dairy free, soy free, gluten free, OH MY!!

[SamiPolizzi]

Let me start by saying that I do not know how to cook and am not even familiar with a lot of foods. I was raised on take out, frozen meals, and anything that came out of a box. Because of this I've been a picky eater most of my life. I've been a vegetarian since 2004 and I was vegan from the beginning of 2006 until about fall of 2007. Being vegan made me a little less picky because I was pretty much forced to try a lot of new things. Even then I somehow managed to not eat very healthy. Then when I decided to start eating dairy again I basically went right back to my diet of pizza, mac & cheese, et cetera. I've been making an effort to eat healthier since I had Vincent (almost 10 months ago) because I know I don't want him to eat the way I do now.

Flash forward to now. Because of digestive problems I've been having, my doctor told me to avoid dairy, soy, and gluten. Well... I have no idea how to do this. He gave me a list of good foods and bad foods. Most of what I eat now is on the "bad list". Also, many of the foods on the "good list" I've never even heard of. I'm so overwhelmed right now. I don't even know where to start. I'm desperate for ideas for easy meals that do not include dairy, soy, gluten, or meat. Although, I'm willing to add poultry back into my diet. However, if I am going to eat it, I want to buy from local farms, which is EXPENSIVE, so it would only be an occasional thing. In addition to all of this, I need to gain weight (which, on this diet, seems kind of impossible to me.)

I would greatly appreciate any advice, ideas, or recipes.
I'm totally lost right now.

Thanks a lot, mamas!

[jocelyndale]

Do you have a Trader Joe's nearby? They sell a very tasty brown rice pasta. Boil it in plenty of water, don't overcook it, and stir it fairly often so that it doesn't stick. Otherwise, Tinkyada brand brown rice pasta at most health food stores (and many supermarkets) is pretty much indistinguishable, just a bit more expensive.

A quick meal would be to put the water for pasta on to boil. Toss a couple handfuls of baby spinach into a colander and ignore it. Toss some olive oil in a skillet with onion, garlic, olives, mushrooms---anything you like. Be generous with the olive oil. Cook the stuff down, but don't burn it. When you put the pasta into the boiling water, go ahead and add a can of rinsed beans to your saute pan, to heat through.

When the pasta is done, pour it over the spinach, toss it around a bit, then put it back in your stockpot or a serving bowl. Pour the veggies and beans over, stir to mix.

You've got my basic meal any day. Sometimes I add roasted peppers or arugula. Sometimes I use kale from my garden instead of spinach. Add sunflower seeds or pine nuts to the saute pan, if you like. Currants, raisins, and almonds are also nice.

My old go-to meal involved tomatoes (I'm now allergic). Saute a big onion in a large pot. Add a couple cans of drained black beans, a can of chipotle sauce (warning, gluten and soy sometimes sneak into this), and an ounce of really dark (baking is fine) chocolate. Have a pot of brown rice on hand. Eat on tortillas. Fresh cilantro is nice as a garnish.

Coconut milk curries. Chickpea flatbread. Mole with beans and rice (and chicken, if you go there).

[Nillarilla]

my son is soy free and my daughter is wheat and dairy free so often I will cook without any of these things so I don't have to cook 2 meals.
I have become the queen of substitutions. If I see something that looks yummy I just substitute for all the ingredients I can't/don't use. Now wheat free is not gluten free so I'm not as careful as you would have to be.
Substitutions I find handy:
coconut milk for milk or buttermilk
coconut oil for butter
rice pasta for wheat pasta
macadamia nut cheese for cheese
safflower oil in place of vegetable oil.
coconut yogurt
gluten free flour mix and a bit of xantham gum for wheat flour.

Enjoy life and food for life makes packaged products that are free of all the 10 main allergens. Bob's red mill makes gluten free mixes.

[kjbrown92]

Is the doctor just guessing on those foods? He's got you going off 3 of the top 4. Why not just add corn in there too and take all 4 out?

3 out of 5 of my family are dairy, gluten, soy, corn free (plus others). Most of the recipes on my blog: www.kathysrecipebox.com are free of those things. We do however eat meat to make up the calories. Will you eat fish? Salmon is a good source of calcium. The other calcium we do is bone broth (made out of chicken or turkey; simmer for 24-36 hours to get the minerals into the stock). Broccoli and spinach are other sources of calcium.

Make sure you look at any supplements you take to ensure those are free of those foods as well.

Breakfast:
Millet porridge is really easy (we find the millet at the local supermarket). So is hot buckwheat cereal (Bob's Red Mill). That one is 3 minutes in the microwave. My 4yo can make it herself! Rice Chex cereal is free of those things. We also get Puffed Millet Cereal (buy it on amazon). Rice cakes with peanut butter and honey. I make sandwich bread and we do peanut butter on toast as well. I've been making popovers for breakfast almost every morning for a month. I also make coconut milk yogurt for using as sour cream on baked potatoes, and putting in smoothies. Fruit smoothies are another good breakfast thing (frozen berries, banana, coconut milk). Do you eat eggs? Eggs fried or scrambled in coconut oil is delicious.

Lunch:
leftovers
fruit, veggies
guacamole (good fat) or hummus to dip in
veggie sushi (look at ingredients); we make our own
vegetable soup, black bean soup

Dinner:
baked salmon
chicken soup
chickpea/zucchini fritters dipped in tomato sauce
we make pizza with buckwheatpete.com's pita bread recipe for the crust, tomato sauce, and pine nut ricotta for the cheese. My kids and I devour it.
pasta with tomato sauce or olive oil/crushed red pepper/garlic, or black olives/mushrooms/onions/garlic or shrimp/veggies

nuts are high in good fats and protein, legumes are good for protein, coconut milk is good fats as well as avocado. I tracked my diet on fitday.com for a couple weeks to see what I needed to alter.

I did learn to cook for our diet. My DH always says what I make now is a far cry from fishsticks 4 times a week!

[kjbrown92]

Oh, and you might want to head over to the allergies subforum of health & healing. There's lots of knowledgeable ladies over there. And there's a recipes thread with lots of ideas too.

[Blueone]

I've been free of all of those for over 3 years. It's actually easy once you get a hang of it. I shop at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Clarks, and whatever health food store is near by. I go through the gluten free aisle, then proceed to read over all the ingredients of whatever looks interesting.

Outside that aisle the ethnic food aisles always have something good like Indian food, hispanic food, etc. Rice and Brown Rice Pasta are staples in our home. Crock pots are very useful too for whatever stews I make. Otherwise there are a lot of good recipe sites like:
Living Without (Great magazine as well!)
Sure Foods Living
A Year of Crock Pot Cooking
Elena's Pantry
Gluten Free on a Shoe String

Lots of others as well. Good Luck!