Weekend Getaways: Food 101 for the Family with Food Allergies

For some, summer means travel.  I relish the lazy days close to home myself, but if we had the option to travel all summer long, I might very well consider it.  Unfortunately, for a food allergy family, traveling is a challenge with an enormous amount of planning involved.

With a severely food allergic child, I feel less and less comfortable eating out, especially when we're far from home.  I think I've got the Epinephrine to ER thing down pat when we're at home, but being on vacation with an allergic reaction is a different story all together.

So I try very hard to limit our restaurant eating and do as much preparing and cooking as I can.  We will be away this weekend for a rare mini getaway with the family, and although we will be within an hour from home, I still have a lot of planning to do.  Some tips to make the getaway more like a vacation and hopefully, less stressful:

1. If you can, book a hotel with a refrigerator at the very least, and for longer trips, some form of a kitchen or microwave is essential.  If there's no microwave in the room, there may be one available for use, like in the lobby.

2. Seek out the markets near your hotel before you go, and plan on making a few trips with a list of easy, allergy-friendly, low maintenance food options in hand.  Some forethought saves you time in the long run.

3. If there is a stove available, bring your own pots/pans and cooking utensils.  This cuts out the mystery and puts some of your cross-contamination worries at ease.

4.  Bring paper goods and disposable eating utensils.  No one likes to wash dishes on vacation, but this is especially important if all you have is a fridge.  An added bonus: kids can eat by the pool and not skip a beat!

5.  Bring drinks or water bottles and lots (and lots) of non-perishable snacks to pack for day trips, have by the pool, or satisfy a craving.  Some of our favorites are safe granola or breakfast bars, crackers, popcorn, fruit or fruit and gel cups (like Dole Fruit and Gel Cups), fruit leathers, seeds, and dried seaweed.

If you're a seasoned food allergy mama you likely already follow these guidelines religiously.  For those of you who might be starting out, know that you CAN have fun while on vacation.  And yes, we were the ones with the 8 grocery bags filled with food upon check-in, but we were also the ones who spent a fabulous 87 degree day by the pool.

Wishing you safe and happy travels this summer!

Bakery-style Chocolate Chip Cookies - free of the top 8 allergens

If you have followed Get Allergy Wise for awhile, you know that most of my recipes are adaptations of preexisting recipes.  I definitely need other recipes as road maps and realize how lucky I am to be able to search the web to find much of what I am looking for.  Recently acquired some parsnips but never cooked with them?  Search for recipes on the internet!  Only have carrots, onions, salsa, and a bag of rice in your cupboards?  Get meal ideas on the internet!  Seriously, we are spoiled with convenient, expansive information these days.

Despite the internet's bottomless pit of great recipes, I am still a fiddler by nature.  I can't help but play around with recipes -- sometimes a little and sometimes a lot -- to fit the needs of my milk-allergic, nut-allergic kids or to lower the sugar content, or to fulfill our family's lifestyle choice of eating more plants and less meat.

So it says a lot (and is pretty rare) when I do *not* find a thing to change about a recipe.  One such recipe is vegan author Dreena Burton's recipe for homestyle chocolate chip cookies.  The recipe is a favorite cookie recipe of mine.  When I first discovered it online two years ago, I think I made batches of it for three months straight, I was that addicted.  I love that the cookie uses oil rather than vegan margarine or shortening and also uses a good amount of maple syrup as the main sweetener.  Even Dreena's estimated bake time (11 minutes) was exactly right for my oven.  Okay, the one thing I did change was that I omit the molasses but that is because I never have any on hand.  Besides that, I couldn't find anything to change about this recipe!

I love Dreena's chocolate chip cookies but the tinkerer in me was curious.  I wondered if I might be able to do something about the wheat-based flour that the original recipe calls for.  Could I replace the flour with something that would be safe for those who are allergic to wheat or gluten-intolerant? 

I've tried the popular gluten-free flour blend of brown rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch.  But I seized the opportunity to go off the beaten GF trail and combine some flour alternatives that have accumulated in my pantry, flours that I must have bought after seeing recipes that I wanted to try but sadly haven't gotten to yet.  I opted for a more protein-rich mix of garbanzo flour (boy, I have a lot of that around!), potato starch, and quinoa flour.


The cookies turned out delicious!  Texture-wise and tastewise, they were very similar to the original recipe.  These cookies were able to attain a more golden brown color than when I make the original homestyle cookies.  (Perhaps the molasses that I always omit usually helps with browning?)  I think the quinoa flour adds a slight nutty flavor but this works fine with the chocolate.  And I don't know why, but big chocolate chunks elevates these cookies to another level.

Bakery-style Chocolate Chip Cookies - free of the top 8 allergens
Adapted from Dreena Burton's homestyle chocolate chip cookie recipe featured on her Vive La Vegan! blog and cookbook of the same name

Dry ingredients:
1 cup garbanzo flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup turbinado "raw" sugar

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup Enjoy Life mega chocolate chunks or 1 cup of safe chocolate, coarsely chopped
Extra sea salt (flakes are great) for sprinkling, optional

1. Preheat 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease or line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.  Make sure any clumps of flour or starch are broken up to ensure even mixing.
3. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Pour oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract into the well and mix the wet ingredients together.
4. Gradually combine wet and dry ingredients, stirring through the dough so that there are no pockets of dry ingredients left.  The dough will be a little thin, not as sticky and thick as a typical gluten-full cookie mix.  Then stir in chocolate chunks. 
   
5. Spoon out 1 to 1.5-inch balls of cookie dough on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with additional sea salt flakes if you so desire.  Leave 2 inches of space between each cookie -- these cookies do spread quite a bit!
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes or until cookies begin to turn golden.  Promptly remove from oven and let cool.

I find these vegan chocolate chip cookies -- Dreena's original or this gluten-free alternative -- very easy to prepare.  We are planning to do some cookie sales this summer to raise funds for the FARE Walk for Food Allergy.   Adding chocolate chunks versus chips is a fun touch to look more professional.

Pasta with Garlic and Lemon

To echo the sentiments of my blogging "spouse" Sarah, I'm so sorry for being so quiet lately! 

My kids are in the home stretch of their school year and, as the last day of school draw closer, things have been getting busier and busier.  I am enjoying their futsal games, swim and soccer classes and helping out more with field trips, fundraisers, classroom, and schoolwide activities.  At the same time, I have needed to balance their school and extracurriculars with my other needs: exercise (my sanity keeper!), cooking, and household chores.  In addition, it didn't help blogging matters that the couple of times I did find myself with time enough to be creative in the kitchen, my dessert attempts were complete failures!  These wasted precious time, energy, and not-so-cheap ingredients while also zapping my kitchen confidence and enthusiasm.

The pitiful results of my attempt at making a vegan chocolate cream roll.

The blog has been patiently waiting its turn as it got temporarily pushed by the wayside by more immediate and urgent to-dos.  I hope, with summer vacation just days away, the blog can makes its ascent back towards the top of my long priority list!  (Here's hoping a lazy summer can help shorten that list, too.)

Having lost my baking mojo, I needed to find a recipe to get me back in the cooking mood.  I decided to go for a simple pasta dish (yeah, not a baked dessert --  I'm still licking my wounds from my recent cake failures).  I found a recipe on Pink Parsley Blog and knew it would be a perfect dish to try.

This dish is so easy, I've made it multiple times for my kids and they have loved it every time.  I added to the dish by incorporating some nutrient-rich leafy greens.  If kale isn't your thing, I have used spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, and chopped red bell pepper with yummy results.  And definitely add in Trader Joe's vegan mozzarella shreds as it makes for a delicious faux Parmesan cheese.  The ultra thin, short shreds have the right texture and taste that adds a punch to pasta dishes.   If you do not have a Trader Joe's near you, rumor has it that Galaxy Foods is the supplier for Trader Joe's vegan mozzarella shreds.

A quick word about kitchen tools: I bought a Microplane grater last year on the advice of one of my son's preschool teachers.  It makes grating lemon zest so easy.  I tried this with fresh ginger with less-than-ideal results (I stick with a normal, little handled grater for that).  I'm not sure how it does with hard cheeses because we are a milk-free house due to food allergies.  Having said that, I still love mine even though I only use it for citrus zest!

Pasta with Garlic and Lemon
Adapted from Pink Parsley's recipe for pasta with garlic, olive oil, and lemon
1 lb dry pasta (regular, whole wheat, gluten-free -- any pasta will do!)
Olive oil
Leaves of 1 to 2 bunches of kale, washed and torn into small pieces
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
8 cloves of garlic, minced
Dried or freshly chopped basil, oregano, or parsley (optional)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 cup of Trader Joe's vegan mozzarella cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Boil pasta to al dente according to package directions.  Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid.  Then drain and rinse completely to halt cooking process.
2. Heat a small amount of olive oil over medium heat.  (I use the same pot that I used for cooking the noodles.)  Add kale leaves to the pot and some salt.  Cook the kale, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.  Remove kale from heat and to a separate plate when the leaves have begun to wilt from cooking.
3. Heat up more olive oil (start with 1/4 cup) in the pot.  Add red pepper flakes and minced garlic to the oil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring to avoid browning or burning the garlic.  
4. When garlic starts to turn golden, toss in pasta noodles.  Mix in basil, oregano, and/or parsley to taste.  Toss pasta.
5. Add cooked kale, lemon juice, and zest and toss pasta to mix.  
6. If the pasta looks a little dry, feel free to add small amounts of the reserved cooking liquid, more olive oil, or more lemon juice.  
7. When the pasta is well-coated with sauce, remove from heat.  Add in the vegan cheese.  
8. Taste test the pasta and add in more salt, pepper, lemon, or vegan cheese as needed.

Here's to some easy meals this summer.  After a long school year, we all deserve a little break!

Baking Therapy--Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies: No dairy, egg, or nuts

I apologize for how quiet it's been around here.  May means both days and evenings are packed with various end-of-the-year activities and events that are fun and exhausting.  So even though it feels quiet out there, there's plenty going on around here.

Logan is finishing up his soccer season, Tristan is knee-deep into Little League playoffs, the kids are preparing for final rehearsals for their annual dance recital, and I am busy shuttling them around to all of these things.  I am looking forward to lazy summer beach and playground days, trips to the library and museum, and picnics and bike rides in the park; but before the reprieve of summer, there's still so much to do!

A few days ago, I was up all night with a migraine.  My headaches are the one thing that can slow me down.  My body is telling me to drink more water, eat regularly, get more sleep, and reduce the stress!  As moms, we know we frequently become last priority.  So the next day, I headed to the gym, then came home and decided to leave the messy house and piles of laundry alone--some baking therapy was what I needed!

I am always looking for a new and easy chocolate dessert recipe.  I love cookies in particular because they are easy to transport, package, and eat without too much fuss (if you have a four-year-old who only likes the frosting off of cupcakes, and two boys who don't like frosting at all, you know what I'm talking about).  They are perfect for bake sales, teacher's gifts, and cookie jar fillers.  And who doesn't like a good chocolate chip cookie?  Especially when it's a chocolate chocolate chip cookie, free of dairy, egg, and nuts.

I modified this Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from food.com to make it egg and dairy free.  I feel like it would do well with a gluten-free flour mix, too.  Now if you have been really good at watching your diet in the hopes that your tropical vacation in a couple of weeks will include something remotely resembling a bathing suit (ahem...), you might want to forgo baking these cookies.  They're incredibly addicting, especially for the chocoholic.

Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies-- NO EGG, NO DAIRY, NO NUTS modified from food.com's Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe

1-1/4 cups Earth Balance

2 cups sugar

2 egg equivalent of Ener-G Egg Replacer (1 T. Ener-G plus 4 T. warm water, whisked together in a small bowl)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups flour (or gluten-free flour substitute)

3/4 cup cocoa (I use Ghiradelli Unsweetened Cocoa)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups chocolate chips (I use Trader Joe's Semi-Sweet Chips.  Try Enjoy Life mini chips or mega chunks for a variation)

Directions

1.  Cream together Earth Balance and sugar.  Add 2-egg equivalent of Ener-G Egg Replacer and vanilla extract.

2.  Stir in cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

3.  Add the flour and fold in the chocolate chips.

4.  Bake at 350 on parchment lined baking sheet for 8 - 9 minutes.

Pepita Fudge - full of indulgence but free of the top 8 allergens

Mother's Day, Father's Day, Teacher Appreciation Week, the end of the school year...in spring there are many events when we celebrate and thank those who make a huge difference in the lives of our children.  I would love to pick out the perfect gifts that truly show how much I appreciate these special people in our lives but I seldom feel like I get it right.  (Oh, how I wish I could give and receive the gift of time!!)  What I have become accustomed to doing is giving a gift card and a homemade treat -- a way for the recipient to choose what is their perfect gift and a personal way for me to show some love.

Cookies are often my go-to gifts but sometimes it's nice to go a little different, a little more decadent.  And with the weather warming up in my part of the country in the 90s this week and last, it's nice to have a treat recipe that won't add 10 degrees on to an already sweltering kitchen.  I recently discovered a 5-minute vegan fudge recipe that fits the bill.   The recipe comes from Hannah Kaminsky, the amazingly talented (and young!) author of the dessert cookbook My Sweet Vegan.  It is a naturally dairy-free, egg-free, wheat-free, gluten-free recipe that I have adjusted to be free of soy, tree nuts, and peanuts as well!

My first batch of fudge using semisweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of pepitas

The recipe is so quick and easy, it almost feels like cheating!  As I am wont to do, I tweaked the recipe a bit to fit my tastes.  I cut down the sweetness by reducing the amount of powdered sugar.  I really wanted to decrease the sweetness even more but I know that a certain amount of powdered sugar is needed in order for the fudge to set properly.  In a second batch I substituted unsweetened baking chocolate for semisweet chocolate and sweetened cocoa -- sadly this is all I happened to have at the time -- with pretty good results.  It was hard to melt the baking chocolate and the fudge turned out a little softer but it still holds up pretty well.  I think unsweetened baking chocolate and a mix of unsweetened cocoa with a little bit more powdered sugar could work to achieve a less sweet, soft fudge but I am not positive.  I haven't tried it and we have quite a lot of fudge to get through before I'm ready to make a new batch!  (I will update this post once I try this but do let me know if you try it sooner!)  Instead of adding nuts to the fudge I added roasted pepitas, the edible part of pumpkin seeds. I like to include seeds to counter the sweetness and to add more texture to the fudge.

A perfect way to showcase your fudge and impress that special person in your life is to wrap the chocolates in a candy box.  I found cake slice boxes online at Amazon.com but you can also find them at your local crafts supply store.  Buy some mini-cupcake liners and some ribbon and you now have the makings of a fancy gift!

I thought about cutting the fudge into heart shapes but, really, why complicate things?  It's chocolate. C'mon.  We moms love delicious chocolate no matter what it looks like.  And, to dads who are braving the kitchen to make these treats: we moms will gladly take simple squares instead of an extra pile of cutters, knives, and dishes waiting by the sink to be washed.  (Of course, my husband would never do that to me...except for on Valentine's Day, oh maybe 15 years ago.)

Vegan fudge using 1/3 cup pepitas and baking chocolate instead of semisweet chips

Feel free to double this recipe for thicker chunks of fudge or triple it and pop it in a 13"x9" pan.

Chocolate Pepita Fudge
Adapted from Hannah Kaminsky's recipe from her vegan dessert book My Sweet Vegan

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup canned full-fat coconut milk
1 cup of dairy-free chocolate chips or 4 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate squares
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup roasted, unsalted pepitas

1. Whisk together cocoa powder, powdered sugar, chocolate chips (or baking chocolate) and dash of salt in a microwave-safe bowl.
2. In a separate small saucepan, cook coconut oil and coconut milk over low heat.  Stir to melt coconut oil.
3. When the mixture just begins to bubble (it takes just a minute or two), turn off heat and remove from burner.  
4. Add vanilla extract and a dash of salt to saucepan.
5. Add dry mixture to saucepan.  Stir until mixture is melted and smooth.  You may have to try heat the mixture more to melt the baking chocolate.
6. Stir in pepitas.  Then spread fudge in a greased or lined 8-inch square pan.  
7. Cool the fudge completely on counter top.  When it is cool, refrigerate fudge for several hours to set.   Makes approximately 3 dozen 3/8-inch squares of fudge.  
8. For thicker, roughly 3/4-inch fudge squares, simply double the recipe and set in an 8-inch square pan.

*If you are using unsweetened baker's chocolate in place of semisweet chocolate chips, you will need to add your baking squares with the coconut oil and coconut milk.  Heat mixture, stirring occasionally, until squares melt.

Raising kids -- especially kids with food allergies and other medical needs -- takes a village.  It is a weighty task that requires love, understanding, and patience.  No thank-you would be quite as powerful without the voices of our children to echo their appreciation for the work of their teachers, parents, caregivers, and advocates.  Be sure to allow time for your kids to make cards and pictures for that special person!  If your kids are feeling particularly inspired, check out some of our craft ideas for flowers, more flowers, cards, and flower cards.

Traveling with food allergies: always an adventure!

Hanging out with Mater in Cars Land

I used to enjoy traveling.

Don't get me wrong.  I still love poring over friends' photo albums.  I reminisce with my husband about taking a Thai cooking class and finding the cheapest massage ever while exploring the streets of Chiang Mai.  And I still aspire to see more of Asia, more of Europe, and the other three continents I have yet to explore.

Once my eldest son, Ryken, was born I knew it would be a lot harder to travel with the adventurous attitude of my kidless years.  Kids need routines, not to mention good sleep and flexibility, and the confines of planes, hotels, and restaurants can throw off kids.

Little did I know that having kids with food allergies would not only make travel MUCH harder but it would make travel almost completely unattractive to me.  Now, the beautiful images of pristine blue waters and white sands are marred by anxieties over a lack of safe restaurant choices.  Ziplining through lush rainforests and sleeping among trees have been ruled out because you certainly won't find a fully equipped hotel suite with kitchen up a tree in a jungle and who knows where the nearest hospital will be.  Visiting the grandparents in China has been put off indefinitely because we do not trust that we will get clear answers on what is in our food and cross-contamination is way too risky in a country that doesn't have or deal regularly with food allergies like our own.

Despite my legitimate concerns over travel, it is sometimes necessary for us to travel.  And we do want our kids to experience fun places and activities that their peers do, too.  My husband is great about overriding my anxieties and insisting that we take advantage of spring break and take a family trip.  Since we had such a fun time last year in southern California, we decided to plan a very similar trip with days in Disneyland's California Adventure, Legoland, and the sunny, beachy areas of San Diego.

We stayed with family for the first couple of days and then took up residence at Homewood Suites (very close to Legoland) which offers accommodations with a small kitchen.  A kitchen is the #1 must-have for all of our trips.  Our #2 must-have seems to be a Trader Joe's within short driving distance.  Seriously, we ate more Trader Joe's ready-made food than we have ever eaten before.  I can say with full confidence that the kids are as sick of turkey club wraps as my husband is of eggplant wraps.  (I, on the other hand, could always go for a lentil wrap!)

Sharing a sofa bed and indulging in Cartoon Network
were other big pluses at Homewood Suites. 

Even though we had access to a kitchen, I did very little "real" cooking during on our vacation.  It's more like I use hotel kitchens for the refrigerator to store sandwiches and ice packs that we take into amusement parks for our safe lunches.   And a microwave is handy to throw together mostly already-prepared (and previously-vetted) into some semblance of a meal.  It's too hard for me to prepare any of our usual meals without a fully stocked kitchen.  And I often have no energy to spend a couple hours cooking after a full day of exploring, driving, or having fun in the sun.  Anyway, shouldn't I get to relax a little, too?  It's a family vacation, after all.

My husband's great.  He can even make grocery runs
(and there were many) good fun for the kids!

We feel very comfortable having most of our trip food come from Trader Joe's because it's familiar and safe.  However, we did try to break up the monotony.  We ate at five different restaurants during our week-long road trip, three of which we had safely eaten at before which.  Out of the five restaurants, we had problematic experiences at two of them.  And guess what?  One of them was a restaurant we have frequented many times before and the second was a restaurant chain highly recommended by many food-allergic eaters!

The first restaurant was actually our favorite local Thai spot.  We had ordered takeout the night before our drive to Southern California.  And as usual, I had spoken to one of the servers and explained the kids' food allergies which the server quickly recognized -- we must be the only "regulars" with milk/peanut/tree nut allergies.  We ordered our usual pad see ew noodle dishes with steamed tofu (never deep-fried in case frying oil is reused and contaminated with milk and nut particles).  This is a dish we've eaten over and over again without any problems.  And the kids again had no problem with the noodles.  A day later, while spooning out some leftovers for Ryken and me, imagine my panic when I discovered HALF OF A PEANUT in one of our untouched boxes of pad see ew.

My heart almost leapt out of my chest when I spotted it.

Sadly I think it might be a really long time before Ryken is comfortable eating Thai food from a restaurant again.

(Side note: Many people have questioned how I can feel comfortable ordering Thai food when a couple of their most popular dishes are made with peanuts.  The truth is we speak to the servers about how peanuts are used -- are they cooked in the pan, any peanut oil used, is peanut sauce placed on the side, are chopped peanuts only used for garnishing finished dishes?--  we carry our Allergy Translation cards, and we get a sense for how thorough the servers are in speaking with their chefs about our needs.  We have felt comfortable with this restaurant because the chef and servers know us by face.  But this accident has made me rethink restaurant-made Thai food.  The threat of an errant peanut making its way in to a cooking pan is too risky.  Plus, my wise Ryken has declared that he never wants to eat in a Thai restaurant again, the close-call clearly having an impact on him.)

Photo taken by Aranami from his/her Flickr photostream

The second restaurant that we had problems with was Chipotle Mexican Grill.  The Chipotle chain has been touted as a good option for people with various food allergies.  The company's lists major allergens in each menu item on their website and proclaims that their food is completely egg-free, nut-free, shellfish-free and fish-free.  Dairy products are limited to the cheese and sour cream so, in theory, someone with a milk allergy could get a safe meal so long as proper care has been taken to prevent cross contamination.

We tried Chipotle as I had read a lot of positive reviews from other food allergy parents.  Sadly, it wasn't a good experience for us.  Ryken developed a stomach ache a few minutes into eating.  He claims he felt a little stomach ache before dinner but it was clear to us that his stomach ache intensified after he began eating.  We monitored his symptoms and kept our EpiPen Jr. packs close by while we rushed back to the hotel.  His stomach started feeling better after about half an hour from when we ate.  I can't say for certain what Ryken reacted to -- cross contamination of milk or maybe he has an undiagnosed allergy to a less common ingredient (maybe a spice) used in the cooking process?  All I know is that we had big hopes for being able to add another safe restaurant to our very short list but it was not meant to be.

I don't regret the decision to try eating out with the kids but I am very grateful the reactions were under control.  And despite those two incidents, we still had a fantastic time.  But I can't tell you the enormous sense of relief I felt to come back home -- forget sleeping in my own bed, I was relieved to cook our meals again in the safety of our milk-free, nut-free kitchen!   Phew.  I sure could use a vacation after the vacation.

Until we meet again, gorgeous San Diego beaches!

My Personal Mission: A Nuts Table in Every School

My 8-year-old has been going through a huge transition year that I was not fully prepared for.  I must admit I didn't see third grade as being such an important year in my food allergic child's life, and I've been caught off guard by some of the challenges he's been faced with at school.  There has been food-allergy associated teasing and bullying, resulting in a lot of hurt feelings and confidence issues.

One of the reasons why I loved his school to begin with was the Nuts Table.  No, not the No-Nuts Table.  The Nuts Table.  If kids choose to bring nuts to school in their lunches, they must sit at the Nuts Table.  Too bad our school only implements it from kindergarten through second grade, then it changes to a No-Nuts Table. And for us, this was the year the trouble began.  I've tried to speak to them about it, but alas, this is their policy.  Well, you know what they say.  Try, try again.

It doesn't take much to understand that our kids would rather be part of a team than on the bench.

If your child's school already has a No-Nuts Table, then they already have a table designated for a group of children.  Perfect.  With a little reeducation, our food allergic children can sit with the masses.  It is my personal mission to try to change as many No-Nuts Tables into Nuts Tables as possible, through forward-thinking allergy-conscious people, like you!

You probably don't need it spelled out for you, but here goes...the top six reasons why I love the Nuts Table:

1.  Like I said, all it takes is a table and a bit of education.  It's so easy to implement, it's almost a no-brainer.  There are a plethora of rules and procedures associated with the lunchroom anyway, all of which are necessary to keep it running smoothly and safely.  This is such an important one for our school communities, in order to lead by example and demonstrate inclusion at lunch time.

2.  Most food allergic children will experience a sense of isolation and teasing along the way; we don't need to exacerbate this divide by putting them at their own table at lunch, too.  It's heartbreaking to think that this divisiveness could be avoided.  A Nuts Table says to our food allergic children, "Hey, we want you to be safe, but not excluded."

3.  A No-Nuts Table punishes kids who have no choice about their food allergies, while a Nuts table empowers children who actually have a choice about what they eat to consider their food preferences more carefully.

4.  A Nuts Table confines nuts, residues, and crumbs to one table, thus making a more thorough and focused table cleaning possible, and resulting in less allergic reactions due to cross contamination.

5.  A No-Nuts Table gives lunchroom monitors a sense of false security when it comes to food allergies.  It assumes that the possibility of an allergic reaction is highly unlikely.  In reality, about a third of children with food allergies have multiple food allergies, which means that these children still need to vigilantly follow safe practices at the No-Nuts Table.

6.  The Nuts Table is a wonderful means for every child to educate her parents about food allergies and about making food choices that affect us all.  After all, the parents are the ones making the lunches, but the kids have a say in what they want for lunch.

I've read enough stories similar to my son's to know that the No-Nuts Table, although a good first attempt at keeping our food allergic children safe, is a bit outdated.  We can do better for our children.

Please read, pass this on to your school administrators, friends, and family.  And thank you for always being your children's greatest advocate!