mommydama | (no subject)

Zoe just threw a fit and sobbed for awhile because she doesn't want to go to preschool today. Oh goody. And today is the beginning of carpool so she will be asked to get out of the car and walk inside without mommy. I can hardly wait. Don't worry. I handled it correctly. She knows she's going anyway and is cheerfully eating lunch at the moment.

Okay, there is a child in both my girls classes who is allergic to nuts. They sent a note home telling us not to bring anything for snack that even MIGHT contain nuts. Each child bring their own snack and are not supposed to share or trade, but I'm guessing they just don't want to risk kids handing food containing nuts to someone who can't have it. I understand that. But do you know how many crackers and cereal bars and other such things say "may contain tree nuts" on the packaging? Since I don't want to send cheese with Luci (limiting dairy severely) and can't send anything that might have nuts in it, that really limits her snacks to fruit and veggies. Our staples of granola and cereal bars with whole grains in them (therefore, some protein) are no-nos apparently. She really needs some protein fairly often. I try to give her protein about every two to three hours to stave off meltdowns. What can I possibly give this child for protein that is a finger food, non-messy snack, that doesn't contain milk or nut products? Arg! She begged to take an oatmeal bar to snack today and some raisins. I hope it is okay. The packaging says "may contain TRACES of tree nuts". Is that too dangerous?

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The way I usually make it, I kind of make it up from what I have in the jars in my kitchen. I mix oats (NOT quick oats), sesame seeds, coarsely chopped almonds, coconut flakes, wheat bran and germ, raisins, cranberries (or any dried fruit), sunflower seeds (love these in it)...and I can't remember what else. My mom has a whole hutch full of these blue glass jars full of all this stuff, and I just dump in whatever. The oats, raisins, sesame seeds, and coconut are always in there. Then I mix it in a giant bowl with honey and vegetable oil, and bake it until it's brown and toasted. Oh, and add the fruit AFTER baking, not before.

Obviously, some of that stuff won't fly with the "no nuts", but what about the seeds? Do the seeds count as nuts?

I think blueberry bran muffins would be a great solution, maybe with some apple slices or something. Or banana. My mom used to make these "energy bars" when we were kids - super healthy bars of oats and raisins and who knows what else. I'll see if there's a recipe somewhere.

That tofu or tempeh would be totally non-messy finger food. It's pretty solid stuff. You could even slice it into little squares like cheese slices. And I forgot about hummus - my daycare kids loved it as long as it wasn't too strong. I can give you a recipe for that too - if you lessened the tahina and garlic, it's much less strong (I make STRONG, Lebanese hummus, but I don't think your girls would like it :))