Meal Planning Mess

Holy lord February is almost over which means in just a few days my sister will be getting all hitched up, my baby will be 3 in 5 months, and I need to start working on my March meal plan! 

A few weeks ago I got my dry erase calendar down to change a few things and someone decided they needed to help me out by adding her own personal touch and boy was she proud of herself. I couldn't be mad since it was my fault for leaving the very tempting markers out on the coffee table where tiny hands could easily reach them.

Lesson learned 

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.

Cut It Out

I have written  here a few times about my allergies and my doctor believing it was wheat causing all of my issues. So like a good little girl and slowly cut out wheat/gluten and since April of 2013 have been completely gluten free. I can honestly say I have never felt better in my life. I don't ever get bloated, I have more energy, and I don't suffer from that yucky 3:00 feeling. It wasn't easy and the first few weeks were absolute hell as my body adjusted, but I am very glad I made the change. I have had a few incidents I believed I was "glutened" and just recently had a pretty severe reaction where I broke out in hives all over my eyes, face, and neck. This last incident was what finally sent me back to the allergy doctor for some more answers.

. I am still shocked about what I found out, but I did tell Brent it would probably be something strange that I was allergic to and even the doctor said it was one of the first times he had had someone with my allergies. 

Surprisingly I did not test positive to wheat even after an extended 48 hour skin test.  My doctor has suggested not immediately adding it back in because I seem to have a sensitivity to it causing some of my allergy/tummy issues and I am not sure if I will ever go back to eating wheat again. I don't buy to many "Gluten Free" products besides bread, pasta, and on occasion a pizza, or a cupcake every now and then. Instead I decided when all of this began to eat more whole foods that I knew were naturally gluten free instead of trying to replace the items I couldn't eat. So I will more than likely just stick to my new diet, but I will not panic if I accidentally ingest something that previously wasn't believed safe for me to eat.

 Now that I know I am not actually allergic to wheat, but have more or less a sensitivity to it we can discuss what I am actually allergic to. 

<<<<<<<<<<<<<Drumroll please>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The 2 things I tested positive for were Black Pepper and Oranges!! Black pepper being the worse of the 2.

Really!!! Seriously!!! 

Oranges will not be impossible to cut out. I love oranges, but oranges are not in absolutely everything! Black pepper on the other hand is in pretty much everything yummy and savory. Thankfully we already make all of our own seasonings so cooking at home will be super simple.  I am weary of any ingredients that say "spices" because who knows what spices are included so anything like that shall be avoided. Eating out on the other hand will be a little trickier. My safety salads are pretty much out now because most salad dressing have pepper in and most chicken in salads are seasoned with pepper. So baked potatoes it is!

I know some people might say well you have eaten pepper your entire life and been fine, but now that my symptoms are getting worse it just seems easier to cut things out then be absolutely miserable. Plus I have always suffered from sinus/cold/allergy (ie. a life long cough/throat clearing, constant itching all over my body, and skin) issues and I am hoping this small life change will drastically help these issues.

So there you have it.  I am a freak (more so than we thought), but I we can all be happy knowing at least I am not allergic to wine, coffee, or ice cream.

Starry Nights

Last week Brent came home and said he wanted to go something fun and Christmassy. So what is more fun and Christmasy than driving around and looking at Christmas lights?!?!? We bundled up, loaded the girl I the car, swung by our favorite donut shop, and headed to Shelby farms for some lights and music. Little did we know there was a bubble snow blower and a petting zoo full of the most precious baby animals ever and 1 really creepy turkey somewhere in between.

As you can see the bubble snow blower was the biggest hit of the night and sadly I can not find any of the baby animal pictures, but at least we will always have the memories.

I think the spur of the moment nights are always some of the best nights.

Happy Birfday To You Cha Cha Cha

Holy Moly this has been one of the best birthdays ever!! Besides all of the sweet birthday wishes yesterday I get to school today totally oblivious to all of the amazing secrets everyone was keeping! I still can't believe my babies didn't say a word about the awesome pajama party we were having today. 

I know I say every year I can't imagine loving a class as much as I do the previous year, but I guess each new class is like having another child and your heart just makes a little more room for each one. And it isn't just the students who I love but the parents are pretty great themselves.  I feel so special and so loved knowing how much effort went into decorating, planning, and putting everything together for little ole me. 

I feel like such a dunce because like usual I came into my room like a hurricane this morning and was even more crazy since we were out Friday because of the icepocolipse 2013 and I couldn't remember where I put anything. Thankfully as I was running around Mrs. Nicole made me slow down and notice the amazing decorations one of my amazing room moms had put up. 

There were banners, balloons, and streamers. 

Soon all of my babies started arriving and slowly I started to realize everyone was wearing pajamas and I started to panic because I thought I ha forgotten about something and I didn't any to say anything bout Mrs. Douglas's polka dotted pants. Thankfully another one of my room moms arrive ditch a sweet surprise of my very on pair of pajamas 

and she revealed the secret of my birthday spa day. All of my sweet babies had kept the secret of the big surprise even after things got a little crazy with school being canceled Friday. 

I can honestly say I have never felt so loved in my life! I wish everyone could say they love their job as much as I do, but they don't have 20 little people telling you how much they love you and telling you hilarious stories everyday. 

Love you little people!!!!!!!