Allergy Action

As everyone makes New Year's resolutions about being more organized, saving money or the dreaded losing weight, at our house we have made a resolution that affects all of these. Our (or rather My) resolution is to cook more at home.  Everyone knows that it is cheaper and healthier (depending on which types of foods you choose to cook) but it is also a time commitment both in and out of the kitchen.

For most people, it sounds good to cook at home, even makes sense to, but it is not life threatening if they do not.  In our family, it may be just that.

My son J has a tree nut allergy. Not peanuts, which is what everyone assumes when we use the term nut allergy, but tree nuts, walnuts and pecans in particular.  Something interesting about allergen families; you can desensitize yourself to some (like pet dander) by exposing yourself just a little bit at a time but exposing yourself just a little bit to others, like tree nuts, can make you More sensitive! In the case of tree nuts, even exposure to nuts that you are not currently presenting a reaction to can increase your sensitivity to ALL tree nuts.

At first, we didn't worry too much. I mean, after all, he had made it almost four years before his first reaction. We figured, "okay, we just won't give him foods with nuts in them. No big deal." Then he had not one but TWO anaphilactic reactions to foods that did not have nuts in them. They had been processed on equipment that had been used for foods containing tree nuts, specifically walnuts- that's his big bad one. So then we became very conscious of checking labels for potential tree nut traces.

J's birthday is right at the beginning of the school year. I figured it was a good chance for him to make friends at his new school, so I planned on bringing cupcakes for the class. Due to allergies like his, our school disctrict only allows store bought foods to be shared with the class. After DAYS of searching, I could not find any store bought cupcakes without tree nut warnings. I did find a bakery where the owner said they could clean their machines real good the day before and make his cupcakes the first batch of the next day but there would still be no gaurantee that all the traces would be gone (and for only $55 for 24!!!). So I finally ended up making cupcakes just for J so he could have one he could actually eat (the rest are in the freezer for other students' birthdays) and buying a regular batch for the other students. I realized that I had to be careful even with the ones I made at home. Many of the boxed mixes still had tree nut warnings.


We ran into a similar situation this holiday season. We all got sick, so rather than cooking dishes for gatherings, I decided to buy some. It took me twenty minutes at a fairly large store to find One dessert with no tree nut warnings I could bring to a party. I had also planned on getting some baguettes & bruschetta for an appetizer, but the Bread had tree nut warnings! Even some brands of sandwich bread have tree nut warnings!


I also began to wonder how many times he had eaten something with traces of nuts he doesn't react to. I thought of all the times we had eaten at restaurants, used mixes, etc. Had they been making him more sensitive without us even realizing it? After all, by the time he was tested by the allergist, his reaction to walnuts was so severe that it gave pause to the allergist who then "prescribed for us to carry not one, but two epi-pens at all times.


So, out of concern for the well-being of my kids, I am making a resolution to cook at home more. Baked goods in particular seem to be our culprit, so I will be experimenting with lots of recipes to find a sandwich bread and a more dense French/Italian type for dinner recipes. Of course I'll do desserts as well. I mean, what is a kitchen experiment without desserts?


I'll be sure to take pictures and share what does and doesn't work with you as well.  I'll be posting full recipes and reviews on Time to be Mom in the Kitchen

If anyone has any ideas on recipes to try or tips on bread baking, which I am new to, please feel free to share. I hope you will find some that will be useful to you!

Happy baking!