Food Products I Love

With all of the baking and cooking from scratch that I do, it's nice that there are some store-bought items like this that Sam can eat. Here are a few food products I love:


Once Again Nut Butter Sunflower Seed Butter

This is one of my favorite food products on the market. It is made from organic sunflower seeds, sugar, sunflower oil, and salt. Sam loves this sunbutter. Once initially stirred (I like to stir/mix my butters when I first open the jar to evenly distribute the oil throughout the jar), it remains creamy and well-mixed until the jar is empty. It can be ordered here on Once Again's official website, or on Amazon here.


La Panzanella Croccantini Crackers

We love the Original, Sesame, and Rosemary crackers. They are Kosher Parve, do not have yeast in them, and they have canola or olive oil in them instead of soybean oil. The Rosemary crackers are in Sam's school snack rotation. We love the Original crackers or the Sesame crackers with goat cheese on the weekends. You should be able to find them locally as they have a wide distribution across the U.S. Unfortunately, it appears you cannot order them from their official website. Here is the link for more information about the company.


Quaker Rice Cakes, Lightly Salted

These rice cakes are very simple (just whole grain brown rice and salt) and tasty with a butter of some kind and jelly on them. Sam will have half of one with either sunbutter, peanut butter, or cashew butter, and jelly as part of her breakfast or snack. They are great to travel with as well, since they are a pantry item. They can be found at virtually any U.S. grocery store.

Richard's Tacos Recipe

My husband has been making these tacos longer than I've known him. They are a crowd pleaser - everyone we've made these for loves them. Over the years, they have affectionately become known as "Richard's Tacos." His recipe is based on his Mom's simple American cheese and corn tortillas recipe that he grew up eating as a quick snack. He added the ground beef to make it more like an entree. They are simple beef tacos that once dressed with cilantro, tomato, avocado, salsa, and hot sauce, are so tasty, it's impossible to eat just one.

Richard's Tacos Recipe

3/4 lb extra lean ground beef
1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
Salt and pepper
10 corn tortillas
Shredded cheese (optional)

1/3 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 medium tomato
1 avocado
Salsa
Hot sauce like Tapatio or Tamazula Mexican Hot Sauce
1 can of black beans

Brown the ground beef over High heat. Season with garlic powder (optional) and then salt and pepper to taste. Drain off any fat.

To prepare the garnishes, chop a small bunch of cilantro leaves, then slice a tomato and slice the tomato slices in half. Hold off on slicing the avocado until just before serving the tacos.

Heat the black beans in a small pot over Med. Low heat.

Heat a large skillet or the griddle (smooth) side of a Nathan's Reversible Stovetop Grill and Griddle, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, to Medium heat and put 3 or 4 tortillas on it to warm up so they can be folded in half without breaking apart. Check them every minute or so and turn them over when they start to get soft. When soft, put 2 tbsp of beef filling onto half of a tortilla, along with a small handful of shredded cheese if you want, and fold the other half of the tortilla over it to make the taco. Press the taco with a spatula to secure the fold.

Once all of the tacos are folded, let them sit for 3-5 minutes to let the tacos brown. When they start to brown, flip them over and cook the other side for 3-5 minutes until it is browned. When done, take the tacos off of the skillet or griddle and put them in a covered dish to keep warm while you make the other tacos.

When the last batch of tacos is on the skillet or griddle, prepare the sliced avocado. Cut the avocado in half along the pit, open and remove the pit. Use a knife to make slices in the avocado half. Use a spoon to scoop out the slices. Put them on a plate and sprinkle a little salt on them.

Serve the tacos with cilantro, sliced tomato, sliced avocado, salsa, and hot sauce (Richard's choice is Tapatio), along with black beans on the side. Makes 10 tacos.

Vanilla Mango Sorbet Recipe (Vegan)

I created this sorbet as a replacement for the coconut milk ice cream we had to stop eating because of Sam's food sensitivities. I wanted something creamy and thought mango might be the right way to go. I added vanilla to compliment the mango, and it does nicely. This sorbet is creamy, scoops well, and isn't too sweet. It is currently my family's favorite sorbet.

Vanilla Mango Sorbet Recipe

2 ripe mangos
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar -OR- 1/3 cup light agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Peel the skin and remove the pits from the mangos. Cut the mango pieces into small squares and add them to a medium-sized pot. Add the water, agave or sugar, and vanilla and heat to boiling over High heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and then pour it into a blender and "liquify" it. Add the mango puree to an automatic ice cream maker to make the sorbet (I run the ice cream maker for 16 minutes). Makes 1 pint (2 cups) of sorbet.

Kitchen Products I Love

Vintage Fish Skinner

My Dad always uses one of these to skin fish, so when I got out on my own, I asked him to get me one. He found me this one at a garage sale several years ago. We eat salmon and trout quite often, and I use this fish skinner to easily remove the skin prior to cooking. It's like using a can opener. My kitchen wouldn't be complete without it. You can find them on Ebay searching under Vintage Fish Skinner.




Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker

I started making my own sorbet when Ciao Bella began adding evaporated cane juice to their raspberry sorbet. I initially froze the sorbets mixing them with my hand mixer every hour from the freezer, but the consistency wasn't as smooth as we were used to with store-bought sorbets. So for my birthday this year, my husband got me this Cuisinart ice cream maker. I cannot express how much I love this product. It makes sorbet in 20 minutes and the consistency is fantastic. I use this ice cream maker once a week or so and cannot imagine life without it anymore.

Maple Baked Squash and Apples Recipe (Vegan)

I grew up eating my Mom's baked acorn squash "boats" with brown sugar and butter, and it was one of my favorite side dishes. My brother and I used to scope out the squash boat with the most brown sugar and claim it before the other one did. In my family, I still make the squash boats occasionally, but with olive oil and salt (instead of the butter) and brown sugar. The problem is that Sam will usually only eat the brown sugar with a minimal amount of squash. So I created this dish using either acorn squash or butternut squash and an apple, with olive oil, salt, and maple syrup because it's easier to eat and it's guaranteed with this dish that Sam will eat more squash and apple than sugar. The apples add an "apple pie filling" flavor to the dish that I especially love.

Maple Baked Squash and Apples Recipe

1 acorn squash or small butternut squash
1 medium-sized crisp apple like a Fuji or Honeycrisp
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9x12 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Cut the squash into sections, scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon, and remove the shell, leaving just the squash meat. Cut the squash pieces into 1 inch squares and add them to the pan. Peel and core the apple and cut the apple pieces into 1 inch squares like the squash, and add them to the pan distributing them among the squash. Drizzle olive oil over the squash and apples, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Next drizzle pure maple syrup over everything, like you did the olive oil. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Serves 4 as a side dish.

Steak and Roasted Cauliflower Spaghetti Recipe

I created this dish when we stopped eating spaghetti sauce due to Sam's tomato sensitivity and my tomato, onion, and garlic sensitivities. I wanted to come up with a hearty and complete spaghetti dish for my family. I added the Roasted Cauliflower taking a chance, not knowing if it would work in a spaghetti dish. Amazingly, it blew us away with how good it works. We all love this recipe.

Steak and Roasted Cauliflower Spaghetti Recipe

3/4 lb beef top sirloin steak (boneless)
1 package of whole mushrooms (8 oz.)
1 medium head of cauliflower
1 handful of dry spaghetti (enough for 2-3 people)
Shredded parmesan cheese (fresh)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Roast the cauliflower using this recipe. You will need 1 hour total cooking time for the cauliflower, so don't start cooking the mushrooms, steak, or spaghetti, until the 30 minute mark.

Cut the raw steak up into small bite-sized pieces, removing most of the fat. Put the steak pieces into a medium-size mixing bowl and drizzle a little olive oil over it. Mix together the steak and olive oil, and set aside.

Wash and dry the mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms and set aside.

At the 30 minute mark of the cauliflower, spray a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray, heat the skillet to High heat, and add the sliced mushrooms. Let the mushrooms sit without moving them for a couple of minutes to start browning. Drizzle a little olive oil over the mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste, then saute the mushrooms, stirring every couple of minutes until they are all nicely browned. This will take around 15 minutes or so. Remove the mushrooms from the heat and put into a covered dish to keep warm.

At the 40 minute mark of the cauliflower, start a large pot of water on High heat to boil for the spaghetti. When boiling, add the spaghetti and a dash of salt, and follow the package's cooking instructions. Time your spaghetti to be done when the roasted cauliflower is done, so the pasta can be drained and added directly to the skillet with the beef and mushrooms at the end.

At the 50 minute mark of the cauliflower, spray the large non-stick skillet again, heat it to High heat, and add the steak. Add salt and pepper to taste and saute the steak until all of the pieces are cooked through and browned. This will take around 6 minutes.

When the cauliflower is done, reduce the skillet heat to Med. and add the mushrooms to the steak in the skillet, along with the cooked spaghetti, and stir/toss until everything is well mixed.

Plate up the spaghetti with the beef and mushrooms. Add a serving of the roasted cauliflower on top of that, and add freshly shredded parmesan cheese over the whole thing. Serves 2 adults (and one small child) using the quantities above. If you use more spaghetti to serve 4 people, you would want to add more steak and mushrooms, but as long as you use a large head of cauliflower instead of the medium, one would probably still be enough.

Roasted Cauliflower Recipe (Vegan)

Roasted cauliflower, a/k/a "cauliflower popcorn," is not an original idea of mine. I first discovered it at RecipeZaar here. And Julesong based hers on a recipe she found in a book. I made a couple of revisions to her recipe (less salt, more oil) and my family loves this dish. We eat it once a week or so. It's very kid friendly in that you can pick it up and eat it like popcorn, and it gets carmelized in the oven so it becomes sweet and crunchy. Here is how I make it:

Roasted Cauliflower Recipe

1 medium to large head of cauliflower
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry a head of cauliflower. Cut the florets into bite-sized pieces. I usually will take a large floret and quarter it, a smaller floret and halve it, or the little ones I leave whole. Put all of the cut cauliflower into a medium sized mixing bowl.


When it is all cut up, sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt over it, and add a tablespoon of olive oil over each corner and one in the middle (5 total). Gently mix until all of the oil and salt is equally distributed over the cauliflower.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray and pour the cauliflower onto the cookie sheet. Spread out the cauliflower over the entire sheet. Put it in the oven and set your timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the cookie sheet from the oven and use a spatula to turn all of the cauliflower pieces. Do this every 15 minutes for 1 hour total roasting time. The cauliflower will be browned and slightly crunchy when done. Serves 4 as a side dish.

Juice Finger Jello Recipe

Finger jello recipes using juice are very common and they all have pretty much the same ingredients and the same quantities. Finger jello is a regular part of Sam's snack diet. Grape is her favorite flavor, along with black cherry. This is the way I make it.

Juice Finger Jello Recipe

2 cups 100% fruit juice, divided
3 packets gelatine
2 tbsp light agave nectar -OR- sugar (or 3 if juice isn't very sweet on its own)

Pour 1/2 cup cold juice in an 8x8 square pan. Sprinkle gelatine evenly over it and let it sit for a few minutes to be absorbed by the juice. In a small pan, heat the remaining 1-1/2 cups juice and agave or sugar until it starts to boil. Add the hot juice to the pan and stir the mixture until the gelatine is completely melted and dissolved. Refrigerate for 2 hours, then cut into squares. Pick up a square and eat it with your fingers. Finger jello stores in the refrigerator.

Mini Freezer Pancakes Recipe (Vegan)

I created this recipe for Sam to eat with breakfast a few times a week with maple syrup. It took me a long time to get this recipe just right (notice the odd sugar measurement and the addition of vanilla). I make mini pancakes so she can just pick them up and eat them (finger food) and I freeze them so they last a while, although she especially loves them fresh off the skillet. I also regularly make these with rice flour. You can make normal-sized pancakes with this recipe, too.

Mini Freezer Pancakes Recipe

1 cup unbleached flour
2 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup water or vegan milk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Heat a skillet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray to Med High heat. Use a tablespoon to spoon 4 or 5 mini pancakes onto the skillet at a time. Pancakes will bubble, rise, and lose their shine after about 1 minute 10 sec. Flip them and cook for 1 minute more. Remove from heat and let cool on a sheet of wax paper. Makes 24 mini pancakes or 6 regular sized pancakes.

When they are cool you can lay 9 at a time out on a paper size sheet of wax paper, stack the sheets, then put in a large Ziploc bag for freezing.


If using rice flour to make these pancakes, use the following instead of the unbleached flour above, and grease your skillet really well:
2/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup white rice flour
2 tbsp binder (potato starch, tapioca flour, arrowroot powder, etc.)

Baked Taquitos (Chicken or Beef) Recipe

A while ago I decided I needed to figure out how to bake taquitos because I'm not much of a frier, and we love Mexican food and needed an alternative to tacos. I also realized that taquitos are a great kid food for Sam because they are easy to hold and eat. I thought if I could keep the rolled up taquitos together somehow on my cookie sheet, I could bake them after spraying them with cooking spray. Then I came up with the idea of using aluminum foil strips to twist around the taquitos to hold them, and my recipe came about. Taquito night is one of my favorite dinners at home.

Baked Taquitos (Chicken or Beef) Recipe

For chicken filling:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper

Butterfly the raw chicken breasts so they are not so thick and tenderize them using a fork to prick them. Heat a non-stick skillet, sprayed with cooking spray, to High heat and cook chicken for about 7 minutes per side or until browned and fully cooked. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes or so, then use a fork and shred/chunk the chicken. Put chicken aside.

For beef filling:

3/4 lb extra lean ground beef
1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
Salt and pepper

Brown the ground beef over High heat. Season with garlic powder (optional) and then salt and pepper to taste. Drain off any fat. Cool the ground beef and put aside.

To make taquitos:

10 corn tortillas
Aluminum foil cut into ten 1/2" x 8" strips
Non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large non-stick skillet (do not spray) to Med. Low/Low heat. Put 3 or so tortillas on it to warm up so they can be rolled without breaking apart. Check them every minute or so and turn them over when they start to get soft. When soft, take a tortilla and put filling onto one end of it (2 tbsp beef or a small bunch of shredded chicken - eyeball it to make meat last for 10 taquitos). Note: if the tortilla breaks apart while rolling, that means it was not soft/warm enough to use. Roll filling up in tortilla and wrap a strip of aluminum foil around the middle of it and twist it to secure.


Place taquitos on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Every 4 taquitos, spray the tops with the cooking spray. When all of the taquitos are on the cookie sheet and sprayed, put it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. When done, remove the tin foil strips before serving. Serve with guacamole, refried beans, and salsa to dip in. Makes 10 taquitos.

Rice Cracker Recipe (Vegan, Gluten-free)

This recipe is posted for my friend Laura who loves these crackers. I stopped making them a while ago due to Sam's starch and milk (of any kind) senstivities, and my sensitivity to rice flour. I created this recipe to have great rice crackers to put hummus on since we were cutting out wheat at the time. My family loved these crackers when I used to make them. They store well in a large Ziploc bag in the pantry until they are all eaten.

Rice Cracker Recipe

1-1/4 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch or tapioca flour (Bob's Red Mill brand)
1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup rice milk

Olive oil non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together with a fork. Add the olive oil and cut it in with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the rice milk and mix thoroughly.

Separate the dough into 2 equal parts. Spray 2 cookie sheets with olive oil non-stick spray. Put a ball of dough on each cookie sheet in an elongated shape like a football. Cover with a big sheet of plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to roll out dough to a very thin sheet (almost transparent) covering the whole cookie sheet. Use a pizza slicer to cut columns and rows of small square crackers (1" x 1" or so). Use a fork to prick holes in each cracker. Spray the crackers with the olive oil non-stick spray and lightly sprinkle with salt.


Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Take out the lightly browned crackers (you will have to break them apart along the seams for some of them) to cool on a table top and put the rest of the crackers back in the oven for additional 10 minute increments until all of the crackers are lightly browned. This will take approximately 1 hour of baking time total. When crackers are all cooled, put them in a large Ziploc bag and store them in the pantry.

Substitutions I Use in Baking

Because of Sam's sensitivites to cornstarch, tapioca flour, potato starch, eggs, milk, and butter, I've had to come up with substitutions for those things in my baking. Here is what I do:

For baking powder I mix 2 parts of cream of tartar with 1 part baking soda. So if a recipe calls for 1 tsp of baking powder, I mix together 2 heaping 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar with 1 heaping 1/4 tsp of baking soda and then add it to the ingredients to make 1 tsp total.

For a binder in my rice flour baking I use 1 or 2 tbsp of Betty Crocker's Potato Buds because it's more of a whole potato than just the starch. The old version of Betty Crocker's Potato buds do not have citric acid in them like the "new and improved" version that is out now. I have a big box of the old version left that I am hoping will last me a very long time.
UPDATE 1/17/11: I just discovered that Whole Foods carries their store-brand instant mashed potatoes that are just potatoes and nothing else. Yay!

For eggs, I used to use EnerG Egg Replacer, but then Sam's starch sensitivity developed, so I just stopped using eggs altogether. I add a little more oil to my recipes or a jar of baby food for the moistness. My homemade baking powder or baking soda and vinegar works nicely to add lightness and height to my baked goods.

For a milk substitution I just use water or I add a jar of baby food and water to give it a little nutrition.

For butter in baking I use safflower or canola oil and salt as the replacement. On toast, we drizzle olive oil and salt.

Vanilla Muffin Recipe (Vegan)

I created this recipe for Sam to have with her breakfast a few times a week. I make this recipe regularly with wheat flour and also with rice flour. Using a jar of squash baby food in the wet ingredients makes the muffins moist and adds a small amount of protein, calcium, iron, and vitamin C which is nice since they do not have milk or eggs in them. Also, the squash is mild enough it doesn't add a particular flavor to the muffins so the vanilla and anything you "add in" still stands out. These muffins freeze well.

Vanilla Muffin Recipe

1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 (4 oz) jar squash baby food + 1 jar water -OR- 1 cup water or vegan milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add ins:
1/2 cup blueberries, dried fruit, or nuts
1/2 tsp pure orange or lemon extract
For donut muffins add 1/2 tsp nutmeg and omit the vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and your "add in" and mix together thoroughly. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray. Use a tablespoon to spoon batter into pan. Makes 12 muffins. Bake for 13 minutes.

If using rice flour to make these muffins use the following instead of the unbleached flour above:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
2 tbsp binder (potato starch, tapioca flour, arrowroot powder, etc.)

Also, with rice flour, use 2 jars of water with the squash baby food instead of 1 jar.

Carob Brownies Recipe (Vegan)

I developed this recipe when Sam started reacting to cocoa/chocolate. We love chocolate in this family, and these carob brownies have been filling the void for us nicely. These brownies are rich and moist and they freeze well. The carob powder can be replaced with cocoa powder for chocolate brownies.

Carob Brownies Recipe

1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup toasted carob powder (Bob's Red Mill brand)
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp distilled white vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Batter will be thick. Spray a 9x12 pan with non-stick spray. Spread batter evenly into pan with a spatula. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

If using rice flour to make these brownies use the following instead of the unbleached flour above:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp white rice flour
2 tbsp binder (potato starch, tapioca flour, arrowroot powder, etc.)

If using agave nectar and rice flour to make these brownies use the following instead of the sugar above:
1-1/3 cup light agave nectar
Also, use 3/4 cup safflower oil and 3/4 cup water instead of 1 cup each
Bake it at 350 degrees for 25 minutes instead of 375 degrees
And generously spray your baking pan

Basic Cookie Recipe (Vegan)

This is my favorite cookie recipe I've created. It is extremely versatile in that you can add chocolate chips, or dried currants (my favorite), cranberries, raisins, or nuts to it and have a different experience. The cookies are crispy and chewy and not too sweet. They also freeze well.

Basic Cookie Recipe

1-1/4 cup unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup "add-in" (choc. chips, currants, cranberries, raisins, nuts)

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together dry ingredients. Make sure to get all the lumps out of the brown sugar before adding the "add in." Add the "add in" to the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Use a tablespoon to scoop out a ball of dough and roll it into a ball in your hand. Place the ball on the cookie sheet and press it with your fingers to make a flat circle like this:


Arrange cookies in 3 rows of 5 across. Recipe will yield 15 cookies. Bake for 15 minutes.

If you want to make cookie bars, spread the batter into an 8x8 baking pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Use the back of the spoon to spread the batter evenly and press it firmly into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Wait for it to cool before cutting into squares.  Makes 16 cookie bars.

If using rice flour to make these cookies use the following in place of the unbleached flour above:
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp white rice flour
2 tbsp binder (potato starch, tapioca flour, arrowroot powder, etc.)

My Story

My name is Chris and as of the date of this post and the start of this blog, I am 39 years old. I started really showing symptoms of food sensitivities in early 2009. I am like Sam in that if I eat something too often I can become sensitive to it, too. I also get hives from foods I'm sensitive to.

I've been sensitive to certain forms of soy for quite a while now. I mainly react to soy sauce and hydrogenated soybean oil. I can have an occasional soy latte or eat edamame a few times a month and not react.

I'm also sensitive to rice, especially rice flour. This happened during the time when Sam was reacting to wheat and I cut it out of our diet for a while, so I ate too much rice flour in baked goods. I was also drinking rice milk at the time. These days I can eat rice 2x per week with my supper without any problems.

I developed sensitivities to tomatoes, onions, and garlic last year from eating salsa and hummus too often, and eating too many onions during the week with my meals. I can eat tomatoes, onions, and garlic in very small amounts when we eat out now, but I usually order food without them.

I am also sensitive to yeast. This happened during a bread-making period I went through a couple of years ago. I eat regular bread when we go out, but I only eat flatbread at home now.

The main symptoms I get when I eat things I shouldn't are bad eczema and hives on my right hand by my middle finger and down by my thumb. Sometimes I get bumps in my mouth, my face gets red and breaks out more than normal, and I get a runny nose. I'll also get hives on my trunk if I don't cut out the offending food in time.

Because of my sensitivities, I very rarely cook with tomatoes, and I've stopped cooking with onions and garlic altogether. Cabbage and celery are the new onions for me. I've found over the last year that I can add flavor to food without onions and garlic just fine.

Update 7/27/10:

I recently realized I'm slightly sensitive to broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and canola oil (they're all from the same family). I've been having the eczema and hives on my hands lately, after going through a short period of perfect skin on my hands, and it is noticeable and itchy after I eat those things. I think the main offender causing my reaction is the canola oil because I do all of my baking with it and have it on a daily basis. I'm going to buy safflower oil next time I grocery shop and start baking our wheat goods with the safflower oil and see how that goes.

Update 10/20/10:

I've been baking with safflower oil for a while now and it's working out perfectly for me. I still use canola oil when I bake Sam's rice flour baked goods, but I use the safflower oil for any baked goods I eat.

Update 11/18/10:

I've been symptom-free for a while now and thought it was OK to bring tomatoes back into my diet. It seemed to go well for a few weeks, but as of yesterday, I'm getting hives on my hand again. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I've overdone the tomatoes - I can't help it - I love tomatoes. So I have to take them out of my diet again for a while and next time I bring them back, I need to be more careful about figuring out what my threshold is.

Update 1/14/12:

Whenever I eat brussels sprouts or cauliflower I still get tiny, itchy hives all over my right hand. Extra virgin olive oil now also causes the same reaction. So I have to limit these things in order to keep my hand from breaking out. I'm currently doing OK with tomatoes as long as I eat them very sparingly.

Update 4/30/12:

I'm able to drink soy milk 3x/week without any problems, so that form of soy seems to be OK with me. As long as I keep onions and garlic out of my diet at home, I can eat them every now and then when we eat out and I won't react. My hand has been free of rashes and I haven't had hives for a while now, so I must have everything in the right balance.

Update 5/29/12:

I have several large hives as of today. I'm pretty sure I've been eating too much rice lately and that's what caused them. I'll cut out rice for a couple of weeks and hopefully I'll get back to normal again. Hives are the worst!

Update 9/2/14:

It's been quite a while since I've had rashes or hives from eating onions, garlic, tomatoes or rice, thank goodness.  They still get me if I overdo them, so I've learned over the years that I can cook with tomatoes and  rice sparingly (once a week or so), and can consume stray onions or garlic in restaurant foods occasionally, and I'll be fine.  I also use safflower oil regularly, and take it easy on eating broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.  It's just a lifestyle now and I'm OK with it.  There are so many good things to eat in this world, and I'm having a wonderful time discovering ways to put them together and make great meals for me and my family.

Update 3/11/17:

Again, it's been a long time since I've updated what my current sensitivities are.  They are growing as I get older, and I realize that I am just like Sam now in that if I eat too much of one thing, I become sensitive to it.  Peppers and avocados are my newest food sensitivities.  I am also sensitive to sunscreen in lip balm now.  I can't use any lip balm with sunscreen in it because if I do, my lips swell up and sting.  Avocados give me both hives and a rash just underneath my lower lip, so that's pretty annoying and worth avoiding.  I love Mexican food, and now I can't eat any avocados or hot chili sauce on any of it, so I've been relying on sour cream to flavor my tacos, etc.  Thank goodness I can still do dairy!  As long as I eat tomatoes, garlic, onions, rice, and all the rest of the things I'm sensitive to very sparingly, I'm good.  I'll get back to avocados and chili peppers again some day, but for now, they are on my avoid list.

Sam's Story

As of the date of this post (and the beginning of this blog), Sam is 6 1/2 years old. Her story is a long one, but it does end on a positive note with all that we've learned. She can, and will, lead a normal life as long as her food sensitivities are managed properly.

I discovered her sensitivity to hydrogenated soybean oil, and soy in general, when she was under one year old (2004). After eating any food with soy in them, she would get a bright red pimple-like rash around her mouth and bottom. She would also get gas, stomach distress and diarrhea. All forms of soy caused a reaction, however, hydrogenated soybean oil caused the most extreme symptoms. Nowadays, very limited amounts of whole soybean oil, soy lecithin, and whole soy products don’t cause a reaction anymore. Foods fried in hydrogenated soybean oil will still cause a rash on her face. She gets very limited exposure to soy when we eat out or are traveling, but never at home.

Sam has also been sensitive to milk protein her whole life, but I didn't make a conclusive determination about this until 2006. Sam was breastfed as a baby. When she was a newborn, I had to cut dairy from my diet for the first 4 months because she got very fussy and gassy when I had any. Her breathing also consistently sounded phlegmy in her chest. She seemed to tolerate dairy fine after 4 months when I reintroduced it into my diet. At 11 months old we introduced cow’s milk to her because she wasn’t nursing much (a very short-lived nursing strike), but she didn’t like it. I added chocolate to it so she would drink it occasionally. She ate cheese and yogurt quite often, and cheese pizza once a week. She used to get red, dry skin at the crease where her ears connect to her head, patches of eczema on her arms, and was constantly catching colds, and for whatever reason I didn’t make the connection with dairy (probably denial).

Sam weaned from breastfeeding at 2 1/2 years old (2006), a week or so before all of her stomach problems began. Sam had been waking up with a runny nose consistently for a couple of months before I realized her sensitivity (we thought she was reacting to dust in her room). She was also having bad behavioral problems interacting with her friends – hitting and loud outbursts – and interacting with us – lots of tantrums and mood swings. Because she wasn’t nursing anymore, I was giving her cow's milk to drink with meals. She was complaining of stomach cramps often throughout the day, usually shortly after eating. I was giving her warm milk to settle her stomach (it didn’t work, but she liked it). Tums seemed to help a bit. I also started giving her a daily American Health Acidophilus and Bifidum Chewable Wafers tablet to help with her digestion.

When I realized it was the milk causing her stomach cramps, we thought she was lactose intolerant and switched to lactose-free milk and cheese. Initially her stomach seemed better after it, but then within a week or so, she started getting crampy again, and she got the runny nose again. We tried giving her lactase enzyme with a donut, and later a lactase enzyme with a piece of cheese pizza, and it didn’t work. We tried goat milk products and she didn’t get as strong of a reaction with the butter and cheese, but did with the milk. I noticed dark circles under her eyes at this time. It was then I realized she had a protein intolerance.

For a couple of years (2006-2008) we avoided milk products and its derivatives at all times possible. Sam caught hardly any colds during the time we were dairy-free. She finally made the 50th percentile for weight at her 3 year check up (she was always in the 5th-10th all her life before that), and her behavior improved dramatically.

In 2008 we slowly and infrequently introduced dairy products and started her on a daily Digestive Advantage Children's Lactose chewable (they don't make this anymore), as well as a Solgar Lactase 3500 chewable lactase enzyme when she actually ate the dairy product. She would still have behavioral problems with the occasional butter and ice cream or too much cheese in a chicken quesadilla. I reintroduced lactose-free milk again to her in March 2010 and it still didn't work for her. She got gassy and had behavioral problems.

Now in spring 2010 Sam can eat small amounts of hard cheeses during the week without a problem. She cannot have cow's milk to drink at all. We avoid butter and she can have ice cream on special occasions when we are out with an extra lactase enzyme.

When Sam was two (2005) I introduced peanut butter and she experienced symptoms similar to soy of a bright red rash on her bottom, gas, and stomach distress. I tried reintroducing peanuts once a year following and eventually in 2009 she tolerated peanut butter without any symptoms. Today she eats peanut butter quite often, rotated with sunflower seed butter and cashew butter, without any problems.

In 2005 I also realized that Sam was reacting to Red Dye #40. She would get a bright red, painful rash in her private area and experience extreme hyperactivity. To this day she can have very limited exposure to Red Dye #40 when we are out without a reaction.

In 2006 I realized Sam was becoming sensitive to cocoa/chocolate. After eating it she would say her side hurt and she would get a rash on her bottom and private area. I started baking with carob for brownies and cakes back then and that still works great to this day. We avoided cocoa/chocolate for a while and in 2008 she seemed to be able to eat dark chocolate without a problem. Unfortunately, in 2009 Sam was eating dark chocolate quite frequently and ended up getting hives. Now in 2010, Sam can safely eat dark chocolate 2x/week and that is her limit without symptoms.

In 2006 I also realized Sam was reacting to egg whites. She would get stomach cramps, a red rash around her bottom, and a runny nose and itchy eyes after eating scrambled eggs. When I realized egg whites were causing her symptoms, I continued giving her just the egg yolks to the best of my ability. It seemed to alleviate her symptoms for a few weeks, then they started coming back. I realized then I wasn’t able to completely get the whites out of the yolks, so I stopped giving her eggs at that point.

In early Oct. 2006 at Sam’s 3 year well visit, she got her first MMR vax (egg based) and she got a big red pimple-looking spot on her face on her left cheek. When the spot faded, a red pin-prick spot was left on her cheek for a year or so. We held off giving her her second MMR shot until her 5 year well-visit in 2008. Luckily, she didn't react to it at 5 years old.

I tried to reintroduce egg whites in 2007 and she got hives when eating scrambled eggs. So now, in 2010 I'm just using egg yolks to make her scrambled eggs twice a week and that seems to be working out great. All of my baking is egg-free. I'm not going to try to reintroduce egg whites again for quite some time.

I discovered Sam's sensitivity to oats in 2006. She would get itchy, watery eyes, a runny nose and bumps in her mouth after eating Cheerios. The bumps in her mouth really bothered her. I tried reintroducing oats in 2007 and she had the same reaction. Now in 2010 we completely avoid oats at all times.

I also discovered her sensitivities to cinnamon (bad behavior, stomach distress), bananas (bad behavior, rash on bottom), citrus/citric acid (spots on face, bladder irritation), corn (spots on face, rash on bottom, hiccups and sniffles) and blueberries (rash on face, bad behavior) in 2006.

In 2007 I realized she was reacting to beef that wasn't well-done (rash on bottom, digestive issues, poor sleep), malt (rash on side of face), palm oil (runny nose, hiccups), and evaporated cane juice (runny nose, hyperactivity).

In Feb. 2007 Sam had allergy testing to see if she was allergic to eggs (because of the hives) and other things she was sensitive too. The allergy testing turned out negative on all things. The doctor said she just had bad food intolerances.

In 2008 Sam began reacting to yeast (spots on face, yeast rash on chest, hiccups), tomatoes (stomach distress, hives), wheat (sniffles, stomach cramps, diarrhea, bad behavior), macadamia nuts (stomach cramps, diarrhea), starches for baking like tapioca, potato, and corn (rash on face, stomach distress), and rice (sniffles, hiccups, diarrhea).

In 2009 Sam had a bad reaction to almonds. I had been giving Sam almond milk every morning in small amounts. She was also eating almonds a few times a week for snacks. After a couple of months Sam started hiccuping, sniffling, and sneezing after drinking the milk, along with a fever and eventually getting hives. Sam's doctor thought she could be allergic to tree nuts and gave us an Epi-pen prescription. Turns out Sam just has a sensitivity to too many almonds, or tree nuts in general. Today in 2010 Sam can eat almonds, cashew butter, and pistachios in very limited amounts without a problem.

I started giving Sam a Vitabase Children's Chewable Enzymes tablet (they don't make this anymore) with each meal in 2009 in hopes that the protease would help her to digest proteins easier. So far she has been able to eat wheat and rice in moderation without any problems since starting it.

In 2010, Sam developed a sensitivity to corn syrup (runny nose, sniffles), dates (hiccups, hives), coconut (hiccups, sniffles, diarrhea), and ham/pork (hiccups).

I've also realized that she cannot drink milk of any kind on a regular basis - not cow's, rice, almond, or coconut. We noticed cow’s milk reactions in 2006, rice milk reactions Nov. 2008, almond milk reactions Aug. 2009, and coconut milk reactions May 2010. We completely avoid drinking milk and baking with milk. She has an occasional cow’s milk ice cream on weekends (with a lactase enzyme) and an occasional soy milk steamer once a month without a problem. She gets the bulk of her calcium intake from foods we eat and taking Nature's Plus Animal Parade Calcium 250 mg and Windmill Chewable Calcium 500 Mg supplements. She also takes a daily Nature's Plus Love Bites Children's Chewable Multivitamin which has calcium in it.

WHERE WE ARE NOW (May 2010): I know that Sam will become sensitive to anything if she has it too often. I have to alternate all foods she eats so she doesn’t become sensitive. Her sensitivities usually lead to her getting a rash on her bottom or private area, stomach distress, hiccups, sniffles, sneezing, diarrhea, fever, and hives if not realized and cut out of her diet in time. Usually cutting the item out for 1 or 2 weeks and then reintroducing in a limited capacity is sufficient to bring it back. Egg whites and oats are the exceptions to this - they have never been able to be reintroduced without a problem.

I provide Sam's snacks at school. She can have the special treats with her classmates at school on birthday days and at parties. On weekends when we eat out she can have the occasional ice cream. When we travel, I bring her snacks and special food with us, and make sure I have access to a kitchen in our hotel room.

Regarding her diet overall at home, she still cannot eat egg whites by themselves, or oats, or drink milk.

We also completely avoid cinnamon (allspice works great as a replacement in recipes), palm oil, evaporated cane juice, and baking starches. Because she is currently reacting to corn syrup, dates, coconut, and ham she won’t have them again for a while, then it will be very limited amounts.

She can tolerate in very limited amounts citrus/citric acid, chocolate (2x per week max), tree nuts (esp. almonds), tomato, red dye #40, banana, butter, cow’s milk ice cream, and soy milk in steamers.

She can tolerate in limited amounts with lots of alternating so she doesn’t get too much in one week soy, cheese, corn, wheat, rice, yeast, well-done beef, peanut butter, sunbutter and cashew butter.

After all of this, I have had to become a good cook and baker for my family. Most of what we eat is homemade. I can't buy sorbet anymore because of the corn syrup, or evaporated cane juice, and citric acid, so I got an ice cream maker for my birthday and I make us wonderful sorbets like vanilla mango and cherry candied walnut (you can't find those in stores). I've created cookie recipes and a carob brownie recipe we love. I bake a great yellow cake for special occasions. We eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. I am constantly coming up with new ways to prepare chicken, beef, and fish for supper so we don't get tired of eating the same "safe" things every week.

Sam's diet is sensible and wholesome, balanced nicely with what I think is the right amount of treats. She's a happy and healthy 6 year old. Whether or not she will outgrow her food sensitivities doesn't matter to us anymore. We just take each day as it comes, and are thankful we have it as good as we do. Because of her food sensitivities, we are eating so much better than we used to and we are all better off because of it.

UPDATE 6/10/10:

Sam can currently eat ham and coconut in the "very limited amounts" category. I haven't tried reintroducing dates yet, but will soon in a "very limited amount" since she likes them so much.

I recently noticed that Sam can get hives immediately now with certain foods she's sensitive to, without her standard rashes, hiccups, stomach distress, runny nose, etc., beforehand. For example, hazelnuts gave her hives yesterday, so we're going to avoid tree nuts for a week. She hasn't shown any reactions to nuts recently, so the hives were a surprise.

She's also got hives last Sunday when she shared a "fried ice cream" with us at our favorite Mexican restaurant. I realized after that, that the syrup they drizzle over the ice cream is pure corn syrup, and the coating on the ice cream is crushed cornflakes which have high fructose corn syrup in them, plus she ate corn chips that night, so I have to be much more careful helping her avoid corn syrup going forward. We're also avoiding corn in general all this week to clear it out of her system.

UPDATE 6/12/10:

So we have verification today beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is egg yolks and chicken Sam is reacting to, not the hazelnuts earlier this week or the corn syrup and corn at the Mexican restaurant on Sunday. Both of those days she got hives, the fish was dipped in egg yolks before crusted with hazelnuts, and she ate chicken breast at the Mexican restaurant before the fried ice cream. Sometimes it takes a week or so before I can figure these things out for sure.

About 2 months ago I started giving her scrambled egg yolk with her breakfast regularly 2x/week. She would eat scrambled egg yolks more like once a month before that. She seemed to be doing fine with this plan, until recently. She's been getting hives pretty frequently after meals all this last week, and I narrowed it down to her reacting to either corn, wheat, cheese (dairy), eggs, or chicken.

Today I wrote up a list of all that she ate this last week and when she got hives, and it comes down to egg yolks and chicken being the common denominator. And tonight at the pizza place confirmed it when she could eat the pizza for dinner just fine without any hives (wheat and dairy), but not chicken breast at lunch today (she got hives after lunch), or a scrambled egg yolk with her breakfast this morning (she got hives after breakfast). She also ate popcorn just fine on Friday afternoon, so corn got ruled out.

Somehow, even though she hasn't had very much chicken over the last week, the chicken is triggering the hives because of the eggs. So we're off chicken and egg yolks for a week or so and I'll reintroduce chicken first, then when I reintroduce egg yolks, it won't be on a regular schedule 2x/week like I was doing, but more like once a month like before.

UPDATE 7/27/10:

Sam has been reacting to peanut butter, sunbutter, and cashew butter lately (runny nose after eating them). I needed to find another protein to give her in place of the butters with her breakfast, so I decided to try giving her cereal with hemp milk 3x/week (Mon, Wed, Fri). Her first day having hemp milk was yesterday, on Monday, 7/25 and she tolerated it fine, which gives me hope. I won't bake or cook with the hemp milk, and she doesn't eat hemp, and I won't buy hemp ice cream, so I have a feeling this might be the one and only kind of milk that might work with her. I think the problem with the other milks we've tried is that she eats the product, too (i.e. rice, coconut, cheese, almonds), plus I baked with it, and it probably built up too fast in her system, causing her reactions. Based on how limited I will be giving it to her, this shouldn't happen with the hemp milk. Only time will tell.

UPDATE 8/28/10:

It's been a month and Sam is doing fine with having hemp milk with her cereal 3x/week! I'm so thankful. On another note, she started reacting to corn again earlier this month (getting lots of annoying hiccups), so we're back to taking corn completely out of our food rotation. She's fine with the butters again since we've cut down how many times/week she eats them. She's also fine with dates again. Overall, things are going good.

UPDATE 9/27/10:

Happy 7th Birthday, Sam! The last month has been food sensitivity-free, thank goodness. A few weeks ago I created a "menu" listing the food Sam eats for breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack every day of the week, and have it posted on the fridge. It's working out great for making sure she doesn't get too much of any one thing. I still vary our suppers every week, making sure she always gets a meat protein and vegetable with dinner, and only having rice or wheat with dinner 1x each/week. So far so good.

UPDATE 11/15/10:

We made it through Halloween without a single hive from chocolate or corn syrup! I let Sam eat all of the candy she wanted on Halloween after trick-or-treating, then we put the candy away and she gets to eat 2 pieces of candy on Fridays and 2 pieces of candy on Sundays every week. She really looks forward to the weekend! It may take her until next Halloween to get through her candy this way, but that's OK.

UPDATE 11/18/10: Sam has had a few behavioral issues lately (nothing serious) that make me wonder if the 2x weekly Halloween candy on Fridays and Sundays isn't working out as well as I thought it was. I also found out from Sam's teacher today when I was volunteering for her class that Sam has been eating school-provided snacks a few times lately without my knowledge. I talked with Sam about it tonight and she said that she has had enough Halloween candy and is satisfied with what she's had, so we can put it away. I also talked with Sam's teacher about the school snack and asked that Sam eats only her own snacks that I provide going forward. So we'll soon see if getting Sam back on a normal diet helps with her behavior (fingers crossed).

UPDATE 12/1/10: Sam has gone 3 months without any hives! Sam mentioned this to me the other day and was so proud. Also, her behavior has definitely improved since removing the Halloween candy from her diet, so I'm glad I caught that one when I did.

UPDATE 1/19/11: I've noticed recently that Sam has been exhibiting aggressive/unreasonable behavior after eating something with corn in it. She's been eating corn products (like corn chips, Quaker Kettle Corn Cakes, and popcorn) about 3 times per week. It seems like on those days after she eats these things, if something doesn't go her way, she gets very emotional and moody and has a hard time keeping herself under control. I'm removing corn from her diet again. It seems like corn is something that just doesn't agree with her - if it's not physical symptoms, it's behavioral. We'll see if her behavior improves after some time away from corn, or maybe she's just going through a 7 year old phase. We'll soon find out.

UPDATE 2/2/11: Sam has been hiccuping lately after eating food with sugar in it. I'm going to replace granulated sugar in my baking so she doesn't get much (if any) sugar at home anymore. Regarding removing corn from her diet, it does seem to have helped with the behavioral issues, so that is good. We're back to just having popcorn once a weekend, and that one time per week is going OK.

UPDATE 2/8/11: I just figured out that it's brown sugar Sam is reacting to. She's also sensitive to molasses, which is another super-refined sugar. I've updated several of my recipes to use honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar instead of brown sugar and sugar. We haven't had any hiccups lately since making these changes.

UPDATE 3/4/11: I've been letting Sam eat kiwi fruit with her snack in the afternoon for a couple of months now, every other day or so. I know she's sensitive to strawberries, and kiwi and strawberry are related, but I wanted to see if her sensitivity carried over to the kiwi or not, since Sam can eat avocado and not banana (same idea). Anyway, she got hives today after eating kiwi. She's been having some behavioral issues lately, too, and loose stools, and I'm sure now that this is all related to the kiwi. I'm sure once her system clears the kiwi out of it, she'll be able to have it every now and then like strawberries without a problem, so for now, we're avoiding kiwi completely.

UPDATE 3/15/11: It appears that Sam is slightly sensitive to pure maple syrup. She's been hiccuping lately after eating pancakes and syrup, and Crunchy Rice Bars made with maple syrup. I'm going back to making the Crunchy Rice Bars with sugar, and I won't give her maple syrup with breakfast for a week or so, so she should be hiccup-free again as of today.

UPDATE 4/25/11: I just found out today that Vitabase isn't making Children's Chewable Enzymes anymore, so I did some research and found Harvest Moon Children's Chewable Enzymes to replace the Vitabase ones with. The ingredient lists are pretty much identical, so I'm ordering some for Sam. She's been off of the Digestive Advantage Children's Lactose Intolerance product for a few days now and is doing OK with digesting dairy just taking the enzyme with each meal. Fingers crossed this continues.

UPDATE 4/28/11: Sam has been taking the Harvest Moon Children's Chewable Enzymes for a couple of days now and has been reacting to them (loose stools, hiccups, rash on her face by her mouth). It turns out they have citric acid and strawberry in them, and I think that's what causing her reaction. She had kiwi and strawberries this week and it's just too much for her to also be taking a supplement with strawberry and citric acid in it 3x/day. Darn! I'm going to take her off of the enzymes and just give her a quarter of a Solgar Lactase 3500 chewable tablet with each meal to cover her getting the lactase enzyme so she can continue eating the occasional cheese and dairy at school and when we go out.

UPDATE 5/20/11: Sam ate a regular sized Peppermint Patty this afternoon, and by bedtime had 2 hives on her knee. Peppermint Patty's have eggwhites in them, and I usually don't let her eat them, but I thought we'd test it out and see what would happen if she had more than just a bite of one. Sure enough, she's still very sensitive to eggwhites. Darn!

UPDATE 6/9/11: Sam is also still very sensitive to chocolate if she eats it too often. I strayed a bit from her 'only Wed, Fri, Sun' chocolate days last week and she had a little bit of chocolate every day for 4 days in a row over the weekend, then had chocolate again on Wed., and sure enough, she got hives overnight. I had a feeling that might happen. So now she can't eat chocolate for a week to clear it out of her system, then we're back to following her schedule and not straying from it anymore.

UPDATE 7/25/11: Sam is still sensitive to barley. I made an incredible beef barley stew the other night, and she ate some of it, loved it, and then got a stomach ache and couldn't finish it. On the bright side, she's doing great with dairy lately. She's had lots of ice cream and cheese this summer, and as long as she has her lactase enzyme, she's fine.

UPDATE 8/9/11: Sam has hives on her elbow and ankles this morning. She also had a hive on her foot last night. A mosquito landed on her elbow yesterday afternoon and I thought we swatted it away before it bit her since no bump appeared after it left. I'm wondering if it did actually bite her. She's really sensitive to mosquito bites and will get hives from them. The other thing it could be, if it's not a mosquito bite, is she's reacting to too many cherries. My parents gave us a big bag of cherries last week, and I made sorbet and a wonderful pie with them, and between these two things, she's been eating way more cherries the last few days than she ever has before. So to be on the safe side I'm cutting out cherries from her diet for a while. I froze the pie. Hopefully her hives will go away soon, she's really itchy.

UPDATE 9/27/11: Sam's 8th birthday is today! Here's where we are at with her sensitivities: She's been OK eating the daily snack at school so far this year. They get crackers like Goldfish and Ritz, so she's doing better with processed foods and soybean oil. I just told the teacher no oats and no fresh bananas for Sam. It seems like Sam's milk protein sensitivity is getting better. She can eat ice cream on the weekends and cheese several times per week now without a problem as long as she takes her lactase enzyme with breakfast and supper. She still cannot eat eggs by themselves, but can eat them in baked goods outside of our home OK. She's drinking hemp milk 3x/week without a problem. Strawberries give her a bad rash in her privates, so we're avoiding those. I let her have a Snack Pack pudding before school started and she got hives from it, so she's sensitive to something in them. I made her a Pilsbury Funfetti cake for her birthday party this year and she didn't react to it at all. I think her sensitivities are definitely getting better as she gets older. Thank goodness!

UPDATE 10/19/11: The school snack lasted just a few weeks, and then it caught up with her (hiccups, behavioral). It's not the wheat, I'm convinced it's all of the chemicals and preservatives in the food that her body doesn't like. I'm providing Sam's school snacks now and she's doing much better all around. I gave her a kiwi yesterday with her after school snack, and her privates got really red, just like with strawberries, so we'll go back to avoiding them.

UPDATE 11/11/11: Sam is still sensitive to cow's milk protein. I let her eat more cheese, sour cream, ice cream, frozen yogurt, etc., than I've ever let her eat before because I thought she had outgrown her cow's milk protein sensitivity at 8 years old. Her Swiss cousins outgrew their sensitivities around that age. Unfortunately, it just built up in her system and she ended up being sick with colds for weeks on end, and getting an ear infection. She hasn't had an ear infection since she was really small. I really believe the dairy I've been letting her eat on a regular basis made her immune system weak and she caught bad cold after bad cold and eventually got the ear infection. So we're back to limiting the dairy, per Sam's direction. She doesn't want it and we're avoiding it for the most part. Hopefully she'll be healthy again soon.

UPDATE 1/4/12: Sam is reacting to peanuts/peanut butter. She was still eating Halloween candy like peanut butter cups and peanut M&M's a couple times per week, and eating peanut butter sandwiches a few times per week, and it just built up. She started getting a runny nose after eating anything with peanuts in it. So we've cut out peanuts for the time being and will reintroduce peanut butter once per week soon. Darn! We really love peanut butter!

UPDATE 1/27/12: Sam can eat peanut butter now once per week on Wed. for lunch again. I'm going to try adding it back on Sun. breakfast this week and that will be her 2x/week peanuts going forward. She hates Hemp milk now (I can't buy the sweetened one because they use evaporated cane juice, so it's pretty sour tasting), so I've decided to try Soy milk for the 3x/week she has milk. She really likes Soy Dream and is drinking it willingly. I like it better, too (it's sweeter - Soy Dream uses brown rice syrup to sweeten it). Hopefully it will work out OK (fingers crossed). She's been doing fine with citrus over the last month, so she gets oranges about 2 or 3x/week now without a problem. Sam also dipped toast in the egg yolks from over-medium eggs a couple times while we were on vacation at Disneyland earlier this month and she didn't get a cold afterward! Thank goodness for small miracles. :)

UPDATE: 4/30/12: Sam is eating peanut butter 3x/week now without a problem, and is also eating a fried egg every Saturday with breakfast! I reintroduced 1 egg/week a month or so ago, and it' s going great. I still won't/don't bake with eggs, but will let her have eggs with breakfast a couple of times per week. I honestly think she's outgrowing her egg white sensitivity at almost 9 years old, but I don't want to push my luck. She's also eating cheese regularly and lactose-free ice cream a couple times per week without any problems. The soy milk is also working out still. We're really excited with her progress. It seems that getting older is definitely helping her out.

UPDATE: 5/29/12: Sam has hives again for the first time in a very long time. I'm pretty sure it's the cinnamon she's been eating lately that caused them. I've been letting her have cinnamon toast once or twice a week, and desserts with cinnamon in them when we're out. She had a churro the other day and her nose ran like crazy after it. She had some peach cobbler the next day (we were on vacation) and got hives shortly after it. So we're cutting out cinnamon again for a while.

UPDATE: 8/23/12: Sam still gets hives from strawberries and also raspberries, so we have to really regulate how often she eats them. Also, she's been swallowing pills lately, so I've updated her supplements list below.

UPDATE: 1/8/13:  Sam is able to eat oats now once a week without any symptoms!  I'll bump it up to twice a week soon and see how it goes.  She can also eat cheese regularly, eggs twice a week, and soy a few times a week without any problems now.  9 years old is turning out to be a magic age for her.

UPDATE 3/13/13:  Sam can eat bananas now!  I gave one to her about a month ago to see if she would get super hyper/crazy from it like she used to.  She didn't.   She's been having bananas three times per week since then without any problems.

UPDATE 4/15/13:  So I spoke too soon on the bananas - I guess it built up in her system over the last month.  Sam doesn't get crazy anymore from them, however, last week she ate bananas on vacation a few days in a row and she got hiccups and a huge hive on her back.  I'm going to start over on the banana-thing and not give her any for a couple of weeks, then she can have a banana once a week going forward.  Darn.

UPDATE 6/12/13:  Sam has a hive on her arm and I've narrowed it down to corn causing it.  I've been lax in making sure to limit her corn intake lately, and she's been eating lots of things with corn and cornstarch in them.  It built up, and now I have to cut all corn out of her diet again for a while so she can get better.  I did a pantry raid and actually filled a grocery bag with items that have corn of some kind in them.  On a good note, she can eat one banana per week again without any problems, and is still doing fine on oats twice per week.  Thank goodness for small miracles...

UPDATE 9/24/13:  Sam has hives again.  She had them a little over a week ago due to too much chocolate.  When she gets hives from chocolate, she gets tons of hives all over her trunk all at once.  I knew as soon as I saw it what had caused it.  She didn't have any chocolate for a week (thank goodness for my carob brownies and orange creamsicle cake!) and the hives were gone by last Friday.  She had a little chocolate on Friday and Sunday.  She's also been eating a lot of peanuts and tree nuts lately.  I've been letting her have Peanut Butter Cookie and Blueberry Muffin Larabars lately since she couldn't eat chocolate.  They have lots of peanuts and cashews in them.  She got a hive on Sunday night.  She ate peanut butter that morning and had chocolate that afternoon.  Then Monday she had a cereal with almonds in it for breakfast and a Blueberry Muffin Larabar (cashews) in the afternoon, and today (Tues) she had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and pinto beans with her supper, and she's got a leg full of hives tonight.  I'm pretty sure it's peanut and nut related this time, along with maybe not quite being over chocolate yet.  Darn - her 10th birthday is on Friday, so this is really bad timing.

UPDATE 9/2/14:  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Sam is just about 11 years old now and is doing great sensitivity-wise.  She has outgrown so many of the sensitivities that plagued her early childhood.  She's currently eating eggs, peanut butter, oats, corn, and strawberries a couple of times per week; chocolate three days per week; and dairy (cheese mostly) just about daily; without any problems.  I still  make sure to not overdo wheat - she has a good balance of rice, potato, wheat, oats, and corn in her diet.  We've discovered in the last 6 months or so that palm oil makes her face break out with pimples, so palm oil is still on our avoid list, but mostly for vanity's sake.  All in all, as long as we don't overdo things, she's doing just fine.

UPDATE 9/10/14:  I knew I jinxed things by posting that Sam is doing great with her sensitivities lately.  As of very recently, she's been sneezing and getting a runny nose when she eats anything with sunflower oil in it (no hives, thank goodness!).  At first I thought it was chocolate she was reacting to, so we cut chocolate out for a couple of her chocolate days, then she was still getting all stuffy and sneezy when eating things without chocolate in them.  It was then that I figured it out to be sunflower oil.  I had to re-bake several baked goods in my freezer like cookies, brownies, and pancakes with canola oil, and buy chips and crackers without sunflower oil as well (sunflower oil is in most everything these days).  I even discovered that the chocolate chips I was baking with had sunflower lecithin in them and she was reacting to those, too.  Now that we've cut all of the sunflower products out of her diet, she's doing just fine.  I'm glad I caught this before it escalated to hives.

UPDATE 6/2/15:  Corn got to Sam again.  She's been good with her sensitivities lately, so I haven't been very diligent about watching how much corn she is consuming.  A couple of weeks ago she started getting a runny nose, sneezing, and then hives from too much corn, and we're still trying to get her system back on track.  It's so hard to avoid corn when eating out!  She's had birthday parties and weekend trips since then, so keeping her away from corn starch and corn syrup and maltodextrin in food has been difficult.  I've removed all corn products from my kitchen (thank goodness for my homemade hot chocolate recipe!) and she's slowly getting back on track.

UPDATE 6/22/15:  Sam is back to normal now, except for the head cold she has.  She is off corn and all of its derivatives pretty much entirely, and she plans to follow a corn-free diet as much as she can going forward.  During the last month of removing corn from her diet, I let her eat too many tree nuts and she reacted to those, too, with a runny nose and sneezing within 1 to 2 hours after eating them.  She would also sneeze after eating Hershey's chocolate or chocolate chips with milk fat and vanillin in them.  Now that she is corn-free and nut-free, and is eating good quality dark chocolate, her digestive tract is healthy and she's feeling much better.

UPDATE 6/29/15:  Sam is starting to hiccup after eating and I figured out pretty quickly she's been having too many raspberries lately.  We have a raspberry bush in our yard and she picks and eats them quite often.  Glad we figured it out before it led to hives.

UPDATE 1/13/16:  Sam is 12-1/2 now and has been relatively free of reactions to food since the "corn incident" last summer; up until around New Years, that is.  She's been having digestive issues lately, so we've been cutting things out to test it.  After ruling out corn, I thought of the white chocolate she had been eating on non-chocolate days, but wasn't sure if it was the sugar causing the reaction (since she's had digestive issues with sugar before) or something else in it.  Cutting out sugar hasn't done anything that I can tell, so cocoa butter came to mind.  She ate a lot of chocolate over Christmas (on non-chocolate days, too) but didn't get any hives so I let it slide.  She was also eating white chocolate on non-chocolate days, so I realized that she was eating cocoa butter nearly every day for a while, and it may not agree with her stomach, so we've cut that out.  I've also cut back on her wheat consumption and have added more rice products back into her diet. Lastly, just today I realized that she's had a bad stomach on days she's eaten prosciutto, bacon, or ham, so we're cutting those out for a week or so, too.  Once again, my fingers are crossed, but I'm almost 100% sure it's the pork causing the problems because she was on a very strict diet today (no corn, sugar, cocoa butter, and very limited wheat) and shortly after she ate prosciutto with her afternoon snack, her stomach got bad.  Bingo!

UPDATE 7/21/16:  Sam has three things were currently avoiding at the moment:  Citric acid, caffeine, and pork.  We've recently come to the conclusion that citric acid has been irritating her bladder for about 9 months now, and cutting out the citric acid and caffeine is really improving things. A really great site I found which shows the amount of citric acid in foods is https://citricacidallergy.wordpress.com/foods-by-citric-acid-content/. We're still staying away from pork as whenever we try to reintroduce it she has digestive problems.

Current (Corn-Free) Daily Supplements Sam Takes with Breakfast:

1 Trader Joe's Calcium Citrate with Vitamin D
1 Futurebiotics MVTeen multivitamin gel-cap
1 Nutrition Now PB8 Probiotic Acidophilus for Life gel-cap
1 Nature's Way Lactase Formula Enzyme Active gel-cap