Business Dining With Allergies

I was at my university's etiquette dinner tonight and I ran into a situation that I wanted to discuss. I had informed the coordinators ahead of time that I'm gluten free and needed a special meal as a result. Unfortunately, due to some last minute requests from others, the food service providers didn't have a meal for me. They were able to have the chef prepare a fresh plate, but it wasn't ready until most of the people had already finished the main course. I had no problem waiting; I was just happy that the food service was handling the situation.

The reason I'm sharing this is because I know that many people with allergies are in similar situations where they have to take food allergies into account when dining in a business setting. Believe me when I say that I hate exposing myself in social situations, especially in professional settings. There have been times in my life wheordeould have rather turned down an invitation to dine than put myself in a situation where I had to be honest about my food restrictions.

For example, a few months ago, a friend of mine asked me to have lunch with him so we could talk about my study abroad experience. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to do it because doing so would require me to be open about my food allergies, which has never been easy for me. However, I realized that my reservations about disclosing this part of me was exactly why I had to say yes. If I didn't make myself vulnerable and confront my food allergies in a more relaxed setting, then I would never be able to it in a critical situation like an interview over lunch. I ended up honestly telling my friend beforehand and with his support I was able to ask the waitress's advice about what option would be best for me to order considering my specific dietary restrictions. As I anticipated, this particular experience helped me be more comfortable talking about and dealing with my food restrictions.

After my experience this evening, I would say three things about handling dining in a professional setting. The first is to not be afraid to talk about it. It's okay to let the host or employer know beforehand, in fact they might even appreciate you speaking up about an issue that could affect your health. They might even welcome your suggestion for places to go that could easily accommodate for your particular restrictions. The second thing I would say is when you are in a setting you can't control, be discreet. If you're not sure what's in something, just pull the wait staff aside and ask discreetly. If there's a mishap, you can politely send the plate back, but the important thing is to be patient and relax. Tell the others to go ahead and eat and keep conversing while you wait. Lastly, don't look at the situation as a limitation, but a strength. As hard as it is to handle the issue, handling it in the right way can be valuable to a potential employer who would want to know how you resolve conflict. I know that although having food allergies is difficult to talk about, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm hoping that by sharing this, others can see that although food allergies are always a part of someone, they don't have to define them. What defines a person is not the situation itself, but how they respond to it.

Explaining my Allergies

As I have begun talking about my food restrictions, I have been getting a lot of questions from people who want to understand the nature of them. I essentially have two different conditions that require me to avoid different foods. The first is celiac disease, the second is eosinophilic esophagitis.

Celiac disease is essentially an autoimmune condition that attacks the villi. In healthy individuals, the villi are small fingerlike projections in the small intestine that are responsible for absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. If you spread out your fingers, you'll notice that there is a lot of space between each individual finger. However, if you close them there is no longer much space. I like to use this visual to explain to people how celiac disease affects me. If I were to eat gluten, my immune system would start to attack my villi and over time make them more like the closed fingers. There is no longer much surface area in the small intestine to absorb nutrients, so many nutrients do not get absorbed. In my case, I did not grow or develop at all between the time I was four until the time I was six because my body couldn't absorb anything.

Gluten intolerance (or Non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity as I've sometimes heard it called) is different. Most of these individuals simply don't feel well when they consume gluten. They may be able to tolerate small amounts of gluten, but generally they do not feel well. I've heard of cases where gluten may act as a trigger in autoimmune conditions or other cases where it's simply an intolerance. Like people with celiac disease, they don't feel well when they eat gluten, but they don't have the intestinal damage that occurs in people with celiac disease. This type of condition would probably be diagnosed after a blood test for celiac disease comes back negative.

The other issue I wanted to address in this post is the question as to how my other allergies relate to celiac disease. The answer is they are the result of a completely separate condition: eosinophilic esophagitis. An eosinophil is a type of white blood cell that is involved in allergic reactions. During an allergic reaction, they may cause inflammation in some parts of the body, in my case my esophagus. This condition wasn't diagnosed until I was 14, after I had been gluten free for years. The specific foods that cause me trouble are milk and soy. I also have a mild allergy to eggs, but since I can tolerate them in small amounts, I still tend to use eggs in my recipes. The condition is in no way related to lactose intolerance since it is the milk proteins that trigger the allergic reaction. Milk just happens to be one of the foods that my body reacts to.

I'm hoping that this post answers some questions I've been getting from people. Earlier today, I updated the pages on this blog and also added a contact form on the main page. If you ever have any questions that you would like for me to answer, feel free to submit it via that form and I will try to get back to you as soon as I am able to.

Let's Talk About Food Allergies

Ever since I came home from Spain, I've felt a desire to talk about my food restrictions more. Before I left, I was unsure how my homestay was going to work out with my food restrictions. Fortunately, my program was able to place me with a family where the mother was gluten free. Now I want to specifically address the food allergy question with prospective students because I want to show them that they don't have to be worried about that going into the program.

When I decided to revive this blog, I initially did so after having enjoyed maintaining my study abroad blog so much. However, in restarting this blog and conversing with friends about my food restrictions, I have begun to learn about other people who also have to avoid similar foods as me. This never would have happened if I had not decided to talk about it more.

With that said, I will be spending the next few days updating some of my pages to reflect some of the things I have learned since I last posted regularly. Ultimately I want this blog to be useful for those who have similar restrictions. If anyone has suggestions for improving this blog or anything specific they would like me to address, please feel free to comment or message me. Already I have gotten several questions from people that I intend to answer via this blog. For example, I have already gotten a lot of questions from people about the nature of my food restrictions. Tomorrow I will make a post specifically addressing the difference between celiac disease (which is what I have) and gluten intolerance. I have even been asked about how my other food allergies relate to celiac disease, so I will address that in tomorrow's post as well.

Again I want to emphasize that this blog is for the readers. When I first started this blog at age 16, I wanted it to be a resource for other people who had allergies similar to mine. Now I have the added goal of using this blog as a platform for talking more about my food restrictions. By talking more about it, I'm hoping to remind people with food allergies that they are not alone. For anyone who reads this blog with or without food allergies, let's talk about food allergies!

Butternut Squash Muffins

I got back from a six week study abroad program in Spain two weeks ago and have been itching to get back in the kitchen ever since. I had some down time before work today, so I decided to bake some muffins. I had a can of butternut squash to use up and a quick internet search led me to a recipe by Jamie Oliver. His recipe calls for a frosting on top, but I didn't feel it was necessary. Below is the recipe with my modifications.

Ingredients:
15 oz can butternut squash
2 1/4 cups light brown sugar
4 large eggs
Pinch of sea salt
2 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour, unsifted
2 heaping tablespoons baking powder
Handful of walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a food processor until well-beaten (I just added everything one-by-one in an electric mixer, but the original recipe says to use a food processor). You may have to pause at some point to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix. Fill  your muffin tins with the mixture. Bake in the preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes (I ended up using the full 25 minutes). Check with a toothpick in the center to see that they are done. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

One note about the muffin tins: the original recipe says to use paper cups, but I personally prefer to just grease the tins. I used5 Spectrum organic shortening to grease each individual tin before I put the mixture in and the muffins came right out of the tins after I let them cool. The original recipe says it yields 12 muffins, but that's only if you use jumbo- sized tins. With the smaller tins I used, I was able to make 24 muffins.

I hope to do some more baking soon. Glad to be back in the kitchen!

Baking with Chocolate and Banana

 

School is officially in full swing, and that means that my time in the kitchen is rather limited. But I have resolved that I will bake every week. I made some chocolate muffins on Monday, one of the few days I have actually not stayed late after classes. There is so much to do on campus that I hardly want to leave and go home.



 

 

I also made banana bread from a recipe in Carol Fenster's Wheat Free recipes and Menus. I don't like her recipes as much, but I thought the banana bread looked good, so I decided to try it.

 

I started out mixing the sugar, brown sugar and oil in a bowl.

 

Then I added the wet ingredients.

 

For the flour, I used the all- purpose blend from Bob's Red Mill. Then I mixed in the other dry ingredients.

 

I like to use bananas that are at the peak of their ripeness because they are the sweetest at this point. The recipe I used called for two bananas. I like to mash them with a fork on a small plate or saucer.

 

Then it was time to mix it all up. The key is to add a little bit of the dry ingredients, combine, and then add a bit of banana. Eventually everything will be added and the batter is ready to go in the oven.

 

Just like regular banana bread; although the bean flour may seem overpowering at first if you're not used to it. I think the bean flour makes a loaf that is far less crumbly than typical gluten- free bread, so I like to use it despite the acquired taste of goods baked with it.

 

And what is banana bread without tea? I made a cup of my favorite chai tea from Teavana and then cut the first slice of banana bread. I put the rest in the freezer, and when I want a slice, I thaw it in the fridge the night before and return the loaf to the freezer after I cut a slice.

And in case you're wondering what I did with the gluten-free bread, here is a picture of a lunch I recently brought to work. I slathered on some roasted red pepper hummus, added some bell peppers, and that was my sandwich. A few grapes made the perfect complement.

Me versus Bread

On Monday I decided to take on the ultimate gluten- free challenge: bread. If you have ever tried to bake anything gluten- free, you know that gluten- free flours are anything but wheat flour. You have to use a mix of flours, and the dough is sticky rather than firm. Needless to say, that can make bread making a challenge.

So armed with The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread, I set out to make one of Bette Hagman's recipes. I chose the egg- free bean bread. According to Bette Hagman, the bean breads rival those of wheat, and after baking, I agree with her. I used the Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Flour in place of her bean mix and added the dry ingredients. In conventional breads, you usually make a well in the flour and then insert the yeast, but Bette says to add the yeast in the dry ingredients. I also had to add some unflavored gelatin (so unfortunately this recipe is not vegan) and some almond meal for protein.

Since this bread is egg- free, I had to add some Ener- G egg replacer and mix it with water to replace the eggs. Otherwise this recipe was pretty simila

You can use a Kichen Aid mixer or something similar to "knead" the bread, but I prefer using a bread machine. My mom bought one a few years back that was recommended by the American Celiac Society. The key with using a bread machine is making sure that it is programmable because you don't need the rise 2 and there needs to be a crust control since gluten free bread behaves differently than wheat bread.

 



 My machine has me put in the liquids and then the dry ingredients. Then I closed the machine, set the timer, and let the machine do the work. During the kneading phase, I had to add water so that the dough had the consistency of cake batter. Otherwise, the machine took care of the rising and baking, and all I had to do was take the bread out when it was finished.

I thought the bread came out very well for my first time. I let it cool on a rack before giving it a taste.

 

 

The bread tasted really good. Bean flour is definitely an acquired taste, but once you get used to the taste, it tastes amazing. It was even better than the gluten- free bread I had when my mom and I went on a cruise for my senior Spring Break.

 

 

So far the score is Me 1, Bread 0.

Spaghetti Bolognese

When I was planning this week's meals, the one request that my dad made was pasta. I then typed in pasta in a Food Network search, and found this recipe. I had never made a ragu sauce before, so I was willing to try it. I did, however, make a few modifications to Anne Burrell's original recipe. Anne has the pasta mix in with the sauce and a bit of the pasta water, but since I was making two different pastas (gluten free and non-gluten free), I couldn't go that far and decided to simply serve the ragu separately as a sauce. The recipe also called for ground beef, but I find ground beef to be way too greasy, so I used ground turkey, which is leaner.

 

 

I found that the Vitamix works wonderful for pureeing vegetables and makes for a lot less mess to clean up. The puree bubbled almost as soon as I added it, and got the sauce off to a great start.



 

After about fifteen minutes, the water had evaporated from the puree, making it look more like a paste that I could easily push aside to make room for the turkey.

 

The turkey was easy to brown, and at first the puree remained the paste it was when I first added the meat. However, it soon blended in with the turkey fat, accounting for the slightly orange color you see.



 

The tomato paste went in after the turkey had cooked for about 20 minutes. I let the mixture cook for about 5 minutes.

 

Next, I added three cups of red wine. I have been told that you should cook with wine that you would drink, but as I am only eighteen I leave that business to my mom. I let the wine reduce by about half.

 

 

I added a bunch of thyme from my garden along with two bay leaves. Then I poured water to about one inch. Here I let the sauce begin simmering for 3 1/2 hours. As the sauce simmered, the liquid gradually began to reduce, so I kept adding water two cups at a time, letting it reduce, and then adding more water.

 

Here the sauce is halfway done simmering. You can see the water at the top that has been reducing.

When the sauce had about half and hour to go, I began cooking the pasta. I let the sauce simmer a little longer than 3 1/2 hours in order to allow the water to reduce more.

 

After the wheat pasta finished, I set the table. I always make the gluten-free pasta first so that the pot doesn't get contaminated by the wheat pasta. The wheat pasta is on the left and the gluten-free pasta is on the right. I actually was able to make the gluten-free pasta just right and not sticky like it normally gets. The sauce was great, and the pasta was so filling that I could only eat one helping. I guess I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow.