No Christmas Cookies

Every year since my oldest was old enough to walk, we have baked Christmas shortbread cookies and the children and I have delivered them to all of our neighbors. Some years, they were New Years cookies. But every year, there were cookies.

Last year, our neighbors were surprised that we did the cookie thing given the fact that it had been a “difficult” year for our family…what with the divorce and all. But they were all so excited to se us galloping up their walkways with our basket of cookies. Each household received a little bundle of cookies wrapped up in tissue paper with sparkly ribbons. Everyone greeted us with HUGE smiles and proclamations of undying love for their very FAVORITE cookies.

This year, for the first time, there were no Christmas cookie deliveries.
No New Years cookies either.

This year we found out that my two middle children have food allergies.
A lot of them.
Technically, since they merely cause breathing problems and skin conditions and fatigue, rather than throwing anyone in to anaphylactic shock, they are “sensitivities”, not “allergies”. Either way, though, these food “issues” have radically changed the way we eat.

Gone are the days of indiscriminant grazing, of going to the grocery store and buying whatever looks good regardless of what the label says, and of following our noses into a restaurant.
Eating now takes planning and label reading and menu adjustments.

Things on the “No Buy” list include, but are not limited to:

Dairy

Wheat

Beef and Lamb

Cane Sugar

Onions

Until I started reading labels, I did not understand exactly how restrictive this list is.
Avoiding wheat does not just mean no bread. It means, no pasta, no pizza, and no baked goods. I found wheat in soy sauce, oatmeal and even in red whips!
No dairy means that ice cream, most chocolate, cheese, and eggs are out. Whey and casein are hidden in all sorts of things, from non-dairy cheeses to taco seasoning.
And avoiding cane sugar is like trying to stay out of the sun in the desert. It’s everywhere!

The whole process of feeding my family takes a whole lot longer now. Everything, from the shopping to the preparing, takes more time.

At the grocery store, every label must be read before anything graduates from the shelf into our cart.
Ready-made foods are pretty much a thing of the past. There are gluten-free foods, and there are dairy-free foods, but there are very few gluten-free/dairy-free foods. Almost every canned soup or sauce contains onions. And, if you can find a packaged cake or cookie that has no cane sugar, I will worship the ground that you walk on.
That quick dash through the Burgerville drive-through on those nights when everyone has conflicting schedules is a thing of the past. In fact, dashing to any restaurant is a thing of the past. We need to carefully check menus to make sure that they offer foods that we can eat. If it’s an Italian restaurant, we take rice pasta and have them cook it for us, if it’s a burger place, they have to serve chicken, Chinese food should be safe, but we need to make sure that the soy sauce is wheat-free.

I’ve got it mostly figured out, though. I know where to get the flour and I know who makes the best rice bread. I’ve learned how to substitute maple syrup for cane sugar and buffalo for beef. We make our own birthday cakes and cook spaghetti sauce from scratch.
The hardest part about our new diet is learning how to visit friends. It takes planning and preparation. My children can no longer simply go on a sleepover and expect to be fed. They need to pack soy milk and cereal and rice pasta in addition to jammies and toothbrushes.
But for the most part, our food adventure has brought more good into our lives than it has taken away. With everything in our lives moving so fast, this has forced us to slow down. My daughter and I bake together a lot more than we used to – having a teenager spend more time at home rather than less, is a rare and wonderful thing. Once I got over feeling completely overwhelmed, I learned to cook with intention. More love goes in to the food I prepare, and that has to be a good thing.

There is one thing, though, that I have yet to figure out…how to make shortbread cookies without using any wheat flour, butter or cane sugar.
And so, this year, there are no cookies.

I hope the neighbors understand.