Food – Everyday Marg

Children’s Hospital of Richmond — A Chance to Give

A few months ago, B had pneumonia. We followed all of the necessary procedures, antibiotics and rest. Ok, that last part not so much — try and keep a 15-month old still; not easy. So when he got a fever after being on the antibiotics for a few days, we took him straight to the Emergency Room.

I have to give the doctors and nurses a huge shout out. Through all my panic and worry, they were very calm and supportive. They kept me informed that he would need a chest X-Ray. Have you ever taken a 15-month old to have an X-ray? It’s heartbreaking. Not only was he uncomfortable, but he wasn’t allowed to move as they took the pictures, and the machine is scary even for me. I can’t imagine what he was going through.

I’m so thankful that it turned out his pneumonia was gone, and at our follow up it turned out to just be an ear infection. If it was anything worse I’m not sure what I would do, but I had a good feeling the supportive medical staff at our hospital would have been there with me every step of the way.

I’m honored to inform you about the Children’s Hospital Foundation, one of which is right here in Richmond.

The Children’s Hospital Foundation is a non-profit organization. They have dedicated funding and advocating for pediatric initiatives that improve the status of health care and the quality of life for children in our region. They are the support for the programs and initiative that the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and the children there. They also help with other pediatric health programs around Richmond.

Since they are the only full-service children’s hospital in the region, they see over 50,000 children and their families a year from all over the country.

Monetary gifts are used for the general operations of Children’s Hospital of Richmond, including maintaining a staff of pediatric specialists in a facility designed just for children, operating 24 hours a day.

By donating today, you’re helping the day-to-day operations of the hospital and help fund the wonderful and loving staff and specialists.

For a little taste of the wonderful staff and volunteers, check out this lip-dub to “Roar” by Katy Perry featuring the nurses and even a couple of VCU Basketball players!

If you wish to donate (and I do hope you will!) you can do so through the Fundly here. Any and all donations will benefit the organization.

As part of a class project I am raising funds for the Children’s Hospital Foundation with a group of classmates. Any size donation is welcome. By clicking through to the Fundly link, you can donate directly to the organization. ALL proceeds go to the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Lunch Ideas for Beck’s Chicken Allergy

Beck’s chicken allergy has been a tough one because we ate A LOT of chicken pre-diagnosis and we had to quickly change our eating habits. It’s been particularly tough with daycare because chicken is always on the menu at some point during the week. So we are always looking for easy substitutes.

Lunch meat is an obvious and Beck loves his turkey and ham (we just tried Hillshire Farm Naturals – no preservatives or artificial flavors = win!).
Beck loves plain tuna. It’s an easy lunch alternative to chicken salad.
Veggie burgers (we love black bean burgers!) are great for days they serve chicken patties or chicken nuggets which let’s be honest is quite often.

Same goes for dinner. We keep these staples on hand for days we eat our chicken dinners. Easy peasy substitutey.

And thanks to Hillshire Farm for sending us some sample of their new Naturals line. The only thing missing is the stuff that you don’t want your kids eating! Love the flavors – especially the ham. Check them out!

Living with Toddler Allergies: the Blowout

A few months ago I was alerted by my son’s daycare teachers that he had a massive blowout. When I picked him up, I found him in an outfit that wsn’t exactly expected. Pink. Ruffles. Bright colored tucan animal on the front. B looked like a girl.

Don’t worry, I shortly restocked his clothing awaiting the next blowout — I didn’t expect it would be that week though. This went on for about a month. Three weeks after the blowout episodes started, he broke out in hives all over. The odd thing was he hadn’t eaten anything new or come into contact with anything new. After speaking to the pediatrician we were referred to an allergist and B was tested using the scratch test.

My toddler had some odd allergies. Chicken. Egg. Milk. Oats. This made everything fall into place. He had been allergic to milk and eggs since he was a wee little baby, but we thought he outgrew it. He had chicken nuggets right before the hives. Oats? Yeah. No idea there.

I used to fly by the seat of my pants for meals, now I’m a planner and a connoisseur (woah. just kidding) on allergen substitutes when it comes to the daycare’s menu.

The first step: Stop serving milk and switch to soy-product dairy substitutes like this here Silk Yogurt.

Spend your Memorial Day weekend at the Alamo — Barbecue!

A while back my sister took us to this great place in downtown Richmond, Alamo BBQ. Right there, nestled in by 22nd street, in a place where I don’t really know, is the best darn barbecue place I have ever been.

“Alamo,” as we call it, has outdoor seating. You walk up, place your order and receive your buzzer. Then, go get your yummy food and enjoy the view. Ok, it’s not much of a view, but it is up hill and you can kind of see the city.

Now, about the food…

My name is Maggie. And I am a cornbread lover.

There’s something about this cornbread with honey-butter.

Maybe it’s just pretty?

I ordered the Pulled Pork with Slaw sandwich, which is about $5.

Simple, juicy and delicious!

I love Alamo, and I will be going back plenty this summer since I’ll be downtown for school. The food isn’t super expensive so it is college student friendly if you can get there. Maybe we will take a trip up there for Memorial Day!

What are your Memorial Day plans? I hope barbecue is involved!