Best Recipes for Food Allergies

Homemade Granola Bars Free of Dairy, Eggs, Nuts

I've spent a little time freshening up and tweaking my recipe section. Please take a look and try out a few. Our family favorites include Marinated Chicken (yummy baked or grilled!), Homemade Rolls, Granola Bars, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Fruit Salsa...oh, the list goes on.

If you're looking for some new recipes to try this week, follow the link and head to the kitchen. I can smell those granola bars now!

Planning Ahead for Thanksgiving Dinner

Food holidays are always challenging when you need to plan around food allergies. By keeping things simple and planning ahead a delicious holiday meal is easy to achieve. Here are some tried and true Thanksgiving tips and recipes:

• I always brine our Thanksgiving turkey. Honestly, this will be the moistest, most flavorful turkey you've ever had. Check out my article, "How to Brine a Turkey".
• Our side dishes are simple. For mashed potatoes, I reserve some of the potato water to beat back into the boiled, softened potatoes. Dairy-free margarine, a little seasoned salt and some pepper and we're good to go. We enjoy my sweet potato recipe and I serve a variety of vegetables like green beans, corn and raw veggies including red pepper, carrots and grape tomatoes. 
• I usually make bread in the bread machine or serve biscuits. Homemade stuffing isn't too tough to tackle. Follow this Cook's.com recipe using safe bread and margarine.
• It's always fun to make a few dessert selections. I have some of our favorites under the recipe tab of foodallergyassistant.com if you're looking for new dairy, egg, peanut and nut-free ideas.

Start gathering recipes and planning now for a low(er)-stress holiday meal. I'd love to hear how you've adapted some of your family favorites to accommodate food allergies!

Food Allergy Friendly Sales

Those of us who must buy special foods know how expensive that can be. Take advantage of holiday sales from these allergy friendly companies:

10% off all Miss Robens baking mixes, plus 10% off your total order at the Allergy Grocer. Just enter code "JOY2010" at checkout. They are my favorite source for Barry Calabaut chocolate chips and this offer makes it a great time to stock up!

My cookbook shelf contains all of Linda Coss's books. Yours can too with her offer of free shipping and additional savings for book sets now through Dec. 31. She'll even personally autograph your books- just ask in the "special instructions section during check-out. My copies are dog-eared with folds and creases showing years of use. From pancakes to spaghetti and meatball soup, you're sure to find recipes the whole family will love.

Peanutfree Planet is your source for allergy friendly Advent calendars, iced gingerbread men and other goodies for the season. They offer flat rate shipping  or free shipping for orders over $100.

For other seasonal sweets, Premium Chocolatiers is offering beautiful chocolate gifts for the holidays, but hurry as only orders placed by today, Dec. 13, are guaranteed in time for Christmas. Amanda's Own will ship their holiday treats until Dec. 16 and Divvies offers a variety of Chanukah and Christmas treats this season  too.

Happy shopping!

Food Allergy Cookbook: Cooking for Isaiah

Silvana Nardone is Editor-in-Chief for Rachel Ray's magazine, Every Day With Rachel Ray. She is also the mother of a child who must avoid gluten and dairy. And, like all mothers do when they find out their child must avoid major food groups, Silvana started reading food labels differently and began cooking and baking differently. She has compiled her tried and true recipes, all of which are gluten and dairy free, into a new cookbook, Cooking for Isaiah. I recently had the opportunity to look through the book and try out many of the recipes.

First off, I must say, the book contains gorgeous pictures. From candid family shots to carefully orchestrated portraits of food, you can feel the love and deliciousness ooze through the pages. Another mentionable, is the descriptions which make up the titles of each recipe. This is not a book where one will find "banana pancakes". Oh no, this book has a recipe for "Banana Pancakes with Warm Cinnamon Goo". Now, that conjures up a whole different image, doesn't it? How about "Roasted Red Pepper-Crusted Salsa Meatloaf Pie with Tortilla Chip Crumbs"? No question about what's in this dish either. You'll salivate just reading the titles.

I made several recipes from the book. In our family, we can eat gluten and wheat, but we need to avoid eggs, along with dairy. Some of the recipes I followed exactly, and others I made the necessary substitutions.

Some of our favorites were Silvana's "Rosemary-Garlic Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables" (so easy and so satisfying) and "Sloppy Joe-Stuffed Potato Skins (perfect game-day fare). The "Spinach and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette" is perfect as an entree' or a side dish.

One night for dessert, I made "Penny's Apple-Brown Sugar Coffee Cake". It was heavenly. I must point out that I did use all-purpose wheat flour and I used eggs, as called for in the recipe. One morning I tried the aforementioned "Banana Pancakes with Warm Cinnamon Goo". I used all-purpose wheat flour and Egg Replacer®. The end result was pasty and gummy. This may be a recipe where there is less margin for substitutions.

All in all, I enjoy Cooking for Isaiah. It is certainly perfect for those who need to avoid gluten and dairy. I found it very easy to substitute wheat flour for the gluten-free flour recipe provided in the book. It may be less easy for those with egg allergy to make some of the recipes as many require multiple eggs. The book however does contain dozens of recipes that don't call for egg at all, or only use one egg, which is often easy to substitute. I always appreciate a cookbook that isn't filled with dishes slathered with cheese. and while this book does use nuts, often those can easily be omitted.

So, for all of us who have had the experience of saying to the doctor, "So, what can he(she) eat?", Silvana has provided another resource to help us make great food everyone can enjoy. you can find more info and recipes at her site, Dish Towel Diaries.

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Don't forget, you only have til this Friday to enter the Ian's Food Give-Away. Enter today!

Food Allergy Cookbooks

Linda Coss's first food allergy book was a bright light in my dark kitchen when we discovered my child's multiple food allergies. When the allergist told me to avoid all foods containing dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, oats and wheat, my mind played an internal video reel. Plates of macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, french toast, omelets and chicken nuggets flashed by- all with big red "x's" over their images. I truly didn't know where to begin.

Fortunately, I discovered Linda's "What's to Eat" food allergy cookbook. It is possible to cook and bake successfully avoiding dairy, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts. I was able to find a wheat flour substitute and tailor Linda's recipes to my child's needs.

I have since added her second food allergy cookbook, "What Else is to Eat" (just made the yummy barbecue sauce on page 101 for dinner last night) and her helpful book "How to Manage Your Child's Life-Threatening Food Allergies".

The great news is that Linda is offering her annual holiday sale. Order by December 31, 2009 and get FREE Priority Mail shipping. There's no minimum order or coupons required. You can also save up to 26% when you order the books in sets. Plus, those who would like their books personally autographed or need a gift card, can get those by typing a note in the "special instructions" section of the order form.

So, if you deal with food allergies in your family, I highly recommend these books. Honestly, some of our favorite family recipes, like Meatball Soup and Wheat Germ Baking Powder Biscuits, are in Linda's books. Order a copy for grandparents or others who cook and bake for the food allergic person in your life. The cookbooks contain easy to follow recipes with easy to find ingredients.

Go to Food Allergy Books for more information and to place an order.