Customer Reviews

Allergy-Free Cookbook

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My son has been on an elimination diet (no wheat, soy, dairy, eggs, corn, nuts, peanuts, fish) for nearly a year, so I was naturally attracted to a cookbook promising to avoid nearly all of those ingredients in its recipes.

Like many such cookbooks, the "claim" on the cover is false. Most recipes eliminate only one or at most two of the allergens listed on the cover, and nearly all are built around plain everyday ingredients like milk, wheat, and eggs.

Each recipe contains a sidebar with suggestings for eliminating other ingredients. A baking recipe calling for milk and eggs, for example, has a sidebar saying to avoid eggs by using commercial egg replacer, to replace milk with a non-dairy substitute, etc.

Well...yes. I can do that, but in the end I'm left with the same not so great plate of cake or cookies that I would have gotten making these substitutions in a regular recipe.

Despite the fact I've turned to this cookbook again and again (I've had it quite a long time), I have not found any recipe that comes out well when *all* of the allergens listed on the cover are eliminated.

It's probably fine if you have to avoid just one or two ingredients. But then, most allergic people know how to make those substitutions, already.

This is the best book I came across on this subject. I have a child on the spectrum and he is on the Gluten,Casein and Dairy Free Diet.Recipes for this type of diet can be extremely hard to master and the end result is tasteless. Not anymore, Alice Sherwood has given us a book with recipes that work and the end result looks and taste delicious like any other type of foods.The blueberry muffins is one example. The recipes are easy to follow.The book is filled with beautiful pictures and has tons of information from shopping to traveling and dining out.A must have for anyone who has food allergy.

I echo the review about many of the recipes not really being GF, DF etc. as the book says and the optional way to make each recipe isn't simple for most of the recipes. The way it's set up is confusing and many of the ingredients are expensive and unusual. This is not a book for someone who wants to find allergy-free, easier food to make, especially if they're looking to save time. It's more like a gourmet allergy-free cookbook for people that want to spend their whole day in the kitchen and have plenty of money to spend and time to read directions. And although she calls them "family" recipes, a lot of the recipes are not very kid-friendly.

I bought this book because the title says: Allergy-Free Cookbook, no eggs, no dairy, no nuts, no gluten. I was disappointed to find that this is not entirely true. Nearly all of the recipes contain at least one of those ingredients if not all of them! Variations are given on the right side of the page for the "free" versions. Things like replace heavy cream with soy cream (we don't do processed soy foods). The baked goods may be made gluten-free, but still contain dairy and eggs.

I have 2 ADHD sons and they are on the GF / CF diet. My husband is also allergic to eggs so I cook mostly without eggs. This cookbook just didn't suite my needs. It is a nice looking book with good photos. And I have found a few recipes that we all like. The Chicken Fajitas are good and we use brown rice tortillas with them, we also like the Noodles in Hot Ginger Broth.

I would check this one out from the library before purchasing it. There are other great books out there that are healthy and gluten / dairy free.

I was very excited about the format of this cookbook as I have multiple food sensitivities. The disappointing part is the fact that while one sensitivity is omitted for a recipe if you have multiple foods to eliminate it is sometimes impossible to make the substitutions the book calls for. The recipes are also somewhat complicated and do not use ingredients the average cook would have on hand. This cookbook would be good for someone who is a good cook with maybe only one food allergy.

I have an 18mo toddler who was diagnosed with severe allergies to all dairy, eggs and fish approximately 6 months ago. Its difficult trying to feed a fussy toddler at the best of times, but add in her allergies, and cooking was proving a nightmare. I purchased this book on the promise of its title - no eggs - no dairy - no gluten - no nuts.

I have gone to this book numerous times but I have never had a tasty successful meal from it. It is not what it promises - most (if not all) of the recipes contain at least one of our problem allergins, and the sidebar suggestions for non-allergin alternatives are generally useless. For example, telling me that I can replace cheese with a soy cheese and milk with soy milk, does not make an Allergy Friendly recipe.

Where I have followed a recipe with all relevant non-allergin variations, the result is disappointing and not to the exacting standards of my toddler. In all cases the food has been rejected - and an expensive and time consuming process has been completed wasted.

Also, many of the ingredients were difficult to find and required long drives to specialty shops. Unnecessarily so, as I have subsequently found (in other cookbooks & on the internet) cheaper and more readily available alternatives.

Last complaint is the use of weights, rather than any other measures. We don't have scales in this house, and don't really want to purchase them for an already fairly useless cookbook. The author should have included alternative measurements.

Pretty pictures though, and good generic allergy info at the front.

This is one of the best allergy cookbooks I've found. The layout and fonts are easy to read, and the recipes (at least the ones I've tried so far) are as scrumptious as the photos. I especially like the substitution options for various allergies. With those, you can tailor the recipes to your specific allergies. Also, just FYI, another favorite is The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook, by Marjorie Hurt Jones.

I love this cookbook! It is very simple to "read" and follow/understand the recipes. I had started to run out of ideas of meals to make that had some variety in them as well as being milk free for my son, but this cookbook has given me lots of new ideas. It is also so nice that it lists what the recipe initially is made without, and also gives suggestions to eliminate/substitute other allergens that may be in it. It has saved dinner at our house from the same dozen or so things that I was stuck in a rut making.

I am on an elimination diet (I can't eat any of the top 8 allergens, plus corn, beans and seeds) and was looking for recipes that would provide healthy alternatives to the foods I was used to. Most of these recipes are not allergy free, and I couldn't find one single recipe that truly eliminated all the top allergens.

Various members of my family have different allergies. Some are allergic to eggs, others gluten, still others nuts. What's nice about this cookbook is that I can adjust my recipes to fit whoever is coming to dinner without having to buy three different cookbooks.
While I agree that most of the recipes can only eliminate a few allergens at a time, it's still a money saver for someone in my position (not allergic to anything myself, but catering to my visitors' needs). I recommend this for anyone who wants to host dinner parties for people with special dietary needs.