Living with food intolerances: What "convenience food" looks like in my world.

What does "convenience food" mean in a world of very limited food options? This was on my mind today, as I came up with something to have for lunch. For me, pretty much every prepared food item will not work.

The list of things that bother me includes: wheat and all wheat-type grains (rye, barley, oats-even gluten-free oats), all dairy, eggs, soy, almonds, sorghum, tomatoes, garlic and onions.

This effectively eliminates not only "normal" convenience foods, but almost all of the alternative options as well. Many gluten-free alternatives contain dairy and/or eggs, and almond flour is the darling child of the gluten-free world just now. Many allergen-free choices use garlic and onion, as they give the flavor a significant boost.

Essentially, my health is least affected when I only eat foods that I prepare for myself.

That gets old.

I not only have to cook from scratch, but I also have to make the elements I use in cooking. I compound my own flour mix. Any bread alternatives, I have to make for myself.

I make my own "hummus." Not being able to handle garlic or sesame/tahini rules out pre-made hummus. More recently, garbanzo beans are off my "good" list. Once you take the beans, garlic and tahini out of hummus, you are left with...lemon juice, olive oil and salt. ;) So...I make my own, using black beans and a few other tweaks. I'll share the recipe sometime, as even my friends who eat "normal" food really like my non-hummus. :)

It was lunchtime, today. I was rather hungry, as I'd waited too long to start giving thought to lunch. I have very few quick, simple options, and they just were not sounding good. My blood sugar was dropping, and I just needed to get some food into me. Then I remembered my treasure trove...

 That is what convenience food means to me now. :) This is the result of planning ahead, so that when I'm traveling, or even just hit with a bad case of hungry at home, I have a few things that can be ready quickly, and that will not make me sick.

When I make a meal that works well, and there is plenty of it, I take out a portion, put it into a vacuum-sealable bag, and set it in the freezer. Once frozen solid, I seal each meal with our FoodSaver vacuum sealer. That thing was one of the best investments we ever made! What you see in the picture here is a serving of fish and vegetable chowder, some roast beef with mashed sweet potato and roasted broccoli, and my greatly-simplified version of Chicken Adobo with Cauli-mash and (again, because it's one of my few veggie options) roasted broccoli.

It's a good thing that I like broccoli so well. ;)

For lunch today, I grabbed a package with two pieces of my "pizza," thawed it in the microwave and, in just a few minutes, I was having lunch.  I put "pizza" in quotation marks because, aside from being cut into triangles, I'm not sure that anyone else would recognize it as pizza.  I wish I'd remembered to snap a picture, so you could see it. If I make some this weekend, I'll try to remember to do that. :) It does have a crust (gluten-egg-dairy-etc.etc.-free), but the toppings are a sci-fi range of gray, purple and funky greens. Instead of sauce, I use my homemade not-hummus. I top it with a mix of special olives (natural black and green, Castelveltrano and Kalamata) with chopped artichoke hearts.

There is no "cheese" on my pizza. I have tried various vegan cheeses, and found them all to be fairly gross. There are few that truly fit my entire list, and I just don't find those appetizing. With the hummus base, the toppings stay on pretty well so I don't miss the cheese very much.

My pizza toppings might sound fancy, but it's a sort of psychological tactic that I use, to help myself cope with my limited food world. The list of things that I really should not eat is just...so...long... that I can get depressed over it. There are a few things that I can have, that feel like treats. Coconut based ice cream is one, along with certain "fancy" olives, and artichoke hearts for my pizza. Having these few special things, that I truly love, goes a long way to help me deal with the frustration of food limitations.

I have thought about making "convenience foods" for myself on a larger scale. For me, though, the idea of setting aside a whole day (or even several hours) to do long-range planning and broad meal-prep is just too much. My energy resources are rather limited, so I really cannot do a "marathon" approach to any aspect of life. Having found the method I described above has made a great difference, and helps me to feel hopeful. (Feeling hopeful=very important in this world!!) Rather than hours on my feet making mountains of food to store, I prefer this way, which only takes a few minutes at a time. Before I serve the meal, or as I put the food away after dinner, I simply stuff one or two servings into the vacuum seal bags and put them into the freezer. Later that night, or the next day, I seal the bag, write the date and the contents on it, and put it back in the freezer. Easy-peasy. :)

I don't often dip into my store of meals the way I did today. I kind of hoard them for travel. It is just so hard to eat on the road, and this really does help. I can heat something in the microwave and take it along in a thermos for my lunch, or heat it up for dinner wherever I'm staying. Even if I'm visiting family or close friends, the food issue is still a problem. As hard as it is for me to plan meals that work for myself, it is nearly impossible for others to juggle all the different factors and come up with food that fits my parameters. It makes life so much easier if I just take along a few meals. I've been on this journey for several years now. Assuming that it is my job, and not anyone else's, to feed me makes the situation simpler. :)