peanut allergies Archives |

A Surprise, That Was a Piece of Cake!

July 25, 2012 By Laura 12 Comments

Our biggest girl, Alexis, had a birthday on July 5th. She turned 15! There is so much I could tell you, about how special this girl is. Especially given her age. But I’ll save that brag for another time. For now, I’ll just share 2 things that I want to say about her turning 15: 1) The teen-years horror stories I have been repeatedly been told to expect? They haven’t hit yet. 2) In many ways, she seems so much older, than just 15. And not just because she is way taller and bigger than her Mama.

Her birthday held one tradition that all of her others have . . . . . .

She had her ‘birthday number pancakes’. Except she had them in the afternoon, instead of breakfast. And then quite honestly, the rest of the day went quickly downhill from there. Complete with tears. From ME; not Alexis. Because I felt so bad, her day was going all kinds of wrong. The car even broke down on the way to bowling, which was something she wanted to do with her family on her birthday. It’s a little thing, to go bowling, but it’s what she wanted. (And hey, I’m all for beating the pants off anyone, any day! I don’t even care if it’s your birthday!) So after Michael tried fixing the car for an hour or so, and he made a phone call to have his auto-place friends bring him a part, the kids and I ended up walking in the horrific heat and humidity, for a mile or so, to our nearest home base; our church! At least it was cool and peaceful inside. And really, I was needing to feel near to God, by then. I was so sad, about the awful memories we were making, for our girl’s 15th birthday. So we hung out with Jesus, until Michael came to get us.

I then demanded a re-do-birthday for Alexis for 2 days later, on Saturday.

THAT day went MUCH better.

(Isn’t she beautiful? Her braces are coming off soon, and I can’t wait to take her real 15-year birthday photos.)

I was excited for re-birthday, because I knew I had a surprise, that was going to knock her flip-flops off!

You see, weeks earlier, I had shown her this cake online, that I had seen on Facebook, that a friend had made, and then I started seeing all over Pinterest. I thought of Alexis the second I first saw it, because it was made with her 2 very favorite candies: M&M’s, and KitKats. When I showed her, she was like, “Oh-my-GOSH! I wish I could have th-aaaaat!“

But never in a million years would she EVER expect to have one for her birthday cake, nor would she even agree to have one. And do you know why? Because her little brother has a severe peanut allergy, and she doesn’t believe either of those candies to be peanut-safe-enough. She’s become a real self-taught-expert, on products and companies, and their manufacturing practices. Now, none of the kids eat much candy at all. Not only because not much of it is safe, but because we try to make as healthy choices with what we eat, as we can. But, treats are allowed now and then. Still, Alexis is adamant about not taking chances, and is a real advocate for protecting her brother. I’ll tell you more about that in a moment but first, I have to show you these photos:

She knew a cake was coming, but just look at the surprise on her face when she IT . . . . . .

She was SO SURPRISED. She LIT UP when she saw it – brighter than the birthday candle on her cake. She went on, and on, and just could not get over, that I had made that cake for her, that she only dreamed of. My face hurt from smiling so much, watching her with this cake, the whole time.

She was concerned of course having her little brother there at the table with her. Or even having the cake in the house! But really, we took the necessary precautions, all the way. To start, the candies are not made with any peanut products. But they are just manufactured with peanut products. So there is no way, we would ever let Shane, our peanut-allergy-boy, have any of it. But . . . . . cake itself was just the inner circle of the cake . . . . . . about 4 inches in diameter. We kept the ring, and frosted that separately, for the rest of us.

So this cake really was her very own individual cake. Decorated with the M&M’s, and KitKats.

(I wish, that her wish, comes true.)

So let me tell you just how much of an advocate she has always been for her brother.
Aside from being an expert about what brands are safe and which aren’t, and aside from the sacrifices of her favorite things she has made for her brother, she did something else when she was only 10 years old, that I think, was pretty impressive.
With Plain M&M’s always having been her favorite candy since she was a little girl, she felt strongly that everyone should be able to enjoy them too. When we discovered (when he was 1 year old) that our little boy had such a severe peanut allergy Alexis soon realized that there were billions of people all over the world with the same common allergy, who would not be safe eating even Plain M&M’s, because the Mars Company manufactured both peanut M&M’s, as well as the plain ones, on the same machinery. And at the very least, in the same factory. There is such risk of contamination. And in fact, the chance that peanut fragments, or even a peanut M&M, could be in a Plain M&M bag. It’s happened.

This mix of manufacturing the 2 together, really upset her, for chocolate lovers all over the world. For a long time. So when she was 10-years old, she decided to do something about it. She wrote a petition-letter to the Mars Corporation. In it, she introduced herself with her name and age, and then wrote them the story of her brother. She then went on to urge them to please consider manufacturing their peanut M&M’s, and all peanut products, in a separate facility. She even explained, in her own words, how she believed their profit was probably suffering, due to the billions of peanut-allergy-people, who could not purchase and eat their plain M&M’s. And so creating a separate facility to keep plain M&M’s safe, would increase their sales.
And then . . . . . . she approached people she knew everywhere she could, and explained to them what she was doing. She told them why she was writing the Mars Corporation, and she collected over 60 signatures! People happily signed it, and were always asking her if she heard back yet. They agreed with her mission, and supported her, after she had educated them on the manufacturing situation.

She addressed an envelope herself too, and mailed her petition-letter to the Mars Corporation. She fully expected to hear back from them, and was hopeful they would see that she had a great idea, and that they would indeed make the changes needed, to bring billions of peanut-allergy sufferers the joy, of being able to eat plain M&M’s, safely. And frankly, so did I. She checked the mail every day, and kept asking for a long time, if there was any mail for her, from the Mars Corporation.

But she never did hear from them. At all.

I was really sad for her, and really as disappointed with the Mars Corporation, as she was. As her mother, it broke my heart to see nothing come of her determined and brave efforts . But that aside, you’d think that they would have been considerate enough to at least reply. Especially upon receiving such a heartfelt letter, complete with signatures she advocated for herself, from a 10 year old little girl! You know? It’s just kind of….heartless. Not to mention, unprofessional, in my opinion.

But nothing. Still. And as you know . . . . . .

She’s 15 now!

Still no word, from the Mars Corporation.

So now, you may understand what a big deal this cake was. It really knocked her flip-flops off, just as I thought it would. She loved every single bite. She said so, most ever single bite.

And I had to remind her not to talk, with food in her mouth. 😉

She ate a good-sized piece herself every day.

Over the course of the week, she did share some with her father. I declined. But it was nice of her to offer.

And although I am sure the cake was enough to make her completely content, we did give her another gift . . . . . .

Which was just what she wanted. (Because she told me, when I pressed her about what she’d like for her birthday.) Which I know is really not for her, but for us. See, she figured we’d feel like we got her a birthday present, by getting her this Dick’s Sporting Goods Gift Card. But it’s so she can buy her own sport gear and attire she’ll need this year herself, instead of us having to buy it for her. Because she always wants to pay for her own things, knowing we’re strapped sometimes. She can’t fool us. ; )

Or maybe we’re fooling her, since we bought the card. Hmmmm.

Not sure who won that mind game, come to think of it.

Her trio-siblings also had their own surprises for her, including a pack of sports cards from her sister. Which, actually had a sports card in it that is worth some money! That surprised everyone, since O bought the pack at the Dollar Tree Store!

All-in-all, or should I say after-all, she did have a Happy Birthday.

She had her cake, and ate it too. And that was something, she never thought she’d do.
Now if you’d like to sound off below, about how disappointed you are in the powers that be, at the Mars Corporation too, go right ahead! I sure won’t stop you. Cursing is even allowed this time.

(Just kidding about that last part. The kids like to read the blog too, and we must be a good example! ; )

Oh who am I kidding. They ~~live with me~~ have heard those words before. ; )

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Chocolate Covered Sunbutter Eggs Recipe| Peanut-Safe Alternative to Reese’s

April 2, 2012 By Laura 9 Comments

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative
Last week I was visiting one of my favorite blogs, TidyMom. (It truly is a place for everything! ; ) Cheryl over there was sharing a recipe for her Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs. Ohhhh, how I wanted one! In fact, I have been missing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and the Reese’s PB Eggs that come out every Easter, for years now! But peanut and peanut butter anything has been removed from our life, since we discovered our son has a severe, life threatening allergy to it. It was a hard pill to swallow, for this life-long-die-hard-peanut-butter-lover. But Sunbutter has helped me survive. And anyway, I love my son way more, and keeping him has been worth the sacrifice! Sunbutter can be found in the organic section of most grocery stores. We love it so much, we order it online by the case, and also because it is cheaper that way.

Now, as anyone with a peanut-allergy child knows, Easter and Halloween especially, can be quite the challenge, when it comes to finding a few treats and candy for our kids! This is because so much of anything with chocolate, has a real risky potential to be contaminated with peanuts, within the factory manufacturing. And most packaging even says so.

That being said, I have wondered right along, how well any recipe that calls for peanut butter, could be substituted with Sunbutter! When I saw TidyMom’s Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs, I knew it was time to find out! And guess what? It was a delectable success! Sunbutter tastes very similar to peanut butter, to us, and these eggs bring all of the joy to our mouths, that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups/Eggs ever did. This is how they came out lookin’!…..

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-13 So, I thought I’d share how we did it with you all. Now, if peanut allergies are not an issue for your family, and you’d like to make your own peanut butter eggs, you are welcome to follow (Cheryl’s) TidyMom’s Recipe. If you’d like to try the Sunbutter version, you can follow ours right here. Our recipe using Sunbutter here, was experimental, but we were just switching out the peanut butter from Cheryl’s recipe. (I did make one little tweak I’ll mention.) I got a little help from my husband, because I needed to take photos too. But we might have done some things a tad differently, just trying to find to make it work for us. It did get messy as Cheryl said it does, but like any project, once we get going and figure things out, we find our groove.

Participating Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup of Sunbutter
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
*1 Cup graham cracker crumbs

(*-Cheryl’s recipe calls for 3/4 cups, but the Sunbutter seemed so sticky, we added a little more.)

1 Cup powdered sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
**14 ounces of chocolate (milk, semi-sweet or chocolate)

(**-We used the flat Hershey bars with the squares to break, and they worked perfectly! The ones with the squares are peanut-safe!)

1 Tablespoon shortening
an appropriately sized egg-shaped cookie cutter–

In a large bowl mix together peanut butter, butter, graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar and salt until well combined. We used our Kitchen Aid, stopping it once and using a spatula scraper to get it all to the middle and off of the attachment. It was while mixing that we decided to add that extra 1/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs, for a total of 1 cup, to make it a little less sticky.

Next, put the whole (Kitchen Aid) bowl into the freezer for a few minutes, to get it easier to work with. Then we plopped the whole mix on a big piece of wax paper, covered it with another piece, and rolled it out. Then we placed the whole rolled out dough between the wax sheets, on a cookie sheet.

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-3 We then placed the whole cookie sheet back into the freezer, to help really firm it up. We left it in for maybe 15 minutes.

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-4 After removing the tray from the freezer, we put the wax papered dough onto the counter, peeled off the top sheet, and got cutting with our little egg cutter, right away. It’s important to work quickly, because the dough softens quickly, depending on how warm it is where you are working. We rubbed just a dab of shortening all over the cutter, and because the dough was really firm from the cold, and the eggs cut out really nicely. We placed them on another cookie sheet lined with a fresh sheet of wax paper.

Again (not shown), we put the cut eggs back into the freezer to firm up once again.

Meanwhile, we broke up all of the Hershey chocolate bars into a bowl with a tablespoon of shortening, and melted it. Using the microwave, put the bowl in on high for 20 seconds to start. Remove, and stir with the handle of a wooden spoon. It’ll still be chunky at this point. Put in for another 10 seconds, and another 10, always stirring in between intervals, until the chocolate is all smooth.

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-5 By the time the chocolate is melted nicely, the eggs should be nice and cold. So remove the tray, have another freshly lined tray ready, and get dipping! Now remember, the chocolate is pretty warm, and you want your eggs to stay as firm as possible, so you need to get that egg in and out of the bowl quickly! We just let them belly-flop in one at a time, flipped it over and lifted it out with a fork, as seen in the next photo as well.

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-6 Just tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove the excess dripping chocolate off as best as you can, and then gently let the chocolate covered egg onto the cookie sheet.

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-7 This photo is just to show you what happens if you don’t get the egg out of the bowl fast enough. It goes soft very quickly. If at any point you think your un-dunked eggs are getting too soft work with, it never hurts to pop them back in the freezer, again and again.

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-8 As you can see here, putting them down without making them a mess, is not easy! We felt like we were really making a mess of things, and wondered if we would even have something to be proud of or be worth sharing when finished, but we did! Just like craft projects and the like, when you keep going, you get better at it and quickly find what works better. And we did get much better at it as we went along……

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-9 Some we placed on wax paper directly on the counter for the time being…

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-10

...and other went on a lined cookie sheet.

Once they were all dipped, the first one’s chocolate was firming up enough, that we could decorate them a little. We just used various sprinkles for some. My oldest daughter is great at decorating. Such patience! So she was in on the helping there.

After we were done decorating them, once again, we wanted to chill them again. There was one more thing we wanted to do to ours, before taking some photos of them…..

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-11 If you like to try and perfect anything you can, when you can (raising my hand..), we figured out a way to clean our egg’s edges up a little bit….

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-12 Using a clean x-acto blade, just trim off the excess chocolate that dripped down and spread when placing the eggs down.

We didn’t do it to every single one. Just the ones that really needed it.

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-13 These are just some. Some of the eggs we left as plain chocolate, and others we kind of drew in with a toothpick when the chocolate was just firming up. Do you see the criss-cross one? That one I used a french-fry cutter plate. Just placed it down, and lifted! Look around your utensil and kitchen tools drawers, and see what you can find to use, to make some neat designs!

We were really happy with how well they came out. Cute!

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-16
…and OH-SO-GOOD!

The salty-sweet melty party in your mouth is just divine! What I really love about them too, is the little crispy-crunch surprises, from the graham cracker!

sunbutter-eggs-alternative-to-reeses-peanut-safe-alternative-17

We have all already had some of these of course, and we’ll be enjoying and sharing the rest, right through Easter Day! We’re also encouraged and inspired, to try more peanut butter recipes that we can substitute Sunbutter with! One thing is for sure; we’ll be making these again with other holiday shapes and decorations! They are SO worth the mess. (Especially when your husband cleans it up for you. ; )

Special thanks to TidyMom/Cheryl, for the inspiration, and allowing us to adapt your recipe!

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Vital Read: What EVERYONE Should Know, About Peanut and Tree Nut Allergies, and More

November 4, 2009 By Laura 10 Comments

This post is about peanut and tree nut allergies, and what everyone should know about them. But it’s relevant to ALL food allergies, and relevant to EVERYONE. So PLEASE, before you skip reading it, thinking you don’t need to because no one in your family has a peanut allergy, we ask you to take the time to anyway. Many people have at least one thing they wish others were more aware of, and this is certainly ours! Taking the time to arm yourself with a few facts, could save lives. YOU, could save lives, after reading this. There are so many misconceptions about food allergies, so we feel it is critical to spread some education and awareness about them! If you read below (also), you will ‘hear’ our story.

I have wanted to post about this for SO long. But I knew it was a ‘loaded’ one. I knew I would struggle to keep it short (I’ll try anyway.) It was just….a heavy one for me. Just talking about this topic literally makes my heart race, and take deep breathes. But today, I’m doing it.

Our Story

NOTE: At the time of the writing of this post, our son’s allergy was to peanuts and peanut products only. In subsequent years, an allergy to cashews and pistachios also.*

{S} was around the age of 1-1/2 when we learned, through one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, that he was allergic to peanut products. It was lunch time, and so we made the triplets lunch. They were always so cute, in the 3 high chairs that were all lined up, taking up almost all of my kitchen. It was {S}’s first time having peanut butter and jelly. They always got so excited to eat (still do!) and were so happy doing it. So I knew something was very wrong, when {S} started really whining, and clawing and grabbing at his chest and stomach. And he wouldn’t eat any more! (? Shock!) I got him down from his chair, lifted his shirt, and found red welts everywhere. He looked frightened too, and it was clear something was not right. Never having seen any of my kids act this way, I quickly called our pediatrician’s office, and they immediately told me to hang up and call the ambulance. I could hear the siren in the distance when I noticed his lips were swelling.

It took no time at all for the paramedics to arrive, and after a couple of questions, they told us they knew it was a peanut allergy reaction. They had already given {S} some kind of shot (which we would become very, very familiar with), and he calmed down quickly. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, the paramedic educated me briefly on peanut allergies, and if there was one thing he said that has resonated with me the most, it was this: That for most people food allergies, the person’s reaction to the first exposure is usually very mild. Maybe a tickle in the throat, or a little rash, which can even go un-noticed. But with every subsequent exposure, the reaction is likely to be 10x worse. This was {S}’s very first time having peanut butter, and his reaction was so bad, an ambulance had to be called. We knew then…..this wasn’t one day’s event, but something that was going to become part of our life.

The long and short of it is, {S} has an anaphylactic allergy to any and all peanut products. The most minuscule amount could threaten his life, whether he ingests any bit of peanut product through his mouth, or even nose as a result of something as simple as peanut shell dust being airborn. His reaction would be immediate, and severe. (We already saw evidence of that.) He has seen an allergist on a regular basis ever since, and they have monitored his level of allergy to peanut by-products, by way of a blood test called a RAST test. {S} had an initial blood test the first week we discovered his allergy, and his number was REALLY high then. In subsequent testing over the years, that number has only climbed. It is highly unlikely he will ever grow out of it.

Rather than get into trying to educate you all on the specifics of peanut allergies, I really encourage you to click on the new link in the right hand side bar, and read it through. If not today, on another day when you have time. There are so many false assumptions and misconceptions (wait…is that the same thing? lol) about peanut allergies, and many allergies in general. But if anything, we would just love for more people to ‘get it’. Being contaminated would not be a mere discomfort, or inconvenience for someone who has an an allergy of this kind; their life is on the line. The Peanut Allergy link in the right sidebar brings you to a new window, and a brief run down of facts. We would so appreciate it if you could take the time, sometime, to read it. Knowledge is power. And in this case, the power to save a life. If you read no further, please at least commit to doing that at some point.

There are a few things that bring us great comfort, is protecting our son from an anaphylactic reaction, and therefore possible death, as a result of being contaminated by a peanut product of one sort or another. For one, our families and friends have come to understand the seriousness of our situation, and have made efforts to accommodate keeping a peanut free environment for {S}, at gatherings and such. We are so grateful for that, but also, at the risk of being annoying, never cease to remind them when we have plans to gather. Secondly, we home school, so we don’t have to worry about such things as having the medication that could save him, in the nurse’s office, or, the ‘peanut-allergy kids lunch table’ that really, just isn’t preventative enough, and/or the parents who have the attitude “Why should my child not be able to eat peanut butter in school, just because yours is allergic” > I’d bet my last dollar they’d see things differently, if it was their child with the allergy.

Before {S} went to Vacation Bible School this year, we got him a medical bracelet, and one that he never ever takes off now….

It is engraved, with the message loud and clear. On the front it says in all caps, his name, and ‘SEVERE PEANUT ALLERGY’. On the back, it says ‘Anaphylactic Allergy to Any and All Peanut Products’.

We literally never take it off. It is getting beat up, because the boy plays hard. But we’ll just happily replace it any time it needs it.

Also, there is the security of our Epi-Pens!! {S} goes NOWHERE without them….

The Benadryl is just for good measure, AFTER you give the shot, and call the ambulance.

Where ever he is, wherever we go, they are with him, in this blue bag. ….

So if you’ve seen me carrying this bag, and just thought I had really bad taste in purses, you were mistaken. (My friend is a handbag designer, I know a dang nice purse when I see one. ; )

We need to have it with us at all times too….even when we think we shouldn’t need it. Like going to mass. One time not long ago, the mother right in front of us gave her little girl a package of those peanut butter and cheese crackers, to keep her quiet and occupied. Besides my major pet-peeve about parents low expectations of their children in church, fear rightly struck all of us on the spot. It would take an emergency before you would see any one of us disrupt a mass for anything, but that’s exactly what we might have done, as we stood right up and moved {S} right out of there. I didn’t calm down any less though, as I watched this little girl chew, dropping crumbs, with both food and drool falling out of her mouth all over the place, licking her hands and touching the top of the back of the pew right where we would be kneeling at. After mass, another mom I didn’t know, came over to talk to us….because she caught right on to what had happened during mass. Her nephew almost died with his peanut allergy when he accidentally was contaminated, and that’s when she got it! She was afraid FOR us all through mass. I could tell you many stories of the places there was peanut contamination where one would never expect it.

There was more to this post…..a HAPPY discovery I especially wanted to share with anyone who DOES have a peanut allergy, or knows someone with one. A perfect peanut-butter replacement, if you will. But I know you won’t read much longer, IF you made it this far. So, I’ll make it Part II of sorts, and I promise it’ll be shorter than this one! But if you did read all of this, THANK YOU, and if I haven’t mentioned it : ) please read the info through the sidebar as well. If not today, very soon.

Thank you again, to all of our blog friends and loved ones. <3 And if any of you are seeking a great peanut butter alternative, we recommend this post.

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Our Story

*NOTE: At the time of the writing of this post, our son’s allergy was to peanuts and peanut products only. In subsequent years, an allergy to cashews and pistachios also.

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NOTE: At the time of the writing of this post, our son’s allergy was to peanuts and peanut products only. In subsequent years, an allergy to cashews and pistachios also.*