More Delicious Food-age

The other day, I went off to the grocery store (Trader Joe's) in search of food/ingredients that I can have. The most disappointing non-find was dairy-free chocolate chips. Who would have thought that you can't find them ANYWHERE? I searched high & low at Trader Joe's, Target, and Ralphs! Looks like I'll have to head over to Whole Foods for a search there. The most exciting find was a brownie mix that was DAIRY free, SOY free, GLUTEN free, EGG free, and NUT free. Wow. Who would have thought? I can eat them, Bridget can eat them (since they have no soy), Stephanie can eat them (since they have no gluten), and the whole world can eat them! (or something like that). So Bridget & I determined that we will buy & bake them once all the Nomads are back from tour!

While at Target, searching for dairy-free chocolate chips, I also discovered something pretty sweet (literally and figuratively). Dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free chocolate chip cookie mix AND brownie mix... made by some company in conjunction with Arthur! (remember that friendly little animated aardvark & his animal friends from when you were a small child?) So I spent part of this week making them!

The brownies were surprisingly stellar! They were a bit dry, but I don't think I added as much water as I was supposed to. The brownies were still very delicious and gone within 24 hours of being baked :) I even made them in the heart-shaped pan that Lindsay had left at our house, seeing as we are pretty low on baking-pans... Fun times.

I've also made a lot of grilled cheese with the lovely fake cheddar tasting soy cheese that I have been having to eat. It's actually not as bad as I first thought- maybe I'm just getting used to it. I think the hardest part is knowing that I could have real cheese if I really wanted to. It wouldn't kill me, just make me feel pretty sick. But I don't really want to go there, so I'll stick to my soy cheese.

This morning, I decided to try something very daring-- something that I have not been able to enjoy since I discovered my body's dislike of egg... a Breakfast Burrito. Granted, it wasn't from Chile Works (the best burrito place in the WORLD), but it was from Fantastic Cafe, which is probably the second best burrito place in the world (or so I've heard. I can't really compare the 2 anymore). Soooo I ordered my burrito with NO egg, NO cheese, and BACON. It was pretty delicious, but gave me pretty bad heartburn for a good part of the day. Worth it? Maybe. I'm still convinced it would have been better with cheese.

I'm going to have to go out and buy myself some shredded soy cheese to carry around with me & add to things... like breakfast burritos, tacos, etc. Perhaps I'll take care of that at some point.

This afternoon after work, I picked up my new meds, which are supposed to make me start feeling better in about 2 weeks. Yay!? Hopefully that will all go well & I'll be able to try some cheese again... When I got home, I decided it was time to try out some new recipes. So I pulled out the Arthur cookies, and mixed those up, as well as a brand new thing that I have never, ever made before... BAGELS. From scratch. With no dairy & no egg (I think that might be how bagels are normally, but who really knows).

The cookies turned out alright- I think I'll have to try to make some from scratch. They have an interesting taste to them, maybe like too much vanilla or something (who really knows... I'm bad at tasting ingredients, just good at enjoying the final product).

I'm currently waiting for the bagel dough to rise so that I can finish making/baking those. They are probably the thing that I am most excited about trying, with a close second being egg-free, dairy-free pancakes (which I also have a recipe for).

Wish me luck... I'm off to be a chef! (or something like that...)

:)