Nobody ever said parenting would be easy. But add in food allergies and parenting becomes even more complicated. Still wonderful? Absolutely.
I am a Mom of 3 beautiful boys. Like my crazy mother before me, I decided to have 3 kids in 3 years. While there are many days where I am pulling my hair out over these animals, I adore them with all of my heart. Like tiny suns, they are full of energy and light up my world.
But I’ll admit that I was absolutely devastated when we discovered that our middle child has food allergies. My Ben-Ben was only about 7 months old, and I gave him the spoon of peanut butter that he had been eyeing from his high chair. When he developed hives and started vomiting, I panicked.
After a visit to the emergency room, he was fine, but I was in shock. A peanut allergy? Seriously? No one in either my or my husband’s family had ever had a food allergy.
Then, a month later, Ben grabbed his unsuspecting older brother’s milk bottle and chugged. That’s how we found out about the milk allergy.
So we ended up going to an allergist for testing. I’ll never forget what the allergist said after the skin test: “Well, there’s got to be something this kid’s not allergic to,” in a joking tone. I guess he was used to this kind of thing. But I wasn’t. Ben is allergic to barley, cashews, eggs, milk, peanuts, sunflower seeds, tree nuts, wheat. (Almond and coconut are fine.) Ben was already on the small side for his age. With all of these food no-no’s, how was I going to be able to feed my baby?
My husband Aaron and I started searching for “Ben-safe” foods, but it was surprisingly difficult to navigate the various recipes. It was overwhelming how little we knew. What is xanthan gum? Nutritional yeast — where could we even find that? I wasn’t an experienced chef and baker. I needed simple recipes.
It was my amazing mother who reminded me that most of the food I grew up with — Cuban food — is Ben-safe. Beans are fine, and so is rice, and so are all the seasonings. Plus, he could eat meat (but I’ll give a shout out to all you wonderful vegans for figuring out how to make so much food without eggs & dairy–thank you!).
So my fears of starvation were allayed. Fast forward a couple of years and Ben is a beautiful, strong, and mischievous little toddler, and I’ve figured out a bit better how to handle his allergies. He goes back for testing at 4 years old, and we’re praying that God will deliver him from his allergies. But for now, we’re starting this blog to share what we know.
A lot of my focus is going to be on Cuban and Cuban-American cooking. I’ll throw in some fusion recipes too, like my Thai Red Curry Tilapia recipe later. My wonderful husband likes experimenting in the kitchen and has figured out how to make delicious pancakes and corn breads, and he’ll be posting to this blog every now and then to share his recipes too.
If you’re just here for the food, no problem–I hope you enjoy the delicious recipes. If you just discovered a food allergy and are feeling overwhelmed like I was, let me just say: it will get easier. You’ll figure out what you need to do, and thankfully, the market for allergy-friendly fare is opening up. You could even find chocolate made without dairy (thank you, Enjoy Life!). We’re always learning over here, so if you have some great tips, or some recipe tweaks, feel free to share. Enjoy this blog, but more importantly, enjoy the food. Buen provecho!
