Brownies!

So today I decided to bake again. This time I went for the brownies... from scratch! I found a wonderful recipe that uses no eggs (yay), no dairy (yay), and no nuts (yay)! They turned out alright. I have to say, I love my brownies to be more fudge-like than cake-like, but these ones turned out very much so cake-like. Which is fine. I'll have to figure out how to adjust baking time & ingredients to make them more fudge-y :)

I have been doing pretty decent at eating dairy-free, though I have been eating a lot of pasta. It's been difficult trying to balance my diet without cheesy goodness. I have figured out a few foods that definitely upset my stomach (chicken nuggets), and foods that sometimes upset my stomach (tacquitos), and foods that don't upset my stomach (everything else, for the most part). It's a slow learning process-- I have to eat something at least 2 or 3 times before I determine that it is, in fact, that food that is killing me (figuratively, not literally).

I'm still looking to expand my horizons, and am still waiting for my doc to let me know that I can start on a LOW lactose diet instead of NO lactose. That will make my life easier, though it will be hard to contain myself. Today on the way home from work, I realized that I was desperately craving Mac & Cheese, which I most definitely cannot have. I have found some dairy-free recipes, but I need to find Tahini paste (sesame seed paste), which has proven to be most difficult. Though Lucya did recommend I try it with the soy cheese that I have... I might have to look into that. I wonder how soy cheese + mac would taste. I guess there's only one way to find out.

Mac and Cheese is probably the next item on my food-creation list. Looks like a trip to Whole Foods is in my near future. While I'm there, I'll be sure to look for those dairy-free chocolate chips too.

I've been feeling pretty good lately, so I thinking that the new meds plus my super restrictive diet are actually starting to work! Now if only this annoying pain in my side would disappear, everything would be perfect.

:)

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...)

:)