Cooking for Oscar iBook and Blogoversary

Hooray! Today is my 2nd year Blogoversary!

 

 

 

I can’t believe I have been doing this for 2 years now, the time has gone so quickly and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sharing our experiences and recipes with you all.  The past 12 months in particular have been extremely busy, but very satisfying:

  • I registered my own domain name cookingforoscar.com and moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress,
  • I installed a new plugin and started transferring all my recipes into a printable, searchable format (I’m still working on that!),
  • I started a Facebook page for Cooking For Oscar,
  • I finally got on board with Twitter (although I’m still not a great tweeter),
  • I’ve just joined Pinterest (we’ll see how that goes),
  • and a couple of months ago I launched a joint newsletter At the FAILSAFE Table with 3 wonderful women to bring together all our FAILSAFE and RPAH Elimination Diet recipes in one place.  Thank you to the ladies at  Domestic DivaFailsafe Foodie and Real Meals.

 

I’ve also been working on one other thing – a book!  And to celebrate I’m giving away a free copy.

 

When I first started the elimination diet there were very few recipe resources and I very quickly went through them all, so I started making up my own recipes.  The over flowing folder of recipes prompted me to “do something” with them, and that’s how Cooking for Oscar was born.  I still kept hard copies of my recipes and being a lover of printed recipe books I started making my own with Blog2Print and Blurb, straight from my blog posts.  I had a few copies printed for myself and family so that they  had recipes they could cook for Oscar (i.e. my parents who still don’t look up this site!).

 

When I moved to my own domain name I had to change the way I made the books, so they were more like a recipe book than a blog book.  I decided that if I was going to produce a “proper” recipe book I might as well put it out there and see if anyone else would like one too.  So here it is: Recipes For Oscar, Our Family Favourites; available as an iBook for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch or as a soft cover book (see the preview at the bottom of this post).

 

The recipes are are a mixture of new and old recipes and range from Elimination / FAILSAFE diet suitable through to challenges and the re-introduction phase.  All of these recipes are on my blog and will remain there for now, although my site is getting very large and I may have to start archiving older content soon.  The book would make a great gift to family and friends who want to cook for you but don’t know what they are looking for.

Both books are available in the Blurb book store.  The iBook does only work on the apple devices listed above.  Blurb are working on other ebook formats and once they are released I will make Recipes for Oscar available in those formats as well.  The soft cover version is printed in full colour on high quality, glossy paper.  Each copy of the book is printed individually as it is ordered, so it is more expensive than a book of the same size in a book store. If you still want one I suggest you sign up to Blurb and register to receive emails from them.  They quite regularly have discount offers that can be applied to any book in the book store, so it’s worth waiting for.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Cooking for Oscar over the last 2 years.  Thank you for your subscriptions, likes, follows, pins, comments, emails and suggestions.  I’m looking forward to the next 12 months and hope you enjoy it too!

 

For your chance to win a copy of the ibook version all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling my why you would like to win  the book.  The winning entry will be drawn at random.  Entry is open to anyone who leaves a comment, but please remember the ibook will only work on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.

Entries close midnight Tuesday 14th August.  The winner will be notified by email and  will be published on my Facebook page once confirmed.  The winner must reply within 7 days or the prize will be redrawn.

There are also some free copies available to anyone with a blog or website who would like to do a book review.  If interested, please contact me by email: [email protected].

Sandra

Post update: This competition is now closed.  Congratulations to Kristie!

The preview for the book can be seen on the Blurb book store.

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35 Responses to Cooking for Oscar iBook and Blogoversary

  1. Claire says:

    Congratulations on your book! It is wonderful to have a resource like this for FAILSAFERS. We need more variety in our cooking in our house. We have four kids and have been moderate Failsafe for a couple of years and have two with FM. Need a boost to go further and try an elimination diet and this might be it.
    Good luck with the book’s success
    Thanks

  2. Rhana Maher says:

    Hi Sandra,
    Well done. You are making my job a lot easier as a mum to a little girl with intolerances to dairy and soy. Cooking is easier and my family can eat the same things. How can I grab a copy of the book and how much is it?

    • Oscars Mum says:

      Hi Rhana,
      the book is available online from Blurb books, the link is in the post above. At the moment the ibook is $6.99 and the print book is $46.45 plus postage. It’s worth signing up to blurb and waiting until they have a discount offer (which happens regularly) and you can apply it to any book on their site.

  3. Amelia says:

    Great to see the recipes being released as a book, well done! Winning a copy would be a great help for my family. We’ve been Failsafe for over a year now and hoping to branch out with new recipes and very slooooowly add in some mod sals and amines as we go. Thanks for all you have done for families like ours by running your site, there is such great inspiration on your pages.

  4. Mariella Thompson says:

    Congratulations on the release of your new book, Sandra!
    My husband has not been offically diagnosed with salicylate sensitivity; we happened across it by chance at a recent party, and the guests seated at our table started talking about it – the symptoms exactly described those of my husbands. They kindly emailed us all the info they had on the subject.
    I had been saying for the last 9 years that my cooking seemed to make my husband sick, no matter what is was or how healthy I cooked. Now I know I was right! Thinking that salads and veggies were going to improve his health, I now know that most of the veggies and fruits I was giving him were making him even sicker.
    I’m of European descent, so you can imagine how difficult it has been for me to come up with food combinations that are inspiring and tasty and varied that wouldn’t set off his allergies… I would SOOOO love to win a copy of your book to help out with meal-time decisions.
    Wishing you every success… I’ll be looking for it in stores, and will also advise its release to the lovely couple we met at the party.
    Mariella

    • Oscars Mum says:

      Thank you Mariella. I felt exactly the same after Oscar was diagnosed. By the time he was 10 months he was eating a huge variety of foods, including curries and spicy stir fries. I was really proud of how he loved trying new foods and there nothing he would try 🙂 Little did I know!

  5. Mel Potter says:

    What a godsend! A cookbook to help my whole family, with four kids (6 and under) with food sensitivities, eczema & allergies. Thank you for your inspiration & sharing your recipes. Cooking Failsafe helps my second child in particular, she was hospitalized for wet dressings 3 times a day to 100% of her body including her face due to severe eczema because of her sensitivity & allergy to many foods!! Life’s better for her & our whole family cooking Failsafe! 🙂

    • Oscars Mum says:

      That’s really great to hear Mel. Oscar’s eczema is quite mild, but it drives him nuts, so it must be such a relief for you to seen it improve. Thank you for the feedback on the site and recipes.

  6. estelle says:

    Finding recipes that the whole family like whilst on FAILSAFE has been such a challenge until I found your site. To be able to have a book of all the recipes together would make life even easier ~ no longer would I dread having to make something for dinner…… just pick up the book and have a browse. Please keep up the good work; you have been a life saver!

  7. karen gold says:

    Hi Sandra

    Having just started on this journey, I have found your site and others invaluable!! My daughter loves your crackers and as we struggle to find savoury snacks for school, they have been a godsend..I keep finding that things that in the Rpah book change ingredients and then are no longer FS so receipes and ideas from scratch, I know I am on the right track!! I would love to win your book to add to my slowly growing collection.

    • Oscars Mum says:

      Thank you Karen. I found savoury foods difficult as well. It was easy to make sweet foods (so glad sugar wasn’t off the list) but savoury recipes were a lot harder to come by. Good luck with the diet and competition.

  8. Nat says:

    COngratulations and what a fantastic resource! I would love to win this as we are just starting this journey and collecting all the info before I gather enough courage to go for it!

    Thanks
    N

    • Oscars Mum says:

      Thank you Nat. It’s a great idea to spend some time planning and preparing before you start, you’ll give yourself the best possible chance. Good luck!

  9. Kristie McKibben says:

    Congrats to you!
    I would love to win a copy of this book to get more recipe ideas for our family of five….with the usual never ending lists of issues.
    Thx fr the chance

  10. Peta says:

    I’d love a copy. This is our second time around at failsafe and I still struggle with recipes 🙁

    • Oscars Mum says:

      It can be really hard Peta, I hope it goes better this time. Good luck for the competition.

  11. Andrea says:

    Your book looks amazing!! I’m new to the whole elmination diet thing (Week 3), we haven’t started challenges. But I’m struggling with ideas until I came across you. I’m determined to see it through and your recipes are great and gives me inspiration to continue, so many thanks. 🙂

    • Oscars Mum says:

      I’m really glad you’ve been able to find some inspiration here Andrea. Good luck with the food challenges.

  12. Mari says:

    Congratulations Sandra, I will most certainly buy your recipe book!. Your site was the first I found after I discovered my intolerances 13 months ago and I was beyond grateful! And your No Tomato Sauce, oh my, what an inspired life-saver!!! Thankyou.

    • Oscars Mum says:

      Thank you so much Mari, I love getting feedback like that and I’m really pleased the book appeals to you.

  13. Mandy says:

    I’ve only just discovered the minefield of additives, preservatives, intolerances etc while going with my gut feeling about my son’s eczema. Any help would be appreciated!!!!!

    • Oscars Mum says:

      Hi Mandy,
      if you have a look at my Getting Started page you’ll find some tips on how to start an elimination diet. Under Resources there are also a lot of books and online forums that can provide great support. If you are planning to do the elimination diet I would highly recommend using a dietitian to help you through the elimination phase and food challenges.

  14. Kathryn says:

    I would love to win a copy of your book as my husband was misdiagnosed with Psoriasis for over 20 years and was given all sorts of drugs to “cure”.
    Finally we worked out it was caused by food allergy and food additives. Always keep for more recipes and suggestions.

    • Oscars Mum says:

      It’s great that you and your husband have finally found the cause Kathryn. You’ll find lots recipes here and I heaps more ideas to try out.

  15. Siobhan says:

    Congratulations!! I would love to win a copy of your book to find delicious recipes that will feed my whole family safely, including my husband who is proving to be the most difficult to feed on our failsafe journey 🙂

    • Oscars Mum says:

      Thanks Siobhan. I have a lot of people tell me their husbands liked one of my recipes they cooked, so hopefully you’ll find some too.

  16. Susan says:

    Congratulations! Great to see this wonderful resource become more accessible to a lot more people. I see it as a great gift to anyone with kids – everyone needs this, its good for everyone to be on a failsafe diet once in a while! So now I can move on from the famous No Tomato Tomato sauce and try other recipes–hurray!!

    • Oscars Mum says:

      thank you Susan. I can’t believe how popular the No-Tomato Sauce recipe has become! I’m sure you’ll find some other good ones here as well.

  17. Rona says:

    Well done Sandra! So excited for you in releasing your book, what a wonderful achievement! Looking forward to getting a copy. 🙂

  18. Megan says:

    Hi, I’d love to win a copy of Recipes for Oscar! It looks like it would be so useful in cooking for my son, who is has many food sensitivities, including salicylates & amines. Thanks for the opportunity! Cheers, Megan