When you’re faced with a multitude of food restrictions, it’s often very difficult to find products that will meet all your needs, and if you do find them, they can cost an arm and a leg. Even then, it may not be the delicious substitute you were hoping for. Navigating all these new ingredients can be a time consuming process filled with good old fashioned trial and error. You can just find what’s okay and just accept that certain favourites are no longer an option unless you ‘cheat' every now and again, but I think it is possible to have your gluten, egg, and dairy free cake and eat it with joy!
I know it’s not realistic to assume everyone will put the time and effort into their food substitutions like I have, so I really hope I can share the wisdom from my trial and errors. Most of my final baking recipes are usually version number 5 or 6 because I strive for the alternatives to be the best they can be. There have also been a good many trial meals that have been met with some good, but disappointing feedback from my husband. Not every wife searches to drag out what wasn’t good about the meal so improvements can be made. If I can convert a skeptic into a believer by enjoying the food I’ve made with alternative ingredients, my job is done.
There are a great many recipes already out there, trust me, I’ve fallen down the Pinterest rabbit hole a number of times looking for inspiration. I still find it hard to pin point recipes that always fill my restriction needs while avoiding some of the unhealthy ingredients I prefer not to use. Plus, sometimes alternative recipes have too many (rare/expensive) ingredients, many of which I won’t use often enough to spend the extra money. Then there are those recipes that have too many steps involved for me. Even though I spend a great deal of time making food from scratch I’m still a working Mom with a husband that works long hours, so I have to try and find balance with my cooking and baking projects. When I get a new idea, I look for 2-3 recipes, start pulling the elements that I like or work for our dietary restrictions and start creating my own version. I will document baking creations, but often with cooking, I’ll just throw it together. Unless I’m intentionally working on recipe. Sometimes I’ll find a really good gem that I’ll make exactly as the recipe states, but as a nutritionist and a health nut, I always find myself adding something to increase the nutrient density.
When diving into a new recipe, I try and start small. That means either cutting a baking recipe in half or just cooking one batch. Once I know it works well, I will then start making double batches since our big deep freezer is my best friend. Batch cooking and freezing extras has saved me from my lack of forethought for dinner soooooo many times!
I’d like to share a few lessons I’ve learned about a few basic ingredients. First off, Daiya cheese goes a lot further than regular cheese. After I started cooking again while recovering from my relapse, I really wanted lasagna, but I was holding strong to not eating any dairy or gluten. So I attempted my first gluten and dairy free lasagna. I’ll tell you, my husband was super skeptical when I told him what I was going to make. I decided I’d get two bags of the Daiya cheese shreds and make a moderate sized lasagna. After all, diary free cheeses are a little pricier and this was an experiment, so either way it was going to be eaten. I managed to use both bags but as I was assembling the lasagna, it felt a little on the low side for cheese, but it’s all that I had. The result was much better than I anticipated, and after asking Tony for some feedback, his first comment was ‘you could have actually used less cheese'! Lol. So with Daiya cheese shreds, less is more.
Another valuable experience was with non-dairy milk. When I started using it, it never occurred to check the different types that a company will make. So I bought the ‘Original Vanilla’ coconut milk. Later that week I was making something for dinner that required milk, so I pulled out the coconut milk and added it in replacement of the regular milk. When we sat down to eat, the food tasted a little different. At first I just chalked it up to the change from cow’s milk to coconut milk, but as we ate, the flavour bothered me. I got up and looked at the package more carefully and realized it was a sweetened version with vanilla flavor in it. Great to pour on top of your cereal or put into a shake, but not something that mixes well with dinner meals. From then on, I looked for the ‘unsweetened & unflavoured’ version. That way it goes with everything!
Then there is gluten free flour, but that may just have to be a whole post by itself!
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