Fantasy Foods Contest
Ends March 10th
Send a photo of your favorite Fantasy Food using this form or post it on my Fantasy Foods Facebook page. On March 10th, I'll choose my two favorite foods.
If you win first prize, receive a free copy of FEEDING EDEN, scrumptious cupcakes “made to share” (free of nuts, dairy & eggs) from Divvies, and a gift set of brownies, lemon squares and coffee cake from Mariposa Baking.
Second prize receives a free copy of FEEDING EDEN, plus gourmet, sweet treats basket from Divvies, “made to share.” (Don't forget to like their Facebook page!)
Oh, and tell me or tweet me what you think of FEEDING EDEN!
In honor of National Chili Day (yesterday) Brooklyn Allergy Mom submitted her Healthy Turkey Chili Recipe on my Fantasy Foods Facebook Page. It's my Fantasy Food of the week (see right).) I love a chili that's more like chunky soup than stew. And I like how the tomato base provides a nice red color. The recipe is on her site as well.
February and March are low energy months for me. I'm not a winter person and even though we've had a mild one in NYC this year, I still find myself looking for recharges. When my body feels dull I try to move it (just a bit.) And when my brain feels dull I do the same. Instead of pushing myself in areas I'm already pushing - like writing and preparing for my book launch - I try to find snippets of new knowledge.
And I love learning about words – their origins and historical usage. I like exploring their sounds. Technology has provided one more venue for exploring words. Here are three sites I've been using this winter for modified mental push-ups.
Wordnik.com - I receive the "word of the day" emails.
Visuwords.com - This is an online graphical dictionary and thesaurus. It teases the brain into "seeing" words. Great for kids when they don't understand a new vocabulary word.
Rhymes.net – an online rhyming dictionary that also has a new and terrific Lyrics component. When I'm stuck in my writing, reading lyrics seems to help.
Help! I Don't Know What Kind of Parent I Am
In the years since my son Eden was born and diagnosed with life threatening food allergies there has been a counter trend towards laid back parenting, often called "slow" or "free range" parenting. Lenore Skenazy championed this movement a few years ago when she wrote Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Take The Subway Alone, which turned into a blog, a book and reality show. Free Range parenting backlashed against both the "Tiger Mom" types who bring up protégées first, children second and the new generation of educated, over-aware, anxious parents. Ms. Skenazy is a child-safety myth buster and her central idealogy is that children will gain when parents worry less.
However, when parents begin swimming amongst all these labels the water can get murky and it's difficult to see true wisdom without involuntarily confining oneself. For example, I am vigilant about Eden's allergy safety protocol ... (Over Protective Mom?) and yet I continually teach him allergy self-management techniques ... (Empowering, Free Range Mom?)
Read on at Psychology Today
Just last week I got a call from a friend of a friend whose child was just diagnosed with food allergies. Phone calls like that remind me of how helpless I felt when Eden was diagnosed. One of our biggest issues was finding Pediatric Allergists to help us manage Eden's allergic condition, for the long haul. And sure enough, when I speak to other parents most often their concern is this: "I don't know if we have the right doctor . . . "
Which is why I wrote Finding the 'Right' Doctor for Your Allergic Child on The Huffington Post, last year. In the past eight years I've come to realize that all newly diagnosed food allergy parents share the same concerns and fears.
Many people assume Twitter attracts users around common health care issues for content sharing and information. After Tweeting about #FoodAllergies for several years, I've learned that Twitter is a place where I can go to feel better. Why? The conversation below illustrates.
Note: The real-time prelude to these Tweets took place a few minutes prior. My daughter had just opened a to-go container of profiterole pastry topped with ice-cream topped with whipped cream that I had allowed her to bring home. Because of Eden's food allergies we had, as usual, opted to have dessert at home after eating out in our one trusted restaurant. But I was taken by surprise at the extravagance of her dessert and more than a little devastated at Eden's envious gaze. "Bad call," I thought to myself as I prepared his dairy free ice cream topped with powdered sugar (Eden's favorite substitute for whipped cream.) It looked lame.
But his sister instinctively proclaimed, "Eden! Your food looks awesome!!" Eden believed her of course.
I Tweeted:
ME: incredibly beautiful when your un-allergic child tells food allergic sibling that his food looks AMAZING when it truly does not #parenting
AtopicGirl T@susanweissman That's so sweet. Now, my sisters are always genuinely jealous of my allergy-free meals when we eat out together. #parenting
ME: so happy to read it! I hope someday my son's food will look that good. @AtopicGirl
AtopicGirl @susanweissman I know it will. Having multiple food allergies has made me a pretty good cook & I appreciate good food more than most.
I do not "know" AtopicGirl outside of Twitter. But now I know a little something more, something hopeful about my son's health condition. I know that someone like Eden embraces - is proud of - her food despite her allergies. And that kind of sharing has been happening to me for years. It's a timeless kind of solace experienced while scrolling through time.
Last week, in Psychology Today, I wrote about an unforgettable evening when I should have administered an Epipen to Eden -- but I did not. That notion may seem strange or even careless but after reading my piece, Raise An Allergic Child And You May Be Haunted By Food, then again, it may not.
Ah the ironies of the Gluten Free diet "prescription." In 2009, in a post Gluten Minded I described my own coming to terms with the gluten free diet. And since then there has been much investigative reporting on the purpose and misconceptions of the Gluten Free diet.
This month in The Gluten-Free Quandary in Foodbusinessnews.net the article points out:
"... even the Food and Drug Administration states on its web site there is no nutritional advantage for those without celiac disease to go gluten-free and it is not meant to be a diet craze... 'Consumers are looking for ways to be healthier and gravitating to whatever they see … but it’s not always driven from a dietitian or a medical perspective'..."
And the article continues to describe the many disadvantages of adopting such a dietary restriction if, indeed it isn't necessary. It seems there is a chicken and egg mentality at play: Consumers may be incorrectly demanding these products, food giants are responding to what they perceive as a lucrative market, and interestedly, grain companies are not "properly educating consumers through effective advertising messaging may clear up consumer misunderstandings...this worked well with educating consumers that high-fructose corn syrup is just as safe as regular sugar, and now consumer concerns about HFCS have been greatly reduced."
Eden, who isn't allergic to gluten, has a cousin who has a gluten intolerance. His mother and I often discuss the difficulties of finding palatable "free-of" products to serve as conveniences and short cuts for parents managing restricted diets. And I'm ever-grateful for any new improvement or addition to the speciality products that address Eden's food allergies. Obviously food companies do provide a tremendous service for consumers with medical needs. But when I serve people my allergen-free home baked goods, I tell the whole truth: "This isn't low fat," I might clarify to a dieter..."I used a cup of olive oil..." Or, "It's dairy-free but rice milk has a lot of sugar!" Why shouldn't our food manufacturers be equally forthright and rely on their real consumer groups instead of creating this gluten free gestalt?
Parents never know when a little serendipity will enrich their families. As my husband points out in my favorite of his blog posts Small Things (his blog tagline is: Maximizing the serendipity around you) it's so important to be open to the small experiences of life. And I would add that in doing so, parents often find we reach our larger goals and dreams.
For example, last August I needed a website designer. So I emailed my friend Susan Danzinger of the Daily Lit (a fabulous tool for free e-reading for Busy Parents.) Susan suggested that I speak her friend Debbie Stier at Perfect Score Project, a site I've since followed with avid attention. (What parent doesn't wonder if it's truly possible to get a perfect score on the SAT's? ) And as a former teacher, Debbie's personal quest for the perfect SAT score fascinated me. So I began reading about why Debbie found Kahn Academy SAT training more helpful than some of the older, classic SAT preparatory institutes.
A few months later, when my daughter began preparing to take the ISEE exam she confronted some areas of math she needed to review. And in order to help her, so I need to do my math homework (quickly!) So I began clicking around the Kahn Academy videos. My husband and I had been familiar this site for a few years but we hadn't used it.
I was blown away by the brilliant simplicity of Kahn math videos. So often, I’ve wanted to help my children with their math but just needed a quick review for myself. Kahn Academy has provides that and it offers the snippets of other content parents often need to help their children study or just to learn more about a topic of interest.
Now we have one more Learning Tool in our home that could lead us to other places. (I'm considering learning more about Black Holes.) By opening ourselves to these smaller experiences, to the serendipity of various interactions, my family will travel and grow without leaving our home.
A few days ago I wrote a piece on Psychology Today about recent trends towards eating "clean" and nutritious and organic food -- A wonderful sentiment! But sometimes parents can get overwhelmed and overburdened by that goal.
Today I received my goop newsletter filled with "Healthy Recipes" which seem remarkably simple and doable. I have a feeling that some (like the Butternut Squash Fries) are about to become Fantasy Foods...