Cooking Connections: Navigating Food Allergies

Birthday parties are one of the hardest things for kids with food allergies

I have written many times on this blog about my daughter Zuzu’s food allergies.  In the past seven years of living with Zuzu, I have learned many things about food and food allergies.  I have learned to shop and cook differently; I have learned how to chose safe foods in restaurants’ and I have learned to handle the many different social situations involving kids and food, from birthday parties to school lunches to playdates and Brownie meetings.  Although Zuzu’s allergies have gotten much better recently, she remains allergic to dairy, eggs — unless those ingredients are baked in a batter – nut and peanuts and we have to be very careful about what she eats.

My friends at The Motherhood, an online community for parents, are now giving me an opportunity to share some of what I have learned with other parents and I couldn’t be more excited about it.  I am going to be co-hosting an upcoming class in the Web’s first-ever virtual cooking school, Cooking Connections, and I would love for all of you to join me!  Here’s what you need to know to participate:

When: Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 1 p.m. ET

Where: TheMotherhood – here is the link to the page where the class will be held: http://www.themotherhood.com/talk/show/id/62140

And here is the registration page for all seven Cooking Connections classes: http://www.themotherhood.com/cookingconnections

What: The class I am co-hosting is called “Navigating Food Allergies,” and it is hosted by Lori Sandler, founder of Divvies Bakery and author of The Divvies Bakery Cookbook, www.divvies.com.  During the class, my co-hosts and I will share our experiences and expertise on cooking for kids, family members and friends with food allergies.  Lori will also lead us through the basics of clean preparation and understanding ingredients, and then we’ll present a food allergy-friendly recipe that looks good and tastes great – whether you have allergies or not!

The class is sponsored by ConAgra and hosted by TheMotherhood.

This class is not just for parents of kids with food allergies. This class will provide valuable information for all parents because food allergies are now so prevalent that even if your child does not have allergies, chances are that he or she has a friend or a classmate who does. We all need to become more educated about the seriousness of food allergies and also how easy it is to make delicious food that is allergy-friendly. 
My other fabulous co-hosts are:

Kelly Rudnicki, Food Allergy Mama, http://www.foodallergymama.com/
Caryn Bailey, Rockin’ Mama, http://rockinmama.net/
Christy Matte, Quirky Fusion, http://www.quirkyfusion.com/
Nirasha Jaganath, Mommy Niri, http://www.mommyniri.com/
Mary Jo Strobel, FoodAllergy.org, http://www.foodallergy.org/
Piera Jolly, Jolly Mom, http://www.jollymom.com/
Nicole Shields Smith, Allergic Child, http://allergicchild.com/
Stefany Thode, To Be Thode, http://www.tobethode.com/
Clarissa Nassar, The Posh Parent, http://www.theposhpreneur.com/
Christina McMenemy, Mommy’s Must Haves, http://amommystoryreviews.blogspot.com

I hope to see you there!