WFMW - Taco Dip (Always gets rave reviews)

My WFMW post is for a wonderful Taco Dip I have been making for years. It’s so simple and everyone always asks for the recipe. It’s so simple you wouldn’t even have to write it down. Best of all, it’s peanut free!

• 1 Can Refried Beans (Fat Free spreads easier)
• 1 8oz tub of sour cream
• 1 8oz tub of cream cheese (whipped makes things easier)
• 1 packet of taco seasoning (Use half or all depending on taste)
• 1.5 cups of Shredded Cheese of your choice (I use cheddar)

Spread beans on the bottom of a square casserole dish. With a mixer or a strong hand, beat together the sour cream and cream cheese. Add the taco seasoning and mix to blend. Spread on top of refried beans. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven until heated through and cheese is melted. Serve with tortilla chips.

I guarantee you will be praised for this simple but delicious dip.

Vacation Fine - RAST not good.

Our beach vacation went great. Alex was able to eat out without incident and enjoy most of the things the beach had to offer. He was a like a fish in water with the ocean. He loved it. Although he loved the beach, he loved playing games on the boardwalk the best.

While we were there our daughter did something to her eye and I ended up having to call the pediatrician. As they were hanging up they said that there was a note on Alex’s chart that he RAST test came back and he is still a Class 3 peanut allergy.

Alex started as a Class 3 and then the last two years he was a Class 2. I had such high hopes of it being a Class 1 this year. At least we would be headed in the right direction. But to be a class 3 was such a blow to my already fragile state. Fragile due to the school situation. Which we still haven’t decided on. I have a month to figure out what we are going to do. Right now I am leaning much more toward homeschooling. At least until he is able to understand the symptoms of an allergic reaction and able to administer his epi-pen himself.

This latest test score has pretty much told me that Alex will not outgrow his allergy. I have decided to look into some teaching hospitals around us to see if they are doing any kind of clinical trials. I would love to be able to send Alex to school without worrying that a slight touch of peanut would send him into anaphylaxis. I have read stories of peanut allergic children who ingest a small amount of peanut protein every day. They are able to withstand some amount of peanut with no problem thus taking the “may contain” scare out of day-to-day living.

 

WFMW: Magic Eraser

My Works for me Wednesday post will probably sound more like an advertisement. Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser is a miracle worker in our house. My most recent finding is that it can clean carpet stains. Now granted, these stains were fairly new but the eraser got rid of them. Our carpets were cleaned a month ago and with two little ones I was finding drops of stuff on the carpet. I wet my eraser, wiped the carpet and the stain was lifted. Here are a few other things I’ve done with the eraser with success:

• Black smudges on kitchen floor.
• Food coloring dye off kitchen counters.
• Soap scum off bathroom walls. - Now this took time. It wasn’t just one swipe and gone. I actually had to scrub but it worked.
• Getting sticker residue off books.
• Wiping dirt off of hard plastic doll faces. - Made my daughter’s doll look great. She only had it a few months but boy was that face dirty. Lol

I’m sure there are many other uses. If you know of any please feel free to comment. You can find lots more great ideas over at Rocks in my Dryer. 

Public, Private or Home

School that is. I have no idea what to do for my son. I have such anguish about how his schooling should be done. Public would give him the most social benefit. Private would give him a better education and home would keep him safest. It sounds logical right? Except that everyone I know is totally opposed to homeschool. Including my husband. I fall asleep at night contemplating our situation. Preschool was easy. There was no lunchroom, no pb & j sandwiches on the menu every day, no peanuts in the classroom. Easy.

Kindergarten, while not a huge deal because he won’t be eating lunch there is still a haven for pb loving kids. Did they have it for breakfast? Is it on their hands? Will someone bring in a pb cupcake for their birthday? It makes me cringe and brings me such anguish.

The only way my decision is going to be made easy is if by some huge miracle he has outgrown his allergy.

If you read my blog, please don’t hesitate to give me your opinion. I’d love to hear it.

Awesome Giveaway!

Rocks in My Dryer is hosting one crazy awesome giveaway. If you would like a chance to be a winner go check out her site.

You could win CD’s from here:  WOW Hits 1 Great music for summer listening.

Next Hurdle

Now that preschool is over it should be pretty smooth sailing this summer. The only thing we have to worry about is our vacation to the beach next month. When we are home it is pretty easy to make him a dinner to take along to a restaurant. When the luxuries of home aren’t available it makes things a little more difficult. I plan on callling some restaurants at our destination and explaining our situation. I am hoping that I can find some places that are food allergy aware or even better peanut-free. I don’t think the latter is really a possiblity but one can hope!

There are also food-allergy cards you can print out on the internet that a waitress can take to the chef explaining that they have a guest with food allergies and to please avoid cross contamination. If nothing else, it makes them aware and hopefully a little more careful with their food preparation. Wish me luck!

We made it through preschool!

Alex’s first year of preschool was started in September 2006 and now here we are on the day of his preschool graduation. I am very pleased to say that with precautions and education he has made it through preschool with no reaction to peanuts!

This year Alex had two teachers. The first one had adopted three siblings the year before and just couldn’t get home life and teaching to jive. I was bummed because she was a great teacher. Anyway, I was talking to her the other day and I mentioned how hard it was going to be for me to send him to school in September and she said “I can imagine it’s scary, I was scared to have him in my class!”. And as long as a teacher has that fear or realization that his allergy is serious I think he will be fine. If a teacher thinks that the peanut allergy is no big deal, well, then, we are in trouble.

So yay for preschool graduation!

WFMW - Alternatives to PB&J

Check out this week’s Works for me Wednesday links!

It is out of necessity that I have to find alternatives to PB&J and this is just a short list of what works for us. If you have a child in a peanut-free school or a friend with a peanut allergy or if you just need something new for your child’s lunch, check out the following list:

1. Cream cheese & jelly sandwich. - At first this sounded gross but it is an excellent alternative. We like ours with strawberry jam.

2. Quesadilla’s - We make this Mexican standby a little healthier by using whole wheat tortillas. Once cut into triangles they are a portable lunch.

3. Ham & Cheese rollups - Take deli-sliced ham and a piece of American cheese and roll up. This is my son’s favorite but he doesn’t have it every day.

4. Cereal - Who said cereal is only for breakfast? While this isn’t very portable, it’s a healthy at-home lunch alternative.

5. Cream Cheese Bagel - Another favorite in our house. Yes, we use a lot of cream cheese. Lender’s Bagels just came out with a new whole wheat bagel. If your child likes the cinnamon bagels, you could use the whole wheat and sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of the cream cheese.

I am always trying to come up with lunches for my son. If you have any other suggestions, something that works for your kids, please let me know!

Boring is good.

Nothing too exciting has been going on lately. Alex has a birthday to celebrate in preschool on Friday and whenever that happens I send a treat that I know is safe to school with him. His class has been peanut-free since the beginning of school. That means that parents can bring in baked goods as long as they don’t have peanuts or peanut butter icing. Since baked goods are such a touchy subject with peanut allergy sufferers I just make my own baked good and he eats that. This week he has decided to take a cupcake. I will use my Small Batch Baking book and make four cupcakes. Two will go in the freezer and one will be sent along with him. So where did the fourth go? Did you know that cupcakes go great with a morning cup of coffee!

Emily

There is a blog I read called “not that you asked” and is written by a woman named Emily. She is hysterical and I love reading her blog. This week however her entry was not so funny. She wrote a post about her friends whose daughter was just diagnosed with a very, very rare, very aggressive form of cancer. This family has a lot to face in the future and I urge anyone to go to this link and read what Emily has to say about her friends.

http://captainhambone.typepad.com/not_that_you_asked/2008/03/these-are-our-g.html