Lessons Learned

We had a wonderful Labor Day activity with our church group at a local park on Monday.  The weather was beautiful.  There several tables of delicious looking foods.  Those who prepared the meat had been thoughtful and kind toward those who have allergies and brought it unseasoned.  I brought a pan of gluten free brownies, a pan of regular brownies...both from scratch, two loaves of gluten free/dairy free bread and watermelon that my wonderful husband cut into a basket shape and filled with balls of watermelon.  So, there was plenty of good, healthy food for us to eat while we were there.

I watched our Littlest Miss and never sat still comfortably as I tried to keep my eye on where she was.  Finally, after the majority of the activity was over and many people had left for home, I asked Mr. Artist if he would please take her for a little while.  He groaned and wanted to complain, but when I pointed out that I hadn't asked for his help the entire time, he couldn't help but agree.

I still kept an eye out, but not as stress-fully.  I was able to sit and visit with some ladies from church and just as I was getting comfortable I noticed that Mr. Artist had Littlest Miss over by the food tables.  I glanced their way and to my HORROR I realized that Littlest Miss had a cookie....not just any cookie...but a cookie covered in lovely, glittery, blue sugar crystals.  AAAGH!

My first mistake...I raced over yelling, "NO NO NO NO!  She can't EAT that!...It has food coloring. (Insert frustrated sputtering)"
Mr. Artist, "I didn't know that had food coloring!"
Me, "How could you NOT know?  It's BLUE!"
Mr. Artist slapping his forehead in embarrassment and despair, "I am ALWAYS a disappointment when it comes to watching Littlest Miss!"
Me...realizing my huge mistake..."I have NEVER said that to you!  You always do a great job watching her."
Meanwhile, people around us are all trying to act like they are not there.  Ugh!  Terrible parenting moment!  I completely embarrassed my son while embarrassing myself. After a brief discussion,  I told him to go ahead and hang out with his friends and I would take care of Littlest Miss.
Mr. Artist, slapping is leg for effect, "I was GOING to watch her!"
Me, "I know.  It's okay, I've got her. Don't worry about it." And off he went.

First of all, just because your children are in the room and are conversing with you about a certain issue, it DOES NOT MEAN THEY UNDERSTAND IT!  They hear everything you don't WANT them to hear! But the important information always seems to slip through some cracks...somewhere in the recesses of their young minds. We had discussed Littlest Miss's food dye sensitivity with all of the kids. Apparently I didn't specify that pretty blue crystal-y sugar does not occur naturally...there are NO blue sugar bushes!  LOL!

Since that day, we have had lots of discussions about what does and does not have food dye.  I'm hoping that this will help prevent future episodes.  Geesh!

Yesterday, when Mr. Artist arrived home from school, Littlest Miss, who had been fussy and screaming and thrashing since about 10 in the morning, was STILL fussy at almost 4 pm.
Mr. Artist asked, "What's she so upset about?" To which I replied, "Blue Sugar!"
Mr. Artist realizing that he had helped cause the fussiness replied, "I'm sorry."
I replied very calmly, "I know." That's all I said. It's hard to have sympathy for a teenager when I have been the one dealing with the consequences all day long.

Several times, yesterday evening, when Littlest Miss was A MESS and screaming, thrashing, throwing herself onto the floor about absolutely nothing, one of the boys would ask again why she was so upset/sad/mad/fussy/unhappy and my husband or I would reply, "Blue Sugar!"

One day we may all laugh about this!

It is ALL a learning experience.  And until people see and have to deal with the consequences, sometimes they can't learn the lesson.  There are LOTS of lessons being learned in our home this week.

So...if you ever wonder if food dye sensitivities are for real...just call my house and ask my children!  LOL!  They will ALL tell you it's REAL!

Don't be afraid to ask

Some of our favorite foods now list ingredients like "natural flavors" or "natural colors".  This catch-all phrase has now become a HUGE red flag warning to me. We love chocolate chips and recently, when I renewed our Sam's Club membership, I purchased a couple of large bags of Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels.  They say they are "all natural" right on the front of the bag.  I decided I should re-read their label, as I had read it quite a long time ago.  There it was...towards the end of the list..."natural flavor".  

Littlest Miss LOVES to have almonds, peanuts, and a few chocolate chips as a treat, but I didn't want to risk causing even more screaming by giving some unknown ingredient to her.  I began searching the web for the information I lacked.  I couldn't find it.  I picked up the phone and called Nestle and after a little while was passed on to a human being.  (Isn't technology grand sometimes!) 

I explained that my reason for calling was to determine exactly what ingredients were in the chocolate chips due to a child's food allergy. He was very helpful...especially when I used the word allergy. Hmmm.  It took him a while but he finally came back on the line and said the ingredient is vanilla.  According to him, the FDA is now allowing them to list vanilla as "natural flavor".  Stupid FDA.  Wouldn't it be better, more beneficial, cost effective, etc to simply list all the ingredients as they actually are? But then that would just be TOO easy wouldn't it. We wouldn't want people to truly be informed, would we.  I guess that is why they have helpful customer service reps in place to help you determine exactly what is in your food.  Silly.

Anyway...I asked him to clarify if this ingredient was PURE vanilla or vanillin, which is artificial flavoring.  He assured me that it is indeed pure vanilla and that the company used to use vanillin but changed it so the ingredients could be natural.  He then explained that Nestle is going to be changing many of their foods to have natural ingredients.  I told him that was wonderful and thanked him for his help and we ended the call.

There you have it. Now you know which chocolate chips can be on your list of safe things to eat.  So, don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call a company to find out exact ingredients in their foods.  

Now...below is a recipe I got from one of the girls at church.  She loves to bake and is good at it.  They were out of graham crackers but she still wanted to make these treats that she was craving so her mom suggested she use oatmeal instead.  I stuck around to see the results.  Umm....YUMMY!  I don't normally keep graham crackers in the house because they all contain high fructose corn syrup.  Yuck.  This is a great alternative that is healthier.  I left the graham crackers on the list of ingredients but I would recommend that you try the oats first. I used quick oats and she used regular.  It tasted the same to me...I think because we both blended the oats in the blender first to make them into a powder.  

My other tip for the day is stay away from margarine of any kind.  I KNOW it's cheaper.  But it's bad for you.  Use real butter.  I like using salted but many use unsalted.  That's all personal choice.  

Peanut Butter Bars

2 cups of blended oats OR crushed graham crackers 

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup melted butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 ½ cups chocolate chips

4 Tbsp. peanut butter

In a medium bowl mix together oats, sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, and melted butter. Press firmly into a 9x13 inch baking pan. Melt chocolate chips and 4 Tbsp. peanut butter together and pour over the top of the oat mixture.  Freeze for one hour.  Cut, serve and enjoy!