I have a post in me that talks about my mother in law and feeding almond meal to Bella on Christmas Day but I think I need a few more days to be a little more objective and less snarky about the whole thing. But don't worry, B is fine (thank God). The lesson there for my MIL is: just because something says Gluten Free, doesn't mean it is NUT free. The lesson for me is: never trust anyone when they say something is nut free. Sigh.
Instead, I thought I'd share something kind of neat.
For Christmas, Mark got me a Nintendo DS (yes, I'm 10 years old). It's baby blue and came with a snazzy patent leather case (jealous? I thought so).
That's not the neat part. The following is.
He got me a few games, one of them being Personal Trainer: Cooking. You know the one from the TV commercial with Lisa Kudrow from Friends?
Anyhoo - it has over 200 recipes with instructions in it, and you can do all sorts of things with the software like make shopping lists, watch technique videos (and most importantly learn to cook with your kids - which Bella and I LOVE to do together), but you can also search by ingredient and exclude recipes that contain certain ingredients. There's a setting to identify foods you want to exclude and it tags the recipes (and their images) to highlight that they contain the offending food (and it can be anything - apples, peanuts, tofu, etc.).
So I've finally gotten to the neat part (geez, talk about building a clock instead of telling you the time!). When I did a search for peanuts, only two (yes 2!) recipes came up. Pad Thai was one (and you can just omit the nuts from the recipe) and a chinese dessert that used peanuts as a garnish (again, you could just delete it).
One last thing: when you turn on the game it has a screen shot at the beginning that says something to the effect of "when you are cooking for someone, be mindful of any food allergies they may have". Nice!
It was so great to hand the device to B and tell her to pick anything she wanted to make!
Hope you all had a great Holiday Season and that you have a very Happy New Year. I'll see you in 2009 -
9 comments:
I AM jealous! That's awesome! And how cool that the Nintendo people are food allergy aware :)
My MIL brought "her cookies" to our house on Christmas day. I won't blog about it because I'm afraid she'll find the blog and read my snarky comments. But as soon as Hubs and I stepped outside to say good bye to someone, she broke them out and started passing them around (knowing we wouldn't be happy). Older Boy throws open the door and starts screaming "Mom, Dad, Grandma's throwing wheat around the house". Priceless!
My mom bought Gluten Free cookies (Mi-Del) that have egg in them. I told her once before that gluten free doesn't mean allergy free, but after 3.5 years it's like trying to chisel that info through rock.
Glad all worked out with B and the almond meal. The holidays/family can be VERRRRRY scary!
Wow, that is really neat...
So glad that I'm not the only one with MIL issues about a child's allergies. On top of that, my MIL has decided to paint or varnish something in her house right before we come over, even though she knows my son has asthma. And sometime she wonders why we don't come visit more often...
Hi! We have that same game and we love it. I blogged about it on my site too! Great for family time and food allergy life skills! FYI, I noticed you have my site, Peanut Allergy Website (peanutallergywebsite.com) linked to peanutallergy.com mistakenly. Thanks!
Personal Trainer: Cooking sounds like a neat game! I should get it for dh (he's the chef in the family) though he is currently fixated on Lego Batman. Some men never grow up...
Glad to see you are back and have "made it" through the holiday...
It seemed as though any time I turned @ an aunt or an uncle was offering my 3 yr. old "a cookie"... on xmas. Of course, I did not relax for a minute, micro managing each interaction she had. At one point, she ran over to me and told me she refused a cookie from Uncle Billy b/c she didn't know if it had peanuts in it. It almost seems as if these well-intentioned relatives want to "prove" I am being over protective and she is not allergic...what will it take to convince these people...and these are family members!!!
I am so waiting to hear the nut story of 2008. My grandmother had issues this year with me not eating some things, but I stuck to it! Hang in there and Happy New Year!
~Elyse~
love that ds!
Hi. I have begun reading your informative blog after discovering my son's severe allergy. I wanted to suggest a possible subject for your blog to help get the word out. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is accepting written public comments on "May Contain" labeling. FDA has begun to develop a long-term strategy to help manufacturers use these statements in a clear and consistent manner, so that food-allergic consumers and their caregivers can be adequately informed as to the potential presence of major allergens.
The website is:http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=09000064806b7555
Comments are due by 1/14.
Thank you.
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