Sunday dinner without: milk, cheese, or other dairy, eggs, wheat, pork, chocolate...

[Julie in CA]

I don't know if any of you remember, but I posted a while back asking for ideas about Sunday lunches/dinners for our pastor's wife, who cannot have wheat. I've finally (sort-of) gotten the hang of that, but now her husband cannot have dairy of any sort, eggs, pork, chocolate, broccoli, cauliflower, or other cruciferous vegetables.

 

I'm looking for more ideas on what you would make for a big Sunday dinner meal without any of those ingredients.

 

Next Sunday I will be making a big pot roast (but what do you do about gravy?), baked potatoes, and steamed veggies (probably green beans) sauteed for a minute in a bit of olive oil and garlic.

 

I need more ideas for big, full, Sunday dinners, as well as dishes that would be good to bring to a potluck where almost all of the other food will be inappropriate for the pastor and his dw.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I don't know if any of you remember, but I posted a while back asking for ideas about Sunday lunches/dinners for our pastor's wife, who cannot have wheat. I've finally (sort-of) gotten the hang of that, but now her husband cannot have dairy of any sort, eggs, pork, chocolate, broccoli, cauliflower, or other cruciferous vegetables.

 

Hm, that is a challenge. My mom makes a Puerto Rican chicken and rice dish with olive oil, an onion, rice, turmeric, garlic, chik peas, chicken and olives. It's very hearty and easy to cook up in a big batch.

 

Start by turning the heat up high and sizzling the (uncooked) rice in the bottom of a very large pot with the spices, oil and onion, for about ten minutes, stirring. When the rice is coated and the onions mostly soft, stir in the chickpeas and 1" cubes of chicken. Add chicken broth (twice the amount of rice, as in, 2 cups of rice should get four cups of chicken broth) and let it all cook. When the rice is fluffy and done and the chicken cooked through, stir in the olives and serve.

 

We always have this on holidays and family get togethers. I'm not sure what size pot Mom uses (except that my children all have been able to sit quite completely inside of it at about 3 months old), or the amounts of ingredients, but they should be pretty dense. It's not good if it's mostly rice. There needs to be a lot of chik peas and chicken in there, slightly less olives.

[KatieJ]

I would think of Rice type main dishes. Stir Fry maybe, or something you can cook up in the oven or crock pot and then serve over Rice.

 

You can use corn starch to thicken gravy. It is a little more opaque, but it works fine. Or just reduce the sauce and don't add a thickener.

[JFSinIL]

Or just reduce the sauce and don't add a thickener.

 

This is what I do if I want gravy, as my in-laws can not take dairy or corn, and hubby hates "creamy" sauces/gravy. Or we skip gravy altogether.

[Julie in CA]

Allrecipies.com is your friend. You can search for recipes that exclude specific foods.

I use allrecipes all the time--it's my favorite recipe source!

I didn't know you could search and exclude specific ingredients. How do you do that?

[rafiki]

.

[AnnetteB]

Maybe a leg of lamb roast with potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic cloves, fennel, rutabaga, turnips, or whatever you enjoy tossed in to all bake at once? This is a pretty allergy-safe meal at our home. The kids don't like it when I toss beets in because of the pink juices staining the white or red potatoes, lol. I separate them with foil from the rest.

[Jen in PA]

Roast chicken or baked salmon should work. Mashed sweet potatoes or glazed carrots, and a big salad. If you want more starch, you can make barley pilaf or just some simple brown rice. I've never tried it, but I'll bet you could make baked apples with margarine in place of the butter, too.

[LibraryLover]

Roast Chicken, butternut squash, rice, salad

 

Chili, salad (too informal?)

 

Roast turkey, risotto, roasted carrots (lots of veggies roast well), salad

 

Chicken or Minestrone (with rice instead of pasta) soup, GF bread, salad

 

A chicken and potato stew of some sort, yellow squash, salad

 

Stir fry rice & veggies, w/beef or chicken

 

How adventuresome are they? Could you do a chicken satay or something like that? A chicken stew with sweet potatoes and peanut sauce? How about Medieterranean foods? Lentils, chickpeas, lamb etc? Would corn tortillas or vegetarian food seem too informal?

[Julie in CA]

Hm, that is a challenge. My mom makes a Puerto Rican chicken and rice dish with olive oil, an onion, rice, turmeric, garlic, chik peas, chicken and olives. It's very hearty and easy to cook up in a big batch.

 

Start by turning the heat up high and sizzling the (uncooked) rice in the bottom of a very large pot with the spices, oil and onion, for about ten minutes, stirring. When the rice is coated and the onions mostly soft, stir in the chickpeas and 1" cubes of chicken. Add chicken broth (twice the amount of rice, as in, 2 cups of rice should get four cups of chicken broth) and let it all cook. When the rice is fluffy and done and the chicken cooked through, stir in the olives and serve.

 

We always have this on holidays and family get togethers. I'm not sure what size pot Mom uses (except that my children all have been able to sit quite completely inside of it at about 3 months old), or the amounts of ingredients, but they should be pretty dense. It's not good if it's mostly rice. There needs to be a lot of chik peas and chicken in there, slightly less olives.

Yum! This sounds really good! Thank you.

[Julie in CA]

Or just reduce the sauce and don't add a thickener.

Do you think it would be good enough to top baked potatoes if I didn't thicken it?

I'm re-thinking the baked potatoes. If I did roasted fingerling potatoes, I could toss them in olive oil, garlic, rosemary, etc, and then they'd be good without anything "on" them.

[Julie in CA]

I suggest looking to Asian cooking for ideas. Many will be rice based.

Yes, that might be good, but I need to remember when I'm in the "big city" to look for soy sauce without wheat. Our small town doesn't have that, and I keep forgetting when I go to the city to shop. Argh! :glare:

[Julie in CA]

And please don't take this personally. Depending on the severity of their allergies, they may not eat food others prepare. I have two anaphylactic children, and it is challenging enough for me still almost 7 years later reading every single label, watching for cross contamination, etc., let alone someone who is not used to it. Even when we go to my mom's house, they only eat what I make. You can't be too careful.

I can see why you brought this up. They did mention that they might quit coming for lunches to make this easier on the host families, but when I assured them that I'd be glad to figure out a meal that would be safe for them they seemed eager to come. Perhaps they trust me because I've always been especially careful in the past about the gluten-free meals, and have been a driving force in educating others in the congregation about what the wife could/couldn't eat. I think the pastor has been suffering from migranes and has been found to be allergic to those ingredients. He would not die if I messed up, but I would indeed feel terrible to find that he was unwell because of my mistake!

 

We'll have to play it by ear, I guess. It's true that other people who've been hosting them occasionally will find this to be too much to deal with. I'd rather learn to prepare the right foods than give up sharing fellowship with them over a meal.

[Julie in CA]

I'll bet you could make baked apples with margarine in place of the butter, too.

That does sound good! I wonder if he could have non-dairy topping (no dairy for him), while his dw could have regular cream (no wheat for her)? Time to scour the ingredients list!

[Julie in CA]

risotto

 

Would corn tortillas or vegetarian food seem too informal?

 

When I make risotto I use some parmesan and some cream. Do you have a favorite recipe that doesn't use any dairy?

 

Vegetarian food wouldn't do it for these folks! They are avid meat-eaters, and greatly enjoy a good meat & potatoes meal.

 

Thank you for the ideas. :001_smile:

[chickenpatty]

This is the tastiest roasted chicken ever: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roast-Sticky-Chicken-Rotisserie-Style/Detail.aspx?prop31=5

 

I love it because I coat it with the spices on Saturday night, stick it in the oven Sunday morning and it is ready (and very juicy!) as soon as we get home from church.

 

Sides would be mashed potatoes, which you can make without dairy & another veggie. You can spoon the chicken juices over the potatoes.

 

Dessert would be fruit salad.

[Storm Bay]

I don't know if any of you remember, but I posted a while back asking for ideas about Sunday lunches/dinners for our pastor's wife, who cannot have wheat. I've finally (sort-of) gotten the hang of that, but now her husband cannot have dairy of any sort, eggs, pork, chocolate, broccoli, cauliflower, or other cruciferous vegetables.

 

I'm looking for more ideas on what you would make for a big Sunday dinner meal without any of those ingredients.

 

Next Sunday I will be making a big pot roast (but what do you do about gravy?), baked potatoes, and steamed veggies (probably green beans) sauteed for a minute in a bit of olive oil and garlic.

 

I need more ideas for big, full, Sunday dinners, as well as dishes that would be good to bring to a potluck where almost all of the other food will be inappropriate for the pastor and his dw.

 

For starters, you can use Tinkyada (sp) brown rice pasta instead of wheat pasta. That opens up tons of pasta dishes. (just let them know that you used it). For sauces, you could use a tomato based sauce. So you could make a pasta dish with a salad, or with baked sweet spuds and spinach on the side. You don't have to have bread.

 

Another idea is to use kasha--buckwheat is NOT wheat (just in case you or anyone else isn't sure because of the misleading name--it's a fruit used like a grain and is in the same plant family as rhubarb.) You can usually find it in the Kosher food section, although we eat it frequently and are not Kosher or even Jewish. That can be the "grain" part of the meal. You can add ground meat to it, or serve a meat/poultry/fish item on the side, although it doesn't scream fish. You can add some veggies to it (there are often recipes on the box.) My dc prefer the fine ground kasha, but I first ate it the whole way. We ususally have this with squash and cucumbers on the side, but my dd is on a rotary diet, so you can vary this.

 

Rice, of course, can be used in pilafs, casseroles, etc. I don't care for rice with tomato things, but many do. If you do a casserole, a salad on the side could be good. Rice is quickly digested, so I usually try to have something filling with it. It's easy and tasty to make a rice/lentil dish, but that is very low fat and doesn't keep my kids full without some type of oil added in moderation. We often have peas or green beans with this and nightshade veggies (again, rotary diet influences us!!!) Tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes and peppers are all nightshade veggies, so that gives you an idea of what we eat with this for a dish. But rice is so easy to put with so many things.

 

There are many things you can use to substitute for dairy, but I'd avoid soy and rice cheese because these contain milk protein, and I suspect they're more for those who are lactose intolerant. I'd also read labels. It's really easy to make a nut milk. Take 1/4 cup nuts, chop them, then add 2-4 cups of hot water (boiling is good for all but the first half cup) in a blender and blend until smooth. The 2 cups of water would make a very thck one. I've never sweetened it, but some do. I've even done this and added chicken stock (gluten free), arrowroot powder and guar gum plus onion, etc, to make a tasty sauce (can't think of what this type of sauce is called) for a rice pasta/ground turkey casserole. You could probably just do it with guar gum.

 

You can make clam chowder without any wheat or dairy, too, especially if you do a Manhattan type one. But you can even do a white clam chowder with potatoes or yuca (one c--yucca is from a different plant family and it's not mentioned where I read about it.) If you do clam chowder, rice crackers could go along with this along with some filling veggies (we don't find soup that filling.) I grew up in BC, so have no affiliations to any one type of clam chowder, but around here they can't sell the Manhattan clam chowder even if they call it by another name!

 

ETA Be very careful with seasoning mixes as many contain hidden things, including gluten.

Edited February 3, 2009 by Karin

[Susie in MS]

I posted this on the crockpot thread, so I appologise if it is a repeat for you. This makes a lot. I added 1 extra carrot, one extra celery, and about 1/3 more gr. beef. It feed 7 of us and we had left overs to send with my ds to college.

http://www.5dollardinners.com/search.../Gluten%20Free

 

Pasta Fagioli Soup (it uses rice pasta)

 

The house smelled WONDERFUL all day as this soup simmered in the crockpot! I used this recipe from Recipezaar, modifying it just slightly.

 

Suggested sides for soups...coming later in the week!

 

Ingredients

3/4 lb ground beef

5 cups water (I didn't use broth and it turned out FINE!)

1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 6 oz can tomato sauce

1 cup dried red kidney beans

2 carrots

2 stalks celery

1/2 onion

2 tbsp italian seasoning (I just used basil)

2 tsp garlic powder

salt/pepper

8 oz pasta (I use rice pasta to keep it GFCFSF)

 

Directions

1. Brown and drain ground beef.

2. Chop onion, carrots and celery.

3. Add ground beef, onion, carrots, celery and water to crockpot. Add canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. Add dried beans (yes, this is OK!). Add italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. Set crockpot on low for 8 hours. (I would check after 6 hours for doneness.)

4. Add pasta about 1 hour before crockpot cooking finishes up.

 

You could let your pastor's wife look at any recipes and see if she is comfy with them before you cook them. I think this is wonderful of you to try to accomonidate such a hard diet! I have btdt with the diet and it is not easy, and going to eat at others houses or church is very difficult to say the least.

 

[Laura Corin]

Roast whole chicken with lemon/lime, garlic and thyme (put lemon/lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper on the outside, then stuff the used lemon/lime halves with crushed garlic and thyme in the cavity). Roast potatoes in the same pan, and you have lovely, lemony chicken and potatoes. The juice is good to use just as it is: just whisk it up and use. Serve with steamed veg.

 

Laura

[KatieJ]

Do you think it would be good enough to top baked potatoes if I didn't thicken it?

I'm re-thinking the baked potatoes. If I did roasted fingerling potatoes, I could toss them in olive oil, garlic, rosemary, etc, and then they'd be good without anything "on" them.

 

 

Honestly, I never serve gravy with baked potatoes. We are butter and sour cream folks here.

 

However, yes, if you reduce the sauce enough it will get very thick and be just fine over any kind of potatoes.

[LibraryLover]

When I make risotto I use some parmesan and some cream. Do you have a favorite recipe that doesn't use any dairy?

 

Thank you for the ideas. :001_smile:

 

You can easily leave out cream or cheese! Use broth instead.

 

What about the chicken satay or chicken stew with sweet potatoes? None of those foods need dairy at all.

[ssexton]

Not sure if this will help any, but my MIL, who cannot eat dairy, uses non-dairy creamer in her mashed potatoes. I wonder if you could use it with cornstarch in your gravy? Just a thought...

[Julie in CA]

Honestly, I never serve gravy with baked potatoes. We are butter and sour cream folks here.

 

Yes, but if you couldn't have either butter or sour cream (no dairy), the gravy would probably be necessary. Plain baked potatoes aren't that great, imo. :(

[Natalieclare]

How does a little polenta bake sound? I don't have exact measurements 'cause I'm not that kind of cook, but I don't guess you'd need them! :D

 

Bake polenta in a 13x9 pan, then top with sauteed bell peppers, mushrooms, a diagonally sliced ring sausage (Italian recipe, if possible), and some spaghetti sauce. Bake til the sauce is warmed through, then broil at the last minute to crisp up the sausage and peppers.

[jenadina]

There are all kinds of mexican foods that fit your criteria...avocados make a great substitute for cheese.

 

I like to cook chicken (I usually poach it in chicken broth), then cut it up, throw it in a sauce, simmer to let the chicken turn tasty, and serve with corn tortillas, beans, and rice.

 

My sauce consists of 5-6 roma tomatoes and/or boiled-just-til-they-change-color tomatillos, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of salt, 1/4 - 1/2 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp. tomato bullion, 1 spoon of sofrito, and sometimes a bit of serrano chile (up to half for us; I have a 5yo who doesn't *do* spicy...I'm working him up to it bit by bit :P). Amounts are estimated based on how much I'm making; but for my family of 3 with leftovers, this is what I use.

 

Sofrito is made with a green bell pepper, salt, onion, garlic, and a bunch of cilantro. Chop it all up and put it through the blender or food processor. Freeze the rest; this is a seasoning that works with just about anything.

 

I also make that kind of beef that shreds easily (brisket? I don't know for sure what it is called in English) and throw it in sauce, too. This is GREAT for making homemade taquitos.

 

I could probably come up with a whole bunch of other stuff that meets your criteria if your guests like mexican; PM me if anything is unclear or if you want me to think of anything else!

[ElizabethB]

Oat flour and oat pasta are good substitutes for wheat. Oat flour makes a very nice gravy. If he can still have coffee, oat milk is also good in coffee.

 

Millet flour makes good cookies or pancakes, possibly biscuits, I haven't tried those yet. I make all my bread/biscuit/gravy type things with just baking soda, it fluffs them up enough without eggs. I just add extra water and/or oil so they're not dry.

 

You could see if he could tolerate goat cheese or sheep cheese. For a year or two after I developed milk allergies, I could still eat goat and sheep cheese. Trader Joe's has a really yummy sheep cheese feta, that would open up a lot of dishes. I used to make a nice taco with turkey, my own seasonings (the mixes all have some type of allergen in them) of chili powder, oregano, salt, garlic, and pepper. It was really good with the sheep cheese feta. You could bring the meat in a crock pot and bring the rest. Or, he could have a cheese free taco with lots of tomatoes, avocados, lettuce, etc.

 

Now, I'm allergic to all normal foods, no one can cook for me. I can only eat game meat and weird grains and tubers and a few fruits and veggies.

 

You could also make a nice chicken roast with carrots, onions, and celery. Roast them all up together with some sage and italian type seasonings and olive oil, then transfer them to a crock pot on warm.

 

Teff flour also makes a very yummy cookie. You'll need to go to a health food store to find it. It's a non-gluten Ethiopian grain, one of the few yummy things I can still eat. It has a mild chocolaty taste, a bonus since I've recently become allergic to chocolate.

Edited February 4, 2009 by ElizabethB