Gluten Free Pancakes

I have been craving comfort food all week. It makes no difference how amazing salmon smothered with mango salsa or grilled shrimp dipped in homemade guacamole are when all you really want is a giant cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting or loaf of crusty french bread dripping with butter. I broke down at the German American Festival with Corey this past Saturday and ate my heart out- having potato pancakes, cheese stuffed pretzels, schnitzel,  bratwurst and spaetzel! The potato pancakes dripping with applesauce and sourcream felt great. A huge F U to all the doctors I had seen the week before that had left me in tears after strongly implying I was imagining my most recent symptoms. A bratwurst covered in mustard, grilled onions and saurkraut was up next. Very happy indeed! By the time the cheese stuffed pretzel made its way to me during the Bite-Bite-Pass ritual Corey and I had going on, I knew I was in trouble. My tummy was not happy. And when we got home I was sick all night! 

So I decided it was important to have a few comfort food recipes under my belt for times like these. When you really just need to sit on the couch and have a moment. I had a 3lb bag of peaches in the fridge that I was only slowly getting through so I thought a gluten free peach cobbler recipe would be great. I found one and began slicing up my peaches. I tossed them in Truvia sweetener and almost stopped there. The sweetened peaches were sooo yummy! But I was on a mission. I mixed up the batter, covered my gorgeous peaches and slid the "cobbler" into the oven. You'll note that the title of this post is NOT Peach Cobbler so you probably know where this going. After the 30 minutes of baking I slid the cobbler out and dug in. It was disgusting! It made its way to the trash to join the infamous Cream Puffs. I'm pretty pissed I ruined 8 peaches! 

But my quest for comfort food continued! One of my girlfriends from college, the amazing Jorja Baumgarten, is a fabulous mother of two- Mr. James and Baby Paige! She has been trying to use less wheat when cooking for her family and after she found out I was eating allergy free she sent me some recipes and tips! One of the recipes she shared was a Pancake recipe from Elana's Pantry: http://www.elanaspantry.com/gluten-free-pancakes-revisited/   The pancakes were delicious! I ate two wrapped around a piece of crispy bacon and dipped in sugar free syrup. I must have looked like James when I was finished- cross legged on the couch with syrup dripping down the front of my shirt and a sloppy smile. Thanks again, Jorja! Definitely a go-to recipe! I have a feeling that Elana and I will become very good friends if she keeps producing recipes like these! 

Technical notes:

1. These pancakes contain eggs. I am trying to eat egg reduced but it was only 2 eggs stretched over 12 pancakes, so I felt okay about it. One might consider using rice milk and/or grapeseed oil as a substitute but I have not tried this out yet.

2. DEFINITELY let the batter sit. The consistency completely changed.

3. The recipe tips say to cook these on Medium or High heat instead of Low. I burned the crap out of my pancakes! I suggest the opposite especially because they seem to take a bit longer to firm up than regular pancakes. 

4. I froze the remaining pancakes. I had one for breakfast today and it was just as yummy as last night.

Gluten Free Pancakes (gluten free, soy free, dairy free, corn free)

 

Ingredients
 2 eggs
¼ cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
grapeseed oil for sauteing

Directions

Combine wet ingredients in a blender. Blend on high until smooth.

Add almond flour, salt and baking soda and blend to combine.

Let batter sit for 15-20 minutes to thicken.

Warm grapeseed oil in a large skillet on low/medium low heat.

Ladle pancake batter by the tablespoon onto the skillet.

Pancakes will form bubbles like normal pancakes when they are ready to flip.

Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Almost as soon as I could sit up after the blood patch I began scouring the internet looking for allergy free recipes. I was convinced that only disappointment awaited me. Especially after a Low Carb attempt at Cream Puffs in High School ended straight in the trash can. But gluten free, dairy free, soy free cooking has come a long way in 12 years and I decided to give it a shot. This was the first allergy free recipe that I tried- how can you screw up almonds, cherries and lots of chocolate?! 

There were a few technical difficulties 

1. the sea salt was almost overpowering. I would definitely reduce the amount or use table salt for my next batch. 

2. I didnt have grapeseed oil so I used coconut oil. The consistency of the batter was very runny. I'm not sure whether that is due to the oil-switch or if it is how the cookies normally are. I put the batter in the fridge to firm it up before spooning it onto the pans. 

3. The website suggested using a dark nonstick pan for more "cookie-like" consistency. I used a regular cookie sheet with parchment paper and they definitely spread while baking. I wasn't that surprised considering how runny the batter was at room temp. 

4. The cookies also fell apart after they cooled. I stored them in the freezer and pretty much ate them frozen so it wasn't a huge problem but the recipe definitely  needs to be tweaked to make it presentable!

But overall they were yummy and satisfying and a great first attempt at allergy free cookies!

Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies (gluten free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, corn free)

Ingredients

2 3/4 blanched almond flour

1/2 tp celtic sea salt *I would suggest 1/4 tsp 

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

3/4 cup agave nectar

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate

1 cup fruit juice sweetened dried cherries *I used unsweetened with no problem

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

Combine wet ingredients in a small bowl.

Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.

Fold in cherries and chocolate chunks.

Grease a non stick baking sheet (*makes the cookies more cookie-like!) with grapeseed oil.

Drop cookies on sheet leaving plenty of room for expanding.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Cool completely ON the cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

WARNING: These cookies are SUPER chocolatey! :)

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Legume Free, Corn Free, Egg Reduced Diet- Yum!

Well it has certainly been a long two months! For those of you unaware I was hospitalized after July 4th weekend because I lost feeling in my legs (it sounds much worse than it was! more awkward than anything!). After LOTS of tests and some serious steroids (I can now say that I have had ROID RAGE!), I left the hospital with some feeling in my legs and feet and no diagnosis. Though the most likely cause is Multiple Sclerosis, only time will tell.

I was extremely blessed to have my mother visiting for the first two weeks of July. She didn't get to enjoy the Michigan summer quite the way we had planned but I don't know what I would have done without her here- especially after my spinal tap led to some complications. Before she left for Texas, she made sure she felt comfortable about my health. First, she bought me a few $100 worth of vitamins and supplements and made me pinky promise to take them twice a day. Next, she installed a land line in my apartment because she hates the sketchy (at best) reception my cell phone gets inside the building.

And finally, she very seriously sat me down and discussed an Allergy Free Diet. Since MS is an autoimmune disease that causes lots of inflammation, it is believed that removing other sources of inflammation (ie. stress, heat and allergens) can alleviate frequency of flares and severity of symptoms. Normally, removing one or two things from my diet wouldn't be very bad. But let me give you an idea what my diet looked like before. I was ALWAYS exhausted so I started to hate cooking, especially cooking meat. It took too long. By the time it was defrosted, seasoned and cooked I would have already eaten half a package of hummus or a block of cheese and be passed out on the couch. My diet consisted of: every kind of cheese imaginable, hummus, bread, yogurt, edamame, sauteed chickpeas, prepared salads and lots of TakeOut. So as my mother started ticking off the things that I could no longer eat I began to despair.

No gluten? There goes bread and pasta. And all the things I love to bake.

No dairy? I almost refused. Cheese is pretty much my life. I had been seriously considering using my Microbiology degree to run a goat farm and make cheese. Why would she do this to me?? But I still had some of my favorite foods including chickpeas and soybeans!

And then she said No Soy or Legumes! This is where I very sarcastically asked her what exactly I COULD eat.

And so we began the list of Allergy Free Foods: all lean meats, all fruits and veggies, tree nuts and brown rice. The list sounds short. But I've learned that my very sarcastic question What CAN I eat? was exactly on point. Living this lifestyle isn't about focusing on all the things I can't eat but identifying things I CAN eat and making sure I keep those things available. Shockingly, I have transitioned fairly well to this Allergy free diet. It doesn't hurt that it makes me feel much much better. My energy level is so much higher when I follow the diet and my symptoms seem to me waning. Many would argue that there are multiple factors that could contribute to this, but I will continue on my allergy free path!

This is where EatDrinkBeMary takes a slight turn! The blog is going to start discussing my journey eating Allergy Free. I've found that there are many sites that discuss gluten free OR dairy free OR soy free cooking, but it is hard to find true allergy free recipes. I'm hoping this will be a home for the products and recipes that I discover along my journey.  If you are looking for yummy cheesy bread and ooey gooey desserts, you are on the wrong page. But if you too are searching for great allergy free options (or just want to hear about the journey!), welcome to the new EatDrinkBeMary!