A Food Holiday Idea— I Need Your Help!

Howdy Ho Ranger Joes!

I have this very strong feeling that I’ve used that as an introduction on this blog before. But even if I have that’s okay because it’s a fantastic one at that. Doesn’t it just bring back great childhood memories and make you all warm fuzzy inside?

I sure wish I was all warm and fuzzy inside. Instead as you read this I will be shivering my butt off stargazing.

friday-stargazing

Yes. Stargazing. In the middle of Winter (okay, so it’s not technically Winter yet but it’s snowed, it’s cold, and I’m counting it).

But yes, tonight I am going to my school’s planetarium to look at stars for my Astronomy class. I could have done this months ago when it was summer and warm, but I love venturing out by myself at 9:00 at night during the Winter where I am so bundled up in my coat/scarf/gloves that even if someone did attack me and try to steal my non-operating cellphone, their fist would basically just bounce off my mountain of puffy layers.

Or perhaps if I showed them my bubbly, burnt foot they would feel sorry for me and go bother someone else.*

friday-foot-burn-2

Don’t worry. I will keep you updated with ALL of the photos of my lovely foot through its recovery stages. This is only Day 2. If my phone was functioning properly you could see how awful it looks today.

*Nothing’s really concrete yet and it’s basically a toss-up if they would actually believe my pitiful story.

As it is though, I have t-minus 40 minutes before I should leave and thus only 40 minutes to write this post. While that may be a lot of time for some people, it doesn’t seem to be nearly enough for me. Actually I’m kind of just panicking thinking about it.

39 minutes to go.

friday-sheldon-twitching

Moooving on…

Lately I have been seeing some pretty incredible holiday recipes all around and they are just getting me more and more excited for Christmas! One thing my Pinterest feed is lacking though is some good, quality holiday recipes that us allergic folks can make and eat. Every time I click on a recipe I cross my fingers and hold my breath… then I scan the ingredients list and sigh.

For clarification purposes, I am NOT anaphylactic to any foods, I just think these comics are hilarious.

Really, it’s no one’s fault that I can’t eat 99% of the recipes they post. Actually, it’s kind of MY fault for following people that post nothing but recipes I can’t eat. Their pictures are just SO BEAUTIFUL though!

Instead of complaining any further though, here is what I propose:

I would like to plan a 12 Days of Allergy-Free Christmas Recipes

(Title pending).

This would all depend you guys though, because I would like some of you to co-host with me! 🙂 Twelve days would be way too many recipe round-ups and I’m pretty sure that you would get tired of it fast. Instead we could divide and conquer, each taking up responsibility for one of the twelve days. Each day would have a different theme. For example- appetizers, beverages, main dishes, side dishes, cookies (maybe even split cookies into types- gingerbread, sugar, chocolate), pudding, cake, muffins, casseroles, soup, salad, lunch, breakfast, candy… That way there wouldn’t be an overlap, and we would increase the chances of someone finding at least ONE recipe in each of the categories that would fit their dietary needs.

friday-santa-breakfast

We could start whenever, counting down literally to Christmas, or even perhaps end a few days before. You could announce what theme you will be hosting in the next few days, make a call out for recipes that fit the bill, and then post a recipe round-up (along with a new recipe of your own) on the specified day.

Sort of like some of these recipe round-ups: Fall Favorites, WITHOUT the Pumpkin, or 20 Apple Dessert Recipes.

At the end what we would have is an incredible collection of recipes that would be a wonderful resource for those with food allergies or dietary restrictions. (Now, this wouldn’t mean that everything has to be egg/wheat/dairy/peanut/etc-free. I’m just suggesting that it be free of a few things. Maybe vegan or vegetarian, maybe Paleo or primal, or maybe even just simply or simply dairy-free or egg-free!)

So… Do I have any volunteers? It would be wonderful to get up to 12 bloggers to participate (or even more!), but whatever we get will be perfect. If enough are interested I will post a more concise and detailed post in the next few days with what you need to do, a button to include in your post, etc. I will probably also create a page on my blog where I will link all of the posts together at the end so that anyone who comes here will be able to find you as well!

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Who would like to participate?

You don’t need to have a food allergy blog to join in … Just be a blogger with a willingness to devote one day/post to this “extravaganza!”

If you do want to join, you can also pick what day you’d like to post, and what theme you want to do (it can be whatever you want, just specific enough that there won’t be tons of overlap!).

And if you don’t want to join, that’s okay too.

You can just follow along. In the comments share any ideas/thoughts/suggestions that you have for this big round-up!

You can also email me at allehays[at]gmail[dot]com if you want to participate or have any questions/suggestions.

62 thoughts on “A Food Holiday Idea— I Need Your Help!

  1. Girl, your foot looks so painful!! Joshua calls me gross because I’m actually fascinated by those type of blistering and nasty photos you & other people have posted. Ha Ha!

    Those peppermint butter cookies – I want to dig my face into one!

    • It’s really not that painful. Just really swollen and stiff!

      Lol. You should have seen me when I was trying to decide whether or not to go to the emergency room. I was looking up pictures of first vs second degree burns… And ran across some video of a guy popping his blister. Pretty. 😛

      I would like to eat some of those peppermint cookies too! 🙂

  2. Geebuz your foot!!!!! Sorry but I have a weak stomach when it comes to things like this…..or blood!

    What a great idea regarding the 12 days of allergy free recipes- I’ll have a scrounge around and see what I can do and in the time period but if it works, I’d love to help out. Maybe allergy free pancakes lol.

    • Haha. I will forewarn you in my next post before a foot picture, because it will be worse!

      That would be so great of you Arman to participate! I think a small round-up of pancakes would be super cool. They don’t have to be free of everything either, just good for the holidays and free of at least one thing. Maybe you even have a recipe already in your vault that would work 🙂 And you have so many readers that I’m sure you could find some willing participants to donate their pancake pictures for the cause 😉

      • Do you mean for the 12 Days round-up? My thoughts were that each blogger could host one of the days on their blog and do a post with a certain food theme (like with pancakes for example). They could compile a list of recipes from their own recipe collection, as well as from other bloggers, and then if they wanted, create a new recipe to share as well. Then at the end of the 12 Days we’d have a full list of Christmas recipes that could help those with any dietary needs. I’ll probably make a page/post at the end as well to add a link for each day.

        Is that what you meant by your question?

        Haha. Sounds like you are having fun at the mall! 😉

      • Ahhhhhhh I get you now. Hmmm I have most of my posts organised for the coming weeks. I could maybe do a just a general round up of my sunbutter recipes on a Saturday? Sorry I thought it was for your blog! lol

      • Ya, Sorry if my explanation in my post was confusing. I should probably copy my previous response to you because I feel like that makes a ton more sense 😀 Sure! That’d be cool. It doesn’t have to be with sunbutter, that was just an idea. If you already have a recipe created for the coming weeks we could always think up a theme around that to include. Like with pancakes, oatmeal, etc. if you already have it thought up. You sure do plan ahead! That’s awesome 🙂

      • Now you’ve got me thinking! Haha. That’s never good 😉 Do you think it would be better to have the 12 days of round-ups as guest posts on my blog? That way the posts themselves are all in one place, instead of a collection of the links? I just didn’t want to keep all of the Christmas spirit to myself and let everyone else benefit as well 🙂

    • Haha. No! You’re fine 🙂 I’ve been putting Neosporin on it everyday and wrapping it in a bandage and gauze whenever I have to go out. And then when I’m in my dorm room I take off my boot so the swelling can down from walking all day, and then put a bag of frozen peas on it 🙂 Do you have any experience with burns? I don’t know really if there is anything else I can do to speed up the process other than what the doctor told me.

  3. Your poor foot!! Not good at all I am wishing you a very speedy recovering.

    Does it need to be your own recipes in the round up or can it be from any source? I have a lot of recipes that are wheat free / gluten free but I wouldn’t exactly call them ‘Christmasy’ 😉

    By the way I sympathise with you on the recipe thing, I always see great recipes with legumes and quinoa and I can’t do either without stomach pains but always drool at the photos and it is no fun!

    • Thanks Jan 🙂

      The recipes could be from any source! What theme would you want for your day? After picking that you could ask all of your followers if they have any that they’d like to submit, and you could even do your own search for them. And I was thinking that at least personally along with my round-up I would also include a new recipe of my own to give something new.

      Any ideas for what you’d want to to? I *think* Arman might be doing pancakes 😀

      Same here for me with legumes and quinoa too. That’s why I think this would be so helpful to have on hand– one big place for tons of allergy/dietary friendly recipes 🙂

      • Gah I can’t decide!! I’m happy to do whatever you want. I have heaps of breakfast recipes but re-reading your post it is not really breakfast themed. I’m happy with whatever you decide for me as I am struggling to make a decision here!! Shoot me an email with what you think you want me to do sproutsnsquats@gmail.com 😉

    • Awesome Cat! Any idea what category you would want to cover with your day? Or is that dependent on the weekend too? Lol. Like I told Jan above it doesn’t have to be all or any of your recipes if you don’t want. You can also include good recipes from your favorite bloggers! 🙂

    • I know you already said no… but you wouldn’t have to do a baking-themed day. You could do a savory one like with squash (since you’ve recently discovered some awesome ones! You could have your recipe feature Kabocha 🙂 ), or some other kind of side dish or main dish. Plus most of the recipes would just be ones that you’ve found from other bloggers that look delicious and fit the bill.

      Sorry that you had to see that while you were eating! Haha. I will give a warning next time 😛

  4. Oh Geebus… your foot! I’m going to need a little bit more of a warning next time 😯 I do hope that it feels better soon, though.

    And I feel ya on the allergy front. I only really have to avoid peanuts, so it’s not so bad on the recipe front since I can usually adapt them pretty easily, but it gets annoying when I’m browsing the stores and all the fun holiday treats “may contain traces of peanuts.” Way to ruin Christmas, you pesky legumes…

    • Haha. You, Arman and Anna… I will give much advanced warning next time so you can just skip right over it!

      I have to admit that even if there were plenty of allergy-free recipes out there for me, I’m not sure I would be any more apt to use them. Lol. I quite enjoy adapting them actually! And yes- those ingredient lists at the store are truly the bothersome part of it all.

      If you’d like to have a day to host a theme, let me know! I’d love for you to participate (and it would give you a great excuse to bop out another beautiful, peanut-free recipe! 😉 ). Either way, I hope that find something to make out of the recipes that we round-up that you’ll be able to eat!

    • I actually don’t have finals until the week before Christmas, so that’s why I suggested both! 🙂

      We can definitely find a day that works for you though either way. I think a countdown would be fun for sure. What theme and date would you like? Thanks so much for helping!

  5. Oh my goodness lady! I can’t believe your foot. I haven’t really been in the blog universe for a week or so, so I had to go back and see if you posted what happened. A crock pot?! Ouch! I can’t even imagine!!

    • Can I be selfish and ask you to do appetizers? I’m really interested in what recipes you’ll share as you always have awesome ideas with paleo-slanted recipes, especially squash! Is there any date in specific you’d prefer?

      I’m allergic to wheat, dairy, eggs, peanuts, rye, celery, tomatoes, corn… I think that’s it but I usually miss one. At least that’s the gist of it.

      The problem right now is just that my stomach doesn’t react well to food in general. So that limits things. Just a few vegetables, and lean meats (oh pork! That’s what I forgot in food allergy list).

  6. I hope your foot is feeling a bit better; it definitely looks painful! It doesn’t disgust me, though–I never get grossed out by blood or other related things;) I think it’s fascinating to watch open-heart surgeries and other events where you get to see the inside of the human body–so amazing! I think that link-up sounds like a fantastic idea; I might be interested in hosting either a main dish or a breakfast round-up, but let me think about what day might work best. My college finals are over by December 17th, so maybe sometime after that…

    • Me either. I kind of was always fascinated by scars and cuts when I was younger. Of course I didn’t enjoy the pain that came with them, but the human body’s healing mechanism so incredible! I’m glad you feel the same way 🙂

      I’d be super excited to see both a breakfast or dinner round-up from you! For breakfast we’d just need to make sure that there wasn’t any overlap with other themes, which wouldn’t be too hard. A time after December 17th would be fine since the countdown would probably last until December 24th. That gives you plenty of days of choice. Let me know what you’d like!

  7. Awww, thanks for the link love, gorgeous! I’ll have to see what I can do, but I may be able to join in! I know off the top of my head that I have enough gluten-free breakfast ideas I could share, but I’m not positive that I would have time to come up with a new recipe. We’ll see!

    Hope you have a great weekend, sweetie!! 😀

    • Heather- you don’t know how excited I would be to have you join in. Your recipes are always amazing! A few thoughts- you could include some of your own recipes definitely, but feel free to include some from other bloggers in the round-up too! That may give you a bit more freedom with what theme you choose and what new recipe you could create. And also, don’t feel the pressure to make it gluten-free. As long as it was “free” of something, anything! Like peanuts, dairy, eggs, just wheat, nuts, etc. 🙂

      I hope you have an excellent weekend too Heather. I hope you can find the time to join in on the fun 😀

  8. Oh yikes yikes yikes. That foot picture…holy ouch. I totally missed it (from another post?)…what happened?

    I love that food allergy comic. So true. People just don’t get it.

    Obviously I’m totally up for the recipe idea!! Good thinking, Madison. 🙂 I could do something any time after the 20th – just let me know what you/others are thinking, and I’d be glad to pitch in!

    • Yes! Your comment just brought the biggest smile to my face Olivia 🙂 You know exactly where I’m coming from with all of this allergy stuff and I can’t wait to see what you contribute! Is there any theme in particular that you’d like, or do you just want to wait to see what everyone else picks? After the 20th… Got it 🙂

  9. Wow, that blister sure is huge, hope your foot is much better now! Stargazing sounds completely awesome and is definitely worth braving the cold. You’re so lucky you can go to your school’s planetarium to star gaze, I’d probably have to hike up a hill or something to be able to see the stars which is something I’m too lazy to do. 😛

    The recipe roundup sounds like a great idea and I can’t wait to read all about it!

  10. OMG your foot gave me the HEEBY GEE-BEES! LOL!!!! And uhhh don’t tell anyone but, sometimes when I am at home at night, I totally watch Full House to escape from reality! 😉

    And I will definitely be partaking in a allergen-free holiday, since my life is one bit food allergy! LOL!

  11. I’m sorry about your foot. 😦 Thanks for sharing the photo though.

    Great idea for an allergy friendly Xmas extravaganza! I’ll have fun reading! :-). My schedule is too random to participate.

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  14. Oh my gosh; your foot. Madison that’s horrible, and I hope never to see such a sight again. Although since I’m super behind on my blog reading, I suspect more feet pictures lie in wait for me in future posts. I’ll try to move quickly through them (the pictures; not the posts).

    Your recipe roundup is a great idea for people dealing with allergies. I suspect I’m too late to join the party now, and even if I wasn’t I doubt I’ll be posting (aside from Monday’s Holiday Prep in Review) until next year. I’m exhausted and spent over here, but if you’re looking for somebody to do a post holiday detox (which for me means lots of fruits, veggies and water and less of the less savory or sugar filled sweet stuff), I’m your girl.

    • Not too many update pictures, although I should probably share one soon since my foot is closer to normal now, although very pink.

      Funny enough I’m actually working on a post for today since I couldn’t find anyone to fill in the spot. The theme is leftovers! 😀

      Post holiday detox… love that idea.

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