Allergist Appointment, November 2014

What a crazy week!  If you're here just for the recipes, feel free to skip this post entirely!

I spent all day Monday and Wednesday at an amazing opportunity to hear Emily Rubin (I'm a groupie!) speak about Emotional Regulation, how to implement strategies in the classroom and how deficits in emotional regulation have a huge impact on children with Autism.  GREAT STUFF! #nerdySLP

Tuesday was Logan's dreaded allergist appointment for his skin testing.  His last skin testing was done in March of 2013 and it was a pretty traumatizing experience for him that he still talks about! At that appointment, they did a scratch test where he had to be physically restrained and it was all very upsetting. I had no idea that there were much better and easier methods out there!

Let me rewind and give you a brief summary of Logan's allergies.

1.  9 months old - reaction from eating hummus.   Tested positive for sesame allergy.
2. 11 months old - reaction from eating cookie with almond extract.  Tested positive for almond & tree nuts.  Told to avoid peanuts as well. At this point, we only avoided the actual allergens as ingredients. We paid no attention to cross-contamination whatsoever (and boy, were we lucky!)
3. 3 years old.  Tested positive for sesame, tree nuts and now added peanuts.
4. 3 years, 9 months.  Anaphylactic reaction to cashew residue in a thoroughly washed OXO container. Required epi 12 hours after exposure along with ambulance ride, breathing treatments in the ER and hours of monitoring.  36 hours after exposure, woke up with full body hives and was taken straight to ER and given epi pen in waiting room when he began wheezing.  Steroids, breathing treatments and now very strict avoidance of all allergies including cross-contamination (made in a facility with, made on shared equipment with and calling companies to find out about allergen practices)
5. 3 years, 10 months.  At a Halloween fair, bit into a Butterfinger bar and was epi'd immediately. [Will tell full story at a later date] and avoided anaphylaxis (ambulance ride to ER, monitoring, etc).
6. 4 years, 3 months.  Skin scratch testing.  Told he was still allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and sesame.
7. 4 years, 9 months. Anaphylactic reaction. Source (at the time) unknown.

We pretty much thought we were destined to a life of company-calling, allergy-avoiding and mommy-worrying.  Then along came Dr. Randhawa.  I heard about him on an amazing and supportive allergy mom group on Facebook.  I heard that he was an incredible doctor with multiple degrees and certifications and that he took kids as young as Logan to do OIT (oral immunotherapy).  After doing some research and waiting over 5 months for an appointment, we finally got in!

The good news was that he was just as incredible as they all said.  The bad news was that NONE of the services would be covered under our insurance. We have an HMO plan with NO out-of-network coverage. Dr. Ranhawa happens to be in Long Beach, CA which is about a 90 minute (without traffic) drive... definitely out of our network!  I knew though in my heart that we had to make this work.  I signed up to work summer school (from 35-39 weeks pregnant!) to cover as much as I could. [Unfortunately, I didn't make it all the way as I had my little monkey man at 37 weeks!]

At our first appointment, we discussed an overwhelming amount of information.. half of which I can't recall without my allergy binder in front of me.  The plan was to start with bloodwork, move to skin testing then patch testing and make our OIT plan from there.

Bloodwork was a NIGHTMARE.  Will save that experience and those results for another post. What we did find out is that he has a class 6 (highest) allergy to DUST MITES.  To be allergic to dust mites, you need a blood level of .38 or higher. His was over 100!  We theorize that this was the cause of his most recent anaphylactic reaction which we could not link back to any ingestion or exposure to any of his food allergens. Under doctor's orders, we started him on a daily nasal spray (Omnaris) and daily antihistamine (Xyzal).

Tuesday was skin testing. I automatically assumed it would be scratch testing again; but, I was mistaken. When we got there, Logan was nervous. I could see it in his face.  When they asked him to take his shoes off to get his weight and height he looked up at me and nearly started crying saying, "I keep my shoes on!"  I could tell he was just trying to take control in a situation where he felt fearful. The nurse was so kind and patient with him. With a little coaxing, we made a game to see how the numbers would change with his shoes off and on.  After the vitals were done, the beautiful and sweet Brandi came out to talk to Logan about the testing. She showed him the small prongs that would be used and let him decide if he wanted them on his back or arm. He ended up choosing his back after a little "eeny meeny miny mo" (or however you spell that!).  He was given the chance to hold the prongs and even press them on himself, me, the nurses, etc.  He felt comfortable and secure. He climbed onto my lap and let the nurse do the testing!  I was so happily surprised with his actions! After the allergens were placed, he then started crying. He was ITCHY!  What a terrible feeling of being so itchy and not being able to scratch.  

This photo is just after test administration.


 This photo is about 10 minutes into testing.
                                  

The test came back negative for almond, English walnut, hazelnut (filbert) and pistachio.  Slight positives came back for Brazil nut, cashew and pecan. Clear positives came back for peanut and sesame.  What this photo shows are allergies to peanut and sesame. You're supposed to have a reaction to the histamine which acts as a positive control. To the right of the histamine is saline which acts as your negative control. Between peanut and the histamine are a bunch of negative results and in a column next to those are some mildly positive results for tree nuts.  

After the testing, we've made a fun little routine of heading to In-N-Out for burgers.  Logan loves a cheeseburger with just meat, cheese and bun. I happen to love mine with onions and extra pickles along with french fries seasoned with some salt and pepper.  After that, we take a trip to the local dollar store and Logan gets to pick out a few toys depending on how well-behaved he was at his appointment. This time he got to pick FOUR toys! I was so proud of him :) 

 

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2-Ingredient Whole Roasted Chicken

Think you can't roast a whole chicken? Think again!  Today, I'm showing you how to make an impressive whole roasted chicken that the entire family will enjoy. This dish is perfect for a weeknight meal or a Sunday family dinner. My kids love to have it with some fluffy white rice and a big tray of roasted broccoli.  This chicken takes just minutes to prepare and just over an hour until ready!  To keep it frugal, I like to wait until I see whole chickens for $.99/lb at my local grocery store and then I stock up!  You may never buy a Costco Rotisserie chicken again!

Ingredients
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
Montreal Steak Seasoning
4-5.5 lb whole chicken

Instructions
Place a cast-iron skillet into your oven on the bottom rack. Preheat oven to 475°.

While your oven is heating, open the packaging of your chicken.  Reach into the chicken and pull out everything soft that you can feel inside (this is a little gross if you're new to whole chickens!).  Discard these pieces (or save for stock, stuffing, etc).

Melt butter.

When oven has fully heated, carefully take out cast iron skillet. Place whole chicken onto skillet (it will sizzle!).  Pour melted butter all over the chicken.  Sprinkle Montreal Steak Seasoning all over the chicken.  [If you'd like, you can add more salt at this point; however, I personally feel that the seasoning is salty enough!]  Place skillet back into oven and roast for 50 minutes.

Remove chicken from oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes.  (Don't skip this part! The chicken finishes cooking in the skillet outside of the oven and it keeps all of the wonderful juices inside!)  You'll want the chicken to register 165° in thickest part of the thigh and for the juices to run clear.

Source: Adapted from I Heart Naptime

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4-Ingredient Weeknight Sauce

Sometimes on a Sunday, I like to make a beautiful sauce with some braciole, short ribs perhaps, maybe some sausage. It's definitely got red wine and simmers for at least 3 hours while the whole house fills with the delicious aroma.

Sometimes on a Thursday, I like to throw a bunch of ingredients into a pot while I put Wild Kratts on the tv, wash the parts of my Medela Freestyle and the kids' Lunch Bots then play a quick family game of Zingo.

I'll save the Sunday sauce for another day.  Today, it's all about the 4-Ingredient Weeknight Sauce.

Ingredients
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes with basil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 red onion, peeled
salt and pepper (I consider these freebies!)
hunk of parmesan (for grating on top)

Instructions
In a medium size pot over medium heat, add 1 can whole peeled tomatoes, 4 tablespoons unsalted butter and 1/2 a peeled red onion.  Bring to a slow boil, then reduce to a simmer.  I use a potato masher to break up the tomatoes or you can use the back of your wooden spoon. Simmer sauce for 30-45 minutes.

Remove onion half (or leave it if you'd like!) and toss sauce with hot, cooked pasta OR pour onto bowl of pasta.  If you or your family don't like chunky sauces, you can put the sauce into a food processor/blender or use an immersion blender to make the sauce smooth and silky. I use a microplane grater to add fresh parmesan cheese to the top. If you like a little kick, add some red pepper flakes too!

Source:  slightly adapted from Marcella Hazan via NY Times

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Buttery Garlic Croutons

I'm a big salad lover.  I love all kinds of salads from a nice wedge of iceberg topped with creamy bleu cheese dressing, crumbled bacon, scallions and sweet cherry tomatoes to a simple Ceasar salad to a California style kale and quinoa salad.
I. LOVE. SALAD.  Before I had kids, I'd make a salad at least 4 times per week.  Usually it would be a quick side salad, but every so often I'd add a few things to vary it up like homemade candied walnuts, chopped sopressata and provolone or even tart dried cherries.  After having kids, salads seemed to be a dinner-time item of the past. They'd look at salads with disgust. Lettuce? You've got to be kidding me!  Then one day, I had an idea.  What if we shook up our own dressing in a mason jar and topped the salad with delicious, buttery garlic croutons?  When you check your local grocery store, there are tons of croutons! Unfortunately, when you have a child with a sesame allergy, any bread products make you cringe and start to worry. So, we decided to turn to our beloved King's Hawaiian sweet rolls.  We made a batch of these buttery garlic croutons and the kids went bananas!  Now, they expect salad every night!  On the nights where I just forget or feel like we have enough veggies, it's not uncommon to hear one of the kids start screaming "SALAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!"  That's when the tantrum ensues. Never in my life would I ever imagine any child under the age of 5 having a tantrum because we weren't serving salad with dinner; however, as most parents realize, you definitely encounter many tantrum-causing situations that you never would have dreamed about! To keep everyone happy, we make fresh croutons every Saturday and have enough to last us through the week (as long as I keep the container high enough where little grabby hands can't reach!)

Buttery Garlic Croutons

Ingredients
1 package (of 12) King's Hawaiian rolls [I have made these with original sweet, honey wheat or butter]
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2-3 teaspoons garlic powder
Olive Oil cooking spray (or olive oil in Misto)
salt & pepper

Instructions
Preheat your oven to 375°.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine olive oil and unsalted butter. Add in oregano and thyme.  When butter melts, remove pan from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Cube your King's Hawaiian rolls. You can make them really any size that corresponds to how you like your croutons!

Place the cubed bread onto a nonstick baking sheet. Pour slightly cooled butter mixture all over the cubed bread and toss to coat.  Spread cubed pieces onto the baking sheet in a single layer.  Spray with your olive oil cooking spray or Misto. Sprinkle garlic powder on top and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake for 7 minutes.  Toss croutons, respread into single layer and spray tops again with olive oil spray.  Continue baking for 7-10 more minutes or until just beginning to turn golden.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Enjoy!

Source: adapted from Natasha's Kitchen

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Sprinkle Cookies

SPRINKLES!

In my 30 years on this earth, I've never met a child who didn't like sprinkles.  Growing up in New York, Italian bakeries were a staple!  Before any guests came over, before heading to a friend's home and especially every holiday, we'd run to the bakery and grab a few pounds of assorted cookies.  Everyone would quickly grab the delectable, buttery cookies.  The first to go were always the rainbow cookies. After that it was usually the butter cookies filled with jam or chocolate, dipped halfway in chocolate and covered in sprinkles.  Lace cookies were typically the third runner up. After a day or two, all that would be left were the sprinkle cookies.  My family would leave them sadly crumbling in the box.  Little did they know, those are some of my favorites!  I'd go to eat just one and 7 cookies and a bellyache later I'd finally put that box down.  These cookies were a huge part of my childhood.  Unfortunately, after moving to San Diego I never found a great Italian style bakery.  Rainbow cookies? Nobody's heard of them!  Every time a family member comes to visit from New York, they know they'd better bring a box of my childhood favorites.  Having a child with life-threatening food allergies; however, makes it a little trickier.  He can't eat any bakery cookies - let alone ones that have been sitting right next to cookies made with almonds and other nuts!  As such, I was determined to make him something even better!  Now, these aren't the buttery Italian cookies from my childhood (I'll save that for another post!) - those I'm still working on!  But in my experimentation and research I came across these and added my own little touch. So here we go... 

Sprinkle Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

heaping 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles (I used Cakemate brand)

2 tablespoons nonpareil sprinkles (I used Betty Crocker)

1 cup white chocolate chips (I used Trader Joe's brand)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375°.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add in the vanilla extract and egg.  Beat until fully incorporated. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.  With your mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl of butter/sugar and mix until combined.  

Pour in the rainbow sprinkles, nonpareils and white chocolate chips.  Mix on low for 15-30 seconds, then mix the rest in by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula (to prevent the sprinkles from bleeding into the dough and to prevent the white chocolate chips from beginning to melt).  

Using a small cookie scoop (mine holds 2 tablespoons), drop the dough onto your baking sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes.  You'll want to slightly under-bake these so that they stay soft and chewy, so take them out before they turn golden.  Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet (while shooing away little hands that try to grab them) and then transfer to wire rack for to cool completely. 

If you're feeling extra adventurous, grab some Straus Family Creamery Organic Vanilla Bean Ice cream (one of the only ice cream companies that doesn't use ANY nuts in their facility! see note below), scoop and sandwich between 2 of the cookies and freeze for an awesome treat! 

Note:  Straus Family Creamery does not use any nuts or nut products in their ice cream; however, the chocolate that they use is processed in a facility with nuts. We stick to the Vanilla Bean ice cream which is what the company recommends for those with peanut and tree nut allergies.  

Source: Adapted from Tasty Kitchen.

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Teal Pumpkin Project

Have you heard of the Teal Pumpkin Project?  

This Halloween, FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) encourages you to start a new, inclusive tradition that helps take a little of the SCARY out of Halloween!   This campaign encourages you to raise awareness about food allergies by painting a pumpkin teal and putting it in front of your house along with some non-food goodies.  Teal is the color of food allergy awareness and non-food treats mean that EVERYONE can be included.   Please don't take this to mean that we're trying to rid the world of Halloween candy!  The whole idea is to have an option for kids with food allergies.  Unfortunately, even if you buy candy that's free of wheat, milk, soy, gluten, peanut, tree nuts, shellfish and fish... there are OTHER allergies of which you'd need to be aware. For example, my son is allergic to sesame in addition to peanuts and tree nuts.  Some kids are allergic to artificial food dyes or even things like banana!  You can literally be allergic to ANY food or ingredient so the best way to help is to have non-food items.  Last year just before Halloween, we had to administer and Epi-pen to my son (who ironically was dressed as a doctor), then call 911 and go to the local hospital after he had mistakenly taken a bite of an unsafe candy.  It's something that nobody wants to experience!  Currently, we still go trick-or-treating; however, we bring along a bag of safe candies and just trick-or-treat for the experience. My son doesn't eat ANY candy he brings home (regardless of label).  To add to the fun, we use special Halloween plates, utensils and cups and have some delicious homemade cupcakes too! 



Need some ideas?
-Whistles
-Books
-Pencils
-Flashing rings
-Glow in the dark fangs
-Stickers
-Crayons
-Tattoos
-Crazy straws
-Glow sticks
-Rubber balls
-Bubbles
-Plastic bugs

You can read more about the Teal Pumpkin Project here: Teal Pumpkin Project

Photos are courtesy of an awesome, supportive allergy group on Facebook! 

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Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've sat down to start writing my first blog post and then just never did. Between 4 kids under 5, a demanding full-time job, cooking, cleaning, dealing with various therapies, nursing, handling my son's life-threatening food allergies... it just seems like there's never time!  I guess today's the day that I finally get this blog started and I'm just busting with excitement.  I'll admit, I'm no professional chef/baker, definitely not a photographer and writing has never been my strong suit; however, what I do have is a love for my family, food and managing to keep it all frugal!

Before my son's allergies to peanut, tree nut and sesame were severe - or rather, before we knew their severity, my oldest son and I would visit the local farmer's market every Thursday after I picked him up from daycare.  As we walked through the market, I'd point out all of the beautiful fruits and veggies and we'd throw some into our bag and continue along.  Being his young 3 year old self at the time, my son would gravitate toward the homemade baked goods.  The man there would always wear a funky beret and he'd snap his serving tongs playfully every time we came by.  Logan would pick out a cookie and I'd always have to get one too.  My favorite were always the soft pumpkin cookies with raisins and a deliciously sweet glaze. Logan usually picked a simple chocolate chip or one filled with sprinkles.  After a few unfortunately incidents where we had to use the Epi-pen, trips to the farmer's market came to a halt; however, I still longed for those pumpkin cookies! I scoured the internet, trying recipe after recipe until I found one that most resembled my beloved farmer's market find.

Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Yield: Approximately 3 dozen

For Cookies:
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used Trader Joe's organic canned pumpkin)
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
scant 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup raisins

For Glaze:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2-3 tablespoons milk
pumpkin spice (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for approximately 3 minutes.  Add in pumpkin puree (don't be surprised by the look of the mixture at this point!).  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and salt.  Add mixture to stand mixer and mix well until just incorporated.  Fold in raisins.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop the dough onto your baking sheet.  No need to leave much room in between!  I was able to fit 18 cookies on each sheet.  Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the glaze and stir until smooth. Feel free to add a bit more milk until it reaches your desired consistency.   Dip tops of cookies in glaze and gently swirl cookie so entire top is covered in glaze.  Sprinkle pumpkin spice onto the fresh glaze.  Allow to cool on a wire rack (I like to put a big piece of foil under the rack for easy cleanup!) The glaze will harden a bit and the cookies will be soft and deliciously sweet!

SOURCE:  slightly adapted from Avad Fan. 

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