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I've been pondering the question of including special diets into family life. Particularly when only one or two members of a larger household have need of it. We travelled this journey for a short time with Miss Sunshine and more recently with me. It is easier too, for me, in that I do not have to be super strict so I can eat small amounts of wheat without much trouble. A day with toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner is a thing of the past though! The husband of a wonderful friend asked me the other day if I cook wheat free for everyone in the family, or just myself.
The answer is, it depends!
Wheat free life is more expensive and has less variety. I'm not in a hurry to have my entire family eating wheat free pasta and cakes or biscuits when the cost is often half to two-thirds more than a wheat based product. And let's not even talk about the cost of wheat-free bread!!!
So how does this work for us? I do a bit of eating separate items and a bit of making everyone else eat what suits my needs. I have some gluten free muffins etc set aside in the freezer that no one is allowed to touch. When we have pasta I cook a small amount of pasta separate from everyone elses, but use the the same sauce. If I want to make a crustless quiche or gnocchi or something else that has a small amount of flour I will use the gluten free flour. When I'm out an am served a meal I just don't worry too much about it. I eat smaller portions than I might have otherwise and I will choose to leave things like bread. I would choose a wheat free option if there was one available.
When Miss Sunshine was on a wheat & dairy free diet for a bit things were far more strict. I bought a bottle of tamari sauce (a wheat free soy sauce) and we found a wheat free tomato sauce etc, so that I could make the same meal as the rest of us, and I would just take out a small portion and use ingredients suitable for her. On the plate it looked the same and it only took me about 1 minute more in preparation to cater for her needs.
Because of Miss Sunshine's needs about two years ago, our eating habits at the dinner table morphed quite a bit. I had already determined which meals worked for her and which ones didn't, so when I finally figured out I needed to be more careful myself, I had already done the brain bending required!
Of all the meals, I find lunches the most challenging. I get tired of salads very quickly ~ even the beautiful gourmet ones I love so much. A quick lunch to prepare on days when I need to take it with me often escapes my imagination. It really would be so much easier to make a sandwich! Now that winter is approaching and the days are cooler I will rely more heavily on soups, but again I am easily bored. I love variety and adventurous tastes!
I've been pondering the question of including special diets into family life. Particularly when only one or two members of a larger household have need of it. We travelled this journey for a short time with Miss Sunshine and more recently with me. It is easier too, for me, in that I do not have to be super strict so I can eat small amounts of wheat without much trouble. A day with toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner is a thing of the past though! The husband of a wonderful friend asked me the other day if I cook wheat free for everyone in the family, or just myself.
The answer is, it depends!
Wheat free life is more expensive and has less variety. I'm not in a hurry to have my entire family eating wheat free pasta and cakes or biscuits when the cost is often half to two-thirds more than a wheat based product. And let's not even talk about the cost of wheat-free bread!!!
So how does this work for us? I do a bit of eating separate items and a bit of making everyone else eat what suits my needs. I have some gluten free muffins etc set aside in the freezer that no one is allowed to touch. When we have pasta I cook a small amount of pasta separate from everyone elses, but use the the same sauce. If I want to make a crustless quiche or gnocchi or something else that has a small amount of flour I will use the gluten free flour. When I'm out an am served a meal I just don't worry too much about it. I eat smaller portions than I might have otherwise and I will choose to leave things like bread. I would choose a wheat free option if there was one available.
When Miss Sunshine was on a wheat & dairy free diet for a bit things were far more strict. I bought a bottle of tamari sauce (a wheat free soy sauce) and we found a wheat free tomato sauce etc, so that I could make the same meal as the rest of us, and I would just take out a small portion and use ingredients suitable for her. On the plate it looked the same and it only took me about 1 minute more in preparation to cater for her needs.
Because of Miss Sunshine's needs about two years ago, our eating habits at the dinner table morphed quite a bit. I had already determined which meals worked for her and which ones didn't, so when I finally figured out I needed to be more careful myself, I had already done the brain bending required!
Of all the meals, I find lunches the most challenging. I get tired of salads very quickly ~ even the beautiful gourmet ones I love so much. A quick lunch to prepare on days when I need to take it with me often escapes my imagination. It really would be so much easier to make a sandwich! Now that winter is approaching and the days are cooler I will rely more heavily on soups, but again I am easily bored. I love variety and adventurous tastes!
5 comments:
I think a wheat-free diet has got to be one of the hardest to maintain. I've been trying to vary my eating more to get a wider variety of nutrients, and that's hardest to do at lunch, when the temptation is always to slap two slices of bread together with some turkey and cheese. I find if I don't plan ahead and have something prepared, lunch is a hard meal without bread.
I love salads, too, but it's hard to live on salads alone!
frances
That's the thing...planning. I go blank with lunches LOL. I think I pour it all out over dinners.
I hear you on the lunch front! Luckily Charlotte is still at FDC so I can still send leftovers that can be reheated but once she goes to school I know it's going to be much harder!
I sometimes make sandwiches with rice cakes instead for her which she likes. Even with the expense of the wheat-free bread Charlotte won't touch it.
Boy, can I relate to this post! A bank loan is in order to eat wheat-free bread! I am experimenting with making my own, but even though I am following recipes to the letter, the results are not that good. I can't have any wheat so my diet is a bit trying at times. Main meals are fine...lunches are trickier...especially if we are out somewhere. Thank goodness for baked potatoes! Lol! :)
Miss Sunshine used to have a rye bread (wheat free) that wasn't too bad, according to her, for lunches.
Tina I don't think domestic cooks have ever come up with a suitable yeast bread using gluten free flour. It just doesn't seem to work.
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