Warming Up with Soup

by Kelley Lindberg


Winter is a great time for curling up with the ultimate comfort food: a big, steamy bowl of soup. It’s even more comforting when you don’t have to make it from scratch! With food allergies, that can be challenging.

So I was happy to find a line of soups from Boulder Soup Works that are free from eggs, shellfish, fish, wheat, peanuts, soy, sesame, and gluten. The founder, Kate Brown, was eating a gluten-free diet when she founded the company, so she decided that all of the soups her company made should be gluten-free. “We realized the need for a gluten-free soup with dairy-free options, as consumers in our area are highly cognizant of food-related challenges,” says Kate. Over half of their soup flavors are vegan or vegetarian varieties, too.

Their soup comes in a variety of flavors. Some of their soup flavors contain milk and casein (Roasted Tomato Basil, Potato Leek, and White Bean with Tomato). The other flavors don’t contain milk as an ingredient. However, all of their soups contain a “made in a facility that processes tree nuts and dairy” warning. When I spoke to a representative, she said the only tree nut in their facility is coconut – and it’s only an ingredient in two of the varieties (Carrot Coconut with Ginger, and Red Lentil Dahl). Because my son isn’t allergic to coconut, I would be fine serving this soup to him. However, when I asked the representative about dairy contamination, she said the Boulder Soup Works factory uses good manufacturing processes, but she obviously couldn’t guarantee that there would be no risk of dairy contamination (if she could, they wouldn’t need that warning).

In the mood for something a little out of the ordinary, I picked up some of their Red Lentil Dahl soup to take to a party where several of the party-goers are eating gluten-free diets, and they all loved the mild curry flavor and tasty texture. All the soup varieties from Boulder Soup Works are fresh and made with local, organic ingredients, and they don’t use preservatives or artificial ingredients. You can find them in tubs (not cans!) in the refrigerator case at Whole Foods in Salt Lake City.

To read more about why Kate Brown started making gluten-free, fresh soup, see the article “Boulder Soup Works Brings Fresh Soup to Grocery Stores.”

Food Allergies? There’s an App for That!

by Kelley Lindberg


Got a smart phone or iPad? Then you probably have a screen full of favorite apps. They make our lives a little easier, our errands a little faster, and our time-wasters a little more fun. They can also make living with food allergies a little more manageable.

Here are a few food-allergy-related apps I’ve found that seem to be helpful. I haven’t tried them all yet, but I’m working my way through them. There are plenty more food allergy apps where these came from, so go to your favorite app store and search for whatever you need – from cooking, to shopping, to eating out, to traveling, there’s an app for that! And if you have a favorite food allergy app that I haven’t listed, let us know about it by posting a Comment.

• Myfoodfacts (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, $1.99) – With this shopping tool, you personalize your food allergen alerts, then use your iPhone camera to scan product label barcodes to search ingredients for your allergens. If a food allergen is found, the app alerts you. It covers food products in the U.S. now, but future releases will include Canada, Europe and other countries, as well as other smartphones.
• Restaurant Nutrition (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Free, but a paid version has more features)  – This app provides nutritional info for food at chain restaurants. It notes if the restaurants provide allergy info. You can customize the allergy info so that foods that contain any or all of the Top 8 allergens won’t be displayed for that restaurant, so you can see if there is anything you can eat at that restaurant.
• AllergyEatsMobile (Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Free) – This is the app version of the AllergyEats.com website, where users write reviews of restaurants and their food-allergy friendliness. You can click a “Find Restaurants Near Me” button, or type in a location to find restaurants elsewhere. Because their information is created by users, some cities in the U.S. have more reviews than others. You can also log in and rate restaurants yourself.
• Cook It Allergy Free (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, $4.99) – Includes lots of recipes that you can customize to avoid your allergens, and it even suggests safe substitutions for recipe ingredients. You can add your own notes to the recipes, save your customized recipes, and create a grocery list of ingredients for a recipe.
• Allergy Translator (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, $1.99) – Translates your food allergies and requirements into other languages, so you can show the translated screen to your restaurant server when traveling in other countries. Lets you choose from 45 allergens and 33 languages.
• SelectWisely Allergy Cards (iPhone and iPod Touch) – I’ve used Select Wisely translation cards for years – they are wallet-sized cards that list your allergies and a warning message in the language you choose. Now you can order the same card and have it on your iPhone. Contact Select Wisely directly for cost and more information.
• EMNet findER (Android, Blackberry, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Free) – Finds the nearest emergency room with one click, and lets you display directions.

Allergy-Friendly Halloween Candy & Nut-Free Candy Corn Hunt 2011

by Kelley Lindberg


Yep, it’s that time again… my annual candy corn hunt! Everyone seems to either love or hate candy corn – there’s no in-between – but for those of us who love it, it’s hard to live without it every year because of nut allergies. So every year, people ask me if I’ve found any nut-free candy corn.

You’ll be happy to hear I’ve found two sources for nut-free candy corn again this year, but they both contain egg, soy, and corn syrup.

The first is the Kroger brand – sold in Smith’s here in Utah, and possibly in other Kroger stores elsewhere. They sell nut-free candy corn, mellowcreme pumpkins, and Autumn Mix. Yummy!

The other is made by Sunrise Confections. You can order the Sunrise candy corn (as well as their Autumn Mix and Blueberry Hill Indian Corn) from Peanut Free Planet.

I heard there was a safe candy corn brand at Target, but when I went there today, I couldn’t find any. If I locate any more, I’ll let you know!

I’ve also been shopping locally for candy to see what types of allergen-free candy we can find in stores. Next week, I’ll post a list of what I found and where I found it. Most of it contains corn syrup and food colorings, of course. So if those are your issues, you’ll probably want to order candy online, and you’ll want to do it this week so it arrives in time for Halloween. There are also some good online resources for Halloween chocolates and gluten-free candy, so this week I’ll focus on online candy sources.

• Indie Candy:  This site is the place to go for all-natural candy with no dyes or any of the Big 8 allergens at all! Most of their candy also appears to be corn-free, too. They have a large selection of confections including gorgeous crystal lollipops, chocolate, and gummis, and you can search by your specific allergy needs.
• Yummy Earth:  Yummy Earth candies (lollipops, drops, gummy bears, and gummy worms) are corn-free, as well as being free from the big 8, and they use natural colorings and flavorings. You can buy them online at www.YummyEarth.com {http://www.yummyearth.com/} and on Amazon.com.
• Peanut Free Planet:  This allergy-friendly grocery site sells a ton of different candy from lots of different manufacturers, including Vermont Nut Free, Enjoy Life Foods, and Amanda’s Own. You’ll find chocolate, jelly beans, and all sorts of allergen-friendly groceries. They also sell KitKats, Mars bars, and Nestle Aero Milk chocolate bars that are made in a Canadian factory, and therefore nut-free (unlike their American factories). And most importantly, THEY HAVE NUT-FREE CANDY CORN!
• Amanda’s Own Confections:  They offer chocolate in some fun Halloween shapes, as well as jelly beans and other candies, all dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and gluten-free!
• Divvies:  Nut-free, dairy-free, and egg-free chocolate ghosts, jelly beans, gummy stars, and chocolate chips! Oh my!
• Vermont Nut Free:  Their chocolates are peanut-free and nut-free, but they do have milk and egg warnings on them. Their huge selection of nut-free chocolates includes caramel and chocolate pumpkins, chocolate-covered marshmallows on a stick, and foil-wrapped chocolate shapes (like bats, witches, and ghosts). They also sell skippers, which are similar to M&Ms, but nut-free, of course.
• Chocolate Emporium:  Read the ingredients carefully on this website, but they do offer a lot of allergen-friendly goodies. Call before you order to ensure you get what you need.
• Oriental Trading Co.:  Remember, trick-or-treats bags don’t have to be filled with candy. Oriental Trading Company offers a bazillion (I counted them) super-cheap novelty toys, many that you can buy in quantities of 50, 144, or more.

Updates: I found Sunrise candy corn at the Dollar Tree! And I think it tastes better than the Kroger brand. In addition, Jelly Belly Candy Corn contains soy, and it's manufactured on shared equipment with milk, wheat, tree nuts, and coconuts, but they say their manufacturing and cleaning processes are very stringent. For more detailed info, read Daniella's Smart Allergy blog for her correspondence with the company. And finally, A&J Bakery Candy Corn is now available at http://www.peanutfreeplanet.com/, but they contain soy, egg, and corn (but they're nut-free, peanut-free and gluten-free).

Mainstreaming Allergy-Friendly Foods at the Grocery Store

by Kelley Lindberg


Last week, the Smith’s Food and Drug store in Layton, Utah, had a grand re-opening. They’ve moved some aisles around, hung new signs, increased the variety of produce, and given the whole place a shiny new paint job. Nice, but pretty standard stuff for a grocery store remodel, really.

Except for this: Now there’s an entire aisle devoted to health food, organic food, gluten-free food, and allergen-free food.

Halleluiah!

Eleven years ago, when I found myself thrust reluctantly into the world of food allergy when my toddler turned red after eating a bite of a peanut butter sandwich, my resources were few. Grocery shopping was frustrating and tear-inducing. Ingredient labels were vague and confusing, with around 30 names for possible milk proteins alone. Avoiding an allergen was like walking through an unmarked minefield. And my husband suddenly found himself in a peanut-butter-free house, which he took awfully stoically, seeing as how peanut butter had been a major food group for him for decades.

As the years have gone by, the outside world has become more aware of allergies. We now have a law that food manufacturers must list the top eight allergens in their ingredients labels, and they have to use the word “milk” instead of just “casein,” “whey,” or other non-obvious words. Manufacturers are responding more and more to their allergic customers. For example, Chex cereals used to have barley malt in them, so those with gluten problems (or a barley allergy, like me), couldn’t eat them. Now Chex cereals are proudly advertised as “gluten-free” and they’ve become a staple for people avoiding gluten. (They’re great crushed and used as a breading for chicken!) Every year, companies are making more allergen-free foods like cookies, cake mixes, and bread mixes.

And the day I discovered Sunbutter was the day my husband did a happy dance.

But still, finding all those allergy-friendly foods was challenging. Health food stores and Whole Foods Market are the most reliable sources, but if you don’t live in a major metropolitan area that has those stores, your shopping trip might include a lot of driving or expensive online orders. So when regular grocery stores like Harmon’s, Albertson’s, or Dick’s Market began expanding their allergy sections, it was always a cause for celebration.

But a whole aisle? Wow! This is big news in Layton! Now people in this part of Davis County no longer have to drive to Salt Lake City to find products like Sunbutter, Tofutti soy sour cream and cream cheese, Silk Live yogurt, Earth Balance margarine, or Enjoy Life! Foods.

But this development at Smith’s isn’t just good because it makes my own life more convenient. (Although I’m very grateful, Smith’s!) It shows that food allergies are becoming mainstream, with an estimated 12 million Americans living with them every day. On the one hand, that’s a bummer, because we all wish food allergies would simply vanish (tomorrow, if possible!). But on the other hand, since food allergies ARE becoming mainstream, it’s great to see mainstream retailers and manufacturers accept that we’re a growing target customer base and begin to carry more of the items we need, crave, and thrive on.

Being mainstreamed into regular grocery stores means more convenience, more variety, and less expense. For those of us with restrictive diets, those are huge benefits.

If you have a grocery store near you that seems to be beefing up their allergen-free shelves, find the manager and say thank you, or drop a thank you note in the mail.

For those of us used to swimming around in those dark, scary backwaters, it’s good to find ourselves being welcomed into the mainstream for once.

Trying Out New Melons

by Kelley Lindberg


Summer is a great time for discovering new fresh produce!

Last week I discovered Swiss Chard and wrote about super-easy ways to prepare it. This week, I’ve been using my family as guinea pigs testing out new and different melons.

Ask anyone to name a few melons, and you’ll probably get the usual suspects: cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon. But there are a whole slew of different melons showing up in the markets these days, so I decided there’s only one way to find out if they’re any good!

Personally, I love cantaloupe, hate watermelon, and don’t particularly care for honeydew. So I eye new melons with an approach-avoidance thing. If it tastes like cantaloupe, I’ll be happy. If it tastes like watermelon, my husband and son will be on their own eating it.

But I’ve decided to experiment this month anyway, and so far, my luck is holding – I’ve really liked what I’ve discovered.

The first experiment was a big melon called a Galla. When I cut it open, it looked green like honeydew. But it has a much more cantaloupe sort of flavor – mild and sweet. I really liked it!

My second experiment was even more interesting. I found a “Lemondrop” melon at Sam’s Club and took it home to try. And I’m really glad I did. Inside, it’s green like a honeydew, but the flavor is a cross between a cantaloupe and a lemon – like a cantaloupe lemonade, maybe? Hence the name, Lemondrop! Sweet, surprisingly sour, and refreshing!

I’m headed back to the store tomorrow to try another new melon. If you’ve found a favorite, let me know!

Swiss Chard and Other Fresh Finds

by Kelley Lindberg


Finding fresh vegetables and fruits at the store, farmers’ markets, and roadside stands is definitely one of the highlights of summer.

Last week, my son and I got to go on a tour with some friends of a local farm, East Farms, which grows more than 50 types of vegetables and supplies grocery stores and restaurants all across Utah. It was fascinating to learn first-hand how farmers buy and share water to irrigate their fields, to learn how many varieties of vegetables can grow in this climate, and to see how much work it takes to bring fresh veggies to our table every day.

My son even got to practice putting a rubber band around a bunch of spinach. Sounds easy, but he ended up shredding many of the leaves and took far too many seconds – professional pickers can cut and band around 95 bunches of spinach an hour, we heard. We have a whole new appreciation for something that looks simple and that we take for granted in the grocery store.

We also learned that our whole growing season here in Utah is about a month behind normal – so it’s not just my own garden that had a hard time getting started this year!

Even though it’s early, there are still some delicious finds in the produce aisle and farmers’ stands these days. My latest discovery is Swiss Chard. I planted some this year only because I couldn’t find any spinach to plant, and the nursery recommended Swiss Chard as an alternative. I took a chance and planted it. So far, it’s the only thing in my garden that’s growing like gangbusters, so I’m glad I did. If nothing else, it makes my garden look good. But fortunately, it also tastes good!

I hit the internet to figure out what to do with it, and found that it’s easy to prepare. Swiss Chard is similar to cooked spinach, but with a little more flavor (but milder than kale). Consumer Reports even mentioned it this month, describing it as an “overlooked” vegetable worth trying, having “a wealth of nutrients” including iron, magnesium, potassium, and vitamins A, C, E, and K, which are all “key for growth and immune system support.” (See Consumer Reports’ “Five Overlooked Vegetables that Deserve a Second Chance.”) 

The easiest way I found to cook it is to just cut or tear it into big pieces (2 inches or so), then sauté it with a little garlic in olive oil and safe margarine (about one tablespoon of each), until it wilts like cooked spinach. It’s good plain like that, or if you want, you can add a dash of your favorite flavoring to the sauté: lemon juice, white wine, or balsamic vinegar. (Sprinkling the sautéed Swiss Chard with parmesan cheese is also tasty, if you’re not allergic to dairy.) My family really liked this – even my picky son.

Another day, I sautéed diced tomatoes with the Swiss Chard using the same recipe, then put it over pasta with some sautéed shrimp. Replace the shrimp with crumbled bacon, grilled sliced chicken, or whatever your family likes for a fast and fresh summer dinner.

As the farmers’ markets are getting started, I hope to find some more fun veggies or fruits to try. If you run across an interesting new or “overlooked” veggie or a great summer recipe for an old standby, please share it! We can all use a little fresh summertime inspiration.

Food Allergy Product Recalls – How to Get Them

by Kelley Lindberg


This week, I have received a couple of automated phone calls letting me know that Kroger’s Value Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips have been recalled due to undeclared milk. These are the chocolate chips I buy at Smith’s grocery stores here in Utah, but the recall is nationwide at all Kroger grocery stores. (If you have any of these chocolate chips with “Best By” dates in 2012, take them back to your grocery store for a refund.)

I got this recall phone call because I use Smith’s Fresh Values loyalty card when I shop, so I guess their database showed I’d purchased this product, and they added me to their auto-call list. I appreciate being notified this way.

This got me thinking about recall notices. It’s not always easy to find out about recalled food products, and for people with food allergies, it is critical to know about mislabeled products, contaminated manufacturing runs, and the like.

So how can you make sure you’re getting the news you need about recalls? I know of three ways that can help:

1. Use your grocery store’s loyalty card when you shop. Not only do you get discounts, you might get notified when something you bought is recalled.

2. Sign up for FAAN’s alerts. FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) is a leading organization for food allergy awareness, education, and advocacy, and many food manufacturers will let FAAN know when they’re recalling a food product. FAAN then sends alerts out to anyone who’s signed up for those alerts. You don’t have to be a member to get the free alerts. Go to FAAN’s main web page at http://www.foodallergy.org/, and under the red section called “Alerts & News,” click on either “Subscribe to Alerts Feed” or “Receive Alerts by e-mail” depending on whether you want to get the notices via RSS feed or by email. It’s quick and easy, and you’ll get notices promptly. Many of the notices might not affect you, but the ones that do are worth the occasional extra email.

3. Finally, join an email listserv like UFAN (Utah Food Allergy Network), where members keep each other up-to-date on any news they’ve heard. To join UFAN’s email forum, go to their main website (http://www.utahfoodallergy.org/) and go to the section called “Join the Utah Food Allergy Network Forum,” click the link, and follow the instructions.

If anyone knows of any additional ways to keep up-to-date with food recalls, I’d love for you to share your suggestions in the Comments.

Let’s make sure 2011 is a safe and healthy year!

Allergy-Free Halloween Candy Round-Up

by Kelley Lindberg


Last week I talked about some online resources for buying allergy-friendly candy or non-candy novelties for handing out to all those cute little Halloween trick-or-treaters. This week, I’ll list some of the candy I found here in local Utah stores (most of which are national brands, so they’ll probably be found just about anywhere).

The first thing I want to remind you of is this: READ EVERY LABEL, EVERY TIME. Many manufacturers use multiple factories, and the processes and foods they use in each factory can be different, so the same candy made in two different factories might have different allergen warnings. And manufacturers can change their recipes from year to year, too. So the candy you bought last year might be unsafe this year. Double-check everything.

For example, last year I was able to find some Wonka candy mixes that were milk- and egg-free. This year, the “mix” bags all contained an egg and soy warning. (Some of the single-variety Wonka candy was safe, however, such as the Pixie Stix or Fun Dip.) Last year, a Wonka representative told me they perform thorough cleaning and use strict preparation guidelines when they’re using an allergen. But they still put the warning label on the candy that is made in factories where allergens are present. Wonka is good about labeling their individual candies, so you can look at each piece in your little goblin’s bag and know whether you’re getting a contaminated piece or not. I’m disappointed that there are more contamination warnings on Wonka candy this year than last, however.

Now the good news: I found lots of candy that’s free from the Top 8 Allergens (soy, peanut, tree nut, wheat, egg, milk, seafood, shellfish), and several that are free from at least 6. I shopped at Walmart, Sam’s Club, Smith’s, and Shopko. Most stores will carry pretty much the same assortments as those stores, so you should be able to find them somewhere near you. Sam’s Club had the biggest selection and greatest variety. All of the candy I saw contains artificial food colorings, and almost all contains corn syrup, however, so if those are your issues, I recommend lollipops and gummy bears from YummyEarth. They’re free from the big 8, and use natural colorings and flavorings. Or buy non-food novelties from someplace like Oriental Trading Company.

So here is what I found. Remember, don’t take my word for it – check the labels yourself before you buy (I may have missed something while I was standing in the aisle scribbling notes), or you may pick up a bag made in a different factory than the one I looked at. But hopefully this list will help point you in the right direction and keep you from getting discouraged when you look at those giant aisles of unsafe candy. And it might help you when you go through your kid’s trick-or-treat bag, too. Happy treating!

Non-food:

• Play-Doh mini cups, package of 66, $9.98 at Sam’s Club (contains wheat)

Corn-free as well as free from Top 8 (These candies don’t list corn syrup in their ingredients, so they may be safe for corn-allergic kids):

• Smarties (Walmart, 60 per bag, 2 bags for $4)
• Wonka Pixie Stix (Walmart, 120 per bag, 2 bags for $4)
• Wonka Fun Dip (Walmart, 40 per bag, $4.75)
• Bob’s Sweet Stripes Soft Mint Candies (red & white peppermints) (Sam’s Club (290 per bag, $5.98)

Free from Top 8:

• Dum-Dums (Sam’s Club, 360 per bag, $6.98)
• Dum-Dum Chewy Pops (Walmart, 180 per bag, $4.75)
• Member’s Mark Zoo Animal Fruit Snacks (contains coconut oil) (Sam’s Club, 72 per bag, $8.98)
• Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups (Sam’s Club, 48 per box, $7.48)
• Betty Crocker Halloween Fruit Snacks (Sam’s Club, 46 per box, $6.98
• Otter Pops (Sam’s Club, 200 for $7.80)
• Kellogg’s Fruity Snacks (contains coconut oil) (Sam’s Club, 50 per box, $6.98)
• Skittles and Starbursts Assortment (Sam’s Club, 172 per bag, $9.88, or Shopko has a bag of 90 for $9.99
• Life Savers Gummies (Smiths, 30 per bag, $2.49)
• Dots (Smiths, 17 mini-boxes per bag, $2.49)
• Hot Tamales & Mike & Ike assortment (Smiths, 63 per bag, $6.99, or Shopko has a bag of 35 for $4.89
• Swedish Fish & Sour Patch Kids assortment (Smiths, 115 per bag, $9.99)
• Smiths also had bags of Skittles and bags of Starbursts, but I forgot to write down the price
• Jet-Puff Boo Mallows (bags of Halloween-shaped marshmallows) (Walmart, 14 bags for $2.00)
• Ring Pops (Walmart, 22 for $4.75)
• Marvel Candy Sticks (Walmart, 2 bags of 60 for $4)

Contains Soy Lecithin or Soy warning (but free from other 7 top allergens):

• Wrigley’s Gum (Sam’s Club, 40 packs for $7.14)
• Jolly Rancher Lollipops (Sam’s Club, 100 per bag, $9.22)
• Laffy Taffy (Sam’s Club: 165 per container, $5.72; Smiths: 2 bags of 40 for $4; Walmart: 80 for $4.75)
• Laffy Taffy Ropes (Sam’s Club, 48 ropes, $8.78)
• Double Bubble bubble gum (Walmart, 160 for $4.75)
• Act II Popcorn Balls (Walmart, 20 for $5)

Contains Soy and Wheat (but free from other 6 top allergens):

• Twizzlers (Sam’s Club, 180 for $6.98)
• Airheads (Sam’s Club: 90 for $8.34, Walmart: 2 bags of 30 for $4)
• Utz Pretzel Treats (Sam’s Club, 70 bags of Halloween-shaped pretzels, contains wheat and barley, made on equipment that processes soy and sesame seeds, $6.98)
• Twizzler & Jolly Rancher Assortment (Sam’s Club, 225 for $9.98)

Contains Wheat and Egg (but free from other 6 top allergens):

• Wonka Mixups (Sam’s Club, 300 for $9.88)
• Wonka Sweetarts Variety Mix (Walmart, I forgot to write down price)
• Wonka Monster Treat Mix (Walmart, I forgot to write down price)

Relearning to Cook with Food Allergies

by Kelley Lindberg


One of the first questions everyone asks when first told they or their children have food allergies is:

“What on earth are we going to eat now?”

We look in our pantries and our fridges and we panic. Half the stuff we bought on our last grocery trip turns out to contain the ingredients that have been making us or our kids sick. We toss out boxes of crackers and cookies, seasoned rice and pasta pouches, pre-cooked skillet meals, frozen Italian and Chinese meals, and cake mixes. We stand there in our now nearly empty kitchen and try to think what to make for dinner. We’re thinking raw carrots and a jar of applesauce.

Our next trip to the grocery store is agonizing. It takes 4 hours. We read every label on every package, and we despair. There it is – that warning label we’ve just been taught to look for, and it’s on everything: “Contains milk (or soy, or nuts, or wheat, or egg, or…)” We fight back tears in the grocery aisle because our routine is suddenly all shot to ragged bits, lying on the floor at our feet. Everything we relied on is now considered “dangerous.” Everything we used to throw on the stove at the last minute when the kids are fighting, we’re exhausted, and everyone is hungry is now off-limits.

It’s scary. It’s frustrating. It’s maddening. It’s overwhelming.

“What on earth are we going to eat now?”

Over the next week or two, we try to pull ourselves together. We search the internet. We ask friends. We go back to the store and try again. And finally, we begin to piece together new routines. New recipes. New foods to prepare.

And we relearn how to cook.

That’s the tricky part. Let’s be honest. We live in a society where cooking has become optional. Before you found out about your family’s food allergies, when was the last time you made a cake from scratch? The last time you made stir-fry that didn’t pour out of a frozen bag? The last time you cracked open that great cookbook you were so excited to get that one birthday? The last time you made a sack lunch for your kids?

The thing is, prepackaged food has gotten surprisingly good over the last decade or so. The frozen lasagna ain’t bad. The frozen Chicken Cordon Blue is downright tasty. Meats come pre-marinaded and ready for the grill. Frozen veggies come with their own cream sauce. Those frozen lunches are fast and easy.

And we love to eat out. Depending on the poll you read, Americans eat out an average of 2 to 5 times a week. And according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, about half of Americans’ food budget every month is spent on food away from home (up from a third in the 1970s).

So it’s not surprising that most of us have sort of forgotten how to cook. I mean sure, we can throw hamburger meat in a pan and toss in some taco seasoning – I call that cooking, don’t you? But you can only make tacos so many times a week before someone starts to whine.

What we discover when we develop food allergies is that we can, indeed, cook again. We relearn how to grill, roast, and stir-fry meat with seasonings out of our spice cabinet instead of out of an envelope. We steam veggies and discover that a little balsamic vinegar is just as tasty as all those cream sauces. We drag our crock-pot out of the cabinet and it becomes our new best friend when we toss in some meat, some veggies, and some apple juice or water or safe chicken broth.

And eventually, we have new routines. We can go to the grocery store without melting down. We hang out in the fresh produce aisle and at the meat counter instead of in the frozen food section. We crush potato chips or safe crackers to coat our chicken breasts instead of buying chicken nuggets. And we realize that cooking isn’t as hard as we remembered it, in most cases. And, as a bonus, it’s often healthier, tastier, and cheaper. It’s a pain to relearn at first, sometimes, and it often takes a little longer, but after a while, it finally becomes second nature to us. Even the pies I made last week that took so long tasted better than the frozen ones, and it’s not like I make them all the time, so an occasional big-effort cooking day isn’t so bad. Most dinners I make are fast and easy, in comparison.

So when we’re looking for silver linings to the black clouds that life scoots across our skies, maybe this is ours. In a world of fast-food, super-sized, mega-calorie excess, those of us with food allergies in our families have an edge.

We’ve relearned how to cook.

Who Eats Pasta or Bread in Italy, Anyway?

by Kelley Lindberg


As you know if you read my earlier post about discovering my son is allergic to lupin flour ("Lupin Allergy in Europe"), I was a little worried about how extensive the use of lupin flour is in Europe, since we were headed to Paris and Italy for a two-week vacation.

Well, we’ve now made it there and back safely, but here’s the thing: I’m still not sure how wide-spread the use of lupin flour is in Europe.

We asked about lupin flour in every restaurant we visited in Paris in along Italy’s Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately, most of the restaurateurs didn’t know what ingredients were in their bread because they got their bread from a bakery, and there was no way to check ingredients. Some people didn’t understand what lupin flour was. Others had heard of lupin flour, but just didn’t know if it was in their bread. Because some had heard of it, I can assume that it’s used at least somewhat frequently in Italy, but I really didn’t get a sense of how wide-spread its use is. We didn’t encounter any lupin in the pastas we tried.

The grocery stores near our villa were tiny, with extremely limited selections of pasta and pre-packaged breads. Neither the pasta nor the sandwich bread I found listed lupin flour as an ingredient, but I was able only able to find one or two brands of each. (Sandwich breads mostly had nut warnings – I only found one brand that had no nut warnings.)

Allergy information was generally listed on everything that had labels, so that was reassuring. But anything that came from a bakery was problematic, just as it is here in the United States. That meant we avoided things like pizza (the few places we asked didn’t know what was in their pizza dough, because it came from elsewhere and wasn’t labeled), and I got in the habit of packing my son a sandwich that I made in the villa before we left on all-day outings (after that day in Pompeii when his lunch ended up being a can of Pringles and a soda).

Although lunch stops were challeng-ing, we had much better luck in nice restau-rants for dinner. Maybe it’s because most of the places we ate were family-owned and there was an obvious sense of ownership pride in them, but we found several restaurants where the owners, chefs, and waiters would bend over backwards to make my son’s dinner safe.

My best investment before we left was to buy allergy translation cards from SelectWisely.com. These wallet-sized laminated cards say “I have a life-threatening allergy to…” in whatever language you order. I handed the card to a waiter, then he would take it to the owner/chef, who would invariably come over to my son and carefully talk him through the items they could make safe for him. Sometimes they’d stick with what was already on the menu, but others would suggest combinations of things that weren’t on the menu. They really made him feel special and safe.

When we found a place like that, we tended to go back two or three times, and they would recognize him and welcome him back. He soaked up the royal treatment! The owner-chef at Cucina Casereccia da Vincenzo, on our third visit, offered him a completely new treat for free: octopus and calamari. He was so enamored with this woman who’d been pampering him for days that he tried it and LIKED it. If I had tried to get him to eat octopus anywhere else, I don’t think he’d have tried it. But for this chef who was taking such good care of him, he scarfed it down!

We made it through the two weeks without any allergic reactions. We did limit his exposure by preparing breakfast and most lunches in the villa, and we cooked several dinners in the villa, too. (We didn’t do that just for him. We did it to save money and our waist-lines, too, and because cooking with the fresh produce from the neighborhood market was so much fun -- look at those giant lemons and those baby artichokes!) But when we went out, we relied on those SelectWisely cards to help eliminate accidental contamination.

So despite the fact that he couldn’t eat pizza in Italy (is that legal?), he can’t wait to go back and experience the history, the scenery, and those friendly Italian restaurateurs. His next destination, he tells me, is Sardinia. Guess I’d better start saving my Euros!