Hooray for Halloween lollipops!

I am glad to say that over the years I've found a wide array of Halloween candy that Ainsley can have, including Dum Dums, Smarties, Sweetarts, Twizzlers, Starburst, Laffy Taffy, Mike & Ike, Dots, and Act II Popcorn Balls, just to name a few. The one thing missing from this list, you might notice, is any chocolate candy ... which is my favorite type of Halloween candy.

In the past, I've spent a fortune buying safe chocolate from places such as Amanda's Own, but in the past year I've begun making my own because it is so much cheaper and is very fun and easy. As I did with our Easter chocolates, for Halloween I bought a couple of candy molds (you can get them online from a place like this or from a craft store like Michael's or Jo-Ann's) and a bag of safe chocolate chips (normally I use Enjoy Life, but this time I went cheap-o and used Kroger Value chocolate chips, which contain soy but none of Ainsley's allergens). The molds I got were for lollipops, so I also purchased a bag of lollipop sticks. Total cost of this endeavor was about $5, and it made about 20 pops. Not bad!

I made the pops in the same way that I made the Easter candy - by pouring the chips into a glass bowl and microwaving them for 1 minute, then stirring, then microwaving and stirring for 30-second increments until the chocolate was melted and smooth. I then spooned the chocolate into the molds, tapped the molds lightly on the counter to get the air bubbles out, and stuck in the lollipop sticks. I refrigerated the molds for about an hour and then pulled the pops out of the molds and put them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to store (you can also wrap the individual pops in small strips of saran wrap or press & seal before putting them in the bag - this might protect them a bit more).

Here are pics of the lollipops, of Leighton's face after eating one, and of us at a pumpkin patch this morning. I love this time of year!

Italian extravaganza!

Lately I've had a hankering for italian food - not the fancy pastas, but the pizza/calzone/breadstick-type food. As those of you dealing with a milk allergy know, italian food is particularly tricky because almost all popular italian dishes contain cheese or cream. I have tried a couple of vegan recipes that substitute tofu for cheese, such as in calzone and lasagna, and they've come out okay, but those recipes typically take a lot of time.

These last couple of weeks, I haven't had time for recipes like that, so instead I whipped together two very quick, very easy, and very yummy dishes: (1) cheeseless pizza with sliced tomatoes and olives and (2) pepperoni roll-ups. Both, of course, involve some sort of quick-baking Pillsbury canned bread (and by the way, did you know that if you pay attention, you never have to pay full price for those things? My Kroger frequently runs sales on the crescent rolls and pizza crust, and I've also found oodles of coupons for them).

Anyway, here is #1, the pizza:

All I did was unroll some Pillsbury thin-crust pizza dough onto a cookie sheet, put 1/2 can of pizza sauce on it (I like Muir Glen brand) and cover it with some thinly sliced tomatoes and sliced black olives (straight from a can). I also threw some ham on it too. Pepperoni would have also tasted awesome on it.

And here is #2, the pepperoni roll-ups:

The secret recipe is this: I rolled 3 slices of pepperoni up in each crescent roll and sprinkled some garlic salt, basil, and oregano on them. After baking them according to the package directions, I used the 1/2 can of leftover Muir Glen pizza sauce for dipping. As you might note, I tried to counterbalance the relative unheathiness of the pepperoni roll-ups by adding broccoli to the plate. I used a lemon sauce for the broccoli, the recipe for which is in the Vegan Lunchbox cookbook (see sidebar for cookbook details).

Given their ease and yumminess (not to mention that it's fun for the kids to dip them!), these roll-ups are probably going to make a regular appearance at our dinner table.

Camping trip - a success!

I am so sorry it's been so long since my last post. For the past couple of weeks, my husband has been working crazy hours so I have been trying to hold down the fort while he's been basically unavailable.

Dave did manage to take an approximately 28-hour-break to take Ainsley on one night of the first Adventure Princess campout, which was at a large campground 2 1/2 hours away. He had to bring so much camping-related stuff that I seriously didn't think he was going to be able to carry it all. Add to that the safe food he had to bring for Ainsley and I realized how difficult it was going to be to pull off this camping thing.

Thankfully, we did manage to figure out a camping-food strategy that is perfect for short trips to places where we're not expecting much of the food to be safe. We organized the food by meal and put all of the meal bags in a giant, soft-sided freezer bag. As an example, we put in Ainsley's Saturday lunchbag a soybutter & jelly sandwich, sweet potato chips, and a chocolate-soy-milk drink box. We put in her Sunday breakfast bag a covered bowl of her favorite cereal, a bagel, bacon, a drink box of rice milk (for the cereal), a drink box of apple juice, and a spoon. For the meal bags, we used gallon-sized ziplocs, but you could also use paper bags or large Glad/Tupperware containers.

Dave called ahead and made sure he could use the dining hall's refrigerator and microwave. After he arrived, he put the whole freezer bag in the refrigerator and would grab a meal out of it at mealtime. He kept a separate bag of snacks in his backpack and gave those to Ainsley while they were out during the day.

Because all of the other dads were very understanding of Ainsley's allergies, they were more than happy to supply safe foods for the big Saturday-night cookout (Dave had sent a safe list in advance). She ate hot dogs, chips, and smores just like the other kids, except her smore was made with an Enjoy Life chocolate bar instead of Hershey's. Her favorite part, of course, was roasting the marshmallows over the fire.

All in all, a successful campout and wonderful daddy/daughter bonding experience. The only unfortunate part was that, within an hour of their arrival back home, Dave had to go back up to the office. Hopefully he'll actually be able to enjoy an entire weekend of camping and relaxing next time.

Camping with food allergies

Ainsley and Dave are doing the YMCA Adventure Princess (dad/daughter) program for the first time this year, and it involves a lot of camping. Dave is not exactly the camping sort (we have gone camping exactly 0 times in the 13 years we've been together) but Ainsley is quite excited about it so he is being a good sport and planning on taking her to all of the campouts. Much to his relief, Adventure Princesses is really "camping lite" - they will get to sleep in air-conditioned cabins with normal bathroom facilities. So there's not a lot of roughing it involved.

The first campout is coming up soon so Dave has started to communicate with the other dads about Ainsley's allergies and safe foods for her. He and I have also talked about accommodations he needs to check on at the various campsites, including whether there's a refrigerator or microwave available to prepare her meals.

So far Dave has done a wonderful job of making sure the other dads in the group know about her allergies, and we were quite pleased that, at the group's first meeting, the host family provided fresh fruit as the snack so that Ainsley could eat it. Likewise, the dad in charge of buying some "camp food" (hot dogs, smores) for the upcoming campout was very understanding when Dave emailed him the safe-food list. It turns out that that dad's daughter has a tree-nut allergy, so he is quite familiar with food-allergy issues.

It is actually a really nice change having Dave coordinate Ainsley's food-allergy issues with regard to a special event. So much of the time, the burden falls on me as the mom to take care of everything like this. I have years of experience in coordinating food-safe playdates, packing safe foods for vacation, and dealing with preschool food-allergy issues. Dave has gotten used to me taking care of these things, which is fine, but it's nice that he's now learning all that is involved in making sure Ainsley (a) stays safe and (b) enjoys the event. Now if only I can get him to volunteer to be the room mom for Ainsley's kindergarten class next year ...

Anyway, since this group camping thing is all new to us, does anyone have any specific camping-with-food-allergies tips?

Ciao, coconut allergy!

As you might have noticed, I took "coconut" out of the list of allergens in the subtitle to this blog, because Ainsley's repeated consumption of So Delicious "coconut milk beverage" and coconut-milk-based ice cream produced no reaction. I am very happy to have struck one thing off the list. Baby steps, I guess. I had never feared that her coconut allergy was life-threatening - her hive to it was quite small when the doctor did the skin testing and her number to it has always been low. Still, I was happy to have her avoid it for these last few years to be on the safe side.

Since we discovered Ainsley can tolerate coconut, we have been thoroughly enjoying the coconut beverage and ice cream. I now make a mean chocolate milk by adding 1/2 coconut drink and 1/2 soy milk to a glass and then mixing in Hershey's chocolate syrup. It is chocolate-y, coconut-y, and yum-y! And I have to say that, to me, coconut-milk ice cream tastes a thousand times better than soy ice cream.

I haven't yet purchased any shredded coconut to use in baked goods, but I did stumble upon it in the grocery aisle the other day, so I know where to find it. When I picked up a bag of it to read the ingredient label, Ainsley asked, "Is it safe for me?" The only allergen listed was "coconut." I was very happy to reply, "Yes, honey, it is."

Mmm ... Mmm ... Minestrone

Last week my friend Elena asked if I could watch her kids for a little while in return for her bringing over dinner. That was not a hard decision! She was taking food to a family with a new baby and had made them Minestrone, so she made extra for us. It was delicious, healthy, and Ainsley-safe, so I had to have the recipe. I made some of the sweet cornbread from the Kid-Pleasing cookbook (see sidebar) to go with it - that cornbread is soooo good, by the way.


Elena's Minestrone

1/4 C safe margarine or olive oil
1/2 C carrots, sliced
1/2 C celery, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 pkg frozen peas
1/2 Tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp basil
1 1/2- 2 cans chicken broth
1 can (28 oz) tomatoes
1/2 C shredded cabbage
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 can kidney beans
1/4 C spaghetti, broken in pieces
1 tsp salt and pepper

One hour before serving: In a large pot over medium heat, in margarine or oil, cook peas, carrots, celery, and onion for 10 minutes. Stir in remaining vegetables, broth, and spices and cook for 30-45 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Add broken spaghetti and cook until tender.

Fun Food-Allergy Family Vacation: Charleston, SC

This year our big vacation is Disneyworld in November. But not wanting to go the whole summer without traveling anywhere, a couple of months ago we hastily threw together plans for a beach trip. At first we thought about driving down to the Texas coast, but that's about 8 hours away. We thought, if driving there will take that long, why not just fly somewhere? After looking at a map of all of the southern beach destinations (and excluding Florida, since we'll be there later this year), we decided to investigate Charleston. I had always heard it was a beautiful city, and was happy to find that lots of affordable beach accommodations were available there. Finding direct flights to the Charleston airport through American Eagle for cheap sealed the deal.

We went last Wednesday and returned on Sunday, and had a blast. It was probably the best family vacation we've ever had, with a perfect combination of beach/pool time and sightseeing/other fun activities. Plus, it was affordable and an excellent destination for those with food allergies: We were able to rent a very affordable condo that had a a fully furnished kitchen and we found a regular grocery store and a Whole Foods that stocked our food essentials, both of which were conveniently located.

There were also a Wendy's and a McDonald's nearby so that we could occasionally treat Ainsley to a meal out (we do not allow her to eat food from "real" restaurants because I don't trust what they tell me in terms of ingredients, but we do allow her to eat certain kids' meal items from Wendy's and McDonald's because the ingredient list is standard throughout all of their locations and is easily accessible on the internet).

Because we had such a great time, I am listing our daily itinerary so that I can show exactly what we did every day.

Wednesday: Arrived in Charleston after a 2-1/2 hour flight from DFW. The Charleston airport was small and had porters available to wheel our luggage out to the rental car, which was right outside the terminal. We headed to our resort, Wild Dunes, which is on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston's barrier islands. On the Isle of Palms connector road, we spotted a grocery store (Piggly Wiggly! I haven't shopped at one of those since I was a girl and lived in Louisiana) and I ran in to get a few staples, including soy milk, bread, and some snacks. I should mention that I also packed a lot of food in my luggage, including sunbutter and jelly.

We checked in to our resort, which is a huge development of houses, condos (called "villas"), and a hotel, and were very excited to see this view from the balcony of our 2-bedroom condo/villa (which was beautifully decorated - it was room 209 in the Summer House building):

After unpacking, we headed down to the beach. I haven't been to a ton of beaches in my life, and generally have so-so memories of them. I have been a couple of times to the Texas coast, which seems to have lots of things washing on shore (jellyfish, seaweed). A couple of years ago, we went to San Diego and played on a clean beach, but the water was cold and there weren't many seashells. The Wild Dunes beach was better than any other beach I've been to - nothing weird washing on shore and clear, warm water. Plus, the kids loved that there were tons of seashells. Within one minute of walking onto the beach, Ainsley found a sand dollar. Also, because Wild Dunes is a giant, private resort, the beach was very uncrowded. As you can tell from the pictures, the pool was also right outside of our room. We spent almost as much time in there, and it too was warm, clean, and uncrowded. It also had a beach ball and noodles available for guests' use.

Leighton's first steps in the ocean.

Collecting seashells.

Walking from the condo - a short trip!

Thursday: The next day, we had more beach time and then went into Charleston. We did the carriage tour through the historic area - apparently a "must" when you're visiting - and then walked through the Market, which is a series of covered buildings where people set up tables to sell various things. There were lots of women selling "sweetgrass baskets," a Charleston tradition, but we didn't buy any because they were really expensive.

After exploring downtown, we drove to Charles Towne Landing, a state park that had an "animal forest" - a natural habitat zoo featuring various animals that English settlers would have encountered when they first came to what's now South Carolina.

Friday: It was rainy that day so we decided to go to the South Carolina Aquarium in downtown Charleston. I frankly wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised - the aquarium specialized in native South Carolina fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles, and really tries to educate its visitors on the different parts of the region. It also had one of the most varied "touch-tanks" that I've seen - Ainsley was able to pet sea urchins, sea stars, snails, some sort of fish that lived in shells, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, and stingrays. She also got to pet a baby alligator (supervised, of course)!

Petting an alligator.

The harbor, right outside the aquarium.

Saturday: We decided to head out to one of the many plantations in the Charleston area. We read about each of them and settled on what is perhaps the most popular - Magnolia Plantation. We wanted to go there because it advertised a guided tram ride through the grounds, a petting zoo, and an unguided walking tour through its gardens. Here are some pics:

Making friends with Bambi inside the petting zoo.

A peacock joining us for lunch.

An alligator sunning himself in the swamp - one of the many we saw on the tram tour.

On the walking tour.

Sunday: We had a late flight that day, so we decided to make the most of it - we spent a lot of time on the beach and at the pool that morning. Then we headed into town and toured the Exchange, a historic building that advertises a scary dungeon in the basement (I have to say, this was the one let-down on the trip - it was pretty boring). We then went to Waterfront Park, which is beautifully shaded and has fountains that the kids can run around in.

Notes:

(1) As I mentioned above, there was a Piggly Wiggly on the connector road that led from Charleston to the Isle of Palms. It sold all of our staples, including Silk soy milk and Nature's Own bread. There was also a smaller grocery store called the Red & White on the Isle of Dunes. The Whole Foods was also between the Isle of Palms and downtown Charleston, in a town called Mount Pleasant.

(2) If you have a seafood allergy, Charleston might not be the best place for you, because seafood is its specialty. Also, for those with peanut allergies, one of the most famous places to eat is Hyman's - we loved it so much we ate there twice, but note that the waitstaff brings a bowl of roasted peanuts on the table as soon as you sit down. Of course, we asked not to have the peanuts, and carefully wiped Ainsley's hands before she ate the food we had brought for her to make sure she didn't ingest any peanut residue.

(3) Ainsley did have one slight allergic reaction while we were in Charleston. Our carriage tour began and ended in a large barn that housed many different farm animals. Apparently the food the animals were eating had some nuts/peanuts in it, because after we finished the carriage ride and were walking around the barn looking at the animals, Ainsley started breaking out into small hives on her arms. We left the barn and I gave her Benadryl and the hives went away - it was clear she had gotten them from some residue she'd breathed in.

(4) If you are unfamiliar with the Charleston area, be sure to have a GPS! We would have gotten lost constantly without the one in our rental car.

(5) Here are some websites we used in planning our vacation:

http://www.charlestonfamilyfun.com/

http://family.go.com/travel/vacations/south-carolina/charleston/best-charleston-vacation-for-children-282128/

If you have any questions on traveling to Charleston with food allergies, please let me know. We had such a good experience that we are definitely planning on going back again!