Allergy Friendly Shepherd’s Pie

This has been such a cold year that I have been making lots of soups, stews and pies to keep us warm. One of my favorite Irish recipes is for Shepherd's Pie. In this recipe, I love the combination of the meat and the Worcestershire sauce with a hint of tomatoes and Dijon for the filling. Add a touch of Parmesan cheese to the mashed potato topping for a slightly different taste that is not too overpowering. Delish!

So with St. Patrick's Day, I thought it would be nice to include this recipe instead of the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage. This recipe is free of dairy, eggs, and nuts.

    I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.  - Oscar Wilde

Allergy Friendly Shepherd's Pie

Potato Mixture:

1 ½ lbs. Russet Potatoes

¼ C Rice milk

2 Oz. Vegan Margarine

¾ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

Meat Filling:

1 tsp. Olive Oil

1 ½  Pounds Ground Beef

2 Cloves Garlic, Diced

2 T  Worcestershire Sauce

2 T Tomato Paste

1/2 T Dijon mustard

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 C Cubed Carrot

1 C Frozen Peas

1 ½ C Diced Onions

1 tsp. Dried Thyme

¼ C Dairy-free Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a large pot of water on the stove; bring to a boil. While it is heating up, skin the potatoes and cut into 1 inch pieces. Add the potatoes to boiling water and simmer for about 15 minutes, until they are tender. Drain potatoes and place back into pot. Mash them with a masher or the back of a large spoon. Add rice milk and vegan butter to potatoes and mix until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

In the meantime, heat a pan with oil. Add carrots, peas, onions and thyme. Cook for 5-6 minutes until they are tender. Set aside. In the same pan, add 1 tsp. olive oil and heat pan. Add the meat and chopped garlic and cook for 5-8 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste and Dijon mustard and cook for another 5 minutes until well browned.

Separate meat from fat and place the meat on the bottom of a casserole dish. Add the vegetable to the meat layer and then add the mashed potato mixture. Spread the potatoes down with the back of a spoon so that it covers the top of the casserole dish. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the cover, sprinkle with the vegan Parmesan cheese and bake another 10 minutes until the casserole if heated through. 

A Trip to Ireland

It is only appropriate that with St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching, I have been daydreaming of rolling green hills, the smell of corned beef piled high on rye bread, and the dark, robust taste of a tall glass of Guinness.

This St. Patrick’s Day is going to even more special knowing that this summer our family will be heading to Ireland for the first time. To say that we are excited is an understatement! This has been a trip I have wanted to take for many, many years and we are finally going to go. In fact, the picture above is of the Waterford Castle in Waterford, Ireland where we will be staying for part of our trip. How cool is that?!

As anyone with severe food allergies knows, taking a trip anywhere--however long or short--involves lots and lots of planning but a trip overseas will take that much more planning. This will be especially important since Ireland is known for their ample use of butter and cheese. Two key ingredients our teen is allergic to. I will be spending the next couple of months showing you some of the different steps we are taking to ensure that not only will our allergic teen enjoy this trip but that it will also be a safe one for her. Some of the things we will look at will include?

·      Should you book a tour or travel on your own?
·      What are the best types of accommodations for families with severe food allergies?
·      What can we order if eating out?
·       What type of medicine do I need to bring with us?
·       What to do if you or your child has an allergic reaction?
·       Are there any resources available that will make the planning go easier?

It is my hope that these guidelines will help other families who would love to do more travelling but are worried about the idea of being so far away and are not sure how to accomplish this with food allergies.

Let the travels begin!

French Toast for the Allergic Teen

I am feeling like a very neglectful parent. This happens from time to time. Like the time I forgot to pick up our daughter at school in temps of 10 below zero (thank goodness she waited inside). Or the time I forgot my son’s orthodontist appointment for the third time. I am sure there are many more times of my extreme “spaciness” that I have chosen to forget and have blamed it on too much “stuff” swirling in my brain to concentrate on one thing.

The other morning, my allergic teen said something that really made me feel terrible. It was last Saturday morning and in a very uncharacteristic moment for a typical busy Saturday, I asked her if she wanted me to make her some French Toast. She responded by saying, “I don’t know, I have never had French Toast.” “Really?!” I said a bit dumb-founded at the fact that she is 14 years old and I had never made it for her before. Even though I have made her countless variations of muffins, coffee cakes, donuts and even crepes, I cannot remember ever making her French Toast. Before you send me hate messages or turn me in for child neglect on behalf of my poor family, I know I have made French toast before, but the few times I had made it, I used traditional eggs in the recipe and she ate something else those mornings, which she did not seem to mind.

On that Saturday morning, I decided to make her some French Toast that she could eat; which meant that it needed to be dairy and egg free. I quickly did a search for "Vegan French Toast” and found several basic recipes. What I noticed is that each recipe used flour instead of egg to coat the toast before frying. I was sure this substitution would make the bread too stiff and feel like we were eating a sandwich for breakfast. Well, as I found out, this was not the case. The combination of whole wheat flour and maple syrup added just the right amount of texture to make the French Toast delicious! I also added some nutmeg because I adore nutmeg and I thought it would pair well with the cinnamon. 

From now on, I will make it this way because I really did not miss the egg taste, in fact, the maple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla flavors are enhanced without the egg to mask them. Give this recipe a try and see if you like it as much as I do!

French Toast (no dairy, eggs, or nuts)

Makes 6 slices

1 ¼ C  Soy or rice milk

¼ C  Whole wheat flour

1 T   Maple syrup

1 tsp.  Vanilla

½ tsp. Cinnamon

¼ tsp. Nutmeg

6 slices of French bread

Powdered sugar

Directions:

Combine the milk, flour, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and whisk together. Pour mixture into shallow bowl. Place slice of bread into bowl one at a time and coat both sides with mixture.

Place toast in a frying pan coated with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Cook until golden brown on one side and flip. Do the same with the other side. Serve warm with powdered sugar or maple syrup on top.

Vaccines and the Allergic Teen

Vaccinations or the lack of vaccinations seems to be the topic of conversation this past month. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of measles cases reported has reached to 121 people in over 17 states; and this is just one and a half months into the year 2015.

It also seems as if everyone wants to express their own opinion on this subject. It is for this reason that I have held off mentioning it in this blog. Until now, that is. Last week I read a letter from Dr. Tim Jacks called “To the Parent of the Unvaccinated Child Who Exposed My Family to Measels” This article pretty much sums up how I feel about those who chose to not have their kids vaccinated.  I will try to express my feelings without sounding too “preachy” or “self-absorbed” especially since that is not my nature.

In this letter, Dr. Jacks talks about his five year old daughter who is currently undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is a blood cancer. Because of this illness, his daughter, Maggie cannot receive the MMR vaccine and was in a Phoenix hospital receiving treatment when she and her brother were exposed to another patient who developed measles. Infants, children with cancer and children with egg allergies cannot receive the MMR vaccine.

You can feel the frustration and anger in his tone and his words. He goes on the say, “I have a number of strong feelings surging through my body right now. Towards my family, I am feeling extra protective like a papa bear. Towards you, unvaccinating parent, I feel anger and frustration at your choices.” This is not so much the frustration of a doctor who does not understand the reasons why someone would choose not to vaccinate their child; this seems to be a deeper anger only a parent can get when their child is being wronged or worse, in danger of harm. 

This is the same frustration and anger that I starting feeling last October when my Allergic Teen became sick. What we thought might be a cold with the usual asthma problems; coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath quickly turned into something entirely different. This time the shortness of breath turned into uncontrollable coughs and then a quick sucking in of air because she was unable to breath. For someone who is already having trouble breathing, this can be very frightening.

It took three doctor’s visits for her to be diagnosed with Whooping Cough, another disease that is prevented by vaccination. The first two doctors did not even mention the possibility of Whooping Cough because her records mentioned that she was already vaccinated for it so they thought it was highly unlikely for her to get it. Finally, the third doctor, her allergist, knew her symptoms were consistent with Whooping Cough.

In the three weeks she was sick with Whooping Cough she was using her nebulizer three times a day, taking antibiotics and on various strengths of Prednisone, a steroid, for over a month. She was so sick that they were thinking of admitting her to the hospital. Sometimes the coughing was so bad that she would throw up the dinner she had finally been able to eat after days of not eating much. Many times, she would have a coughing fit and then run to the bathroom to spit up the phlegm that had resided in her stomach. Take my word on this, the large amounts of phlegm were truly frightening. Even months later, the bouts of coughing still occur but not as often. I can tell you that this really scared me and each time I hear her cough I worry whether she is getting sick again.

To those parents who chose not to have their children vaccinated, I understand your need to protect your children from what you feel may be harmful to them. The problem is that by doing this you are putting many other children, like Maggie and others who cannot get the vaccine, all in jeopardy. For these kids, who immune systems are already compromised, this decision can be very harmful, even deadly.

For now, we will continue to hope that the MMR vaccine our allergic teen has received will be enough to prevent her from getting measles. So for those parents’ who have not vaccinated their children, please reconsider your decision for the sake of the other children out there who do not have a choice!

Wanted: Teens with Allergies to Help Educate!

Want a way to meet other teen's with food allergies from across the country? Do you feel you may be able to help other allergic teens? Would you like to let other people know what it is like to live with food allergies? FARE is giving you the opportunity to sign up with their Teen Advisory Group (TAG). They are currently looking for teens between the ages of 11 and 22 and who have food allergies to be part of their advisory team for 2015. This is a great way to communicate with other teens who might have similar allergies. Some of these lucky teens will be chosen to speak at the FARE National Food Allergy Conference and Teen Summit being held this year on May 16-17, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach in Long Beach, CA. Teens can also write articles for their Teen Blog and can help other teens by being a mentor. Teens who are interested need to apply and should be between the ages of 11 and 22 and are currently living with food allergies. The application deadline is February 22, 2015.

Vegan Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

As a kid, I used to love caramel, especially during Christmas time; they were our special treat from Santa! Every year on Christmas Eve, my parents would have all seven of us take our baths, jump into our pajamas, hop into bed and read books together as we waited for the jingle of Santa’s bell. That special jingle meant that Santa had come to our house! We would all rush downstairs and quickly open our presents. After everyone had opened their presents, it was time for us to see what Santa left us in our stockings. As I reached for my stocking, I would quickly toss aside the apples, oranges, and walnuts. Lo and behold, I would then zero in on the Hershey’s kisses and, my favorite, the caramel. If I was lucky, I could quickly eat some before my Mom would see me. If not, I would have to wait until tomorrow to eat them because it was off to bed. The anticipation would sometimes keep me up at night, dreaming of the mouth-watering caramel in my mouth.

Over the years, my love for caramel has diminished to be replaced for an intense need for dark chocolate instead. This long ago longing recently returned after I tried a salted caramel chocolate chip cookie for the first time. Sea salt, caramel and chocolate chips all in one cookie. Genius! Caramel is traditionally made with milk or cream and butter so that made it off-limits for our teen due to her dairy allergies. There are recipes out there on how to make your own caramels but most of them include nuts. Cara Reed from Fork and Beans has a great recipe that is nut free if you want to learn how to make them yourself!

I decided to buy some from JJ’s Sweets Cocomels Sea Salt Caramels to see if these would work for a quicker fix. Their caramels are made with Coconut Milk and are dairy-free and gluten-free. They have four varieties available and you can order a sample pack to try them all. Please note: they are manufactured in a facility that shares space with other companies who produce nut products. JJ Sweet’s uses their own equipment in their processing. Since my teen does not have trouble with the Cocomel Caramels, we used them in the recipe below.

Vegan Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

½ C vegan butter

¾ C brown sugar

½ C granulated sugar

2  Egg replacer eggs (3 tsp. egg replacer + 2 T warm water)

1  T non-dairy milk

1  tsp. vanilla extract

2  C All purpose flour

1  tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. sea salt

1  C non-dairy chocolate chips

9  pieces of Sea Salt Cocomel Caramels, each cut in half

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375° F. Line your baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Mix the egg replacer and warm water and let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until well-blended. Add the egg replacer mixture, vanilla and non-dairy milk and mix until blended. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt ingredients. Add half of your dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, mix well and repeat with the other half. Dough should roll together in a ball. If too flaky, add a bit more non-dairy milk. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Roll 1 tablespoon of cookie dough into a ball. Cut the Cocomel caramels in half and place one half in each rolled cookie dough ball. Smooth some dough over the caramel to close up cookie. Repeat for the remainder of the dough.

Place on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool down on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. These are best served warm but can be eaten at any time.

It’s A New Look

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may have noticed some changes over the past week. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to update the look of My Allergic Teen to make it brighter, easier to read, in addition to providing a new layout to display my recipes better.

My focus will still be on the difficulties my teen and other teens—with severe food allergies—face on a daily basis. I will continue to come up with more allergy-friendly recipes for you to try. My allergic daughter is an avid baker and we really enjoy creating our own creations as well as tweaking other recipes that are dairy, egg and nut free. My hope is that my teen will want to post some of her own experiences but at this point she is happy to just help out with the testing and baking.

Since I am determined to make most of the design changes myself, please be patient with me as our blog becomes a work in progress. This means that you will be seeing the changes as they occur; one change at a time. Lucky you! Look for more nutritional information to be added as I am starting my journey as a Certified Nutritionist. Wish me luck!

Feel free to let me know what you think of our changes and if you have any suggestions.