You are my Sunshine my Only Sunshine "Burger"

One of the things that was saddest for me next to giving up cheese 100% was eliminating those delicious Morning Star Farms Veggie Burgers (Primarily made from Soy). I tried the Bahama Burger -The first Rice Based Meat Alternative, it was juicy and delicious, perfect for barbecuing but boy was that sucker large! I needed a nice conventional Allergy Free veggie burger that was reasonable in size for my small frame!(No offense Bahama Burger your products are truly delicious) Besides who doesn't want many choices? I had my lovely Quorn choices (http://www.quorn.com/) which have 3 alternatives for me. The lovely bahama burger which also have 7 alternatives. (http://www.bahamariceburger.com/) But seeing as I'm American I want choices up the waazoo!
One day while on the phone with my dad he asked me why I didn't eat Sunshine Burgers? And I go...ummm probably because they aren't allergy free? And he was like what are you talking about? You can eat them, they are delicious and affordable.
I then immediately went to my closest Whole Foods Market to see if it was true.
I walked down the aisle and the golden lights shined on this masterpiece....oh and the choices in flavors!!!!
Breakfast, Falafel (really who doesn't LOVE falafel????), Southwest, Garden Herb, Barbecue and Original. After seeing these myriad of flavors I noticed they were on sale and USDA Organic, gluten free/wheat free, soy free. Oh my Goodness, oh my goodness. :-)
You may ask yourself :"Canella is there anything you DON'T like?" to which I say "Oh you have no idea, there are plenty of foods I don't like but I choose to focus on the positive and delicious foods and for you to realize there ARE an array of foods for you to eat and life as a foodie isn't over. If you weren't a foodie before I hope to turn you into one with the recipes I post and the product reviews of items that are available in large chain supermarkets".
Barbecue season is over but it doesn't mean you can't plug in your george foreman grill or cast iron stove top grill and enjoy one of these tasty burgers.
http://www.sunshineburger.com/our-products/

Pumpkin Pie (w/Spelt or Gluten Free Crust)

I picked up a magazine at my local Stop n Shop entitled "Living Without"- The magazine for people with allergies and food sensitivities.
There are some good recipes, it's a good magazine if you are a meat eater but are gluten free. I am not gluten free as many of you know and I'm a vegetarian but I can substitute spelt in these recipes since most gluten free flour mixes contain potato starch to which I have a sensitivity to.....(white potatoes).
Soon I'll start experimenting with my own flour mixes like garbanzo bean, guar gum, quinoa...etc

Now back to the recipe....I made this Pumpkin Pie that makes it's own crust when it bakes....I tried it with spelt flour instead of gluten free flour Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour, 22-Ounce Packages (Pack of 4).
The self forming crust came out OK....next time I will try it with the gluten free flour to see if it comes out better. The pie tastes fantastic and is great to make for Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Here is the recipe that I used:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (next time I will use fresh pumpkin)
1 Cup of Vanilla Almond Milk(You can use any sort of milk really) Almond Breeze, Vanilla, 32 oz.
2 tablespoons of melted earth balance buttery spread
3 tablespoons of spiced apple cider(Or bourbon)
1 tablespoon of lemon juice (I used fresh squeezed lemon)
2 tablespoons of Spelt flour (The original recipe calls for gluten free all-purpose flour blend)
Or make your own flour blend ( 1/2 cup of rice flour, 1/4 cup of tapioca starch/flour, 1/4 cup of cornstarch or potato starch)
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Dark Brown Sugar, 
1/4 cup of sugar
2 large eggs or flax gel
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

Preheat oven to 450
Grease a 10 inch or 9 inch pie pan
- Mix together liquid ingredients in one bowl and in a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients.
-Slowly pour dry ingredients into liquid and beat until completely combined.
-pour batter into prepared pie pan, leaving about a 1/2 inch between batter and rim of pan.
-Place pie in preheated oven for 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 375 and bake for 30 minutes more.

Each slice contains 169 calories for you counters out there.

Here are my pics....I added aluminum foil to the pie pan as my pans are used to actually bake crust and I didn't want the batter to fall through the perforations in the pan. Cut a slice and add a scoop of Coconut ice cream and some rice whip.

The taste is out of this world....I will try the same recipe with sweet potatoes and see how that comes out.

Mmmmm Mmmmmm Good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMJtLP8jMWQ
Sing it Campbell's!!!

Spelt Banana Bread

Went to Trader Joe's recently for well...none other than Food Shopping. :-)
Decided to pick up some bananas so that I can put that 2lb bag of spelt flour to use.

My mom and little bro decided to come over for the weekend for R&R consisting of Dexter re-runs and apple picking so I wanted to make them this special treat.

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup of Earth Balance Soy Free melted butter spread
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 Egg (Beaten or Flaxseed gel if you are vegan and/or allergic to eggs)
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of aluminum free backing soda Bob's Red Mill Aluminum Free Baking Soda 16 oz Pkg
Pinch of salt
 1 1/2 cups of white spelt flour (whole spelt is fine as well or do a mixture of quinoa flour and gluten free flour if you are gluten sensitive) Bob's Red Mill Organic Quinoa Flour, 22-Ounce Packages (Pack of 4)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix earth balance into the mashed bananas with a wooden spoon. Mix the sugar, egg (or flax gel) and vanilla extract. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and fold in. Add the flour and mix. Pour the mixture into a "buttered" 4x8 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool on a wire rack and serve plain or with a smat of earth balance for more buttery flavor.

This was an absolute hit with my family. It's a versatile loaf of bread you can have for Breakfast, Snack or a Dessert with some coconut non-dairy ice cream or rice whip! Go wild and have both!

Curried Sweet Potato Mash with Peas

So I've finally done it. I changed my dad's Curried Potatoes and Peas recipe by adding mashed sweet potatoes in place of Red Potatoes and/or Purple Potatoes.

The contrast with the sweet and spicy is fantastic and puts your taste buds into overload.

Here is the recipe:

5 small sweet potatoes, peel and cut into cubes
1 package of frozen peas
4 tablespoons of curry powder
2 tablespoons of Earth Balance soy free non-dairy spread
1/4 cup of Unsweetened Mimic Creme
Salt & Pepper to taste

Boil the sweet potatoes for 30 minutes so they become nice and soft, but do not over cook!
In a frying pan or wok, heat earth balance spread until it starts to bubble
Add curry powder and saute for 1 minute
add mimic Creme and stir to combine
add sweet potatoes and mix and cook....watch the sweet potatoes practically mash themselves as you stir.
Cook until sauce is hot and starts to thicken slightly and make sure to coat the potatoes fully with the sauce.
Add peas and cook until everything is heated.
Add salt and pepper and serve with your protein of choice. In my case it was the Quorn Chik'n tenders sauteed in extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, thyme and basil.

MMmmmmmmmmmmm
Here are some pics!

Spelt Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast Buns

I decided to try a new but simple recipe for breakfast this morning, Cinnamon/Vanilla French Toast.
I pulled out my berlin natural bakery spelt burger buns because I'm not a big veggie burger eater and want to use these up since barbecue season is over.

I then concoct the following mixture:
2 large eggs (Egg substitute is fine like flaxseed gel for those allergic to eggs)
1/2 cup of vanilla almond milk
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract (no alcohol content)
pinch of salt
Spelt Burger Buns
Maple Syrup and/or Cinnamon Sugar as a topping (I used Agave Maple Syrup and a sprinkle of Cinnamon Sugar)
Throw in some fresh fruit too for an added healthy treat!
This french toast was to die for....really........ granted I'm the only taste tester, but try them for yourself and let me know what you think!

Soyatoo but NO SOY?

Upon doing my monthly Whole Foods supermarket run and searching for Daiya Non-Dairy Cheese I came across this great allergy free product called "Rice Whip" made by the company "SoyaToo" that seems to specialize in soy based products.

It seems to me that a growing number of people are sensitive or allergic to soy that even the soy companies are coming up with soy alternatives! :-)

This of course makes me happy since soy gives me a hellish tummy ache.

I tried this Rice Whip on top of some Rice based ice cream and spelt angel food cake, ready for a treat after dinner.
What can I say? It tastes just like how I thought Rice Whip would taste. It's OK....it'll do........I'm sure the soy whip is better but I won't dare find out..........   :-)
Perhaps if they made the whip out of Tapioca? Maybe I should try to make it myself and post it here.

Anyway I will give the company credit as it isn't half bad and as a substitute certainly doable/acceptable and nice in a cup of coffee with amaretto flavor. This Halloween I'm sure it will go great on top of a slice of homemade spelt pumpkin pie.

Here is the website to check out their products:

Vegan Essentials
http://www.soyatoo.de/en/?home

Allergy Free Spelt Pizza

About a week ago I made a delicious Spelt Veggie Pizza with Daiya Cheese.
I received my crust from Berlin Bakery
http://www.berlinnaturalbakery.com/
& the Daiya Mozarella from Whole Foods
http://www.daiyafoods.com/products/madewith.html

Since my husband Adam has been such a good sport eating non-dairy cheese and spelt pizza's with me, I decided to make him his own wheat pizza with real Mozarella. :-)
Here is the result:

I added my own homemade sauce (I'll include that recipe in another blog post), I rubbed olive oil on the wheat dough and chopped up broccoli, orange peppers, yellow peppers, fresh basil(from our basil plant) and spinach topped off with chopped garlic for that extra yummy kick!

Now back to my nice allergy free pizza: You know the reason you are actually reading this blog? :-)
I rubbed extra virgin olive oil and garlic on my delicious spelt crust from berlin.
I then sprinkled the chopped broccoli, yellow and orange peppers, fresh basil and fresh baby spinach.

This was followed by a half a bag of Daiya Mozarella and my special pasta/pizza sauce. Honestly I feel that the sauce makes the pizza but the way this spelt crust comes out will put any wheat pizza to shame.
Now my husband never eats the actual wheat crust from his pizza but anytime I have made him one of my special spelt pizza's he always eats the crust.
Food for thought huh?
Here are the rest of the pictures from my pizza feast!

There is just something about putting the sauce on top of the "cheese" that makes eating this pizza and any pizza really fun and exciting!

Back in my "Wheat" eating days, I would never actually order veggie pizza's because of the overwhelming taste of the green and red peppers amongst other things, it just didn't taste like the pizza from my childhood.
Using yellow and orange peppers which have a nice sweet taste to them (they don't over power the pizza goodness) make this particular pizza yummy. None of the ingredients are overpowering  and you can really identify each ingredient used (except perhaps some items from my pizza sauce).
I feel that rubbing the dough (fresh or store bought) with extra virgin olive oil and fresh crushed garlic put that extra "love" that goes into the dishes of famous cooks/chefs or just reminiscing about Grandma's food or Mom's food.
With my husband being part Italian, it's really important for me to make a good pizza and he is perfectly happy with eating all my allergy free meals. If anything it has made me a better cook.