Month: December 2011

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Allergy Friendly Gift Basket…a pictoblog!

Anu Rao

This is truly the most wonderful time of the year and the happiest season of all :-)Wishing everyone a joyous and safe holiday season from Allergy Foodie. This year was specially precious because I had an awesome time making Allergy Foodie gift baskets consisting of simple AF (Allergy Friendly) goodies! Organic, wholesome, nutritious and flavored with spices and herbs – perfect way to warm up a cold winter evening…

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds: Organic raw green pumpkin seeds, fresh lemon juice, chilli powder, salt with a dash of dark brown sugar!

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

 

Granola Fruit and Seed Bars: Old fashioned oats, organic pumpkin seeds, organic quinoa, organic dark brown sugar, organic local honey, organic dried fruits (dates, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries)

 
Sugar  Cookies: Cherrybrook Sugar Cookie Mix beautifully decorated by my little one 🙂
Sugar Cookies
 

Biscotti: Organic Rice Flour, Bean Flour, Herbs and Earth Balance Butter substitute.

Biscotti bursting with flavors.

Hot chocolate mix: Unsweetened pure cocoa powder, dairy-free chocolate chips, sugar with a hint of cinnamon and chilli powder to make it truly gourmet 🙂 Packaged with egg-free Marshmallows – cold winter evenings beckon…

And, finally the Allergy Friendly gift basket…

Recipes

AF Rice and Mung Bean Khichri

Anu Rao

Moving forward from my previous post ‘AF Mashed Potatoes with a twist…‘, this rice and mung bean dish tastes particularly good on a cold winter evening. Soul-satisfying, nutritious, packed with flavor and above all AF – Allergy Friendly. ‘Khichri’ has been a part of Indian cuisine for over 700 years – whoa! 

Since, I just could not come up with a name for the dish in English that would reflect the true nature of the dish – I threw it out as a question to my Facebook friends.  So, this post is an ode to all the fun names they came up with…Niv, a most creative food blogger of Panfusine came up with ‘Kedgeree’, the British dish that traces its roots back to the India Khichri and uses fish and rice. Mohita, my high school pal, names it ‘Rictle’ – Rice + Lentil, dear Indu called it the ‘Rice Porridge’, my cherished undergrad friend Helen wondered if ‘Rice Polenta’ should be the way to go and Kamy coined a real cool name – the ‘Indypot’ or Indian hot pot 🙂 Finally, decided to stick with the original name as suggested by the guys. They made school a barrel of fun but stuck to tradition when it came to dish-naming – Navin, a grad school pal and Vivek, an undergrad friend 🙂 Thanks all – given the various names, even a first-time taster can hazard a guess as to what the dish is going to taste like…

Continue reading “AF Rice and Mung Bean Khichri” →

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AF Mashed Potatoes with a twist…

Anu Rao

Recently, I was reading an article about American Chefs having discovered Mustard Oil as a finishing oil in salads. It was a deja vu moment as it transported me to a time when I was a kid and used to love a dish hugely popular in Eastern India called ‘Aloo ka Chaukha’ which literally translates into ‘Potato Mash’ – go figure 🙂

If mustard oil is a heretofore unheard of ingredient, refer to my previous post – ‘Mustard Seeds, Mustard Oil and more…‘

Here goes…mashed potatoes aka ‘aloo ka chaukha’. Listening to one of my favorite Holiday classics, Santa Baby , Taylor Swift’s version as I whip up this delectable dish – perfect countdown to my son’s favorite day of the year 🙂 

Continue reading “AF Mashed Potatoes with a twist…” →

Ingredient

Mustard Seeds, Mustard Oil and more…

Anu Rao

Since many of my Allergy Friendly recipes use a medley of spices, I figured that knowing a tad bit more about them would make first-time users less trepiditious.  The idea took seed when Susan, an awesome mom and the blogger behind ‘Food Allergy Chronicles’ mentioned the fact that I use a huge variety of spices in my dishes – so, thanks Susan 🙂

Spices and condiments enhance the flavor of a dish but are almost always entirely optional. A quick note about the difference between ‘spices’ and condiments’ -usually spices are used to season a dish during the process of cooking for e.g. cinnamon in baking whereas condiments are used at the table to suit individual tastes like ketchup. Also, spices are oftentimes a part of a plant/tree like seeds, bark, fruit for e.g mustard seeds or nutmeg while condiments are prepared concoctions like mustard that is made from mustard seeds.

Continue reading “Mustard Seeds, Mustard Oil and more…” →

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AF Cucumber Spice Cake

Anu Rao

I do use the term ‘AF’ a lot in my posts, ain’t it?! Well, it is my abbreviation for ‘Allergy Friendly’ or Arjun (my son’s name) Friendly. It also happens to be the initials for Allergy Foodie – the name of this blog. So, I figured that if EVOO could stand for Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Rachel Ray, AF could work for Anu Rao 😉
  
Now that we are on the same ‘AF’ page, I will move on to the cucumber spice cake…it has a slighltly dense texture much like a zucchini bread but even better because the high-protein flour-blend makes this an extremely nutritious cake – just right for the holiday season and the cold winter months. Furthermore, the mild spicy taste and grated cucumber gives it a fresh feel and unique twist!
 
Here is to a soul nourshing slice of Cucumber Spice Cake:
 
 
  • Prep time: 30 minutes
  • Cook time: 35 minutes
  • Servings: 16

Continue reading “AF Cucumber Spice Cake” →

Recipes

Allergy Friendly Mini Savory Bean Pie

Anu Rao

Taking off from my previous post on Allergy Friendly Mini Coconut Pie…the inspiration for this savory pie also traces its roots to a Southern Indian dish, modak, traditionally made during the festive season. What I absolutely drool over in this recipe is – it so totally answers my constant search for tasty, nutritious and gourmet alternatives. This pie recipe is free of all the top 8 food allergens including soy and wheat but still packs an energetic vegetarian protein punch.

The making of Allergy Friendly (AF) Mini Savory Bean Pie…

Continue reading “Allergy Friendly Mini Savory Bean Pie” →

Recipes

Allergy Friendly Mini Coconut Pie

Anu Rao

 A couple of days back, my friend Bhanu and I were brainstorming over a cup of warm green tea laced with honey. The goal – a unique pie recipe for the vegan pie contest organized by Earth Balance. Now, when a couple of rule-breaking bum-chums think – fun results emerge: and this time it was a new twist on a Southern Indian fav! So, the crust is made from rice flour. It also takes the unique aprroach of steaming the pie as against the traditional baking…go figure 😉
 
 On the way to Allergy Friendly Mini Coconut Pie…
Useful Links & Articles

Interview with Circle of Moms…

Anu Rao

Today is such an exciting day at Allergy Foodie 🙂 I got the wonderful opportunity to take part in  Circle of Moms’s (a network of 6 million mothers) online interview as a reward for coming in 2nd in their search for the ‘Top 25 Food Allergy Mom Blogs’.  ‘Circle of Moms’ also gave the blog a badge that you see in the top right hand corner of this page proclaiming Allergy Foodie as one of the ‘Top 25 Food Allergy Mom Blogs’ – the perfect Christmas gift 🙂 Thanks again to so many of you who voted over such an extended period else this blog would not have seen such a glorious day. Here is a glimpse of how the interview went…

Continue reading “Interview with Circle of Moms…” →