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Fish/shellfish-free – Page 27 – surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)

Tag: Fish/shellfish-free

  • DIY Spice Mix Day – Montreal Steak, Creamy Peppercorn, Singapore, and Full of Flavor Herb Mix

    So one of the more recent traumatic events (okay, not really traumatic, but annoying certainly) was the purging of my spice cabinet of things I can’t use any more as a result of the corn and wheat allergies.  If you know me in real life, I’m a tad obsessive about my spices.  I have a four-shelf stand-alone cabinet in the kitchen that contains nothing but spices, spice mixes, and vinegar and oils.  There may or may not be an inventory spreadsheet on my Google drive with 157 items on it so that I can get to it on my phone while I am grocery shopping. I’m also frankly surprised and disappointed that I haven’t made it on some platinum frequent order program with Penzey’s spices, given my order volume (tongue firmly in cheek, I love them). But in any case, I had to get rid of a few of my favorite mixes, Penzey’s or otherwise, mostly because they contained citric acid or other problematic ingredients for me.  So I played around, did some Google-fu, and experimented and came up with the following mixes that make me happy.

    DIY Montreal Steak Seasoning

    • 4 Tablespoons of Kosher Salt
    • 1 Tablespoon of black peppercorns
    • 1 Tablespoon of dried minced onion
    • 1 Tablespoon of dried thyme
    • 1 Tablespoon of dried rosemary
    • ½ Tablespoon of dried minced garlic
    • ½ Tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes
    • 2 teaspoons of fennel seed
    • 1 teaspoon of dill seed
    • 1 teaspoon of paprika

    Put this in a blender or spice/coffee grinder, or use my trick where you take a pint mason canning jar, put all the spices in the jar and screw the blender blade assembly to the jar and put it on blender.  Using any and all methods, blend until fairly well ground as shown below and put in a spice jar and store.  I use this as a rub for beef, pork and chicken.

    Montreal Steak Seasoning
    DIY Montreal Steak Seasoning

    DIY Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Mix

    • ¼ cup of black peppercorns ground coarsely (in a blender or spice/coffee grinder, or use my trick where you take a pint mason canning jar, put the spices in the jar and screw the blender blade assembly to the jar and put it on blender)
    • ⅛ cup of sugar
    • ⅛ cup of dried minced garlic
    • ⅛ cup of dried thyme
    • ⅛ cup of dried parsley.
    • 2 ½ Tablespoons of salt
    Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Mix
    DIY Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Mix

    Put all ingredients in a bowl spices in a bowl and whisk together thoroughly.  Put in a spice jar to store.  To use, mix 1 Tablespoon of Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Mix in 2 Tablespoons of water and let stand five minutes.  Mix in ½ cup Earth Balance Mindful Mayo and enjoy.  If you can have dairy and eggs, use 1/4 cup of mayo and 1/4 cup of sour cream 🙂

    Creamy Peppercorn Dressing using Earth Balance Mindful Mayo
    Creamy Peppercorn Dressing using Earth Balance Mindful Mayo

    DIY Singapore Seasoning

    • 2 Tablespoons of lemon peel powder (you can get this from Penzey’s or grind up dried lemon peel in your spice/coffee grinder)
    • ½ Tablespoon of black pepper
    • 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
    • 1 teaspoon of onion powder
    • 1 teaspoon of tumeric
    • ½ teaspoon of ground coriander
    • ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
    • ½ teaspoon of ground ginger
    • ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
    • ¼ teaspoon of ground fennel
    • ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
    • ⅛  teaspoon of ground fenugreek
    • ⅛  teaspoon of ground white pepper
    • ⅛  teaspoon of ground cardamom
    • ⅛  teaspoon of ground cloves
    • ⅛  teaspoon of ground cayenne red pepper

    Put all ingredients in a bowl spices in a bowl and whisk together thoroughly.  Put in a spice jar to store.  You can use this as a spice rub for chicken or pork or to flavor rice noodles.

    Singapore Seasoning
    DIY Singapore Seasoning

    Full of Flavor Herb Mix

    Penzey’s has a Mural of Flavor spice mix that I love, but it has citric acid (corn) in it, so it’s out for me now.  I came up with the following mix to replace it.

    • 1 ½ Tablespoons of dried minced shallots
    • 1 teaspoon of thyme
    • 1 teaspoon of rosemary
    • 1 teaspoon of basil
    • 1 teaspoon of chives
    • ½ teaspoon of onion powder
    • ½ teaspoon of garlic powder
    • ½ teaspoon of lemon peel
    • ¼ teaspoon of ground coriander
    • ½ teaspoon of green peppercorns
    • ½ teaspoon of dill weed
    • ¼ teaspoon of lemon peel powder (you can get this from Penzey’s or grind up dried lemon peel in your spice/coffee grinder)
    • ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
    • ¼ teaspoon of orange peel

    Put this in a blender or spice/coffee grinder, or use my trick where you take a pint mason canning jar, put all the spices in the jar and screw the blender blade assembly to the jar and put it on blender.  Using any and all method, blend until it is ground to a coarse consistency (not powder) as shown below and put in a spice jar and store.  I use this on vegetables, in soups, on beef, pork, chicken and fish.  It’s a great all-purpose spice blend.

    Full of Flavor Herb Mix
    Full of Flavor Herb Mix

    Hope you guys enjoy these spice mixes. If you’ve got some of your own, please share!

  • Not Quite Mom’s Coleslaw

    Reinvention of Mom's Coleslaw
    Not Quite Mom’s Coleslaw

    It’s summer still, although there’s been a fall-like chill in the air lately. So there’s still opportunities for cookouts and potlucks and all sorts of communal eating, and sometimes you need coleslaw. And with a dairy and egg allergy that can be challenging. Especially if one is anti-coleslaw with vinegar and oil dressing. As far as I’m concerned, coleslaw with vinegar and oil dressing is a salad with cabbage, it’s not coleslaw. Am I the only one with deeply held beliefs on coleslaw? (Yeah, probably.) In any case, my mom used to make this coleslaw dressing with Miracle Whip with a bit of milk, orange juice, and sugar that was the right sort of tangy, creamy and sweet all at the same time. And my mom doesn’t really cook, but seriously this dressing was perfect. I could eat buckets of this coleslaw back in the day before food allergies reared their ugly heads.

    Now that Earth Balance has a vegan mayo that’s really good, I’ve been able to recreate my mom’s coleslaw dressing (see our review here).  And it’s good and pretty close to the original.

    Not Quite Mom’s Coleslaw

    • 6 cups of chopped cabbage
    • 2 grated carrots
    • 1/2 cup of Earth Balance Mindful Mayo Original
    • 3 Tablespoons of orange juice (or lemon or lime if you like your dressing more tart)
    • 1 teaspoon of sugar

    Chop your cabbage however you like cabbage to be in coleslaw, but I like mine to be diced, about a half inch by a half inch.

    Chopped cabbage
    Chopped cabbage

    Once you have six cups of chopped cabbage, peel your carrots and use a large grater to grate them.

    Grated Carrot and Chopped Cabbage
    Grated Carrot and Chopped Cabbage

    Then place your Earth Balance Mindful Mayo Original, the orange juice and the sugar into a small bowl and whisk the ingredients together until smooth.

    Dressing after whisking
    Dressing after whisking

    Combine cabbage, carrots and dressing in a large bowl and mix together well.  The orange color to the dressing doesn’t actually come from the orange juice, it comes from the grated carrots.

    Dressing, Carrots, and Cabbage combined.
    Dressing, Carrots, and Cabbage combined.

    Serve and enjoy!

    Reinvention of Mom's Coleslaw
    Not Quite Mom’s Coleslaw

  • Brown Rice “Couscous” Veggie Bowl

    IMG_0652Generally those of us with multiple food allergies can rely on very little in the way of packaged or convenience foods. Given that both Denise and I also work full-time, sometimes feeding oneself on a serious time budget becomes, well, problematic.  When I still ate wheat, couscous was something I always had on hand because it cooked quickly and was a good neutral base for an easy saute of whatever was in the fridge at the time. I operated on the easy model of “beans, greens, and grain.”

    This is a version of that — using a Lundberg brown rice couscous with roasted garlic flavor as the “grain” base for a nice stir fry of Swiss chard from my friend Mary’s garden. Add in a leftover sweet potato and a caramelized Vidalia onion and I had a good dinner with three lunch portions leftover. Add a can of white beans or some leftover meat for a protein boost, serve this as a side dish, or think up your own variation — this is more of a formula than a recipe, really, and one I honestly repeat over and over throughout the year for easy weeknight meals.

    IMG_0654

    Gluten-free Veggie Couscous Bowl

    Makes 4 servings

    • 1 large Vidalia onion, halved and sliced thin
    • 1 Tablespoon some form of fat
    • I box Lundberg brown rice couscous
    • 1 bunch of Swiss chard, washed, rolled, sliced, and then chopped
    • 1-2 teaspoons olive oil
    • 1-3 cloves garlic, chopped
    • 1 sweet potato, cooked
    • salt and pepper to taste

    Melt shortening/butter/margarine/bacon fat/olive oil in large skillet over medium low heat. When sizzling hot, add onions. Stir thoroughly to coat with oils, and cook low and slow until well-browned, about 45 minutes or so. Stir occasionally.

    If you need to cook the sweet potato, throw it in the oven at 375F after washing it and poking vent holesIMG_0655 in the skin. I’d personally suggest making more than one and use the leftovers in another dish later in the week.

    In a separate stockpot, bring water to a boil as directed on the box of the couscous. When the water is boiling, add the seasonings (if you can have them) and the couscous. Cover, reduce heat, and set the timer — again, basically follow the directions on the box, omitting the seasoning if you cannot have them.

    While these things cook, wash and drain the chard leaves. Chop off the stems. Slice these thinly like celery and set aside. Stack the leaves, and then roll them up tightly to slice thinly to create small ribbons of chard. Cut lengthwise along the leaves next, to make the ribbons shorter.

    When the onions are finished cooking, remove them from the skillet. Add a tiny amount of olive oil to the fat left in the pan, if needed, and then add the garlic and chard in quick succession. Stir thoroughly, and cook until the chard is fully wilted (4-8 minutes).

    In a large serving bowl, mix all ingredients — couscous, chard, sweet potato, and onion. Taste, and then season appropriately with salt and pepper.

  • Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad

    Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad, photo by J. Andrews
    Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad, photo by J. Andrews

    So far this summer in New Hampshire, we’ve had sweltering heat interspersed with rainy cool weather. Given the quick changes, it’s been hard to grocery shop effectively — who knows when it’s going to be way too hot to cook? Part of my solution has been to buy things that I can cook ahead, sometime when the heat isn’t too bad, and then use in multiple dishes. Like grilling a bunch of chicken on the indoor grill (which is relatively cool). Or roasting a bunch of veggies to eat all week. Or, sometimes, just buying something someone at the co-op made (they are good about listing ingredients).

    This salad started as a “this is what’s left in the fridge” kind of meal, but I loved it and spent some time refining the elements for what I think is a pretty perfect flavor profile. The particular combination of fresh baby spinach, ripe sweet summer strawberries, crisp and fresh cucumbers, and a honey mustard dressing just works for me.

    Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad

    Make ahead, if you want to:

    Grilled spicy chicken

    • 1 lb. chicken tenders (or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips)
    • 1 teaspoon chili powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
    • 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
    • pinch or more of cayenne pepper — adjust to suit your tastes, but probably no more than 1/4 t, even if you’re Denise

    Mix up the spices, and then sprinkle evenly over the chicken strips, both sides. You may have leftovers, which you can bag and save for another meal. Grill chicken until done. Cut the strips into cubes. You can use this hot, if you’ve just grilled it, or grill ahead and chill it for an even quicker weeknight meal.

    Honey Dijon Dressing

    • 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used this), (Denise has made this)
    • 1 Tablespoon honey
    • 1 teaspoon dried dill
    • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
    • 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
    • 2 Tablespoons high-quality olive oil

    Whisk first four ingredients together until the mustard and honey are smoothly blended. Then whisk in the vinegar, followed by the olive oil.

    Salad Base

    • Two large handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped
    • 1 medium cucumber, chopped
    • 1/2 lb. strawberries, stemmed and chopped

    Compose your salad by creating a bed of spinach topped by the chopped cucumber, strawberries, and chicken, drizzled with the dressing.

    This amount of ingredients makes two generous salads or three slightly smaller salads, with a good bit of leftover chicken that you can use for another meal.

  • 15 Minute Salsa

    15 Minute Salsa on a Beanito Chip
    15 Minute Salsa on a Beanito Chip

    Since I also cannot buy salsa during this whole elimination torture thing (most have celery and onion, which are two no-no’s at the moment), I whipped this up so I’d have something to eat at my book group, since I’d gotten “regular” allergen-filled food for everyone else.  I wasn’t going for culinary genius, but just something incredibly quick that wouldn’t be awful, based on what I had in the fridge and cupboards.  And when it was done, I was surprised that it came out so well, and Mary Kate suggested I write it up on the blog.  If you are not avoiding onion, you can add an small onion to this and I’m sure it would be lovely. You need a food processor to do this one.  I tried it in a blender, but I just didn’t get the result I wanted.  This is also a fast one, the fifteen minutes includes washing the food processor (if you have the jar of taco seasoning made up ahead of time).

    15 Minute Salsa  

    • 1 red bell pepper, de-stemmed and de-seeded, and cut into large chunks.
    • 1 jalapeno pepper, de-stemmed and de-seeded, and cut into large chunks.
    • 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled with the stem end trimmed
    • 5 tomatoes, stem end trimmed, and cut into eighths (I don’t seed my tomatoes because I don’t mind seeds, but if you do, feel free to take them out, but you might want to add another tomato)
    • 2 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning (see recipe from our Taco Beef for Tacos, Salads and Nachos post)
    • 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar
    • 1 Tablespoon of olive oil

    De-stem, de-seed and cut red bell pepper and the jalapeno pepper into chunks.  Trim stem ends of garlic.

    Red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and garlic
    Red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and garlic

    Core tomatoes and cut them into eighths.

    Tomatoes, showing cored and cut into eighths
    Tomatoes, showing cored and cut into eighths

    Put peppers, garlic and tomatoes into your food processor.  You may need to do this in batches, I have to because my food processor is on the small size.  Have a large bowl read to dump your batches in. Pulse until you get the consistency you like. I prefer it a little more processed.

    Salsa in food processor
    Salsa in food processor

    Once you have all your processing batches in the large bowl, stir it well so that all the peppers, garlic and tomatoes are well mixed through out the salsa.  Your veggies may look a little frothy, but that’ll sort out once you add the remaining ingredients. Add the taco seasoning, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.

    Salsa before seasoning, vinegar and oil are mixed in.
    Salsa before seasoning, vinegar and oil are mixed in.

    Mix all the ingredients together with a spatula making sure that all the spice mixture gets evenly distributed.  This makes about 5-6 cups of salsa so it’s a great recipe for a party.  Enjoy!

    Salsa, ready to eat!!
    Salsa, ready to eat!!

  • Lazy Summer Classic Smoothies: Creamsicle

    Dreamy Smoothie Goodness
    Dreamy Smoothie Goodness

    It’s summer. It’s too hot to cook, but you need a mid-afternoon snack to get you through until dinner. Or it’s breakfast time but it’s 90 degrees in your apartment and food seems, well, heavy. There is a super simple solution to this cooking dilemma: Smoothies, people, smoothies.

    I go through smoothie phases. I make them for a while, then get stuck in a rut, and then rediscover them. I’m personally a fan of really simple smoothies that rely primarily on actual fruit, maybe with some yogurt or milk (non-dairy, of course), and generally as few ingredients as possible. I’ve done the green smoothie thing occasionally, and I’ve followed recipes and master recipes. Mostly, though, it’s a way to dump all the stuff in the fridge into a simple healthy creation that just requires a blender.

    With this ridiculously simple recipe, a little prep work will give you a snack that taste like the ice cream truck of your childhood just stopped by.

    The MANY ingredients
    The MANY ingredients

    Creamsicle Smoothie

    PREPARE AHEAD: Freeze some of your favorite vanilla non-dairy milk* in ice cube trays.**

    *Note 1: You can use any non-dairy milk. You can probably even use cow’s milk, but frankly, then, go buy yourself a creamsicle! I have used almond milk, primarily, in the vanilla, unsweetened variety. I am sure soy or rice will work, too. This recipe can be nut-free and soy-free, if you want.

    **Note 2: Measure your ice cube trays. I freeze a lot of ingredients in ice cube trays for ease of use later — tiny amounts of leftover broth or stock, sometimes herbs or pastes, fresh lemon or lime juice. All of my ice cube trays hold approximately 1 Tablespoon of liquid. It’s good to measure yours so that you know for the future recipes you’ll make with those ingredients.

    In a blender, combine:

    4 Tablespoons (4 cubes) of frozen vanilla almond or other non-dairy milk

    1 1/4 cup of orange juice

    Blend.

    Yes, seriously, that’s it. It’s really that easy and that good.

    Lazy Creamsicle Smoothie
    Lazy Creamsicle Smoothie

  • Taco Beef for Tacos, Salads, and Nachos

    Taco Meat used in a Taco Salad
    Taco Beef used in a Taco Salad

    So I was going totally nutty because I’ve not been eating much except rice, salad, steamed or roasted vegetables and broiled beef and pork during this whole food elimination torture thing. I’m not good at eating the same thing all the time. And I love spice. I wanted something different to eat. Something that had taste!  So I was dubbing around my Pinterest boards and realized that I could make homemade taco seasoning and leave out any onion powder (still waiting to challenge onions to see if I am truly allergic to them). I double checked my chili powder to make sure it didn’t have any onion and I went to town. I made up a large batch of it so I could use it again easily, and you’ll see me use it to make a quick salsa in a couple of weeks.

    First, we have to make up the taco seasoning:

    Taco Seasoning – Onion Free Version (for a version with onion, see a recipe here)

    • 1/4 cup and 1 Tablespoon of chili powder (I used Hot Chili Powder from Penzey’s, has no onion)
    • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder
    • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of  red pepper flakes
    • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of oregano
    • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of paprika
    • 1/8 cup and  1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cumin
    • 1/8 cup of salt (less or more to your taste)
    • 1/8 cup of finely ground pepper

    Mix the ingredients in a bowl and store in a glass jar.

    Taco Seasoning saved in repurposed Earth Balance Mindful Mayo Jar
    Taco Seasoning saved in re-purposed Earth Balance Mindful Mayo Jar

    Taco Beef

    • 1 pound of ground beef
    • 2-3 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning

    Brown one pound of ground beef in a skillet.  Drain off any excess fat.  Mix 2 to 3 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning and 1/2 cup of water into the ground beef until it’s well combined, and then simmer it over medium heat until there is little liquid left in the skillet.

    Taco Meat simmering in skillet
    Taco Meat simmering in skillet

    You can now use your taco meat for tacos, nachos, or salads.  Enjoy!

  • Cashew-Chocolate Pudding Popsicles

    Cashew-Chocolate Pudding Popsicle!
    Cashew-Chocolate Pudding Popsicle!

    When we were trying to think up something festive for this holiday week, we considered that ice cream seemed the best way to go. July 4th is a barbeque holiday, yes, (though why independence and charred tubes of mystery meat are so closely inter-related I will never understand), but we’ve covered barbeque pretty well up to now, and thought dessert was more appropriate.  And it’s summer.  So, ICE CREAM!

    This was intended, originally, to be an ice cream recipe, but it ended up being more of a frozen pudding somehow.  Which, what do you do with frozen pudding?  Make popsicles, of course.

    This is a plan ahead recipe!  There are two pieces that need to sit OVERNIGHT, two separate nights, and then things need to freeze.  We just want you to know, because, sometimes, maybe, people don’t read all the directions first. Not that we would ever start a recipe without reading all the directions…

    This uses homemade cashew milk (I’m not actually sure there is a commercial version, but if there is, it’s probably expensive), so you will need to soak the cashews overnight.  The water will look sort of scummy afterwards.  Don’t worry!  This is normal, and you’re getting rid of it anyway.

    The next overnight is cooling your ice cream/frozen pudding mixture.  The last is freezing your pops. So here you go.

    What do you do with frozen pudding? Make a fudgesicle. Duh.
    What do you do with frozen pudding? Make a fudgesicle. Duh.

    Cashew-Chocolate Pudding Popsicles

    • 1 1/4 cup cashew pieces, soaked overnight
    • 1 1/4 cup water

    Blend to death in a blender — seriously, just turn it on and let it go for 5 minutes or so.  You will not be straining this, so you want it smooth. This should yield 2 cups or more of cashew milk — you need 2 cups for the recipe.  Use the rest for coffee.

    • 2 cups cashew milk, 1/4 cup of this set aside
    • 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon arrowroot starch/powder
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
    • 3 oz dark chocolate (check this for allergens)
    • 1 oz food-grade cocoa butter
    • 1 Tablespoon vanilla

    Mix the arrowroot and the 1/4 cup cashew milk and set aside.

    In a sauce pan over medium-low heat, mix the rest of the cashew milk, sugar, cocoa, dark chocolate, and cocoa butter.  Melt the solids, whisk them in, and cook, whisking often, until the mixture reaches a low boil.  Do not turn up the heat to achieve the boil.  This takes time!

    When the mixture is boiling, remove from the heat.  Whisk in the arrowroot mixture and the vanilla.

    Cool overnight in the fridge.

    Now from here you can go one of two ways.  We put this through the ice cream maker, following the maker’s instructions, and then decided it was better as pops.  It’s likely that you can skip this step, but let’s be honest — some of us are a little superstitious, and since it worked right the first way (going through the ice cream maker), that’s how we did it.

    Now for the pops, we used Dixie bathroom paper cups, 3 oz. each, leftover from a party we had last year, and they seemed to be the perfect size for this rich treat — no one really wanted a larger pop, and they do melt reasonably fast.  If you have popsicle molds, give them a try, but we recommend the little cups.  Perfect portions, and easy removal — just tear the cup off.  Fill it to the top and add a popsicle stick (it’s thick enough to stay standing straight).

    IMG_0617
    Makes about 12 pops, give or take a few, depending on how much of the pudding/frozen pudding you taste first.