Guests with allergies - can you help me please?

[Weegle]

I'm posting here because I'm hoping there might be some parents on here for whom this would be second nature. I have guests coming to stay for 8 days who have a little boy who is allergic to tomatoes and dairy. They also have a little girl who is intolerant to soya. And I can't eat eggs. Can anyone help me with some main meal suggestions, and also light lunches? So far I think the simplest route is almost going to be meat, veg & potatoes?

Would be really grateful for any ideas - I want them to feel welcome but also don't want to be preparing lots of different meals - would like us all - adults and children eating pretty much the same thing most meal times if possible.

we are in some ways along the same channel because my children are all dairy free and my mum can't have tomatoes or anything with seeds in....

Agree with the meat,veg, potatoes route but you could do some sort of stir fry with rice, maybe chicken and a load of stir-fry veg - mushrooms, peppers, beansprouts, sweetcorn etc. Also an easy summer option for when meat spud and veg looks boring is to do a barbecue, jacket potatoes or potato salad, do a normal salad but we always put the tomatoes in a separate little dish so that the seeds and stuff don't mix with the rest of the salad.

We also go for salmon and new potatoes and either steamed veg or salad.

It doesn't have to be boring!!
We use vitalite margarine - it's dairy free and it behaves as other margerine (not that you would be getting the soya stuff anyway, but that turns watery when it gets warm and it is rubbish to bake with lol)

We tend to go for a lot of fruit salad type desserts, fresh strawberries and banana splits The children like jelly (i mean who doesn't?!). You can also buy sorbet which doesn't contain either milk or soya products, which are lovely. We get through tons of cake, mostly home made (with vitalite marg) and they are lovely - if you have an eggless sponge recipe you could adapt?

btw, there is a dairy free tikka massala sauce (Asda I think) and that's great with chicken and rice

Do they like hummus? DD1 loves to dip things in hummus like strips of pepper, carrot, or cucumber, or pitta bread. It's a fun lunch for grown ups too.

ooops sorry - forgot the tomatoes . It's dairy free and so I use it....

great thanks - some good ideas. I was thinking BBQ's could be good - are sausages generally ok for non dairy, non soya? I tend to do my main shop online so it's not always possible to check the ingredients. Also what brand crisps are non dairy?

Hummus is a good lunch idea, like that.

Another thought - could you make a vegan pesto sauce? Basil, pine nuts, garlic etc. You could add some grilled chicken or prawns and it would make a change from potatoes.

richmonds sausages are dairy free - will go and check for soya ingredients for you, I have some in the fridge
Crisps per se are dairy free - they are just fried potato obv, but steer clear of many flavours, cheese and onion definitely no use, many brands salt and vinegar (we use Morrisons own or Walkers and they have no milk in) anything like prawn cocktail needs to be checked. Chipstick-type things often have milk or soy ingredients. We go for prawn crackers and stuff when we fancy a tasty change, also plain tortilla type things and a dip.

eww, richmonds sausages do contain "soya protein concentrate" [2%]. Ok for the rest of you, maybe look for an alternative for the little one with soya problem? As an alternative, we marinate pork ribs with orange juice, lemon, seasoning, worcester sauce, soooo yummy and sticky (this is making me hungry, lol)

thank you gigglewitch MrsTittleMouse - that sounds good but I'm not sure about pine nuts - are they actually nuts? The little lad can't have almonds (didn't mention that one as it seemed so obscure!), so I'm not sure if that would also apply. But I could definitely do a basil and garlic and oil marinade for chicken/prawns which could be tasty grilled.

oh pants about the Richmond sausages - maybe I will go to the butcher and ask if he has some which are both dairy and soya free. Ribs sound fab but 3 of the kids are only 3 and I think it might be stressful!

oh my now 4yr old and all my girls loved ribs.

walkers ready salted crisps are dairy free.

there is another thread with nut free pesto suggestions on it - just search mumsnet allergy section for the last week . Pine nuts aren't actually nuts but some people with nut allergy test positive for them. Mine is one of the ones that does, we've not tried a food challenge.

thank you everyone for all your help - I've written a menu, and it looks fine. TBH it's stuff we'd all normally eat anyway which is great so hopefully they'll feel at home and not like it's a big deal for us. Now just to worry about three 3 year olds sharing a bedroom and whether any of us will get any sleep!