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Peanut Butter & Banana Bread – Free From Dairy, Eggs & Gluten

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As we get further into our journey of living with allergies I’m trying harder to make food that tastes good. Cake that tastes like cake for a start. Chloe has enough to go through without having to eat food that tastes like cardboard.

Today I baked with my girls because I was feeling especially grumpy and they were both a little fed up after having a chesty cold over the weekend. Baking makes us all a little happier so baking it was.

We made two batches of these muffins as I know that both girls like them and they freeze really well so I can pop them in bags of two and just pull them out each day. I made some adaptations to the original recipe which worked really well so I’m sure I’ll be posting that soon.

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We then tried making a Peanut Butter and Banana loaf which was just a bit of an experiment as I had made a batch of homemade Peanut Butter and I wanted to bake with it. This loaf is delicious, moist and actually on a par with my normal banana loaf recipe. I am yet to try any after freezing it so I will keep you posted on that.

Peanut Butter & Banana Loaf

You will need:

150g Gluten free Self Raising flour
100g dark soft brown sugar
7 tbsp of melted coconut oil
2 tbsp of peanut butter
1 medium mashed banana ( over ripe is always best )
1 tsp of vanilla paste/extract
75ml warm water

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/180, grease and line a 1lb loaf tin.

Measure your flour and brown sugar into a large bowl and mix together. In a separate bowl mash your banana, then add your peanut butter, vanilla paste, coconut oil and warm water and combine thoroughly. Mix your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients until combined. Pour your mixture into a loaf tin and bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until a knife/skewer comes out cleanly. Leave to cool slightly before slicing..although it is delicious when warm spread with a dairy/soya free margarine or even a little more peanut butter.

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This loaf cake is dairy free, egg free, soya free and gluten free. It’s also vegan…and tasty.

Both my girls enjoyed this and so did I. I hope you do too!

Allergy Friendly Truffle Style Sweets

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I made a batch of these rather tasty muffins for Chloe a few days ago and after filling 6 muffin cases there was about a tablespoon of mixture leftover. I could have just eaten it as raw mixture but I thought I would make some experimental truffle type sweets for her to eat as a calorie laden snack ( she needs to gain some weight) or occasional treat. I simple rolled the mixture into four small balls and rolled onto a plate which had a mixture of raw cacao powder and icing sugar on it to coat. AND they tasted so good. Well you know maybe not like a proper truffle but for multiple allergy type food..it was good. I’ve since made a second batch of the mixture just to make these sweets. It makes around 30.

150g Dove Gluten free SR flour
100g caster sugar
1 small mashed banana
1.5 tsp of vanilla paste or extract
75ml water
15 ml of coconut milk
6 tbsp of melted coconut oil

Mix together the sugar, oil and vanilla in a high speed stand mixer – I advise this because coconut oil solidifies quickly so you need to move fairly fast. Add your mashed banana, flour, water and coconut milk. Blend until smooth but still slightly firm.

To coat:

4 tbsp of icing sugar
3 tbsp of cacao powder

Or

6 tbsp of Shredded coconut

Roll into balls then roll in the coating of choice and onto greaseproof paper then chill until firm. Enjoy.

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I prefer them rolled in coconut but Chloe prefers the texture of the cacao/icing sugar. If you have a suitable dark chocolate you could try melting it and dipping the balls into it. I imagine this would taste pretty good!

These are dairy free, gluten free, soya free, egg free and vegan.

Allergy Friendly Muffins

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I’m just starting to get to grips with this new style of baking.. I miss my normal flours which work in the way I’m used to. The rich butters which give so much flavour and being able to just toss in ingredients whenever I fancy but I have to try and make food and especially snacks more appealing for Chloe. Yesterday we had a bad day with her health wise and a massive lack of sleep and I was grouchy and frustrated so I used that negative energy to create this delicious cakes for her.

Chloe Coconutty Cakes

150g Dove Gluten free SR flour
100g caster sugar
1 small mashed banana
1.5 tsp of vanilla paste or extract
75ml water
15 ml of coconut milk
6 tbsp of melted coconut oil

Mix together the sugar, oil and vanilla in a high speed stand mixer – I advise this because coconut oil solidifies quickly so you need to move fairly fast. Add your mashed banana, flour, water and coconut milk. Blend until smooth.

Place into muffin cases and bake for approximately 15 mins or until golden and spring back when pressed lightly on top.

When slightly cooler, dust lightly with icing sugar or Cocoa powder mix of both.

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This made 6 decent size muffins with a large spoonful or so leftover. Its quite a firm mixture so I used it to make cocoa dusted truffles..more on that to come.

This recipe is Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gluten Free and Soy Free. It’s also actually pretty tasty too! Chloe demolished hers in record time and considering her appetite is pretty shocking right now that’s brilliant.

I’ve popped one in the freezer just to see if it freezes well and I’ll keep you posted on that.

Starting From Scratch – Living With Multiple Allergies

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I’ve only really touched on this briefly on the blog so far but Chloe appears to have multiple allergies. At the moment we are Dairy, Gluten, Egg and Soya Free.. We think there could also be more. Whilst we have seen improvements since cutting out the above, she still has some pretty bad reactions to various ingredients so there is a still a long food battle ahead of us.

The best thing in the last few weeks has been seeing Chloe having a little more of an appetite…for the longest time it seems getting her to eat has been such a struggle but finally she wants it and enjoys it, often holding out her hand saying Ta Mammaaaaaa for more.

Enjoying homemade roast Sweet Potato, Peppers and Chickpea bread at a family members birthday meal recently:

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We have been on this allergy journey for about 5 months now and it’s been so difficult – hats off to you who have been doing it for longer than us or have even more allergies. Shopping takes five times longer, meals out are no longer an escape from the house. Even somebody offering to babysit for a few hours can make you stressed out. What if they unknowingly give her something she can’t tolerate?

Without spending an awful lot of money each week there only seems to be one way to get around these products (which are in everything by the way) and that is to cook from scratch. Now this may sound easy for a person who loves to cook but this is a whole new ball game for me. Flours that I’ve never worked with, avoiding simple things like stock cubes or dressings/sauces and it’s made me realise something quite alarming. For a family who eat a lot of completely home made meals we also eat a lot of rubbish. By rubbish I mean products which include ingredients I’ve never heard of with little nutritional goodness. We rarely give the girls chocolate, cake or biscuits unless homemade but you expect dry snacks or even yoghurts to be pretty much ok don’t you?

Think again…in fact after having a huge clear out of our pantry I think this whole family will be having a diet adjustment. Now I’m not going all Delicously Ella on you.. although she does have some pretty amazing recipes but as well as the standard family food and cakes/puddings I share on here there will now be more in the way of health food I guess. Certainly more dairy and gluten free options for those who may be interested in that.

We do still have to have shop bought options for when cooking time is limited and for when out and about and I’ll be sharing our favourites over the coming months.

First to come up on the homemade front will be pumpkin cakes next week and chickpea flour crackers.

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Don’t worry there will still be chocolate cakes and cream laden pasta dishes but maybe not all the time anymore because who has the time to cook separate meals for all the family? Not me that’s for sure.