After School Snack – Fruity Kabobs

This is the first in {hopefully} a series of allergy-free snacks/yummies that are fun for our family and maybe yours, too. When I say ‘allergy-free’, I mean free of the most common allergens. I realize some people are allergic to certain fruits and many other things, but I will just stick to the most common allergens.

FRUITY KABOBS

All you need to begin:

Strawberries, Bananas, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, toothpicks

Slice the fruit, line them up on the toothpicks, squirt Hershey’s choc syrup onto the plate for dipping and if you want to make it extra special, sprinkle Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips on top. This is guaranteed to hold those hungry kiddos over til dinner.

*This snack is dairy-, peanut-, tree nut-, wheat-, fish-, shellfish-, egg- and soy-free. AND made without casein, potato, sesame and sulfites in a dedicated Nut- and Gluten-Free facility!* It doesn’t get much safer than that.

Enjoy!

Monkey what??

If you think you are a bit leary of vaccinations right now, read this list of ingredients in each vaccine and you will be quite surprised. It’s straight from the horse’s mouth (aka – CDC). I have a lot of questions – but one is why is ‘monkey kidney tissue’ really a necessary ingredient for a vaccine?? And that’s just one weird ingredient. Read it for yourself.

Ingredients listed by vaccine OR Ingredients sorted by ingredient names

My child cannot have the Flu vaccine (egg), MMR (egg – although it’s not suppose to affect egg allergic people, but she did have a major reaction), Hib (lactose – aka it comes from milk) and she also reacted to the Varicella (Chicken Pox) vaccine although there is no documentation that it has any of her allergens in it. I had to learn this the hard way. My child’s doctor never said a word about this to me even though we had just spoken about her severe allergies. Don’t leave it up to the doc to tell you everything. If you/your child has any allergy, make sure that anything that is going to go in your mouth/bloodstream or come in contact with your skin has been investigated for hidden allergens.

I encourage all of you who have any type of allergy to look through these ingredients before taking anymore vaccinations. You have to be the judge of whether or not it is best for you or your child to have certain vaccinations. Don’t expect anyone else to have your child’s best interest at heart. Do your homework. Before you go extreme and refuse to vaccinate at all, consider reading this article. Then, determine which ones you should/should not allow. Make an informed decision.

Allergy-Free Sweets!

My newest project on my never-ending- to-do list is to find a good mix of delectable, yummy-looking, sweet treats for my soon-to-be Kindergartener! This is going to take some major time and research, but I am going to accomplish this. The plan is to make her a little cookbook full of yummy recipes that she can eat so that I can refer back to this constantly as K5 is full of special treats, etc. I know it’s hard to believe, but it IS possible to get tired of eating cupcakes. She has proved this theory. It’s time for me to get on the ball and find some exciting alternatives. The criteria for these snacks are: 1) they have to be portable 2) easy to eat without having to heat up, etc. 3) they need to look very appealing to a 5 yr old 4)  cannot contain ANY dairy, milk or peanut derivatives 5) They need to TASTE really good!!

So, if you’ve got any good great ideas for me, feel free to share your ideas!!  I will do my best to post these recipes along with pictures when I come up with them.

For now, I leave you with some great convenience foods that are allergy-free in case you don’t already know about them.

• Cherrybrook Kitchen – I couldn’t have survived the beginning months of learning to live allergy-free without these products!! They have dairy-, egg-, peanut-, gluten-, wheat-free products that really do taste yummy! I buy these locally at Whole Foods Market.
• Enjoy Life Foods – I have found their chocolate chips are very yummy and my daughter loves them! You really cannot taste much difference between them and real chocolate chips. The other products, you just have to taste for yourself to decide whether you like them or not. They have coupons on their website, so that is a plus! I also buy these products at Whole Foods Market.
• Divvies – Dairy-free, Nut-free, Egg-free bakery!! They have lots of goodies! I am sad that I missed out on their chocolate easter bunnies that were available for a limited time only, but I will find another one for my girl somewhere! It’s my mission!
• Premium Chocolatiers – I FOUND ONE! They have allergy-free chocolates! It doesn’t get any better than that, Folks!

I’m sure there are more – I just don’t have time to look right now. There are a couple of hungry girls begging for food. Until next time….

Technology and the Allergic Lifestyle

Since my daughter was diagnosed with life-threatening food allergies just three and a half years ago, there have been so many GREAT advances in technology making our quest to live allergy-free much easier. The most obvious is the internet, but the number of beneficial websites/blogs has increased greatly!  I have gleaned so much information from the internet – mostly from moms like me who have struggled with finding and implementing new foods that are safe for our families (and taste yummy!), or people who have already traveled this road and are helping the rest of us navigate our way to a more normal way of life.

Recently, however, I have been simply amazed at the info I have right at my fingertips anytime/anyplace! My cell phone is internet savvy and much like the iPhone (with all its applications, etc.). Not only can I instantly search the web for a particular restaurant’s allergy menu when out and about, I have an application on my phone called ‘Good Food’. It uses GPS and shows me on a map where I am and ALL of the restaurants I am near. I have used this numerous times and it has come in very handy. There are certain restaurants I KNOW are safe for my daughter to eat at so that application really helps me when we’re traveling. Then, if there are no familiar restaurants nearby, I can use that app to get phone numbers for places I am near so that I can call them in an instant to find out about their food allergy policy. A friend told me that the iPhone has a Whole Foods Grocery app that might be helpful with finding foods that are allergy-free – so if you have an iPhone, you might want to check that out. (Thanks, Shannon!)

There are so many people dealing with food allergies these days and it has been very beneficial to me to read their blogs and websites. That’s what I’m trying to do with my blog. I hope to help others who travel this path and be an encouragement to other mom’s who find themselves struggling with this way of life. It isn’t easy. It’s sometimes scary. It’s something that is always on my mind because it has to be. I cannot afford to let my guard down because my child’s life is at risk. If I seem paranoid – it’s because I am. I’ve witnessed severe allergic reactions and I’m quite sure that’s the scariest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my {almost} 34 years of life. So, if this blog can encourage even one person, then I’ve accomplished my goal.

If there’s any part of the allergic lifestyle that you’d like to hear more about, leave a comment and I will try to post on your topic.

Eating Out….page updated!

I’m working hard to update my ‘Eating Out’ page (found at the top right of this blog). Today, I added one of my all-time favorites…Salsarita’s! So happy they now have an allery menu! Just click on the restaurant names to be linked to their allergy menu or allegery info.

If you have any other restaurants for me to add, just leave a comment. =]

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for…..

ICE CREAM!!!!!!!
Have I mentioned Tofutti Brand dairy-free products before? If not, then, consider it done. I LOVE Tofutti brand because my daughter can eat it up without me having to worry about her well-being. She has the biggest smile on her face right now as she’s eating it. She told me, “You’re the best mommy to get me ice cream!” That melts my heart. I am so happy she can enjoy ice cream as much as the rest of us do. Thank you, Tofutti!!!!