Pulled Pork { Bar-B-Que }

Pulled Pork with Rice, Green Beans, Oat Bread Roll & Sweet Tea

Here's what you need:
4 lbs pork roast (shoulder or butt)
2 large onions
1 cup ginger ale
1 (18 ounce) bottle favorite barbecue sauce (I like Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic)

*a note about bbq sauce... be sure to read your labels carefully... if you're eating soy free, beware of ingredients such as smoke flavor or natural flavors, worcestershire or vegetable flavors.

1. Slice one onion and place in crock pot.
2. Put in the roast and cover with the other onion, sliced. Pour over the ginger ale. Cover and cook on LOW. Cook times vary greatly from crockpot to crockpot.
     (I ended up cooking mine for like 10 hours.... )



You'll know it's done when the pork easily falls apart when you poke it with a fork.  Before it gets to that point, it will be rubbery... let it cook longer and it will fall apart :)



3. Remove the meat, strain, discard all liquid. With two forks, shred the meat, discarding any remaining fat, bones or skin. Most of the fat will have melted away.



4. You can return the shredded meat and the onions to the crock pot and stir in the barbecue sauce.
Continue to cook for another 30 minutes on LOW.
(I prefer not to simmer in the sauce... I just add the sauce when served.)

5. Serve by itself or with dairy/soy free hamburger buns and additional barbecue sauce.
I make rolls from this recipe :)
Any leftovers freeze well.



I put the leftovers in freezer bags and stick 'em in the freezer.  It's great to have dairy/soy free BBQ to pull out whenever you need a quick meal. 



Makes great BBQ sandwiches!



Here's the sauce I like :) 






Pulled Pork

4 lbs pork roast (shoulder or butt)
2 large onions
1 cup ginger ale
1 (18 ounce) bottle favorite barbecue sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray's)

1. Slice one onion and place in crock pot.
2. Put in the roast and cover with the other onion, sliced. Pour over the ginger ale. Cover and cook on LOW. Cook times vary greatly from crockpot to crockpot.
3. Remove the meat, strain and save the onions, discard all liquid. With two forks, shred the meat, discarding any remaining fat, bones or skin. Most of the fat will have melted away.
4. Return the shredded meat and the onions to the crock pot, stir in the barbecue sauce. Continue to cook for another 30 minutes on LOW.
5. Serve with dairy/soy free hamburger buns and additional barbecue sauce.
Any leftovers freeze well.

    This recipe was shared by milkin' mama, Leslie, who, in my opinion, deserves a milkin' mama medal, because not only does she eat dairy/soy free for baby while she's nursing, but she also has to eat gluten free herself all the time!  That's a lot of free, and not a whole lot of freedom in the eatin' department.  That's some serious dedication!  An example for us all!  Thanks for sharing your yummy recipes, Leslie!! :) 

Turkey Wrapped Asparagus

Turkey wrapped asparagus is yum.  It's easy.  It's healthy.  It's good. 

I rinse and then I snap the ends off of a bunch of asparagus.
I saw on a cooking show once that asparagus spears are meant to be snapped, not cut.
So, SNAP, I say!  :)

Then I blanch the asparagus in a little sauce pan for a few minutes.  (If you do it too long, they will get squishy- so don't over blanch) Blanch is just a fancy word for "put the food in a little boiling water for a few minutes and then run it under cold water." It's also one of the Golden Girls. 

Then I take a piece or half a piece of Boars Head Maple Glaze Turkey and wrap it around a spear or two of asparagus. 

Make up a pile and keep 'em in the 'fridge.

Yep, it's good! :)

The Very Best Bread of All....

I think there's this misconception about baking bread-- that it's something hard to do or that it has to be some big deal to make it.  I love baking bread for lots of reasons, but in this season of life, it's mainly because I haven't found a reliable dairy and soy free store-bought bread and I'm not about to go a year (or however long we end up nursing) without bread.  That's just too much to ask of a girl! 

So I give you...
The Very Best Bread of All!



We LIVE off of this stuff around our house. I don't know what I would have done were it not for this wonderful recipe! I've included the basic recipe and then the tweaks I've made over time along with a few suggestions that I've found helpful. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we have...

You can make this dough in a bread machine (I just have a cheap-o Oster machine from walmart and it works great!) or you can do it by hand. 


Oat Bread
2 and 1/2 cups of water (cold if using a machine, warm if by hand)
1 cup of oats
1/2 cup of whole wheat
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3 TBSP canola oil
5 cups white bread flour
1 pkg yeast (2 and 1/4 tsp jar)


Machine:
*Put in bread machine in the order listed and set to dough cycle, allow it to rise in the machine (it will be huge)

By hand:
* knead til smooth- 5-10 min.
*double covered in a big bowl (1-1 and 1/2 hours)



*preheat the oven to 350

*After dough has finished rising, punch down, cut in half, shape like loaf, put into two greased loaf pans (I rub canola oil around the pan with a paper towel)




 

*allow the dough to rise (roughly double) in the pans for 30 min.
(I put the pans on the stove and cover them with a towel that covers the front of the oven as well.  This traps a little of the heat under the towel and helps them rise. 
When the towel that I've covered it with gets a little hill, I know it's time to stick them in the oven :) )



*bake 30 min at 350

Take out of the oven, allow them to cool in the pans for a few minutes...



and then completely on a rack...






That's all there is to it!  Give it a try! 




Here's some tips I've found along the way:

*Makes DELICIOUS cinnamon toast and when it starts getting a little dry- french toast! :) But my dear hubby just prefers it with lots of plain ole butter nuked in the microwave for a few secs!
And now that I've discovered Dairy and Soy Free BUTTER, I enjoy it that way too!!
We also make sandwiches out of it!



*Another option is to wrap one of the loaves in saran wrap and then in aluminum foil and freeze it. Thaw it in the fridge for a day before putting it out. It's really pretty good this way- a little dry- but excellent for toast or french toast!

This is what my counter looks like when I'm making bread:
{note the little basket of ingredients on the left}



I have a basket that I keep all of my bread ingredients in.  That way, when I go to make bread, instead of hunting down all the ingredients, I just grab the basket! 




In the containers in the basket, I have the measuring cups that I use for each part of the recipe.  That way I don't have to wash the measuring cups each time I make bread, or hunt down the right size.  It's just cuts down on the process of it all....



I buy bread machine yeast in the jars.  Just be sure to keep it in the fridge, not in the bread basket :)



Since this recipe makes two loaves, sometimes I'll make just one loaf of bread and instead of using the remaining dough for another loaf, I'll form it into buns (just balls of dough smashed flat) for use as hamburger or BBQ buns. 



There's also a correlation between milk supply and oatmeal, (as discussed in this article) so eating oat bread could have some added benefits to a milkin' mama! :)

And lately I've been storing the bread in a tupperware container with press and seal saran wrap on top, just like I do my banana bread . In order to keep it moist, I cut the end piece and keep it pressed against the remaining loaf.



The hardest part is waiting for the bread to cool enough to slice :)



This bread rocks my dairy/soy free world! :)

Pretzels and Peanut Butter { My go-to snack }

This is one of those staples in my dairy soy free diet, that I simply couldn't do without. 

I eat them in a house
I eat them with a mouse.
I eat them here and there,
Say! I eat them ANYWHERE! :)

Peanut Butter in general is a life saver.

Protein without cooking. Whoop!

Just make sure that your PB doesn't have soybean oil in it.  I'd say go with either the Skippy Natural or the Smart Balance.  They are made without soybean oil and I'm a fan of the taste. 

Also, when getting pretzels, be sure to avoid the flavored ones that have sneaky dairy and soy ingredients.  I love the Snyders snaps. They are safe :)

This is a super snack to keep in the car or diaper bag for when you're out and about and STARVING. 
Or in and around and STARVING.
OR just in general STARVING.

Because lets face it, you don't always have time to cook to eat, sometimes you gotta grab and go!  :)

Cold Succotash (Corn and Bean salad)

This recipe comes from a fellow milk'n mama, who just happens to be my bff, Kell.  Hop on over to her blog and show her some dairy/soy free love! 


Succotash is really any dish that has corn and beans in it... there are all sorts of variations on succotash, but this one is great, because it's cold, dairy & soy free, quick, easy, tasty and filling!

For this recipe, you'll need:



Some dairy/soy free bacon
Dairy/Soy free mayonnaise
A can of white shoepeg corn
A bag of frozen baby lima beans


Cook half the bag of baby limas according to the directions on the bag.  (Be careful not to overcook.)
If you want to use the whole bag, just throw in another can of corn.  (That math takes skill!) 
Cook the Bacon
Drain and rinse cooked beans under cold water
Drain corn
Combine all ingredients, adding as much mayo and bacon to the beans as corn as you like! 

Easy Peasy and Yummy good! :)

Goes great with a boars head, maple glazed turkey pita, with briannas poppyseed dressing and some grapes :)

Bacon, Eggs, and Grits

Bacon, scrambled eggs, grits and OJ.

Easy and GOOD!

I cook my eggs in canola oil and use some of the bacon drippings to flavor my grits.  

(Don't hate...  It isn't like butter and cheese are fat free- and those aren't allowed around here!)

Just be sure to check for dairy ingredients on the bacon label.  I like Oscar Meyer centercut bacon.  :)

Quick Brown Rice Pilaf

If you're looking for a quick, filling dish, brown rice is always a good option, but sometimes, it can be a little.. bland. 

SO... why not kick it up a notch by boiling your bag in chicken broth instead of water?!
It certainly gives it a little more flavor.. which is nice when you're eating dairy/soy free.  :)



The precooked/boil in bag rice isn't as healthy as normal rice, but when you're cooking every meal from scratch, and nursing a baby and tryin' to keep from getting buried under your ever enlarging LAUNDRY pile... it's ok to go with the boil in bag, rice.  It just is. 

Do read the label on your chicken broth to make sure there isn't any sneaky dairy or soy ingredients in it.  ("Vegetable" of unnamed origin is often soy.) 


I used one bag of boil in bag brown rice and the full four cups of chicken broth and boiled for 10 minutes.  I add some extra salt. 

And you can always throw some of your Souvlaki chicken in it if you have some on hand!  

Cherrios in my cup

Honey Nut Cheerios are dairy & soy free!  Yippee! 

I like 'em with either almond milk or coconut milk.

And I like 'em out of a cup.  

Growing up, my dad taught me the benefits of eating cereal out of a cup:

It's portable, you can drink the milk easily out once the cereal is gone, and you look cool doing it.

But I warn you... once you try it, you may never eat cereal out of a bowl again!

Happy cereal out of a cup, eating! :)

Brianna's Homestyle Rich Poppyseed Dressing

I have no idea why I even checked. 
Everything that is creamy has dairy in it. 
Brianna's Homestyle Rich Poppyseed Dressing does NOT! 
Dairy-Free, Soy-Free!

Hallelujah!

I eat this on my salads at home, and carry it to restaurants, and put it on my turkey pitas, and sleep with it tucked under my arm.

I love it and eat it on everything!  It's way to add a little flair to your dairy/soy free life! :)

Spinach Salad

Ok, so I know that you might be like, "Duh, Salads are dairy and soy free!"  But just bear with me. 
There are salads, and then there are SALADS, ya, know?!

My favorite (easy) Dairy/Soy free SALAD is comprised of:

Baby Spinach
Fresh Tomatoes
Bacon (read your labels here, and beware of sneaky dairy/soy ingredients)
Boiled Eggs
Brianna's Homestyle Rich Poppyseed Dressing

It's good,  I'm tellin ya!

Grits

Orange Juice, Silk Brand Dark Chocolate Almond Milk, Turkey Omelet and Grits

Grits are dairy and soy free! 
You can pair them with some eggs or a turkey omelet. 
They make for a filling breakfast! :) 

Tuna Salad

tuna salad pita with cape cod original potato chips

When I'm eating without restrictions, tuna salad probably isn't one of my go-to meals...
but can I just say that when I'm eating dairy/soy free, I LOVE a tuna salad pita?!

It's quick and meaty and filling.
It's easy to keep the ingredients on hand.
And there's no cooking involved.

If you're eating dairy free for baby, then you've got a little one (or ONES) to tend to... there's not time to spend slaving over the stove for LUNCH.

So, I give you... the Tuna Salad Pita! 



Canola Mayonnaise
     (The only two brands of Mayonnaise I've found that are soy-free are Hain Canola 
     and Spectrum Canola Mayo- I've found these at Publix or Kroger)
Sweet Relish
Starkist Yellowfin Tuna packed in Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Toufayan Pita Bread

A note about tuna...

Most tuna is packed with "vegetable broth" (check the label). More often than not, the vegetable used in that broth is soybean. (much like the vegetable in "vegetable oil" is most commonly soybean)  Even though the allergens listed on a can of tuna do not list soy, MSPI nurslings can have an adverse reaction to the trace amount of soy protein in packaged tuna.  Don't shoot yourself in the dairy/soy free foot (or breast! ha!) by buying the wrong tuna.  Educate yourself!  And go forth and buy soy-free tuna!

Look for tuna packaged in olive oil instead of vegetable broth

No Vegetable (soy) Broth, here!

Mix the ingredients in a bowl... add as much or as little as you like of the mayo and relish.

You can also beef it up a bit by chopping up a boiled egg in there.

(No, eggs are NOT dairy! They come from chickens! Not cows! Even though they are oftentimes found in the "dairy case" at the grocery store... you'll be amazed how many people are surprised by the fact that they are indeed "dairy free!" )



Tuna Salad on a pita! .... quick, easy, slightly smelly, but tasty lunch! :)

Might I suggest following up your tuna salad lunch
with a tasty Dairy/Soy Free mint, such as a tic-tac! :)