Cooking with Allergies: FOOD ALLERGY AWARENESS WEEK
Food awareness week 2020 is during May 10-16. FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) is extending the traditional week to keep the engagement and excitement with activities, events, ad content! FARE will be active throughout the week bringing you new research, resources, real life stories and help with the new circumstances we live in. They have a calendar of all the events/campaigns they are doing HERE. However you are taking part, make sure to tag FARE and/or donate on their website!
This week I am excited to be participating in ‘Cooking with Allergies’.
Cooking with allergies (in real life) #allergiesIRL will be on instagram. Each day there will be a different topic to be discussed and for all of us to follow along, to raise awareness for food allergies. Every day I will edit this page, so by the end of the week you will know exactly what we all have gotten up to! This event is brought to you by 7 inspirational women in this community. These initiatives are why I am so glad I decided to really immerse myself in this community, I am not alone in this anymore!
Project Leaders
Emma (@emma.amoscato)
Amanda (@everydayallergenfree)
Laura (@umpala_rain)
Allie (@miss_allergic_reactor)
Danielle (@allergictraveller)
Shahla (@myberkeleykitchen)
Kourtney (@allergy_girl_eats)
The Plan
MONDAY
How has cooking empowered you to manage your food allergies?
Cooking has empowered me in lots of ways, but most of all it has given me a gift of normalcy. In my kitchen I can cook whatever I desire. There is no menu telling me what foods are safe or a dinner host reminding me that my plate is free of all of the “fun” foods. In my kitchen it is me and my imagination.
I remember when my mum used to cook me dishes that I would never been able to have outside of the home. We would make sushi, tikka masala, egg fried rice, cake, crumble - anything I couldn’t have. Knowing that I had the ability to turn ingredients into a safe meal for me, changed my life. It is empowering being in a kitchen and know that you have control on the outcome. Cooking has opened my world (and palette) to new foods, flavours, meals, etc. that I would never have known otherwise.
My happy place is my kitchen.
TUESDAY
My favourite go to recipe
This prompt came at a perfect time today. I was meant to make a stuffed sweet potato, with guacamole and tofu, however, my lovely sweet potatoes lived their beautiful lives before being cooked (there was mould). So my go to recipe was anything else I had in the fridge.
Brown rice, spinach topped with crispy tofu and avocado, on a side of romaine lettuce. They recipe takes 20 minutes to make. The recipe for a single serve.
Ingredients
1/4 cut up tofu (Cauldron) - squeeze all the water out of the tofu.
Spices: paprika, turmeric, garlic granules, ginger
2tbsp cornflour
1tbsp honey
Handful of brown rice
Handful of spinach
1/4 avocado
How much romaine lettuce you like
Method
Preheat the oven to high (200ºc)
In a mixing bowl add the tofu, spices, cornflour and honey. Mix so the tofu is coated.
Place the tofu on a baking sheet on a baking tray and place in the oven. (Keep mixing every 5 minutes, until and crispy).
Once the tofu is in the oven, boil water on a pot.
Add the rice and a pinch of salt.
Once the rice is almost cooked add the spinach.
Drain the rice, take out the tofu and add the lettuce to a plate.
Add any herbs you have and voila!
My favourite go to meal is yoghurt with frozen fruit topped with granola. I use Fage 0% greek yoghurt (most of the time I mix it with protein powder) then add frozen berries and topped with the granola of the week. It is very easy, very yummy and very satisfying!
WEDNESDAY
Share your favourite ALLERGY-FRIENDLY hack or alternative
This was a tricky one for me. Living an allergy life, I feel that I am constantly hacking and using alternatives to the way other people live their lives. This is just standard to me now, my life is an alternative. My biggest alternative is meal prep. It is the biggest change I made to my life five years ago and it has served me well. Being able to eat wherever and knowing that the food is truly safe for you is a gift.
Allergy = my hacks/alternatives
Fresh fruit = Baked fruit
Peanut butter = Sunflower seed butter or lotus biscoff spread
Chocolate = Nut free chocolate
Peanut butter cups = Sun butter cups
Donuts = Rice Krispies donuts
Lentils = Rice
Hummus = Guacamole
Peas = ANY VEGETABLE
Pesto = Basil & spinach pesto
Shellfish = Cod/Salmon
Sesame seeds = Sunflower seeds
Tropical fruits = Berries
Horses = Dogs
Legumes = Meat/Tofu
Eating out = Meal prep
Nutella = Chocolate sun butter
Energy balls = Sun butter balls with nut free chocolate
Flour = Coconut flour
Eggs = Avocado or banana
Ferrero Rocher = Sun butter balls with Nomo Hazelnot chocolate
What is your alternative? Let me know in the comments!
THURSDAY
KITCHEN TOUR!
Since moving out of my mother’s house I have lived in a lot of houses that had unsafe kitchens. Kitchens where people didn’t understand cross-contamination, cleanliness, personal space… you name it, I have had it. This kitchen (the one I am in for the next month) is one of my favourite kitchens in my life. This is the first kitchen - a part from my mothers house & my grandpas house - that I feel completely safe in. My flatmate completely understands that the kitchen (and house) is a nut/sesame free zone and she does all she can to avoid bringing any of my allergens through the door.
I have had an amazing year in this kitchen, and here are some of my top tips for living with another person who doesn’t have allergies.
Make sure they know the severity of your allergies and what types of foods they shouldn’t bring in.
Explain to them about cross contamination and how a small trace of your allergen could be very dangerous.
Separate your things. We have separate cutlery, cutting board, plates, bowls, glasses, pots & pans, baking supplies and we separate the shelves in the fridge so we don’t mistake the other’s food for our own (we like the same ingredients) - be careful as well when buying kitchen supplies - we went to Ikea for ours and now we have doubles - make sure you know what yours look like or make them look different (my spatula is sort of burnt…)
Put a list of your allergens up on the fridge so it is always visible to them. (I have a long list, and sometimes I forget, I can’t expect her to remember)
If you use the same glasses, ie. for a happy hour drink (wine glasses, marg glasses) always wash them up with your own sponge so you know that their sponge hasn’t contaminated your drinking glass.
CLEAN. Make sure you are both cleaning the surfaces after you prepare anything in the kitchen.
My biggest tip of all: move in with someone you can trust, that doesn’t make you feel like a burden or that they are doing you a favour for not putting you at risk in your own kitchen.
I never take a safe kitchen for granted and I hope that your kitchen is safe for you!
Please comment down below what makes you feel safe in your kitchen!
FRIDAY
What is a positive food allergy memory you have?
I can’t believe it is Friday already. I have loved all of the messages, photos, stories from this week. I am so happy that these women are in my community and advocating the way they do!
There are so many positive food memories I have growing up. My mother teaching me to cook, my grandfather making Betty Crocker blueberry muffins with me, allergy friendly restaurants, finding my first allergy free from brand but, what I think is my favourite memory is that I do not remember every feeling like allergies were weird or a burden. My mother always sheltered me from the comments or the disdain from other people. I knew I had allergies but I didn’t have to deal with the anxiety that came along with it.
She spoke to all the chefs, the parents of my friends, the school, the airline stewards, the person eating nuts on the bus, my family, the field trip teacher, my peers, anyone I was in contact with, she advocated for me. My mother raised me to be a strong independent woman, not only with her words but, with her actions. I saw how she handled herself, and made her presence known and that is why I can confidently be the woman I am today. My mother is my positive allergy memory. Even to this day she carries my allergies with her, they are just as important to her as they are to me. I learned everything I know in the kitchen from her but, everything I know about handling myself outside of the kitchen I learned from her as well. I was never a burden to her and she gave me the greatest gift of all - she gave me a normal childhood, and I can never repay her for that. (But I do cook/bake for her all of the time). Thank you mama, you gave a positive allergy life!
I want to advocate for all of us in this community like she did for me. Not just on instagram but in the smallest moments, the moments where no one is watching. Educating people who don’t know that eating Nutella on a flight can cause someone to go into an anaphylactic reaction (Beth Parr -Standen) or talking to a waiter about how being nonchalant with my allergies doesn’t put me at ease. All of these moments can help make all of our lives safer, that is what I am here to do.
Tell me how I can advocate for you! Let me know in the comments or send me a message!
SATURDAY
Share an UNUSUAL food combo you love.
My flatmate says that everything I eat is weird- she says that I have so many flavours and textures with all of my food. I eat something soft, with something else crunchy and I like sweet & salty all at once. My Mother says that the only thing weird I eat is protein powder, her words were “you put it in everything”. Then we agreed that I am unusual because I don’t have unusual combos in food! I love cold & hot, sweet & salty, fizzy & smooth… I just like combos in my meals.
I do remember that I loved to eat crisps or fries inside my ham sandwich but isn’t that every child in the UK? My other friend says that I put Rice Krispies on everything and “that’s weird”…
What weird combos do you have? I need some inspiration apparently!
This week has been a blast. I am so thankful I got to be a part of it. I met more people in this community and discovering how they manage their allergies was fascinating and inspiring! I am so inspired and happy that there are two more weeks of Food Allergy awareness month!!