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December 2006 Issue |
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Thank you to
For sponsoring this month's newsletter!
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Happy Holidays! |
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Thank you to all members, donors and subscribers for supporting Kids With Food Allergies. We've had another remarkable year. We continue to get emails from many parents
that are very heartwarming and reinforce that so many of us value online support for raising children with food allergies. We will continue to work hard in the new year to add more to what we offer so KFA becomes an even better place for
families.
I wish you and your families joyous holidays, and a happy and healthy new year!
Sincerely,
Lynda Mitchell
President
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Ways you can support KFA |
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Kids With Food Allergies marketplace
Our marketplace features businesses offering foods, products, and services useful to individuals with food allergies. The featured businesses support Kids With Food Allergies when they place their business banner in our marketplace.
Support Kids With Food Allergies when you shop at Amazon.com!
Amazon will contribute a percentage equal to 5-7% of the sale price to Kids With Food Allergies for any purchase you make at Amazon after clicking on one of the images on our Book Shop pages.
Kids with Food Allergies online store
Our "Please do not feed me, I have food allergies" T-shirts for children are our most popular items, but there are also sweatshirts, coffee mugs, and other logo items for gifts or family. Cafe Press now offers $5 Flat Shipping--a shipping
rate of $5 for up to 5 items for orders shipped within the US. For a limited time, Cafe Press is offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders. Order $50 or more and place your order before December 20, 2006, at 11:59 p.m. (PST) to qualify. See
the online store for additional details.
MedicAlert $5 discount
Our members and subscribers are eligible for a $5 discount for any new membership from MedicAlert. Sponsored MedicAlert membership information is also available for those unable to afford the cost. |
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Contact us |
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Project Manager:
Lynda Mitchell
Editor:
Heather Hetler
Contributing Writer:
Amy Hugon
We welcome your suggestions and comments:
Kids With Food Allergies, Inc.
73 Old Dublin Pike, Ste. 10, #163
Doylestown, PA 18901
E-mail:
Webmaster
Fax: (215) 340-7674
www.kidswithfoodallergies.org
"A World of Support"
Important notice
We will never sell, rent or trade your e-mail address to any other organization.
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Announcements |
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Holiday Fundraising Appeal
Giving and receiving in return: that is the essence of Kids With Food Allergies. KFA is online to help parents keep their children healthy, happy and safe while also helping parents feel less alone as they face the joys and challenges of
raising a child with food allergies.
Please include Kids With Food Allergies in your charitable giving plans this year. We really do need your support to keep KFA here for families and to improve what we offer. We get lots of requests asking "can you do X or can you do Y?"
Yes, we can do many things, with your help. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent of the law. Kids With Food Allergies is a U.S.-based tax-exempt charity.
Look for our annual holiday fundraising appeal by email later this week. If you'd like to donate now, you can
donate securely online or you can send a donation by postal mail to:
Kids With Food Allergies, Inc.
73 Old Dublin Pike, Ste. 10, #163
Doylestown, PA 18901
Winter issue of Support Net is now available!
We are pleased to tell you that the winter issue of Support Net is now available for Family Membership subscribers to download!
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In this issue:
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Meet 6 year old Nathan Wagner, our Rising Star and budding herpetologist
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Heather Hetler shares her views on surviving the holidays on a restricted diet for child -- and mom.
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Linda Coss shares her insights on raising well-adjusted children who happen to have food allergies
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Holiday recipes to enjoy
Winter 2007 (low bandwidth connection - dial up)
Winter 2007 (high bandwidth connection - cable or DSL)
The issue is in pdf format, which will require Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can
download it without charge if you do not already have the Reader installed on your computer.
Food Allergy Awareness Holiday Card Sale
Last call for ordering our
Kids With Food Allergies holiday cards. We will be accepting orders only until Thursday, December 14th.
Cards come in packages of 15 cards for $19 or 30 cards for $34. Prices include shipping. All proceeds go to funding our programs here at Kids With Food Allergies. Cards include a food allergy awareness message on the reverse side.
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A message from our sponsor |
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Divvies are the fun foods that taste so delicious, they're made to share. Divvies are baked and popped without peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and milk in Divvies' own dedicated facility where Divvies conducts above industry-standard testing for
cross-contamination.
Divvies bakery cookies, gourmet popcorns, scrumptious cupcakes and candies taste so delicious, even those without food allergies, including GOURMET Magazine and Disney World, love them!
Divvies make sweet gifts for friends, relatives and co-workers, and the online store makes sending and personalizing these gifts easy. Each Divvies gift comes wrapped in a specially-designed box that you'll want to keep around long after
its contents are just a sweet memory.
You can find Divvies cookies, popcorns, cupcakes, and candies online at
www.divvies.com.
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"Iron Chef" KFA Food Competition |
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Our second competition is now underway. The secret without restrictions are gluten and soy. There are 6 wonderful recipes to judge, including Roast Chicken
with Homemade Applesauce, Old Fashioned Apple Filled Cake Donuts, Apple Pakoras, Spinach Apple Salad, Apple Fried Dough, and Applesauce Gingerbread w/Caramel Apple Sauce.
There is still time to judge in this contest! Comments and votes must be submitted by December 15th. Any KFA Family Member who is not a challenger in the current battle can be a judge. Judges select one or more of the contest recipes to
try out at home, then rate each recipe. For more details on judging, please visit the
Iron Chef Food Competition Forum.
For those of you unfamiliar with our fun contest modeled after the popular Iron Chef and Iron Chef America television programs on Food Network: we've added a food allergy twist. Instead of having a secret ingredient as the theme, there is
a "battle theme" and "secret without" restrictions.
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Become a Family Membership subscriber! |
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Information. Support. Understanding. Hope.
That's what parents have gained from Kids With Food Allergies Online Community. Help us support the growing number of families raising children with food allergies: become a Family Membership subscriber if you've not already done so, or
donate to Kids With Food Allergies today.
Kids With Food Allergies is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity that relies on financial support from donors and members to sustain our growing organization.
Family Memberships are $25 per year. Family memberships include:
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Unlimited access to our popular online support forums and quality educational resources
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Use of our extensive database full of hundreds of allergen-friendly recipes
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Access to our monthly member newsletter featuring news, tips and recipe updates
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A subscription to our beautiful quarterly e-publication, Support Net, featuring news, views and supportive information for families.
Sponsored Family Memberships are available to those unable to afford the cost of a Family Membership due to financial constraints.
Donations are always welcome and are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
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Meet our volunteers |
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Megan Clarke
Meg(an) Clarke is a SoCal gal at heart, currently living out her exile in Maryland. While the weather leaves much to be desired, the proximity of allergy experts at Johns Hopkins Hospital has come to be a blessing!
Meg and husband Jared have two pink-flavored children: Aurora, 2 3/4, and Charlotte, just 4 months; plus Schrodinger (a defiant toddler in cat years) and Brer Turtle (youthful).
Rora's allergic to fourteen foods, but so long as there is pumpkin in her diet, all is right with her world. She also has eczema. She enjoys squirrels, photography, and singing her B-A-Z's.
Charlotte, not to be outdone, is also allergic to dairy and probably some other foods; she recently added eczema into the mix, but looks quite cute in her drool-repellent mittens. Her hobbies include babbling to her duck mobile, grinning
at her big sister, and taking baths.
Meg is a regular contributor to the Breastfeeding with Food Allergies forum and is responsible for the design of the nifty stars next to the usernames in the margin that give recognition to our donors. She credits KFA with her graduation
from "hardly able to operate a microwave" to "can whip up a 3-course meal using five ingredients, four of which are not native to her continent."
In her spare time, Meg is a "Google MD", webmaster, Disney geek, and Apple computer nut. |
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Active forum topics |
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Editor's note: Our forums provide a place to discuss many issues related to food allergies and your family.
Registration as an Associate Member is at no cost to you, and allows you to read the current topics and messages listed below.
Some of these topics discuss foods. Remember to always verify the safety of any products mentioned on our forums to make sure they are truly safe for your child's unique food allergy issues.
Current Active Topics in our Main Support Forum:
Why you should still read EVERY ingredient
Nisin preparation is a milk ingredient, but not one that is widely known. This post brings some clarity to the issue, and points out that some labels are still wrong.
Mislabeled item at supermarket also discusses labels that may be incomplete in allergen warnings.
Gingerbread house ideas
Do you want to make a gingerbread house this winter, but don't know how to do it without a kit? These experienced moms give tips for an allergy-friendly creation. Look for
additional ideas in this thread.
Peanut free schools?
This discussion centers around individual experiences in schools, if it is feasible, and if the idea is worth pursuing. It is found in the School Age Kids, Tweens, and Teens forum.
Looking for stories of hope
Are you looking for stories of kids who have outgrown allergies, or families who have learned to cope with serious allergies? Do you need that reminder right now? This thread is encouraging and supporting.
What to tell a child with food allergies?
A discussion on what to tell a young child, and when.
How did YOUR family do for Thanksgiving?
Share your experience, and read about others, including holiday meals and family gatherings. Get some tips for upcoming holiday celebrations as well.
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News and research |
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Our News and Research Forum is updated daily with new articles related to food and food allergies. You can read the articles, as well as join in a discussion on individual
articles. Here are some recently posted news items:
Hyperlinks to these newstories have been removed from archived copies of KFA e-news since many are no longer working at this time
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Safe Eats recipes |
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Holiday Treats
Food allergies don't eliminate homemade holiday treats! Try these recipes for holiday classics for your own enjoyment or sharing with others. For more recipes from breakfast through dessert, visit our
Safe Eats Recipe Database.
Reminder: These are recipes donated by members and have not been tested in a test kitchen. Be sure to verify the safety of all ingredients.
Easy Fudge
Recipe Created by Cristi Schwamb
Made without milk, peanut, egg, soy, tree nut, gluten, wheat, corn, fish, shellfish, and sesame
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 stick butter or margarine
2 eggs or equivalent replacement (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
crushed candy canes (optional)
Instructions
Grease 8x8" pan and set aside.
Melt chocolate chips and margarine in the microwave for approximately one minute. Separately, mix Egg Replacer mixture, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir in chocolate mixture, and pour into prepared pan. Cool.
Top with crushed candy canes.
Comments
Very easy recipe - less than 5 minutes!
Eutre made this without the eggs/egg replacer and found she needed to add about 1/4 liquid (water) to get it to be the correct consistency. Her family gives it 3 out of 4 stars!
Substitutions
Verify the ingredients of your powdered sugar as most contain cornstarch and some contain wheat starch. Omit candy canes if avoiding corn. Use dairy, egg, corn, gluten, and/or nut free ingredients as needed.
Jamie's Cut-out Cookies
Recipe Created by Jamie Dreyfus
Made without milk, peanut, egg, soy, tree nut, corn, fish, shellfish, and sesame
Ingredients
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp water
1 1/2 Tbsp oil
1/3 cup margarine
1/3 cup shortening
3 tsp arrowroot-based baking powder, divided use
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375.
Beat margarine and shortening on high for 30 seconds. Add sugar, 1 1/2 tsp arrowroot baking powder, and a dash of salt. Beat until combined, scraping bowl.
Whisk together 1 1/2 Tbsp oil, 1 1/2 Tbsp water, and remaining 1 1/2 tsp arrowroot baking powder; this works as an egg replacement. Beat in egg replacement mixture and vanilla.
Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour with wooden spoon. Divide dough in half. If necessary, cover and chill dough for up to 3 hours or until easy to handle. This is not normally necessary.
On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough at a time to desired thickness. If it is too thin, the cookies will burn; if too thick the cookies with be soggy. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes. Place cookies on ungreased cookie
sheet.
Bake for 7 to 8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Cool on a rack.
These can be frosted if desired.
Comments
This recipe uses homemade
Baking Powder which uses arrowroot starch and is corn and potato free.
If you use regular baking powder it's a 1:1.5 ratio. So, use 1 tsp instead of 1.5 tsps for a total of 2 tsp in this recipe.
Substitutions
Use dairy, egg, soy, and/or corn free ingredients as needed. If using commercial baking powder, reduce total amount to 2 tsp.
Baking Powder
Recipe created by Irene
Made without milk, peanut, egg, soy, tree nut, gluten, wheat, corn, fish, shellfish, and sesame
Ingredients
1/3 cup baking soda or potassium bicarbonate
2/3 cup cream of tartar
2/3 cup arrowroot powder
Instructions
Mix together all ingredients.
Mix well and store in an airtight container.
Comments
To use: 1 tsp of regular baking powder = 1 1/2 tsp arrowroot baking powder
New recipes accessible to Family Membership subscribers:
GF Gingerbread Cookies
Pumpkin Dream Ice Cream
Rice Milk
Annika's Corndog Bites
Banana Sweet Potato Fritters
Lamb and Rice Meatballs
Pennsylvania Dutch Potato Filling
Soyless Soy Sauce
Joey's Pumpkin Pancakes
Pumpkin Pudding
For the entire list of new recipes added this month, go to the
Recipe Database and click on "new recipes" in the left navigation menu.
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Food allergy recalls |
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Food alerts! Have you checked the
food alerts section at KFA recently?
All of the food allergy alerts from the U.S. and Canada are listed on our Web site and are also posted in the News And Research Forum. You can also find links to the U.K. and Australian alerts, as well as kosher alerts.
The following foods were recently recalled. Check our Web site for more details:
U.S. allergy recalls
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T-H Foods Crunchmaster Sesame Rice Crackers distributed to Costco (may contain undeclared milk)
Canadian allergy recalls
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Cafe Tasse brand Lait Cafe chocolate bar (undeclared almonds)
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Coop Gold brand Swiss chocolate products (undeclared almond)
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Schar brand wafers and biscotti products (undeclared almonds, peanuts and hazelnuts)
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Sch?r brand Snack - gluten free chocolate wafers with hazelnuts (may contain undeclared almond and peanut proteins)
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Swiss Delice Classique Noisettes brand Fine Milk Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts (may contain undeclared almond protein)
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Caf? Tasse Noir Pralin? chocolate bar (may contain undeclared peanut and almond protein
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Disclaimer |
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This newsletter is provided to you as a member and subscriber benefit and your use of it is in accordance with our Web site's
terms of service. Please follow the instructions at the bottom of the newsletter to unsubscribe if you no longer wish to be on our distribution list.
This newsletter is sent to all newsletter subscribers and registered members of Kids With Food Allergies.
Important notice
We will never sell, rent or trade your e-mail address to any other organization. Please see our
Privacy Policy.
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