cooking for family - I need help!!!

[tobytortoise]

Hi

How on earth do you all manage cooking family meals with allergies to deal with?

DS2 (18 months) is allergic to dairy. I am still bfing and have cut out dairy from my diet. I am also vegetarian.

DH is not vegetarian. Likes meat and hates most vegetables.

DS1 (4) is just a fussy 4 year old. Dislikes veg etc.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for meals as it is driving me mad, or tips on how you cope with different requirements? (I know DH and DS1 are just being fussy, think I will just have to get tougher with them!!)

We try to eat together most nights.
I am also pg and knackered!

Thank-you for any advice.

DS aged 10 is allergic to Dairy, eggs and peanuts

DD aged 12 is a fussy mare.. (still is)

although non of us are vegetarian this must make things a lot harder for you...

when you say you've cut dairy out of your diet do you mean to drink or are you really strict about not having buscuits with dairy in or say crisps?

When they were younger I always had a food that they really liked and balanced it out with food that they didn't like so much so they wouldn't go hungry... I always made my own bread rolls so this was always offered to fill them up..

Hi RumMum

I don't have any milk, cheese yoghurt etc but will eat things with dairy in (although I do tend to avoid), as it doesn't seem to affect DS2. However, he can't have any product himself that contains dairy as he reacts immediately.

Do you cater separately for DS at meal times?? What kind of meals does he like?

Thanks

hi TT...
luckily ds is a meat and 2 veg boy...
sausage and mash and peas.. mash with soya milk and marg.. for this as DD will have maccaroni cheese instead of mash

spaghetti bolognese

I menu plan and they can each choose a meal once a week... Ds always says a roast.. I cook twice as much and he has another roast for tea the next night.. ( I do fresh veg)

fish fingers chips (birds eye are dairy free)(DD will have mackrel)

chicken burgers again birds eye are dairy free they will both eat these

jacket potato DD will have a home made pizza..

when I use to find a meal we all liked I often exhausted it
now I have a just over a weeks worth

we don't have many family meals - in the sense that we eat the same things - and it is hard! I am not tolerant of adult food fads as they are such a bad influence on the children. So my DH - who is fussy - gets to cook when he wants to be fussy! He is now eating a wider range of vegetables having discovered that if you roast veg or cook them in butter (or stork for dairy free) they go down more readily

I will, for example, cook rice with peas and sweetcorn but then serve meat without sauce for some but not others. I will do baked potatoes with more than one filling.

I highly recommend the childrens sauce that hides veg - think its Ragu, we don't seem to have one to check if the tomato is dairy free. Pasta with veg can have diced ham sprinkled on top for non veggies.

Not sure if Sainsburys jaffa cakes are veggie but they are a dairy free dessert that will please your family.

Being vegeterian is going to make it much harder to ensure a balanced diet and enough omega 3 fatty acids for the children. You may need something like flaxseeed oil.