Still Proofing...

It turns out I'm an alternative, procrastinating, Daring Baker. (Will need to update my profile at the forum, someday.) Here's a tease of my tropical Danish Braid: I used coconut oil and coconut milk as replacements for butter and milk in the dough. The filling is mango and pineapple. Instead of an egg wash, I painted it with more coconut milk and sprinkled it with turbinado sugar. I'll let you all know how it turns out and post the complete recipe this evening after I recover from the birthday party we're going to today!

Living With Food Allergies Blog Carnival #20

I missed the submission deadline again, but don't let that stop you from checking out the latest edition of the Food Allergy Blog Carnival hosted by former Jeopardy champion Victoria Groce of About.Com: Food Allergies. (And, yes, Victoria, any reference to you here at The Allergic Kid will include your Jeopardy title, regardless of your other accomplishments, because that is just too cool.)

Bottom of the Food Chain

We spent the day at the Florida Aquarium, aka "the fish zoo," where we saw this crab scuttling across the bottom of a tank. I pointed to it and asked The Kid, "What's that?"

"A crab. I can't eat that."

Somewhat surprised, I asked, "Why not?"

"It's a shellfish. I'm allergic."

This is what I get for all the times I've quizzed him at the fish counter of the grocery store! (It may also be karmic justice for always serving tilapia on his Nemo plate.)

Here's a bonus picture from the fish zoo of some amazing sea dragons.

Food Allergy Friendly Recipes from Lucy Waverman

We already knew that the EpiPen was our friend in an emergency. Now the Canadian distributer of the lifesaving medication is reaching out to give allergy moms a hand at dinnertime. They've partnered with Lucy Waverman to create nine recipes, including a fake mac and cheese and a chocolate birthday cake, without peanuts, milk, egg, or shellfish.

They are available by registering with their EpiPen Resource Centre or by clinking the links at the end of this interview with Food Network Canada. Sometimes the Food Network only posts recipes from outside sources for a limited time, so you may wish to copy any recipes that interest you if you are unwilling or unable to register at the EpiPen site.

New Allergy Plan for School

Blueberry Muffins

A friend of mine tried these and said, "You'd never guess these didn't come from a store...I mean they taste normal...I'm trying to say that these are really good!" That's the stealth aspect of allergy baking. It's always nice to stand out by creating something amazing, but often my goal is to make something that looks like what everyone else is eating, just a little tastier and healthier, and lacking the foods my son is allergic to.

Dry Ingredients:
1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 C soy yogurt, plain or vanilla
1/2 C vegetable oil, preferably canola
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 Tbs orange juice

Additional:
1-2 C fresh or frozen blueberries (completely thawed and well drained)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare a standard muffing tin, either by greasing it or by using paper liners. Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. Mix the wet ingredients in a medium bowl until completely combined. Toss blueberries in dry ingredients. Carefully stir wet ingredients into dry. Do not over mix.

Divide batter equally between the twelve muffins. The muffins only have a modest rise, so filling the individual cups all the way to the top is perfectly safe. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Give the pan a whack to allow trapped gases to escape, then allow to cool for 5 or 10 minutes in the tin. Allow to finish cooling on a baking rack. Or don't. They're very nice still warm.

One note on the blueberries: they are the star of the show in this recipe. Although this is a very nice batter, the taste of the muffins will be directly linked to the quality of the blueberries, especially if you use the full two cups. It's much better to use a frozen berry that was picked when ripe, than a tasteless berry that's been shipped too far and sat on the shelf too long.

Living With Food Allergies Blog Carnival #19

So I was a disorganized slacker and didn't submit a post to the latest Food Allergy Blog Carnival, despite my best intentions. Lucky for you, there are some talented and insightful food allergy bloggers able to read a calender. Leslea Harmon of the Allergy News Blog is the gracious host.

Turkey Loaf, Herpetological Style

It was getting late, I'd had a long day at work, and I just didn't have any ideas about what to fix my child for dinner. So I asked him what he wanted, fully expecting the answer to be "noodles with peas," which is The Kid's favorite default meal. Instead he announced, "I want to have snake for dinner like the snake I make with Play Doh," holding up his purple Play Doh snake to demonstrate.

Great. That wasn't going to happen, since I didn't have three hours to let dough rise, which was the only possible snake construction material that popped into my head. I looked through the contents of my freezer looking for other dinner possibilities. That's when I spotted the tube of frozen ground turkey and inspiration (or something) struck.

This was very much thrown together, since it's been years since I've made any kind of a ground meat loaf. After all my effort, The Kid was absolutely delighted with how it looked, but didn't eat it with a lot of enthusiasm. It wasn't a huge hit, so I won't be spending any time tweaking, but it has so much potential for other shapes or decorations, I thought I'd go ahead and post the recipe for anyone who might want to adopt and adapt it.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
6oz can tomato paste
1 C fresh bread crumbs (also from my freezer)
1 Tbs flax seed meal
1 small sweet onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbs orange juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line oven-safe pan with aluminum foil. Mix all ingredients together in a large nonporous bowl. Take large handfuls of mixture, form into desired shape, and place onto pan. Continue until all of mixture is used. Apply any decorations you wish to add. (For this I cut little pieces of carrot into eyes and a tongue, and used olives to make a snake like design on the back, simply because that was what was in my fridge. Thin pieces of pepper, zucchini, or other firm vegetables would all probably work.)

Most meatloaf recipes cook for about 45 minutes. I checked this skinny one after 20, but wasn't able to get a good read with my thermometer, so I put I put it back in for another 10. (Yes, I'm a raw poultry phobe.) After 30 minutes, the "Snakeloaf" was moist, savory, and held its shape fairly well.

There's been one problem I didn't anticipate: I'm not sure The Kid understands that this wasn't an actual snake! I explained several times that it was the same thing as a turkey burger, but he's been a little skeptical of Mommy. I've probably been a little too discrete about the relationship between the animals he loves and the contents of his plate!

Curried Cauliflower in Coconut Sauce

Lately I've been craving Indian food, so I thought I'd try to make a meal for us that would introduce The Kid to some Indian flavors without being too spicy. The coconut milk and raisins in this dish combined with modest amounts of cumin and curry powder put the emphasis on sweet rather than heat. My son was interested in everything on his plate but the cauliflower, which he did try somewhat reluctantly, while my red meat eating husband snarfed up this creamy veggie dish and went back for seconds.

Curried Cauliflower in Coconut Sauce

(Click here for printable recipe.)

2 Tbs dairy free margarine or vegetable oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 head of cauliflower, washed, cored, and cut into small florets
2 carrots, sliced
1 13.5oz/400ml can coconut milk
1 Tbs cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
pinch of ground mace or nutmeg
pinch of turmeric (for color)
1/2 C raisins
salt to taste
sweetened coconut flakes, toasted (optional)

Heat margarine or oil to medium high in a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot with lid. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic, cauliflower, and carrots, and cook until slightly softened, stirring regularly. Combine coconut milk, cornstarch, cumin, and turmeric, then whisk together until all lumps of corn starch are gone. Pour into pot with vegetables, add raisins, then cover and reduce heat to medium low. Allow to cook for 15-20 minutes until vegetables are tender.  Add salt to taste and serve over rice.

I don't usually bother with a garnish, but I wanted to add some crunch. Since nuts were out of the question, I toasted some coconut flakes. Their texture and flavor contrasted beautifully with the rest of this dish and really took the meal up another notch.

Recipe updated 7/26/12.

Hurricane Preparedness with Food Allergies

This post is NOT intended to be a complete set of guidelines for hurricane preparedness. Instead I would like to share some tips for those who need to make additional plans due to food allergies.

Hurricanes are a fact of life in Florida. Today is the first day of hurricane season, and I wish I could say that I was already prepared, especially since the first named storm of the season rudely showed up a day early. Instead I'll be doing some extra shopping on my usual grocery run.

There are some excellent guides to hurricane prep, including the one on the website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (If you look around online, you can also find more colorful suggestions for putting the patio furniture in the pool and the computer in the dishwasher.) So often, though, we Floridians just check off items on the list, without thinking through the conditions during and after a hurricane that would cause us to need extra tuna and batteries.

As far as natural disasters go, one of the few advantages of hurricanes is that they usually give you a few days warning. Storm forecasts have become fairly accurate, so if the authorities in your area tell you to evacuate, please, pack your epi-pens and gluten free crackers and go. If you have pets, make plans to take them, too. Do not ever leave them behind!

Personally, if I am not told to evacuate, I would rather stay home with my well-stocked pantry, than sit for hours on the interstate with a cranky child while burning gas and then needlessly inconvenience my relatives. That means I need to be ready for these possible conditions during and after the storm:

• no electricity
• phone lines down
• emergency medical services unavailable
• roads and stores closed (no groceries)
• unsafe water supply

Anyone who takes medication needs to have several weeks worth on hand. Be sure to also have a good supply of Benadryl, or whatever your doctor recommends. If your child has anaphylactic reactions to food allergens, then it's time to count your epi-pens and check the expiration dates. Since they are intended as a lifesaving measure until emergency medical help can be reached, you may wish to speak to your doctor about prescribing additional ones for times when EMS is unavailable.  I also keep my expired Epi's that don't have discolored fluid as a back up, but please speak with your child's doctor about the advisability of using expired meds before doing so!  Many of our kids with food allergies also have asthma, so it might be a good time to also have a chat about obtaining a battery operated nebulizer for when the electricity is down.

I remember with nostalgia the times when FEMA told us to be prepared with three days worth of supplies, and they would show up by day four with the Red Cross in tow.Now the guidelines recommend having two weeks worth of supplies, which is a bare minimum when a member of the family has food allergies, since the wonderful folks at the Red Cross are most likely going to show up with peanut butter and powdered milk in hand.

Instead of having a dedicated supply of post hurricane nosh that gets discarded and replaced as it ages, I keep emergency supplies integrated into my regular pantry. We generally use fresh soy milk, but I keep some nonperishable cartons in my cupboard. My son isn't a huge fan of their taste, so I use them up in cooking and baking as their expiration approaches. Other items that I keep a large supply of are bottled juice, rice cakes, crackers, Sunbutter, dry cereal, tuna and canned fruit and legumes.  We also keep a small supply of Sterno for heating canned foods.

Other important kitchen supplies are a large stockpile of paper plates, bowls, and cups, plastic silverware, paper towels and napkins, and lots and lots of plastic garbage bags. It may sound like an ecological disaster in the making, but if you are unable to wash dishes, they are a necessity. I also strongly suggest buying serious quantities of baby wipes, even if you don't have a baby. (After a couple days without a shower, you'll thank me.) Instead of keeping large supplies of bottled water, we have a couple of collapsible camping containers for storing water that we fill when a storm approaches.

Once we learn a storm is headed in our general direction, I start to take some precautions, such as making extra ice since the stores will quickly run out, and making sure all the laundry and every dish in the house stays clean. I also try to use the perishables on hand and use up some of the food in the freezer. I'll cook any raw meat in the fridge, and hardboil some eggs for those of us who aren't allergic to them. Plus, I will cook up some starches such as pasta or rice, so that they just need to be reheated later. If there's really some extra time, I'll even bake some muffins or quick bread. At the store, in addition to stocking up on whatever nonperishables may be low, I make sure I have plenty of bread and "bowl on the counter" fruit, such as apples, oranges, and bananas.

When a storm becomes imminent, we fill up our water storage containers plus the bathtub and move the patio furniture inside. (It spent most of 2004 in the guest bedroom.) Rather than panicking, this is the time for some careful household management. Your refrigerator is a very, very well insulated box. If you don't open it, the food inside will be fine for quite a few hours if you lose electricity. I turn the temperature in the fridge as low as it can go, then remove whatever I think I'll need for the next several meals, such as sandwich ingredients, and place those items in a cooler with ice. Then I leave the refrigerator shut. When I had breastmilk in my freezer, which I absolutely didn't want to spoil, I would purchase dry ice for that compartment before the storm.

I don't know why, but hurricanes always seem to come through my area at night. I'm usually so exhausted from preparing, that I sleep through them, while my husband sits up and watches the weather reporters flap in the wind on TV or listens to the radio. If it happens during the day, make sure you have plenty of toys and games that are not dependent on electricity for the kids. It's not a bad idea to have some new ones they haven't played with before squirreled away.

After the storm, if you do lose electricity for more than a few hours, it's time to throw a barbeque. Even if you don't usually grill, having a little hibachi and charcoal will mean the difference between eating and throwing out the food in your freezer. [Update: remember that grilling indoors can be deadly due to the carbon monoxide fumes. Only use grills outside!] To prevent cross-contamination, you can place aluminum foil on the grill surface. Use your head and consume anything that might perish before it actually perishes. Only after you have eaten all the fresh food, should you start in on the actual hurricane supplies. I've never had to manage more than a few hours without electricity, but nearby areas went close to a week without it in 2004.

There's a certain superstitious element to my hurricane prep, since I'm sure that if I don't get ready, the big one will almost certainly land on my head. With luck, none of these strategies will actually be necessary, but planning for the worst is always the job of parents with allergic kids.

Hurricane photo courtesy NASA.

Updated August 2012.