Faces of Food Allergies: Food Allergy Awareness

From our favorite food allergy group, Kids with Food Allergies:

Faces of Food Allergies: Food Allergy Awareness

Look for E in there!

Update: I can't believe how many pictures they've added! I scrolled through, looking for E's picture, and the thing that stands out is the wide bottom of a bright yellow slide that he's sitting on!

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Allergy-Friendly Easter Candy

In addition to our natural Easter Eggs, we made allergy-friendly candy: Peanut-free Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate and Caramel Cups, and Chocolate Crunch Balls.

For the Peanut-free Peanut Butter Cups, we melted a bag of dairy-free chocolate chips in a double boiler with a tablespoon or so of coconut oil. We stirred until it was smooth and glossy. In a small bowl, we mixed Organic Sunbutter, nutritional yeast, rice flour, raw honey, vanilla extract, and sea salt. We didn't measure; we just put maybe a cup of Sunbutter, and started with about a teaspoon of nutritional yeast, a spoonful of rice flour, a squirt of honey, and a tiny bit of vanilla and salt. We just happily tasted it until it tasted right! We used mini muffin pans lined with paper liners. We poured a little bit of melted chocolate to coat the bottom of each liner. We put it in the freezer for a few minutes and then put a bit of Sunbutter mixture in the middle. We covered it with more melted chocolate, and back into the freezer it went. When it was frozen, I peeled off the paper liners, and then stored them in the refrigerator. All of the kids, even the ones who don't love Sunbutter, said that they were amazing!

I'd made these before but had just used plain Sunbutter for the filling. They were so much better this way! I got the idea from Samantha at Color Wheel Meals. She also had a recipe for Chocolate and Caramel Cups, with the caramel made from dates! We tried that, too, but we soaked them in coconut milk, instead of almond milk. Nick added a shot of maple syrup, and I added a little extra vanilla extract and sea salt to them after mixing them up in the Vitamix. I felt like the extra vanilla toned down the date taste a bit. So good!

GracieGirl helped me set up this picture
with the bunnies checking out the chocolate!

I didn't get a picture of the Chocolate Crunch Balls, but all I did was toast some puffed millet in a dry skillet. The truth is that I had to do it twice because I completely burned it the first time! After it was toasted to a nice light brown color, I poured in some of the melted chocolate chips/coconut oil mixture. I stirred it up and dropped it by balls onto a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. It went into the refrigerator until they were firm, and then I stored them in the fridge.

The kids were happy, and best of all, there weren't any allergic reactions from Easter candy!

Natural Easter Egg Dyes

We made our own dyes for Easter Eggs this year. We boiled red cabbage for blue eggs, beets for pink eggs, and spinach and turmeric for yellow/light green eggs. We stirred in a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar, and let the eggs soak. Some eggs took the dye better than others. I thought they were really pretty. Messy to make, but pretty, nonetheless.

The egg on the upper right has a leaf pattern on it. J brought me a leaf, which I got damp and stuck to the egg. I wrapped a stocking around it and twisted it until it was really tight, and then secured it with a rubber band. I let it sit in the dye overnight without disturbing it. I like the way it turned out, and would like to try more next year with a darker colored dye.

Baked Oatmeal II

Here's another recipe that we like that doesn't call for soaking. I find that grains are more digestible after being soaked, but I don't always take the time to soak them the day before.


Baked Oatmeal II

3 cups coconut milk or other milk substitute
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup raw honey
3 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp cinnamon
3 cups gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 apples, peeled, cored, & chopped, opt.
3/4 cup raisins, opt.
Dairy-free chocolate chips, opt.*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9-inch square pan with coconut oil or Spectrum shortening

In a saucepan, combine coconut milk, honey, oil, and cinnamon. Cook on low heat.

Meanwhile, combine the oats and sea salt with the chopped apple, raisins, and/or chocolate chips. Spread evenly in prepared pan.

Just before the milk mixture begins to boil, pour it evenly over the oatmeal mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed and the oatmeal is tender.

Serves 6

*This recipe is refined sugar-free if made without chocolate chips.

Baked Oatmeal

I recently found a recipe called Our Favorite Oatmeal Bake on Our Backyard Homestead. I doubled the recipe and made a couple of small changes to suit our family, and I'm thrilled to say that it was a hit with everyone. That may not sound like a big deal, but when I can find a recipe that works for our food allergies and that everyone likes, I'm a happy camper!


Baked Oatmeal

6 c gluten-free rolled oats
1 lemon, juiced

1 1/2 c coconut, unsweetened & unsulphured
8 Medjool dates
1 c organic raisins
1 heaping Tblsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
2 c organic applesauce
2 c coconut milk (not canned)
2/3 c raw honey
4 organic apples

The night before, soak the rolled oats in just enough water to cover, with the juice of the lemon added to the water.

In the morning, drain the rolled oats and rinse well. Let drain while preparing the rest of the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 11 x 15" baking dish with Spectrum Organic Shortening or coconut oil.

Place the coconut in a large bowl. Chop the dates finely, and, one at a time, add to the coconut, mixing to coat the date pieces with the coconut to prevent them from sticking to each other. Stir in the raisins, cinnamon, and sea salt; mix well. Add the drained oats, applesauce, coconut milk, and honey.

Peel and chop the apples and add to the oats mixture, mixing well.

Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake for 30 - 35 minutes.

Note: This makes a LOT! I thought that the leftovers were good, but if I didn't need leftovers, I definitely would not double this recipe!

Allerbling!

Since E is now going to preschool a few mornings a week and church a couple of times a week, it was time to get an allergy bracelet for him. I researched many different types and finally settled on Allerbling.

The Allerbling set comes with bracelets in two different sizes, along with eight charms representing the top eight allergens: peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, fish, and shellfish. The charms can be snapped into the bracelet to customize it for each child's individual allergies.

The bracelets and charms can also be purchased individually. In addition to the top eight, they also offer these individual charms: sesame, corn, coconut, strawberries, chocolate, and bee stings.

When I first saw these bracelets, my concern was that E would take the charms out and lose them. I emailed the company and received a prompt response, assuring me that the charms stay in the bracelet securely. When they arrived, I couldn't even get the charms in; I had to ask Nick to do it. I'm happy to report that there's no way that E could get them out once they're in there. Even so, the manufacturer recommends this product for children over the age of three because the charms are a potential choking hazard.

There are a lot of things I like about the bracelet. It's bright orange, which is eye-catching. I like that it has a medical alert charm. Some of the other allergy bracelets I researched looked too much like the bands that all the kids wear. I wanted something that would stand out. It seems to be very durable, it's latex-free, and I like the fact that it's waterproof.

Each charm has a picture of the food on it, plus the written name of the food. E can go through each picture and recite his allergies.

E wasn't too sure about wearing it at first, but he quickly got used to it. I don't think that I'd be able to say the same about some of those metal bracelets. He now wears it to school and church, and it stays on well. When he gets home, he takes it off and hands it to me, so that I can put it in a special place. We don't want this bracelet getting lost!

One drawback is that the bracelet only holds four charms, plus the medical charm. To me, it looks as though it would be possible to add spaces for two of three more charms, so I'm not sure why they didn't do that.

With E, we chose the ones that we feel are most serious and that he would most commonly run into, and added those. For us, it was peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, and sesame. He wouldn't be as likely to encounter fish and shellfish in his classrooms, but I'd still feel better if I could add them to the bracelet.

My only other little complaint is that I don't like to spend $5.00 on shipping when it only cost $1.38 to ship. I don't mind a little more for materials and such, but that seemed like a large increase. On the plus side, they did ship the product quickly.

Overall, I think we made the right choice, and I like the fact that he has one more thing to help protect him. We waited a long time before letting him to go any classes or events alone, and I still say a prayer every time he leaves, but he loves his classes, and it's great to see him learning, having fun, and making new friends.