Different diets on a skinny budget

[hsingscrapper]

Do any of you cook for different diets in your house? How do keep from killing your budget and your hair intact?

[Laura Corin]

What diets are you dealing with?

[hsingscrapper]

I want to go GF with paleo inspired breads. My dh loves his rice and oatmeal. The kids would kill my budget without the free bread and various fruits and veggies we get on Tuesdays.

[Desert Strawberry]

I'm mostly vegan, D is more animal-protein based (think Atkins, but much less strict), we both limit carbs, Gem is wheat-free, limited dairy, no soy. My other three kids have high caloric needs. If they don't have a good amount of carbs to fill them up, they look emaciated and eat ravenously. 

 

I plan my meals to be mostly vegan. D supplements what I cook with his own food. Sometimes he eats with us, sometimes he doesn't. About 2-4 times a month, he cooks meat for the kids. I eat something else. 

 

We limit dairy and soy for everyone.

 

We have very little wheat. If I plan sandwiches, I serve Gem's deconstructed. He has rice crackers, rice cakes, etc. I bake with spelt flour. I serve a lot of rice, potatoes, corn. 

 

I cook from scratch, whole foods, simple meals. Lots of soups and stews, beans and rice, pasta. I serve a lot of stews, beans, etc over rice. We live in rice country, it's local, cheap, and customary. I don't eat the rice, or eat very little. 

 

My advice:

 

Break down your meals into parts. Start with your meal, then add something extra for the kids. Because your meal is already complete, you won't miss what isn't there. 

 

 

 

 

[Spryte]

We are all on different diets.  DS is peanut, tree nut, sesame, wheat and dairy free, also free of all raw foods due to OAS.  His anaphylactic allergies trump everyone else, and we don't keep those items in the house.  The items to which he's allergic but not ana, we keep/cook for others.  I am Celiac, allergic to shellfish, spinach and eggs.  DH is basically paleo.  DD can eat anything.

 

Meals that we cook for the family are okay for everyone.  If someone wants an addition that another can eat, we plan so it can be added at mealtime, to that person's meal.  So if DD wants a wheat cracker with a meal, or dairy added to something, we do it during mealtime.  Same for DH and me.  

 

We cook mostly from scratch, with a few convenience allergy-friendly foods thrown in here and there (GF breads, for one, because I have never mastered baking GF bread).

[hsingscrapper]

Is there a noticeable difference in price between GF bread brands?

[Lisbeth]

Do any of you cook for different diets in your house? How do keep from killing your budget and your hair intact?

 

It's funny you should mention this.  I went through a major health crisis over the past year.  Autoimmune.  My hair LITERALLY fell out. 

 

Stress from all of our food issues could well have contributed greatly.  In our house, I have to juggle food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts and soy, my husband and at least one son with SED/ARFID, in which entire food groups and textures are excluded, and my own celiac (no gluten for me!) and a vestibular condition that has my ENT telling me to keep my salt, caffeine, and dairy low. My husband is pre-diabetic (because, I think, of his SED/ARFID). Trying to cook for this combo is literally h*ll.  I don't talk about it outside of forums much, because people tend to just think you are crazy after a while.  It *IS* crazy but not in the way they are thinking.

 

Not to mention, no one can ever bring me a meal.  People have tried, to be friendly.  You know, so I can collapse in bed from the autoimmune issue and try to get better.  If I do that, the family does not eat, because we can't trust a kitchen that isn't free of allergies - too much cross contamination, however well meaning people are.  The food allergies are "off the chart." 

 

I have one child who has something going on the allergist says we will just have to figure out via a "food elimination diet."  Yeah.  Keep piling it on!

 

There is also major dyslexia in the family, which I handle alone.  Stress!

 

I do think the stress combined with the autoimmune issue I was having in a major flare up caused my hair loss.  It's not permanent and it wasn't 100% - just enough to look bad.  It is coming back, thank goodness.  I can see how the stress would make you pull it out too!

 

I don't have an answer for the cost.  The cost of our food is pretty high.  I mainly try to bulk cook, freeze, and shop lots of sales.  I bulk buy when something is on sale.  This takes time to build up supplies, though.  Once you do build up supplies, then you can shop ONLY the sales, for the most part, to bulk buy the sale items for future use.  Once you get to that point, the costs go down a lot.