This fall little E was diagnosed with a gluten and casein intolerance thru blood testing at the pediatrician. I don’t share a lot about his health or development online, but we were not surprised given that Eric has celiac disease and I am lactose intolerant and have IBS. He fits into the family quite well!
It is challenging to cook without dairy. I rely on lactose-free dairy, hard cheeses, or strained yogurt in my cooking, since I already cook mostly gluten-free due to Eric. It’s hard to do without both. On top of that I already dislike cooking when I’m pregnant.
So here is how we feed little E right now.
If we are having a GF & DF meal already (like tonight, we had turkey burgers with roasted root vegetables—I added some avocado on the side for him), he eats what we eat. If we get takeout, it is generally Chipotle these days and I order him a kids meal with rice, beans, and guacamole. Those are nice easy days.
But sometimes we eat nachos, grilled cheese, or something else that can’t be made dairy-free. Then, I will usually make him one of these main dishes:
- sweet potato tuna patties (made with GF bread crumbs/flour)—I serve him fish often, since we live in Minnesota where vitamin D deficiency is a big problem in the winter. These also work with salmon.
- lentil vegetable cakes (I leave out the cheese and add 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast + 1/4 tsp. garlic powder instead)
- mushroom “risotto”: cook 1/2c. arborio rice in 1.5c. water. In a frying pan, sauté 3-4 finely diced mushrooms (~2/3c.) in olive oil until softened. Mix mushrooms into rice along with 1tbsp. vegan butter, dried parsley, garlic powder, and ground pepper to taste.
- carrot french toast (I microplane some carrot into dairy-free french toast batter for extra veggies)
- quinoa mixed with mashed avocado or hummus
I usually serve 2 fruit/veggie sides with dinner and one with lunch. He favors avocado, boiled sweet potato, steamed peas or carrots, and any kind of fruit. But I serve things he doesn’t love too, like tomato soup or broccoli, so that he has a chance to learn to like them. I use the “like/maybe will eat/learning to like” method when building dinner plates so he always has a safe option, and then I do not stress when all he eats is the raspberries some nights.
His morning oatmeal always has a fruit/veggie mixed in, and his snack is whatever I have on hand. Often oat milk yogurt, oatmeal cookies, fruit rolled in flaxseed, hummus or nut butter toast. He still drinks 16oz of oat or almond milk a day for calcium.
Sometimes I feel guilty that I do not offer him an even bigger variety. But I have limits right now. I am not going to gag over a pot of boiled cabbage while pregnant. We’ll have plenty of chances to be more adventurous in the future. For now I do my best. And sometimes I just let go and order takeout, or we pick up some treats from our favorite GF/DF bakery and he eats a donut for lunch 🙂
It helps to remember that as a kid, I ate mostly apples, bananas, bread and peanut butter, and I am alive and well today!
Do you have any food restrictions? What is the most challenging part of it for you?