Coming up for air

*GASP*
Ohmygoshhowareyouguys? I've been catching up on your posts while decorating the house for Christmas with my three helpers since we have the first day of buck season off from school and also paying bills and ordering ornament kits and cooking leftovers although we are having black beans and rice for dinner tonight because, Beezus and Ramona, am I sick of turkey and all of its by-products especially because I took leftovers to my parents last night and came home with more food which is nice but NOT HELPFUL and I know you want to see pictures and hear how Thanksgiving went and all I can say is get in line behind my father-in-law who forgot his camera and is emailing me about photos as we speak and speaking of wanting to hear things I'm sure Kelly and several other people are wondering if I'm ever going to post reviews of their books and products, like, BEFORE Christmas, for the love of blog, and the answer to all of these questions is "Soon," which I imagine pleases you as an answer about as much as it pleases my children but it's the best I can do at the moment.

Dairy-Free Thanksgiving Menu 2009

Dairy-Free (and Semi-Wheat Free) Thanksgiving Menu
Made with lots of love and delegation

Two turkeys, deep-fried by Scott and Grandad
Gravy (substitute dairy-free margarine for the butter) made by Grandad
Gramma's stuffing, two batches, made with DF bread
Scott's mashed potatoes (made with soymilk and DF margarine)
Uncle Jarred's Sweet Potato Casserole (made with DF margarine)
Peas
Green beans
Gramma's Seven-Layer Salad (made with Sour Supreme and no cheese)
Scott's rolls and wheat-free bread
Cranberries: cranberry jelly and the awesome cranberry orange relish made by our grocery store
Applesauce (from the freezer)
Appetizers, made by Aunt Emily
Freezer pickles

Pumpkin Pie
DF/wheat-free Cherry Crisp made by Gramma

Cider
Soda
Water
Wine (Lots.)
Decaf coffee
Sparkling Grape Juice

Winner, winner, vegan dinner

The winner of My Sweet Vegan is:

GardenMama! Comment number 11. Congratulations! Email me your info and we'll get a cookbook to you!

One Week

Till company arrives.

Kitchen progress:
trim painted
backsplash tiles done
curtains made (by my friend)
breakfast nook assembled (by my husband)
holes filled
walls washed

Today, I begin the primer.

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

Sniffin' Fumes

Have I mentioned that we're hosting Thanksgiving again? With an all-time high attendance level of fifteen people and a dog? (Yes, and you, Kevin.) And that our house is...not big? And that some of my in-laws want to exchange Christmas gifts the day after Thanksgiving and some do not, but I figured I'd better have their gifts purchased and wrapped just in case?

Clearly this week is the appropriate time for me to start redoing our kitchen that I've hated for six years. Especially because it is parent/teacher conference week and we have half days of school Wednesday through Friday. I tiled the backsplash on Monday (with self-adhesive tile) and I could have stopped there. But yesterday I started painting the trim. As my OB/GYN said to my husband and sister after I ordered him to just BREAK MY WATER ALREADY, I'VE BEEN ON PITOCIN FOR TEN HOURS, "We are committed."

Now I am committed to getting this project done. Well, mostly. When my husband asked if I planned to sand and paint the cabinets before Thanksgiving, too, I said, "Oh no, that would be insane!" He just smiled. And maybe the entire enterprise is insane to someone who didn't grow up in a house where her parents wallpapered the bathroom on Thanksgiving morning. (Hi, Mom and Dad!) But come on, our kitchen is the size of your pantry or mudroom. I can do this, right?

RIGHT?

And the Winners Are...

Numbers seven and forty-five, Beck and Yasharian! I have the screenshots of the numbers Random.org chose on my desktop, but I have NO IDEA how to post them. Please get me your info and Alisa will send you a bunch of vegan e-cookbooks!

Cereal and Elephants

My e-cookbook giveaway is here.

One Frugal Foodie's awesome cereal giveaway is here.

Enjoy Life Foods has a new blog.

The Food Allergy Support Group of Minnesota emailed me about a Food Allergy Resource Fair going on this Saturday in Hopkins, Minnesota. I have been to their beautiful state exactly once to visit a friend one October. We went to the first U.S. performance of this musical that was written and introduced by these guys and I saw Garrison Keillor in the audience. It was fabulous. And freaking cold.

Tomorrow I am going to the circus with hundreds of second graders. I'll just have to think about Water for Elephants to amuse and distract myself on the long bus ride.

Spokesmodel

I bought a case of soymilk at Aldi today, as I often do. Ounce for ounce, Aldi soymilk is almost exactly half the price of Silk soymilk where I live. As I was leaving, an older gentleman stopped me to ask question after question after question about my case of soymilk. "What does it taste like? Why do you buy it? Is it good for you? I bet it's low in cholesterol and fat, right? You know, I had a neighbor in Texas who drank soymilk...." This exact same scenario happened the last time I bought a case of soymilk. Today I had an impatient toddler with me and was late for preschool pick up. And yet I COULD NOT not answer him, or just say, "Dude, it's wicked cheap. Go buy a quart and try it for yourself."

I had the same problem at second-grade orientation. I simultaneously resented being introduced as The Allergy Mom (my college friend D. suggests "Allergy B*tch on Wheels" as a more appropriate title) and being asked questions about ALL food allergies ("Are the pretzels I have at home processed in a plant with peanuts?") and yet could not SHUT MY TRAP when other parents were complaining about the new food allergy policies.

OBVIOUSLY, I don't mind talking about food allergy issues. I want our local stores to keep carrying dairy-free items, so the more people who buy them the better the chances of that happening. I want other parents to understand my daughter's situation. But I'd also like to go pick up a carton of soy yogurt and not have the lady in line behind me and the teenage checkout person play Twenty Questions with me about it.

I don't even know what my point is. Do you feel like the spokesperson for an issue? How do you handle it? Maybe I should start wearing a lapel pin:

I drink soymilk and you should, too! If you want! Or don't! Whatev! I gotta go.

Do you watch the Today Early Show?

I don't, and my neighbor told me that there was a dairy-free cooking segment on either yesterday morning or Monday morning. Did anyone see it? She couldn't remember the chef's name. I've been searching on NBC's site for about 10 minutes and have given up. That site is not organized at all, and if I have to sit through one more cooking segment clip with Kathy Lee Gifford bellowing things like: "VINO!", I'm going to be reaching for the vino.

Help?

EDIT: Marianne found it! On The EARLY Show! Thank you, Marianne! Oh, how I wish you were still blogging.... The recipes are for the lactose intolerant, but they all appear to be completely dairy free.

Odds and Ends

Christina has a birthday giveaway going on through Friday, October 30th. You could win two great cookbooks! (I own both these books and highly recommend them.) I won her last giveaway and am currently enjoying this cookbook and looking forward to this one arriving today! Thank you, Christina!

A friend of Alisa's designed this cool, circular, year-round poster calendar. Someone needs to get this for me my children for Christmas.


image courtesy of Earth Cycle Calendars

Scottish Twins and Marie each gave me a blog award. Thank you both!

Imagine my surprise when I found a Swistle gift package waiting on my porch the other day! Imagine my surprise when I found that my camera batteries were dead and I couldn't photograph it! But I'm sure you can imagine the richness: Shirts for Helen! Dishtowels! A Mother-in-Law Mug! Measuring spoons! Measuring cups! Lots and lots of paper goodies! A book! A pencil! Thank you, Swistle!
Edit: Swistle has a giveaway going on at her review blog right now.

Food Allergy Assistant found a recipe for homemade candy corn that she made dairy free.

And if you want some creepy Halloween reads, Beck is (fictionally) killing off beloved children's characters on her blog.

Corn Chowder

Katherine would take chicken noodle soup in her lunch every day if it were up to her. Here is our neighbor's attempt to add some variety. The notes are hers. I can't wait to try it.

Corn Chowder

4 cups water
2 packages of dry, dairy-free chicken noodle soup mix
1/2 C - quick cook rice (if you use regular rice, you have to cook it a lot longer)
1 Tbs - dried minced onion
4 cups of soymilk (you can use powdered soymilk)
1 can creamed corn
2 cups cut up, cooked chicken

Bring water to a boil. Add soup mix, rice & onion. Cook til noodles & rice are tender, about 20 min. Add milk, corn and chicken. Heat through stirring frequently but do not boil. This freezes well.

Lunchtime

Who receives a copy of Vegan Lunch Box Around the Worldto review and makes Beet Salad as her first recipe from the cookbook? That would be me. Because people want to know about the beet recipes! Or because you all have taught me to love beets, and this is the best pickled beet recipe I've tried. (The secret? Ground caraway seeds.)

Since then, I've used several of Jennifer McCann's fabulous international lunch ideas and have fallen utterly in love with her Boston Brown Bread Muffins. I am always especially interested in vegan baked goods, as adding meat to main dishes isn't an issue for us, but baking with dairy sure is. As Beck said when asked about lunch ideas, "...I generally just look at old Vegan Lunch Box posts for ideas, substituting 'pot roast' for 'tofu,' of course." Exactly.

My only complaint about Vegan Lunch Box Around the Worldis passages like this, "One of the biggest shocks I had when I first turned vegetarian was discovering where gelatin came from: the boiled bones, skins, and tendons of animals. Yuck!"

Yes, it's gross. Yes, authors are entitled to their own food choices and being able to write their books the way they want. But I think there are ways to put forth one's ideals without making some non-vegans *cough*my husband*cough* feel defensive and turning them off of a great book of recipes.

I've been a fan of Jennifer's blog for years. She inspired us to buy the Laptop Lunch system. Once I experienced her second cookbook in person, I used a little birthday cash to buy myself the first Vegan Lunch Box, too.

This review was written for Go Dairy Free.

Wicked Treats

Just in time for Halloween, the lovely Alisa sent me a copy of Hannah Kaminsky's newest e-cookbook, Wicked Treats. That young woman is a recipe-writing MACHINE, I tell ya. In it are recipes for:

Ghostly Vanilla Fudge
Jelly Bites
Licorice
Peanut Butter Fingers
Rice Crackle Bars
Tootsie Chews

All of the recipes are vegan, and therefore dairy free. They are also gluten free, and Hannah includes directions to make them soy free.

I cannot wait to make homemade Tootsie Rolls Chews for a child who has never had one!

The e-book is available to download here for $3.

Edit: Peanut butter is in just one of the recipes.

Fat Talk Free Week

It's Tri Delta's Fat Talk Free Week again. Here's their video for this year. My post about last year's video can be found here.



I find this program to be so inspiring, both as an individual and a mother of girls.

Surf Sweets Gummy Treats

Fruit snacks have been my go-to food allergy emergency snack/dessert item for YEARS.

Gummy treats:

• look like candy
• come in cute, portable packages
  
• have expiration dates that are months away
• can ride around in the bottom of your purse or diaper bag for months and never become: stale, crumbled, squished
• are dairy free
• are recognized and accepted by your child's peers
  
• do not carry the disappointment/stigma of Mom's Purse-Smashed Carob Flax Seed Bars

I know what you're going to say. "But, Blah blah blah cavities blah blah blah corn syrup blah blah blah fruits of the devil blah!"

Now we don't have to fight anymore because Surf Sweets just released a line of naturally sweetened, corn-syrup free gummy treats. And! They are gluten-free, dairy-free, allergy-friendly treats produced in a dedicated nut-free facility. I first heard of them from Kelsey, and when Alisa offered a chance to review them for Go Dairy Free, I shoved the other reviewers out of my way. Virtually speaking.


2.75 oz. package

We sampled:
Gummy Bears
Sour Berry Bears
Sour Worms
Jelly Beans

The Gummy Bears taste just like, well, gummy bears. The Sour Berry Bears and Sour Worms are not quite as sour as the usual Sour Patch Kid-type treat. Two of my children don't like sour candies and they liked these. The third child wished they were a bit more sour. Also, the sour candies have a firmer consistency, like those candy citrus slices your great-aunt always gave you when you visited her. The jelly beans are the consistency of regular jelly beans, with really fresh fruit flavors. They have several other new candies available, too. They are all vegetarian and some are vegan.


.9 oz. package

Ingredients:
Gummy Bears: Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Gelatin, Organic Grape Juice Concentrate,Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Colors Added (including Black Carrot Juice Concentrate, Turmeric, Annatto),Natural Flavors, Organic Sunflower Oil, Carnauba Wax

Sour Berry Bears: Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Grape Juice Concentrate, Pectin, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Malic Acid, Asorbic Acid, Colors Added (Black Carrot Juice Concentrate), Natural Flavors.

Sour Worms: Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Citric Acid, Pectin, Sodium Citrate, Ascorbic Acid, Colors Added (Black Carrot Juice Concentrate, Turmeric, Annatto), Natural Flavors.

Jelly Beans: Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Grape Juice Concentrate, Pectin, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Colors Added (including Black Carrot Juice Concentrate, Turmeric, Annatto), Natural Flavors, Confectioner’s Glaze, Carnauba Wax, Organic Sunflower Oil.

The candies are all available in 2.75 oz. packages. Suggested retail is $1.99.
The Gummy and Sour Berry Bears are also available in .9 oz packages. Suggested retail is $.79.
Amazon has some good bulk deals here.

This review was written for Go Dairy Free. Images courtesy of Surf Sweets.

Coffee Mug Cakies

Image courtesy of Gluten-Free Essentials

I am a sucker for gift baskets and gift sets, especially ones people put together themselves. This is one of the reasons I was happy to receive samples of Gluten-Free Essentials' Hug in a Mug cakes. Wee little gluten-free and dairy-free mug cakies!

The cakes come in two chocolate varieties and two spice cake varieties. Chocolate Craving and Spice of Life are sweetened with sugar, and Chocolate De Lite and Spice De Lite are sweetened with Fructevia. You add one egg and 2 T applesauce to the cake mix, mix well, and microwave it in the mug.



Our family preferred the sugar-sweetened varieties to the Fructevia ones, and Chocolate Craving was our favorite flavor. One cake is big enough for two to three people to share. The texture of the cakes is the texture of a low-fat cake. DO NOT think that you can fix this by replacing the applesauce with oil. Ahem.

I think these are cute for gift baskets, Halloween treats, stocking stuffers, or to mail to a GF/DF college student. They would also be handy to take to a family function if you're not sure what the desserts will be. "Aunt Carol, may I please borrow an egg and some applesauce?" But, they are $3.99 a piece! If I wanted to make a dairy-free mug cake at home, I would alter a recipe like this one, and if I wanted to make a gluten-free mug cake at home, I would try this recipe.

Ingredients:
Chocolate Craving: Sorghum flour, rice flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, guar gum, corn starch, baking powder, salt.

Spice of Life: Sorghum flour, rice flour, sugar, baking soda, guar gum, corn starch, baking powder, salt, spices.

Chocolate De Lite: Sorghum flour, rice flour, Fructevia, cocoa, baking soda, guar gum, corn starch, baking powder, salt.

Spice De Lite: Sorghum flour, rice flour, Fructevia, baking soda, guar gum, corn starch, baking powder, salt, spices.

This review was written for Go Dairy Free.

Columbus Day

It's Columbus Day! I forgot about having all of the children home today! We're going to celebrate Katherine's day off by making Banana Brownies from her Nintendo DS cooking game. I am also going to make a half batch of Relish, Sauce, and Chutney--All in One Day from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. We used those sauces so much last winter.

Two of my oats-based recipes were featured in Go Dairy Free's Sweet Sundays column yesterday.

One Frugal Foodie is hosting a huge Dairy Free Market gift basket giveaway!

I received an email from Oliver's Labels concerning my review and your comments about their allergy labels. Debbie writes, "We read all the valuable feedback and comments and it prompted us to launch our newest design - a bright red 'food allergies' icon. It's perfect for kids with multiple allergies and it's an attention-grabbing stop sign shape.
As always, feel free to use the 10% off coupon when shopping on www.oliverslabels.com!" [SAFETYFIRST]



I am very glad that Oliver's Labels listened to the concerns of food allergy parents. However. I think that having the icon say "food allergies" and not list specific allergies is too general. And, I still think it's not as noticeable as an entirely red label. What do you think?

Just added: GardenMama has a giveaway going on right now, too!

Whassup?

• My college roommate had her first baby yesterday! She and her husband named their daughter Cecelia, which I LOVE. Everyone is fine.
• Helen is sick and just licked my face, so you can see where that's going to go.
• Scott and I played matchmaker for two of our friends last night and are now, you know, wondering when we'll be invited to the wedding and mentioned in the toast.
  
• Courtney Cox-Arquette is now on my poo list. Life is so hard for celebrities. (Thanks to Janeen for the link.)
• It's time to dig out the winter gear and figure out what fits which kid and what we need to buy. *sigh*
• Have you signed your preschooler(s) up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library? I just did, and you should, too. FREE BOOKS for children through age 5! One free book a month! The program is available in the US, Canada, and the UK. [Edit: If it's not yet available in your area, suggest it to your local United Way or other organization.]
  

Odds and Ends

Five more videos have been posted in the Children's Hospital series, "A Cure for Food Allergies?," including an interview with Ming Tsai. After Kelly Rudnicki posted this interview with Ming, I apologized on Facebook for saying I always thought he was a bit of a tool. Might as well do it in front of the whole world. Sorry, Ming. You're doing great work for food allergies.

Speaking of Kelly, her cookbook is out! I think she should let someone review it for Go Dairy Free, don't you? *cough*

I had a wonderful birthday, complete with a huge birthday cookie, sparkly earrings from the kids, and two new books! Perfect.

Oh! Also, I indexed all of my recipes. So you can, like, find them. See the sidebar.

I can't believe I have to review products on my BIRTHDAY

Actually, I don't have to. But it's a nasty, cold, rainy birthday, so let's see how productive I can be, hmm?

In light of all of the shiny new review blogs popping up everywhere, I feel the need to re-explain how things work here. The reviews I write are usually for Go Dairy Free, I just cross-post them here. Occasionally, a company contacts me on their own. I get a sample of the dairy-free/food allergy-related food/product/whatever. I try it. I write honestly about it. I do not get paid by the companies or by Go Dairy Free. But even if I did, I'd write honest reviews. It's just a good way for us all to find out about new (often expensive) dairy-free and/or food allergy products. Aaand, done.

Recently I received a package of ND Labs' Meatless Burger Bits, or, as my kids call it, "Fake Meat." We used them in Peg Bracken's Green Pepper Stew. The texture and taste were very similar to ground beef, and we agreed that the texture is even more beef-like than their other meatless ground beef product. The Meatless Burger Bits are the closest-to-ground-beef meatless product we've tried. If it were up to us, though, we'd probably go with ground turkey or ground chicken or ground venison if we didn't want beef.


Yeah. Go here for a clear image.

So here's my question: if you are allergic to beef or a vegetarian or vegan, do you LIKE eating foods that taste like meat, or would you rather avoid meat--real or fake--all together? I had a grad school professor who was so excited about her Thanksgiving Tofurky, and I remember thinking, "What's the point?" If I didn't eat meat, I think I'd avoid meat-like substances. But I DO eat meat, so what do I know? Thoughts?

Ingredients: Beef flavored vegetable crumbles (soy protein concentrate, wheat gluten, malt color, and wheat starch). Spice blend: hydrolyzed corn and yeast protein, hydrolyzed wheat gluten, maltodextrin, malt extract, hydrolyzed soy protein, dextrose, yeast extract, onion, chili and garlic powders, torula yeast, malic acid, disodium inosiante, disodium guanylate, natural flavors*.

*The natural flavors thing worried me a bit, but they have allergen information on their website that says these are free of dairy.

Meatless Burger Bits are available on ND Labs' website.

This review was written for Go Dairy Free.