Review: Sweet Alexis (peanut, nut, dairy, and egg free) plus discount!

I received a package from Sweet Alexis, and what an amazing package it was!  It contained two decorated cookies, chocolate chip cookies, ginger cookies, pumpkin raisin bread, and banana bread.  All of their products are peanut, egg, dairy, and egg free!  Sweet Alexis was developed by a mom whose daughter, Alexis, has multiple “life threatening” food allergies to the following: All dairy products and derivatives of dairy, eggs, shellfish, all nuts, including tree nuts and peanuts, mustard and cherries.

She also has environmental allergies and is asthmatic. She is so severe that three separate doctors have refused to perform skin tests on her for fear that she would go into anaphylaxis.  These products are made by a mom who KNOWS all to well the battle of trying to keep our children safe from their allergens.  She has had a long, scary road, and battles every day to stay safe.  You can read her story here.

The first thing my girls wanted to tear into were the beautifully decorated cookies.  My one daughter loves pink, so she chose the Heart Cookie.  My other loves blue, so she chose the Patriotic cookie.  My girls said the cookies were so delicious!  They wouldn’t let me have a taste, so I have to take their word for it.

Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite, so I dug right into those.  I took a bite, and it was one of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tried!  I can honestly say, I have a new favorite cookie!  They truly are delicious!  They are soft and have large chocolate chips.  I hate to admit, but I gave my girls and hubby one to try, and ate the rest of the bag myself!  It took me three days to eat them, so luckily the bag is resealable.  They stayed fresh and soft, even after I opened the bag repeatedly.  My family agreed that these were some of the best chocolate chip cookies they have tried.  There will be people who say, they are just chocolate chip cookies, how good could they be?  Once you have had a Sweet Alexis chocolate chip cookie, all the rest will fail in comparison.

I am not a big fan of ginger cookies, and my husband is not a big fan of sweets, but he opened the bag, had one, and said, “Wow, these are good!”.  I tried one and he was right.  They are good!  They have just the right amount of ginger to make them taste good, but not be overwhelming.  The texture and consistency of the cookie is great too.  Both of my girls thought they were yummy too!  Both cookies were the perfect size, and tasted like fresh-baked homemade cookies!  I cannot say enough about how great these cookies are!

We then tried the breads!  Both were amazing.  The banana bread rivals my home-made banana bread. Both breads are soft and moist, and very tasty!  I love pumpkin, and never considered putting raisins in it, but it was really good and tasted like a spice bread.  The tops were soft, like when they are home-made.  I honestly, cannot find one thing bad to say about any of their products.  They were just downright GOOD!  I was amazed that they are peanut free, nut free, dairy free, AND egg free!  I would have never guessed.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner and Sweet Alexis is offering a 15% discount right now, promo code: spring13

Disclaimer: I was provided a with the above shown products, in exchange for my honest opinions of their products. I was not financially compensated in any way.  All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.

Store bought vs. Homemade

A neighbor loves to bake and will bring us homemade foods and goodies every now and then.  Today she brought us a small plate of chocolate chip cookies.  Of course my girls were thrilled about getting a surprise of cookies.  They looked so yummy.  Katrina remembered our warnings about not taking food from anyone, and asked our neighbor if the cookies were safe?  The neighbor said, “of course they are safe.  They are just chocolate chip cookies.”  I didn’t want her to think I was being ungrateful, but asked her what type of chocolate chips she used to make the cookies.  She said that she believed they were Nestle Tollhouse Morsels.  I explained that Katrina could not have them then, because the last time I checked Nestle Tollhouse Morsels had a warning about being made on the same equipment as peanuts.  She was really surprised, felt awful, went home, dug in the garbage, and found the bag with for the morsels.  She called me a few minutes later and said that yes, the bag does have a warning saying that they were made on the same equipment.  Then she began apologizing profusely.  She knows about Bean’s allergy, and felt awful that she did not check the ingredients.  I kept telling her to not worry about it.  It was an honest and completely normal mistake.  I don’t necessarily like to cook, but like to bake on occasion.  Luckily I have purchased morsels before, and have checked the bags to make sure which ones were safe for Katrina, otherwise I would have not thought about the morsels being safe or not either.  She said she never would have realized that something as simple as chocolate chips could contain peanuts.

I also recall hearing about a mom who made peanut butter cookies first, then rinsed the bowl and utensils and then made sugar cookies using the same bowl and utensils.  Due to the cross contamination, it caused the child who ate the sugar cookies to have a reaction.  There are so many “little” things that people who do not have food allergies just do not consider.

Although I love homemade things, store bought foods are so much easier and safer for children with food allergies.  It specifies it on the label if it does or does not contain the allergen, if it may contain the allergen, and if it was even processed on the same equipment or in the same facility as the allergen.  Problem solved.  No questions to ask and nothing to worry or wonder about.