Valentine’s Day can be a fun opportunity to show your child how food can be fun! Knowing my son is allergic to eggs, I took the whole pancake business into my own hands and came up with this healthy recipe! My boys don't even bother with butter and syrup - they just like to roll up their pancakes and eat them as "fruit logs".
EGG-FREE DAIRY FREE PANCAKE RECIPE Ingredients 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup soy or almond milk 1/2 applesauce Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the milk and applesauce; mix well. Pour batter into a heart shaped cookie cutter on a greased griddle or skillet. Flip when they start to bubble slightly on the top. Let your kids decorate their pancakes with yummy toppings like strawberries and blueberries! So, it’s finally arrived!! The very first vegan egg to hit the consumer market! It’s allergen free, cholesterol free, gluten free, gmo free, and cruelty free! In case you are wondering what a vegan egg is made from? Mostly algae. Yes, you heard me right. Algae. You can go to their website down below for the list of ingredients and current locations sold.
I have been stalking Follow Your Heart and Hampton Creek to see who would make it to the finish line first and it looks like we have a winner. Follow Your Heart, based out of the greater Los Angeles area, has managed to produce an egg made from plants. It’s refreshing to finally see some exciting competition in the vegan food industry world! Follow Your Heart’s “VeganEgg” has arrived in Seattle. Barely. It’s only available at Vegan Haven, a small amazing vegan grocery nestled in the University District where all proceeds benefit Pigs Peace Sanctuary. I stopped in today and purchased 3 “dozen” eggs. Each dozen eggs put me back $ 7.49. Is this costly in the chicken egg world? Yes. But, I have paid that same amount for “free range, organic, brown, vegetarian fed” chicken eggs at Whole Foods too. And now I have a healthy egg that is animal and environmentally friendly! As soon as I got home, I went a little nutty! I instantly made scrambled eggs. The smell and texture are SPOT ON. The taste was the same as an egg, but yet a tad faint. I added Kala Namak, which is a type of black salt (you can buy on Amazon). Much better! I felt that the egg was SO much better than nothing, but it needed a little company. So I made a mushroom and spinach omelette and added the black salt again. Awesome yumminess. I felt like I was eating egg for the first time in my life. All over again. While my belly was really full from already eating so much egg, my mind was racing with other ideas of VeganEgg preparation! Even though I had just eaten scrambled eggs and an omelette, I then made a breakfast sandwich. This time, I scrambled the egg with spinach and Kala Namak. My breakfast sandwich consisted of a Rudy’s English muffin with the spinach egg omelette, chao cheese, and Benevolent Bacon and a teeny schmear of maple syrup. I really think I died and went to heaven. I might have to eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next month. Did you know that this egg can also be an egg replacer in any baking also? Have your grandmother’s old spiced cake recipe, but it calls for eggs? Now you can still make it! Here are some photos and please excuse the bad lighting. I was so excited to eat, I didn’t bother with flash or putting good lighting on it. The photos don’t do it justice! Now, it’s Hampton Creek’s turn to get their vegan egg to market so that I can compare. In the meantime, I will be rejoicing that my vegan son with egg allergies can experience eggs like what his friends and family rave about so often. For more information about ingredients and purchasing locations, please click here. Erika Lee Krebs Happy National Bacon Day!! Who needs a pig when there are so many awesome alternatives?
Here is a picture of my yummy BLT! No Bacon BLT 2 tablespoons olive oil 6 strips vegan bacon (I use LightLife brand) 2 pieces Romaine lettuce - use the hearts - more crunch 2 slices heirloom tomato (these are the juiciest, but use Roma if you don't want the mess, and, well flavor:) 2 slices whole wheat sprouted bread 1 tablespoon vegan mayonnaise (I am partial to Just Mayo from Hampton Creek) 1 teaspoon bacon salt Heat olive oil in skillet on medium heat. Place strips individually in skillet and sprinkle bacon salt on top. Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes, it will continue to get crunchy after you take out of skillet. Toast 2 pieces of whole wheat sprouted bread. Slather on Just Mayo very generously (I may or may not double this amount of mayo on my sandwich) and add heirloom tomatoes (I'm finally growing some my garden!) The key to this sandwich is the bacon salt - it’s key to making even cardboard taste like bacon!! I first heard about it years ago when Oprah, of all people, was promoting it on her show. You can buy it on Amazon. I’m headed out of town for a kid free weekend. I’m not even sure if I should cry for missing the babies, or scream with excitement. I’ll go with the latter. The idea that I won’t have a baby on my lap for a flight makes me actually excited that I’m taking a red eye flight. I might even, gasp, have a cocktail on the plane!!
What this means, is that my husband is in charge. Don’t get me wrong, Mike is an amazing father. We just have, let’s call it, different parenting techniques. I’ll pack in as many educational field trips in as possible. I’m sure it’s borderline neurotic. Mike, on the other hand, is all for the “stay at home” tactic. My A.D.D. won’t let that happen on my watch. But this is probably why we balance each other so well. My kids might actually play with the 50 bins of toys they have. I appreciate that Mike has a different approach. HOWEVER, I will still maintain control of their diet. My husband has been known to eat Domino’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for days in a row. Which brings me to my attached photos. In one photo you will find 3 days worth of finger foods that don’t require an oven or microwave. Before we were married, my husband didn’t use his oven for 5 years. Seriously. SO, if I don’t want my kids eating pizza for three days straight (not that they would argue), I have prepared the EASIEST menu I believe possible. I have muffin pan that holds 6 muffins. My husband is to fill each with ANYTHING from what I have in the picture. The most difficult item on the list is to spread almond butter on a piece of bread. That’s it. Everything else is finger food. If it fits in a muffin holder, it’s a meal. He has to fill all 6 muffin cups for a meal and 2-3 for a snack. Anything in the picture can count. Honestly, I don’t even care if all 6 are filled with grapes. That just means no more grapes later. I’m picking my battles. All the options provided are healthy choices – and make sure to provide options from all food groups! Here are the foods I have chosen as a sample for you: almonds, prunes, pistachios, hummus, seeded whole wheat bread, almond butter, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherry tomatoes, carrots, grapes, avocado, bananas, homemade raisin walnut muffins, homemade spinach muffins, homemade trail mix, squeeze pouches filled with homemade dal puree. The only thing not pictured was almond milk required at every meal. So, eat up kids! And have fun making your own dinner – pick 6 items from the picture! Really the kids’ birthday parties are for me as much as they are the kids. It is an excuse for me to channel my inner child and bust out all the crafts that I really don’t have time for. But, I put aside my floor cleaning, car cleaning, and meal planning for one week of glorious indulgence into the Pinterest world. I love making homemade crafts, but really most of all, I love making vegan party food! It’s such an amazing way to show friends and family that vegan food doesn’t have to be all alfalfa sprouts and kale! Every party, the plates are empty and I have several people asking me for the recipes. My favorite is when people don’t know it’s vegan and when they find out “it’s not real cream cheese” or “those meatballs are made from lentils, not cows”, the look on people’s faces is absolutely priceless. To me, it means I’ve done my job. I don’t need to change the world, but changing people’s perception of a plant-based diet, even for one day, is so satisfying! My twin boys’ turned 4 and we invited 21 children. Every single one RSVP’d yes! Whoa. Last year we had 12 kids total and now we have 24 total. I had my work cut out. Actually the kids are the easy ones to feed. It’s the parents that I always seem to find more challenging. Our menu this year was the following: “Build your own rocket!”: Slider buns or butter lettuce cups, BBQ pulled jackfruit and soy, and homemade coleslaw “Freeze Dried Astronaut Food”: homemade cinnamon applesauce in squeeze pouches “Orbits” : Hummus and avocado rollups “Jupiter Red Eye” : Watermelon balls “Meteorites” : Potato salad bites “Space Junk” : Pretzels “Planets and Rockets” : Cucumber with dill cream cheese on crackers or bread Well, of course, it wouldn’t be a great birthday party without a glitch. About an hour before the birthday party, I opened the fridge and wouldn’t you know. Food comes crashing off the shelves into a huge pile on the floor. Next thing I know, I’m running out the door in a frenzy picking up prepared food as quickly as I could! So, added to the buffet were a large fruit bowl, a veggie tray with a bowl of raspberry vinaigrette dipping sauce. Lastly, I added an assortment of beautiful sushi – all made with avocado, mango, carrots, cucumber. It was truly beautiful! So, even in a pinch, you can make it work! For a birthday cake, I did a “rocket cake”. I made homemade rocket popsicles from pureed strawberries, oranges, and a little spinach (I couldn’t help myself). Even the parents were helping themselves – which made me so happy! I bought two sets of molds on Amazon and borrowed the remaining sets from neighbors and friends. I used the rind of the watermelon (leftover from the watermelon balls). I cut the rind in half and placed on a round pizza tray. I cut a couple holes in the rind and stuck a couple stars candles, a # 4 candle, a few silver star spray confettis, and then last, but not least, the rocket popsicle. My boys’ LOVED it! Happy healthy eating!! |
Hi, I'm Erika- Creator of Fresh Start Families, Ask Erika and Mommy of three taste testers!
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