Broccoli Coleslaw Salad #eggfree #easyrecipe

If you're looking for a different, tasty and food allergy friendly side dish for upcoming Labor Day picnics, I have a great one for you.

I whipped up a tasty broccoli coleslaw recipe this weekend for a family dinner. The recipe is egg-free and free of traditional mayo. Everyone loved this broccoli coleslaw and many second helpings were taken :)

Why do I love this recipe so much?

• It's a unique side dish for picnics and other meals
• It includes lots of healthy ingredients like broccoli, apples and cabbage (According to WebMD, cabbage contains chemicals that are thought to help prevent cancer!)
• It's egg free and allergy-friendly
• It's a nice mixture of flavors and textures (sweet, "sour" from the vinegar, crunchy and soft) and the dressing is lighter than the usual heavy creamy coleslaw recipes 

Main ingredients:

• 14 oz bag shredded cabbage (my bag included carrots)
• 2 cups broccoli (cut/pulled into small florets)
• 2 apples, diced
• 3/4 cup craisins
• 3 Tbsp sunflower seeds (I used Gerbs Lightly Sea Salted Sunflower Seeds)

Dressing Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup Earth Balance mayo (egg-free)
• 4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:

• Mix together main ingredients
• Mix together dressing ingredients
• Pour dressing on main ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate before serving.

Our family meal this weekend included barbecue chicken, wild rice and salad, plus the coleslaw. Since many barbecue sauces have artificial and/or added ingredients in it, I used Wegmans Organic BBQ Sauce. It tasted great and the kids even loved it!

This broccoli coleslaw would work perfectly with other meals like:

Chicken with pepperoni sauce

Homemade crockpot BBQ pulled pork

Turkey burger with avocado, tomato and corn

Look for back-to-school posts soon!  Good luck to all those parents whose kids have already started school! 

   

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Easy homemade bread: Gluten-free, vegan and sesame-free

Where in the world do you buy FRESH tasting egg-free, dairy-free and sesame-free bread?

So far, I have no idea. I haven't found ONE off the shelf bread that's safe for Little Guy.

But I sure do know how to make it!

Even though Little Guy grew out of his wheat allergy, he still prefers the original gluten-free and vegan bread he ate as a toddler. I've tried a number of times to bake vegan wheat bread (whole wheat, half whole wheat half white, etc.) but he still asks for "my white bread".

Argh.

Every other week I make a different kind of bread in our breadmaker with different portions of white and whole wheat flour. I know that someday he WILL eat other bread. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on truckin' along with the same King Arthur Flour Gluten Free Bread Mix!  All you need is the bread mix box, a loaf pan and the ingredients!

Let me tell you, I'm thankful that this bread mix exists. It has made my life a whole lot easier for these past few years. Yes, it's expensive, but only Little Guy eats this bread, and the convenience factor outweighs the expense for now.

I figure, we don't buy many other "convenience" foods, or even eat out much. So, I can justify the convenience of this bread!

Here's the back of the box with the necessary ingredients. You can see the directions for the dairy free version under the pictures. In addition to the bread mix, here are the ingredients we use as substitutes:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1.5 cups lukewarm water
• 3/4 cup applesauce (1/4 cup applesauce = 1 egg)

We follow the other directions as usual, and the bread always bakes to a wonderful light brown color, soft texture and fresh taste.

It's not crumbly like other gluten free breads, and it's light and fluffy. It's also a perfect for a toddler/preschooler sized sandwich!

(And let me take a moment to thank my wonderful Mama for her bread making efforts and skills. Many days when she's watching the kiddos and I'm at work, I come home to find that she's made Little Guy his bread. What an angel she is to us).

Now, how do we store it?

Since this homemade bread doesn't have any preservatives in it, it gets moldy with a few days on the counter. It also gets a little mushy in the fridge and doesn't keep as long there either. We've had lots of trials and errors of storing it, believe me. 

Here's how we find it works best.

• After it cools, slice the bread and place as much as you want to freeze in layers in a big Ziploc freezer bag. I usually freeze one or two pieces on the bottom, and then layer it on top with wax or parchment paper. Then add another layer of bread.
• Save a few pieces of bread to be stored on the counter. This is only if you know you're going to eat it in the next one or two days.
• When you're ready to eat your bread from the freezer, microwave it for 30 seconds or more depending on your microwave's power. 
• You can defrost your bread overnight, but it will become nice a soft if you microwave it for a few seconds even after it's defrosted. I still do this even if I'm packing a sandwich for later in the day. Wrap the sandwich in foil when the bread is still a little warm. 

This is actually a photo I took before we left for a week at the beach. I baked a loaf two days before, stored it in the refrigerator until we got there, and then put it in a Ziploc bag as I usually do in the freezer.

Some of Little Guy's favorite sandwiches are:

Sunbutter and banana sandwich 
Chicken salad with avocado (mayo-free)
Ham or turkey sandwich with Daiya cheese slices

If you deal with multiple food allergies, what's your usual go-to bread?

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This post is NOT sponsored. We truly have been using King Arthur Flour Bread Mix for the past 3+ years. This post includes affiliate links.

Egg Free Easter and Easter Bunny Hayride

Although Easter is a few weeks away, we had a ton of Easter-themed fun this weekend.

It was EGGstraordinary.

EGGcellent.

EGGmazing.

Okay, okay. So Little Guy and I played with "egg" words this weekend for a little language focused fun. As an almost 4 year old, he loves playing with words, making up new words and being silly in general.  The ironic part is that since Little Guy has a food allergy to eggs, real eggs were not involved in our weekend at all!

In fact, we made EGGstra effort (ahem) to keep eggs OUT of our fun.

How did we do it? Well, with these little beauties.



They look almost real, right? They're not. They're plastic dyeable eggs I found at Walmart for $1.97.

We used the good old PAL egg coloring kit tablets to dye the eggs.


The only difference I noticed was that the plastic eggs didn't sink to the bottom like a real egg. Something I didn't think about until we tried it!  See how they're sitting on top of the water?


But we made it work anyway with stickers and traditional food coloring.


Grammy and Little Guy had fun coloring the eggs despite a few hitches!

We also had fun HIDING the eggs for our own private Easter egg hunt. As you can see, Little Guy was in his glory!

Little Gal had fun at the Easter egg hunt too. Grammy got her a pretty new Easter dress. We tried it on her and had to take a few photos even before Easter Sunday. Oh, my little sweet one.

A big highlight of our weekend was a hayride to the Easter bunny at Linvilla Orchards. It was SUCH a cute experience for our little ones.  I think these Easter bunny photos about sum up the sweetness and fun we had at Linvilla. It not only has hayrides, but also lots of farm animals and a playground!

So, Easter is on the way, and I'm still thinking about food allergy friendly Easter baskets for the kids. I usually fill them with a few treats and add some little toys in the baskets too.

Here's an example of what we did last year for our food allergy friendly Easter baskets.

And here are a few things the Easter bunny is going to give the kids this year!

What EGGstraordinary fun are you having this Easter and spring!? What is the Easter bunny bringing your family?

Easy Egg Free Italian Meatballs with Broccoli

I love this easy baked Italian meatball recipe for a few reasons. It's egg free and great for someone with food allergies to eggs. Yet, the meatballs still hold together nicely. It's also simple and easy.  It' requires minimal ingredients, yet it still tastes great. And finally, my favorite part of this baked Italian meatball recipe is the HIDDEN broccoli that you (and your kids!) can't even taste.

I'm not much into hiding veggies. I LIKE to know that my kids will eat veggies without having to hide them. Broccoli is a big favorite in our house. But lately the kiddos haven't been eating it, most likely because I've been serving it too frequently. So, what's a mama to do? HIDE the broccoli!

These meatballs are seriously moist - even when microwaved two days later.

We ate these meatballs on top of wheat pasta (since Little Guy can now eat wheat). We also still eat gluten-free quinoa pasta as an alternative. So, if you're gluten free - that's a great option too!

RECIPE: Easy Egg Free Italian Meatballs with Broccoli

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 cup chopped cooked broccoli (I warmed up frozen broccoli and it worked great)
• 1 cup bread crumbs (I used Ian's Panko Bread Crumbs, but any plain wheat or gluten-free breadcrumbs would work. I've also substituted quick cooking oats if I don't have bread crumbs!)
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce, marinara sauce or ketchup (use a brand with no high fructose corn syrup)
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (this includes anchovies just FYI for food allergies!)

Seasonings:

• 1/2 Tbsp basil
• 1/2 Tbsp oregano
• 1/2 Tbsp Thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• salt is only needed if you use a low or no salt tomato sauce

Directions:

• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
• Use a whisk or fork to mix together seasonings with bread crumbs
• Add the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce
• Cook your broccoli (steam it, or take a shortcut and microwave frozen broccoli for 1 minute with a tsp of water)
• Chop your broccoli in a food processor into fine pieces and add it to the bread crumb mixture
• Add ground beef and turkey and mix everything with your hands
• Scoop meatball mixture with a tablespoon (or just use your hands to estimate like I do!) and roll in your hands until golf ball sized meatballs are formed
• Bake at 400 degrees for 22 - 25 minutes or until at least 160 degrees

What's your favorite meatball recipe!!??

Yes, I know breadcrumbs are fairly easy to make, but I prefer the easy route some days! Here are two kinds of Ian's breadcrumbs, wheat and gluten-free, I've used in the past for various recipes. I used the Original Panko Breadcrumbs for this meatball recipe.

Banana Bread Oat Muffins

I know I recently posted a food allergy friendly muffin recipe, but I couldn't resist posting another! Especially since the recipe is egg free, dairy free, gluten free and so tasty. Muffins are such an easy breakfast or snack option for kids. They're also portable and easy to freeze. I try to make food allergy friendly muffins every few weeks, eat some, and freeze the rest. These Banana Bread Oat Muffins are such an easy and healthy breakfast or snack option.

I love this muffin recipe because:

• It's egg free and dairy free.
• Even though Little Guy can now eat wheat and gluten, this recipe is gluten free. Great for those who need it.
• Even though it's gluten free, it only requires one kind of flour - oat flour - and no "gums" like xantham gum.
• It uses coconut and mandarin oranges in addition to bananas to make it moist and give it lots of flavor. 

I based this recipe off of one of my favorite food allergy friendly cookbooks: Sophie-Safe Cooking.  

I've used this cookbook OFTEN in the past 3 years of cooking food allergy friendly recipes for our family. I especially like the baking recipes because most of them are based on oat flour and are very simple to make.

The only issue I have with this book is that some of the recipes are very high in sugar and the muffins come out VERY small. My kids have BIG appetites!

So, I changed a few things about the recipe to work better for our family.  Here's my version:

Dry Ingredients:

• 5 cups oat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 mashed bananas (medium to large)
• 1/2 cup shortening. I use Spectrum Organic Shortening. You could also use safe margarine or butter substitute like Earth Balance.  
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup coconut. I use Let's Do Organic Shredded, Unsweetened Coconut
• 1.5 cups mandarin oranges, drained. 

Recipe:

Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix on low speed with mixer. Spoon into 24 lined muffin cups (I use a measuring cup for the spooning part!). Each muffin cup will be about 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 22 - 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Mine takes about 22 minutes, but ovens will vary.

This recipes makes 24 muffins. I always want some to freeze, so 24 works best in our house.

Who doesn't like a warm muffin with butter (allergy-friendly) melted on it?  YUM.

What's your favorite kind of muffin?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

If you don't know by now, I'm a little obsessed with pumpkin.

I've posted a number of pumpkin recipes on this blog because:

• I love the taste of pumpkin.
• Pumpkin is healthy (Some people call it a superfood because of it's Vitamin A, fiber and other amazing nutrients!).
• Pumpkin is a great egg substitute. It gives egg-free baked goods a wonderful moist quality, and it holds everything together so well!

I knew I had to share these AWESOME pumpkin chocolate chip muffin tops with you.  I call them muffin tops because they're almost like the thick and dense top of muffins...the part that many people eat first and love the most.

Oh, and they're also gluten-free and free of refined sugars.

I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite food allergy friendly baking cookbooks. I wish I could say they're vegan, but I did use honey in them!

Recipe
*Makes 12 muffins (I doubled the following recipe and made 24 muffins. They go fast in our house and I like to have some to freeze!)

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 and 2/3 cups oat flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 cup (or more or less!) Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips 

Liquid Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup soymilk (or ricemilk or coconut milk - any milk will do)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup agave nectar (you could probably use 1 cup honey or 1 cup agave nectar, but I chose to try half of each
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp canola oil or vegetable oil

Directions:

• Mix all the dry ingredients (a whisk or electric mixer makes it easier)
• Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well
• Spoon about 1/3 cup of the mix into greased muffin tins until you fill up the 12 tins. I greased the tins using my trusty Misto Olive Oil Sprayer.
• Temperature: Bake at 350 degrees. 
• Time: Set your oven for 27 minutes, and check to see the muffins are golden brown. My oven took about 28 minutes, but ovens do vary.
• Makes 24 muffins.

Also, I've been the guest pinner on WeGo Health's "Healthy Eating" Pinterest Board all month. I'm actually kind of sad this is my last week as I've had tons of fun! I've been actively seeking out healthy recipes and finding some great eats on Pinterest!

If you aren't following me already, please follow my Mamacado Pinterest Board for lots of food, family and fun!

Products included in the post you may like:

Gluten-free Homemade Stuffing that Tastes Like Stovetop

We had a great Thanksgiving. I hope you did too! I thought I'd share my new favorite recipe for homemade gluten-free stuffing. In my opinion it tastes very similar to Stovetop stuffing. I used a whole loaf of Schar Gluten Free Multigrain Sandwich Bread, but this can also easily be made into non-gluten-free stuffing if you use regular old wheat bread too.

What a tasty, savory side dish. It's probably my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Schar Gluten Free Multigrain Sandwich Bread(or other bread of your choice)
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup Earth Balance (dairy-free) butter
• 2 cups diced yellow onion
• 5 stalks celery
• 1 tsp dry parsley
• 1 tsp dry basil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

• Toast the Schar gluten-free bread in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or less on a cookie sheet. Flip the bread during toasting if needed.
• Cut the Schar bread into small cubes
• Saute the Earth Balance butter, onion and celery in a pan.
• Add the bread cubes and seasonings and stir
• Add the chicken broth in 1/2 cup portions until the bread cubes are moistened, but not completely saturated.
• Spoon the stuffing into an oven safe dish. At this point you can put it in the refrigerator until you're ready to cook it, or immediately put it in the oven at 350 degree until it's warmed throughout and a little crunchy on top.  


For a beautiful finishing touch, put it in a polish stonewaredish. I love my polish stoneware!
All opinions in this post are my own. This post contains Amazon affiliate links at no cost to you.

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal Bites

'Tis the season for warm and comforting recipes, especially those made with pumpkin! I've been making different forms of warm and comforting baked oatmeal for the past few months. Baked oatmeal is such an easy breakfast.  I mix everything together the night before, then the next morning I pour it in a pan and bake! This recipe for Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal Bites is one of my favorites because:

• It includes pumpkin!
• It only calls for a little bit of honey as a sweetener. No processed sugar added.
• It's made in muffin tins for nice baked oatmeal bites. Perfect portion control, great for kids to pick-up and eat, easy to freeze, and easy to transport for a breakfast on the run or a lunch box.
• It's egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free and allergy-friendly for Little Guy.
• I usually have all of these ingredients in my house, so it's an easy breakfast solution.

I made two different forms of these Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal Bites. One using gluten-free oatmeal only, and the other using half gluten-free oatmeal and half quinoa. I think we all prefer the oatmeal bites, but add quinoa too if you'd like to try a different form of protein.

Here are the ingredients I used:

• 2 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free, but you can use any oats you like) OR you can use 1 cup oats and 1 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1 cup milk (I used soymilk but any will work)
• 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flaxseed meal mixed with 3 Tbsp water) - this replaces 1 egg
• 3 Tbsp honey (or more or less depending on how sweet you like your baked oatmeal!)
• 1 tsp cinnamon*
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch salt

*It's easy to make this recipe even more pumpkin-liscous.  Just add other spices like pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg or even more cinnamon.  I was making this to please the palates of a 3 and 1 year old, so I used milder spices.

Directions:

• Mix everything together in a big bowl (I do this the night before to make it easy)
• Spray the muffin tins with oil (I use my trusty Misto Olive Oil Sprayer)
• Add oatmeal mix so it's just about even with the tops of the muffin tins
• Put in pre-heated 375 degree oven
• Bake for 25 - 30 minutes minutes, or until firm and a little brown around edges

Here are both the Pumpkin Baked Quinoa/Oat Bites and the Oat Bites only.  Both were tasty.  The quinoa bites just have a different texture and flavor than the oat bites.  I prefer the oat bites, but try them both and see what you think!

Everyone in our family enjoyed these including 1 year old Little Gal, 3 year old Little Guy and the
Hubs and me! I also love them because they're easy to freeze and pop in the microwave to reheat.



Are you a baked oatmeal fan? What's your favorite way to make/eat oatmeal?

Here's another one of my favorite ways to eat oatmeal: Vegan Overnight Oats

This smoothie would round out the pumpkin baked oatmeal bites nicely!: Green Ghostbuster Smoothie

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Healthy First Birthday Cake: Dairy-free, Egg-free and Gluten-free

A few weeks ago I wrote about Little Gals' perfect first birthday party. But I didn't write much about the yummiest part - the cake and cupcakes! Although we haven't seen signs of food allergies in Little Gal (saying prayers that we don't!), I still needed to make the cake and cupcakes gluten, egg, dairy, nut and sesame free since Little Guy has food allergies. That means no bakery made cakes!

I not only wanted to make safe cakes and cupcakes for Little Guy, but I also wanted to make a healthy first birthday cake for Little Gal. I decided to use the oat muffin recipe from Sophie-Safe Cooking to make Little Gal's healthy birthday cake. I like that the recipe focuses on oats and contains less sugar than other birthday cake recipes I've found. This recipe makes 12 small muffins, so it also fit perfectly into a 6 inch cake pan - a perfect first birthday cake size!

Little Gal's First Birthday Cake. Main ingredient: Oats!

I also used Cybele Pascal's recipe for allergy-friendly vanilla frosting and it turned out GREAT. It's thick enough to make pretty decorations and it tastes just like traditional frosting. *Sadly, Cybele's blog is no longer available! Here is another allergy friendly buttercream icing from Kids with Food Allergies that looks similar and just as easy and tasty!

Here are some other tips of how I made Little Gal's first birthday cakes and cupcakes:

1. Make a small special cake just for baby. Why? Because it's fun! Buy a 6 inch cake pan for the baby cake. I think it's fun to put a small cake in front of them rather than a cupcake or REALLY big cake. So, you have one cake (and/or cupcakes) to serve the guests and one for baby to get messy!

I used a 6 inch cake pan for baby's first birthday cake.

2. Buy a pastry bag and cake decoration kit. You can buy this at the grocery store or online. It doesn't have to be expensive, but it works much better than a Ziplock bag!

I wasn't about to decorate all this with a ziplock bag. Pastry bag to the rescue!

3. Keep it simple with the icing decorations. This is especially true if you are a novice cake baker and decorator like me! I made simple designs with my pastry bag like dots and swirls.

Keep the icing decorations simple!

4. Use fresh flowers for colorful decoration. This is especially great if you want to avoid artificial food coloring and dyes, but I still wanted a pretty cake with a little color!

5. Be creative with your "1" decoration. I used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips which are dairy-free to decorate the cake for the guests. We put a "1" candle on Little Gal's cake. I've also seen cool "1" designs with sprinkles, fruit or other safe candy.

I planned on making one big chocolate cake using Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake Mix and one oat cake for Little Gal. I was worried I didn't have enough (boy was I wrong!) so I made one more batch of cupcakes using Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix.  I made the cake in the same way as I did for my strawberry twist cake, and Little Guy's Fireman third birthday party cake.

Here are all the allergy-friendly cupcakes and cakes that are dairy-free, egg-free and gluten-free!

I was happy that someone asked me for my recipe for the chocolate cake. I had to tell her it was directly from Betty Crocker's kitchen! 

Here are some examples of the supplies I used to create the first birthday cakes and cupcakes. Hope they're useful to you!

This is NOT a sponsored post, and I was not paid to include these products. This is what I actually used for our first birthday party celebration! This post does include affiliate Amazon links. That means I may get a few cents if you buy something on Amazon from these links. Thanks for your support!