Do You Bake/Cook from Scratch More Often Because of PA?

I try to make everything from scratch. BUT, when I made this decision I knew that my ds was allergic to milk, eggs, and soy in addition to peanuts and tree nuts. Now that he's allergic to wheat and barley as well, it's pretty much a given that I won't be buying much from the store.

It he were just allergic to peanuts, I don't know. We chose to start baking at home because he kept having reactions that we thought could be cross-contamination. In hindsight I now know they were caused by the wheat. I hope I get the chance to make that decision in a few years!

In general though the peanut allergy, as well as the others, has significantly altered the way I view processed foods, restaurants and family gatherings. If I didn't see what went into the food, I'm not real comfortable with it.

momjd, I had just seen a similar response from you in a different thread and I think that may be have been what triggered me asking this question.

See, I'm only dealing with PA so I'm not clear if I would be a lot different if I was dealing with MFA or even more than one. But for me, solely dealing with PA, I've found that we've generally been okay sticking with our tried and true and well labeled manufactured food.

Again, as I said above, I'm not proud of this. This question may actually have been raised out of envy, I'm not clear.

Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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The word "continually" comes to mind! We still buy bottled soy milk and OJ, and fill in with frozen veggies to supplement what I freeze over the summer. Haven't tried making butter yet ...not sure if I *trust* my homecanned applesauce, so we still buy jars of it at Trader Joe's, along with canned refried beans.

We make our own pizza (easy and actually better than restaurant crust), granola (good and a lot cheaper than storebought), pancakes (dairy and eggfree -- finally found/modified an excellent recipe), tortillas (really good, but we're high altitude, and I still need to tweak the baking soda), pita pockets, cinnamon rolls (still looking for a good recipe), quick breads, brownies, muffins, and (drumroll, please)...English muffins! *They* are a bit more work than they're probably worth -- but they are *good*. I was more than a little bit tickled that they turned out... [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img] Also found a really good eggless cornbread recipe last week.

Do I spend all day in the kitchen? Not on your life. I make triple and quadruple batches of things and freeze them -- and have been known to plop refried beans and cheese on top of tortilla chips and call it a meal on a slow day! When we've had hot dogs and french fries more than twice in a week (meaning that there's nothing else left in the freezer), I know it's time for another kitchen adventure.

Do I really love cooking? Only when I don't "have to" do it. When I'm a little ahead of the game, I like the chemistry experiment aspect of it -- seeing something "rise" when there isn't much reason for it to -- seeing if I can fine tune a recipe so it's better each time I make it, or if I can guess and have it come out properly on the first try.

My guys are a hugely rewarding duo to cook for, too -- M will make a great husband one day if he can keep up the "Thank you for making us this really yummy _____. I love it!" [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

M's egg allergy has certainly contributed to my motivation in all of this -- but our concern about cross contamination has played an equal part.

I get a lot of satisfaction from feeling like I'm beating the system -- that other than, say, quiche or scrambled eggs (or peanut butter cookies, for that matter), we can still have just about whatever we want to eat -- produced right here in our own little PB-free "manufacturing facility".

Thanks for this thread. It's been a long day PA-wise (unexpected heavy sarcasm from a family member), and it felt good to look at what I *have* accomplished.

Adding homemade "atta-girls" to my resume,
Sue

M'sMom, kudos to you for what you outlined, and double kudos if you're feeling kinda low and need it! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Now I'm really beginning to feel like BAD MOMMY but then again, you were another person posting with MFA (which reminds me we had asked Chris for an MFA part of the board) and I'm solely dealing with PA, so I'm not ready to crawl into a hole yet. Again, I think it's mostly envy I feel and perhaps disgust with myself [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/redface.gif[/img]

Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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I'm only dealing with PA, but cook/bake from scratch more than I ever have in my life. Most of our cookies are homemade, I'll bread and bake my own chicken with homemade breading, do the bread machine thing for sweet dough, pizza dough, and my bread of course. Most of us make our own ice cream, but that's pretty easy. A lot of our candy is homemade in addition to what I buy from VNF. At first when I found out about PA, I was making my own mozzarella constantly, but have stopped because I really have to choose where to concentrate my efforts--there is life outside the kitchen! I make my own cream cheese, but that's a snap and the taste is so much better than store bought. Lately, the granola recipe has been assigned to my one daughter, and the other daughter is in charge of salad dressing. As the girls and boys get older, I'll delegate more responsibilities to them as their chores. So it seems I'm really spending a lot of time in the kitchen right now. But with future cooks and dishwashers in the family, I'm hoping to cut my time in half.

Holidays are the only time that can be draining. Virtually everything has to be homemade. I actually make my list of things to do a week in advance and start food prep five days in advance.

Great question Cindy,

Yes I do cook more from scratch, mostly because of the fact that I am becoming quite jaded about manufacturers here in Canada. Kinda feels like a conspiracy theory or something here [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/biggrin.gif[/img]!

It disturbs me that the CFIA which is supposed to protect allergic consumers, clearly allows manufacturers to include peanuts in their products hidden in things like "natural flavourings" and seasoning. The following is taken form a PDF I downloaded from their site.

"Table V Food preparations used as ingredients which are presently
exempted from a component declaration under the Food and Drug
Regulations [B.01.009(2)], with examples of typical components
Mixtures exempt from an Typical components
ingredient and component exempt from being
declaration declared
food color preparations soy lecithin
natural and artificial malt
flavoring preparations wheat starch, wheat flour,
wheat gluten
enzyme-modified cheeses
spice mixtures wheat flour, wheat starch
sesame seeds
seasoning or herb mixtures if <2% of product: HPsauce,
Worcestershire sauce,
soy sauce, ketchup, mustard,
cheese powder
skim milk powder
wheat flour,
wheat starch
peanuts,
tree nuts, seeds, fish, etc.
vitamin preparations soybean oil
wheat starch
food additive preparations wheat starch
wheat flour
compressed dry, active, starch
or instant yeast preparations"
(the above was taken from a table but you get the drift)

Now, between you and I, who in the world would think that it's ok to have "any peanuts" in the processed foods we give our PA kids. Why the heck can't the government require manufacturers to label their products to reflect what they actually contain? Do they think that if a product only has 2% peanuts or if they call it "natural flavour", it is any less lethal to someone with PA?

Questions, questions and sadly few answers. Have you ever tried to contact the CFIA? I've sent e-mails but have never received a response. I guess what it boils down to is I have a select few manufacturers I feel comfortable with and I stick to them (even when an untried similar product is less expensive) simply because I am getting fed up with the royal runaround we get from manufacturers. You know, when you call and they give you a canned response that if the product contained peanuts it would have to be declared by law....right, sure it does.

Can you tell I'm having a bad PA week! Grrrrrr!

Katiee (Wade's mom who is gettinbg tired of baking!)

Sue, I was *so* tickled with your post! It might have been mine! I also love the experimentation of it all- thus my husband who refers to me as the "evil Martha Stewart" on occasion... [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/rolleyes.gif[/img] I *think* he means well. Well, I like it when my daughter already *has* food she can eat... the high-pressure aspects occasionally guarantee recipe failures [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/frown.gif[/img] which is gut-wrenching. (You look at your hungry kid and the pile of "glop" that just turned out and you want to cry for them.)

It's a good question, though, Cindy!

I don't know if I would have done it this way if we hadn't started out with MFA... wheat and egg allergies necessitated a lot of home baking.

I was a really lousy baker before this though- the first four months were terrifying. Tried to make bread three or four times in grad school (everyone else in my lab did) and got hockey pucks instead... bought a bread machine and reverted to Fleischman's boxed mixes... then the allergies.
But now that we've added wheat back into the mix (pardon the pun) I am discovering that making really awesome bread is *so easy*... What on earth did I *ever* think was hard about this??? Just add the yeast and it makes itself! The gluten and the yeast just *want* to make a loaf of bread, it seems. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img] Hmmmm... I think my basic skill level has changed somewhat. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/biggrin.gif[/img]
-CM

[This message has been edited by Corvallis Mom (edited August 25, 2007).]

I had gotten lazy since we have been hsing. I was using mixes but I have stopped. I try to make all cookies, cakes, breads, everything. I feel that it is safer. Jasmine gets to the point of refusing to eat anything so I would like to think making everything from scratch helps her calm down.
Ryan's mom how do you make cream cheese? I would like to make my own. I just got a recipe for english muffin bread from my neighbor haven't tried it yet. I don't think it has eggs.
I am always looking for new recipes!
Connielynn

Dealing with my kids' multiple allergies has meant that I definitely do much more cooking than I probably would have done. But there are added bonuses apart from allergy avoidance. because I read the labels of everything, I see all the rubbish that manufacturers put into products - E-numbers, artifical sweeteners, thickeners etc etc.

Most of the processed food I can make fresh without all this rubbish and I think therefore my kids are going to be healthier than other which are fed convenience foods.

Connielynn,

I'll reraise the thread for you under the Snacks/Recipes board. If you have ever tasted freshly-made cream cheese from a bagel or Italian pastry shop, that's what it tastes like. It has a creamy, velvety taste that is oh so good. Philly's used to be my favorite, but I could never understand why the bagel store's cream cheese tasted better. Now I know.

Ryan's Mom, I remember that taste now! I used to buy the home made cream cheese from a Jewish bakery many years ago. I had completely forgotten about. Yes, yes, much more velvety. Yum. Completely forgot about it.

Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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We have MFA(PN/TN/eggs/sesame). We have never been huge purchasers of snack foods *until* having a child who would not eat all the homemade baby food I worked so hard to make!! I gradually gave up, little by little, and we do buy alot of crunchy snacks(carefully chosen with regards to the allergies, of course).

Because of the egg allergy, I probably do more of my own baking, and things like pancakes, waffles. However, I also do this to include more healthful ingredients, like wheat germ, oats, fruits, etc...(again the picky eater). I actually cook less dinners from scratch because dd never eats what I cook, and my husband and I are satisfied with salad and a meat/chicken/fish/pasta simply prepared(but I guess that is from scratch!).

I guess I make certain things I would otherwise buy because of the PA and other allergies(scones, muffins, waffles, granola, birthday cakes, quick breads), but would have and do make more food from scratch simply because I enjoy it and think it is more healthful for our family. I would definately buy many more processed foods for my dd if she were not allergic, because it gets so difficult coming up with stuff we will all eat. It is so much better, in a way, that I have no choice but to try to make her healthier foods at home because we have already gone far too deep into that trap of fixing different food for the child. Oh, well, trying to look at a glass half full part of this allergy! becca

becca, I can really relate to what you're saying about wanting your family to eat healthy foods (embarrassed to say that I was the first one to post that I don't bake/cook more from scratch due to PA).

Twenty years ago, I had just taken a vegetarian cooking course and learned how to make wonderful wonderful food, not *weird* stuff. Every Saturday morning I would be kneading different kinds of bread. I made Christmas cakes and had wonderful meals for quite some times.

Through the years, due mostly to my health, I gradually stopped. In reminiscing about the "good old days" with a friend of mine about four years ago, she said that maybe due to Jesse's PA, I could get back to where I had been twenty years ago because it had been SO satisfying for me. I have, to a small degree, but certainly not to the extent I was doing twenty years ago, unfortunately.

Also, I continue to notice that most people posting in this thread are people dealing with MFA. I strongly urge everyone posting with MFA to contact Chris to see if he is still open to the idea of an MFA section of this discussion board. He had said a few months ago that he would take it into consideration, I just think that not that many people contacted him about it.

Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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