Dr. Rana Awdish

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cookies 3 Tbsp butter, softened 1/2 cup brown sugar 8 oz. canned pumpkin 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1 egg 1 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp ginger pinch ground allspice pinch ground cloves pinch salt Frosting 8 oz. cream cheese 1 cup powdered sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla extract pinch of salt Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar with wire whisk. Add egg, vanilla and pumpkin, and mix until smooth. In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients with spices, then add wet ingredients to dry bowl. Mix gently. Spoon onto parchment-lined baking sheets and cook 10 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Mix frosting with wire whisk. Spread flat surface of cookie with cream cheese frosting and place another cookie on it to make sandwich. Allergen info: As written this dish is free from soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and shellfish. This dish contains wheat, dairy and eggs.  — Recipe taken from www.theallergycookbook.com

Doctor pens online
book after developing
reactions to certain foods

By Jeremy Carroll
C & G Staff Writer

It began with very vague symptoms. A shortness of breath after some meals. A slight numbness in the mouth. Then Dr. Rana Awdish, a physician at Henry Ford Hospital, broke out into a rash while eating lunch one day at the hospital.

At 32, Awdish was diagnosed with allergies to peanuts, soy, tree nuts and sesame.

“I felt like a completely different person,” she said about eliminating those foods from her diet.

More than 12 million Americans have a food allergy, and generally, the only effective way to treat the allergy is to avoid foods with the ingredient in it. That’s sometimes easier said than done, said Awdish, who counted Thai food with peanuts, Asian food with soy sauce, peanut butter and chocolate, which typically contains soy lecithin in it, among her favorite things to eat.

“I think my diet was probably 90 percent peanut butter and chocolate,” she joked.

Awdish quickly noticed that her family and friends were afraid to cook for her, so she developed a cook book with various recipes to hand out as presents.

“My mom turned to me and said, ‘I think this would be useful to more people than just me,’” she said.

Awdish turned the book, a collection of approximately 75 recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, into an online book, available at www.theallergycookbook.com.

Each recipe is labeled to show what specific allergen is avoided, and most target the eight most common allergies: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and shellfish.

Awdish, now 34 and a former Royal Oak resident who recently moved to Northville, said she hopes others can learn from her mistakes.

“Trial and error isn’t the best way to learn when you are dealing with something that could be deadly,” she said.

Among the best suggestions: read labels closely and eat natural foods.

“When you have to read labels for everything you buy, you don’t want to read something that has 50 ingredients in it, because at some point, you’ll run into the word soy,” she said.

The Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield has developed a demonstration kitchen to show people how to cook healthy foods, and will target specific allergies later this summer, said Joy Blumenau-Bebry who runs the kitchen.

The kitchen buys all of its food fresh and from local sources.

“We are finding people are developing more and more conditions, so we are trying to bring back fresh food,” Blumenau-Bebry said.

In addition to healthy eating classes, there will be classes specifically targeting allergies, in addition to gluten-free diets and diets for those who are lactose intolerant. The classes are $49 each.

Awdish said many of her favorite foods can be made with natural ingredients, such as using chocolate without the soy lecithin and using sunflower seeds instead of peanuts to make a substitute for peanut butter.

“What amazes people is how good and normal the food tastes,” she said. “It tastes the same.”

The online book is $12.95, and the Web site, www.theallergycookbook.com, also features a blog with free recipes. For more information on Henry Ford’s demonstration kitchen, call (248) 325-3890.