Real Life Archives - Allergy Awesomeness

A Mother & Son’s Journey Through Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EOE)

February 16, 2018 by allergyawesomeness@gmail.com

Next month it will be officially five years since my son was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis (also known as EOE, previously known as EE). We’ve tried lots of things and settled into our rare disease life. Because of the publicity of this blog, I often receive lots of questions about how we’ve handled it, and so I thought it’d be helpful to share what we’ve done and learned along the way, in one easy-to-find article.

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Tips for Grocery Shopping on a Budget with Food Allergies

January 23, 2018 by allergyawesomeness@gmail.com

Specialty food allergy ingredients can often be 2-3xs the price of regular ingredients–which can make grocery shopping on a budget feel impossible. I’m going to share my top five tips on how I stay within budget even while having to avoid over 30 foods for food allergies and EOE. I’ve got a video where I show you exactly what I bought for an entire week of groceries for a family of five and what I’ll use it for. From one allergy mom to another–we can do this!

I’ve summarized my tips below, but be sure to watch the video for all the details.

TIPS FOR GROCERY SHOPPING WITH FOOD ALLERGIES:

Plan out your dinners–It can be time consuming to plan out your dinners, I get it! But, one thing that helps me is having one night a week set aside to do it, so that it becomes a habit and I have the time for it built into my schedule. I do it every Sunday night–that way I can do grocery pick up in the morning and I know I’ll have the rest of the week’s dinners planned. I promise you it’s worth the effort because I know I’d never stay on budget if I didn’t go into grocery shopping with a game plan! And you might say, “Well…I write a meal plan, buy the stuff and then don’t make it. So now what?” One way I get around this is I write on each day’s line what we’re doing that day if there is an activity around dinner time, that way I can see that I might need a quicker meal (sheet pan dinner, slow cooker) since that day we have dance or soccer to make sure I have enough time to actually execute it.
Use up your pantry–This goes hand in hand with step #1. After I write down all of my daily dinners, I write down all of the ingredients each dinner needs. Then, I go through my pantry and fridge and cross off anything I already have. Maybe I see I have some cilantro, but it’s looking a little sad, so I’ll move up taco night to ensure we can use that up before it goes bad, instead of buying another bunch. And so on, and so forth! By shopping from myself first I find I actually don’t need as much as I thought I did!
Eat leftovers—I know, I know. Insert eye rolling here. But, if you throw out what you worked hard on–what a waste! Plus, it’s the EASIEST lunch. I eat leftovers almost every day for lunch. If I go to the trouble to cook a dinner from scratch–why do I want to make lunch for myself too? No thanks. I’d rather pop some leftovers in the microwave and have a healthy, allergy-friendly lunch. The money you can save by using up your food is crazy. I’d rather not have my absolute favorite lunch every day and actually take my kids to do fun things instead. You gotta weigh it out like that to help you swallow it (literally!)
Buy as many regular ingredients as you can—I LOVE me some allergy-friendly specific brands. I would die if I didn’t have the convenience and ease of an allergy-friendly granola bar–but I consider those a luxury and not a weekly shopping item. My kids have learned to snack on things that are regular foods and not crazy expensive (IE: chips and salsa) instead. I try to only go to specialty grocery stores every few weeks, because it’s too temping to find all of the specialty foods and want to buy them ALLLLLLLLLLLL. (If you need a list of the allergy-friendly snacks my kids eat on the regular, check out this post.)
Freeze what you don’t use and use what you freeze! If I make a big batch of soup then I’ll freeze the extras (especially if I already have a ton of leftovers I still need to eat up, so our fridge can actually shut!). It’s great when someone is sick (especially me!) then all I have to do is just warm something up. We can’t just call in a pizza order or go out to eat like most people, so make your own convenience foods. It’s so nice to have something easy to pull out of the freezer that you know is safe for days when real life hits! I like to also keep a running list on my freezer where I write down what I’m putting in it, so they don’t get shoved in there and forgotten. Then, the next time I’m making fried chicken, I can remember I have half a loaf of corn bread we can eat with it!

I give the most details in the video, so be sure to watch it below (or on YouTube)!

———->And, if you’ve never tried grocery pick-up, like I love and mention in the video, then you’ve gotta try it! If you use my affiliate link, you get $10 off your first order at Wal-Mart’s grocery pick up!

If you’d like to make the exact meal plan I did, here’s a link to all of the dinner’s I bought groceries for, so you too can find the ingredients:

*****Also, if you’d like a two week’s dinner menu with a grocery shopping list, all under $200, then be sure to purchase my e-book!*****

Lastly, be sure to leave your tips for how you stay on budget while grocery shopping with food allergies below to help future readers.

DON’T FORGET TO PIN THIS, SO YOU DON’T LOSE IT. ALSO, BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY OTHER ALLERGY-FRIENDLY PINTEREST BOARDS.

Do you want some inexpensive treats you can make yourself for food allergies? Here are a few of our go-to snacks and treats:

How to Make Jello Pudding Dairy Free (Top-8-Free Too!)

Allergy-friendly Rice Krispies (Top 8 Free)

Happy Trails Mix (Nut, DF, Top 8 Free)

Gluten, Dairy & Oat-free Energy Balls

What in the World Do You Feed Your Kids: Candy

Epi-Pens at Disneyland for a Safe Family Vacation (Plus a discount!)

November 24, 2017 by allergyawesomeness@gmail.com

A lot of people assume that traveling is difficult when dealing with allergies. It may require a bit more planning, but traveling with allergies can still be awesome, fulfilling and memory making! Vacations are important and because Disneyland does everything so well, it has become a favorite destination for many families who have food allergies. If you’ve been hesitant about booking a Disneyland vacation because of allergies, don’t be.

In fact, keep reading to learn more about epi pens at Disney, or if you can’t wait–simply click now, if you want to partner with my favorite travel agency, Get Away Today, to get their GUARANTEED LOWEST RATES on tickets and hotels and packages!

PURCHASE NOW!

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Allergy-friendly Easter Candy (Store bought, Top 8 free)

April 13, 2017 by allergyawesomeness@gmail.com

Does a family member, neighbor or church group need an easy list of allergy-friendly candy to buy for their Easter egg hunt or party? Send them this list! All of the candies below are free of the top allergens, are easy-to-find and would make any kid smile and feel included this holiday. These candies are free of: gluten, dairy, egg, soy. peanut & tree nuts. There are also allergy-specific brands and non-food ideas too!

I wanted to challenge myself, so I went to a regular grocer and wanted to see how many allergy-friendly options I could find. It was kind of like a fun scavenger hunt! Thanks Smith’s for giving me all of the allergy-friendly candy I spotted!

At first, I was feeling super nervous. I was shocked at HOW many chocolate options there were. In fact, I kept thinking–since when was chocolate so heavily ingrained in Easter? I was beginning to feel it was worse than Valentine’s. Chocolate is a no-go since it has milk in it, and is often cross contacted with nuts.

But, the more I walked around, the fuller my cart got!

I know for people who don’t have food allergies, having to find allergy-friendly candy can be tough. I’ve had many well-meaning friends who want to include my child, but feel nervous to say whether something is safe or not and don’t feel confident reading labels. So, I’ve found that giving them a handy-dandy list like this can alleviate stress on both sides.

To help make this more shareable, and for those of us who love video (and to selfishly raise awareness in my neck of the woods) I went on my local Fox talk show, The Place, to show what I found.

You can watch the video by clicking here, or on the image below:

Even after following a list like mine, always check with the allergy parent! There is no “one safe list for all allergy kids, ever, in the history of the world”. I find it’s best to let them see the bag, so keep the original bags so they can read the labels and be sure. Or, let them know ahead of time so they can look it up. I know it’s extra work. And, it is so stinkin’ kind of you to have so much empathy. Thank you for going to that work–it does NOT go unnoticed.

And, unfortunately, companies change recipes, or manufacturing processes. Meaning, that one year it could not have a “may contain wheat, soy…XXX…” and the next year it does. So, always check from year to year. And, it never hurts to read and re-read to make sure you’re not missing anything. Reading all of the ingredients AND looking for a “may contain” statement at the bottom needs to be done.

Also, please note I did not call any of these companies. I went purely off labels. If your allergies are such that you need to call and find out what else is manufactured there, please do so. Take care of yourself and do what works for you and your family!

Allergy-friendly Easter Candy List:

(PS–I went ahead and linked to them in Amazon. I find Amazon doesn’t always have the Easter packaging like stores do. But, it will at least help you see labels and options. Many of these are affiliate links, because I love Amazon #addictedtoprime)

Dum Dum Lollipops (shaped like eggs if you buy the holiday version)

Ring Pops (no Easter specific packaging, but I find these are still super fun for kids to wear and eat)

Skittles (they come in individual, Easter colored packages in the holiday version)

Starbursts (they come in two packs in Easter colored packages in the holiday version)

Starburst Jelly Beans

Jolly Rancher Jelly Beans

Smarties (I didn’t find any holiday packaging, but love that they’re individually wrapped and fit well in a plastic egg)

Pixie Sticks (I didn’t find any holiday packaging, but find that their colors are bright like Easter colors and individually wrapped)

Sweedish Fish (the holiday packaging is cute and has fish and eggs in the individual packages)

Double Bubble (either the regular, or the bubble gum eggs–sorry couldn’t find a link for this!)

Hubba Bubba Gum Tape

Pez candies (fun to either get holiday versions, or their favorite characters)

Peeps (please note some of their flavors have “may contain” warnings)

And, while these are all big name brand, easy-to-find, you can always find allergy specific brands online too, or at specialty stores. I know some towns are smaller and don’t have options like Sprouts, or Whole Foods. Many of these are vegan, organic, and free of artificial colors and flavors–which is important to some families. I don’t love my kids eating tons of candy, but for a holiday I don’t mind them eating it and feeling included. You definitely have to do what works for your family, and have faith that others are doing what they feel is best.

Allergy-specific brands of Candy:

Yum Earth Organic Pops

No Whey Chocolates (a huge assortment of holiday specific ones)

Surf Sweets (love their jelly beans!)

Annie’s Organic Fruit Snacks

Finally–don’t forget non-food treats! Every year we get the boys one big gift to share that is some form of an outdoor toy (gotta burn off that sugar!). For example, this year we got them a slip and slide. I’m seeing lots of fun memories coming up this summer! DVDs, and favorite current TV characters are always a big hit with my kids. Here are a few things my kids like: