By Jennifer Hurst

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2009, my head was spinning! To then be told to cut wheat, gluten, dairy, and soy from my diet, say what??! Never one to be held back from the foods that I love by something as silly as allergies and food sensitivities, I decided to research, recreate, and test these new-to-me foods.

What I did find, is that this way of eating is pretty easy. Just eat REAL FOOD! {2 easy words} After almost 5 years I am here to share my tricks.  Throw in some great tips on planning ahead and making eating with restrictions manageable and darn near delicious. Below are some alternative and tasty recipes for those with food sensivities and allergies.

Pumpkin Bread

If you dream Pumpkin… this one’s for you.. This moist, gluten free, dairy free pumpkin bread is made with high protein almond flour, and it’s QUICK! This is a great choice for breakfast.

Ingredients:
~ 1 cup blanched almond flour
~ ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt  ½ teaspoon baking soda
~ 2  tablespoon  Pumpkin Pie Spice {I use Trader Joe’s}
~ ½ cup pumpkin
~ 2 tablespoons honey
~ 3 large eggs
~ Additions if wanted – ½ cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks, or ½ cup golden raisins. I am a bit of a purest when it comes to Pumpkin Bread, so no additions for me!

Steps:
~ In a food processor, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda and spices
~ Add pumpkin, honey and eggs and pulse for 2 minutes
~ Add additions if using.
~ Scoop batter into a mini loaf pan
~ Bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes
~ Cool for 1 hour
~ Please note: If you use a loaf pan that’s bigger than the size recommended above, your loaf of bread will not “rise.” ~ Keep this bread in the fridge for up to a week. Great bread to make on Sunday food prep day, and then add to the kids lunches all week.

Coconut Chocolate Brownies

Not gonna lie. No matter what restrictions I face it’s ALL okay when I can have chocolate. This reminds me of a Mounds Bar. This recipe makes a big pan. I cut and individually freeze ½ of this batch right away. Doing this allows me to only need to back 1 to 2 times a month.

Ingredients:
~ 8oz. Almond Butter
~ 8oz. Coconut Manna- Flesh and fat {I use Nutiva}
~ 2 eggs
~ 1 cup honey
~ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
~ ½ cup cacao powder
~ ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
~ 1 teaspoon baking soda
~ 1 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chunks

Steps:
~ In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth with a hand blender
~Blend in eggs, then blend in agave and vanilla
~ Blend in cacao, salt and baking soda, then fold in chocolate chips
~ Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish
~ Pour batter into dish
~ Bake at 325° for 25-40 minutes
~ Makes about 24 brownies

Sunday Bison Burger

All I can say about this one… it’s Fan-stikin-tastic!

Ingredients:
~ 1 ½ pounds Fresh Ground Bison
~ ½ pound Bacon
~ 1 Head Live Lettuce
~ 2 Avocados
~ 3 Parsnips
~ Olive Oil for frying

Steps:
~ Grill up 4 burgers as big as your face
~ Fry up some Bacon
~ Thinly Slice the Parsnips
~ Mash up you Avocados with some salt and pepper
~ In a deep skillet, heat olive oil and fry up your parsnips.

Now create your burger tower…

~ 2 leaves Lettuce
~ 1 burger
~ 2 slices bacon
~ Huge scoop Avocado Mash
~ Top with fried Parsnips