Embracing the Milk Allergy

Athena is now more than 4 1/2 years old and it seems that she will never grow out of this milk allergy. It hasn't been that hard to accommodate her allergy, but I either have to find a substitute for milk products, go without certain food items, or make her a separate meal. So often she is denied food that the rest of us are eating because it is made with milk.

Kendra and I have continued the tradition of making candy Easter eggs every year. We all love them, but they are made with sweetened condensed milk, so Athena has always been denied the opportunity to enjoy one of these sugary confections. This year I finally had a mental breakthrough and decided to find a recipe for sweetened condensed SOY milk. Thank goodness for the internet, I found quite a few recipes and decided to give one a whirl. The next challenge was finding powdered soy milk, and after being on hold for several minutes with various stores in Tucson I finally found some at Sunflower market.

The soy eggs turned out pretty well, and in a semi-blind taste test were found to be slightly different from the eggs made with regular sweetened condensed milk, and perhaps a little better. All the eggs turned out a little different than usual because we used Athena's soy margarine, rather than Blue Bonnet. But they were all pretty tasty.

Tonight I made beef stroganof with all sorts of substitute products so Athena could eat it. I substituted ground chicken for the ground beef (less fattening), fresh mushrooms for canned (just what I had on hand), soy cream of mushroom soup (not condensed, but it was still okay), and soy sour cream. It turned out pretty good, considering all the substitutes. Athena however would not eat it. She doesn't like mushrooms, and was not willing to look past them. At least I should get good parenting karma for trying to make a meal that she could eat.