Kid Approved: Recipe for Non-Dairy Yogurt

We're doing a food experiment in our house. We've long suspected that our daughter has some allergies (or, at least, intolerances - these are not life threatening). But we've been too tired and lazy to change much, other than limiting the amount of cow's milk that she drinks. She still consumes most other dairy products. We recently embarked on a strict diet with her, cutting out all dairy and any trace dairy in other foods (including casein). Lo and behold, we saw an improvement.

Despite the positive changes, I was finding the new diet a struggle. Our daughter's favourite foods include: cheese (all types), yogurt, sour cream and butter. She eats fruit, veggies and protein as well, but not with the same gusto.

So, my challenge has been to find some alternatives that are both tasty and don't break the bank. So far our one success has been fake butter. And no, I'm not talking about chemically-laden margarine laced with milk products; I mean this stuff - Earth Balance. Dairy-free AND soy-free, and given the thumbs up by picky kiddos everywhere!

Other products have been a giant failure. She hates Daiya "cheese," although we haven't tried to make pizza with the shredded variety yet. Another score for the garbage was coconut "yogurt." Blech!! It was jelly-like, a weird pale grey colour and FULL of sugar and additives. She also shunned my homemade almond milk, and still prefers the store-bought variety.

The holiday season arrived. We gave up for a couple of weeks and let her eat whatever she wanted, because food was everywhere, and I was tired of having nothing to offer her for snacks and/or lunch. There's only so much fruit, nuts and vegetable with hummus you can offer a kid before they ask for cheese and crackers.

Christmas day came, and Santa surprised me by leaving a big wrapped box under the tree. Inside I found a Blendtec blender, a kitchen gadget I've been swooning over for a while now. Other people spend hundreds of dollars on hair treatments, gym memberships, Ipads, Iphones and giant TVs. My weakness is kitchen gadgets.

Can I just say, this blender has truly changed my culinary life. Things that I've always dreamed of doing, I can now do in a matter of minutes!! I can make amazingly healthy smoothies, without all the floating chunkies that my hand-held blender used to leave. I can make all my own coconut milk and almond milk, and I can even blend up my favourite drinks (mmmm pina colada!!)

I've also discovered CASHEWS!! Almond milk is totally yummy, but a bit of a pain to make because you have to squeeze it through a nut bag (no, I'm not making this up). But cashews don't take any time at all. You soak them overnight, whiz them up with water, and voila!! Yummy, creamy, awesome milk. And the more digging I did, the more I discovered what I could make out of cashew milk.

In this post I'd like to share my successful Cashew Yogurt, adapted from this recipe at The Spunky Coconut.

First Step

Make the cashew milk! Soak nuts in water overnight, and then drain and rinse. Put them in your food processor or blender. Add 4 cups of water, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1tsp honey. Blend until smooth and frothy.

Second Step

Bring the 4 cups of cashew milk to a simmer in a saucepan.

Third Step

Whisk in 2 tsp of Gelatin dissolved in boiling water (one packet of Knox Gelatin worked for me). The instructions of how to dissolve the gelatin are on the packet. The Spunky Coconut mentions a substitute for vegetarians, but I haven't tried it, so not sure if it would work.

Fourth Step

Let the milk cool until it reaches about 90-92 degrees F (having a good book nearby to wait while it's cooling is a good idea, or just put the whole pot in the sink with cold water)

Fifth Step

Whisk in 3.5 tsps non-dairy probiotic. I used Inno-Vite DDS Original powdered probiotics. Basically, you need about 30 billion colony forming units, so just read the label on your favourite probiotics.

Sixth Step

Put the yogurt into a yogurt maker, oven with the oven light on (I have a "proof" setting on my oven), or in a cooler with something to keep it warm in there....hot water bottles etc. I've heard the yogurt maker is the easiest, but it's one gadget I don't own. Leave the yogurt overnight.

Seventh Step

In the morning, pour the yogurt (it will still be quite runny) into a container and refrigerate. When it is completely cool, it should have set and be thick and yummy. Sweeten with maple syrup, add fruit, vanilla, whatever!! Enjoy!

Misty Pratt is a mother of two girls, 1 and 4 years old. In her spare time she is a doula and childbirth educator. Follow her on Facebook or find out about her services here.

Welcome sponsor: Anna Belanger

by Lara I am the kind of person who holds all of my tension in my neck.  When I'm really stressed out... I can't turn my head, usually to the left.  It makes driving fairly risky and it's all round pretty inconvenient.

Enter Anna, who I was lucky enough to meet almost two years ago.  She and her staff at the Bank street clinic have not only kept my neck rotating for that whole time, but they are friendly and make me supremely comfortable.  Because I am also the kind of person who doesn't relax well and needs someone to talk me into relaxing ;)

This is an exciting time for Anna Belanger & Associates!  September 1 celebrates their 4th year in business but it is also the date they launch their second location, this one located 804 Greenbank in Barrhaven! As a special bonus, you can get $10 off your first massage at this new location if you book online by August 28 with code grow2013.) Fine print: only valid on one-hour massages.  One time use per client.

The Bank Street location is a women's only clinic, specializing in treating women of all ages and stages of life (pre and post natal massage... how I wish I'd known her then) and the Barrhaven location will be a family clinic so Dad, hubby, and grandpa can get a great massage too :)

To celebrate their 4th birthday they are having a great giveaway.  Anyone getting a treatment in the month of September can enter a draw for one of two prize packages:

Bank Street prize package

• a photography session from Sara McConnell Photography*
• a 1-hour massage**
• a prenatal yoga session from Little Lotus Yoga

Barrhaven prize package

• a photography session from Sara McConnell Photography*
• a 1-hour massage**
• an essential oils bundle

*Photography session is Appropriate for family (immediate), babies & children, couples, maternity, and cake smashes. 40 minutes long, includes 12 edited & retouched digital files of your choice. Outdoors or in studio, expires March 1, 2014 ** Massage vouchers expire March 1, 2014 **Prenatal Yoga voucher expires February 1, 2014**

The Allergic March

Earlier this month I wrote about the ups and downs of peanut allergy diagnosis in our family. On one medical visit for my son Dexter's lingering cough,  the doctor used a term I had not heard before, but have since come to know well, "The Allergic March". The Allergic March refers to a cluster of allergy-related diseases that occur in childhood. These often occur in a typical se­quence, appearing early in life, continuing for many years, but often disappearing or lessening with age.

Here is an example of a typical sequence of Allergic March conditions  and symptoms. My son's Allergic March followed this typical pattern:

1. Infant eczema
2. Food allergy
3. Environmental allergy and associated stuffy nose
4. Childhood asthma

In our case, the infant eczema was not severe. It appeared simply as very dry, chapped skin. Now, at age 7, he still gets very dry wrists and hands in the winter, but my home remedy of olive oil and aloe seems to help.

I have already written about the food allergy and while we had been cautious about introducing nuts early because of a familial predisposition to food allergies, I am sure we did not expect that he would actually have an allergy.

The asthma was a surprise and took several months to diagnose at the age of 5.

Dex never had what I would characterize as an asthma attack. It was simply a lingering dry cough for several months that bothered him at night and upon any, and I mean ANY, physical exertion. For instance, a 10 minute walk to school would set off a cough every 10 seconds for a good hour.

On a vacation to Mexico, I finally clued in to the cough's duration and implications when I kept asking him to sit down for a minute until he stopped coughing. At one point in my life I suffered from exercise-induced asthma, and genius that I am, I had never made the connection between my post-exercise coughing asthma fits and his.

Treatment with inhaled-corticosteroids (flovent in the orange puffer), was effective within 2 weeks and he stayed on the medication until the end of that winter.

Since then, the asthma seems to only show up after he has a cold. That annoying cough comes back. We have explored various treatments with both our family doctor and our allergist. We were given the following therapies to consider:

1) Singulair - a once daily pill

2) Flovent (fluticasone: orange puffer) - an inhaled corticosteroid taken once-daily

3) Ventolin (salbutamol: blue puffer) - taken as needed up to 4 times per week, sometimes more during a cold.

We looked at the various options. Singulair, while not a steroid and good prevention, has some rare mood-altering side effects. Our son is moody on his best days and this slight risk was a strong deterrent for us.

Inhaled corticosteroids were effective for us, but studies have shown that long-term use of Flovent can cause statistically significant differences in height. My husband wants my son to play in the NBA (or at least the NBL), so growing to his full potential is important to us.

We have chosen option number 3. Dex uses his blue puffer (Ventolin) during a cold to prevent coughing and bronchial irritation. He uses it no more than four times a week before hockey games or practices where the cold plus the exercise is likely to set him off coughing. So far this year, we are happy with this course of action.

So, asthma under control for now, we now march on to the next issues: the anxiety associated with the food allergy and the recommended influenza immunization (flu shot) which will bring on an anxiety of its own. Stay tuned.

While this describes our family's account of asthma diagnosis, treatment, and management, every individual is different. Please consult with your family physician for any asthma or allergy-related concerns.

References:

1. A Liu. The Allergic March of Childhood. Medical Scientific Update: The National Jewish Medical and Research Center. 2006; 23(1):1-7.
2. The Canadian Lung Association
3. BR Gordon. The allergic march: can we prevent allergies and asthma? Otolaryngol Clin North Am. 2011;44(3):765-77.

Liisa is mom to 2 boys, ages 5 and 7. She is a medical writer and a book lover. She blogs at FitforKid.net andLittleBookLovers.Wordpress.com.