Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: belfie on February 06, 2012, 11:16:11 pm
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So... I think my subject line probably sums up why I'm here :)
I'd never heard of a thermomix until about a year ago when someone on a different forum said, hey I think a TMX would be great for your family. I think I thought it was some kind of fancy soup & yoghurt maker at that stage ;D Luckily, I know better now.
I must confess I've been a bit slow to come on in, I got my TMX last August. As you can see, we have a wide range of dietary restrictions in our household. I'm the fructose malabsorber (FM), my 3yo son has the allergies (not to mention fusssy toddlerism!) and my husband has the dairy intolerance. We are also blessed with one small girl cherub (1yo) who has no food intolerances/malabsorptions/allergies (*touch wood*) and DELIGHTS in eating everything that she can lay her chubby little hands on.
In my very quick searches, I haven't seen many other folks in here with FM, and to be honest I'm quite surprised. FM cuts out onion, wheat, plus a range of other veggies, coconut cream, honey, dried & concentrated fruits plus particular high fructose fruits (apple, pear etc) - so as you can imagine, TMX is surely a FMer's best friend.
I'm still working my way through a number of different recipes. My initial first few months were somewhat frustrating due to my need to substitute in virtually every recipe did result in some rather inedible flops. I've been stalking Quirky Cooking's blog and dealing with my own frustration at not being able to use all the yummy nut recipes! I have the GF cookbook but again, ran into many issues with FM or nut restrictions. Soooo, trial & error is alive & well and I'm keen to start posting some questions & queries on the forum!
My goal in getting a TMX was to turn cooking from a constant source of frustration to a source of joy & delight. To challenge myself to overcome our obstacles & get back to finding enjoyment in cooking, and to give us more variety in what we eat.
I look forward to getting to know you all :)
Cheers,
Belfie
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Hi Belfie, welcome to the forum. It must be so hard for all those who have intolerances of some sort and I take my hat off to you all for still being able to come up with suitable meals when you have so many restrictions. I don't think I could cope if I was in that situation although I realise you have to find ways around it. Life is so much easier for those who don't have these problems and I appreciate is so much more when I read a thread like yours. Good luck with your conversions to keep the family happy and healthy. I do hope you have managed to find some recipes on here which are easily converted.
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Welcome to the forum Belfie. Well done in providing healthy meals for your family. I hope the forum and your TMX will make life easier for you and your joy of cooking will return.
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Welcome Belfie. I admire you trying to overcome all the intolerances. Hopefully the TMX will be able to help you.
What sort of things are you able to use that will suit the entire family?
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Welcome Belfie. I admire you trying to overcome all the intolerances. Hopefully the TMX will be able to help you.
What sort of things are you able to use that will suit the entire family?
Welcome to the Forum, what a challenge!! There are some wonderfully creative members here who may be able to help. Looks like some veggies and protein may be OK. What we probably can help with is the technique of adapting your recipes to the TMX. Let us know.
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Welcome Belfie. My heart goes out to you - I know what a struggle I find it catering for our various allergies, intolerances and picky children and your situation sounds worse. I'm sure that thermie will make it much easier for you.
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Welcome to the forum Belfie :)
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Welcome to the forum. In my short time on the forum I've come across a wealth of information. There is always someone who has a suggestion/answer to the curly cooking problems we face. Enjoy the fun and creative ways the TM can help feed the family.
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Welcome Belfie. I admire you for your committent to everyone's dietary needs in your family. I know its not easy, but with time I am sure you will be able to cook a lot of foods with your thermomix.
I've followed links from Quirky Jo's blog and found quite a few other bloggers, who cook with strict restrictions. Worth a look.
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thank you all so much for the warm welcome!
If you can suggest any particular blogs that might be good, I'd really appreciate it.
In terms of what sorts of things I can do... many standard meals can be made without onion - I often substitute a bit of celery or capsicum for texture & flavour. Some meals can cope better without onion/onion family than others can, so I go with my gut feel as to whether there's enough to give it flavour. I use standard GF products for pasta etc. We do a lot of tomato based cooking, as coconut cream/milk is out for me, and dairy no go for hubby - so trying to find more creative alternatives is something I'm keen to do. Doing TMX risotto using veggie stock paste & verjuice has been giving us some great flavours (& variety!), but I'd love other ideas!
Where I would like a few more ideas is dips - finding something egg, nut & dairy free is challenging! Hommus, hommus & more hommus? I've bought a beautiful dairy-free smoked trout mousse (but contains mayo), but I can't work out how I could make it... hmm, maybe I need to try egg-free mayo? The only trout dip recipes i've seen are very dairy-heavy :(.
Also portable meals, lunchbox, snack ideas. I personally love eggs and I miss them to bits, I also miss making "slices" such as zucchini slice. I'm just trying the high-fibre muffins in the GF book today - sub'd seeds instead of walnut, and mix of chia seed gel & egg replacer for the eggs (hubby doesn't get to eat these ones cos I think they really need the dairy!)
I toy with whether blogging would be a good idea... if we get other FM TMXers.. but not sure if I have the time currently. So that little idea is just simmering in the background for now.
Love to hear any suggestions/thoughts/ideas :)
TIA
Belfie
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How about the KFC spice mix? You could sub. The buttermilk with Tofu zapped with rice milk or soy milk. Can mix spices with potato flour or cornflour. Also poaching in various flavoured tomato juice in Varoma.
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My favourite dip is babaganoush from this site but not sure if you are able to to have the tahini paste.
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Wow what a challenge you have I front of you. Would be great to have some of your converted recipes on the forum for others who need to avoid similar foods as your family. It certainly would be frustrating at times going through recipes and saying no cant do this, and no cant do that.
I can't help you much with these issues as all my family have no allergies or intolerances (except broad beans and Brussels spouts 😝) lol.
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Brazen has a GF blog here. (http://brazen20au.blogspot.com.au/)
Quirky Jo's blog (http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/p/dairy-free-substitutes.html) has dairy free recipes & substitutes.
Can you do anything to this (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1618.0) recipe to make it suitable?
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Have a look at theveggietable (http://www.theveggietable.com/blog/) blog - they have quite a variety of useful recipes which may be good for you to try. I use quite a few of them - we don't have nearly as many food problems as you, I'm vegetarian and my husband is lactose intolerant - it can be frustrating, but I usually end up with something edible. there will be vegan sites and blogs around too that may help.
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Hi, have you considered some paleo blogs? I am sure there would be quite a few recipes you could use. Here are some of the blogs I follow.
I can't add the addresses using my ipad - but if you put in these blog names I am sure you will find them.
elana's pantry (http://www.elanaspantry.com/)
the whole kitchen (http://thewholekitchen.wordpress.com/)
mommypotamus (http://www.mommypotamus.com/food/recipes-2/)
hotpink chilli (http://hotpinkchilli.wordpress.com/)
Farmer K's kitchen (http://farmerkskitchen.com/recipe-index/)
I've done the links for you Elle.
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Welcome to the forum. Rainbow recipes are all vegan but they tend to substitute with nuts. It may be worth looking at the recipes and reviews here on the forum.
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Belfie, have you seen Janella Purcell's book, Cooking for the Seasons? Not a TM book, but I do part of the prep with the TM and very good food and simple to cook for a family. Would be a lot of recipes that would suit.
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thanks for all the links & info everyone. I've just spent some time subbing to lots of blogs - and I'm sure it'll help give me more ideas. I don't mean to sound like a negative nellie, but in terms of veggie or vegan sites... well by the time I cut out onion, green beans (legumes and I in general... we just don't get along), artichokes, asparagus, honey, coconut milk/cream... I must admit find the recipes quite difficult adapt and still have much of the original flavour! So saying, I can see that from an egg & dairy free perspective they're great. I'm the fly in the ointment for that particular approach.
Thanks for the tip on the Janella Purcell book, I'll look out for that.
The babaganoush dip is a great idea, and I've already wallowed in the delight that was the KFC chicken! Having a little more google I know there are more than a few fructose malabsorbers out there with TMXes... it just appears they're a little shy of posting. I'm going to attempt to tag every modification that I post with the conditions it caters for. Typically the abbreviation is FF for fructose friendly but thus far I've been spelling it out in full as I get the sense it's fairly new to this community. The question I have, is would that be enough for new TMXers to find those recipes do you think? I've just tried testing out my theory, and the link to the KFC mix doesn't show up (I put it in the subject) so would I have to put it in the comment instead? I just worry that's gonna get a bit tedious if I run-around waving my FF, GF, dairy-free, egg-free, tree-nut free banner everywhere... :-)) but i would like to ensure other people can benefit from my experimentation.
The other thing I wonder - is do the consultants know about FM? Because if they did, I think there's a huge market there. I know i had to send a lot of info to my consultant for her to be able to modify the diet for us. I had the salad without apple.. but i"ve heard other consultants subbed pineapple and apparently it was great. Here's the link for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose_malabsorption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose_malabsorption)
thanks! Happy cooking :)
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belfie, glad the KFC coating came in handy. Cookie uses the mix on chips and you could use it on any meat.
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Belfie, I think you will have to spell it out each time you make modifications of any recipe on the forum as you are catering to the minority on here. If you modify a recipe I think just continue doing what you did with the KFC recipe but also maybe start a list in Special Diets on the Home Page. There you could just keep an ongoing list of all the recipe titles which you have modified and if you have an explanation at the top of the posting (not in the heading) of what FF etc means, then you can just put FF or whatever after you list the recipe. I hope this is clear - I know what I mean :-))
Oh, forgot to say I did see you had added GF in the heading of KFC where you posted.
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Followers of the Buddhist, Jain & Krishna faiths don't eat onion - there could be some good stuff in their cuisines, definitely would be full of flavour.
Have you tried silken tofu as a replacement for dairy/egg ingredients? It's mild and soft, it's all about the flavours you put with it. Would add that creamy base for dips if you can't have legumes.
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HI Belfie, I too think I have some issues with onion and a few other things. This forum looks wonderful. I only joined a few mins ago and already I'm overwhelmed at where to start reading.
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Maybe start with the diet thread. Quirky Jo's blog is another starter.
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Followers of the Buddhist, Jain & Krishna faiths don't eat onion - there could be some good stuff in their cuisines, definitely would be full of flavour.
Have you tried silken tofu as a replacement for dairy/egg ingredients? It's mild and soft, it's all about the flavours you put with it. Would add that creamy base for dips if you can't have legumes.
Vivaroo - thanks for that comment. I remember hearing it some time ago, but had totally forgotten to follow up that avenue. And I haven't tried silken tofu, that's a great suggestion too.
Maddie - there's a lot to look at isn't there! If it helps, i've just started a thread here (Fructose Friendly (FF) recipes for people with Fructose Malabsorption (FM) (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=9198.0) to try & just keep a track of any recipes that are fructose friendly. And at the risk of sounding righteous, there is testing you can do to establish whether you do have fructose malabsorption. It's definitely not a diet you want to be following unncessarily, especially given it does restrict a lot of fruit and vegetables. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me about it.
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Hi,
Just thought I'd let you know that you are not all alone with FM. I have it too but not your egg and treenut. However I do have gluten and lactose sensitivity.
I think I'd rather be me than you although it is difficult with a lot of recipes that substitute with honey and must be really hard for you when nut flours are used especially without eggs.
I have only had my TM for 2 weeks but it is a great help avoiding chemicals and going back to first principles.
I just know you will solve your problems and you seem so dedicated. I have been gluten free for 10 years now but only found out about FM about 18 months ago. I believe it is the cause of many of my problems and not enough people are aware of it and the body functions that are effected by it.
Good Luck for someone who can understand what you are up against.
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Hi Belfie
Its been a long time since you wrote this but I have just bought a Thermomix two weeks ago and also have fructose malabsorption and lactose intolerance. I cannot do any fruit at all yet as Im still getting better from being so sick with it.
Hoping by now you have a wealth of recipes or even started your our blog by now :) ??
If you have found any recipes that would be great if you could point me in the right direction.
Converting things for now to foods I can eat but like you said its a bit of trial and error :)
K
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Unfortunately Belfie hasn't visited the forum for 2 years K so you probably won't receive an answer on this one.
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Hi and welcome :)
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