Allergen-Free Easter

Prior to Easter--about two months prior--I started getting emails and newsletters about how to have a safe, allergen-free Easter. I've been so busy this spring that I just skimmed over them and tucked away some of the information for later.

That "later" was today. Our low-key, family-oriented Easter kind of came together at the last minute, but it was so lovely.

Our morning started with Chloe-safe pumpkin muffins and bacon. Andrew ate three muffins, Chloe ate two, and I had three, I think, I'm not sure, they were so good. More on baking in a later post.

For our Easter dinner, Daniel pulled out a roast from the freezer, from our 1/2 cow that we bought last October from a rancher in the area where I teach. Then he decided we should use up as many of our potatoes as we could herbing and roasting them. I emptied the vegetable drawer and cut up the veggies to roast--one eggplant, three green peppers, and four zucchini. All were drizzled in olive oil and seasoned with Italian herbs--nothing complicated.

Yesterday, I went to get Easter things. One of the suggestions for how to have an allergen-free Easter was to not get candy but to get eggs filled with small toys, which I did, and safe candy, which I did. Even though Chloe is too little to eat jelly beans because of the fact that she has exactly three molars, two on the bottom, and ones that are just cutting through on the top, I still made sure the jelly beans I got were not processed on shared equipment as milky, peanutty candies, or even in the same facility (Starburst jelly beans fit the bill). I did pick up several packages of peeps, which according to the newsletters are completely safe, being pure sugar. Chloe, who hardly ever gets candy, got a sugar high just from ingesting several bites, a glazed look in her big blue eyes. "Peet! Peet!" she said, pink sugar coating her grinning mouth.

I also played Easter bunny and got little things to put in Easter baskets: sweaters for my husband and nephew, a book for Andrew, and Aveeno lotion for Chloe.

I didn't really miss the chocolate, until now, as a matter of fact, since I brought it up. Darn it.

We did color a few hard-boiled eggs. My husband and Andrew did that while Chloe looked on, the eggs safely at a distance. She is still too little to want to do things others are doing but that are unsafe for her, or have things others are having that are not safe. As long as she's entertained and fed (maybe in reverse order there) she's happy. She played with the cardboard cutouts from the coloring kit box while the dying was going on.

After the egg-dying, I brought out two dishes of jello I'd made earlier, the peeps and the jelly beans, and said, we are going to make little scenes. Andrew was all over that. He covered the red jello with bunny peeps, while I arranged bird peeps with jelly bean eggs in the green jello, and surrounded them with julienned apple nests.

Over dinner and some Pinot Noir, I surveyed the table with satisfaction. I remember many such meals--roasted meat, potatoes, and veggies-- before Chloe was even a twinkle in her daddy's eyes, and here we were, repeating the meal years later, now with an underlying element of necessity. The lack of heavy chocolate, malted and nutted candies somehow made the feast lighter, more elegant. (Peeps are elegant, come on.)

I know I keep going on about completely allergen-free meals, which seem like overkill for a one-and-a-half-year-old. I'm sufficiently aware of Chloe's needs to know what she can and can't have, and I routinely put together three different suppers on nights the kids and I get home from school. But I have an innate sense of fairness, probably too strong, that tells me that everyone around our table is important, and that it is important to make sure the food is safe for everyone. I've blogged previously about the roasted suppers I love so much, and this was no exception, and so it makes me feel great to know we're creating delicious, balanced and safe meals without depriving anyone.

Ok, well, Andrew didn't get his jelly sandwich, and was forced to eat beef roast and herbed potatoes and apple, but he survived.

I know it would be completely possible for us all to be eating lasagna and to give Chloe some nitrate-free ham, peaches, and a muffin. But it really does offend my sense of fairness and equity for one person out of the family to have something different while the rest of us eat the "real" supper. I'd rather everyone be able to eat the same thing, especially at important occasions.

At our pre-supper prayer, with all of us holding hands (a routine when we are together, I might add) I acknowledged how lucky we are to have these blessings, all this lovely food. I hope, no matter what is in store for Chloe, and for all of us, we can always feel blessed with abundant, high-quality and delicious food.

Happy Easter, everyone.