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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 agree with most of the other comments, it is not your responsibility to cater to every single individual who comes on this site. You clearly have a passion for trying to be inclusive as much as possible, and moms of children who have food allergies have to learn to adapt recipes for their kids. 9 out of 10 recipes I use come from your site, you are inspirational, wonderful and amazing! I do feel for parents of children who have nut allergies, but am confident that because they love their kids they will do everything possible to adapt the way they cook, eat, and live for the betterment of their children (the way most parents do, regardless of allergies). On another note, can I substitute unprocessed bran for the bran flakes? I would never eat bran flakes as a cereal but I use unprocessed bran in a lot of muffin recipes.
Catherine please realize there are a ton of us who love your blog, recipes and passion for getting kids to eat healthy foods. I feel your site is a wonderful inspiration and I am lucky to have two boys with no food allergies. I swear every recipe I read you are always leaving suggestions on how to go dairy free, egg free, etc. In an age where almost everyone has a blog there must be sites dedicated to nut free recipes, there is no reason to complain about your site.
The nut issue is such a tricky one. I feel compassion for moms who have the terrible worry of a serious allergy…but think you are so right in pointing out the myriad options in terms of seed butters. This recipe looks terrific.
I agree, Catherine, I’ve been reading Weelicious since my now 3-year old was starting his ‘solids’ at 6 months and I was frantically scouring the web trying to find how to make my own baby purees that were a bit more exciting than just mashed peas! Several years later, I also have a 15 month old and your site is the first one to turn to when I need to find healthy meals and snacks for both a young and older toddler! I can’t count how many times I have used your recipes for playgroups and have had friends ask me to email it around later. I also credit your site for actually teaching me about substitutes! I now have a pantry stocked full of wheat bran, spelt flour, pepitas, honey, maple syrup, sunflower seed butter and coconut flakes because of you! You aren’t a healh professional claiming that every recipe is safe for every child, you are doing what is healthy and fun for your kids and have a passion for sharing it w/ others. If they are too PB-based, then it’s our responsibility to find that substitute and I find the Weelicious community really gracious in sharing ideas! Thank you for all you do!
that email you received really burns my butter. this is your blog your thoughts by uploading everyday you let us into your life and I appreciate the time you take out of your day to share a little of your creativity with the rest of the world . that said most blogs are meant to be an inspiration for the readers not a life manual, some people forget that. catherine it is not your job to help other mothers find solutions for the child dietary needs. what she wanted you to do was to make her life easier. this is your life this is your blog please don’t ever feel that you have to change because there are people out there who appreciate the information you give us. there’s always going to be someone trying to find something negative in a person who is doing positive things
i totally agree and believe you promote other things. not to mention, if you are somewhat knowledgeable about replacement you would know that nut butter and sunflower butter are interchangeable. i know this and we have no allergies. in fact, I just read this the other day online.
not to mention i searched ‘peanut butter’ on your site the other day b/c i knew i could change it up and wouldn’t you know you have a picture of sunflower butter-trader joes i believe-and notes about how versatile it is.
Catherine, I feel so badly that someone emailed you about your recipes saying that they weren’t diverse enough in such a harsh way. you spend so much of your time creating them for people. also, the readers spend time giving substitutions.i think that if there is an allergy, one can look at the comments and can be helped by them. not to mention you take the time, yourself to comment many times.
I, myself cook nut free b/c of daycare and sending in foods (which we can not do w/ nuts) and i would feel SO BADLY if somehow peanut oil was transferred from my dd to someone w/ an allergy. i know that this allergy is stressful and hard to deal with and I really hope this mom was just having a bad day as you are great, Catherine and these are your recipes that people can choose to look at and can be modified often, if necessary. You are doing a great job–if you needed to hear that and obviously you are writing recipes for the general public, one one type of diet….
Mandi, in my opinion, sunflower seed butter tastes close to identical to peanut butter, so if your son doesn’t like nutty flavors, he definitely won’t like sunflower seed butter.
I just received my copy of your Weelicious cookbook and it is lovely and interesting and I really like all the recipes. However I did notice that A LOT of your recipes use PB or other nut butters. My son hates anything with a nutty flavor or texture so all nut butters are out. We don’t get sunflower butter here in Israel but I may just have a go at making some myself. Thanks for this post.
Yes, dried fruit!
Is this a typo error?
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped fried fruit, optional
Should it be dried fruit?
Thank you and have a nice day.
Thank you they sound delicious! Will be making them soon for my almost 6years son:)
You can find the bran flakes in the cereal aisle of your local grocery! (Think Raisin Bran without the raisins!) I did get mine at Trader Joe’s!
Agree with all the above posts. Catherine, you are a such great inspiration to all of us and kudos to you for the hard work you do and create/ teach us to make healthy meals.
My elder one has no nut allergies and the younger one has been advised to stay nut free till he is 3 years old. These Sunflower butter Bran muffins would be perfect fit for my kids. Will definitely try it soon.
Where do I buy the Bran flakes – Trader Joes/ Fresh Market?
http://www.foodallergywalk.org/site/TR?p…
2012 Walk in Atlanta, GA
I’m a newcomer to your wonderful website and, in light of the scolding email you received, wanted to send you an uplifting note reassuring you that you are not responsible for feeding all the kiddos in the world. As a volunteer in my boys’ schools from elementary to high school, I’ve had parents lecture me because their child’s special dietary needs were not specifically addressed. The first couple of times I was hurt and embarrassed because the whole entire purpose of my being there was because I cared. Then I realized that it wasn’t my job to take care of those kids with special dietary needs. It was their parents job to both provide a safe, healthy meal for them and to teach them that, because of their allergies, they would have to learn to take care of and provide for themselves. Yelling at us was a lot easier for those parents than finding a solution on their own. Thank you for the time you devote to researching and experimenting and ultimately providing recipes to make my day easier and my child’s meals more interesting and exciting in such a well organized, clean, attractive and pleasing blog. I appreciate all the time and love you give by dedicating yourself to this helpful, useful and attractive blog.
I have been a weelicious fan for about two years. I also have a son with sever peanut allergies. With any recipe using nut butters or nuts I find a way to get creative and sub with flax or pumpkin seeds. We love sun butter, and WOW butter. sunbutter can be tricky and turn green in some recipes. I am always impressed when someone chooses to educate themselves rather than just fight against an issue. It really makes a difference. I am walking in Atlanta, Ga to raise awareness for food allergies. Please feel free to make a donation to our team “peanut free walking feet” http://www.faanwalk.org