Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy Free Peanut Butter Pie!!

Back when we were dating, my husband introduced me to the most delicious peanut butter pie in the world.  The ingredients are: peanut butter, a box of powdered sugar, a LOT of cream cheese, and a whole container of coolwhip.  Take my word for it, this pie tastes SO good.  This weekend I was craving that pie; I haven't had it in a very long time! So I started to search my cookbooks and the web to find a suitable alternative recipe.  Naturally, the cream cheese and coolwhip have to go, and I wanted to make a dessert with a little less sugar.  I found recipes that used silken tofu and/or vegan cream cheese (usually made from soy!), which won't work for me.  SO, I did a little experimenting, and this is what I created!! By no means is it healthy; it still has a good amount of sugar...but, I would say its's much healthier than the original version!

Vegan Peanut Butter Pie
dairy free, soy free, gluten free, egg free


2 cups raw cashew pieces
3 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
1/2 cup (plus up to 1/2 cup more) powdered sugar 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 Tablespoons milk alternative (I used plain, unsweetened almond milk)


Place raw cashew pieces in a pot and cover with water.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover, and let cool for a couple of hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.


Once cooled, drain soaked cashews and place in your blender.  Add the melted coconut oil and vanilla extract, and blend until cashews become a thick paste.  You may need to add a little bit of water to help the cashews along.  Once blended, add the 1/2 cup powdered sugar gradually, and blend well.  


Add to a large mixing bowl:  the cashew paste, peanut butter, and milk alternative.  Mix with an electric mixer until smooth.  Add the extra powdered sugar, up to 1/2 cup more to taste, and continue mixing until well-blended.  Add the pie filling to a cooked pie crust (I used this gluten free pie crust recipe from www.thespunkycoconut.com.  It was delicious and I highly recommend it!!)
and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before eating.  


**Note:  I used an 11" tart pan to make this pie, and not the conventional 9".  If you use a 9" pie pan, you may need to adjust the amounts, or you will have some left over.


Enjoy!!


*Ashley*

Snacks & Smoothies

How in the world do you stay healthy and get enough food and nutrients on a limited diet??? I'm not exactly sure yet.  That is just one of the many issues I'm dealing with on this food allergy journey I'm on.  Sometimes, if I'm not prepared with an arsenal of snacks that will give me energy and sustain me (especially with my stressful job), I will cave under pressure.  I mean, absolutely CAVE....like, eat pizza.  or a regular cookie.  Or whatever else is around me.  This is not acceptable, because I feel the affects of these foods for at least 3 days, sometimes up to 1 week (skin rashes, body aches, cold/nasal allergy symptoms, extreme fatigue...etc.) .  So, what do I do to combat this? Well, I'm not sure.

But, I bought a new cook book, Raw Energy by Stephanie Tourles, that has tons of snack, smoothie, nut milk, bar, trail mix, and "candy" recipes that I can't wait to try out, all of which are vegan, raw, and (mostly) gluten free! My hope is, that with snack foods readily available in my home and at work, I will always have something to grab when I'm feeling hungry or need an energy boost.

Here's a smoothie my husband and I had today for an afternoon snack - It's technically a "green" smoothie, but the blueberries turn it purple. It's best to eat leafy greens raw, in order to get all of their nutrients.  But, its tough to eat raw greens, especially if you don't really have a taste for them. I couldn't even taste the kale in this smoothie (and neither could my husband, who is much more discerning than me when it comes to food taste). Its also very healthy and sustaining!

Blueberry-Banana-Kale "green" (PURPLE!!) Smoothie

1 1/2 cups milk alternative (I used almond.  This smoothie is very thick, almost like a shake, so if you desire a more liquid consistency, use water instead.)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 frozen banana
2 Tablespoons nut butter (I used peanut butter)
1 Tablespoon honey
roughly 1 cup kale leaves, washed and de-stemmed. 


Add all ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth.  I had to stir a couple of times to make sure all of the kale was blended.  


Pour into glasses, and enjoy! Makes about 2 servings.  


*Ashley*

Oatmeal Flax Banana Cranberry Muffins

If you're like me, breakfast is always difficult.  I'm not a morning person, and I often find myself running out the door in the mornings with an empty stomach, trying to get to work on time.  It's always nice to have something to just grab on your way out, or eat while you finish getting ready. But, "grab-n-go" type breakfasts are usually laden with sugar, sure to give you that mid morning crash (not to mention, pre-packaged foods aren't exactly allergy-friendly!!)    I made these muffins today, so that they will be an option for me on those mornings when I just can't seem to get it together in time to sit down and eat a real breakfast.  And, they're tasty enough to eat for a healthy afternoon snack! 

This is a basic recipe that can be adapted, you can replace the banana with apple sauce for a different flavor, or even pumpkin puree if you want.  Also, you can add whatever dried fruit you want; I decided to go for cranberries this time.

OATMEAL FLAX BANANA CRANBERRY MUFFINS (Vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free)

1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond, but coconut would be great too)

1 TB. apple cider vinegar

1 cup gluten free oats

1 1/2 cups oat flour (I just ground my gluten free oats in my coffee grinder.  You can use a coffee/spice  grinder or food processor)

1/2 cup flaxseed meal (again, I used my coffee grinder to grind whole flax seeds)

2 ts. baking powder

1 ts. baking soda

1/2 ts. sea salt

3 TB.  honey or agave nectar

1/4 cup oil (preferably melted coconut oil, but I ran out of coconut oil and used extra light olive instead. It turned out fine.)

1 cup mashed ripe banana

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350, and prepare muffin tins.  In a small bowl, combine the milk alternative with the cider vinegar, and let curdle for about 10 minutes.  Mix dry ingredients (oats, oat flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in a large bowl.  Add wet ingredients (curdled milk, oil, honey or agave, and banana), and mix well.  Add in dried cranberries last, and mix to evenly distribute throughout batter.  Pour into muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  Allow to cool on a rack before eating.  

Makes 12 regular-sized muffins or 18-24 mini-muffins.  

Enjoy!!

*Ashley*

Gluten Free???

My food allergies have happened in waves.  I couldn't tolerate milk as a baby, but grew out of it (supposedly).  Then, all of a sudden, in my early twenties I started to have reactions again.  When I cut out dairy and added a lot of soy products to my diet, I  began to react to soy.  Also, my digestive issues never fully resolved.  Within the past couple of months, I've started to react to eggs....not horribly, just a little skin rash, but I'm thinking, what's going on with my body???

Recently, my dad went gluten free to help some of his health issues, and within 2 weeks, he was feeling better.  I had a revelation: maybe I have an underlying sensitivity to gluten that is causing my immune system to go haywire (I've read about this many times)...
SO, heres my question:  is it ok to just cut it out and see what happens? or should I go to the doctor and get a diagnosis? I have heard many differing opinions, so if anyone has any advice to offer, please let me know!!!!

*Ashley*

UPDATE: saving money, homemade style!

This week I tried homemade recipes for 3 things we usually buy prepackaged from our food co-op grocery store.  I made homemade almond milk, granola, and whole wheat bread.  The almond milk was tricky to make (it involved the use of  cheesecloth, which was completely new to me!), and the almonds were about $7.00 a pound ($16/lb for organic!!!!) to buy in bulk....which makes buying a 1/2 gallon of Almond Breeze much more cost-effective.   The bread and granola, however, both turned out to be just as good as the packaged brands, and much less expensive! The bread required a lot of time to rise, bake, and cool, but it was worth it because it tasted fresh, lasted the whole week, and was made from ingredients I already had in my kitchen (which means I saved about $5 not buying bread for the week).  The granola was also easy, delicious, and made from ingredients already in my kitchen. I ate it in the mornings as cereal with blueberries and almond milk.  Here's the recipe I found on Go Dairy Free....

Super Simple Spiced Overnight Granola  (this recipe is optionally vegan, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, nut-free, wheat-free, and optionally gluten-free)

1/4 cup melted coconut oil (or other oil)
1/4 cup honey or agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups rolled oats*
1 cup quick oats (not instant oats)*

(*for a gluten-free version, use certified gluten-free oats)

Preheat your oven to 300ºF.

Combine the oil, honey, vanilla, spices, and salt in a small dish and stir to combine. Place the oats in a large bowl and stir to mix the two kinds up, then add the liquid ingredients and stir until all those little oats are nicely coated. Spread the oat mixture out on a baking sheet, preferably one with rimmed sides so the granola doesn't slide off the sheet.

Place the oats in the oven and allow them to bake for just 10 minutes, not a minute more, then turn off the oven and leave the granola inside to finish baking. Don't peak! Leave them in the oven for 2-3 hrs, or as long as overnight.  Stir to declump a bit and store the granola in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!!

*Ashley*

saving money, homemade-style!

So....eating healthy is expensive.  Eating organically is even more expensive.  Eating healthy, organic, NON-ALLERGIC foods can prove to be a very big task to take on when you're trying to save money.  So, over the next few weeks, I've decided to try some homemade recipes for three different pre-packaged items we usually buy weekly at our food co-op: BREAD, GRANOLA CEREAL, and ALMOND MILK.   I figure I can save money by buying the ingredients in bulk and doing a lot of preparing on the weekends.  My goal is to see whether or not the amount of money saved is worth the amount of time spent in this endeavor.

1.  BREAD.   For dairy-free, soy-free bread (also chemical-free and non-GMO!!)  my husband and I really enojy Rudi's Organic Bakery bread.  However, this bread can be $5.00 or more for 1 loaf...ouch. Of course, there are coupons....but even with a dollar off, it's still more than twice as expensive as, say, Publix brand whole wheat bread (what I used to buy before I was aware of my allergies).

So, I'm going to try this whole wheat bread recipe from www.AlisaCooks.com.  The only ingredients I don't already have at home are the ground flax and the bread flour.

2.  GRANOLA CEREAL.   Over $5.00 for a box of granola?? No Thanks.  However, this is what I have to pay if I don't want ingredients like whey, whey protein concentrate, soy lecithin, and not to mention THREE different sweetener ingredients: sugar, molasses, AND honey (these are all ingredients present in Quaker's natural granola cereal).

I'm going to sample this kitchen raid granola from smallbites.andybellatti.com and this super-simple spiced "overnight" granola from www.godairyfree.org and see how they turn out!

3.  ALMOND MILK.  Thank goodness for almond milk.  We drink it by itself, use it in cereal, put it in our coffee, cook with it, make hot cocoa with it, you name it.  (I also use rice and coconut  milk to cook with...but I'm not so sure those would be as easy to make at home.)  Almond milk is delicious, but it is still considerably processed, and sometimes can be up to $4.00 for a half-gallon.

I'll trial this almond milk recipe from smallbites.andybellatti.com.


Here's to eating healthy, buying in bulk, and (HOPEFULLY) saving money!!

Food for Thought?

Nine months ago, I realized that I may have food allergies.  After three years of unexplained, chronic symptoms, I was reading a book about eating healthy, and the author listed some symptoms that people have when they can't tolerate dairy....and I felt like I was reading my own medical journal.  

Chronic sinus issues: check.  

Unexplained skin rashes/hives: check.  

Digestive problems: check.  

Tired/achy all the time: check.  

WOW. I went to the doctor, and she said that I was most likely intolerant to milk, but that the most effective way to know was to cut all dairy from my diet.  Well, I did, and most of my symptoms pretty much disappeared!! vanished!! it was incredible.  I decided to replace dairy products with soy products....and a few skin symptoms lingered, but I thought, hey, this is way better than before!!  However, the more soy I ate, the worse I started to feel....and I learned that I have a soy allergy as well.  Yikes!! No soy or dairy in my diet......No big deal, right???

WRONG! It WAS a big deal, a huge lifestyle change that would affect almost every part of my husband's and my life.  Ever checked labels at the grocery store? Some form of dairy or soy is in almost every processed or packaged food....goodbye to quick and easy dinners, and not to mention all of the yummy restaurants I will have to avoid for the rest of my life (that's right, no more chick-fil-a, sonny's, or PIZZA).  

Now, I have to THINK about everything I put into my body.  Each bit of food has the potential to contain allergens that will make me sick.  It's a good thing, because there are so many ingredients in processed food that are bad for our bodies.  My husband and I's diet now consists of more organic vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and lean, hormone-free meats.  We use almond, rice, and coconut milk to drink and cook with, and we are all the more healthier for it! So, that's where "Food for Thought" comes from....the fact that we are much more thoughtful about what we eat....and we think everyone else should be, too! :)

This blog is just a place where I can blog recipes and discuss the challenges and joys that come from living with food allergies.  Enjoy!! 

*Ashley*