pasta of your choice

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat until tender. Stir in eggplant, bell pepper, tomatos, wine, oregano, basil and salt and pepper. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes. Serve over hot cooked pasta.

I really enjoyed this, but Brent didn't like it so much. He felt that there wasn't enough flavor. Some shredded parmesan would be a wonderful addition...but remember, we are working on dairy free. So...a couple of things that we might try differently next time: Use fresh herbs rather than dry, use a larger amount of the herbs, use red wine rather than white cooking wine, saute the peppers for a minute or two before adding the rest of the ingredients, and possibly cook a little longer.

He did good

Brent did the grocery shopping yesterday. He came home with everything I asked for...and one thing I didn't.

He brought home a box of Luna bars. Chocolate Peppermint Stick flavored Luna bars to be exact. With no milk or eggs in the ingredient list. And they are YUMMY! It's a good thing I only took one with me to work, because I probably would have eaten a second one if it had been there. Or possibly even the whole box :) I'm so happy to have chocolate in my world again.

It almost makes up for the two boxes of Thin Mints that are sitting in my freezer...untouchable to my palate.

Yes, he did good.

Tomato Basil Chili

Brent has been great at seeking out new recipes that don't have dairy or eggs in them. Yesterday he made this yummy Tomato Basil Chili. Unfortunately, after we had eaten it, we discovered that parmesan cheese was one of the ingredients on the jar of chutney. However, the recipe was yummy enough, that I am still writing it here. I figure we can use a different tomato chutney (or make our own) next time.

1 TBS vegetable oil
1.5 lbs ground turkey
2 small onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (29oz) crushed tomatos
2 cans (15 oz each) great northern white beans, drained
12 oz (1.5 cups) tomato chutney
1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp dried oregano

Heat oil in large saucepan over med-high heat. Add turkey, onions and garlic, stirring occasionally for 4-5 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 1 hour.

And as a bonus, your whole house will smell yummy all day long :)

Research

So, with the whole Jacob most likely has a milk allergy thing, I have decided that I need to do a bit of research. And I can't find anything about where we are right now.

I'm trying to find information on an exclusively breastfed baby with food allergies. How much goes into my milk? How strict does my diet need to be? What are the odds that we will still be dealing with this in 3 months when we start solids? What kind of game plan to we need to have for starting solids? When do we need to see about getting him tested for allergies?

And I'm coming up with a big, fat NOTHING. I have found lots of information on food allergies and kids. I have found lots of recipes. (And once I start trying those, I will start sharing them for those who are interested) I have found food lists and restaraunt lists. But when I search babies, food allergies and breastfeeding, the only thing that comes up with all 3 terms is an article about how breastfeeding helps to reduce the incidence of food allergies. UGH!! This is so frustrating!

I am extremely grateful to my friends who have traveled and are travelling the food allergy path. They have given me lots of information. Lots of information that I sincerely hope I will never need. Because I am really hoping that if Jacob does indeed have food allergies, he will outgrow them. But if he doesn't, I do have resources.

But how do I learn about now?

Dairy free

I'm not sure if you know about this or not, but Jacob has eczema. Very bad eczema. Over his entire body. At his 2 month check up, the pediatrician told me to try eliminating eggs and milk from my diet completely for a week to see if that made any difference.

I did as she suggested and didn't really see much difference after a week. I decided to try at least one more week. The eczema improved a little, but I think that was mostly due to our diligently covering him with lotion at least twice a day. Especially since the eczema on his face actually got worse during this time.

So on Friday I added milk back into my diet. And his reflux symptoms that had almost completely gone away came back. In fact, by Monday evening, he was kicking and flailing while nursing again. He hadn't been doing that since 3 or 4 days after taking milk out of my diet.

It was bad enough on Monday evening that Brent looked at me and said that I needed to take the milk back out of my diet...and I agreed.

So now I am dairy free again. Ugh. I REALLY like cheese. And chocolate. And bread. And did I mention that I REALLY like cheese? ;)

At this point, I don't know how long I will be able to keep this up. I mean seriously...do you know how many things have milk in them? Even margarine has milk! And I don't know if I will be able to add eggs back in or not. I know that looking at a year of this is overwhelming today. So I will take it a week at a time for now. Then I will probably get used to it and then it won't be so overwhelming.

I think I may need to see a nutrionist/dietician to make sure I am getting all the calcium I need for both me and Jacob. Anyone know someone?

And if you know of some great milk and egg free recipes...especially for dessert :), please let me know. Just make sure you DON'T tell me about the brownies and ice cream that you had last night. 'Cuz then I might be jealous...and you don't want to cause that do you?