3 Allergen-Free Essentials

When my daughter was diagnosed with some major food allergies I had to figure out what she could eat! No dairy (butter, cheese, yogurt, milk). No nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews). No eggs (Mayo, noodles). Many of those foods were staples in our family diet. We did a lot of testing and trying to find some things that were actually decent tasting.

1. Silk Coconut Milk: I tried soy milk and I didn’t like it. I normally like Almond milk but the allergist told us to stay away from all nuts. I tried rice milk and it just tasted like the water that’s left over after rice has soaked in it (ew). The best option I have found so far is Coconut milk. I started off buying the original or vanilla varieties but I soon found that those were just a little too sweet for my liking. It was too overpowering when mixed with my cereal. But the unsweetened variety…. YUM! I love eating Rice Chex with coconut milk and frozen blueberries. I love how the coconut milk reaches up into the little rice squares and you get a nice coconut milky squirt when you bite them.

2. Sunflower Butter: I have tried two different kinds. I first tried making it myself. I used my Blendtec blender to grind up some roasted sunflower seeds but the flavor was too strong for me. I even added sugar to see if that would help but it was still too much. A few weeks later I bought a jar of the stuff from Trader Joe’s. I hate it but my daughter LOVES it! I make her a little sandwich with grape jelly and sunbutter and she goes to town. The flavor is just too much for me, in fact, I can’t really even get any in my mouth without feeling like I’m going to throw up. Maybe I’m just too used to peanut butter. At least my daughter likes it, she’s the one who’s allergic to peanuts, not me!

3. Earth Balance Buttery Spread: This one is glorious. I grew up with a mother who put butter in EVERYTHING! Oatmeal, vegetables, soups, and breads. Imagine my distress when I was told that I couldn’t have it in my life anymore while I was breastfeeding. So I had to find a tasty substitute. I looked high and low before I even found a butter substitute that didn’t have milk in it (did you know that most margarines contain a small percentage of milk?). The first one I tried was called Smart Balance and it was OK but I only used it if I had to. In fact, I made snickerdoodles with it once. But the taste and texture were just a little too different from my beloved butter and I kept up my search. Then one day I was researching different milk-free foods online and I came across a butter substitute called Earth Balance and I knew I had to try it. Ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you that this is the best butter substitute out there! I use it in all the same circumstances that I would normally use butter and it is wonderful!

So there you have it, 3 things that have made our allergen-free kitchen a little more normal. What are some of your favorite replacement foods?

A Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Peanut-Free Kitchen

When my baby was only 2 months old she was diagnosed with eczema. I know that lots of babies get eczema but hers was really bad. Like all over her body bad. She was constantly itchy. She was too small to be able to scratch with her hands so she would wiggle in an attempt to relieve some of the discomfort.

When she was 4 months old it got even worse. One day I just couldn’t take it anymore and I went to see the pediatrician. She referred me to a specialist because she had never seen it that bad but the appointment was still weeks out. That next Sunday my poor baby’s skin was the worst it had ever been. I called and set up another appointment with the pediatrician to see if there was anything they could possibly do. They had us come in to the after hours clinic. I had no idea how much my life was about to change.

The doctor on call told us that she suspected that my daughter was allergic to certain foods I was eating and told me that I needed to cut those foods out of my diet as long as I was breast feeding. Here’s how our conversation went:

“You are going to have to cut out wheat, dairy, eggs and citrus and I know there’s one other thing but I can’t remember. Let me go check and I’ll be right back.”

What am I going to eat??? Well I can still have oatmeal, fruit- mmmm strawberries...

She comes back into the room.

 

“There are actually 9 things.”

What???

“Wheat, oatmeal, nuts, eggs, dairy, citrus- including tomatoes and strawberries,”

I can’t have strawberries???

“corn, soy…and…chocolate.”

Then I asked her, “What am I supposed to eat?”

Her single suggestion was rice.

So that’s where the journey began. I had never been on a diet in my life. But I was determined to stick to it so that my daughter’s skin would clear up.

A few months later her skin was better for the most part (with the help of the diet and some prescription creams) but the pediatrician suggested we get her tested for allergies.

A few scratches on her back and 15 minutes later we found out that our baby was officially allergic to milk, eggs, and peanuts.

Now, this was actually a relief to me because I could have tomatoes, oatmeal, soy, and strawberries again!

This experience led me to horizons I never knew existed, including sun butter, coconut milk, and Earth Balance “buttery spread.” I scoured Pinterest for ideas of foods we could eat and we found some really nasty recipes. But we also found some really yummy ones in the mean time. And now I want to share some of those winning recipes with you!

If you find yourself in the same boat as me, don’t despair! There is hope and it’s really not as bad as you think it is (though I really missed cookies!). Hopefully some of these recipes will renew your hope.

 

Why a Bluebird?

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband and I asked his mom to paint us something to go in the nursery. I spent hours on the internet looking for the perfect idea. I fell in love with the pictures of bluebirds. I had chosen some fabric with pinks, yellows, and blues to make a baby quilt and my mother-in-law used those colors along with the 5 sweetest bluebirds I have ever seen. The painting hangs over the changing table in our nursery and I still like looking at it. Not only do I like looking at it, but so does my 1-year-old. She often reaches for it and just stares at the beautiful birds. A few weeks ago, my husband taught her the sign for bird and now, whenever she sees it, she tries to pinch her thumb and index finger together to sign, “bird.”

When trying to come up with a name, I remembered those sweet bluebirds and decided to go with The Simple Bluebird because we live a simple life filled with cheerfulness. Don’t you think Bluebirds are cheerful? They have the most joyous little chirp.

It is my hope that as you browse through the pages of this blog, you will be enlightened and encouraged in your efforts to better yourself and advance your skills. Now, I’m not saying that I’m the best seamstress out there, nor am I a chef but I do love sewing and I do love cooking so I hope that the love I have for those things can help someone else.

Enjoy!