Color Coding for the Win!

My Beloved Peanuts

Living in a temperate desert means that the summers are hot and dry. In fact, in Boise we see an average of 200 days of sun each year and average two days of rain over the summer months. The fact that it was raining that day in August 2005 was already unusual, but I also—dramatically—thought that the raindrops rolling down the passenger side window matched my sadness.

My husband drove the car completely unphased, unaware of my racing thoughts. We were returning from our first-of-many visits to a pediatric allergist for our two eldest sons and I had an impressive stack of folders and pamphlets in my lap outlining how to manage each boys’ multiple food allergies.

Yes, I know.

Food allergies don’t sound so scary. And really they aren’t. But I was an exceptionally apprehensive cook and the thought of removing so many basic ingredients in our family diet felt completely overwhelming.

Milk. Wheat. Eggs. Soy. Tree nuts. Peanuts.

My beloved peanuts.

That also meant mixed veggies, snap peas, hummus, whole grain cheerios, scrambled eggs, and granola bars were out, among other things. No French toast. No cheese.

Hurdle Number One: New Recipes & New Systems

One of the first hurdles was discovering new recipes: the allergy-friendly market had not yet been established, so all their meals would need to be made from scratch.

Cutting out peanuts and tree nuts, while sad for Jim and me, was pretty simple. We just stopped buying them.

The other allergens were less straightforward. Since Digit could not safely eat any foods with eggs, legumes, or wheat as ingredients, I began researching how to cook with alternatives like oat flour and egg substitutes. And since Duke could not have animal milk from cows, goats, or sheep, he was reliant on soy milk.

But, wait. Toddlers drink milk.

A lot of milk...

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