A challenge - recipe suggestions

Thegirl

My weekly shoping bill is astronomical. One of my problems is my husband, or rather what he can't eat. He has a condition where he is gets dizzy and migranes a lot. Food is a huge trigger for him, so there is a massive list of food he cannot eat. I am really struggling with recipe ideas that don't cost the earth and aren't the same every day.
Here is a list of main things that he has to avoid:

Onions
Tomatos
MSG (natural and artifical, all ready made stock/gravy is out)
Cheese
Mushroom
Chilli
Eggs,milk or cream (ok in things, like cake, omlette too much)
Most artifical preservatives
Can't eat most pork due to additives except parma ham
He's not keen on lamb

Here is what I've currently got on the menu:

Roast chicken (bones and carcas for stock)
Cottage pie (made with stock)
Home made burgers
Mince/chicken in sauce (from stock)
Fish and chips
Pie (beef or chicken)
Chicken fried rice

Special treats
Beef wellington (with peas instead of mushrooms)
Steak

Lunches for him are mainly chicken, left over from the roast or cooked freah as even sandwich chicken sets him off.
My packed lunches are easy, I make all the normal stuff (spag bol, chilli, lasagne) in bulk and heat up small portions at work.

Any ideas that can expand our rather bland menus? And even better lower my food bills?

CH27

Will he eat fish?

FairyPrincessk

What about blended soups-like butternut squash? You could make them up with your hm stock and many don't need cream/milk and can thus be frozen in batches. I had a great one spiced with curry powder once, but not sure if that would have chillis/msg in it.

Stir fry might also work. You may have to tweak this, but this peanut sauce is awesome used in a stir fry, to dress coleslaw (instead of mayo) or as a marinade.

1 part rice vinegar
2 parts oil
1 part maple syrup
1/2 part peanut butter
1/2 part soy sauce
touch of ground ginger
chopped garlic to taste

(I can't remember all of the things on your list, but you may be able to tweak the basic proportions and omit anything-garlic or soy maybe?

You might also want to look into recipes for Jainism. Jain's are vegan and also don't eat any whole root plants (like onions and garlic). I know they do a variety of curries with things like bananas. It might provide some new inspiration for how to season without onions, milk and eggs.

Thegirl

OK, I knew this would happen, I have forgotten some of the things he can't eat, they are as follows:

Vinegar
Soy sauce
Bananas

He can eat garlic (don't ask me why this is fine and onions aren't). He does eat most fish, I'm not a fan so not skilled at cooking or ideas for recipies, I'm more than happy to cook it though.
He does like a lot of the indian spices, eating out is normally not possible due to his eating, but I've been sucessful in amending some recipes. I love the sound of that peanut sauce, I've not tried rice vinegar so I shall give him a go to check how he is with that.

I will have a look for Jainism (I had never heard of this before now!)

Gingerbiscuit_2

Will he eat corn beef? I often have with salad and potato wedges or make cornbeef hash. Is it the wheat that sets off in the chicken sandwiches? Have you try gluen free/wheat free bread? You dont have any pasta do you not eat? I get migranies and trying out gluten free pasta too made from rice and something or the other. Or is it because most sauces are tomato or cheesy?

abaxas

Providing you leave out the chillies, most indian food should be on the menu. Get buying some pulses :P

FairyPrincessk

I've never made the peanut sauce without the soy, but I have used various oils, made substitutions for the maple syrup etc. and its fairly resilient. I would imagine adding a little salt to whatever you use it on would bring the salt level up to scratch, although you might have to tweak the other liquids to make sure the peanut butter blends in. Not sure about the vinegar though-if that doesn't work it might be a bit of a challenge.

What about Paella-rice, bell peppers, garlic, whatever sorts of sea food or chicken you can make, bit of hm stock, tumeric etc.
Risotto isn't as nice without parmesan, but it can be done. Esp. if you use loads of garlic, fresh veg. and hm stock.

Can he have cheese from other animals? Like feta or halloumi? That might open up some possibilities!

Meatballs with hm gravy and mash, over pasta with fresh herbs/pesto or in soup can work pretty well and you can make them up in advance. I sear them, freeze on a baking tray and then put them in bags to pull out as I need. My recipe has egg and onion in it, but you could easily do without.

cheeswright

baked potatoes with tuna
beef meatballs
chicken kebabs with honey lime dressing & rice
chicken in pitta with coleslaw
steak ( thin) in pitta with fried potatoes
beef & rice kofta
chicken and rice kofta
fallafal in pitta
paella - prawns - chicken - vege or leftovers ?
risotto - with anything really
and refried as patties the next day
pizza with a cheese free pesto rather than tomatoe
calzone
stuffed peppers
salmon asparagus and new potaoes...(treat!)
fish pie
chicken pie
vege pie
or as stews with dumplings ...

theres loads - although I'll have to recheck your list to see if i've made any silly mistakes here

Thegirl

abaxas wrote: »

Providing you leave out the chillies, most indian food should be on the menu. Get buying some pulses :P

I get a bit disheartened with indian food knowing what to do with recipies whilst avoiding onions and tomatoes. Due to my limited knowledge everything gets samey. I just need to do more investigating. I've never tried him with lentils though so that is a good idea for this week.

Gingerbiscuit wrote: »

Will he eat corn beef? I often have with salad and potato wedges or make cornbeef hash. Is it the wheat that sets off in the chicken sandwiches? Have you try gluen free/wheat free bread? You dont have any pasta do you not eat? I get migranies and trying out gluten free pasta too made from rice and something or the other. Or is it because most sauces are tomato or cheesy?

I have never even looked at corned beef as I always assumed there would be something in it he couldn't eat. I will have an investigate when shopping next.
I didn't list pasta soley as we did it to death and the lack of sauces. We now tend to have it on a weekend as a side just with some olive oil.
The additives in bread are currently causing issues (everyone seems to have put some in, warburtons were the last to change) but I refuse to allow bread off of the menu so we are baking bread at home at the moment. Sliced chicken (pre packed) also have too many additives for him at the moment.

cheeswright wrote: »

baked potatoes with tuna
beef meatballs
chicken kebabs with honey lime dressing & rice
chicken in pitta with coleslaw
steak ( thin) in pitta with fried potatoes
beef & rice kofta
chicken and rice kofta
fallafal in pitta
paella - prawns - chicken - vege or leftovers ?
risotto - with anything really
and refried as patties the next day
pizza with a cheese free pesto rather than tomatoe
calzone
stuffed peppers
salmon asparagus and new potaoes...(treat!)
fish pie
chicken pie
vege pie
or as stews with dumplings ...

theres loads - although I'll have to recheck your list to see if i've made any silly mistakes here

There are loads of fabulous suggestions there. Did risotto to absolute death (he hates smelling me even cooking it for me now). I always assumed Falafel would have onion in so never tried it. Love the kofta idea too.

Thank you all so much. We've just been getting in such a rut with food. I end up completely unispired and then it reflects in waht we eat!

Thegirl

FairyPrincessk wrote: »

Can he have cheese from other animals? Like feta or halloumi? That might open up some possibilities!

Meatballs with hm gravy and mash, over pasta with fresh herbs/pesto or in soup can work pretty well and you can make them up in advance. I sear them, freeze on a baking tray and then put them in bags to pull out as I need. My recipe has egg and onion in it, but you could easily do without.

It's something to do with the aging process of cheese that causes the problems. Hard cheeses are always out. But when he's well he can have soft cheeses, so we can go cheese crazy with ricotta and mozzarella. He's so sensative at the moment we are not going to be having those for a while.

I've not done meatballs in a while either. Easily pre-preapred stuff is great for me as I work full time, have a four hour a day commute and a ten month old, so time is at a premium, so stuff I can chuck in the freezer is ideal.

Once again, thank you all so much. You will improve the eating quality of life in my house no end!

MaggieBaking

I haven't read the thread, but just going off your first post I'm thinking of

Fajitas (beef, peppers, mix the spice yourself, there's a thread on here somewhere)
Chow Mein, again any meat you fancied and have noodles, mange tout, spring onions etc and sesame oil
Pasta with pesto (it is made with parmesan cheese but I'll be damned if I can taste it, I don't know if there's much in there - perhaps someone can correct me.)
Salmon Risotto
A massive variety of soups and seeded bread rolls (my current favourite.)
A lot of stews have onions in, but try following a recipe for a beef bourguignon without onions and see if it still tastes nice? You can have dumplings with them... Yum!

The following is one of my favourite ever dishes - Rosemary Chicken, just don't use shallots or onions I'm sure it will still be lovely.

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
150g carrots, sliced
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
A few sprigs of rosemary
10 cloves of garlic, peeled (a scary amount of garlic, but they go sweet and not stinky I promise)
500g baby onions, peeled
500g small new potatoes
1 orange, and the juice of 2
A big dash of salt and a small smidgen of pepper


Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Prepare your vegetables
In a large baking dish, place your carrots, garlic cloves, onions, new potatoes and bits of rosemary
Drizzle over the oil, salt and pepper and mix together
Place in your chicken breasts in the baking dish, getting them coated with the oil, and leave skin side down
Halve 1 orange, and cram into your dish
Put into the oven and cook for 15 minutes
Take the chicken breasts out for a moment, and give the vegetables a good mix up and turning over before putting the chicken back in, skin side up this time
Return to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes
Take out of the oven again, and mix in your orange juice. Give everything a good stir
Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes
Plate up, and drizzle what sauce there is over the chicken breasts

To make it cheaper, you could use different pieces of chicken, like thighs - but you will have to increase the cooking time by about 20 minutes. To make it a bit posher, use shallots rather than baby onions, and use whole baby carrots.