Had our youngest tested this week for food allergies after a pretty terrible episode about a week and a half ago. Turns out the little guy has a severe allergy to beef and garlic! Two of our most used ingredients.

The wife and I keep a running list of meals we enjoy about this knocks out at least 75% of what we normally eat. Any recommendations for cookbooks with seafood/venison style meals? He also has slight allergies to pork and chicken. Based off our experiences those can be had in moderation though. Planning on meeting with a dietician within a couple weeks.

Years ago, I developed what may have been an allergy to alpha-gal. Earlier, I had found a bulls eye rash on my leg typical of getting lyme disease from a tick bite, but never seemed to have developed the symptoms of lyme disease.

My primary symptom was a nearly daily diarrhea that hit me about six days a week. I didn't connect it to food because it started a few hours later. My meats back then was primarily beef with occasional pork, turkey (Subway sandwiches), fish, and chicken. This matched well with an alpha-gal allergy and it kept up for well over a year.

The doctors never found anything, but a Chinese woman I knew suggested that it could be caused by eating meats and that i stop eating meats. I did that and the problem disappeared.

I still ate occasional turkey, chicken, and fish without a problem which makes sense if it was alpha-gal.

One of the things that I most enjoyed was tempura vegetables which I dipped into an apricot sauce.

Another was a bean sandwich made with beans which I would smush to keep them from rolling around, onions, mustard, and alfalfa sprouts on a toasted whole wheat bun. (I missed mustard most of all during that time and about the only things that mustard would go well with was beans.)

Falafels were good, too.

I quit eating chicken fried steaks, but would eat chicken fried chicken on occasion. And shrimp po-boys were another of my favorites. Also, about any kind of fish.

At Subway it was either tuna or turkey.

When I did eat fish or chicken, i made it a small part of the meal.

After about two years, I gradually tried eating beef and pork and the problem never recurred for me.

One thing to watch out for if he goes on a vegetarian diet is Vitamin B12 which you get from meats. Sometimes we lose our ability to get Vitamin B12 from our food as we get older. Last June, my Vitamin B12 levels were below what the hospital blood lab measured. I now have to give myself a Vitamin B12 shot every two weeks. A young kid should be able to get plenty from Vitamin B12 supplements.

When I was a semi-vegetarian for those two years, i tried some meat substitutes but none were very good. Your turkey idea may work, though.

Don't have any recipes… just saying Sorry…. Dietary restrictions are hard to deal with…

A family member of mine has alpha gal, is allergic to shellfish, and is allergic to chicken.
Needless to say - very difficult to cook for.

This is a recipe I made them:

Kung Pao Tofu

It was delicious. I used turkey and tofu. Started the turkey first and then added the tofu.

- Didn't use green onions.
- Used garlic powder instead of garlic (they can't eat garlic)
- Didn't use any ginger.
- Didn't use any chili paste (used vegan oyster sauce instead)
- Didn't use any sriracha.

I didn't use any of the above ingredients because of they couldn't have some of them or something contained in them.

I also added rice noodles (made it a noodle dish), and did 1.5x the sauce due to the extra noodles.

Again, it was delicious. And, I'm very picky with my asian food.

I also have a good tofu/turkey taco recipe if you are interested.

I think the key to dietary restrictions is to embrace what they can have and be creative within that realm. Also, developing some good alternatives to ingredients they can't have (i.e. mushrooms/tofu in the place of proteins).

I've been able to develop some alternative recipes - and they will help when I start my good trailer (having some vegan recipes).

Be creative - and think outside the box. What I hate about most recipes online that are different is that they use ingredients you'll likely never use or have on-hand. I liked this one because it was based on stuff I already had (or stuff I substituted for).

- I make Tom Kha Ghai (thai sour soup) alot.
- Rice is your friend (which is easy cause I'm half asian, even though I don't eat it, because I'm on a strict self-imposed keto diet).
- Read labels. I was already doing this due to my keto diet, so it wasn't difficult for me. The family member has become a much better reader of labels.

I've been cooking since I was 5, and we grew up in severe poverty (like missing meals and homeless poverty), so having to figure out something to eat based on limited amount and variety has always been something I was used to.