Healthy Eating and Food Allergies

[ECrew28]

Ok so I am just looking for some direction here.  I am trying to find a site, book, blog, anything really to help me try and prepare some meals and snacks for my family.  It seems food allergies are becoming more common than not these days, and unfortunately, my family too has been hindered by them.  However, it has only been in the past year, since the arrival of our 3rd child, that it has been an issue.  I personally have had a poultry allergy (chicken and turkey) my whole life.  I have been good about making sure things were made with chicken broth or have have any sort of poultry product in them.  Difficult to eat healthy, sure.  A touch more expensive, sure.  But all in all, totally doable.  However, our third child has allergies to cow milk, egg, dairy, and peanuts.  My wife has also, due to digestive issues, cut out gluten from her diet.  My wife is still breastfeeding (my son is 11 months), and so she is bound to his allergies, so as not to pass anything on in her milk (sorry if this is offensive to some, but it is very important and cost effective for my family).  Anyway, my wife is dropping a lot of weight and it is starting t concern me.  I need to be able to come up with meals and snacks that the she can eat.

Let me just say I am a horrible cook.  I was brought up on American standards of burgers, hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, and pizza.  My family never went outside the box with meals.  I am good on the grill, but have no clue in the kitchen.  I WANT to learn and experiment, I jsut have no clue what goes with what, how things are suppose to taste, and what spices help a dish.  I am just looking for some direction in this journey. 

We started kind of eating peleo since I can figure out how to cook plain meat (or just have lunch meat) as well as steam veggies coupled with some fresh fruit.  And that is helping, but I am just clueless as to what the next culinary step is for me. 

[KulshanGirl]

I might be able to help a bit.  I was vegan for 20 years, and then had to go gluten free due to a health issue.  Let me tell you Vegan + GF = starvation, kind of.  I'm eating some meat again, as well as eggs but no poultry.  Let me get some of my favorite recipes gathered together for you, a lot of what I eat would work for you   I hope you like beans.  :)

And good for her for breastfeeding through these allergies, it's tough.   

[caligulala]

I'm allergic to all tree nuts, cherries, peaches, crab and lobster. It's a real pain in ass and those are fairly easy to avoid foods, so you have my sympathies! Maybe check out some vegan cookbooks? We like Veganomicon. One section explains how to cook different ingredients and the recipes are tasty and not difficult. Cook's Illustrated is also a great resource for learning the actual cooking processes. It's how I taught myself to cook since neither of my parents could cook a lick.

Hopefully your son will outgrow some, if not all, of his allergies. I know at least a half dozen kids who had the same list of allergies as babies but have outgrown them as toddlers. That would make things easier for you guys.

[Workin' Man]

@KulshanGirl - I'd be interested in recipes too.  My wife already cooks pretty healthy but we're wanting to do better.  Not interested in vegan but would like to move to a little less meat.

[KulshanGirl]

Here are some of my favorites, some will require fiddling.  I use GF Ancient Harvest Quinoa/Corn macaroni for the Koshari and Tuscan soup recipes.  And for the Yam stew, you could substitute another nut butter or maybe tahini instead of peanut butter, or leave it out.  The pizza dough recipe is surprisingly good, I sometimes go cheeseless and sometimes add soy cheese. 

http://www.food.com/recipe/koshari-39446

http://www.food.com/recipe/black-eyed-pea-masala-116878

http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/tuscan-white-bean-spinach-soup-150898

http://red.food.com/recipe/tunisian-yam-and-red-bean-stew-slow-cooker-version-277950

http://www.food.com/recipe/canary-island-cilantro-soup-32441

http://www.food.com/recipe/bombay-black-eyed-peas-217983

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2011/02/gluten-free-pizza-crust-my-new-recipe.html

Also, Amy’s makes a really good GF and dairy free frozen burrito that’s a super quick and yummy go-to meal.  I heat one up and then top it with tomato, avocado, chopped lettuce, sunflower seeds, crumbs from the bottom of the bag of tortilla chips (or mash some up) and a drizzle of sriracha.

http://www.amys.com/products/product-detail/gluten-free/000352

In addition to those, I do a lot of eating of just … whole things.  Almonds, apples, potatos, salmon cooked simply, turkey bacon, kale, tofu, quinoa and black beans, etc.

You might also see if Kefir or yogurt  are okay, sometimes dairy allergies aren’t aggravated by those because they are “pre-digested” by the good bacterias in there.  I am really lactose intolerant, but I can do kefir and yogurt.  Same with my toddler.

Maybe add lots of extra olive oil to things, and avocado.
 
I will keep thinking!

[N]

there is a great yahoo group for people on restricted diets (due to allergy, religion, ethics, childs allergy, etc) with recipes, info, support, etc.
Its called Foodlab. if you are looking for ideas of what to eat, where to buy it, how to adapt recipes, etc, its a great resource.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/foodlab/
hth.

N

[kaeldra]

You could try some raw snacks. I recommend this book, Raw Energy, by Stephanie Tourles: http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Energy-Recipes-Smoothies-Supercharge/dp/1603424679/  The recipes are all easy to make. Some need a blender or food processor.

If it's a matter of needing more calories, I've heard of lots of people making healthy/green smoothies and adding a teaspoon of coconut oil to add healthy fat.

Dreena Burton's cookbook Let Them Eat Vegan! (http://www.amazon.com/Let-Them-Eat-Vegan-Plant-Powered/dp/0738215619/) has wheat-free and gluten-free vegan recipes - I've tried a bunch of the wheat-free baked goods and they're pretty good. The cookbook lists what it's "free" of at the top of each recipe, has lots of wheat-, gluten-, and soy- free options. The wheat-free options use spelt flour, so if she's one of the people who can tolerate spelt but not traditional wheat there will be a lot more possibilities.

[KC]

Dailygarnish.com and ohsheglows.com are my 2 favourite (mostly) vegan food blogs. The instructions are easy to follow and they offer many substitutions for different food restrictions. They also have a great search engine. Cooking can be enjoyable, hope you start having fun with it soon!

[herisff]

As a basic cooking primer, I like "The Joy of Cooking" - good illustrations and the instructions are clear. Be sure to read the entire recipe and instructions before starting to cook! You might also like the way Alton Brown talks about food, either his shows or his cookbooks. Take a look at his books (your library may have at least one) and see if his style appeals to you. He has a very forthright way of cooking.

I too have many food allergies, to the point where processed food is basically no-go for me. A resource you may be able to find at your library is "Food Allergies and Food Intolerance" by Brostoff and Gamlin (or go to a large bookstore and look through it there). It includes a chapter on the elimination diet (where you cut out foods to see if you're sensitive/intolerant to them).

Hopefully you won't need to go as far as I did. I ended up going to a tertiary level dermatologist for extensive testing. It turns out I also have contact allergies (and I work in a hospital, where there are lots of chemicals used). Luckily, nothing I'm sensitive to is job-destroying.

Figuring this stuff out takes a lot of time and energy. Be patient and re-introduce foods s-l-o-w-l-y, over weeks not days. Good luck.

[KingCoin]

While not all of his recipes will fit your specific set of restrictions, Mark Bittman specializes in simple but elegant recipes that use a minimum number of fairly common ingredients. You should pick up a fair amount of technique and pricipals by watching his videos. He supports experimentation rather than rigid formulas which helps a burgeoning chef gain confidence and speed in the kitchen.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/landing/the-minimalist/1194811622323/index.html

For a specific recipe, I like:
http://www.oprah.com/food/Celery-Root-Soup-with-Granny-Smith-Apples
You can omit the chive oil for simplicity.

[KingCoin]

May be worth a look as well:
http://www.thekitchn.com/the-most-difficult-dinner-guest-ever-and-5-delicious-meals-to-feed-them-169102