Chicken and Biscuits

Ever since learning about my numerous food allergies, I've had to start cooking a whole lot more. I'd always cooked some but had thus far avoided making a habit of it. Heating packaged foods up in the microwave or the oven came so easy to me. I also ate out at restaurants frequently before my discovery of allergies. Now, I just don't have as many easy to heat up meal or restaurant options available to me. Therefore, I'm cooking.

It's mid-November, and as Wisconsin Novembers are wont to be, it's cold, windy, and damp. In other words, it's the perfect kind of weather for a hot, hearty meal like chicken and biscuits. However, there are a few allergy obstacles to overcome: dairy, eggs, and wheat. I was determined to make it work, allergies notwithstanding!

For the chicken, and this was the easy part, we split a boneless, skinless chicken breast in half, butterfly style, seasoned it with some salt and pepper, and cooked it on the George Foreman grill.

The biscuits were also fairly easy thanks to Bisquick for making Gluten Free Bisquick. All of the dry ingredients contained within are safe for me to eat. However, the cooking directions asked for milk and 3 eggs, so I substituted rice milk and Ener-G Egg Replacer, respectively. For the shortening, I used a vegan vegetable shortening. Making biscuits in this manner produced tasty results. The last time I tried making them, however, I didn't have any shortening, so I used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks. I do not recommend this substitution because it made yellow-colored biscuits that took forever to bake.

The next challenge was to make a gravy that I would not be allergic to. It couldn't have any flour or dairy products in it. I used Gluten-Free Girl's Absurdly Easy Gravy recipe. I had to modify the recipe some so that it was dairy-free, as her recipe calls for unsalted butter. I turned again to my Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks as a substitution. However, I had to use more rice flour than called for in the recipe because of my substitution. I just added rice flour until the consistency was right. Before this evening, I'd never actually made gravy. Instead, I used to purchase the stuff in a jar or ask my mom or my sister to do it. However, even though it was my first try, and I had to make substitutions, the gravy turned out nicely. It was smooth and tasty.

I served my allergen-free (at least for me) chicken and biscuits for dinner tonight, and both the husband and I agreed that dinner was a success!

Food Allergies

I have food allergies, and by that I don't mean to say that I'm allergic to one or two foods. As my friend Alene put it, I'm pretty much allergic to food and all of its components. I've always known that I have *some* food allergies. I even knew for sure what one of them was. For as long as I can remember, I've known that I am allergic to red food coloring, most probably Red #40. I avoid all red food colorings, however, just to be on the safe side. Intense stomach cramps, vomiting, anaphylaxis, etc. is just not how I prefer to spend my time.

I've also known for about as long as I can remember that I am allergic to other foods too, but I just didn't know what those were. None of them had such a dramatic effect as when the dentist put the red plaque build up detecting tablet in my mouth, and I had a seizure. Ibuprofen sent me to the hospital when I was in high school for a nice shot of antihistamine in the butt following breaking out into hives and nearly passing out in the school nurse's office. I also avoid Ibuprofen.

However, there's always been some lingering thought that I was allergic to something else, but I had no idea what that something else was. I'd been also living with severe asthma. On good days, I wheezed when climbing a flight of stairs. On bad days, well let's just say, the ER was involved. Following two bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis within twelve months, I decided to do whatever it took to get to the bottom of this asthma business and get it under control. Ultimately, I wound up at Allergy Associates of LaCrosse where I was tested for *both* airborn and food allergies. Up until that day, I'd never actually been tested for food allergies.

I had to wait few weeks for my food allergy blood tests results. When I got the letter, I cried. I found out that in addition to the things I already knew (tree nuts too - anaphylaxis again) that I was allergic to, I am allergic to the following:

• Wheat
• Dairy
• Eggs
• Yeast
• Peanuts

That eliminates an awful lot of foods, but I was not about to die of starvation. Instead, I've been adapting. I can eat veggies, fruits, meat, potatoes, corn, rice, and combinations thereof. While being allergic to so many foods is awful, I am seeing clear results in my asthma improvement. In a three month period, I needed my inhaler twice. Prior to the allergy results and allergy treatments that I am taking, I would need my inhaler up to four times a day.