Cooking for people with allergies

[Craftbunnie]

I have many food allergies and I find it difficult to find recipes with food that is more toward the meat and potatoes side and less on the gourmet food side. I am comfortable following recipes and I can substitute ingredients, but substituting ingredients make the food taste and cook differently. I wish I was creative and confident in the kitchen.
Anyone have experience cooking everyday foods that would be able to adapt them to egg, caesin, soy, peanut, nut, avocado, ginger, and malt?
I want to be able to make food for my fiance that tastes like the foods that he can eat and I can't. Does anyone think this is possible?

[ladywithglasses]

I'm sure it is possible, but it would probably take a lot of experimenting. Vegetarian, Vegan, and Paleo tend to have some pretty good recipes. I really wouldn't worry about attempting to make something taste "exact" since that may not happen but instead focusing on things that taste good to both of you. I also do not understand what you mean by adapt? Are you saying that eggs, caesin, soy, peanut, avocado. ginger, and malt is what you are allergic to? I guess it would go without saying to make everything homemade so you know what goes into it. Hope this helps and I hope we can further discuss this because it sounds fun!

[Craftbunnie]

Finding recipes has been difficult because the cookbooks etc for those types of diets seem to contain very fancy dishes. While I am willing to try new dishes, my fiance really isn't. I am looking for recipes for American staples that have the ingredient substitutions that I need. I need to be able to adapt the recipes to my allergies, which you correctly understood that I listed before. I haven't been brave enough to try the experimentation that I need to do. I guess I just need to make the recipes smaller so I don't feel as if I might be destroying so much food.

[ladywithglasses]

Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of what it is is playing around. I do agree with you about the super fancy recipes. I'm always left wondering how many people actually make those recipes. What specifically do you want to try. Are there any substitutions that you commonly eat? I think cooking smaller recipes for experimentation might help. What would you like to cook? If you give me a specific dish I might be able to offer better suggestions.

[MrsCatInTheHat]

Experimentation really is the only way to go. I've learned to try and try again until I get it right. It's personal, varying on exact issues and tastes.

[ladywithglasses]

Gotcha! That makes sense!

[Craftbunnie]

I made chocolate chip cookies following the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, but with substitutions, last night. I used gluten free flour, egg substitute, Enjoy Life chocolate chips, and vegan/soy free butter and I thought they were great! However, my fiance ate half a cookie and threw the rest of it away. I will use regular flour next time and see if that helps, but I am hoping I can make something that he deems edible. It is so much more fun cooking for someone else, I hope I can get at least the cookies to where he will eat them with me. I just have to keep trying, but at least with the cookies I now have a place to start and he was willing to taste them. Start small right?

[Ethan Stark]

3/4 Tbsp oats
1/3 cup water
1 small apple
1/2 small banana, mashed
1/2 Tbsp chopped golden raisins (optional)
1 or 2 small prunes if not using raisins

Ethan Stark

[cjohns105]

I don't have anything off the top of my head that you haven't heard before, but this seems like a dilemma I would love to look into. I will make some charts/tables and take to Pinterest!

A few summers ago I had to move home for the summer and so did my brother. I feel that I should point out that I am the only one in my family with food allergies, everyone else was just being picky or rolling with the newest food fads. Anywho, I spent that summer having to cook most of the meals that fit to the following standards: Gluten Free for Mom, Vegetarian for Brother, and Savory/Hearty for Father. We ended up with lots of salads. Lots of veggies in place of grains and noddles (those spiralizers are awesome). Various types of stuffed mushrooms became very popular. Sometimes I would break down and just do several main dishes at a time in small portions, so that everybody could have what they wanted. On a similar note, my brother-in-laws mother has Celiac Disease and can't even be in the same room as a cup of wheat flour without keeling over. I am too cheap to buy combos of other types of flour to make her baked goods for dessert and also I get nervous that gluten will some how end up in stuff anyways. So I just migrated toward non baked goods, my cinnamon maple baked pears have been an especially big hit lately. Like I said earlier though, I will look into some nice Americana food that can be tailored to your dietary needs for you and your SO. Every set of eyes helps!!

[Kitkat3]

glutenfreeonashoestring.com is a great place to find recipes for people with allergies. However, she doesn't do much milk free. onelovelylife.com has some good gluten and dairy free recipes. I'm not sure if there are any for other types of allergies.

[ebethina]

My sister has so many food allergies I do not know how she does it. Yet she still manages to come up with so many different foods to cook.

[miriamjoyreads]

Finding recipes has been difficult because the cookbooks etc for those types of diets seem to contain very fancy dishes.

This is my problem with recipes all the time. I actually prefer food to be very simple and basic, and at that point you don't need a recipe, because it's just a case of sticking everything in the saucepan/oven and hoping for the best, you know? The only time I use recipes really is for baking, and even then I end up adapting them. I have coeliac disease, am lactose-intolerant, can't eat fruit or nuts due to pollen-food syndrome, and also hate red meat and mushrooms, so my diet is quite restricted, but I get round it okay. The hard part is not cooking for myself, but eating at restaurants where they insist on putting way too many ingredients in everything -- much like recipes.

[Cate winslet]

my worst part... I hate preparing many food...

[_claudi_]

This is very possible. You will need to be very flexible with your ingredients to be able to achieve this.