About Kim and Cook It Allergy Free
Our family’s journey to gluten-free and allergy-free cooking began when our oldest son was 15 months old. He had not gained weight in months, was constantly pale, had a very distended belly and always seemed tired. After much research on our end and many doctor visits, we finally discovered that he had Celiac Disease – a serious digestive disorder triggered by gluten. Once we removed gluten from his diet – the protein found in wheat, barley, malt, rye, and countless other products – his health just took off. He gained a lot of much-needed weight, grew many inches in height, his color came back, and he finally had the energy level of a normal toddler. However, as my son grew better, my husband started noticing (or rather, stopped ignoring) strange intestinal symptoms of his own. Because Celiac is a disease that most often runs in families, he decided to get tested himself and, sure enough, he too tested positive for Celiac Disease.
Thus came my challenge of keeping them both fed. Because I had always enjoyed cooking, I decided to conduct some of my own experiments in the kitchen to see if I could make meals that were gluten-free but tasted more like the food we had previously been accustomed to. As I embarked on this cooking journey, I became passionate about learning how to feed my entire family as healthily as possible.
This passion drove me to begin work on a Master’s Degree in Nutrition so that I could become as educated as possible to ensure that I was doing everything right. I started having so much fun on my new educational path that I wanted to help others find a way to enjoy feeding their families while dealing with food allergies as well. Learning how to eliminate allergies and substitute other ingredients in everyday cooking can be slightly overwhelming, especially when you are first starting out. Teaching others how to learn to enjoy allergy-free cooking and focus on healthy living has become my mission. And my hope is that this website, iPhone and iPad Application will be the tools to do just that..
Our Goal
Taking the confusion out of cooking with allergies is really my ultimate goal. Using substitutions in recipes can be daunting, and often can yield results that are less than appetizing. Nothing is more helpful in this world of ingredient substitutions than utilizing the advice of the other allergy free “chefs” out there. I believe that allergy free cooking is a collaborative effort. I want to help bring the “allergy free community” together so that we can use each other for ideas, feedback, and support. This is my passion because of my family’s own experiences with food allergies and Celiac Disease, and I know the very challenges that this community is faced with when trying to create wonderful meals for our families. I would love to hear about your successes and also your failures in the kitchen. If you have a special recipe that you are proud of, then I would love for you to share that too. With your permission, I may post your recipe on the site or feature it in the app – with direct credits to you, and a link directly to your site/blog if you have one!
The recipes that are featured both on the blog and on the iPhone application are all gluten free as written. However, every recipe has substitution options to also make them Dairy Free, and/or Egg Free, and/or Nut Free, and/or Soy Free. Find substitutions within the recipes for: eggs, butter, milk, yogurt, buttermilk, cream, sour cream, cream cheese, cheeses, nuts, nut butters, corn syrup, and soy.
Now, no recipe is off limits. I am building the recipe database daily for the App, so let me know if there is a particular recipe that you are looking for. I will try and add the allergy free recipes that you want. Like I said before, I want this to be a collaborative effort of all of the allergy free “chefs” out there. I want both the website and the iPhone application to be a tool for every family that is dealing with food allergies.
