On Eating...

I believe I have neglected to mention here that we've had another little allergy hiccup with Harper.  We started seeing a new doctor (a naturopath) who suggested we try to take him off of dairy and wheat as well to see if that would alleviate some of his remaining allergy symptoms (mainly eczema but also a constantly runny nose). 

So, I took him off dairy about a month ago and his eczema got a little better (although not completely gone), his nose shut off, and weirdly his crazy earwax that he's had all his life (seriously, it's always been like a gooey brown science experiment in there) is all of the sudden COMPLETELY GONE.  Like, I keep trying to get earwax out of his ears and there's just nothing! Weirdly, I miss it.  Kind of how one might miss popping their teenage sibling's pimples.

(I have since read in a couple of places that this is oftentimes a sign of a dairy intolerance / allergy). 

I have yet to get the gumption to also take him off of wheat as the doctor recommended because I honestly don't have the energy or meal planning ambition.  We go back for a check up tomorrow and this may be the next step.  The doctor is hopeful that his gut can heal eventually and he will be able to eat at least eggs & dairy again when he's older.

So, if you're keeping count we're 'off' of eggs, nuts, dairy and gluten (for Ash only, really...).  Good times. 

That said, here are some recipes I'm digging lately....with modifications, in most cases.

Whole Wheat Pop Tarts - Great snack/quick breakfast for the kids!  I made with vegan Earth Balance butter today and I couldn't tell the difference from the last time I made them with real butter.

Kale Lemon Pesto - I made this just for Ash & I, and I was the only one who liked it.  I'm sticking by it, though.  If you like kale & lemons (Ash is a little iffy on lemony stuff sometimes), it's a good one.

Asparagus Brie Soup - I made this also for just Ash & I after we scored about 2 pounds of leftover roasted asparagus at a wedding we went to a couple of weeks ago (hmmm, that sounds weird now that I type it out.  oh well!).  Anyway, unlike the pesto, Ash says he'd eat this every day.  I substituted a GF all purpose flour in place of the regular flour.

Homemade Granola Bars - I also made these this weekend and they were a hit with everyone.  It's very hard to find nut free granola bars at the store.  Ours had oats, soy nut butter, dairy/GF chocolate chips and coconut.  Yum - O!

Allergen Free Chocolate Cake - I made this awhile back and just got the 2nd round out of the freezer to eat.  Hands down the best allergen free cake I have tried.  Moist, doesn't feel like you're missing something.  I used a GF all purpose flour blend and Ener-G egg subsitute.  I didn't make the frosting (because I'm lazy).  :)

I'll keep ya'll updated on our 'progress' - in the meantime if you have any recipes you want to share, I'm all ears!!

-Emily :)

Harper's 2nd Birthday

Harper turned two this past Sunday.  He ended up having two parties -- one when we were in Kansas and then one on the day of.   In Kansas, we had just family (& Tracee!) over to a park building for cake and hot dogs.  Then this past weekend we celebrated with a trip to the pool on Saturday and some fun backyard times and cupcakes on Sunday. 

Harper requested a 'fishy cake' from grandma Teresa.  So cute!

Cute & egg-less. ;)

Harper & Papa Larry

He wasn't so sure about all of the attention.

Opening presents with lots of 'help'.

Cool tractor from Ellie & Kane.

Tracee (one of my college roomates) and her sons Theo (here) & Anderson made the trek from Lawrence to stop by!

Birthday party kids: Helena, Kane, Theo, Anderson, Harper & Ellie

Somehow this birthday turned into Christmas up in here present-wise. Harper made out with a new workshop toy, car racer and a train table & train set that mom & dad scored for super cheap (used). ;)

Train table & track that Ash is more stoked about than the kids. :)

 I asked him what he wanted on his cupcakes and he said "sprinkles!" And then I asked him what he wanted for birthday breakfast and he said "sprinkles!" (We had bacon & pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes.)

He waited patiently for the cupcakes until about 4:00 when I caught him sneaking some fingers of frosting.... (Oh, and is sporting a new buzz cut).

Attempting to lick off the remnants.

Happy Birthday little buddy!  We love you!

- Emily :)

P.S. - Here's a fun look at Helena's 2nd birthday party.  She's so little!!!

P.P.S - I found a cake mix that is egg/nut/gluten free (you didn't even have to mix in any eggs or egg substitute) to use for the birthday cupcakes and it tasted great!  Yay, Cherrybrook Kitchen products!

Soup Brain

I've been tired lately.  Ash out of town for three days last week, Helena up puking in the middle of the night two times, plus my normal middle of the night insomnia, plus Harper's still insistence on not always sleeping through the night equals a grumpy, tired Emily.

Saturday morning Ash is home finally and I was preparing soup and cornbread for a friend's Halloween party that evening.

I'm making wonderful, beautiful butternut squash soup (my new fall food obsession) and finishing it up by pureeing it in batches in my food processor.  From scratch, gluten-free cornbread is in the oven. 

In the middle of my cooking bliss there are two kids whining at me for this and that...fast forward the movie, mom!, where's my milk?, where's my car?, on and on and on. 

Sidenote:  I now totally understand why my mom would sometimes get frustrated with my siblings and I when we were little for always asking her where things were.  Why is it the mom's job to know where every single little trinket, toy, shoe, blanket, etc. is at every single moment in time?  To quote my mother (and I often do these days...) "I don't know!  It's not mine!  I can't keep track of everything that everyone owns!" If Ash asks me where his shoes are one more time....;)

So yeah, my soup.  I'm pureeing the final batch and all of the sudden I notice my food processor making a weird noise, like it's stuck, and then I see a paper towel in a weird spot.  Hanging out of the top of the bowl.  OMG.  I did not just do that.  Upon closer inspection, yep, I did.  Pureed a paper towel into my soup.

Cut to me thinking for a couple of minutes if I could somehow salvage said soup to serve to people who aren't my immediate family.  Will they notice it's a little 'chunky'?  Maybe I could strain it out? 

Down the drain...

These are thoughts from a not-thinking-clearly brain.  I still had two-thirds of the soup that wasn't contaminated.  People will just have to eat less, I finally decided. :)

And then I realized, dammit, I burnt my cornbread.

And I have since had seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.  Still running a deficit, but much better.

-Emily :)

Substitutions

Ash: "What is it, an empty bag?"  My sentiments exactly.

But, it was actually not bad.  Replaced egg-ish thing needed in the batter with 1/4 c. applesauce and all was well in our 6 a.m. Saturday pancake world.

I also made these Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies with gluten free flour this weekend and seriously, they were some of the best cookies I've ever made.  I had to freeze half of the batch so we wouldn't eat all 55 of them!

So, this week I'm thinking, "Yay for experimental cooking!"

-Emily :)

No Longer Nutty, Eggy, or Doggy

This week we found out that Harper is allergic to peanuts, all other nuts, eggs, and dogs. 
 

Poor little guy at his appointment....:(

We're hopeful these are all things he will grow out of, but for now, we're trying to figure out how to manage this.  His peanut allergy is the most problematic since, you know, it's capable of killing you.  I have done several peanut exposures with Harper in the past few months which resulted in hives and rashes and nothing worse, thank goodness.  But, the doctor says depending on how much he would/could ingest he could at any time have a more severe, life-threatening reaction.  We will know next week from a blood test his likelihood to grow out of the peanut allergy.  He will likely grow out of the egg allergy.

(Sidenote: I wouldn't recommend putting yourself in the situation of having a toddler's blood drawn.  It took four adults.  It was bad.  I almost called the whole thing off when the 16 year old CNA started off being in charge...um...no, not gonna work.)

So, I'm still deciding how to deal with this situation in terms of how I cook, what everyone else is allowed to eat in the house, etc.  Here's everything I pulled out of my pantry that contained stuff Harper is allergic to.  It actually wasn't as bad as I was afriad it was going to be.

So, throw in Ash's fairly recent decision to follow a gluten-free diet and the fact that eggs and peanut butter are two of Helena's favorite foods and we've got ourselves some fun cooking times around here!  Maybe I'll just start a restaurant out of my house!
I'm definitely still processing things.  I did make a list of about thirty dinners that I can make that 'agree' with everyone.  So, that's good.  And we're lucky that Harper is a very good eater -- for instance he loves kale chips and has even eaten some salad! 

I'm wondering if any of my 'readers' are dealing with this as well with their child (or themselves) and has any resources or ideas that I can tap into.  So far I've got two epi-pens and a "what allergens are in chain restaurant food" app on my iphone.

-Emily :)

Quick Zucchini Recipe

I made these Zucchini Fritters today.  And they were the bomb.  Helena even ate some.  So what if we bribed her with a dollar bill.