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.

Well, about the only thing ready to harvest from our garden so far are apples. Lots and lots and lots of apples. I can’t tell what variety they are– I had originally thought Jonagold, but only some have the bit of red at the top. They don’t look like Jonagold to me anymore. After some extensive Googling, I am reasonably sure that we have Lodi apples. It was important for me to figure out what they are because I need to know when to pick them. From what I read, Lodi apples are the first of the season, harvested in July and August. Soooo… we picked a few to make an apple cobbler.

The recipe for the cobbler came from a book that I don’t use often enough, The Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O’Brien. My mother-in-law bought this book for me a few months ago and while I’ve got several recipes marked to try, this is the first one that I have ended up making. The recipe is actually for a peach and blueberry cobbler (sounds so good!), but with a tree full of apples, I thought I could make it work with those.

I followed the recipe exactly, but substituted 6 cups of apples for the 3 cups of peaches and 3 cups of blueberries. I also added lots more spice to the filling and it was perfect!

• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp mace
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

It turned out tasting great, but I did have a little trouble while baking. My apples, it seems, are not great for baking. They broke down, but released absolutely no juice. Like none at all. Because there is flour (sorghum) and arrowroot in the filling mixture to soak up all that juicy goodness, I had to improvise and add about 1/2 cup of water. Otherwise, it would had the pasty texture of dry, uncooked flour. It turned out fine, but next time I will add juice to the filling mixture if I use my apples again. I think these guys are best suited for applesauce, though.

Cobbler Close Up

I served the cobbler in a bowl topped with Almond Dream Praline Crunch. It was delicious! The ice cream melted a bit into the cobbler topping and it was so good.

The other night, I wanted a salad, but didn’t want it with any of the dressings I had in the fridge and I was too lazy to make a vinaigrette. Since Amanda loves avocados so much, I almost always have those around so I thought I could mash it into a yummy, creamy dressing. This was the best salad I have ever eaten in my life and since I’ve been trying to shed a few pounds and have been eating my weight in salads lately, I needed a new spin to keep it interesting.

Creamy Avocado Salad Dressing
1 small avocado (these are sometimes sold as “pee wee avocados“)
Juice of 1 lime
A few dashes of Tabasco sauce (optional, I use more like 1/4 tsp)
Salt to taste

In the bottom of a large bowl, mash the avocado with the other ingredients. Toss in salad fixin’s and enjoy!

In my salad pictured above, I had some romaine in there, some baby lettuce mix, carrots, snap peas, green onions, grape tomatoes and about 1/2 cup of black beans. Alongside, I had some leftover oven roasted broccoli. Together with the avocado dressing, the entire meal was about 400 calories. How do I know how many calories this was? Well, from my calorie tracking app, of course! And just because I’m trying to lose weight doesn’t mean I avoid fat and fatty things like avocados. In fact, I eat at least half an avocado every day.

Have you guys used this? I’ve been using it for about the last 6 weeks and have lost about 6 pounds so far. I sort of fell off the wagon last week and am just now getting back to logging everything. For a free app, it’s really quite impressive. If you’re trying to keep track of what you’re eating for whatever reason (weight loss, weight gain, whatever), I highly recommend it.

I don’t really like broccoli all that much, but I. LOVE. THIS. BROCCOLI. Oven roasting it makes it cooked, yet still with a little bite. The charred areas get super flavorful. And you can top it with whatever spices or dried herbs you like. We eat a lot of broccoli over here, so I make a big batch of this every few days.

Oven Roasted Broccoli

Broccoli (I usually do 3-4 heads at a time)
Oil
Spices and dried herbs of choice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. This is crucial– be sure to let it preheat 5-10 minutes. Prepare broccoli by washing it and cutting into florets. Arrange broccoli florets on sheet pan in a single layer. Drizzle or spray with oil of choice (anything works here, even coconut oil). Generously sprinkle with spices and dried herbs of choice. I always use salt and pepper and also sometimes also use garlic powder or Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. That’s it! Once you sprinkle the stuff on, there’s no need to toss the broccoli around. Put into the preheated oven and allow to roast 7-8 minutes or until tender. Once it’s in the oven, don’t touch it, turn it, or flip it and avoid the urge to open your oven door all the time to check on it.

Sometimes I just use the salt and pepper only and then top with lemon zest and juice after it’s done cooking. When you pull it out of the oven and it’s still hot, zest a lemon over top of it, then squeeze the juice all over. It’s so good!

We spent Father’s Day with my family in Sacramento and I made these yummy kabobs, which were sort of a take on the eggplant/basil/tofu Thai dish Eggplant Kee Mao (my absolute favorite Thai dish. Ever.). For these, I skewered some firm tofu with some chopped eggplant, basil leaves, red onion, zucchini and cremini mushrooms. I marinated them for a day in a mixture of tamari, veggie broth, chopped basil, chopped green onions, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, toasted sesame oil and red chili flakes.



My dad was very thoughtful with his grill: he preheated it to like 5 million degrees to singe off any meat remnants for me. Then he was so nice to let me grill them myself– a job that I thoroughly enjoyed and am now putting a gas BBQ on the top of my wish list. I loved it and it made all the difference with these babies. If you don’t have a BBQ, you can still make these. Just preheat your broiler and cook them under it until they are charred in some spots and cooked through. These are definitely a crowd pleaser and not that expensive to make either. I think the most expensive component was the tofu at $3.50 for the pack. I’ll definitely be making these again.

I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of the larger cake projects I’ve worked on the last few months. The first was for a friend’s wedding…

The cupcake flavors here are mocha, coconut and peanut butter cup. All vegan!!



This is the cake that the couple cut. The leopard spots are hand painted with food coloring. Blue and orange were the wedding colors.



Close up of the hand made blue ruffle.



The groom’s cake.

Another project that I really enjoyed working on was this Tangled inspired cake for a friend of Emma’s.









And here are some photos from a backyard wedding that I did this weekend. The theme was “backyard chic.”



Cupcakes Flavors: gluten free vanilla, vanilla with vanilla, vanilla topped with raspberries, chocolate with chocolate, chocolate topped with raspberries, and lemon with lemon.

And these two special ones for the bride and groom to feed each other:



The vases separating the tiers on the cupcake stand were filled with a mix of dried and paper flowers, willow branches and some other kind of dried sticks. The bride is known for her love of butterflies, so I included some faux butterflies in there as well.





“Like” Me on Facebook to keep up with all of my cake projects:

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.

*********

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?

I’ve blogged about Cafe Gratitude before (and here), but it’s so good that I’m blogging about it again. For a friend’s birthday over the weekend, we went to see the Gertrude Stein exhibit at the SF MOMA and then to lunch at Cafe Gratitude. It was a super fun day for sure!

We started lunch off right with a bottle of wine. I don’t think Cafe Gratitude served alcohol the last time I was there, but they now offer a few different beers and wines. We had a bottle of the organic chardonnay and it was good.

Another thing that’s different since the last time I was there was a whole selection of cooked foods on their menu. I still got the same thing I always get… the raw enchilada:

And just like always, it was delicious! A friend ordered the raw mac & cheese. I had a bite and it was good:

Another friend got the cooked tamale. I didn’t taste it, but she said it was good, but very spicy. It was so spicy that she didn’t eat most of it.

One other thing that we got to try was the coconut bacon. It’s flaked coconut with some spicy, smoky, maply something and it does sort of taste like bacon.

Next time, I just might get the raw mac & cheese topped with the coconut bacon. Yum!

Now that we live in a house with a large yard and more sunshine, I was really super excited to garden this summer. I bought some packs of seeds and my dad sprouted them for me (and then ended up transplanting them into my yard for me too). All is going well, except that it’s been so darn cold and rainy that I don’t have a whole lot to brag about yet. We’ve finally had a few days of warm sunshine so I should be harvesting here in no time.

There are a few things in our garden that I can’t take credit for. When we moved in to our new house, there was this tree in the middle of the backyard. I didn’t pay much attention to it until a couple of months ago when it started growing something. I thought at first that it was pears, but now I can see that they are apples. I have no idea what kind it is or if they even taste good, but I should be able to cook and can them at the very least. After a trip to the nursery to compare apples, I think these little guys are Jonagold apples:

And here’s another thing I was surprised about… our neighbor who we share a fence with has a pretty impressive garden going on. Just from peaking through the fence, I can see that she has a good-sized apricot tree as well as this:

GRAPES! When it first started creeping over the fence, I very nearly cut it because I thought it looked kinda ugly. Now that it’s grown in and isn’t just one little branch growing from out of nowhere, I think it looks ok. And after I saw the itty bitty grapes growing, I was really happy that I didn’t cut it back. Since taking the photo, which was a few weeks ago when I first started this post, the grapes on our side have probably doubled and I can see that the grapes are growing. Yay! We should be harvesting grapes next month sometime.

Now, this plant that was planted here before we moved in I thought for the longest time was a flower-less hydrangea. When I was watering it one day, I thought to myself “wait a minute… is that lemon balm?“. Sure enough, the leaves have a lemony fragrance and I’m now certain that it’s an enormous lemon balm (but it kinda looks like a small, flower-less hydrangea, doesn’t it?!).

So here’s a question: aside from making tea, what can I do with such a huge lemon balm plant? I thought I could use some cuttings in a flower arrangement, but I rarely ever have cut flowers in the house. It makes me so sad when they die so I don’t like to keep them around. Can I cook with it? I know it’s related to mint, so maybe I can use it in place of mint in recipes? Help!!

Let’s move on to the things that I have planted… I have to say first that I’m not sure how any of this will grow. We have several very large trees in our backyard and there are very few spots that get full sun. Most everywhere in the yard only gets sun for only a brief time during the day, but I’m hopeful some of it will take off. Since starting this post, we have a little squash growing in our front yard (where we get more sun and where I planted about a dozen squash plants). The ones planted in the backyard have grown a bit too and we have lots and lots of blossoms.

These are my two cucumber plants that I have in pots in my front yard where they get lots of sun. One is Armenian and one is Japanese, but don’t ask me to tell you which is which because I have no clue. Since starting this post, I’ve since moved the cukes to the ground in the backyard because they were outgrowing the pots. They seem to be doing well and I have a few little flowers that will (hopefully!!) grow into cucumbers.

Here’s another little guy that I keep in a pot in the front yard. It’s a Japanese eggplant and it’s already got a little one growing! Note: I’ve since moved him to the ground in the backyard because he was getting so big. I have a few more starting to grow.

I also planted two blackberries along our fence. One is a loganberry and the other is an olallieberry. They are small and fruitless. Another berry that is actually doing well is my blueberry bush:

These are the sweetest, most delicious blueberries I’ve ever eaten in my life. Having said that, I haven’t eaten more than a small handful since the kids help themselves to it whenever we are out back. It’s so cute to see Amanda crawl straight toward it, pull herself up on the planter, and pick her own blueberries. Blueberries are her most favorite food, I think. Whole Foods had them on sale one week ($1.99 for a pint of organic ones) and I bought 5 pints. We went through them in about 4 or 5 days.

And lastly, here is my teeny tiny watermelon plant. It hasn’t grown much and I suspect that it doesn’t get hot enough here for it, so I don’t think we’ll be eating any watermelon this summer. Oh well.

My little Amanda is an eating machine… an eating machine who I suspect has a few food allergies. Our doctor will be doing a blood panel to test for antibodies to suspected allergens and then possibly refer us to an allergist. She’s a very sensitive little body…

In an effort to find snacky/breakfast foods that she would like and that wouldn’t make her break out in a rash, I whipped up these muffins yesterday. She ate an entire muffin… for a snack, after eating a huge lunch and right before eating a big dinner. Like I said, she’s an eating machine. Now, this is not an original recipe. I messed around with the wet ingredients from this recipe to use what I had on hand. The result was great– they have a great flavor and texture. I think these could even be served to someone who wasn’t accustomed to eating gluten free baked goods and even get two thumbs up!

(My plan for today is to make these again substituting xylitol for the sugar. The nice folks at Emerald Forest sent me a sample of their product and while I’ve enjoyed adding it to my oatmeal in the morning, I have yet to use it in a baking recipe. Stay tuned for those results.)

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Coconut Muffins

Makes 18 muffins.

Wet Ingredients:

Egg replacer for 2 eggs, mixed (I used Ener-G)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup non-dairy milk of your choice (I used rice)
1 TB molasses (omit if using brown sugar, see dry ingredients below)

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups tapioca starch
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup sugar (or 1 cup brown sugar– if using brown sugar, omit molasses)
1 TB pumpkin pie spice

Add-Ins:

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with papers or spray with oil. Set aside.

2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine all wet ingredients. If your coconut oil hardens when you add the cold milk (it will look like curdled milk), pop the mixing bowl into the microwave for a few seconds to melt again. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Add wet to dry and mix thoroughly. If the batter is too thick, as it probably will be once the coconut flour starts to absorb the moisture, add more rice milk a tablespoon at a time until it is the consistency of thick cake batter. I probably used an additional 1/4 to 1/3 cup of rice milk to get the right consistency.

4. When everything is combined, throw in the add-ins. For something a little different, try chocolate chips instead of raisins, or use any dried fruit that you like. Or throw in some nuts too. Since Amanda only has 4 teeth and is having food troubles already, I didn’t add any here.

5. Spoon into prepared muffin tin. The easiest way to do this, I’ve found, is the two spoon trick: using two tablespoons (like the kind for eating with, not the kind for measuring), scoop up a spoonful in one of the spoons. Use the other spoon to scrape the batter off the first spoon into the muffin tin. When all of the tins have been filled, wet the back of one spoon to smooth the top of each muffin. Re-wet as necessary to keep the batter from sticking to the spoon until all muffins have been smoothed over.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one muffin comes out clean. Cool before eating, if you can wait that long.