Allergy Free Chicken Salad

It's summer and I love eating chicken salad.  It happens to be my hubby's favorite summer time dish and he asks me to make it for his lunch every week.  Here's my recipe for an allergy safe chicken salad!

Chicken Salad

1/2 cup Vegenaise (I use the one made with olive oil)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp poultry seasoning

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 T lemon juice

3 cups diced chicken

1/2 cup diced celery

1 cup diced grapes 

1/2 cup diced green onions

Add first 6 ingredients to a large bowl and stir well.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until evenly coated.  

My hubby loves to put his chicken salad on our homemade bread or even eat it over a giant spinach salad.  It's a favorite with the kids too!

A Little Update on the Blog

My blog has been strangely quiet lately.  I haven't had much blogging time with focusing on homeschooling our five kids and trying to get settled into our new house.  I've finally dusted off this blog and am trying to get back into a good blog routine.  

One of the reasons I haven't felt like blogging is that I'm simply tired of the allergy-free life.  Can I admit that out loud?  I am so tired of not being "normal" and trying to find healthy alternatives.  I'm tired of worrying about whether my kids are safe.  I'm tired of cooking every meal from scratch.  I just haven't wanted to think about our allergy free life at all.

But we're going through some changes.  I have some updates to give.  I've learned a few new things and we've discovered some new struggles and challenges to overcome.  It's time for me to step back up into my role as allergy mom and remember why I continue this journey.  

I plan to blog a few days a week sharing about our allergy life and posting a few of our new recipes as I try some more experimental cooking and baking in the kitchen. 

What can you expect at Hives?

• I plan to blog on Tuesdays and Thursdays only.  

On the other days you can find me at Lextin Academy, my other blog that chronicles our homeschool adventures and our favorite curricula.

On Tuesdays I'll share more about our family and about where we are in our allergy journey.
On Thursdays I'll try to share new recipes that have become favorites at our house.

• In the rest of my spare time I'm going to work to spruce up the blog a little bit.  

I plan to go back to old posts and do some editing - adding new pictures and making sure that all the recipes are written correctly.  I hope to add more pinnable images to posts and just do some general "cleaning up" here at Hives.

Know that it's a work in progress!

{Allergy Free} Ginger Cake with Caramel Icing

My husband gave this a 6 on a scale from 1-5.  The kids gave it a 100, 37, and 18 on that same scale.  I'm not sure what that tells me - other than it was a huge hit.  The entire cake was gone in 20 minutes.  We had to take a family walk afterward!  

 Hello Fall!  Ginger and Caramel?  Yes!  The icing is absolutely awesome and the cake will melt in your mouth.  I ate way too many pieces!

1 1/4 cup flour blend
3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 tsp xanthan gum

1  3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 cup Earth Balance Soy Free softened

3 tsp egg replacer whisked with 4 T rice milk

2/3 cup rice milk whisked with 1 tsp lemon juice

Grease a bundt pan.
Mix all ingredients together in mixer on low.
Once incorporated, mix on medium for 2 minutes until batter is smooth.
Pour into the bundt pan and smooth the top.
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until top springs back when touched.
Turn out on a wire rack to cool.
Meanwhile, make the icing.

Caramel Icing

heaping 1/4 cup Earth Balance Soy Free

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 T vanilla hemp milk

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Stir the Earth Balance, brown sugar, and hemp milk together in small saucepan.
Stir over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved.
Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar until smooth.
Pour over cake.

Allergy Free Cinnamon No Bake Cookies

Cinnamon No Bake Cookies

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup Earth Balance Soy Free
1/2 cup vanilla hemp milk
1/2 cup No Nut Butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups gluten free quick oats

In medium saucepan combine sugar through milk.  
Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture begins to boil.
Let boil for 1 minute without stirring and then remove from heat.  (or at least 2 minutes if you make these using "regular" ingredients...you know the kind with real dairy)
Immediately stir in the No Nut Butter and the vanilla extract.  
Then mix in quick oats.
Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Chill in fridge for several hours until set.

{Allergy Free} Coffee Cake Muffins

This might be our new favorite Saturday morning treat.  They were so yummy.  My hubby declared that they were "amazing!"  It's the combo of the sweet and salty topping......perfection!

1 cup flour blend

1/2 tsp xanthan

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup Earth Balance Soy Free, softened

1 container plain coconut yogurt (Greek style)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp egg replacer whisked with 2 T rice milk

Struesel Topping

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 cup Earth Balance Soy Free

Combine flour through baking soda in small bowl and set aside.
Cream the Earth Balance, yogurt, and vanilla.
Add egg replacer mixture and mix well.
Then add sugar and mix until smooth.
Stir in the flour mixture just until moistened.
Spoon into greased muffin pan.

Prepare the topping:
Combine all the ingredients for the topping in a shallow bowl.
Use a fork to cut in the Earth Balance until everything is well blended.
Sprinkle over the top of each muffin.

Bake at 350 for 16 minutes or until tops spring back.


Makes 12 muffins.

Allergy Free Strawberry Cupcakes with Orange Frosting

Summer may be over but I wasn't quite ready to give it up.  Anyway, it's still 80-90 degrees outside and feels nothing like fall.  So, we made some strawberry cupcakes for an end of summer treat!  They were yummy!

Strawberry Cupcakes with Orange Frosting

1 2/3 cup flour blend

1/2 tsp xanthan

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup Earth Balance Soy Free

2/3 cup sugar

3 tsp egg replacer whisked with 4 T rice milk

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup finely chopped strawberries

Cream Earth Balance and sugar in mixer on high.
Add egg replacer mixture and beat until well combined.
Add half of flour mixture and beat on low.
Add orange juice.
Add remaining flour mixture.
Fold in chopped strawberries
Spoon into greased muffin tin.
Bake at 375 for 16-18 minutes.
Let cool completely.

Icing:

1/2 cup Earth Balance

2 cups powdered sugar

1 T orange juice

orange zest (optional)

Cream Earth Balance and slowly add powdered sugar while alternating with orange juice.
(Add more juice or powdered sugar as need to achieve a creamy, spreadable consistency).
Fold in orange zest if desired.
Pipe onto cupcakes.


Makes 12 cupcakes.

A Little Blog Construction

Yes, I'm still here.  I still feel like we're recovering from our move this summer and with the start of school this fall.........we have been busy at our house!  Of course, it doesn't help that my hubby is in the final stages of graduate school.  Because of our busy schedule lately, I've been trying to simply keep afloat and I haven't been experimenting with any new recipes - I just want something that I know works!  So, new recipes will be back soon, just not right now. 

In the meantime, I'm working on cleaning up some things on my blog and making pinable images of my recipes to share on Pinterest.  I'm also going to be doing some behind-the-scenes organizing of the blog pages and the posts.

I'll be back when I feel like I can breathe again.  I do have some new recipes to share that I made several weeks ago.  I also have some stories to tell about Bee's most recent allergic reactions.  She had 2 reactions in 2 weeks!  That was not a fun time!  And I will have to write about our upcoming appointment with our allergist.  Yes, we see her in November and we'll be doing testing.  We're praying for better results and maybe some outgrown allergies! 

So, know that we're still here; we're still allergy free; we're still busy looking for new recipes; we're still working to keep our kids safe.  The blog might be a little quiet, but enjoy some of the older posts and a few of our favorite recipes. 

You might need some Taco Dip for game day......
Or you might want a simple Baked Chicken recipe for a school night....
You could make some Gingerbread Donuts to celebrate fall.....
You should definitely make some Granola Bars for an after school snack....
Or you could have a treat of some Maple Oatmeal Cookies.

You can read a little about how we're trying to Teach Independence and Food Allergy Awareness
You could see why I Fear Doctors after our food allergy experiences
You might want to read about How Donuts Ruined My Day
Find out what's inside our Food Allergy Emergency Kit
And you could enjoy a much needed laugh as you reflect on life with food allergies!