I have not made mashed potatoes since my girls went casein free, because I couldn't imagine that mashed potatoes free of milk, butter or sour cream would be worth bothering. But then I ran across this recipe in Bon Apetite and thought pears would definitely work. And they do! They lend a very subtle sweetness to the potatoes in such a way that I don't even miss the butter or the milk.

Recently I've subscribed to Living Without magazine. I really like reading it, and it's stuffed with many interesting recipes and tips for those living with food allergies. I tried their Kofta meatball recipe (with some modification) on my girls - happily, they got Anna's stamp of approval. I stuck the meatballs with toothpicks and called it Dinner on a Stick. Anna was impressed. Thankfully I can now add another item to the list of "Things Anna will Eat". And as anyone who feeds a picky eater with sensory issues knows...this is golden.

Fresh tortillas are the best, they taste great hot off the griddle. They hold up better than store bought corn or rice tortillas, too. Making your own tortillas sounds like a lot of work, but it's not.

This is an easy recipe to make, and the explosion of fresh fruit flavors tastes just like summer. You can modify the fruit filling to use whatever you have on hand (apples, nectarines, etc.). The topping is nice and light, and you will not miss the butter found in other cobblers, I promise.

Here I've adapted an old, favorite recipe for peanut butter cookies. We don't use peanut butter anymore because of Anna's peanut sensitivity, so I use either cashew butter or Sun Butter (made from sunflower seeds). Both of these nut butters yield great results - I'm sure almond butter would work well too. Happily, I can hardly tell the difference between these peanut free, GFCF cookies and the old recipe!

These savory pancakes have been a favorite recipe of mine for a long time. Serve them alongside salad for a light dinner, or serve them to compliment chicken or fish. They are good just by themselves, or try spooning a bit of mild green salsa on top.

Here is a pesto that makes my taste buds come alive - the combination of cilantro and lime juice is just divine. Even Anna likes it. And if a food gets the Anna stamp of approval, it has to be pretty good. She likes this pesto so much, she begs for it and eats it straight from a bowl with a spoon. And a bonus? Cilantro is supposed to be a natural chelator (see here and here). Who knew?

These black bean cakes come together in a snap and are easy to prepare. The recipe comes from Bon Apetite. I changed just a couple of things about it because I did not have the ingredients called for immediately on hand, and it still came out really good.

This blueberry buckle is so good! It is heavenly straight out of the oven and it's excellent the next morning as well. My kids are a little iffy about coffeecake, but they really enjoyed this. I've adapted the recipe from Cooking Light.

I found this recipe on another blog and decided to try it - we've really missed having graham crackers in the house. I was surprised and very happy to find that the end result tastes exactly like graham crackers! They look like graham crackers too, if you break one open and look at the crumb you'd never really know the difference between these and say, Honey Maid. The dough is a pleasure to work with, too - very forgiving and easy to handle. They smell great while they are baking. These crackers were fun to make and not as time-intensive as I thought they would be. You can find the original recipe here at In the Life of a Child.