The title is kind of an oxymoron. If you saw my pretty chalkboard menu on Instagram this week, I’ll have you know that I only made TWO of the items planned. Life happens. This week was more exhausting than I thought it would be. Emotionally. Physically. I’m toast! At 3pm today, I literally hit a wall. The kids played pirate, dressed up and used safety scissors to chop up boobie traps (an entire roll of yarn) all over the house. They kept busy and I watched. It’s just yarn, easy enough to clean up. Here’s what I “cooked” tonight. Deluxe Ramen Ingredients Two packages ramen 2 cups chopped broccoli 1…
Trail Mix
I’m watching Flipping Summer on HGTV right now. Have you seen this show with Tarek and Christina? They create some seriously sweet spaces. Anyway, that has nothing to do with what I am about to tell you. We finally found a safe, Nut-free trail mix! It’s been 3 years since we have had trail mix!!!!! Last weekend, I decided to try Jet.com to order a few “target” items. Everytime I go to TARGET, I drop atleast $100. This makes me sad. I have lists, then Target has these amazing displays, cute tops, amazing $1 bins, and then I somehow justify every purchase, even if it means calling my MOM for…
My New Louboutins, OH I MEAN EPI PENS!
The EPI PEN that we kept at my daughter’s school last May SAVED HER LIFE. Wait. Let me say that again. SAVED HER LIFE! Yes. Our 5 year-old daughter suffers from life- threatening nut allergies where she has an anaphylactic response to any nut that she happens to eat. This allergy is not a choice. She was born with this very severe allergy. Because it’s so severe, we keep epi pens: at home at school/backpack in mom’s purse at Grandmas house That is a total of 4 epi pens at the current rate of $608.61 = $2,434.44 yearly. Epi pens expire every single year. This isn’t a one time purchase.…
'twas the night before school
Tomorrow’s the first day for Chloe and we are so excited. Her outfit is picked out, lunch box packed, and her backpack already in the car. Just wanted to share a quick pic of tomorrow’s (boring) bento box. Mini bags of cereal incase we are running late, and tooth brushes into the lower level bathroom for a last minute brush. Hopefully our 5:50am alarm will give us enough time! Sweet dreams! ?
Smoked Sausage Skillet
This meal is what I consider a “multitasker” meal. Meaning: you can still answer 1,000 kid questions, consume your evening glass of wine, and save a Thomas the Train balloon from the ceiling fan, which is mounted to the ceiling, 18 feet up (this actually happened, btw, and I used a broom, and two wire coat hangers to create an extra long arm, then hooked thomas with the end of the coat hanger. It definitely helped that both kids were cheering me on THE ENTIRE TIME.) In other words, you can’t mess this meal up. Multitasking Smoked Sausage Skillet (Adapted from Hillsboro Farms) Ingredients 2 cups of your favorite smoked…
Nut-Free Treat Box Ideas
Quick post here…..we found two treats today at our local (Middleton) Target. I love that these snacks are made in a dedicated nut-free facility. The hardest part about allergies is the cross contamination. Even if Oreo or Goldfish say they are nut free, they are not made in facilities 100% free of nuts. Yes, the chances of something happening are extremely slim, but it’s still a possibility, and one I like to eliminate at school lunch time. These snacks give me confidence that she will have a guaranteed safe snack that also tastes great!! Have a great weekend! We are off to Thomas the Train in Illinois tomorrow, then maybe…
Chili Loaded Sliders
Can you believe Packer Football is on TV tonight?! Whenever we plan to watch a game at home, we prepare game-time food and snacks. Go pack go! The kids and I had a low-key day; 3 hours outside riding bikes this morning (think Chloe has a cold), then naps, and an afternoon of play time inside while I cleaned out their closests and dresser drawers. We have a few back to school items that need to be put away, but for every new item we bring in, an old item must go. Here’s what we decided on for dinner with the Pack. Chili stuffed baked potato sliders with a slide…
Nut-free Dried Fruit, Finally!
For months we have been searching for safe, dried fruit options. Our usual stores do not have many options in the dried fruit area. Usually it’s bulk, the big bins that you self serve nuts, fruit, oats, etc from, which are not safe. The spoon to scoop poses huge cross-contamination risks! The other option is the big brand names, which all produce nuts, so those are not safe either. For the past few years, we have stuck with Raisins (not the yogurt coated, or chocolate coated, those are NOT safe) just plain old raisins. While bopping around on Downer Avenue today in Milwaukee, we stopped at Sendiks. I love this…
Sweet + Sour Tomatoes with Marinated Chicken
This week’s meal planning has been completely last minute stuff, just becuase of the virus Chloe had this past week. It’s OK, we are going with the flow. Yesterday at about 3pm, I was talking to Doug at work, and we decided to quickly marinate some chicken and slice up tomatoes for dinner. Easy. Fast. Under 20 minutes. He likes fire, so grilling is fun for him . I like using every measuring utensil in the kitchen, so marinades and salads are great for me to make. Team work. It’s a win win. The kids and I picked about 10 fresh tomatoes yesterday in the sweltering heat. Here’s the recipe.…
Wisconsin State Fair – Updated 8/5/16
Are you done hearing about our nutty life? Lol. I am. So this post will be more about how fun State Fair is, sprinkled in with “how to” with allergies. Growing up on the south side of Milwaukee, the state Fair was ALWAYS part of our summer. We used to make an entire day of it, meeting many family members at the fair for our annual cream puff fight. We enjoyed seeing the animals, going on rides and eating as much food as we could shove into our tummies. Most importantly, we would celebrate my brothers Birthday, which is August 5. Love you, brother! Fast forward a few years (ok,…
Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan
Today we had our annual check-ups before school starts at the end of the month and the kids are doing well and are on great growth curves! I thought I would share a sample of what our emergency action plan looks like for our food allergies. Hopefully there are some helpful ideas here, even for people with non-food allergic kids/grandkids/etc. This could be helpful in everyday situations like dining out, air travel, school, etc. If you don’t know how to use an epi-pen auto injector, I highly recommend googling a video of it, or practice with a friend’s epi “trainer” – the trainer’s come with every twin pack of auto…
Comfort Foods during a Cold/Flu
The other day I was just thinking, “Boy, have we been lucky this summer. We haven’t been sick in so long. I actually can’t remember the last time we were not feeling well.” And just like that, Chloe was down for the count. We usually get a little something after visiting the zoo or children’s museum, never fails. Sure enough, we were at the museum last Friday, it was PACKED full of kids and Chloe got sick Sunday morning. Just thought I would share what some of her favorite things are: Gatorade – it has some calories, which is nice if youre worried about dehydration. Mini Saltine Crackers Mini Nilla…
BTS Nut-Free Check List
Now that it’s August 1, our back to school countdown has officially begun. We have 24 days to get ready. Going back to school is exciting, even more so with food allergies. This school year we are promoting a more positive and proactive nut-free lifestyle. We have done this by empowering Chloe to make smart, independent decisions for meals and activities. This will help her when she is faced with different choices at school. Is it OK for me to share a lunch with my friend? Is it OK to just sample this cookie? Is it OK for me not to wash my hands this ONE time before lunch? Is…
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Not sure why I haven’t made this before, but we could literally eat ALL of this frosting, sans the cupcake part. We celebrated a VERY dear friend’s birthday yesterday, and here is the safe dessert we made. Chocolate on Chocolate Cupcakes 3 sticks unsalted butter 5 cups powdered sugar 1 cup safe powdered unsweetened cocoa (Vermont nut-free or Hershey’s) Splash milk (optional) Splash vanilla extract Directions Make a devils food Betty crocker cake mix as directed, we did cup cakes Bake and cool completely In electric mixer bowl, cream together the room temperature butter and one cup of sugar at a time until creamy smooth. Add remaining ingredients. Mix slow…
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