In the large spectrum of life, humans have been eating grains for a relatively short period of time.  While some people say we’ve been eating grains for 10,000 years, grains such as wheat didn’t become widespread in Western Europe for another 4,500 years.  (Whole Health Source)  This short amount of time has simply not given the human species a chance to fully adapt to eating gluten and other grains.

However the history charts may vary, grains containing gluten are one of the most difficult foods to digest. Not only is the number of people who have celiac disease growing, many people are either allergic or sensitive to wheat and many other grains that contain gluten.

While celiac disease is treated by following a strict gluten-free diet, people who have irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive problems often report a huge improvement in their symptoms by following a diet free of wheat and other gluten-containing grains.  Grains that contain gluten include wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, oats, and tricale.

When you first learn that you can’t eat wheat or grains that contain gluten, it can feel very overwhelming.  Wheat is one of the most used foods in the United Stated and it is usually difficult at first to adapt to this new diet and lifestyle.

The Gluten-Free version of the Nourishing Foods Menu Planner is just for you if:

• You avoid all grains and products with gluten including wheat, barley, spelt, kamut, rye, and oats.
• You avoid all wheat products.  Even though the menu is gluten-free, you can easily adapt other grains such as spelt to a recipe if you are only allergic to wheat.
• You enjoy or would like to have a balanced diet of fresh vegetables and fruits, protein such as poultry, fish and some red meat with complementing gluten-free whole grains, seeds and nuts, and legumes.
• You’re looking for some easy wheat and gluten-free recipes for some of your old favorites like pastas and desserts.
• You’re looking for a menu with limited soy, dairy, corn, eggs, nuts and legumes.  (There are some dishes with these ingredients but not very many).
• You’re looking for a menu free of refined sugar, pork, alcohol, preservatives, MSG and other artificial ingredients.
• You’re looking for a whole foods, healthy and nourishing menu plan.  Every recipe uses real, whole foods.  Some recipes call for some canned goods such as coconut milk, but this is kept to a minimum.

Each week you will receive from the Gluten-Free Menu Planner:

• A menu for 5 delicious and creative dinners plus 5 complementary side dishes each week
• One dessert recipe a week to compliment your meals
• Easy to follow recipes for each dish
• Quick to prepare – 30-35 minute prep and cook time total for each meal (entrée and side dish together).
• An organized shopping list for the entire week, which is coded to each meal so you don’t have to cook every dish
• Kid-friendly ideas for each recipe
• Ideas for substituting main ingredients for each recipe
• Nutritional information is included in all recipes.
• Recipes focus on using fresh, seasonal produce and whole foods as much as possible.
• Family-friendly recipes!
• Plus articles about health, allergies, and other food issues.

Ready to eat delicious food?  We put the “yum” back into allergen-free meals!

Buy the Gluten-Free Nourishing Foods Menu Planner (Meat and Seafood menu):

Only $12.95 for one month, emailed weekly:

When you buy the menu planner, you get the FREE bonus:

A Whole Foods Grocery Guide: A Complementary Handbook to the Nourishing Foods Menu Planner or for any type of Whole Foods and Allergy-free Cooking
by Sarah Schatz ( $14.95 value)

100% Guarantee! Be satisfied with delicious, healthy, and allergen-free recipes or receive a full refund within the first 30 days!

Important Information:  (Please read and follow these steps to receive your menu planner)

1. When you click “Buy Now,” you will be directed to Paypal where you can pay securely for the menu planner.
2. If you don’t have a Paypal account and don’t want to create one, you can pay by credit card by clicking on the link inside Paypal that says, “Don’t have a Paypal account?  Pay by credit card.”
3. If you want to pay by check, please contact me for my mailing address.  I will add you to the list once I receive your check.
4. Once you pay for the menu planner in Paypal, you will be directed to a confirmation page, asking you to check you email for a confirmation email from Sarah Schatz.
5. Check your email (the email address that is linked to your Paypal account) and click on the link inside the email to confirm your email address.
6. Once you confirm your email address, you should receive the Gluten-Free Menu Planner immediately in your email as a PDF document.
7. If you are having trouble receiving your menu planner, please visit my FAQ page where I walk you through how to troubleshoot the problem.
8. If you have followed all of these steps and you do not receive it right away, please send me an email and I will send you a link to the menu planner.

After receiving your first menu planner, you will receive a menu planner every week on the same day of the week that you signed up. Example:  if you signed up on Tuesday, this is the day you can expect to receive your menu planner for each month of menus.

Click here to read what one of our customers has to say about the menu planner.
By purchasing a Nourishing Foods Menu Planner, you will:

• Save time – no more searching for new and interesting recipes to feed you family
• Save money – no more impulse buying because you have a shopping list for the whole week
• Eat delicious food - no more “getting by” with tasteless frozen meals
• Eat healthier – by eating homemade foods made from whole ingredients
• Spend more quality time with you family - no more waiting for your dinner table at a restaurant
• Eat a variety of foods - no more eating the same meals every week
• Have less stress in your life - no more trying to figure out what to cook at the last minute
• Have less shopping trips - no more running to the store for forgotten ingredients
• Eat foods that work for your body - no more cheating on your diet because you want to eat something yummy or can’t find something to eat.
• Feel Happy and Healthy! When people follow a diet that works for their body, they often feel better than they ever thought possible!

Please note: This is no longer a subscription service.  I am presently making monthly menu planners for specific diets and am selling them per month and emailing them weekly.  I will be adding months to certain diets and it will soon be possible to buy 2-3 months of menus at a time.  Please be patient with me – I’m a work at home mom!

Still not sure if this is for you?  Click here to find out.
Or, try the menu planner out for FREE for one week:  Click here.

I receive a lot of emails from people who have found my site and are looking for ideas for their very limited diet.  Some of these people are at a complete loss as to what to eat because their diet is so limited.  I received one of these emails from someone last week inquiring about a diet for her daughter.

Here was her list of foods that her daughter was told to avoid:

gluten (wheat, barley, oats, spelt, kamut, tricale, and all products containing gluten such as soy sauce, etc)
grain (includes rice, millet, teff, and other gluten-free grains)
dairy
egg
soy
corn
banana
kiwi

This is a similar list to many of the people who come to me.  There are definite variations and more limited diets like those without any meat or fish, legumes, nuts, all fruit, etc.  But I thought I’d start with this diet to give you some ideas on where to start.

So what do you do when you get a list like this?  My hope is that in this post, I can give you my process for starting to come up with some foods and recipes you can eat when you receive a long list of foods you should be avoiding, even temporarily.

I am also working on compiling my recipes into menu plans for different diets such as this one so that people can have a menu planner for their specific limited diet.  I am also going to start writing some blogs about how you can start to do this for yourself!

1.  Focus on what you can eat, not what you can’t! Make a long list of all the foods available in your grocery store, farmer’s market and local health foods store.  Make categories for the main food groups and list all the foods under them that you can find.

Categories would include: meat, seafood, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, glutenous grains, gluten-free grains, grain-free “grains,” condiments, nuts, seeds, legumes, and sweeteners.

The most difficult part of receiving a list such as the one from this woman for her daughter, is that you have to be very creative when it comes to having foods that resemble grains, baked goods and pastas.

As a little help in the grain and grain-free department, here is a list that you can start with.  There may be others on the list I haven’t thought of or forgot to include:

Wheat-free grains:
spelt, oats, kamut, rye, barley plus all gluten-free and grain-free “grains”

Gluten-free grains and flours:
rice, all varieties
brown rice
corn
gluten-free oats
teff
millet
sorghum

Grain-free “grains,” flours and seeds
buckwheat

quinoa

amaranth

chia seeds

potato starch

sweet potato flour

yam noodles

pumpkin seed flour

coconut flour

almond meal

pecan meal and other nut meals (made from grinding any nut very finely)

blanched almond flour

flax seed meal

hemp seeds (great as protein powder)

tapioca – this is made from the cassava root

arrowroot

besan or chickpea flour

sunflower seeds (can be ground)

sesame seeds (can be ground up as well)

As you can see the grain-free list is pretty long!  I could probably keep going but I’ll stop there.  It’s really just a matter of knowing what to do with these ingredients once you figure out that there is quite a bit of variety out there!

2.  Highlight all the foods you can eat on the list. Focus on these foods and what you can create from them.  This first step will help you immensely if you can get through it.

3.   Going  back to the example diet that I listed before, here are the things that her daughter can eat based on doing this process.

All meat and seafood - this is a huge plus if you’re in this boat.  The challenge with this is some kids just don’t like meat or won’t eat it.  But if you aren’t a vegetarian but have a limited diet, this helps a lot with meal planning.  Also, you can bread fish and chicken with almond or pecan meal and it makes it more appealing to children.

You can also make chicken puree and slip this into things like potato pancakes.  More on this in a future post.

All veggies and all fruit except for corn, banana and kiwi.  It’s also helpful that her daughter can still eat potato as this is in a lot of foods and can also be used as a starch in baking.  Vegetables and fruits are so versatile – a great opportunity for creativity.

All beans except for soy. Beans are hard to digest in general so this may be something that she would eat every now and then but it also depends on her health issues.  Chickpeas can be ground into a flour as well as others such as fava beans.  I personally don’t like the taste and find them hard to digest as flours but they are an option.

All nuts and seeds. This is extremely helpful that she can still eat nuts and seeds.  Peanut butter isn’t even on her list (though this is a legume).  Nuts can be used as nut butters, flours, nut milk ( which would be a good option for her for a milk alternative since she can’t have soy or rice), cheese (though commercial brands have casien in them), as breading on chicken or fish, dairy-free cheese sauces (cashews) or just eaten whole as a great snack.  They are most digestible however if they are soaked and then dehydrated.

Most condiments: mustard, ketchup, vinegars, lemons and limes, oils.  As far as mayo goes, you can find an egg-free version but it’s made with soy.  I have a recipe for mayo made from cashews but I haven’t tried it yet.

All herbs, spices, chocolate and carob: You can make a meal with a piece of fish or chicken, some garlic and onions, vegetables and some fresh herbs and spices.  Very simple but very good.  There are infinite ideas and recipes out there in terms of just using meat or fish, vegetables and fresh herbs and spices.

She can also still eat chocolate and carob as long as it’s dairy-free and grain-free.  You could make grain-free chocolate or carob muffins, cookies, cakes, etc (search for grain-free and egg-free dessert recipes).  Even make your own hot chocolate with some cocoa powder, nut milk and a sweetener.

All sweeteners: also another plus.  Try to stick to raw honey, agave, molasses and real maple syrup.

Some alternatives for what she can’t eat:

Eggs: This can be a tough one if you’re used to baking with eggs or having them for breakfast.  However, there are several egg substitutes you can use when you’re baking, as long as you’re not making a quiche.  There are egg-free quiches but they are made with tofu, and she can’t have soy, so that is out.

As far as some other breakfast items, this is going to be more challenging without the eggs, grains and dairy-products.  But here are some ideas:

turkey or chicken sausages
grain-free pancakes
amaranth bread
turkey bacon
quinoa or buckwheat muffins, made grain-free, egg-free and dairy-free
nut butter on grain-free crackers
fresh fruit – smoothies, fruit salad

Dairy-free alternatives: This is really a topic in and of itself, so I won’t go into this completely.  But as I mentioned earlier, her choice milk would be almond or another nut milk or hemp milk.  You can make your own nut milk very easily.  Coconut milk would also be a good option.

As far as cheese goes, here is a good dairy-free cheese that is also grain-free.

Some people can eat ghee in place of butter, which is clarified butter.  Also, coconut butter is a great alternative to butter.  It is delicious!

She can also eat coconut yogurt and coconut ice cream, great alternatives (and yummy too) since she can’t have dairy, soy or rice.

Cornstarch alternative: Arrowroot powder can be used part for part in baking recipes that call for cornstarch.  You will also need to find a corn-free baking powder for baking.

Soy-free soy sauce: One last tidbit I’ll leave you with.  Here is a recipe I recently came across for soy-free soy sauce.  It looks very good to me but I haven’t tried it yet.  A good alternative for someone who loves asian food but can’t have soy.

4.  Get organized: Once you have compiled a list of recipes you’d like to try that fit your new diet, the next step is to organize them for them week.  Print them out or make copies from cookbooks.  Then look through the ingredients to see what you need to add to your shopping list for the week.  Then, yes, go shopping, or order unusual ingredients online.

5.  Be brave and take baby steps: Take the last step and be brave to try something new.  It can seem daunting at first to use unusual ingredients you’re not used to using in cooking and baking.  But start with something most familiar to you and go from there.  Take baby steps.  Try one or two new ingredients a week so you don’t get overwhelmed by too many choices.

6.  Don’t get too discouraged: Expect to have some flops.  You’re learning something new and it may take some time to learn some new tricks of the trade.  But be patient and keep trying.  Pretend you’re on an adventure and your next meal is your next mission.  This may sound corny but if you can get excited about creating new and delicious foods, you will most likely have better results than if you think you’re making another disaster.

Good luck!  I’d love to hear from you so leave a comment about your own adventures in allergen-free cooking and baking!

All the best,
Sarah