The flax egg substitute

This is one of those basic recipes for a cooking alternative that you don't know about unless someone tells you. For those of you who can't have eggs due to a food intolerance or allergy, you have some choices. Ener-G makes an egg replacer that has a potato base. Bob's Red Mill sells one too. You can make your own at home using flax seeds. It's much healthier, and in bread recipes, adds a nice texture. I use this is any recipe possible to give my kids more nutrition -- breads, rolls, cookies, cakes, etc.

Here's how to make it:

To make one egg sub ... one tablespoon of ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tablespoons of liquid. Microwave for 1 minute. Let it sit for at least a minute or two. Note: with some microwaves, the heating can be done in 30 seconds.

Flax seeds are very healthy. According to HealthCastle.com, it has alpha linolenic acids, which is a type of plant-derived omega 3 fatty acid, which is what you find in fish. Its benefits include lowering cholesterol, especially the bad cholesterol, LDL. It also may lower blood triglyceride and blood pressure, and also lower the risk of heart attack.

It also is an antioxidant and has fiber. New research also shows it may help fight cancer, particularly breast cancer.

What's in your ketchup?

Did you ever think about what's in the ketchup you put on your favorite burger, hot dog or potatoes each day? I did a couple of months ago. And it made me change what I bought for my family.

Heinz ketchup -- America's No. 1 ketchup -- is filled with high fructose corn syrup. If you don't yet know the dangers of this sweetener, read my blog entry from yesterday, or Google it for yourself.

This was very depressing, especially since I like Heinz. But, with the care we're taking to feed our kids properly, I decided to look elsewhere.

I found two quality substitutes that are gluten-free, soy-free and HFCS-free.

Annie's ketchup is pretty darn good. For me, it's a little spicier, in a sweet way, than I prefer. But, my kids loved it. And, it's organic.

Muir Glen also makes an organic ketchup, which I prefer. I now buy this by the case. It's taste more closely resembles Heinz -- and actually is what Heinz probably tasted like 20-30 years ago when it wasn't made with the HFCS.

Do a taste test for yourself, and make your burger a little healthier.

A flour mix for all baking

This is a very versatile flour mix. You can make many different baked goods using it. All start with the basic dry mixture.

BLOG UPDATE: Note, these are some of my first basic recipes. They are simple and crude. Yet, they are enough to get started and get cooking. If you're looking for something else, browse my blog for some of my newer bread and cookie recipes, like Lindsay's Bread or my All-purpose cookie mix. On this page, however, the Basic dry mix below is very versatile and can be used as a foundation for just about anything.

Basic dry mix
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1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tbsp sugar
3 tsp egg replacer powder(Ener-G)
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt

1 - Dinner rolls
Add:1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Beat with blender. Using WET hands, form circles and place on ungreased cookie sheet or in muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

2 - Pie crust
(leave out baking powder)
Add:1/2 cup canola oil
1/3-1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil. Beat with blender. Add 1/3 cup water and mix. If too crumbly, add 1 tbsp at a time until less crumbly and able to be pressed without cracking. Press dough into greased pie plate. Bake 1 minute at 450. Then make pie as instructed.

3 - Meat or veggie wrap
(leave out baking powder)
Add:1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Beat with blender until workable dough forms. Add a tablespoon or two more flour if necessary. Cut dough into four portions. Roll each out, one at a time, on floured surface. Slice each into two pieces and place meat or veggies on closest edge. Wet the edge with water, then roll up the filling in two complete rotations. Slice off extra dough. Wet edge with water. Place edge side down on greased cookie sheet. Brush tops with oil and salt. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.

4 - Cinnamon cookies
Same as #3
(add 1 tsp baking powder)

Roll out entire dough and end with the longest section being the width in front of you. Brush with canola oil. Sprinkle with cinnamon and generous amount of sugar. Roll up. Seal edge with water. Brush top with oil and sugar. Cut into 1/2 wide cookies. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes at 400.

5 - Crackers (like saltines)
Same as #3.
(Leave out baking powder)

Roll out entire dough into a near-square shape. Brush top with oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Use a pizza cutter to cut rows both ways. Prick crackers with a fork. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes on greased cookie sheet.
- variation: add onion or garlic powder to the dough.

6 - Pancakes
Do NOT use the entire dry mix recipe above. Use 1 cup of the gf flours (1/3 tapioca, 1/3 potato starch, 1/3 chickpea). Add 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder and mix with 2 tbsp oil and 1/3-1/2 cup water. Pour batter 1-2 tbsp at a time onto hot nonstick pan with 1 tsp oil on it.

7 - Bagels
Same as #1.
Add 1/2 canola oil
1/2 cup water

Add 1 cup extra flour mix (tapioca, potato starch, chickpea) to the recipe. Heat broiler on high, set rack two rungs down. Boil pan full of water on stove top. Grease a cookie sheet with Spectrum shortening. On a floured surface, with floured hands, roll a ping pong sized ball of dough between hands until smooth. With a floured finger, poke hole through middle. With dough still around finger, smooth the dough on the bottom that's disturbed from the poking, then pull off. Repeat for all. Place on sheet. Broil small bagels for 2 mins then flip and broil another 2 mins. Watch closely. They should lightly brown on top but not burn. This will happen quickly. Repeat for all. Place bagels in boiling water for 2 mins then flip and another 2 mins. Meanwhile, turn off broiler and heat oven to 350. Place bagels on paper towel while doing the rest. Put bagels on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15 mins for smaller sized and 20-30 mins for larger, depending on size.

Here's an optional recipe that also works: Mix 1 cup gf flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp xanthan gum and 1/3 cup water. Then, follow same directions as above. The difference between the recipes is this: recipe 2 is a little chewier like a real bagel and recipe 1 looks more like a real bagel. Both are good and my kids will eat both. Try both out and take your pick.

Enjoy.

Replacing corn syrup

If you've ever tried to make candy at home and your kids can't tolerate corn, then you've likely come across this problem: corn syrup. It's found in many candy recipes, including chocolate treats. Here's an alternative you might consider. Sweet Cactus Farms makes an agave nectar -- from a cactus plant. It's sweet, organic, kosher, gluten free, dairy free, nut free and it absorbs slowly enough into the body that it's even OK for diabetics. I bought an 8 oz. bottle for $5. That's retail. Find it wholesale for $4 through a co-op or other supplier, including the manufacturer's website.

Cornless sugar

I was taught this simple trick for making powdered sugar, so I'll pass it along. Powdered sugar bought at the store most often contains sugar and corn starch. That's no good for those of us with kids dealing with corn problems. Corn does horrible things to both of my daughters. So, make your own. Put regular sugar in a food processor and do it until it breaks down to a powder. You can add a starch to help recreate the "powder," like potato starch or arrowroot starch. Store some in a kitchen container.

Organic shortening? Really?

Yep, you read the headline correctly -- organic shortening. Spectrum Organics makes an organic shortening that's made from 100% organic expeller pressed palm oil. It lacks the bad stuff in Crisco -- like soy. And, it's free of trans fat. That certainly doesn't mean it's fat free. But, it's great for the allergy cook and for kids on the autism diet. So, maybe that impossible pie crust is possible after all?

A brothy solution

Have you ever checked the ingredients of your everyday broths -- chicken, beef, vegetable? I've seen all sorts of things that I know aren't natural, and even items like MSG! And for us cooking for allergy sufferers, you're sure to find dairy, gluten, soy, corn, etc. So, the best answer is simple. Make it yourself. Once a month, I make chicken broth once a month, using a crockpot, a fryer chicken and a few veggies -- carrots, onion, celery, parsley, salt. Set on low and come back 6-8 hours later. I strain this, then chill overnight. Skim fat away the next day and freeze in ice cube trays.

Eggless recipes

How do you cook without eggs? As long as you can tolerate potato, this is the answer. Ener-G makes an egg replacer powder that can be used in most recipes. It's not a sub for fried eggs or scrambled eggs. It's to be used as a sub in recipes, like cakes, cookies, etc. All you do is mix a little powder with water, stir and add. I've used it and it works well. And, one box goes a long way. I buy this at a local food co-op, but I imagine it's also available at Whole Foods, etc. You can also order it online at Ener-G's website.

Fufu 4 u

Here's another experiment that I'll be trying in March. Fufu flour is a specialty flour made either from cassava or plantains. The box shown at the left is made by Tropiway and contains cassava and elephant's ear plant tubers. This may seem strange to you and me but it's standard in Africa and parts of South America. You can find it at an Asian or Latin American grocery. I paid $3.45 for the box. Fufu really is like a dumpling and served with a meal. It's also very simple to make. So, I plan to try variations. Like, could it become the base for a pancake mix? What about rolls? Could I use it to make a gravy mix? What about a bisquick-type mixture? Lots of possibilities. I'll update on my successes and failures.

Potato or Potato?

So, I've been on a mad quest to find alternatives to potatoes for my daughters' diets. The reason is one cannot eat rice due to an intolerance. They can handle quinoa 1x or 2x a week, but no more. One's very fussy about the gfcf breads I've tried -- so, no stuffing. And, due to the rice intolerance and a corn intolerance, standard noodles aren't an option either (we are trying some Asian noodles now -- tapioca, sweet potato, etc. -- and I'll post more on that later).

The kids just can't eat potatoes everyday. One, I'm afraid they will build up an intolerance to the potatoes if they eat it 3x a day. And two, I don't want to get stuck on a food. Thus, my search for potato alternatives.

I've found some and am in the middle of experimenting. I thought I'd share.

Taro root: found this at the Asian grocery. You peel this, plunge in cold water, boil, and then slice thinly, dice or cut into sticks to cook. I fried these like french fries and the kids didn't notice the difference. Yep, it worked. These are a little tricky to handle. I've read they can irritate the skin while handling in the pre-cooked stage, so I wore plastic gloves. No rash. Also, they tend to get sticky when they cool. I served these warm so I didn't encounter that problem either. I don't know if it would make much difference though if I had prepared mashed taro root. I plan to try it. I paid $1.49/lb for these.

Malanga: have not found this yet, but 2 local Asian grocers carry it. From what I've read, this may be the most promising as it closely resembles a potato, without the fussiness of the taro root. I'll let you know when I get them. Also, priced at $1.49/lb.

• Lotus root: I just bought a few of these to try but have not yet cooked them. I believe these have "air chambers" in the middle, so if you were to slice one, it might appear like a snowflake. I'm hoping the fun snowflake appearance of these entices my kids, or that I can mash them. I'll be experimenting this week. Also found at the Asian grocery at $1.49/lb.

Plantains: a restaurant owner I came across in the Asian market told me about these starchy vegetables. These also look promising and might be sold in an Asian or Latin American grocery. I've also seen them in big cans at the Latin American grocery.

Yucca: The same restaurant owner also suggested yucca, which is very similar to potato. These are sold at both Asian and Latin American markets.

So, I'll post again as I experiment and discover which ones work and what doesn't work.

Gee, Ghee!

Ever hear of ghee? What about clarified butter? Well, that's what ghee is. It's essentially butter without the dairy. It's very popular in Indian cooking and can be found at an Indian grocer. I also find it at my local food co-op.

I think ghee is best used to saute. It holds up well in the pan, unlike other fake margarines. It smells great, too. And, it's gluten-free, dairy-free (casein-free), hormone free, non-hydrogenated, free of transfatty acids and salt free. So, for us folks on strict diets due to allergies and other medical resaons, this stuff really fills a cooking void.

The only downside to ghee is that it really isn't a spread. It's actually very hard. And, I don't think it has much taste. My kids don't have much alternative, so I melt some ghee and brush it on a roll or bread for them.

I buy Purity Farms brand ghee for about $10.

Breading

So, what can you use for a good breading if you can't eat gluten -- anything with wheat, which means any common flours. Also, my kids can't handle corn yet -- too hard to digest. So, I found this stuff. It's called manioc flour and it's made from the yucca plant and very common in other parts of the world. I'm told it's as common to a South American household as pancake mix is to us. The flour is a little grainy, just like corn meal is. I mix this with a lighter flour, like tapioca or chickpea, some onion powder and sea salt. I found this in a local Mexican/South American grocery in our city. If I couldn't get it there, I'd also look in our Asian market, then even the ethnic section of our local supermarket (even talk with the manager there), or lastly ask the local food co-op if they can special order it. The bag wasn't expensive. I think maybe $2.