Complete Randomness

Nikki incognito

Dad making crochet humor.  I thought my little elephant needed a mom so I am in the process making her one.

Frog in glass by Spark

Mac and cheese doesn't have food coloring anymore!!!  It is has been about 10 years since has been welcome in our house, but it's in now! Seems like a novelty to us.

When Fluffles isn't sleeping he's trying to figure out how to get some Temptations cat treats.

Out to lunch

Dancer, the queen of selfies.

Yeah, that's a goat/llama water bucket.  They think the buckets are either a bathroom or a footbath.

The thank you gift we made for Spark's speech co-op leaders.

Double decker sleeping spot.

Car washing.

The want ads at the feed mill.

Bert after a bath.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Kleenex

I am cheap.  I usually say frugal because it sounds so much nicer but really I am cheap.  I don't pay for things with extra frills if something cheaper can do the same job.  Because of my cheapness we use toilet paper for tissues - Kleenex is brand so I won't use that when talking about the toilet paper tissues for legal reasons. 

In the car though we carry a box of Kleenex.  I may be cheap but I don't want to look like a redneck in public by having people look in our car and see rolls of half used t.p.  I can see them thinking we probably stop by a bush instead of finding the nearest bathroom when nature calls.  To set the record straight - we don't. 

This week Dancer and I have been suffering from a horrible, no good, very bad cold.  Toilet paper is hard on the nose.  Very hard on the nose.  It intensifies our suffering.  I broke down and brought the box of Kleenex from the car tonight.  Our noses are thankful for soft Kleenex.  With only three fourths of a box I fear we are going to be thankful for only a short time.

I am thankful for cold medicine as well but poor Dancer can not take cold medicine because it is loaded with food coloring.  Why, why, why do they put coloring in medicine?!!!!  Does it make it taste better?  No.   Look better?  No, and when I am suffering I don't really have an opinion on the color I just want it to work.  She takes Calc. Sulph 6X which is a homeopathic that works, but it doesn't knock you out so you can sleep like Nyquil does.

I am really going to be thankful when our colds are gone.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Our problems

Yep, that is right, I am thankful for our problems. 

Do I like our problems?  No. 

Would I rather we didn't have any?  Yes. 

But they are what the are.

Dancer sometimes complains about her food coloring allergy and how much she wishes she didn't have it and could eat anything she wanted.  Then we talk about how it is much better than a peanut allergy or a glutten allergy or Crohn's Disease or any other host of diseases.  Any kid in a wheel chair etc. would think pfft, food coloring, I could live with that in a heart beat.  To make her feel better we go over how those foods aren't good choices anyway and this is sort of a blessing in disguise.  But she is 13, so I let her have a bit of a pity party because it does stink.  Our culture likes to give out treats at every occasion, or for every little achievement, that it is a hard thing to be strong about day after day.  The grocery store gives suckers out just for being in the check out line with your mom, what kind of achievement is that?  I got off on a little tangent there so back to the post.

Of course, as a family, like every family, we have our share of problems.  We have been quite blessed and they aren't insurmountable.  We also have a good marriage so that when big things do happen we are able to weather the storm and get through to the other side wiser, braver, stronger and more humble.

I read somewhere once, that if everyone threw their problems in a pile and could pick new ones out, they would probably take their own back. 

Thank you God for our problems and that your mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.

Can you believe we ate that?

That was what Spark said when he found a picture today that had been taken at a motel with a free breakfast.  Back to the room came filled donuts, glasses of apple juice and the only saving grace, a hard boiled egg.  This picture was from probably about five years ago.   He didn't notice how cute they were or that they were at motel or that everyone was smiling, just the food that was sitting on the plates.

Dancer's food coloring allergy has changed a lot about how we eat.  We always, well better that the average family, ate what would be considered healthy meals.  I don't particularity care for prepackaged meals, having been served a boat load of them when I was young, and we like to cook.  The problem was, good meals to us meant sauces, cheeses, rich baked goods, homemade bread out of the oven with lots of drippy butter.  And to be honest we ate our share of junk food.  More importantly than cooking we like to eat so we had now, looking back, bigger portions than necessary.  We also did a lot of grazing during the day, where you aren't really eating but having a bite here and there that obviously added up. 

When we realized that food was the culprit to Dancer's eczema we started making changes.  First we switched to about a 30 - 40 percent organic food diet thinking perhaps it was the pesticides and fertilizers in food.  I saw 30 - 40 percent here because we eat a lot of our own food and we are not organic.  We grow organically but are not "organic" nor are our animals.  There was no change in her skin but the organic food, and I know people will argue this, tastes better than non organic.  However, organic doesn't mean healthy.  You can eat just as much fat, calories and sugar in organic food as you can in regular food.  Organic ice cream is still ice cream and an organic potato chip is still a potato chip.  Plus the organic ice cream is so much tastier than regular that it just slides right down.

When we realized that it was food coloring that was causing her problems we tighten up our diet except that we went with what we thought had food coloring in it by looking at it.  If it looked orange or red, it was bad, not orange or red, go ahead an eat it.  When she still didn't have much change, except her stomach problems went away for the most part, we though we were still doing sort of okay.  Then she started to get really bad and we really started to read food labels and realized how much we were still eating.  I have written in other posts where food coloring is lurking everywhere.

Along the way we looked into grains that have been genetically modified and decided that they are too much of an allergy risk, even though as of now we don't think Dancer, or any of us, have a problem with them.

Dancer's new diet restrictions have made us look at what we were really eating and we have cut a lot more foods off our diet radar.  None of us are thin or super healthy by any means, so over the past couple of years we have been making small changes by cutting out bad fats, a good amount of high  fructose corn syrup and in the last few weeks the majority of sugar.  We limit to one treat a week for the most part and have cut down on our snacking and portion sizes.  

While we are not militant in our eating by any means we have seen some changes.  We have all lost a few inches and I think we look and feel better than we did before.  But by far I think our biggest and most encouraging change was that Spark would be surprised and disgusted at what we were eating before.  I take that as a good sign that we are on the right path.

Deviled Egg Casserole

I feel most days that our menus are boring and repetitive.  To combat this, the kids and I picked out some cookbooks when we were at the library the other day.  I often pick out cookbooks but don't often make anything new out of them.  I vowed this time to be different.

Our boring meals are also compounded by Dancer's food coloring allergy.  Some days I think how easy it would be to open a box of mac and cheese and throw it on the table in 20 minutes.  Not to mention the fact that we love mac and cheese, even more so now that it doesn't cross the threshold of our house.  The rest of us, beside Dancer, could eat colored foods but we try to make it as easy as possible for her to abstain from those foods.  It wouldn't be fun for her to watch us eat them and it wouldn't be  fun for us to have them knowing that she wants to be eating them right along with us.  We are certainly not deprive by eating those foods, we just need to be more creative not to fall into a rut.  I truly admire people who cook from scratch and avoid all processed foods that don't have a medical reason to do it.  In some European countries these offending food coloring have been banned by law and companies (McDonald's and Oscar Meyer for example) have found other ways to make their foods.  I hope that that will become the same in the U.S. some day when more people realize how horrible the majority of the food we have to pick from is.

Now, on to our new recipe that was a complete hit and the kids even enthusiastically had the left overs the next day for lunch.  The inspiration for this recipe came from the book  "Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen."  While it isn't exactly the recipe in the book, I tweaked it a wee bit, it is close and a little more Scandinavian. 

Deviled Egg Casserole

1 package egg noodles - or whatever pasta you have on  hand
3/4 pound spinach
1 stick butter
2 cups milk
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp. flour
6 hard boiled eggs
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp. mustard
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. milk
salt and pepper

Boil pasta and drain.  Boil spinach and drain well.  Mix the pasta and spinach and put in a buttered baking dish. 

Slice the eggs in half lengthwise and remover the yolks.  In separate bowl combine mashed egg yolks, garlic, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp. milk, salt and pepper.  Fill egg whites with mixture and place over the pasta and spinach. 

Melt butter in sauce pan and mix flour into the flour. Gradually stir in milk and 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Stir continually over low-medium heat until a creamy sauce is formed and cheese is completely melted and not stringy.  Pour cheese sauce over the pasta and eggs.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup mozzarella over whole top. 

Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes until top turn golden brown.

This reheated well except for the eggs so eat those the first time you serve it if there is going to be any left overs.  The next day the reheated egg whites reminded me of what it might be like to bite into a flip flop.

So who is right?

A few weeks ago we took Dancer in to the doctor because her eczema has been getting way worse over the last year and half.  She has had it since birth but has gotten much worse over the years.  The doctor confirmed that it was eczema, which we find is worse when she has foods with yellow food coloring or that are colored orange.  She breaks out usually in less than a half an hour.  She also said that not only could it be food coloring but also food preservatives since she always has some breakout no matter how careful we are.  She prescribed a cream and Zyrtec twice a day since it was so bad and referred us to an allergist for testing.

Today we go to the allergist, whom I have seen for asthma and have been very happy with, and he gives us a much different diagnosis.  He tell us it is not eczema but irritant dermatitis caused by her scratching.  It will eventually turn to her having hives and thyroid problems, probably by the time she is 19 years old.  It is chronic and she would be better off if she did have eczema.  I asked why then do we notice a correlation between her eating food coloring and more sever breakouts?  Or if she does breakout when we aren't expecting her to we can go back through what we have eaten and find a hidden color in food we would think shouldn't have coloring in it?   He totally dismissed it and said no it is not food coloring but if we want to spend $400 he will test her for any food I think she is allergic too.  There is no test for food colorings, which he is sure she isn't allergic to, and so she can eat anything she wants.  I also told him that she doesn't react to anything environmental like soaps, detergents, lotions, etc. so what would be the irritant in the "irritant" dermatitis.  There is no irritant in it, she is scratching and she has sensitive skin.  He also told her not to get her ears pierced again, she has them done twice, because they will get infected.  What?  What does that have to do with what we are in for?  Sounds more like an editorial to me.  He tells her to take Zyrtec only once a day, unless we are really rich and can afford it twice, to help with the dermatitis.  So we leave and I think, great, the other doctor misdiagnosed her. 

Out in the car, when I have a few moments to process what he said, I think, well, some of that makes sense and some of it doesn't.  She did break her arm a few years back and when they took the cast off we were surprised that she had no eczema on that arm.  She also has none on her body, just arms, legs and face.

As a test, on the way home we stop and buy a bag of Doritos.  Doritos have both yellow #6 and #5 and red #40.  We get home, she eats a few and breaks out.  Tomorrow I am going to go buy her a can of Cheddar Pringles, they only had one yellow, we thought yellow #6, and see what happens. 

So now we have to decide, who is right?  Or are they both wrong?  We have a follow up appointment with the first doctor, but with a $1,500 deductible on our insurance per person we really can't keep going to appointments with them guessing at what the diagnosis is.  I feel like we are on the show Mystery Diagnosis. 

Beware of hidden food coloring

Dancer is so very allergic to food coloring. Orange is the worst and then any derivative of orange. She was quite ill last month with a cold and took some Dayquil. She is so careful with food that when she was suffering and took the Dayquil our thought was to relieve her symptoms and it didn't register that Dayquil is probably one of the orangest products on the market. She broke out with eczema horrible, even her ankles and lower legs which she has never done before. So that was our oversight. But the other day she broke out again. When that happens we know that we missed something. We went back over everything we had eaten, what could it be? What could it be? Dad started the task of reading the labels of all the things that had touched her lips. It was pickles. Come on food manufactures, pickles? Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, would you feel you need to artificially color a pickle?

We almost always buy plain old, pickle colored, organic pickles. We were out the other night when Grandma and Grandpa were going to come over to supper so we asked them to pick up a jar on the way over. We make our own relish for hot dogs and such so we threw them in the food chopper, put them on the table and Dancer probably had no more than a tablespoon of the relish. Argh, we won't make that mistake again.