[Christen]

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for my situation. I used to love raw nuts as a snack when eating healthy etc. Found out last holiday season that my DD age 4 has a VERY severe peanut/tree nut allergy so needless to say Mommy is living as if she has the same allergy at this point since I am her usual food preparer etc...our house is nut free. Just wondering if there were any other nut type snacks out there that I'm not aware of...I miss my mid morning snack of raw almonds! TIA!

[tommy]

Do soy nuts fall into the forbidden category? Roasted ones are pretty decent.

You can also roast garbanzo beans - take from can, drain, dry off, toss with a bit of oil & seasoning, roast till crunchy. Very very tasty

[Christen]

LOVE those but yes unfortunately they are not safe either...thanks though

[tommy]

Wow that is tough - I just googled and see that the legume family relationship is the issue. If you want both crunch and protein perhaps you could explore a high protein, more savory granola type bar - freeze and whack into bits and portion out. Savory granolas are quite the rage. Google around for granola and Melissa Clark (NY Times food writer and cookbook author of some note) - she has a passion for them. You will have to only use the seeds that are not on the allergy list of course but sunflower and the like I hope are not. Let us know how it goes. Motherhood! - we do what we have to because there is no other option when such love is involved.

[Christen]

Thanks SO much...gonna do some googling myself tonight! I also have to watch that anything I buy isn't processed on machinery that touches any peanuts/nuts...UG! Soooo worth it of course, but soooo hard when raw nuts are so yummy and such a good sub for my salt/chip addiction! Thanks again!

[Esofia]

I trust you're being careful about avoiding oils which could be from one of the danger foods? I remember a story from a guy I know with a peanut allergy, when he was a child and was taken to a Chinese restaurant. They swore blind that no nuts were going into the meal but forgot to consider the cooking oil, and apparently he just about had time to say "Mum, it's got nuts in it" before going into the reaction. As an adult, his partners have always had to give up eating nuts as well, apparently just kissing someone who's been eating nuts can set off the reaction.

It's such a common allergy that there must be useful factsheets you can get from allergy associations and the like. If you can get factsheets or leaflets, they'd also be useful to give to your family, your daughter's friends' families, and anywhere else she might be exposed to food. There are always ingredients that other people don't think to look for. I'm not allergic to nuts, but I'm lactose-intolerant, and I've had some lovely surprises when people who knew vaguely that I'm vegan left out the cheese but cooked the dish in butter (or possibly dairy margarine), and I found this out the fun way and spent the rest of the evening in the bathroom.

[Christen]

Peanut oil that is heated to a high temperature is actually safe as the protein is cooked out at the high heat...the protein in nuts is what peanut/nut people are allergic to...thanks

[Esofia]

Well, my friend collapsed in anaphylactic shock after eating Chinese food cooked in peanut oil, so I don't think I'd want to take that risk. How can you know whether the food was cooked to a high enough temperature?

[Christen]

Scary stuff and yes Chinese food is VERY dangerous for us but it is because almost all Chinese food is prepared with TONS of cashews and nuts everywhere around all the food in the kitchen...IF the peanut oil is cold pressed it is not safe either...VERY confusing I know but we just stay away from Asian cuisine due to their high useage of nuts...nothing to do with peanut oil though...sorry to hear about your friend...soooo scary!

[Esofia]

Good point - when you're eating out, you're relying on the restaurant to provide exactly what they say they're going to provide, with no added extras or cross-contamination. I have yet to find a local reliable Chinese place simply because I'm vegan, don't get on with MSG, and don't want the food swimming in oil either. It's unfortunately quite rare to find a take-away where the person you are speaking to speaks good enough English that you can be sure they really know what you're talking about, and where they truly understand what vegan means as well. I'm meeting some of my partner's family for the first time in a week at a local pub, and not only is there not a single thing that's vegan on the menu, but I gave up on the idea of asking them to adapt a salad after being diagnosed with gallstones. Never mind the dairy problem, all they need to do is slosh too much oil onto it and I could be up all night with biliary colic, which is rarely life-threatening (unless the gallstone gets stuck and prompts an infection) but is bloody agonising.

I hadn't thought that it could be the cashews floating around rather than the oil, although I do know that peanut oil is commonly used in Chinese cooking. I've also encountered a few too many restaurants, cafes or take-aways with poor kitchen hygiene. I called in Environmental Health after getting food poisoning from a local cafe, where a lot of people had reported fairly dreadful things ranging from appalling kitchen hygiene (I've met two people who used to work there) to a customer being handed a piece of mouldy cake, and they did investigate, but they can't tell me the results of the investigation, and short of the place actually killing someone, the worst they can do is impose a fine. So even if you report a place for bad kitchen practices, it's unlikely that the authorities will do anything useful about it.

[Christen]

You are right...you take a big risk letting someone prepare your food out and about...scary stuff out there!

[tommy]

Christen - what about the hulled pepitas (pumpkin seeds) the big green ones? Maybe mixed with some unsweetened dried fruit and some jerky scissored into small pieces - kind of like a nut free trail mix. Sunflower seeds in the shell provide some mouth time and activity without packing too much of a calorie punch - the hulled ones are way to easy for me to overeat.

[Christen]

If I get them organic pumpkin seeds would be fine cuz then they are not usually processed on nut equipment...your idea sounds yummy!!! THANKS!

[Munchy]

My daughter's school is peanut/tree nut free. I give her soy nuts and sunflower seeds as I've read they were okay. I hope I'm not putting other kids at risk!

[Sparkly Blonde]

I am allergic to peanuts and have had no issues. To eat Chinese food with a peanut allergy is idiotic to put it mildly. Some of my favorite products are Amys organic frozen meals and soups and sunbutter (it is like peanut butter but made with sunflower seeds and soooooo tasty). York peppermint candies are good. You could try a tablespoon of sunbutter with a piece of fruit. Has your child been tested for a pea allergy? Peanuts are not nuts but rather legumes. I am also allergic to peas but can eat any kind of tree nut.