Preparing for our trip to Europe...

We are getting ready for our annual trip to Europe. This means that I called the airline to make sure:-

• Vegan meals are ordered for the girls
• Lactose-free meal is ordered for the girls (I will actually give my meal to the girls if it seems OK)
• Getting the doctors note to bring liquid on the plane
• Buying enough bread (our girls LOVE bread), snacks for the plane rides and the lay-over in Frankfurt
• Getting toys, crayons etc. for the trip...

I also spoke with a friend of mine in Germany who will make sure that the food at the hotel in Berlin will be OK for the girls.

Going overseas for us is clearly an advantage as I at least speak German. The European Galactosemia Association publishes lists in various languages which can be taken along if you plan to travel and do not speak the language. Here is the link to the "Diet-Passports"...http://www.galactosaemia.com/diet-passport/index.html

Happy Travels to all of you!

Trader Joe's

Have you shopped, or do you shop at Trader Joe's? I shop there off and on. Yesterday was an "on" day. So many great food finds...

• Frozen Pizza without cheese and it is so good that the girls almost eat the entire pizza themselves :) ,
• we are all big snackers I just bought "Organic Multiseed Cracker Sticks"...they are yummy
• our emergency food for the kids "Breaded Chickenless Nuggets" NOTE: only the chickenless nuggets are OK
• Vanilla Soymilk
• Ricemilk
• We also got their soy yogurt for the first time and both girls love it

There are obviously a lot more choices which are "safe" and without any milk sugar

Tings...if you ever miss Cheetos

So sometimes there is are snacks in our house...one our children love are Tings. They look like Cheetos (minus the orange), taste a little like them, and are truly a really fun "safe" snack for them. More info under http://www.robscape.com/files/prod-tings.php Happy snacking everyone :)

Bring enough bread...we just learned :)

We are spending a long weekend in Government Camp. I prepared by bringing along the usual things such as bread, soy milk, earth balance, etc. Unfortunately however we did not bring enough bread. Seems like no big deal as there are a couple of small stores in Government Camp. What I did not expect was that ALL of the breads offered for sale contain either whey, dry milk, etc. WOW...I did see hot dog buns that are safe. But hot dog buns for breakfast? No, not an option...it is not a big deal as there were a couple of slices left for the girls but we definitively learned our lesson to always, always bring enough bread along on trips.

Fubonn Asian Food Market

We just went to Fubonn Asia Food Market on SE 82nd Ave. in Portland. It is such a great place. We found so much fun foods the girls can eat and all without any dairy. Well of course there are still foods with milk sugar, but there are a ton of fun foods which do not have any milk sugar...For more info about Fubonn Asian Food Market check it out at http://www.fubonn.com/index.php

Dare I say Fast Food...

Sometimes there is no way around it and let's be honest the kids love it. Both of our girls love an occasional hamburger and fries. Good thing we have Burgerville. The girls are so happy with their kids meal, the toy and Burgerville now even offers seasonal lemonades without any milk in them. The hamburgers are fine, so are the fries and a bunch of other items they offer. We really like Burgerville because their food is sustainable, and they are a local chain. I have contacted the administrative office numerous times before and they are always so helpful. They are really great. The breakdown on allergens and ingredients can be found online at

http://www.burgerville.com/Static/Files/Allergy_Table_Web_v2.pdf and also
http://www.burgerville.com/uploadedFiles/Our_Food_-_Special_Dietary_Needs/Ingredients_Information_08.pdf

Burgerville of course is not the only option, we just choose it for the occasional fast food "need" :) Other options I have looked into are

• McDonalds Hamburgers are also OK - here is the link to their allergen page http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.categories.ingredients.index.html
• Wendy's is also OK - here is the link http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf
• Burger King is also OK - http://www.bk.com/#menu=3,2,-1 this site let's you sort according to allergen which is a very nice feature
• Subway also offers a bunch of different options that are OK http://subway.com/subwayroot/MenuNutrition/Nutrition/pdf/AllergenChart.pdf

Out for Breakfast...

We took a day trip to the beach yesterday and before leaving town went out for a quick bite. A bakery was what we wanted so we went to Sweet Pea Bakery in South East Portland. We LOVE that place. All vegan and I swear you do not taste the difference. Cup cakes, cookies, doughnuts, beautiful cakes by the slice, even sandwiches...it is fantastic. We each had bagels with cream cheese. They offer plain or scallion/"bacon". Personally I love the scallion/"bacon" one. The best part so is that you never ever have to worry about milk being in any of their products. They also have soy, rice, almond, and hemp milk.

Oh, and if you have a party coming up Sweet Pea also makes cakes to order. Sheet cakes, cup cakes, cheese cake...you name it. We LOVE this place it....

To get the location of Sweet Pea go to http://www.sweetpeabaking.com/

Pizza...

Which kid does not love Pizza. Pizza a food I originally thought not possible for our kids. What ?on earth was I thinking?

Last week after camping we all felt like Pizza. The girls were in tub, the pizza delivery person rang the doorbell and both girls screamed with excitement "PIIIIIZZAAAAAA". Is there anything better than hearing your kids happy and excited?

This time we ordered from Oasis Pizza on Hawthorne. Sausage, onion, roasted red peppers and NO cheese. As usual it was fantastic, the girls ate a ton and truth be said you can really taste all the ingredients much better without the cheese :)

We like Pizza from any of these places - of course always order without cheese :)

• Oasis Pizza http://www.pizzaoasis.com/
• Hot Lips Pizza http://www.hotlipspizza.com/
• Its a Beautiful Pizza http://www.beautifulpizza.com/ there you can order your pizza with vegan cheese. A nice option every so often...
• Pizzicato they also have locations outside of Oregon http://www.pizzicatopizza.com/