The Super Allergy Girl Gluten Free, Casein Free, Nut Free Allergy and Celiac Cookbook From A Mother Who Knows

Cooking for a child on a special diet can be challenging, overwhelming, and, at times, a loving pain-in-the-butt, especially when rotation diets (sometimes called rotary diets) are necessary. I have quite a collection of "allergy" cookbooks. I have a few reference books, as well. Sitting down to browse recipes and cross reference food families in an attempt to rotate food families every four or seven days is a job. And having a child with multiple food allergies and intolerances puts me in an unusual category. I know a lot of families who have children with autism on a GFCF diet. I don't know many who have had to eliminate even more foods and who have to consider food families when planning meals for their family. And, yes, I know a few folks who have more food issues than WE do. What are folks like that supposed to do?

In the "olden" days (eight years ago), we'd sit at the dining room table and open a few cookbooks and a reference book with food family information and we'd pour over them all, trying to make a plan.

Recent GFCF cookbooks are written by mothers of children with GFCF+++ needs, and they have become a HUGE help to moms like me.

Lisa Lundy speaks the language of the mom of a child with multiple food allergies and intolerances.

I recently received Lundy's "The Super Allergy Girl^tm Gluten Free, Casein Free, Nut Free Allergy and Celiac Cookbook From A Mother Who Knows^tm" ($28.95) in the mail (free, to review for you, here) -- it is *phenomenal*! Lundy has a three children with food allergies, including one child with multiple life-threatening food allergies, and she has written a book to walk others through the process. Yes, it's helpful for a simple GFer or GFCFer, too, but this resource is invaluable to a mom feeding a child with a long list of food no-no's. All the recipes are free of wheat, gluten, milk, casein, lactose, egg, peanut, tree nuts, and coconut.

Author Lisa Lundy provides an all-in-one-place resource that includes an incredible amount of information about rotation diets (and an interesting history, as a nation, of living on a rotation diet until recent years), with a big section that gives readers food family info. I have always had to refer to a separate book to look up food families for planning, and Lundy provides that information in her cookbook with sample pages showing how she rotates foods for her children. It's quite a nice shortcut for you if you have to watch food families at your house. The "Information" section that precedes the recipe section is 129 pages long and quite thorough.I think that rotating grains is a toughie, and Lundy provides grain-based recipes from page 163 to page 208 that cover everything from breads to muffins to pancakes to bagels to stuffing. There's another section for desserts that include grains.

The section that deal with grains are really important. If you've baked with gluten free, alternative grains for long, you know that you can't simply pick a grain and substitute equal amounts of it for flour in a recipe. Even if you have a gluten-free recipe, you can't substitute some GF flours for others and get a good result. Lundy has tested a bunch of recipes along the way and gives readers the best of her best.

She covers appetizers & snacks, soups, main dishes, side dishes, dressings, dips & sauces, non-dairy ice creams and beverages, too. She includes recipes for non-food items, too, including finger paints, play clay, homemade stickers and laundry soap.

Lundy writes in a "between you and me" style, and as I get to the recipe section, I like her no-nonsense notes, spotlighting what to do or what not to do on particular recipes.

She includes recipes that are appealing to adults, too, including one adult-only recipe for Heavenly Kahlua.

There are no photos of completed recipes in the book. (I like photos.) This 397 page book would be too big with more pages for photos.

Lundy has an extensive web site called The Super Allergy Girl. She offers visitors 11 recipes, and eight "how-to" videos on her web site, a blog, a list of articles she's written (food family charts are there), a list of resources and a link to the products (including the cookbook) that she sells. Check it out! The web site is as thorough as the cookbook.

Thanks, Lisa Lundy, for renewing my hope. I'm sick of the same old meals at my house. You've given me inspiration with your recipes!

PS: Stay tuned, and as I cook from the book, I'll post about it. We're going through some food jags at my house and I have to come up with some new recipes and dishes and this is one of the cookbooks I'll be using in coming weeks.