No-Tomato Ketchup

One of the heartbreaks of my little girlie losing tomatoes is that she ADORES ketchup! She wants ketchup with nearly every meal. Thankfully I'd stumbled upon a tomato-free ketchup recipe some time ago and was able to come to her rescue. The recipe below is modified from one posted at food.com.

No-Tomato Ketchup

1 (14.5 ounce) can jellied cranberry sauce
1 (14.5 ounce) can pear halves in natural juice, less 1/4 cup juice
1 (14.5 ounce) can sliced carrots, drained
1/2 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Place all the ingredients in blender and puree until smooth. (It won't take long!) It's a very similar color to tomato ketchup, just slightly transparent, and smells just like tomato ketchup.

It received the Miss M seal of approval! My husband thinks it tastes a lot like a certain roast beef sandwich chain's sauce. My oldest didn't care for it at all. I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't bring myself to try it. I have a lot of food aversions, and this apparently was just too much for me. But it makes a large batch and I won't have to mix it up too often. I split up the finished ketchup and put half in the freezer. I need to buy a little squeeze bottle and fill it up with safe ketchup so it's easier to manage than spooning out of the pictured container.

More Allergies :(

I haven't posted in a while because the food allergy situation is changing so much. No fun new recipes for Little C and now it's become clear my little girl is sensitive to some food too. Because of her symptoms she is now going to be screened for eosinophilic esophagitis.

New additions to C's allergy list: mustard, grapes, barley, oat, celery and almonds. This summer he also mildly reacted to peaches and cherries but we're hoping that was oral allergy syndrome and will retry them this winter, since those didn't show up on the skin test. Of course grapes didn't show up either, and when he retried them this week after much begging, he reacted with a rash on his face and arms and coughing. He snuck a raisin the next day and reacted with a rash again.

Miss M has had troubles for the last 2 years that neither we nor doctors were never able figure out. After doing a food diary it became all too clear that she quickly reacts to tomatoes and potatoes. I suspect dairy might be a problem too. She hasn't undergone allergy testing for tomato or potato, so I'm not sure why those foods are causing problems, but there isn't a doubt that they do. In November she's scheduled to have an upper endoscopy.