I am always on a journey when it comes to feeding my family.  In my “perfect world”, I’d be buying our meat and seasonal produce from a local farm, we would never eat sugar, and our grains would never be the center of a meal.  But when I compare our way of eating to what we ate 5 years ago (read: weekly Burger King drive-through, and devil dogs, just to name two!) we have come a long, long way.

I used to feel such guilt every time I bought something instead of making it, or went to just one store and paid more for some items, instead of going to two stores.  I have to zoom out, think of the big picture, and remember that it IS a journey.  I can look at people who I think have really made every change to the “ideal” with food and grocery shopping,  and many of them would still feel they could take it further.  I can look to learn from them, but I can’t compare myself to them. This has been hard for me, but oh the freedom in embracing my own journey, and not comparing to others!  Obviously, if certain foods need to be removed, that will be a sudden change- but don’t worry if it takes you a while to figure out the “best way” to handle the new way eating.  Enjoy the process… and make dessert!

While on this journey to allergy-free eating, I tried a bazillion recipes.  (My daughter’s term) 🙂  If I found a blog/book where the recipes worked well for me (like Karina’s)  I made a bunch of things from that blog/book. Some were healthier, or more frugal, or yummier than others.  Eventually, I just wanted some standard basics I could really know well, that were part of our weekly routine, and that other family members could learn to make. {wink}  Most of these are things I came up, by comparing and tweaking different things I had tried.

This is what we usually do for breakfast (links and recipes for my “standard foods” included):

Muffins: recipe shared yesterday (We all eat the same kind)

Granola with milk: recipe tomorrow!

Smoothies: (separate post on these as I have lots to say) 🙂

Homemade Yogurt with Fruit: We do not have a true dairy allergy in my house, but two people who are very highly intolerant to dairy.  (As in, losing a night’s sleep after eating it, even with taking one of the enzyme supplements they make).  More on this later this month- what we use for dairy alternatives etc.

Toast with Peanut Butter: We use Regular  Millet Bread from Daland Bakery for those of us who are GF.  We can get it at our local natural food store.  (This is an easy breakfast to make separate types for those who eat GF and those who don’t!  We do not have a separate GF toaster, as that minimal contamination does not seem to be an issue for us).  We use a peanut butter that contains only peanuts and salt.

Oatmeal (gluten-free certified), with real maple syrup: some people who are GF may not be able to eat oats at all, from what I’ve read, some can do regular oats, and some need GF.  I need GF oats and so does my daughter, but then we can eat them fine.

Waffles: Have I mentioned, waffles make me happy? 🙂  I will often make a “breakfast for dinner” and make up way more waffles than we can eat.  These freeze well, and I can pop them in the toaster for a quick and easy breakfast over the next couple weeks.  Here is my recipe!

Waffles

Mix in mixer:

• 6 eggs (or 3 duck eggs)
• 2/3 c. light olive oil (or other oil)
• 1 1/2 c. rice milk

Mix in separate bowl:

• 2 2/3 c. flour mix 
• 2 tbs. baking powder (I make my own to keep it corn free)
• 2 tsp. guar gum
• 4 tbs. sugar (I use sucanat)

Preheat waffle iron.

Pour dry ingredients into mixing bowl, and mix (adding 1-2 tbs more of flour mix if it is too runny; it should be a thick-ish batter).  In my waffle maker (belgian-style waffles), I pour a heaping 1/2 c. of batter into it for one waffle.  I then set a timer for @4 minutes, because GF flours take longer to cook than regular flours. (My waffle iron usually tells me its “done” about 30-45 seconds too soon).  If I am going to freeze them, I might take them out slightly sooner, knowing they will toast some in the toaster.  If I am serving them as a meal right away, I keep them warm in the oven until I have enough ready to start serving.  If batter thickens while cooking off the waffles, I add a little more rice milk, 1 tbs or so at a time.

I have also used this recipe, cutting the oil in half, to make pancakes. I do the same thing with the pancakes- make too many, and freeze them, for popping into the toaster.

This is part of a 31 Days series on Less Stress in Allergy-Free Eating.  To view a list of all the posts in the series you can go here. To subscribe to my posts via email, you can go to my homepage, and type in your email address in the box on the right-hand margin.  To view the list of over 700 bloggers participating in this 31 Days blogging challenge go here!