Allergen-free baking success!

According to a blood test I did three years ago I have "delayed-onset hypersensitivity" food allergies to gluten, dairy, eggs, beef, yeast, and sugar cane.  I had eaten these things all my life, but I found that when I stopped eating them (cold turkey, hard core, really did not eat any of it, no cheating), for the first time that I could remember I had consistent and plentiful energy, fewer and less extreme mood swings, and no digestive pains.  This is not an easy diet to maintain, and since I don't have an anaphylactic reaction to any of it, I "cheat" regularly, but try to stay pretty strict in terms of what I make for the family at home (I've noticed that the girls do better on my allergen-free diet as well, but they have not been tested).

Anyway, all that as an introduction to say that I have found allergen-free baking to be HARD.  Sure, there are plenty of straightforward recipes online and it is easy to learn about all the substitute ingredients you can use, but to get a gluten-, egg-, butter-, milk-, sugar cane-free muffin to taste like what my brain says a muffin should taste like is the hard part.  So that's why the photos below are worthy of a blog post on this blog that has nothing to do with baking - I have finally had not one, but TWO successes!  I have had small successes in the past, but these two baked goods have turned out good multiple times REALLY taste like the REAL things and still taste good the next day and the next week after being in the freezer.  So I am very happy about them.  

May I present Orange Scones:

And Banana Bread or Banana Muffins:

And the only thing normal in them is the fruit, and the olive oil in the muffins! 

(I wasn't going to bore you all with the recipes, but in anyone who wants them just let me know.)

(And, to be honest, since I took these photos back in February, I have been craving everything that is bad for me - sugar, gluten, dairy, any and all of it. And I have been eating all of it.  Lots of it.  And it is probably one reason I have been feeling so tired and yucky.  I'm going to claim that it is all the baby's fault.  It has nothing to do with my emotional state of mind or lack of self control.)