Food Allergy Living Blog Tagged Results

We know how difficult mealtime can be if you have a child whose food choices are limited by food allergies. This is why we are excited to announce the release of the Neocate Food Allergy Cookbook!

With the help of other members of the food allergy community and the countless moms who submitted their own personal recipes, we have compiled a cookbook full of yummy, allergy-friendly recipes for your families to enjoy. From birthday cake and crepe suzettes to turkey meatloaf and zucchini bread, we received some delicious recipes and can’t wait for you to try them.

All About the Cookbook

Inside the Neocate Food Allergy Cookbook you will find over 60 healthy and nutritious food allergy recipes, all of which are free of one or more of the top eight allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soy).

The full cookbook is available for download on our website. And starting tomorrow, every Wednesday we will be featuring a different recipe from the cookbook here on Food Allergy Living.

Eat Drink and Be Merry!

We hope that the cookbook will be a valuable resource for families of children with food allergies and help make mealtime a little bit easier for everyone. As a reminder, please check each recipe to be sure all ingredients are safe for your child and if you have any questions or concerns please consult your physician.

Bon Appétit!

- Sarah

We know how difficult mealtime can be for kids whose food choices are restricted by food allergies. So, we thought it might be helpful to put together a Food Allergy Cookbook. But we need help from families like you who have worked through trial and error to develop yummy recipes that your kids with food allergies can enjoy.

We’re asking you to share with us your favorite “safe food” recipes so we can compile them into a collaborative cookbook and share with food allergy families. We’ll say “thanks” with a $5 gift card to Target!*

We want everyone – from the overwhelmed parent with a newly diagnosed child with food allergies to the veteran allergy-free cook – to learn something from others who have faced similar challenges. This is an excellent opportunity to share your delicious creations, lend a hand to other members of the allergy community and maybe discover something new for your own family. Each selected recipe will be credited to you and printed alongside a photo of the dish and/or your family enjoying it.

Submission requirements:

• Please send recipe submissions to foodallergyliving@shsna.com by April 1, 2010.
• The only requirement is that the recipe must omit at least one of the top eight allergens. But of course we’d love to see the creative ways you’ve found to use the Neocate product range – including Neocate Junior,Neocate Nutra and E028 Splash!
• If possible, please send photos of the dish and/or of your little ones enjoying your recipe.

Once we receive everyone’s submissions, we’ll compile our favorites into an online cookbook that you can download and share with your friends, families and support groups. Of course we can’t pick every entry, but everyone who submits a recipe will receive the $5 gift card to Target.

Here at Nutricia, we’re all really excited about this idea and we can’t wait to see what recipes you all submit. So, thanks in advance!

- Sarah

* Recipes must be your own. A maximum of five $5 gift cards will be sent to each household (one for each recipe submitted).

According to the article, the company's Betty Crocker brand is rolling out gluten-free mixes for cookies, brownies and cakes. The mixes are the first gluten-free offering from a major, mainstream brand in the cake-mix aisle.I’m hoping this move will encourage additional retailers to follow the lead of General Mills, providing consumers with a variety of gluten-free options.

In the mean time, let us know what you and your little ones think of the Betty Crocker baking mixes and other General Mills gluten-free products and if you know of any other companies entering the marketplace.

- Christine

As summer winds down and the school year approaches, parents of children with allergies might be wondering “What will my child eat for lunch?” If you have a child for whom school lunch is not an option, here are some ideas for balanced and nutritious meals that are free of the top eight allergens. They take some time to prepare, so you might consider serving them for dinner and sending leftovers for lunch the next day. If your child drinks our E028 Splash or Neocate Junior, you can use these menus to get ideas of items or dishes that can supplement their meal-time drink.

Monday
Black Bean and Rice Burrito Bowl
                with Guacamole
Hummus and Cilantro or White Bean Garlic Dip
                with Carrots and Celery
Vanilla (Coconut Milk) Pudding or Nutra Banana Maple Pudding
 

Tuesday
Turkey Chili
                with Rice Cheese
Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Beans
Peach Slices
Cranberry Apple Cobbler or Banana Muffins
 

Wednesday
Grilled Chicken Breast
                with Mango Peach Salsa
Steamed Broccoli with Rice Cheese
Watermelon Cubes
Gelatin Dessert or Chocolaty Nutra Pudding
 

Thursday
Sautéed Sausage
                with Peppers and Onions
Oven Fries
                 with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Apple Sauce
Pineapple Rice Milk Smoothie or Chocolate Peppermint Smoothie
 

Friday
Veggies and Meat Pasta Sauce
                with Corn or Rice Pasta
Salad greens
                with Cucumbers and Dressing
Frozen Fruit Bar or Frozen Neocate Treats

 

My Top 5 Lunch Picks from our Neocate Food Allergy Cookbook:

• Cream of Broccoli Soup (Page 8)
  As a cream of broccoli soup enthusiast, I love this allergy-friendly (and far healthier) variation of the original. This is a very well balanced meal and a great way to sneak some vegetables into your child’s menu. 
   
• Hamburger Harvest Soup (Page 9)
  Naming a soup after a hamburger is a great way to entice your kids to eat it! This recipe is full of flavor and nutrients. It’s especially high in protein; Each serving provides 12 grams!
   
• Vegetable/Cracker Dip (Page 10)
  Serve with raw veggies and/or crackers (see cracker recipe on page 18!) and this is a healthy lunch. This would be a great option to send to school or have with you on-the-go. 
   
• High Calorie Neocate Shake (Page 22)
  This may not be an appealing lunch for everyone but since we so commonly hear from parents who have trouble getting their child to eat and gain weight, I thought this would be a great idea for some of you. A parent sent this recipe idea to us and said she uses it for sick days or when her child needs to gain weight. One shake provides a large amount of nutrients, healthy fats and of course, calories. You could easily use this as a meal replacement.
   
• Macaroni and Cheese (Almost) (Page 20)
  Mac & cheese is one of the most popular foods among kids. Thanks to this dairy-free recipe, children with milk allergies can have their mac & cheese too! You can also add some pureed butternut squash to this recipe for some added flavor, nutrition and to make the color more similar to standard mac & cheese.

Remember that you should always check the ingredients of these recipes to make sure they are appropriate for your little one’s food allergies.

What are your favorite allergy-friendly lunch recipes?  They can be from the cookbook or some of your own!

-Mallory

[Picture from Flickr.com]

My Top 5 Dinner Picks from our Neocate Food Allergy Cookbook 

 In no particular order…

• Oven-fried Fish (Page 14): This crunchy, flavorful, allergy-friendly recipe is a great way to introduce your kids to seafood (assuming that you have first ruled out any seafood allergies). Fish is a great source of protein and healthy omega 3 fatty acids. If your child has a soy allergy, you could substitute the soy milk with rice milk or Neocate. Likewise, you can substitute the margarine with a soy-free margarine or even olive oil.
   
• Green Bean Casserole (Page 10): Green bean casserole is a popular dinner side dish around the holidays but most recipes contain cream-of-mushroom soup, making it off limits for those with dairy allergies. Try this milk-free version that everybody can enjoy!
   
• Turkey Meatloaf (Page 12): This turkey meatloaf recipe is a tasty (and healthy) variation of traditional meatloaf recipes. Substituting ground beef with ground turkey cuts down on the fat.  Taking out the egg makes it safe for kiddos with egg allergies. Adding rice to the mix creates a balanced meal, especially if you use wild or brown rice, which are higher in fiber.
   
• Spaghetti is a staple food for adults and children alike.  Make sure your little one with food allergies can participate in family spaghetti night too!  Try making your own allergy-friendly noodles (your choice of 2 different recipes on pages 18 and 19).
   
• Pair your allergy-friendly noodles with Homemade Spaghetti Sauce (Page 15).  The sauce is full of vegetables but sweet, so your kids will love it.  This recipe is tomato-free and safe for kiddos who are sensitive to tomatoes due to allergies or reflux.
   

Remember that you should always check the ingredients of these recipes to make sure they are appropriate for your little one’s food allergies.

What are your favorite allergy-friendly dinner recipes?  They can be from the cookbook or some of your own!

-Mallory

Today’s post in our allergy-friendly meal idea series is the final topic: dinner! While breakfast and lunch may tend to be rushed or eaten out of the house, a lot of families still prefer to have dinner together at home. On top of this, the restrictions and rules that come with food allergies can make dining out very difficult.  Here are some dinner ideas that might help you add variety to the evening meal. As always, check with your little one’s health care team to make sure they are appropriate.
 

Neocate-Only Dinner Ideas

For children whose diets are strictly limited to amino acid-based formula, the same formula breakfast, lunch and dinner can be difficult for some children, especially older children. As we’ve mentioned in the previous two posts in this series, Nutricia offers multiple flavors in both Neocate Junior and Neocate’s E028 Splash. Many children have an easier time with restrictive diets when they have some input. Keeping a few flavors on hand can help kids to stay satisfied with an elemental diet. Try letting them chose their dinner flavor. Just like with breakfast and lunch, experiment with mixing different flavors of Neocate Junior and Splash with Neocate Nutra to come up with different flavors and textures. One of the easiest ways to offer variety is to use a blender. Mix one part Neocate formula with one part ice, blend well, pour into a fancy container or dish, add a straw or spoon, and enjoy! Neocate Junior Vanilla lends itself especially well to this shake format, and can be mixed with the other flavors or even with a fruit juice your child tolerates.
 

Top Eight Allergen-Free Dinner Ideas

If your child is on an elimination diet for eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) or is avoiding all of the eight major allergens, you can offer some different food options along with one of the Neocate formulas. For younger toddlers, you can mix unflavored Neocate Junior with pureed foods that they tolerate. Vegetables and citrus flavors blend especially well with unflavored Neocate. If you’re putting together a full meal for the family, it may not be as difficult as you think to avoid the top 8 allergens and come up with something everyone can enjoy. You can easily build off of our ideas for allergen free lunches. Remember, while most processed foods have ingredients derived from the top 8 allergens, dining on whole foods makes the top 8 much easier to avoid. You may even be able to find family-sized convenience foods in natural or organic food stores that are free of the top 8, such as soups or frozen items.

Less Restrictive Dinner Ideas

For children who avoid dairy and only one or two other allergens, we have some great dinner suggestions in our online Neocate Food Allergy Cookbook, a compilation of recipes submitted by families. Mallory posted her top five dinner ideas from the cookbook, many of which use wheat, in a previous blog. One great thing about a lot of these recipes is that many can be made in advance and frozen or refrigerated for later use. If you decide to dine out, it’s a good idea to do some planning ahead with these tips we shared in a previous blog post.

As always, we recommend that you check any recipes on our websites or from other food allergy resources to be sure that the ingredients are safe for your child and ensure that the health care team is on board.

Do you have any allergy-friendly dinner ideas that have helped you that you’d like to share with other Neocate families?

Rob

[Image source: http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/bafoodist/2009/03/5-tips-for-handling-a-bad-wait.html]