Elimination Diet: What's been on the table?

All I can say at this point is that cooking completely from scratch is exhausting. My hat is off to all of you out there who do this from absolute necessity. I'm thinking of missionaries, who on top of living in sometimes adverse conditions with loads of responsibilities must spend time shopping and cooking and cleaning to this degree.

I have to admit that we've gone twice to Chipolte in these two weeks. They are very allergen friendly requiring the entire staff to change their gloves and utensils when filling our order. That was appreciated. We are able to order a bowl with rice, beans, chicken and lettuce. I could have so made this at home, but a break was much in order. Perhaps not the best use of money, but I'd like to think that my sanity is worth something.

With that being said, I'm happy to report that we are fairly settled in to our new routine. Everyone has found at least a few things that they like and now I feel like I can just cycle through the rotation. Hopefully, as I cook through these meals a second time I'll be able to put a few things in the freezer for the future or have leftovers for lunch.

Here's some samples from our first two weeks of a gluten, dairy, soy, corn, peanut, egg, nightshades, red meat, caffeine, alcohol and sugar free life.

Rice Noodles with Cashew sauce and Stir Fry Veggies (picking around the corn and peppers)

Baked Apples with cinnamon and apple juice

Blueberry pancakes

Mini turkey burgers with sweet potato fries and fruit salad

LOTS of smoothies and fruit drinks

Warmed apple cider with orange slices and cinnamon sticks

Pumpkin cake

Brown Rice pasta with Mushroom Nomato sauce and green beans

Coconut Breaded fish with sauted veggies, baked sweet potato and bread

We've also enjoyed: Black beans and Fajita Chicken with Lime/Cilantro rice
Salmon Cakes and Roasted Cauliflower
Banana Muffins
Chicken Soup
White Chili
Hummus and Fresh Vegetables


One wonderful thing about this diet is that there is not a speck of food wasted. We all seem to have a real appetite when we sit down and walk away from the table satisfied (most of the time). It is a challenge to keep up on the snacks, though. I'm finding that the kids need at least two snacks a day which usually ends up being trail mix (almonds/cashews/raisins/dehydrated bananas) or some sort of fruit. Last week they consumed 40 pounds of bananas and almost and entire box of oranges. The people at the grocery probably think I have monkeys living at my house!!

This week I'm going to attempt to make my own Nomato sauce. It was given to us by a friend to try and it is surprisingly just like tomato sauce!! However, it is quite expensive for just a jar that contains just two servings. Having that would open up a a lot of recipes for us.

I'm also going to try some grilled flatbread (if the weather stays clear). I think this would taste great with hummus. There is a coconut milk ice cream recipe that looks delicious, but, alas I have no ice cream maker. That one will have to wait.

I have some new grains on hand, so I might bake some more bread and muffins as well.

Hopefully, less time planning meals will mean more blogging this week. I have finally compiled my price list and have a lot of recipes to post over at the Full Table.