Elimination Diet, Part 2: My Fave Recipes

Three weeks without eggs, dairy, soy, nightshades, nuts, corn and, obviously, gluten. Three weeks with my taste buds, normally pretty low key fellas, irately demanding every ingredient I couldn't eat. Three weeks of dietary boredom chipping away at my sanity.

And, finally, three weeks have past!

That means I can try out my Canyon Bakehouse samples!
Review and give away coming soon!

Now that I've earned the right of reintroduction (its own kind of adventure!), I want to do more than celebrate. I want to share my top elimination-diet-friendly recipes for everyone suffering from allergies, struggling through the same diet or looking for a simpler way of eating, to enjoy. An elimination diet is no small feat, but a few delicious recipes can make it just a little easier!

First comes breakfast. Now, I've always been a pancake girl. I've tried buckwheat before and the pancakes looked beautiful, but tasted too savory for my sweet tooth to take. So in struts the coconut flour pancakes, vegan-ized in a recipe from Casey's Wholesome Kitchen! 

My fave topping? Coconut Greek yogurt! YUM!

They aren't the easiest buggers to cook (though it could be my lack of flipping skills that make them so finicky!), but my stomach never complained! I used ground chia seeds instead of flax and subbed half a mashed banana for the recipe's solid sweeteners. My plate never ends up anything less than licked clean!

If you're more of a bread for breakfast kind of dude or dudette, check out Maxine at Gloriously Delicious. A week into my diet, I had three brown bananas slowly dying on the kitchen counter and was craving banana bread with the intensity of a hungry mama-to-be. So when I spotted this gem of a recipe (which, unlike 99% of coconut flour recipes, ditched the eggs), I went to work. 

I devoured it before taking a picture
 - so Maxine's gorgeous one will have to do!

I admit, when I popped my gooey, slightly lumpy dough into the oven, I wasn't overly optimistic. An hour later, though, and I couldn't believe my taste buds! Soft, moist and bursting with sweet banana flavor, my small loaf disappeared within two weeks. Surprisingly, my dad, a proud gluten-lover, was one of its biggest fans!

For me, though, the hardest meals to cook were lunch and dinner. Not only did it get repetitious, but I tried to eat the same as my family whenever possible. 

So, when my family demanded a pizza night, I knew I had to find some kind of substitute. I never imagined I'd stumble upon my favorite homemade pizza recipe so far! 

Close up of major YUM!

In the past, mom and I have tried a whole bunch of mixes. Bob's Red Mill. Pamela's. Even frozen pizza by Smart Flour. And while they tasted fine, with Pamela being our favorite blend, our stomachs still staged a slight revolt. Not with this recipe! No yeast, no eggs, no soy, no dairy, no problem! I can mix up the dough in a couple of minutes and the full recipe is enough to make two large pizzas. And by large, I mean that I finish off my one pizza after three servings. Score!

The crust was only the first step, though. My elimination diet also zilches dairy-filled cheese, tomatoes, and nut-filled pesto, so I dug into my purse for Daiya cheese and into my archived recipe bookmarks for Blissful Basil's "Superseed Pesto." The cheese, as most daiya products, tasted delicious to my dairy-deprived taste buds. The pesto, though, stole the show.

Pesto turkey burger!

Made with hemp and pumpkin seeds, along with the traditional pesto ingredients, it has the same spreadable texture as nut-based pestos. I added avocado to mine for extra creaminess and it turned out delicious! Tangy, thick and quickly whipped up in my Nutribullet! I don't think I'll ever go back to tomato sauce on pizza night, and any leftover pesto disappears quickly on my salmon, chicken, turkey burgers and salads!

The recipe that surprised me the most, though, was our pulled pork. I'm not a pork person. It's not that I don't like it - it's more that I've never learned what to do with it. Sick of my usual dinners, though, I grabbed some pork butt at the store and lugged out the crock pot. Although I couldn't use BBQ sauce on the elimination diet, I turned to Melissa's Slow Cooker Pulled Pork recipe.

The best sandwich ever!

One piggie massage (to spice it, of course) and four hours in the crock pot and a delicious smell invaded the kitchen! The pork nearly shredded itself and the spices tasted perfect, with BBQ sauce (which my family individually added) or without. As for me, I parked in Foodie Heaven by making a roasted sweet potato round sandwich filled with pulled pork, spinach and pesto. Hands down, the best dinner of my week!

No list of favorite recipes would be complete with dessert! As I've mentioned, coconut flour is a bucking bronco without any eggs to tame it. To placate my chocolate chip cookie craving, buckwheat flour came to the rescue! I actually tried three different recipes, but Megan's recipe is the standout!

All the cookies!!

Despite the name, buckwheat doesn't actually contain any wheat. With banana and dairy free chocolate chips, the cookies tasted sweet without being overwhelming. And once warmed up in the microwave for ten seconds? Gooey, chewy, chocolately goodness! I ended up multiplying the single-serving recipe by four because who only wants two cookies? Not this celiac!

This diet hasn't been easy, but I have no regrets. Early into the first few days, forbidden foods dominated my dreams. Ironically enough, now that I can slowly re-sink my teeth into potatoes, beans and corn, the craving has lessened. I still have a long reintroduction period to go, but I'm already sure of one thing: simplicity truly is best and these recipes prove it! The fact is, now that I've found them, these recipes can't escape my kitchen or belly! I hope they'll be welcome in yours too!



Have you ever explored gluten free vegan recipes? What are some of your favorite recipes? Comment below!