Alisa Fleming ~ Getting a jump start on cold and flu season doesn’t necessarily mean piping hot bowls of chicken soup. According to the World’s Healthiest Foods, “If one mineral were awarded first prize for its beneficial effects on immune function, it would be zinc. A cofactor in a wide variety of enzymatic reactions, zinc is critical to immune function and wound healing.” Fortunately, miso, a food often thought of as just a Japanese condiment, is a good source of zinc along with copper and manganese, two other trace minerals that are essential for energy production and antioxidant defenses. But miso is best handled with care, as heating it can destroy many of its health benefits.

Enter Ani, raw food guru, and her latest cookbook, Ani’s Raw Food Asia. She has harnessed the power of miso and several healthy greens in an uncooked version of miso soup. Her recipe is below, but I want to add a few quick notes before you jump right in:

Soy-Free: Many people assume that miso is always a soy-based food, but there are many varieties that are soy-free. Miso fermented from brown rice, chickpeas, or barley is fairly easy to find in North America, at natural food stores, online, or even in some conventional grocers. In Asia, you can even find millet- or rye-based miso paste.

When the publisher of World Vegan Feast said I could choose from any recipe in the book to feature, I thought it only fitting to pick one from where "the world begins" from the perspective of the author. Bryanna Clark Grogan is a native of British Columbia in Canada, and the Nanaimo Bar is a huge tradition in her neck of the woods. These are amazingly decadent bars, but typically loaded with dairy, and perhaps an egg or two. Bryanna not only veganized the original, but she also made it a bit healthier and a bit less sweet (trust me, this is a good thing - one Nanaimo Bar can usually be a sugar overload!). Since my husband grew up in British Columbia, I'm very familiar with this amazing treat, and elated to share this incredible dairy-free version with you today. Take it away Bryanna ...

If you are Canadian or live near the Canadian border, you already know about sweet, gooey, coconut and-chocolate-laden Nanaimo Bars! I have always found them too sweet, so I developed this “grown-up” vegan Nanaimo Bar recipe. The addition of the cocoa nibs in the base gives the bars extra crunch and a slightly bitter edge that counteracts the sweetness. Dark chocolate ganache and coffee liqueur add the “grown-up” elements. I also cut the fat content and use flax seed as an egg replacer, which adds more nutrients. No one notices the nutrition, though – they are too busy oohing and ahhing over the contrasting flavors and textures!

Alisa Fleming ~ Earlier this year I met the amazing Carol Kicinski of Simply… Gluten-Free. She seems so professional and reserved on her gorgeous blog, but in person, she is super friendly, fun, and outgoing. This image carries over beautifully to her new cookbook, Simply … Gluten-free Desserts. It has a stunning, flawless design and is printed as a timeless hardback. But inside, once I got into it, I discovered recipes that were indulgent, inviting, and not the least bit pretentious.

Simply … Gluten-free Desserts is a treasure trove of gluten-free sweets. I nearly fell into a sugar coma just looking through it. This cookbook isn’t dairy-free by any means, but Carol has some really fun dairy-free recipes within (Dairy-free Cream Puffs? Yes please!). Plus, with the dairy substitutions that I outline in my book, almost every recipe is within limits. To note, like many gluten-free cookbooks, Simply … Gluten-free uses a lot of eggs, which might not be as easy to substitute in many of the recipes. Eggs work as an ideal binder when gluten is absent.

Alisa Fleming ~ Sending kids away, whether to camp or school for the first time, is a sad and nervous time for most parents. Add food allergies into the mix, and it can become downright scary. Will they be teased or harassed? Will they be able to eat safely? Will they make the right choices?

Fortunately, food allergy moms aren’t as alone as they might think. Thanks to media, whether in print or online, many have been able to share their experiences to make the food allergy journey easier for both parent and child. 

Below are some incredible resources that I highly recommend you look into for handling the social toll of back to school and beyond with food allergies. They cover both sides of the spectrum, concerned moms AND kids just wanting to be normal, and were created by two of the most vocal and caring people in the food allergy community ...