:: food lately ::

Having to adapt to a mostly vegan diet for Willem's allergies has been an interesting journey. Now, when I say 'vegan', it's not really vegan as I still eat meat. But having to omit eggs & dairy from my diet (along with peanuts, soy, gluten & now bananas) means that I need to type "vegan" into google when I want to make myself any snacks or desserts.

But although I cry 'poor me' most of the time, there is actually a-billion-and-one options out there. Raw cheesecakes (please Willem, don't let it be nuts next) in particular are all over the net and they are good.

I just had to share this Caramel Macadamia Cheesecake I made recently. Recipe for the Cheesecake came from the phone app "The Whole Pantry" (available for iPhone & Android, the only app I ever paid for. Great healthy recipes!). The caramel sauce for the top came from this recipe by "Wholefood Simply" (great website, been accessing it a lot).

The texture was fabulous.

And these are "Soft Thick Coconut-Flour Choc-Chips". Egg free, gluten free & sugar free. They are quite soft & moist, and worked really well. I added cacao nibs instead of choc-chips.

And one of my favourite discoveries, also by "Wholefood Simply", the raw Peppermint Slice. Everyone I've given it to has loved it, and said it was tastier than the 'real' thing!

Yep, sugar-free too!

So as you can see, I'm not exactly 'wasting away'. The hardest part of it is, even though I'm sooo careful now, we still get the odd flare up, while we are still working out all his trigger foods. It's so painful to watch him rub his little red face on everything he can in discomfort. Poor bubba. We have lots of good days, but right now, no matter how 'good' I am, we always seem to find another trigger. So it gets a bit depressing. But Willem is an amazingly happy boy even with his pain. In fact, he's just woken up from another 3 hour nap, so I will finish this off :). It's all worth it for him.

But my point is, no matter what your dietry restrictions are, food is AMAZING and there is something out there that YOU can eat! I'm living proof haha.

{edit: since writing this post (it's been in drafts for a while) I think Willem might be forcing me to give up cocoa/cacao next. Still to re-test and confirm this.}