What do you even eat?

My youngest son, Nikola, has allergies.  Life threatening food allergies.  I mean, food allergies like woah.  Often when that comes up in conversation, I start rambling like an insane person without realizing the impact it's having on someone else.  It's second nature by now, listing off the allergies: dairy, eggs, peanuts, soy, green peas, bananas...BANANAS?  Yes, bananas.  I usually try to end it with a joke about how he's a bubble boy, or allergic to life, but I don't mean it.  I just need to break the tension I created myself.  His life is amazing, his food allergies play a role in the background.  But, when I finish, I get the same response from every single person.  "What do you guys even eat?"  And then my mind wanders.  What do they picture?

Our culture is dependent on convenience foods, fast food, anything to save time and money.  And I'm not staging a revolt against those things.  We all know they're not great, they're bad for you, etc etc.  But we also know we have little time, little money, and we need food on the table.  But, most of that is off limits in our house.  (Not all of it.  My kids like chicken nuggets and hot dogs like every other kid, we just have to be a little more careful of the brands and items we buy.)  Go read an ingredient label, you'll be amazed at what you find!  Most of it is filled with dairy and soy, eggs or peanuts, even when those items seemingly have no place in the food item.  It's off limits because of what's in it, but that doesn't mean flavor is, and it doesn't mean that we spend hours doing what we do, because don't have any more time than anyone else.  We do flavor, we do style, we do fun.  Food is important in our family.  So when someone asks "What do you even eat?" my instinct is to say "Let me show you!  Come to dinner!"

So, with that being said, please consider yourself invited to breakfast, lunch and dinner in our home.  What do we even eat?  I want you to know.  I want you to know that if food allergies ever touch your life, you don't need to be scared.  You don't need to feel like you're doing without.  You aren't!  You don't have to!  Sure, I love cheese, and it makes my ooey gooey cheesy heart ache that my son can't know it, but that isn't really so bad in the scheme of things!  Aside from the whole epi-pen, life-threatening part of it all, it's been a blessing.  It's forced me out of my convenience food comfort zone.  And I hope that it can now be a blessing to you!  My husband is a chef, and the meals we create are big on flavor, big on beauty, and easy to substitute in or out ingredients. 

This blog will have all kinds of content.  Food, crafts, home remedies, homeschool ideas, words.  Kind of like I just gave myself a variety show!  But if you're interested in the recipes, restaurant review and general food (or food allergy) talk, please follow the tag Nikola Test Kitchen.  (And all of you big nerdy geeks like me, you're laughing right now.  I like you.  Our boy is named after Nikola Tesla, so we will accept our honorary mention for the nerd hall of fame right now.  Or later.  Because nerd will happen again.  And again.  And again.  Sorry not sorry.)