I love reading, and while I like a nice thick book, sometimes reading a children’s book to my little sister can be a lot of fun too, especially when it has such a good message.

Today I read the book The Princess and the Peanut Allergy by Wendy McClure.

It’s an adorable little book perfect for kids learning to read. It would also be a great addition to an elementary classroom or school library to teach young children about food allergies.  It’s about a little girl who is trying to throw a party, but the cake she wants has peanuts. Unfortunately her friend has a peanut allergy.

Even though its a simple story, I find the premise wonderful. It promotes tolerance and awareness of people with allergies.  I really wish that there had been more story books about children living with food allergies around the time when I was a kid.

If people my age had read things like this when they were very young, maybe they would be more tolerant and nice towards people with allergies.

Even though its a short and sweet book, it carries with it a powerful message that I hope will stick with the kids that read it.

Until next time!

Gary

This is not a sponsored post.  We bought our copy of The Princess And The Peanut Allergy from Amazon.

Hi guys!

I am so sorry that it has been a couple weeks since my last post. School has been crazy with exams, and my new classes this semester have given a lot of homework; however, I’m back!

Since it has been a while since my last post, I thought it would be fun to have my first post back be a food review, and I picked a good one!

Being the allergy family that we are, my family is always on the lookout for new companies that make allergy safe products. MadeGood Foods is one of those companies.

MadeGood is a company that makes granola bars. Now, one thing that I recently discovered about myself is my giant love for granola bars. After the first couple Pnotboxes I received, I learned very quickly that I was missing out on a lot by not having any chocolate chip granola bars my entire life.

Because of this, when I heard that MadeGood’s granola bars are free from the eight common allergens: peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, sesame, and shellfish, I couldn’t wait to try some.

MadeGood granola bars come in four different flavors: mixed berry, apple cinnamon, chocolate banana, and chocolate chip. I’m sort of a professional chocoholic, so we ordered the chocolate chip ones.

They were good! I was definitely reminded of how much I love granola bars after I bit into one of these.

Of course, I had to make sure I had about three or four of them (okay, an entire box of them) to make sure they were all as good and it wasn’t just a fluke. If there’s one thing you should know about me, I take one for the team to make sure I get an honest assessment of granola bars. In fact, after I write this, I’m gonna have a couple more for testing purposes (we ordered a case of them).

It’s all in the name of science, so I think it’s okay.

If you are interested in the MadeGood company or their granola products, be sure to check out their website.

http://www.madegoodfoods.com/us/

PS. This isn’t a sponsored post. My family bought our own box of granola bars. In fact, we have about six right now, so I’ll have to eat a few boxes so they don’t take up so much space. Gosh I’m a generous person.

Until next time!

Gary

Howdy everybody, and happy new year! I have been having an excellent holiday vacation, and have been able to have more free time every day than I’ve been able to in months!

With all of this time to myself, I had a bit of time to do some reading, and one of the books that I read was a graphic novel I had heard about a couple months ago and had been meaning to read.

Peanut, a graphic novel written by Ayun Holiday and illustrated by Paul Hoppe, is a unique story about fitting in inside a new high school environment.

With her parents’ divorce hanging over her head, the main character, Sadie, has to move to a new place and go to a new school, leaving her old life and best friend Cheryl behind.

In a desperate plot to stand out from the others at her new school, and thus fit in, she purchases a Medic Alert bracelet and pretends to have a deadly peanut allergy after learning about peanut allergies from a person who was next to her in a fast food line.

It goes well at first, as she manages to make some new friends, but she soon finds herself overwhelmed by the stresses of keeping up such a complicated ruse.

Without going into much more detail, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I was pretty skeptical when I was given the basic story premise, but as I read the book, I found it to be an enjoyable read.

Many of the characters were very well made, and I could almost relate to Sadie and her elaborate plot. Almost.

While I found the story to be a good one with a great message- to just be yourself- I found it to be a little less than believable at times.

Main character Sadie is hailed as an almost celebrity-like figure among her friend group for much of the story due to her allergy. Not only that, but her friends are constantly on the look out for her, and there is one scene where one of her friends totally freaks out after he reads the label and finds that the chips that Sadie is eating contain peanut oil.

My question is: Where can I get that? This story makes having an allergy seem almost desirable, but in my personal experience, that just isn’t the case.

Sure I get the occasional question about my allergy, and the occasional request to see my EpiPen, but I am definitely not the school celebrity that Sadie is hailed as, and unfortunately some of the kids at my school are closer to threats to my allergy than shining pillars of protection that read my labels for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed the read, but Sadie’s allergy experience just seemed like such a polar opposite to mine.

With that being said, I would definitely recommend this book to interested people with allergies or those related to people with allergies. I would avoid giving it to someone as a reference for what life with an allergy is like.

However, since the setting is high school and some of the subject matter might be slightly mature, I would recommend on holding off on giving it to a child unless they are around 7th-8th grade or older.

If you are interested in purchasing the book, here is a link to the Amazon page for the book (This is not a sponsored link.  I will not receive any compensation if you click or choose to buy.  It is simply for reference.) :

https://www.amazon.com/Peanut-Ayun-Halliday/dp/037586590X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483371583&sr=8-1&keywords=peanut+ayun+halliday

Until next time, and happy new year!

Gary

Guess what day it is?

My favorite day of the month!

It’s Pnotbox delivery day, and once again they didn’t disappoint! We ordered the Loaded Plan and receive ten new peanut and tree nut free goodies to try each month. I recently got December’s Pnotbox in the mail, and this month’s box had a few old favorites and a lot of holiday cheer. The gingerbread and candy-canes were so fun, but the chewy chocolate granola bars are still my favorite. In fact, after the picture was taken, I kind of ate all the granola bars in one fell swoop. It was incredible.

Come back soon.  I will be posting more fun Christmas traditions and projects this week.

Until next time!

Gary

Note: This is not a sponsored post. My family bought our own Pnotbox membership, but if you want one of your own, follow this link:

http://www.pnotbox.com/

Another one of my favorite traditions come Christmastime is traveling to Frankenmuth with my family. Frankenmuth is a historic German town in Michigan that dates back all the way to 1845. It has since grown into a bustling vacation and tourism center.

Frankenmuth was featured as one of the Christmas towns in the United States on the Travel Channel. Our two favorite places to visit when we go to Frankenmuth are Zehnder’s and Bronner’s.

Zehnder’s is my absolute favorite restaurant in the entire world. It is a family style chicken restaurant that’s been around since the early 1900s. It is world famous for its fried chicken meals, and they are DELICIOUS!!!

Zehnder’s isn’t completely safe for me. I can’t have their bread (but I usually can’t have bread in restaurants), and I can’t have their stuffing, but their main attraction, the chicken, is safe for me! Their chicken is so good, that people travel across the country just to taste it. Zehnder’s is sort of like part historic landmark part chicken heaven all rolled into my favorite restaurant ever.

After stuffing our faces at Zehnder’s, my family hits up Bronner’s. Bronner’s is another major Frankenmuth landmark, as it is literally the biggest Christmas store in the world.

Bronner’s was founded in 1945 by Wally Bronner. Back then, it was just like any other store, but through a series of major expansions and renovations, it has grown into a 7.35 acre space. That is the size of 5.5 football fields!

Whenever my family visits Bronner’s, we always each pick an ornament or two to put on the tree. I usually pick something pig-related, as I love pigs, and my sister ends up picking a mouse-related ornament.

I had such a tough time choosing my ornament that my parents let me get two this year. Of course, they were both pig ornaments. I really really love pigs.

It’s quite a drive to get to Frankenmuth, but boy is it worth it. It is pretty much an entire day of fun, and I look forward to it every year.

Since Zehnders does serve products that contain nuts, please make sure to contact the restaurant to discuss your allergies before visiting.

Until next time!

Gary

Wow, I can’t believe how close Christmas is. With less than ten days away, I can practically feel the excitement in the air.

My entire family has been super busy, not only with Christmas preparations, but with a whole bunch of fun pre-Christmas events.

In my family, only a part of Christmas is the actual Christmas day. So much of the holiday season revolves around fun Christmas traditions that my family does.

As I was thinking about my Christmas traditions today, I realized just how much they revolved around the use of food.

I think you don’t always realize just how much social gatherings and activities revolve around food until the food itself becomes dangerous.  My mom told me when I was four and I was first diagnosed, she would panic before every party.  No matter how much you try to explain a food allergy there is always going to be the relative that insists on bringing their own cookies or cake to the party.  Pretty rough when you are a kid and that cake looks good.  Thankfully there will hopefully always also be that relative like my Aunt Susan that practically sends a hazmat team into her kitchen before Thanksgiving and then greets my mom at the door with a bag of safe labels to “double check, just in case”.  I guess my point is there is always going to be food at gatherings, but usually everyone tries really hard to make everything safe for you.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is my family’s gingerbread party. My mom loved decorating gingerbread cookies as a kid, and she wanted me to be able to do the same thing.

Unfortunately, most gingerbread house kits are unsafe for an allergy child like me.  So about twelve years ago she started making them from scratch. LOTS of them!  Every year she makes about 20 to 25 gingerbread houses from scratch and then assembles them.  Then my friends and family come over and we all decorate our own. It’s so much fun!

She even gives me and my sister gingerbread cookies to decorate with frosting.

It is probably my favorite part of the Christmas season, maybe even more so than Christmas itself!

Since Christmas is almost upon us, I decided to share the recipe my mom uses to make her special gingerbread houses!  The recipe will make about two houses and some extra cookies.  She makes twelve batches each year before the party.  As always, double check to make sure the ingredients are safe for you, and check with your allergist if you are still unsure.

Gingerbread

Makes Two Houses And A Few Men

1 cup crisco
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 tablespoons vinegar
5 cup sifted all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Cream crisco, sugar, salt.
Mix in egg, molasses, and vinegar.
Sift dry ingredients together and add sift into molasses mixture.
Chill overnight.
Roll, cut, place on parchment or a greased cookie sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for about 6 to 8 minutes (depending on cookie size).

That’s it! Enjoy!

Until next time!

Gary

Hello readers!

It seems like just yesterday that I went trick-or-treating on Halloween night, and now my giant bag of candy is much less giant, and Thanksgiving has seemed to have snuck up on me! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday of all time. In many ways, I love it even more than Christmas or my birthday. Only on Thanksgiving can I have five different pies, turkey, a chocolate chip muffin, and mashed potatoes all on one plate. As an adamant foodie, this is kind of like a dream day for me.

I like to think my Thanksgiving is kind of unique because my aunt hosts two meals. We have one breakfast meal, complete with chocolate chip muffins, crepes, bacon, eggs, sausage, and juice. It is an amazing breakfast, and I actually love it more than the dinner part. The dinner meal is even bigger, with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and bread sticks. And for dessert, a bunch of different pies and ice cream.

These are the biggest meals I have all year, and they are completely safe! My aunt is always super good with my allergy, and makes sure I’m safe every year.

These next couple of days, I’ll be writing all about the food I eat at my Thanksgiving dinner, and I’ll even provide some nut-free recipes from the food that will be eaten.

Also, if any of you readers want to share your Thanksgiving experiences, feel free to comment below, or on Facebook, and you might be included in the next post.

Until next time!

Gary