Summer favorites

(see full image)

A BLT made with tomatoes fresh from the garden...

Sweet tea in Mason jars...

Boiled peanuts...

Watermelon with a sprinkle of salt...


What foods (or drinks) mean summer to you?

I'm linking to Ann Kroeker's Food on Fridays, even though it's Saturday!

Chocolate heaven!

A few weeks ago, we placed our first order from Peanut Free Planet. You guessed it - it's an online store for all kinds of peanut-free products. It was KWFA "Freeling Friday" when we ordered - a portion of our purchase was donated to Kids With Food Allergies. As part of this special day, we also received coupons, samples, and a reusable tote bag with our order.

Our entire family was looking forward to "the day the truck brings the chocolate." Miss M asked about several trucks we saw while out and about - "Is that the truck with my chocolate?" Of course we couldn't wait to dig in when the chocolate (and other items) arrived!

We had our order shipped in a cooler because, until the day it arrived, the weather had been quite warm. We certainly didn't want our chocolate melted when we opened it!


Big J was very excited about the chocolate bars - and this one is huge! Also, it's delicious!

I wanted to get something special for Miss M, since she is the one that misses out on the most due to her food allergies. This chocolate unicorn fit the bill - perfectly girly, and I love that it comes tied with ribbon!

We also miss out on many granola bars, trail mixes, and cereals due to peanut/nut ingredients and potential cross-contamination. Most packs of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds that you find in grocery stores also carry a peanut/nut warning. I can't tell you how exciting it is to have two pounds of safe sunflower seeds and a huge assortment of snack-size packs of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and soy nuts on hand now. The kids nearly inhaled this bag of pumpkin seeds!
Notice the tear on the left side of the bag.... They let me taste a few - yum! I'm really looking forward to adding the sunflower seeds to salads and homemade granola bars. I just wish the pumpkin seeds came in larger packages!

This is just a portion of what we received (between our actual order and all of the samples). I'll be glad to include a list if anyone is interested in more details. We haven't yet tried everything, but so far we have enjoyed everything that we have tried.

One thing I'm really looking forward to is trying out the marshmallow fluff! The kind in the regular grocery has egg, and Miss M hasn't been cleared for eggs. Of course, now that I have it in hand, what to make? Wonder if Mom's Fantasy Fudge recipe will work... Fluffernutters? Of course, they'd be fluffer no-nutters here! A friend has a yummy apple dip that calls for cream cheese, marshmallow fluff, and caramel dip. The kids would probably eat it by the spoonful!!!

We also received several samples of peanut butter replacements. I'm planning to taste-test these with the kids and write up a post with the results. We currently use soy butter, but not the same brand that was included in the samples. We will also try sunflower seed butter and pea butter (made from, you guessed it, peas!). I'm very interested to sample the products, and I hope the kids will enjoy helping me with the tasting.

Just a little over a month to go until Miss M's next appointment with the allergist. While I'm not looking forward to the appointment - it's time for retesting for her allergies - I am looking forward to the results. I'm hopeful that we'll find out that Miss M has outgrown the egg allergy, but I don't want to get too optimistic. On the flip side, I don't want to be too pessimistic, but I do have to be realistic. The chance of outgrowing the egg allergy is pretty good. The chance of outgrowing the peanut allergy is small. Still, I hope for good news.

This post is also linked to Food on Fridays hosted by Ann Kroeker.

Taste Test ... or ... Overheard #25

Miss M and I were cooking dinner last night, and snacking while we waited for some water to boil. There was a bit of leftover guacamole in the fridge, so I pulled out a bag of chips. Immediately, Miss M asked for a chip, so I gave her one. Then I offered her one with some guacamole.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Guacamole."

"I don't want rock-e-a-mole on my chip."

"How about you try one with guacamole, and then I'll give you a plain one after that."

"OK." (tastes chip with guac)

"Do you like it?"

"Yes."

"Do you want another one?"

"Nope."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

She was so cute as she tried to say 'guacamole' - and as much as I'm tempted to try and hold on to those cute things she says, I do help her with the correct pronunciation. (The only thing that we don't work on is the way she says "Toy Story 2" - she says "Stoy Tory 2"! We've tried, and she's just not giving this up yet.) The funniest thing, though, is that we've had this same conversation - about a different food each time - for WEEKS now! Sometimes with foods that she's eaten before and truly enjoyed!

I'm linking this post to Ann Kroeker's Food on Fridays. Hop on over to read Ann's post, read others who have linked up, or to add one of your own!

Food On Fridays

Today I'm joining the Food on Fridays blog carnival over at Ann Kroeker's blog.

I'm not sharing a recipe. I'm not adding photos - at least not yet. I'm just making a list of the things I've made this week.

I packed: 11 lunches - 2 children x 5 days, plus a lunch for me on Thursday (I had lunch with Mister J on his birthday).

I baked: 6 loaves of bread - 2 pumpkin chocolate chip, 2 banana no nut, 2 sweet potato (oh, and I baked those sweet potatoes that I put into the bread); 15 chocolate cupcakes; 2 9x13 yellow cakes (did I mention that it's birthday week here?).

I mixed: 1 batch of vanilla buttercream frosting (we haven't made the frosting for the 2-layer 9x13 cake yet, but will be mixing 3 pounds of frosting).

And Big J cooked most of tonight's dinner - it was delicious!