Day 2 of Allergy Free Cooking Creations

Cooking without soy, dairy, eggs, nuts, or legumes is somewhat daunting.  This week I fully committed to making all the meals we eat at home free of these allergenic foods. If you have read my previous posts, my son Zach has multiple food allergies.  My motivation is to make sure he has a variety of healthy food options every day.  He is only 1 year old so he isn't very interested in trying a lot of new foods.  All the meals I share with you this week are offered to him, but if he's not into that particular food, I revert to some of the foods I know he loves.  At this point in his life, I want to expose him to healthy options every day and build my cooking skills so that when he's older, I will feel more competent in cooking free of the foods he's allergic to.  

I am two days into the week and I feel pretty good about the meals I  have cooked.  They are simple but tasty.  I'm amazed at how many options I actually have when I focus on all the foods Zach can eat instead of the ones he's allergic to.  It's possible I may end up enjoying cooking for him after all.  

For breakfast today, I decided to make avocado and tomato toast.  We also enjoyed some fresh pineapple and bananas.  Zach didn't care for the pineapple to much but gobbled up a banana and some toast. 

Avocado & Tomato Toast

This recipe is pretty straight forward.  Simply mash up some avocado, slice some tomato, season with salt and a little pepper.  I used Ezequiel 7 Grain Sprouted Wheat Bread.  Most of the bread you buy at the grocery store contains either milk or soy.  This is the only one I have found, besides brown rice bread, that is free of allergens. 

At around 10:30am, I started to get a little hungry so I decided to make a midmorning snack.  Zach loves smoothies!  A great way to get a rich nutrient boost is through juicing.  Since toddler's tummies are sensitive, I didn't want to give him straight fresh juice, so I juiced apples, spinach, carrots, and an orange and used it as the base for a smoothie. I then added strawberries and a banana (to add fiber) to make a smoothie.  He happily drank a whole cup and his system tolerated it just fine.  

Fruit & Veggie Smoothie

I absolutely love sandwiches.  If I could choose two foods to live on for the rest of my life they would be sandwiches and salads.  They are my fav foods for sure.  For lunch, I didn't feel like cooking so I whipped up a turkey (no, I'm not completely vegetarian) sandwich with spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce.  For the spread I used Earth's Balance Soy Free Spread.  I chose not to give it to Zach because it's made with pea protein.  Zach's lunch was left over potato & zucchini mix from yesterday.  He loved it! I also threw in a little brown rice to the mix for him.  He ate it like a champ.  

Turkey & Spinach Sandwich

 Dinner was stir-fry with brown rice.  This one was a bit tricky because I didn't know what to season it with.  Soy sauce is obviously out and Bragg's Amino Acids are soy based as well.  So I ended up using canola oil and salt.  It tasted like vegetables and rice which isn't bad, but it definitely did not have the taste of stir-fry.  Zach gobbled it up which was a plus! Anyone know of  any good stir fry seasoning that isn't made with soy?


Stir-Fry with Brown Rice

Overall the day felt easy in regards to food preparation.  Having a plan definitely helps and blogging about it helps keep me accountable.  I'm excited about tomorrow and trying out a new recipe!


Be blessed!