Guest Post: How to Deal With Food Allergies on a Budget
Written by Susana Bradford
Anyone who prepares meals for family members with food allergies knows just how important it is to find sources for high-quality, allergy-safe foods. But it can also be tough to find affordable foods that can fit your budget, especially when there is more than one family member with food allergies, as is often the case.
But don’t give up. With some planning, research and creativity in the kitchen, you’ll keep everyone happy, well fed and loving the allergy-safe meals you come up with.
There’s a world of great choices out there
One of the best pieces of advice for easing some of the stress that can surround shopping for and preparing allergy-safe foods is don’t focus on the foods you CAN’T bring home. If your kids can’t have dairy, for example, you might feel regret that they are missing out on the ice cream treats you loved as a kid.
The reality is most kids who grow up eating delicious fresh fruit and gluten-free desserts don’t even want that mass-produced ice cream and will happily pick the healthier choice on their own.
Finding deals on allergy-safe foods
Marketers have embraced allergy-safe foods (especially the omnipresent “gluten-free” labels) as a way to charge shoppers extra. But despite this, there are still lots of ways to save money. You can buy in bulk, buy fresh produce in season, can or freeze food for use all year long, and experiment with allergy-safe versions of popular recipes.
With a bit of exploration, you can find a growing number of online vendors, especially for dry goods like beans, peas and lentils. These affordable staples last for a really long time in your pantry and are incredibly flexible, complementing other vegetables or taking center stage as the star of the show. You can get help finding online vendors and comparing prices using free services. Some of these online shopping extension tools can be installed as a browser add-on that will automatically compare prices and alert you to discounts or coupons as you search.
And don’t forget about bean flour (really any legume is fantastic for this)! With your handy blender, you can turn almost any dried bean, pea or lentil into a fine flour that is a fantastic substitute when you need to thicken a soup, throw together a quick vegan dip or even bake a great gluten-free (and nut-free) dessert. While these flours don’t rise like a traditional wheat flour (and aren’t necessarily a great choice for airy loaves), they form an excellent base for fruit compotes, especially if you’ve got the summer’s best berries fresh from the market or out of your freezer. Oh, and they are a clean food substitute for industrially processed protein powders for your morning smoothies!
Speaking of berries, and all of the rest of summer’s bounty, make a trip to your nearest farmers market or co-op a part of your weekly plan. It’s fun for kids, and you should be able to get great deals on large amounts of fresh veggies and fruits.
If making the trek to the market doesn’t fit with your busy schedule, signing up for a community-supported agriculture (CSA) subscription service is a great alternative. There are close to 10,000 CSAs operating in almost every region of the country. CSA members pay a set fee to buy shares in one or more farms’ annual output. The subscription fees are often year-round, which benefits both you and the farmer.
CSAs can be helpful for college kids, too. It is often tough to find foods they can (or WANT TO) eat while they are away at school. And, even for kids with a college scholarship in hand, making every penny count is a traditional college rite of passage.
With most CSAs, you can pick your weekly box of goodies, which the farmer will fill with whatever is at the perfect peak of flavor. You have the option of substituting if one of the choices just isn’t your thing (no turnips for me, thank you) or if there is something really special that’s available for only a few weeks.
Keeping your family safe and satisfied
There is no question that it takes a bit of extra work to care for your family’s diet when you have to account for food allergies, but it is easier today than it has ever been. There are more local and online choices than ever before, and many, many resources to help you locate suppliers and share fantastic recipes. One thing is for sure: eating allergy-safe doesn’t have to mean eating flavor-free anymore. Your clean food dishes are likely to be popular even among family and friends who don’t have to watch what they eat every day because of food allergies.
Susana Bradford is a conceptual copywriter with more than 10 years of editorial experience. She is a frequent contributor on InfoBloom, where she specializes in education and parenting content. She loves to cook Italian food, and likes to play piano and make pottery in her free time.
