Yep, my new book is out and I’m pretty sure everyone needs to buy it RIGHT NOW. I mean, it came out last week, but I was pretty busy wrangling spring breakers so I’m just now officially saying it on this blog. Jaysus, children are needy, are they not? How old do they have to be to go grocery shopping on their own? Is 11 good? Because, holy Mary, mother…

Which, actually, is how this book came about. You see, I’m a mom (those are my kids I’m complaining about in case it wasn’t clear) and I’m exhausted. I’m also hungry, as are they. My big gluten-free transition was difficult enough on my own, but once the kiddos started having opinions on what I put in their little mouths it became a family issue. A family issue that came to a head one day when I was trying to figure out how to pack a gluten-free, tree nut-free, peanut-free, spinach-free, kosher lunch that my kids might actually consume rather than squish to the bottom of their lil’ lunch boxes, only to be peeled out by yours truly at the end of the day. It was also around this time when my daughter was breaking out in hives from strawberries and citrus so I was on my last grape (potential choking hazard), ready to give up.

And I was the lady who wrote about this stuff! And loves to cook! And is sympathetic to all diets! So if I was losing my shit and thinking about ordering pepperoni pizza every day for my kid’s lunch boxes and risking the wrath of the head of our Jewish Day School, I realized there was no way that I was alone in all of this. No ‘effing way.

It was also around this time I heard the following from people I knew, or were in school meetings with, or was maybe even related to:

“A peanut allergy? Oh, yeah, my kid has a broccoli allergy. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Food allergies are such a white people problem.”

(A giant eye roll when I mentioned a kid I knew who had tree nut allergies.)

“How come we never had food allergies when we were kids?”

These comments were not meant kindly. I mean, doi.

Being gluten-free so I don’t drop dead (eventually), and knowing parents of kids who are truly terrified to send their children to sleep away camp, or even a birthday party, I realized that we were two sides at war and there would be no winners.

So I set out to write a book that offers up the sympathy all parents need when we have to hustle around to feed our own children, and the classmates who absolutely eat different food, whether by choice or by necessity. Whether we’re the frightened parent, the annoyed parent, or both at any given time, we need to work together. I suggest we work together while enjoying some Sunbutter Buckeyes, or any of the magical ice pops in my book (thank you Maura Wall Hernandez!). And if we need to add some sparkling wine to make it all go down that much smoother, let’s do it.

Come together, parents! We can do this.

Get your copy of Bake Sales Are My B*tch: Win the Food Allergy Wars with 60+ Recipes to Keep Kids Safe and Parents Sane, today!

Or here. Or here.

The audio book, too!