Kids Food Allergies Blog

In my recipe search for allergy-free Jewish foods, I came across an excellent article by Sara Atkins, Making Purim Allergy-Free. I found it at Chabad.org’s The Jewish Woman.

I noticed in the comment thread that some of Sara’s readers were looking for allergy-free Passover recipes. That’s great — my kind of people! Wanting to help her community of readers, I wrote the following comment.

I am new to this site, but very familiar with dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free Jewish holiday cooking! I have posted some of my family’s favorite Pesach recipes in my new blog: http://kidsfoodallergiesblog.com/
If you have other vegan and nut-free recipes that you would like to share, please leave a comment on my blog. Happy Passover to all!

Simple, straight-forward, and hardly controversial, right? Boy, was I wrong. Two days later, I got this surprise and aggravating response:

Hi, thank you so much for your comment. As site policy we cannot post comments with blogs listed or any websites for that matter. We will actually be posting some allergy free Pesach recipes as well though that you are more than welcome to give a link to on the blog. Hoping to run that next week! Take care, SE

Sara Esther Crispe

Editor, TheJewishWoman.org

WHAT? I wasn’t spamming sites for Viagra or casino gambling or cheap refinancing opportunities. I was trying to help them, to give timely advice to others who are scrambling to figure out what to serve food allergic kids for Passover.

Will I link to their recipes after they are posted? You bet I will. I believe in information sharing. That’s what this blog is all about. Too bad it’s a one-way street. Am I angry with Chabad? A little hurt, maybe, a bit disappointed. But it’s their loss. I make great food at Shabbat, Rosh Ha’Shana, Purim, and Hanukkah too. If they change their policy, they’re welcome to take notice.

I would like to be a kid again. Search for the afikomen, get a prize.

As a grown-up, I search for allergy-free recipes to complement this traditional holiday. No prize. Just scowls if the matzoh balls don’t look like her cousins’ or fall apart in the soup. Call me a matzochist for even trying.

Passover is one of the toughest holidays for a food allergic family. Almost all recipes have either eggs, nuts, or both. One tip from experience: If your child is allergic to nuts — you have two choices on charoset. Leave out the nuts, or add soy nuts. If you choose the latter — make your charoset the day before and add chopped soy nuts just an hour or so before serving. Otherwise, the soy nuts will get soggy and your charoset will have the wrong consistency.

I am posting a few of my family’s favorite Passover recipes. If you have other dairy-, egg-, nut-free Passover recipes that you would like to share, please leave a comment. Hag Sameach!

TOFU MATZOH BALLS

Veganizing Easter and Passover Celebrations | Vegetarians in Paradise

• 1/2 C. matzoh meal
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/8 t. black pepper
• 1/2 t. onion powder
• 2 T. vegetable oil
• 6 T. water
• 1/3 C. well mashed firm tofu

1. In a medium bowl combine matzoh meal, salt, pepper, and onion powder. Stir dry ingredients to distribute evenly.
2. Add vegetable oil and water and mix well.
3. Add mashed tofu and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 F.
4. Form into 1-inch balls and place them on a well-oiled baking sheet. Cover with aluminum foil, dull side up. Bake at 400 F. for 30 minutes. Cool, and refrigerate.
5. Next day, heat the soup, and add the matzoh balls to each soup bowl just before serving. Makes about 14 matzoh balls.

SWEET POTATO TZIMMES KUGEL

adapted from Bubba’s Passover | Zippora & Chana | 1978

• 1 C. grated sweet potato
• 1 C. grated carrots
• 1 C. grated apples
• 1/2 C. chopped raisins
• 1/2 C. chopped dried cranberries
• 1/2 C. sugar
• 1/2 C. matzo meal
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 C. solid shortening or margarine (Earth Balance)

In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together with a spoon. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until brown.

***

I like this recipe so much, I double the quantities and bake it in a greased 9×13 dish for about 45 minutes, or until brown.

CARAMEL MATZOH CRUNCH

adapted from A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking | Marcy Goldman | 1998

• 4-6 unsalted matzoh boards or sheets
• 1 cup Vegan butter (we use Earth Balance)
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed firm
• 3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375 Degrees F.

2. Line a cookie sheet completely with foil. Cover bottom of pan with baking parchment - on top of foil. This is very important as mixture becomes sticky during baking. Line bottom of pan evenly with matzoh boards, cutting extra pieces of matzoh, as required, to fit any spaces on the cookie sheet as evenly as possible.

3. Combine margarine or butter and brown sugar in a 3 quart, heavy-bottomed, saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Continue cooking 3 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour over matzoh.

4. Place in oven and immediately reduce heat to 350 F. Bake 15 minutes, checking every few minutes to make sure mixture is not burning. (If it seems to be browning too quickly, remove from oven, lower heat to 325 F, and replace.)

5. Remove from oven and sprinkle matzoh boards immediately with chopped chocolate or chips. Let stand 5 minutes then spread melted chocolate over matzoh. While still warm cut into squares or odd shapes. Chill in refrigerator until set.

Tomorrow is my daughter’s class party. Since the party is mid-morning, I decided against making cookies or cupcakes. I decided to go the marginally healthier route — banana chocolate chip muffins — and am posting the recipe to share.

Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home

Wet Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. mashed ripe bananas

2 t. baking powder, 3 T. water, 3 T. veg. oil (or 1/2 C. soy yogurt)

1/2 C. veg. oil

3/4 -1 C. brown sugar

1/2 t. pure vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

2 C. unbleached white flour (or 1 1/2 C. unbleached white flour, 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour)

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

3/4 C. - 1 C. vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.

In a 2 C. measuring cup, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add these ingredients to the wet ones until just combined, being careful not to overmix the batter.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, sprayed with canola cooking oil spray. Bake 10-15 minutes for mini-muffins, 20-25 minutes for standard muffins. A toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin should come out clean.

These muffins are always a crowd pleaser, especially with the younger set.

But if you are trying to do an allergy-friendly brunch and want to “wow” adults as well as kids — I highly recommend you browse a copy of Isa Moskowitz’s book, Vegan With A Vengeance. Her Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins and Carrot-Raisin Muffins are absolutely divine. (Though my daughter, a devout chocoholic, protests vehemently when I make them — she demands chocolate chips.) You may also want to check out the Post Punk Kitchen, also by Isa Moskowitz (and others). I’ve tried quite a few recipes from their extensive recipe archive, with consistently good results.

Happy Baking!

I was a huge fan of The Apprentice in the early seasons, but never got hooked on The Celebrity Apprentice. But over the past week, everywhere I go, people have been telling me about Trace Adkins — and how his story made them think of my daughter and other food allergic children, and the challenges that our families face on a daily basis. I just watched the Week 13 video clip 4 where he talks about his daughter and his charity The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). It brought me to tears. I thank you, Trace, for raising awareness on an issue that is so close to my heart. Even though you may not have won the contest — you have done a tremendous service for the families of the 3 million school age children that suffer with severe food allergies by highlighting the difference between mild allergies that cause itching and severe food allergies that can cause airways to close. I wish your daughter all the best. And thanks again for making people think. You will always be a winner to us.

Check out the Trace Adkins Blog. You’ll see Trace does valuable work on food allergy awareness. And here’s his MySpace page.

Either I’ve gotten away with something pretty big … or the joke is about to be on me.

March has come and gone. Most families across the Washington region are celebrating the coming of spring. Trees are blooming across my neighborhood. The Cherry Blossoms are here, and boy are they beautiful. The weather getting is nicer, and it’s great to get outside again.

Did I miss something? What happened to spring allergy season? Last March was one of the roughest months I have ever had. Like many other food allergic children, my daughter also has seasonal allergies. What we learned last year is that, left untreated, those allergies can trigger breathing difficulties and even asthma. Last March, we missed the entire month of school with a seemingly endless cycle — swollen eyes, cough, croup, stridor, wheezing, lung infection, repeat. The pollen counts were so bad last year, that I was told she couldn’t play outside for pretty much all of March. I developed an obsession with checking pollen counts online, and dreaming of places we could move where we could play outside again. So this year, we armed ourselves with preventative medicine prescribed by our allergist (we love Zyrtec and Singulair) and by Dr. Mom (who prepared herself for the equivalent of a nuclear winter with toys and indoor activities/games to last all of March). But allergy season has been kind to us this year. We haven’t reached for her rescue inhaler once. Nor has she missed a day of school. But, I’m not getting rid of my secret stash just yet. Who knows what April will bring.