Preparing Menus for Food Allergies

I don’t know about you, friends…but food allergies around here are growing by leaps and bounds. I have always had folks who had their feet under my table for a meal, who needed special care to adapt for food allergies.

When my husband was nine, it became an issue that he was allergic to all raw fruits and vegetables. The only exceptions to the rule was lemons in iced tea or squeezed onto fish…or an occasional two or three bites of fresh pineapple.

That was it.

The first time I grocery shopped after we were married and came home, I had the stark realization that most of my haul was not food allergy safe for him. I came home with fresh peaches, watermelon, bananas, and grapes. Back in early married days the only way to produce a salad was by buying a head of iceberg lettuce. That was it…and eating an entire head of lettuce seemed too overwhelming for me.

My husband constantly told me not to do without all of those fresh fruits and vegetables…but making food safe menus for him was my priority.

He LOVES fruit, so cooked fruit was high on his list. He LOVES applesauce, and mine is his favorite. Baked fruit was another favorite. Just canned or fresh fruit with juice added to a baking dish with a sprinkle of cinnamon, a few T of butter, and at times, a little brown sugar and then baked made him over the top happy.

Are you affected by food allergies?

Not sure why or what caused the food allergy increase…and many have their opinions from herbicides to hybrids to soil treatments. Who knows. But it has left all of us to deal with how to prepare food that is safe for all of those with feet under your table.

More food allergies arrived.

Several years ago, we hosted a home church group in our home each Saturday night for nearly a decade. Twenty people brought in dishes so that we all enjoyed a potluck, that seemed more like Thanksgiving, each and every week.

And yes, more folks with food allergies arrived. One allergic to nuts…one to nutmeg…others who did not eat pork…and others who didn’t care for chocolate.

Some avoided high fructose corn syrup. Some preferred organic. And then there were varying spice and heat levels among the cooks, that needed a sign to warn those who wanted to partake of what everyone contributed.

So items were thoughtfully created and occasionally labeled to warn those whose feet were under that table that they might need to know contents.

We all navigated through it all well. And kept benadryl on hand, just in case…and yes, it was occasionally needed.

From home groups to family groups to friends…

More allergies kept showing up.

One nephew couldn’t tolerate fruit juice. One bad visit after our special tea, meant that guest has a different drink option when he’s here.

A sister in law has gluten allergy, but lets add in garlic and onion and more to the mix. Oh, my!

Then a niece with crazy food allergies that keep surfacing.

My grandson has the beginnings of oral allergy syndrome – raw fruits and vegetables allergy, like his grandfather. Lettuce and certain fruits are definitely avoided.

When food allergies become life threatening, it’s time to be serious…

We have another friend allergic to yellow dye number 5. After his heart was shocked back 26 times in one year…he learned what and where to avoid eating. Dill pickles often have yellow dye added and after asking for no pickles at a restaurant…and sending it back to the kitchen…meant the staff just removed the pickles on the same sandwich and returned it to him. Benadryl and a fast 20 minute drive to the ER was the result. Add Alpha Gal to his diet and now avoiding red meat was added to his diet plan.

Next on the list of food allergies is the gluten free one…

When the gluten free talk began, like many of you, I thought it was a “fad”, “craze”, “this too shall pass” era. Much to my surprise, not just celiac disease is highlighted.

For years my husband explained that he just felt bloated after a meal. Not realizing it could be another “food sensitivity”, it just became how he felt after a meal.

So, let’s talk about gluten free. Suddenly there were numerous friends and family who began eating gluten free. Food testing began in our families. Not for the faint of heart.

A suggested method of testing for celiac disease or gluten sensitivity require you to “load” up on gluten. Yep, that wasn’t an option since the pain that resulted wasn’t bearable.

A few years ago, a great deal of gluten rich foods required an ER visit for my husband.

The local ER visit confirmed that he was having a gall bladder attack, gave him medication and recommended him to a surgeon. The surgeon’s response? Not gall bladder looking at his tests…he referred him to a food allergist.

The food allergist tests revealed new allergies to:

• wheat
• corn
• soy
• peanut

In addition to the raw fruits and vegetables allergies.

So, what are next steps with these new food allergies?

Look over your recipes to see how you can change them to make them safe for the food allergies of those you are serving.

Some of the recipes that you find on this blog have been easily made gluten free by simply swapping out plain flour to gluten free flour. If you need more gluten free options, here are several I have shared:

• gluten free sprite biscuits
• gluten free chicken and dumplings
• gluten free oatmeal cookies

Just search for gluten free with the search bar to find more.

While I was recovering from that hip replacement, my husband learned that he could eat long fermented sourdough bread and spent hours researching and testing recipes.

He has become a pro at baking sour dough…the extra time fermenting kind. Science tells us that long fermenting removes gluten from the bread making it easy to digest. Just leaving it in the fridge an extra range of 15-24 hours does the trick.

Seriously, he can’t be surpassed in the realm of long fermented sourdough bread.

He makes it, slices it and adds them to vacuum sealed bags with parchment paper between the slices. He has a system!

Even buns are made and added to the freezer to replace any sandwich that needs a great bun.

and then he makes the most incredible long fermented sourdough rolls.

See what I mean?

More gluten free tricks we learned?

Use the keto flour tortillas…somehow these work. I have used them to make tacos, enchiladas and more. Of course I leave out the lettuce for the allergy one…but the tortilla itself works.

Here’s the smashed taco recipe.

Another trick? We have found rice based chips that can be swapped out for regular corn tortilla chips. They are used in tiny tacos. A bag stays in the car when a Mexican restaurant becomes a stop. That way queso can be enjoyed and feel more normal.

We knew that soy milk was a major culprit…but soy sauce didn’t seem to affect him.

But the biggest from the list?

CORN allergy!

Now, I have managed the gluten free thing well…but, corn is one of his most favorite foods. He loves fresh corn on the cob, especially Street corn style.

Each summer I shuck dozens of ears of corn and add them to the freezer. I have shared that process here.

The corn allergy means an end to:

• hush puppies
• cornbread
• oreo popcorn
• popcorn
• fresh corn
• artificial sweeteners, like Splenda
• powdered sugar
• anything with corn starch, baking powder, maltodextrin and other corn derivatives

This one was the HARD one to navigate.

I realized soon after researching that SOOOO many foods have corn or corn derivatives in their ingredients. Corn starch prevents food items from “clumping”. It is often in Asian foods and even used as a thickener in many recipes and packaged foods. It’s in all of the “cream of” soups in so many casseroles.

Even some products that are gluten free have added corn flour as an ingredient. So we read closely the packaging to make sure corn and it’s byproducts are not included.

For example, my favorite roast beef had to be adapted. Both the beefy onion soup mix and can of beefy onion soup had to be removed. In its place is a corn and gluten free onion soup mix and beef bouillon with beef broth added.

Tastes like the original and makes the perfect beef stew with the leftovers of this recipe–but minus the corn always added.

For the Rotini lasagna? I use brown rice pasta. Works beautifully.

Did you know that even powdered sugar has cornstarch in it to prevent clumping?

For icings, glazes, hot chocolate and any other recipe that includes powdered sugar, simply switch out regular cane sugar and add it to your blender to make your own powdered sugar. Corn starch free.

Even gluten free soups labels have to be closely read. Most contain cornstarch, making adapting the favorite holiday potato casserole a nightmare.

How can you menu plan for food allergies for those with feet under your table?

As we will gather soon for holiday meals, may I suggest that BEFORE you make your menu that you ask if there are any food ingredients or sensitivities that you need to avoid.

It may mean eliminating nuts from a dish; using gluten free ingredients; switching out meat options; substituting recipe ingredients to make them safe. Details on ingredients and what they mean matter.

For us, there have always been the “we don’t like” things to remove from the menu. Things that kids will eat.

NOW? It’s making sure that guests have food that they can enjoy without Benadryl or a trip to the ER.

Pay attention, friends.

Host well.

Read ingredients.

And then begin your menu planning.

Trust me. There’s nothing worse than a menu that leaves guests with nothing to enjoy.

So, it’s up to those who host or even bring a dish to have recipes available, ingredients “safe” and great food on the table.

May your table be filled with lots of great options for all,