The Problem with Breakfast Bars

I know that breakfast bars are basically a good marketing gimmick to give people cookies for breakfast -- including kids. I mean, really, how different is a breakfast bar from a fig newton?

Anyway, if you've read this blog before you know that breakfast can be a difficult meal for kids with allergies ... no eggs, etc. Like a lot of moms, I sometimes give in and let the boys eat a breakfast bar for a treat for breakfast ... usually followed by a mandatory yogurt. Up until the time we found out that Little Guy can have wheat, I gave him bars like these. But now I want to give him bars that I can get at the regular grocery store .... but, NOOOOOO! I can't find any. They all seem to have eggs or dairy or nuts in them.

Big Guy can have these because he is growing out of his dairy allergies and can tolerate some dairy in baked goods. But I can't find any regular breakfast bars that Little Guy can eat. So, guess what he can eat in the breakfast bar "cookie" aisle? Pop-tarts!!

Yep, that's it. If I feel guilt over breakfast bars, you know what I must think about pop-tarts! And yet, you also know that I hate to deny the kids things because of the allergies. So, now they get pop-tarts as a treat once in while.

So, if you have any suggestions for breakfast bars that the boys can eat, PLEASE send them my way!!

Happy Valentine’s Day Eve!

Alas, our last ditch effort to get valentines last night was for naught. We ran to Walgreens and successfully found Spiderman valentines, but because we got a big snowstorm last night and all day today, I could not get Big Guy to school. Oh well, he can bring them on Thursday (the next day he goes to school).

Here I was thinking I did so good with the valentines and then I read about Mary. She writes about the cute valentines she and her daughter Emily made for her 3-year old pre-school class at Mom Writes. She also shows some of the other cute things the kids (actually the moms) in the class made – candy necklaces, homemade crayon hearts, homemade cards, etc.

I am such a loser. I was feeling good because this year I taped a mini box of Nerds to the Hallmark Spiderman valentines. (Last year the kids just got a card.)

Big Guy signed his own name and I thought I was mother of the year. NOT! I guess this will be another holiday where poor Big Guy can’t eat most of the “treats” he gets. I am just too worried about the nut possibilities with many of the candies. He is doing better eating dairy and therefore chocolate, but it seems like a lot of those candies have a high likelihood of having nut residue. Oh well, we'll see what he gets on Thursday.

While cruising the internet, I found some interesting facts (and my comments) about Valentines Day from Hallmark.

• Research reveals that more than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine’s Day by purchasing a greeting card. And I’m sure you are loving that, Hallmark!
• Romantic Valentine’s Day is a top card-buying occasion for men. Not my husband – he told me early on in our relationship “I don’t do Valentines Day” -- it is a Hallmark holiday” And the factoid above confirms it. (Seriously, I am not complaining, he does a lot of great things other times of the year when he doesn't "have to.")
• Last-minute shopping is the norm for this holiday with nearly 50 percent of all Valentine’s Day cards purchased in the six days prior to Valentine’s Day. Okay, that makes me feel better about my Walgreens run.

Anyway, some more candy ideas to accompany your valentines (if you are into that) for you food allergy folks … Nerds, lollipops, skittles, those candy necklaces , gummy anything (maybe not these).

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Got Hot Chocolate?

Today we got a couple inches of snow, so Big Guy, Little Guy and I went out to shovel the driveway. Due to the steep pitch of our driveway, this was QUITE a task (seriously, it feels like it is at least a 30 degree angle –though my husband is telling me it is only 15 degrees). Luckily, no one tumbled down the icy driveway.

But we did enjoy some yummy hot chocolate afterwards. See the mustaches for evidence of how much they liked it.

The boys also snacked on Dora’s legs and Boots. No, they aren’t cannibals. I found new Dora “animal crackers” which gives the boys a chance to munch on a little girl’s legs and a monkey. Why do kids get such glee out of digesting TV characters? Anyway, I just mention it here because it is another food product that doesn’t contain dairy, peanuts or eggs – hurrah!

Oh yes, the sugar is kicking in.

Whatever it is ... it's hysterical.

Come on ... wouldn't you want to be eaten up by this cutie-pie too?

Funny or Scary?

Funny or scary? Creepy or cute?? You decide!!


I mean is it just me, or does it look like Homer is about to devour Little Guys hand?

Hopefully Little Guy won't come home and decide he should try to put his foot in MY mouth. (I do that enough as it is.)

Thank you, Grandpa-parazzi for sharing these photos of Little Guy from today. Only YOU would have Homer slippers and that's why we love you!

Catch-Up (not ketsup)

Whew ... it has been a while since I last posted. Life has been crazy ... working lots more hours than normal, planning a big trip, trying to figure out what to do about kindergarten. pre-school and childcare this fall for Big Guy and Little Guy. Stress levels are on the rise!! So, what suffered? My blogging.

I was inspired to get back on tonight because I am vain and wanted to show my latest picture of the boys from today ....

Also, I wanted to voice my violent agreement with many of the other posts out there from other blogging moms about the Today show piece on Friday about "happy hour and playdates" Do I think mom's should be getting wasted while their kids play with other kids? No. Do I think it is okay to have a glass of wine with friends while your kids play? (If you know me at ALL, this will be a huge no-brainer) YES. If you want to read some witty posts on this check out Wonder Mom; Friday Playdate; Crib Ceiling or A Mommy Story. As my friend at work said, "I don't' see what the issue is. How is this not different from getting together for dinner with friends and while the kids play you have a beer or glass of wine?" And another point I heard was why is this so focused on moms? Do you think dads don't get together and while the kids play, they watch the game and have a beer?

Well, anyway, enough of that. As part of my catching up, I finally posted my new year's eve photos to that post ... at least I got it done this month!

I am also happy to report that because of this blog I got to know another mom through email who just found out her son has peanut allergies. I'll blog more on that when I can be more thoughtful.

For now, I will just say GO BEARS !!!!!

And if you want some fun, get-in-the spirit You Tube videos, check out the Lyric Opera singer or some good old-fashioned Superbowl Shuffle knock-offs with Da Superfan Shuffle.

One more photo ...this guy is not in the video, but he could be, right???

Food Allergies -- Science or Voodoo?

Sometimes I think the whole food allergy thing is part voo-doo because we don't know where it came from or even exactly how to handle it. There are so many different ideas on how to "treat" them. For example, this article was recently published that reports on an experimental study where they fed a person with a food allergy small amounts of the food the person is allergic to. This is the OPPOSITE approach that is normally taken--which is to completely avoid the allergen.

Because food allergies can be so confusing and so damn scary, I signed my family up to participate in the Children's Memorial Food Allergy study. The four-year, $5.5 million research initiative will look at the impact of environmental and genetic factors on children who suffer with food allergies.

It took about half a day to get to the hospital and have the kids, myself and my husband tested. We all had to get blood drawn and get skin prick tests ... that part sucked, but overall it wasn't bad. (And in fact, the tests alerted us to the fact that Little Guy had grown out of his wheat allergy ... hallelujah!) We recently got a letter updating us on the study and asking us to talk to family and friends and see if they might participate. It seems they especially need families who don't have food allergies to serve as the control group. So, if you are interested in helping the medical community figure out this whole food allergy thang, check out this site.

If you participate, we can compare our medical test scores ... cool!

Picture This

Okay, I am finally succumbing to posting pictures of Big Guy and Little Guy on my blog.

I hadn't done so up until now because I was worried about security issues, but after seeing adorable pictures on other blogs, such as Christina's daughter at A Mommy Story or pictures of this cutie-pie at Mommy Off the Record, I can't resist. It is part of the Mommy-DNA to want to show off pictures of your kids, so why not do so on my blog, right?

So, here is the blog premier of my boys!!!! (Trumpets, please)

Below is Big Guy indulging (can a four-year old indulge?) in a soy ice cream cone. Get it! It's yummy.



And here is Little Guy slurping up a rainbow ice cone (another good non-dairy option for you when you are out, like we were at the zoo, where they don't have soy desserts).



And yes, these photos are about 6 months old now. (No more shorts for us for a while.)

So, those are my boys. Most of the time they are sweet and lovable, other times I refer to them as the hooligans. For better or worse, expect to see more of them here!

Kiddie New Year's Eve

We are finally recovering from last night. Ten years ago that would have meant that I was up all night "enjoying" some beverages on new year's eve, today it means a slightly different thing.

Don't get me wrong, we still enjoyed some beverages (we tried mojitos, they were yummy), but having two kids at a friend's house with their two kids and another mom with her two kids and a couple with their two (are you keeping up?) makes for a very different new year's eve than the pre-kids kind. (For the record, this totals 8 kids under the age of 4 1/2 years old.) t was still lots of fun, just very different.

We let the kids ring in the new year with plastic glasses of sparkling apple juice and run around with noisemakers at about 8:30 p.m. The kids did great. They all played well and had a blast.

The part about the whole night that wiped me out was the sleepover part of it all. We didn't want to drive on new year's because of all the crazy people on the road, so we had one big sleepover. Unfortunately my two guys didn't take so well to this. Big Guy was so excited to sleep in his new spiderman sleeping bag, but when the time came to really use it and sleep, he couldn't do it. He finally fell asleep in my friend's bed watching Ice Age on the portable DVD at a LATE hour. Little Guy actually went down with no fuss (a miracle for him), but woke up about 2:30 a.m. freaked out because he was in a new place. We had to calm him down without waking the rest of the herd, I mean kids. At 6 a.m., Big Guy woke up to go to the bathroom and freaked out because he was overtired and in a new place. I had to hustle him to the basement so he wouldn't freak out. VERY TIRING. But, we had a great group nap from 11:30 to 1:30 today, so we are all feeling better.

And the bottomline is that, overall, the kids had a great time, and so did the grown-ups. By the way, couple random things related to all this:

1. One of my resolutions is to blog more


2. The kids enjoyed Orville Redenbacher's Kettle Korn in the cool new mini-bag (perfect size for kids) at the party -- dairy-free and yummy!


3. I planned on posting photos from last night, but realized I left my digital camera at my friend's house. (I told you we were tired!) I'll add them to this post later in the week. Update: 1/28/07 -- Finally added the photos!!
   

So, Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

He Can’t Eat WHAT????

Boy, just when you start to feel comfortable and confident with the whole food allergy thing for your kids … you get the mystery reaction. (Frankly, I think that is a common occurrence for all parents, just insert a different issue for “food allergy” and I think most parents can relate.)

Here is what happened. We sailed through the holidays (from a food-allergy perspective, not from a “oh my God, I have a lot to do” perspective). Last night, we went over to my in-laws house for dinner and to visit with some out-of-town relatives. We were all enjoying ourselves when I look over and see Big Guy rubbing his eyes a lot while he is playing.

“Come over here, Big Guy. What’s with your eyes?” I asked. “I don’t know, but they really itch, Mommy,” he answered back. When he moved his hands away so I could see his eyes, I could see they were starting to get swollen, almost like he had hives underneath his lower lid. “What in the HELL is that????” I thought to myself. (No! I did not say that out loud to Big Guy.) We hightailed it into the kitchen to show Grandma J and she immediately grabbed the children’s benadryl from the cupboard. We talked him into talking a teaspoon and I cuddled with him in a dark bedroom. He kept saying the light hurt his eyes.

Immediately my mind is trying to figure out what in the world caused this reaction—dinner consisted of chicken, rice, and broccoli. He had a fig Newton after dinner and I let him have three teeny bites of a star sugar cookie my mother-in-law got from some other relatives. Was it the sugar cookie? When I gave it to him I knew there was a good chance there was butter in it, but he has been doing very good tolerating some dairy.

My husband came to check on us and asked what I fed him. When I told him I gave Big Guy a couple small bites of the star cookie, he pointed out that it could have had nuts in it.

Wow, that hadn’t occurred to me. TO ME! I am the ever-vigilant one with these food allergies. I am the one person in the WHOLE WORLD who tries to think of every possible “forbidden” thing that might be in a piece of food they want to eat. But, honestly, it had not entered my head that there might be nuts in these cut-out, tasted like butter/sugar cookies.

And at the same time, my mind is racing watching and listening to Big Guy to make sure his breathing has not been affected. And I am trying to remember where I left the epipen (in my purse, where it ALWAYS is) in case I need to use it. Luckily, his reaction to who-knows-what didn’t get any worse and the wonderful benadryl did the trick.

Overall, he is okay. But this kind of thing makes me crazy. I want to know what evil villain did this to my baby!!!! But, I probably won’t know for sure. That is one of the frustrating and scary things about food allergies.

So, for anyone out there is dealing with food allergies, actually for any parent: my one piece of advice, make sure you have children’s benadryl! And for those with food allergies, make sure you have the epipen. Thankfully I didn’t have to use it, but I was able to deal with the whole situation better because I knew that, if need be, I could use it and possibly save my child’s life.

Anyone else have a mystery reaction recently???

Disclaimer – Part 2

When I first started this blog, I put out a disclaimer to warn parents to use their own judgment regarding what to feed their children with food allergies and, certainly, not to take my suggestions as the final word.

As we are about to celebrate Christmas and enjoy time with family, I want to make another disclaimer. I don’t want any one who reads this blog to think that I don’t fiercely love my kids and appreciate them to pieces. I don’t want my blog posts to come across like whining and wishing my kids were different. They are who they are … food allergies and all … and I love them for it.

I do realize that I am truly blessed to have these healthy and happy kids in my life. I do know that there are millions of couples who can’t conceive or who are dealing with much, much more severe health issues than I do. In the big picture, these food allergies are just a small teeny bump in the road.

This blog is not intended to complain and say “woe is me,” rather it is meant to be a place to share experiences and products that have worked for me and my boys. I have found it really helpful to talk to other parents who have gone through similar experiences and I thought this blog might be a new place to meet other people who can share.

And so, I hope every one who does read this blog appreciates the blessings in their life this holiday season, as I do. And appreciates the spirit in which I write these posts.

… and now, back to wrapping presents for Big Guy and Little Guy!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies He CAN Eat

Unfortunately, I can’t give my kids many of my favorite Christmas cookies from when I was a kid … peanut butter kisses, gingerbread cookies, fudge, or sugar cookies. Most of the cookie recipes call for an egg or two (or evaporated milk or cream cheese). I could use the Ener-G egg replacer, but for some reason I haven’t used it much.

But I am happy to say that I do have some yummy recipes to share with you. Big Guy, Little Guy and I made both of these cookies this weekend. (Thanks to my sister-in-law for the butterscotch shortbread recipe! We’ve been enjoying it for 2 years now.)

Butterscotch Shortbread

½ cup margarine, softened
½ cup shortening
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Beat butter, shortening and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour and salt. (Dough will be dry and crumbly; use hands to mix completely.)

Roll dough into rectangle, 15 X 7 inches, on lightly floured surface. Cut into 1 1/2-inch squares, or use cookie cutters to make shapes. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 25 minutes or until set. (These cookies brown very little, and the shape does not change.) Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Note: I don't have the patience to frost and decorate these after dealing with all the work of cut-outs, so I sprinkle green and red sprinkles on them before they go in the oven.

The next recipe, Holiday Oatmeal Cookie Brittle, was new to me. I found it on the Quaker Oats Web site when I was looking for info for my last blog entry, Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips (which happen to be dairy-free). I did use white chocolate chips for the marble effect, even though they contain some milk. I know Big Guy can tolerate that little bit of milk and I decided to give it a try for Little Guy. There are so few white chocolate chips in it and I don’t expect Little Guy to be eating large amounts of these treats.

(That is the strange thing about food allergies. Every person is so unique. It’s not always black and white … although for some people, it is black and white—any bit of the allergen can have severe effects.)

Another idea to make these cookies look fancy/Christmasy if you want or need to skip the white chocolate chips is to use other decorations, such as red and green sprinkles. The chocolate chips are really the main source of sweetness.

Holiday Oatmeal Cookie Brittle

2 cups Quaker oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small pieces (I used Miracle Margarine)
1 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups (12 oz.) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup white chocolate pieces

Edible gold dust (optional) (No, I did not use this stuff.)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two large cookie sheets with aluminum foil.
2. In large bowl, combine oats, flour and baking powder. Add butter. Beat on low to medium speed of electric mixer until crumbly. Add powdered sugar, brown sugar, water and vanilla. Beat on low speed until dough forms.
3. Divide dough in half. Place one-half on one cookie sheet; flatten with lightly floured hands into 13 x 9-inch rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat using remaining dough and second cookie sheet. (The Boys LOVED this part!!)
4. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until golden brown, rotating cookie sheets after 12 minutes. Remove cookie sheets to wire racks.
5. Sprinkle 1 cup dark chocolate pieces evenly over each large, warm cookie. Let stand 2 to 3 minutes. With spatula or knife, spread softened chocolate evenly over cookies. Sprinkle white chocolate pieces evenly over smooth chocolate on both cookies; let stand 2 to 3 minutes. With the tip of a knife, run through the white chocolate pieces, dragging them into the dark chocolate, making marble-like streaks. Sprinkle with gold dust, if desired. Cool completely. (Refrigerate 15 minutes to set chocolate, if necessary.)
6. Remove large cookies from cookie sheet and peel off foil. Break each into 24 pieces. Store tightly covered in a cool place.

I will stay on the look-out for Christmas cookie recipes that are okay for people who allergic to dairy, egg, peanut and tree nuts, but I’d also love to know if any of you have any recipes to share!!!

Eatmeal

In my last post, Brunch Issues, I lamented about the challenges of going out for breakfast food with the boys. But, I neglected to sing the praises for oatmeal—or eatmeal, as Little Guy calls it—a great breakfast option for kids with dairy, egg, nut and wheat allergies.

We eat Quaker Instant Oatmeal at home … usually Maple & Brown Sugar or Apple Cinnamon. It’s filling, low fat and contains protein. Quaker also says it helps remove cholesterol. I don't know if a four year old and two year old have many cholesterol issues, but hey, can't hurt. And the kids eat it up! But a word of caution regarding the various kinds of Quaker oatmeal … check the ingredient label. Some of them do contain dairy, so look carefully.

When you are out at a restaurant, you can usually get it plain with just a side of brown sugar or raisins. Be sure to ask for it plain or they might bring it out with milk and butter on it.

Hope you, too, can enjoy a nice bowl of warm “eatmeal” on a cold wintry day!

Brunch Issues

This past weekend we went to my niece's baptism. (I am the godmother ... my first time!) The baptism was really nice and Baby Z behaved like an angel—I really think that baptismal water is extra special!

After the baptism, we all went to a restaurant for brunch. Hmmm, brunch for Big Guy and Little Guy .... okay. You see, breakfast can be a tough meal when you have kids with dairy and egg allergies (and don’t even get me started on how much harder it was when Little Guy had the wheat allergy). It's manageable at home, but harder at a restaurant where you can't ensure they use Miracle Margarine on the toast. (Or for that matter, you can’t ensure the bread doesn’t have milk in it.)

Please note: my sister-in-law was great and warned me that there might not be much the boys could eat there. Giving me the heads up helps tremendously. Like the boy scouts say “be prepared!”

I’m not here to whine about what the kids can’t eat, but I do want to address the breakfast issue because I’ve had friends with kids with egg allergies ask for ideas on what to feed them.

So, let’s look at the popular kid foods at a breakfast place and whether my boys can enjoy them:

• Pancakes – nope
• Scrambled eggs—no
• Waffles – nuh-uh
• French toast-- not going to happen (unless I want to use the epipen)

What can they eat??? Granted, not a whole lot at a breakfast place, but there are some options. Breakfast meats are a wonderful option. We ordered a side of bacon and a side of sausage. The boys ate it UP! Bring it.

Before the pork extravaganza was set down in front of them, they polished off the fruit plate. Cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries (for Big Guy, not Little Guy), blueberries, mango, and even pomegranate seeds! (They didn’t have bagels at this restaurant, but a plain bagel is almost always okay for egg and dairy allergies—not wheat allergies.)

So, they did fine at the baptism brunch. Plus, Little Guy hasn’t grown out of his “not very interested in eating anything” phase, so the fact that most of the menu was off limits to him wasn’t much of an issue.

Would I make going out to breakfast a regular tradition for my boys? Ummm, no. There are just too many things on the menu they can’t eat. But, it was definitely do-able for a special occasion, like this one.

I’ll save my suggestions for breakfast foods at home for another day. Anyone have any ideas for what else to order at the breakfast joint?

I’m FAMOUS – at least in the blog-o-sphere

Today, my blog was featured as the cooking blog of the week on Ann-Marie’s blog, This Mama Cooks! Anne-Marie writes several blogs, so I am thrilled that she thought enough of mine to feature it on her blog.

I first found one of Anne-Marie’s other blogs, A Readable Feast, when I was searching for an egg-less meatloaf recipe.

I am learning that writing a blog takes a lot of patience – which if you ask my friends, I don’t have a lot of. I tell people: I had no patience before I had my kids and now all my patience goes to them. But it takes time for people to discover your blog. And so I am so grateful that Anne-Marie chose to highlight my blog. I really think it will help get the word out to other moms who are dealing with food allergies (or anyone else, for that matter).

Since it is after 4 p.m. here I better start thinking about what to make for dinner … not my favorite subject. Maybe I can go to This Mama Cooks! for some inspiration!!

Chocolate Overload

Yesterday, I read a fun blog post from Susan at Friday Playdate about her family's snow day. In it she talked about the baking she did (amongst other things) while she and her boys were holed up in the house. Her post inspired me to bake today after we got 8-12 inches of snow.

Of course, she was very healthy and made muffins, while I made chocolate chip cookies. And not just one kind ... we made one batch of Cherrybrook Kitchen's Chocolate Chip Cookies which are egg, dairy and peanut-free and then of course (since I already had the cookie pans out and the oven on) we made my hubby's favorite: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. I am eating one right now and they are delish!

I discovered the Cherrybrook Kitchen line about a year and a half ago. They also make mixes for chocolate cake, yellow cake and brownies. I haven't tried the brownies yet. The cake mix has been used several times and for both boys' birthday cakes.

And being the chocoholic that I am (and instilling into my boys), we also made hot chocolate. It's a must-have after they came in half-frozen from playing in the snow.

For a long time, I assumed hot chocolate would be off limits for them, but my friend, Amy, found a non-dairy hot cocoa mix -- Ghirardelli's Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa. I just add a couple tablespoons into a cup of soy milk and throw it in the microwave for 1 minute. This makes it luke warm which is perfect for a 2-year old and a 4-year old.

So, I think we now have enough treats in the house for the whole family. Hope you and your family enjoy your snow day ... whenever it happens!

Thanks, Jolly Green Giant

After I posted my entry yesterday about not knowing what the heck to make for dinner, I reached into the tried-and-true freezer for the magical answer. And out came .... ho, ho, ho, (no, not Santa), Green Giant! (does this reference to a jingle ring a bell?)

There was a bag of Green Giant "Create a Meal Stir Fry - Teriyaki" that I bought a while back. Hurrah! I had two chicken breasts I cooked the night before, so I sliced those up and threw them in the pan with the bounty from my saviour the Giant. I also made a batch of rice.

Overall, it was pretty good. The veggies were a little on the mushy side, but okay. Big Guy really liked it. He kept saying, "Mommy, this dinner you made is really good!"

Definitely not gourmet, or something I'd want to eat every night, but it was something everyone in the fam could eat ... no egg, dairy or nuts in it. And it was easy, which I guess is the whole point of bags of dinner like this.

If anyone has any ideas on how to get more inspired and organized for making dinner, please pass it on!!

What's for Dinner?

Seriously, I think this is one of the most irritating questions! I HATE having to figure out what to cook for dinner! Hate. It!

My mom used to complain about this too and I never understood why ... until I became a mom. It doesn't matter if I am home all day or at work, either way I don't know what to make. I am not much of a cook so that doesn't help. And of course (just to show some connection to the theme of this blog) my options are a bit limited because of the boys' food allergies. But really, that is a weak excuse. Even if they didn't have the allergies, I would dread this part of the day.

Seriously (to quote Grey's), I rejoice and feel such sweet relief when I know I don't have to worry about what to make for dinner. I am in such awe (and also a little bit of disgust) at the people who can plan their menus for the whole week.

And if you notice when I write my blog posts, it is often the time I should be cooking dinner. I am such a procrastinator. Bad, bad mommy. June Cleaver I am NOT!!!

Okay, I really have to go and find something for my poor family to eat. More to come on what they get!

Waffles and more ...

First of all ... I know I am slowing down in posting on my blog. I look at other people's blogs and see how often they post ... WOW! They post every day. I give them a lot of credit. I can't keep up with it that often. I enjoy posting, but every day is too much for me. And I have been reading lots of blogs. It is unbelievable how many are out there ... very overwhelming!

Anyway, we had a busy busy weekend so I haven't been able to blog. Of course the weekend revolved around eating ... we ate a lot of turkey, mashed potatoes (with Miracle Margarine and soy milk), etc. etc. We also saw a lot of friends and I thought it would be interesting to see what the boys ate (and what they couldn't) during the holiday weekend. If your kids have food allergies, you know that people are always wondering what they actually can eat ... here is a sampling.

Wednesday -- dinner with friends and we ordered pizza ... Big Guy can tolerate more milk these days (hurrah!) so he got to eat a couple slices. Little Guy can't eat pizza so I brought leftover Meatcakes for him.

Thursday -- breakfast with friends ... homemade waffles!!! I learned something new--you can make Bisquick waffles with just milk, no eggs!!!! I have stayed away from making pancakes and waffles because of the need to include eggs. But my friend pointed out that the package says "egg optional." We made them with soy milk I had brought over and they were delicious. The kids never even missed the egg.

The big dinner ... the boys ate turkey, mashed potatoes, beans. Neither of them could eat the rolls (they had eggs in them), but they were okay with that and they could eat the yummy cran-apple pie. It was from Market Day.

Friday -- post-Thanksgiving casual dinner with my brother and his family. My hubby made hand-ground hamburgers. They were delicious and everyone could eat them up. We also had waffle fries and green beans. The boys could eat it all!!

Saturday -- more leftovers ... nothing too exciting.

Sunday -- Big Guy and I went to see Happy Feet and since he is able to tolerate some dairy, he could have buttered popcorn.

Dinner at friends while watching the Bears game -- most of the kids had chicken nuggets. It can be tricky to find nuggets that don't have any dairy or egg, so I brought dino nuggets from the 3 lb. bag I got at Costco. Turned out Little Guy preferred the Beef Bourguignon (good taste for a two-year old) that the adults ate. (Thanks to hubby for making it!)

So, let's sum it up: Did I have to make allowances for the kids? Yes. Were they able to eat every single thing their friends ate? No. Did they care? No. Did it add a lot of extra stress to my life? No.

I was more stressed out by the Bears loss, figuring out what to bring as an appetizer Thursday and Little Guy's intense interest in his binky (aka pacifier).

Meatcakes

Some days are just better than others. It's a fact of life. It seems like usually you notice it when it is a bad day ..."oh great, it's going to be one of those days," you mutter to yourself. Or "could this day get any worse?" And while you take note of the spectacular days ... vacation days or holidays (although sometimes those are more stressful than fun) ... it's nice to appreciate a regular ol' nice day.

I am lucky. That is the kind of day I had today. And since it is only 3 days before Thanksgiving, I am feeling especially thankful for today. It wasn't a spectacular day, but a lot of little nice things happened today.

I figured out early in the day what to make for dinner (yummy and fun individual muffin-size meatloaves which were deemed "meatcakes" by Big Guy ... think ground beef cupcakes) which was HUGE for me. I love not having that niggling feeling in the back of my head all day wondering what I'll do for dinner that night. And they were delicious! I used one of the flavored Stove Top Stuffings (mushroom and onion) and it was easy and really tasty.

I got a chance to exercise this morning while watching the last half of Oprah on the Grey's Anatomy set. And while I did that Big Guy and Little Guy played well together. They both ate a decent breakfast. These are all good things.

Later in the day we went to the library. I LOVE the library. I love all the books that I can choose from and if I don't really like one, I can return it--no harm, no foul. I don't lose any money. It's great! I filled the canvas bag with so many books I had to put some back. I can just go crazy there ... books seem to fly off the shelf into my hands. And I'm talking about both children's books and adult books. Even the librarian who checked me out commented on the number of books I had (hence, putting some back).

Oh, and the reason I could do all this on a Monday is because I am LUCKY and have a great boss and work for a great company that lets me work 3 days a week. So, Mondays are one of my days with the boys. A day I can slow down and hang out with them ... go to the library and make meatcakes (with ketchup "frosting.")

Enjoy the little things or as they said "long ago" ... Don't Worry, Be Happy.

You're Giving Him That?!?

Earlier this week I saw a great post called The SanctiMommy about how other mothers judge you as a mom. Give it a read ... it might just hit a nerve. I was thinking about this phenomenon in the context of raising the kids with food allergies and it has made for some interesting circumstances.

On the one hand, there is the time I was giving Little Guy potato chips at the grocery store in order to keep him occupied, happy and less likely to pull the displays down. Out of the corner of my eye I see another mom looking at me with that face. The face that so obviously says "how can she give him fatty potato chips? can't she at least give him pretzels?" I so wanted to slap her upside the head and say "NO, I cannot give him pretzels since he is allergic to wheat!" But in order to avoid jail time, I chose to ignore her. I was unfairly hit with the judgement of the SanctiMommy.

On the other hand, one day I was dropping Big Guy off at preschool and, following my usual routine, I checked with the teacher to see what the other parent brought in for snack that day for all the kids. I had to do this to see if Big Guy could eat it ... much of the time he could not, so the teacher would give him one of the snacks I brought in earlier in the year. No one made a big deal about it, he just ate something else.

On this day, I was told that the snack was mini-Twix bars. I quietly told the teacher not to give it to Big Guy and instead give him a bag of Teddy Grahams. Then I overheard the mom who brought the snack tell her husband, "She won't let her son eat our snack! She thinks its not healthy enough." So she thought I was being a SanctiMommy and wouldn't loosen up and let my son eat a candy for snack. Umm, NO! He is allergic to milk and can't eat your candy. I wish he could, but he can't. Of course, I did not go up to her and tell her. Maybe I should have. Instead I was just pissed.

In both situations people judged my actions with my kids based on their assumptions. They didn't know me or my kids. They thought they knew what I should be doing, but they had no clue. For me, it all goes back to the old cliches ... "don't judge a book by its cover" or the one about walking a mile in someone else's shoes. I guess they are cliches because they are so true (and I think even saying that is a cliche!)

In the end, we are all trying to do the best we can with our kids. I wish we could try to be more supportive of each other rather than judgmental.

Okay, I am done with my rant/soapbox diatribe.