I am not a dietician or a nutritionist by any means, but I have researched my pants off and through the allergies of my father-in-law and his 3 year treatment as well as my husband's now known allergies I have learned a ton as well as messed up a TON of food dishes. I am still learning and need LOTS of help from others who have found things that have worked for them in this tricky process.
Here's the gist of what we have going on:
One person can't have:
gluten, dairy, eggs, sugar of any kind (no honey, syrup,) only stevia. (Try making a dessert without those things). They can have certain things like oats, millet, and corn but only every 4 days. Meat every 4 days. Lots of fruits and veggies are off the list as well as garlic and other spices.
The other can't have:
pepper, olive oil, (I mean is this not in EVERY thing?) gluten, dairy, strawberries, spinach, blueberries, corn, millet, lots of veggies, and spices. Certain fish, turkey, and walnuts.
This can seem like a pain in the hiney, and it is many times, but the more I read and research how the brain and the rest of our body is so affected by what we put in our mouth it is worth it. So instead of stressing out, we just have to plan and prepare ahead of time, otherwise we are in a bind. And let's be real, I still stress.
Here are some tips that have helped me when just trying to eat clean and healthy or dealing with multiple food allergies:
MAKE A WEEKLY MENU- This is something I have tried, key word TRIED to do with our family before the allergies took over our lives. It helps me get in the right head space. This could mean I spend a good hour or 2 searching recipes for the different types of things everyone needs this week. We have to be creative with our recipes. Most of the desserts I look up have eggs or honey or natural sugars of some sort that we can't do. You don't know how many times I have "STEVIED" something to DEATH. We learn and we try again...But if I don't know what I am making that night then I probably don't have the right ingredients and then it's 5pm and everyone is starving and I have NO IDEA what we are doing. Weekly Menus make me stay sane.
MAKE A WEEKLY GROCERY LIST:
So we now live 20-40 minutes from the grocery store, depending if we have to get to Whole Foods, which we do most weeks for organic produce. We used to live half a block away, so if I forgot something I just walked down to the store in the middle of dinner. Now if I forget something I want to cry because most likely the whole recipe is RUINED since we can only use certain things. Whether you have allergies or you're just trying to eat clean and healthy, make a list of everything you need for that week based on the weekly menu you just made. Doing these two things at the same time is helpful. If you want to have a complete nervous breakdown go into a store with no list and two kids...complete and utter devastation. I may or may not have been there once or 1000 times.
PREPARE ENOUGH FOR LEFTOVERS:
I can handle cooking about 4 times a week and then I am over it! So either go out to eat, which is also a major problem for our family because there are only a few restaurants who will cater to our kooky allergies or who have antibiotic free meats or organic veggies. My father-in-law has strict orders from a doctor to only eat this way based on his condition, so unless you can find a couple of restaurants who will cater to you, make leftovers so you don't even have to think about it one night. YOU CAN BE FREE from the kitchen!
FIND AWESOME BLOGS AND RECIPES,WRITE THEM DOWN AND SHARE WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO DO THE WORK.
I find recipes from some great blogs, and then usually have to tweak for my peeps, but at least I have a foundation to go by. Otherwise I am just pulling from nothing and usually end up destroying something that cost me $1million to make. Here are some of my favorite food blogs and cookbooks I use weekly. more here and here.
LAUGH WHEN YOU ANNIHILATE RECIPES:
I cannot even tell you how many times I have destroyed good recipes. Last week I tried to make a cake for Papa, think goodness I tasted the mixture before I baked it. It was horrible! You would think I would have quit after 2 rounds of grossness. But, nope, had to get it right. What was happening is that I hadn't realized I had put baking powder instead of baking soda in the recipe. Yes, there is a difference. When I finally realized it, we were almost out of ingredients. Some things just aren't going to be good. And I think some recipe posters are liars quite frankly. We just have to laugh it off or I would go insane.
CUTE APRONS HELP:
If you look cute in the kitchen, your meals are always going to turn out better.
I need all the help I can get....we are just trying to figure this out day by day. I get tired of making the same things, and sometimes I have no desire to cook or do anything and am tempted to order McDonald's for everyone all week! So if you have any tips or recipes or blogs please send them my way.
Here are a few recipes we made this week if you need a little motivation:
Lemon zest/rosemary chicken
Found this recipe but then had to doctor it a bit.
We used ghee instead of butter and no garlic or pepper. We also use sunflower oil instead of olive oil.
4 filets of fish (we use wildcaught mahi or halibut)
1 cup ground coconut (unsweetned)
1/2 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts
1Tsp salt and pepper (we can't use pepper)
any other spice you want (cumin, paprika, garlic)
mix these together
You can dip your fish in coconut milk and then dredge in the coconut macadamia mixture. Put in oven at 375 for 8 minutes on each side (depending how big your fish)
Salsa for topping:
1 avocado diced
1 mango diced
squeezed lime over top
salt and pepper to taste
Tomatoes if you can have them
handful of cilantro or basil chopped
Potatoes: Cut up potatoes, add to sil-pat baking sheet with olive oil and 4-5 sprigs of rosemary, salt and pepper to taste, bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, turnover halfway.
Cabbage from Practical Paleo recipe here
Dessert:
Practical paleo cobbler. We used pears instead of blueberries because Grant is allergic. We also used 5 drops of stevia instead of honey.