Allergen Wash Laundry Detergent

I wanted to blog about this detergent that I have been using pretty regularly for towels, sheets, and pillow cases.  It has really helped with my younger one who is 4+ for dust and dust mites.  If you are looking for a detergent so that you do not have to regularly use hot hot water temperatures for the wash in order to kill the dust mites, then check this one out.

Link to the Allergen Wash Laundry Detergent

Allergy Friendly Natural Candy

I just received my order from the natural candy store online (http://www.naturalcandystore.com).  It was like Christmas at my house.  The girls, especially my younger one who has a soy sensitivity, went crazy when she and my older daughter opened the box.  It took a while to get the order, but it was worth it.  They had actually forgotten that we ordered the assortment of candy, but were extremely pleased to see the contents.  The girls and I ordered gummy bears, gummy worms, cotton candy, chocolate candy bars, and chocolate gold coins.  The Enjoy Life chocolate bars can also be purchased at Whole Foods.  Both my girls love the chocolate. 

I ordered a couple of the chocolate sprinkles because the ones at the grocery have soy.  The only cupcake toppings that don't are the sugar crystal toppings so now we have more of a variety.  I also found that the white pearl-like decorations are soy free as well.

So the first thing they each requested is a bowl of chocolate ice cream.  They then proceeded to top their ice cream with gummy bears and gummy worms.  My older one put some Enjoy Life chocolate morsels in hers as well as M&Ms.  Yes, it's FRIDAY....haha.  Anyways, All the products I just mentioned are Soy free...except for the M&Ms.  No big deal.  My younger one had PLENTY to choose from.  She ran up to me and said, "Thank you, Mama.  You're the best."  I never get tired of hearing that.

It's nice to know there are some really cool and equally delicious options for those who cannot tolerate soy.

I am one Happy Mommy!!!

Simple Soy Free Asian Pork Stir Fry

Tonight I made my Soy Free Pork Stir Fry dish.  Both my daughters loved it and went back for seconds.  I love that.  Anyways, for those of you who are eliminating soy from your meals, here's a crowd pleaser for both little and big people =).

For the meat, I use about 1.5 lbs of center cut pork.  That feeds 4 people very comfortably.

Marinades:

Great Marinade to use with center cut pork.

Cut pork into bite-size stir fry pieces, but not overly small.  See picture below for reference.  After cutting all the pork, put the pork in a bowl.  Add the following ingredients to the bowl.

1 tsp Soy sauce (For soy sauce, substitute with ¼ tsp worcheshire and ¾ tsp balsamic vinegar) NOTE:  I have a homemade worcheshire sauce that I posted a while back on my blog in case you are interested.

1 Tbsp rice wine

2 tsp corn starch

Cover bowl with saran wrap and let the meat mixture refrigerate for at least 4 to 5 hours.   This will help make the meat more flavorful and tender.

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To save time for later, you can go ahead and pre-make the stir fry sauce:

Stir Fry Sauce:

½ tsp soy sauce (Soy Sauce Substitute = worcheshire/balsamic vinegar)

1 ½ tsp sugar

1T rice wine

2t oyster sauce

1t corn starch

3T water

Set the bowl of the Stir Fry Sauce above aside until it's time to cook.

Ready to Cook time:

2 slices of Ginger root

Sliced Red bell pepper (just enough for flavor)

Canola Oil for cooking

Put some oil in the pan, and throw the ginger root and red bell pepper in there for just 30 seconds or so.  Then you can add the pork and begin browning the meat.   Using wooden chopsticks, make sure that the pork is fully cooked.  Then you just add the stir fry sauce to the pan and mix it up.  You may not need to use ALL the stir fry sauce.  Just use your best judgment.  It just depends on the your preference.  My girls love the sauce so I usually use all of it.

That’s it!!!  Wallah...  This is a great meal and goes great with a side of steamed rice and then a vegetable of your choice.

Jumpstarting a Car - QUICK CHEATSHEET

Try to get the hood of the working car as close to the dead car as best as you can.  This may mean that the passenger side door of the good car has to be positioned very close to the driver side door of the dead car, but that's ok.  You can just enter the dead car through the passenger side.

Make sure the radio is off and that nothing is plugged into the cigarette lighter adapter of both cars.

Get your red and black jumpstart cables out.

Using the red cable first, clamp the connector to the positive (+) terminal on the battery of the dead car first.

Then clamp the other end of the red cable to the positive (+) terminal on the battery of the working car.  While you are still in front of the working car, go ahead and clam one end of the black cable to the negative/ground (-) terminal on the battery of the working car. 

Connect the other end of the black cable to a piece of grounded metal on the dead car, preferably the bolt where the thick negative cable from the battery connects to the chassis. If this is not practical, look for shiny metal (not painted or oily) that is attached to the engine. Usually a nut, bolt or other protruding shiny metal will work. You may see a small spark when you connect to a good ground. As a last resort, you may connect to the negative (-) post of the dead battery, but this risks igniting hydrogen gas coming off the battery.

Now go ahead and start the working car.  Let it run for about 30 to 60 seconds in order to charge the battery in the dead car.  The starter of the dead car will draw most of its current from the battery of the working car not the cables.

Now start the dead car.

Remove the jumper cables once the car starts. Do this in the reverse of the order in which they were attached, and don't let any of the cables or clamps touch each other (or dangle into the engine compartment).

So start with the black clamp on the previously dead car first, then the black clamp on the working car.  Then the red clamp on the working car and then last, the red clamp on the previously dead car.

Keep the recently-disabled car's engine running. Run the car above idle (slightly revved up with your foot on the gas) for 5 minutes and then on or above idle for 20 minutes before turning it off. This should give the battery enough charge to start the car again. If it does not, you probably have a dead battery or a dying alternator.

That's it!!!

Soy Free Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

These are so easy to make and taste so warm and comforting.  I had to share the recipe.  My girls and I like to eat the cinnamon rolls without the icing....sooo yummy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of all purpose flour

• 2 tbsp sugar

• 3 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• 3 tbsp dairy free margarine or coconut oil

• ½ cup of dairy free plain milk

• ¼ cup of applesauce

Gluten Free Option:

• Substitute 2 cups of flour for 2 cups of Gluten Free all purpose flour + 1 tsp Xantham gum.

Filling:

¼ cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Icing:

2 tbsp dairy free margarine or coconut oil

¼ tsp vanilla

¼ cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp milk

Instructions:

1.Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2.Mix the all purpose flour, 2 tbsp sugar, baking powder, salt, DF margarine or coconut oil, dairy free plain milk, and applesauce.

3.Mix until dough forms.

4.Place the dough on a very floured surface and knead the dough into a ball. I like to use a cookie shet as the surface because it supports me in rolling the dough into a rectangle.

5.Dust the ball of dough with flour.

6.Roll the dough into a rectangle about 10×8 inches. About ¾ of the cookie sheets length.

7.Spread melted margarine or melted coconut oil on the dough.

8.Mix cinnamon and sugar.

9.Sprinkle over the dough.

10.Roll the dough tightly starting from the 10 inch edge.

11.Cut the roll in half, then cut each half in half again and finally cut each piece into three to end up with 12 buns.

12.Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

13.Ice with homemade icing.

14.For icing mix all the ingredients with an electric beater until frosting forms.

15.Ice buns while warm

Using half the ingredients yields about 6 cinnamon buns.

I will post a picture soon.  Unfortunately, they were all eaten up before I could snap a pic.  They actually taste really good even without the icing.  My girls prefer to eat them without.

Soy Free Side Item that works with Lunch and Dinner

My daughters love to eat dry seasoned seaweed for lunch and/or dinner.  They will either eat them plain or wrapped in rice.  If you have an international grocery store or asian grocery store, then they will sell packs of these there.  In Korean, we call this "kim".....yummy!!!

Soy Free Breakfast Food Ideas

For breakfast, you can do pancakes.  Maple Grove Farms of Vermonth Buttermilk & Honey Pancake & Waffle Mix does not contain soy and gluten.  And if you are also avoiding eggs, you can always substitute with 1/4 cup of applesauce and 1/2 teaspoon of double action baking powder per 1 egg.  And remember, use REAL butter not margarine since it typically contains soybean oil.

Other options are cupcakes using the Arrowhead Organic Cake Mix.  Also, Trader Joes has a soy free bagel in both plain and cinnamon raisin.  They taste awesome and even better toasted with cream cheese =).

And of course, don't forget about cereal.  There are probably more options than these, but this is what I have in my pantry. 



Soy Free Snack Ideas

Do not be sad.  There are definitely some good soy free options for you for snacks.  Everything picture is something you are most likely familiar with in the grocery stores.  The ritz looking crackers are from Trader Joes.  The rest of the items you can just pick up from the regular grocery store.  With the tostitos, my daughter loves to eat them with a side bowl of diced fresh tomato with just a dash of salt =).

Hello All.  I wanted to add some updates to my Soy Free Snack Ideas post.  The Lays chips pictured below are soy free and they are tasty without being overly salty.  The Lays Salt and Vinegar is also soy free.  There are other flavors, but they have onion powder in them, which is a no go for us.

At Whole Foods, they now have Erewhon Soy Free Graham Crackers for those of you looking for the soy free option.  Also, the sweet potato chips pictured below by "Food Should Taste Good" is also soy free and very tasty.  A recent find that I discovered at Whole Foods are the Crispy Cheddar crackers by Back to Nature.  They look and taste just like Cheez-Its...very yummy snack.  We don't do goldfish crackers since they contain soy so this is a great alternative to have in the pantry now :).

Whole Foods carries the cookies below by Enjoy Life.  They also come in gingerbread, but my girls really like the chocolate chip and double chocolate brownie.  These cookies are so soft and yummy and best of all, they are soy free and free of other common allergens as well.  Enjoy Life is really good about that.



Soy free treat ideas

For ice cream, I love Breyers.  If you want to make it more fun, get the enjoy life chocolate chips and use as a topping.  Mini Swedish fish also make dot great toppings like gummi bears.

 

 

 

 

 

For cupcakes, my hands down favorite is Arrowhead mills organic chocolate cake mix.  Whole Foods sells it.  For each egg required, I substitute with 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/2 teaspoon of double action baking powder.  It is great for making cupcakes and tastes so yummy.  I am not kidding.

 

 

UPDATE:  Hi All.  I want to add an update in here for those of you looking to decorate cupcakes with frosting and decor. 

For a full batch of cupcakes (24 cupcakes), the following will make enough super yummy buttercream frosting. 

Soy Free Buttercream Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 stick butter (Note:  Put the stick of butter out in the morning so that it will have time to soften.)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream  (Add a little more if you think it needs it.)

Directions:

• In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter.
• Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.
• Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.
• Use food coloring to make different different colored frosting options.

For decorating the cupcakes, there are also some soy free options.  I found the decorations at the grocery store except for the chocolate and rainbow sprinkles.  I purchased those online from the naturalcandystore.com.

Substitute for vegetable oil that contains soybean.

If you are avoiding soy, then know that alternative oils out there are:

Canola oil
Olive oil
Sunflower oil
Corn oil

For the most part, I use canola oil for cooking and deep frying

I use olive oil mostly as a dressing with fresh lemon juice.  Know that there are alternatives.

Substitute for soy sauce and onion SOLVED

To start off, my little one has eczema which affects a vast amount of people.  Her case is not severe but any degree of eczema is enough to concern most mamas.  So I took her in for allergy testing and found out that soy and onions are definite culprits that cause her eczema to flare.  So how did I take this news? Well let's see.  I cook mostly Korean food where in most of the recipes, soy sauce is a key ingredient.  And I also thought about the elimination of tofu as well.  I thought about how I was pretty much feeding her everything that her body is not processing well and ultimately, making her itch or breakout from snacks to meals.

So that is the background and without further delay, this is what I have discovered for substituting soy sauce using balsamic vinegar and worcheshire sauce.  Since my daughter has the onion sensitivity, I have also been making my own worcheshire sauce which is key to the soy sauce substitution.  I have provided my recipe for my homemade worcheshire sauce.  However, if you are able to buy off the shelf worcheshire sauce, then feel free to use that.

Otherwise, here is what I mix up for my homemade worcheshire sauce. This will last me a good while without going bad.  I have just been keeping the bottle in my fridge.

Easy Homemade Worcestershire Sauce Recipe

(makes 3/4 cup)
The Ingredients

• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 2 tablespoons Fish sauce with no MSG
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• juice of one lime
• 1/2 tsp ground clove
• 1/4 tsp garlic
• 1/4 tsp of chili powder

The How-To
Mix all ingredients together in a blender, or shake thoroughly in a dressing bottle!
That’s it.

I use trader Jose's balsamic vinegar of Modena.  I love the bottle and the taste is perfect for this purpose. 

If you recipe calls for a 1 tablespoons of soy sauce, just get your tablespoon out and pour a little more than 3/4 balsamic vinegar and then for the remaining tablespoon, fill with worcheshire sauce.

That's it.  I am not kidding.  I can't tell you how happy I have been to discover this and feed my children all the recipes that we had eaten before from stir frys, galbee, galbee jeem, fish marinades, and so forth.  Over the holidays, I made some of my recipes for my sisters, nephew, brother-in-law, and dad.  They couldn't believe I didn't use soy sauce.

As for onions, I simply just use red bell pepper instead of the onions and it makes for a wonderful substitute.

Hope this helps those who are eliminating or have to eliminate soy from their diet.