Quiche

    So, thanks to Xolair injections over the last 2 and a half years, Vinnie's allergies are becoming *WAY* more manageable.  One major change is that he is no longer reactive to shared fries or ovens!  

In August, he passed the BAKED EGG food challenge at National Jewish Health in Denver.  We were so excited to add a food into his diet!  

Being allergic to raw egg but safe to baked egg is very tricky.  When eggs are baked--to a certain protocol-- the proteins change and become something that you can tolerate.  For Vinnie, it is a VERY sensitive measure.  We experimented with some store bought products and unfortunately had an ANA episode.  

The "baked egg" rules, that we follow are:

1. One egg per cup of regular flour, it cannot be gluten free

2. The dish must be baked at 350 degrees for a minimum of 30 minutes.

3. Store bought products, should follow both of the first rules *AND* have egg not appear in the top 3 ingredients.  Since most foods don't include their recipe or bake times/temps, we have to make reasonable guesses about the preparation.  

So far, we've found ONE safe food that he can eat as much as he wants, that we can buy, and its pecan swirls, by TastyKake.  

So, all of that said, to explain that we can now cook RAW EGG in the oven and Vinnie doesn't have anaphylaxis!  The last time I tried to make a quiche, we lived in Virginia and moving wasn't even on our radar!  

So, I used this recipe, from The Gingered Whisk, to make homemade mini-quiches for dinner!  I made Vinnie's up first. I used Jus-Roll prepackaged puff pastry, Just Egg egg substitute, Ripple milk substitute and Daiya cheese substitute.  I added bacon into his, but no spinach, and he LOVED THEM! He ate 3 of them, so it was a real like too!  He ate, while the allergic real egg ones for the rest of the family, were cooking and he did not have any reactions! Isn't that amazing?!  We are so excited. 

 I didn't risk cooking his while ours were in the oven, because it was super snowy out and I didn't want to risk having to leave the house.  We have cooked allergic and safe pizzas in the oven at the same time with no anaphylaxis!  Xolair has been so good for him!

Vinnie safe mini-quiche above and my quiche, steak, and sausage below. 

 

Christmas Recap!

 As usual, for our game schooling family, we had a game heavy Christmas haul!  In the next few posts I'll be reviewing the games we've had the chance to try out!

We haven't been able to get the walls finished from the foundation work we had, right after we bought the house, so the unframed walls are featured in the pictures.  It is what it is.  

Our traditional, pose in front of the tree in matching jammies pictures...

As a family full of LEGO lovers, there were a lot of awesome LEGO gifts. 

Lucas checking out a card game.

The TikTok famous Minecraft magnetic cubes.  I found a couple brands on Amazon that had the .89" blocks at reasonable prices.  I'll do a mini-review of those in another post.

This game is a 100% winner, its called OK Play!

This was a random clearance aisle find, that actually is really cute and great for getting some ya-yas out indoors!

This boy absolutely LOVES playing with dominoes.  

More magnetic Minecraft style blocks.

This is the *BEST* version of Candy Land I've ever seen.   I have always liked the 80s art and felt that all the versions that have been out since I had kids were way too overstimulating, but this Bluey version is so calming. 

Jurassic Park "Ravenous Raptors"-- a themed version of Hungry Hippos. 

Sulley's haul-- I snagged the Sleeping Queens 2 right before Christmas in like-new condition, for $3 from the local BST page!

A game for mom!

Not the best "trouble" game I've ever played. 

Lucas' game haul.

Games for Vinnie:

So, that's most of the games we got for Christmas as a family. I'll be posting reviews of them as quickly as I can!  

I hope all our friends had a great Christmas too!

Hypershot by Hasbro! Review sponsored by Tryazon

 

Thanks to Tryazon we got to review another new game!!  

Hypershot by Hasbro is a super fun, affordable, travel ready air hockey themed game for all ages!

The minute this game arrived in the mail the boys were interested in getting it out and trying it out!  

It only took me a few minutes to scan the instructions and explain the different modes to the boys, then they were off having a blast taking turns battling each other and trying out the training mode! 

The box is. sturdy and the game fits neatly back into the box.  Alternatively, all of the pieces fit attached to the device in an easy to carry and store design. 

This game is available at Walmart for $16 and from Hasbro for $20, making it very affordable.  

We absolutely would recommend this game to our friends and family and will likely be gifting it to several friends soon!

Cake N Bake Challenge Tryazon Review

Many thanks to Tryazon and Hey Buddy Hey Pal for sending us the Cake n Bake Challenge Game to try out and review!  

This game is a super adorable matching activity game with some extra challenges added in to make it fun for all ages.

Our players ranged in age from 4-15 and everybody had fun.  

The instructions are clear and easy to understand and learn. This is definitely a learn-as-you-play game.

Players race to build the cake shown on their card, while following the directions given for certain special cakes.

There are multiple levels of game play from simple enough for 4 year olds to challenging enough to entertain the older siblings!

It retails for $25 from the retailer or $20 on Amazon and would make a great birthday themed game!

Ravensburger Tryazon Party!

  This month I got to host a Ravensburger Tryazon game promoting their new "Oh My Pigeons" game as well as a "Pop Culture" version of "That's Not a Hat"!

    I am so grateful to Tryazon for selecting me for so many board game parties! We love gameschooling, our friends are mostly all avid gamers and we love trying out new products to see what will be a great fit for our family and friends!  

                                         

Oh My Pigeons! is another adorable game!  The purple pigeon plush and the pin were awesome freebies that they sent along for me to give away!  The game is advertised as ages 8 and up, but our youngest player was 6 and she could play on her own! She even won the most rounds so she got to take the sweet purple pigeon home!

   

    I like to have lots of other products from the brands on hand if I own them, so we had several other Ravensburger games for the kids to play with while they waited their turn on the 2 new games. 

    Heidi enjoyed the sweet little bird characters! 

       Ravensburger is one of the greats when it comes to games and puzzles and these two will make great additions to any families game closet!