Peace in the Darkness

In the town of Ofuna, Japan, there is an impressive statue of the Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of peace and mercy. This site also houses the eternal flame from the Nagasaki bombs and several other monuments to peace. The Kannon in Ofuna is also meant to be a site for people from foreign lands to visit when they are feeling homesick, a place for people feeling like strangers in a strange land, wishing for a normalcy that they once knew.

In the midst of the confusion, the dark nights, and the constant battles with foods and helping our children to have pain-free days, we still have moments of clarity and beauty every single day. We have chances to see the world through their eyes, to see the beauty and to not always have to realize the weight of a situation, no matter how daunting or overwhelming it may be. It amazes me that always in the midst of some of the most frustrating days, the times when I am just done with FPIES and angry at what it does to my child and my friends' children, my daughter, my beautiful B brings me back to peace.

Today, I went to the hospital. Not for a reaction, not for an allergy test, not for a check-up. Today I went for an ultrasound and got to see our new baby for the first time. (Yes, I am pregnant! My lack of posting is now hopefully making more sense to all of you! haha) We have fears of food allergies (mainly FPIES) and fears of my heart condition complicating the pregnancy, but all of that washed away when N and I could show B, "Look! That's our baby! You are that baby's big sister!" She saw the tiny hands and the tiny heart beat and with excitement said, "That baby is wigglin' around!!!" Any and all anxiety we had been feeling just left and we all enjoyed the moment together, meeting our new little family member. There will be times to worry, times to prepare. But there will be times for peace. There really must always be time for peace.

When I first saw the Kannon, B and I were riding the train and had become turned around. Not badly lost, but in need of direction. I remember looking out the train window and whispering "Who is THAT?" as I saw a huge alabaster bust rising out of the densely wooded mountain. When we finally went to visit her, it was the most peaceful place and I understood the Kannon's significance. As I try to be more and more in the moment with B, I realize the place that peace really does need to have in my house (and I am sure in all of our houses!) We have been turned around, we have lost our way on a lot of days because of FPIES and all that factors in to that, but I now aim to focus on being in B's moment, finding myself and finding my family in times of peace. And I am so happy to now have two babies, one more of a big girl and one yet to meet the world, to remind me of this and the so many other moments of beauty that will find us, FPIES or not.

B's Chewy Coconut Granola Bars

Every now and then I assemble a bunch of ingredients in front of my now toddler daughter and let her add what she chooses at will (I determine the amounts of each ingredient though!) to the mixing bowl. It makes for some long ingredient lists but it also makes for a very happy toddler. I created the base for this recipe (the quinoa flakes and sunflower seeds) and allowed her to use "modified discretion" for the rest. Enjoy!

B's Chewy Coconut Granola Bars
2 cups quinoa flakes, toasted (you can sub. millet flakes, rolled oats or amaranth flakes)
1 cup raw sunflower seeds (no husks), ground to a powder and roasted with the quinoa flakes
1 banana, mashed (or 1/4 cup finely diced apples, strawberries, or pineapple)
1/4 c pear sauce (or other fruit puree, no added water)
1/2 c. honey
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips**
1/2 cup finely shredded coconut plus 2 Tbsp

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or silicone liner). Measure out 1 cup of shelled sunflower seeds and pulverize in the blender or food processor until a fine powder results. Pour the sunflower seed powder and the 2 cups of quinoa flakes onto your cookie sheet, blending ingredients with a fork. Toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Once done, remove mixture and pour into a medium bowl. Increase oven heat to 350 degrees F. Save your cookie sheet and parchment and set aside!

In the bowl containing the toasted mixture, add mashed banana (or diced apples/strawberries/pineapples), pear sauce and honey; blend well. Add brown sugar, vanilla, 1/2 cup shredded coconut and chocolate chips. Mix until all ingredients are well blended. Press the mixture onto the lined cookie sheet and flatten until mixture is evenly about 1/4-1/2 inches thick. Sprinkle remaining 2 Tbsp of coconut over the top of the mixture. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until the edges turn crispy and golden brown. Allow bars to cool and then cut into desired shapes and sizes. Freeze, store in sealed container, or eat! Enjoy--- we sure did!

** Instead of using 1/4 cup of Enjoy Life chips, you could use 1/4 cup safe baking cocoa instead.

An Incredible Update from The FPIES Foundation!

As some or all of you may already know, I am very proud to be serving on the board of directors for The FPIES Foundation, a non-profit organization aiming to educate, empower and advocate for families of children diagnosed with FPIES. I am especially excited to announce to all of you that as of November 3rd, we have now revealed the amazing team of health care professionals helping us to accomplish our goals-- our Medical Advisory Board.  This is an incredible group of individuals, truly committed to helping improve the futures for our children, our families, and the medical professionals seeking to help these little ones.

Halloween Crafts!

Hi all! As some of you may already know, I have a play doh recipe in the recipe file (lower left hand column-- and it is alphabetized!) that you can use for making homemade play doh with many different alternative flours (millet, sorghum, corn, etc). You can use this recipe for the craft project I am going to describe below! Or you can use this one for baking soda and starch playdoh--- it calls for corn starch, but you can use tapioca starch, potato starch or even arrowroot starch. You may need to play around with your burner temp depending on the starch you choose, particularly with arrowroot (very temperature finicky). Do not eat these. Even if the ingredients are safe, they will taste awful. You have been warned.

Festive Fall Trees

1. Take a nature walk and find a nice branch that you can either put in a vase or in a flower pot (hold in place with rocks, etc) and has many little off shoot branches-- you need them for hanging your creations!

2. Assemble cookie cutters with a fall or Halloween theme and a few narrow straws.

3. Make your playdoh using your recipe of choice. If you plan on painting your creations, you do not need to add food coloring. If you do not want to paint your creations, make some fun Halloween/fall colors for your playdoh. For extra fun, if not baking the playdoh shapes, you can mix GLITTER into the playdoh. Delightful!

4. Using rolling pins, roll out the prepared playdoh about 1/4 inch thick (or if you are like our house, have your two year old roll it out to her own discretion since she evidently knows best. Thicker playdoh will take longer to dry however.)

5. Cut out various Halloween/fall shapes with your cookie cutters and assemble completed shapes on a clean baking sheet, covered or uncovered (using parchment paper, etc). Using a straw, make small holes in each shape so that ribbon or yarn can be threaded through once dry.

6. Once finished, if using the playdoh recipe in Baby B's recipe file, you can actually bake it at about 325 F until shapes are slightly puffy and firm. Like yucky tasting, salty cookies. If using the recipe for the link above, depending on thickness, playdoh may need to be left out for 1-2 days until completely hard.

7. Once shapes are hard, you can decorate if desired! Use acrylic or tempera paints to paint the shapes-- a sponge applicator might be helpful for small or unsteady (i.e. mama had too much caffeine. . .) hands. You can also glue on buttons, ribbon, etc. Whatever works and whatever sticks! Allow shapes to dry.

8. Once your shapes are decorated to your liking and all decor has dried, cut 4-6inch pieces of festive ribbon (I like the thinnest grosgrain ribbon--- 50cents to a dollar for a spool at Joanns!). Thread each ribbon piece through hole in each shape and knot the ends together.

9. Hang your shapes on your branch (remember our nature walk?)

10. Enjoy your happy Halloween/happy harvest decoration!!

***** For extra Thanksgiving fun. . . . you can make all Thanksgiving shapes-- acorns, leaves, pumpkins, etc. Just be sure shapes are wide enough to be able to write on. Have each child choose a shape and write his/her name on it. Then have the child (adults can do this too!) tell you one thing they are thankful for this Thanksgiving (you can do a little intro with describing in age appropriate ways what it means to be thankful and giving examples of how to show thankfulness). Have the child write or have an adult or older child write for the child what each of them is thankful for, one item per shape. On  Thanksgiving, before or after dinner, the whole family can go around and read the shapes, telling what each is thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Enjoy!

You Might Be an FPIES Short Order Cook IF. . .

1. You constantly scour cookbooks and internet sites for recipes requiring 5 ingredients or less

2. You remain suspicious of recipes/products claiming "allergy friendly!" due to your child's allergens generally topping the so-called hypoallergenic list

3. You become so accustomed to eggless gluten free cooking, that when making a "regular" cake you are baffled as to why your cake rose so much

4. You develop an affinity for apple or banana tasting baked goods

5. You have separate baking supplies for all of your allergy-free baking endeavors, to the point that your food allergic child will one day have a complete kitchen set when he/she moves out of the house

6. You are forced to purchase a chest freezer for additional long-term food storage

7. You regularly have cases of specialty foods show up on your doorstep so much so that your neighbors wonder whether or not you are starting a health food store on your front porch

8. The majority of your baking ingredients are foods that most of society is blissfully ignorant to the existence of

9. You regularly taste the batter of your baked goods before baking--- no raw eggs so what's the harm, right?

10. You fantasize about the day when your family will be able to enjoy the same meal, all together, and that meal will not consist of only enjoy life chocolate chips and ice water.

Add your own! This list could go on forever!

Flash Freezing--- So Pleasing!!

Happy weekend, everyone, and happy fall! Here in MA we are starting to see trees changing color already as other signs of fall creep in. This time of year is great for a lot of reasons but the one I am currently enjoying most is cheap produce and the ability to flash freeze these seasonal products for tasty treats all winter long.

Today I was able to get some great blackberries, raspberries and strawberries all on sale, and with very few "duds" in each package. In response to some awesome mamas asking me recently how to flash freeze, I decided to make a little photo tutorial of my afternoon in the kitchen with B's beloved berries.

Flash Freezing:
1. Clean and inspect all of the produce you are planning on using. Cut out bad spots and remove all moldy produce.

2. Once produce has been inspected and cleaned, cut pieces as you would like to freeze them (broccoli into small florets, strawberries into fourths, etc)

3. Spread pieces onto large cutting board covered with paper towels to dry. Set aside and assemble needed equipment for freezing.

4. Assemble cookie sheets and your choice of cookie sheet liner (aluminum foil, plastic wrap, press and seal, wax paper, parchment paper, etc.); be sure that there is a clear spot in the freezer to lay your cookie trays flat. Freezer tetris time!

5. Line cookie sheets with preferred liner(s). Today, I used foil (shiny side up) on one, plastic wrap on another, and press and seal on the third (adhesive side facing down on the cookie sheet).

6. Gently pat produce dry with paper towels (or clean kitchen towels-- just remember that some produce may stain your towels!) and begin assembling produce pieces on cookie sheets.

The raspberries are on generic plastic wrap-lined cookie sheets

7. Produce pieces should not touch one another if at all possible and try your best to keep the smallest area of the produce piece on the surface as possible (in case it sticks, you have less surface area to try and detach it once frozen.)

The blackberries are on aluminum foil-lined cookie sheets

8. Once all pieces are distributed onto the cookie sheets, slide into the freezer so that they remain flat. Check on the pieces after the first hour or so, but I generally set my timer for four hours and that tends to be enough for small pieces of produce (berry size). They will feel like little rocks but not be "frostbitten," so to speak. Once frozen, you really shouldn't get much, if any, juice on your hands from briefly touching the produce.

9. Label freezer bags with the type of produce and the date you are freezing them (permanent markers are great for this!)

10. Fill appropriate bags with corresponding produce. Back to the freezer they go! Try not to eat the produce until you can no longer get it in the store (or at least until it is no longer at a decent price in the store!)

More pictures to come tonight once they are frozen and bagged up!

Of course, fruits like apples, pears or bananas may not fare as well sliced and flash frozen color-wise. You can sprinkle lemon juice on them to better maintain the fruit's color, if lemons are safe for your LO. I personally prefer to make pear sauce (since apples are not safe) and freeze it in the ice cube trays like how you would prepare homemade baby food (also see here). I do the same with beet sauce (boiled and pureed beets-- same consistency as apple sauce. B loves it!)

Enjoy the harvest time and stock up for winter! Your sanity will thank you later!

Sesame and Support

Hi all! Time for another new recipe and some new information in the FPIES community (always good things right?!) First for the information, since it is short and sweet (not unlike the recipe to follow. . .)

The FPIES Foundation (of which I am proud to say that I am on its Board of Directors) has introduced a phenomenal new support forum. I really feel like it has combined the best qualities of the various FPIES forums out there and is really designed with FPIES parents in mind (i.e. you can navigate it quickly and without agonizing over where to find something, all while fielding hurtling toys from your small child who may or may not be reacting to a new food. . .). There are separate categories and delineated topics in each, you can add tags to your post for easier searching, and the relevant topics are all there. Plus, the parents are on there too-- it is definitely not a ghost town! Go ahead-- check it out! Go to The FPIES Foundation, scroll down and click on the  green words "support forum" on the lower right hand corner. I'll see you there-- and yes, I will post updates for new recipes on this forum!!

And for the recipe. . ..

We are half-heartedly trialing sesame at the time, though we took several days off last week due to some noticeable but not awful symptoms. Things have calmed down and we are ready to step up to the plate again. So for tomorrow, we have sesame milk on the roster!

NOTE: I told B that the cast of Sesame Street eats sesame and I love 80s movies. . .this is where our title comes from. ENJOY!

St. Elmo's Milk
4 cups HOT water
1 cup sesame seeds, raw or roasted
3 Tbsp honey or coconut nectar (or other sweetener of choice)
3 Tbsp vanilla extract (or other extract of choice)

In a blender, add sesame seeds, hot water, honey and vanilla. Cover with lid and mix at your blender's highest speed for about 2-4 minutes. Mixture should be foamy and frothy. Run through your favorite nut/seed milk bag or through cheesecloth to remove "pulp" if desired (if you don't strain it, the milk has the consistency of pulpy orange juice). I found this great link to nylon bags that are made with super fine hemp mesh-- called Sprout Bags. These look wonderful for this recipe! Refrigerate once strained. This should keep for about a week in the fridge.

As for soaking the seeds prior to making milk, I will be trying that tomorrow and comparing the two. I will post the results!

If you are using this recipe for making sorbet/ice cream or for baking with the sesame milk, it probably won't be worth your time to strain. But if you are making it for drinking, straining might be helpful, depending on your small one's palate.

Keep posted for more sesame recipes, including one for chocolate chewy sesame granola bars (made them last week! B loved them!) And see you on the forum!!!