Thursday, March 31, 2011

Please vote for me!!!

Granted I can go and get a case at Costco but wouldn't it be awesome to win a case because of my corn allergy?
Please vote:
http://www.chobani.com/real-love/view/id/1134

The first party

Sooo, tonight is my dad's birthday = dining out, cake, ice cream drinks.... The restaurant was easy, we got there early and I explained to the waitress I have severe food allergies and if she could just bring me a plate and not take my order.  Easy peasy, plate came and out came my boiled eggs and yogurt with maple syrup. Granted not nearly as yummy as the pan fried perch hubby had, but I could pretty much guarantee no issues.  No one even mentioned it or anything, beautiful birthday dinner and I even had some Pinot Noir (granted not my organic, sulfate free but I was living on the edge here people!)

Next came the cake and ice cream celebration. OHHH, that icing...
You see, before this allergy I ALWAYS got the corner piece.  It took everything I had not to even have a little lick!  But, It looked so good but the angel on my shoulder reminded me that it could be a potential breathing issue in front of the babies which I would never want in a million years.  So, I declined and assisted in handing out the cake.  Meanwhile, enjoying...
The party is over, I am now at home enjoying 2 small baked potatoes with Organic Valley Butter and Redmond Real Salt.  Sure, it is different, it is somewhat hard, but I feel a million times better and just can not let myself go to that one slip up. Granted 2 weeks ago I was not wiser, but now I know what has caused a lot of my issues and allergies and I vote for healthy and happy over the American norm.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Ohh, I am in LOVE!!!

WOW!  It feels soo good to be able to use an acutal moisturizer on my face instead of just olive oil!  Today my shipment from 100% Pure came.  These products are ALL NATURAL and VEGAN and ORGANIC!  Seriously, what can get better than that?  Your skin is your largest organ and what you put on it gets absorbed, so why use chemicals when you can use products derived from 100% pure natural ingredients that Mother Nature provided for us?

Yummy Ice Cream Mint Chocolate Gift SetRed Wine Resveratrol Nourishing Cream

Im this shipment I got Red Wine Resveratrol Nourishing Cream, Organic Coffee Bean Eye Cream, Purity Spot Treatment, and the Kids 100% Pure Mint Chocolate Chip Body Wash/Shampoo, Lotion and Bubble Bath!   Sweet Pea and Monkey rated this the best body wash and bubble bath they have ever used!  The soap comes out foamy and they loved that too!  I loved that I can know what every ingredient is and know that I am using natural products on my babies!



I am signing up with a company called Alex & Von to represent 100% Pure!  I am excited as these are wonderful products that are safe to use, natural and not tested on animals.  Let me know what you are interested in and I will get you hooked up!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Grass Fed Beef

Today I tried some grass-fed organic ground beef from my friendly farmer.  We have purchased this before, mainly in the summer when we had a taste for burgers.  This time I wanted to try it to see if I had a reaction to it.  I stuffed burgers with some of the organic sharp cheddar I found at Whole Foods and grilled away.  Oh, so yummy!  So far so good!  I am excited to meet the farmer again to order some steaks, if those go good then I'm considering buying a bigger freezer and either a 1/2 or 1/4 moo moo!

Things have been going well, sleeping great and the key is to make sure I am prepared each night before with my meals.  Im also trying to make the kids lunches the night before too.  Preparation is the key.

What things do you do to make living with allergies easier?

Monday, March 28, 2011

Yummy!

Tonight my mom made Mr. Chicken for dinner and tomorrow she is making me a nice broth out of it.  Oh, it was soooo good!  I had a baked potato and asparagus on the side and my tummy is all full!

I had to go on a bit of a drive during work today to get some things set up for testing and I realized I forgot my food!  UGH, then I remembered what I wanted to share last night... CHOBANI YOGURT IS SAFE FOR PEOPLE WITH CORN AND NUT ALLERGY!  That was almost too good to be true!
Look for yourself, click on the nutrition info and there it is, for the world to see!  Safe for people with CORN ALLERGIES!  Oh, one of my favorite foods is back.  I think I'm going to go and write them a thank you note now.

http://www.chobani.com/products/c/nonfat

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Bulgogi and Mr. Chicken

Well, today I had my parents over for dinner.  I made everyone's favorite dish, Bulgogi.   Granted I can't eat it anymore, and Monkey, who was born in S.Korea wants nothing to do with this ethnic wonder, it turned out great.  Instead of the normal beef used, I used some venison backstrap. I sliced it thin and added the CORN allergic marinade (this is per handful of meat per a Korean friend):
4 tbl Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Mirin
2 Tbs Sugar or Honey
1 Tbs Chopped Garlic
1 Tbs Sesame Oil
Some Sesame Seeds and Pepper
2 Tbs Pear or Apple Juice

Let this marinade for a bit with the meat in the fridge, a few hours is all that is needed and then put in a nice flat pan.  I love my big All Clad, and use chopsticks to move the meat around as it cooks.  What did I partake in you ask?  Oh, how sweet of you!!! I had some venison marinated in Our Daily Red Sulfite Free and Organic Red wine and Garlic with a touch of EVOO from Italy.  This was all served over rice.

Mr. Chicken ended up going home with my mom to cook.  It appears that frozen chickens can take a while to defrost, more than the day that I allowed so he will be ready for me around 5:30 tomorrow night after we get done with Sweet Pea's ortho appt.

In non food or allergy related issues, Baby Beak needs love! I told Hubby to relocate his house back to the family room so he can be more a part of our daily activities.  Hopefully we will do this soon. Isn't he cute???

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Time

Why is this blog time so off and how do I correct it? The times posted are not even close to when I really posted??? Thanks in advance

Move Over Kingsolver

Started off the day with a trip to the farmers market to meet the wonderful farmers that I follow on FB.  Picked up my order of 4 organic chickens, 3 dozen fresh organic eggs and 4 lbs. of organic grass-fed ground beef.  Mind you I was mainly vegetarian before my allergy diagnosis.  I have NEVER made a whole chicken, what in the world am I supposed to do with this thing?? The kind farmer gave me some suggestions and assured me it is cleaned out and ready to cook.  Just give it a nice rinse.  Ok, we will see. 

Whenever I did buy organic meat before I always made sure to buy skinless, boneless ready to cook.  Always white meat and never any real work involved besides grilling.  I do know how to roast a turkey breast though, perhaps this will be the same???  None the less, I got my book of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle off the book shelf as it looks we will be eating close to the seasons and from the farm.

We all had eggs for lunch, hubby and Monkey had scrambled, I had them sunny side up and Sweet Pea had organic ravioli.  Wow!  I forgot how wonderful farm fresh eggs were!  I wish I could have mine scrambled but I can't have milk  Perhaps I can leave it out, but didn't want to risk it today and run these lovely eggs.  All US milk is fortified with Vitamin A Palmitate thanks to the USDA who is worried about us poor Americans being deficient.  All Vitamin A Palmitate is an alcohol derived from corn.  The government has to put all the corn somewhere I suppose, but I just wish they would not put it EVERYWHERE...

With Easter on the way, I have been thinking of baked goods.  Granted I need to find safe flour that the government hasn't had enriched for me and some other substitutes but that should not be that hard.  The long lead item for baking is vanilla.  Most vanilla is made from soaking the beans in corn alcohol of course.  There are brands out there, especially with Passover upon us.  But I would rather try to make my own.

So, after dragging the kids to the stinky liquor store I scored some potato vodka.  Might as well buy a big one and a cute teeny bottle to make my vanilla in.  I read how to do it online, involves soaking the beans in potato vodka but I do not remember, nor did I look up the specifics.  It can't be that hard.

Process:
1. Open up cute baby bottle of Chopin potato vodka.
2.  Pour off a bit of excess, plus more from big bottle if you desire, into glass of fresh squeezed      organic orange juice.  Place orange juice/vodka mix in freezer to sip later. 

3. Take vanilla beans and gently slice down the middle to expose beans inside.
4. Put beans in baby bottle of vodka, close and put in cool place for 4-6 weeks.


Now, for defrosting the chicken.... Ugh, Hubby is out doing estimates so I suppose I can do this on my own.  I had a Pyrex glass dish ready and placed in the laundry room next to the utility tub. No need to rinse off chicken in the kitchen sink and be paranoid all weekend about contamination.  Plastic gloves were put on and the bag was sliced open and disposed of in waiting trash by my feet.   Chicken was rinsed and placed in Pyrex and wrapped in plastic.  I was told it was clean and the neck was removed but it kinda looked like it was on.  I will have hubby inspect when it is defrosted.


So far it has been a good day, no reactions and got the kids Easter outfits ordered and didn't even have to give Gymboree any money.  With all the coupons and credit card gift certificates (paid in full every month so there is no hidden cost to me with the reward program, btw) they were free!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Great Day When My Throat Didn't Feel Swollen...

Wow, I had a pretty good day eating today! AND!!! To top it OFF, Whole Foods had Cod on special!  I have been trying to mainly stick to the foods that I have not reacted to on my allergy skin test and cod was one of them.

I baked it for about 20 min at 350F and it was so good!  Sweet Pea even liked it!  I bought 3 lbs of it so 2 are in the freezer now but the sale for all of $8.99 a lb is on until Sunday so I need to get some more for the freezer.  It was funny as Meijers had cod on sale for $4.99 a lb but I could not even imagine getting an answer out of a Meijer fish person that it has not been treated with anything,  WF knows their stuff when it comes to how the products are handled.

Tomorrow should be exciting!  I meet the chicken people and get some chickens and eggs to have.  I can not believe how much better I feel eating organic, pure foods!  Nothing from the box, and just a bit from the bottle, lol.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Look What Came in the Mail Today!

Well, Hubby convinced me to get this.  If anything G*D forbid, ever happened I could have a very serious reaction to a simple IV - it could contain CORN!!!


So, this has the IVs on the back that could give me serious issues, my MedicAlert number that someone could contact to get a list of all of my allergies.  While it is a personal decision, it is not just about me.... It is about my family and I don't ever want to cause them to worry.

And yes, I agree the picture looks really odd - doesn't really look like an arm HAHA

So far, knock on wood, today was a good day.  Had a swelling to possibly eggs and bananas though so eliminating those for a while.  Foods of the day so far: eggs, EVOO to cook them in, tuna, avocado, asparagus and a touch of Organic Valley unsalted butter.  Hopefully a glass of Our Daily Red, Organic and Sulfate free wine will follow soon :)

Did you know most of the corn grown in the US is not edible???

We don't have cable TV in the house, it is just not a good influence for Sweet Pea and Monkey.  That is not to say we don't have entertainment - I would have issues if it wasn't for our Mac collection, lol.

The other night I was searching Netflix and came across this movie KING CORN!  Oh my, someone actually did a documentary on corn and it is on Netflix?  Ok, cool lets watch.  Hubby and were amazed at all we learned and actually more freaked out about how nasty all these corn things are and how the government is actually supporting all of this.  But, if you are so inclined, take a look for yourself and make your own decisions.  Remember, this blog is about me, lol



The light is back!

Ok, this is to get caught up to yesterday.  By the weekend I noticed I started to feel a TON better.  My mind wasn't constantly churning a mile a minute, I wasn't so short with Hubby and the kids and the constant ache in my back was well, wait!  Where did it go?  It was gone.

I woke up this weekend actually feeling HAPPY, Giddy actually.  My mood has improved tremendously!  Perhaps this diagnosis (yes, it could be a TON worse) was going to be a good thing!  So what if I can't eat out, at least I'm starting to drop those last stubborn pounds and will be in my sz. 28  (European size people) True Religion Jeans (haven't worn in 2 years) in no time.  Not to mention I'm pretty much pain free and happy with a clear mind.

I can do this!  I can survive on this diet even better than on my previous one that had some of the typical American crappy food sprinkled in here and there between the vegetarian organic produce.  

Plus, you know what??? This means I get to shop!  I finally have a good reason to start over with all of the personal care products our family uses!  I have placed several orders and will be discussing them when they arrive.  I can't wait to get all new makeup and stuff!  BTW, this was prompted by research and also the horror of when I went to give my kids a bubble bath the second and third ingredient on our all organic and natural bubble bath had corn displayed in parenthesis after the chemical technical name.   At least they were nice enough to tell me.

Depression sets in

So, just trying to get caught up to today.  The few days following my diagnosis were really upsetting.  I did  a lot of research and found a lot of great sites to help and explain things to me.  Corn is the allergy I feared the most though, corn is in everything. For goodness sakes, when our basement flooded two years ago we got the carpet replaced with carpet made with, you guessed it CORN!

Here are some corn allergy sites that I found really helpful:

Here is an interesting conversation on the effects a lettuce allergy can have on your system:
Wow, I learned so much in such a short period of time.  You know what, I have always had severe upper back pain, I'm a bit anxious all the time and some may say high strung.  You know, total type A???  HAHA, always wondered what was wrong with me.  Perhaps it was my food.

Well, there was not much I could do except focus on what I could eat so I took the list of all the foods I was tested on and made a sheet of what I can eat.  I went to Whole Foods and got some basics: organic chicken, organic white rice, canned tuna and salt that has nothing else added, some avocado (I wasn't tested for this but never had any issues) and started eating simple meals consisting of one item each time.  I'm also very blessed to have a freezer full of venison thanks to hubby!  

BTW, you can't just go to any store or butcher to buy meat.  Thanks to our friendly and helpful government, most is sprayed with citric acid or injected with some corn variant to make it pretty and perky still when we get it.  Remember those diaper looking things between the Styrofoam tray and meat?  You guessed it, corn!

So, needless to say, I ate bland foods and really watched everything.

Background History

For as long as I can remember, well back to 4th grade I had allergies.  At first it was environmental stuff and dust mites and I would get awful stomach aches from tomatoes, beef, dairy and a few other things I don't remember.  I do remember getting really sick every time my mom would make her beef barley soup... I grew out of most of the food ones until around 2006 (mid 30's) when I was diagnosed anaphylactic to Almonds and Brazil Nuts.  It was kinda funny, I would eat almonds every day and I guess I really just got used to my throat being kinda swollen.  In 2008 I was diagnosed anaphylactic to peanuts.

I traveled a lot to Italy last year for business.  I was always very careful and Delta always kindly added it to my flight register, but what can you do when bowls of nuts are passed around with glee in business class???? Take some ben*dryl and fall asleep of course.   I got by, enjoying my life, traveling for work and eating what I wanted to as long as it did not have nuts.

I went back to Italy the end of January this year and had a weird reaction to lunch one day.  Hmmm, I ate green beans, cannelloni beans and a bite of this really spicy pasta.   The skin on my throat was bright red and my cheeks were flushed, not to mention a slight swelling in my throat.  I took 4 of my CVS brand ben*adryl and it subsided in about 3 hours - BUT WHAT CAUSED IT??? My diet was really good, I was practically a vegetarian who occasionally ate some fish or some vension.  I thought there were nuts in the pasta, perhaps, but my Italian colleagues assured me there were just a few ingredients: pasta, olive oil, parsley and red pepper flakes.   Hmmm, well not the red pepper flakes because I love BWW Spicy Garlic sauce on my pizza and am always fine with it, not parsley.  THEN WHAT???

On March 22, 2011 I visited my friendly allergist.  She gave me a full round of skin testing and the culprit was identified as most likely the cannelloni beans!  WHAT?  I love beans, remember, I am practically a vegetarian.  Next, she said cabbage.  Really, cabbage?  I don't get any stomach upset so how could that one be?  Carrots, lettuce??? Pork, ok who really cares about that one, lol, not me.  The list kept growing!!!  The results of the skin test were:

High (Must carry epi-pen and avoid per Mrs. Allergist!) (3+)

  • Peanut (ok, knew about this one)
  • Corn (WHAT?  THAT IS EVERYWHERE!!!)
  • Barley (Yea, ok I remember 4th grade and the soup)
  • Pea (Who can be allergic to the lovely little green gems that come out of the pods each summer to eat?)
  • All Tree Nuts
  • Clams (Seriously?? So much for the Fisherman's Way dish at Lo Squalo)
  • Lemon (UM WHAT?)
  • Buckwheat (Can't say I have ever eaten this to my knowledge, but since I have researched it I found it is somewhat common in Italian pizzas)

Medium (2+)

  • Soy (Not really a big fan of the soy industry so don't really eat this, but like it's corny friend who has been GMO'd like crazy, Mr. Soy lurks everywhere too)
  • Carrot (UGH, you were so lovely shredded on a salad)
  • Lettuce (Odd, people say it is to the pesticides but I eat mainly organic - also found on yahoo that it can cause anxiety issues)
  • Cabbage (So much for Kimchi)
  • Tomato (UGH!  Well, this really sucks)
  • Coconut (Always kinda suspected this one so no big surprise)
  • Green Pepper (What am I to dip in my Hummus?  Wait, I probably can't have hummus due to the bean relation, not to mention the tahini)
  • Sesame Seed (This is a new one and I was shocked)
  • Scallop (Not that I eat them a lot, but they are yummy)
  • Trout (Don't even like trout!)
  • Mustard (Well, not like I can have sandwiches at this point but goodbye store bought horseradish and pickles)

So, there you have it my friends.  I got home before Hubby and the kids (Sweet Pea and Monkey) and when they got home Monkey said "Mama's Allergic to Everything!!!"  Great, thanks

Disclamer

First, I need to start of by saying that this blog is about me - it is not intended as a medical tool or anything even remotely close to that for you, the reader.  It contains a story of my journey with food allergies.  All information contained in this blog is for my reference.  It works for me, it may not work for you.  You are responsible for your own health and determining if something mentioned herein will work for you.  Everyone's allergies and chemistry is vastly different so do not consider this in any way, shape or form medical advice.  Got it??? Good, let's get started.