So, not wanting this laundry to get the best of me, I tried something new – I just put everything on a hanger in the closet. Duh, right?

So here’s my question – what do you prefer to do, fold your laundry and put it away, or hang it up in the closet?

A few months ago, we reported the rather disturbing discovery that BPA, a chemical known to mimic estrogen on the body, was found on store receipts that we handle every day. Moms know this chemical is a problem, and are accustomed to looking for BPA-free labels on baby bottles, sippy cups, and children’s plastic dinnerware.

One company, Appleton, is now using red fibers on the back of the receipts to indicate they are BPA-free. So, when you’re shopping this holiday season – or anytime – remember not to let your kids handle the receipts, and if you work in a retail store, consider wearing gloves to handle thermal receipts.

Thank you to Janelle Sorensen of HealthyChild.org and Ariel Schwartz of Fast Company for the updates.

This has been a rough week at our house. We discovered that two of us are allergic to dairy and one of the children is allergic to wheat gluten.

At first, we were in shock. How is this possible? What are we going to eat? With our current supply of food in the cupboards, it was next to impossible for our child with wheat allergies to find anything to eat. And, if we ate the food ourselves, we saw the sadness wash over her face. It wasn’t fair.

So, we set out to make it fair. We went on a rampage, and cleared everything off the shelves, reading each ingredient on every package. Then, we put all of the food that contained gluten or wheat in shopping bags and donated them to a local food donation site. It was simply shocking to see how much we ended up giving away – breakfast cereals, pasta, couscous, soups, sauces, and the list goes on. Moving on to the freezer, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, burritos, waffles – it didn’t seem possible that our whole freezer was stocked with food that had wheat or dairy.

Next, we went shopping. There are signs up at Trader Joe’s for Gluten Free products, so I started there. Huge kudos to Trader Joe’s, because they gave my family the V.I.P. tour. They offered to open any package to let my daughter try anything she wanted, and whatever we didn’t buy was transferred over to the samples station. After about ten minutes of this, we started to think, “Maybe we can handle this after all.”

Fast forward to last night at dinner. We didn’t give the freezer food away (yet), and messed up and ate some in front of our daughter. This weekend, we’ll give it to a friend so that doesn’t happen again. But, she was so sad, I had to make it up to her. So I did. I made home made gluten free chicken nuggets.

Here are the ingredients for my thrown-together Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets:

• 1 chicken breast, cut into chunks (nuggets)
• 2 rice cakes, pulverized in a blender with a really strong motor
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder, mixed into the rice cakes
• 1 beaten egg
• 2 cups canola oil (I didn’t measure, it could’ve been 1 1/2, use your judgement)
• salt to taste (we didn’t use any salt, so they were a bit bland)
• ketchup for dipping

How I Made Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets

There is a show on the Food Network called “Chopped.” It’s an insane show where professional chefs are given ingredients that have nothing to do with each other, and they are expected to make something delicious. Taking a cue from the Chopped Chefs, I took two rice cakes and put them in the blender until it looked like flour. I have a Vitamix blender, and a weaker blender might not have been able to do this. But, you could always put the rice cakes in a plastic bag and hit it with a hammer a bunch of times. (Yes, that’s the technical name of the technique: hit it with a hammer a bunch of times.)

Then, I added some garlic powder. I heated up some canola oil, and cut up a chicken breast into nuggets. I dipped the chicken into a beaten egg, then dredged it in the pulverized rice cakes powder. The chicken took about 5 minutes on each side to finish frying. Voila, home made gluten free chicken nuggets!

The side items are a breakfast hash brown cut in half and some peas. You have to really watch the ingredients on potato products, because many of them are dredged in wheat flour before they are fried.

My daughter said she really liked the dish. She said we’ll be spending a lot less time and money at restaurants as a result of this food allergy, and we’ll be saving money by only paying for ingredients. She’s right.

If you try the recipe, let me know what you think. And yes, I know this isn’t the healthiest dinner ever created, but sometimes you just have to make it work.

Creative Commons Attribution License: You are welcome to republish this article on your website, as long as you leave all of the links, credit to MommySite.com and this notice intact.

If you’ve read labels on baby bottles and sippy cups lately, you’ve no doubt noticed a “BPA-free” or “No BPA” graphic on the labels. BPA (Bisphenol A) is a chemical found in many plastics, and it’s a concern because it mimics estrogen in the body, which could interfere with development or worse. It’s even been proven to pass through the umbilical cord to an unborn baby.

90% of baby bottles are now BPA-free, so we must be doing all we can to keep safe from this chemical. Right? Wrong.

Just last week, Swiss scientists confirmed that BPA is present in thermal paper used in receipts, and what’s worse, it’s been proven be absorbed by the skin before it can be washed off. Wet hands and alcohol-based hand sanitizers actually increase the amount of BPA that gets into the body.

Lab testing showed that some of the worst offenders for BPA levels on receipts are grocery stores, including Safeway and Whole Foods. However, safer alternatives are available.

How to Stay Safe from BPA Receipts

To protect yourself and your family, try not to handle receipts. If you work in retail, consider wearing gloves to minimize contact with the chemical. Let your accountant know, and when you do your taxes, consider wearing gloves. It should also go without saying that children should not hold or play with receipts.

BPA is also found in plastic food containers, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services even acknowledges “Trace amounts of BPA can be found in some foods packaged in these containers…including canned liquid infant formula.”

It’s Time to Ban BPA

It’s time to do something about this. Tell your Senators and Congress Representatives that you support The Safe Chemicals Act of 2010. If you use Twitter, you can write to them at @2gov and the message will be forwarded to them, even if they are not on Twitter. You can also sign a petition at The Environmental Working Group, which paid for the study of the receipts. Note: MommySite.com has no affiliation with EWG and disclaims any responsibility for their actions.

The current laws protecting consumers from toxic chemicals are outdated and backwards. According to Senator Frank Lautenberg, who introduced the legislation,

The “Safe Chemicals Act of 2010” requires safety testing of all industrial chemicals, and puts the burden on industry to prove that chemicals are safe in order stay on the market. Under current policy, the EPA can only call for safety testing after evidence surfaces demonstrating a chemical is dangerous. As a result, EPA has been able to require testing for just 200 of the more than 80,000 chemicals currently registered in the United States and has been able to ban only five dangerous substances. The new legislation will give EPA more power to regulate the use of dangerous chemicals and require manufacturers to submit information proving the safety of every chemical in production and any new chemical seeking to enter the market.

You can also let retailers know that you want them to switch to safer receipts via Twitter and Facebook.

Creative Commons Attribution License: You are welcome to republish this article BPA on Receipts (but not the photo) on your website, as long as you leave all of the links and this notice intact.

Looking for recipes for your toddler?

WholesomeToddlerFood.com has some good ones, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. The concept is, “It starts with a rainbow,” because eating foods of different colors is an easy way to remember to serve enough fruits and vegetables.

There are also sections on toddler nutritional needs, how the food pyramid works for toddlers, and my favorite, a section on how to prepare healthy versions of fast food that cuts out the fat, sugar, chemicals and cost of your local drive-through.

Some of these recipes are basic, and some are more creative, like the breakfast recipe for cutting out eyes and a mouth in toast and melting cheese on it to give the toast a face. Very cute!

Peanut allergy warning: many of the recipes include peanut butter. The USFDA recommends waiting until age 3 to introduce nuts.

Does your child love space the space program? Does he or she dream of walking on the moon or exploring the final frontier?

If so, you’ll love the NASA Image of the Day. Imagine, every day, your child can receive an email from NASA. What a great way to learn about science! It is completely free to register your email address and receive daily photos of a star cluster, real and experimental space ships, planets, moons and more. There’s also an image archive, so you can print out pictures for school reports or to decorate your child’s room.

Here’s the link: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

Enjoy!

I just finished reading Sera’s thoughts on postpartum depression at Laughing Through The Chaos. New moms, if you have negative thoughts about your baby, nightmares, or feel like you haven’t bonded, you don’t have to feel like you are alone. Sera was very brave to post what she felt. Go take some comfort from her, and then please, get the help you need.

There are signs that America is moving back to more traditional times and closer family relationships. As if to reflect this trend, when moms were asked what would make this Mother’s Day special, 46 percent said they would like to receive a card or gift made by their child, according to an online survey by Market Day. Twenty-four percent of moms would like breakfast in bed.

For the record, I do not want breakfast in bed. I want to go to the beach! Where’s the picnic basket? Let’s go!

One sentiment that most moms agree on is that the happiness surrounding Mother’s Day is not tied to economic considerations. When asked about their favorite Mother’s Day memories, 65 percent of moms indicated it was just having the family together, 31 percent enjoyed a homemade gift, and 14 percent recalled a favorite meal.

Yes, I agree with that. I like being together with the family. My favorite gift is a bracelet my oldest made when she was 4.

For the third year since Market Day fielded the survey, moms still do most of the cooking on their designated day. This year, 36 percent of moms will handle most of the cooking, and another 36 percent will get help in the kitchen from family members. Another 21 percent will receive assistance from a spouse or partner.

I don’t mind cooking, but someone else do the dishes, ok?

Do any other companies want to send me press releases and/or stuff to review? Catch me on Twitter @mommysite. Thanks!