Lunch Special

Do you know what kind of plate this is? Yep - it is an egg plate. I guess you know how much use this gets in our house now. Zilch. None. Zip.

Well, Julia saw it the other day and wanted to eat her lunch on it. Luckily, I hadn't decided what she was going to have. This made it super easy.

What you see is what you get with this one. Diced turkey lunch meat in some of the holes. Cheese in another. Bean dip in the rest. Sun Chips in the middle. She was thrilled. This lunch mirrored what I sent with the other two for lunch at school that day. It is an allergen free meal for us.

The turkey is something we have checked to make sure it doesn't have diary in it. A lot of lunch meat does. Didn't know that until we had to start checking labels.

We cook up a whole bag of beans whenever we do beans so that we can freeze them. These beans were leftovers from that big pot. I just got some and mashed them with a fork and some water until they were the consistency of bean dip. Then I added a bit of salt and garlic powder until I liked the taste for a dip.

The cheese is goat cheese, or chevre. It appears that Louisa can handle this. We have not done any big challenges to her system with it but she can have several slices with a meal and it doesn't bother her.

Sun chips are another thing that Louisa can eat. As long as they are not the flavored varieties. Most of the flavors have things in them we are trying to avoid. The plain ones are good, though.

So, just a quick and easy lunch. I thought it was cute, though, so I shared it, too. YES!

Monkey Face

Even though I said I was going to post weekly, I let the holiday and time with family prevail. Not a bad thing but I did not follow through with my word. For anyone out there who actually pays attention to this blog, I apologize. I intent to do better.

We are starting again. This time with Monkey Faces. Sort of. These cookies taste amazing but don't actually look anything like I was expecting from the recipe description. We'll start at the beginning.

http://community.tasteofhome.com/community_forums/f/30/t/342014.aspx

This was the link to the original recipe I used. If you look at that recipe and remember anything about our food situation, you know that I did not follow the recipe to a T. Perhaps that is why my monkey faces turned out looking like this...

Little aliens, if you ask me. Still, they tasted good. So good that I am fending off the children as we speak.

Here's the recipe:

Mix together:

1/2 C shortening

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C molasses (I used cane syrup since that is what I had and the taste is similar. Another plus, it is cheaper than molasses.)

Add:

1/2 C almond milk (Probably any milk will do but this is what we keep for the allergenic child around here.)

1 tsp vinegar (I just used plain old white vinegar.)

Mix in:

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Drop by rounded tsp. 2-12" apart on ungreased baking sheet. Place 3 raisins on each for eyes and mouth. Bake @375º 10-12 min. or until set. Remove from sheet in 1 min. Faces take on droll expressions in baking. Makes 4 doz. 2-1/2" cookies.                     

I made half of the cookies with raisins and half without. Here's the picture of the others.

I don't know why exactly, but the ones with the raisins are slightly more chewy and soft. The others still taste wonderful but I think I will use the raisins all the time now.

Happy baking and happy blessings. May all your experiences be full of YES.







Not Your Normal Bean Dip

For dinner the other evening, I cut up some fresh veggies. The girls normally balk at just plain old veggies so I thought I would whip out some kind of a dip. What came to mind is hummus. Now, I don't know if I can technically call this hummus or not since it is not made of chickpeas so bean dip it is.

I just mentally ran through what I had around, including the freezer, and in the freezer I had great northern beans. When I cook beans, I take the whole bag of dried beans and cook them all at once. Then I freeze whatever I didn't use in 2 cup portions, which is about the same amount as 1 can of beans from the store. So, white beans it was.

I pulled them out and threw them in the microwave to thaw, along with a bunch of red bell peppers that I had already cut up. After they were thawed, I dumped them in the blender with some sunflower butter (again, what I had), lemon juice, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. I pureed it all up and served it.

Once again, the girls wouldn't eat it even though 2 of them said it was good. I don't know. I will just keep trying, I guess. The next "try" will be to see if hummus freezes and thaws since I can't eat all of this by myself and I don't think my husband will help.

Oh, here's the actual recipe!

Not Your Normal Bean Dip -

• 2 cups OR 1 15oz can any kind of white bean
• 1/2 sliced red bell pepper
• 1/2 lemon, juice only OR about 2 T lemon juice
• 2 T sunflower butter (you could probably do peanut butter or tahini instead, but have not tried that)
• 1 - 2 tsp cumin, to taste
• 1 - 2 tsp paprika, to taste
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Blend it all up and use as a dip or spread. Eat up!

YES from no

Ever been on a roller coaster ride? Well, that is why I am here. No, I haven't ridden a roller coaster recently but we are on a daily roller coaster with food allergies.

My DD #2 was recently diagnosed with a ton of food allergies. We are very blessed - none of them are considered life threatening. (Just so you know, the food allergies are milk, soy, beef, pork, potato, tomato, egg, and peanut.) She also has lots of allergies to grasses and trees, things we can't control. In response, we are going to work on controlling food as best we can.

In my search for information, I have come across many, many things that I am unable to use. "No, can't do this" or "Nope, that has _____ (fill in the allergenic food)." I was quickly becoming someone who was saying "No" way too often.

The title of this blog came from my overwhelming desire to become one who can answer "YES" when it comes to food. I want to focus on the positive aspects of this for my daughter so she won't feel deprived or left out and so that the whole family is excited about the new items being offered.

So, Food In The World of YES is born.

What I am going to attempt to do is to post often. There are no promises about how often. I am in the middle of summer with 3 little girls, after all. But I will do my best to not leave you hanging. I am going to attempt to share with you all the wonderful foods we can eat and how I have figured out to prepare them so that our whole family enjoys them.

Thank you for visiting me at Food In The World of YES and I hope you visit again soon.

Tomorrow: my first recipe!!