Monday 27 May 2019

The Wanderer Returns

Well hello! Long time no see, hey? Three years to be exact. Time has flown by, I’m no longer an allergy student: I’m an allergy graduate, times two!




Over the last couple of years a number of people asked me why I wasn’t writing my blog anymore. The truth is allergy stuff just wasn’t really on my mind anymore. I’d become so relaxed in handling it all I barely gave it a second thought, except when I found a new food I was excited to try. I didn’t have any desire to blog because my allergy just wasn’t taking up any head space. I was having fun, just enjoying life.

Last year that all changed. Out of nowhere I developed terrible anxiety triggered by my allergy. It really took over and I was in such a desperate place I’d never imagined my allergy could push me to. A year on I feel like it’s time to share that struggle. I want to reflect on what it was like, to admit that I don't always cope perfectly, to show people what it’s really like to live with anaphylaxis, to give other people in the same situation hope that things can get better and to remind myself on the days I do struggle of how far I’ve come.

When I first started my blog I wanted to avoid writing about fear. I found too many blogs that pushed me to feeling fearful, descriptions of anaphylactic shock and hopelessness, or people being moaney and dramatic just annoyed me. I still stick by the fact I don't want to moan and mope about having an allergy, that's not going to help anyone and there really are worse situations to be in. But I need to be real about the struggle. I wanted this blog to enourage those who were looking ahead to independent adult life with an allergy and I want to show how I've got through the bad as well as the good.  I’m hoping to do a number of posts about anxiety and anaphylaxis. I was going to just do one but it’s such a complicated and layered thing that I think it makes more sense to make a few.

Reading back over my old posts it makes me cringe a lot seeing the way I used to write, but I think it's good to continue on the same blog to see my journey over time. In another three years time I'll probably cringe over this! I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging again.

Here we go!
The Allergy Graduate xxxx

Saturday 5 March 2016

Ice creeeeeeeeeeam!

So far my blog posts have been about various issues close to my heart to do with managing my allergy. This is the main thing I want to address with this blog as I hope to encourage more allergic young people to experience an uncompromising student life. However part of managing my allergy is making sure there is good food to eat and as someone who has lived with a milk allergy all my life I feel like I’ve tested out a good few dairy free products that I want too share with others :D
I have what I like to refer to as a passion (for some reason my flatmates prefer to call it  an addiction), to a very special frozen desert. Ice-cream. I can’t even begin to explain exactly why this mouth-watering food is just so completely delectable. Ice-cream is there for me in the tough times, when I have three essays due in one week and the good times like when I discover it just sat there in the freezer.
I like to think of myself as something of a dairy free ice-cream connoisseur, I’ve tested out many and as soon as I hear about another I’m out the door and down to the supermarket quicker than you can say Knickerbocker Glory.
So you can imagine my sheer euphoria when I heard about a certain Mr Ben and Mr Jerry deciding to make dairy free ice-cream!!


Within hours I had heaps of friends tagging me in posts about the ice-cream on Facebook. Ben and Jerry’s are undoubtedly the king of ice-cream, their wacky flavours are the stuff of legend and I joined in with the rest of the dairy free internet in gawping at the stuff. At the back of my mind though I still had a nagging suspicion. As a company that create dairy ice-cream too would the milk still be present in the non dairy ice-cream factory? I was concerned that this ice-cream dream might be too good to be true…
And sadly I think I was right! I found this article by a dedicated Dairy Free blog by someone who got to go on a tour of the factory and speak to the people who make the icecream. Check the full article out here http://www.godairyfree.org/news/ben-jerrys-non-dairy-ice-cream is the quote that made my heart sink:
‘With highly sensitive milk allergies (and other food allergies) I would use caution with Ben & Jerry’s Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert. Hannah inquired on site and they do use the same equipment for both their non-dairy and dairy-based ice cream flavors. The lines do receive a very thorough and complete washout between batches, which may be enough for those who are vegan, lactose intolerant, or who have a milk allergy that isn’t overly sensitive to trace amounts of dairy.’


Cross contamination is a massive issue for anyone with a severe allergy, we all dread reading those seven words ‘Produced in a factory that handles milk’. But at the same time seeing this written on a packet does always make me feel reassured that the company understands the risk and takes it seriously. I would rather be protected by this than eat the product and have a reaction! I have tried to contact Ben and Jerry’s just to ask them if they are aware of this problem (surely they’ll lose a big percentage of people buying it who have a milk allergy?) and to ask them if they are going to put this information on the tub. I also inquired what precautions they are going to have in place in their scoop stores to prevent further cross contamination eg. Using a different icecream scooper for the non dairy icecream, not having the dairy and non dairy tubs next to each other so bits can drop in etc.. I still haven’t received a response and this was a number of weeks ago so I might just wait and see what the tubs say when they first appear in UK stores.
Looking around Ben and Jerry’s website I am massively impressed by them as a company. They strive to be an ethical company, only using Fair-trade ingredients and in their dairy ice-creams using produce from animals that have been well cared for. They listened to the cry for dairy free ice-cream and responded with 4 exciting flavours. But although their intention is good I’m concerned that they need to take more care when marketing this ice-cream. Perhaps this is why they’ve gone for the label of non-dairy rather than diary free, however it is stll massively important that they mark up the potential traces of milk clearly on the ice-cream tubs. It seems to me that they only had vegan and lactose intolerant people in mind when they created their non dairy flavours.
So what shall we do now we may not have a dairy free Ben and Jerry’s face stuffing session to look forward to?
I thought the best thing to do would be to have a celebration of all the amazing dairy free icecream that IS safe for people who are allergic to milk!!



First of all I have to start with Swedish Glace. This lovely tub was there for me when I was a little kid back when dairy food was hard to find and expensive to buy. A bowlful contains memories of sitting in my nana’s kitchen, eating it out of my frog bowl with a slab of ginger cake. It is smooth, creamy and absolutely delicious. The flavour has altered slightly over the years but it is good quality and tastes so good. I have managed to politely convice (shove it down the throat) of a number of my friends who have all liked it, one friend even told me she liked it better than dairy ice cream! It's usually about £2.45 a tub which for dairy free ice-cream is good. 


There doesn’t seem to be as big a variety of flavours these days but Swedish Glace will always hold a special place in my heart for leading the way in dairy free ice-cream.


Next up is Almond Dream, I was unsure of it at first as I’m not massively keen on Almond milk but I was drawn in by the variety of unusual flavours which I’d never had the chance to try before. Let me confirm this ice-cream definitely does not disappoint! The flavour is rich and amazing; the two I have tried so far are Mint Choc Chip which was very refreshing and Salted Caramel which is my fave! The ice-cream itself tastes gorgeous and then every now and then you hit a pocket of Caramel filled heaven. The only thing about this is it comes in quite small tubs and can be expensive, however it depends where you buy it from (At Waitrose it’s a hefty £4.50! But at Asda it’s only £2.50 and when you compare it to a fancy tub of Ben and Jerry’s it’s well worth it) From a bit of googling I've discovered this has been around for a while in America, and that they've even made some chocolate coated ice-cream bites and choc ice things before!! I may have to investigate this further...




Next on my list of tried and tasted is Booja Booja. This is something I have only ever received as a present because it’s just so expensive!! I have only tried Vanilla and Chocolate flavour which were both good, I have a fellow icecream loving friend who reviewed their ginger flavour for her blog here http://ecstaticallyem.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/booja-booja-dairy-free-ice-cream-review.html so that’s on my next birthday wishlist! Personally I would never buy Booja Booja for myself because I really don’t think its worth £6.99 for one tub! It is nice but I think the others are just as good, possibly even better for a much cheaper price. I guess it’s a lot healthier but if I’m honest being healthy is the last thing on my mind when I crave a bowlful of ice-cream! Booja Booja is lovely and unique in taste and texture but it’s just a bit too pricey for my liking.


For years I’ve dreamed of eating Cornetoo type icecream and now that dream is fulfilled! Tesco seem to have cottoned on to the fact that people eat dairy free deserts (see my previous blog post about their dairy free chocolate mousse) and they have come up with these beauties. This is good quality ice-cream, the strawberry and vanilla both taste great and the cone is filled with solid chocolate and strawberry sauce. I think I’m in love <3. I think the price on this one is great too, these are a really good treat and totally worth the price, £2.00 for four.


Finally is a new discovery. Ice-cream has always sounded like something too complicated to bother making, but then I started hearing rumours of a one ingredient ice-cream that require no hastle. The one ingredient? Frozen banana! Yep I had my suspicions too but after a day of lectures spent fantasising about all the different flavours I could add to it (Rocky road ice-cream? Bakewell tart?) I gave in and bought 2lbs of bananas from the fruit stall on Northumberland street. I chopped the banana into little bits, stuck it in a freezer bag in the freezer and the next day tipped it into my food processor. I almost held my breath as I blended it for about 60 seconds and it was only in the last 5 I realised it was actually working!! Seriously this ice-cream is phenomenal!! How did we cope as a human race before we found out you could just blend banana to make ice-cream??? HOW???! You do need a food processor but it’s a useful piece of kitchen equipment for making soups and smoothies too. I managed to get a mini food processor for just £13.50 in ALDI which is a bargain considering how much ice-cream I’ve made already with it! The first time I tried making it I used my hand blender which just couldn’t cope and almost overheated so I had to let it rest for a bit and gather its strength. Food processors are the way forward! I’ve tried a couple of flavours which I’ve posted below, and if I try any other good uns I’ll post them too. This ice-cream won’t replace the shop bought ones bus as a student this homemade ice-cream means I can afford to eat it almost every night.
So that’s it for my ice-cream ravings, I encourage you to treat yourself and work your way through this icecream bucket list. (You know you want to).
Are there any icecream loving dairy free people out there who agree/disagree with my ice-cream choices? Comment below if you’ve found any good products/recipes. There are a number of other ice-creams I’ve found that have claimed to be dairy free but when I’ve taken a closer look they’re produced in a factory with milk, so it’s always worth checking the tub even if it claims to be dairy free.
I’ll try and find out more info about the non dairy Ben and Jerry’s fiasco and will post it here when I do!
Speak soon,
The Allergy Student xxx

Ice-cream from frozen bananas

Ingredients
Bananas!
I tend to by a small bunch of bananas and just put a couple of handfuls of them when theyre chopped up into bags and use each bag as one portion when I’m peckish.
1.) Peel each banna and slice it length ways then cut it into slices.
2.) Put a couple of handfuls into each freezer bag and place in freezer, freeze overnight.
3.) Bash the bag about a bit on the work top and try and separate the slices a bit whilst they are in the bag (this makes them easier to blend if they are separate)
4.) Blend for 50-60 seconds. At first it will form what looks like breadcrumbs, keep going and all of a sudden it will form a creamy block. Once you see it doing that stop the blender and have a proper look. When its at the consistency you want eat it!!


I’ve found that the more days the banas are left in the freezer the stronger the bana flavour gets. That’s fine if you’re making bana icecream but if youre just using it as a base layer your better off sing it sooner rather than later.

Chocolate
When adding the frozen banana to the food processor drop in about a tablespoon of coco powder. The more coco powder you add the stronger the flavour will be J I once put some of this icecream into a little tub in the freezer and then when I took it out ate it with a blob of peanut buter on top *salivates onto keyboard*

Coffee
Put a teaspoon of coffee into a mug and cover it with enough boiling water so that it dissolves, you literally don’t need much at all because it’s the strong coffee flavour you want. Levae it to one side and when it has completely cooled add a few a teaspoons of it (I put in about 4) to the frozen banas then blend. Tis beautiful.


These are just my two favourite ones I’ve tried so far but I’m sure you could put just about anything sweet in and it would taste good!

PS This is the longest post I’ve posted so far and it’s just all about food! ;) #icecreamisbae



Sunday 27 December 2015

Allergy Free Christmas!


IT’S CHRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSTTTMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAS! :D
Okay so I’m a bit late but lots of exciting stuff has all been happening at once and I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write yet!  In the last few weeks of term everyone was rushing round to see each other, there were parties and carol services and now I’m home there are more people to visit, more parties and carol services and essay deadlines are creeping closer! Being at Uni is strange, when you come home in the holidays it feels like you have two different lives, but that’s kind of nice though :D
At Christmas it’s always fun to think back over past years and thinking back I’ve realized how things have changed for me allergy wise. Although my allergy has become more severe I feel like I’ve learnt to cope with it better and that every year yet more amazing dairy free food has been unveiled!
The fun started back in the first week of December when I got to open my advent calendar! When I was younger they didn’t make dairy free chocolate advent calendars but my mum got me a giant felt one with pockets which she filled with sweets (I totally didn’t peek ahead and eat my favorite ones first…). About three years ago though dairy free chocolate ones appeared and I got to have my first ‘proper’ advent calendar!! This year someone from my church gave me one as a present and so me and my flat mate opened them together to count down the days until Christmas, how festive! :D 

We decided to have a Christmas meal together as a flat :D Together we cooked roast chicken, roast potatoes, parsnips, sweet potato mash, brussel sprouts, broccoli, pigs in blankets and stuffing! There are only four of us. We still managed to eat it all :D We used all my equipment and made sure hands and surfaces were well cleaned so that there was no cross contamination. My flat mates are really understanding of my allergy and we cooked together so that I could double check everything.

 Whilst the final bits of food were cooking I decided to use the opportunity to do some epipen training with them. I have a terrible confession to make : I have been friends with these guys for almost a year and a half now and had still not shown any of them how to use an epipen! It sort of defeats the point if you carry around epipens and then don’t show any one you know how to use them. Whenever I have gone into anaphylactic shock I have become too faint and disorientated to use my epipen. Once when I was at a restaurant with my friends from Sixth Form I had an allergic reaction but none of my friends knew how to use my epipen. A waitress said that she had a younger brother with diabetes who she helped to inject his insulin and so she did the epipen for me. Unfortunately she held my epipen the wrong way up so that when she tried to stab it into my leg she actually ended up stabbing herself in the thumb! Apparently this is quite a common thing to happen! It resulted in us both being carted off to hospital in an ambulance, her to have her thumb drained of the adrenaline so that she didn’t have to have it amputated and me having medicine pumped into my vein in the ambulance because I hadn’t had my epipen and was even more ill than usual! It was horrible seeing my poor mum’s face when I arrived in A and E almost half an hour later than her, and I would have been far less ill than if one of my friends had been able to inject me correctly from the beginning.
I have an epipen trainer kit with a practice epipen in it, so that when I show people how to use an epipen they can actually have a go!
Here are the steps for how to use an epipen, in my own words:
1. Keep calm- I know it sounds obvious but panicking really is the worst thing to do! Just stay calm and follow the steps carefully. After you have used the epipen chat with the person whilst you wait for the ambulance
2. Pull out the blue cap and hold the epipen in your firmly in your fist
3. Draw a cross with your finger on the person’s thigh so that you know where to aim for on their thigh (where the points of the cross meet)
4. Stab the epipen firmly into this point on the leg and listen for a click
5. Hold it in for ten seconds and then pull it out. Massage the area for a couple of minutes.
6. Call 999, ask for an ambulance and state anaphylaxis (If there is more than one of you there then one person should call the ambulance whilst the other one injects)
Encourage the person to lie down with their legs elevated or to sit down. The ONLY place you can inject an epipen is in the thigh and you must ALWAYS call an ambulance even if they seem okay. Keep calm and keep chatty :)
I’m going to make it a goal for myself to epipen train as many people as I can this year, not just for me but for anyone else who carries an epipen :D
That was Uni Christmas; home Christmas has also involved a lot of food! When I was a little girl I remember holding hands with my dad on a walk when my family all bought ice cream and I had a Calypso and saying to him, ‘I given up on some food because I know that I’ll never be able to have it. I really want to try them but I won’t ever be able to’. If only I could back in time (Ghost of Christmas past-style) and tell seven year old me, ‘Don’t worry, the future holds Dairy Free Cornettos and Chocolate mousse!’ Here is just some of the beautiful dairy free food I’ve been able to stuff myself with this holiday- take note of the aforementioned chocolate mousse which will be accompanying me to family gatherings and the gorgeously fat Chocolate Father Christmas! (My first ever one!)
Christmas is a time when we remember that Jesus came into the world as the light to defeat the dark things. Having an allergy can feel like a very dark thing. In the past I have lived in a world of fear unable to properly take part in events because I’ve spent the whole time terrified of the feeling of my throat swelling shut. But I know that I don’t need to live this life of fear because God defeated fear when he sent his son into the world to die and rise again, he wants me to live a joyful life!
I’m heading off now to eat my hundredth dairy free mice pie and watch ‘Love Actually’:D
Speak soon,
The Allergy Student xxx

Saturday 3 October 2015

Bake it off!


Heyyy!
Its that time of year again! The leaves are turning golden, people are beginning to debate whether it is acceptable to pull out a knitted cardigan yet and Newcastle is bursting with freshers desperately seeking out Primark’s last duvet. This can only mean one thing… GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF IS BACK ON THE TELLY!!!!! :D
As you can tell I am a massive Bake Off fan, I mean who isn’t?! When the BBC thought up a programme revolving around cake, bunting, Mary Berry’s many facial expressions, Paul Hollywood’s sarcasm, and cast Mel and Sue as presenters they must have known they were on to a winner. Someone in the Beeb definitely got a promotion that day. So far this year we’ve seen some spectacular lion shaped bread, cried over the injustice of Ian winning star baker three times in a row (I mean come on, Nadia made cream soda cheesecake!) and discovered Paul’s secret love of bananas and custard. We’ve all chosen our favourites by now, (I’m Team Tamal but I also want Nadia to win??!), and yet again we’ve realised that we still haven’t got around to trying out a single Bake Off recipe ourselves.
But why am I fangirling over the show on this blog may ask? Is it that I am simply looking for more support for our favourite trainee anaesthetist? Well its because this year Bake Off took itself to a whole new level…they had a free from week!!
No joke, when they announced it on the week before I actually screamed! I was so so excited :D I was thrilled that they had included this as a speciality week not only to show the struggles that can occur when making food without a certain ingredient but also to show that it is possible to make free from food that looks and tastes spectacular. I am crazy about dairy free icecream (on a side note Tesco have made dairy free cornettos!! I amost cried :D ) so I cant wait to try out the dairy free arctic roll recipes.
As I’ve had my allergy since I was a baby my family and I have had many years to experiment with recipes, and it seems you can make pretty much anything without milk as long as you find a suitable alternative. Baking is sometimes the only option when looking for free from treats and so it’s a useful skill that I think everyone with an allergy should test out. Also as a student baking is a great way to make new friends. You’re new flatmates might think in freshers week that all they want to do is drink vodka and steal traffic cones but trust me, by the following week a slab of cake will be very much appreciated!
From a student’s point of view baking is also much cheaper than buying free from products which are often pretty expensive. For my birthday last year I had a pudding party where me and my friends just ate loads of cake, flapjack, marshmallow crispies, crumble and other baked food. As I can’t eat out in restaurants I thought it would be a fun (and cheap ;) ) alternative :D
If you’ve never baked before then you are missing out, it's honestly so much fun! I know that many people are scared to try it out but once you get started you’ll find it pretty addictive. I have seen many a good friend fall prey to procrasti-baking during exam time. Here is a recipe that I could not survive without both at home and at Uni. Its easy and very cheap to make, also its pretty hard to go wrong even if you’re like me and working with an oven which has all the temperatures rubbed off!
My recipe is pretty simple but if you want to try something a bit more Show-Stopperish check out this recipe for Dairy free caramel apple cake: http://ecstaticallyem.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/gbbo-week-5-caramel-apple-cake-dairy by my friend Emily. I can’t wait to try this one out because this girl knows her cake :D
I hope you enjoy having a crack at baking and remember: you’re not in the Bake Off tent, Mary and Paul can’t hurt you and your flapjack here.
Love from The Allergy Student xxx

Dairy Free Flapjack Recipe
·      6oz/ 170g dairy free margarine (I use Vita-Lite, but whatever floats your boat)
·      6oz / 170g caster sugar

·      2tbsp golden syrup

·      8oz/ 227g porridge oats
Extras
If you’re feeling fancy you could add dried fruit, seeds, nuts or cinnamon to the mix. I like it just as it is :)

1. Preheat the oven to 160c. Line a deep rectangular tray with baking paper.
2. Place the margarine in a pan, heat gently, stirring with a wooden spoon until it has all melted. Stir in the sugar.
3. Add the syrup, stir and then remove from the heat.
4. Stir in the oats a handful at a time.
5. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and smooth it out (wet a metal spoon and use the back of it to spread the mixture out)
6. Place in the oven on 160c, for 25 mins.
7. Remove from oven, use a knife to mark it out into whatever size pieces you want. Allow to cool and then eat it all!!!!!!!
Every time I make this it turns out a bit different depending how long its left in the oven, whether I’ve put it on a rack to cool or how much I’ve eaten whilst making it! But it always seems to taste good :D