Ok - reporting on the accidental buy of the Escalon Bella Rosa pasta sauce. Its ok/pretty good for a "jarred" sauce. I have 5 more cans and don't have a problem with eating them. I typically have used commercial pasta sauce in the past and actually had a thread about which ones people liked because I was finding that they were all sort of leaving me luke warm. I still like the convenience and still try them - trying to stick with the ones with short ingredient lists (i.e. no weird gums and chemical names) and no HFCS andnminor sugar. I posted the ingrediants of Bella Rosa above. I pulled an old half jar of Barilla out of the fridge. Barilla - diced tomatoes, tomato puree, basil, onions, sugar salt, olive oil, sunflower oil, garlic, natural flavor (whatever that means). Essentially the Bella Rosa fits in with many of the other jarred sauces but I don't see any reason to mail order more when mine is gone. The question becomes.... is this made with 6 N 1 tomatoes? Will I be underwhelmed by my expectations? I haven't ordered them yet but plan to.

Here is one that I found but haven't tried it yet. Through trial and error I came up with a great yeast free recipe for bread that all my friends have borrowed. It is easy to make with no other equipment than a wooden spoon and a bowl, and a good baking sheet (I prefer the ones that are airfilled so that the bottom doesn't burn). I'm in Canada and use 8oz= Cup =240ml and my teaspoon=5ml." Ingredients 3 Cups whole wheat flour (preferably stone ground) 4 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp salt 1 1/2 Cups liquid (I use rice milk or water but it works with any liquid) 1/4 Cup liquid fat (I've used melted milk free margarine but now I use olive oil) Mix dry ingredients. Do not sift the flour! Mix liquids and add to dry. Stir until there is no more dry flour. Shape into a ball or an oval, with oiled hands. Place on clean baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes at 400F/200C. "I often rub the dough ball with virgin olive oil and sprinkle sea salt and oregano for a foccacia flavor. For tea time, I add a tsp. Rapadura sugar which is pure cane sugar. The liquid can be replaced for orange or other fruit juice if the bread is to be used for teatime and you can even add dried chopped fruits. For a savory bread the liquid can be tomato juice and you can add chopped sundried tomatoes to the dough. Sprinkling of seeds in the dough or on top of the bread is also possible.

I'm saying a heartfelt hello to many familiar faces on this thread! Have been out of town/working and have missed everyone. Hope to have time to post more in the future. Ellie RK: We just had a breakfast similar to the one you're planning that included GF, DF, fodmap diet, chemo, etc. etc. etc. :) Oh, and I have a nut allergy:) It may have been a little more casual than your event, but all enjoyed. The basics: We had scrambled eggs (I used water in the eggs -- I always have), bacon, Canadian bacon, ham and sausage (lots of guys). I cut, diced, cooked, green/red peppers, onions, and mushrooms. I also made some salsa. I had some cheese. I made sourdough bread, dairy-free sourdough English muffins (below), bought GF bread from Trader Jo, corn tortillas and then made dairy-free banana muffins (below). We had salads, fruit and I wished I would have done potatoes but I was transporting this to mom's house and ran out of laundry baskets:) I loved watching everyone make their plates. Lots made breakfast sandwiches, other were "separatists", my dear friend on chemo just wanted toasted English muffins with grape jelly (yeah! I can do that). I had prepared a more formal luncheon for a larger crew the weekend before (pulled pork, salads, desserts) and "deconstructing" is probably the most efficient way to serve many different needs. Banana muffin recipe using dairy-free margarine: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/17652/banana-crumb-muffins/ Sourdough English muffins dairy-free (I made mine wheat): http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2012/04/sourdough-english-muffins/ As an aside, the banana muffin picture was sent to my son at school. His response: "I like the crumb to cake ratio":) And yep, too many pictures hanging on the phone:) Also, why did no one tell me about bacon in the oven?????? Oh my word -- I fairly danced when that worked! Good luck -- I know everyone will enjoy your heartfelt efforts (that's the important thing:) Cathy in SWPA

Kate, Apologies for not reading all the previous answers. I'm short of time. I've done a lot of dairy free baking and there's no problem. As others have said, you can substitute water for milk in most things. If the recipes calls for whole milk, you can add a dab more fat to compensate. Margarine will give you a different crumb than butter. Butter gives you the "melt in the mouth" feel of certain crisp cookies. For most cookies, cakes, etc., it works just fine. To get a good outcome, however, you must use "baking sticks", which have 100 Calories per serving (I think that's one ounce). I haven't done pie crust with this, though I have used 0 trans fat vegetable shortening. With shortening, I think there's an odd flavor--really flavorlessness--that requires a little something tasty in the pastry. Any margarine that's labeled "vegan" or has a kosher signiture mark and "parve" or "pareve" has no dairy in it. I use Earth Balance soy free (red label), but I'd assume that any of their baking sticks would be of similar quality. I also use their soft version for things like adding a dab to a vegetable, corn on the cob, potatoes, etc., for non-dairy or non-animal uses. I really dislike nut milks. Soy isn't so bad if absolutely needed, but I'd rather do without milk altogether for most purposes. Hemp milk seems the best of them to me, but is hardest to find or make. Almond singles "cheese" aren't too awful for adding a cheese-like texture to sandwiches, but they aren't much better than that. There are some truly lovely nut cheeses, but nutritionally, they're very different from cheese, and should be used advisedly. Good luck with it all!