Meh

So we tried eggs today. He did...ok. He got a few red spots on his face and a few more on his arms, but they didnt' seem to bother him, they weren't really noticeable and so far no itching or rashes on the rest of his body. So I don't we will reincorporate them into his diet anytime soon, BUT it's nice to know that if he gets some by accident that he'll be ok. I've got to keep my eyes open for ezcema though. I figure if he doesn't have it within a week then we might try wheat.

Nope

I didn't dare. I decided I'm going to try eggs first in the am. I want to have lots of time to watch him for a reaction before putting him to bed for the night. :) I figure tomorrow morn I'll make scrambled eggs and see how he is throughout the day and then keep an eye out for ezcema in the next few days. Fingers crossed!

Do I dare?

Well, it has now been a good while with no reactions what so ever. So I am considering reintrocing the minor ones back in. Mainly eggs and wheat. I'm thinking we might make cookies today with regular flour. Honestly the perfect blend fours are just so freaking expensive and we use them all the time. So if we could use regular flour it would save a LOT of money! Plus the allergist said that there was a good chance those two would be tolerable for him once we got all the others out of his system. He was very oversensitive because of the build up of allergens. So anyways, I'm thinking of trying wheat or eggs this week. Wish me luck.

A first for me.

I am trying to totally create my own recipe.

I'm attempting breakfast bars. Here's the first attempt.
1.5 cups oats
.5 cups flour
1tsp baking soda
1tbls maple syrup
3/4 cup homemade blueberry jam
1/4 cup frozen blue berries

Mix pour into pie pan then bake 350 for 10 min.


HOWEVER I think I need to cook them a little longer and add something else to help it stick together. (I have to research this) I'm thinking of adding 5 min and applesauce and something else. Not sure what though.

But for a first attempt the consistancy it there, it's just crumbly and the taste is AWESOME! I even had my neighbors taste it to make sure it wasn't just preggo tastebuds!!!!!

But anyways I've adapted recipes before, but never just said hrm, lets throw this together when it comes to baking. And I'm proud! LOL!

HOLEY DONUTS BATMAN!

Mmmmm Donuts! Not at all like krispy kremes but SUPER yummy! I don't like the glaze though it's too sweet. Instead I just made some extra powdered sugar to put on them and then dipped them in blueberry jam. (the syringe got jammed too easy) Sooooooo good! And there's only 2/3 a cup and 1 teaspoon of sugar in about 30 donuts! Impressive! Very cakey. And yummy! I got about 30 donuts and almost 2 dozen donut holes. Not to shabby. Took 4 hours total to complete though. (1.5 of that was letting dough rise though) so complex, but good!

Enjoy the pics!

Mac & Cheese!

I did it! I finally figured out a great recipe for allergy free (well our allergies) mac & cheese.

Next time I make it I might also add in my homemade cheese. But for now I have an easy and quick mac and cheese!!!! WOOT! And it's actually really yummy!

blueberry Jam

SUCESS! OMG SOoOOOOO good! Like I want to eat it out of the jar good. Mmmmm.

I did 4 cups of mashed blueberries, added 1 box pectin and then 5.5 cups sugar and a dash of lemon juice. Sooooo good! MMmmmm Just writing this makes me want to go eat more. Mmmm.

Brownies are YUMMY!

I made Namaste brownies and then drizzled Enjoy Life chocolate (2 pieces) all over it. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! I am taking them to a dinner tonight. I don't plan on telling anyone that they are allergen free. See if anyone can tell.

Ohh

Well I finally found some pectin at the grocery store. Sooooo I think tonight I will brave making homemade jelly!!!! I'm excited! I don't have canning set, so the jar of jelly will have to stay in the fridge and will only last a month or so, but who cares! Hopefully I will make it sooo yummy that it will be gone by then ;)

Wish me luck!

Also Im on the hunt for a donuts recipe! Eeek! But I've got a deep fryer, why not?

:(

I just wish today, that Gabe didn't have food allergies. That he could have anything he wanted. That I could just go to the grocery store and pick up whatever sounded good. Most days I deal with it and really don't mind, but today, I'm gonna whine. I wish it were easier.

I hope he outgrows this. I pray that he can sit at the regular lunch tables in school and not have to worry about sharing lunch or snacks. That the whole class doesn't have to bring special treats for when they do birthdays. I just want him to start our normal.

Yay for screw ups!

Well as you all know I screwed up my yogurt last night. All I can say now is thank the Gods for accidents! It turned out AWESOME!!!!!! It's WAY thicker (almost like store bought yogurt consistancy) And I sound crazy but it seems sweeter. SO here's the new recipe!

1/2 gallon milk in the crock pot for 4.5 hours on low. Turn off let sit for 3 hours. Add 1/2 cup starter yogurt. Let sit for 12 hours or so.

Soooooo easy and so yummy! It's in the fridge now and I plan on adding some chopped up blueberries. Mmmm. I won't even bother with sugar!!!!!!!

burned yogurt.

Yea had a last min doc appt and so I totally forgot about my yogurt sitting in the crock pot on low. Instead of being in for 2.5 hours it was in for 4.5. Yup I burned it. (well it has some brown spots on the skin) I'm gonna still try to make it. I figure the milk is already wasted, may as well try to save some of it. Grrrr! Stupid easy to forget about crock pot. :(

Yummy!

Marshmallows turned out sooooo good! Make sure to use a sharp knife when you cut them though! I cut them down pretty small, but I could cut them a little bit smaller just so that when we use them for snacks they will last longer.

I ended up with a good sized bag of marshmallows. They are SOOOOOOOO good! OMG! Yummy! Very light and fluffy! Mmmm. The boys had 3 small ones and they were BEGGING for more!

And now that I have marshmallows I can make my marshmallow fondant for cakes! Woot! (although i think I would need 2 batches)

I made marshmallows!!!!!

It was so much fun and actually a LOT easier than I was expecting (of course I still haven't cut them yet, so we will see about that tomorrow! LOL!

But Mmmmmmm! SOOOO YUMMY! (we licked all the fluff that we could off the pan! LMAO!) I have a ton of pics to go with the recipe! But this is my favorite one. This is what Gabe thinks of the marshmallows we made (he did a lot except the stove stuff)

Found a really stupidly simple...

Powdered sugar recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Directions
1Combine the two and process in blender until powder forms.

From what I read though, using a very very clean coffee grinder works even better though! Sweet!

Wooo!

I'm excited! I have found a recipe for homemade marshmallows that are Gabe ok!!!!! And I picked up the last ingredient today. Golden syrup, it's a sub for corn syrup that is made from cane sugar. After the boys naps we are going to try it.

Can I just say I love finding substitutes! It makes it so that old recipes are possible once again! Here are my biggest finds.

Flour=Namaste perfect flour blend
Corn Syrup=Golden Syrup
Baking Powder=corn free Baking Powder
Corn Starch=Potato Starch
Eggs=Applesauce
Chocolate Syrup=Ah Laska chocolate syrup
Corn meal=Millet
Pasta = Rice pasta

So far these are the big ones that make it possible for me to turn regular recipes into allergy free recipes. Anyways I hope this is useful to some people!

Hrm.

I want to make some new stuff. I think my next few things to tackel will be....

Jam
Spaghetti Sauce
chocolate pudding
croissants
hard candies
maybe even my own pasta.


Jam is my next thing to tackle. I figure if I try it and it turns out well, I will offer to make it for people for the summer. :) They get the berries and I'll make up batches for them as long as I get 1 jar or 5 bucks (each batch is like 5 jars) That way I can save up for my canning set. :)

So I eventually want to get a dehydrator, candy thermometer, pizza cutter, a canning set, and a standing mixer. LOL!

How have I not posted this yet?

Corn is in EVERYTHING at least it feels that way sometimes.

For those of you just joining us, here are the 4 top things to look for that aren't obvious, when looking at ingredient lists. (corn syrup, corn starch)

White Vinegar (corn derived) Cheese is a big thing too! Most are made with vinegar that is corn derived OR they use corn starch for packaging.
Natural Flavors (don't be surprised if you call a company and the refuse to tell you if their natural flavors. I had one company refuse because they are "trade secrets")
Vitamin C (yea baby cereal has this! Plain rice cereal that has rice cereal and vitamin C added has corn derived vitamin C! WTF?)
Citric Acid (can you tell corn can be used for a lot of stuff?)

Yea these are the hard ones. Also check for Maltodextrin (I'll check the spelling tomorrow LMAO) some will list that it's corn derived and others won't but most often it is)

Anyways that's my lesson for the night! Feel free to ask if there are any questions.

Cheese again

So this morning I didn't want to make anything for myself for breakfast so I made up the last of the little frozen pizza's that we had from before the allergy debacle. Thought I was in the clear eating in the kitchen while Gabe played on the computer, but of course he caught me and wanted pizza. Sooooooo I made him his pizza. (this will be nice though because it will be a lot left over to freeze)

But I was thinking about how much he loved the pizza last time even though it was missing cheese and then I realized, I CAN MAKE CHEESE in about 20 min! (the time it takes the crust to cook up enough to put on toppings :) So we made the Namaste pizza crust up and put it in to cook. Then I made some cheese again. (really really easy) This time I decided to try using lemon juice instead of vinegar. Mmmm, even better! Then I added a little pinch of salt. Turned out EVEN BETTER than the last time by a LOT! LOL! It really was yummy!

Pulled out the crust and brushed it with olive oil, put down tomato paste and garlic salt down, spinach, then cheese and topped it with tomatoes. Yummy!

Hrmmm. You know after doing the math for the pancakes I am kind of intrigued as to how much everything costs now. LOL! Maybe if I get really brave I'll try to figure out the costs of the pizza. (it's a lot more ingredients that I have to figure out random measurements for so I don't know if I'm that brave!) LOL!

But anyways cheese should be made with lemon juice! I'm a firm believer!!!!!

Math problem

6.50/26=.25 (price of bag of pancake mix divided by how many pancakes I get) I got 13 4-5 inch pancakes per batch and each bag has 2 batches.
50/1.68=.04(oz per jar divided by price)
4x.04=.16(oz per 1/2 cup times price)
44/7.00=.15(oz per bottle divided by price)
1x.15=.15(oz per 2 table spoons times price)
8/3=2.67(price divided by how many servings we got per batch)
2.67/13=.20(price per batch divided by number of pancakes

So ladies and gentlemen for .76 cents a pancake we had breakfast today. That is using Target applesauce, Carapelli Olive Oil, Namaste pancake mix, and Full Circle Maple Syrup.

And let me tell you, they were GOOD! REALLY GOOD! The last ones we made (Pamela's) tasted good, but I had a hard time getting them to flip. They were just really thick and didn't' want to flip unless you let them start to almost burn. Plus those tasted good, but they didn't taste like regular pancakes. These taste almost exactly, if not better, than the ones I used to make before all the allergies. Although, hubby wanted me to mention that they are slightly thicker than the old recipe. (not a bad thicker just a bit thicker). They are soooo yummy! Gabe had 6!!!!!!!!!!!!

So for 9.88 we fed a family of 4 before drinks and if Gabe hadn't been such a piggy we could have easily fed 1 more. (we ended up with 1 left over even)

And for less than 10 bucks we get to keep an allergy free family tradition! (top 8 plus corn free) We've always been big on making pancakes on Sundays and that's been hard to keep with all the allergies and now it's back! And Gabe is so excited! LOL! His face just lights up when I tell him we are making pancakes! Then I set everything out on the table to make them. I pour into the measuring cups and him and Link pour into the mixing bowl. LOL! They love doing it! And it makes it so easy for me to bake while they are awake! LOL! Plus it's a great thing for us to do together, followed by some yummy pancakes.

Maybe in 20 years my boys will remember these Sundays as one of their favorite memories. Making pancakes with mom and then all of us sitting around the table to enjoy the fruits of our labor. :) I know I will.

23 oz of HEAVEN!!!

So I had stumbled upon a pudding recipe that I wanted to try. It was dairy, egg and gluten free. So I played with it a little. The original comes from this site.

http://www.amug.org/~jbpratt/recipes/dairyfree/desserts/pudding.html

The original is dairy, egg and gluten free, I don't need it to be dairy free, but corn free sooooo I made it a little differently.

For my pudding, I used.

3/4 cup sugar
3 tbs vanilla flavor
1/4 cup potato starch
2 tbs plain stick butter
1/4 ts salt
2 cups milk

First in a pan I mixed the sugar, vanilla, potato starch, butter and salt. I then put it on a med heat and mixed til everything was melted. Then I poured in the 2 cups of milk. Continuously stirred for about 5-10 min on med high heat, then right when it started to bubble and was nice and thick I took it off the heat and immediately poured it into some clean glass jars. (I save all my glass jars and use them as Tupperware in an attempt to cut BPA and Tupperware costs :) I used 2 classic market asparagus jars. They are 11.6oz, but there is a little tiny bit of room at the top so I figure I ended up with about 23oz.

OMG it's soooooooo good. Like hide it from the boys so that I can eat it all good. Mmmmm! The page I got the original recipe from also has tips for adding 1/4 a cup powdered cocoa for chocolate pudding and using 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar and use only 1/4 teaspoon powdered vanilla or 1 teaspoon liquid vanilla. Add 1/4 cup more milk to make brown sugar pudding. (I'm intrigued! LOL!)

If you are dairy free I suggest you DEFINATELY check out the original recipe and just sub the potato starch for corn start if you are corn allergic. She's got some great recipes on there! (link is at the bottom for Pratt family cookbook)

Honestly this has been my FAVORITE free anything recipe. It doesn't taste any different except maybe better than what you would get at a nice restaurant. It's soooooooo good and really easy!

:( :)

Coconut yogurt did NOT turn out well. It tastes SUPER good, but it's like water. I think I screwed up by putting the powdered milk when I took it out of the crock pot. I added 2 tablespoons and now the curds float instead of sinking, so I can't pour out the excess whey. :( But the stuff tastes really good with nothing added. I'll have to play with it til I perfect it cause it's yummy!!!!

Russian cream is amazing! I added frozen blueberries and it reminds me of the fruit and yogurt parfait at McDonalds! LMAO!

Oh and I'll have to try the pudding recipe later today! That looks pretty good too!

Mmm.

So Hubby's work is taking us out to dinner this sat at a VERY nice restaurant. So we were looking at their menu and I saw something I'd never heard of before so I looked it up. Russian creme. I found a recipe on Recipezaar. It looked soooo easy to make I figured what the hell? I'll try it. Oh and I can make it Gabe ok very easily!!!! Woot!
3/4 a cup of sugar
1/2 a cup water
1 packet plain gelatin

Stir these together in a pan and let sit 5 min. Then on med heat bring to a boil stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add in 1 cup heavy whipping cream

put to the side.

Mix 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 and 1/2 a cup sour cream.

Mix the two mixtures very well. Pour into 4 glasses. Then put in fridge for 4-5 hours. Garnish with fresh fruit. (they suggest strawberries and blue berries, but we can't do strawberries)

OMG SOOOOOOOOOOO YUMMY! I took a few tastes and I think this is my new favorite dessert!

I also got stuff to make the boys vanilla pudding tomorrow. Mmmmm. Oh and my coconut yogurt is still thickening, but it smells really good! Smells sweeter than with regular milk, a LOT sweeter! LOL!

Hrm...

I think tomorrow I'm gonna try making yogurt again. Only this time I'm making it with coconut milk. Mmmmmm.Can you believe that we have almost finished that whole GALLON of yogurt already!?!?!?! Yikes! LOL! Link especially LOVED it! It was a tad tart for me. I like mine sweeter so I didn't have quite as much, but Link will eat 2 bowls in a sitting easy. LMAO Gabe actually preferred the plain one! Weird child. So apparently he like the tart taste. He just asks me to add in a few frozen blueberries. But anyways I want to try it with coconut milk. And if I get a chance to go to the health food store. (yea I doubt it) then I'm gonna pick up some powdered carob or cocoa powder and potato starch to make homemade pudding. Mmmmm! I'm looking forward to trying this recipe out!

Info.

Well nothing really all that interesting to post so I figured I'd do some research and put it here. Plus tell my story of the doctor appts that led up to allergy testing.

Today boys and girls, I want to talk about the different types of allergic reactions.

Some people have the very serious anaphylaxis reactions. Where their throats close up and they can't breathe. These are very serious and so these are also the main ones you ever read about.

Then there are the more common ones.

Skin reactions. Hives, redness of body parts (Gabe always has his face/ears/hands/feet). Itchiness is common as well as eczema. These can be around for long periods of time. Gabe's face would get red and hives that would go away within a day or so, but the red hands/ears were always around took upwards of a month to get out of his system totally. Also the eczema can last for long periods of time. Now from what I have learned, eczema it's self is not caused by allergies, but it is exacerbated by it. So if you have a tendency for dry skin, for example, it might turn into eczema when exposed to food allergies. Also some people get pimples and blemishes from food allergies.

GI reactions Gastrointestinal. This is the lovely puking, pooping, stomach cramps, gas, heartburn and just general bad belly problems. (btw after now having suffered from these and the skin reactions I claim these to be the absolute worst!) Some doctors say that GI reactions can last up to a week. (mine were 3 days)

Topical reactions are when you can digest the food just fine, but skin contact causes a reaction. When Gabe eats strawberries, the next day he will wake up with blisters where ever they touched the skin around his mouth.

Behavioral reactions. If you have ever seriously considered having your kid tested for ADD or ADHD look into doing allergy testing too! You wouldn't believe how many people act up because of food allergies!

Now you might ask why I'm doing this? Well looking back on Gabe as a baby I KICK myself that we did not realize all the minor symptoms he had and get him to an allergist right away. I love my ped very much. He is WONDERFUL and very intelligent, but he is a pediatrician NOT an allergist. Peds are NOT trained to know that much about allergies!!!!! (this is not true for all, but for most) And when Gabe was a baby he would projectile vomit when I breastfed him. Normally about 1 time a day. So then we switched to formula, and that went away, but after about a month (some allergies have to build up and straight protein is different than the ones in breast milk) he started having diarrhea, so our doctor told us to try soy. THAT caused bloody diarrhea! So my ped sent us for a blood allergy test. All of it came back negative. So we assumed he was not allergic to anything, just that his system was immature and couldn't handle the proteins. Switched to nutramigen formula and the problems stopped. Now right here an allergist would have told us that blood tests are hit or miss. For some people they are great tools for others they don't work at all. And most allergists would have recommended either a prick test OR avoiding top 8 when introducing solid foods.

So Gabe did ok with the nutramigen AND our insurance covered it!!!!! WOOT! If you have to put your child on a special formula beg your doctor for a prescription and call your insurance company! AND ask for a supervisor! Most of the lower downs don't know that formula can be covered because (in our insurance company and in at least 1 other) it's done by a separate department. So we introduced solids. He would always puke after having sweet potatoes. (doctor said it was high acidity probably, turns out now they had soy oil in them) Then the poor kid got HORRIBLE eczema all over his legs and butt and back. We were told it was a normal thing. Also we were told about the trilogy. Eczema, asthma and allergies. If you have one, chances go up that you will have one or both of the others, but again they just said look out for it.

THEN Gabe had his first reaction to Keflex. Took 7 days of being on the antibiotic then suddenly one night he was crying soooo hard. We called the doc and they said it sounded like exhaustion. Ok so we finally get him to sleep. In the morning he woke up covered head to toe in hives. Turns out he's allergic. Then a few months later he goes on another antibiotic Amoxicillin. Suddenly his legs are hot and red and slightly swollen. Doctor tells me that there are NO tests for antibiotic allergies. (not entirely true. We now know that he was reacting to the meds because they are distant cousins {synthetic derivatives} of penicillin which you CAN test for by testing for the mold penicillium. An allergist would have known that). W are told that it's rare but some kids react to a lot of different meds. I now panic anytime we have to have an antibiotic in the house. (oh and our younger son Lincoln has had the same reaction as Gabe did to Keflex to Augmentin blah)

Now at this point with looking at this kids history, you would think they would say hey, go to an allergist. Right? Nope! And we were idiots who thought our peds knew all. (and unfair assumption) It took until after xmas when I gave Gabe a bite of peanut butter and about an hour later he had a few hives, then later that day it was his whole mouth. I wasn't sure if it was the peanut butter or something else so we just kept an eye out. I mean he'd been eating PB for over a year at this point! Then a few weeks later he had 1 bite of my peanut butter sandwich and the same thing happened and so we decided to test it and sure enough at 1 hour he had 2 hives, at 6 his face was all red and he had about 6 hives, and 12 hours later his whole face was covered in hives. Literally that's how fast it went. From being able to eat anything this crazy reaction after 1 PB sandwich, 1 bite of mine and then 1 teaspoon for the test! His body had just finally had it with the allergens.

So at this point our ped FINALLY said, you should see an allergist. Before we could get into the doc though his reactions got to the point that it was hives all over his entire face and rashes ALL over his body!!!! And it went from a few times, to ever couple of days to EVERY SINGLE DAY! We had to do the restriction diet which was awful! And that's when we started the whole crazy allergy testing process. The blood work was negative for everything. So then we did the prick test which gave us results for the molds, the pollens, the cat fur, corn, wheat and egg. They don't test for nuts on a prick test and because he has delayed reactions to soy that one came back negative at the time. He later ended up in the ER that night because of it. :( Also they didn't test for strawberries, but we did a trial and error with that one. You know we spent sooo much time last summer thinking he had impetigo or cold sores! SOOOO many visits to the doctor! And nothing ever helped. He hasn't had a strawberry in over a month and magically he hasn't had a single one since!

Anyways this has been our long journey with doctors. I just wanted to share. Maybe someone can get some use out of it.

Happy Easter.

I hope every one's day was better than mine. I woke up at 4am with HORRIBLE stomach pains. I then proceeded to get very sick. After that I was able to sleep again for a short while and then it was time to get up for the day. We let the boys play outside and hubby and I just sat in chairs exhausted. Then it was time for their nap, I got to finish cooking for Easter Dinner and cleaning the house and then get ready. By the time everyone got here at 3pm I was so tired. But I'm glad we didn't' cancel. The boys had a great time seeing all the family and dinner was good (what little I ate) and it was nice to just relax in our backyard with everyone.

Everyone left a little before 6. I got the boys into bed by 6! And they both went down without a fuss! Poor Link had a fever of 102.7 though :( and then I proceeded to lay down on the couch and pass out. I slept until after 9. Got up for some water and a biscuit and then went back to bed. The boys slept til 7:30 this morn.

I'm feeling slightly better today. (this is day 3 of belly problems) But my stomach is still making horrible noises and not doing so well. :( My doc says this is most likely just a continuation of the allergic reaction!!! It's crazy that something I ate could cause so many problems! Makes me feel even worse for Gabe. I never realized how much it can affect you for so long KWIM?

Anyways The Easter part was nice. The boys each got a basket each with a bag of surf sweet gummy worms, an Enjoy Life candy bar, and 2 Yummy Earth Lollipops each, a small car and bubbles. One of the few perks of allergies, Everyone was scared to buy them candy so this is literally ALL they got candy wise! (every holiday we try to limit how much they get and it never happens) They also got the Disney Princess and The Frog movie which they LOVE and a pool set up for the backyard. (kiddie pool with some cool floating things that won't get moldy because they are solid! WOOT!)

So all in all even though I felt awful, it was a great Easter for the boys. And I got some pretty pansies to plant! (Easter gift for us)

Impromptu lasagna

So today had a rough start. The steroids for my allergic reaction do not set right with me. They make me tired, nauseous, and give me a bad migraine. So this morning was spent doing nothing really productive except dishes. (my dishwasher broke SOBB!)

So this afternoon after the boys took their naps I was finally feeling better and so we did some yard work and then had a playdate. It was very busy! I hadn't planned to be gone so long! Suddenly I realized it was 6 O'clock and I had nothing planned to feed the boys! Eeek! Normally this means me settling for a can of veggies. LMAO. But today I realized I had some rice lasagna noodles that I hadn't tried yet, so I pulled out 4 and cooked them up. Cut them into halves and then used my homemade cheese and ketchup to make a lasagna! I got 1 adult size for each boy out of it. And Gabe DEVOURED IT! Link ate most of his, but Gabe ate ALL of his and what was left of Link's! It was pretty good. A little more vinegar taste than I would love, but still good. (Hey I did use homemade ketchup so it's expected) Next time I'll just do straight tomato paste with some oregano. Mmmm. But the cheese is perfect for this! It doesn't have much flavor on it's own and it's crumbly so it was almost like a ricotta. Mmmm.



Anyways I was just very proud that I was able to produce a really good, unplanned meal like that! I"M LEARNING!!!!!!!

I understand now.

So this morning we ran our 1.5 million errands including going to the health food store. They didn't have my muffin or bread mixes in stock so I decided to buy some new things with that money. I got coconut milk, enjoy life chocolate bars and some sunflower butter.

We got home and I fed the boys tomatoes and chips and put them down for their naps. Around 3 I decide I'm hungry. So I decide to try the sunflower butter. It looks really yummy So I crack it open and try it. OMG BLISS! SOOOO YUMMY! I couldn't stop eating it! I had probably more than 1/4 a quarter or the jar.

Within 30 minutes I start to feel my cheeks getting hot) Then they are BURNING and I go look they are bright red. So are my legs. Then my face starts to feel stiff and then it starts to hurt. Apparently I had mild swelling. Then my mouth gets tingly. My doctor said to go to the ER if my tongue or throat felt tingly or swollen. So I did. I went to prompt care. Yup allergic reaction.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS that I would have an allergy?!?! I mean seriously! But realistically I never eat sunflowers and probably had the equivalent to the amount of sunflower seeds I've eaten in the past 10 years so it makes sense that I wouldn't have ever known it til now. Gabe's allergies are the ONLY reason I was ever even tempted to try sunflower oil. But seriously only us. I'm on steroids for the next week.

But now I have a better understand of what Gabe feels when he has a reaction. It sucks.

Follow Up.

I never came back and told you how my soup or Anna's Banana Bread turned out.

Soup came out SUPER good! I felt like I should have more veggies so I raided my freezer and found bag of okra in there. So I added it. 1/2 a bag, Mmmmmm. Then about 30 minutes before I served the soup I added a box of rice. Super yummy BUT Next time I will only add 1/2 a box! I ended up with a LOT of very poofy rice! A WHOLE lot, but it was good. Sooooooo good. I did salt my bowl a little but the boys loved theirs just plain. (maybe next time more broth less water too just to make it extra flavorful). So some tweaking to do, but it was very good. And I ended up with feeding the whole family for dinner and then 4 ziplock backs of soup in my freezer. (I split them up into about 3 to 4 bowls worth in each bag so that I only thaw what we will eat in one sitting)

The Anna's Bread, It's a mixed review. Gabe LOVED it! LOVED LOVED LOVED IT! Link Liked it a lot. I didn't. It was just a very heavy bread (even for banana bread) and so the edges burned a little and got very tough and then the inside stayed mushy. :( But I must admit that it could have something to do with my oven. It's very new and tends to run a little hot sometimes, SOOOO I think I'm going to reserve my final opinion on this until we try it again at a lower temp. If nothing else the boys will eat it all. :)

Well now I know my followers won't die from curiosity of what happened with my food yesterday! LOL! It was great though when dinner time came and it was all done and all I had to do was put it in a bowl. I LOVE crock pots!

Easter Supper!

Well I managed to find enjoy life chocolate bars and surf sweets for the boys Easter baskets! YAY! I still have to go get plastic eggs filled with the tiny toys and a dozen eggs and dye. ( we are making Gabe wear latex free gloves and I'm putting the eggs in whisks so that he isn't going to be actually touching them). Walmart always has them cheap. I also got bubbles. But other than that we are ready for the Easter Bunny!!!! We are having family over for an early dinner and have managed to make every thing but 1 dessert and 1 type of rolls wheat, egg, corn, soy and nut free!!!!!! WOOT! Soo excited that we were able to do this AND that my MIL (mother in law) who is cooking half maybe more, was willing to go out of her way to make sure everything is Gabe ok!

We will be having
Turkey
glazed carrots
mashed potatoes (can't have ranch flavored though :(
sweet potatoes
peas
squash
green beans
cranberry sauce (I need to double check this)
biscuits
crescent rolls (these aren't Gabe ok)
banana cupcakes
chocolate pie (this is not Gabe ok)

I think that is pretty damn impressive that we put together all of this and it's Gabe ok. Honestly we could have made it totally Gabe ok except SIL (sister in law) really wanted to make her chocolate pie contribution and I wanted to make sure we had crescent rolls around in case my biscuits don't turn out great. (first time making them with perfect flour blend so I want to be sure I have a back up.)

So anyways I'm just very excite. I love cooking big meals.

Surf Sweets

I just found out about 2 cool new products.

Anna's Bread mixes.

And Surf Sweets!

Both are corn free and AT LEAST soy, wheat, egg free! (Surf Sweets is top 8 plus corn free) And Anna's depends on the mix. The one I'm talking about is the banana bread. Again my awesome neighbor and her boss thought of me and dropped it off! Woot!

Soup Challenge

I've never made soup in my life. Sooo I figured why not. Seems simple enough. But of course I don't want to use a recipe. LMAO. So I found a company that does a thing of soup greens. Gourmet Kitchens. Carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, parsnips, leek, parsley and turnips. Not a ton. (I wish I had gotten 2.) But a fair amount. So I cut them all up and put them in the crock pot with Manischewitz chicken broth and 4 big cups of water. I have some precooked chicken that I'm gonna dice up and throw in too. Then about 15 minutes before we eat I'm gonna throw in rice noodles. :)

I put everything in the crock pot and turned it on low. (it's only 930 and we won't eat til 5 or 6). It already smells good.

We had a flood day before yesterday in our basement and so Tuesday was spent trying to stop that and clean up. Yesterday was just a try to recover day (we didn't stop til 330am wed.) and so today I am just TIRED! So it's kinda nice to know that at 9:30am I've already got breakfast (plain oat meal with 100% maple syrup) and dinner done. That's a nice feeling for sure. I'll be sure to let you all know how it turns out! My next thing I want to tackel is home made spagetti sauce and then a summer harvest soup. (I need spagetti sauce for it and I can't find any locally that Gabe can eat)