Tomorrow morning marks the official start of 2019 “work” for us – school and activities start! Back to the routine. Our morning commute will be increasing by 5 minutes next month and we are going to be working on getting out the door a little earlier with the help of “car breakfast.” I know. Food in the car. UGGG. The kids have these car trays that we use for snacking and activities and they do an amazzing job of catching crumbs. Typically, I just shake them out when we get to our destination. We’ll be using these for the days we eat in the car. This week we have grapes,…
Pumpkin Spice Latte Bread
If you’re really looking to spice it up this Thanksgiving, this bread is the answer. We love breads because they travel well – no worrying if your pie plate is safe in the trunk, or on so-and-so’s lap, or if your crust is done perfect and not gooey in the middle. Lets be honest, we don’t even like the crust! So really, just make something that is super flavorful for Thanksgiving dessert. A homemade bread pulls double duty, too. It’s flexible. Well, I guess pie is too. But bread can be served with coffee or milk any time of day. You can warm it, or eat it ala mode, or…
Cranberry Oat Breakfast Bars
Recently I attended a yoga retreat with my friend Misty who brought these amazing bars along as a snack. Misty is an incredible woman who helps at our school a LOT (she’s my work wife, we joke), so I knew her treats would be as amazing. And they were! The Cranberry Oat Breakfast Bars are the perfect treat – not too sweet and super healthy. And since Craisins (dried cranberries) are a safe, PN/TN free food, I thought this would be a perfect recipe to add to our mix of healthy snacking. Also, kids approved today when we made this recipe for breakfast – crumbles well over yogurt if you’re…
Whole Wheat Banana Oat Muffins
We are having a beautiful fall; however, it is almost winter in Wisconsin. The days are darker, colder and comfort food is on our minds. This week we decided to make some healthy-ish breakfast muffins (always comforting) since we have a lot of activities. If the kids want to sleep in a little, these muffins allow them to eat in the car on the way to school + activities. And since I made them, I feel OK with that! Prep time is about 10 minutes, then they bake for 18. If you want to get it all done in 1 batch, have two cupcake pans sprayed or lined and your…
Sheet Pan Apple Pancake
Last week we visited a local apple orchard, Eplegaarden. It’s an old Norwegian farm where the owners have done a wonderful job of preserving it. There is a small picnic area so you can bring in your own treats (and take the garbage when you leave), a real pick your own pumpkin patch, raspberry picking, apple picking, sweet bakery area (don’t forget your epi-pens! Be safe and eat your own treats. Farms and Orchards are NEVER safe.) and some animals. We went mid-week and there were the only ones picking apples when we got there. I much prefer this, compared to the long lines and huge crowds at some pumpkin…
Hide & Eek Boutique Halloween Cookie House
Today I spoke with Tom in cusomter relations at Taret’s Corproate office in Minneapolis, MN, regarding these adorable Chocolate Halloween House Cookie Kits pictured below. I have excellent news for you friends! It’s a nut free cookie house! Chloe and Carter are going to lose their minds when I bring this out at the end of the month for us to assemble! Allergens: Wheat, egg and soy. May contain: Milk. Tom went above and beyond and sent a note out to the production crew to make sure that there was no chace of cross contact with nuts in the facility. He knew that most DIY cookie houses were made in…
Chocolate Suncup Snacks
“Mom, we HAVE to blog about this new recipe I made up this weekend.” — Chloe. Chloe made up a quazi new recipe this past weekend and is stoked to tell you all about it. We had some left over suncups in our pantry from last years Spring Fling at school, so Chloe made them into snack items for after school. Sun cups are pretty verstaile, and she likes to use them as dips for various fruits and veggies. This recipe is her sun cup, plus chopped banana and chocolate syrup. Her instructions are as follows: Obtain a sun cup, either sample size or store bought size Open the sun…
Safe Snacking Box
Can you believe it?! In just 24 hours the kids will begin their FIRST DAY of the 2018-19 school year. This year we will have a 2nd grader and Kindergartener. They are both so excited. Backpacks are packed, lunch boxes are out – and with all of the excitement comes the hyper organization mode that I go into! It’s meal prep, list making, planner highlighting time! But first, yesterday we took to our nutfreemomblog insta for some quick pics that that I will share here of us building out the annual nut-free box for Chloe’s classroom. This box ensures that she ALWAYS has a safe snack at school. Our #1…
Back to School Snacking
We recently stopped at our local HyVee Fitchburg to check out the back to school snacks. We consider HyVee to be a leader in new snack offerings. If there is a cool, new snack on the market, our HyVee is the first to stock it. And that holds true for these amazing nut free finds by Hostess and Entenmanns. Check out the photos below for some fast BTS snacks that are nut free for your classroom. We will share some gluten free snacks later this week as we build out our BTS safe snacking box.
Nut Free Ice Cream
Today I contacted Breyers, my go-to safe ice cream, regarding the only flavor we allow at our house, Natural Vanilla & Gluten Free flavor. I called 1-800-931-2826 and spoke with Peter to confirm there was no cross contact risk. To summarize, Breyers has strict processes in place to keep common allergens away from non-allergen flavors. There are dedicated, separate lines. If the manufacturing lines are shared at any time, a stringent cleaning process (with sampling) will happen before any new products are created. It will be noted on the carton with “may contain” if the lines are ever shared in the flavor you choose. If there is no “may contain” statement,…
2018 Wisconsin State Fair Update
It’s that time ALREADY!!!! The end of summer is winding down quickly. We had a nice summer vacation, and we’re hitting the ground hard with planning our back to school functions and events. A few more fun activities before we hit the books. State Fair is a favorite of ours and we just called the cream puff hotline to confirm that the cream puffs are still made in a 100% nut free facility and safe for our nut allergic kiddo. So YES, they are SAFE for your PN / TN allergies at the Wisconsin State Fair. This is not for all fairs, so please check in with your own fair.…
Panera Cookie Remake
Dining out is difficult when you have food allergies. Especially at Panera. Panera is a big no-no in our nut-free house. Which is hard because I LOVE it. Panera’s fast, healthy options are so tasty, they are perfect for busy Moms on the go. However, for my daughter, this place is very risky. The chance for cross-contact in their kitchen is high. They use all sorts of nuts in their salads and the make-line area is very open, offering little to no menu options to be deemed as “safe” here. Their bakery items have a warning, “Many of our products contain or may come into contact with common allergens, including…
Those Costco Blueberries…
I’m sure this has happened to you. You get to the grocery store and the produce looks amazing, so you over buy? Yep. {Raises Hand} Guilty. Maybe it’s my crazy, creative left brain that just goes nuts with how beautifully displayed everything is {ahem, HyVee + Metcalfes Sentry for sure}. So perfect + colorful. Generally, we do a good job eating up our produce. Its summer, so eating fresh is absolutely more enticing. This week we purchased jumbo boxes of blueberries, grapes and strawberries for the 4th of July festivities and recipes. WELL…it was a little overboard. Strawberries and grapes are gone; however, the blueberries! They were just chilling here…
Root Beer Floats
Summer! Summer is a time to enjoy desserts guilt free. We are so active in the warm months that one dessert a day, that the kids choose, is totally ok with me. It was hot and we had been to a few playgrounds, the kids decided the Gigis Root Beer Floats were going to be dessert . I’ve had many questions this year about ice cream safety. I’ve done the research, the MOST safe ice cream is vanilla Breyers Natural Vanilla that is also Gluten Free. When I called Breyers earlier this year, two customer service reps confirmed the nut free status, free of cross contact as well. Chloe also…
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