Food Stamp Challenge: Week 3 (Allergen-free)
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It’s an allergen-free week in our kitchen this week and I am … most decidedly not an allergen-free cook. We love our salmon, our milk, pecans and peanuts and a slew of other foods that’ll send our allergy-prone readers into anaphylactic shock just by reading the recipes. So, this week, you’ll have to bear with me as I muddle my way though not one, but two combined challenges: a dwindling budget coupled with allergen-free cooking.
As I wrote out, revised, revised and revised this week’s meal plan again, I felt stumped. To be sure avoiding one allergen is, more or less, an easy task. Avoiding all eight major food allergens proved difficult – leaving me with meal plan with which I’m not entirely satisfied and recipes that’ll have to wait to the end of the week before being shared as I tweak and adjust my way into palatability.
Food allergies and intolerance pose a major problem and they seem to be growing year by year. Indeed, some elementary and preschools have outright banned major allergens from lunchboxes and cafeterias for fear of exposing allergic kids to potential lunchtime dangers. While a handful of obscure food allergies crop up now and again – citrus, tomatoes, chocolate, cane sugar or even pork for example – eight foods account for the bulk of food allergies world-wide. Wheat, dairy, soy, shellfish, fish, peanuts, tree nuts and eggs account for 90% of the food allergies in the United States. Coconut, though technically considered a tree nut by the FDA, is not likely to cause reaction; indeed, coconut allergy is exceptionally rare.
In many families, food allergies cluster together and sufferers experience cross-reactivity among highly allergenic foods. And, while you may not suffer from classical allergies, you may still suffer from food intolerances. While far from life-threatening, food intolerances can lead to gastrointestinal distress, eczema, headaches, irritability, anxiety and poor ability to absorb nutrients. Food intolerances are also implicated in unexplained infertility.
The challenge is that allergen-free foods are expensive foods. A pound of butter costs $1.99, but a small jar of coconut oil rings in at $5.39.  Five pounds of whole wheat flour rings in at less than $2, but just two pounds of buckwheat flour is well over $6. It’s expensive … very expensive. Those families challenged by allergies coupled with a low budget face a significant struggle. Low cost standbys such as eggs, wheat flour and milk can’t be purchased. This week, we’ll make heavy use of rice porridge for breakfast, beans, vegetables and buckwheat bread.
I’d hoped to prepare ghee this week and at $1.99 / lb for butter, it’s considerably less expensive than coconut oil. Ghee is a wholesome fat, rich in CLA and a remarkable source of vitamins A and K. Free from the milk solids that contain allergenic components like casein and lactose, ghee is suitable for even the milk-allergic. While preparing ghee at home is simply and easy, it may be difficult to fully separate the milk solids from the pure butterfat at home and I recommend purchasing ghee online (see sources).
Download this week’s meal plan. Recipes will be forthcoming after a few tweaks.
It just made me smile to see the heading of today’s post and to think of a person trying to create a working allergen-free menu in a week’s time, not to mention keeping it within a food-stamp budget! Makes me think of a poster that my husband used to have in his office at work:
“WE DO THE IMPOSSIBLE WITH NOTHING”.
Of the ones you listed I have 7 ELISA-tested allergies (was 8, but after having NAET acupuncture treatments, I can now have Omega-3 eggs.) I also tested positive for yeast and fructose. Then, there are the sensitivites that I must limit like pork, chocolate and even GF oats and buckwheat. It has taken me nine years of self-education and “tweaking” to even feel somewhat competant, and the first two were mainly learning what to eliminate!
Breakfasts were hard for me, and still it’s not my favorite do-without-the-old-standbyes meal. Quinoa with GF turkey sausage is good, as are variations on a Pork-Fried-Rice theme; and I like shredded potatoes with peppers, onions and other diced vegetables ~ have to limit onions, though. If I’m in a hurry I have a GF muffin from my own recipes, although I don’t prefer something sweet in the morning.
I wonder if any of your other readers have developed multiple food allergies from malabsorption due to undiagnosed celiac(?) I don’t know a single other person that has the questionable honor of being “allergic to everything”, as my friends tease me. It’s daunting in real life, where you learn a step at a time ~ but for your Let’s-see-how-we-can-”up-the-ante”-food-stamp-Challenge it’s got to be close to overwhelming! You are very knowledgeable so you have a headstart on most people.
I’m still smiling! I guess if I can’t share with other real-life strugglers, I’m feeling GOOD even to have a quasi food-intolerant friend!
I really can’t wait to see the recipes! I love buckwheat, it is my favorite, and so I am looking forward to the bread!
Unfortunately, looking at your meal plans, I noticed you include beans. Some people who are peanut-allergic are in fact allergic to all legumes, including dry beans. My sister found this out when she was trying to be vegetarian. Soy and peanuts are the worst, but peas were actually the first food to which she noticed a reaction.
is there an egg-free buckwheat crepe recipe out there?
Your meal plan looks very tasty! You are right about it being difficult to buy those things on a budget. To get lactose-free casein-free ghee at the store is somewhere north of $11 and the coconut oil isn’t much cheaper. Finding decent saturated fats w/out butter has definitely been challenging!
Thanks for focusing your attention this week on allergen-free cooking! My son has egg and sesame allergy (formerly dairy too), and for parents with no allergies, this has been a real eye opening experience for us.
Wonderful stuff today, this is exactly where I am in my food journey! I am not on such a tight food budget, but then we don’t have things like satellite/cable TV or cell phone plans at my house. Food is the most important expense to us, after our shelter.
Still I like to believe that a nourishing diet is possible on a realistic budget, so thanks for being a standard bearer!
Recently we discovered that fructose malabsorbtion may be the cause for food intolerance in my household. It apparently affects up to ONE THIRD of us! I can’t handle anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup, which I discovered 2 years ago (oh darn, right?). I get terrible stomach cramps from the fructose and this led to reading about other High-Fructose foods, many of which are naturally occurring (apples, wheat, honey, etc.). This makes nourishing myself that much harder! But to live without IBS is heaven! And I’m also legume intolerant, along with salmon, tuna, and more… UGH. But this week I’m making some butternut squash risotto, which would be a great idea for anyone on a tight budget!
I really wanted to applaud you for suggesting GHEE to people, it is VERY EASY to make, and I LOVE the flavor of it! After all, it is the milk solids that give us the intolerance, not the milk fat. I also found that I can have some richer milk products without major reactions, like full-fat cream or whole milk in my tea. Some cheeses digest better for me, too, especially ones that are super-aged like parmesan, etc.
Another factor for dairy intolerance is that Ultra-Pasteurized dairy products kill all of the good enzymes that are helpful in dairy digestion! I was buying expensive Organic milk that was Ultra-Pasteurized and realized (after reading about it on Weston-Price) that I wasn’t getting the healthiest milk by doing that! I have since switched to a locally produced milk which is gently pasteurized, grass-fed (it cant’ say Organic if it is grass-fed as they can’t claim grass as organic), and it is HALF the price of the milk I was buying! So “Organic” isn’t always better! It is a regular store-brand, nothing fancy (Alpenrose Dairy here in the NW).
Sorry I wrote so much, I have been excited about my recent discoveries and thought that it applied to your discussion!
All the best to you!
Thanks for this.
I have to say, though, that I caution those with a dairy intolerance, much less a dairy allergy, in using ghee. My oldest (allergy) would be incredibly sick on that advice and my youngest reacts to the tiniest amounts of any dairy through breast milk with reflux and hair loss caused by severe cradle cap.
Oh yes, and Marilyn, we avoid most of the top 8 (exception of sea food and we only limit soy) and a few other things, like berries.
Clarissa, I too, live in the NW and used to live right down the road from Alpenrose Dairy!
My husband is allergic to fish and shelfish, I am sensitive to soy, and my younger child is intolerant of dairy and all gluten grains (we think he has celiac disease), so this week’s menu is fantastic for my family! We already eat lots of beans and lots of rice. It is almost getting fun to experiment with new recipes as we have been forced away from the boxed and canned meals. For me cooking involves simply shopping the fresh foods in the perimeter of the store and cooking healthy meals from scratch. This can be economical if I stretch meals by using lots of lentils and other beans and white and brown rice.
Thanks for posting this!
You may want to check out Angel Food Ministries. This ministry accepts EBT cards. They also have an allergen selection.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
Fewer people are allergic to meat than anything else, it seems
Hi Jenny,
I’ve been so interested in your challenge. I applaud your efforts and think that only good can come from this awareness.
I heard this on our local NPR station the other day. Changes to the WIC program are making strides in making fruits and veggies more available. However, they are at the same time, discouraging other whole foods like whole milk and eggs because they are high in fat. Seems like a step forward and a giant step back at the same time. Here’s a link:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1568493/KPLU.Local.News/Feds.Revise.Popular.Child.Nutrition.Program#
We have been gluten-free, milk-free, soy-free, and corn-free and largely egg-free for over a year now. I cook this way for all 8 members of our family and though we have not had to live on a food-stamp budget I have found that making things from scratch to live like this has saved our family hundred of dollars.
Things that we do to save money eating allergy-free include:
-Cooking whole grains for breakfast. I buy GF oats (Bob’s Red Mill) in bulk (25lb bags) They offer rolled, steel-cut and whole grain. We also use buckwheat (to make creamy, just run through a blender or food mill…they are very soft and will grind to a flour VERY quickly so be careful). You can often by these bulk bags for an additional discount (10-20%) at any place that sells them out of bulk bins, or even those smaller stores that sell small packages of the BRM products. You can even make larger purchases through the BRM website (or call them).
-We make lots of pancakes. Someone asked for a recipe using buckwheat and no eggs. This is one for pancakes but possibly if you thin them enough (which is hard to do with buckwheat…it keeps “puffing up”)they would work: This recipe makes approx. 12 pancakes. We quadruple it for our family.
1 1/2 C buckwheat flour (just make in the blender)
1 t baking soda
1 t cm of tartar (I also buy this in bulk)
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 C milk or water (we use water)
3 T oil.
We also make our own nut butters and “milk” from cooked grains and sprouted nuts. It sounds like a lot of work but believe me when I say I really dislike baking. Not a lot of baking going on here. Just quick easy things. I am just now in the process of starting a website dedicated to saving money with allergy-free cooking amongst other things so feel free to stop by and ask me questions and I will answer them as quickly as I can.
I do try to purchasing GF breads and other baked good to a minimum because they blow the budget out of the water very quickly.
My next quest is to find a tortilla maker and a great Allergy-free tortilla recipe. Those rice ones are awful hard AND expensive.
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Remember: I'm not a doctor, and I don't offer medical advice. I'm just a mom who believes in feeding her family nourishing, healthy foods and I enjoy sharing the reasons why we've chosen this path. Read the disclaimer and advertising/policy and privacy policy.
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