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I don’t receive negative email very often, but last week I received a doozy. A mom who is new to weelicious and has a child with severe nut allergies said she was disappointed with weelicious’ over reliance on nut butters in school lunch. I don’t feel that I’ve ever aggressively promoted nut butters (in fact I go to great lengths to try and offer substitution ideas and even dedicated a section of the website to nut, dairy, and egg-free recipes), but because they’re inexpensive, have a long shelf life, are a great source of protein, and loved by most kids, they can be a life saver for parents.
Coincidentally, the very same day I received the email from the concerned mother, I was informed that there was a child in one of my children’s classes with a severe peanut allergy. In light of these two events I wanted to understand more about the subject of nut allergies. The first thing I learned was the difference between airborne and non-airborne nut allergies. Children with an airborne nut allergy can get extremely sick from just being in the proximity of a peanut. Children with non-airborne nut allergies are generally OK to sit next to a child with nuts in their lunch, but could have an averse reaction if they ingest them. Non-airborne allergies get even trickier since nut butters can easily smear on a table or spread to common classroom objects via sticky fingers and if a child with a nut allergy accidentally ingests nuts by touching something contaminated and putting their fingers in their mouth, they could become ill or worse. What you realize very quickly, is that whether airborne or not, the risk of a child getting sick is almost equal.
The good news for parents of children with nut allergies (as well as parents of non-allergic children in nut-free schools) is that many seeds — sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, and flax among them — are fantastic, high in protein substitutions for nut-free classrooms and can be used in most recipes calling for nut butters. I’ve used sunflower butter for years in recipes like World’s Greatest PB&J, PB&J yogurt and Banana Dog Bites.
These Sunflower Butter Bran Muffins are packed with tons of fiber and are protein-rich to keep kids sated during the day. And since sunflower butter tastes very similar to peanut butter, most kids won’t be able to tell the difference. That’s good news for everyone in the classroom!
Sunflower Butter Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups bran flakes (from the cereal aisle)
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1/2 cup sunflower butter
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped dried fruit, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a bowl, combine the bran flakes and milk and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in the egg, oil and sunflower butter.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Fold in the mini chocolate chips, if desired.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Nutrition
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I also have a child with Many allergies. I love your ideas and will try to adapt them
You can substitute in most recipes. I haven’t tested sunflower butter specifically in all the recipes on this site, but I have had success with it when I’ve tried!
yes!! It tastes the same and has same texture.
Call I substitute peanut butter with sunflower seed butter in all the recipes that call for PB? My sons’ school is nut free.
Amazing facts about nut allergies! I am definitely try this recipe. Also, the bran flakes will help my daughter “go” regular I hope.:)
Hey.. first off, I just LOVE you and your recipes. I’m a mom who does have a child with severe food allergies and never once have I thought it’s your responisiblity to provide/promote recipes for him so that’s he’s more “included”. Never once have I expected for other mom’s, schools, birthday parties, etc to cater to us bc really it’s our deal and the deck we’ve been dealt. Guess I’m kind of over all these parents getting upset with others for not catering to their child. And believe me I get it… again my son’s food allergies are SEVERE. I guess my point is you are doing a fantastic job making cooking fun, healthy and exciting for so many of us out there. Don’t sweat the negative emails and keep doing the great job you are doing!
Ditto to everything you said! I also have a mix of nut allergies in my house, plus egg – but I don’t flip out when every single recipe in my parenting magazines call for one or the other. In fact, my son is actually more severely allergic to egg (closer to the reaction people think of when they hear ‘nut allergy’) than peanuts. Why are so many parents of nut allergy kids so demanding? My son recently outgrew a dairy allergy that was so severe he couldn’t touch a drop of milk. It was certainly a pain, but I didn’t go ripping bottles out of babies hands and berating the parents for allowing their child to drink a dangerous substance in my child’s presence.
I have a child with peanut/tree nut allergies, and 2 children who do not have allergies and LOVE peanut butter…so I understand how parents on both sides feel! Luckily, my son does not have issues with being around nuts, he just can’t eat them. Thanks for offering a variety of recipes so that everyone can find what works for them. As for the mom who sent the email, she should know that there are numerous substitutions she can use in recipes to make them allergy safe for her child. (Such as Sunbutter, Wowbutter,etc.) My son loves Biscoff! Unfortunately, it lacks the protein of the other subs. My son is also allergic to eggs, but I would not complain to someone for putting eggs in their recipes. I just make the substitutions as needed.
Catherine, I’ve always felt you go out of your way to provide recipes that are kid-friendly and easily adaptable to all kinds of substitutions to accomodate the many, many, many food allergies out there. I feel bad that a mom took you to task for what is possibly the easiest ingredient substitution there is. I truly feel for the parents of kids with allergies, and for the kids too, but you do a fantastic job and I hope you don’t change a thing!
Yes, dried fruit! My brain these days… Thank you!
The recipe calls for “chopped fried fruit, optional”. Can I assume this was meant to be chopped “dried” fruit? If not, can you give some more direction on this? Thanks!
I recently found a nut butter substitute that I like a whole lot better than sunflower butter. It’s called Wowbutter and is soy based. It is carried at Walmart and Whole Foods. Love your site!
You could use peanut butter or almond butter in place of the sunflower butter!
I live overseas, and I have never seen sunflower butter.
Is this something I could replace with peanut butter?
Or is that too strong a flavor and should I use something else?
Jay-Welcome to the blog. In the game at Sunflower we used a black pen, a red pen, a dollar, a stick, and a white stone; in the WAYK logo above you can see slimiar objects. We often use these exact props, whenever we can. Also, of course, keys, if available, work nicely.
Looks like a great recipe. Even those of us whose kids can eat nuts often need to pack nut-free snacks and lunches for childcare/school situations, so its great to have options. I am wondering if that sugar could be cut down (or eliminated entirely) by swapping in 1-2 super-ripe, mashed bananas, which would pair great with that flavor profile! Will give it a try for my toddlers!