Saturday, October 22, 2011

33 degrees!

Phoar it is hot out there. We just went to the local council spring festival and I tell ya it was hot out!! Thankfully I started a mango sorbet last night and chucked it in the freezer this morning. So looking forward to it as I have had a couple of tastes when stirring and oh my gosh I think it is the best thing I have EVER made.

Here's the recipe, I can't remember where I pinched it from but once again I have adapted it to suit us:

2 large ripe mangoes.
1/2 cup of caster sugar
1 lime

Cut the mango flesh into small chunks and put in a bowl with the sugar and lime juice.
Stir, cover and leave overnight in the fridge to draw out the juice.
Puree until smooth.
Taste for sweetness and add extra caster sugar if you think it needs it.
Top up the puree with water to get to 500mls.
Put into the freezer (if it is freezer safe).
After 1 hour give the mix a thorough stir.
Whisk again after a couple of hours.
When the sorbet is nearly firm give one last whisk and put back in the freezer to set.

Yum!!!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Calcium filled foods

What a stunner of a day!! Just took the kids to the park and boy is it warm. It's days like these that call for a salad for dinner and good old Jamie Oliver has provided another one that is awesome for allergy suffers. We added some nitrate free bacon and mmm mmmmm. It was delicious. Am planning on having it with cooked chicken breast tonight. I LOVE SUMMER! Although technically Summer has not yet arrived.

Before I post that I just want to briefly address calcium intake for breast feeding mothers or for people with dairy allergies. A western diet depends heavily on dairy for our calcium intake milk, yoghurt, cheese and the like feature heavily in people's minds when calcium is mentioned. So what do you do when you can't eat dairy for whatever reason? Well I have pilfered from other websites and hopefully what I have come up with is of some help.

First a table with the recommended daily requirements:

Table 1: Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for Calcium [1]
AgeMaleFemalePregnantLactating
0–6 months*200 mg200 mg

7–12 months*260 mg260 mg

1–3 years700 mg700 mg

4–8 years1,000 mg1,000 mg

9–13 years1,300 mg1,300 mg

14–18 years1,300 mg1,300 mg1,300 mg1,300 mg
19–50 years1,000 mg1,000 mg1,000 mg1,000 mg
51–70 years1,000 mg1,200 mg

71+ years1,200 mg1,200 mg

* Adequate Intake (AI)

(http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/calcium)

And now some non dairy sources of calcium:

Health diaries has come up with this:

Here are 15 foods high in calcium that don't come from a cow:

Sesame Seeds
A quarter cup of sesame seeds has 351 mg calcium.

Spinach
A cup of boiled spinach has 245 mg.

Collard Greens
A cup of boiled collard greens has 266 mg.

Blackstrap Molasses
One tablespoon has about 137 mg.

Kelp
One cup of raw kelp has 136 mg.

Tahini
Two tablespoons of raw tahini (sesame seed butter) have 126 mg.

Broccoli
Two cups of boiled broccoli have 124 mg.

Swiss Chard
One cup of boiled chard has 102 mg.

Kale
One cup of boiled kale has 94 mg.

Brazil Nuts
Two ounces of Brazil nuts (12 nuts) have 90 mg.

Celery
Two cups of raw celery have 81 mg.

Almonds
One ounce of almonds (23 nuts) has 75 mg.

Papaya
One medium papaya has 73 mg.

Flax Seeds
Two tablespoons of flax seeds have 52 mg.

Oranges
One medium orange has 52 mg.

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/15-non-dairy-foods-high-in-calcium.html


Other sources I have stumbled across are cinnamon. Two teaspoons of ground cinnamon have 56mg (yay for apple and cinnamon muffins).


Dates Medjool (another personal fave) have 15.36mg per date

Dried figs (another yum!) 13mg per fig

Prunes (not quite as yum) 75mg in one cup

Kiwifruit 26mg in one fruit

Dried Apricots (I suggest the ones without preservatives) 71.5mg in one cup

Cooked rhubarb (rhubarb and dairy free custard anyone???) 348mg in one cup.


So there are plenty of other ways to get calcium. I also know that watercress is a good source. While searching I also came across this little nugget of information:

"Calcium Absorption and Excretion

Calcium is easily absorbed from milk due to the presence of lactose sugar, but large amounts of protein cause calcium to be lost in the urine. As milk is an animal protein, a diet consisting of large amounts of dairy also means large amounts of calcium are lost from the body.

The more meat and dairy consumed, the greater the need for extra calcium (the RNI for calcium is set at 1000 mg for US adults). Other foods that cause calcium loss and increase the need for calcium include those high in fat and salt, as well as alcoholic, caffeinated and carbonated drinks." (http://www.healthwriter.co.uk/calcium-osteoporosis.html)


Which just goes to show that dairy isn't the answer to all of our calcium woes. If like me however, you are still concerned about not getting enough calcium in your diet as you may not want to eat fish cakes and dried prunes all day every day then consider a supplement. I use Thompson's liquid calcium which is available through most health stores in NZ and Australia. I pierce it for the kids and squirt it into their cereal or pancakes in the morning. My son has got to the stage where he will ask for it if it is not there.


Now just before I run off and dance to some music with my kids (great exercise when it is too hot to go outdoors) here is that Jamie Oliver recipe I was raging about before. I've changed it a tad as the measuring system was really weird and getting you to add 311.84g of pasta for example so feel free to play around with it. I did.

Jamie Oliver's DIVINE pasta salad (my words, not his)


Directions:

  1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
  2. Throw in the pasta and garlic and simmer for about 5 minutes or until al dente, and drain.
  3. Put the garlic to one side for the dressing.
  4. Put the pasta in a bowl.
  5. Chop the tomatoes, olives, chives, basil and cucumber into pieces about half the size of the pasta and add to the bowl.
  6. Squash the garlic cloves out of their skins and pound in a pestle and mortar.
  7. Add the vinegar, oil and seasoning.
  8. Drizzle this over the salad, adding a little more seasoning to taste.
http://www.food.com/recipe/jamie-olivers-best-pasta-salad-39345#ixzz1aivAMl68



Saturday, October 15, 2011

After Dinner Request

Well, here we are at the end of MD's first week of kindy and I have no idea what I was worried about. He has been excited every night before he is due to set off and the teachers have been fabulous. The
other thing I have found lovely are the other parents. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things I will worry about throughout
his life, but thankfully this first hurdle has been cleared.

I confess I am a mother who does not worry about the use of bribery and corruption, in fact I feel it is a very useful tool to be able to pull out from my parenting tool belt. To encourage my kids to eat all of their dinner (and more importantly the veges that they leave until last and then conveniently claim to be full) we have a treat at the end of the meal. Sometimes it is a couple of jelly beans, sometimes it is an icecream sundae. Tonight I was surprised when MD turned to me and said "I would like a hot chocolate after dinner tonight." I was more than happy to agree to this because it kills two birds with one stone as my kidlets usually have a glass of rice milk before they go to bed. So hot chocolate it will be...

Hot Chocolate Recipe

Makes 4 servings

4 cups of rice milk (measured from the cups we will have it from)
1 bar of Kinnerton's dairy, egg, nut free chocolate
1 T vanilla extract (optional)
mini marshmallows

Place cups of milk and vanilla into a pot and heat gently.
When warmed added broken up block of Kinnertons and stir until melted.
Put mini marshmallows in bottom of cups, pour over chocolate milk mix.

YUM!!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Kinder tomorrow

Well, the little man starts Kinder tomorrow. It's a very scary thought leaving your anaphylactic child to take the first steps of independence. Not only do you have the regular concerns, will he fit in? Will the other kids play with him? Will he remember his manners when talking to others? Will he remember to eat? But also the others, what if my son touches an allergen and it sets off a reaction? What if he constantly touches his face because he is nervous and sets off a reaction? Are the teacher really prepared enough to deal with an emergency? What if I get "the" phone call?

As much as possible you try to shove these concerns to the back of your head and not allow your child to see your anxieties lest they rub off on him. Instead you pull down his brand new dinosaur back pack and mentally prepare everything you need to have ready in the morning. The epipen case was bought many months back in preparation for this and inside the antihistamine, anapen, syringe and inhaler sit. The forms requested have been filled in by the doctors and a new medic alert has been ordered (after he lost his old one and in a new country you need a new medic alert as I have been told they don't access information from other countries, weird I know).

I even have a little tshirt printed up which reads "I'm a Lion" on the front and on the back it says "please don't feed me..." and lists the food allergies. This won't be worn all of the time, but for the first few days it will serve as a good reminder. Simply colors the t-shirt printing company is where I purchased one of these and they are great! Well worth the money.

He will also be taking with him to school some marshmallow slice it is a firm hit in our household and has been made with both plain rice puffs and Lowan's Cocoa Bombs (I prefer it made with these). So here is the recipe :

Marshmallow Slice

2 cups of gluten free marshmallows
40g of oil (I use rice bran)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups of gluten free rice puffs (bubbles)

Line a 20x20 baking tin with baking paper.
Place the rice puffs in a bowl (preferably glass or metal).
Place the marshmallows and oil in a small pot. Stir constantly until melted over a low element. Once you have removed it from the heat, add the vanilla.
Add the marshmallow mix to the rice puffs and combine well.
Pour into the prepared tin and smooth over.
Place in the fridge to cool and set. When ready cut into squares. You may sprinkle with allergy friendly sprinkles if you like but we don't usually bother as it is yummy as is.

Hooray for Dairy free chocolate fudge!!

There are many things I grieved for when I discovered my son had allergies and one of the silliest was probably that he would never have certain foods like ice cream and fudge but boy was I wrong!

Today he had both. I made my second batch of chocolate ice cream using coconut cream and I made my first ever batch of chocolate fudge- dairy free! I was worried that it would be sugary and a bit yuck but it is divine although very sweet. I adapted the recipe from another chocolate fudge recipe and it works perfectly.

So here it is:

Dairy Free, soy free (Vegan) Chocolate Fudge

½ cup rice milk

1¼ cups sugar

40ml rice bran oil
1 block of Kinnertons egg, nut, dairy free chocolate

1 tsp vanilla extract



Put the rice milk and sugar in a large pan over a medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent curdling. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 7 minutes. Stirring continuously.

Remove from the heat; immediately add the oil, broken up chocolate, and vanilla. Stir until chocolate has melted, then beat for a couple of minutes until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Line a dish with baking paper and pour in. Refrigerate overnight, then cut into squares.

Nom, nom, nom.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Travelling with an allergy child

Wow, in less than five days we will be making the jump over the ditch for good. While it is very scary leaving behind all of our support system, including the places we know to go to get great allergy friendly foods it is kind of exciting knowing that we will be finding new places that are great for allergy free foods.

My son is 5 years old and a bottomless pit at this point in time. We are flying Emirates and while they have a jaw dropping range of meals available for different dietary needs they do also have a statement on their webpage that they can not cater for peanut allergies as other people may bring nuts on board etc. I understand that they need to cover themselves and after all, we do need to take responsibility of these allergies and not rely on others if we are to live as normal a life as possible. The Autumn Allergy NZ magazine had a great article on travelling with allergy children and I used a lot of their advice.

1) We bought a Skip_Hop insulated lunch bag to put the kids meals in. We also bought two foo go storage containers which keep food hot or cold for certain lengths of time. I cooked the kids their favourite food (chicken sausages from WestLynn Organic Butchers in Richmond Rd, Auckland), with some Orgran pasta and popped these into the FooGo containers. I also packed some of their other favourites and a staple in our allergy lives some Natureland baby pouches. This meant that we wouldn't forget about any stray pieces of fruit in our bags but the kids were still getting that necessary Vitamin C and other nutrients.

2) I bought some Janola wipes to wipe down the back of seats, arm rests and tray tables. While waiting to board the plane I asked the attendant if we could be allowed to board amongst the first passengers so that I could wipe down these surfaces. They were more than happy for this to happen.

3) I made sure my epipen/anapen hadn't expired and practiced with our trainer so I had the instructions fresh and clear in my head.

4) While it wasn't necessary I asked and was provided with a letter from my son's GP that explained the allergy situation. We didn't need to use it but it was nice knowing it was there if we needed it.

5) Spoke to every single staff member we came into contact with about my son's allergies, from the person who helped us book it, the person at the check out counter, customs officials everyone. In fact one of the customs official wrote down the name of the cream we use for my son because he had very dry skin on his fingers. While some had more understanding of our situation than others I couldn't fault any of them.

When we landed in Melbourne I was terrified of what would be waiting for us going through their customs as we had declared so much stuff, foods, medicines, etc. Both my husband and I were quite thrown off when we were asked a couple of brief questions by a customs officials and were then allowed to go straight through. It really does pay to be honest!

6) Asked the pharmacist to give us a 50ml bottle to carry some antihistamine on board the plane in. This now stays in my son's kit with a syringe and has been used a couple of times, although not on the flights.

To finish this post I have added a dairy and egg free custard recipe. Cold or hot this is something you could put in the kids Foogo or thermos flask for lunches.

Dairy and Egg Free Custard

1 cup of rice milk
1/8 cup of rice milk (extra)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 Tablespoons of natural maple syrup (the real stuff)
1 heaped Tablespoon of corn starch (we use Ceres)

In a pot pour in the cup of rice milk.
Add the vanilla and maple syrup and heat through.
While waiting put the cornstarch in with the extra rice milk and mix together, making sure there are no lumps.
When the milk in the pot is hot but not boiling add the milk/cornstarch mix.
Stir constantly, the liquid should start to thicken up straight away, if not give it some time and keep stirring.
Once it has thickened to the consistency you like remove from heat and either serve immediately (over a hot pudding) or wait until cool.
We wait until it is cool and grate fresh fruit over the top or serve with banana.
If it doesn't thicken up enough for your liking, add more cornstarch added to a touch of milk to prevent lumps.
If we don't have maple syrup we use sugar, preferably brown to give it that yellow colour.

If you have any difficulty making any of these recipes let me know and I can try and help you out.

Let me introduce myself

Hi and welcome to my new blog. I have had an allergy blog before but I was never happy about the name and this one sums up my allergy journey so far in several ways. I will be adding the posts I wrote for my first blog underneath this one so they are all together.

My eldest child has dairy, egg, nut, sesame, cat, dust, moulds and grass allergies. He is also intolerant of tomatoes, citrus, olive oil, wheat, banana, and we avoid all other seeds, preservatives, additives and food colourings that aren't natural. He also suffers from eczema and has asthma. My youngest child also has asthma, I'm not too sure if she has any other allergies as she has dairy very rarely and eggs are no longer a staple in our house. She has never tried a nut. I know this is not the perfect scenario in her case but after my son was born our whole diet, if not lifestyle was turned topsy turvy.

This blog has been named Cotton Wool Kids primarily because when my son was first diagnosed with allergies the reactions we received particularly from some immediate family members was that my husband and I were over reacting. In fact one family member was encouraging me to eat foods that contained dairy while breast feeding, even though I had been specifically told by specialists that I was to remove all traces of the allergens from my diet. As he has grown older and a couple of moderate reactions later and most members of my family have realised that we weren't making his allergies up, there are some foods he can't eat for safety reasons and that actually we aren't as psychotic as they all originally thought we were. This reaction from family members made us feel very alone for a while there but time and experience as well as meeting a group of other people who understood what we were going through helped a great deal. As he is only five at this time there are certainly many times ahead where I will worry about my son (as any parent does) but having this support certainly makes a difference.

This brings me to the reasons for this blog:
1) A place for me to rant or share fabulous tips, advice, foods, websites, lotions and potions, recipes, clothing and books I have come across that may help someone else.
2) A place to meet others who are on a similar journey.
3) A place for others to share their journeys and ideas.


If you stumble across this blog please feel free to place feedback or ask questions. Places to find fabulous allergy friendly goods are always gratefully received.

So to set the ball rolling here is the first of many allergy friendly recipes. Many of these will be adaptations of recipes I have stumbled across and look easy to adapt, or they will be recipes that I have found invaluable. Wherever I have pinched a recipe I will note where I got it from so that you can explore further for yourselves.

An adaptation of Jamie Oliver's Mushroom soup

We had this for dinner last night and with the wild Auckland weather blowing a gale outside it was just divine!

Rice Bran Oil
750g button mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
salt and pepper
1 litre of vegetable stock (allergy friendly, we use Massel stock powder)
Rice milk

Prepare the mushrooms (wipe with damp cloth and then chop, destalk if you wish) and put in a frypan or saucepan with a good glug of rice bran oil. Stir around very quickly for a minute, then add your garlic, onion, butter and a small amount of seasoning. After about a minute you'll probably notice moisture cooking out of the mushrooms this is what should be happening. Carry on cooking for about 20 minutes until most of the moisture disappears. If you wish tip out excess moisture, I did and it didn't do any harm.

Add your stock and season to taste. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. I then put it in the kitchen whizz and whizzed it to desired consistency, I like it a bit chunky still, but you could have it smooth if you wish. At the very end I added between 50-100mls of rice milk to give it a creamy finish.

Served with fresh rolls or gluten free scones and it was absolutely scrummy. It was a hit with hubby too. Thanks Jamie!!