Can you believe it is almost July?!? The summer always goes too fast for us, especially since our kiddos get out of school in mid to late May and have to start back after the first week of August.
Anyway, here are the things our family has been loving during the month of June! We took a trip to Chicago, so everything on this list revolves around that. 🙂 Here’s to happy traveling, even while managing multiple food allergies!
Vegan Corn in a Cup
Unbelievably, while on the museum campus (near Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum) in Chicago, we found a food vendor with a menu that was almost completely food-allergy friendly for the allergens we need to avoid! Now, I know in most cases a street vendor would NOT be a food-allergy safe option. But before you get all bent out of shape about how I was putting my kids in danger by feeding them something from a street vendor, hear me out, okay? 🙂 This particular vendor sold fresh fruit drinks and smoothies with a few other veggie-based snacks. I spoke to them about the food allergies, asked what was in their “Vegan Corn in a Cup” snack, and they happily pulled out all the ingredients and showed them to me. The two people making the food wiped down the area and changed gloves and were careful to keep things safe. And…my oldest LOVED it! (My 5-year-old daughter is another story…she spat the corn mixture out, but it was a bit spicy, so I’ll give her some slack.) It was such a treat to find this kind of vendor just when we needed a little snack! I guess I forget that bigger cities have a lot more food options than small, Midwest towns, so finding a vegan food stand probably wasn’t so out of the ordinary. 🙂
The ingredients were so simple, we made it when we got home, too. Here’s all you need to try
Vegan Corn-in-a-Cup
Ingredients
- 2-3 ears fresh corn (cooked and cut off the cob)
- 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise (or regular mayonnaise if you don't need to avoid egg)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- chili powder (add to taste)
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the vegan mayo with the corn, adding more or less mayo depending how creamy you want it.
- Add the nutritional yeast and stir. You can adjust the "cheesiness" of the dish by changing the amount of nutritional yeast.
- Stir in the chili powder a bit at a time, until desired spiciness is reached.
Notes
*If you’re looking for some good mayo substitutes, you can read more about a few in my post, Allergy-Friendly Mayo Substitutes.
*Have no idea what nutritional yeast is? You’re not alone! Stay tuned: I’ll be releasing a post about helpful (but unusual) allergy-friendly ingredient substitutes soon.
AllergyEats app and website
So if you are not familiar, allergyeats.com is a fabulous website (and smartphone app!) that uses crowdsourcing to put together information on restaurants. Basically, users (like you and me), help the app/website rate restaurants for allergy-friendliness, share experiences, link to location and menu information, etc.
For example, when we were traveling in Chicago, I could type in our location (or let the app locate me) and it would show me restaurants nearby that had been rated by other food-allergy users. You can see the restaurant’s location on a map, view for what allergens it has been rated, link to menus and websites (if available), add your own rating, and more.
You can also search by a specific restaurant name if you’d like. Keep in mind that the app/website works by assembling people’s ratings, so the app may not list the address or have ratings for every restaurant location. In Chicago, for example, Roti Modern Mediterranean has many locations, but the site two blocks from our hotel
This was a HUGE timesaver and really was a great source of information as we were traveling. It’s a must-use app and website for food-allergy folk.
Dining Out With Food Allergies Facebook Group
I wouldn’t have looked seriously at Jason’s Deli as an option in Chicago, except that people recommended it in this super-helpful Facebook group. I mean, what deli could possibly be safe for people with food allergies? But when I posted that we were traveling to Chicago and would be near Millennium Park, within minutes I had many, many recommendations of places to check out. A few people mentioned Jason’s Deli, so I decided it must be worth a serious look. We ended up visiting a couple of the
If you or your family is traveling, I highly recommend using this Facebook group along with the AllergyEats app to help find food-allergy friendly dining. It really cut out a lot of the usual time and effort we expend trying to find places to eat when out on the road.
That’s it for us this month! If you or your family are enjoying something food-allergy friendly, please share with us in the comments!
*** DISCLAIMER: Please note that some of the items that I review or use may have been produced in a facility that manufactures other products with certain allergens. The items may also contain ingredients which cannot initially be confirmed as allergy free (such as “natural flavoring”). Ingredients and manufacturing processes could change at any time. You should always check with the manufacturer to confirm that you or your family members can have the product(s). The products that I review or list are items that we have used for my two girls (for wheat, soy, milk, egg, peanut, & tree nuts) but the products may not be the same fit for you and your family.***
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