Granola Peach Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 can (16 oz) sliced peaches (be sure they are canned in pear juice and not corn syrup)
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp Hain baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 TBS cold Nucoa margarine
• 2 Ener-G egg replacer, beaten
• 1 cup granola

Directions:

Drain peaches, reserving 1/2 cup syrup. Chop peaches; set aside. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cloves, and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in egg replacer and reserved syrup. Fold in granola and peaches.

Pour into a greased 9X5X3 loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Original recipe from Regina Albright

Mock Krispy Treats

Ingredients:

• 3 cup rice cereal
• 1 cup Lundberg's organic brown rice syrup

Directions:

Boil syrup. Stir, remove from heat and add cereal. Form into pyrex dish and let cool before cutting.

Sticky, but a good substitute for Rice Krispy treats.

Applesauce Pie

One of my Mom's creations. Yum!

Crust

Ingredients:

• 2 cup flour
• 2/3 cup shortening (or nucoa margarine)
• sprinkle of salt

Directions:

Smooth with fork. Add TBS of water until all is moist. Roll out with a little more than half for the bottom.

Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 quart bottle of applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 TBS cinnamon
• 2 shakes cloves
• 2 shakes allspice
• 5 or 6 TBS of flour individually sprinkled and stirred in.

Bake at 425 for 25 minutes or until crust is brown.

Sugar substitutes

In Delicious Living, the free magazine from Whole Foods, there was an article recently, titled Natural Sweeteners by Kimberly Lord Stewart. The article included a chart for sugar substitutes. I'm listing it here, because although Tia's not allergic to sugar, we can all use a little less.

Tootsie Rolls

Ingredients:

• 2 TBS Nucoa Margarine
• 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
• 5 TBS baking cocoa plus 2 more TBS Nucoa
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup rice protein powder
• 3 cup corn-free powdered sugar

Directions:

Blend Nucoa, rice syrup, cocoa, vanilla, protein powder, and powdered sugar. Mixture will be crumbly. Keep kneading until blended and smooth. Roll in long tubes and cut into pieces.

On my mind...

I read Food Allergy Mama, a food allergy blog written by a recipe book author, and mother to an allergic son. Recently she and her son were featured in an article in the Sun Times because her son wanted to go see the Cubs play at Wrigley stadium. They and other allergy moms lobbied and the Cubs organization offered a Skybox where for one game, peanuts would not be allowed. The article featured them and how happy the little boy was to go see his favorite team play without worrying about anaphylaxis.

The article was published and people began commenting. Here are some excerpts:

• selfish people like this is why i bring my own peanuts on airplanes
• I am sorry and no disrespect toward this child and his family, but this story proves the once mighty America has fallen. What is next, no ice cream day for people who are lactose intolerant? We would not want to make lactose intolerant people uncomfortable by seeing people eat ice cream. How about a pollen free day where the grass is ripped up at Wrigley and the team plays on a dirt field?
• That's right lady, smother the boy until you turn him into a girl.
• In all honesty this is ridiculous to have this set aside for these people. It opens up all kinds of special interest groups wanting their day at the ballpark.
  If your allergies are life threatening than you should just stay home. And if they just give you the sniffles you should be ashamed of yourself for demanding special treatment.
• Are peanuts banned everyone this Crazy Mom takes her kid, i.e. Restaurants, Parks, Schools, High School Football Games. Another example of the majority having to cater to the minority. Get a Life!!
• It's the 3rd line of the Frick'in song!!! Buy me some peanuts!! Thanks Joyce Davis, now we change the song too.
• This is ridiculous, not that the cubs are giving up a skybox, that is nice of them, but lobbying for a peanut-free zone. There has been 100+yrs of baseball, I am sure there have been many people with peanut allergies that have found ways to attend games without being engulfed in peanuts. Instead of complaining about it, figure out how to deal with it.
• Next there will be a "Testicle-Free" Zone. "What about those kids who are allergic to tap water?" What about them huh?
  And the "Bubble Boys?" and the "Pasty White Kids Who Can't Stand the Sun?"
• stay home

Obviously some commenters supported the article and the peanut free skybox, but the majority were awful, mean, and ugly.

I read this article on Tia's second day of school, after she and the boys had went to bed. Earlier, I was making lunch for me and the babies when I got a call from Tia's school nurse. She said, "I have Tia in my office here. She has hives, with new ones forming, a flushed face, and a wheezing cough. I have given her Benadryl, and that seems to be helping." Before she could finish, I told her I was on my way, and I drove as fast as I could to her school, a place where she ought to be safe, but isn't completely. I picked her up and brought her home, where she will always be safe.

I have spoken with her teacher about what we could do. On the first day of school, she asked the parents to please try to avoid sending nuts, but she knows there are picky eaters out there, and understands if they can't find anything else. And that was it. Parents were asked, but in the same breath, given liberty to disregard the request. It will always astound me and hurt me to know that they choose to gamble with a child's life in that way, so that they don't have to be put out.

I honestly don't think parents of children with other diseases have such a battle. Why does the health problem my beautiful daughter happens to be given, cause people such a lack of empathy and impudence?

So, I stopped reading the article that night of the second day of Tia's school, shut off my computer, and went into my babies' room, picked up a screaming Luke, and rocked him and cried.

I just don't get it.

Powdered sugar

There is only one brand of powdered sugar I've found that is corn-free. I buy it at Whole Foods, and it isn't cheap. About six months ago, nobody had it in stock, and if it did, it wasn't a corn-free version. So, Chantelle and I experimented with making our own powdered sugar. It was really fun!

Ingredients:

• Sugar
• Potato starch (optional, but a good idea if you aren't using the sugar right away)

Instructions:

Put one cup of sugar in your blender with a teaspoon to a tablespoon of potato starch. Blend until the sugar is no longer granulated. It probably took us at least 5 minutes of blending. When you take of the lid, the sugar should send a mushroom cloud into your kitchen. That's how you know you did it right. :)

Brownies

I heard about black bean brownies, and wanted to give them a try.

Ingredients:

• 1 box brownie mix (read ingredients carefully)
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans

Instructions:

Open can of black beans and rinse beans well. Put beans back in can, and add enough water to cover the beans. Puree in food processor. Add puree to brownie mix, stir, and bake according to directions. Don't add the other ingredients, all you need is the brownie mix and the beans.

Verdict: Mmmmmmm!