Holiday Recipes: Vegetarian, Egg-free, Dairy-free, Wheat-free, Gluten-free... And Delicious

Our daughter is allergic to wheat, corn, and eggs- and one of these ingredients is found in just about every boxed, canned, or otherwise packaged good you can buy at a grocery store. To add to the difficulties, she has mental disabilities as well, and so she does not understand why we can eat things that she cannot. Fortunately, she is of a happy disposition, so as long as she is eating something similar that she also likes, she doesn't mind too much if we have a slightly different menu.

Here are some of our favorite recipes for her- and her favorites, too, with suggestions for making them extra festive for the holiday season.

Appetizer:

Tofu Curry Dip(I promise neither you nor your guests will even recognize that the base to this dip is tofu rather than sour cream or some other dairy product)
Vegetarian because of the honey. Substitute another sweetener for a vegan version.

Blend in your blender:
1/2 cup soft tofu
1/4 cup olive (or other) oil
2 T. vinegar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 Tablespoon of curry powder (we use mild curry powder, and we like the curry flavor very much. You may prefer a spicier curry, and perhaps less of it)
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp garlic or more

Pour this into a pretty bowl and garnish with a radish rose and some fresh green parsley.

This is a delicious dip with raw veggies. We like to cut up carrots, turnips, jicama, celery, radishes, sweet peppers, and cauliflower to have with it. For an especially festive vegetable tray, limit your color pallette to reds, greens, and whites. Perhaps slice several red pappers into strips and put them next to raw snow peas and cut up cauliflower.

Maindish Soup:

Rainy Day Meatless Taco Soup
ten servings, so you can serve this at a dinner party, or freeze some for later
Vegetarian unless you use a cheese substitute

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 bell pepper- green or red
five cups cooked red beans
Quinoa or Kasha (1 cup)
2 cups cooked brown rice
4 pounds of canned, crushed tomatoes
water or broth
vegetarian bouillion powder
2 Tablespoons chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
mild green chiles (spicier versions if that is what you prefer)
cheese (optional)
corn (optional)

Saute 1 chopped onion and one chopped pepper (or about 1 cup of frozen peppers) in a large stock pot.

Add five cups of cooked red beans (approximately two or three cans, drained), 1 cup of quinoa or cooked kasha (kasha is made from buckwheat groats); 2 cups of cooked brown rice; 4 pounds of canned, crushed tomatoes (stewed will also work); 3 cups of water or broth, two tablespoons bouillion powder, two tablespoons of chili powder, salt and pepper to taste, and jalapeno chiles to taste (we are wimps, so we use one four ounce can of mild green chiles).

Cook until hot- this is good simmered all day, too. Because our daughter is allergice to corn, we set aside a bowl or two for her at this point and then add three cups of corn to the main pot for the rest of us, and cook until the corn is hot.

When ready to serve, ladle the soup into a bowl. Put a spoonful of cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese or cheese substitute on top of each bowl.

Serve with corn chips on the side for those who aren't allergic to corn. We give our daughter with allergies a rice cake or 'chips' made by melting a tablespoon of grated cheddar cheese on a skillet until it's a bit crispy.

Chips: you can cut corn tortillas into triangles and fry them yourself for home-made chips.

Dessert

These banana cookies are our daughter's favorite, and the rest of us like them, too. You can make them very festive for the holidays as well.

Ingredients:

3 mashed bananas
2 cups oats (some people with celiac disease can handle oats. Others cannot, so be careful. Our daughter doesn't have celiac disease and it isn't the gluten that bothers her)
1 cup chopped dried fruit
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix ingredients well, and drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Variations:
For the dried fruit you can use dates, raisins, diced dried apple, or craisins- any dried fruit, really. We like craisins for the holiday season.

When you drop them on the pan, you can take a few extra seconds to spread the cookie batter in a wreath shape and put two or three craisins together towards the bottom so it looks like a wreach with a bow.

Wheat, dairy, and egg free cookies

These are surprisingly tasty, and I don't really care for banana flavor. The banana chips in these give them a pleasant, nutty texture without having any nuts. Really tasty, I promise!

1 1/2 cups oat flour (grind rolled oats in your blender)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups rolled oats

1 cup crushed banana chips (put these through the blender as well)

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

3/4 cup melted butter, margarine, or shortening (coconut oil works)

4 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons apple sauce or mashed pumpkim

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together the sour cream, honey, and fat. Mix the flour and baking soda well ina bowl, stir in the oats the ground banana chips and the sugar. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well.

Drop by heaping teaspoons on a greased cookie sheet, leaving some space between cookies. Bake until lightly browned (about ten minutes). Cool on the pan. Remove when cool.

For a festive look, make an indentation in each unbaked cookkie dollop and then put a bit of strawberry jam or jelly on the top of each cookie before baking.

These are so yummy you'll be the envy of your non-allergic friends!