Kid Friendly Allergy Free Recipes

K. - there is a Yahoo Group devoted to issues like this, Foodlab. There is a lot of recipe sharing and I believe there are many recipes in the files section.

Hi K.. My son is allergic to peanuts, all tree nuts and sesame seeds, so I know the challenges with the nut allergy! First, someone mentioned Trader Joe's....DON'T shop there for your peanut allergy foods!! I LOVE TJ's, so I'm not telling you to stay away, but they process their food on the same machines as peanuts, so most of their stuff isn't safe for nut allergy people! For your finger foods and snacks go to www.peanutfreeplanet.com or www.enjoylifenb.com. I love the Enjoy Life brands of snacks for my son and he does too! I wish you the best of luck. Oh, there's also a website I just found last night and it looks pretty good. www.allergymoms.com I think it's worth checking out!
M., sahm of 2 1/2 year old boy and 2 month girl

I have a very easy and economical recipe. I actually have quite a few so if you want to e-mail me I can get them to you (____@____.com)

1 lb group beef (or turkey)
1/2 C chopped onion
1 jar spaghetti sauce
8 oz pasta (I use whole wheat)

Make pasta according to directions.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown meat and onions together until no longer pink. Drain. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer about 10 minutes.

Add pasta and mix. Put in a casserole dish that will hold the mix. Cook in oven covered for 30 minutes.

I use whole wheat pasta and my son loves it. He's 2 1/2. All of these items, including the whole wheat pasta, can be bought very cheap. I go to Aldi's because of price.

Let me know if you want any more.

Try this cookbook:

http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Friendly-Food-Allergy-Cookbook-...

Hmm, after posting this, I noticed it has really bad reviews. I bought it at one time, but didn't really use it because my son outgrew his allergies.

Hi - I myself am allergic to corn, wheat, vitamin C, yeast, gluten, milk, vinegar, food coloring, and food preservatives.

I cook a lot with Quinoa - it is SUCH a great grain - most nutritious of all of them. I grind Oats into flour - and substitue that anytime the recipe calls for wheat. You can also grind up white beans and use that for a recipe anytime it calls for flour.

But I will say we go to a great doctor that does a technique to ELIMINATE the allergies. I tell everyone I know about it. Our 3 yr old son was on 7 meds for asthma and had his allergies for all of the above things I am allergic to totally eliminated and is totally off his meds now. I am in the process of getting mine eliminated. It is easy noninvasive and SO worth it.

It is called NAET (www.naet.com to find a practictioner by you). We go to Dr. Tam in Lombard and I recommend him to anyone I know. He is so great. It is so nice to get rid of allergies and begin adding food back into your life instead of being scared of everything. Good luck!

look under glcf diets, and if are starting to read labels, you will find organic have alot less ingredients - therefor a little bit easier to mangage. Go under google and find some yahoo groups to exchange recipes with. I feel for ya, and hope you can manage this

Woodman's has a couple of aisles of natural, allergy-friendly options as well, if you're looking for shopping. There is also a great online place I have found called www.naturaldirect.com that delivers organic groceries to you for $5 fee.

We do lots of crockpot meals.

Here is one that I do quite often:

Beef roast
Veggies that you like (we use celery, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms)

Dump all in slow cooker (crockpot) in the morning. I cube the potatoes and use baby carrots, so there is little prep. Mushrooms can be dumped in whole or sliced. Add about a tsp of seasoning salt or regular salt, some parsley, a bay leaf if you want.

Turn on low for about 8 hours, or you can cook on high for a couple of hours and then on low for 4 more hours or so. The longer you cook it, the more tender the beef will be. I like using cubed up roast too, it gets even more tender than a whole roast. Don't worry about putting in liquid- it will make quite a lot from the veggies and meat, and if you use mushrooms, it makes even more.

If you have leftovers after eating, cut or shrea up the meat even smaller and coarsely chop or mash the veggies and add some beef broth (there is a kind in a red box that you can find that is gluten-free... can't think of the name. Meijer has it and Jewel too, I think.) Dump in some other veggies like beans, corn, etc. and you have a hearty stew for the next night!

A great side-dish that we love is roasted butternut squash. Peel, scoop out seeds and cube up the squash. Put in a baggie with some olive oil, salt, sugar and cinnamon if you want (we omit the cinnamon) and toss/squish the baggie until coated. Spread onto baking sheet and bake at about 350 for 30 minutes or so until you see it start to shrivel up and begin to brown. You can poke it with a fork to see if the cubes are tender. Great finger food if you leave some plain for the baby! :)

flylady.com has some great crockpot recipes that you can adapt, and i love allrecipes.com too, because they have ratings by them

Hi K. - I am in the same boat with you with two kids and a boat load of food allergies..dairy, eggs, peanuts, peas, corn, wheat, soy, sugar, food additives and preservatives. The first four we are dealing with anaphylaxis.. the last few are somewhat tolerated.

Do check out NAET Drs.. they are awesome. We have seen Dr Hult in McHenry. We had super fantastic results but had to quit because even one drop was getting to be too much for our daughter and she had constant diahrea till we stopped. Initial results were fabulous. My daughter could finally eat wheat! She is back to avoiding it somewhat but tests negative to it and celiacs so, I am not quite sure why.

I agree.. avoid trader joes... and for that matter most anything that is packaged.. especially Nabisco. We have a friend that inspects the lines and she says that Oreos are made on the same lines as Nutter Butters. The CS line will not tell you that .. nor the labeling.

Wal-mart is very good about labeling generics. We love the Soy "nut" butter. The used to have awesome dairy-free chocolate chips but, discontinued them. We now use Baker's Semi-Sweet Choc. baking squares.

Considering that my hubby has been out of work for more than 6 months now.. I think we are getting to be the pros at cutting costs. We do still buy mostly organic fruits and veggies .. We order from Timbercreek Organics. They deliver to your house within a 90 mile radius of Chicago. You get about 40 lbs of fresh fruits and veggies for $30.85 taxed and delivered!! It is awesome! That is enough to last us for two weeks. If you want to order, call Rita at ###-###-#### and tell her A. from Lindenhurst sent you. Every time I refer 8 people, she gives me $100 in free groceries! That has helped A LOT!! Then, I cut coupons like crazy and go to wal-mart with ads to have them price match. I try to only buy things that are on sale somewhere AND I have a coupon for.

My kids tend to eat very healthy... fresh veggies for snacks. For my daughter, I grind up calcium and flax seed and mix it in hummus or guacamole. We make a great ice cream out of frozen bananas, pineapple, squash and/or, fresh spinach and rice milk. I toss it all in the blender and blend till it is a creamy, thick "ice cream". It comes out bright green and the kids beg for more. We call it "Monster" ice cream / smoothies / popsicles, etc.. What's left, I pour into popsicle forms and then let them eat posicles for breakfast, snacks, etc.. anytime they want :)

I also joined a great online yahoo group "terrifickidswfa" wfa= with food allergies. They are very chatty but, very very helpful!!

The silver lining to food allergies is that you tend to eat better! : ) BTW- I am working FT and running a business too.. it is tough but, doable. Hang in there. : )

I do stir-fry a lot having similar allergies myself. I use a lot of natural ingredients so I don't have to read labels.

Chicken and Apple Stir Fry
Cut up chicken into bite-sized chunks, add a chopped apple and some chopped onions. Stir-fry in canola oil until apples are soft.

Hamburger Mix-up
1-lb ground beef, 1 small diced onion, 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables or 1 can mixed vegetables, drained, MSG-free condensed tomato soup (found at health-food store or I think Jewel-brand tomato soup is MSG-free)
Brown ground beef with onion. Add can tomato soup (do not add water) and vegetables. Cover and cook on low until vegetables are ready. Salt and pepper to taste (I like adding some hot-shot pepper for flavor)

Fried Rice
Steamed white rice, any kind of veggie (I like peas, corn and carrots), chopped onion, any kind of meat (I like chicken), soy sauce, garlic, pepper.

Fry it all up together, adding soy sauce, salt, pepper and garlic to taste. It works better if the rice is not freshly made, put in the fridge for a day so it fries better.

Tater Tot Casserole
1.5 lbs ground beef, frozen corn, 1 can MSG Free condensed cream of chicken soup, small onion chopped, 1 cup minute rice, small bag of frozen tater tots.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine ground beef (not browned), onion, corn (however much you like), chicken soup and minute rice in a casserole dish. Arrange frozen tater tots on the top. Bake for 1 hour.

Country Skillet
We buy the frozen diced potatoes at the grocery store. We fry them up with onion, green pepper, mushroom and any kind of meat. For those not allergic to milk, add some shredded cheese.

I shop at Fruitful Yield. They have food without msg, gluten-free, soy-based etc. I use vanilla rice milk in place of milk and buy rice milk ice cream (I'm not a fan of soy milk or soy ice cream).

I have more recipies but that's all from the top of my head!

Also, nothing beats a good grilled steak with mashed potatoes and frozen vegetables with apple sauce on the side!

Are you sure they are allergic to everything you are. Usually that's not the way it is. Maybe they see you not eating some things so they don't want those things either. Monkey see, monkey do sort of thing. Maybe you just have to explain to them why you can't eat certain things and tell them "mommy wishes she can have some of that" or "you're so luck that you can have that".

I don't know exactly, but I can tell you that Wildtree has some nice options that would be free of MSG, artificial flavors and preservatives and they are all natural yet offer some quick and easy healthful options. I just placed a large order and have yet to try everything, but it sounds like it will be very convenient and quick while healthy at the same time. I am excited! Good luck :)

Shop at Trader Joes & Whole Foods they have many options of "normal" foods that are also free of comon allergens