Changing The Recipe!

What does one do if you have multiple food allergies/intolerances? Add to that 2 kids who ALSO have food allergies? You learn to CHANGE THE RECIPES!! Myself, I have a wheat/gluten/dairy intolerance and a citrus/melon allergy. My daughter is allergic to dairy and my youngest son is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.I have been dealing with my fruit allergy for 12 years. My daughter has had a dairy allergy her entire 5 1/2 year old life. The same with my youngest son's nut allergy, we've known since he was 1 year old (thanks to having a toddler who gave her baby some of her PB&J). So, cooking is NOT easy, but the challenge can be fun! One has to have a pretty humorous attitude when it comes to cooking with allergies or you can get upset, depressed & throw one giant pity party. No one likes that. So go at it POSITIVELY!!

Here's an example:

Golden Sweet Cornbread

This recipe calls for:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Well, I can't have wheat. So what to do? You can go online or to your local health food store and buy Wheat/Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour. Now, you have to be careful with this if you have someone with a NUT ALLERGY. Some are made in facilities that process peanuts or tree nuts. ALWAYS READ THE LABEL! If you can't find the label online, request your specific info! Ask them, "Is your (product) made with or could possibly contain (insert allergen here)?"

• 1 cup of yellow cornmeal
  

No problems for us here. No one has (knock on wood) a corn allergy!

• 2/3 cup white sugar

Well, sugar we don't have a problem with, but if you do then I am sure you can substitute Splenda for Baking or Agave Nectar. Here is the Conversion Chart for Agave .

• 1 egg

No egg problems here, BUT my nephew has an EGG ALLERGY. I do have an egg replacement called, ENER-G Egg Replacer Total awesomeness about this product is that it is free of gluten, wheat, casein, dairy, egg, yeast, soy & nuts!! YAY! I used just egg whites because I wanted to cut down the calories, but in hindsight, I could have used the Ener-G.

• 1 cup milk

Use rice, soy, almond (if you don't have a NUT ALLERGY). We used rice milk. I prefer it for baking certain things. It lends to a fluffier consistency. Soy milk tends to make foods a bit denser than we like and then they would be with regular milk.




This was quite an easy recipe to convert. I have had more challenging recipes. Later this week I will try to put up some of the cookbooks I have found and other converted recipes.