Three years ago I learned that gluten was my tummy’s enemy. About a year and a half ago, I realized that dairy was not my friend either. After cutting both out, I still had tummy issues. Not fun. Not fun at all.
I’ll spare you the details, but I’ve visited numerous doctors and with no success finally went to my second complementary medicine/naturopathic doctor. He was very helpful and had me take a food allergy test that came back full of life-changing news. In addition to gluten & dairy, I now also have to completely avoid: eggs, soy, peanuts, pecans, beans, & garlic for at least 6 months. This throws quite the wrench into my baking. No eggs? AND so many dairy free alternatives are jam packed with soy. Booo hiss.
Now, I don’t want a pity party. This gives me a good excuse to bake creatively. I’ve tried to make 3 different baked goods (brownies- fail, chocolate chip cookies- decent, oatmeal raisin cookies- yum!) in the past two days. I used this Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe from Gluten Free Goddess. I followed her directions and ingredients almost exactly, however I made the following substitutions: instead of 1/2 c brown rice flour I used a 1/2 c of white rice flour, instead of 1/2 c potato starch I used 1/2 c sweet rice flour, and instead of the 1/4 c vanilla powder I used 1/4 c brown rice flour. I also added about 1/4 c of allergen free chocolate chips- why not, right?
These cookies are very similar to what I remember an oatmeal raisin cookie tasting like. YUM!
If you have food allergies up the wazoo, I would love nothing more than to talk and exchange recipes. 
