Dairy and Wheat Free Recipe Ideas Wanted

We had to put one on a gluten-free diet for a while, and that can be pretty tricky! We did, however, learn that these things can be worked around.

Hopefully you live in an area where you can garden or have access to locally grown produce and can buy meat directly from farmers. This GREATLY reduces the risk of accidentally ingesting something or having found a spice or meat has been injected or marinated with one of those products.

Recipes? That ends up becoming a matter of taste and what's available.

Beans are cheap and ended up becoming a staple. Cold black bean salad, bbq beans (you can make your own sauce to suit your taste) or bean soup. Buy chickens locally or ensure they were raised organically and save every bone in order to make your own broth and keep a supply of it in the freezer for when it is needed.

An herb garden is a must, because it's amazing what you'll find in spices. For someone seriously allergic to wheat, just the dust of it settling on a non-wheat product can be enough. Herbs can be grown indoors, which is cool. Right now we're in the process of growing and drying them ourselves. Dill is very easy and can be a powerful spice, goes well with taters, and you can let it seed and use the seeds to make pickles. It also dries fast and stores well. Rosemary is easy to grow, and is great for chicken. (I'm waiting on chives and we've got basil already, and waiting on whatever that one that flowers little pink flowers is and is good for tea...

Grilling meats is a way to bring out the flavor...grill that chicken with rosemary sprigs over it! Yummy....

Since you're working mostly with all fresh ingredients, those spices become key to adding flavor and variety. Don't be afraid to try recipes and combinations that you may not have heard of or thought of...nobody will come and arrest you for mixing it up or making something icky. We've poached pears in ginger, cinnamon, and sugar for dessert. No wheat, no dairy involved.

Making different sauces is another way to mix up an otherwise boring diet. Take chicken...you can grill, boil, bake, fry, or make it into soup. you can make a fresh tomato and basil topping to serve over cold chunks, you can serve it hot or cold over a salad, you can serve it with a bbq dip, spicy asian style dip, fruity dip, etc..

Cornmeal is awesome. You can make a gruel type dish, or do that and let it get cold and slice it up and fry it. Cornbread, corn cakes, etc.. Grits and oatmeal can replace other types of breakfast cereal, if he tolerates oats. Some can't, mine could.

Quinoa...very healthy and there's a lot of uses. Be sure to look it up. It can be a celiac kid's best friend. Rice gets boring...

Baking will be tough. I personally had a really hard time making anything on my own that didn't weigh 5,000 pounds, but it does help to mix flours. Under no circumstances should you attempt to bake a loaf of bread with nothing but rice flour. LOL And if you're going to bake, go to a candy shop where they hand make their stuff and buy xantham gum from them. It comes in flakes and helps stuff stick together, as does using a bit of extra egg. It's also really cool to have around Christmas...I used it on my gingerbread house by sprinkling it over the "snow" because it makes it sparkle. (the flakes are clear and thin and reflect like, sort of looks like flaked glass)

Don't ever accept recipes and ideas without researching it. So many mistakes can happen, or people trying to be helpful can give wrong advice. In someone with a serious allergy, that can have bad results. Look up everything. Graham flour is not gram flour. One can mean an ER visit, the next could mean a happy evening at home. But hearing them both pronounced instead of seeing them written makes the difference.

And it's not as bad as it sounds. It's kinda just going back to basics...fresh, whole foods that are homegrown or from reliable sources, and making stuff at home vs buying processed stuff that comes from who-knows-where. It's almost a blessing to have to deal with these things, it brings us closer to nature and healthier stuff. I heard someone joke once about dairy...that why do we quit nursing our kids and then let cows do it instead? Human milk is meant for baby humans, cow milk is meant for baby cows. If you're not a baby cow, why are you using dairy? (my answer is because I like it! LOL) But it is one of the toughest things for humans to digest, according to my doctor, and should be avoided as much as possible for health's sake.

I know I didn't give recipes or anything, but I really can't. It is such a personalized thing with people with allergies. It's been a few years since I had to deal with diets that intensely moderated, as the two with issues both are old enough to deal with them on our own, I just make sure the right stuff is available now as much as possible in this nutritious-food deprived area of the US of A!

 

Shortening can definitely be used in place of butter. It makes for less flavor, but on the occasions when I use it, I typically will add some extra other spice or extract for a bit more flavor. For savory ones, a favorite addition is sauteed garlic. You can even mix your seasonings into the shortening the night before in order to flavor it for a more powerful taste. I've never tried to use oil instead. Maybe an online search can help with that one.

Eggs aren't too hard to replace. Tofu chunks can be used for a scrambled eggs type breakfast. In baking, a lot of people use weird stuff I don't like as subs and that change flavor, but I love flaxseed (a side effect of my illness is an enlarged heart and flaxseed is awesome for hearts, and also for IBF, another issue with me, so I always have fresh, whole flaxseed handy.) This is where a coffee grinder comes in handy. By the way, don't buy cheap flaxseed...it's not worth it. I've put the two side by side and the difference is visible, the texture too dry in the cheapies, and the taste not as fresh. It's gonna be trial and error to get the amount right for different recipes. Typically it's gonna be a 1-3 ratio...grind about a tablespoon of flax and stir it up with 3 tablespoons of water for each egg you need, but you'll need to add a leavening agent on top of that. I never remember which one so I add both baking soda and powder and it works. Silk tofu can be used too if you stick it in the blender first and has less effect on flavor, but it's also less effective imo. Plus flaxseed lasts longer and has more of the stuff our bodies like. I don't think the flavor's overwhelming at all, but if someone doesn't like the taste of it, I guess they might notice. Someone once mentioned using applesauce instead of egg. That didn't work at all. There was no binding whatsoever and it tasted weirdish.

For someone with that many allergies, flax seed, quinoa, and beans are going to become very important to getting the proper nutrition. Tomatoes and bananas help too. (my daughter was seeing a nutritionist at the Cleveland Clinic when she was younger and we went through all this along with a lot of research...my brain's getting a workout now trying to remember it, lol, thanks! I needed to get my mind off my eyes, and I can practically type blind!) Quinoa is just one of the neatest things imo, and I've never heard of anyone being allergic to it. It can be a rice substitute, ground up for flour, made into hot cereal, sold as cold cereal...ask him if he knows about it! Avoid buying it at a health food store though...they overcharge and a lot of grocery stores have it or can order for you at a much lower cost.

It's not cheap, but the Gluten Free Pantry can be a good online resource for mixes. More and more stores seem to be selling wheat and egg free products. Bob's Red Mill products are decent. Out here they have them in the "day old" bread store for a lot less than regular stores sell them.

I don't know if this works, but when with celiac out here, it's considered so restrictive that a doctor can write a perscription for the diet and insurance will actually pay for vital items. At least that's how it was in the state I was in at the time. That was years ago, but since this type of diet can get expensive, especially in winter when fresh stuff is hard to come by, it's an idea to check into. It's also wise to freeze/prepare stuff to get through winter with.

Otay, bedtime. I'm glad to have been of some assistance!