McDonalds Brought Me To Tears Today…

I debated doing a video, but besides feeling run down, sick, and overwhelmed, I am pretty upset. Through the evolution of my allergies becoming numerous and life threatening, I have had to, basically, go through the stages of mourning for my old life, to what my life is now. I do not function like a regular person. Every day I wake up, it’s like playing another game of Russian Roulette. I have so many anaphylactic reactions. I have become accustomed to living like this, as has my family. It’s just a way of life now. Unfortunately, occasionally, a situation will pop up that brings me to tears, and I feel like I am back to the stage, feeling like I am useless and in the way.

I cannot go to many places, but I can take my family to McDonalds and Cracker Barrell. So, I normally take my son and mother out to lunch at McDonalds, I have not had any issues overall, except for recently. They changed to adding kiosks in al of their stores. I guess every store will eventually get 2 kiosks. Now, I have informed the employees that because of my health issues, which affect my vision, that I cannot and will not be able to use the kiosks. I have a hard time focusing in to see the writing on the kiosks, and I do not want to, and cannot risk touching the kiosk screen, that a constant stream of hands touch daily. I could easily have an anaphylactic reaction this way. I cannot even imagine what will happen to people during flu season, yuck! They really need to add their wipe stations at every kiosk, as well as a trash can.

Anyhow, I have taken my group to McDonalds twice this week. It started Monday, with the crew ignoring me, and making me wait a long period before taking my order at the counter. The just ignored me. Today, it was blatant, very blatant. The same people, turned their backs, and completely ignored me. It took almost 10 minutes for someone to come and take my order. A person that had been cleaning, had to come from the other side of the lobby to help me. The people behind the counter and the person by the kiosks just turned their backs, and ignored me. No one would say a word to me, just made me feel like I was a horrible person. I may not look disabled, but I am. I am highly dependent, and this really has hurt me to the core. I almost had to leave, and not take my family out, because I couldn’t get any help. They were doing it on purpose, even if they try to deny it. The behavior is not acceptable. Being rude and denying service to anyone is really not acceptable. I know every establishment has the right to refuse service to anyone, but just say that. Do not treat people like they are nothing. Treating someone who is disabled like they are a joke, or nothing, or a nuisance is morally wrong. Before this week, they kept loudly trying to make me use the kiosks. They kept trying to make me feel guilty, saying I was going to get an employee fired, and so on. I am sorry, but my ability to stay alive is more important. Little do they know, or care, that I have had a sting of severe, and mild reactions. Monday I woke up and had a sink full of blood from my mouth because of it. My skin on my face would break out and ooze from infection at the spur of the moment. I am battling an infection, and am in a lot of pain. I am just trying to function as a person, a mom, a wife. But, to these inconsiderate people, I am a person that is to be highly disrespected, ignored, a nothing. Little do they know that I had to fight back tears twice while there today, and then succumb to silent tears at home while writing this blog.

Being a strong mom for my son is a top priority for me. My family has, and has to give up a lot, to live with me. Taking my son and mom out to McDonalds is our way of getting out into the world frequently. It isn’t much, but it means a lot to us.

Maybe they secretly want to see me have an anaphylactic reaction. Maybe they are just so wrapped up into themselves, they can be nothing but mean and selfish. Maybe they get off on treating people with disabilities like trash. Only they know for sure. This lady, however, will not stand for it. I have dealt with a lot of negligence from stores and restaurants over the years, causing me real physical harm. Today was the straw that broke the camels back. The McDonalds that is so rude, and will not tolerate people with needs, for me, anyhow, is store # 4570, according to my receipt.

These opinions and facts are mine personally. I cannot speak for how anyone else feels, or has been treated.

Solid kitchen tools. – Secutta Direct’s Cooking Utensils Set-Stainless Steel Kitchen Tools.

I do a lot of cooking. Most everything from scratch due to severe food allergies, too. I am very picky about my cooking utensils because of this. I really can’t tolerate inferior utensils, and either donate them or throw them away. This set from Secutta Direct is absolutely fantastic. It is a heavy duty set, and I love them. You get 6 utensils in this set and they are: one spatula, one soup ladle, one skimmer, one meat fork, one slotted turner, and one egg beater/whisk. These are made out of a thick stainless steel and have hard wooden handles on them. The stainless goes into the handle, and the wood is riveted to it. Then, each handle has a stainless steel piece riveted into the top of the handles, with a whole, so they can be hung up. They are all also far from small in stature. For example, the soup ladle is 13 ½” long, and it is one of the shorter ones. Men will not feel like they are holding tiny utensils when cooking with these. My husband loves them, especially the whisk. He has been wanting a more durable whisk, and that is what he has with this one. The slotted spatula has a serrated side to it. It is a smooth serration though, but you can cut into a sausage, or the like with it, while cooking. I love the solid spatula. It is large and in charge. The sides are raised a little, so if you are trying to reach into the oven to turn something over, your item won’t just slide off. I hate when that happens. I also really love the very large skimmer, which I call the slotted spoon, lol. It’s great for veggies, potatoes, frying food. It’s the best utensil for all of these. I have never had one this size or shape, and it’s perfect. Stainless is such a perfect material for the kitchen environment as well. It doesn’t naturally harbor bacteria, mold, or fungus. It’s so, so easy to clean. I hand wash everything, but these can go in the dishwasher. Always make sure the area where the wood and stainless meet, has been cleaned thoroughly, though. All of my rivets were done nice and tight except for my spatula. It has a tiny bit of play in it, and I mean tiny. It does not affect the usage at all, thank goodness. I really like the shape of it. I would have to say, that that is the only negative I could find in my set of utensils. They are definitely a welcomed addition to my family, and will get a lot of use.

I was afforded the opportunity to review this product, at a discount, in exchange for an unbiased and honest review: Secutta Direct’s Cooking Utensils Set-Stainless Steel Kitchen Tools Set Of 6 With Wooden Handle For Home Professionals.

If you would like to purchase this awesome product, it can be found here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Utensils-Set-Stainless-Professionals-Serve-Suitable-Resistant/dp/B01E0OKCOA?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

The perfect pans! – Green Earth Frying Pan 3-Piece Set by Ozeri.

I love, love, love Ozeri pans. I use them all of the time. They are dependable, cook evenly, and are easy to clean. They are thick, and durable, and a joy to cook on. This set of 3 Ozeri pans really gives you all the sizes a family will need. In this set you will get 1 – 8” pan, 1 – 10” pan, and 1 – 12” pan. They are fairly deep too. Not shallow like the usual pans on the market. The coating on these pans is pretty awesome, if you ask me. They all have a honeycomb pattern and texture to it, and are coated with a ceramic non-stick coating. This coating is quite impressive. It is a green product too. The coating is 100% PTFE, PFOA and APEO free. Which means it is heavy metal and chemical free!!!!! I love that. I have an insane amount of life threatening allergies, mainly related to food, and all of the preservatives and chemicals used in the industry. I have no issues with these pans whatsoever. This set even comes with thick felt pads to line the pans, so you can stack them together for easy storage, and not have to worry about damaging the coating. These pans are also aluminum pans. You can cook anything in these pans. I have cooked homemade spaghetti sauce in the large one, browned roasts, cooked different kinds of meats, made grilled cheese, pancakes, hot dogs, eggs, and omelets, and more in these pans. All without issue. My spaghetti sauce didn’t even splatter which really surprised me. It normally splatters in the other pots I make it in. These pots are really easy to clean as well. Wash it like any other nonstick surface, with a non-abrasive cleaner. Just make sure you use a degreaser soap to make sure the surface was really cleaned of grease residue. A build up will eliminate the most wanted, nonstick qualities. I personally, have never had this issue, and I just use Dawn dish soap. The handle is thick, and very durable. It is also well attached to the pan. You will not get any bending with these handles. They are each attached by two heavy duty rivets. (that’s what they look like to me.) The handles are silicone coated, afford a great grip, and don’t get hot to the touch. And, if you are lucky enough to have an induction stove, you are in luck. These pans even work with an induction cook top. They have a magnetized induction stove safe base for rapid heat transfer. I have a travel, single burner, induction cook top, and I can use these on it! For those of you that want lids, they do sell the separately. I rarely want a lid for my pans, so I haven’t ordered one yet. They are glass lids though, and also sold on Amazon. I can tell you from my personal experience over the past year that I have owned Ozeri pans. The green ceramic nonstick coating they use is more durable and more scratch resistant that regular nonstick pans. They truly cook evenly, and do a great job on my food. I have nothing but love for this product, and truly recommend them.

I was afforded the opportunity to review these for free, in exchange for an unbiased and honest review: Green Earth Frying Pan 3-Piece Set by Ozeri (8″, 10″, 12″), with Textured Ceramic Non-Stick Coating from Germany.

If you would like to purchase this set, it can be found here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/3-Piece-Ozeri-Textured-Ceramic-Non-Stick/dp/B0068SEQJE?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage