Staying Safe With Food Allergies and Intolerances

Welcome to the September 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Staying Safe
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared stories and tips about protecting our families. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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When our oldest son was a baby, his food allergies and intolerances were a nuisance for us.  They were a thing that we had to be quite vigilant about if we wanted him to be comfortable enough to do things like sleep.  But when he became a toddler, his food allergies and intolerances suddenly became more than just a nuisance.  They became a scary possibility of their own.

You see, Walter would become quite ill, and would literally sleep in only the barest of sessions when he would get a food on his "no list" - dairy, soy, or corn, and gluten added at age 2.  All of these being common foods, the possibility of him coming into contact with them was incredibly high.  And one of my worst fears when he was toddling but not yet highly cognitive was that he would wander away from us somewhere and someone would take that sweet face home with them - and feed him all of the typical kid fare.  I truly worried that someone sick enough to take him would not hesitate to do away with him by some foul means after a few nights of not sleeping.  I often considered making him a shirt (or 3) that said, "I don't sleep!" to wear when we were out of the house.  Luckily, we kept a close eye on him and he is still with us!

On a more realistic note, I had to teach this very young child how to avoid the foods that would make him so miserable, when he didn't yet understand what all that meant.  It was a daunting challenge and I'm finding myself in a similar place again with a barely turned 2 year old.

Everyday situations can turn into a nightmare for us when: A mom at a playdate hands a toddler a bowl of cheese cubes to eat while the kids play.  A patient in a doctor's office waiting room is eating Goldfish crackers while they wander around the room.  A child at a group event offers my child a cookie.  An elderly lady at a garage sale offers my children some candy.  A child roaming the grocery store eating a snack cake is rubbing his hands over the railings at the check stand.  To most people, these would hardly be things worth noticing.  For me and my children, they are like little sirens going off all around us, every day.  The most insignificant contact with any of these foods can have many members of our family sick for weeks.

Learning to navigate these scenarios with a toddler, then a young preschooler, and now a kindergartner was by turns challenging and amazing.  There were the heart stopping times when we would walk into a playdate and all of the other children there were walking around with food, and I didn't know whether to ask for all of the food to be put away and the toys scoured for crumbs, to walk right back out the door with two crying children who were looking forward to seeing their friends, or to just pretend like there was no problem and pray that we wouldn't get too sick.  There were the one or two times in a group setting that I thought Daddy was watching Walter, and Daddy thought Walter was with me - and we found him dipping into something on the snack table that was completely off limits for him.  There was the time that we were cross contaminated by Play Doh on the table at lunch time, that a sitter didn't think to clean up.  There was the mystery of the recurrent contamination that turned out to be glue that hadn't been properly washed up before eating.  Basically, there were so many opportunities for a little man to eat something that made him sick, before he knew better.  All of which made us realize that teaching him to take care of himself when it came to foods was of paramount importance.

We approached this mountain in a few different ways.

1. Starting when he was very young, we used the same phrase every time we talked to him about foods that were off limits to him.  We would always say, "That food will make your belly hurt."  The consistency helped him to learn about all of the foods he shouldn't touch in the same way that telling him "hot" helped him to learn about all things hot that he shouldn't touch.  As he grew older, we were able to discuss allergens, intolerances, and specific foods further.  But in the beginning, we kept it simple.

2. We kept our house free of foods he couldn't eat.  This helped him to identify what was OK in a situation that was different.  If a food looks foreign, the child is typically more hesitant to eat it.  Plus, it didn't build up a sense of yearning and resentment over the things that everyone else gets to eat and Walter doesn't.  We still keep our house free of foods that we can't all eat (with the exception of our milk - Walter can't tolerate the only milk that Elliott can, so we have to keep 2 separate types in the house).

3. We did our best to keep him in sight at all times when there was a possibility of foods that might make him sick - which was pretty much any time that we were either out of our own home or around other people.  It wasn't always possible, especially when there were communication snafus, but we did our best.

4. We only leave our boys with people who understand and take seriously their food needs.  This means that no matter how well meaning a friend or family member is, if they do not thoroughly grasp the limitations of our diet, our children do not stay alone with them.  As strict and difficult as this may sound, we have been thoroughly blessed with friends and family members who have gone far out of their way to learn about our restrictions and support us in feeding our children to keep them safe.

5. We taught our children to ask a parent before accepting food from anyone else - ever.  This was a much easier first step than teaching the children to question the giver about the ingredients of the food.  At 3 years old, Walter couldn't tell you whether a cookie had soy in it or not.  But he could tell you that he needed to ask Mommy before he could have that cookie.

6. As time went by, when Walter would get sick from a food, we would point out how he felt, and that it was from the food he had eaten - and precisely which food it was if we knew.  We really helped him to make the connection between what he ATE and what he FELT.  It was a huge leap that, at first, we weren't sure he would understand.  But, he is a smart little man and it did not take him long before he completely understood that some foods made him feel yucky - and he didn't like it.  This seemed to help to empower him, and give him a sense of stability in the midst of feeling so badly.  Knowing that there was a reason that he felt badly, and that there was a way he could prevent it, really seemed to help him.  He has learned to cope with those feelings much better as he has aged, and he has learned that he would rather not eat the foods that make him feel badly.

7. When he was old enough to remember a rote list of his allergens, we taught him to recite them.  He may not know what they were in, but at least he could tell someone who could read the label for him.  Or, you know, if someone took him from a store, he could at least tell them he had food allergies.  I slept much better after that.

8. When he was old enough to start understanding about different foods, I began teaching the kids about nutrition and where the foods came from.  Along with this, I taught the kids about what foods made Walter sick.  We talk a lot about how different people eat different things - with no judgement involved.  He was quickly able to learn that it was OK to eat almost all raw fruits and veggies, so long as they didn't have dip, but that he should avoid foods that he couldn't identify, or that weren't in their simplest form.  He learned that just because he could have some breads and cookies, that didn't mean that he could have all breads and cookies.

9. We taught the kids about OTHER things that contain the foods on our no list.  Things like Play Doh, glue, medicines, candies, drinks, and candles may not cross your mind when talking about food allergies, but they can all contain problematic ingredients.  Teaching Walter that he needs to take care around these things not to ingest them was a very important step in helping him to care for himself.  We taught him how to clean up after using these things, if they are things that he uses (like glue), or to avoid them if they are things that he simply shouldn't touch.

10. We taught him to be on the lookout for other situations where food spreading around could make him sick.  He learned that sharing crayons with another child who is simultaneously eating a processed snack full of cheese and gluten is almost certain to make him sick.  He's learned that touching all of the candy bars at the checkout lane is not the best plan of action, in case a wrapper has opened or leaked.  He has learned that when we eat in a group, he needs to make sure that the other kids don't have food on their hands and faces when they return to playing.  He has learned that it is completely OK to ask someone to wash up, or to help him wash up, if he is concerned about them making him sick with their foods.

It really did not take long for our children to master what was OK and what wasn't OK for the boys to eat.  Sofi has always done a great job of helping to police foods for Walter, even when he was too little to understand for himself.  He knew as a 2 year old that he could ask Sofi if something was alright for him to eat, and I don't think she has ever steered him wrong.  Now, both of the kids are great at helping Elliott to discern what is OK and what is not.

And, Walter is great at knowing for himself what food situations are OK and which are not!  He will nicely say, "No thank you.  I have food allergies," when he is offered a piece of candy or other snack by some well meaning person.  He has flat out stood in front of the toys and told other children, "You need to go wash your hands before you can touch these."  Just today, Elliott offered Walter a drink of his hemp milk and Walter responded, "No thank you, Elliott.  That milk will make my belly hurt.  You drink your milk and I'll drink my almond milk!"  In three short years, he has gone from standing on a bench scarfing down tortilla chips at a party to politely asserting himself to tell people of his own needs to stay healthy.  I couldn't be more proud of him!

And he reminded me today that he is "the best thing since gluten free bread!"
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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated by afternoon September 10 with all the carnival links.)

• Stranger Danger — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares her approach to the topic of "strangers" and why she prefers to avoid that word, instead opting to help her 4-year-old understand what sorts of contact with adults is appropriate and whom to seek help from should she ever need it.
• We are the FDA — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger makes the case that when it comes to food and drugs, parents are necessarily both their kids' best proponent of healthy eating and defense against unsafe products.
• You Can't Baby Proof Mother Nature — Nicole Lauren at Mama Mermaid shares how she tackles the challenges of safety when teaching her toddler about the outdoors.
• Bike Safety With Kids — Christy at Eco Journey In the Burbs shares her tips for safe cycling with children in a guest post at Natural Parents Network.
• Spidey Sense — Maud at Awfully Chipper used a playground visit gone awry to teach her children about trusting their instincts.
• Water — sustainablemum explains how she has used her love of canoeing to enable her children to be confident around water
• Safety without baby proofing — Hannabert at Hannahandhorn talks about teaching safety rather than babyproofing.
• Coming of Age: The Safety Net of Secure Attatchment — Gentle Mama Moon reflects on her own experiences of entering young adulthood and in particular the risks that many young women/girls take as turbulent hormones coincide with insecurities and for some, loneliness — a deep longing for connection.
• Mistakes You Might Be Makings With Car Seats — Car seats are complex, and Brittany at The Pistachio Project shares ways we might be using them improperly.
• Could your child strangle on your window blinds? — One U.S. child a month strangles to death on a window blind cord — and it's not always the obvious cords that are the danger. Lauren at Hobo Mama sends a strong message to get rid of corded blinds, and take steps to keep your children safe.
• Tips to Help Parents Quit Smoking (and Stay Quit) — Creating a safe, smoke-free home not only gives children a healthier childhood, it also helps them make healthier choices later in life, too. Dionna at Code Name: Mama (an ex-smoker herself) offers tips to parents struggling to quit smoking, and she'll be happy to be a source of support for anyone who needs it.
• Gradually Expanding Range — Becca at The Earthling's Handbook explains how she is increasing the area in which her child can walk alone, a little bit at a time.
• Safety Sense and Self Confidence — Do you hover? Are you overprotective? Erica at ChildOrganics discusses trusting your child's safety sense and how this helps your child develop self-confidence.
• Staying Safe With Food Allergies and Intolerances — Kellie at Our Mindful Life is sharing how she taught her son about staying safe when it came to his food allergies.
• Don't Touch That Baby! — Crunchy Con Mom offers her 3 best tips for preventing unwanted touching of your baby.
• Playground Wrangling: Handling Two Toddlers Heading in Opposite Directions — Megan at the Boho Mama shares her experience with keeping two busy toddlers safe on the playground (AKA, the Zone of Death) while also keeping her sanity.
• Letting Go of "No" and Taking Chances — Mommy at Playing for Peace tries to accept the bumps, bruises and tears that come from letting her active and curious one-year-old explore the world and take chances.
• Preventing Choking in Babies and Toddlers with Older Siblings — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now gives tips on preventing choking in babies and toddlers along with Montessori-inspired tips for preventing choking in babies and toddlers who have older siblings working with small objects.
• Keeping Our Children Safe: A Community and National Priority — September has many days and weeks dedicated to issues of safety; however, none stir the emotions as does Patriot Day which honors those slain the terrorist attacks. Along with honoring the victims, safety officals want parents to be ready in the event of another disaster whether caused by terrorists or nature. Here are their top tips from Mary at Mary-andering Creatively.
• A Complete Family: Merging Pets and Offspring — Ana at Panda & Ananaso shares the ground rules that she laid out for herself, her big brown dog, and later her baby to ensure a happy, safe, and complete family.
• Be Brave — Shannon at Pineapples & Artichokes talks about helping her kids learn to be brave so that they can stay safe, even when she's not around.
• Catchy Phrasing — Momma Jorje just shares one quick tip for helping kids learn about safety. She assures there are examples provided.
• Know Your Kid — Alisha at Cinnamon&Sassfras refutes the idea that children are unpredictable.
• Surprising car seat myths — Choosing a car seat is a big, important decision with lots of variables. But there are some ways to simplify it and make sure you have made the safest choice for your family. Megan at Mama Seeds shares how, plus some surprising myths that changed her approach to car seats completely!
• I Never Tell My Kids To Be Careful — Kim is Raising Babes, Naturally, by staying present and avoiding the phrase "be careful!"

Foodie Friday: You Say Potato, I Say Potato

I don't really remember what types of side dishes we used to eat with dinner, before the food allergies came into our lives.  Heck, I don't even remember what we used to eat before we became gluten free, anymore, and that was 2 years after we eliminated the other allergens!  But I do know what we eat now.

We pretty much always have some type of veggie (or two).  We regularly have jarred applesauce.  We sometimes have rice, although not everyone in the family is a huge fan.  We sometimes have quinoa, although, again, not everyone in the family is a huge fan.  Most nights, we have some form of potato.

Now, potatoes have gotten a bad name considering that many American children count potatoes as the only vegetable they will eat - and then it is only in the form of a fast food french fry.  But the potatoes in and of themselves are not to blame!  They are actually fairly high in nutritional value, if not sliced up and deep fried in oil and laden with salt.  One large sized, plain baked potato actually has very little fat, no saturated fat, no cholesterol, and very little sodium.  It is high in fiber and has 7 grams of protein.  This same potato contains 48% of your daily vitamin C, 21% of your daily folate, and 18% of your daily iron.  Not too shabby!

The key that we have found to keeping the spud interesting when we use them so much, is to keep a lot of variety going.  And since we are pretty good at that, I'm going to share with you, my lovely readers, all of the different ways we like to prepare our potatoes!

Potatoes 20 Different Ways:
1. Bake them whole!  If you are looking for a dairy (and soy) free alternative to butter and sour cream, try mayonnaise.

2. If it is too hot for the oven, try baking them on the grill, or in the crockpot.

3. Slice them into home style fries, toss lightly in olive oil and oregano (or whatever other spice you like) and bake them.  Healthy baked fries!

4. Dice them into cubes, toss in olive oil and oregano (or whatever spice combo you like), and roast in a 2 - 3 inch baking dish.  Walter refers to this as his "favorite potatoes ever".

5. Slice in rounds, and lay in a baking dish.  Create a sauce by melting cheese or cheese substitute in a saucepan, along with a little milk, milk substitute, or water.  Add basil and oregano, salt and pepper.  Mix cheese sauce and potatoes and bake for 20 minutes.

6. Slice in rounds and fry in a skillet or a griddle.

7. Dice into cubes and fry in a skillet.

8. Shred and make hashbrowns in a skillet.  Even more fun if you add different toppings!

9. Parboil them, them mash them with milk and butter if you can do dairy.  If you can't do dairy, mash them with chicken broth and mayonnaise.  Add salt and pepper and serve them up!

10. Roast "new" potatoes - those little bitty ones.

11. Save leftover mashed potatoes and freeze them.  Later, get them out, thaw them, and pop them in a glass baking dish.  Bake just long enough to warm up and then, if the tops aren't browned, put them under the broiler for just a minute or two.  My grandma calls them twice mashed potatoes and I call them heavenly!  Although, admittedly, I'm not sure where one comes up with these phantom "leftover mashed potatoes".

12. Lay a whole potato out lengthwise, and using a sharp knife, but the potato almost all of the way through, in very fine "slices".  It is just like slicing the potato, except that you don't cut all of the way through.  Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with some seasoning, and bake.  The "slices" will crisp up and are delicious!

13. Dice them up, or use teensy tiny potatoes whole, on skewers when you make shish kebabs.

14. Cold potato salad.  I could cheat and call mustard and mayo variations two different numbers, but I won't.

15. Potato pancakes.

16. Use some different varieties of potato, like yukon gold, russets, or blue potatoes, for some fun different flavors.

17. Stuffed baked potatoes - bake, scoop out the insides, mix with butter, sour cream, mayo, cheese, bacon, chili, chives, whatever else does it for you, and fill potatoes back up.  I will say that I never personally take the time to do this, but if you have the time, go for it!

18. Put them in soup or a stew.

19. Potato pockets.

20.  Use a sweet potato instead!

And now I want to say I'm out of ideas...  How else do you like to make potatoes?

Foodie Friday: Normalizing Allergen Diets

A post showed up in my Facebook feed today about how to make a gluten-free diet feel "normal" for a child at a birthday party.  And I found that I had a lot of big feelings about this subject.

First of all, our entire family eats dairy, soy, gluten, corn and egg free about 90% of the time.  Daddy and Sofi, who can tolerate those kinds of things, might get a treat of one of them here and there, when we are out at some special occasion.  This is NORMAL for our family.  We talk extensively about how some people eat some things, while others eat other things.  In our family, we approach our food allergies the same way that we approach the fact that Daddy and Elliott love spicy food and the rest of us do not so much.  If the boys and I eat one of our allergens, it makes us feel yucky - just like it makes Sofi, Walter or me feel yucky if we eat spicy food.  It is a choice we make to feel healthy and good by not eating food that our bodies don't like.  Just like our family chooses to eat healthy foods in general, to help our bodies feel good.

Again, this is NORMAL for our family.

I think that there are a few key components to our normalization of eating our diet in our family.

*Our entire family eats the same diet.  We do not segregate some people's foods from other people's.  Therefore, we don't have a lot of issue with one person envying what another person has.  The only exception to this is that Elliott does not tolerate any milk substitute we have found so far but hemp milk, and Walter cannot tolerate the hemp milk.  We are hoping to buy a high quality blender this year to allow us to make our own almond milk that everyone can tolerate.

*We do not apologize for or overly explain our dietary needs.  If we were Jewish, we would not feel the need to apologize for eating Kosher.  If we were Catholic, we would not feel the need to apologize for not eating meat on Fridays during Lent.  And just because it is for medical reasons instead of religious, we don't apologize for sticking to our diet.  If someone offers us something that we can't eat, we simply say "No thank you," and don't dwell on it.

*We don't talk wistfully about the foods we can't have; we enjoy the foods that we can.  For my sons, they have always eaten their allergen diet - with the exception of gluten and eggs.  We gave up gluten when Walter was 2 and eggs last summer when my throat started swelling shut from being next to egg mayonnaise.  So there are a very few foods that the kids can remember eating that we can no longer have in the house.  I, on the other hand, remember cheesecake fondly!  I don't talk about it in front of the kids, though.  We don't talk about breads, cakes, cookies, pretzels, brownies, Ben & Jerry's, or cornbread and how we can't eat them.  We talk about Enjoy Life brand, Kettle Chips, So Delicious, and the foods that we can have.

*We eat normal foods.  There is a giant misconception by the public at large, that families who have food allergies subsist on dry rice cakes and beans - and nothing else.  Now, don't get me wrong here. My kids can take down some dry rice cakes, and I have formed a love affair with beans during this pregnancy.  However, the majority of the time, we eat foods that appear on the menu at most American homes.  The difference is, we cook most of our food from scratch instead of buying boxed components.  My biggest piece of advice for families eliminating a food from their diets is to take their favorite recipes and Google search, "recipe (allergen) free (name of recipe)".  Chances are pretty good that you will find several great recipes for the food you are already eating.

*We don't try to replace everything.  Some things just can't be replaced.  In my world, scalloped potatoes are one of them, but Sofi isn't convinced.  At any rate, if you just can't find a good replacement for something, accept that and move on.  The upside is that different companies are coming out with new products every day.  Chances are good that you'll be able to find a replacement eventually.

*We act like it is normal to eat this way.  Because it is.  It is normal to eat in a way that makes your family feel good.  The world over, people eat differently.  When you are in cultural centers, where people from many different areas or cultures gather, you will see so many different types of foods.  And the guy eating African bread and beans isn't looking around at the guy eating enchiladas and wondering if it is weird that they are eating different things!  They are eating what is normal for them.  They are respecting that one another are eating what is normal for them.  And they are acting like what they are eating is normal.  And that is how we approach our diets - with confidence and a matter of fact attitude.  Our children have learned this same attitude from our modeling.

*We work, in every area of our lives, to appreciate what we have, what we love, and what our own goals are in life, instead of comparing to those around us.  I think this probably plays a large role in helping our children to not be concerned about what the other kids at the table are having when we go to a party.

And believe it or not (because most people don't), my kids are completely happy with what they have and get!  When they get a big pile of candy at a holiday, they just gather it up and give it to their cousins.  They don't even blink about it.  In fact, I've gone to look over their things and found them with a bag already prepared with foods that they know we can't eat.  They don't crave the birthday cake that everyone else is eating.  For the most part, they don't like super-sweet white sugar cake anyway.  They don't care that every other kid at the party is eating blue ice cream and they have to eat coconut ice cream.  And that is what normal is all about!

Picky Eaters and Food Allergies/Intolerances

I'd really like to share a part of my own personal food journey with my readers.  This is something that has been tossing around my mind a lot lately, and I really feel like it is something that is greatly misunderstood by people who do not suffer with food allergies.

Picky eating and food allergies go hand in hand.  Food allergies and intolerances literally mess with our body chemistry and give us all sorts of crazy signals.

To start with, foods that we cannot tolerate can actually invade our brains and make us crave the very foods that make us sick.  It seems self-destructive to just crave cheese, knowing that it will make us sick.  But we are not making a conscious choice to want the food that will make us sick!  It is a battle with our body to NOT want these foods.  This is one of the things that can leave us really needing support from those around us.  Watching someone else eating what you are craving but shouldn't have is just as difficult as trying to quit smoking while sitting next to all of your friends smoking at the bar.

For another, having food allergies can make our stomachs more sensitive, and make it more difficult to digest foods - especially if we are eating foods that we aren't tolerating!  And even after we find out about our intolerances, depending on how much trauma our bodies have been through, it can still be a struggle to eat different foods throughout our lives.

And last, babies and children who have food intolerances are often naturally more hesitant with new foods - even without social pressures.  Some in the scientific community feel that this may be an instinctive protective measure.  It has been found several times that many children with food issues begin eating later in infancy, and are picky eaters as children.

As I've said before, I have a dairy allergy that I was diagnosed with at 29 years old.  I have had it my entire life.  And yes, I mean allergy, not lactose intolerance.  Yet, I managed to live 29 years without knowing that I had any type of food issue.  In fact, if you had asked me before I found out about the dairy allergy, I would have told you that I was one of those lucky people who didn't have any trouble with food - dairy specifically - except that I was very particular about what I would eat.  And I always have been.  But after finding out about the allergy and eliminating dairy from my diet, I feel like a completely different person.  It turns out, you just feel what is normal for you.  You don't actually know what normal feels like for anyone else.  And normal for me felt pretty hellish - though I had no idea at the time.

I could talk about lots of effects that eating dairy my first 29 years of life had on me, but the part I really want to address here today is the picky eating - because I think this is an aspect of food allergies that is often overlooked and misunderstood.  So I'd like to give the perspective of an adult who has dealt with this for over 33 years now.

I almost never drink water.  It is this giant point of contention in my life, and one that I get so tired of justifying to others.  But I just cannot do it.  And I've never been able to.  I am married to Mr. YouNeedToDrinkMoreWater.  The week before we were married, my mom traveled out and stayed with us to help us prepare for our wedding.  After just a day or two of listening to Micah try to persuade me to drink more water, she said to him, "I stopped trying to get her to drink it when she was 1.  I've never seen another baby who wouldn't drink water."  And that is the summary of my relationship with water, right there, folks.  My entire childhood, I was told that I just didn't like water - that I'd rather drink Kool-Aid.  I was told that I was just too stuck up to drink water.  I was told that I was just stubborn.  I was told several things about why I wouldn't drink water.  And when I would reply, in the only capacity that I could as a child, that drinking water made my belly hurt, I was ridiculed and told how it "really" was.  Even as an adult, I was ridiculed when I said that drinking water upset my stomach.  I was told that I just wanted an excuse to drink Coke all the time.  I was still ridiculed, laughed at, told how absurd that was and that water couldn't upset anyone's stomach.  All well and good, except that it upset MY stomach.

And then, at 29, I was diagnosed with a dairy allergy, and I eliminated all dairy from my diet.  And the most amazing thing happened.  I can actually tolerate a small amount of water in a day!  But just a small amount.

And I learned a little something about my body that has FINALLY helped me to articulate to people my dilemma with water.  When I eat dairy, my digestion slows to a crawl.  If I eat a bite of cheese, you can trace it through my intestinal tract from the outside of my body for up to 2 weeks.  Sometimes, you can even see it from the outside of my body.  This is because my entire digestive system swells around that bite of cheese (or other dairy).  So I have learned that when I have a stomach full of dairy, my stomach swells up and undigested food just sits there - sometimes for days.  I lose all appetite.  Sometimes it takes me two meals to finish an entire sandwich after an exposure.  There is just not much room for food in such an inflamed stomach.  And when I was on a steady stream of dairy, my intestines were also always swollen, full of undigested food and acid.  It was quite uncomfortable.  And water, well...  pouring water into the vat of acid and undigested food in my stomach was an absolutely miserable experience.  It raised the level of acid in my stomach and made it burn.  The water against my swollen tissues caused burning, nausea, and sometimes actual pain.  And it still does, if I have had a dose of dairy!  In fact, even when I have not recently had a dairy exposure, my stomach is still so hypersensitive that it is still leary of water.

Yet, people feel the need to lecture me all the time about my water consumption.  I really need to drink a gallon a day.  I really need to try.  Am I sure it isn't just a sugar addiction?  Have I ever tried drinking water with lemon?  What about with honey?  Is it just an excuse?  Have I tried spring water?  What about filtered water?  And on, and on...

Just a note - I am 33 years old.  I know my body.  I know what it needs.  I have learned more about nutrition in the last 4.5 years than most people will learn in their lifetimes.  Yes, I know about water with lemon.  Yes, I know it is important to stay hydrated.  No, I still cannot tolerate water.

And then I look at my 4.5 year old son.  I watch him pick at his food.  He loves crunchy veggies.  He loves fruit.  He likes meat, as long as there isn't anything that even looks like fat on it.  He likes plain rice, potatoes, pasta, oatmeal, and sometimes quinoa.  He drinks almond milk hand over fist at meals.  He loves salmon patties.  But he doesn't like most cooked vegetables.  He doesn't trust any food that is mixed up.  He can't stand to have his applesauce touch anything else on his plate.  He eats what the rest of us are eating for dinner 2-3 nights per week, depending on what is on the menu.  And he rarely drinks water.

I get the conventional wisdom from all sides that says I am not a short order cook.  He needs to learn to eat what everyone else is eating.  He will eat when he is hungry enough.  He needs to learn to be a more adventurous eater.  I need to just make him eat what the rest of us are eating.

But then there is my own inner voice that is so tired of people giving me a hard time about what I will or won't eat.  There is my own experience of being a child and being forced to make a choice between eating something that upset my stomach or going hungry.  There is my own experience as an adult, who still didn't know what the problem was, and being ridiculed for not eating what everyone around me thought was delicious, amazing food.  And there is a large part of me that is still angry at the people who try to convince me that I just don't know my own body or what is good for me.

Having food allergies is hard!  I think that having food intolerances is almost harder because there isn't reliable testing for it, and people take cramps, diarrhea, and other general symptoms much less seriously than, oh, say, a peanut allergy that can kill you.  But having to deal with the picky eating that can result from having a food allergy or intolerance is almost the worst!  Having the world at large feel free to judge you by what you are and aren't capable of choking down is one of the more degrading aspects of food issues.

And this is what I try to bear in mind when I look at my little man, searching the dinner table for something that looks appetizing.  Is it as fun to feed him as it is to feed his sister and brother who are always eager to try new foods?  Honestly, no.  But is it just as valid for his distressed little stomach to want to take it slow and stick to foods he knows won't bother him?  Absolutely.  So, he is allowed to make himself something else or to ask for a (premade and frozen) burger patty or salmon patty while I am cooking something that the rest of us will enjoy.  Because his food issues are something that he is already struggling to overcome on his own - and will for the rest of his life.  I don't need to be one of the people who ridicules him for not eating steamed veggies.

The pictures in this blog are nearly 3 years old.  That was how far back I had to go to find pictures of my man eating.  Sofi and Elliott have tons, taken all of the time, because eating is one of their favorite things.  Walter, on the other hand, has tons of pictures doing just about everything else, instead.

Parenting 101: The Snack Tray

I am not going to claim, by any stretch of the imagination, to have invented the snack tray.  However, I am going to tell all of the first time parents out there about them, and how they work.

This tray fed all three of my kids for an afternoon.

Toddlers, and even preschoolers, can be interesting people to feed sometimes.  They never seem to want much of anything to eat.  They often eat two bites and are done.  Getting them to sit down long enough to eat something can be a struggle.  And giving them a largish something to eat can turn into a mess very quickly.  So, how does a mom make sure that her kids are getting a good variety of foods without struggling?  The snack tray!

The snack tray is any type of a dish (you probably want a break resistant type) that is compartmentalized into small sections.  Many people use ice cube trays, muffin tins, or other plastic serving or storage dishes with compartments.  The tray is filled with a small amount each of a variety of snacks.  Then, the tray is placed out on a table or other low shelf area where the child can easily access it.  The tray is generally left accessible during the majority of the day, allowing the child to grab a snack without really interrupting their play.  It is a really great way to get some extra food into a child who may not yet have the cognitive ability to sit still long enough to have longer snacks or meals.  It is also a good way to ensure a variety of food in the child's diet.

Some snack tray ideas include:

*Thawed frozen veggies - my kids love green peas or green beans.
*Fresh fruits, cut into bite sized pieces - stick to hardy types, though, or monitor throughout the day to be sure they haven't gone mushy in the tray.
*Cooked or canned beans - chick peas, kidney beans, pinto beans
*Raisins or dried cranberries
*Other dried fruit, if it is age appropriate for your child.
*Nuts, if age appropriate
*Dry cereal bites
*Baby "puff" type snacks
*Muffins or biscuits, cut into bites
*Bagels cut into bites
*Sandwiches or wraps, cut into bites
*Tater tots
*Cheese cubes, if you can eat that kind of thing
*Hard boiled egg, cut into bites - again, if you can eat that kind of thing
*Baby carrots, if age appropriate
*Bell pepper strips, if age appropriate
*Celery sticks, if age appropriate
*Diced eggplant, tomato, avocado (be handy with a wipe if you venture there), sweet potato, zucchini or yellow squash, cucumber, or turnip.
*Pomegranate seeds (technically called arils)
*Sliced mushrooms
*Chopped broccoli or cauliflower florets, if age appropriate
*Melon cubes
*Crackers, graham crackers, animal crackers

Really, the possibilities are endless!  If it will fit in the cup and your child can grab it and eat it with little fuss, go for it!  When using snack trays, I often keep a wipe laying out next to the tray for the child to wipe his or her hands on, or for me to snag and help wipe them.  Sippy cup next to the tray as well and the power struggle over food may just be over for you!

*One side note, do NOT be discouraged if it takes a few tries for your little one to figure out how to use the snack tray without attempting to play in the snack tray.  It is not the least bit unusual for the snacks to disappear into the play dishes, or to become a smear somewhere.  Just go slow at first, make the foods you offer easy to clean up, and model, model, model how we use the snack tray.  As the child understands the system more and more, you will be more and more free with what you can load it up with and how closely you have to monitor it.

Food Intolerances: Our Journey

I talk to people often who have questions about our food intolerances and allergies.  How did we know we were allergic or intolerant?  How did we figure out what foods we could and couldn't eat?  How did we go about cutting foods out to figure it out?  So, I find myself telling the story again and again.  And I know that for all of the people who ask me, there are others out there wishing there was someone to ask!

Before our second child came along, I would have told you that we had no food issues in our immediate family.  My husband's mother had Celiac Sprue, diagnosed later in life, but my husband, myself and our daughter had no issues whatsoever.

And then came Walter.  And Walter was the most unhappy baby in all the land.  Walter started out with a posterior tongue tie, which took us 7 weeks to diagnose.  We were doing our best to breastfeed, but it wasn't working because he couldn't maintain suction.  So, I was pumping round the clock, while caring for an inconsolable newborn and a 2 year old whose world had just turned upside down.  After about 2 weeks, it became evident that I could not pump enough milk to give him breastmilk exclusively, and we began to supplement with a hypoallergenic formula.  Two weeks later, Walter was projectile vomiting formula (no breastmilk, just formula), had a red ring around his bottom, had stomach cramps, could barely sleep, and was all around miserable.  I was told that he was forming an allergy to the formula, and since he was already on the most hypoallergenic formula there was, that if I couldn't get enough breastmilk to feed him, I was to have him admitted to the hospital so they could feed him there.  Luckily, I had friends with pumps and the milk was supplied for the next 3.5 weeks until we diagnosed the tongue tie, had it snipped, and were able to nurse full time.

And then we had a little respite.  Sort of.  Walter still had crazy reflux.  Crazy, crazy reflux.  If he wasn't on 2 types of reflux meds simultaneously, he didn't sleep.  And those who know me will know that I don't medicate my kids unless it is absolutely necessary.  So having a newborn on 2 different reflux medications is not on my list of things I happily do.  But this baby was just miserable.  He didn't want to be worn in any of my carriers.  He wasn't sure he wanted to be held, even.  But putting him down meant eruptions of breastmilk from his poor little body.  His stomach cramped constantly.  I would be holding this little tiny baby, and he would start wailing, while his little body scrunched against me and his stomach would become as hard as a rock.  He would scream and flail.  Nothing could make it better, and nothing would calm him down.  Then, a few minutes later, his stomach would soften, and he would calm down again.  This went on day and night.  He would wake from a sound sleep, screaming in pain at the stomach cramps.  And the gas!  Oh my word!  All babies have gas.  This is just a fact.  And when I would try to warn people about Walter's gas, they would laugh like I was some prude who didn't know that babies get gas.  But Walter didn't have those cute little bubbles of gas that smell a little like milk at worst.  Walter had old man gas that smelled of rotten eggs so much that he once cleared about a 12 foot circle at a play group.  I think he was about 3 weeks old at the time.  And then there was the diarrhea/constipation cycle.  He would go days and days (and days) without having a bowel movement.  We would all wait and wait for it.  And then, when it would come, it would be dripping from all over him.  Many people claim that breastfed babies don't get diarrhea.  Those people are wrong.  Diarrhea in breastfed babies is runny, high in volume, lacks the "seeds", and is brown or green in appearance.  Until Walter was about 4 months old, pretty much every bowel movement required a bath.

Two year old Sofi would gather supplies for me while I held a baby, dripping in poo, over the kitchen sink.  She would bring the diaper pail, and I would strip his clothes off.  She would bring a dish towel, and I would lay it in the bottom of the sink and start the water.  She would get the baby's towel, a clean set of clothes, and his body wash if it had been left in the bathtub.  Then she would push her high chair over to the sink and stand next to me while I washed off all of the mess and rinsed him clean.  Then she would hand me things as I got him dressed.  I'm not sure what I would have done without her!  I still feel that way most days.

So, after three months of a baby who rarely slept, who vomited constantly (even with medication), who had stomach cramps and constipation and diarrhea and was just generally miserable, I finally gave in to a friend who said, "Kellie, you have got to take this baby off of dairy!"  We made a plan and went cold turkey off of dairy for 10 days.  Within just a few days, we had a different baby.  He was actually happy sometimes!  He slept some.  He stopped throwing up all of the time.  And, let me just take this moment to point out that there is a big difference between a baby who spits up, and a baby who vomits.  He stopped having nasty diarrhea and actually had some nearly normal bowel movements!  We knew we must be on to something.

But, you don't just give a food up and assume it worked.  No, you have to test it.  Scientific process and all.  So, after about 10 days, I sat down with a big, cold glass of milk.  Wow!  That glass of milk changed my outlook on life in ways I didn't even realize at the time.  First of all, my system revolted at this addition.  I lay in bed that night, feeling my stomach and intestines swelling and throbbing as that milk slowly made its way through my system.  You see, the normal response to drinking a glass of something is to move it through your system in a matter of minutes.  But, that milk had slowed my system to a crawl.  For weeks, I could feel with my fingers where that milk was in my system because of my swollen intestines.  I realized that first night that I would NEVER drink another glass of milk so long as I lived.

And let me be completely transparent here.  There are people who never drink milk, and people who drink too much milk, and all manner of people in between.  I drank a half a gallon of milk or more a day, and ate cheese, sour cream, blue cheese dressing, and any other kind of dairy you can think of on pretty much a daily basis.  So realizing all at once that I would NEVER drink another glass of milk again as long as I lived was PRETTY HUGE for me!

Within hours, my baby had become fussy again.  By 18 hours later, he was a mess!  Cramping, vomiting, constipated, screaming, not sleeping - the whole nine yards.  That glass of milk was definitely the culprit!

So, we knew the dairy had to go for me and Walter.  At that point, we were still naive enough to think that we could keep it in the house for Sofi and Micah, but not use it for me and Walter.  That lasted about 6 months.

And what do you do when you can't have dairy?  Well, you go out and buy dairy replacement products!  So we bough soy based margarine.  We tried several different types of milk substitutes - which were all terrible to me at first, by the way.  We bought soy based snacks since I had lost the milk protein.  I basically went from consuming dairy every day to consuming quite a bit of soy every day.  And while my stomach and intestines eventually recovered from the glass of milk experiment, Walter never did.  He never seemed to get past his old symptoms this time.  We were perplexed.

And then another friend said, "I hate to tell you this, but most people who can't tolerate dairy, also can't tolerate soy."  I did my research, and this is a fact!  So, the soy replacements went.  And Walter began to get better again!  The diarrhea was mostly gone.  We were able to discontinue one reflux medication.  He began sleeping sometimes!  The stomach cramps were mostly gone.

But still, there was something.  It happened after the weekend, a lot of the time.  It was obvious that there was something else that we were eating that was bothering him, but not something we ate every day.  This took a lot more trial and error.  We eliminated several of the top allergens, one at a time, with no improvement.  Finally, we eliminated corn - including my soda habit.  And I had a totally different baby!  Not only did he sleep, and poop, and keep food down - he actually giggled!  He played!  He was HAPPY!  It was such an amazing transformation!  He began gaining weight, as well. I forgot to mention this before, but while he was born my heaviest baby to date, he quickly dwindled on the growth charts.  When we would weigh him around exposures to dairy or soy, his growth would cease, even while he ate a normal amount.

So, we lived without dairy, soy or corn.  It was an adjustment for us, and there was quite a learning curve.  For instance, we had been off soy for probably four months before we realized that the tuna in water we regularly ate was actually in soy broth, not water.  To get tuna that is not in soy, we actually have to spend two to three times the amount of money that we would for regular tuna.  We had to learn that while a food at a restaurant might seem safe, it was never safe to assume that it was.  For example, would you have guessed that the meat at Subway almost all has dairy and soy in it as fillers and flavor enhancers?  And we learned that if we aren't reading it in writing, that we cannot assume that people working at a restaurant actually know what is in the food; like the manager at an Arby's who assured me that their wheat bread didn't have any dairy or soy - it was only "wheat and bread."

And no matter how diligent you are, there are always contaminations.  We once bought a giant jar of peanut butter marked "processed in a facility with (other allergens)" and were sick for a month before we figured out what the culprit was.  We learned pretty quickly that having our contaminants in the house at all just didn't work.  If Sofi had butter on her toast, it would somehow end up in mine or Walter's mouth - probably just from a little spot of it on the counter or table where it had been prepared.  So everyone in our house learned to live without these things.  And our lives improved in unimaginable ways.  While many people we knew were astonished to learn that we didn't eat so many foods, and couldn't imagine living without them, we couldn't imagine going back to the constant illness, the screaming baby who didn't sleep, and the tension in the house that went with all of that.

Another note in this time frame; we spent plenty of time at doctor's offices during these months.  The allergy clinic did a blood test on Walter for the foods that I said he couldn't eat, and it came up negative for food allergies.  The GI doctor tested his stool and it tested positive for blood, which the doctor informed us indicated that he had food allergies.  No one could tell us what he was allergic to, and there are no test for sensitivities or intolerances that are reliable (and yes, I've spent hundreds of desperate dollars testing them out).  So, we were on our own, working through the process of elimination and monitoring symptoms.  But we KNEW that there was a problem directly related to food and through researching and maintaining the diet ourselves, we were able to achieve the results the doctors wanted to achieve (remove symptoms and allow Walter to gain weight) although they were not so willing to entertain the idea that the symptoms were related to food.

So, this is how our life went on for 2 years.  We ate our diet.  Walter grew, was a mostly happy little man.  And we were a happy little family again.  Except...  except that we just felt like we were missing something...  And we watched, and noted, and tried to figure it out.  Finally, I decided that we were going to try going off gluten.  This seemed to big and difficult, considering how little we could eat already.  I was afraid.  I was intimidated.  But I was also determined.  I hadn't come this far in the journey to getting my little man healthy only to ignore symptoms that I saw because I was intimidated.  I knew we could do it - there was just a large part of me that didn't want to do it.

These two pictures were taken about two months apart, with us going gluten free about six weeks before the second picture.  You can see that he is already gaining weight, and his hair is getting thicker.

This picture was taken about 6 months after the second picture above. Look at how much more hair he has, and how thick and curly it is!

In the end, it turned out that going gluten free was the easiest transition we had made yet, for all it seemed so intimidating!  We had already learned so much about food sensitivities, and how to be safe, and how to look out for hidden ingredients, and all of the other pitfalls, that gluten didn't seem nearly as hard as the original eliminations had.  And we saw such an incredible difference in Walter!  After being off gluten for only a matter of weeks, his bowel movements changed.  I realized after seeing them change that up until that time, there had been blood in his stool every day.  I just thought that was what his stool looked like!  It was truly a miracle to have him off all of those foods and watch him become a totally different person who felt and looked healthy, revitalized, and full of energy!

Over time, him symptoms have changed.  I've become so used to watching for the differences from foods over the years, that I see things that other people would write off as different things in a four year old boy.  For instance, starting when he potty trained, Walter would have accidents ONLY when he had an exposure to one of his allergens.  He still will wet the bed ONLY when he has been exposed.  He has a tendency to lose impulse control when he has gotten an allergen.  I laugh that he is the poster child for ADD when he gets something, but he has gotten better at coping over the years. His behavior is still off, his emotions run high, and he has a harder time coping with day to day things when he has had an exposure.  Over the past year, he has begun developing a rash on his body when he comes into contact with gluten.  And in general, he can just seem rash, defiant, and uncooperative when he has a contamination.  He also gets dark circles under his eyes when he's had a contamination.  He still gets stomach cramps.  I no longer accompany him to the bathroom, but sometimes when he gets something, he will yell and cry as he has a bowel movement.  He has learned that when he gets a contaminant, he doesn't feel good and he doesn't like it.  So he is very responsible for his own well being in this area, and willingly avoids foods that have these things in them.

Elliott, also has several food sensitivities.  He can't have all of the same things as Walter - except that we learned recently that Walter can't tolerate hemp and hemp milk is the only milk substitute that Elliott does tolerate.  Elliott also can't tolerate rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or eggs.  He is also iffy on peanut butter.  His reactions are similar to Walter's, but not as intense.  He has always slept quite a bit more than Walter did.  He doesn't get the insane mood swings that Walter does with contaminations.  He gets cramps, but not as badly.  He has always gotten rashes from various foods, which Walter didn't as a baby.  And Elliott's reflux wasn't as bad as Walter's, although he did still require medication as a baby.

And in the middle of all of this, we discovered that I am allergic to milk.  This explained SO much of my life!  And, I finally allowed myself to be convinced by the helpful people in my life that if both boys were reacting to the same foods in my breastmilk, that I also have a problem with those foods, or they wouldn't have passed through my milk in pieces big enough to be recognized as dairy, soy, corn or gluten.  Had I been processing them properly, they would have been recognizable only as breastmilk.  Eliminating these allergens from our diet, our toiletries, and everything else we come in contact with has cleared up my acne (although I immediately break out again if I have dairy).  It has helped tremendously with my skin health over all, and with my dandruff (although it is always bad, it just isn't as bad).  It has helped my mood to become more stable.  It has helped the lives of our entire family to be more calm and happy.

At this point, all of us eat the same diet when we are together.  Sometimes Papa or Sofi will eat something on our no list when they are out somewhere without the rest of us, but for the most part, we've learned that we all feel better without these foods in our diets.

Foodie Friday: Gluten Free Pancake Mix

I posted a recipe last spring for waffles that are dairy, soy, gluten and egg free, and that we enjoy regularly.  Recently, we have modified the recipe, and are enjoying a dry pancake and waffle mix that we just add water to when we want to use it.  It has been lovely to wake up and make pancakes instead of waffles a lot of days!

Gluten, dairy, egg and sugar free dry pancake mix
2 1/4 C Rice or Millet Flour (or a mix, if you feel fancy)
1 1/2 C Tapioca Starch
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt
Dry Egg Replacer Equivalent of 6 Eggs
1/2 C Palm Oil or other shortening


Mix all ingredients thoroughly, using a pastry cutter or a mixer.  You want to fully incorporate the shortening into the dry ingredients.  Store in an airtight container.

To use, add water to mix until you have a thick liquid.  Practice will make this perfect.  You want it to be just thin enough to pour.  Also, you can add cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate chips, fruit, etc at this point, if desired.  Pour circles into a hot skillet and cook on one side until bubbly all over and edges look firm.  Flip and cook for another 45 seconds or so.  Enjoy!

Ready to be turned!

Cooking from Scratch

I have not always been the cook I am now. If it came in a box, I was a whiz at cooking it. I knew all of the little tricks to make that prepackaged food really zing. For example, I knew that if you add the butter to the boiling water and then add the potato flakes, the butter flavor would permeate the entire bowl of potatoes. But, if you added the flakes and then the butter, as the box suggested, then the butter flavor would only be on a small portion of the “potatoes", no matter how well you stirred. Useful, right?

For the rest of this story, check out my guest post over at Natural Parents Network!

Foodie Friday - Sausage Potato Soup

This soup is SO good!  We keep having it and keep enjoying it.  It is very hearty and filling as well, which makes it great for cold nights.

Ingredients:
Approximately 1-2 Lbs ground sausage (Our local store has an in house sausage that we use).  A little more or a little less will not affect this recipe greatly.
1 Small onion, diced
6 cups chicken broth and/or water (I usually use 2 cups chicken broth and 4 cups water, but you could use more or less broth if you needed to, so long as you use at least 6 cups liquid.)
4-6 Medium potatoes, cubed
1 Cup peas (fresh, frozen or canned)
Oregano, sage, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

1. In a nice deep stock pot, brown the sausage.  Drain the grease if there is too much.

2. Add the onion and saute along with the garlic until it is browned.

3. Add broth and water, potatoes and seasonings.  A note about the seasonings here.  The sausage I use is already pretty highly seasoned, and has a bit of a red pepper bite to it.  Also, my chicken broth is homemade and is well seasoned.  Because of this, I don't season the soup much.  If you are using less flavorful broth, or a more plain sausage, you may want to add more seasonings than this.  If so, try red pepper, celery salt or seed, and a little heavier on the seasonings already listed.

4. Simmer until potatoes are soft enough to eat, but not falling apart.  This is going to vary greatly depending on how big your potato chunks are.  It could be anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.  Just keep an eye on it, stirring occasionally, until they are done.  If there isn't enough broth for your liking, just add some water and let it simmer along.  My boys both like to pick out the sausage and potatoes, and Sofi likes the "stuff, not the soup".  Daddy prefers to eat his soup with a fork as well, so I tend to add more sausage than broth.  But, if you like it more balanced, you can adjust accordingly just by adding more water.

5. Enjoy!

Foodie Friday - Printable Allergen Substitution Chart

I had a fun idea a while back, when flipping through a craft book.  One of the crafts was a cute measurement conversion chart to hang in the kitchen.  I found it darling, but have no use for one, really.  I can convert all of the measurements I use regularly in my head.  BUT, I thought it would be SO cute to have a conversion chart that showed substitutions for allergenic items that recipes were likely to call for!  How much easier would it be to have that handy, and what a great gift for others who like to cook for a family with allergies!  So, I finally got around to making one and I wanted to share it with my loyal readers.

You can view and print up the full size version for free here.

I hope you enjoy!  What else would you add?

Foodie Friday - Dairy Free Sour Cream Replacement

When we went dairy and soy free four years ago, finding replacements for things to eat was a big priority.  We reveled in dairy at our house, and giving it up was NOT easy business, let me assure you!  Many a tear was shed.  Some things were quickly found - I HATE hemp milk, but can stomach rice milk.  Some things took more time - we finally found a cheese substitute that worked for us a year or so ago.  And some things just seemed like a lost cause - cream cheese and sour cream in particular.

So, I gave up baked potatoes, sour cream on burritos, beef stroganoff, and many other things that I loved to eat.  And I just didn't eat them for about 3 years.  And then, one day, my husband suggested something that just sounded funny. Why not have mayonnaise on my baked potato?  I crinkled up my nose and looked skeptical, but he pointed out that I prefer mayo on my french fries.  So, I tried it.  And let me just say, HEAVEN!  Who would have thought?  But after I DID think about it, the whole thing made sense.  The texture of mayo is about the same as the texture of sour cream.  It mixes up about the same.  Both have that faint tang...  Yes, the mayo on the baked potato became a fixture.

Then, I tried it on sweet potato, and oh my!  Really, try it sometime.  So good!  And that is where I kept it for about a year.  Then, I looked at my tostada one night, wishing I had some sour cream for it and Papa again suggested the mayo.  Again, I crinkled up my nose and looked skeptical.  But I whipped the mayo out much faster this time and gave it a try.  I will never go without again!

I know it may sound crazy, but mayonnaise is an excellent sour cream sub, although I'm yet to try cooking it yet.  I think I'm going to try a beef stroganoff soon...

Foodie Friday - Easier Than Hambuger Helper

Over the summer, I was planning a series about whole foods recipes to replace less healthy packaged foods.  A friend requested a Hamburger Helper replacement and I thought that sounded super easy!  At least, until I realized that I have no idea what Hamburger Helper tastes like.  Then, I happened across a few homemade hamburger helper recipes on my Pinterest feed, and took a peek.

I had a few issues with the recipes, though.  Partly from an allergen stand point, the recipes wouldn't have worked for us.  But beyond that, they relied heavily on processed ingredients for flavor.  Bullion, packets of seasoning, powdered milk, etc.  So, I kept "cooking" on the recipes.

I finally decided that what would work for me was the concept of a similar skillet meal, made with fresh ingredients.  And let me just say, what I turned out is not only EASIER than it's boxed counterpart and it's homemade replacement, but it is so good that my pickiest eater chowed it down twice in two weeks and begged me to make it again soon!

So, of course I am sharing the recipe.

Easier Than Hamburger Helper
2 lbs ground beef
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups pasta
Oregano, sage, garlic powder, dried minced onion, salt and pepper
1/4 cup ketchup or seasoned tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups veggies of your choice (optional)
Shredded cheese or cheese replacement (optional)

1. Brown the ground beef in a large skillet.  Drain the grease if needed.

2. Add 2 cups water and the pasta to the beef in the skillet.  I used gluten free pasta shapes, but any pasta will work.  Whole grain pasta is the healthiest option.  At this point, I toss in veggies with mine, because I add veggies to anything I can.  Cut up fresh veggies, or use frozen for more convenience.  I like carrot and zucchini, myself.

3. Add your seasonings.  I give a hearty shake of each, going a bit lighter on the garlic and a bit heavier on the onion.  My husband would be perfectly happy with more garlic.  Seasoning is actually a matter of personal preference, which is something that you don't get from a box.

4. Stir in the ketchup or use tomato sauce and toss in some extra seasonings to add more flavor.  I use store bought, organic ketchup. Ketchup can also be made at home.

5.  Simmer for 15 minutes, or until pasta is done.

6. Add cheese or cheese replacement if desired.

Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 4-6

Now, this is one flavor.  If you want to mix it up, just change your seasonings and veggies.  For example, add diced tomato and corn, cilantro, chili powder, and paprika, while omitting the sage for a Mexican style flavor.

I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine does!

New Farmer's Market Find

Welcome to the August 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Farmer's Markets

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about something new they've learned about their local farmers.

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Our family has been going to the farmer's market for five years now.  We know which sellers never spray at several different markets.   We know which market to hit for which deals, depending on our needs that week.  We know what produce to expect at any given time of year and what to expect to pay for it.

Of course, we know all of this about farmer's markets in Missouri...    Where we don't live anymore.

So, we've had a good time learning about the farmer's markets in our new areas in Ohio.  We are learning about prices, sprays, times, and gardening specialties.  It's been a pleasant surprise to learn that most of the farmers at our local markets grow without pesticides or chemical fertilizers - because that is what the buyers want.

It has been a great experience, to say the least.  One of our favorite sellers is a farm belonging to a local Amish family.  Baby Elliott loves to see the horse used to pull the wagon into town.  During the market he is tied to a nearby tree, in the shade.  Elliott points at him and excitedly yells, "doggy!" every time.  And the best part is that this farm is selling a product we had never seen at a farmer's market before!  In fact, it is a product we had never thought to source locally at all, before.  So we have been quite excited to find it not only local, not only direct from the farmer who makes it, but also cheaper than what we've previously been able to purchase it for!



MAPLE SYRUP!  Local, Ohio maple syrup, made on the farm!  And it tastes great too!

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be live and updated by afternoon August 14 with all the carnival links.)

10 Simple Ways to Make the Farmer's Market More Fun for Kids — Lorie at Reading Confetti shares ideas and books to help kids get the most from the farmers market experience.

10 Things I Want To Teach My Daughter About The Importance of Shopping at the Farmer’s Market — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares the ten lessons she hopes to impart to her daughter about the importance of shopping at local farmers markets.

Charmed by Two Small Town Markets — Shannon at GrowingSlower was charmed by two small-town farmers markets while on vacation.

The Olympia Farmer's Market (and a giveaway!) — Shannon at Pineapples & Artichokes and family took a trip to their state capitol to experience a new market. See what they saw, and enter to win a book written about that very market.

On the Hunt . . . At the Farmer’s Market! — Exploring the farmers market by Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy writing at Natural Parents Network — with a scavenger hunt!

Exploring the Market ... Alphabet Style — That Mama Gretchen is in the midst of creating a learning tool for her toddler and it's all about the market!

Unschooling at the Farmers Market — Megz at Aspen Mama loves building memories as a vendor at the Market.

Montessori-Inspired Vegetable Unit — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares links to Montessori-inspired vegetable printables and activities to help your family get the most out of a trip to the farmer’s market.

Markets — How sustainable mum has fitted a monthly farmers market into a weekly food shop.

The Farmers Market In Under An Hour ("Carl Style") — Andrea and family at Tales of Goodness adapt their farmers marketing approach to make everyone happy.

Tales Of a Troubled Gardener — Sam at Love Parenting writes about her dream of self-sufficiency and her lack of gardening skills!

A Few {Of The Many} Reasons Why I Love Our Farmer’s Market — Even though the experience can sometimes be less than peaceful, MomeeeZen shares why she enjoys taking her family to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings.

Experiencing the Farmer's Market from a Different Perspective — Emily at S.A.H.M. i AM had a great time letting her toddler lead the way at the farmer's market...

Ask A Farmer's Daughter — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter answers questions about her life growing up on a small family farm in New England.

Giving Up the Grocery Store — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her family's summertime challenge to eliminate trips to the grocery store and rely almost exclusively on local, farm-fresh foods.

Urban farming and fresh food in the city — Lauren at Hobo Mama takes trips to farms, gardens, and markets within reach of a big city.

Market Tip: Get to Know Your Farmers — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger finally gets up the guts to talk to her farmers and learns she is among ardent food lovers.

New Farmer's Market Find — Kellie at Our Mindful Life is excited to make a new find at her new farmers market.

"The Real World" Grassroots Edition — jessica at instead of institution takes some time out to write a love note.

9 Insider Tips for Farmer's Market Newbies — Dionna at Code Name: Mama chatted with a few farmers to bring you some insider information on how to get the most out of your local farmer's market.

The Place Where I Can Say "Yes!" — Erica at ChildOrganics gives you a tour of her favorite vendors at her local farmers market and discusses the benefits of creating community through the market.

Raw Local Milk — Jorje shares her family's field trip to a local dairy. Learn what you can appreciate from a small town farm at Momma Jorje.com.

Italian Secret Vegetable Soup Recipe — Alinka at Baby Web convinces an Italian Farmer & Cook to reveal a precious minestrone recipe and shares it with her readers.

Where do our eggs come from? A visit to Sucellus Farms. — Carli at One Fit Mom takes her family to meet the chickens that have been providing their daily eggs.

Beyond the Farm — Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy and her family enjoy looking beyond the food at the local farmer's market to see the wares of the over vendors.

Magic at the Market — Do you ever take time to really look at the food you eat? Amy at Anktangle enjoys marveling at the beauty (and the utility) of the foods and goods available at the farmers' market.

Farmer's Market Discoveries — Laura from Pug in the Kitchen reminisces about the discoveries she's made at the Farmer's Market throughout the years.

Are You Getting the Most out of Your Farmers' Market? (My List of Not-So-Common "Musts") — Sheila at A Living Family shares some uncommon ways to squeeze even more joy and connection (and yumminess!) from your local farmers' market experience.

Pick Your Own And Eat It — Luschka from Diary of a First Child shares their trip to a PYO farm and the journey from picking to eating her favourite food