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Countdown to Valentine’s Day – recipes galore!

Anu Rao

Love, love, love this time of the year – the cute Valentine’s day parties at school, clumsy but affectionate attempts by beaus to fix a romantic dinner or breakfast in bed – delicious ;-). So, here is an allergy friendly recipe countdown to this most loving time of the year. Best of all, we will also make it nutritious…

1) Savory high protein waffles: Kicking off Valentine’s Day celebrations on a high note…met an amazing woman over this weekend who has this uncanny gift of making food super fun. Her larger than life approach to all things culinary is captured in an informative and humorous food blog, ‘Iyer n’ Chef Wannabe‘. Her rendition of savory waffles is not just packed with proteins but also allergy friendly…the only ingredient being dehusked matpe beans (also known as black gram, urad, udad). This ingredient is most easily available in most South Asian grocery stores and more specifically in Indian stores. So, here is Niv Mani, ‘Waffling around’. Thanks Niv – my son loved your allergy friendly waffles and am sure there will be many who will fall in love with it 🙂

Options: Up the nutrition quotient by adding finely shredded cabbage or thinly sliced spinach or grated carrots or let your creativity go wild and share the happy results with us…

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Latest on Vegan Rella

Anu Rao

Why oh why is it so hard to get our hands on a block of Vegan rella – as far as I know, it is the only cheese out there that is dairy and soy free but still manages to taste pretty decent. Vegan Rella is one of the many products manufactured by Panos Brands and should be available at these store locations  according to their customer service people. ‘Should’ being the operative word here 😉

In recent times, I have always found it at Wegman’s, but have been unable to get my hands on the cheddar flavor Vegan Rella. Panos Brands customer service guys were unable to tell me when and where I could find them!!

For further details:

Parent Company: http://www.wessanen.com/

Address: 160 Pehle Avenue, Park 80 East,  Saddle Brook, NJ 07663, USA

Telephone number: +1 201 843 8900;  Fax number: +1 201 368 3575

Website: www.panosbrands.com;  Email: info@panosbrands.com

Good luck finding Vegan Rella…

Useful Links & Articles

Allergic Girl – A review

Anu Rao

One of my favorite food allergy blogs has got to be Allergic Girl . Sloane Miller offers useful, practical and fun ways of leading a full life with food allergies. Her book  ‘Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well with Food Allergies ‘ is just what the allergist ordered 😉 The book trailer is a must watch, fun preview…

Her blog is a gold mine of informations but one article taught me a life lesson. When dealing with food allergies, doctors, nurses and parents are always talking about anaphylactic shock, epipen, benadryl et al but I have never heard anyone heard anyone talk about PTSD associated with anaphylactic shock. I am one parent who is guilty of it too – how can such a traumatic event as being 5 minutes away from death not result in PTSD?!? Allergic Girl was the first website I found that talked about this – PTSD . Thank you Ms. Sloan Miller for making me that much more of an informed parent.

Recipes

Allergy friendly Mung Bean Soup

Anu Rao

Can it get any colder?! Feels like NJ is getting slammed by snowstorms like never before…what better time for a bowl of warm mung bean soup – rich in proteins, fiber and as always allergy friendly. It also happens to be my little one’s favorite – yayy!

Ingredients:

– Dehusked split dry Mung Bean: 1/2 cup

– Turmeric: 1/4 teaspoon

–  Pepper                                                                                                 –

– Olive Oil or any other oil (Corn, Canola, Vegetable):  1/2 tablespoon                      

– Salt to taste

– Optional: 1 cup finely chopped Spinach, 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds, pinch of asafoetida, 1 tbsp finely cut coriander leaves

Method:

– Measure  the mung bean in a 4 quart heavy bottomed saucepan.                               -Wash the mung bean and drain all the water. Add 3 cups of water and the turmeric and stir till the turmeric is completely stirred in.          

– Heat the saucepan on medium to high flame till the water comes to a boil. Turn it down to medium heat so that the water is simmering.  

– Stir the soup every 10 minutes to ensure that it is not sticking to the bottom of the vessel.                                                                                                                                                 – In about 30 – 40 minutes, the lentils will be completely cooked. Add the required amount of salt and turn down the flame to low.                                                  

– In a small saucepan heat the olive oil. When the oil is heated, add the cumin seeds (Omit the cumin seeds if you don’t want to add cumin seeds.) Switch of the flame and add ground black pepper and pinch of asafoetida (optional)   

Small saucepan to heat oil

– Add the heated oil with the seasoning to the soup and finely chopped coriander leaves. Give it a good stir and switch of the flame.

Variations:

1) To increase flavor and nutritional content add the cut spinach in the last 10 minutes of cooking time.                                                                                                               

 2) Spinach is just one example. This lentil soup is remarkably versatile – add cooked carrots, cucumber, cabbage, or sauteed onions, green peppers. Let your imagination run wild and make this soup yours 😉

Ways to enjoy it…

1) Have it as a soup as is.         

2) Mix it with rice – yummy and nutritionally awesome!       

3) Use it as a dip for tortillas, pita bread etc.

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And, the journey continues…

Anu Rao

A lot of exciting changes have happened since I last wrote about my son’s multiple food allergies –  http://allergyfoodie.com/2009/09/20/there-is-hope-a-personal-story/. It definitely merits an update of my 5 year old’s journey navigating the bizzare world of allergies 🙂

His 5th birthday was super special – for the first time he got to celebrate a cake made from wheat. Thanks to http://www.hotbreadsusa.com/ (Hot Breads – a bakery which traces its origins to Hot Breads in Chennai, India) – Arjun had a nut-free, soy-free, egg-free, dairy-free Spongebob Squarepants cake 🙂 The owner was so particular about keeping it contamination free that he let me stay through the entire process of baking and decorating so long as I promised not to reveal his trade secrets on youtube 🙂 The cake was so yummy that even the parents could not resist a bite. The sense of wonder was palpable – how could a cake without eggs or dairy be so good?! It was a very proud moment for Arjun – for the first time his birthday cake not only looked like his friends’ cakes but also was a huge hit. The Hot Breads baker called me after the party was over to ensure that Arjun was ok. Now, that’s what I call cusomer service. Hot Breads is definitely one bakery that is a must try whether you are a vegan or suffer from food allergies! 

His dream come true...

 Over the summer of 2010, Arjun had his annual blood work done to see if he had outgrown any of his allergies. The best news – his overall IgE level remained the same. Whew – at least the situation had not worsened! Not expecting any major changes in his diet but armed with the blood work results we went to meet the allergist. Imagine my surprise when the doc told me that the egg and dairy allergy numbers had come down enough that I could try to introduce these in his diet in small quantities if it was fully cooked and a part of another dish. In other words, I was not supposed to give a small piece of boiled egg or cheese as is. Specifically, the allergist wanted me to take a  two step approach:

1) Give Arjun dishes with a small amount of dairy incorporated for a period of   6 weeks – mashed potatoes with butter, cookies made using butter or milk, vegetables sauteed in a small amount of butter etc. If he did not exhibit any adverse reactions, I could move on to the nest step.

2) Give him dishes made with a small quantity of egg in it for a period of 6 weeks – pancakes, waffles, cakes etc. If he had no adverse reactions, then I could start giving him dishes with small  amounts of cooked egg and/or milk on an everyday basis.

With much trepidation, we started the process in September. Fortunately, Arjun suffered no adverse reaction. He was at last able to eat dishes with small quantities of egg and/or dairy. The whole family celebrated over a huge breakfast at IHOP where Arjun had a sumptuous meal of pancakes, hashbrowns and sausages – something that he had only dreamt of 🙂 Today, he can eat most of the things they learn to make in the cookery class at school, eat a slice of cake at a birthday party if it is nut-free, eat cupcakes at school parties and much more.

But most of all, Arjun has faith in mommy’s words that things will improve as he grows older! He has seen how from just rice at age 1, he is now able to have so much more. It is this faith that keeps us happy in the moment and also keeps us going on, in the hope of a better tomorrow. 

And , the journey continues… 

My joy...

 

Ingredient

More on ‘Flax Seed Allergy’

Anu Rao

 

Flaxseed – the power house of Omega 3, an essential fatty acid that the body is incapable of synthesizing on its own! Yes, the very same Omega 3 fatty acid that is being touted as a possible deterrent to cardiovascular disease, depression, cancer, arthritis and a host of other health problems from ADHD and reduced inflammation to Bipolar disorder. Little wonder, this magic seed is fast becoming a part of everything from yogurt to bread! With that there has been an increase in the number of people discovering that they are severely allergic to Flax. I did not understand the full extent of this problem till I wrote a post on flax seed allergy – the reader response was tremendous and led to one of the readers writing a guest post on the very same issue. That article too had high readership!! The reason is simple – flax seed allergy is still relatively uncommon.  With its new found fame, there are zillions of articles dedicated to flax but hardly any talking about flax seed allergies.

Many of my readers had a lot of useful information for people with flax seed allergy – alternative names, food products containing flax, useful links, symptoms and more. This post is a compilation of this input and more…

Continue reading “More on ‘Flax Seed Allergy’” →

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2010 in review

Anu Rao

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2010. That’s about 29 full 747s.

In 2010, the total archive of this blog was 38 posts. There were 11 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 773kb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was January 5th with 142 views. The most popular post that day was Flax Seed Allergy…what next?!?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were enjoylifefoodsblog.com, facebook.com, mail.yahoo.com, avoidingmilkprotein.blogspot.com, and search.aol.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for flax seed allergy, flax allergy, vegan rella, vegan rella cheese, and flaxseed allergy.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Flax Seed Allergy…what next?!? August 2009
38 comments

2

Uncommon allergies – Flax seed! March 2010
45 comments

3

Vegan Rella (Rice Cheese) June 2009
11 comments

4

Where is Vegan Rella cheese? November 2009
9 comments

5

About Me June 2009
37 comments

Useful Links & Articles

News from the ‘food allergy’ world…

Anu Rao

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is one of my CNN heroes as he and his team bring a variety of medical news to the common man through the blog ‘pagingdrgupta’ making information more easily available. Here are a couple of links relevant to allergy sufferers:

The latest document released by AAAI (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology) contain the guidelines for the best practices for management of a disease where there is no current treatment – the first ever of its kind.

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/06/docs-get-guide-for-iding-food-allergies/?hpt=T2

The second link addresses the dangerous prevalence of bullying food allergy sufferers . Hard to imagine that young children can find food allergies funny and a sign of weakness leading them to bully kids suffering from severe food allergies. However, I have come across moms who are doctors expressing annoyance with the schools their kids go to for not allowing them to send an easy peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If doctor moms don’t get it – how do we expect a middle-schooler to get it?!? Maybe the idea that its not their problem and the allergy sufferer should look out for themselves is being perpetrated through unconscious social cues.  The media definitely plays an active role in furthering this …almost every other sitcom has one laughable character with food allergies – Dr. Niles Crane from the otherwise brilliantly made ‘Frasier’, Howard from ‘Big Bang Theory’. In an era when McDonald’s can be sued for fattening people and Dunkin Donuts for scalding hot coffee – food allergies, in my opinion, is a far more serious issue!  CNN got an overwhelming response to their article “Food allergies make kids a target of bullies” http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/28/food.allergy.bullying/index.html

As a food allergy sufferer or their caretaker, the link to the following blogpost is an eyeopener to what is out there:

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/29/allergy-bullies-in-school-your-thoughts/?iref=obinsite

Ingredient

Beyond lentils: allergy friendly ‘Vegetarian Proteins’

Anu Rao

 

Brrr – winter is here – what can be better than a bowl of warm and nourishing lentil soup?  Yummy – and yet a simple pleasure like this is denied if one tests positive for lentil allergy. Recently, a reader asked me if there are other kinds of lentils that one could try even if they tested positive for lentil allergy. Although, the allergist is the best person to give a qualified opinion – in my personal experience, the answer is ‘Yes’! At the very least – ‘lentils’ is just one kind of pulse and there are many more in this category that is worth investigating in conjunction with the allergist. 

Pulses

Continue reading “Beyond lentils: allergy friendly ‘Vegetarian Proteins’” →