Laptop Lunch Systems: I LOVE IT!

I have been lusting after the Laptop Lunch system for a LONG time, ever since I saw one at Whole Foods months and months ago. You might be thinking "Gee whiz - lusting is kind of a strong word when talking about a lunchbox, isn't it?". Well, you'd be wrong.

I LOVE anything that has little organizing sections. Purses with 42 different pockets for your cell phone, keys, wallet, lipstick and pens? I'm on it. The Container Store? Don't even get me started because of course I need everything they carry.

So the Laptop Lunch system was practically like heaven when it came to lunch boxes. I'd been using Bento systems from Daiso (the Japanese dollar store near my work) along with items from the Japanese grocery store. And they worked just fine.

But then I stumbled upon a giveaway at Sure Foods Living. I entered it. And I won! What luck!

We got it in the mail a few weeks ago, and we FINALLY used it this week. I am lame and didn't take a photo of Bella's lunch today, but here's what she's having tomorrow:

The photo is pretty horrendous (it's late and I'm tired), but clockwise from top left: meatballs with gravy for dipping in the orange container (and a little pick to eat them with), pirates booty, fruitabu, and sliced granny smith apple. There is a separate drink container that I'll fill with juicy water (1/4 juice to 3/4 water - Bella doesn't know the difference). Lastly, there's a mesh pocket on the inside of the bag where I put a gel pack like this to keep everything cool. It worked perfectly, as the gel pack was still cold when I took everything home today.

Today she had a bologna sandwich on white bread that I cut into little circles with a cookie cutter, some wheat thin type crackers, mini carrots with ranch for dipping, and another half of a granny smith, sliced. I don't think it's a coincidence that she ate almost all of her lunch today - I think she just enjoyed it so much with the new lunch box (you think I'm nuts, but she loves this kind of stuff already - it's in the genes I guess!).

If you're at all intrigued by this, you should definitely check out their site. And if you want some great lunch ideas, even if you don't buy a system, sign up for their newsletter (which always seems to have suggestions) or visit Vegan Lunch Box (don't be put off by the Vegan-ness of it - take a look at her ideas and if you want to add a cheese stick or a bologna sandwich then go for it) and get inspired. If you want to buy a system, you can order direct from LL or you can search for a retailer on their site.

Bella was so psyched to take this school today. Since packing your own lunch is typically a MUST when you have a peanut allergy (or other food allergy) having a system like this that your child loves helps tremendously. And when I picked her up her teachers raved about it. I even had a parent ask me about it - I opened it up right there when she asked to see the inside.

When I can remember, I'll post more lunches here for you guys - maybe you'll get some inspiration when you're stuck for something to pack in your lunch (or your kids). I'll be planning her lunch box meals more regularly now, that's for sure. If you document your kids meals (or yours) let me know so I can see what you're having too.

Thanks to Sure Foods Living (and Alison!) and thanks to Laptop Lunches.

DISCLAIMER: I know this has come off as an ad of sorts for Laptop Lunches, and I suppose it sounds like one. But this is truly just the comments of a very enthusiastic user. If you are looking for a lunch box for your child (or you!) I would heartily recommend this. I haven't been paid or asked to write this nor was this post the result of any agreements between any of us. I'm just a winner - what can I say?!? I can honestly say I would have been just as excited about the product if I had bought it myself. But rest assured, I'll be buying another for myself (and possibly another for Bella in a different color).

Keeping Your Child Safe When Visiting Pals

This article came across my search alerts this morning and I wanted to share it with you all. It talks about the questions to ask before your child has a playdate - and it includes some questions I hadn't thought of.

Asking Other Parents About Rules in Their Home
"(Playdates get) more challenging when they start to make friends on their own and you may not meet the parent until you're at their front door. What develops is the social awkwardness of trying to determine if a playdate will be safe for your child, without implying that the other parent is negligent."

A good read for a Monday morning.

Did You Think of This? Cuz I Didn't.

Image Source: Flickr User macprohawaii

I took Bella to Toys R Us after school today to buy a couple of birthday presents for parties this weekend (2 in one day - yikes!). On the way out, I gave Bella $1 in quarters to get some Skittles from the gumball machine. She LOVES gumball machines. And a small handful of Skittles is 50 cents - that's highway robbery!!! Ahem, I digress...

So she gets her Skittles and we walk out past the bank of machines near the exit. We're about 2 steps from the door (and she's jammed most of them in her mouth) and I see peanut m&m's in one of the machines. One that looks exactly like the machine she go the Skittles from.

Oh crap. Big Gulp on my part. What if last week the peanuts were in the Skittles machine? What if those Skittles in my little girl's hands are now covered in peanut dust? Argh!

I lose Peanut Free Mama points this week for that one. Bella didn't have a reaction (oh and you can BET I was watching her like a hawk for 2 hours after), but we've just crossed another treat off of our lists. It just keeps getting shorter, doesn't it?

Luckily, our nearest Fry's (yes the geek heaven) has a bunch of gum ball machines that are filled with rings, tattoos and plastic ninjas so she can get her fix of those money sucking spheres of doom.

How could I have completely missed this? It just really hits home that if you get complacent you let your guard down.

It's back up now.

New Items in Cafe Press Store

I uploaded two new graphics in the Peanut Free Mama Store.

Check out the Peanut Free Mama merchandise available now for sale. I added these images to some buttons and bags. And a hat or two. If you prefer another item with one of these images, let me know and I'll create it for you, no problem.

If you are planning on walking the San Francisco FAAN walk in September, you might want to stop by the SF Food Allergy table. You might even get one of these babies for FREE. And if you sponsor me in the walk, I might just send you both.

I'm just sayin'.

Friday Recipe - Sunflower Butter Balls

I read the feed to a craft blog called The Crafty Crow. She highlighted another blog called Happy Things - specifically a recipe for Peanut Butter Balls - which the author had adapted from a sinful recipe from the butter queen herself Paula Deen. The recipe looked so good that I thought I would take my first stab at creating a peanut free treat from a peanut laden one.

The transformation from there to here definitely took a few turns. Paula's original treat has been turned into something a bit healthier and definitely something that a Peanut and Tree Nut free child can partake in.

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup sunflower seed butter (I used Sunbutter Organic Creamy)
1 cup honey
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup quick cook oats (I used McCann's Quick Cooking Irish Oatmeal)
3/4 cup wheat germ

To make them:

Place the wheatgerm in a shallow bowl. You'll use this later.

In a separate bowl, combine the sunflower seed butter, honey, milk, and oats and mix until they are evenly incorporated. Roll into small balls about the size, ironically enough, of a walnut (I used my meatball making tool and it worked really well). Roll them in the wheat germ. Place on a plate or tray and refrigerate until set. Once they are set you can transfer them into a covered container or put in the freezer.

Makes Approx. 36 balls.

How are they, you ask? Put it this way, when I tasted one, the first words out of my mouth rhymed with Moly Mitt! I swear I could eat, like, 7 or 10 of these in one sitting. I regretted making only a half a batch. Suffice it to say, these will be made many more times (I'm sure with variations) in our household. These are almost like little soft granola bars - I could see giving Bella a few of these in the morning for a quick breakfast. I also think these are not peanut butter looking enough to confuse a child.

A note about allergens: these don't contain peanuts or tree nuts but they DO contain dairy and wheat, but I bet we could find substitutes. McCann's oatmeal is made on dedicated equipment so I think it's safe for gluten free diets (correct me if I'm wong!). You could use gluten free graham cracker crumbs to coat them and you might be able to find in your area powdered soy milk? I'll leave it to you, my wonderful readers, to suggest a dairy free alternative to powdered milk.

Let me know if you try these, and if you do, how your kids (and you) like them. I can't really take any credit for them, but the experiment was fun and oh so delicious.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

p.s. You know what? If you wanted to try Paula's recipe and just substitute SunButter, I bet the recipe would turn out fabulous -it would definitely make a sweet treat for the holidays.

Peanut Free Product Shout Out: Nonna Lena's Nut Free Pesto

Prepared pesto is one of those great convenience foods. But with a peanut allergy (and our avoidance of tree nuts as a precaution) pesto, unless it's homemade, is off limits.

Until now.

I shop at Piazza's in Palo Alto, CA at least 3x a week for my lunch and for perishable groceries for dinner (veggies, bread, etc.). I was buying fresh pasta one day and thought I'd take a look at the prepared pestos to see if any were safe. Lo and behold, I found one.

I present to you: Nonna Lena's All Natural Pesto.
Ingredients: Organic Basil, Olive Oil, Fresh Garlic, Fresh Creamy Butter, Parmesan Cheese.

I took it home and tossed it with some fresh fettuccine noodles. It is so delicious - not too garlicky, just enough basil. It's basically pesto without pine nuts. It's a little on the buttery side - or maybe I should say olive oily side - so if you wanted to use it on crostini, for instance, you would have to let it sit for a little bit at room temperature so it can soften a bit.

So for Bella's lunch tomorrow, she's getting some penne pasta with pesto and veggies. All I needed to do was cook the pasta and add the pesto - it says right on the label that no heating is necessary. Nonna Lena (if she exists) is a woman after my own heart.

Maybe you can find it where you live? Looks like they have distributors in California, Washington, and Oregon.

p.s. After looking through the site, I noticed that some of her other sauces have walnuts and/or pine nuts in them. This falls in my safety zone - Bella's doctor has ok'd "may contain" or "manufactured on equipment" when it comes to tree nuts due to her negative RAST and skin tests. We've chosen to avoid actual ingestion of whole tree nuts for the time being due to cross contamination/confusion for Bella issues.

British Army Bans Recruits with Nut Allergies

If a nut allergy would prevent my child from going to war, then I'm ok with it.

Read more here.

FAAN Walk - San Francisco, CA

My allergy support group has started a team to walk in the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) Walk for Food Allergy this September in San Francisco.

What's the Food Allergy Walk? Here's a great description from their site:

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is the world’s leading nonprofit organization in the fight for food allergy awareness, education, and research. Over the past four years, thousands of walkers and volunteers have gathered in communities around the country to build awareness of food allergies and to raise funds to support research and education programs. The FAAN Walk for Food Allergy events have raised $4 million, with an additional $2.5 million forecasted for the 2008 season.

We walk to find a cure for food allergies for your family member, friend, student, or colleague! We walk to increase awareness of food allergy and the effect it has on a community. We walk to provide understanding, hope, and an opportunity for a child with food allergy to simply be a child. We walk to save a child’s life!

To learn more about our team (or to join us!), visit our page on the Food Allergy Walk site.

Can't walk with us? How about making a donation to help us meet our goals? You can donate via my personal page and all donations will count towards the team's goal of $2500.

Want to find a walk in your city? Visit the FAAN site for a list of locations.

Any type of support is appreciated no matter how big - even a shout out on your blog or website (regardless of what your site is about)! Thanks in advance for your support!

The Week In Food

I'm feeling very domestic lately. I just finished planning our meals for the week. Wanna see what we're having? I got a little carried away with all the new stuff I want to try - I blame it on all the cookbooks and magazines I got to read during our recent trip to LA.

Anyhoo - some of these are new recipes to try, so are old standbys (like the dumplings and curry chicken).

Monday
Tandoori Chicken Burgers

Tuesday
Curry Chicken . I make mine with coconut milk so it's low fat (note: sarcasm). I'll probably add some green beans and basil to the pot and serve it over steamed rice. yum.

Wednesday
Homemade Wontons in a soy/ginger broth. I usually make mine with ground pork, ginger, garlic, minced cabbage, sometimes some tofu. These are easy to make and so good. I'll jot the recipe down as I make them and post it here this week.

Thursday
Beef Negimaki (basically it's alot like this recipe, except with beef)

Friday
Grilled pork Chops + Corn Fritters

Saturday
Minestrone or Caldo Verde, haven't decided yet. I know it sounds weird to make soup in July, but I live on the San Francisco Peninsula - it isn't uncommon to wear a heavier coat sometimes when that fog comes rolling in over the hills!

Yes, this is really how we eat in our house. I'm always mixing in new stuff with the old standbys. Eating peanut free doesn't really come into the picture that much or prevent me from making too many kinds of foods.

BTW, I'm also working on some nifty peanut free snack recipes in the coming weeks (I'll see how many other allergens I can eliminate without making them taste like dirty, bland cardboard).

Are you trying anything new this week?

Pulled Pork Recipe

I made this tonight (an amalgamation of a few different recipes) and it was fantastic. It occurred to me when I was cleaning up that this is free of the top 8 allergens too - Bonus! This one is definitely a keeper.

I made it in the slow cooker and served it up with steamed rice, beans, tortillas, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, salsa, shredded cabbage, and pickled red onions (an awesome recipe for another time - email me if you want it now). We had 6 adults and 3 kids (all under 6) and the amount of meat was perfect (just a little left over for quesadillas tomorrow).

Here's what I did:

Pulled Pork for 8 or so
1 - 3(ish) pound boneless pork butt (or shoulder) -mine actually had a 3 inch piece of bone in it.
2.5 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 medium yellow onion
1 - 16.9 oz. bottle of coca-cola

Mix together sugar, paprika, chili powder, cumin, and pepper in a bowl. Put pork in a Ziploc bag and add the sugar mixture, coating the piece of pork evenly. Push all the air out of the bag and seal. Put in the fridge overnight.

Take the pork out about 20 minutes before you start cooking the next day (this will take at least 6 hours to cook, so plan accordingly). While you're waiting for it, slice up a yellow onion into half moons, about a 1/2 inch in width. After 20 minutes is up, put the pork into your slow cooker. Scatter the onions around it. Pour the coca cola around the pork.

Turn on your slow cooker to high. Cook for 6 hours total on high (or about 8 on low), turning the meat halfway.

After cooking is done, the meat will fall apart. Take the meat out (along with the onions if you want to serve them with the meal). Shred the pork using two forks. Save the fatty bits for your Filipino sister-in-law if you have one :) Pour the cooking liquid into a fat separator, and discard the oil. Put the pork back into the slow cooker and add a bit of the cooking liquid to the meat to moisten it (not that you'll need to, but it adds a little more flavor) and keep it warm.

When ready to serve, mound the shredded pork on a platter and scatter the onions around the edges of the meat.

Try not to fight each other to get to the good bits. Wrap in warm tortillas with the aforementioned condiments and Enjoy!

If you make it let me know how it turned out for you! I hope the recipe makes sense - if you have any questions about it let me know. I'm writing it while I'm still in a food coma - I'm still so stuffed I can hardly move.

G

p.s. I know this isn't true 'pulled pork' - if you wanted to go that route, I would take about a cup of the resulting cooking liquid (de-fatted) and put it in a pot on the stove. Add about a tablespoon of brown sugar, a tablespoon or two of cider vinegar, and a few tablespoons (or maybe even a quarter cup) of ketchup and heat it up until it's warm. Then I'd mix it in with the pork until it's nice and moist. Put it on a bun with some fresh coleslaw and you're golden.

I stand Corrected!

Diamond Dave doesn't have a peanut allergy after all.

I stand corrected. (Thanks, Pez!)

Somebody Get Me A Doctor

You never really hear about stars and their food allergies. If I was allergic, I sure as heck wouldn't want it to be out there. What if some crazy person put something in your food?

Well, David Lee Roth (for those of you youngin's out there - he is the first singer for Van Halen) apparently is allergic to nuts. Look what came across my Google alerts today:

Ont. cops save David Lee Roth's life

Van Halen frontman suffers near fatal reaction

Two Ontario police officers have been credited with saving the life of Van Halen singer David Lee Roth - after he suffered a severe allergic reaction.

The rocker was pulled over on a stretch of highway in Oakland, Ontario on June 8 for speeding, and when cops approached the vehicle, they realized the star was in anaphylactic shock.

Roth has an allergy to nuts and was suffering a severe reaction after coming into contact with a contaminated substance. Read More.

How scary - I'm glad the cops were there to help him! Too bad his secret is out though.

How We Spent Our Holiday Weekend

I tell you, we're in summer mode at Casa Peanut Free. Bella's still in preschool and I'm still working, but we're making the most of the weather and any excuse for a get together and/or party when we're not stuck inside learning our ABC's or working for the man. :->

Last weekend was no exception. We made our way down to LA to visit family and catch some spectacular fireworks in Marina Del Rey.

I'm happy to say that it was another reaction-free holiday (I could really get used to this!). Our only foray out to eat was at Jerry's Famous Deli and, per usual, they were REALLY accomodating with Bella's allergy. I highly recommend them - but beware of the HUMONGOUS portions. It is definitely NOT a place for a diet.

I did want to share a neat find of mine. Before we left, I wanted to find a few activities to occupy Bella on the drive down and while we were at my parent's place. I'm not anti-tv, but I didn't want her watching tv while we were there.

I bought the obligatory crayons and packed the portable DVD player for the car. But one of my finds was a great book from the Klutz company (a girlfriend of mine used to work for them - I wish I would have taken advantage of her employee discount more back then!) called Hand Art. Basically you trace your hand and then make a picture out of the resulting shape (I've scanned a page from the book at the left - please don't sue me Klutz!).

This book was such a HUGE hit with Bella. We literally made every drawing in the book. And it comes with these little fuzzballs for the nose and tails and little googlie-eyes you can glue on. Her 6 year old cousin thought it was pretty great too. Needless to say, Nana and Grandpa had quite an 'art' collection when we left. And they could tell what each animal was, which was a bonus.

But I also saw something in this book that just made me smile so wide. Bella was doing the dog picture. In the bottom corner of each page, they show the child how to hold their hand when making the drawing. Can you see what's on that little wrist? I've blown it up so you can tell a little better.

It's a medic alert bracelet! I thought it was so neat that they included that in the photo, when they obviously could have photoshopped it out. Kudos to Klutz for keeping it in!

All in all the weekend was great. We made it down to LA on one tank of gas (and the same back up home) and that's something else to smile about. We ate way too much, I read gobs of magazines and cookbooks, and Bella wore herself out each and every night from swimming, running around, and playing all sorts of imaginary games with her grandpa.

I hope your 4th was just as good.