Graham Crackers!

Yes, that's right! Safe graham crackers! I didn't think it would be possible, but it's true!

It's been a rough summer around here food-wise for my little guy. He ended up so sick he had to go on a round of prednisone and a week of a rice and apples only diet, and were only able to add in other foods after the week and very slowly. As a typical 2 year old he's into absolutely everything and that often gets him in to trouble. We had to change the knob on the pantry door to a keyed lock because he is so quick and sneaky! He'd quietly open the door, scale the shelves and grab his favorites - crackers. Mainly graham crackers and Ritz.

I found a recipe online months ago but it seemed so complicated I just kept avoiding it. Then a friend who's sister is on a gluten free diet pointed me to this recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/gluten-free-graham-crackers-recipe.html

With just a couple switcharoos we now have safe rice-based graham crackers!

Here's the modified recipe:

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon safe baking powder (see sidebar)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

3 Tablespoons coconut oil, solid
2 Tablespoons Fleicshman's unsalted margarine
6 tablespoons rice or coconut milk
3 tablespoons Lyle's Golden Syrup

Additional white granulated sugar for sprinkling on just before baking.

I won't write all the directions down here, just hop over to the original recipe. :) I've baked these 3 times now and do find I have to cook for about 20 minutes. I use a jelly roll roll pan and I think mine come out a bit thicker. Also, I usually need to recut the crackers just after they come out of the oven or they rejoin into 1 giant cracker. These aren't as dark as typical graham cracker using the ingredients I list above, and they don't taste exactly the same, but ALL my kid like them!

Simple Rice & Chicken Broth

One of my guy's new favorites is such a simple one!  White rice cooked in chicken broth with a sprinkle of salt - that's it!

I make a big batch and then warm up portions in the microwave with a tiny bit of added water so it doesn't dry out. Feel free to halve or quarter the recipe if you want a smaller batch.  I'm sure it would be tasty with another broth as well -- try vegetable broth for a vegetarian meal!

Simple Rice

1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
2 cups safe chicken broth
salt to taste once cooked

In a small pot, add rice to broth and bring to a boil. Then turn the heat down to a simmer and cover. Set a timer for 15 minutes and don't take the lid off. No stirring necessary!  When the timer goes off and you take the lid off you'll have a pot full of fluffy rice! Add salt (and butter-substitute if desired) to taste.


I'll have to try brown rice some time too for a healthier side. :)

Chicken Broth

I've been making my own chicken broth for the last year or so, it's another really easy thing to do! I'll give it a post of it's own one day with photos, but basically, just take leftover chicken bones (that haven't come in contact with any allergens from their first use), chop up carrots, celery and onions, and fill a large stock pot a couple inches below the top with cool water. Add peppercorns. Bring to a low boil, cover, reduce heat and let simmer for at least 2 hours, or as long as desired. Then strain out all the solids! I usually let the strained broth cool in a large pitcher overnight in the refrigerator and then separate into 2 cup portions to freeze.

Serendipity Biscuits!

My plan this weekend was to make my little guy another batch of coconut cupcakes/muffins (he prefers no icing). Since we've figured out that flax seed definitely IS a problem for him I planned to use 1/2 cup of soy yogurt in place of the flax seed and hot water mixture in the original recipe. But, I was apparently very distracted, because I only added 1/4 cup yogurt AND forgot to add the 2 cups of sugar! Surprisingly they turned out to be a different but still yummy treat! They are lightly sweet, don't rise up as well as the cupcakes, and are a handy snack!

Coconut Biscuits

1/2 cup safe shortening
1/2 cup coconut oil (room temperature)
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup soy yogurt
1 1/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons tapioca starch (flour)
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons arrowroot starch
4 teaspoons safe baking powder (see sidebar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoon guar gum
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups coconut milk, hot

Preheat oven to 350F.

Beat coconut oil and shortening. Blend in applesauce and yogurt. In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, baking soda, guar gum and salt. Slowly mix in half the flour mixture, then half the milk, until blended. Then slowly mix in remaining flour and milk.

Place liners in cupcake pans, fill about 3/4 full and bake for about 20 minutes. Let sit in pans until cooled.

Yield: This recipe made 30 small biscuits.

The Ouch Pouch

A couple weeks ago I learned about the "Ouch Pouch" through a giveaway mentioned on Twitter. I didn't win that giveaway, but I had to order some of my own! Karen creates the Ouch Pouches with a wide variety of fabrics and in several sizes to sell in her etsy.com shop. I contacted her through etsy and described what I'd like, and she put together a custom listing for me. She whipped up the pouches and I received them in just under a week!

Aren't they cute! The 4"x8" size is perfect for carrying 2 EpiPens and the 5"x7" fits a small bottle of liquid antihistamine, a measuring spoon, some hydrocortisone cream. I need to stash a few cute bandages in there too! So now, instead of having all these necessary items tossed in the bottom of my purse, I have them in a handy, easy to grab spot that I can quickly move from purse to diaper bag, backpack or stroller without having to search for them. And, if someone else needs to quickly grab them in an emergency, they won't have to be frantically searching -- they'll be easy to find!

Good news!

This morning we had an appointment with my son's allergist. Just a check up and it gave some good time to sit and discuss his diet, how to proceed, and what the future holds.

The little guy isn't so little anymore! He's at about the 12% percentile for his age (27 months) and even better for his height! The doctor is so impressed with how he is doing (as are we!) and has given us the ok to trial a few new foods over the summer if we want to, or even retry one of the foods he's only had a delayed reaction to. I'm not sure what we'll try -- we've offered both spinach and broccoli in attempt to get some green in his diet but he wouldn't even try them. Any kid friendly green suggestions? He's gotten hives with peas, green beans and avocado before so I hesitate to try those yet.

The plan is to do RAST blood testing at our next appointment in a few months and see how things are going.  Since so many foods look safe with the scratch skin tests but then he still has a reaction, it's not a good predictor for him.

The doctor also eased my mind by sharing that he fully expects little C to outgrow many of these food allergies and intolerances in the next few years, which is a huge relief. I know it can't be absolutely predicted, and it's possible that he might not, but things would be so much easier if we only had a small handful of foods to worry about once he was school-aged.

I don't think I've ever shared here before, but one thing we and the doctors have suspected is an eosiniphilic disease. The only way to diagnose any of these conditions is with a scope of the affected area. C had a scope last summer and it was nearly clear, and not close to the level where they would consider an official diagnosis. However, he was on a very strict diet then, so it's possible that it was just in remission because he wasn't being exposed to any problem foods. So even though we got the all clear then, it's been something that's never left my head as a possibility. The doctor (who sees many eosiniphilic patients) said that while it is still possible, he felt that C is gaining weight so well, has such a good appetite, and is so eager to try foods, that it's not something they are concerned about at this time. If he does have it, I feel we are so fortunate to have it well under control with diet alone.

Recipes & a review of a neat allergy-friendly recipe app coming soon!

Crispy rice treats!

After searching high and low locally for some Lyle's Golden syrup unsuccessfully, I finally ordered some from Amazon. It arrived a few weeks ago, but somehow I never got around to using it until today.

I used this recipe with Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice cereal (gluten-free) and Fleischmann's UNSALTED Margarine. Little guy liked them but they were super-sweet! I think next time I'll leave out the extra Tablespoon of sugar (and maybe add a pinch of salt to make up for unsalted margarine). These also don't set up like the typical rice crispy treat since they don't have the marshmallows. It really did help to make individual servings in cupcake liners and a cupcake pan. They absolutely need to chill in the refrigerator, and for more than few minutes, or they won't hold together at all, and even after several hours chilling, they are still soft.

Crispy Rice Treats
1 Tablespoon safe margarine
4 Tablespoons golden syrup
3 cups crisped brown rice cereal

Place cupcake liners in pan. I needed 15 and didn't completely fill any of the liners.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the margarine. Stir in golden syrup. Take off heat and stir in cereal. Quickly spoon into cupcake liners and press down with spoon.

Place pan into refrigerator to chill and firm up.

Guess we won't be buying Hebrew National franks anymore!

With the recent discovery of my little guy's oregano allergy I've had to reevaluate a few of the things we used to consider safe. Since many of his reactions are delayed (pain, GI troubles, eczema) and what had previously been a mild easy-to-miss reaction is a stronger one when he's already reacting to something else, it's hard to pinpoint what is causing it. Since he's a typical in-to-everything 2-year-old, it's not out of the normal for him to sneak or quickly grab a bite of something he's not suppose to have, so sometimes I'm really not sure what he's reacting to.

One of his favorite things for an occasional lunch is hot dogs. Conveniently the same hot dogs his sisters ate appeared to be safe for him(as long as his were cut into itty-bitty pieces). The package did include the always suspicious ingredients "spice" and "flavoring" on the nutrition label so I emailed to see if they included oregano.

I was less than impressed with their response:

Thank you for your email concerning our Hebrew National® Franks.

As consumers ourselves, we are very concerned about food allergies and want you to be confident in the safety of our products.  I can tell you a bit about the steps we take to address the needs of food-allergic consumers.

ConAgra Foods shows any of the eight Major Food Allergens (Crustacean Shellfish, Egg, Fish, Milk, Peanut, Soy, Tree Nuts and Wheat) on the ingredient list. We also include a 'Contains' statement in plain language on all of our products that contain any of the Major Food Allergens. This is how you know if any of these allergens are present. The 'Contains' statement appears in bold type directly after the ingredient list on the Nutrition Facts panel of our packages.  If a Major Food Allergen is included in a flavoring or spice blend in the product, we always show it in the 'Contains' statement.

Our product formulas may change from time to time, but please be assured that we try to avoid adding allergens to reformulated products whenever possible.  We encourage you to please check both the ingredient list and 'Contains' statement each time you buy a product in case the formulation has changed.
If a Major Food Allergen is not listed in the 'Contains' or 'May Contain' statements, you can be confident the product does not contain that particular allergen.

ConAgra Foods would like to help you with this request to the best of our ability. However, because the information you have requested is considered to be proprietary and a trade secret of ConAgra Foods, we are unable to supply this information.

If you have any allergen concerns outside of the Top 8 Food Allergens, we recommend you do not consume the product and consult your physician.

So, ConAgra foods, I guess I'll take your advice and simply not purchase your product anymore. I understand that a company wouldn't want to disclose their exact recipe, but I was asking only if a single ingredient was present. I can't take away a food my son loved only from him and still let him see other family members eating it, so we'll just have to not purchase it any more.