Delicous milk, egg, peanut free brownies!

I found this delicious brownie recipe on Pinterest! What I love most about this recipe, because God knows I've gone through my share of brownie recipes, is that it's super easy and most of the ingredients are usually on hand! They have a gooey fudge like texture that my entire family loves!
http://www.littlehouseliving.com/ooey-gooey-brownies.html

When you get down on yourself, remember that you're fabulous!

So I find myself so exhausted these days, so run down.  Nobody said this mom thing was easy, I know this, so why do I constantly beat myself up?! 

So often I try to imagine how our life could be better and in doing that... I often forget about the blessings that we already have.  I've been so focused on what I haven't been able to give my children monetarily that I've forgotten about what I've given them already, my whole heart.  I given them the wonderful memories of  a good, caring and reliable mother.  As hard as it's been financially on our family over the last 12 years, I've been able to stay home and care for my children.  Something I never had as a child. I grew up with a single mom just trying to make ends meet. I felt her struggle every day.  

I've been so fixated on trying to give my children so much, all of the things I never had, and not realizing that I've done so much already!! I've made every single back to school night, every fund raiser event, every parent conference, everything.  Made every school lunch, tucked them in tightly each night.  Made fresh breakfast each morning. 

Yet why have I been so hard on myself?? Why do I continue to think I'm not giving them enough?? Why?? 

I'm often reminded of that famous Maya Angelou quote, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel".
I think when you stop and think about your childhood, it wasn't about the house you grew up in or the fancy clothes you wore, it's about how you felt.  My kids remind me everyday that they feel great. That should be enough, that will be enough.  I will choose to accept my failures but in the process...I will remind myself that there's no such thing as perfect, and that I'm a pretty fabulous mom!

A 12 year old boy and his quest to film his first documentary about food allergies!

This young boy is trying to raise money so that he can film is very own documentary about Food Allergies! Watch his video, and share it! I think he's an amazing young man trying to do a great thing for our community!

http://t.co/V0wupkGjE2

Support Group for Food Allergy Parents

Just thought I'd share this great support group for Food Allergy Parents at www.kinsights.com. Please use the invite code: foodallergy when signing up!
Kinsights is a great website for parents, check it out for yourself!
Here's the link to the support group:
https://kinsights.com/groups/59/support-for-food-allergy-moms-and-dads/

Freezing your baked goodies...

I can't tell you how many times I've had to make a "safe pizza", bake "safe cupcakes", frost them, wrap the gift and rush my daughter off to a birthday party! It's crazy and exhausting! Here's a simple tip that might help you avoid all that chaos!

On a weekend when you don't have a lot going on... bake cupcakes, frost them, sprinkle them (because it matters) and freeze them!  Yes freeze them!  When your child gets invited to their next party, you won't have to worry about a thing.  You can simply pull out your pre-made frozen cupcake,  thaw it for about an hour or two and it will be ready for your child to enjoy at their party.

It's hard enough running around having to look for a party gift, you don't need another thing to worry about!  Remember when it comes to food allergies planning ahead is your best tool.

Here we go on our wheat free journey!

Since our last allergy test, it was confirmed that Julia is also allergic to wheat.  I was amazed at the results because she has been eating wheat since she was a toddler.  The Dr. said that if she eats it now and it's not bothering her at all, there's no need to exclude wheat from her diet.  I was relieved yet kind of concerned.  Seeing that her test results showed that she was just not slightly allergic, but enough to cause discomfort, really puzzled me.  As I was leaving the Dr's office, I began to think, "was wheat really affecting Julia"?  I started to think about all the random headaches she gets, the unusual stomach aches that sometimes lead to vomiting, the constant mood swings.  Was this all because of wheat?  

Well, I did a my wheat free challenge to see if her symptoms subsided and sure enough, no headaches, no stomach aches and no nasty attitudes!  She seemed to be more happy and even seemed to have more energy!  So, naturally I had to give her wheat to see if in fact she would react differently.  She seemed to be fine until the evening.  Her nose began to feel congested, she felt very tired,  and grumpy again.  Next day, even worse.  She woke up with a headache and just didn't feel well all day.  So there you have it, my assumption of, "is it really wheat" was confirmed.  I knew it, something in my gut told me that my little girl was not happy and healthy for a reason.  

What I found to be crucial in dealing with children who have food allergies, is keeping a food diary.  Always writing down the food and reaction to the food is the best way to see how food is affecting your child.  It's also very important to keep up your allergy testing, so that you (unlike me) don't miss something important that might have changed in your child.  So here we go Milk, Egg, Peanut and now...Wheat free!  Wish me luck!

Radical New Treatment for Food Allergies

If you haven't already heard, Dr. Kari Nadeau is conducting a trial to desensitize children with multiple food allergies. As scary as it sounds, feeding your child the one thing you've been trying to avoid,  just might be the answer to solving this food allergy crisis!


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/magazine/can-a-radical-new-treatment-save-children-with-severe-allergies.html?smid=pl-share

Vitamix on QVC

With a milk allergy, you can't go to the ice cream shop for ice cream or  Jamba Juice for a smoothie.  BUT... with a Vitamix, you can make your own! 

Everyone knows how expensive they can be, trust me I know, I've done the research.  I've checked all the local department stores, online and at Costco.  QVC seems to be the least expensive and they also include the dry mix to make your own flours!  This is great for gluten free folks!  They are going to be selling the Vitamix again during their on-air special on March 22 from 6:00-7:00, check your local listings for time.   

The Vitamix is a great way to offer your children veggies and fruits that they normally wouldn't want to eat.  It is extremely nutritious to start your day with a fresh juice!  Not to mention all of the other things the Vitamix offers, homemade soups, dairy free ice cream, the possibilities are endless! 

With food allergies, you have limitations on what you can eat and so you might be missing some very important nutrients.  Juicing would would be an excellent way to offer your children all the vitamins that they need!

Well I know what I'm doing on March 22! Boy with all the plugging I've done for Vitamix, you'd think they would send me one for free!! 

Ice Cream Magic

We just bought this Ice Cream Maker and tried using it with rice milk, unfortunately it didn't work out.  We're kind of bummed but I suppose we'll stick to Philly Swirl Italian Ice for now.  So if you're looking to buy this product to make dairy free ice cream, save your money.  I'm afraid this will only produce ice cream with heavy cream like recommended. 

The Perfect Salmon Dinner

I searched high and low for a great salmon recipe, and boy did I find it!  I found Personal Chef Ingrid Beer's website where she had this amazing recipe among others.  First I checked to see if it was safe for my fa daughter and thankfully it was.  It is free of milk, egg, peanuts and it's absolutely the most delicious salmon dinner I've ever had!   Check out her website where you can find this great recipe!
http://thecozyapron.com/the-salmon-dance/

Simple Allergy free Dinner Recipe

I just had a reader ask me if I could submit some dinner ideas because she had a boyfriend with food allergies.  How thoughtful of her!   I can only pray that someday my daughters grow up to find someone that kind.

Well, as far as dinner recipes go, I basically keep it fresh and simple.  I cook whole foods, try to buy organic and I usually roast or grill instead of fry. 

As a kid, I spent many summer afternoons at my Portuguese grandmothers house.  She made everything from scratch.  Delicious soups, stews, you name it, it was simmering all day long.  Boy, did that house always smell amazing.   Before dinner, my grandmother would often ask me to go out in the yard and grab a bundle of fresh parsley that she grew among other herbs. Till today, if I smell fresh parsley it takes me back to being eight years old, running in my grandmothers backyard looking for herbs.  I knew that I wanted my children to have memories like that.  I take cooking to be one of the most important things that I offer my children.  I often tell them that you need to see plenty of different colors in your foods.  Color=Healthy!  Green, yellow, red, all of the nutrients that your body needs.  So with that being said, it doesn't need to be fussy and loaded with a ton of ingredients, keep it fresh and simple.

Here's a very simple steak dinner:

Grilled Tri-Tip, 
Grilled Zucchini 
Garlic roasted tiny potatoes

Ingredients:
Tri-Tip
Zucchinis (about 3)
Garlic (2 cloves)
Olive oil (I use extra virgin)
Tiny potatoes
Sea salt
Black cracked pepper
Fresh Parsley

Preheat oven to 400

Prep your veggies.  Slice your Zucchinis down the middle.  So in the end you should have 6 half pieces. Salt and pepper to taste.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Slice your tiny potatoes in half as well. Using a garlic press, put in two cloves of garlic. Salt and Pepper to taste and drizzle with olive oil.  Toss together.
I usually add fresh parsley, if your kids don't like it then omit the parsley.  I think it gives a good flavor and parsley has excellent health benefits!  I always add it when I can...

Salt and pepper your steak. 

Pop your potatoes in the oven first, and bake for about 20 -25 minutes or until fork tender.

Grill meat until medium rare.

Grill zucchini for about 5 minutes or less on each side.  Basically until done. This might vary depending on the size of the zucchini.  

So once your meat is ready, let it sit out for a bit to retain all the juices. Do not cut it right away.

That's it, I usually serve this with a good Merlot.  Of course the kiddos get juice;)

Enjoy!! Happy Grilling Season!

Mixed Blessings...

I suppose when it comes to food allergies, it's kind of like that old saying, "When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade". Yes, it's a fact that our children cannot eat certain foods and yes it can be difficult to make mostly everything homemade BUT, it's all how you look at it.  I have to say food allergies has been somewhat of a mixed blessing to our family.  It's forced me to really think about the foods that my children are eating.  I really think that it's made us a healthier family as well.  We try to eat more whole foods and less processed ones.  And when I think of it, most of my kids best childhood memories include us surrounded in the kitchen listening to music while we cook or bake.   Singing at the top of our lungs while building memories!  I'm not sure that I would have thought that much about food and the value in preparing your own meals had my daughter not had food allergies.  It can be difficult to see her have limitations on what she can eat, but we choose to make lemonade out of lemons! 

Breakfast ideas that are milk,egg and peanut free

Alright, I'll try to keep this list healthy folks!

All of these cereals can be served with rice, soy or almond milk.  We use enriched Rice Milk by Rice Dream in our home.

You must always, always check your ingredients before consuming anything.  Even though you are purchasing a product that you have already used, you must always check the ingredients before opening because they can change.  With that being said here are some foods that we enjoy.

• Chex Chocolate Flavored Cereal
• Cherrios Apple Cinnamon Flavored Cereal
• Cheerios Cereal with Honey or sliced bananas 
• Kix Cereal 
• The Food Allergy News Cookbook has a great (Sweet Oatmeal muffin recipe)
• Steel cut oats with fresh fruit
• Linda Coss has a great pancake recipe that never fails in her (What's to Eat cookbook)
• Chocolate Crescents (you can find the recipe here on my blog)
• Bacon and skillet fried potatoes (on a weekend) not the healthiest but, let's face it.. who doesn't love bacon? 

So that's what I serve at my home for my fa daughter.  Hopefully that helps.  Another helpful tip is to consider baking those delicious sweet oatmeal muffins when your leaving early for a long road trip.  I packed 12 of those muffins in an airtight container with Cold Orange juice in our food bag and the kids loved it!  Healthy and safe on the go! 

Cherrybrook Rewards

 

Here's something fun I thought I'd pass on to you.  Cherrybrook Kitchen offers these really neat rewards for purchasing their products.  We all know that allergy free foods can get a bit costly.  So this is a fun way to get rewarded for what you buy!  

It's called CBK rewards and it works like this:     

By collecting the bottom flaps of your boxes with the UPC code as shown above, you can earn rewards such as a cupcake container, lunch bag, free coupons, and etc..  

Having to send my daughter with a "safe" cupcake to birthday parties, the cupcake container would be awesome and that just requires 4 upc flaps!  Kudos to Cherrybrook for rewarding their customers!

                  

Ashamed of her food allergies...

At the beginning of the school year, Julia's Teacher explained to her fifth grade class how they would be celebrating birthday's.  Each student would have the opportunity to share about themselves for one week.   They could bring in treats to share and be lead helper for the entire week of their birthday.  They would each fill out a sheet of "My Favorite things" along with pictures of themselves and their families.  One of the questions are,"What's your favorite ice cream flavor?"   Since Julia is allergic to milk, how could she have a favorite ice cream flavor?  Her first question was, "Mom, what am I going to say?  I can't eat ice cream!  It's kind of embarrassing because whenever I tell people, they say that I'm weird.  I hate it.  I don't want to tell everyone about my allergy!" 

I felt horrible that she was ashamed of who she was.  After all, as much as I didn't want everyone to label her as "the girl with the food allergies", she does have them and they are a part of who she is.  I told her that maybe she could say lemon sorbet, that that really was her favorite flavor of ice cream.  Didn't that qualify??  It made sense in my head.  Her response to that was, "Mom, that's not ice cream and everyone will say so!  I'll look dumb!" 

She was angry as she is most of the time about her food allergies.  She often does the whole pity party thing.  I used to join in and wallow in her sorrows with her, until I realized that I was only enabling that whole unhappy with my life attitude.  I now snap her out of it and give her a dose of what I call my reality check.  I told her, "Julia, if you don't want to put lemon sorbet then don't, if you don't want to share about your food allergies then don't, but know this, it's who you are.  You are beautiful, you are creative, you are kind, incredibly smart and you DO have food allergies.  You should NEVER be ashamed of who you are.  It's what makes you YOU!  If you want to say, I left this blank because I am allergic to milk and I can't eat ice cream.  Then that's a great way to teach your friends about the seriousness of food allergies." 

She looked at me and paused for a moment, didn't say a thing for a while.  I was worried that I may have pushed too hard or said the wrong thing.  She looked up at me and said,"Mom, you're right!  I could say...Yeah I have food allergies.. just like Zooey Deschanel!"  I thought that was so sweet.  Her need to feel like someone else really made that moment okay with her.  That ability to relate to someone just like her was all she wanted.  I was so proud of her to feel empowered and brave about who she was.  I understand the need to feel like your peers at that age but when you have food allergies that can feel impossible at times.  I just hope that as the years go by, she gains confidence and feels less unhappy about who she is.  It's my dream for her to be proud, happy and NEVER ashamed of who she is.  Well, next week she gets to share, lets hope she's confidant and strong!

Allergy free Cole Slaw

Being that it's Labor Day weekend, I'm sure most of you are getting ready to light up the grill.  That means you'll need some delicious sides to go along with that bbq!  Well here you go!

Here is a light and healthy version of the traditional cole slaw which is also allergy free!



Ingredients:
please omit the sunflower seeds if you are allergic!

• 10 ounces shredded cabbage, about 8 cups
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot, about 1 large
• 1/4 cup roasted and unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Instructions

1.  In a large bowl combine the cabbage, carrot, sunflower seeds, chives and parsley.
2.  In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and brown sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking to blend.
3. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat well.
4. Chill before serving.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Number of servings (yield):8

A gratitude journal....

With all of the negative things that we can come up with on a daily basis, it's nice to end the day with gratitude for the great things going on in our lives.  I just saw this show the other day of a young boy who was battling a life threatening disease.  Every night before he went to bed he and his mom would write in his gratitude journal that he kept beside his bed.  It was the last thing that he would think of before he went to sleep every night.  I thought that was the most touching thing that I had ever seen.  Here is a little boy who was dealing with the fact that he might be dying, yet he had so much to be thankful for.  How extraordinary!  I thought, what a great idea.  We should try that at my house with Julia!  She always mentions to me how unfair she thinks her life is because of her limitations with food allergies.  Why not remind her of how lucky she is by making her think of what she is thankful for, everyday!

I believe this would really help keep your kids grounded and appreciative for the little things in life.  So, this weekend we will purchase some journals and get started on what we're thankful for!

This delicious and refreshing Lemonade cup has become one of Julia's favorite summertime treats!  Most grocery stores do carry them;)  If you happen to go Disneyland this summer, they carry it as well, most theme parks do!  Of course this treat is Milk-Free, Egg-Free and Peanut Free. 

Food Allergy Friendly Potato Salad

Growing up, I really enjoyed my Aunts famous Potato salad that was deliciously tossed with the traditional mayonnaise dressing.  I would love to make it for my daughter but with her egg allergy, that wouldn't be safe. 

While watching Good Morning America today, Emeril Lagasse made a potato salad that was both figure friendly and allergy friendly as well!  It was called "Emeril's Red Bliss Potato Salad".  It looks delicious and I can't wait to try it with my family!  I would like to pass it on to you so that you can try it over the summer with your family too.  Why must food allergies stop us from having some of those traditional summer favorites?? 

Emeril's Red Bliss Potato Salad with Crispy Bacon

Not Your Traditional Potato Salad

Ingredients

12 to 14 small red skin potatoes, such as red bliss, scrubbed well (about 2 ½ pounds)

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup minced red onion

2 tablespoons diced red bell pepper

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3 to 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar, to taste

6 slices crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Cooking Directions

Place the potatoes in a saucepan and add water to cover them by 1 inch. Season with salt and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a small saute pan. Add onion, red pepper, and garlic and cook for 3 minutes, until vegetables are softened.
When potatoes are just tender, drain, cool briefly, then transfer to a serving bowl. (Halve or quarter if potatoes are large.) Add the softened veggies, remaining olive oil, 3 tablespoons of the vinegar, crispy bacon , and parsley and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add up to 1 tablespoon more vinegar, to taste.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
This recipe was styled by chef Karen Pickus for "Good Morning America."

No-Bake Chewy Cookies and Cream bars!

I came across these yummy treats on line and thought..... No milk, No egg, No peanuts! A new treat is now added to our yummy SAFE list!!

Oreo's, marshmallows and dairy-free butter, those are the three ingredients needed for this delicious treat!  Easy, fun and delicious;)  My favorite kind of baking!

Follow this link and try these yummy chocolate treats with your kiddos!!  Enjoy!

http://picky-palate.com/2011/03/17/no-bake-chewy-cookies-and-cream-bars/