Allergic Tangent

Sam had an allergic reaction to his school's 25th anniversary celebration cake about a month ago, and I decided it was time to do something about this peanut allergy he has. I assumed there must have been some peanut on the counter at the place where they made the cake and somehow it got into the mixing bowl.

So I researched all sorts of options and ended up at a natural health doctor getting his blood drawn for a food allergy panel. It turns out, after all of this, he is not allergic to peanuts. His blood has no reaction to peanuts at all. Somehow, his other allergies to eggs, cows milk and soy have been irritating his system and causing this scary reaction to peanuts. He also has mild allergies to wheat (me too), chicken, strawberries, lemon and spinach.

So now we're on another trek, trying to figure out how to keep avoiding meat while adding the new challenge of avoiding soy.

If we're able to get this strict diet going to 6 weeks or more, Sam's system will detox, and he'll be able to tolerate the accidental peanut here or there. I would really enjoy not worrying about him.

Almond milk is a great substitute for soy milk. It's high in protein and calcium and low in calories. Beans, nuts, quinoa...

Quinoa with rice is a great staple, if you don't eat bread or wheat and are trying to do this Forks Over Knives vegan thing. Quinoa has a lot of protein and is quite filling. Mixing it with the rice provides a little bit of stickiness. 2 cups quinoa, 3 cups rice, 10-11 cups water, 1T salt (I know it's a lot, but it's too yummy), 2T olive oil, all in the rice cooker together, and it's super good. For lunch, I mix it with some raw red peppers - very good. At dinner, we use it just like rice for everything.

Polenta/grits is another one. We have home grown/ground polenta from Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Frank, also an excellent staple. Peggy is coming soon, and we will try polenta pizza crust. We'll see what toppings turn out most delicious.