CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

When I first found out that I had to cut out dairy and soy, the first thing I did was call my mom to vent.  The second thing I did was call my sister.  (You can never vent too much when cheese and chocolate are involved!)  Fortunately for me, my sister is an avid and amazing baker, and she took matters into her own hands to remedy my "how am I ever going to eat chocolate chip cookies again" problem.  I don't think I've ever gotten a sweeter package (pun intended) from her!  

If you don't have a wonderful sister to ship you baked goods and are forced to make your own, here is the recipe that she used.  She made them in both cookie and bar form, and I think the bars may have been even tastier than the cookies!  Yum.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups dairy-free chocolate chips (She used both Enjoy Life and Ghirardelli brand semi-sweet chips)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix coconut oil and brown sugar until well combined and fluffy (3-4 minutes).  Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined.  Add in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda) and beat until combined.  Mix in the chocolate chips.

Drop cookies on a aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Add some time if you're making bars instead of cookies!  

I'd share pictures, but let's be honest... It's hard to pick up the camera when you've got gooey chocolate fingers!

JERK PORK WITH CILANTRO LIME RICE

Rather than marinating chicken in Italian dressing for the umpteenth time, I decided to spice it up a bit (pun intended) and find a recipe for jerk seasoning.  I searched online and finally found one that looked easy to do with ingredients that I already had.

I originally made jerk pork chops (as pork was on sale that day at the supermarket - score!), but I've since made jerk chicken that turned out phenomenally.  I served the chops with cilantro lime rice and grilled plantains.  The rice was a success!  The plantains, well... let's just say I need a little more experience picking out plantains.

JERK RUB
Covers 2-3 pork chops.

• 1/4 cup finely chopped/minced onion
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon

Mix all of the spices into a bowl.  Add in the onion and mash it to a coarse paste with spices.  Clean and pat pork chops (or chicken) dry, and rub spice mixture on meat.  Grill it up!

CILANTRO LIME RICE
I used one cup of Mahatma rice.  Make the rice just as you normally would, or if you don't normally make rice, read the back of the package!  (Boil 2 cups water for 1 cup of rice, throw in the rice, cover, simmer for 20 minutes)   

Into cooked rice, add in the following:

• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 T lime juice
• 1 tsp lime zest

If you don't have a lime (or would rather just use store-bought lime juice), you can leave the zest out - it might not be as fancy, but it's just as tasty!  This rice really balanced out the spice of the jerk.  Yum!

TOLLHOUSE PIE

The toughest part about not eating any soy or dairy is dessert!  I was taught by my grandmother that you always had to have dessert after dinner.  It was required!  For that matter, you always have to have dessert after lunch, too.  (And while we're being honest, my stepdad will sometimes even enjoy a bowl of "dessert" cereal after his first regular bowl of cereal.  Think Lucky Charms or Froot Loops.)

Since I couldn't indulge in Chips Ahoy or ice cream, I had to figure out something else.  First stop, tollhouse pie.  This recipe was given to me by a girl who went to my high school and had seen on Facebook that I had stooped so low as to squirt Hershey's syrup (soy- & dairy-free!) in my mouth.  This pie is the one reason that I refuse to clear out old friends from my Facebook account - you never know when someone will come along and bail you out of your dessert-less coma with magical chocolatey goodness!

My husband adores this pie.  I've never seen him so excited over a dessert before I made this, and now he will come home with a bag of chocolate chips "just in case [I] feel like making tollhouse pie again."  Here it is, folks!

TOLLHOUSE PIE

What you need: 

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 3/4 cup "butter"  (I use Earth Balance dairy-free soy-free)
• 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli - it is dairy-free and only contains soy lecithin)
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Prepare pie crust as directed on the box.  (The best part about Pillsbury pie crusts is that they come in a box of two... more tollhouse pie, anyone?)

Beat eggs until foamy.  Beat in flour, sugar, and brown sugar.  Beat in butter.  Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts, and then spoon into pie shell!  Bake for 55 to 60 minutes.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE SOUP

Since fall is here and the thermometer has dipped below 90 degrees, I started to think about making soup.  Granted, it's still a wee bit hot to be eating soup for dinner, but I attempted anyway.

This recipe is great because it doesn't use chicken or beef.  And if your dinners look like mine, they usually include one or the other!  It was extremely easy to make, took hardly any prep time, and the hubs and I decided that we would definitely be making it again in the future... once it cools off a little more outside.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE SOUP

What you need:

• 1 lb Italian sausage, sliced  (I used mild)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 cans (14.5 oz each) "less sodium" chicken broth
• 1 soup can of water
• 1 can (15 oz)  cannellini beans, rinsed
• 1 can (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup rotini pasta, uncooked
• 1.5 cups baby spinach leaves

Cut up the sausage, onion, and garlic, and throw 'em all in a pan with oil.  Cook until the sausage is done and the onions are see-through (about 10 minutes). 

Move your sausage, onion, and garlic into a large pot, and add in the broth, water, beans, and tomatoes.  Bring this to a boil, and then stir in your pasta.  Cook until pasta is tender (about 8 minutes) and then remove from heat.  Stir in spinach.  Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.  Serve with crackers!

When I cut up my Italian sausage, I didn't take off the casing and what I ended up with were little balls of sausage that appeared to be wearing belts (from where the casing had shrunk).  It's up to you whether you want your sausage to be wearing belts or not!

I ended up using almost 2 cups of pasta, because 1 cup looked so lonely floating around in that big pot.  I also broke up the stewed tomatoes into smaller chunks before serving.  When dinner was all said and done, there was a lot less spinach in the pot, so I went ahead and added in more for leftovers - the soup was still hot enough to wilt the leaves.  In retrospect, I could have just cooked the sausage, etc. in the large pot and saved on some dish washing!

WELCOME!

When my daughter was three months old, she was diagnosed with a milk and soy protein allergy.  The pediatrician told me that I needed to cut out all dairy and soy from my diet.  In my head, I was trying to figure out what exactly that meant.  (Oh my gosh, no more ice cream!  No more milk in my cereal!  No more cheeeeeeeeese!)  My entire ride home was spent thinking about all of the dinners that I eat with cheese (every. single. dinner.) and how annoying it was going to be to give up that wonderfully delicious carton of ice cream in the freezer to my husband.  

When we finally returned home, it was lunchtime.  I grabbed the deli meat out of the fridge and looked longingly at the cheese.  Not today, cheese.  I went to get the bread and realized that there was soy in it.  CRAP.  All we had to eat is leftover lasagna (that's a big fat no-no), instant cheesy mashed potatoes (sigh), and this lonely deli meat.  Then it hit me.  This was going to be hard.

I have now been dairy- and soy-free for almost 3 months, and in an effort to make the transition easier for those other moms who have had their world turned upside down when the pediatrician says "no more dairy," I created this blog.  I also thought that if I wrote all of these recipes down somewhere, it may be easier for me to figure out dinner faster than staring blankly into the produce department.