A muffin for everyone

In my house cooking something that will satisfy the needs of everyone is always a challenge. My son has a severe milk protien allergy, I have celiac disease, and am allergic to soy and almonds as well. In my house, we know everything that is in our food, mostly because I have to cook everything from scratch in order to have something that we can all sit down and enjoy together. My project this weekend was to create banana muffins that we all could eat. I went searching for a good recipe for oatmeal banana muffins and came across one that was already gluten free, and with a few modifications I ended up with some really amazing muffins....for everyone.

Amazing oatmeal banana chocolate chip muffins

3 cups gluten free rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey or molassas
1 egg (you can substitute 1/4 cup of non-fat yogurt or applesauce for the egg if you are allergic)
1/4 cup oil (olive/canola/sunflower, etc)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 cup gluten free/dairyfree/soy free chocolate chips (I use enjoy life brands, you can substitute other things like raisins or nuts if you like)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Place paper liners in muffin tin, or grease and lightly dust with gluten free flour.

Place the 3 cups of oats into the food processor and process until it becomes a coarse flour. There should still be some fairly chunky pieces of oats in here, this gives the muffins a nice texture. Mix in the salt and baking soda and powder and set aside. If you are going to substitute applesauce or yogurt for the egg, add 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum to help hold the muffins together.

Mash the bananas, mix in the egg or egg substitute, brown sugar, honey or molassas and the oil and mix together well. Add the cinnamon and cloves, and the dry ingredients and mix batter until well moistened througout. Add in the chocolate chips or substitutions and mix throuroughly. Spoon batter into muffn cups to within 1/4 of the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean (apart from melted chocolate from chips).
These muffins keep well for 3-4 days wrapped and unrefrigerated. You could probably freeze them and keep them longer, if you try this, let me know how they keep!

The Trouble

Having Celiac disease and food allergies pose special challenges to all of us who have to navigate our way through life in public spaces. It also poses special challenges to those who are our friends, family, and new acquaintances. Having celiac disease and allergies has sensitized me so that whenever I have someone new who I am going to be responsible for feeding, the first thing I do is ask - is there anything you cannot - or will not - eat. I wish people would ask me this simple question before they make plans to feed me.

My first week as a master's student in sociology was spent recovering from well meaning peoples attempt to provide fare that would meet various needs for the new incoming graduate students - there was vegetarian offerings, non-vegetarian offerings, items for those who couldn't have sugar - but nothing that was sure to be gluten free. Asking one of the professors who has a gluten intolerance if she thought that anything was safe for me to eat, she pointed me in the direction of some risotto cakes from the local whole foods market. I looked at them, and could see nothing that would indicate gluten. Steered far away from the potstickers and cookies, grabbed one risotto cake and some raw veggies and tried to look like I was enjoying the party. No one had asked anyone if they had any special dietary needs prior to the occasion, so no special note was made to the caterers that they have anything safe for someone who could have no wheat.
I woke up the next morning with a horrible migraine and terrible stomach pain. It had been some months since the last time I got glutened, but I knew that the rice cakes were now suspect. I called the store to ask if they were indeed gluten free - and the chef looked the recipe up for me. She said that thier recipe in the computer did not have any ingredients that contained gluten, but she knew for a fact that the cooks liked to dust them with bread crumbs before cooking them.

It is not that anyone here did anything particularly bad - there were three small mistakes that were made that led to me being sick. First and foremost - I should know better than to eat anything that cannot be guaranteed clean, however in social settings it is really hard to just stand there and watch everyone else eat - so am I really ultimately to blame? Another mistake that was made was that the cook strayed from the accepted recipe that was in the computer. Perhaps the last time that they purchased these rice cakes they were actually gluten free so the professor asked was responding from previous knowlege that they were safe. The person planning the event neglected to ask if anyone who was coming had special dietary needs. You would think that since some food allergies can be rapidly fatal that it would be at least on the list of questions asked before feeding someone.
This event and all those normal everyday events where there was a chance to change the outcome - me sick for my first week of classes - gave me pause for thought. There are many, small, easy changes that could occur in our society that would make it not only safer, but more inviting for people with celiac disease and/or food allergies - it just doesn't occur to most people that it is neccessary. Or they just don't know anyone with an allergy or celiac disease so it never even occurs to them that maybe they should ask, or not deviate from a set recipe. That girl in the back who stands around eating nothing but the plain raw veggies and fruit, doesn't touch the cookies or the dressings or anything else - shes just picky, or crazy - its just food, it can't hurt you. But in the words of Lucretius - "What is food to one man, may be fierce poison to others".