Free Snacking: Enjoy Life

I finally found Enjoy Life snacks at my grocery store. For at least a year, I’ve been eating Enjoy Life chocolate chips- they are by far the best tasting milk free chocolate chips (that are actually produced on a line separate from milk!). The semi sweet and dark chocolate are particularly delightful. I’d been on the look out for their cookies and snacks, but they eluded me until this past week. Finding allergen friendly alternatives in the grocery store is always a treasure hunt and this was no different. But, with one successful shopping trip, we are back to-

Free Snacking:
Enjoy Life Edition

Chocolate chip, honey dip, can I get a scoop? Baby, take a ride in my coupe, you make me wanna...

Unfortunately all of their savory snacks had garlic powder in them so we settled on some “Cocoa Loco” chewy bars and some Snickerdoodle soft baked cookies. The chocolate chewy bars were good- but on a scale from 1 to loco, they were like a one time trip to the therapist instead of an involuntary commitment to the chocolate factory.  They also had the classic date aftertaste of companies trying to use less sugar. My kids loved them. I wanted more fudge, less Mediterranean dried fruit.

These Snickerdoodle cookies on the other hand, were delicious. And, when I say delicious, I mean I took a bite, checked the package to make sure they were actually safe for my kid, and then went in for another bite. Cinnamon flavor: wonderful. Texture: beautiful. Do I usually go for a Snickerdoodle cookie? Definitely not. But I’m going to grab these again next time.

I read through the Enjoy Life website and couldn’t find anything about why it was founded, so I’m going to assume a it’s another allergy mom with no facts to base this on. They did say they are the largest allergen friendly bakery in North America, and they definitely have a wide selection of safe snacks and desserts. Mostly, I really appreciate their discussion of food allergies versus intolerance on their website.

Delicious chocolate chips. Delicious cinnamon cookies. Another company that loves putting dates in their chocolate flavored things.

Quick off topic note:

I'm taking a break! Going to the beach (with epinephrine NOT in a separate room temperature cooler), getting my kids back to school, so I'll see you in September. 

Nondairy Yogurt Update

Oh you think you're a crunchy person? Here's my homemade vegan yogurt in mason jars.

Do you remember my quest for the perfect homemade vegan yogurt? My qualifications were two fold:

• Lots of protein and fat to fill up my kid
• Neutral, plain flavor

I settled on a mix of soy milk and coconut milk, added sugar (so the yogurt bacteria had something to eat) and cornstarch (because yogurt really shouldn’t be drinkable). I was happy with it. I made it the same way for 2 years. But then I had to change from pantry stable no sugar added soy milk to the original refrigerated kind. My kid needed some vitamins/minerals that are only found in the “vitamin and mineral blend” that Silk adds to it’s original flavor. Why does it not add it to the unsweetened kind? Why is it not in the pantry stable milk that is in literally the same packaging just a different shape? Beats me. But to get that tricalcium phosphate, I had to switch my recipe.

I was a little concerned. I had fenagled the original recipe a lot to make what I thought was the best nondairy yogurt. Using soy milk that already has sugar in it, I was no longer in control of how much sugar to add. Would using a milk from the fridge make a difference?

But, guys, it was instantly the best vegan yogurt I had ever made. It makes sense that using fresher milk with less preservatives would let the bacteria work better. It makes perfect sense. I just hadn’t really thought about it.

So...

*drum roll*

Introducing the NEW, the IMPROVED, the MOSTLY THE SAME, BUT DEFINTELY BETTER,

BEST VEGAN YOGURT RECIPE 

Ingredients

1/2 gallon Original (Plain) soy milk (from fridge section)
1 can full fat coconut milk
2 tb cornstarch
Yogurt starter (1/4 cup yogurt or a package of dried yogurt starter)

Directions

1.      Heat soy milk, coconut milk, and cornstarch to 180 ^oF, stir occasionally.

2.      Cook at 180 ^oF for 5 minutes.

3.      Remove from heat. Let cool to 110 ^oF

4.      Mix in yogurt/yogurt starter (scoop out about 1 cup of warm milk and combine; then pour that back in bigger pot and stir)

5.      Incubate for at least 8 hours, maintaining as close to 110 ^oF as you can to keep the bacteria happy

a.      Some of the advice online for maintaining this temp: use the yogurt setting on an instant pot (the best). Buy yogurt makers. Put it in your oven with only the light on. Wrap up your crockpot bowl in towels.

b.      Before my instant pot, what worked best to maintain the temperature was filling up jars and wrapping them in towels in a cooler. If the cooler wasn’t packed full of warm milk, I would add a jar or two of hot water to keep the temperature up inside the cooler.

Notes: you don't have to add sugar! It's already in the soy milk. I've also cut the cornstarch IN HALF because the fresher soy milk works so much better, it doesn't need as much thickening. The best news? 1/2 gallon of soy milk from the refrigerated section is much cheaper than 2 quarts of the tetrapak kind.

Happy bacteria! Happy guts!

Epinephrine in the Summer

You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating- epinephrine is the ONLY treatment for anaphylaxis. The earlier you use it, the better. And because you never know when you might be accidentally exposed to foods you are allergic, this means that people with food allergies have to carry around their epinephrine at all times. Right now, this means carrying our kid’s autoinjectors with us to the pool. To the beach. To the park. And it’s summer here. And hot. You know what temperature my kid’s autoinjectors are supposed to be kept at all times? 68-77^oF (20-25^oC). That’s okay if we’re inside. But what if we’re aren’t?

Ah yes. Totally reasonable expectations for something that must be next to my toddler at all times.

It's been getting over 90^oF for weeks here. And if it's 90^oF outside, it can be close to 120^oF in a parked car. That is hot. And definitely hotter than the suggested temperature. But what effect does it actually have on the epinephrine? Surely the manufacturers can’t expect us to keep her autoinjectors with us at all times AND in room temperature for an entire year until the expire?

Well, there was a review in Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology on how epinephrine degrades in various temperatures in 2016 and the results are pretty encouraging. While they did see loss of effectiveness of epinephrine, especially in hot temperatures, the temperatures that showed significant change were well outside what’s normal outside (158 ^oF, 70 ^oC). Cold, didn’t show as much change in the effectiveness of epinephrine, but freezing temperatures can break the glass (of vials in ambulances) and potentially change how the automatic injection works.

You know what? This is great news. I’m sure the official recommendation of manufacturers and doctors hasn’t changed- it probably is best to keep my kid’s autoinjectors in a reasonable temperature. But to me, this takes some of the stress off. Okay, so I still won’t leave it locked in parked car in the sun. At the pool, I’ll leave it in the shade. But am I going to pack a separate cooler (without ice packs because it’s can’t freeze, but instead filled with room temperature water bottles???) just for the epinephrine while we are at the beach? Absolutely not. I’m already a crazy food allergy mom. I don’t need to be a crazy food allergy mom with multiple coolers.

The Perfect Allergen Free Summer Treat

In a different world (one that I lived in about 2 years ago), I would have argued that ice cream was the ultimate summer treat. There’s something for everyone- chocoholics, people who don’t like chocolate (I mean… I guess those people exist?), ones with crunchy nuts, fresh summer fruit, caramel swirls. There’s the classic scoop at the small ice cream shop at the beach. There’s fancy gelato. There’s concrete and frozen custard and nobody really knows the difference but sometimes it’s fun to just get something different (even though you know it’s really the same).

Now, ice cream is way off limits. Not only does it have two of the top 9 allergens in it, those ice cream shops with scoops that are dipped in dirty water to “clean” them between customers are the perfect place to accidentally ingest all kinds of tree nuts and peanuts. Throw a waffle cone in there and suddenly you’ve got a nightmare for 5/9 allergens.

You know what doesn’t have any common food allergens and is still frozen and  delicious? Popsicles. They are way, way, way easier to make at home than ice cream (traditional or allergen free). They come in fun colors. If you stay away from creamsicles and fudgesicles, I really haven’t seen any with allergens in them. They are just water, sugar, and “fruit” (you know… fruit flavoring… or juice… and maybe even just some food coloring to give the essence of fruit).

Okay. So these have other stuff in them, too. Not really even sure what carob bean gum is. But no top niners!

Water and sugar and red dye #5 frozen? Magic. Happy summer!

The Cost of False Negatives

Last week I ranted about false positives of skin prick tests and guess what? This week, I’m still ranting about skin prick tests, but this time about false negatives. False negatives are really rare. So much so that many sources online say, “If no wheal appears, it is unlikely that you are allergic to the test food.” I’ve never seen any false negative rate over 5% and my kid’s allergist said that false negatives are usually actually due to error in the test, rather than the wheel just not appearing.

C'mon skin tests! You have ONE job! Negatives are supposed to mean 100% safe to eat!

With all of that said, my kid has had not one, but two false negatives to milk. After her reaction to peanut butter, we saw the allergist and because I was so worried about the other top 8 allergens, did a skin prick test to them. Egg and peanuts were positive, but everything was else was negative. Fast forward a few weeks and she is eating yogurt while we are eating shrimp tacos and she has very clear anaphylaxis- repetitive vomiting, coughing, nose running. She had had smaller amounts of yogurt before, but for whatever reason this was the time that made her react. With her first negative test, we didn’t think yogurt was the cause.

A few weeks later, she’s eating cheese for the first time and wouldn’t you know we have another round of anaphylaxis? I guess George Bush said it best. "Fool me once, fool on you. Fool me twice, ain't gonna fool me again!" It had to be the milk, right? We take her back to the allergist and she has another negative skin prick test. Her allergist repeats it at the end of the appointment herself and she does get a wheel- it’s small, but it’s there.

So, what’s the cost of a false negative? Anaphylaxis. For us, twice. And not trusting skin testing. If the skin testing can’t at least tell you what food is safe, then really what is the point?

Earlier this summer, she had another negative skin test to milk. We are scheduled for an oral food challenge. To say I am concerned is an understatement. FARE says skin tests are inexpensive, give immediate results, and are extremely helpful. I’ve been a little disillusioned with them. I guess we’ll just see how the baked milk challenge goes.