Allergen-Free Family Cookbook: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Casein-Free, Soy-Free, and Nut-Free Recipes

by Erica Daniels, Kim Stagliano Rossi (Foreword by)

Overview

A mother's love letter to her son—featuring more than sixty gluten-, dairy-, soy-, casein-, and nut-free recipes. A portion of proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to autism research.

This heartfelt cookbook tells the story of a mother desperate to heal and connect with her hard-to-reach, severely autistic son, Leo, through the most vital everyday activity—cooking.

For many years, Erica Daniels had been out to find a successful dietary intervention for eleven-year-old Leo, who suffers from significant food allergies, gastrointestinal disease, and autism. Through trial and error in her own kitchen, she finally hit her gastronomic stride of preparing nourishing meals for her entire family without gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, additives, or GMOS—with Leo by her side.

Part cookbook and part love story, Cooking with Leo takes you into the real life messy kitchen of a family affected by autism and food allergies. You will laugh and cry along with Erica and Leo as they cook, create, dance, act silly, and, most importantly, bond. A family-inspired collection of over 60 allergen-free and autism diet–friendly recipes to be prepared and shared together by your whole family, you will make meaningful connections with your child and nurture their passion for cooking with nutritious recipes such as:

• Teff-Tough Honey Waffles
• Football Sunday Turkey Chili
• Grandma's Healing Chicken Soup
• Leo's Italian Artichokes
• Nanny's Rhubarb Sauce
• YouTube Organic Gummy Candies, and more!

Learn not only to cook nutritiously for your whole family, but also to connect with your children, find their gifts and develop their strengths, impart life skills, and tie the family together with healthy food and happy guts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781510769076
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	45 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Erica Daniels is an author, autism advocate, healthy cook, loud music lover, and single mother of Leo who struggles with autism, food allergies, and chronic health issues. Erica's life completely changed and gained new purpose after her son was diagnosed with autism in 2007. Raised on the Philadelphia Main Line, Erica is a true #phillygirl at heart who previously worked for Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia Magazine. Erica radiates Peace, Love, and All Things Autism. Erica currently lives with her two children Leo and Scarlett in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Kim Stagliano is a mother to three gorgeous girls who have autism. She is the author of All I Can Handle and House of Cards, and the managing editor of www.ageofautism.com. She lives in Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Introduction 1

The "A" Epidemic 9

"Special Diets" 15

Cooking with Leo 27

Here Comes the Sun 41

Easy Creamy Coconut Honey Yogurt 44

Quinoa Pancakes, Berries on Top Only 46

"Good Morning, Leo Thomas" Fruit Salad 48

Teff Tough Honey Waffles 50

Chicken and Apple Sausage Patties, Round Only 52

Scarlett's EZ-Cheezy Dairy-Free Eggs 54

Probiotic Breakfast Smoothies 56

Hot Fare 59

"Mom-Mom" Means Pot Roast 61

Thrifty, Tasty Turkey Thighs 64

Buddha Bowlz 68

Not-So-Fancy Lemon Tarragon Chicken 70

Scarlett's Favorite Paprika Chicken 74

Grandma's Beef Stew 76

Gluten-Free Dumplings 78

Football Sunday Turkey Chili 79

Baked Chicken Cutlets 84

Meatloaf and Sneaky Veggies 87

The Fiynn-Wich 91

Vernacchio Sausage and Peppers 93

Every Jewish Mother's Potted Chicken 96

Mena's Quick Spaghetti Sauce 99

Baked Ziti Party 101

If It Looks Like Mac and Cheese … 102

"Rice Krispie" Bone-In Pork Chops 104

EZ Gluten-Free Breadcrumbs 106

Italian-Style Gluten-Free Breadcrumbs 107

Krispie Crumbs 108

All Summer Long 111

Chicken on the Barbie 113

Corn on the Cob 115

Farmers' Market Grilled Veggies 116

One Side Is Enough 119

Leo's Italian Artichokes 123

Pickle Thief's Pickles 126

Eat as Much Kraut as You Like 127

You Had Me at Bacon … More Peas, Please 129

Rainbow Roasted Veggies 130

Italian-French Green Beans 132

Veggie S-ghetti 134

Sweet Rooties 135

Rooty Fries 138

Nanny's Sweet Rhubarb 140

Balsamic Shrooms 141

Lettuce Head 142

Erica's Heirloom Tomato Avocado Salad 144

Soups RX 151

Grandma's Healing Chicken Soup 153

Beef Bone Broth with Veggie Puree 156

Grandma's Legendary Chicken Salad 158

Holiday Fare 161

Three-Hour Brisket 164

Aunt Jackie's Pineapple Spoon Bread 166

Apricot Chicken 172

Crispy Green Bean Casserole 173

Glazed Honey Sweets 175

Be Thankful for Gluten-Free Stuffing 178

Holy Pineapple Glazed Ham 180

Aunt Shell's Sweet-and-Sour Balls 181

Pass the Latkes 183

Safe Sweets 185

YouTubc Gummies 187

Meringue Drops 189

Me Love Cookies 190

"Every Class Has a Kid with Food Allergies" Birthday Cupcakes 195

Peace of Mind Pops 200

Chocolate Love 202

Sweet and Salty Bananas 204

Ice Cream of Champions 205

How It All Happened 207

Karma (Thanks) 208

Conversion Charts 211

Index 212

Editorial Reviews

"You are the great love of my life, Leo Thomas Vernacchio. Raising you is a painstakingly beautiful journey of love. Letting go of my hopes and dreams for you is undeniably hard and my heart will always be a bit broken. Yet, I am eternally grateful for you and for the gifts you have blessed upon my heart, my life, and my soul. You give me purpose and passion, perspective and hope. You are my perfectly imperfect gift."
—Mommy

"Helpful hints and humorous bits, Cooking with Leo is not your usual cookbook fare. Parents of children with allergy and food issues, who struggle with the alphabet soup of diets (GFCF, SCD, GAPS, etc.), will find healthful food they can make for the whole family. Along the way Erica sprinkles tips for involving the kids and garnishes with a pinch of wit!"
—Ken Siri, author of Cutting Edge-Therapies for Autism

"If you're looking for recipes that will be healthy for your autistic child and your entire family, look no further. An easy-to-follow collection of recipes? Yes, Cooking with Leo is certainly that. But it is so, so, so much more. This book is a prescription on how to bring true joy to your relationship with both your autistic child . . . and with autism. . . . What Erica [Daniels] has done, simply by the nature of her golden heart, is find a way for all of us to relate to autism moms, dad, and kids. You cannot survive reading this book without being uplifted, inspired, and thoroughly educated about autism. What kind of cookbook makes you cry? This one will."
—Dr. James Lyons-Weiler, PhD, CEO and director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge

"No matter what the diagnosis, food is foundational to healing. While there are many amazing healing therapies and approaches for children on the autism spectrum, none will be as powerful or impactful if good nutrition is not also a part of the healing plan. For those who do not know much about nutrition or who never learned how to really cook, Cooking with Leo makes cooking nutritious and allergy-friendly food with your kids easy and fun. Erica Daniels reframes the notion of “special diets” by just calling them “healthy diets,” an important distinction that reminds us everyone should be eating this way! Transforming your way of cooking and eating will not only improve the health and symptoms of your child with autism, but the health of your entire family. For any family with a child on the autism spectrum, Cooking with Leo is square one. A perfect, nourishing, love-filled way to support the health and development of your child."
—Beth Lambert, Executive Director of Epidemic Answers and Documenting Hope, Author of A Compromised Generation

From the Publisher