Sick of cooking same stuff due to multiple allergies (General rant)

[VelvetCushions]

Ds2 has mutiple allergies and he can't have dairy, nuts, egg, beans and lentils or fish.
For him to get his proteins, I have to cook with chicken or meat everyday. He can't have white sauces so everything tends to be in a tomato based sauce or just roasted or grilled.

I do use a lot of veg and lunches are usually left overs or a carb and veg (today its rice cooked in a tomato, garlic base with carrots and veg thrown in)

Is there another protein source that I haven't considered?
Can anyone give me any ideas to vary meals?

vitalite

Not an opposition to Pure itself but just general marge/spreads.
They're not very good for you due to the way they're processed to make them set. They're essentially oil and water, which normally never mix. So the oil is heated to a really high temp, is then chemically altered and set.
Or something like that.

Not everywhere sells the sunflower pure so I do get vitalite too.

You could use olive oil instead of spreads for some things. After all, in countries like Spain, Italy, Greece etc they also use olive oil for dipping into bread. Is quite yummy .

Sorry, I meant for dipping bread into of course .

Yes also use alot of olive oil. Not sure if this is an odd question but are egg and chicken allergies related..? DD2 def allergic to egg but seems v itchy and puffy after eating chicken.(Could end up in a philosophical chicken or the egg debate..!)

Babybarrister thanks for letting me know that. Ds2 is going to have tests done for tree nuts so I'll ask for a chickpea test too.

Girlsyearapart Ds2 has an egg allergy but seems ok with baked goods that contain egg. He's never had a problem with chicken (thank goodness, don't know what I'd give him otherwise!)

Yes, olive oil is much better. I used to fry one side of of ds2's toast in a bit of olive oil but I got lazy and just started using the spreads. I probably shouldn't.
I think I'll start doing all baking using oil.

Our pharmacist- who has a v allergic niece- has said chicken not v common allergy but could be whatever chicken was packed in. (plastics??surely removed during cooking process??) He also said you can do a DIY skin test by exposing skin on tummy to a food you are unsure about for about 5 mins then thoroughly washing it off. Beats waiting for NHS tests I suppose.. Anyone else tried this?

When my dd2 had a dairy allergy (now outgrown) I used to make things like shepherds pie with minced lamb (just avoided dairy in the mashed potato).
Other things were: home made burgers or meatballs (that's tomato sauce again though...).
Have you tried making a white sauce with soy spread and soy milk? I vaguely remember doing that to make a bechamel sauce for lasagne (with no cheese) and it worked out fine. I also used to make dairy free pancakes with soy milk - they weren't bad either. She grew out of her milk allergy by the time she was 3 years old, but the nut allergy remains...

curry with two levels of fieryness?

I've just tried some baking with coconut oil which was fairly successful. Bought it from a company called Tiana (google them, their web site has lots more info).

I read an article in the Telegraph about a bakery in New York called Babycakes who specialise in non dairy/egg/refined sugar cakes and they use coconut oil a lot and also apple puree instead of eggs. I think using the agave syrup instead of sugar was a step too far for poor ds but he seemed to quite enjoy them.

He is nut allergic as well as other things but I was assured coconut wasn't included on the danger list before I tried it and he was fine.

Have you tried him with strogonoff? If he can tolerate soya then tofutti do a good sour cream called sour supreme (nice and high in calories), if no soya try with oatly cream which also works very well and doesn't have the sweetness of standard soya cream.

Re the chicken and egg question, I was once told that if you are very allergic to eggs you may react to chicken - not often due to the meat itself but because there may be traces of egg on it. My egg allergic daughter used to get an allergic rash around her mouth after chicken but seems to have grown out of it (although not sadly the multiple allergies!). I went through a stage of avoiding giving her meat from around the chicken's bottom - not sure if that helped!!

Think I may just give chicken a miss rather than avoid bottom meat!! Thanks for your post though as it seems that it is unusual to have chicken intolerance..How is your dd now with egg? Our dd2 10mo RAST positive for egg so been told not to give. Has an 'egg challenge' in September at the hospital. Did you ever have one of those? not sure what to expect..

We had an egg challenge a few months ago for ds. They usually try well cooked egg first so I had to take a cake I'd made in. Often kids can tolerate cooked egg but will react to lightly cooked eggs, cooking at a high temperatures alters the protein structure I think.

They basically book you a bed for half a day and introduce the egg product via stages. First bit of cake taped to arm for half an hour (ds 2.6 looked at the nurse as if she was mad when she did it ). Then if no reaction they rub it on lips and wait. Then rub on tongue and wait. Finally they get to eat a slice of cake and then wait again.

We thought ds had passed but literally as we were walking out of the hospital he started complaining of stomach ache and had violent cramps and diarrohea (sp?) for the rest of the afternoon so it was classed as a failed challenge. It was a fairly tedious process but worthwhile and takes the fear factor out of introducing things at home.

My only advice would be take lots of snacks and food with you. My ds has multiple food allergies and they had absolutely nothing he could eat on the ward but luckily I had taken full supplies as usual. They had a play therapist and loads of toys, ds quite enjoyed the experience I think (apart from the end result...).

thanks v much for that bilbomum. Egg challenge makes it sound they will get her to juggle eggs or do the egg and spoon race! they have not asked me to cook anything though..