My savior

My savior has been this brand of gluten free flour. I love desserts and waffles as much as the next chick, so this flour has made me feel less deprived. And we shouldn't have to feel deprived for our allergies.

This is the "King Arthur Flour" brand flour and you can find it in almost any grocery store and also online on amazon for $5.48 a box.

You can check out the ingredients as well but they're all pretty safe, primarily: rice flours, brown rice flours, potato starches and tapioca starches.

I recommend this brand to anyone. It feels, acts, reacts, and tastes just like regular flour. It truly is a god-send. I love it!

*Egg Free* Chocolate Chip Cookies

My little cousin and my dad are both allergic to eggs, so today I made egg free chocolate chip cookies which turned out amazing! I forgot to add sugar to the cookies so I made a sugar glaze on top which made the cookies splendid!

So first the ingredients for the actual cookies:

1 stick of butter
1 cup of apple sauce
2 cups of gluten free multi-purpose flour
1 cup of half and half (creamer)
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 bag of Enjoy Life's mini chocolate chip cookies ( these chocolate chips are soy, dairy, & nut free)

TIP: I'm pretty scattered brain and my recipe is very much "Oh, I forgot that, let me add this" or "Oh, this looks wrong, let's fix it by..." So if you hate stuff like that. You might want to read the whole recipe and combine stuff or re-arrange it to your liking. Mine's a lot of guess and check and evaluating as I go.


Steps:
1. Soften the butter.
          ( I use a setting on my microwave which softens it for 40 seconds at a lower voltage)
2. Add 1 cup of applesauce and add a dash of half and half.
          (I used one of those single service Mott's Regular applesauce cups. The half and half just makes it a little creamy. I like to use half and half instead of milk but use whatever you feel like).
3. Once everything is mostly mixed in, add in 1 & 1/2 cups of the gluten free multi-purpose flour.
          (I use "King Arthur's Flour" Brand and absolutely adore it. But use whatever you're comfortable with)
4. Add in a tablespoon (roughly) of vanilla extract.
5. If dry patches of flour appear (where there's not enough wet stuff to get to all the dry stuff), add roughly 3 tablespoons of half and half to get the dough to the texture you want.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 350 *F.
          (I'm slow. So after I've mostly made the dough I'll pre-heat the oven).
7. Add another 1/2 cup of flour. (Okay so everything I do is pretty much guess and check. Here the wet stuff was more than the dry stuff by a tad so I added some more flour.)
8. Prep the pan. (I use wax paper, use whatever you like)
9. Make cookies whatever size you would like. I made mine about 1 inch think and 3 inches in diameter.
10. Add a pinch of salt on top of each cookies. (It brings out all kinds of happy flavors).
11. Bake for around 15 minutes. Depending on your dough it may or may not take longer. Just watch and you'll know when it's done.
12. Pull out of the oven to cool.


Okay now the Sugar Glaze!

So as you can see by the recipe, I forgot to add sugar. So I decided to make a sugar glaze on top. I am so happy with how it turned out. This glaze tastes wonderful and by the ingredients, I'm sure you'll see why.

Ingredients:

1 stick of melted butter
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of Turbinado Raw Sugar
1/3 cup of Domino white pure sugar
1/3 cup Confectioner's sugar

Steps:

1. Melt the butter completely (until it's smooth and ooey gooey).
2. Mix in the sugars. I mixed them in the order listed in the ingredients but feel free to experiment!)
3. Heat (I threw the whole thing in the microwave for 30 seconds)
4. Stir...& Stir... & Stir. (pretty much whip it until it starts to uniformly thicken).


So then just spread the glaze on the cookies and let them both cool. I also sprinkled some confectioner's sugar on top to make it look pretty.

Voila! My first recipe!
It tastes amazing!
Who said being gluten free (and nut & soy & egg free) can't be fun? :)

My Story

When I was born, I was allergic to all food and survived on rice and milk until I was about two. Then I grew out of everything except all nuts and peanuts. Then around eight, due to my intense pollen allergy, I developed an allergy to raw fruits which progressed until I was allergic to all raw fruits and vegetables. Not kidding, it's a real thing.

Then I started to develop a lot of health issues. For over a year and a half I had extreme nausea every day. I would get random sharp stabbing pains all through my stomach. I was really slovenly and had zero energy. Plus a whole bunch of other symptoms that go on and on and on. Finally my mom took me to an integrated medicine specialist. This was one of the best things that has happened to me. They look at the body as a whole and go over your entire medical history from birth to yesterday.

Eventually what it came down to was that I am allergic to gluten and soy. So I got completely off gluten on November 5th, 2014. I became an entirely different person. Everything became so much better, but there was still some lingering affects. So I had to face the fact that I had to also eliminate soy. That was hard. Soy is in everything. From mayonnaise, to chocolate, to grilled chicken nuggets. But it was so worth it. I got my life back. I have energy. I am not in pain constantly. I don't get nauseous. It's been amazing.

So all of this inspired me to start cooking. And I decided to have a blog where I can record my recipes - the good and the not so good. To share this journey.

Just because you have an allergy, doesn't mean you can't eat whatever you want. You've just got to work to figure out a way how.