Food Items that help me

Missing our favorite dinners was a big concern to me when Asher was first diagnosed with food allergies. I've learned a thing or two about cooking without the "Big 8" allergens (90% of all food allergies are: dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, and fish).

I've found a lot of foods can be just as tasty if a. you're only substituting one or two ingredients and b. said ingredient is not a major component of the recipe, which means there's just not good way to make macaroni and cheese (unfortunately), but with a little maneuvering, I can make an acceptable chocolate chip cookie with palm shortening or a safe margarine.

Spectrum palm shortening-This is the only soy-free vegetable shortening I've found. I prefer it to coconut oil (another good shortening/butter substitute) because coconut oil can flavor the dish more than I like.

Mother’s margarine-I ration this stuff very carefully (I have 12 tubs in my freezer) because it's the only absolutely safe margarine I've found--many margarines say they may contain soy oil; this one promises not to because it's made to be safe for Passover, and thus, it is only available at kosher grocers around Passover, which is usually in April or late March.

Chocolate rice milk-Asher doesn't drink much besides his amino-acid formula, but now that I've had to go dairy-free for Luke, I've found this to be the best alternative. Original soy and rice milk is sometimes too sweet for me, and I don't like rice or soy aftertaste. I like the rice chocolate milk; I think the chocolate flavor takes away some of the "riceyness."

Enjoy life cookies and granola bars-While their items, truthfully, taste a little funky, I buy them because they save me from having to make treats for Asher from scratch, and he likes having stuff come out of a package like other kids in nursery.

These are foods I would buy even if we didn't have to deal with allergies:
Costco fruit snacks-always a handy snack/bribe when we're out and about.

Costco guacamole-dairy-free! Asher and I eat this every day for lunch on chips or in a bean burrito.

Horseradish-Now that I can't have cheese on my sandwiches, I sometimes put soy cream cheese in place of the cheese, but I don't like the taste of the soy cream cheese--I just like the fat, I guess :). So, I put horseradish on with it to cut the soy taste when I have a roast beef sandwich.

Advocado-Another handy "creamy" ingredient, which tastes better than the soy cream cheese/horseradish combination on turkey and chicken sandwiches.

Bacon-My salad consumption has gone way down since going off daiy. I think I usually used salads as an excuse to have goat or feta cheese. Now, I try and put bacon, advocado, and nuts on to make up for my lost cheese.