It’s a rare and special treat to see a little “NUT-FREE” logo on food packaging, so when I see it, I automatically become a loyal customer! Chips can be another tricky item when grabbing a snack for a nut-free kid, so this was a pleasure to see.
Granola bars are great on-the-go snacks, satisfying and healthy and delicous.
But they almost always have peanuts or nut warnings on the package. I am not much of a home-baker but this recipe is Easy, Fast and awesome. I’ve been making this for years now, it’s an oatmeal bar recipe where you can simply remove the nut ingredients and it had no impact on the result!
http://weelicious.com/2010/03/01/oatmeal-on-the-go-bars/
I used raisins or Craisins. If you put these in the fridge, they last a week, or you can freeze some if desired. They are perfect to grab for a breakfast, or a snack while out and about, and they are satisfying & healthy & the kids love them!
Certain holidays like Easter or Halloween mandate some CHOCOLATE. This item can be very hard to find for nut-free kids, especially in holiday shapes.
In recent years I’ve come to rely on this amazing brand:
http://www.vermontnutfree.com/
They even have a great substitute for M&Ms called skippers which is handy for school-ages students whose classes do “M&M Math” (who came up with that?)
The only downside to ordering from this company is that expedited ordering can get expensive. So now I’ve gotten into the habit of ordering my nut-free treats a few weeks before a holiday, and I am all set!!!
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This was my first round of passover/easter with Zack being old enough (3) to appreciate some of the finer things the holidays have to offer– like Macaroons and Easter Candy.
What an eye-opener it was to read all the labels this year! There are virtually no easter chocolates available that are free from nut-contamination! (See’s has one reliable chocolate product but I cannot really toot their horn right now because they were closed before 6pm 2 days before Easter which really burns my wick.)
Anyway thank heavens that one of the all-time classics of easter is a perfect match for a nut-free kid: PEEPS!!! They rock and they are simple, and I can assure you they go over VERY well with a 3 year old! He did not mind me removing some other candies from his reach while providing a colorful selection of peeps to choose from!
And macaroons, these are the very essence of Passover. But try finding a nut-free brand… you won’t find ANY in the supermarket as I sadly discovered! Advice for next year is to order in advance and either stock up or share a large shipment with some other jewishy friends. Reliable nut & gluten free “Jennies” makes totally safe macaroons, although they are sold in packs instead of a can at a time.
Jennies macaroons at: http://www.macaroonking.com/
And we all know Peeps but: http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/
I’m half jewish so the desire for Chinese takeout runs strong in my family. However, Asian food in general seems like the riskiest of all cuisines to serve to someone with a nut allergy– particularly from a restaurant.
I assumed chain restaurants to be the least trustworthy, but now I am a huge fan of
because they promise that there are no nut ingredients in any dish that does not include the nut in the description (no nut oils used, etc). And they offered up that if I wanted a dish to be 100% guaranteed free of any cross-contamination, they’d be happy to prepare the dish separately to meet that standard. Well, HELLO! They’ve won my business for the long term! I’m also happy to report that, again despite being a chain, the food is quite delicious!!
Not that I ever feed Zack junkfood of any kind (what sort of mother do you think I am?) but some times chocolate happens. Like when we get back to our hotel room and find there are chocolate minds on our pillow. Andes candies to be precise! Zack and I both got excited and then I felt bad that I’d just have to hide the treat and try to make him forget about it…
But guess what , Andes Candies are good to go and Nut Free!! Another treat to have in my back pocket 🙂
Allergen info: http://www.tootsie.com/health.php?pid=105
Holiday baking had me nervous, especially when it comes to the super-important ingredient of Chocolate Chips!
Luckily my friend stumbled upon this fabulous brand, which is surprisingly easy to find in supermarkets.
They produce chocolate chips, baking chocolate, and other good items. Another nice perk is that they are made with all natural ingrediants– cane sugar, vanilla beans and full cream milk (for the milk chocolate). There are no genetically modified ingredients used, and the chocolates are even certified as kosher. Oi vei!
Here is their allergen statement specifying no peanuts are handled in their facilities:
Time to do a little holiday baking!
Happy Holidays to all!
As my son gets older and can eat a wider variety of things, it’s becoming more common to have to real Every Bloomin Label on Every Bloomin Thing we buy. It will be nice when I am familiar with some reliable brands that we can trust for processed foods.
Snack foods & cereals seem the hardest. I could not believe how many cereal boxes I had to read through, passing up many organic & natural & fabulous brands, just to find one or two that were nut-contamination-free. Here are Brands I now trust & Zack (my son) loves to eat as well:
Lundberg – In particular their (organic) rice cakes are a great snack, which include some savory flavor options that have been a big hit.
Fiber One – I once thought of this as an old person’s cereal but now that we’ve tried it I have to say both my son and myself love this as a breakfast or snack! The flavor seems so nutty and rich to me & it’s totally safe.
Dum Dums – Not that any of us every feed our kids candy 🙂 but in case of emergencies this is a perfect item to have on hand. Unlike 99% of candy which has unavoidable cross-contamination, Dum-Dum lollipops are made on dedicated-nut-free equipment! Rock on!
I’d love to hear of any other trustworthy & yummy brands out there!
I am a HUGE fan of Pesto sauce and decided to ask around & find out a way to add it to my son’s menu in a nut-free way. Pumpkin seeds seem to be the answer to keeping a delicious “nutty” flavor in a nearly-classic pesto sauce!
Ingredients
Note: Even Trader Joe carries pepitas so hopefully they are not too hard to come by. Some packages may have a process-in-a-facility-with-nuts warning. You can also buy raw pumpkin seeds and roast them at home in a manner of minutes – DELISH!
Directions
I will cook it up this weekend to see if it goes over well with my 2 year old. 🙂
Hello World!
My interest in blogging is primarily to help collect & share information about how to navigate through nutty situations (play dates, school, restaurants, grocery stores, recipes, holidays, bakeries…) with a child diagnosed with nut allergy. Some of my interest in blogging may also be to complain about how annoying or frustrating or frightening this allergy can be, but I’ll try to keep that to a minimum.
Here is my son, who currently age 2 1/2 and seems happily oblivious to the lack of nuts in his life.
Very Happy despite lack of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!
Things get trickier the more time he spends in public settings. Up until age 2, his exposure to foods has been limited essentially to the ultra-safe haven of our home & the foods I pack out with us. But as play dates take place and preschool has begun, I see a taste of the coming challenges of protecting him from exposure amidst oh so many unknowns!
I recently started hosting play dates in my new neighborhood, and it’s already been a learning experience when it comes to food. For one thing, at this age, Zack won’t hesitate to grab food from others! Luckily as the co-organizer of the play group we made clear rules for the play dates- parents can bring food but everything should be nut free. Other parents, verbally, are extremely respectful of such a request & even offer to go out of their way to comply.
But so far, every single attending parent has brought off-limits foods to the play dates at least once. This was not out of malice of course, but assumptions that “nut allergy” meant almond butter was okay, or that “plain M&Ms” were safe as opposed to “peanut M&Ms” despite the warning on the package “may contain nuts”.
I am already thinking it will prove helpful to start being specific (and yet somehow not pushy?) when people ask about what is okay to bring/serve/etc. The problem is I don’t know what to suggest. I’ve had preschool parents ask what brands to buy that are OK for Zack. I have no idea! We tend to buy primarily actual foods, not package pre-prepared or processed foods, so I have no clue what brands to trust.
Even among the brands I do buy– I question what can be relied on. After a year of Quaker Rice Cakes being a trusted snack, their packaging label changed to include “may contain pieces of nuts”. When did that change even take place, I don’t know.
What brands do you trust? What types of foods? How do you communicate with other well-meaning but unknowing parents? H. E. L. P.
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Nut Free Kid 