FYI

Several days ago, I received this comment from a reader. I think it is worthwhile to post here for everyone to read. This was left on an old post I had written about the allergy-friendliness of the menu at P.F. Chang's.

Careful! We went there last night and found out that they have changed the recipes and that the oyster free sauce is no longer available. EVERY dish we ordered was unsafe for a shellfish allergy. The manager came out and let us know that we could not order the lettuce wraps, the kung pao chicken, the sweet and sour chicken, the orange peel beef (or chicken for that matter), and the egg drop soup. She said that corporate wide they have stopped allowing the substitute sauce.

Please, friends, ASK questions when you go to a restaurant. A good friend likes to tease me b/c we meet for lunch at the same restaurant, where without fail, I order the same dish. Each time, before I place my order, I review how it's made with the waitress.

Remember the cardinal rule of allergic dining:

YOU ARE ALWAYS BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY, so speak up!!!

Thank you to the commenter who sent the P.F. Chang's warning!

Allergic Diner

The evening was only missing the banana walnut cookies of death...otherwise known as allergic adventures in cooking class, part 1.

Howdy, bloggy friends!
It's been awhile. I'm barely keeping my head above water with my freelance work, and I'm loving every minute of it. I managed to escape to visit my allergic mom on Tuesday, and we had an allergic adventure that I felt I should share with you.
Allergic mom is retired, and working her way through a "bucket list" of sorts. It's great. One of the items on her list was to take a cooking class to expand her repertoire. I offered to join her, figuring it would be a good time had by all. I like spending time with allergic mom, and I like cooking. We signed up for a Chinese cooking class. Yum. How could this not be a win-win? Oh, brother...
Tuesday evening I drove to Atlantic City Community College where the class was held. When we entered the class, we received our recipe packets. My internal alarm was sounding as I noted that every chef was wearing latex gloves. Strike one.
We opened the recipe packets, and it was not the typical Chinese food that we were expecting. This was Southeast Asian cooking, as in Thai food, as in every recipe contained either shrimp (allergic mom's one and only MASSIVE allergy), lemongrass (allergic diner no-no), coconut (allergic diner no-no), fish sauce (allergic diner no-no), chili paste (allergic diner no-no), and well, you get the picture. Strikes two, three, four, and five. Yikes!
I couldn't help it. I dissolved into a fit of giggles while the chef was lecturing. Out of close to 10 ingredients, only two were allergic-diner friendly (mung beans and mint, mmmmm....). This had all the makings of a hospital visit, and as I was extremely overtired to begin with, I found it simply hilarious. All I could think was "Where are the death cookies?"
As I'm snickering behind my packet, I looked at allergic mom, who was very nonchalantly starting to scratch her arms, and then her wrists, and then her palms. The shrimp was at every station, and I'm guessing the scent of all that shrimp was too much for her. I couldn't help myself, I cracked up. We couldn't have chosen a more inappropriate class for ourselves short of signing up for "Inject yourself with a tomato 101!"
We walked over to one of the sous chefs and explained our predicament. She even noted my med-alert bracelet (two points for her!). They were extremely kind, and offered to refund our money on the spot (after insisting we move the conversation to the hallway so my mom didn't scratch herself to death). We didn't want that! We've rolled our tuition into a "to be determined" course for May/June. Perhaps we'll bake some bread, or learn some knife skills. This was simply not meant to be.
Our cooking adventure lasted all of 10 minutes, and we went out to dinner for the Chinese food we thought we'd be making (thereby still giving allergic dad a night to himself). Adventures in cooking class, part two, will be forthcoming.
Ah well, the best laid plans...
Yours in attempting to live life on occasion,
Allergic Diner

A whole day off?

Recently, I was afforded something that has become unusually rare since I began contract work: an entire day off, without any work that needed my attention. Certainly, I have time off. However, I have found that when I'm at home and on multiple deadlines, I might as well be working to make my deadlines. Happy clients keep the work flowing. Therefore, even if I have a Saturday off, I will often spend part of the day working on a project. Not this week! I was OFF on Wednesday, and decided to make the most of my day.
The highlight of my day was stopping by Wegman's to pick up lunch on my way home to watch an entire season's worth of DVRed shows (I tape them, but I can never get to them!). I was craving one of their delicious Caesar salads that I only indulge in sparingly because they are not good for you. Anything that tastes that good just can't be good for you. After waiting in line, I noticed that the salad preparer had used her tongs to touch a corn/tomato salsa for the woman who had been in line ahead of me. I very politely (and very nervously, as there were about 25 people in line) said, "I'm really sorry, but I'm allergic to what you just touched with your tongs, would you mind using a clean pair to make my salad?"
Not only did she change tongs (and salad bowls), but she put on brand new gloves as well. Color me impressed! The salad was fantastic.
Thanks you, Wegmans!
Your Allergic Diner

On Daily Calcium

I love yogurt. I always have. With the recent discovery that I can eat yogurt with no Lactaid pills, I've been trying all of the flavors in the Yoplait light line. I'm a big fan of their Boston cream pie flavor, because it tastes like Boston cream pie. If I can't eat the pie, well, the yogurt allows me to pretend for a little bit. About a week ago I saw an ad for Yoplait that introduced their new flavor, red velvet cake. I bought when I was at the grocery store, and it is phenomenal! You have to get past the pepto bismol color, but it actually tastes like red velvet cake. Thank you, Yoplait :)!

Yours in the pursuit of new foods,

Allergic Diner

Really?

You must be 21 to secure a credit card without a co-signer, but at 18 you can fight and die for this country....? Anyone?

Fun with Food Math

1 chocolate-covered pretzel + 0 Lactaid pills = NO PROBLEMS!!!!!


Optimistically,
Your Allergic Diner

Allergic Mecca and New Year Food Test #1

That's right, I'm talking about none other than the Trader Joe's supermarket chain. A friend introduced me to this place a few years back in Chicago. It's small, it's kitschy, and definitely a hang-out of the suburbanite who wants to shop at the "in" store. I was determined to dislike it, just on principle. I walked in, and immediately started reading labels. Labels after labels in aisle after aisle, and in most cases, I could eat 75% of the food in an aisle. Ah, the options. I've found delicious rice snacks that are sweet and spicy and salty and are fat free (and oh so much better for you than Doritos). A multitude of lactose-free and soy options, and sodium-free dried fruit for my homemade trail mix. I'm not allergic to sodium, I simply hate store-bought trail mix. To me it always tastes like what I imagine a salt lick would. Allergic Diner rule: the only salt in trail mix belongs on the pretzels.

A TJ's opened near me this year, and the predictable crowd flocked to the store in the first few months. I waited out the rush, and went in and bought 8 bags of the rice snacks, a host of salt-free dried fruit (mmm), lactose-free swiss cheese, and something else that caught my eye: frozen, gluten-free, DAIRY-FREE, pancakes.

As an allergic child, pancakes were something I loved, but that hated me. I thought IHOP was the greatest place on the planet (much to my foodie parent's dismay), but was always sick to my stomach for hours afterwards. When I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance (not just diagnosed, I made the doc's Lactose Wall of Fame, mind you) one of the things they tell you never to eat is pancakes. Why? Buttermilk. That wonderful flavor-giving dairy was the source of all of my upset stomachs. I stopped going to IHOP, changed over to Eggos (could always stomach these), and never looked back. On the rare occasion I wanted pancakes, I would make them homemade (and though the edges crisped nicely in the dairy-free margarine, they were never as good). I had high hopes for the TJ pancakes.

This morning I figured it would be a nice start to an absolutely raw day. I opened the box, and saw that the portions were individually vacuum-sealed (portion control, a plus!). I made them and topped them with preserves. They were...well...pancake-ish? They weren't bad, by any means. It was more like eating flavorless warm mush. Not unappetizing, but not something I will voluntarily eat again. Here's the kick - this wasn't an unsuccessful food test. This is just something I tried and didn't love!

Hey, it's a new year, which means trying a multitude of new things, right?
My New Year's resolution is twofold: I will return to regular blogging, and I will continue food testing. Read all about my restaurant visits, products, trials and tribulations here, and Happy New Year!

Yours in 2010,
Allergic Diner

In which I wax sentimental.....

So this isn’t a post about allergies, not really. I haven’t posted in awhile, and I’ve decided I need to end 2009 with a few thoughts. Those of you still reading at this point are probably family and friends, and this is really aimed at all of you.

When I lost my job this year, allergic husband and I sat down and drew up a very strict budget to which we needed to adhere (ok, I drew it up and he nodded), and even though I knew we’d be ok if we stuck to it, I was terrified. Fear doesn’t always have a rational basis, and mentally, I felt as if I’d been hit by a train.

Two weeks after I was laid off, I was in the local supermarket with a pen and paper. I was adding the cost of the groceries as I placed them in my cart. I was calculating the cost of something in the meat aisle when a woman next to me asked me a question about the ground beef. We struck up a conversation about recipes and what she was making that weekend, and then we both went about our merry way. A few minutes later, she found me adding the cost of tissues in the paper goods aisle and said to me, “Here, I won’t be shopping enough to use this, and you look like you will be. Have a nice weekend.” It was a coupon for $5 off my shopping order. It may sound incredibly stupid, but that simple random act of kindness solidified for me that everything was going to be alright.

And it was. We have two wonderful families who would do anything for us, and made that fact known immediately when they thought we were in trouble. Our friends couldn’t offer their assistance quickly enough (be it their company, offers to pass on a résumé, or simply checking in to make sure we were alright).We were (and are still) nothing short of grateful (and at times, simply dumbstruck).

So as 2009 draws to a close, I leave you, my readers, with a sentiment in which I put my faith. I believe that you are simply an extension of the way you treat people (consider this the adult version of the golden rule). I have never felt more loved or blessed than in this past year, and I cannot thank anyone enough. It is my hope that the family and friends who have surrounded us do so in part because of the relationships we have with them, and will continue to do so. Oh, and if it matters to those reading, I am working :) (always a firm believer that when one door closes, a window opens).

To my husband, my family, my friends, and even to the random grocery lady, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Your walking Hallmark card,
The Allergic Diner


P.S.- If I must tie in one wonderful allergy/intolerance related note, I have discovered that Halloween candy no longer necessitates Lactaid pills!

BRING ON 2010!!!!

the holy grail...

This, my friends, is the holy grail....LACTOSE-FREE cheese. I've waited two solid weeks to post about this, because I wanted to do a real food test. See that yellow label on the package picture below? It states, "naturally lactose free." Over the years I've found that with lactose food tests, you need to try it not only more than once, but multiple times over consecutive days. That "lactose-free" cottage cheese made by Lactaid doesn't upset my stomach on day 1, but by day 2 I'm sicker than I'd like to explain. It isn't naturally lactose-free, but treated with the enzyme to help digestion.

Everyday for the past two weeks, I've been eating this! I'm fine, and it's INCREDIBLE, and healthy (hooray for calcium!). I've purchased the Gouda as well, and it's even tastier than the Muenster.

Before I understood what the upset stomach meant, I was the kid who came home from school, opened the fridge, and broke out a block of Cracker Barrel. Not the world's greatest idea, mind you, but there you have it. Now I have my favorite food in the world back!

To cheese!

Allergic Diner

A great article, and a child whose parents should be proud

Good evening!
I found this quite interesting and wanted to share....

"Boy Pushes Congress for Food Allergy Deadlines" - CNN.com

Next? I've found lactose-free cheese. Real cheese, not the lactaid cheese that's treated with enzymes. I don't miss ice cream, I don't miss sour cream, but I miss cheese terribly. Now I have it back!

Yours in the pursuit of allergy-free eating,
Allergic Diner

Happy Rosh Hashanah

So when I say I'm off to enjoy the rest of my summer, I really did enjoy the rest of my summer. More outdoors, less computer. However, as fall is upon us, I am now indoors more, and NAH has kindly made me wireless (oh, the places I'll go). For starters, back to blogging I go. Allergy stories and travels coming soon, but for now, as tomorrow evening marks the start of the Jewish New Year, I wish a l'shana tovah to my Jewish readers.

Sincerely,

Your Allergic Diner

Trust in Food.

Yesterday I ran out to the local ACME to take advantage of a few choice sales. While I was there, I picked up two items I've been interested in food testing: nectarines and chocolate eclairs.
Desserts are hard for me. I never order one in a restaurant, but I've found that supermarkets, with the ingredients used by the bakery printed right on the label, tend to bring me good luck. Yesterday afternoon, I went to take the eclairs out of the fridge. I had purchased them pre-packaged by the bakery, so I could read the ingredients and determine the proper number of Lactaid pills. I stopped cold when I saw what appeared to be one label over the other on the package. When I peeled up the top label, with an expiration date of August 20th, underneath was a label with the date August 16th. I checked the calendar, to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. It was August 17th. I was really, really upset.

This morning I drove to ACME right after I took my shower b/c I wanted this out of the way. I asked to speak to a store manager, and showed her what I had found. She was appalled (good start!). Then she summoned the bakery via the intercom, and asked someone to come to the front of the store. Except - when the woman arrived - it was grandma. Not my grandma, mind you, but everybody's grandma. How am I supposed to argue with grandma?

Grandma took a look at the package and stated that the price should've been lower because it was past its date (OH BROTHER - food poisoning, on sale!). The store manager just shook her head and very calmly explained, "No. This is expired. We don't repackage expired products, we get rid of them." "Right," grandma said, "but what I'm saying is that one of the kids accidentally put a label over this one instead of pulling it to be dumped. Without being able to see the correct date, this never would've been pulled." Then she turns to me, patted me on the arm and said, "Am I explaining this correctly so that you understand what I'm saying, honey?" (OY).
I looked at grandma and very, very calmly said "Let me see if I understand this. You expect me to believe that this was a mistake, not some lazy kid who forgot to take the expired label off first before placing a later one on it? That the other packages of eclairs on sale aren't past their expiration date and that's why they were placed on sale? I don't think so. I also don't think I'll be purchasing a baked good at this store again." And then I turned to the manager and asked for my money back. She handed it to me with a sincere apology.
Now, you might think I was being too tough on grandma, but you need to understand this from a food allergy perspective. Say I had done that food test yesterday, and had gotten violently ill. I never would've known the product was expired, and I would've assumed that there was something in the eclair to which I was allergic, or it was too rich for me, etc. I never would've eaten one again, and I never would've known why.

The ONLY thing I need in terms of food is to be able to trust the places in which I buy the food I eat, and the restaurants in which I dine. What ACME did, honest mistake or not (methinks not based on Grandma's first response - it's expired, let's discount it more!), makes me very, very nervous.

So, I food-tested the nectarine yesterday. That did NOT go well. Good grief.
Today will be a better day,
TAD

Sorry for the impromptu hiatus, folks. Believe it or not, its been a pretty busy summer!

Two happy food tests to report:
A bosc pear. I will be doing the second part of this food test today. (for some reason, I often find that I need to eat things more than once to get a real result.)
Chicken Marsala. I kid you not. One of my goals this year is to find more "safe" dishes at restaurants, so NAH has kindly agreed to bring in some take-out. Had this one in two parts, and not even a blip in my stomach! Now to try it from other restaurants...

One sad food test:
Plum. Not so much this year. Ah well, I can live with it...

One fun item to report? I received what I think is one of the neatest presents ever from a good friend (thank you K!). I get to create my own cookbook, complete with photos, on a website titled aptly, "Create My Cookbook." I'm toying with titles. Perhaps something along the lines of "101 ways not to kill the Allergic Diner?" Her rationale was that I work so hard to tweak conventional recipes in order to be able to eat them, why not put them all in one place (and she's never even seen the multiple shelves that host my cookbook collection!)? I cannot wait to try this and I promise to blog about the experience!

Off to enjoy the rest of my summer,
Your Allergic Diner

All's well that ends well, right?

I'd like to start this post by saying, "Yippee!"

I heard from Dr. Rutledge of Wellsphere, and he kindly agreed to remove both my content and feed, and to discontinue my association with Wellsphere. According to the comment he left on my last post, I'm to infer that I (and a whole lot of other bloggers) just have it all completely wrong (HAH). Perhaps the agreement was changed? Ah, well. This concerns me no longer.
I appreciate that this was handled swiftly and professionally, and that there was no need to resort to any of the horrible tactics of which I had read.

Moving on with life.....
Your Allergic Diner

WELLSPHERE SCAM

So I'm a little disheartened. For quite awhile now, I've been a patient expert and a health maven over at Wellsphere. I allowed them to use my content, as I got a fabulously flattering letter from Dr. Geoffrey Rutledge promising me a bump in readership and yet another vehicle through which to disseminate my information.
I tried answering questions on the site, I really did, but when I received questions daily such as, "Do peanut M&Ms still count as junk food if peanuts are good for you?" (OH MY GOODNESS, PLEASE, I JUST NEED A GUN) or better yet, "My infant has a rash in his mouth that looks like an allergic reaction, what should I do" (TURN OFF THE F*#^ING COMPUTER AND TAKE HIM TO A DOCTOR??!!), I got a little unhappy. I stopped signing into the site, I certainly stopped posting to the site, and I just sort of left well enough alone, content to advertise their site on my blog while they used my RSS feed on theirs.
Then the layoff happened, and with a little more time on my hands, I decided I should give the site another try. I googled "wellsphere," (because that was the original name of the site, though I received notification several months back it had been sold to Health Central). You know how google gives you a list of things you might be looking for as you type? Well, up pops "Wellsphere Scam."
UH OH.
Apparently I was one of thousands of health bloggers fooled by that so-called flattering letter. Dr. Rutledge had several versions that were sent out to us blog folk, all with the hopes of signing us on to his network. That's fine. Not even a problem, really. As far as a form letter goes, it was a damn good one.
The problem? Apparently there was something in the fine print that most of us missed. I have yet to clear up whether this was original to the agreement with Wellsphere, or if this is under the new Health Central rules, but they are claiming intellectual property rights to our content! They can use our material any which way they want, and there ain't a darn thing we can do about it (!). This does not sit well with me. Nor would I ever have agreed to it if I had seen it in the beginning.
I read webpage after webpage of health bloggers, some of whom were doctors and nurses, as to how these writers dissolved their partnership with Wellsphere. Scare tactics, lawsuits, vulgar postings, etc. I couldn't believe my eyes. I wrote to Dr. Rutledge yesterday, asking that he discontinue the RSS feed and remove my content from his site, and sent the same email to their general support. And so it begins....if it is necessary, I will remove this site and start anew. It's just so darn irritating. Here's hoping for an amicable solution.

The Capital Grille

Monday was allergic mom's birthday. Yesterday was the allergic brother's birthday. We decided to all meet in Cherry Hill on Monday for the birthday celebrations, and allergic mom was dying to try the Capital Grille.
The experience was equal parts fascinating and allergic-diner friendly. Dinner isn't so much dinner at the Capital Grille as it is an experience. My allergies had been inquired about with the manager prior to my arrival, and Sharyn had assured my mother they would be able to take care of me.
Boy, did they ever!
After a lengthy recitation of the specialties of the house (all from memory), our server, Jason, had a chat with me about my allergies (apparently his wife is another of our kind, dear readers - she's allergic to the planet, too!). He even offered me a look at the ingredients of each dish, if I wanted. I declined, and simply asked for salmon, broiled plain (you know the drill, no seasoning, no oil, no dairy, and certainly nothing under the salmon to keep it from sticking to the skillet). I was even told I could have a baked potato (also plain - and they went so far as to leave it uncut to show me it was safe!), and that's not offered on their menu! Jason returned to the table, and asked if they could steam the fish for me, to guarantee no cross-contamination whatsoever. His words, not mine. I readily agreed.
The table had a calamari appetizer so spicy it cleared my sinuses, and I didn't have any! After allergic mom and NAH had their favorite lobster bisque, at which point both declared they couldn't eat another bite (I can report that it smelled phenomenal), dinner was served.
A kona-rubbed steak for allergic dad, halibut for NAH, a porterhouse for allergic brother, filet for allergic mom, and some light-pink, perfectly steamed salmon for yours truly. They served the baked potato uncut, still in the tinfoil to show me that it had touched nothing else.
At one point, the manager, Sharyn, even stopped by our table to check and make sure everything was perfect. When I was identified as the "allergied one," she spent some time talking to me about her son's allergies. It's amazing what a quick bond people can form over something like this.
Knowing that both our waiter, Jason, and the Capital Grille's manager, Sharyn, perfectly understood both the severity and complexity of my situation put me at ease. I had a fantastic meal, and could not have been any happier with the service.
Capital Grille, thank you for putting this allergic diner at ease. I never once felt out of place.

Sincerely,
Your allergic diner

PS -- It is important to note that I did ask our waiter if I could include his name in this review, as I was that happy with his attention and service throughout the evening. He informed Sharyn, who returned with the business card of another manager (corporate), and asked me to clear my review with her. I did no such thing. In my view, having a corporation clear my review would taint it. Luckily, this review is so glowing, they have nothing to worry about!

puffballs and the Bonefish Grill

So, my parents have puffballs. Not those weeds that grow on their lawn, but two pint-sized adorable balls of fluff that may one day grow into dogs. They're puppies, and they're adorable. (They're just so darn TINY!)

However, this presents a fabulous allergic problem. I'm allergic to dogs (it may have been mentioned in this blog before, no?). I don't begrudge my parents their decision at all, in fact, I'm really happy that they got the puppies. We have an understanding that my visits inside their house will be limited, and thankfully, with Atlantic City next door, it's not like we don't have anywhere to go out for a good meal, or candy(!), or shopping, or a movie, etc. Summer makes this allergy easier, as we can sit outside on the deck for the better part of the day.

This is Father's Day weekend, and what my dad wanted more than anything was an afternoon of card playing and a good ole' BBQ (allergic-diner friendly, of course). Well, mother nature had slightly different plans (seriously, if this keeps up, I'm purchasing a canoe! Good grief!). I Benadryl'ed up, we spent a couple hours in the house playing cards, and then we went out for an early dinner to Bonefish Grill.

We had a 5:30 reservation, of which they had no record, which might have been an ominous start, but they simply apologized profusely and seated us immediately. I'd been there once before with my family, and we knew they could accommodate my allergies.

So we placed our orders, Atlantic Charr for the allergic dad, fish and chips for the allergic mom, chicken marsala for NAH, and salmon for me "the absolute plainest you can possibly make it. No butter, no oil, no seasonings, not even parsley to make it look pretty." Not a problem. I was impressed.

I was MORE impressed, however, when 5 minutes later one of their CHEFS walked out of the kitchen, over to our table, and introduced himself, then spent a few minutes talking to me about what I needed from him. He offered to cook the fish on the grill in a non-stick pan to prevent cross-contamination, and then promised not to put a single thing in the pan (usually would use a non-stick spray, etc), if I promised not to be upset that it didn't look as nice as it normally would if he could play with it. I really liked this guy.

The food came, perfectly, and we had a lovely meal. I highly recommend Bonefish Grill to any allergy-affected patron (well, unless of course your allergy is to fish. This may not be the place for you). It was a fantastic evening!

To my allergic dad, and my non-allergic dad-in-law, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Thank you, Bonefish Grill,

Your Allergic Diner

Atlantic City

So Atlantic City is hurting from the economy, my friends. With a complimentary stay at the Tropicana, allergic mom and I decided to do what we could to help boost their economy.
I must say, I love Atlantic City not for the boardwalk, or the casinos, or the ocean, but because of the candy store! Naturally, the pier at Caesars was our first stop, for a visit to IT'SUGAR. Oh, how I love their wall of jelly beans.

The one thing I don't have to do, when I'm visiting a place I've been previously, is allergy-obsess. I didn't need to pre-determine where we would eat our meals. In a city that caters (ALOT) to the elderly, chances are good I can have anything I want anyway I'd like it.

We had a lovely lunch at Cafe Roma (Caesars' coffee shop), and I'd like to give a shout-out (my former students would be so proud of me) to our waiter, Orlando. This gentleman made me so comfortable, allergy-wise, that I'm contemplating having my birthday dinner there. Yes, allergic mom, you read that right...in a coffee shop!I asked as to whether the egg salad or chicken salad had the dreaded evil green stalk, and he assured me that it didn't. I placed my order of a chicken salad sandwich and french fries, and allergic mom placed her order (yummy lobster salad sandwich and potato chips). About 10 minutes later, Orlando returned with my mom's sandwich, he said to me, "I was wrong, there is celery in both salads, I think you need to place another order." He handed me the menu, and waited with me and answered all my questions. I was blown away! He even arranged it so that I could have french fries with my egg white omelet with mushrooms. It was the best meal I had all weekend!

Dinner at the Tropicana (roast turkey dinner at the Seaside Cafe) was delicious and uneventful, as was breakfast there the next morning. It was a lovely, fun, active 24 hours. Thanks allergic mom!

Allergy Alert Recall

Tofutti has issued a precautionary recall of 12 pallets of Vanilla Cuties. Read about it here.

WholeFoods was out of my usual SO brand of soy ice cream sandwiches (the vanilla taste like the real thing, the chocolate and Neapolitan flavors are AWFUL). So I picked up mint chocolate chip tofutti cuties today. I will be calling their hotline just to make sure it's ok to eat them, and I'll check back in with you to let you know if they were any good!

when life hands you lemons, make lemon zest...

Another food test:
Deli ham : Yes!
This was something I could eat as a kid (AND LOVED), but was forced to give up when I went through food testing. Deli meats in general have a ton of preservatives and spices, and tend to be discouraged for the allergic community. Case in point: Did you know a good portion of deli turkey has milk infused in it? Read the labels sometime, it's a real eye-opener.
I can't seem to digest meat flavored to taste like other meat, such as turkey bologna or turkey ham, but regular deli ham was o.k. That may seem like a weird comment (meat flavored to taste like other meat), so if you need me to explain, let me know.

Meanwhile, confessions of the allergic and unemployed?
I can food test without having to worry, because I'm in a safe environment.
If my allergies bother me, I can take medicine without having to worry that I will be unable to function at work. The low-dose allergy medicine never worked while I was out in the world (my work environment was not allergy-friendly), and the strong allergy medicine always made me feel like I was chewing on my tongue (thereby rendering me not productive). Unemployment: the solution to one's allergy problems! I am kidding, of course, but if ever there had to be a silver lining, I'm o.k. with this one.

Off to chase that whole "relaxation" thing that everyone keeps talking about...