What is left to eat???

[Aka mommy]

I have a lot of symptoms of a gluten intolerance, but my lab work came back negative. My sis just went gluten free and she said it's greatly improved her health and suggested i try going gluten free. Im extremely overwhelmed. Im also dairy free (due to my nursing son's casien allergy) and egg free (my allergy) and am trying to go sulfate free as well (another of my allergies). I feel as if this leaves very little for me to eat.

Where do i start? Are there really good and easy meals that i will be left with? I'd love links or suggestions. Also, once gluten free, how long for a change in one's body? Any tips when having to completely overhaul a diet due to many allergies? I am breastfeeding so I need to make sure I'm getting proper nutrition for DS. I feel as if i should just consume fruits, veggies and nuts. Also, has anyone just changed over the entire family's diet when faced with needing to change your own diet due to numerous allergies?

[starsprouts]

I know how you feel!  My son, who is breastfed, is allergic to gluten-containing grains, dairy, and egg, along with several other things.  When I first found out, I sat down and cried.  We ate a lot of plain rice, steamed veggies, and plain, grilled meat for the first few weeks.  I thought my life was over.  That was in May 2010.  Now, I eat...just about anything but scrambled eggs.  It took a lot of hunting for recipes and essentially learning to cook, but I eventually even found a bread recipe that we really like.  The best news:  my son's really, truly healthy for the first time in his life, and I'm healthier than I ever have been.  I eat like a horse (hooray breastfeeding!) and don't by any means deprive myself of the good stuff, but a lot of health issues that have troubled me throughout my life are gone, and I'm wearing clothes that have sat in boxes since my freshman year of college.  Since I'm doing the cooking, my husband eats what I'm making for myself and the kiddo, and he has yet to complain.

The best help I found was searching for a few good blogs that focus on foods I can eat.  I love love love Gluten Free Goddess, and My Asperger's Girl is another good one.  One blog leads to another, and well, the only downfall is a few too many awesome cake recipes....

Good luck!  You can do it!

[bodhitree]

It will take you a while to figure out what you can eat, but there are still lots of foods available to you! We are gluten, dairy, soy, citrus, chocolate, and (for the moment at least) corn free, and it has taken some work to figure it out, but we still eat very well. I cook all the meals, so DH only gets gluten or dairy or whatever if he goes out and gets those foods for himself. That arrangement works well for our family.

So sulfates/sulfites are mostly in things like wines and dried fruits, right? So hopefully that won't be too hard to avoid. Here are a few meal ideas:

-fajitas with corn or brown rice tortillas

-shepherd's pie

-brown rice pasta with sauce or a mix of veggies and spices

-soups and stews

-baked potatoes with various toppings and sauteed veggies (this is my favorite quick dinner--it comes together really fast if you do the potatoes in the microwave)

-stirfries with rice

-buckwheat pancakes and breakfast potatoes

-Indian food

Good luck! I know it's really overwhelming at first, but you do get used to it.

[DevaMajka]

We do wheat, but still like these gf waffles.

Let's see-

roasted veggies in olive oil- we do zucchini, broccoli, carrots, asparagus- about 15min at 350 does it.

Roasted potatoes

soups with homemade stock lots of options if you can do tomatoes and spices- minestrone, chili, chicken rice, beef stew

tacos (or do corn tortillas have sulfites?)

rice and beans

Lentil soup- you can change it up a bit.

roasted winter squash

Greek Rice Salad

Black Bean Chilaquile- minus the cheese is better. I make it with rice instead of tortilla chips.
apple hotpot- mine is similar to this, but no flour or yogurt, and I left out the spicy stuff for the kids.

Originally Posted by Aka mommy 

 Also, has anyone just changed over the entire family's diet when faced with needing to change your own diet due to numerous allergies?

Yep, pretty much. We used to eat mostly vegan meals (lots of flavour and spices), and currently I'm cooking a lot of meat and we're basically spice free. I think we all prefer the vegan stuff, but don't mind this stuff. I don't restrict what ds1 and dp eat (as far as snacks etc), but I cook stuff that ds2 and I can eat. When we were *really* limited, I did cook separate meals for dp and ds1.
 

[HappyWoman]

I have very similar food restrictions, so I can relate to how you feel. At first it was hard, but I'm finding that with a little knowledge and creativity, I'm eating better, and feeling better, than ever. Feeling deprived is no fun. Low blood sugar from not eating enough turns me into an irritable witch. I've found that I'm happiest when I have lots of yummy food, with a lot of variety. Planning in advance is key. Having foods on hand that I can eat is the most important thing I can do for my well-being, and since I'm also breastfeeding and preparing the meals for the family, it's the most important thing I can do for them too.

One of my hobbies is to check out good cookbooks from the local library. I like to give myself the challenge of cooking two new dishes every week - something we've never had before. Here are a few of my favorite cookbooks:

The Quick and Easy Organic Gourmet: Delicious, Healthy Meals without Meat, Wheat, Dairy, or Sugar

http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Easy-Organic-Gourmet-Delicious/dp/1886449007

Cooking the Whole Foods Way: Your Complete, Everyday Guide to Healthy Eating

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Whole-Foods-Way-Complete/dp/1557882622/ref=sip_rech_dp_5

The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics

http://www.amazon.com/Hip-Chicks-Guide-Macrobiotics-Philosophy/dp/1583332057/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Glow

http://www.amazon.com/Glow-Christina-Pirello/dp/155788370X/ref=pd_sim_b_3

The Self Healing Cookbook: Whole Foods to Balance Mind, Body and Moods

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Healing-Cookbook-Whole-Foods-Balance/dp/0945668155/ref=pd_sim_b_7

Here are a few food ideas:

Brown RIce Pasta - Tinkyada brand is good, with tofu alfredo sauce (tofu, white miso, oregano, water, olive oil)

Polenta with Oven Roasted Veggies and a protein (tempeh sausage or meat, etc.)

Indian dal - (split mung beans, onion, garlic, ginger) over brown rice or quinoa

Indian chana masala - garbanzo beans cooked with onion, garlic, and garam masala spice over rice or quinoa

Baked sweet potatoes with a spoonful of coconut oil - yum!!

Rice crackers or rice cakes with hummus or black bean dip or nut butter (almond butter, cashew butter)

Soups - miso vegetable, carrot ginger, vegetable soups, bean soups

Wheat free polenta Cornbread:

http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/gluten-free-southern-cornbread/

Fresh fish, especially salmon - good oils for breastfeeding

Salmon cakes using canned salmon - (potatoes, veganaise, dill, onion, celery - fry or bake)

Steamed greens (kale, collards, broccoli) with tahini sauce (tahini, water, lemon juice and/or umeboshi vinegar)

Rice noodles - like pad thai with veggies and protein (tofu or meat)

Spring rolls using rice wrappers and peanut sauce - we make a meal out of this - it's fun

Mexican night - Spanish rice, beans, tacos, tostadas, enchiladas (tofu or chicken) with corn tortillas, salsa, lettuce, vegan sour cream

[Tattooed Hand]

I feel your pain. When DD was 1 month old, I cut out dairy, soy, nuts, corn, eggs and gluten. It was hard. But I learned to cook a different way and like golum, we forgot the taste of bread... we recently had to cut out alot of other things from our diet due to DD's intolerances, but the good news is she can tolerate ME eating small amounts of soy, eggs, corn and non-wheat glutenous grains.

I second the Gluten Free goddess, she saved my life. http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

I cook a big cauldrons of food twice a week and freeze 1/2 in 2-3 different containers and packed my freezer that way. This way, I am cooking during the week, but can change it up with stuff from the freezer.

Good luck, I know it's hard.