Share your tips for feeding a family with different dietary requirements with Flora

[AbbiCMumsnet]

Cooking a meal for the family can be hard at the best of times, so having family members with different dietary requirements can throw an extra spanner in the works. Whether it’s because of allergies and intolerances, or due to environmental, ethical or health concerns, we know that a lot of households have to think and prepare carefully to make sure their mealtimes cater to everyone around the table.

Because we think mealtimes can be tricky when you have to cater to different dietary requirements for family members, Flora would like to hear about your experiences and how you navigate through this.

Here’s what Flora has to say: “Health and wellbeing has never been so important to consumers, people care more about what goes into the products they are feeding themselves and their families, but they are not prepared to compromise on taste – and they shouldn’t have to. With a great new recipe making FLORA more delicious than ever, our new 100% Plant Goodness range can be enjoyed by the whole family.”

How does your family cater for those who have different dietary requirements when it comes to mealtimes? How can your family make sure everyone’s requirements are met without spending too much extra time, money, or effort on preparation? Has your family adapted well to managing emerging dietary requirements, or have there been any hiccups on the way?

Whatever your tips and tricks are on making these mealtimes a success, post them on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where 1 MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Dd1 has dairy intolerance, Dd2 & dd3 are vegan so I've got used to adapting family recipes to suit them. It makes it so much easier when the dairy free alternatives are as tasty as the original ingredient.

I do tend to cook one thing that everyone can eat, and sometimes add in or take away any differing requirements on the appropriate plates.

I find planning meals so much easier since I changed my focus from what each person can't eat, to what we can all eat. It's a very subtle switch but has made planning so much easier.

I'm allergic to wheat, so it's really important that if the rest of the family are having something with wheat in, I prepare my food first and make sure that everything is properly cleaned down after the meal. However, we rarely eat separate meals, it's really easy to have wheat-free food if you cook from fresh - ready meals are a definite no-no in our house.

I'm veggie, but I'm also the cook, so everyone gets veggie!

We have a veggie and meat-eaters, so I just used a different pan and utensils to make similar foods. EG, I'd do pasta with sauce, one pan with meat, the other without / with quorn or similar, steak, chop, etc and quorn fillet / bean-burger etc.
It's really not as hard as some folk make out!

I do a shop once a week and I make batches which I label and freeze. I make a huge pan with the main ingredients then I separate off half of it into another pan at the end and include extras into each one such as meat in one, quorn in the other, etc.

Batch cooking and colour coded cooking utensils so know which set to use for who.

Not cooking lots of separate meals is best from a sanity point of view. It's easier to make 80% of the meal the same and then add in any extras.

DD1 has cows milk protein allergy so I use oat milk, soya ice cream, dairy free spread etc for everyone.

I'm veggie and my partner isn't, so we often either make veggie meals and sometimes he'll cook some meat seperately to go on the side. I think finding go-to easy recipes using ingredients that suit all is a great idea - and many brands are now offering dietary adjusted versions of their products which is brilliant.

My oldest daughter can't eat gluten or dairy, I find it safer to cook everything from scratch and for the whole family to have the same meal, takes the risk of cross contamination away too

We usually prepare a "master" dish and then tailor it to individual dietary needs. This works for us.

We make sure that we have a meal planner for the week ahead so that we know what we have and we also batch cook so that should something happen we have home made goodness to come from the freezer.

My daughter cannot eat gluten but I find it quite easy to cater for everyone in the house, we eat quite a healthy diet so lots of meals are naturally gluten free. Any other meals I make using gluten free products. It helps my daughter not to feel different. The only different thing we might eat is bread because that can be quite expensive. I enjoy cooking so experimenting with new meals is enjoyable. Xx

I have two children and one has an allergy so I have to be very careful; I therefore avoid all ingredients that could be harmful to my older son and it ensures all the meals I cook are safe. I also ensure there are no food products in my home that contain any ingredients that would be harmful to my son in case another person is caring for them and cooks for them inadvertently, ie grandma.

Gluten-free husband , so we've changed to buckwheat pasta. I have a gluteny area of the kitchen and we have separate toasters and spread.

Batch cooking, DIY assembly foods like wraps so they can pick and add the bits that are ok for them and being planned and organised.

My daughter is vegetarian, but we aren't, so I make sure I always have a freezer drawer full of vegetarian foods, and some fresh vegetables, so that she can have a vegetarian meal if we're having meat.

meal planning is the key, plan meals write shopping list and stick to it, quite often meals can be made with ingredients the person with requirements need, but can be served to the whole family, I always use lactos free products when cooking,as required by my daughter and the rest of the family just eat blissfully unaware :)

I'm a big fan of batch cooking, that way there are always things available in the freezer to satisfy everyone's tastes.

We have some GF family and friends - whenever they visit I try to cook meals that are naturally gluten free (eg. Curry with rice or Meat and potato based dishes) and steer clear of products that are specifically made without gluten. It's amazing how many recipes are GF when you think about it.

Lots of meal planning and making meals in bulk could help, to use on a rota basis.

My daughter is lactose intolerant. So i make everything that we eat together suitable for her, so nobody misses out. We use flora a lot for baking it is really amazing in cakes.

I’m trying to cut out gluten as I think it’s causing me tummy ache. To be honest my family don’t like gluten free so I try to make meals were I can sub gluten free products easily, such as pasta dishes. I just pop on a small pan of pasta for myself and it’s fine! I don’t have to make completely separate meals. The internet is a godsend for finding meals that can be made gluten free easily enough.

Thankfully there's no allergies or severe dietary issues to think about, there is a couple of intolerances but that's easy to get around. I tend to batch cook to make it easier and we all eat the same thing so on the whole any dietary requirements are easy.

like to cook from scratch then freeze for mid week cooking when we are both working full time. Vegtables that can be used in other meals if not eaten are always a bonus