Product Deletions

Here is an excerpt from Allergy Train's latest newsletter about product deletions. I have previously recommended the Millet Rings and Mrs Robens Tortilla mix so it's a bit sad that they won't be produced anymore.

"Product Deletions

There are a couple of products that have disappeared in the last few months and i just wanted to let you know what has happened to them. 

Eskal Marshmellows - Unfortunately our supplier had the wrong shipment of marshmellows arrive. They received pink and white instead of plain white. We do not yet have a time frame on when these will be back.  

Ecor Rice and Millet Rings - these have been deleted by the manufacturer and we can no longer get them. This is very sad news for many of our customers who's kids loved them for breakfast. If you hear about an alternative product that may be a suitable replacement for these, please let us know and we will do our best to get hold of them.  

Angel Foods Meringue and Marshmellow Mixes - these have been deleted and are no longer available. We have a few meringue mixes left, but no marshmellow.

    
Mrs Robens - The manufacturer closed it's doors last year and last we heard the potential buyer was still talking to their bank so it looks like these may not be back any time soon if at all, which is a real shame. We loved their tortilla and pie mixes at our place."

We have ordered our Easter Chocolate this year from The Cruelty Free Shop and our daughter will enjoy a Moo Free Easter Egg and some Bonvita Rice Milk Mini Half Eggs as we remember what Jesus did for us on the cross and how he's alive again. Happy Easter!

Online and allergen-free in WA

screen shot taken from here

 We have recently moved to Western Australia which means that a lot of the online stores I was buying from now have prohibitive shipping costs. So I googled where to buy allergy free foods in Perth and came across this website - Allergy Tots. They don't have a huge range of products but they do have what I am looking for - a dairy free Easter Egg for our little Miss. So I have emailed to reserve an egg for her and can now feel less guilty about shopping for Easter Eggs for us too! Now to locate some mini Easter Eggs like what we had last year.

Absolute winner of a chocolate cake

Photo from here

I bought this cake mix in order to make little muffins for my daughter to take to her preschool for them to freeze for whenever someone has a birthday and she can't eat what is provided. I make a smaller cake with what was left over. I sprinkled pure icing sugar over the top instead of making an icing.
It was delicious! We all loved it and it was so moist and yummy that it was like eating a normal chocolate cake!

Here is their website. It is pretty easily available from certain large supermarkets.

We made the egg free option with No Egg rather than what was suggested but otherwise made it according to the instructions.

We are going to make it again for my daughter's 3rd birthday! I can't believe it is less than a month away.

Ideas for picky eaters and more

I watched this interview and thought Kelly's suggestions for introducing foods to picky eaters quite useful. Similar to what I said a while ago but more specific. There are some other good tips as well. Kelly's focus isn't feeding children with allergies but I think there are lots of useful things. Our Gluten Free Family will probably have the rest of the interview up soon or you could follow the links. Apologies for the way the video goes on the screen - I haven't designed the blog for wide screen! And you'll probably need to turn it up.

Allergy Train Website

Hopefully they will look better than this one

Oscar's Mum blogs about cooking for her son who has food intolerances and I enjoy reading because sometimes we cross over in what we can cook. The other day she blogged about succeeding in cooking tortillas - I have been looking for a successful tortilla recipe/mix for a long time (we love tortillas!) and so her link to the Allergy Train website for Mrs Robens Tortilla Mix was quite exciting.

I have placed my order (along with a couple of other things - had to make the $12 postage worth it) - and will let you know how it goes. By the way, I noticed that you can get a lot of Eskal brand items including the ice-cream cones that I mentioned on Wednesday.

Chocolate muffins

My muffins, or cupcakes, as my 3 y.o. son told me they were!

I want to link you up to a fabulous website - Literary Viands. It has yummy recipes for sweet treats and good ideas about substitutes for different foods. I made the chocolate muffin recipe and it was great. I susbtituted for the egg using No Egg and I used soy milk and there were no problems. They looked really yummy too!

An Easter Treat

The chocolate eggs I mentioned last month have been a hit - Bonvita Rice Milk Chocolate Half Eggs. They are fairtrade as well and a good size. My daughter loved being able to get a chocolate egg each day like her brother as we read through part of the Easter story on the 12 days before Easter. I bought these eggs online at The Cruelty Free Shop. There's quite a lot there that I'd love to try - soy condensed milk, dairy/egg free mayonnaise to name a couple.

Back again Brownies

Hello again! I hope 2011 is going well for you. I am back from our various holidays and ready to get into this year looking for healthy and fun ways to cook for my kids with allergies.

Here's a holiday food that we experienced while we were away. Packet mixes are so good when you are on holidays. This one required you to add eggs/replacer and butter/margarine/dairy-free spread which you tend to take with you. It was very yummy.

Looking on Melinda's website, they have some fabulous things to check out.

Dairy Free Adventures

I found this blog - Dairy Free Adventures - a while ago and there are some nice looking recipes on there. She tends to blog a few times a month but it is worth a peruse for some inspiration.

Choices Gluten and Wheat Free Bakery

photo from here

Hello again.

A friend told me about this store and I finally had some time to go and visit. It's simple and small but it has a great range or foods that are mainly gluten & wheat free but many are dairy and egg free as well. They have 4 locations around Sydney - Turramurra, Bella Vista, Mona Vale and Bondi Junction.

They specialise in breads, pastries, pies and cakes but have other things as well. You can check out their website here and I realised that they deliver all over Sydney and delivery is free if you spend over $40. It's not hard to spend $40 because it is expensive, but having tried it with my daughter and seen how she eats it really well has encouraged me to go back. We have tried the fruit loaf (smells fabulous and my 3 yr old eats the crusts she won't eat!), hamburger buns and par-baked buns. They are all able to go in the freezer which makes bulk-buying a great idea. I just placed an order for the fruit loaf (2 of them!), and buns as well as a banana loaf pre-mix and noticed that they have started selling Christmas items so I have ordered some mince tarts to keep in the freezer. And it's nice to know I don't have to do the drive out to Bella Vista again unless I want to!

Travelling in non-English speaking countries

We are planning a trip to Japan in January and are very much looking forward to it! We are going skiing with friends. My only major concern is the fact that I can't speak/read Japanese and we will go to restaurants and I have a child with a life threatening allergy. You can only imagine my relief when I read on an SMH article (4th comment) that there was a Japanese restaurant in Sydney that not only provided allergen free (and environmentally friendly ways of eating/presenting etc) food but that they offered to provide a free personalised information sheet in Japanese to present to restaurants telling them about the allergy and asking them to provide appropriate food. I have been in contact with the owner Yukako and she has been very diligent in asking questions and being in regular contact. I just received an email telling me that she is starting to write up the information sheet now.

Here's the link, just in case you ever Japan is on the itinerary - Wafu.

If you are planning a trip, it might be worth finding someone who speaks the language to write up a sheet for you (in the language and corresponding English). I'd be happy to pay for that peace of mind!

A great website - Everyday With Allergies

I stumbled on this website while looking for a scone recipe. I'm yet to try any of the recipes but they look fabulous. I'm definitely bookmarking this site and am tempted to buy her recipe book too. I think I'll try making the chocolate cake first! Her post about soy cheeses also encouraged me to go looking again.

Click on this link - Everyday with Allergies