Mrs Livingston, I hear you.

The movie Bubble Boy has a whole new meaning to me now. Mrs. Livingston locks her son who was born without an immune system within a plastic bubble in his bedroom to protect him and of course in turn, ruin him in many other ways. I'm about there. I'm Googleing non-porous plastics in my other tab. Right now. Boomba had his second reaction of the week and I don't even know what the source was and, oh yeah, it's only Friday. Saturday and Sunday still hold all new possibilities. Sunday. Pot Luck Sunday. Pot Luck Sunday, where all the cheesy casseroles and Casein delight dishes are served till your bloated tummies' content. Nightmare.

We've been dealing with a lot of stress lately.

The question is what can we do about it?

We can't "heal" the allergy (but that doesn't stop us from asking God to take it away).

We can collect information, get support, and adjust our life styles (even more).

Here is the plan of attack:
1. Collect information on well recommended allergists in the area.
2. Call Boomba's Allergist in the other state and ask her questions and for a
recommendation to said recommended allergist.
3. Eliminate ALL Casein from the house hold- even the non-dairy coffee creamer.
4. Actively investigate Immunotherapy options.

After I was Googleing for literally hours (during Boomba's nap) I discovered some great resources.

Allergic Living Magazine.com. This link takes you to an article titled "Your Child and Food Allergy Fears ". There are many different treasures to uncover here though!

_______________________

Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network Website.

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Toddler Sized Dairy Allergy Alert Bracelets: Silicone style!

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National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' PDF link of "Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States". Yeah it's mostly as dry as it sounds- but lots of good information. Check out the Summary for Patients and Families. Scroll down to find it.

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I also discovered Allergic Girl. She has a book. I think I might read it. She also has a blog. I don't think I'll read that.
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All of this sounds like a relief. Something I can do to make this better. Then WHACK I remember I'm missing something. God gave Husband, Boomba, and I this cross to bare (and of course the support, technology to help with that). It's now I'm thinking about the theological conversation I had all too recently. A group of us are reading Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel. Something sticks out at me right about now. Luther had a way with words. The section we were reading was on death and dying which is a subject on everyone's mind but on few lips. Luther described suffering as "being worthy of suffering in the eyes of the Lord". Wow. Christ suffered the ultimate pain. Christ bore the sins of the whole world. Christ was quite a guy. Our good works are like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord (-Isaiah 64:6). We don't get near what we deserve. Praise the Lord. What we deserve is pain and suffering and a horrible eternal death. Knowing God wont allow me to be tempted beyond what I can bare (-1 Corinthians 10:13), I suppose that does make me "worthy" to suffer.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
-1 Corinthians 10:13

Casein Free Pancakes

Every Casein Free pancake I've tried has been- well, spongy and tough and just not a pancake.

I've tried several different recipes, even one entitled "Better Than Bisquick Pancakes". That was totally over sold. YUCK!

I don't know where I got this recipe but after a couple of tweeks I'm satisfied. It is not as good as a Casein Cake, but it's the best safe pancake I've found! I also have two variations that make them pretty specia! Shredded Apple Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup & Casein Free Chocolate Swirl Pancakes.

Here is the basic Recipe:

2 Cups Four
1 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/8 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 Cup Soy Milk

Now for the fun!!!!!

Shredded Apple Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup

Note* Shred an apple or two into the batter to add moisture (and nutrients)

Rachel's Apple Cider Syrup
(Yields 1-1 1/4 Cup)

1/2 Cup sugar
1 T cornstartch
1/8 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t ground nutmeg
1 Cup apple cider or juice
2 T "butter" spread, cubed
1 T lemon juice

1. In a small sauce pan combine first 4 ingredients and stir in the 5th until
smoooooooooth.

2. Cook and Stir over Medium heat until thickened and bubbly, about 5 minutes.

3. Reduce heat to low; cook and stir 2 minutes longer.

4. Stir in "butter" & lemon juice.

Casein Free Chocolate Swirl Pancakes

1. Make pancakes using the basic recipe above.

2. Simply squeeze a swirl of Hersey's Chocolate Syrup (check to ensure it is Casein Free, or use another Casein Free variety)on cooking pancake as soon as you pour it into the skillet/griddle.

Note* Try to keep the chocolate syrup away from the edge- burnt chocolate syrup, though Casein Free is still a no no. Yuck!

I added some Banana sticks as a side and as you can imagine, it went over pretty well.

Do you have any recipes you'd like to share? Did you try this recipe? What did you think? I'd love to hear about your adventures in Casein Free Kitchening!

Casein Free Eating, Lactic Acid, & Deli Meat

During our ever developing adventure of finding safe food for our son Boomba who is severely and anaphylacticly allergic to trace casein, Husband and I learned a new trick.

Lactic Acid is a questionable ingredient! It can be derived from two different sources: plants or dairy.

Lactic Acid SOUNDS like it contains Casein. But then again, it's not the Lactose Boomba is allergic to, it's the Casein. A little reading in my very informative cook book Food Allergy Cookbook taught me about the way Lactic Acid can be derived. For example I just found some "butter" spread that is Casein Free but it does in fact contain Lactic Acid. Thank you Earth Balance for including in the ingredient's label that the Lactic Acid in your spread is derived from beets! YAY!

In the last 6 months or so we've cut out lunch meats from Boomba's diet generally because of the Lactic Acid.

It's an important lesson to also remember that getting Deli meat cut at your deli is a dangerous move.

These Deli Meat Slicers not only slice the yummy meat in the cooler display case but it also slices the blocks of cheese sitting right over there to the left in neighboring display case.

We have not had cold meat sandwiches in the house for nearing 6 months.

We finally found some ham that was safe and I sliced it as thinly as I could and made our own lunch meat!

Now, Boomba did have a small reaction but it must have been because Husband splurged and had a slice of cheese on his sandwich. It's amazing how difficult cross contamination can be to control!

My Review of BEER MAKING KITS

Originally submitted at UncommonGoods

After discovering a vintage fermenter in her father's basement, Erica Shea and Stephen Valand researched the art of home brewing and swiftly became self-taught pros. The pair quit their advertising jobs and left for a seven week beer-tasting tour of Europe to train their palates and test the possib...

BEER MAKING KITS

Inexspensive,Great Gift&Tastes GREAT too

By Kamawe96 from Western Nebraska on 9/19/2011

 

5out of 5

Pros: Inexspensive, Great Taste, Fun, Easy, Great gift

Best Uses: Hobby, Gifts

Describe Yourself: Value Oriented

Was a good experience from shipping to drinking and in between! This is an easy and fun brewing kit that makes only 1 gallon (instead of a hefty 5 gallons) and it tastes great too! The Choc Maple Porter is what I gave my husband for our Anniversary and he can't wait to make another batch! I've waited to write a review until we tried it and it's a very stout, dark beer- GOOD! Very Pleased!

I have read comments about the fact you do need to have your own Maple Syrup, Strainer, and Stock Pot- but that is because those items are typically already in the home. I didn't think it was a problem.

Siphoning Beer into Bottles

Tags: Made with Product

Bottles Drying

Tags: Made with Product

(legalese)

Vegan = Casein Free (usually)

I'm not vegan.

But

My son cannot have casein and so therefore Vegan=Casein-Free.

I have once heard of a person who saw "casein" in the ingredients list of a vegan product so please- especially if you're avoiding casein due to an allergy- no matter what read the label!

Read the label even if you buy the product regularly. You never know if a factory will change it's practices and the product carried traces of casein. You never know when the recipe will "improve" or as I call it "change"!

I was checking out one of my favorite websites today and it had a link to this blog.

It's called "Nikki Lynn Loves" and the entry is "I Can't Believe it's Vegan". This is a GREAT resource for Casein-Allergic. It is a huge list of products that are Vegan! I know I'm filing this one away!

Time Warp Wife's Titus Tuesday 9.13.2011

This is just a quick note to invite you to check out one of my favorite blogs.
Time Warp Wife. It is a blog that is actively "Empowering Wives to Joyfully Serve".

Titus Tuesdays are Linky days where readers can link their own or their favorite websites and blogs that can add to this idea of joyfully serving as a wife. It's chalked full of Recipes, Housekeeping Tips, Parenting Info and Marriage Blips.

Titus Tuesdays at Time Warp Wife.

Enjoy! Maybe you'll find yourself adding your own linky to the page too.

Simple Hearty Soup

I hate condensed soup.

There I said it.
It is cheap.
There just never seems to be much to it!

While scrounging for lunch one day (yesterday) I shoved past a can of Alphabet Condensed Soup looking for a treasure.
After a huff and a sigh I noticed I'd been struck common.
I was watching one of those crazy Pantry Raid shows once and saw they drained a canned soup of it's contents and saved the liquid. They added their own veggies and it made what looked like a pretty beefy soup with a good yummy broth.

I can do that.

I dumped the viscous Alphabets 'N Ect into a much too large of a pot. It started boiling instantly. To it I added a can of drained peas and a can of drained corn and a can of tomato soup and 2 cans of water.

NOTE* Throughout all of this I double read the label entirely to make sure it contained no Milk or Whey or any other dangerous Casein Containing Bad Guys.

Now that looks better!

That brings us to today's lunch. I added left over rice to yesterday's soup and it was darn good!
See look:

Moral of the blog:
Don't let a condensed soup get you down; get down with condensed soup!

Yeah.. I know. But seriously! Work with what you have. This idea may have lit a whole new fire in me to contend with.

Don't even get me started on the day I added rice to a condensed chicken and rice soup...