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In which food allergies continue to suck
Dec. 18th, 2013 01:32 pmYeah, I'm bad about posting. LJ still won't load from my house, because yes, I'm still stuck on dialup. No better future in sight. But I'm here right now, right? That counts. I was pretty bad about the not-writing pledge thing, because it turns out not writing is really depressing. But I don't want to talk about that.
Here's what I want to talk about: Weight Watchers tried to kill me last week.
Yeah, I know, right? Unbelievable.
Over the last year, my sensitivity to peppers has increased substantially. It is now bad enough that if I can smell the peppers, I have an immediate adrenalin/anxiety/asthma reaction. This means that I spend a LOT of time standing in grocery stores reading the damned ingredients lists on things, and you'd be really surprised at how many foods have bell peppers in them. Anyway, so I bought a Weight Watchers Smart Ones Thai Noodle thing for my lunch, and nowhere, anywhere in the ingredients, were peppers listed. So I bought it, ate it, and my face swelled up like a fucking balloon. Three benadryl later (yes, I have an epi-pen; no, I really don't want to have to use it) I called WW's customer service line to confirm if, indeed, it had peppers in it that weren't listed. I mean, I knew it had peppers in it, because GIANT HEAD. But the question was, was it bells, or has my sensitivity expanded (as predicted) to include other peppers? That's kind of important to know. But they couldn't tell me. On the ingredients list was the item "spice", and they had no idea what that was. Because that's really comforting, knowing that they can't even tell you what they put in their own food, even when they just nearly killed you with it.*
So, fuck Weight Watchers. I can't trust their ingredients lists. But now I'm thinking, can I trust anybody's? Anyone who uses catchall crap descriptors like "spice", at any rate? And that's a lot of packaged food makers. And that's really depressing. )-:
What I think this means is that, inevitably, I am drawing nearer to the point where I need to start cooking the vast majority of my own food, because it's the only way I can trust I know what's in it. I like cooking. I'm pretty good at cooking. But you know what? Cooking takes time, and time is one of my scarcest resources. As it is, writing time comes out of sleep time. If I start cooking a lot, what gives? I have some good crockpot recipes that have the advantage of being mostly hands-off, as long a I can get in the habit of planning enough in advance, but not enough that they won't get dull fast.
All of which is my longwinded way of saying, hey, I think I need some new recipes. Reasonably healthy. Not too complicated. Not involving peppers. Got one? Want to share? Please do!
---
(* but they did offer me coupons so I could buy more of their food, because when playing russian roulette, why pull the trigger only once?)
Here's what I want to talk about: Weight Watchers tried to kill me last week.
Yeah, I know, right? Unbelievable.
Over the last year, my sensitivity to peppers has increased substantially. It is now bad enough that if I can smell the peppers, I have an immediate adrenalin/anxiety/asthma reaction. This means that I spend a LOT of time standing in grocery stores reading the damned ingredients lists on things, and you'd be really surprised at how many foods have bell peppers in them. Anyway, so I bought a Weight Watchers Smart Ones Thai Noodle thing for my lunch, and nowhere, anywhere in the ingredients, were peppers listed. So I bought it, ate it, and my face swelled up like a fucking balloon. Three benadryl later (yes, I have an epi-pen; no, I really don't want to have to use it) I called WW's customer service line to confirm if, indeed, it had peppers in it that weren't listed. I mean, I knew it had peppers in it, because GIANT HEAD. But the question was, was it bells, or has my sensitivity expanded (as predicted) to include other peppers? That's kind of important to know. But they couldn't tell me. On the ingredients list was the item "spice", and they had no idea what that was. Because that's really comforting, knowing that they can't even tell you what they put in their own food, even when they just nearly killed you with it.*
So, fuck Weight Watchers. I can't trust their ingredients lists. But now I'm thinking, can I trust anybody's? Anyone who uses catchall crap descriptors like "spice", at any rate? And that's a lot of packaged food makers. And that's really depressing. )-:
What I think this means is that, inevitably, I am drawing nearer to the point where I need to start cooking the vast majority of my own food, because it's the only way I can trust I know what's in it. I like cooking. I'm pretty good at cooking. But you know what? Cooking takes time, and time is one of my scarcest resources. As it is, writing time comes out of sleep time. If I start cooking a lot, what gives? I have some good crockpot recipes that have the advantage of being mostly hands-off, as long a I can get in the habit of planning enough in advance, but not enough that they won't get dull fast.
All of which is my longwinded way of saying, hey, I think I need some new recipes. Reasonably healthy. Not too complicated. Not involving peppers. Got one? Want to share? Please do!
---
(* but they did offer me coupons so I could buy more of their food, because when playing russian roulette, why pull the trigger only once?)
