Country Crock Review

In full disclosure I received a coupon for a free container of Country Crock, I was not compensated for this post; however, I am creating this post as part of a contest.  

Hello Foxy Friends! Guess what? I got my very first VoxBox! It was totally random, but I received some Country Crock for free! Can't pass that up.  I don't think I've had Country Crock in ages!

Hey remember when I told you I had food allergies? For those that don't know, I couldn't eat soy, corn, dairy, chicken, nuts or peanuts...I know chicken, it's a weird one. Anyways, I started doing allergy shots, I'm in month 10 of them. The Allergist had told me he thought that I wasn't truly allergic to those foods, rather I had so many environmental allergies that my body was perceiving those foods as allergen. So fast forward 10 months and just this past month I've been trying new foods! Can I tell you how good everything tastes! I have really been missing out! Anyway, enter getting this free container of Country Crock. It was meant to be! Country Crock has no dairy in it, so it was perfect for me to try it out my soy "allergy"...

Of course what did I do? I made some cookies...

I have been trying dairy here and there, and so far I get a lot of heartburn (TMI?), so I still used my special Vegan chocoloate chips. If you are in the market, these are delicious!

So onto the cookies. I used the chocolate chip recipe from the back of the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips.

Usually I use light brown sugar but we were out, who let that happen?

Next time I make these, I'm definitely going to buy the stick version of Country Crock so that I don't have to do this:

Ready to mix.

The mix did come out super watery. I'm wondering if I use the sticks if it would be less watery? But I continued on.

I figured I've already gotten this far, might as well keep going right? The cookies did come out flat, probably because they were pretty watery. So the first set in the oven I didn't use any cooking spray, and the cookies stuck to the tray a bit.

The next set I used my Silicone Baking Mat...which worked like a dream and the cookies just slide right off.

Even though they were flat, Baby Fox didn't have any problems choking it down.

So much so that he finished off the cookie before I even got a good picture.

So then I had to give him another one so I could get a picture...for you guys. I know he took one for the team and ate another cookie.

Verdict is:

Baby Fox -  said they were the best cookies ever! Imagine if I had used real chocolate chips instead of the vegan ones.

Me - I've been eating dairy free, soy free cookies for the last 8 years...these were fantastic. I did find a vegan type baking substitute that I use, that is good, but has no taste, so it sort of makes anything you're baking taste a little flat. Using the Country Crock gave it so much more flavor. Now that I can us Country Crock, game changer. It has so much more flavor and I'm looking forward to using it more and more!

Also I tried it on toast...of course I've found a toast substitute that is good, but the Country Crock is much better! Before I post the picture, I'm going to tell you that I like the ends of the loaf of bread...and I don't mind the little burnt pieces...While the picture doesn't look good, it tasted great! Nothing like eating the butt of a sour dough, yum! Anyone else? Am I the only one?

Have you tried Country Crock lately? If not you should! I know I'm going to be buying some more!

Linking up here

What Happened at My Allergy Doctor Appointment

Good morning! I told you last week that I was going to the doctors (although you can probably tell from the title this post), and today I'm going to tell you what I was doing. Of course it had to do with my allergies! I've talked about my food allergies, but never my environmental ones. I've been getting sick a LOT, every 3-4 weeks I would come down with sore throat and sinus stuff. This last round (last week) I couldn't take it any more, so I finally went to the allergy doctor again. The last time I went was back in 2007 when I was originally diagnosed with my food allergies. I needed a plan of action, cause getting sick every month was not an option.

So at this point in the post, if you don't want to see pictures of my back with a bunch of allergy dots, just push that little red x in the top right of your browser, or I guess it's the top left on a MAC? Hmmm...pretty sure that's where it is.

They told me to expect a 2-3 hour appointment, cause they were going to get me results that day. The last time I went (different doctor, different city) I had to make another appointment to get the testing done, which is silly, since you're going there because you think you have allergies, duh you want tests done. Anyway...on to the fun not so fun pictures. Mr. thought it was fascinating watching my back go crazy.

Here's your last warning, click away, if you don't want to see my back.

Here's Jonny, he was administering the test. I got 88 allergens the first go around.

First they number your back...so they know which allergen is what. They had stuff in two trays, this was the first one. All numbered up and ready to go. See the top left shoulder there? That was the control, he did that first to make sure the test would be valid, before even numbering my back.

Next comes the many, many pricks. Yes they did hurt, and he did it 88 times, I don't know if I could have done many more pricks, lucky just when I was at my breaking point he stopped.

So this is just after he finished pricking me, you cn tel some of them are already starting to react.

This is about 3-4 minutes later - See the really red stuff in the 3rd column at the top? Those are grasses.

 7-8 minutes into the test - it's getting uncomfortable, my back is so itchy it's almost numb, you know that feeling?

10-11 minutes into the test, almost can't feel it, I just want to itch!

15 minute mark - Test is done! Those big welts, yep I would say I'm allergic to grasses. The part after the grasses and and the 4th column are all food related stuff.

Sweet relief! Cortizone cream, it felt so good.

Now the ones that turned out having no reaction, they had to make sure it was a true non allergy, so they actually gave me a shot. Don't worry, they just put it under the skin, no muscle, so it wasn't too bad. Easier than the back pricks.

They only retested the environment stuff, not the pets or food.

Forgot to take a picture of the after 15 minutes on this one. 6 of them came back with a positive. Darn. So basically there are only 4 things I'm not allergic to out in the world. JOY. Can you feel the sarcasm?

So what's next? Based on the results they put me on some daily allergy medicine, that's for the skin itchiness, which I had no idea that I scratched so often, but apparently I do. They have me on a nose spray and some special eye drops for when my eyes are super itchy. They also said that I was a candidate for allergy shots. Basically you go in to get at least weekly shots of all of the allergens you're allergic to, and then slowly build up a resistance to them. You are able to go every other day, to make it go by quicker if you have the time to do so. I think I'm going to go Tuesday and Thursdays, since that's when I'll be able to get over there. The first dose of shot is a 1:10,000 dilution, and they slowly work you up to a 1:1 ratio, so depending on how often you go in to get the shots, the quicker you'll get to the 1:1. When you get there, you then only have to go once a month for the next 5 years. They said that 85% of the people are completely cured of environmental allergies at the 5 year mark. No allergies? Yes please!

They also said that some of my food allergies might be because I am so allergic to everything that my body is perceiving certain foods as an allergen. There's hope! Only time will tell. Keep your fingers crossed.

That's it, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Any of you readers out there gotten the allergy shots? What was it like each week/between the shots?

 Linking up with the girls for Tuesday Talk  and with Faith, Sarah and Heather for Mommy Moments

Food Allergies: Now What?

Part two of my food allergy saga, okay not really a saga, but sometimes it feels like a cruel punishment for something I didn't do. If you missed it, here's part 1: finding out I have food allergies.

So I've just gotten the news that I have all of these allergies, boo. The doctor then tells me, sometimes the results may say you're allergic to something but your body might not react to it at all. So she wanted me to cut everything out that I was allergic to and then in a month start adding the foods back one at a time for 3 days to see if I had a reaction. I was hopeful.

This all happened before people really jumped on the gluten free, healthy band wagon, so there were not very many options out there for me to eat. Mr. and I went to the grocery store and walked up and down every isle reading food labels. So many food labels, and EVERYTHING has something it in that I'm allergic to. Two weeks into my cutting everything out I had already lost 10 pounds, and I was continuing to lose weight. Which wasn't a bad thing, but it wasn't great, because I was doing it the wrong way, I was starving myself. The things I could eat, like fruit and veggies, just didn't have enough calories in them, I would get full and probably only consume 100 or so calories. I just needed more calories so I started eating potato chips. Like bags of potato chips and I was still losing weight.

I think that first month I lost about 20 pounds, yikes! But I made it and was going to start adding stuff back in. I missed cheese/dairy the most so I added that first. I had stomach pains, no go. I waited 3 days, and tried some soy, no go...and on down the line of foods, each time I had stomach pains and each time my tiny dream that I wasn't really allergic to something was crushed.

I had a pity party, I cried a lot that first year. I would be okay and then I would just have a break down and just want to go somewhere quick to eat. Having these food allergies has changed our lifestyle. It was hard to be out and about and then say hey, we're hungry let's stop here for some food. Nope we had to go home and eat. Every outing revolved around food, so as to not be out when a meal came around. Mostly I brought something with me to eat.

The ONLY good thing about this whole food allergy thing? Okay maybe there are two good things.

1) It keeps my weight in check, especially when I was pregnant, not binging on whatever craving I had (with Baby Fox I craved a bagel and cream cheese for 5 months, it consumed my thoughts, I wanted one so bad, so bad in fact that Mr. who doesn't care for it, ate one because I talked about it so much). It has made us eat healthier and make better food for ourselves.

2) We have found some pretty great food. Food we never would have found had I not had the food allergies. So for that we're thankful.

Next I'll fill you in on some of our favorite go to foods, I know you're dying to know.

So anyone have any questions about food allergies?

Food Allergies: Something is Wrong

When I was thinking of what I should write about today, I realized that I've only briefly mentioned my food allergies, here, here, here and here (when I say briefly I mean less than a sentence).  So today I give you part one of my food allergies, how I found out I had food allergies.

Let's begin with the most asked question I get. No I didn't have this all my life. I found out when I was about 26, so yes I do know what everything tastes like, but over the years, I have started to forget what things taste like, like cheese, and ice cream, horrible I know!

So I'll start from the beginning. When Mr. and I were dating I had no problems. I would occasionally get a stomachache after eating, but justify the reason why. I ate a donut for breakfast, I ate too much Mexican food, I'm just really full. I kept explaining away my stomach problems. I was also getting sick a lot, getting sinus infections every 6-7 weeks. It was awful!

Mr. and I got married and were in wedded food bliss for about a year and a half when the stomach issues started getting worse. I decided to keep a food diary, I wrote down everything and how I felt afterwards. We narrowed it down to dairy, cheese, ice cream my beloved food. So we thought maybe I was lactose intolerant. I started taking those Lactaid pills. It worked! ...for about a week...

Mr. and I discovered that BJ's had the BEST happy hour ever (not sure about now, since this was quite a few years ago). We were frequenting it at least once a week. Each week we would get different mini pizza's (half off), a beer and of course their famous Pizookie

yum!

Anyway, one night we met there after a particularly hard day at work and went about our usual order of 2 mini pizza's (one of them was the Southwest Pizza, and I think a BBQ chicken one) to split, beer and of course the Pizookie. We finished, I was feeling fine and we got into our cars and followed each other home. By the time we got home (about an 8 minutes drive) I was in so much pain I could barely walk. Mr. had to practically carry me upstairs to our condo. The pain was so bad, it felt like a million knives were stabbing me and then someone was twisting the knife. It was horrible, I was in so much pain that I eventually passed out and slept the rest of the night.

When I woke up feeling much better I knew I just wasn't lactose intolerant, that it had to be the cheese...little did I know. I made an appointment with an Allergist for just after the new year. I went in, she asked questions about my diet, what I ate the most of, did I eat this or that..first we took a blood test to see if anything would come up in my blood work. It turned out negative, I was disappointed, I knew something was wrong.

The next step was to do the famous "scratch test". Let me tell you it's as awful as it sounds. Especially if you are allergic to everything like I am. I had over 80 scratch test performed. And by the time she was done even putting the allergens on my back, the first ones were already starting to react. But we had to wait 20 minutes to get a full reading. My mom was with me and she was staring at my back saying, wow this is amazing, you are allergic to a lot. I told her, I know, it hurts! Around the 10 minute period the nurse came and and with wide eyes, said, I think you're allergic to his, let me wipe it off to give you some relief. They were starting to bubble. 20 painful and itchy minutes later the doctor came and "read" the results.

Want to know what it said? Come back next week, haha, just kidding. It said that I was allergic to EVERY tree, plant and grass in Southern California. Crazy right? It also said I was allergic to milk, soy, corn, peanuts, chicken and most nuts. I can eat cashews, but I just don't like them. I'll let all those allergies sink in for a second.

Think of everything that has corn syrup in it...yep all those things gone. Doing a quick search I found this site with a list of corn products and a list of potential corn products. Did you know that food labled with anything 'ose, like dextrose, sucrose can be a corn derivative? Also carmel color, ascorbic acid, sorbitol (used in gum), citric acid...those are just to name a few others. It's everywhere.

It was a hard adjustment, but I think this has gotten long enough, next time I'll go into the first few months and how I dealt with it. Let me just tell you, there was a lot of pity parties, party of one going on.

Linking up with Faith, Sarah and Heather for Mommy Moments