Allergy Friendly 3 Layer Strawberry Shortcake 

Halloween has just passed and I have to say overall I had a great time. I mean, halloween is so much fun. You get to dress up however you want, participate in fun activities, go to parties, trick or treat and eat loads of candy. Sounds like a great time, right? It is a great time but there are things I have to worry about that people might not know. Ever since I can remember, my halloween consists of trick or treating but knowing I can never eat the candy that’s in my bag. Going to parties and knowing, I can’t eat any of the goodies there. Excited to participate in fun school activities but then realizing I can’t be included because they usually involve some sort of food. And even if I can participate, the reward or prize for winning is usually candy and it’s always candy I can’t have. The reason for this is because I have a life threatening allergy to dairy. If I eat or come in contact with any food that has dairy in it or has touched dairy, I will go into anaphylaxis and will need to go to the hospital. Anaphylaxis can be fatal. As I get older, it sometimes becomes more difficult and frustrating to deal with my allergy and so I really want to know, when did food become the center of all fun things? Like birthday parties, they are so much fun except the part where we have pizza and cake, two foods I can’t have. When I was little, I couldn’t wait to be handed that goody bag only to find out that it was filled with candy. My little self was always disappointed. Holidays. I truly love the holidays. So fun, spending time with friends and family. Lots of traditions and themed activities. All things I love! Once halloween comes along, I feel like it’s a day after day, month after month journey of FOOD. The only way I can describe it to people who don’t have a life threatening food allergy is this. Imagine watching that movie. You know that type of movie I’m talking about? The psychological thrillers that keep you at the edge of your seat. You totally love it, you are convinced you have figured out how it’s going to end and then…. PLOT TWIST. That’s my life in a nutshell. Being excited for a party, having loads of fun and then surprise, the pizza and ice cream have arrived. Ugh, plot twist. Then the questions come. Why aren’t you eating? Are you ok? Don’t you like anything here? Aren’t you hungry? Should I get something else for you? Oh you have a dairy allergy? I understand, I’m lactose intolerant too. Don’t worry, these cupcakes are gluten free. I just want to say, I’m ok, I’m fine. No, I’m not hungry because I ate before I came. No you can’t get anything special for me because even your best intentions are not safe for me. I am not lactose intolerant. I have an allergy to milk and it’s a medical condition. And it’s so great that the cupcakes are gluten free but I am not allergic to gluten. I have to say it in the politest way I can because I truly appreciate how much my friends and family care about me. I would never want to come across as rude or ungrateful especially to people who care about me and love me. I come from an Italian family who love food and show their love by cooking and baking for others. And I love food too! It just has to be dairy free. It has to be made with clean hands and safe utensils, in a sanitized kitchen where there is no dairy at all and no risk for cross contact with dairy. I know that’s a lot to ask and I would never expect it from anyone so I guess for now, I continue to carry my own food along, have loads of fun, enjoy being with my friends and family and live my best life until maybe one day, food is no longer the center of all fun things.

Free from….. Gluten, Dairy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish I really love Fall, especially because I get to bake these delicious Apple Cider Cupcakes. They are so easy to make and taste so yummy. Ingredients: Cupcakes 1 ½ cups GF all purpose flour (I use Hungry Harry’s) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 cup brown sugar (packed) 1 cup apple cider ½ cup dairy free butter (I use Earth Balance Baking Sticks) 2 eggs 2 teaspoons cinnamon ¼ teaspoon apple pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice) ½ teaspoon sea salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Frosting 1 cup dairy free butter 4 cups powdered sugar 2 tablespoons apple cider 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Directions/Steps: Cupcakes: Preheat oven 350˚F Cream together sugar and butter Add eggs and vanilla In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients Add dry ingredients and alternate apple cider to butter/sugar mix Bake for 12-15 minutes Cool before frosting Frosting: Mix powdered sugar and butter Add apple cider Add vanilla and cinnamon Mix until you get the consistency of frosting

My name is Shae. I have a life threatening allergy to dairy and I have had several anaphylactic reactions. When people ask me how long I have been an advocate for food allergies, I seem to always give the same answer, “a few months” but I guess that’s not entirely true. I guess the truth is, I’ve been an advocate my entire life, but I just didn’t know it. My family has been fighting for food allergy awareness and a cure for food allergies as far back as I can remember. It’s always been a big part of my life so I never really felt like it was an option not to advocate. I would love to say that I first understood advocacy when I started school but I didn’t. However, I do remember my mom volunteering to be a room mom so that she could ensure that classroom parties were safe for me. I remember my dad doing a few presentations about food allergies for parents at my school’s PTA meetings. I also remember when my parents took me to my first Walk for Food Allergies. I was only 3 years old at the time and don’t have a ton of memories from that day but I do remember my parents telling me that every family there was just like us and it felt really great to meet other kids who are just like me. We continued to attend our local Walk for food allergies for a few more years. My parents even volunteered to help with the event. I even remember a newspaper reporter who came to interview some of the families who were involved in the planning for the food allergy event. To see myself in the newspaper was really cool. I have a lot of great memories throughout my life of my family working hard to make everyone and anyone aware of food allergies. I’ve come to realize that advocacy comes in all forms. You may be advocating even when you don’t know you are doing it. If you are explaining your allergy to staff at a restaurant; you are an advocate. If you are explaining your food allergy to your classmates; you are an advocate. Advocacy comes in all shapes and sizes. I think the first time I really considered myself as an advocate is when I attended the FARE Conference in 2019. I was in awe of all the families there and how they all seemed to share the same experiences with food allergies as my family has. I loved attending all the workshops and feeling a sense of camaraderie with other teens just like me. I was always the only kid in my class with a food allergy so meeting people like me, with food allergies, was life changing. Shortly after the conference, I began preparing for my middle school’s science fair. I decided to do my science fair project on the importance of hand washing and avoiding cross contact with food allergies. The school is K-8 and I had so much fun conducting my experiment with each class by using glitter on one person’s hand and then having them shake hands with others and seeing how far food allergens can spread. It was truly eye opening to see how many kids did not know how to wash their hands properly. I was also surprised at how little the judges knew about food allergies but how interested they were in learning about it. I earned first place for my science fair project and an award at the State of Connecticut Science Fair. After the science fair, I received an email about FARE’s TAG program. Little did I know that joining TAG would be the beginning of an amazing journey as a food allergy advocate. Last summer, I was given the opportunity to write a blog post for the FARE website about Back to School with food allergies. It was such a great experience and it was so well received by my school and social media. My local newspaper even published an article about it. From there I built my website/blog about my experiences with food allergies. I then started an Instagram account dedicated to food allergies. I am so incredibly grateful for the connections I have made since then. I have met so many families who I admire for their amazing work. I’ve also been given so many opportunities to write blogs for other advocate’s pages and to share my story. I’ve met incredibly brave people from all over the United States, Canada, UK and beyond who work tirelessly to tell their stories and to raise food allergy awareness. I am so thankful for the MANY organizations that were created to help spread important information about food allergies, especially the families who used their tragic experiences to help others. I hope others realize whether it's blogging, attending food allergy walks, or even talking with friends, parents or schools, advocacy comes in all forms. The important part is doing what makes you feel comfortable. I hope to continue on my journey to raise food allergy awareness and one day see a cure. Thanks to @justallergythings for the opportunity to share my story.

What a difference a year can make! June 30, one year ago to this day, I was in a very different situation than I am now. Everyone knows that saying, “things happen for a reason.” A part of me feels like most people say this quote as a comfort mechanism when bad things happen but I have a story where this truly happened. Something that I thought was so terrible, did happen for a reason and I am thankful to be able to realize it. I have a life threatening allergy to dairy. A few years ago I was really struggling. I have had multiple anaphylactic reactions that landed me in the ER. Most of my reactions were because of mistakes made by restaurants, so going out for dinner had come to a screeching halt. I was having a lot of anxiety about food. Even food that I had eaten safely my entire life scared me. I began to doubt myself when reading labels. Even though I could read the ingredients in plain English and I saw with my own eyes that there was no dairy in the food I was about to eat, I was still scared. The icing on the cake was when I was in a situation where a kid that I barely knew thought it would be a “great idea” to throw food at me. To most reading this, I know you are thinking “who cares, just throw food back at him” but in my case he knew how allergic I am to the food he was throwing and he acted like it was one big joke. I was in a bad place when it came to my food allergy. Something had to be done. My mom came across an article about food allergy service dogs. It’s pretty simple, dogs have an incredible sense of smell. They can be trained to find many things. An example is a police canine who is trained to find drugs or bombs using their sense of smell. Dogs can also be trained to find a specific food allergen. After doing LOTS of research, we found an amazing company across the country who trains these types of dogs. When we spoke to the trainer we were told right away that the training is a lengthy process and it is quite expensive. We were also told that despite how smart or trained a dog can be, there are still many factors that can go wrong and the dog can be disqualified as a service dog at any point. That is the main reason why all training is done before we even meet the dog to avoid any attachment just in case it didn’t work out. As a family, we decided that it was worth it and we would find a way to make it happen and we did! After 2 years, my dog was trained and I was ready to meet her and start my training on how to be a service dog handler. Initially, we were set to fly across the country to start the process and bring my dog home but COVID ruined those plans and we were delayed even longer. As flying began to get a bit better, the trainer agreed to fly to us and begin the training at my house. It was so exciting and I had waited for what felt like an eternity to meet my dog. What I haven’t mentioned yet is during those 2 years of waiting, things started to get better for me when it came to my food allergy. I hadn’t had any major reactions, restaurants were now closed because of COVID which gave me the opportunity to really learn how to cook for myself and I realized that I love to cook! I began to practice more and more with new ingredients and I became more confident about eating food. What I also didn’t mention yet is that incident that happened with bullying, taught me how to advocate for myself and in turn, I became a stronger, more confident person. Fast forward to June 30 2020, the big day! My dog was finally here! All training had gone extremely well and the most remarkable dog walked through my door. My “safety blanket” was here and I was so excited! All was well except for one problem. Despite the dog being 100% socialized and as part of the training, had been put in many situations with many types of people and animals and passed with flying colors, the service dog and our family dog did not like each other. I’m not talking about a few growls here and there, I’m talking about full on dog fights. To make a long story short. The service dog was disqualified and after only a short 18 hours, the dog was back on the plane and my journey of having a service dog was over. I was devastated. I thought about all the waiting and all the excitement and I really believed this dog would be the answer to helping with my food anxiety. I had more faith in a dog than I did in myself. After the initial shock was over, life went on. During this last year, I was lucky enough to be in school full time and did not have to do any zoom classes. My last year of middle school was so much fun. I am so excited to start high school. I can already tell how much I am going to love it. Something else happened this past year. I began to explore writing more. I began using social media as a platform for helping myself and more importantly helping others who have food allergies. I have met many new friends from all over the country and all over the world who have had the same experiences with food allergies as I have. I was also given the opportunity to write for this amazing blog The Daily Feels with so many amazing bloggers and I get to share all of my stories with others. What a difference a year makes. As I look back at where I was a year ago, so sad that it didn’t work out with my service dog and questioning how this could happen to me, I now see the reason why. Although service dogs are amazing and they do amazing work for people who need them, I now know in my heart that it wasn’t meant to be for me. I needed to go through all my struggles to learn how to be a stronger person. Most of all, I learned that everything happened exactly the way it should have and I am so thankful for that.

Chocolate Chip Macarons Ingredients: For Macarons 68 grams almond flour 118 grams powdered sugar 1 ½ tsp cocoa powder 2 egg whites (room temp) ¼ cup granulated sugar Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips For Buttercream ½ cup Earth Balance butter 1 ½ cups powdered sugar ¼ cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons Silk almond milk Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips Instructions: In a food processor, blend almond flour, powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Then sift into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat egg white until frothy. Add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold dry ingredients into egg whites mixture. Put batter into pastry bag and pipe cookies onto a baking sheet (you can lookup macaron templates to keep cookies uniform) Be sure to use a toothpick to remove any air bubbles.Sprinkle chocolate chips Let cookies rest for 30 min. Preheat oven 300° F Bake for 12-15 min. Mix ingredients for buttercream. Once cookies are cooled, pipe buttercream

It was my birthday last week. I am officially 14 years old and I have to say, it was a pretty amazing birthday. Things that were amazing about my birthday: 1. Of course #1 on my list is I am grateful that my family and friends are all healthy and were able to share in celebrating my birthday with me. 2. I got my hair highlighted for the first time ever and I love it! 3. My friend came over for a sleepover and we had loads of fun. 4. My parents reserved a Private Watch Party at my local movie theater! 5. We got to watch a movie of my choice, eat tons of candy, and talk as loud as we wanted since we were the only ones in the theater. 6. MY CAKE WAS AMAZING! It was ordered from my favorite gluten free & dairy free bakery and it truly was a work of art. Of course it was delicious too! As you can tell, birthdays are a big deal in my family. Even my dog gets a pretty special birthday. Even though each and every one of my 14 birthdays have been unbelievably special, I can’t help but feel that each of my birthdays have never been truly carefree. Having a life threatening food allergy to dairy makes everything difficult, including birthdays. It always starts the same way, trying to find something fun to do or somewhere fun to go that doesn’t involve food. You are probably thinking, there are lots of things to do for birthdays that don’t involve food. Is that really true though? Let’s go back to that amazing list. I got my hair highlighted for the first time. Very exciting, but for me, I have to be concerned about what is in the hair products. Yes, milk is a common ingredient in many beauty products and it’s not always easy to decipher whether it’s safe for me or whether I am going to end up in the hospital. Sleepovers are not always easy. There’s A LOT of planning and prep work involved. Most can just go last minute. Since we are talking about my birthday, my sleepover didn’t involve as much planning because I was staying home but I still needed to prepare for it. My mom took me to the store a few days before so I could pick out some candy for the evening. I can only eat certain types of candy and I always worry that my friends won’t like what I buy. I get stressed about picking out the right candy and new candy is really scary for me. This time of year, all the Easter candy is out. If you can believe it, I have to worry about holiday versions of candy I have eaten safely a million times because sometimes they are made with different ingredients or they are made in a different facility that contains my allergen. So if I want to try new candy, I always have to call the company first to make sure it is safe for me. A lot of work just for picking out some candy. Thankfully all the candy I picked out was safe and it all worked out. Having the entire movie theater to ourselves was so much fun but not until I felt comfortable enough to enjoy it. Most of you buy your tickets, find a seat, and “enjoy the show.” For me, it’s a little different. Every time I walk into a movie theater, I am hit with the scent of buttered popcorn. I know most people love that smell but I don’t. It actually makes me nauseous and it takes a while before my belly settles down. Then, I wipe down my entire chair, tray, and cup holder while my mom pulls old popcorn out from the cushions. As you can imagine, that part is not fun…. NOT AT ALL. Once that part was taken care of, I had a blast and I can’t wait to do it again. I am grateful to have a few allergy friendly bakeries in my area. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the treats my mom has baked for me over the years, but it is so nice to have a birthday cake that came from a bakery. It’s even better that it is a bakery that specializes in food allergies. I am not telling you this to feel sorry for me. I don’t feel sorry for myself at all. I know I am very lucky and blessed. I guess the point I am trying to make is that we never know what someone is dealing with in any situation and simple acts of kindness go a very long way. For many of you, you get to go to “amazing” right away. For me, it’s different. I have to pass “safe” before I can get to “amazing”. So if you see someone who may be a little quiet or anxious in an otherwise “amazing” situation, it’s probably because they have to get past “safe” before they can get to “amazing.” I am very lucky to have such a supportive family and amazing friends who make sure that all my birthdays are special. I have so many wonderful memories because the people in my life took the time to care about me, my feelings, and my safety. When there are embarrassing and lonely moments in life, the people we love are there to help replace those moments with love and happiness and those are the moments to remember.

Hi my name is Shae and I am 13 years old. I was diagnosed with a milk allergy when I was a baby. Since then, I have had several anaphylactic reactions and have spent many hours in the emergency room. My family and I work hard to advocate, educate and raise awareness about food allergies. I have a website nowheyshae.com and instagram @shaeallergy_07 dedicated to raising awareness about food allergies. Thanks so much to @foodallergyyouth for giving me the opportunity to share my story. Eating at restaurants can definitely be a challenge for people with food allergies. For me, it’s been quite a challenge since the majority of my reactions have been due to mistakes made at restaurants. When I was younger, I was more confident going to restaurants with my family because my parents were the ones advocating for me. When I was 3 years old, I had a bad experience at a restaurant. We had made it through the meal safely and it was time to order dessert. My mom had asked the server if there was any type of ice cream that did not have dairy in it. We were advised that the sherbert was safe and that there would be a note on the ticket stating that I have a severe dairy allergy. Not having a ton of experiences with restaurants, we accepted that answer and ordered the sherbert. You can probably guess what happened next. I immediately went into anaphylaxis. Thankfully we always carry 2 epipens. After my mom administered the epipen, I was rushed by ambulance to the ER. We later found out that sherbert does in fact have milk in it. This experience made it hard for my family and I to work up the courage to go back to any restaurants. Eventually over time and becoming more educated about food allergies, we did go back to eating out and we have had many positive experiences. We learned that researching the menu prior to eating at the restaurant was a big help. We also would call the restaurant ahead of time to make sure they can accommodate my allergy. When we arrive at restaurants, the first thing we do is ask for a manager or the chef and explain about my allergy and go over the menu to see what is safe for me to eat. My confidence with restaurants got better and better and I found that I even formed a good relationship with certain restaurants and felt comfortable eating there because they knew me. Until…. When I was 8 years old, my family and I went out of state for a day trip. Before we started to head home, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. We did everything right, including asking for a manager and going over the menu. We were assured that what I ordered was safe. I ordered a hot dog and applesauce. My mom asked to see all the labels and then she even called the hotdog company just to double check. We were once again assured that everything was safe. Unfortunately I went into anaphylaxis with just a few bites. This particular experience was scary because we have no idea why I had a reaction. We decided it must have been due to cross contact from an unsafe food or unwashed hands but I guess we'll never really know. As you can imagine, we decided restaurants were off the table for us. The only place that we felt comfortable was Disney and even then, it took a while to work up the courage to eat there. Thankfully we have always had such positive experiences there and I am so thankful for them. Nowadays, I don’t eat at a lot of restaurants. I still have some anxiety about eating out. I will happily go to vegan restaurants because I know the entire restaurant does not have dairy in their foods which makes it safe for me. To be honest, even with vegan restaurants I still ask to speak to a manager and explain my dairy allergy and I always make sure that whatever I order does not in fact have dairy in it. I want to be able to enjoy my food so asking these questions makes me feel safer. Overall, I find that bringing my own food wherever I go is the best choice for me so being able to cook safe food for myself is something that I had to learn. What I have learned from these experiences is that I love to cook! I enjoy learning about new allergy friendly recipes. The food allergy community has been amazing at sharing recipes, especially on Instagram. In the beginning, I was intimidated by cooking. I found that I would make the same meals all the time because I was comfortable with it. When I discovered that most recipe ingredients can be substituted for allergy friendly ingredients, cooking and baking became more fun. As I experimented and got better and better, I learned to cook with ingredients that are safe for me like using almond or oat milk in place of dairy milk, or using plant based butter like Earth Balance instead of dairy butter. I’ve been able to experiment with different flours too. I am not gluten free but some of my family members are so I’ve learned how to bake with gluten free flour. It’s so great to have so many options when it comes to cooking allergen free in the kitchen. It’s also great that a lot of allergy friendly companies have recipes on their websites. When I discovered Hungry Harry’s products, I was so relieved that they have a ton of recipes to try. It really helped me to gain more confidence baking for other people. As an added bonus, cooking and baking has allowed my family to spend more time together. I hope that as I get older, I will become more confident eating at restaurants but in the meantime, I am so happy to have the ability to cook amazing meals at home and bring them along with me when I am hanging out with my friends or traveling.

Hi my name is Shae and I am 13 years old. I was diagnosed with a milk allergy when I was a baby. Since then, I have had several anaphylactic reactions and have spent many hours in the emergency room. My family and I work hard to advocate, educate and raise awareness about food allergies. I have a website nowheyshae.com and instagram @shaeallergy_07 dedicated to raising awareness about food allergies. Thank you so much to @allergycompare for giving me the opportunity to share my story. There are many challenges I have had to face when dealing with my food allergy. One of the toughest challenges for me is saying no. It sounds like it should be so easy. If someone offers you food that is not safe, just say no. Easy, right? Well not for me. To me, it’s much more complicated than a simple no. If I had to break it down as to why it’s so hard, this is what I would say. Any person whether it’s a family member, friend, or even someone you don’t know very well who offers you food is showing you kindness. It could be someone inviting you over their house who wants to cook for you their favorite recipe so that you feel happy and welcome. It could be a friend who brought some cookies to school and wants to share them with you because they know you’ll love them. It could be a family member who wants to cheer you up after a bad day and brings you a box of chocolates or some ice cream. These are all gestures of love and kindness. Gestures that are meant to make you feel good but they don’t feel good to someone like me with a food allergy. Actually, they make me feel bad because I have to say “no thanks” and that person who was showing you love and kindness now feels rejection and I am left feeling bad about it. I remember my mom telling me about what it was like to have play dates when I was little. It always went the same way. Someone from school would invite me over to play with their child and the moms would sit and chat and get to know each other. For my mom, it caused a lot of anxiety. Will there be snacks there? If so, what kind of snacks? I should probably bring my own snacks. Will that make me look bad? I don’t want the other mom to think I am expecting snacks or offend her by bringing my own food. I wonder what they may have eaten right before we arrive. Should I ask everyone to wash their hands or is that offensive? Maybe I should just say no but then I don’t want to ruin it for my daughter who is so excited. My mom was always worried that she would be viewed as the “crazy allergy mom” so she made sure to have plenty of play dates at our house because it was just easier. One story that pops into my head when saying no was hard and embarrassing, was during a classroom party. One time at school, my class had a Christmas party. One of the room moms brought in pizza for everyone. Obviously, I couldn’t eat it but a lot of my classmates seemed to be unaware of my allergy and didn’t quite understand how I was feeling. The room mom kept offering me pizza and I had to keep saying “no thanks.” I could feel a lot of my classmates staring at me. It was so embarrassing because I wanted to be able to eat the pizza and fit in just like everyone else. I’m able to deal with it a lot better now but at the time, it felt really hard. Another time that was really hard for me was when I went over to my grandma’s house for dinner. She was always very good about my food allergy but when she got dementia, she couldn’t remember that I have a food allergy. She lived at an assisted living facility and she would eat dinner with all of her friends who also lived at the facility. One evening, my parents had to go to a function so I stayed with my grandma and had dinner with her. Of course I brought my own food but she kept offering me her food and said she would ask the kitchen to make me something to eat. All of her friends were staring at me and I had to keep reminding her that I couldn’t eat the food there because of my allergy. Again, I felt embarrassed. Even though it felt embarrassing, I tried very hard to not let it bother me too much because it was more important to me to spend as much time with her as possible. She passed away in May and I am very thankful for this memory. As I have gotten older, I have realized that I’ve put a lot of time and energy into the wrong things. Instead of trying to avoid the uncomfortable situations that come along with having a food allergy, I should redirect that energy into communication and education. I understand now that the more I talk about my allergy, the safer I am. Food allergies and anaphylaxis are REAL and SERIOUS and can be FATAL. It should not be something that is swept under a rug for me to tiptoe around in fear of hurting someone’s feelings. How can anyone who has no experience with or has limited knowledge of food allergies be expected to truly understand what it’s like for me as someone with a food allergy unless I tell them about it? This is why advocacy and awareness is so important. The word “no” does not have to be viewed as negative or something to be apologetic about. It’s a word that has and continues to keep me safe. It’s a word that opens the lines of communication. Of course there are still days when I’m annoyed or embarrassed or tired of always having to explain the same story over and over again. Then I remember about all the times someone has said to me, “Oh, I didn’t realize that!” or “I hadn’t thought about it like that!” or a simple “thank you for explaining it to me.” It’s during those times that remind me how important it is to keep communicating.