Blue Pancakes

At the moment, I am pulling my hair out attempting to cater to the health and nutrition needs of 3 children with differing allergies and sensitivities.

 While wandering through the library, I stumbled upon a wonderful cookbook called “Allergy Proof Recipes for Kids”. I fell in love! The recipes in this book are simple, delicious, and relatively cheap to make – a combination that was a big tick in my book!

 

One of the recipes I found was for pancakes that were healthier than your everyday flour, milk and egg pancakes. Nervously, I gave them a go.

 

Brilliant!

They were soft, moist and – most importantly – did not have the consistency of rubber!

Blue Pancakes

½ cup blueberries or blackberries
1 cup white or brown rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup flaxmeal (optional)
¾ cup alternative milk beverage
2 Tbsp oil
2 cups applesauce

1. In a food processor, combine all the ingredients. Process until smooth.
2. Pour 2 Tbsp batter into a hot non-stick pan, spreading the batter thinly around the bottom to make a hotcake.
3. When the purple batter begins to turn blue, flip and cook on the other side. Remove the finished pancake and repeat until all the batter is used up.

Pancakes can be frozen by placing waxed baking paper between each pancake and storing in a resealable plastic bag for up to 2 weeks. To reheat, microwave them at 30 second intervals.

 

Yield: approx. 10-15 pancakes.

 

Enjoy! They are delicious!

 

Beetroot Chocolate Tea Cake

In my quest to ensure my allergy kids get their daily doses of fruit and veg, I came across the idea of using vegetables in cakes.

Sounds weird, right???

I was sceptical too.

Until I tried this recipe. It creates a moist, rich tea cake that melts in the mouth. Not that my kids noticed that. Al that they cared about was that it was chocolate, and paint. Full stop.

Beetroot and Chocolate Tea Loaf

1 cup of white flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup of unsealed butter or dairy-free margarine, melted

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 tsp of egg replacement

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbspn white vinegar

1 drained tin of beetroot, finely chopped in food processor

1. Turn the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the loaf tin and lightly dust with flour.
2. Sift the flour, BP, cocoa powder, BS, and salt into a bowl.
3. Melt butter or dairy alternative and pour into a separate bowl. Mix sugar, egg replacement and vanilla into the butter, whisking until it forms a creamy mixture.
4. Add white vinegar to the dry ingredients, followed by the butter mixture and the processed beetroot.
5. Gently fold together until the batter is fully mixed.
6. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 38-40 min.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Dairy-free Alfredo Sauce

We eat a lot of pasta. Its what the kids will eat so we all eat it. Its cheap, tasty and so versatile that we can adapt it easily to an allergy-friendly dish.

 

The problem isn't pasta. Its the sauce. Cupcake has been allergic to tomatoes since she was young. When I say she's allergic to tomatoes, I mean that she is allergic to the pesticides used ON the tomatoes.

 

Needless to say, she is afraid to eat tomatoes, tomato sauce or anything resembling a tomato.

 

But dry pasta is soooooo boring.

 

Enter: dairy free alfredo sauce.

 

 

Our local green grocer currently has enormous cauliflower for only 79c each!! When I say enormous, they're bigger than my head!

 

Dairy-free Alfredo Sauce

 

Ingredients:

• 1 large cauliflower or 2 smaller cauliflowers
• 1 carton of alpro soy cream or milk alternative
• 1 tsp minced garlic or 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Roughly chop cauliflower and place in large saucepan along with garlic, salt and pepper.
2. Fill saucepan with water to 2cm depth and boil cauliflower until soft.
3. Let cool on the stovetop.
4. When the cauliflower has cooled, place in a blender or food processer along with soy cream, and blend until silky smooth. This took me approximately 3 minutes.
5. Store in freezer-safe containers for up to 3 months in the freezer or 3-5 days in the refridgerator.

 

There you have it! Nice and easy, and tastes almost the same as alfredo sauce containing dairy - and much better for you!

"Comfort me with apples...."

Yesterday I went out and bought a large number of apples. Who could resist? They were 49c per kg at the local green grocer and were in pretty good condition. So I may have bought 3kg...or 4.....

Now what to do with them?

I've put aside 2kg of them into the fridge for snacks this week as my girls are apple mad. In fact, given the choice between cupcakes and apples, they'd choose the apples.

I'm still left with 1.5kg. Last week I made my own dehydrated apple chips using a recipe from Frugal Kiwi. They were an instant hit with both children. This week, I've decided to use 4 of the apples to make some applesauce for Toto, who loves his sweeties. The rest, will be used to make fruit leather, which I've always had a hankering for making myself.

So I've found a recipe from NZ Eco Chick and am going to try it tomorrow. I'll post up some pictures of how it goes!