Travel should be fun and exciting, even when you have food allergies or restrictions. Each year we travel to Door County. It’s a simple trip we’ve made every summer since the kids were born. Door County is just 3.5 hours from where we live, and the drive isn’t too bad. Usually there is at least one stop on the way there to grab a snack and take a break. Once we get past the Green Bay Packer’s football stadium, it’s smooth sailing and everyone gets excited to make a stop in all of our favorite small towns up the Door Co peninsula. Sister Bay is the town we have been…
Downhill Pandemic Skiing
Outdoor activities seem to be more popular than ever before due to the ongoing pandemic. One activity that we have always enjoyed is downhill skiing. I learned how to ski when I was young, and this year I had the chance to continue teaching Chloe and Carter how to ski as well. In this post I’ll share some tips on how we skied this weekend in a relatively safe way. Before skiing, make sure you grab a large tote that is light weight and can get wet from snow. We packed all of our gear in this tote and took it with us to bundle up once we got to…
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
After trying too many pumpkin bread recipes, we determined that everyone likes their pumpkin bread a little different. Some like it more dense, more (cringe) moist, more pumpkiny, with banana or super light and fluffy. So many variations on such a great recipe. However, we think we have the goldilocks of all chocolate chip pumpkin bread recipes right here. Ingredients 1 3/4 cup King Arthur Flour 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp Penzeys cinnamon 1/4 tsp Penzeys nutmeg 1/4 tsp Penzeys cloves 1/4 tsp Penzeys ginger 3/4 tsp Penzeys salt 2 eggs room temperature 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree 1/2 cup…
Homeschool Dinner Plan
The last time we talked, it was March of 2020, and our world was changing quickly. Our little city was in the process of locking down, closing schools + businesses, and grocery stores were jam packed with panicked shoppers. Initially, we thought we’d be at home for a few weeks, muddle through some PJ days and homeschoolish activities, and life would resume. Well, here we are, hanging out in our new normal, creating new routines and finding gratitude in the smallest of things. While all of us are experiencing something very different, we’re also all in this craziness together. Wherever you are at in this season, mealtime can be easy,…
Meal Planning
Hopefully while you’re reading this under quaratine you are healthy, well, and surrounded or connected with ones you love. Remember, you’re not alone. Food is essential and we have all become home chefs in a matter of days. And by now, we could probably all use some new ideas. While these are not new for us, maybe the planning and timin of them all help you WFH, teach and keep the boat afloat. Remember, you got this. It’s mind of matter. No need to multi-task. Do your best. To simplify, we have been eating the same things for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday. Small changes to those items include…
Will You Be My Valentine?
Valentine’s is one of my favorite days with the kids. It’s a fun, low-key holiday (is it an actual holiday? I don’t think so.) that we can work together on some fun projects for school without the pressure of a big holiday, like Christmas. This year, the kids picked out their valentine cards early, and we got to enjoy putting them together + adding our friends names to them. Usually, it’s last minute and we are rushed, so this was a nice change. Watching their faces light up as they perfectly selected which card was going to be for what friend was really fun. We also made a new recipe…
Pretzel Pete for the Win!
It may have been Monday Night Football in our house (GO PACKERS!), but the big score was happening in our kitchen. Pretzel Pete was dominating the flavor for our Monday Night Football snacks, and our mouths couldn’t have been happier. Since we have nut allergies, we typically do not enjoy pretzels during football because of facility cross-contact risks. When we learned about Pretzel Pete bing manufactured in a complete nut free facility located in the US, and the various flavor offerings, we knew we had to give them a try. Our instagram stories showed Chloe sampling a few of her favorite flavors. “Mom, I’ve never had a more flavorful pretzel…
Apple Pie with Cheater Crust
Happy Saturday, friends. It’s apple orchard season. This year we went to our usual spot, Eplegaarden. It was a beautiful day, however, we noticed that many of the apple trees had a virus, so our yield was much smaller than usual. In total we collected about 15 apples. This will make 2 pies or a pie with an apple crisp. We went ahead with pie, and since we had a little cold bug brewing in our house, we went with the cheater pie crust from Pillsbury. We were a little skeptical to try this, its a frozen crust and we have not tried a frozen crust before. Metcalfes did not…
Mickey’s “Not-So-Spooky-Halloween-Party” Review
Hello friends! Last week we attended the Not-So-Spooky-Halloween-Party at Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL. Why did we attend this party? We heard that it was being sponsored by Enjoy Life, a brand that is allergy friendly, and one that we trust daily for nut free snacks. Having an allergy friendly Trick-or-Treat option was a real draw for us since Trick-or-Treat is notoriously challenging. Most of the treats Chloe recieves trick-or-treating are not safe, and we end up donating her entire bucket of candy. As a parent, this is such a hard thing to watch, an excited trick-or-treat face, to a sad smile of having to let it all go. Not-So-Spooky…
Magic Kingdom Food Recommendations
Happy Friday! If you’re following along on our Instagram Stories, you’ll see that we’ve been quite busy this week talking about our nut free traveling, strategies and things that haven’t worked out so well for us. Starting with Magic Kingdom first…… Yesterday was truly magical. Our day started off with an easy breakfast in our room from our very own Nut Free Mom Box. This was the easiest and safest option for us. We got some packaged yogurt from the quick service restaurant here at the Hilton Bonnet Creek and added our safe Made Good granola with some banana. It was filling, healthy and safe and Chloe loved it. We…
Top 5 Back to School Snacks
Can you believe it’s that time of year again? School for us begins next week Wednesday. The kids are so excited, and so am I. However, this time of year can be hard when you have a food allergy. There are extra medical forms to fill out at school, epi pens to hand over to school, epi pens for backpacks, and a slu of questions from classroom parents about safe snacking. Here are our top 5 for sharing this fall: Enjoy Life Coco Loco Bars – Metcalfes Market Blakes Snack Bars – Amazon Karens Dried Fruit Bags – Metcalfes Market Made Good Granola Bites – Costco + Amazon Wow Butter…
M Word Banana Bread (MWBB)
Hey guys! If you’ve been following our Instagram stories, you saw that amazing M Word Banana Bread we made last night. We’re calling it the MWBB. If you dont know what M word stands for, I’ll give you a clue (MOI$T). Just can’t handle that word, or saying it, so M Word it is. The recipe turned out AMAZING. We’ve made about 15 different kinds of banana bread recipes over the past year and this one is BY FAR the best. Let me share it with you. Ingredients 2 cups King Arthur all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon Penzey’s ground cinnamon 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp.…
Travel Tips
Happy Thursday everyone! We just sent off a Nut Free Mom Box for a 5 day vacation and we are getting ready to pack up another Nut Free Mom Box for a 7 day vacation. Both boxes contain different things, so if you’re interested, hop on over to our Insta, @nutfreemomblog and check out our stories. We take you shopping along with us and then pack up the box before we ship. You can customize a box too – just for your families needs and vacation destination by clicking here to contact me. Packing these boxes really got me thinking….What are some tips that I could share to make travel…
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