Help with nightshade-free diet, slim budget and meal planning...

[MamaLeslie]

I guess the title says it all. A lot of my frugal standbys are based around tomatoes or potatoes, and excluding peppers is also challenging. Other nightshades are easy enough to avoid for me. Add to that picky kids, and I'm pretty much left with my homemade chicken noodle soup.

My budget is very limited right now, and I need to do better at planning ALL our meals/snacks, so I don't wind up overspending, wasting groceries, etc. All the resources I have tried don't do so well with my restrictions!

I do have a small freezer full of beef and pork, and that should last a while yet.

Any recipe ideas, any resources for searching out menu plans with options for removal of certain ingredients? How about fast, easy and inexpensive snacks?

eta: I am also very busy, what with school, family, placement/commuting and don't have a lot of time for involved cooking. I long to make my bread from scratch, but find the timing difficult, even though I actually don't have to spend much time making it, I have to be available at the right times to do each step...

[New_Natural_Mom]

God itt is SO HARD to go nightshade free! I sub sweet potatoes or cauliflower for potatoes! No known sub for tomatoes. No real suggestions, just commiseration.

[sleepypeanutsmom]

What about focusing on Asian meals? Stir fry with carrots, peas, corn, green beans, a little meat, scrambled eggs served over rice? There are lots of premade sauces but you can do just fine with soy or tamari sauce. You can get away with little or no meat in it to make your meat supply stretch.

I hear ya on picky kids. Maybe involving them with what veggies they want? Stir fry can be fun for the kids because it is quick if you already have the rice or rice noodles made up. Cold brown or white rice works best so you can cook it in the morning and refrigerate all day.

Breakfast for dinner is always a big hit around here (avoiding the hash browns of course!). Eggs, pancakes, quiche with veggies and/or meat and cheese. Quiche is great for using up leftover veggies and meat. I use two non-traditional quiche recipes, one is crustless and the other you mix the crust ingredients into everything else. I'd be happy to share those if you're interested.

Hope these ideas help.

[sleepypeanutsmom]

Also...www.allrecipes.com has a search engine where you can put in ingredients that you want and don't want. I like that site because users test and rate the recipes submitted. It is a great way to know something is going to be worth the time it takes to try something new.

[MamaLeslie]

Thanks, mamas.

I use sweet potatoes for potatoes a lot, but it definitely changes the nature of a meal...

I guess it's just a matter of struggling along and slowly finding what works. But it is not easy to find things the kids will eat and the adults will eat happily and that don't contain all the stuff we can't have.

I am working on getting the kids to eat stir fries, but it hasn't been very successful so far. I don't know how they can be so veg-averse, with me a total vegetable lover...

I find the ingredient restriction at all recipes doesn't work all that well for tomato, because it is in so many things...

[kjbrown92]

My DS can't have potatoes, so he has sweet potatoes under a lot of things (like gravy). We do a lot of things over rice. pork and kraut in a crockpot is easy, quick prep, and then serve over rice. chicken/orange or pineapple curry is with rice, and that doesn't have any nightshades. You can do pastas with sauces with no nightshades... there's poached eggs and ham over pasta (the poached eggs make the "sauce") or olive oil with mushrooms, garlic, black olives sauteed over it. Baked beans - I've done that without tomato paste in it (because my SIL can't have tomatoes).

[lizvt]

My DH is also allergic to the nightshade family, although potatoes have never bothered him. I Love, love, love all nightshades so it was a challenge for years for me to come up with meals (he can also be super picky, won't eat red meat or seafood and I'm sensitive to soy) soooo we usually eat meals based around chicken or are vegetarian.
Some of our inexpensive, easy favs for winter that always go over well with our toddler are chicken and roasted winter veggies, chicken and dumplings, peanut noodles, quiche, chicken picatta pasta, pasta with squash, rosemary, and parm, various soups, and soft tacos with chicken marinated in lime and garlic and/or w/ beans.
Good luck!

[ramom83]

Originally Posted by MamaLeslie 

I guess the title says it all. A lot of my frugal standbys are based around tomatoes or potatoes, and excluding peppers is also challenging. Other nightshades are easy enough to avoid for me. Add to that picky kids, and I'm pretty much left with my homemade chicken noodle soup.

My budget is very limited right now, and I need to do better at planning ALL our meals/snacks, so I don't wind up overspending, wasting groceries, etc. All the resources I have tried don't do so well with my restrictions!

I do have a small freezer full of beef and pork, and that should last a while yet.

Any recipe ideas, any resources for searching out menu plans with options for removal of certain ingredients? How about fast, easy and inexpensive snacks?

eta: I am also very busy, what with school, family, placement/commuting and don't have a lot of time for involved cooking. I long to make my bread from scratch, but find the timing difficult, even though I actually don't have to spend much time making it, I have to be available at the right times to do each step...

If you're still looking for nightshade free ideas, I can try to help. I have been nightshade free for 3 years now, and can help you with alternatives for your favorite dishes.

Let me know what which foods you miss, and I will try to provide substitute ideas.

[rhianna813]

Here is a recipe for night shade free pasta sauce that uses carrots and beets. Looks good!

hthttp://cavemanforum.com/diet-and-nutrition/nightshade-free-no-mato-sauce-recipe/?PHPSESSID=82e5fb165d4d1776666c5e7a87d8c8a8/

Rhianna

[debjoyce]

i have had to be nightshade free for over 25 years. to make Lasagne i use dried sheets of lasagne (the fresh pasta has potato flour in it). fry sliced mushrooms in white wine or butter and water  or fruit juice. thicken with a little corn flour. put to one side.

cook the mince meat (  the amount you need for a meal for your family)  add any or all of the next spices to taste. Garlic , mustard, tumeric, ginger or black peppercorns.when cooked turn off and put to one side.

make the white sauce.  i put 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/4 cup grated cheese  in a saucepan and bring to boil stirring so not to burn. just before boiling thicken a little with corn flour. do not make too thick as it is need to soften the lasagne sheets, just like the tomato did before we have to change and not eat it.

 then the fun begins.  line the baking tray up the sides with 2 sheets alfoil. so the cooked lasagne can be lifted out easily.  

first layer. lasagne, over lap the  lasagne to  cover all the bottom .

layer 2 meat , layer 3  lasagne sheets . layer 4  the white sauce. layer 5  lasagne sheets, layer 6 mushrooms. continue layers untill you run out of space in you pan. grated cheese on top makes it look good.

cook in a hot oven for 30 to 45 minutes . the same temp oven you would use for roasting.

this meal can freeze and be reheated to save time on a busy night. i cook once and eat twice.

[sunrainlife]

Wow. I've been all over allrecipes and never saw that search engine! Thanks SleepyPeanuts!!

[harrietsmama]

We really like spicy food here, does anyone have a recipe for replacing hot sauce? I know there's gotta be a way to combine other spicy foods like horseradish, I'm also on a super tight budget and I don't want to waste food.

[Ragana]

Wasabi? Ginger?