Dairy free in the kitchen

My husband has been back to work now for a week. With the company he works for he can be home anywhere from 5 to 8pm and sometimes though not many even later. I remember one time before he deployed he came home after 10pm. Anyway, due to his work eating out is not as easy as it was before he went back to work. It has made me cook a lot more at home then ever before. It is more then that though, I now spend a minimum of an hour at the grocery store most of the time I am reading labels, of some of our old staples then standing their in the store trying to figure out how to make my husband's favorite foods into something our son can eat. This is not easy. I wish that there was an app that you could just scan the barcode of and it would flash green for its dairy free, yellow if it is used on shared lines or in a place that has dairy and red for it has dairy in it. To bad i am not in anyway techie enough to do this.

This past week I have made a number of dairy free meals some keepers some tweaks and some never again. So far my greatest success has been the chocolate pudding.

Using nothing but 1/4c sugar, 1/2c dark chocolate Hersey's cocoa powder and 1 box of silken tofu. All you have to do is put it in a blender and then let it sit in the fridge. Everyone loved this, my daughter a picky 2 year old, my son the dairy allergy child, myself, my mom and my dad. The only one who did not like it was my even pickier husband. After a quick consult with my vegetarian best friend, I figured out that the "sour" taste he was having was due to his not liking of dark chocolate. He is willing to try it again but with a "milk" chocolate substituted for the dark. I like dark chocolate, so if you do to then you should really try this delicious dairy free dessert.

I know think I am going to post some of my more fun meals once a week. Maybe tasty Tuesdays or something like that.

My Son's Medical Id

Like many other parents out there at some point the discussion of medical alert jewelery will come into effect with a severe food allergy not just dairy. It is an important piece of your child's wardrobe even if your child is with you all the time it is good to get them used to wearing it, that way when you child starts daycare, play dates, birthday parties, school, sleepovers they know to have it on them at all times.

For my son we decided to go the route of the medical dog tag, that way he would feel like his daddy cause he wears dog tags. We were worried about the normal toddler things (eating it, chocking on the necklace part) but we have been really surprised by how well he took to it. From the first time we put it on him he has been 100% fine with it. Sure he nibbles on it from time to time, but hey he isn't even 2 yet.

Now, I know their are tons of sites and catalogues to purchase tags from. You can even go to CVS and get these cute little rubbery food allergy bracelets .They have different foods and I have been told that at the store you might even be lucky enough to get the dairy one which has a kind of tired looking milk carton on it. My son has incredibly sensitive skin so we knew that these would not work well for him.

We got his medical dog tag here. The name of the site is American Medical ID. From what we found it was pretty comparable in price and had quicker and cheaper shipping and letter pricing.

On our sons tag we went  the $39.99 Stainless Steel,http://www.americanmedical-id.com/product/stainless-steel-dog-tag-red-51

We went with the red since it is the most common color for medical alerts. On the front we put his first and last name. On the back we put
Severe Food Allergy
NO DAIRY
Carries Epi Pen
Call 911 after use
ICE (my name)-Mother
and my phone number

There is even more room left on the back so I can always add more if he ends up getting more food allergies in the future which is another reason why i liked this companies.

Well I hope that helped. If you have any questions or comments please list them below. Your child is never to young to start wearing a medical alert. There are always family members, friends, baby sitters, strangers who just won't know or understand food allergies. Better safe then sorry.

buffets for older kids?

When  we go out to eat I am always worried about my son, and what he can and can not eat at any location. My biggest fears is that something will get lost in translation and he will get sick or worse. No place to eat is as nerve wracking as a buffet. We as a family love to eat at buffets. My daughter eats her weight in rice, Mandarin oranges, watermelon, cucumbers, black beans, and some meat, and my son enjoys eating hard boiled eggs, soy beans from the salad area and jello for dessert. The kids are free till the age of 3 so it doesn't bother us to go out and eat, but as my son gets older I wonder if eating at these types of places will even work for us. The language barrier is one thing but the foods being cross contaminated is another concern. I wonder if other people eat at buffets and if so what they let their kids eat from them.

Restaurant Food List ~ Red Robin.....Yumm!

For my husband's main meal upon returning from deployment was a request to go to Red Robin. It was just built a few months before he returned and as everyone knows Red Robin is known for their Delicious gooey hamburgers and cheeseburgers. So I was hesitant to take my little guy there. The fears were quickly shot down as soon as I was looking at their website. they have an amazing allergy site online that lets you select which items you need to avoid then gives you a list in breakdowns of what you can eat. Since my son is only allergic to dairy that was the only item I selected. So below is the list of items that are said to be safe for dairy allergies.

• Freckled Fruit Salad
• Mandarin Oranges
• Coleslaw
• Sweet Potato Fries (plain)
• Steak Fries (Plain)
• Apples
• House Salad (No cheese or croutons)
• Steamed Broccoli
• Baby Carrots
• Kids RAD Burger w/ Beef Patty (No Cheese or Red Robin Seasoning)
• Kids RAD Burger w/ grilled chicken breast (No Cheese)
• Kids RAD Burger w/ Boca Patty (No red robin seasoning)
• Kids Red Robin Spaghetti (No cheese)
• Kids Chick-on-a-Stick (No sauces)
• A-1 Peppercorn Burger 
• Bleu Ribbon Burger
• Red's Tavern Double
• RR Bacon Cheeseburger
• Bonzai Burger
• Tavern Burger, Cantina Jack Style
• Tavern Burger, Fiery Ghost style
• Keep It Simple Burger
• Red's Big Tavern Burger
• Tavern Burger, Pig out Style
• Royal Burger
• Smoke & Pepper Burger
• California Chicken Burger
• Simply Grilled Chicken Burger
• Teriyaki Burger
• Grilled Turkey Burger
• Boca Burger
• Bruschetta Chicken Sandwich
• Honest Hummus Plate
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Chicken Tortilla Soup ( No Tortilla Strip, sour cream or cheese)
• Red White & Bleu Salad
• Avo-Cobb Salad
• Simply Grilled Chicken Salad
• House Salad
• Honey-Mustard Poppy seed Dressing
• Italian Dressing
• Thousand Island Dressing
• Dijon Vinaigrette Dressing
• Balsamic Dressing

** All Burgers need to be WITHOUT cheese, Red Robin Seasoning, Onion Straws, Green Chile Sauce, or Jalapeno Coins.**

**All Poultry Sandwich's need to be WITHOUT Cheese, Red Robin Seasoning, Guacamole, Pesto Sauce, or Balsamic cream sauce. **

**All Salads need to be WITHOUT Garlic Bread, Cheese, or Croutons. **

As always the main meals are in orange, everything else is sides appetizers and dressings. Also make sure to tell your server of any food allergies you may have. 

A final note the Freckled Lemonade is Dairy free as well, with free refills, but the acid level is high so if you have throat issues from your allergies as my son does this may not be the best drink to have. 

4th of July Extravaganza

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July. If you are like me it can be a time of stress and uncertainty for your food allergy little one(s). Every year we go to the city's fireworks show at the local park. This was my son's first year going and we were really on guard with everything, mostly cause you have to be. He couldn't go into the bounce house with his sister because other little kids had ice cream all over their faces or were eating pizza or popcorn and we couldn't chance the cross contamination. We did let him sit at the door and get bounced, he love it. We made sure he didn't get touched by random people as well, and he had his medical alert dog tag on at all times outside his clothes while we were anywhere near people. We also had plenty of wipes and sanitizer with us.

I packed the kids safe food as well. I made them veggie pasta and we also had grapes, sliced apples with peanut butter, and marshmallow peeps ( DAIRY FREE). As for me and my husband and my parents we did what we always did, bought subs from a local shop and bought fresh squeezed lemonade at the park. Good Times.

The best part of the night of course the fireworks. My little guy did great for his first time, we did have a few issues with the really bright fireworks but that is due to his light sensitivity. And he past out in the stroller on the way back to the shuttle bus. His big sister stayed awake till we got her into the car seat to drive home. It was a good night.