New and need help.

[markusbaugh]

Just found out that my 4 year old is allergic to dairy, corn, and soy. I cannot figure out how to limit my search to just recipes without those type of ingredients. Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[duonyte]

When you open the Recipe Sifter (button under the Top Recipes tab in the red bar), click Diet in the first column, Free Of in the second column, and Lactose-Free in the third column.

That is the easy one. For the rest you have to use Filter By Ingredient and that's less friendly at the moment.

So you would go back to the first column on the left and click Filter By Ingredient. In the next column, type "corn" in the box. Now is the "fun" part. A list of ingredients will show up in the next column. For each one that is really "corn" or a corn product, but not, for example, peppercorns, place your cursor on that ingredient. You will see a green checkmark and a red slashed circle to the right. Green is "include", red is "exclude" . click the red circle and that ingredient will be excluded.

Repeat with soy. Now keep in mind that some of the recipes you are excluding might be useable with an appropriate substitute - a different flour for cornstarch, or a different vegetable for corn, or just omit the soy sauce.

Part of your challenge will be learning which commercial ingredients or products you buy contain these.

We also have a great Special Diets forum where you might find more help, perhaps someone who has the same issues, http://www.food.com/bb/viewforum.zsp?f=9

[duonyte]

There are a number of cookbooks members have put together that contain at least one of your restrictions - these might also be a starting point for you.
http://www.food.com/cookbook-finder/all/dairy-free-soy-free-corn-free

As you identify recipes that are good or that can be easily modified, you should collect them into a cookbook yourself - that will make it easier for you to find them in the future. You can make private notes on any recipe to indicate what substitutions, if any, you made.

[duonyte]

Ok, this did not work quite as well as I hoped. I forgot that lactose free is a contributor-selected category, and those of us who are not sensitive to dairy don't necessarily select it.

It might be better to first exclude all corn and soy, and then look at the recipes to see which ones can be made using almond, rice or coconut milk instead of dairy. There are dairy free margarines also, as well as yogurts. I need to leave for a meeting shortly, but will see if I can make more sense of this.

[Chocolatl]

duonyte wrote:
Ok, this did not work quite as well as I hoped. I forgot that lactose free is a contributor-selected category, and those of us who are not sensitive to dairy don't necessarily select it.

It might be better to first exclude all corn and soy, and then look at the recipes to see which ones can be made using almond, rice or coconut milk instead of dairy. There are dairy free margarines also, as well as yogurts. I need to leave for a meeting shortly, but will see if I can make more sense of this.

Also, many dairy products (such as cheddar cheese) don't contain lactose, so lactose-free is not a reliable option for those with a dairy allergy.