Practical Foodie

I told myself that if I finished the dreaded budgeting and bill pay for the month, then I could post about this subject. Well, obviously, I finished because I am posting.

Tonight I made a creamy avocado pasta (brown rice pasta for Aiden) with bacon and roasted asparagus on the side for dinner with only a ten minute clean up. It was delicious beyond measure.

However, I've come to realize that I have no one with which to share these sorts of things. I eat most dinners, including Saturday nights recently, with the boys. Kyle gets to the table, looks at his plate, and says, "I think I'm done." Aiden will eat anything, including on not one but three occasions fecal matter. He eats after he gets down from the table, meaning that he'll eat all the food on the floor. Starting last week, he's even eaten out of the garbage. Evan will come home late, take the bowl that I've left sitting out for him for hours (he likes it that way) and eat in front of the TV. If I ask and he likes it, he'll state that it was good. But he has been known to eat day old or more hamburgers and he raves about chili dogs as much as anything I make.

So I feel like there is no one with which to share my passion. And it is a passion, although I've only come to discover this in the last few weeks. If you follow me on pinterest you know how much food I pin. I have spent the last six months only repeating 10 dishes because there are so many yummy things out there I want to try. I make goodies several times a week and I am constantly reading recipe blogs. I also watch every cooking show that is on Hulu.

I don't claim to know a lot about cooking because I am still afraid of most meat that isn't chicken or ground. I have just mastered the pork roast. I don't shop in fancy stores (except for my children) and I coupon and try to save as much money as I can. I try to use inexpensive, easily accessible ingredients. I am very conscious of how much time and effort is required too because I don't have a lot of that to spare. However, I modify like crazy. Kyle can't eat dairy and Aiden can't eat dairy or gluten. I am actually going to learn how to bake gluten free and modify those recipes too. My current question, is it possible to make gluten free yeast breads (albeit substituting the normal flour, any dairy, and adding xantham gum?

But the point of this, I am considering starting a recipe blog. I know how many hundreds of thousands of millions (did I just go too far there) there are on the internet. But I want mine to be for the elimin8 diet (no dairy, wheat, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, or sea food) and no corn as well. We are going on that diet starting in January and the recipe blogs out there are not designed for that. If I wanted to pay some money, I could gain access to some recipes. I found a website once, where you choose the things you were avoiding and it gave you the recipes it had that matched it. I can't find it now.

So my blog would be like that and after 3 weeks, we will add each element back in for a two week trial to see if there are any more foods that the boys react to. So not all the recipes would be for everything, but maybe I could have a way to group them or something. I want there to be better resources for those who have food reactions or allergies. And I want them to be normal sounding, looking and often substitutes for what most families do eat. It is nice to have a direct correlation between a regular cookie and something my kids can eat. As a mater of fact, we frequently don't take them to attend things where we know offending food will be if thee is no equivalent (like ice cream cake).

I frequently go to Whole Foods and even at the best organic, healthy, grocery store in the city I have a hard time finding food. If it is dairy free, it isn't gluten free and vice versa. We as an eosinophilic community need better resources and so do those who have problems with common foods.

What do you think? Would you read it? Do you think you'd make anything from it?