Food allergy help?

[zombiequeen]

Ok, to start it off, I guess I'll list what my allergies/intolerances are:

citrus-any kind=allergic
cinnamon-any amount, even smell=allergic
grease-more than a little bit=intolerant
lactose-more than a little bit=intolerant (Lactaid rarely helps, it takes like 3+ pills for one slice of cheese)
Red meat-large amounts or greasy=gives me stomach cramps
Ham-told to avoid=favorite mammal meat
Spicy stuff-at all=super sick
Tomatoes-raw or lots=stomach cramps

Can anyone help me with recipes or anything? I'm trying to cut mammals out of my diet, but it's really hard because it's most of what my family eats. I don't really like turkey, I love fish and chicken but I rarely get to cook it. Salads are kind of hard, because I don't like dressings other than Italian, and most brands contain lemon juice. I can have some citric acid in stuff like candies, but only a little bit before I get a sore throat.
I also have been craving stuff that makes me sick, like homemade chili with sour cream and cheese in it. I think I'm having deficiencies of some sort, but I never know. I've found that even if I'm intolerant of something, if I crave it, I won't get as sick or sick as quickly than if I eat it otherwise.
I was just wondering because I'm trying to cook for myself whenever I can, but I mostly eat peanut-butter sandwiches or eggs because there's so little I feel I can eat. I used to make salads and stuff during the summer, but that's when I had money to do grocery shopping. Recently, my mum has done all of it, and other than picking me up some soy-cheese, I get very little say in what she brings home.
Can anyone help?

[ArcticChicken]

You can substitute ground turkey for ground beef in most situations with very little flavor loss.

I like Shepard's Pie with ground turkey.

You could leave the cheese and hot pepper flakes out of this Italian dressing recipe.

I like to stuff my eggs with honey smoked turkey and potatoes.

Goat milk cheese has less lactose than cows milk cheese, it might take fewer lactaid tablets to counter-act the lactose. There is also lactaid brand milk and american cheese.

I really like Amy's frozen macaroni and soy cheeze, of course, I also like to load it up with ketchup.

Turkey sausage, bacon, and hot dogs are readily available in most grocery stores.

My best guess on the chili craving is that you are missing some fat in your diet. To test this theory I would dip a knife in mayo and lick it. If it tastes absolutely amazing, then you need fat. I know from personal experience.

Pasta with olive oil and garlic is delicious. You can add lots of veggies, too. And/or chicken, or tuna.

Canned tuna with mayo, grated carrots, and relish makes an excellent sammich.

I like bagels with butter and nutritional yeast.

Have you talked with your mum? She might not really realize that you aren't getting a balanced diet. It's not as though you are a picky eater asking the rest of them to accommodate your desires, you cannot eat that food. It's not in the least unreasonable to ask her to accommodate your needs. Can you go shopping with her? That might allow you some influence over what comes home. If you do the cooking for some meals, you can make stuff that you can eat.

[Fufu487]

youtube easy stirfry recipes. Once you learn to stirfry, you can make all kinds of amazing meals, and get really creative with it. I like learning to cook from youtube and video because I can see it being done. I try and avoid alot of the things you listed there aside from citrus and spicy. It's easy once you learn to cook without them

[Amusement Gal]

For lactose, since you love your cheese, Cabot brand cheeses are naturally lactose-free. I don't know what they do or how they do it, but it doesn't bother me one bit! They mostly have cheddar cheeses, but they also have the standard Pepperjack, Meunster and whatnot. Also, something that might lessen the results of other dairy would be the probiotic acidophilus. You get it from a daily cup of good yogurt, or in a convenient pill form. Taking it once a day will let it build up in your system and help you regulate what's happening in your stomach. After about two weeks of taking it every day, you should be able to have less of a problem with dairy in general. Keep in mind though that since it's bringing your stomach back to its good old self, it's going to be a bit... gassy. But only at first. If you want to try other cheeses without sticking to that brand, there's also Goat's Milk cheese. It's very strong, however.

Hopefully this helps you a bit, fellow cheese lover.

[trailerparkmedic]

My favorite recipe blog is Debbie Does Dinner. I think a lot of her recipes will work well for you.

Search big websites (like Allrecipes, Tasty Kitchen, Epicurious and Cooks.com) for ground turkey (great substitute for ground beef) and chicken recipes. Also look for vegetarian and vegan recipes.

You would probably get a better reception from your mom if you took an active role in menu planning and grocery shopping. Find a few recipes that sound tolerable for you and similar to something your family might like. Ask your mom if she could make some of the recipes. If possible, offer to cook some of the recipes. Work within your family's budget (at the very least, ask if what you want is too expensive). If nothing else, ask your mom for cooking tips so you can make your own meals.

Take a multivitamin!

Baking chicken and stir frying stuff is a good, easy start.
Baking chicken breast: Sprinkle chicken with some spices you like (try some cumin and chili powder if you like mexican stuff) and bake the chicken at 350 degrees for 30ish minutes, or until the inside isn't pink.
Stir fry--find a sauce that fits your needs and buy chicken, rice and a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables. Cut the chicken into slices/chunks. Cook it in a frying pan over medium heat with a little olive oil or non-stick spray. The chicken is done when the outside is white and the inside isn't pink. Right before the chicken is done, add the veggies to the frying pan. When the veggies are done, add some stir fry sauce. Serve over rice.

[zombiequeen]

I have talked to my mum about bringing me with when she goes shopping, but she doesn't like me asking for specific things most of the time. She has gotten me the soy cheese and soymilk several times though, but otherwise, she reaallly doesn't like me that much. If I pay for my own groceries, though I can get whatever I want. As soon as either hubby or I get a job, we'll start doing that again.
I love stir-fry, and I did find a brand of teriyaki sauce that is tasty and all stuff I can have. I also make a lot of mashed potatoes and I mix stuff like chicken and veggies in with that too. I'll have to start getting tofu, I've heard that's really easy protein.
I know aged cheese has the lactose aged out, and I mostly eat extra-sharp cheddar. Surprisingly, the Wal-mart brand is better than the big brand at not making me sick.
I've been attempting to cut out mammal-meat, but my family loves it too much.
Most of today I've been eating stuff I've been craving, because I'm already sick so it kind of doesn't matter. I have been keeping up on my multivitamins and eating lots of protein and iron.
I'm calling my doctor later this week about fixing my diet, and I'm sure she'll want me to start a food journal. I'll ask her about the acidophilus too.

[MaggieTheCat]

My husband and I have been trying to eat meat-free at least once a week, which is kind of a challenge for him 'cuz he loves meat and doesn't love a lot of veggies. Tonight I made tofu parmigiana and it turned out really good! Hubby loved it. You may not want to make the parmigiana part since it had a lot of tomato sauce and mozzarella on it but I'll share with you how I prepped the tofu since it seemed to work really well. This is for pan fried tofu.

Get firm or extra firm tofu. Drain the water from the container and pat the block of tofu dry with paper towels or tea towels. Stick the tofu in a plastic bag and freeze it for a couple of hours. I've read 8 hours or overnight is best, but I didn't have 8 hours so I froze mine for about 3 or 3.5 and it was fine. After freezing as long as you like, remove the tofu from the freezer and let thaw on the counter for an hour or two, or stick in the microwave for a few minutes to thaw. I'm not sure how, but freezing supposedly gives the tofu a meatier texture. After thawed, slice the tofu into whatever size pieces you want. I sliced my block into three thin rectangles for the parmigiana, but you could do sticks or cubes too. Make sure to pat dry again with some paper towel. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (pro-tip: spray the pan you bake it on with non-stick spray, or use parchment paper so the tofu doesn't stick and fall apart when you try to take it off the pan), just until the tofu starts to turn golden around the edges. This will help firm it up and give you a nice crispy texture after you fry it. Remove from oven, let cool briefly, then dredge in flour, then egg, then whatever kind of breading you like. I used crushed up seasoned croutons. Pan fry over medium heat in just a bit of olive oil until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. It seems like a lot of steps but it wasn't hard and it didn't really take that long.

You could do lots of stuff with this; put your teriyaki sauce on it and have it with a stir fry. Eat it between a bun with some lettuce, tomato, mustard, etc as a sandwich. Toss it in BBQ sauce and eat it like BBQ chicken wings. If you don't want to fry it, you can also bake it again after you bread it until it gets golden brown and crispy.

For the parmigiana, in case you're interested, after I fried it, I put it in a small baking dish, covered with marinara sauce, then covered with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses and baked for about 20 minutes, till everything was melty, and served it over spaghetti pasta.

[zombiequeen]

MaggieTheCat, that sounds delicious! I'll have to try that sometime.
Yeah, I'm currently looking for a vegetarian soup recipe to prove to my family veggie food is tasty too. I have firm tofu, vegetable stock, celery, carrots, kale, water chestnuts, and maybe some other stuff, does that sound like good soup to you guys? I'm not 100% decided on putting the kale in, I originally bought it for the lizard but they only had huge bunches so I got a lot. I know kale is good steamed with noodles and sauce though, so I might cook it that way too. And it's kind of tasty by itself.

[MaggieTheCat]

I've never prepared kale before but otherwise the soup sounds good. Veggie soup can pretty much be whatever you want dumped in a pot with water or stock and let it simmer till the veggies are the consistency you like. I'd add a bunch of spices and herbs to mine. I would also recommend cubing and either baking or sauteeing the tofu before adding it to the soup, just to firm it up a little bit.

Here's a recipe for African sweet potato and peanut butter soup. Sounds weird, I know, but it's delicious. It was the first vegetarian meal I made (ages ago actually) and what inspired me to start cooking meat-free at least once a week. It's my husband's favorite soup.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/African...up/Detail.aspx

Heck, it's actually a vegan recipe if made as written. I do add a small can of evaporated milk to mine when I make it, just to make it a little creamier. The spices and stuff can be played with to get a combination you like. I tend to add more cayenne for more of a kick. I also use less tomatoes and more carrot, and I use canned tomatoes and canned sweet potatoes to cut down on the prep time.

[zombiequeen]

That recipe looks really good, thanks for sharing!
I'm going to make the soup probably tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it. I'll share here how it goes. Wish me luck.

[AccountingDrone]

My husband and I have been trying to eat meat-free at least once a week, which is kind of a challenge for him 'cuz he loves meat and doesn't love a lot of veggies. Tonight I made tofu parmigiana and it turned out really good! Hubby loved it. You may not want to make the parmigiana part since it had a lot of tomato sauce and mozzarella on it but I'll share with you how I prepped the tofu since it seemed to work really well. This is for pan fried tofu.

Get firm or extra firm tofu. Drain the water from the container and pat the block of tofu dry with paper towels or tea towels. Stick the tofu in a plastic bag and freeze it for a couple of hours. I've read 8 hours or overnight is best, but I didn't have 8 hours so I froze mine for about 3 or 3.5 and it was fine. After freezing as long as you like, remove the tofu from the freezer and let thaw on the counter for an hour or two, or stick in the microwave for a few minutes to thaw. I'm not sure how, but freezing supposedly gives the tofu a meatier texture. After thawed, slice the tofu into whatever size pieces you want. I sliced my block into three thin rectangles for the parmigiana, but you could do sticks or cubes too. Make sure to pat dry again with some paper towel. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (pro-tip: spray the pan you bake it on with non-stick spray, or use parchment paper so the tofu doesn't stick and fall apart when you try to take it off the pan), just until the tofu starts to turn golden around the edges. This will help firm it up and give you a nice crispy texture after you fry it. Remove from oven, let cool briefly, then dredge in flour, then egg, then whatever kind of breading you like. I used crushed up seasoned croutons. Pan fry over medium heat in just a bit of olive oil until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. It seems like a lot of steps but it wasn't hard and it didn't really take that long.

You could do lots of stuff with this; put your teriyaki sauce on it and have it with a stir fry. Eat it between a bun with some lettuce, tomato, mustard, etc as a sandwich. Toss it in BBQ sauce and eat it like BBQ chicken wings. If you don't want to fry it, you can also bake it again after you bread it until it gets golden brown and crispy.

For the parmigiana, in case you're interested, after I fried it, I put it in a small baking dish, covered with marinara sauce, then covered with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses and baked for about 20 minutes, till everything was melty, and served it over spaghetti pasta.

You can also press the excess moisture out - get a clean piece of white muslin. Wrap the tofu block in the muslin. I have a pair of plates that are very smoothly curved with no lip on the bottom. I flip on over and set it in the bottom of my sink, plop down the brick of tofu, lay the other plate over it and get a #10 can of something heavy and set it on top. It presses out the excess water and makes the tofu more dense. If I wanted to use my cheese press I would have to make round slabs of tofu as my cheese press and basket are 6 inches in diameter =) I have been meaning to get a tofu press to go along with the soy milk maker and tofu making goodies, but I am lazy,.