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Food Allergy Friendly Christmas: Festive Recipes Everyone Can Enjoy
Food Allergy Friendly Christmas: Festive Recipes Everyone Can Enjoy
Food Allergy Friendly Christmas: Festive Recipes Everyone Can Enjoy!
If you’re looking for easy, delicious food allergy-friendly recipes that your whole family will enjoy, you’re in the right place!
These recipes are free from peanuts, tree nuts, dairy and common top food allergens. Perfect for Christmas & Holiday parties, travel days, lunches & Tuesday afternoons!
Because no one deserves to cry at Christmas/Holiday parties!!
Holiday Tears at the Pre-School Party
Our 1st experience at school parties was when our 2-year-old daughter excitedly comes home with her class Christmas party flyer.
Of course, there were Holiday activities and afternoon Christmas cookie decorating, carols being sung by the choir…
So, I contacted the school and room parents to see how to make this safe for Katie.
Going over all the party activities, I prepared food allergy friendly similar Christmas cookies for her to decorate, food allergy friendly pasta for the art project and gave written detailed instructions to help make sure everything went well.
Note: I had spoken to all school officials and all the room parents ahead of the party.
Katie was SUPER excited the day of the Christmas Party.
Dressed up in her adorable candy cane Christmas sweater and black “heels”, she had no inclination of how this day will end in tears.
Both her tears and mine.
And it was the moment I knew food allergies were never going to get in the way of her living a “normal” life.
Food Allergy Chaos at the Christmas Party
Katie, at only 2 years old was also prepped for the school Christmas party.
I was very thorough in reminding her not to eat any foods that we hadn’t brought in or have the hot chocolate from any other cup other than her ceramic “Katie” mug.
She happily agreed and understood. Skipping from the minivan the morning of the Holiday Party.
At the first activity, Katie was given the Ziploc bag with her safe art supplies and happily made a beautiful Angel.
A good start!
However, following the crafts was the Christmas lunch.
I had made a very similar lunch for Katie as all the other kids.
A room parent handed Katie the lunch the others were to eat.
Advocating for herself, Katie told the room parent that she couldn’t eat this lunch as it wasn’t food allergy friendly.
The room parent got frustrated, perhaps thinking Katie was being picky and told Katie that she could eat that or nothing!
So, Katie didn’t eat lunch.
Next up was decorating Christmas cookies!
Katie and I had made her peanut-free and nut-free cookies the day before.
She picked snowmen, stars and Christmas tree shapes for our sugar cookies.
At the decorating table, Katie didn’t see her food allergy friendly cookies or frosting and decorations and asked for her bag.
Again, room parent was not kind or helpful.
Katie again was confused, scared and upset. She started to cry (which Katie never did btw!).
A day she had been so looking forward to having turned into an upsetting mess.
Silent Struggles of Having Food Allergies
At pickup, I was anxious to hear all about this special day.
I knew from 1st glance that all was not well when I saw Katie, all teary and red-eyed.
Katie ran into the minivan and cried and cried.
It was hard to understand what had happened while she was sobbing.
I actually pulled the minivan into a parking lot and went into the back with Katie. Holding her tightly,
I resolved to NEVER let this happen to Katie or anyone else who also has food allergies.
Katie’s cries had awakened her baby brother, who started sucking his thumb intensely. Even my 5-month-old knew this day wasn’t good.
When Katie had settled down a little, she told me she didn’t have lunch, couldn’t decorate her cookies and that Mrs. Whit was mean to her.
These are the struggles those of us with food allergies understand.
The fear, isolation, and grief really that come with food allergy exclusion and being labelled “difficult”.
Food Allergy Turning Point
Katie had only recently been diagnosed with multiple anaphylactic food allergies, at only 15-months old.
Life threatening, death as a real possibility, Food Allergies. See our story here: Our Food Allergy Life.
Add in my daughter’s asthma & she is statistically in the Danger Zone – the people who can seriously die from inadvertently eating, touching or ingesting a single bite of food.
See, for us, peanuts are our Kryptonite.
Also, shellfish & legumes.
This was a HUGE Turning Point for me. Never again would a child with food allergies not be able to participate in school parties and activities.
So, I became the Room Parent every year after. And any other food allergy parent who wanted to volunteer was welcome!
Food Allergy Friendly Christmas: Festive Recipes Everyone Can Enjoy is put together from 23+ years of living with Food Allergies. And many Christmas & Holiday Parties!
Please adapt them for your specific food allergies!
And join us at our Private Facebook Group Food Allergy Travels and Life where we answer all your food allergy travels and life questions (not medical questions!).
We LOVE to hear YOUR Food Allergy journey, tips & recipes!
For more Food Allergy information
Grab your FREE Food Allergy Holiday Planner – we update it every year specifically to make Christmas & Holidays less stressful & more fun! Only open for a limited number of days.
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Food Allergy Friendly Christmas & Holiday Recipes
Our Top 10 Food Allergy Friendly Christmas Recipes:
- Peppermint Bark – #peanutfree #nutfree #dairyfree #soyfree #glutenfree & DELICIOUS!!!
- Brandon’s Best Holiday Brownies – easy to make, inexpensive, allergy-friendly & YUMMY
Best Holiday Brownies Food Allergy Friendly
Delicious, easy to make & free from top common food allergens. Decorate for Christmas too!Servings: 16 peopleCalories: 285kcalIngredients
- 12 TBSP Earth Balance butter substitute 1.5 sticks butter substitute/butter
- 2/3 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips dairy free/peanut free chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder allergen friendly we like Hershey's & Guittard brands
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar, packed firmly
- 2 Extra LG Eggs or 2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk Egg substitute
- 1 TSP Good Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 TSP Fine Sea Salt
- 1 cup Flour/Gluten Free Flour Better Batter Flour is great!
- 3/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
- 1 TSP Peppermint Extract
- 1 PKG Food Allergy-Friendly Candy Canes optional we love Yum Earth
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F (175C) and line 9 x 9 Baking Pan with parchment paper.
- Combine butter and 2/3 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips in a large, microwave safe bowl and microwave in 20 second increments, stirring well between each until completely melted and smooth.
- Add cocoa powder and peppermint extract, stirring well.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine both sugars and eggs (or egg substitute), whisking well until combined and lightly in color.
- Add Vanilla extract and sea salt.
- Slowly drizzle cooled melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until completely combined.
- Add flour, stirring until just combined.
- Add in 3/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips.
- Spread evenly into 9 x 9" baking pan.
- Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
- Place on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before cutting.
- Optional: After removing from oven, immediately add 1/2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips and spread evenly as frosting. Allow to cool slightly & sprinkle with crushed Food Allergy-Friendly Candy Canes. We LOVE Yum Earth brand.
Notes
For people who have Food Allergies: Be aware of baking sprays that can contain common food allergens such as peanuts/tree nuts/soy. Always start with brand new ingredients to prevent cross contamination/cross contact with food allergens. Wash hands thoroughly in soapy hot water. Before baking, text photos of all ingredients to food allergy person/parent for ok. When in doubt, don't eat something questionable. Enjoy!!
If you have Food Allergies, you can have delicious Food Allergy Friendly Holiday treats too! - Sugar Cookies – Fun to make with your kids/grandkids – can be #glutenfree too – we LOVE @SweetLorens brand – Ready in minutes!
- Top 9 Food Allergen Friendly Crumb Cake – Change apples from our Fall recipe to dried cranberries with pears.
- Chocolate Peppermint Cake/Cupcakes – we make this every Christmas & there’s never any leftover, simply add 1 tsp peppermint extract to batter & 1/2 tsp Peppermint to chocolate glaze.
- Orange Cranberry Bread
- Better Batter Flour Vanilla Holiday Cupcakes – ready in under 1 hour. Use our link to save you money.
- Allergy-Friendly Hot Chocolate – yes, #dairyfree & tastes very much like Paris’ famed Angelina hot chocolate!!
- Pumpkin Chip Bread – the #1 recipe both my kids ask for!! Also, helpful #foodallergyfriendly substitutions.
- Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Cake – change #foodallergyfriendly ice cream to peppermint, chocolate & vanilla flavors – YUM! This is super fun to make with your kids/grandkids of all ages!
From Room Parent to Purpose
From my initial days of helping to protect not only my child, but all children who have food allergies, to our company’s mission of helping others with food allergies travel the world safely has really become my passion.
The joy and confidence are contagious!
Wishing you all a wonderful & Merry Christmas & Happy Holiday’s!
Cindi Korpacz has been an early advocate and educator on Food Allergies and spoke at previous National FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) Conferences, a top Food Allergy fundraising team & has trained travel companies, colleges, & Big 10 universities on recognizing & developing their Food Allergy Action Plans & Study Abroad Programs.
Early on, Cindi was instrumental in implementing school food allergy safety protocols & advocacy.
And for Travel, Media or Educational businesses, we are happy to consult on any training or programming for food allergy accurateness/understanding.
Our company offers comprehensive training to Corporations & Educational facilities including Red Cross certification for how to use Epi-pens and satisfies most states and corporations requirements.
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