Feeling Like My Kids

James Vander-Cry

Before yesterday, I hadn't given much much thought to what must be going through my kids heads with this new diet.

It was the birthday of one of the staff members at the church where I work, and we went out to eat lunch at Fish City Grill.  It's a pretty good restaurant, but about 60% of the menu was off-limits for me because it had either some kind of milk batter or a milk/butter-based sauce slathered on it.  I ended up with raw oysters and red beans and rice for lunch.  It was very good, but as I sat there, looking around the table, I felt very out of place.

Here they were, all these people around me that I see and spend time with every day, and yet, for the first time ever, I felt like I totally didn't belong.  I saw the appetizers they ordered, the food that they had brought to them, steaming and sizzling with butter and sauce everywhere, and I genuinely felt jealous. Then, we got to dessert and it all went to hell in a hand basket. EVERY SINGLE ITEM on the menu was butter/milk-based.

I went from feeling out of place, to downright dejected.  I finally went next door to the gelato place and got a really incredible blood orange ice.  But, my lunch isn't really the point of the story, just a jumping off point.

A little later, I was thinking when it just hit me.  If that's what that lunch was like for me just this once, what must my children be feeling EVERY SINGLE DAY that they go to school with their different lunches and their no-milk mindset that we are working so hard to ingrain in them.  It's like God hit me with this sympathy bolt and it was all I could do to keep from crying just thinking about it.  I was truly heartbroken for my children.

No child (or adult, for that matter) wants to feel like they are a weirdo, or an outcast, especially for something that they can't control.  And yet, there my children sit, watching and listening to everyone and everything around them say how wonderful milk is for you.  How you should have so much of it in your diet.

Well, no more weirdos.  I'm going to do everything in my power to empower my children in making life-choices that they can not only live with, but be incredibly proud of.  I'm going to make circumstantial  superheroes out of my kids and give them the tools they need to not feel like outcasts, but like someone who has been given super-special powers to bring exciting foods to the table, so that when they look around at the other kids, they'll wonder why their lunches aren't as cool.

Wonder Twin powers ACTIVATE... shape of a lunchbox... form of a dairy-less cow!

Brownies for My Brownie

So when I look at the consumption of milk in my household there’s only one area that beats out our use of milk in baked goods.  That place would be direct consumption of liquid milk by my children.  They were constantly drinking the stuff; begging for it, in fact.  The total usage of liquid milk from our household was only rivaled by professional milk production factories.  My children drank so much milk, you’d have thought we were auditioning daily for a “got milk” commercial.

So it was with great sadness that the thought first crossed my mind that we would have to give up desserts that had milk in them (being that it was the second greatest usage of milk in our house).  To say that my family likes dessert is an understatement of absolutely epic proportions.  Obviously, the lack of viable “milky” desserts was something that was going to have to be rectified.  That’s why you’re seeing so many desserts on this blog.  After all, what do they say... life’s short, so eat dessert first?

So, with that out of the way... let’s make some brownies.

Brownies, hold the milk
I checked a book out of the library recently called the Allergy-free Cookbook.  Lots of haughty recipes and some that are right up my alley.  This one hit my alley square in the face and said, “let’s dance.”  So, obviously, I made it.

Other than being just a tiny bit too dry (which I can alleviate next time with some applesauce, which I think I’ll try), these brownies were absolutely delicious.  Not too crunchy, just undone enough to retain that fudgy quality that makes brownies so ridiculously amazing in the first place, but not so moist that you can’t get it off your teeth and have to have a professional cleaning after dessert is over.

So, here’s our modified recipe:

3/4c flour
1/4c milk-free cocoa powder
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
a good pinch of salt
10 oz bag of milk-free semi-sweet chocolate chips (we used Enjoy Life dairy free chocolate chips, they were awesome)
3/4c soft light brown sugar
2 Tbps water
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs (beaten)

a large whisk
medium-sized mixing bowl
a pan of your choice (we used a 9”x9”)

So you take the brown sugar, a scant cup (3.5 oz) of the chocolate chips, the vanilla extract and water and heat them over low heat, stirring occasionally, to create a lovely chocolate sauce.  This is going to provide the liquid base for your brownies.

While that is beginning, go ahead and sift your flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder together into a separate bowl.  After your sauce is created pour it over your dry ingredients and add the two eggs.  Mix until smooth.  Add in the remainder of the 10oz bag of chocolate chips to the batter and pour into your prepared baking pan.  Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until your brownies leave just a slight chocolate mark on a toothpick in the center.


Let cool for 15 minutes and serve.  As a topping, you could make a quick and easy non-dairy whipped cream or go super simple and just add some powdered sugar.  


Long recipe short... these brownies are wonderful and if you like chocolate, this is a great way to go without the dairy.  


My Moo Rating:

Mooove Over Ice Cream.. here comes the Sorbet

Ice cream is a funny thing.  When you can have it, you want more of it.  When you can't have it, you want it.  I guess, no matter what, you generally want ice cream.

With dairy allergies, we've had to leave ice cream behind, though we can still enjoy sorbets and "alternative" ice "creams."

Today, we made two attempts at making our own version of "ice cream" and we totally hit it out of the park.

Usually ice creams are made up of milk fats (solids and non solids), sweeteners, stabilizers and water.  Well today we made our own version of ice cream with only three ingredients.  That's right, two.  Well, four if you count air.

This "cream" has a banana base and is incredibly easy to make.  We'll get the kids' help next time we do it, but this time we just wanted to get the ingredients in and figure out exactly how to make it work.

Banana Sorbet
Our first product is basically bananas and honey.  Yup, that's it.  That's all you need to make an absolutely scrumptious sorbet that will have your tongue bashing your brains out trying get more.  Here's what to do:

Ingredients:
2 overripe bananas
6 regular "yellow" bananas
1/2 c local honey
1/2 tsp real vanilla
Food Processor
Ice Cream maker

Directions:
Take your 6 bananas and put them into a food processor until smooth.  They will take on a light batter-like appearance.  Add your 1/2 cup of honey until fully incorporated.  Put in the fridge to cool for about 30-40 minutes.  Add all ingredients to your ice cream maker and churn until semi-frozen.  Add to freezer.  You're done.

When you take this out of the freezer, you will instantly notice that the texture of the sorbet is very similar to ice cream.  Eerily so, in fact.  This recipe makes just under a half gallon of sorbet.  You'll want to store it in an airtight container to keep the consistency even.

My youngest son actually asked if he could completely finish the 1/4 gallon container.  We said no, though we did give him extra.  My other son liked it, but he said he enjoyed this next recipe even better.  All the adults were absolutely enamored with this particular recipe.  Overall, my "panel of judges" gives this particular recipe a perfect score.

My Moo Rating:

Strawberry Peach Banana
This next recipe came directly on the heels of the first one, as we already had the equipment out and dirty and didn't really need any cleanup between the two recipes.  This one is almost as simple as the first, though the results are completely different.

Ingredients:
1/3 c banana sorbet (as seen above) as a stabilizer
1 16oz bag frozen peaches
1 16oz bag frozen strawberries
    (fresh fruit in any case would be great)
1/2 c + 2TBps local honey
Food Processor
Ice Cream Maker

Directions:
Take your banana sorbet starter, peaches, strawberries and honey and blend until incorporated.  Because our fruits were frozen, it actually took on a sorbet-like consistency almost immediately.  Add all ingredients to the ice cream maker and churn until semi-frozen.  Place in freezer until serving time.  Enjoy.

This batch of sorbet actually has a much lighter, fluffier texture than the aforementioned banana one, and is very different, though extremely enjoyable.  We'd rate this one as excellent, though we might make some slight adjustments to the recipe next time we make it.

My Moo Rating:



The great thing about both of these recipes is, I know EXACTLY what my family is getting in their bodies because the ingredient list is almost nonexistent.  You could probably even substitute your own favorite fruits to make exactly what you want.  Next time we'll be

Have you tried this recipe?  Did you like it?  Did you make changes?  Let us know in the comments section.