Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Hello Again

I've missed you! Have you ever fallen so far behind on something that the thought of picking it back up again was frightening and overwhelming? I have been thinking about blogging constantly but I just don't know where to begin. We spent the entire summer trying to buy a house with one mishap after another, but we have finally bought our first home and are starting to settle in. between the house and my new job I have been relying on old recipes and not really creating any new ones. I thought that maybe I was done with this whole recipe creating/blogging thing...but times are changing...
Until now all of my recipes have been created for my youngest daughter Emily who has the most food allergies. No one else in the house really eats "Emily's food", it has a stigma. My oldest daughter Amanda was allergic to milk when she was a baby, but she seemed to outgrow it. This past year, however, foods with dairy have started to make her mouth itch and give her stomach aches, so she has been avoiding it for the most part.
A few weeks ago my middle daughter Nikki had her allergy tests done and (drumroll) she is allergic to wheat! I had suspected this for a while but was unwilling to face it. Nikki is a vegetarian and has been eating nothing but pizza, pasta, cheese sandwiches, and Goldfish crackers for a long time. She has had "Emily's food" and doesn't care much for it. We are in the process of working hard to change her diet, but every once in a while we still have a "she's going to starve to death" moment. Nikki is eating rice pasta and we just found a local pizzeria that has gluten free pizza on Mondays, but she is desperately longing for the texture of wheat. Also, Nikki tested negative for peanuts, which I thought was odd, and I told her not to go running out and eat a peanut...so of course she did! I got a call from the school. She was violently ill, throwing up for an hour, then sleeping for two days. I'm thinking the peanut result was wrong!
To sum it all up, it looks like I do need to get back to the drawing board and create some new recipes for ALL of my girls. I don't know when it will happen, I think my muse is on vacation. In the future some of my gluten free recipes may contain eggs and dairy to improve the texture for Nikki and also to provide a little more protein for her. I will try to remember to post a little warning on these recipes ( not that you aren't all pros at reading ingredients!). All of my old recipes will still be here too for those of us that are on more limited diets. Well, here's hoping that I will be back before another three months has flown by! Thanks for sticking with me!!!

7 comments:

  1. Hi from a lurker,
    good to see you back!
    I'm a vegetarian and my favorite protein is lentils/beans. Can all your daughters have those? Apart from all kinds of stews, you could eat them in lentil burgers and lentil loafs (see e.g. veganlunchbox.blogspot.com to create a loaf with your favorite ingredients), add them to salads...

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  2. Hi, and thank you for the info. My vegetarian does like beans but she seems to go through phases as to which ones she wants. For a long time it was refried beans, now it's black beans. I have found that "veggie burgers" and such repulse her because the reason she stopped eating meat in the first place was that she sipmly didn't like it, mostly the texture. Therefore, the more something is supposed to resemble meat, the less likely she will eat it. I have been thinking a lot about bean soups lately though, good idea!

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  3. Hi, it's the same lurker again!
    I'm glad you liked the ideas. I just forgot one all-time favorite your daughter might like, too: It's not meaty at all and it comes with tomato sauce:
    Greek style white beans in tomato sauce, either cold as an appetizer or oven baked (topped with crumbled feta cheese).

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  4. Oh wow...I adore your blog! I just found it as I was searching for allergy free recipes :) Our son has had food allergies and Eczema since he was a baby and we tried everything to help him. No meds, no docs, no allergy tests, no elimination diets etc could help him. Finally when he was 3 yrs old we put him on Bellyboost kids probiotics that are little yummy chewables, and he began getting better and better rather quickly. It was so amazing to see his skin clear up and that he was able to eat foods that his body never tolerated. It has been an answer to our prayers indeed and I now have a mom blog too as a source in info and support like yours!! I would LOVE it if you stopped by sometime. Our son's full story is on it under "the most powerful bee" in older entries. Anyway- thanks for this great site w/ yummy recipes! smilinggreenmom.com

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  5. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a link! I made a quick trip to your blog and am looking forward to looking through it more thoroughly when I have more time, I was unable to find your son's story but I will look again. My middle daughter has been on probiotics for about 6 months and I haven't noticed much difference...but gummies would at least be more fun! :)

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  6. Oh hey! So glad to hear that :) Here it is! http://smilinggreenmom.com/2009/10/ethan/ *come back again soon! Hope this helps! :) Our E loves his chewables and thinks they taste like candy I think LOL!

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