Allergy Superheroes at Vegetarian Mamma - Review and GIVEAWAY!

The wonderful Cindy Gordon over at Vegetarian Mamma has offered up a review of our products!

Click here to see it!

I love this picture of her son with one of our buttons :)

And the best part is she's hosting a giveaway for one of our shirts, a button, and a sticker pack! (Gender, size, and allergen(s) of winner's choice.) So head on over to her blog and enter for your chance to win!

Thanks again, Cindy!

And remember that we've got a promotion going on through Labor Day in honor of Back to School!

Use the code BACKTOSUPER for 15% off your order!

Triann’s Pantry Pancake Mix Review and GIVEAWAY!

We've teamed up with Triann's Pantry to offer you a special giveaway! My husband Dean (who is our Sunday breakfast guru) tried out their Perfect Pancake and Waffle Mix and reviewed it for you below! Then beneath that is the Rafflecopter for the Giveaway!

Dean here again with a guest blog post. I first came across Triann’s Pantry through a promotion they were doing on Twitter to help the Food Equality Initiative (an allergy-friendly food pantry). For every order Triann’s Panty got, they sent a duplicate to that organization.

I sent them a message through Twitter that it was a wonderful promotion and we shared a similar experience of how a layoff from a long term job resulted in the creation of our allergy-friendly businesses. They offered to send us some samples of their products. We looked over their website and there were so many delicious looking mixes that it was hard to decide! We narrowed it down to three and said surprise us.

Surprise us they did. Shipping was impressive, it arrived in only a couple of days. The second surprise was they sent us all three: Perfect Pancake and Waffle Mix, Crazy Good Cupcakes and Allergy Friendly Sugar Cookies. So I decided to review their pancake mix since I make pancakes almost every Sunday morning. It’s known as Pancake Day now to the kids.

The mixes were wrapped in red tissue paper which went nicely with their black packaging.

Right on the front of each package it tells you which of the main allergens it’s free of. The pancake mix was free of gluten, dairy, soy, egg, tree nuts, peanuts, rice and corn. It’s also produced in a dedicated facility free of those items.

I’ll start by saying my kids are very used to their pancake mix and haven’t liked any other variety. They were at my parent’s house overnight recently and, as is customary for grandparents, my parents let them have as many as they wanted--but they only ate a couple because they tasted different. I was curious to see what the kids would think of this.

The package had a resealable zip lock to it in case you didn’t use up all of the mix. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to save half of their yummy mix though. When I first opened it I could tell there was something different about this mix. I breathed in and there was a definite hint of cinnamon.

Mixing it up was simple enough, I only had to add oil and water.

The mix was thick, very thick. The package noted that and said not to add any more liquid to thin it down. I was curious so I contacted them to ask why. “They are very thick… we are debating calling them breakfast cakes instead… It has to do with the chia instead of the eggs, and if you add more liquid it ends up very chewy. Has been a year long process looking for any alternative, but we ended up going with better taste and final consistency.”

So however tempted you might be to add more liquid, DON’T DO IT! 

Our boys liked the smell of the mixture so I thought there was a good chance they would like the pancakes too. Our oldest correctly identified the cinnamon. I got ten pancakes out of it, just like the package said. I’ll usually get a lot more out of our usual batch (and the volume of batter was roughly the same as our usual pancakes), but again don’t add any more liquid to this.

Now it was time for the taste test. We all tried a bite without anything on it. And the verdict was  . . .  we all liked it! The worst part was when our kids wanted more, they’re accustomed to getting a certain number of pancakes. This includes a larger; “Mickey Mouse” shaped one (which I was not going to try with such a thick mix). We had to explain that each pancake was like getting two, and that Mama and Dada wanted these as well. So they had to “settle” for some normal ones. I made a smaller batch of our usual pancakes, we have leftovers and it makes a quick breakfast for later in the week. It also gave a nice comparison of the two.

So even with our picky pancake eaters, they enjoyed this new variety. They are thicker, but they taste great which is really the most important thing. We highly recommend you give these a try! As an added bonus, Triann’s Pantry has let us offer a giveaway of their mixes so you can try them for yourself! The Perfect Pancake and Waffle Mix is $7.95 for a 15 oz package.

Pluses and Minuses

+  Top 8 free plus rice and corn

+  Dedicated facility free of those items

+  Several organic ingredients used

+  Tastes great with a hint of cinnamon

-   Very thick batter, may cause contention of how many each person gets

Until my next blog post, don't forget how super you are!


Now for the best part:

The giveaway!

One lucky winner will receive three (3) Allergy Friendly Baking Mixes of their choice from Triann's Pantry! (16.7oz size maximum per item.) Check out their store to see what you might want to win and enter with the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner will be announced no later than August 6th. Good luck!


Disclaimer: We received three baking mixes for free from Triann's Pantry. We were not required to give a positive review and all opinions are our own. :)

Flying Southwest Airlines with Food Allergies

We just got back from a trip to Buffalo last week! The reason for the trip was sad, but it was good to see familiar faces and places again, regardless.

We also met a new friend--we paid a visit to Dairy Free Gina, who lives in the area! It was great to meet and network with such an awesome food allergy blogger!

In order to get to Buffalo, we flew for the first time in almost three years! I’ll confess that I was more nervous about the boys' peanut allergies than I ever was on previous flights. It may be because the last time we flew, Zax had tested positive for peanut allergy but we hadn’t confirmed it via challenge—and we knew nothing about Kal. We hadn’t called ahead for peanut allergy last time and I’m not even sure we wiped down the seats very much. Now we know that Zax is anaphylactic to very small amounts of peanut. Kal’s reaction to his challenge was less severe, but we know that he has picked up trace amounts via cross contact. Plus, our kids touch everything. (Kal, at age 4, still regularly puts his fingers in his mouth.)

Southwest Airlines was great though! They were friendly and their regular policies allowed us to preboard to clean our area, and they suspended serving peanuts for the flight.

Our Preboarding Pass and a "Peanut Dust Allergy Document" to
give to the flight attendants. That told them to implement
all of their Peanut Allergy policies.

Wiping down all surfaces that a child might touch is a big task, and I was glad my husband and I were able to work at the same time! We went through 1 1/2 packs of baby wipes between four flights and a week vacation. I felt leery of the floor since we couldn't clean it, and I confiscated any toys that fell down during the flights.

I also brought along extra Epi Pens--the ones we got back from school. I figured that if we were stuck in a tin can at 30,000 feet where even an emergency landing could take some time, we ought to be prepared with all we had.

There were interesting differences in the various legs of our journey. On the first flight towards Buffalo they also made an announcement asking passengers not to eat peanut products, and then they stopped by a few times to ask questions or check in. A passenger near us asked if it was just peanuts or all nuts, and another passenger all the way across the plane asked if they could eat their peanut butter sandwich, and each time they came to get our opinion. We were happy to answer questions and explain the nuances of our needs. The flight attendants also warned us that the pretzels they were serving had a cross contact warning. One of the flight attendants also told us that the air on the plane is not recirculated--it goes through the engines, then into the cabin, and then out to be replaced by fresh air. I don't know if that's standard for all airplanes, but it would explain why the plane always smells like exhaust as it's backing away from the gate.

On the second flight towards Buffalo, they again warned us that the pretzels had a "may contain" warning on them, but did not make any announcements.

On the first plane home, a flight attendant started handing out packets of pretzels and packets of peanuts, then saw us a few rows back, remembered the allergy, and raced back through the cabin confiscating all the packets he'd just handed out. He then made an announcement that the reason they weren't serving peanuts was because there was someone with a severe allergy onboard. Oops!

On the final leg of the journey home, they again did not make any announcements. They didn't warn us about the pretzels either, however they completely bypassed our row when handing them out. Fortunately, we'd brought our own food along (I can't imagine flying with food allergies without doing so!) Our longer flights (1st and 4th) had two snack services, and the second was Ritz Chips which did NOT have an allergen warning.

It's funny how an airline with the same policies approached us differently for each flight. So much of air travel really is dependent on the flight attendants assigned to your plane. Overall, we thought they did a good job and they got us safely to our destination. Even through a thunderstorm!

Actually, we tried landing in said storm twice, and each time the pilot had to abort and pulled us back up amidst bumpy g-forces and loud engine whines. We were pretty nervous. DIA closed to arrivals after the second attempt and we had to fly to Colorado Springs to wait and refuel, since we didn't have enough fuel to keep circling for a long time. Oy! I was glad our preboarding had allowed us to snag seats at the very front of the plane for that flight--it gave the boys a little more space to move.

Overall, Southwest took good care of us, and we made it home safely, if four hours late. Hooray for Southwest!

Personalized coloring books from My Kids Food Allergies!

The folks over at My Kids Food Allergies, a great food allergy resource, graciously asked me to preview their new coloring books!  I told them I'd be happy to take a look.

As you can see, this isn't just any coloring book.  Those are my sons' faces on there! That's because my kids are the stars of the show in these fully customizable coloring books!  You provide your child's name (hidden on mine to keep them anonymous), picture, and their allergies, and My Kids Food Allergies will send you a fun coloring book designed to help kids navigate parties when they're worried about their allergies.

In the book, your child gets invited to a birthday party.  He or she is thrilled to attend, but worried about whether they'll be able to participate in the food rituals because of their allergies.  At the party, they discover that other kids have food allergies too, and the FA kids agree to stick together and look out for one another.  In the end, they find out how great it is to be included in everything.

The boys loved seeing themselves in a story!  Kal insisted that I modify the other names in the book (the birthday girl, the other kids at the party) to match his friends.  I hardly got through the book because he wanted to examine the pages in great detail.

Of course, he asked me to color him like Batman.  That goes without saying.  Kal is always playing Batman.

See the Bat Symbol and Bat Belt?

Zax thought this was pretty cool too.  He thought the story was neat, and said it was awesome that the book knew what he was allergic to!

The lighting's bad, I closed the drapes after this.
Sorry for the poor quality.

He was quick to point out how his life was different from the book, though (there aren't really any other kids in my class with allergies, are there?)

When I asked Zax whether he had ever felt the same way as his character in the book, he said "no."  I think this was because I've never sent him to a party unprepared.  He always knows he'll have my cupcake, and that the food will be safe (as in the one party where he went solo) or I will approve all other food first.  Zax didn't get hung up on this, though, because when I asked him if there was anything he didn't like about the book, he said "no."  He liked it all!

So how did I like the book?

Things I liked:

• I liked the food allergy kids deciding to look out for each other--a great lesson in positive peer relationships!
• I liked that my kids were part of the story.
• I liked the quality of the books--they were very well made, both in terms of high-quality materials and in the editing job of my kids' photos.  They looked great!
• I liked the length.  Most of our coloring books lay abandoned after only a few pages get colored.  At six pages, the story is a good length and most kids (who are into coloring) have the persistence to color six pages.
• I liked that my kids felt a personal connection to the story because it was personalized for them.
• I liked the pictures, especially the angry cake.
• I liked that this story helped allergic kids recognize that they aren't alone.

Things that made me go "hmm":

• I wondered if they would change the story text for allergens that are not commonly found in cake, icing, or toppings (like fish, shellfish, mustard, etc, especially if that's the child's only allergy) because worrying that shellfish is in cake might seem a little silly.
• I thought that sending a child with food allergies to a party without a plan for food was unusual.  It certainly wouldn't happen in our house.  Which isn't to say that kids won't benefit from reading about food allergy kids who band together, because they will.  And also isn't to say that our kids are always paying attention to the preparations we make--anyone else feel ignored by their kids sometimes?  (I mentioned this to My Kids Food Allergies, so I don't know if they'll be modifying it for the sale copy.)

My Kids Food Allergies is now selling this coloring book here.  You can get a spiral-bound book like I received, or you can order a digital copy that you can print yourself.  If you'd like a personalized book to help you talk about food allergies in social situations with your kiddos, I encourage you to check them out!


Note:  I received two copies of the coloring book to share with my kids, and digital copies as well.  Other than that, I received no compensation from My Kids Food Allergies for this review.  All opinions are my own.