Learning to adapt recipes of your own:
Benefits
-Attitude boost: as you practice adapting recipes of your own, you see more clearly the poosibilities you have- all the things you can create and eat!
When I first tried to bake without wheat, dairy, eggs, or nuts, I felt very restricted, bound, and easily frustrated. Even many allergy-friendly recipe books I checked out from the library still used ingredients my daughter couldn't have. Learning the concepts behind ingredients and alternate substitution rule-of-thumbs freed me considerably. I became passionate at learning how to adapt the recipes I already had- many of my mother's sister's, Better Homes and Gardens, etc. To look at a recipe book loaded with allergens and say with my daughter-hey, we can make that!...is a rewarding and freeing feeling.
-Self-reliance: do you want to be tied to baking only with highly specialized cookbooks in front of you? Or with having to look online for specialized recipes every time you want to bake or cook? Do you want to be restricted to using only particular specialized ingredients, or have flexibility for using whatever basics you have on hand?
-Life-time learning opportunity: We feel good and are more richly blessed when we are life-time learners. What an opportunity it is to learn to adapt recipes to fit your needs!
Helpful tips for adapting recipes:
-Do not expect perfection
Maybe your muffins aren’t as fluffy as you’d like. But they have a nice flavor and texture. Isn’t that great you can make your muffins so differently than the norm and have them turn out yummy? You can experiment to try to make them fluffier. But meanwhile, enjoy what you have!
-Learn basic concepts of how ingredients work together, and learn substitution possibilities.
-Be willing to experiment
Small batches may be desirable while experimenting
Notebook. Keep a plain college-ruled spiral notebook in your cupboard or somewhere handy, with a pen. After baking with a recipe you’ve altered, record the recipe and how you change it. Rate results. I use √-, √ +, and √++. If desired,write a couple details of what you liked: flavor-wise, texture-wise, etc. Jot down what you may do differently next time(if desired). At times I have tried a recipe three different ways, in small batches, and compared results.
-Turn “flops” into successes
I used to be quite stressed and fearful about changing a recipe on my own. One reason is because I was afraid of failure. Something that eased this fear considerably was my effort to turn “flops” into successes. Most of the things that haven’t worked out so well I’ve found an alternate use for. For example: a rice-flour based pancake batter stuck to my waffle iron and came off in crumbles. I whirred it in a food processor and made fine crumbs for chicken tenders. (stored this in the freezer until I was ready to use it). Another example: I made some bread that had much stronger of a flavor than I liked. I tore it into crumbs and made meatloaf. It was actually really good meatloaf!
If something doesn’t turn out satisfactory, challenge yourself to find another use for it. This feels rewarding when you find a good use for something you first thought had failed. And then you don’t waste! : )
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Strawberry Pineapple Sorbet
I've recently experimented a bit with fruit sorbets. My grandparents treated my family to a non-dairy pina colada sorbet at the Polynesian Cultural Center that was soooo good! My daughter loved it! Great flavor, and creamy. I was inspired to try to figure out how to make something just as nice. Here's one attempt of a sorbet that we enjoyed. It was smooth and creamy and tasted like the strawberry sorbet that went by the side of the pina colada.
Strawberry sorbet with taste of pineapple
Estimated amounts- I didn't measure. You get the concept and can experiment. : ) If I had fresh/frozen peaches on hand, I would add some of them, too.
@1/2 cup coconut cream(liquid not frozen)
@2 cups frozen strawberries
1 T. Orange Juice Concentrate
3-4 cubes ripe fresh pineapple, frozen
1 1/4 c. sugar
Strawberry kiwi is a yummy sorbet flavor. I didn't record what I did last, but it was really good except the kiwis weren't thoroughly ripe, so it had a bite to it. I estimate I used about 2 cups frozen strawberries to 2 kiwis. Then added sugar.
Strawberry sorbet with taste of pineapple
Estimated amounts- I didn't measure. You get the concept and can experiment. : ) If I had fresh/frozen peaches on hand, I would add some of them, too.
@1/2 cup coconut cream(liquid not frozen)
@2 cups frozen strawberries
1 T. Orange Juice Concentrate
3-4 cubes ripe fresh pineapple, frozen
1 1/4 c. sugar
Strawberry kiwi is a yummy sorbet flavor. I didn't record what I did last, but it was really good except the kiwis weren't thoroughly ripe, so it had a bite to it. I estimate I used about 2 cups frozen strawberries to 2 kiwis. Then added sugar.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Old-fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
These cookies I rate check ++ . (My highest rating). I and the girls really enjoy them! They are really good even when they are room temperature.
As a side note, I made these cookies for my daughter to have for her church class, as the other kids were going to have cookies that day. They were wrapped, as were the other kids cookies, by my friend who was in charge of the activity. My friend wrote a little note on my daughter's cookies, saying she had made the cookies especially for the girls to be able to have them. My daughter's teacher afterward came to me and said, "there was a note saying Emily could have this, but I told her she needed to wait until I checked with her mom. They look so wheat!" Yay! That's a compliment. They look normal and taste normal! It's also a blessing that Emily has teachers who are so careful about her allergies. : )
I used a recipe from a container of Quick Oats, Ralston Foods brand. The recipe is called Family Favorite Oatmeal Cookies. The only adaptations I needed to make were to substitute the wheat flour with half oat/half rice flour, and to substitute the eggs. Shortening was called for in the original recipe, so no substitution for dairy was needed.
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar*
Substitute for 2 eggs- I used 4 T. applesauce and 1 T. flaxmeal mixed with 3 T. cool water,then added 1 tsp. baking powder to the dry ingredients.
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup oat flour**
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups Quick or Old Fashioned Oats
raisins(or dairy-free chocolate chips)
Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add egg substitute and vanilla. In separate bowl, combine flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder(if substituting for egg), and salt. Then add to the sugar mixer. Add oats, then raisins or chocolate chips last. Bake 350 10-12 minutes. Let stand until firm enough to move to racks; maybe 5 min.
Note: You can first cook a single cookie onto a sheet to check for consistency. Then you can add more liquid or more flour as needed. (Careful-small amounts make a big difference)
* I actually don't have brown sugar in stock in my house right now, I've just been adding a bit of molasses to the recipe when I want brown sugar. I added probably 1 tsp. molasses to this recipe, and just used 2 cups sugar.
**grind old fashioned rolled oats or quick oats in a blender (not instant oatmeal)
As a side note, I made these cookies for my daughter to have for her church class, as the other kids were going to have cookies that day. They were wrapped, as were the other kids cookies, by my friend who was in charge of the activity. My friend wrote a little note on my daughter's cookies, saying she had made the cookies especially for the girls to be able to have them. My daughter's teacher afterward came to me and said, "there was a note saying Emily could have this, but I told her she needed to wait until I checked with her mom. They look so wheat!" Yay! That's a compliment. They look normal and taste normal! It's also a blessing that Emily has teachers who are so careful about her allergies. : )
I used a recipe from a container of Quick Oats, Ralston Foods brand. The recipe is called Family Favorite Oatmeal Cookies. The only adaptations I needed to make were to substitute the wheat flour with half oat/half rice flour, and to substitute the eggs. Shortening was called for in the original recipe, so no substitution for dairy was needed.
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar*
Substitute for 2 eggs- I used 4 T. applesauce and 1 T. flaxmeal mixed with 3 T. cool water,then added 1 tsp. baking powder to the dry ingredients.
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup oat flour**
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups Quick or Old Fashioned Oats
raisins(or dairy-free chocolate chips)
Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add egg substitute and vanilla. In separate bowl, combine flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder(if substituting for egg), and salt. Then add to the sugar mixer. Add oats, then raisins or chocolate chips last. Bake 350 10-12 minutes. Let stand until firm enough to move to racks; maybe 5 min.
Note: You can first cook a single cookie onto a sheet to check for consistency. Then you can add more liquid or more flour as needed. (Careful-small amounts make a big difference)
* I actually don't have brown sugar in stock in my house right now, I've just been adding a bit of molasses to the recipe when I want brown sugar. I added probably 1 tsp. molasses to this recipe, and just used 2 cups sugar.
**grind old fashioned rolled oats or quick oats in a blender (not instant oatmeal)
Our family's Thanksgiving Meal
Ok, this is a funny time for posting about Thanksgiving, but I thought I ought to follow up the last post with what I ended up fixing for the holiday. It turned out very well- relatively simple, filling, and good.
I prepared the day before a coconut chocolate pie(see another post) and also tried a sweet potato pie, using my mom's pumpkin pie recipe and just substituting coconut milk for evaporated milk, sweet potato puree for pumpkin(just cause I had a bunch of sweet potatoes in the house I had gotten on a really good sale), and I'm thinking I may have substituted gelatin for the eggs(see egg substitution). The crust was a pat-in-the pan experiment, where I substituted oat flour for wheat flour. You can look for a pat in the pan pie crust recipe and then substitute the things you need to. I think my recipe was basically just oat flour and shortening. It turned out, though it is much more rich than I'm used to (I grew up on low-fat, whole wheat pie crusts). The pies were good, but after the yummy and filling meal, I was thinking, why do we even have dessert? Of course, some may not ever wonder that : )
The meal ended up including: a turkey, which I just rubbed some seasonings on and let bake while we were out hiking. Mashed potatoes, which, instead of adding butter/milk/ and that sort of thing, I added some coconut cream(I keep little ice cubes of it in the freezer). I used some of the potato water the potatoes cooked in when I whipped the potatoes, too- just to get a good consistency.
The gravy turned out really flavorful- really, it was the best dairy-free gravy I had made before. My sister was impressed at how good it could be. It was made from some of the turkey drippings, some drippings from a steak my husband had recently cooked with onions and soy sauce/and/or worcestershire sauce), and some vegetable water I had saved in the freezer. (Sorry I have no recipe, but you can get the hang of the concepts. Vegetable water makes more flavorful gravy than plain water. So when you boil potatoes, or steam or blanch broccoli, or boil drumsticks, save the water and freeze in containers. You can also make chicken/beef/or vegetable broth/stock in large batches and freeze that. I think I've done that once; I just find it convenient to save vegetable water or meat drippings when I have them as a part of my cooking meals. When I have flavorful meat drippings, I sometimes pour them into a glass jar in the fridge, scrape off the fat when it's solidified, and then freeze the drippings for later use.
Back to the meal- so, turkey, gravy, potatoes, green beans, I think I had, and that's all I remember. I may have add apple slices or something. But, we all really enjoyed it and filled ourselves, so that we had to wait until later for dessert.
This was my first Thanksgiving meal that was made without any of my girls' allergens in it. It was neat to see how we could have a meal that everyone really enjoyed, without using dairy, wheat, eggs, or nuts! Of course, at the times our family joins with many other family members, we expect to just bring separate food for the girls. But when we have our own small family gatherings, we know we can prepare the food so we all can enjoy it all!
I prepared the day before a coconut chocolate pie(see another post) and also tried a sweet potato pie, using my mom's pumpkin pie recipe and just substituting coconut milk for evaporated milk, sweet potato puree for pumpkin(just cause I had a bunch of sweet potatoes in the house I had gotten on a really good sale), and I'm thinking I may have substituted gelatin for the eggs(see egg substitution). The crust was a pat-in-the pan experiment, where I substituted oat flour for wheat flour. You can look for a pat in the pan pie crust recipe and then substitute the things you need to. I think my recipe was basically just oat flour and shortening. It turned out, though it is much more rich than I'm used to (I grew up on low-fat, whole wheat pie crusts). The pies were good, but after the yummy and filling meal, I was thinking, why do we even have dessert? Of course, some may not ever wonder that : )
The meal ended up including: a turkey, which I just rubbed some seasonings on and let bake while we were out hiking. Mashed potatoes, which, instead of adding butter/milk/ and that sort of thing, I added some coconut cream(I keep little ice cubes of it in the freezer). I used some of the potato water the potatoes cooked in when I whipped the potatoes, too- just to get a good consistency.
The gravy turned out really flavorful- really, it was the best dairy-free gravy I had made before. My sister was impressed at how good it could be. It was made from some of the turkey drippings, some drippings from a steak my husband had recently cooked with onions and soy sauce/and/or worcestershire sauce), and some vegetable water I had saved in the freezer. (Sorry I have no recipe, but you can get the hang of the concepts. Vegetable water makes more flavorful gravy than plain water. So when you boil potatoes, or steam or blanch broccoli, or boil drumsticks, save the water and freeze in containers. You can also make chicken/beef/or vegetable broth/stock in large batches and freeze that. I think I've done that once; I just find it convenient to save vegetable water or meat drippings when I have them as a part of my cooking meals. When I have flavorful meat drippings, I sometimes pour them into a glass jar in the fridge, scrape off the fat when it's solidified, and then freeze the drippings for later use.
Back to the meal- so, turkey, gravy, potatoes, green beans, I think I had, and that's all I remember. I may have add apple slices or something. But, we all really enjoyed it and filled ourselves, so that we had to wait until later for dessert.
This was my first Thanksgiving meal that was made without any of my girls' allergens in it. It was neat to see how we could have a meal that everyone really enjoyed, without using dairy, wheat, eggs, or nuts! Of course, at the times our family joins with many other family members, we expect to just bring separate food for the girls. But when we have our own small family gatherings, we know we can prepare the food so we all can enjoy it all!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thanksgiving meal ideas
Check out LivingWithout.com for Thanksgiving ideas. Sometime I'm going to try out their pumpkin-coconut pie, or make my own variation. Sounds good to me!
For my Thanksgiving meal, I plan to make it nice and basic- Turkey, just rubbed with spices from home and baked. The gravy for the turkey I will make with dairy for those of us who can have, because my girls just haven't been interested in gravy anyway, even when I make it so they can have it. They'd rather just have season-all, or soy sauce or barbecue or ketchup. : ) In addition to turkey, I'll fix mashed potatoes, with either oil and salt added or maybe a bit of coconut cream. Green beans. A baked sweet potato for the girls(baked in the microwave - I like simple baked sweet potatoes much better than sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar). I'm doing an experiment to see if it's worth having stuffing this year- my husband and daughters aren't stuffing fans anyway, just me). I have crumbs from a gluten-free bread I made and didn't like very well, and I'm soaking just a few crumbs in some seasoned meat juice from cooking chicken thighs. I'll try a couple bites and see how flavors mesh. I have a chocolate coconut pie recipe on this blog, which I'll make again this year. I might try making some oat-rice rolls from my favorite yeast bread recipe. I think I'll either have fresh apple slices or a simple juice mixed from concentrate. Wouldn't cranberry-raspberry go well with the meal? So that's my Thanksgiving meal! And maybe one pumpkin-coconut pie as well. I really like simplicity. Especially so I can enjoy more time with my family. And have less stress so I can feel more grateful for my family and my other blessings!
Now I'm reading through the list, and it doesn't sound so simple if I do all of it! : ) Hmmm...
I know there are a lot of things I can do ahead of time. And I really don't need to mess with the stuffing, or the rolls, or the pumpkin pie if I don't think it's worth the stress and time away from my family...(my husband and kids aren't pumpkin pie fans anyway, and chocolate really can suit everyone just fine- the pumpkin pie is more for me if I make it). And who says you need stuffing and rolls in a meal where you already have potatoes and sweet potatoes? Talk about duplication of complex carbs! : ) I do want the meal to be special in some way, though.
For my Thanksgiving meal, I plan to make it nice and basic- Turkey, just rubbed with spices from home and baked. The gravy for the turkey I will make with dairy for those of us who can have, because my girls just haven't been interested in gravy anyway, even when I make it so they can have it. They'd rather just have season-all, or soy sauce or barbecue or ketchup. : ) In addition to turkey, I'll fix mashed potatoes, with either oil and salt added or maybe a bit of coconut cream. Green beans. A baked sweet potato for the girls(baked in the microwave - I like simple baked sweet potatoes much better than sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar). I'm doing an experiment to see if it's worth having stuffing this year- my husband and daughters aren't stuffing fans anyway, just me). I have crumbs from a gluten-free bread I made and didn't like very well, and I'm soaking just a few crumbs in some seasoned meat juice from cooking chicken thighs. I'll try a couple bites and see how flavors mesh. I have a chocolate coconut pie recipe on this blog, which I'll make again this year. I might try making some oat-rice rolls from my favorite yeast bread recipe. I think I'll either have fresh apple slices or a simple juice mixed from concentrate. Wouldn't cranberry-raspberry go well with the meal? So that's my Thanksgiving meal! And maybe one pumpkin-coconut pie as well. I really like simplicity. Especially so I can enjoy more time with my family. And have less stress so I can feel more grateful for my family and my other blessings!
Now I'm reading through the list, and it doesn't sound so simple if I do all of it! : ) Hmmm...
I know there are a lot of things I can do ahead of time. And I really don't need to mess with the stuffing, or the rolls, or the pumpkin pie if I don't think it's worth the stress and time away from my family...(my husband and kids aren't pumpkin pie fans anyway, and chocolate really can suit everyone just fine- the pumpkin pie is more for me if I make it). And who says you need stuffing and rolls in a meal where you already have potatoes and sweet potatoes? Talk about duplication of complex carbs! : ) I do want the meal to be special in some way, though.
Homemade Popsicles
We enjoy having homemade popsicles stocked in our freezer. I don't care to buy popsicles from the store. At home, I can decide what goes in. When I have bought even popsicles that were whole fruit and all natural at the store, there was still more sugar than I care for. Besides, it can be much more cost effective to make popsicles at home, and more convenient if you've found a way of keeping your own freezer and pantry stocked with produce and food you payed a good price for. OK, even if you didn't get a sale price for your fruit, you still will probably come ahead over the cost of purchased whole fruit popsicles. (The water, sugar, food coloring ones of course are cheaper).
We enjoy popsicles made from fruit. Keeping popsicles in stock has been quite convenient- if we make smoothies often, I just fill up the popsicle molds with leftovers. Sometimes I may only have two popsicles worth, but that's okay, next smoothie I may have a couple more popsicles-worth. Then we get to choose between two or three flavors when we get out the popsicles.
Popsicle ideas:
-smoothie leftovers
-make smoothie solely for purpose of making popsicles
(I make it a little stronger than I would for a smoothie-more fruit or juice conc to water)
-mix juice from concentrate, and have it a bit stronger than you would for drinking
-freeze homemade pudding(we make coconut pudding)
We enjoy popsicles made from fruit. Keeping popsicles in stock has been quite convenient- if we make smoothies often, I just fill up the popsicle molds with leftovers. Sometimes I may only have two popsicles worth, but that's okay, next smoothie I may have a couple more popsicles-worth. Then we get to choose between two or three flavors when we get out the popsicles.
Popsicle ideas:
-smoothie leftovers
-make smoothie solely for purpose of making popsicles
(I make it a little stronger than I would for a smoothie-more fruit or juice conc to water)
-mix juice from concentrate, and have it a bit stronger than you would for drinking
-freeze homemade pudding(we make coconut pudding)
Creating smoothies
Smoothies are something very adaptable to your own ideas and whatever you have on hand. I don't follow recipes when I make a smoothie, I just look at what I have in my freezer, think of what type of smoothie might go well with the meal(or what smoothie sounds good if it's a snack), and throw things together. I like to ask my 4 yr old if she'd like to help. She enjoys thinking of what to put in. I have listened to her ideas, and helped her with amounts, and she's made a couple of really good smoothies! Yes, one time there was something that I didn't think would go and I mentioned this to her, and she was fine with that. It's fun to see she likes to create in the kitchen.
Here is a smoothie she helped make that I really, really liked. Amounts are estimated.
Apple raspberry juice concentrate(1/2 cup)
water(add to desired consistency and taste)* maybe try 1/2 cup
Peaches, frozen(3/4 cup)
Blueberries, frozen(1/2 cup)
Pineapple(1/2 cup fresh)
You could add pineapple juice if you don't have fresh pineapple
sugar(1/8-1/4 cup)
When I make smoothies, I blend proportions together that look good, then look at consistency and taste test the smoothie. I then know whether to add more water, or more of a certain fruit, etc.
If you make a large batch of smoothie, you may get to freeze leftovers into popsicle molds. Sometimes we have just enough for two or three popsicles, but if we've been enjoying smoothies often, we have two or three kinds of popsicles to choose from when we get out our popsicle mold.
Here is a smoothie she helped make that I really, really liked. Amounts are estimated.
Apple raspberry juice concentrate(1/2 cup)
water(add to desired consistency and taste)* maybe try 1/2 cup
Peaches, frozen(3/4 cup)
Blueberries, frozen(1/2 cup)
Pineapple(1/2 cup fresh)
You could add pineapple juice if you don't have fresh pineapple
sugar(1/8-1/4 cup)
When I make smoothies, I blend proportions together that look good, then look at consistency and taste test the smoothie. I then know whether to add more water, or more of a certain fruit, etc.
If you make a large batch of smoothie, you may get to freeze leftovers into popsicle molds. Sometimes we have just enough for two or three popsicles, but if we've been enjoying smoothies often, we have two or three kinds of popsicles to choose from when we get out our popsicle mold.
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