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Birthday Totes 'n Treats

Happy Birthday, Christopher! Thank you ALL for coming to make this day special. We hope you had a wonderful day celebrating! Lets talk about those treat bags! They are 100% nut free. Nut free candies are listed below with ingredient labels. Also, those cupcakes were made in a special nut free facility known as Nutphrees Bakery! Nutphrees now distributes to Whole Foods Madison. We decorated these cupcakes with some non-food, fun little Spider Man toppings! The label and contact info is below. Their recipe is the same we use at home and they are made in a dedicated, nut free facility in Chicago. Want to make your next gathering nut…
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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…
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Chicken Enchilada Melt Subs

Happy Fall! It’s October 1st and we couldn’t be more excited about this month’s upcoming festivities; orchards, pumpkins, lattes, leaf piles, leaf peeping, camp fires, parties and trick-or-treat! Halloween is one of our favorite holidays to celebrate. As the kids get older, and our time to make meals becomes less and less due to their involvement at school + activities, my blog posts containing elaborate meals is diminishing by the day! I’m peeking back at prior posts thinking, “how the heck did I have TIME to make all that food?!” And the reality is, I didn’t. Opportunity Cost {A benefit, profit, or value of something that must be given up…
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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…
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School Safe with Allergies

The beginning of the school year is always so exciting and I wanted to just take a second and repost this great article published by Allergic Living Magazine, “Food Allergies at School.” The article is a great tool for preparing for back to school and understanding laws that support food allergy. This was interesting to me since I did not realize food allergies were considered a disability. 2. Understand the Supporting Laws There are laws that can support your child with food allergies to have a safe and inclusive school year. Below are the primary laws to review. • Americans with Disability Act (ADA) Amendment Act of 2008: The ADA is a federal civil…
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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…
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Zucchini Squash & Chicken Noodle Soup

Since we have a bug going through our home, soup is in order! I am just upcycling a recipe from a prior post here and adding some garden yellow squash. Ingredients: 1/2 yellow onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 handful baby carrots chopped 3 stalks celery, chopped 2 tbsp olive oil 2 yellow Zucchini squash, green work too! 4 cups chicken stock Chicken or 1 can cannellini beans 2 handfuls of egg noodles Directions: In a medium Dutch oven swirl to coat your pan with olive oil. Add onion and garlic, over medium heat, saute until translucent. Add other veggies, soften. Add stock Bring to boil Warm through…
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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…
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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.
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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,…
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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.…
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Nut free on Delta

Just a quick shout out to Delta Airlines today for their expert service and their professionalism in handling today’s in-flight allergies. There is a family with allergies and the announcement was made at the gate prior to boarding to refrain from eating all nuts. There were also 2 announcements when we boarded about the nut policy and that they wouldn’t be serving any nuts. Nut free items would be available for snacks. Some snacks do say they are made in a facility with nuts, so still check those labels!! Have a great Thursday. I’ll be blogging about Girlfriends Guide to Seattle this weekend as I help my good friend celebrate…
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Back to School Allergy Check List

It’s hard to believe that it is August and school is starting in just 26 days! As a food allergy family, we have a lot to get ready: Epi Pen renewals; keeping one on Chloe + in the nurses office at all times. New rescue inhaler for asthma Packing a new allergy friendly snack box for treats in the classroom (our policy is always no sharing, unless we have discussed it prior to the event and have approved the snack.) Talking with the teachers about classroom snacks and food allergies. Confirming lunch time routine And new for this year, talking with our new lunch program coordinator After stopping by the…
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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…
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