Short story: Been feeling crappy for a long time and finally went beyond the MD to a naturopathic dr. Giving the results of the IgG test a try -- not expecting a magic bullet, but why not upend everything for a month and try eliminating things they "think" I am reacting to?
The list of don't-eats includes yeast, gluten, barley, malt, peanuts, milk, soy, tomatoes, chicken, black pepper, and a few other things (and chocolate, of course). Oats, bran, corn, rice, and rye did not react, so I'm good with those.
So, I'm going to be making some substitutions as I give up my beer and wine for awhile. Looks like I'm going to be learning how to use rice flour, oats, etc in place of regular flour or breadcrumbs.
I've never cooked with oats but I am thinking I could probably use them in meatloaf. Anyone have any tips for that? I'm getting steel-cut oats but have never used them before (or even SEEN them before!). I think they might need to be cooked some first, but how much?
Some subs will be easy -- rice milk on corn flakes instead of soy milk on raisin bran -- and I'm lactose intolerant so no-milk is something I've already done for years. But I'm really kind of stumped on finding meals my husband, 2.5-year-old, and I can all eat. I've got some great veggie-based stuff that I like, like a black bean soup, but everything else I always have with tomato! Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce, for example. I like spaghetti squash, but I don't like it with oil and parmesan cheese. :-)
I do need to eat more beef -- was quite low on ferrite and lowish on B12 -- I naturally "tend" to eat more vegetable-based meals than meat-based meals, but I don't object to meat. I just grind it myself, after being grossed out by the stories of how they make ground beef commercially and not liking to wait at the store for MAYBE someone to come grind it for me.
I don't normally shop at whole foods -- a bit pricey -- but for the sake of figuring it out, I can for a couple months. And, I've spent the last year really ramping up my cooking skills and eliminating as many pre-processed foods as I can, so I'm comfortable baking from-scratch. But everything has been very wheat-and-soy based to this point, so I'm kind of at a loss.
If anyone knows how to go yeast-wheat-soy free for a small family, or at least with a variety of recipes, I would LOVE some pointers.
Thanks!