First of all I would like to wish you every happiness of 2011. My christmas was great and the food-allergy free delights which filled my house were top notch as usual thanks to my maternal holiday chef! However, all those sweets and rich foods (food-allergy friendly or not) are only desirable for a short while and no matter what I do I always seem to come into January looking forward to a simpler life. But one last hurrah is always needed and we certainly got it in deluxe this time round!
It's hard to feed everyone that you would like to ring the new year in with so this year I took part in a Potluck. Potlucks are a very common-place event in North American circles. The idea is that each guest brings a dish of their choosing and all share the different foods. It's great for variety, ideas and expense but can become problematic for people with food allergies. The purpose of this week's log however is to celebrate! The food-world is changing and food-allergy awareness is growing rapidly!
At the last potluck 2010 we had 14 dishes and all except two were dairy free and vegetarian!! The extra amazing thing was that only two of those items were substituted from their original recipes! All guests knew that there would be a couple vegetarians and a handful of dairy free attendees but I am still shocked at the outcome. I have often attended such events in the past and was forced to pick at my own dish to avoid my food allergy evils, but it seems that food allergy-friendly recipes are becoming more and more available and the quality is trumps- Hark the Herald!
Among the celebrations were the following:
- Chickpea salad with maple dressing (vegetarian, egg free, wheat free, gluten free, yeast free & dairy free)
- Spinach & Almond Cannelloni from the 'Blazing Salads' cookbook (vegetarian, sugar free & dairy free)
- Seven Vegetable Moroccan CousCous salad (vegetarian & dairy free)
- Spinach Salad with Dried Cherries, Mandarin and a Maple dressing (vegetarian, egg free, wheat free, gluten free, yeast free & dairy free)
- Leek, Spinach & Lentil Nut Roast from the 'Cornucopia at home' cookbook - Sweet Sesame Balls from the Asian food market via out of town guests (vegetarian, egg free, wheat free, gluten free, yeast free, sugar free & dairy free)
- Chicken spring rolls (from the Asian food market via out of town guests (dairy free)
- Wasabi Peanuts which are amazingly addictive from the Asian food market via out of town guests (vegetarian & dairy free)
- Koftas from the amazing encyclopedia of vegetarian recipes which resides in the head of one guest! (vegetarian & dairy free)
- Jacob's Mediterranean flavoured crackers with regular hummus & sun dried tomato & olive hummus (vegetarian & dairy free)
- Raspberry Crumble squares substituted with vegan margarine (vegetarian & dairy free)
- Chocolate Chip & Brazil Nut Cookies from a improved and substituted recipe (vegetarian & dairy free)
- Flapjacks with Chocolate topping (vegetarian)
- Sweet Sesame Balls from the Asian food market via out of town guests (vegetarian & dairy free)
As you can see the variety was great and it just goes to show that eating and entertaining around your own and/or your friends' food allergies is easier than you might think . And remember kids: Just because it's Food-Allergy Free doesn't mean that it won't taste AMAZING!
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