Here are some simple tips for cooking when one person has a wheat and gluten allergy.
If it is a pasta dish, I will put wheat pasta on in one saucepan for him and rice and corn pasta in a separate saucepan for me. The sauce that goes with the pasta will always be gluten free. If I’m making lasagna, I use just gluten free pasta rather than fuss around with two separate dishes. Visitors to our place have commented how good my lasagna tastes.
If I crumb fish or rissoles it will be in rice crumbs.
Any cakes including our Christmas cake or desserts I make (usually only when we have visitors will be gluten free. Our gluten free Christmas cake was a huge success with all who tasted it. Most people didn’t even know. I used my old recipe and simply replaced the SR flour with gluten free SR flour but added a ltttle extra gluten free baking powder to help it rise.
When I make tabouli, I leave out the bulgher( cracked wheat). It still tastes fine. Some Lebanese restaurants do make it that way, but not many. It’s best to check if you’re eating out.
We do have his and hers shelves in the pantry. On his are bread mixes, pasta, gravy mix, the traditional Aussie Vegemite (I have a spread that is like Vegemite but still not the same) and honey as I react severely to that too. But that’s a whole other allergy. My shelf holds rice and corn pasta, gluten free bread mix, rice flour, gluten free muesli, gluten free self raising flour etc.
For a while after I was diagnosed Mick and I would not have pizza. Then we found a wheat and gluten free pizza base mix, but that meant it was no longer the quick weekend meal it used to be. Eventually we discovered corn tortilla works just as well as a base for me with a whole heap less fuss. So now I make his with a Lebanese bread bases as I always did and mine on the tortilla. The advantage of this is I can have extra hot chili and zucchini, (which he hates) on mine. So we’re both happy. And it’s back on the quick weekend meal menu.
Because a lot of salamis have wheat in them we tend to use gluten free Chevups skinless chili sausages which actually work out cheaper than many salamis anyway and we both like them.
Basically when one person has an allergy it means working through the problem together and finding ways to deal with it that are not going to put a strain on both of you. Mick makes one bread for himself and gluten free bread for me. I have to admit sometimes the smell of his bread cooking is so tempting. Mine never seems to smell as good even though it tastes fine.
Except for bread, pasta and pizza differences, Mick mostly fits in with what I can eat. If the situations were reversed I would do all I adapt to his needs, because to us that’s what marriage is all about.
Please visit these related blogs
How to Deal with an Allergy in Your Marriage
How to Deal with an Allergy in Marriage -Part 2
Heart Healthy Vegetarian Dishes