Allergies & Dietary Restrictions

Note:  I am reposting this from a previous site (originally posted 5/16/2019).  Please skip if you've already read it.

I love to cook. I love looking for new recipes to try, different flavors to experiment with, and all that still meet my dietary restrictions. I am allergic to wheat, corn, oat, and peanut, but I also have sensitivities to dairy and legumes, so I don’t eat anything with cow’s milk and avoid soy and beans like it’s poison ivy. Because of my avoidance of dairy, I use a lot of vegan recipes, and because of my allergies to wheat, my kitchen remains gluten-free. The corn and oat allergies made eating most of the convenient store-bought pre-made products nearly impossible because corn and oat are two of the main replacements for wheat. Add in the fact that I also steer clear of most grains, with the rare exception of brown rice and quinoa, I also use a lot of Paleo recipes. Refined sugars (ex: cane sugar, dextrose, maltodextrin, etc.) have become a trigger for uncomfortable digestive issues, so I try to stick with unrefined sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, and dates. Lastly, emulsifiers (ex: any of the gums, like guar gum and xanthum gum, and lechitins, etc.) also pose digestive issues for me, though I can have them in small amounts. This becomes a problem because most ready made products on the grocery store shelves contain some kind of gum or emulsifier, which adds up. As you can now imagine, I do a lot of cooking at home, and it’s been quite a challenge since my second son was born to find a routine that allowed me to do all the non-kitchen Mommy things for 2 kids 5 & under, the self-care that is required to stay sane, and also cook and prepare meals that I can eat and enjoy.

I read a lot of food labels and keep quite a stash of vegan recipes. It’s easy to think that I am vegan, but to be clear, I am very much an omnivore. I have carnivorous tendencies, so I have to exercise portion control and remind myself to eat more vegetables, just as I encourage my children to do the same. Practice what you preach, as they say.

Baking. Somewhere along the way, I made it my mission to figure out gluten-free baking that did not include dairy or corn. This was quite a challenge, and I once asked a local baker if she could make my son’s birthday cake for his 5th birthday party, as I was expecting to need lots of cake. When I told her that it had to not only be gluten-free, but also free of xanthum gum (no boxed 1:1 GF all-purpose flour), corn (no conventional baking powder or cornstarch), dairy (no milk or butter), and preferably vegan (no eggs), she said that it would not be cost-effective for her to attempt my cake. I laughed because I can make a spectacular cake that fits all of those constraints above, but I cannot produce the beautiful icing and decor that people pay almost $5/cupcake at specialty shops. In the end, I ended up baking 2 dozen cupcakes (carrot cake & dark chocolate) for the occasion, and the little kids just had to deal with icing clumsily squeezed on. Note: They didn’t care.