An overdue update

This overdue update is full of updates on my life and my food allergies. I have to start off with the most exciting piece of news:

We're engaged! 

Jeff proposed on September 25th in Colorado at the top of Mt. Democrat. I couldn't have been more surprised. We took a trip to Colorado with our good friends Andre and Cassie. We went to do some hiking and see the fall colors. The main goal was to climb a 14er. For those of you not from Colorado, a 14er is a mountain that is 14,000 feet tall. There are over 80 in the United States and over 50 of them are in Colorado.

We decided on Mt. Democrat and packed our hiking boots. After a long few hours of us Florida residents huffing up the mountain we made it to the summit. While taking a picture from the top Jeff got down on one knee and presented me with a BEAUTIFUL ring and asked me to marry him.

 For those of you who know Jeff and I, you know how perfect his plan was. In June of 2009 we climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania together. When my friends heard about our engagement, they joked that we would register for camping supplies, to which I thought...not a bad idea. :-)

Not only do we have a great engagement story but we have great pictures and even a video documenting the whole thing (thanks Andre and Cassie).

  We are so excited to be in this phase of our lives and having fun being engaged. No wedding plans yet but it sure is fun looking through wedding magazines.












In other news I have updates on my continually changing food allergies. The list of allergies has been changing each time we do more blood work. The exciting part is that I get to try corn tonight!!! Unfortunately wheat was added to the list but with avoidance I am feeling much better. The current list is as follows:

• Wheat
• Dairy
• Oats
• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts
• Sesame
• Sunflower
• Apples
• Oranges
• carrots
• other assorted raw fruits and veggies
• Rice (although I've been eating rice with no problems so that is good)
• Corn (to be tested this evening)

I hope that as I continue to learn about my food allergies I can also get a little better at cooking good meals that I can eat and doesn't taste horrible for my fiancé (I am still getting used to using that word :-)  )

Till next time...

CousCous in Colorado and more!

"What am I supposed to feed you!?!?" 

This is one of the first things my Mom said when I booked my flight to go visit my parents in Colorado for the weekend. My Mom has never had to deal with my food allergies (other than peanuts) and being a mother she wanted to make sure I ate healthy and got enough food. I was a tad nervous because I didn't know what I was going to ask my mom to get or cook. 


It turns out it was great! My Mom went to Whole Foods with me and said, "get what you need". I got some soy milk, yummy mango Popsicles (thanks to my friend Sara who was with us and saw them), bananas, and ingredients to make a couscous salad. My Mom was looking for things I could have and trying to help me come up with new recipes. 


My couscous salad was so easy to make and served cold it was very refreshing. Here's what I included:

• multicolored pearl couscous
• vegetable broth (tastes better than cooking with just water)
• fresh mushrooms
• garlic
• basil (fresh from my Mom's garden)
• and a touch of olive oil
• a tiny bit of black pepper

I just cooked it all up and then stuck it in the fridge to cool and BAM! easy summer couscous salad. 

Overall the whole weekend was great. My Dad made me eggs in the morning to go along with my soy milk, and I managed to eat out with friends a bunch.

Two restaurants that were great for me were Racine's in downtown Denver, and Kona Grill in Cherry Creek. Racine's let me modify the heck out of my salad and it was so fresh and tasty. The real kudos go to Kona Grill which not only modified my entire meal, but were very understanding and willing to help me have a great meal. I will definitely be trying out the Kona Grill here in Tampa. 

Overall I am getting the hang of how to modify recipes at home and in restaurants to fit my needs. My parents were great and my Mom helped me come up with a few ways to try new recipes. 

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

Till next time...

Yummy Chocolate Cake Mix!

Last week I posted a review of a mac and cheese that I did not like. This week I am happy to announce I am posting a good review! This chocolate cake mix is very moist and not too sweet. I am still working on being able to find a frosting I can make for the top but I'll take at least cake for now. The cake required eggs, oil or butter, and milk (can use water to make it dairy free). I used egg white, vegetable oil and vanilla soy milk (this time the vanilla helped the recipe unlike last time :-) * ).


The cake came out really moist, not to heavy, and the perfect amount of sweet and chocolate. Like I said, I'm still looking for a good frosting but what girl can resist chocolate cake?

*This cake can be dairy, egg, and soy free depending on what your allergy needs are

Till next time...

First Food Review- Dairy free Mac & Cheese

Any American child (who is lucky enough to not have food allergies) grew up eating mac & cheese and chicken nuggets. For my sisters and I, mac & cheese nights were the babysitter nights. About a week after I was told I couldn't have dairy it hit me....NO MORE MAC AND CHEESE!!!!!! It was like a small part of my childhood was being taken away. 

But luckily for me, I have a wonderful boyfriend who is getting very good at picking out foods that I can have without compromising the food diet to which I now adhere. Last trip to whole foods I come around to the next aisle and he's holding a box of dairy free Mac & Cheese. We read and re-read the label and I start to get really excited (I really really really love mac & cheese).

Here's the box so you know which brand I'm reviewing. Now for the review.

The noodles themselves were fine, cooked normally without problems. You had to add in milk but we only have vanilla soy in our house so that's what we added. 

I was so excited to try this and the taste was just too far off what I had in mind so I am not going to recommend as a mac and cheese replacement but I will recommend (without vanilla soy) for families with food allergies who are looking for quick and easy dinners. Sorry Road's End but this didn't quite do it for me. 

Till next time... 

Traveling with Allergies= Planning!!!

August is going to be a great month for me because I have a packed calendar! No only do I have multiple trips planned, but I also have a lot of after work/weekend plans.

On the agenda is:

• A weekend in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with friends 
• Bachelorette trip to northern NY 
• A weekend in Colorado (home) to visit my parents 
• A long weekend in Chicago with the bf to see his parents 

I'm getting really excited for all my trips but I was a little worried about the food situation on each of these trips. After a lot of planning and good ideas from others I have my food planned out for the first trip. Luckily the group that is going to the cabin is doing burgers one night and spaghetti the next. This makes my life so much easier. I only need to bring food for breakfasts and lunches. NY will be a bit tricky because we will be in a smaller town and with a large group and going out a lot. Colorado and Chicago will be fairly easy because in both places are parents who care and understand.

For each of the trips I plan on bringing a little food with me but luckily I don't have to bring as much for Colorado and Chicago since family is awesome! Here's what I have packed for this weekend's cabin trip:

• Couscous- just add hot water and it's not bad 
• "peanut" butter- soy butter which tastes REALLY similar 
• a mango- one of the few fruits I can have raw 
• Redbridge beer- it's gluten free which means there's no barley- taste is a little different but not bad 
• some ginger snap cookies- I have a HUGE sweet-tooth 
• pretzel crips 
• homemade guacamole 
• hummus 

For the New York trip I am going to bring less but I know my friend's parents (who we are staying with) have some good options for me at their place.

Like I said not only do I have 4 trips, but the after work schedule is packed. Between 2 running clubs, dance classes, board meetings, and a visit from a certain service puppy in training (I'll post about that sometime) we will be on the go all month.

Lunches are fairly easy because I have found bread, and deli meat that I can make sandwiches with. Hummus and guacamole are great replacements for cheese.

Dinners will be a bit harder being so busy but luckily I have a crockpot, fast cooking couscous and an awesome boyfriend who is very dedicated to me not eating things I shouldn't.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I will be off in the woods hanging out, swimming and relaxing.

Till next time....