Hi. I don’t like joining a board and starting a topic right away, but I have been strolling around the site and haven’t been able to find this type of topic.

My husband found out he had celiac the same time I found a host of intolerances. We have since found that between us, there really isn’t much left. I can have wheat and he can have corn and potatoes, but none of my family can tolerate milk or soy. We have been altering classic recipes as best we can, but I have recently taken ill, and don’t want to spend the extra mental or physical effort to make menus and changes to recipes and dinners. I have been able to find cook books and menu plans that incorporate one or two troubles, but I have yet to find one that provides more than a fist full of recipes for one meal with none of the restrictions.

Is any one aware of a menu or recipe book or site in support of we who can consume so little of the American diet? Even “1000 things to make with chicken and rice” 

I saw a book in the store the other day called "My kid is allergic to everything!" I think it was called that, maybe it can help. I would suggest you get a crockpot cookbook. It's easy to change things how you want to with crock pot cooking.

Go natural, unprocessed- fruits and veggies galore, lean proteins (chicken, meat, fish, etc.). If you can tolerate grains (many with your intolerances can't) expand your horizons! Try Buckwheat, millet, quinoa, amaranth...the list goes on. Just because the typical american diet consists of overprocessed starch doesn't mean yours has to. Experiment with spices and herbs for flavor. Expand your horizons!!

I don't know that I can help. I've been winging it so to speak. I'm gluten-free and I cannot have potatos and I avoid baked products with corn in them because I react to corn starch because of the sulfites used. That leaves out most of the available pre-mixed baking mixes. If you're determined to bake there are other flours out there. I've currently got rice, sorghum, almond, tapioca and garfava flour in my pantry. Tapioca makes a good sub for corn starch and you can mix your own baking powder so that it does not include corn starch. Baking requires some effort now that is true. And you will have to look long and hard to find pre-baked goods that are safe. You might try your local organic store and see what options they have. More and more organic stores are stocking products designed to be safe for a variety of allergies.

I do eat a lot of rice and a lot of salads and fresh vegetables and simple prepared meats. I tend to use a lot of garlic and herbs and olive oil in my cooking. I pretty much avoid the whole idea of bread and have never been a big pasta fan. Though if you are into pasta there are lots of rice pastas out there these days. Last nights dinner was baked chicken and fresh green beans with mushrooms and leaks. Tonight pork ribs and a green salad are on the menu with maybe some fresh blueberries for desert. Most of my meals are pretty basic, meat and vegetable, or meat and green salad, or meat and rice.

It helps to take some time and seriously cruise the produce department considering every single thing in it. Likewise with your local organic store or oriental market. I've become a big fan of winter squashs lately. Have you tried everything in the produce department at least once? You kind of have to expand and keep expanding your choices, including trying things you can't even pronounce. Do the same in the international aisle of the supermarket. That is where I find the Thai Kitchen rice noodles. Thai Kitchen also has pre-packaged rice noodle meals, but you need to check those for other allergens, though they're usually gluten-free.

I've been told that sunchokes if you can find them in the store have a texture and taste similar to potatoes. Our Vons carries them. I can't have them because they're the root of a type of sunflower and of course I'm allergic to sunflowers. If I could eat tomatos, which of course I can't, I'd be all over their produce department because they carry a variety of differnt tomatos.

It does require creativity. I wish there were an easier way, but there just isn't. Sticking to whole foods is the safest easiest way to go.

I have Celiac as well as many other intolerances too. I have found the best thing for me is to eat fresh fruits, veggies, and meats. We make lots of rice dishes too. As well as dinners like spaghetti squash spaghetti and homemade chili. I love the TV show "The Manic Organic." It is on Discovery Home channel, but I bet the host has a cookbook and other resources you could look up online. My husband and I eat organic as well, I have found avoiding toxins helps a great deal with my digestion. We have even gone as far as using natural cleaners and things too. Any way we can help our bodies be healthy, right! I am ill as well and do not have great stamina, so I create lists of meals I can have and what brands and ingredients they include. It seems obvious, but when you are trying to think of something to make for dinner it helps to have a list to glance at. We also make monthly meal plans ahead of time and I have started compliling my own cookbook with recipes we alter to our needs and print from the computer. It can be a lot of work at first, but if you create a file by meal, it is so worth it in the end. And the same meal plans can be reused year after year. It is also so nice to have a master grocery list of foods I can have, I give it to my husband when he can't remember what brands and such. I also have been recently researching Thai and Jewish recipes. Thai cooking uses lots of new flavors and dairy free alternatives like coconut milk which is great for sauteeing. Another great show is "A Lyon in the Kitchen." The host makes lots of alternative dishes for heathy living. I am sure he has a book too, and there are many recipes online for both. Good Luck!

I am intolerant to: gluten, legumes, dairy, almonds, yeast, nitraties, palm, corn, etc.--see full list below and my husband is intolerant to beans (he can only have sweet onions and low acid tomatoes--others bother him), my youngest is gluten sensitive (does not have celiac disease) and lactose intolerant, my oldest is intolerant to cinnamon, beans, and nitrates.

It gets a lot easier, but it takes time. I have a cookbook that has a lot of alternatives and the title (I think or it is close) is the Allergy Cookbook. I am now making my own mayo with canola oil and lemon. I make my own BBQ and spaghetti sauce. Some Chebe mixes are dairy free and they use tapioca starch and no potato stuff (I think, you would have to check). Check out Enjoy Life foods for some quick extras that I definitely don't have time to make or have any success with like cookies.

I found a lard without citric acid (often corn derived) that works very well for making pie crusts. I make my own sausage. We don't eat anything commercially canned...we can our own tomatoes and sauce.

We cook on weekends and freeze for meals through the week, that way, we don't have to think that hard every night, only once a week and that makes life much easier.

My daughter has a ton of allergies so I know how tough it can be. You can always have rice and rice pasta. There are rice tortillas. You can have sweet potato fries. I have several allergy cookbooks and I am lucky if I can find one or two recipes per book that I can make without having to do a lot of substitutions. For us, baking is the hardest.

Tonight for dinner we are having salad, ham steaks and baked beans. Tomorrow will be chicken and noodles with peas and carrots mixed in. We will dine out the following day because of an appointment. Then the next night I'll be making stuffed peppers. I just take it one day at a time.

Oh gosh, the focaccia chebe mix makes a great great pizza dough and it's potato and corn free. Not all the chebe mixes are, but that one is. Love it!

Thanks a lot for all your responses. We eat a great deal of Thai since it is gluten and dairy free. I have thought of Jewish foods, but I may go check out a cook book for Kosher meals and see what is in there. Juliebove, I'm glad you added the 1 or 2 good recipes. I thought I was just being snooty.

I guess the bottom line is there are no cook books for those who can't eat anything. We just bought a freezer this weekend and will be doing more of the freeze ahead dinners. I suppose we could put together our best recipes and publish a book ourselves.

Is this the forum where people share recipes?

I have a blog where there's recipes searchable by allergen, but I can't post it here according to the rules. My kids have multiple food intolerances, so I did it to help others. I'm now on an elimination diet to see if gluten is what's bothering me, among other things. I've been off gluten for a week and haven't noticed a difference. How long should it take if that is the issue?

My husband did not notice any difference until he added wheat back. After some experimentation, and time, his 10 year long headache was suddenly gone. You know, one of those "Wow! I haven't taken anything for a headache for a long time." After a week or two more, try the add back test. Refined white flour will affect you the most.

How do I get to your blog?

Best wishes with the wheat.

I went back on everything for the weekend and my back was killing me Sunday and Monday. I went back off the wheat (and everything else) Sunday afternoon. Today my back is much better. I wish I could figure out if it's just wheat or everything else too!! But I'm scared to add anything back in.

I am so glad this thread got started. I am relatively new to all this as well, and sometimes trying to sift through all the old threads can be overwhelming. I went gluten free at the start of the year, then determined that dairy, potatoes and tomatoes (in some quantity or brand, or something) also bother me quite a bit.

I have come across two cook books at my library:

Ronald Greenberg (MD) and Angela Nori. Freedom from Allergy Cookbook. 4th ed. 2000.

Carol Fenster, Ph.D. Cooking Free. ("for people with food allergies and multiple food sensitivities"). 2005.



Hope these help. I can't tell you that I have tried much of anything from them yet, I guess I should...I have been sick more nights than not in the past week!

I am finding everyone's suggestions here helpful.

The best thing to do is something called an elimination diet. Stay off the wheat and 'everything else' for two weeks. Then, add one thing every week, and see what happens.

One of the best books I found over the years is titled The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook written by Marjorie Hurt Jones, R.N. Says it has over 325 natural food recipies free of wheat, milk, egg, corn, yeast, sugar and other common food allergens. I bought it at Half-Price books several years ago.

I am on an elimination diet, sort of. My DD has tons of food intolerances, and I read an article saying that the kids are exposed to your antigens through your breast milk so sometimes they get their intolerances from you. I never thought I had any, though I do have health issues (back spasms/pain all the time and chronic UTIs). So I decided to go on her diet and take out wheat/gluten besides, because I figured that wasn't much worse, and could be an issue since I crave wheat/bread so much. The diet I'm on is:
fruit: banana
vegetables: spinach, lettuce, celery, carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus
meat: all (no eggs)
dairy: none
oils: coconut, flaxseed, olive
other: quinoa, rice, gluten-free oats, tapioca, arrowroot, corn-free vanilla, oregano, sea salt, pepper, basil, parsley
That's it. Pretty basic. And it seems to be helping my back. I'd only find out I was helping my UTIs if I went off the antibiotics that I'm on for 6 months (I go off, get a UTI within 3-4 days then go back on them for 6 months). I'm scared to add any foods back in though. And some days I think it's helping a lot, and others not at all, so we'll see. I'm giving it another 2 weeks after goofing off it this weekend just because I went away with my husband for an overnight without the kids!