Easter Ideas

I had originally hoped to make this blog a weekly occurrence, but it's looking like the update schedule is going to be more bi-weekly. Real life keeps getting in the way. This week, and last week it's been my turn to see the allergist and respirologist. Nothing serious, just routine check ups since I have asthma. My respirologist is actually going to be seeing less of me. I'm doing so well he lowered my medication and only wants to see me once a year. 

Now on to the fun stuff. This year's Easter basket at my house isn't going to have much in the way of candy. I'm making molded chocolate suckers for the kids, and I bought some peeps. That's it for the sugar rush. There is way too much candy out there that either one or both of the kidlets shouldn't have. What I do have lots of is fun outdoor toys. Evie is getting a bathing suit and some swim diapers, while Liam is getting a sand mold and shovel set. I also have play dough eggs for both of them. The big thing that will have Liam excited is a strawberry planter for year round, in the house strawberries. Strawberries are his favourite fruit, and second after bananas for Evie. 

With food allergies, something like an Easter basket shouldn't be about what the kids can't have. You may have to get creative by doing things like making your own chocolate, or not giving candy at all. The strawberry planter is something my kids will get years of enjoyment out of, and the toys will (hopefully) last through the season. I'm really looking forward to celebrating the holiday with my family, because that's really what it's about. I'll be posting a shot of the final basket sometime this weekend.

The Results Are In

We've had a couple of busy weeks around my house lately. Last weekend was bookended by allergist appointments, one for Liam on Friday, and Evie went on Monday. Liam's appointment was for the results of the blood test we've been waiting for, and the news was good and bad. Shellfish we definitely need to be cautious of an anaphylactic reaction with. Soy might not be so bad. We're going to be doing a food challenge at the hospital, as soon as a bed opens up, to test Liam's reaction to soy. This means we basically give him soy milk and see what happens. It will be wonderful if we only need to seriously watch one food. If he doesn't have a severe reaction, it means the soy is feeding into the eczema, but will not cause anaphylaxis. We will continue to cut it out at home since it helps his skin so much, but can worry less about outside exposure.

Th results of Evie's test were fantastic. They did a skin prick test to check her for milk, soy , pets, mold, and a few other things. She came back as negative across the board. We are going to be doing the IgE blood test to completely clear the milk allergy, because it was so severe. Evie looks like she may have completely outgrown it since she started with the allergy so young. We'll know for sure in a couple of weeks. 

I hate to not post recipes two weeks running, but we've had a crazy week and weekend again. Evie, Little Miss Mayhem, is turning one year on Monday. My mother in law's birthday was on Friday. I'll  finish with a shout out to the birthday girls in my life, and be back to the stove with stuff for next week. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting my clever ideas for a dairy-free, soy-free Easter basket.

Happy Birthday Evie and Deb!

Snack Time

The internet is a wonderful tool for finding (relatively) healthy and fun snack ideas. I found a few great ones that have become staples around my house. For a classic, rice crispy squares are an excellent dairy free, soy free (without margarine) treat. I've been experimenting with different ways of making them. I tried no margarine, as a variant on the original recipe, and found them to be completely brittle. For my next batch I tried canola oil, and it actually worked pretty good. You just use less of the oil when you heat the marshmallows up. I also used more marshmallows, so it would be extra gooey. The kids loved the result.

Kettle corn is another one that the kids love. I found this recipe from Rachel Ray, and haven't altered it one iota. My one recommendation, when doing popcorn on the stove, is to use a pot with a clear lid so you can see what the kernels are doing. The first batch I did of this burned. The pot filled with popcorn, and the kernels on the bottom couldn't circulate. The second attempt I made was much better. I've used both brown sugar and white sugar for this, and either will work. Personally, I prefer the stronger taste of the brown sugar. 

Fresh fruits and veggies are probably the most requested snacks in my house, and there are lots of fun things you can do with them. One of my friends introduced me to the idea of bento box lunches. If you aren't inclined to try all of the food ideas involved in them, the little designs they do with fruits and veggies are super cute. To pique the appetites of picky eaters, try turning oranges into smiles, grapes into eyes, and have your little one build a face before they eat their snack.

Margarine Free Rice Crispy Squares

2 tbsp canola oil

5 cups mini marshmallows

5 cups rice crispies

1 tsp vanilla

1) Heat the marshmallows and the oil in the microwave in 30 second bursts. When they start to run together, add the vanilla and stir the melting marshmallows and oil together quickly.

2) Add the rice crispies and continue stirring until they are all coated in the marshmallow mixture.

3) Transfer the mixture to a parchment or wax paper lined baking dish and chill for about 15 min.

The Restaurant Experience

Eating out at restaurants can be a bit of a pain with food allergies. Most fast food places post nutritional information online and earmark specific allergens in their ingredients lists. This can be a huge help. Before I go out with the kids, I make sure to check up on anyplace we plan to dine at. It's important to double check the information listed, because menus and ingredients change.

When you are dealing with casual and fine dining chains, or smaller local eateries, things can be a lot more hit and miss. Some places have vegetarian or vegan food marked on menus, others list the ingredients in the dishes, but not the sauce. Always ask your server if you aren't sure about something, and make sure you tell them about severe food allergies to avoid cross contamination or hidden ingredients. Cheese is easy to have left off a pizza, for instance, but the pepperoni might contain casein or whey protein, both of which are milk derivatives.

In my experience, most places will bend over backwards to cater to special dietary needs. I recently ordered a pasta dish at a local Italian restaurant. I asked our server to make sure any cheese was left out of the dish (I was sharing my food with Evie), and she passed it on to the kitchen. When our order was served, I noticed little melted bits of Parmesan in my meal. I informed our waitress, and she immediately took the dish back to the kitchen. They made up a whole new order, and sent the one they mixed up home with us, free of charge. They were very apologetic, and very polite about the situation. I was impressed with how good about it they were. 

The alternative to eating fancy out is always eating fancy in. This weeks recipes are a complete meal with sides that are dairy, soy, and nut free.The sides are both vegetarian and vegan.

Coffee Rubbed Steak

The rub I made up was inspired by this recipe here. This makes enough for one 450 g (1 lb) steak, or two 200-250 g (1/2 lb) steaks.

1 tbsp fine ground coffee

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1/2 tsp pepper

The night before, mix up your spices and rub them into both sides of your steak. Wrap your steak in clear film or seal it into a baggie with all the air smoothed out. Let it sit in the fridge for 12-24 hours. This allows the meat to brine. When you are ready, fire up the grill or stove and brown for 2-4 minutes per side over med-high heat. If you like your steak rare, go with the shorter cook time.

Broiler Roasted Potatoes

This is a nice alternate to mashed potatoes made with milk and butter.

2 tbsp olive oil

4 large white or red potatoes

1/2 tsp rosemary

2 cloves minced or micro-planed garlic

salt and pepper to taste 

 

1) Preheat your broiler.

2) Dice up your potatoes and place them into a foil lined baking dish. 

3) Add the olive oil and spices and toss well to coat.

4) Broil the potatoes for 20 min, turning half way through.

Garlic Green Beans

GARLIC! LEMON! YUM!

500 g fresh or frozen French cut green beans

4-6 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

zest of 1 lemon

1) Heat a skillet over medium heat, then add the olive oil and green beans. 

2) Saute the beans for 3 minutes, then add the garlic, salt and pepper.

3) Continue cooking another 3-4 minutes, then remove your pan from the heat and zest the lemon over the beans, tossing to coat.

4) Transfer to a serving dish, cover and let sit for 2 min. This will allow all the flavours to come together.

This meal goes well with a nice valpolicella or medium ale.

Recipes, Yay!

Since you've all been waiting so patiently for me to finally get to the good stuff, here's a new recipe and a review of one I tried. Last week my cousin threw a lovely Valentine's Day party for all our kids. Her sister made some cupcakes for all the little ones to have, and everybody exchanged valentines and treats.  I made and brought some cupcakes of my own for Liam and Evie, just in case. There is a surprising amount of soy in boxed cakes and milk is really hit and miss. 

I found a recipe for chocolate olive oil cupcakes that didn't turn out too bad. They tasted great, but mine ended up being a little dry and dense. I think that's more my fault then anything else. The original recipe calls for almond or whole milk. Since Evie has the dairy allergy and is under a year still, I used rice milk. Rice milk has less fat in it. Next time I make the cupcakes I'm going to use some apple sauce to moisten them up. I'll post a follow up whenever that happens. Since Evie is going to be 1 in about a month, that will probably be soon.

The new recipe is a dairy free frittata. A frittata is like an Italian open-faced omelette. Instead of folding the filling into it, you cook your eggs and other ingredients partially on the stove, and then let it finish cooking in the oven. After it comes out of the oven, you slice it like a pizza. You can serve this for breakfast with toast, or for lunch and dinner with a salad or grilled veggies. It was a big hit around my dinner table.

Dairy Free Frittata

5 large eggs
    1/4 cup rice milk 

   1 small can diced tomatoes
    1 medium avocado
1 tbsp olive oil

 1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

2) Scramble the eggs with the  rice milk. Add salt and pepper, or whatever spices you feel like. Pour the scrambled eggs and tomatoes into a pan greased with the olive oil. 

3) Cook about 5-10 minutes over medium heat, until it starts to set. Dice up your avocado and add it to the pan. 

4) Place pan into the preheated oven. Cook 15-20 minutes until set.

Serving Size: 1/4 -1/6 of frittata

One Week Later...

The last week has seen some big changes around my house. After the first bout of parental panic over the fact that soy is in everything, my husband and I decided we would cut it out as much as practically possible. This means no soy milk, soy sauce, tofu, deli meat or meat products with fillers, etc, around the house. I am trying cook and use products that don't contain soy protein as much as possible. If, however, Liam should have a little bit of soy in a cookie, or margarine, outside of the house, we're not going to worry about it. We'll try to avoid it as much as we can, but you can't always catch everything. The result of our eliminating soy at home has already yielded results that bring equal parts relief and disappointment. Liam's skin has started clearing up. This is huge, because since he was about three months old my son has had terrible eczema. At the worst he would be covered in rashes, cracked skin, open sores from scratching and hives from head to toe. Lately he's had fissures, peeling skin and swelling located mainly on his hands and feet. His behaviour has done a complete 180 as his skin heals, and that just goes to show how much this stuff affects everything.

We are relieved to see Liam's skin clear up, and disappointed that these diet changes are probably going to be permanent ones, for now at least. On Monday my mum and I took Liam to get the RAST (also known as IgE) blood test done. After someone tests positive to having an allergy in a skin prick test, the RAST is used to look for antibodies to those allergens. The more antibodies they find relating to a specific allergen, the worse the allergy is. Liam's allergist wants to know how severe the shellfish and soy allergies are since soy is a rarer one in general, and shellfish is rare in children. We'll have a better idea, in about three weeks, as to how much we have to watch what goes into Liam's little mouth. In the mean time, I get to have fun putting family meals together around two separate sets of food restrictions. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge. Next week I should have at least a couple of recipes to post, and I'll rate them on ease of use and how they were received. My husband is my primary guinea pig for taste, since the kids will eat almost anything.

My adventures in the land of food allergies started almost a year ago with my then 6 week old daughter, Evie. She had a rash all over, was throwing up, passing blood in her stool, had slow weight gain, little growth her first month, and finally became lethargic and weak. After three trips to our local emergency room, a pediatric gastroenterologist handed my husband and I the diagnosis of a milk allergy. I was nursing my daughter, so that meant that I had to cut all dairy products from my diet. Within about three weeks, it was like we had a completely different child. She was sick less often, gaining weight as well as inches, and best of all, she was happy. I switched to soy milk and gave up all foods with even traces of dairy in them. I learned to read food labels thoroughly, and picked up little tricks to make cooking without milk taste like I was. 

Unfortunately, within a couple of months of switching to soy milk, we started to notice changes in my then 2 1/2 year old son, Liam. He went from being fully potty trained to having accidents more and more often. He also started having frequent bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. His behavior degenerated, and my happy go lucky little boy got into trouble more and more often.  Then, just after Christmas, Liam started throwing up a couple of times a week. We started cutting soy out of his diet, but he still continued to get sick off and on.

Finally, after repeated trips to the doctor and screenings for everything from bladder infections to diabetes, our pediatrician referred us to a  pediatric allergist. Since Liam has eczema and contact allergies we'd gone to one before, and knew what to expect. The allergist tested him for soy, milk, and seafood. We asked for fish to be included, because the one common thread every time my son got really sick was that we'd been to a party or family gathering with shrimp, muscles, etc. on the menu.  The skin-prick test today showed that Liam is allergic to all shellfish and soy. It's good to know what's caused all the weird things this poor kid's been going through. The hard part is going to be coming up with meals and snacks that don't overlap allergens. In my next post I'll be talking a bit about what the recommended foods to avoid for dairy, shellfish, and soy are. Some of the foods that can contain shellfish, for example, I never would have expected.