Healthy, Allergy Friendly Recipes
Here are 5 easy, and healthy weeknight dinners, that are free from dairy, gluten and eggs, most can also be free from nuts as well. The bonus about most of these is that you can very easily double the portion and have a meal that lasts two nights, or another full family meal for the freezer. They all freeze well and are generous sized portions that easily feed my family of 5. They are picky-eater-friendly with lots of hidden veggies.
When Ashton was five and Felix was 6 months old, I quit my job to be a stay at home Mum. As I envisioned myself as a school Mum … a stay at home school Mum. I envisioned being that Mum that turns up to school pick up in activewear, because I’ve actually done yoga or gone for a run. The Mum with the slick pony tail who always knew what day it was, and sent her son off to school every day in clean clothes with a healthy 100% homemade packed lunch. The Mum who turned up to help out in class occasionally and paid the school fees on time. The Mum who was always smiling, and organised, with a clear head and a clean car.
The last two years has taught me, that I am in fact, none of those Mums! I’m the Mum that stays in the car at school drop off because she is wearing her slippers, and the toddler is in his pyjamas. I’m the Mum who may have actually been for a walk or a run, but is wearing track pants because she hasn’t shaved her legs in 6 months. I’m the Mum with the un-brushed messy bun, probably still up from overnight, and clothes covered in baby puke, snot and possibly poop, maybe chocolate – but probably poop. I’m the Mum who hasn’t been in to meet the new teacher except through the car window one time. I’m the Mum whose son goes to school regularly wearing odd socks, and on occasion, odd shoes. I’m The Mum who has no idea what day it is, but can tell the time by how heavy her eyes feel. And the Mum who can’t see the floor of her car (last time I checked there was an open jar of mayonnaise in the back seat). But I am also the Mum who tries her best to send her boy to school everyday with a lunchbox made with love. Love doesn’t have to be homemade, or tidy, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. Love just has to try it’s best.
Here is what it looks like when I am that Mum, the one who is messy, unorganised, covered in baby excretions, and tired beyond belief, that tries to send her boys off with a nourishing lunchbox every day. My lunchboxes aren’t perfect, they are not 100% homemade, they are made quickly, on little sleep, and sometimes empty cupboards. When my boys open their lunchboxes, I hope that they see the love.
Don’t worry about perfection, because even the most experienced of us don’t get it right, all the time. Be inspired to pack lunchboxes out of love and the kids will have everything they need 💞
And if you need a little helping hand, this resource I created helped to make sure the kids had somewhat healthy lunchboxes packed daily, in my manic attempt to get everyone out the door on time
500 – 700g beef mince
1 grated carrot
1 grated zucchini
200-400g mushrooms – blitz to tiny pieces in food processor
1 head broccoli or a few handfuls of leafy greens (spinach, kale, silverbeet) chopped to tiny pieces by hand or in a food processor/ blender.
Optional extra – Up to 1 cup of any other veggie you have lying around that you feel like hiding – i’ve put in grated parsnip, pumpkin, sweet potato, extra greens.
2 T diced garlic
1/2 bottle tomato passata (350g)
1/2 cup water / stock or broth
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp salt
Chilli to taste (we add ours after to the adult dishes)
1 avocado
1/2 lemon or lime
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander
Optional: small clove of garlic or 1 T garlic olive oil
Chips – corn chips (make sure they are just corn, oil & salt)
kumara chips, grilled kumara slices, or baked tortilla wraps (gluten free if needed)
Brown the mince, add the spices and stir through over the heat for a few minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer, stirring every now and then on a med to low heat for 10-20 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened. Often I put the tomato passata, garlic and leafy greens in the blender, and blend them all up together so the greens disappear into the sauce and I don’t have to chop the garlic! Then pour in to the mince mix.
While it’s cooking, make the guacamole by mashing the avo and stirring through the rest of the ingredients. Or add everything to a stick blender or mini blender (if I use my full size blender I need to double the mix and add some water so it flows freely through the blades, but it comes out super smooth that way.
Put the mince in the middle of your plate, then surround with your chosen corn chips, grilled kumara slices or baked tortilla chips. Top with grated cheese of your choice (dairy free, zucchini cheese or cows cheese). And guacamole, and then at our house the adults add chilli flakes or chilli oil to their plates to taste.
1 whole crown pumpkin
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 rashers bacon
400ml stock or broth (water also works if you have neither)
1-2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp natural sea salt
Wash any dirt off the pumpkin and put the entire pumpkin skin, stalk and all into either your slow cooker, pressure cooker or oven.
Slow cook: On high 4-6 hours, low 6-8 hours.
Pressure cooker: Add 1 cup water pressure cook 30 mins and leave to rest 30 mins.
Oven – 180 deg c for 2 hours
Once the pumpkin is cooked, leave to cool. Then peel the skin off – it should only take a minute to get all the skin off and should come away like paper. Pluck the stem out and then cut in half and scoop out the seeds and discard.
Add the flesh to a large stock pot along with the rest of the ingredients and cook until bacon is heated and liquid is simmering. (Usually I pop the lid on and leave to simmer 10 mins).
Blend everything until smooth, I use my vitamix and blend in batches.
Serve with more salt, cracked black pepper and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if you can have it. Fresh herbs that lend well are parsley, chives & coriander.
Notes:
If it seems bland or unbalanced it usually means it needs more salt.
Sometimes I cook the pumpkin then store the cooked flesh in the fridge to make soup later in the week. Sometimes I save some flesh to put in baking (like these muffins or waffles) or to hide in other dishes like mince (my kids don’t like plain pumpkin).
I share a fairly popular recipe for zucchini cheese – but I never make it myself, and always buy that super expensive vegan cheese from the supermarket.
I don’t like Brussel sprouts, I think they taste like farts. I live with three males (five including the cat and the dog) yes, I know what farts taste like.
My kids won’t eat frozen peas, in fact they won’t eat frozen mixed veggies either. Purely to make my life difficult. Except this one time I told my friend that my kids don’t eat peas and my 1 year old then stole and ate all the peas from her sons lunchbox.
Ashton, just Ashton. Ashton is incredibly fussy. He has the most ginormous list of foods he won’t eat, and bunch of finicky food preferences that I often comply with because I hate the moaning at the dinner table. If you want a winge-fest serve roast chicken (unless it’s a supermarket rotisserie basted in all sorts of non allergy friendly crap that he shouldn’t eat), or potatoes, especially mashed, roasted is marginally acceptable but only if they are cut into 1cm cubes, and crisp, but not too crisp, heaven forbid. Or try soup – if it’s soup, it’s inedible. Make sure you have you best gag face at the ready to make a performance at the table on soup night. Also if its marginally spicy, it may as well be poisonous. Someone save me from this kid he is a healthy food bloggers worst nightmare.
My kids won’t eat my homemade hummus, the two little ones just straight up won’t touch the stuff while Ashton will only eat “Lisa’s” hummus original flavour.
Sometimes I eat proper crisps for breakfast … and let the baby join me.
None of my kids eat raw carrot sticks, but I put them in their lunchboxes all the time because they look good in photos.
When I was a kid I used to steal meal mates crackers from the pantry and eat raro juice sachets like it was sherbet.
My mum buys the kids allergy friendly biscuits and chocolate and I eat it all myself.
Our children are allowed pudding once a week. But every night when they go to bed we eat chips and chocolate and mug cakes.
Most of my blog photos are taken on our bed covered in white sheets, or on the floor of our snail infested sunroom (best lighting in the house 😆)- I peg an upside down piece of scrap vinyl to a portable clothes rack to bounce the light off. Once I spilled a milkshake all through the bed during a photo shoot.
Sometimes I lie to the kids about what they are allergic to, so they don’t eat too much sugar, because I can’t handle the meltdowns.
Anyone else got anything to confess?!
This dairy free and coconut free butter chicken is one that the whole family can enjoy. When we were coconut free I missed curry so much, I spent a lot of time trying to create something that was just as delicious as the cream or coconut laden version, that was family friendly as well. At the time I made this we were dairy free, coconut free and cashew free (among other things) and it was so hard to find recipes that could resemble anything creamy without any of those ingredients. It’s safe to say that iv’e nailed this one. No dairy or coconut required as the cauliflower helps to achieve that creamy texture. It’s fragrant, smooth and delicious.
Anyone else struggle to get veggies into the kids at dinner every night? Eight veggies crammed in and disguised as butter chicken in here! This one is solving all sorts of problems!
The lemon juice
If you don’t have lemon juice on hand, you can replace that with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.
Veggies out of season?
Here in New Zealand when veggies go out of season, you either need to take a second mortgage to pay for them, or they are just straight up not available. Seeing as i’m also budget conscious I’ve adapted to do without certain veggies when they are out of season:
Zucchini – replace with another ¼ of a cauliflower.
Tomatoes – replace with another ½ cup tomato passata / puree.
If you would like a delicious gluten, dairy, soy, egg, nut, yeast, grain and coconut free (instant!) naan bread recipe to go with this, you can find that here.
I love to hear when you make my recipes, don’t forget to tag me on Facebook and Instagram.
3/4 cup olive oil (light olive oil works best)
2 T Dijon mustard
1 T lemon juice
1/4 cup chickpea brine (yep the stuff you usually tip down the sink from your can of chickpeas!)
1/2 tsp salt
Put all the ingredients in a narrow blender (or tall narrow container if using a stick blender). If your blender has a wide jug it may not work, and you may need a stick blender or NutriBullet type blender, my vitamix works fine.
Blend starting slowly, then increasing speed slightly, until it is thick and creamy, usually about a minute. Store in a glass jar in the fridge for a week. It will thicken slightly more after refrigeration.
This recipe can be temperamental to work with, and even with exact measured ingredients can sometimes end up with two completely different textured mayos! I suspect maybe the temperature and exact measurements might play a part. If it’s not thickening up, adding a scant 1/4 cup wholegrain mustard turns it into a really delicious tangy mayo, add then blend until thick. Often now I will add wholegrain mustard from the start (and omit the Dijon mustard) because I like the flavour.
Paula’s Mac n Cheese!
Over on facebook I said I wanted to help you guys, to do a meal make over by creating a dish of your choice and make it fit your dietary requirements. This Mac n Cheese Requested by Paula, proved to be quite popular, so i thought id better put it on the blog for easy reference. Mac n Cheese – free from gluten, dairy, nightshades, yeast, (no nutritional yeast or dairy free cheese) low histamine and also free from soy, eggs, nuts, coconut and packed with veggies.
I made the recipe and tested it on my family. I made a huge pot and there was not a scrap leftover. So I’ll take that as a big thumbs up!
Feeds 4 hungry people
You need:
3 zucchini, peeled & diced
1/2 cauliflower – chopped
1 carrot – grated
2 T fresh garlic
3 rashers bacon
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika (omit for nightshade free)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper (ideally white pepper but any is fine)
Juice of one big lemon
Fry off the bacon and garlic, then add all the other ingredients, except the lemon, and cover.
Simmer over medium heat with lid on until the veggies are tender. Add the lemon juice and blend up the mixture until smooth.
Stir through 250 – 300g cooked gluten free macaroni and serve with crispy bacon and fresh cracked black pepper.
This Thai curry is sooooo quick and easy, it’s faster to make than it is to order take out. A bonus is that it’s free from dairy, soy, wheat, gluten, eggs, nuts and tomato.
Serves 5, probably with leftovers.
Packet of Thai red (or green) curry paste (become a label reading detective – I’ve found the very best ones with no vegetable oils (often means soy) come from Asian grocers or fruit and vege shops.
500g chicken or fish
2 cans coconut cream + 1 extra can if you have kids who don’t like spicy food (yep, Ashton, I’m looking at you)
500 – 700 g of frozen veggies of your choice, Or chopped fresh veggies like carrot, capsicum, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin
Splash of oil
Put your splash of oil in a large wok or pot / pan that’s going to be roomy enough for a great big curry.
Follow the instructions on the packet of curry paste as to how much to use. Sometimes the super authentic ones don’t have instructions – in which case I use two scant tablespoons, but could start with one and add more later. It’s easier to add spice than to take it away!
Heat your oil and curry paste over a low – med heat until fragrant. Chop the meat into thin slices. Add the meat*, veggies and one can coconut cream to the paste. Simmer gently for ten mins until everything is cooked through. Add the other can coconut cream and heat through.
*If using fresh veggies, add these first, after the paste, cook gently with the lid on for 10 minutes before adding the coconut cream, and then the meat.
Wallah, done!
Serve with rice and garnish with coriander if your feelin fancy.
For the boys, who don’t like a really spicy curry, I laddle out a couple spoons of chicken and veggies and mix with half a tin of coconut cream for them in a separate bowl. So they have meat, veggies and coconut cream with a hint of red curry.
If you find you’d like more spice or flavour in a small pan you can sauté more curry paste with oil, then add it to the main curry. It’s important to cook it first to help release the flavours.
Some curry paste instructions recommend you add some sugar and soy sauce or fish sauce to your curry near the end. I usually use 2 t coconut sugar and either 1 T fish sauce or coconut aminos for soy free.
Base
1 cup dates
1 cup nuts or seeds
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 T coconut oil
Pinch of salt
2 T cacao powder
18 – 20 cm baking tin, pie dish or 4 individual pie / tart dishes.
Choc mousse
3/4 c coconut cream
1 medjool date or 2-3 regular dates (soaked) Or 1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp cocoa or raw cacao
1 Tbsp gelatin + 1/4 c water
Raspberry mousse
1/2 c coconut cream
1 c raspberries (i just use frozen)
1 Tbsp Maple syrup
1 Tbsp gelatin + 1/4 c water
optional – additional raspberries for scattering through mouse and to garnish on top.
Base – put the nuts or seeds into a food processor and break them down until finely chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until it forms a sticky crumb.
Line a dish, cake tin, pie dish, whatever you are using with baking paper and press the base into the tin. Set in the freezer while you make the mousse.
Choc mousse
add the gelatin to the water and leave to ‘bloom’ – chuck the rest of the ingredients in a blender if using dates – if not then just mix all together in a saucepan. bring to a gentle heat and add the gelatin mix, stir until dissolved and pour over the base. Put back into the freezer to set.
Raspberry mousse
While the choc mousse sets you can make this part. Add gelatin to water to bloom. Because i used frozen berries i start by putting the remaining ingredients in a saucepan to gently heat. Add galtin and stir until dissolved. Add all to blender and blend until smooth. Take the mostly set (doesnt have to be fully set) tart from the freezer. If using, scatter berries over the choc layer, then pour the raspberry mouse layer on top. Put back in the freezer, or the fridge to set.
This is best served around 24 hours after making, and stored in the fridge. Sadly, unlike my cheesecake recipe it doesn’t keep quite as well in the freezer so best to prepare the day before. It *can* freeze and be stored in freezer and eaten defrosted but it slightly changes the texture of the mousse, which personally i think is best eaten fresh. This has, however not stopped me from keeping some in the freezer to pull out for pudding over the course of a few weeks!
I had heaps left over from the base recipe (which is pretty much just my simple bliss ball mix) so I roll the extra into bliss balls. For my Christmas version I’ve also doubled the sweetener, because you know, Christmas (and that it will be served to guests who are used to partaking in regular sugar filled baking and treats, so they might be a bit more inclined to prefer it sweet!)
