Keller Family Blog

So on Sunday evening Jaden ate his first ever Pizza.  We had bought an Orgran Pizza Crust mix several months ago. The kids were itching to make something last night for dinner instead of having leftovers so I mentioned to them that they could make a Jaden Safe Pizza.  Shay and Karlissa jumped on it.

We greased the pan with Nuttelex and sprinkled some Polenta (corn meal) on it.  Then we followed the directions to make the Pizza Crust. The kids did all of the kneading and such.  We rolled it out with a round drinking glass since we don’t have a rolling pin in Australia. Then all four helped pinch the sides, put sauce and meat on it. We used some left over roast chicken, some ham and some Green Capsicum (Green Pepper).  Wish we had had some more veggies in the house we could have put on. Of course there was no cheese put on the pizza as there is no dairy free cheese substitute that is free from Soy (at least not that we have found).

Anyway after 15 minutes in the oven Karlissa pulled out the pizza (and dropped it but we had a great save).   We carried it to the table and fed one very excited boy and an excited family.

Today we made some Allergy-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were great.  I got the recipe from: http://www.mothersclick.com/recipes/kid-favorites/madelines-dairy-free-nut-free-egg-free-chocolate-chip-cookies 
I had to substitute Nuttelex for the margarine, Darifree for the milk and used Gluten-Free and Soy Free flour and of course our favorite Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips as they are truly the only Jaden Safe Chocolate chips on the planet that we know. Too bad the 10oz bag costs $15 at our favorite local Allergy Food store.  I think I will try changing the sugar to all brown sugar.  When I do I think I will have varied the recipe enough to post it myself, right now just make those changes to the link and you will be good.

Summary: Normal Chocolate chip cookies would have had a food cost of $5 or less in America and these would have cost perhaps $8-$9. Here they cost us over $20 for the ingredients.  (Don’t know how often we will be able to afford these, but at least we had some good ones.)  I might try making them with some Australian made dark chocolate that is safe for Jaden to see if they still taste OK.

At AllergyBlock on Saturday, we bought some Jaden-safe Ice Cream cones made by Orgran.  Jaden had been asking for ice cream cones for some time and I just became aware of these a few weeks ago. The Gluten Free ones at the local grocery store still had some Soy in them. He has been asking for Jaden Safe Ice Cream every day since we got them. This Evening, 15 minutes before the oven incident below, I bought some Passion Fruit Sorbet made by Gelativo. After dinner I scooped some in his cone. He was so excited and happy. He ate it all up faster than I have ever seen him eat the Sorbet before.

I ate a cone too. They tasted as good as any other cake cone.  Wonderful.

We bought a real Christmas tree!!!  We always had an artificial tree in Florida. We were all excited.  At least until we put it in the van with the kids.  The difference of buying a tree in the winter (USA) and summer (Australia) at Christmas was underestimated by us. The little critters that would live on the tree in the USA would have either died in the cold or moved to warmer places to live for the winter. Here we had several spiders drop off in the van which caused a bit of panic. They were not that big compared to the ones that came off once we had the tree in our house.  I have a feeling that there are several more lurking in the lush beautiful tree.  We’ll see if we see big shadows once we put lights on the tree today.

Well we have one restaurant in Australia that we can all eat at:  McDonald’s Jaden can eat two things on the menu. A beef patty which has been placed in the box plain without bread and Fries also known as Hot Chips. The burger is 100% Australian beef with no Added Soy.  Jaden has not had a negative reaction to the fries though he has to the USA McDonald’s fries with their coating of Hydrogenated Soy.  Also Jaden could eat the fries at Burger King in the USA, but he can’t have the fries at their subsidiary here known as Hungry Jack’s as the sugar that coats them in Australia is derived from Wheat.

Needless to say if Crystal and the kids are out and about and need to get some food or when we are traveling we have an option to eat.  Not one that we would willing choose everytime, but it is possible.

Also the McDonald’s seem to always have a KFC near them, so for one occasion, we got Jaden’s at McD’s and everyone elses’ food at KFC.

While watching Giada on the Food Channel at my mom’s house, she mentioned sheep’s milk cheese.  I had just been pondering how Jaden will never have a Pizza because there wasn’t a cheese he could eat.  Well, perhaps this was the answer.  After a quick Google search, I found http://www.sheepdairying.com/Milk.htm which mentioned that many people allergic to cow and goat milk could safely consume sheep’s milk.  Well I found some Pecorino Romano cheese made with 100% Pure Sheeps Milk at a store in Louisville on Saturday (see post below) and we gave Jaden some about over an hour ago.

 I rubbed some on his arm at first.  His arm has shown no reaction.  If it had been Cow’s milk he would have had hives in that spot already.  Crystal came home with a watermelon and Jaden started grabbing it and some other foods and started eating.  Now his nose is running and he is coughing a little bit.  Uggh.  Was it the cheese or something else.  We will have to try again later.  I’ll report the conclusion and the progress as we test.

One hopeful thought was that Australia has a LOT of sheep so perhaps sheep’s milk cheese would be quite readily available in multiple types of cheeses.

The word from the doctor is that everything came back normal. No physical or emotonal reason is known. God is at work in our family. We’ll keep watching Shay and let you know if there is any more reason of concern.

Tiny update. I called the specialist today about her 24-hour heart monitor. The nurse on the phone said that the doctor needed to review the cardiologist’s findings before talking to us. That was this morning. Still no word now. I plan on calling again in hour or so.

Well I just got off the phone with the Doctor’s office. Shay’s echocardiogram came back normal, however the 24-hour monitor had not yet been “read”. So we are still left with some suspence. They said to try calling back tomorrow or Monday.

No Update….Well, when we called the Doctor’s office yesterday, the nurse said that the doctor was mistaken and the tests were going to take a week not 3 days.  We are to call back late next week.   Ughhh.