If you’ve ever bought a loaf of gluten free bread, you know how dry and dense they tend to be. They are so bad that I pretty much just gave up bread. GF bread just does not compare. I didn’t/don’t really miss bread at all, but it’s something I do like to have around for “emergencies”– those times when I realize that I.HAVE.TO.EAT.RIGHT.NOW! Put a little nut butter on there, maybe some jam and you’ve got a well-rounded snack. Besides that, Amanda likes it too (her fave is sunflower seed butter and jam).

A GF friend gave me her bread recipe (ingredient list, actually, as there were no instructions since she makes hers in a bread machine) and it sounded great. The only problem is that it was not vegan. At all. So, I’ve made some subs, figured out the instructions and made a really good loaf of bread on my first attempt. That never happens. I’m going to start looking around for a cheap bread machine to make this in. I think it will be even easier and just as good. If you’ve already got a bread machine, go ahead and use this recipe in it and let me know how it turns out (put the ingredients in according to the manufacturers recommendation for your bread machine).

Gluten Free Vegan Sandwich Bread
(yes, it’s really good)

Makes 1 glorious loaf

Dry Ingredients

2 1/3 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup teff flour
2 tsp salt
4 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (for a gum free version, you could try subbing 1 TB agar powder)

Wet Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 TB ground flax mixed with 6 TB warm water
1/4 cup Earth Balance, melted (or olive oil)

Directions

1. Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl or large measuring cup, combine the 1 1/2 cups water, maple syrup and yeast. Allow to sit for a few minutes for the yeast to proof.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the ground flax and 6 TB water. Add the Earth Balance (or oil). When the yeast has proofed, add the water, syrup, yeast mixture to the flax and oil mixture. Mix a few times to combine the wet ingredients.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and turn the mixer on for several minutes. The dough will be very sticky once mixed.

5. Transfer the dough to a large, greased bowl. Cover with a clean towel and set in a warm place. Allow to rise 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size. It will sort of resemble a head of cauliflower.

6. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
7. Grease up your hands and transfer the risen dough to a greased loaf pan. Allow to rise 30 minutes while the oven gets nice and toasty.

8. Bake for 30-45 minutes until golden brown on the top. The bread will sound hollow when you thump it. If you stick an instant read thermometer in the center, the internal temperature will be about 160 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
9. Let it cool some more.
10. Seriously, don’t try to cut it if it’s warm. Let it cool.
11. After the bread has cooled for about an hour, dump it out of the pan and slice. If it still feels warm to the touch, you might want to let it cool some more. If you cut into it while still warm, it will be gooey and mushy.

12. Store any leftover slices in an airtight container at room temperature. It will probably only last a 2-3 days (at the most). If you can’t eat it that fast, stick it in the freezer.

For breakfast yesterday, I made some oatmeal. Amanda insists on feeding herself, so I gave her a bowl and let her go to town. She managed to get quite a bit in her mouth… and in her hair… and all over the place. So today I got smart and baked it! I’ve made these once before, but was too lazy to blog about it. I love this recipe so much that I feel bad not sharing.

If you’ve never had baked oatmeal, it’s really quite good. It turns out fluffy and dense, sort of like an oatmeal muffin, and you can flavor it with whatever you want. Check out Chocolate Covered Katie for the recipe. I did change up her recipe a bit just to make it work with what I had. Here’s what I did:

• Quadrupled the recipe (and used certified GF oats).
• Used 1 large ripe banana and 1 small sweet potato (both mashed up) in place of the pumpkin/applesauce.
• Omitted the vanilla. Not for any good reason, except that I just didn’t feel like putting any in.
• Used maple syrup as the sweetener. Didn’t measure, just poured some in.
• Used rice milk.
• Added a generous amount of coconut oil.
• Mix-ins: raisins and shredded coconut.
• Spice: added pumpkin pie spice, about a teaspoon.

I only have 1/2 cup ramekins and used 5 to bake the quadrupled recipe. I plan to freeze some of the leftovers to have on hand just in case I get caught with no baby-friendly foods around.

Stumped for what to make for breakfast, I realize that I haven’t made pancakes in a really long time. Amanda would probably love them, Emma will probably not touch them, but I figured I’d go for it anyway.

I had an opened package of Bob’s Red Mill (BRM from now on) Gluten Free Pancake Mix, but not enough to make a full recipe of pancakes. The recipe on the BRM package says:

1 1/2 cups BRM GF pancake mix
1 egg/egg substitute
3/4 cup milk
1 TB oil

After having made pancakes before following this recipe, I only had a cup of mix left. Why do they do that? They should make the package an even 3 cups so that you can make 2 batches, instead of making it 2 1/2. Typically when I make these pancakes, I use banana or applesauce as the egg substitute because the pancake batter itself is really quite bland. Seriously, these are no wheaty, fluffy, butter”milk” pancakes.

So I find myself with 1 cup of pancake mix, 1 1/2 really old bananas, and some leftover apple cobbler. Really, I’m SHOCKED that these actually turned out and they were really good.

Whacky Batter

To make these, mash 1 1/2 super ripe bananas, mix in 1/2 cup of coconut milk (or whatever milk you like), 1 TB of oil, 1 cup of BRM GF pancake mix, and 1/2 cup of leftover apple cobbler. If batter is too thin, add a little sorghum flour to thicken (maybe 1-2 TB). Pour onto hot griddle… blah, blah, blah… you know how to make pancakes, I’m sure.

Pile O' Pancakes

My Plate of Whacky Pancakes

Emma's Plate of Even Whackier Pancakes

And just as I suspected, Emma ate the fruit off hers but left the pancakes untouched, while Amanda ate the entire thing.

Amanda is now 9 1/2 months (I can’t believe it!) and is eating like a toddler. She eats anything and everything and her favorite foods so far are broccoli and blueberries. It doesn’t matter what else is on her tray… if there are broccoli and blueberries on there, she will always eat those first.

I should probably explain first that we are a mixed household. While Matt eats a mostly vegan diet, he is vegetarian and will eat dairy or the occasional baked good made with eggs (he doesn’t like eggs by themselves). Emma is also mostly vegan, but is allowed to eat dairy and sometimes has eggs for breakfast. Now that she’s old enough to sort of understand that food doesn’t originate at the grocery store, she is starting to make the connection that chicken comes from chickens that had to be killed for someone to eat it. She’s making the same connection with cheese and eggs and may one day choose a totally vegan diet for herself.

It was my intention to raise Amanda in a similar way– dairy and eggs are okay, but we will eat mostly vegan at home. I am gluten-free 100% of the time and vegan 100% of the time at home. When we eat out, I try my best to stay vegan, but do give myself certain allowances to be sure that whatever meal I order is 100% gluten free. For example: the pizza place that we frequent offers Daiya cheese and a gluten free crust. The gluten free crust does contain egg, but I will order that when I’m there because it is the best option available to me. The gluten free pizzas are prepared in a designated gluten free area on designated gluten free equipment and with toppings kept separate from the gluten pizzas. This isn’t true for the salads, which is my only option for something that would be (potentially) GF and vegan. Sometimes, I have to go with the best available option even if it means straying a bit.

Anyway, in trying to keep Amanda’s diet in line with what her sister eats, she has had eggs and dairy. Dairy gave her eczema and eggs gave her diarrhea (and I think wheat gave her a rash), so it looks like she’ll be eating more like her momma than her sister. That’s fine with me! In this post, I thought I would highlight some of her favorite foods in case others out there are dealing with food allergies and are stumped at what to feed their growing toddlers. I should also note that Amanda has zero patience for baby food or for anything food that she can’t feed to herself. She wants to do it all herself!

Pasta

This girl loves pasta! I buy brown rice pasta for her and choose a shape that is easy for her to eat (penne usually). For this sauce– which was actually really, really good– I took a jar of organic marinara sauce and blended it with 1 cup of cooked green lentils and some baby spinach. A typical serving for her for lunch or dinner is about 1/2 cup and is always accompanied by a side vegetable and fruit. She loves to eat!



Beans
She loves all kinds of beans. Her favorites include kidney, black and pinto. The only thing I haven’t tried giving her are chickpeas. They are in the same family as green peas, which make her eczema worse.

Fruit
I haven’t found a fruit yet that she doesn’t like. As I said above, her favorite is blueberries. Here she is sharing a bowl of blueberries with her sis– after she had already eaten the bowl that I had given her.

The first thing she does when I let her out in the backyard is crawl over to the blueberry bush and help herself to any ripe ones (and a handful of dirt sometimes too).



Other favorite fruits of hers are bananas, cherries, any other kind of berry, mango, avocado, cantaloupe, watermelon… pretty much anything other than citrus, which I’m avoiding until at least 12 months.

Vegetables
Surprisingly, she loves vegetables just as much as she loves fruit. She really likes broccoli a lot and doesn’t mind the taste of spinach when it’s blended into other foods (such as the pasta sauce above). Other favorites are steamed carrots, sweet potatoes, peas (but we avoid these because they make her eczema worse), steamed zucchini, and squash.

Rice
Rice is tricky for tiny fingers, particularly when she won’t let me feed it to her on a spoon. This recipe below is one that both kids LOVED!

Green Rice Balls

1 cup sushi rice
1 cup packed fresh baby spinach, or leafy green vegetable of your choice
1 tsp kelp granules

Cook rice according to package instructions (usually for sushi rice, it’s 1 1/4 cups water to 1 cup rice. Cook for 15 minutes.). While rice is cooking, chop spinach finely– I use my mini food processor/chopper for this. When rice has finished cooking, allow to cool a bit then stir in chopped spinach and kelp granules. When the rice is cool enough to handle, wet your hands and form into small, tightly packed balls.

I was surprised that Emma enjoyed this recipe with it being so green and all, but she told me it was the best rice she’s ever had. Seeing her sister eat everything in sight has made Emma a more adventurous eater. She no longer complains when I sneak baby spinach into her romaine lettuce salad. I use white rice here so as not to overload their systems with fiber.

Sandwiches

Occasionally I will make her a sandwich on gluten free bread. She seems to like them alright, but she doesn’t eat them with as much enthusiasm as she does other foods. Still, I like that they offer her a different protein and fat source. I toast one slice of gluten free bread and spread it with raw, extra virgin coconut oil while still warm. Spread sunflower seed butter on and top with a little jam or applesauce. Cut off the crusts and that’s all there is to it!

Snacks

This is one area where I’m frequently stumped. It’s hard to think of snacks that she can manage by herself with only 4 teeth. Her current favorites are gluten free puffs, baby mum mums, veggie booty, and muffins. I’ve also tried rice cakes, but they were too salty for her. The next time I’m at the store, I’m going to spend a little time looking for cereals or crackery things that might work.

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If after reading this you’re still concerned about what to feed your vegan kids, here are two books that I have that I have found to be really helpful.

Becoming Vegan, as the title suggests, is all about making the transition to a vegan diet. There are chapters about carbs, vitamins, proteins, etc… and also chapters dedicated to nutritional requirements during a vegan pregnancy and raising vegan kids. It’s a great book and I recommend it even if you aren’t vegan or thinking of becoming vegan. There are also food guides and weekly meal plans for kids and adults.



This book is an easy read and talks about the different nutritional requirements for kids by age. It gives a more simplified explanation of things than Becoming Vegan and even includes a few recipes.

So, what kinds of foods do your kids like to eat?