Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for the Allergy Crowd

I am putting the final touches on my Thanksgiving menu plan.  My fibromyalgia symptoms have been in remission for almost a year now so making sure I have plenty of whole healthy foods for everyone to enjoy is important to me.  I recovered from my severe chronic illness when I eliminated chemicals from my environment, stopped eating toxic processed food, and started eating real, whole foods rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.  I want to keep right on feeling great during this wonderful food-centered holiday.

Dealing with my personal food needs is not the only obstacle I face in planning our Thanksgiving dinner. I am looking forward to having four generations of my extended family gathered around my table.  There will be laughter, hugs, long talks, games, and plenty of counting our blessings.  But there will also be enough of us in the room that have food allergies and food sensitivities that we could do group Public Service Announcements for the National Allergy Board.  One or more people in my family cannot eat dairy products, gluten, beef, nuts, corn, foods with a lot of roughage, bananas, spicy food, shellfish, pork, citrus fruits, kiwi, avocados, soy, or anything prepared in a facility that also prepares peanuts.  It's a good thing I like creative cooking and relish a challenge.

I want to encourage you that you can make healthy meals even during the holidays.  If I can prepare a delicious Thanksgiving meal for my food allergy bunch, I know that you can come up with some smart choices for you and your family too. You can eat healthy foods every day of your life for the rest of your life if you make eating well a priority. 

Here are a couple of ideas if you are cooking for a crowd that has food limitations.  

***Have one entree that everyone can eat and plenty of side dishes so that everyone can choose at least two additional foods.  If I tried to make every single dish something that every single person could eat, we would mainly spend the day sitting around the dining room table imagining what dinner might look like because it would be pretty much invisible.  

***Enlist some helpers.  My daughter is making two side dishes and a dessert.  And my mother is bringing four loaves of her wonderful homemade Portuguese country bread.

Thanksgiving Menu 2013

Roasted Turkey.  I fill the cavity with apple slices, onion, garlic and spices and baste with olive oil and everyone can eat it.

Crockpot macaroni and cheese.  The lactose intolerant folks have to pass on it but all of my grandchildren adore it.

Portuguese country bread.

Portuguese Country Bread

Baked sweet potatoes.  I serve them plain with a choice of toppings that include butter, soy- free dairy-free butter substitute, brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger.  

Squash casserole without the cheese.

Fruit plate with enough choices that everyone can eat at least one of the fruits.

Salad greens with kale, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Apple, pear, cranberry crisp with oatmeal topping but no nuts.

Brownie pie with vanilla ice cream on the side.

Chocolate almond pie that is dairy free, soy free, and gluten free.

Gluten Free Chocolate Almond Pie

And there you have it:  a Thanksgiving feast we can all enjoy.  Oh, and by the way, my family will be here from Wednesday until Sunday so I will be cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the allergy crowd for five days.  And I will love every minute of it.  Because spending time with people you love is a gift.  And Thanksgiving is the perfect day to smile and count your blessings.

No More Ice Cream? Arrgghhhh!

One day a friend who knew how sick I was emailed me some information I did not want to hear. A friend of hers with fibromyalgia had stopped eating certain foods and was feeling a lot better.  She didn't have all the details but said that it involved foods that might cause allergies.  The only specific food she remembered was ice cream.

Nooooooooo!!!!  I love ice cream in all its forms: from the homemade vanilla delight we hand cranked on the back porch when I was a child to the most elaborate treats offered by my local ice cream parlor.  I just tucked the information from my friend away for a while.

After all, I was busy eliminating chemicals from my environment and food, changing my house cleaning and personal grooming routines, clearing all the processed food out of the pantry, and searching for anti-inflammatory, antioxidant rich whole foods to add to my diet.  

For six months I completely ignored that email info because, frankly, I did not want to delve into a whole list of other things I might have to give up. However, I finally decided I wanted to give up feeling horrible the rest of my life more than I wanted to hold on to old food habits.  So I took the plunge and started reading about foods that might cause allergies.

I was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants in this whole process of searching for ways to get better.  I kept praying for God to show me what steps to take next.  And he kept nudging me in new directions.  I took a deep breath and started investigating.

One of the foods that may produce allergies is shellfish.  I was already allergic to that food group. Eating shellfish made me go into anaphylactic shock and quit breathing so it was a no brainer to avoid shellfish. When I read about how contaminated our seafood is from chemical pollution pouring into the oceans, I decided I might as well be glad I couldn't eat seafood instead of being bummed out over no more shrimp and lobster.  

The other foods I read about that produced allergic reactions in some people were going to be a little more problematical because they were things I really enjoyed.  I narrowed the list down to three groups: 

 foods that have gluten 

 milk products that could cause lactose intolerance 

peanuts.

I devised a plan.  I would leave off each group of foods for three months to see if it made a difference in my pain and fatigue level. I figured it would take that long to get each food group completely out of my system.  Then I would add them back to my diet to see if the symptoms changed.  

I started with gluten. Eating gluten free foods has been in the news a lot lately so that seemed a logical place to begin. That meant no bread, no cookies, nothing with flour. I didn't notice any changes when I left gluten products off or when I added them back.  That was a relief.

I tackled peanuts next.  It didn't seem to bother me if I ate something that contained trace amounts of peanuts.  But I could tell a definite difference when I left peanut butter off and when I added it back.  I love peanut butter.  But there are so many good substitutes - soy nut butter, sunflower butter, almond butter - that this was not a difficult change.  I decided to switch to almond butter because almonds were already on my super foods list.

And then there was lactose.  For three months I left off ice cream, milk, and cheese.  When it was time to add those foods back, I started with Greek yogurt.  Because of the way it is processed, people with lactose intolerance can often still eat yogurt.  I eat Greek yogurt two or three times a week and have had no difficulty with it.  However, when I added ice cream, cheese, and other raw milk products back to my diet, my pain level skyrocketed.  So I quit eating those things.  I can tolerate a sprinkle of cheese every now and then and I can cook with milk as long as that is not the main ingredient.  I do not drink milk or eat foods where milk is the primary ingredient.  And I never eat ice cream.  I feel so much better that I haven't even missed it.  And feeling better is after all the point.

Have you noticed any changes in your fibromyalgia symptoms related to the food you eat?

What foods do you recommend leaving out of your diet?

Please share foods that you eat to improve your health.