Where I've Been and What I'm (Not) Eating

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

I took a much needed break from this here bliggity blog , but after a few glasses of wine today and the threat of bad weather I decided I needed something to occupy my time so I am jumping back in! I have still been typing over at my school blog Insane In The PreK Brain and I am actually a few weeks behind over there, but that is neither here nor there. So what have I been up to? I have mostly been working on staying healthy, learning more about my food allergies, and hanging with my little family of course. Ever since allergy gate 2014 life has been a little more complicated and I can say with all honesty, going gluten free was so much easier than cutting pepper out of my diet has been. There really isn't a lot of information out there on black pepper allergies and I thought maybe I could compile any information I could find and put it here for anyone else who finds them self living with random food allergies. 

So what does a pepper allergy mean for myself and my family? Basically we only eat at home and the food is almost always 100% prepared from scratch with a few exceptions. The super short list of store bought items currently residing in our pantry, fridge, and freezer are: gluten free tortillas, laughing cow cheese, Veggie burgers, and gluten free bread. Everything else we make or is a fresh fruit, vegetable, or protein.
We have also been switching to all organic foods since our grocery list is so limited anyways that we may as well use the money we were saving on organic non modified foods.

Just this weekend I had my first experience eating out since finding out the extent of my allergies and let me tell you that it was very interesting and not very easy to navigate. I can honestly say going gluten free was a hundred times easier then going pepper free in regards to eating outside of the home. Gluten/Wheat allergies are more prevalent nowadays that most restaurants offer at least a few safe options. Our first pepper free venture out just so happened to be at one of my favorite restaurants called Soul Fish where everything is blackened, fried, and not Roxanne allergy friendly. Thankfully our server was very patient, understanding and as helpful as she possibly could be. I didn't really mention my gluten allergy since I could tell for myself which items would be the safest in regards to that, but I needed a little more help with the pepper. Basically any and all proteins were not an option so we started looking through the vegetable plate options which were limited when it came to my needs. I ended up choosing steamed broccoli topped with parmesan cheese with no seasoning (delicious!), cucumber salad with no seasoning (delicious!), and sweet potato fries which were delicious, but probably not the safest option gluten free wise (See I told you this was complicated). What makes them unsafe you may ask. Well many sweet potato fries are coated in flour to make them crispier and I guess I was so worried about not getting peppered that I totally forgot about this. I ended up with a belly ache and itchy swollen eyes which is just normal these days so nothing new and lesson learned.

As of right now I don't even think it is worth the risk of trying to eat out anymore so don't look at me like I am crazy if I roll up to a restaurant or your house with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because going through a menu and trying to figure out if something might possibly have pepper in it is just not worth it. Like Brent said I guess I will just have to eat at home and drink wine whenever we go out (Darn!)

So there you have it. The long and short list of what I have been up to and what I have been eating. Hopefully my itchiness can help someone else out there who suffers from food allergies and doesn't know what to eat. Starting next month I will be posting my monthly meal plans again and I will make sure to note any changes I make to any recipes to make them wheat and pepper free.

And in honor of my big sis getting married in exactly 9 days here is a picture from her big bridal shower a few weekends ago.