It is not easy dealing with allergies. I am allergic to apples, spinish, soy, rice, eggs, fish/shellfish,beef, pork, diary, wheat, corn, nuts, glutten, dogs and cats. I have been dealing with this for two years now and it has been hard. I have asthma on top of it and have become unable to work due to the severity of my asthma. I used to take benedryl and eat things I knew I was allergic to anyway. Well, that landed me in the hospital once with a severe asthma attack. My throat almost closed on me once after eating shrimp, (my favorite) thank god I had my epi pin.
Now I make almost all my meals at home and limit my outside meals to a salad with no dressing if they don't have olive oil and vinegar. Or grilled chicken and baked potatoe.
After having to go on disability and spending so much time in the hospital, I have decided to get serious about my health and deal with my allergies and asthma seriously.
I told myself, ok you know what you can't eat, now lets focus on what you can eat instead of what you can't. I eat alot of fruit and veggies and skip the apples, spinish and peas the only meat I eat is chicken & turkey.
Breakfast is the hardest meal for me because I can't eat eggs, any kind of bread or bread products like bagle, waffle, pancakes, toast, no oatmeal, cereal or grains of any kind. So have a fruit smoothie or grapefruit with turkey bacon. Most of the time I just have juice.
Since I can't eat pasta and I love spaghetti, I use spaghetti squash and ground turkey. Since I can't have bread I have used grilled portabella mushrooms as a substitute and made a turkey sandwish with them. I make my own salad dressings and soups because almost all store bought ones contain soy. I juice alot of my own juice because so many store brands contain apple. I was surprised to learn that the grape juice that said on the lable 100% juice, didn't mean 100% grape juice, when my throat started to itch after drinking a class when I checked the back label it contained apple and pear juice. When shopping read the lables carefully even lotions and makeup contain soy.
I have learned that having so many food allergies is not the end of the world and I have embraced the saying if life throws you lemons make lemonade. Since I have focused on the things I can eat, I'm surprised at just how many dishes I can make myself. Go to the bookstore and purchase recipe books geared for people with food allergies.