When I started cooking allergy free food three years ago, more aften than not the things I made weren’t terribly good, or at best, they were hit and miss. I tried so hard to provide my boys with ‘normal’ food, especially things like cakes, cookies and puddings that it was incredibly heartbreaking when I’d worked for hours in the kitchen to make something new, to find it tasted like cardboard! I’m pretty sure most of us start out like this when faced with cooking allergy free food…and the more allergens you have to avoid, the more of a challenge it is.

With boys allergic to wheat, gluten, milk protein, soya, egg and celery, I have made it my purpose to learn to adapt recipes to give them alternatives they like, but more importantly, recipes for food their friends will also eat…and like! This might sound confusing. After all, can’t they just all eat different things? Well…not all the time!

Children (and adults too for that matter!) don’t particularly like to be constantly made aware of their differences. However we word it to make our children more comfortable with their allergies, if they can feel part of the crowd and be like everyone else, they’ll be happier! Already they are majorly different when they eat out at a friend’s house, or go to parties etc as they simply can’t eat the same as everyone else there. I expect that you, like me, probably take your child’s food along on these occasions and ensure that you are not  far away in case of problems.

So, I truly believe that learning to make scrummy allergy free things at home can be incredibly beneficial to making a food allergy sufferer feel ‘normal’ and one of the crowd.

If after reading this, you are interested in some one to one help or even coming to a small class to learn how to make some great tasting allergy free food get in touch. I am based in Colchester, Essex and can accommodate small groups of up to 4 people at a time.