Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking: 30-Minute Meals without Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, and Sesame [A Cookbook]

"Allery-Free and Easy Cooking" has been exactly what I needed. My husband and daughter have celiac disease and my daughter is allergic to peanuts, eggs, soy, and sesame. Needless to say, it can be very difficult to find meals to make that are safe but that our whole family will enjoy. I have been dedicated to not making two meals each night for my family and also to making my allergic daughter feel included as much as possible with the whole family. Lately that has meant being stuck in a dinner rut cooking the same few meals. I had been anticipating Cybele Pascal's new cookbook for a long time because I use her "Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook" all the time. This cookbook has opened up a whole new world of eating once again for my family. The night I received it, I made the Chili Mac featured on the front cover. It was easy, quick and really delicious. Everyone in my family liked it, which is something that is hard to find.Also, since my husband's and daughter's diagnosis, I've learned to cook more and more things from scratch, which often takes a long time. It seemed that more time in the kitchen was just the way it was. It's thrilling for me to have a cookbook free of all my daughter's allergens, tastes great, and only takes 30 minutes to make! I'm very excited to learn about coconut aminos since my daughter is allergic to soy and we'd entirely given up Asian food, which we used to love. I'm now looking forward to making Chicken Lettuce Cups with Hoisin Sauce, Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry, Chicken Fried Rice and more, all without soy. I can't believe how many recipes are in this book and it's such a relief to not have to worry about what I might have to substitute in a "normal" recipe. I also like that Cybele included instructions on how to add back in ingredients that your family may not be allergic to. So if you can eat dairy or wheat or one of the other allergens, you will still find this cookbook incredibly useful. If you are cooking for people with multiple food allergies, I would highly recommend "Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking."

First, allow me to state that no single book can be your only resource when you are trying to navigate multiple food allergies. Second, I must say that this book has been one of my top resources for coping with my son's dairy, fish, peanut and corn allergies. The book includes plenty of products that contain corn, but it's a nice change of pace to substitute one item in a recipe instead of three.The dishes I've made so far (4 of them) are delicious, and my family really enjoys them. Any mother of a food allergic child can attest to how good it feels to have your child empty his plate instead of taking a few bites before complaining of an itchy face or upset tummy; or alternatively saying that your meticulously allergen-free meal is "yucky."A few reviewers complain that the recipes contain processed items like margarine or cheese substitute. I have to roll my eyes a little bit at that. The point of the book is that it contains FAST, EASY, DELICIOUS allergen-free meals. If you have to go out to the coconut tree and make coconut spread from scratch every night, you are going to get really hungry. If you make everything from scratch all the time and have little kids running around, you become exhausted. Trust me. I know. I don't mind buying a few processed things occasionally if it will save me a little bit of sanity.But seriously, if you need to (and I do) you can make your own margarine. The book "Go Dairy Free," also sold an Amazon, will tell you how.My only small complaint is that some foods really taste better when you make them the old fashioned way, but, again, when you live with multiple allergies, you spend most of your time in the kitchen. Having any meal that can be done in a short period of time is a God-send.The book encourages you to buy the Vidalia Chop Wizard to speed things up. Cybele is right. It's worth every penny. Buy that and this book together.UPDATE 5 Years later: This is still one of my favorite, go-to cookbooks. I've used a lot of recipes from the book and they are all great. I also have her baking cookbook and "Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook." And get the Vidalia Chop Wizard. I'm on my second one now.

I preordered this cookbook since the author's baking handbook is the best baking cookbook in my library. If you don't already have it, get it. This cookbook is okay, but the many of the recipes are for meals that I make already without using a recipe. This is still a quality book that will appeal to someone who is learning to cook, new to preparing food for an allergic family, or who wants some ideas to get out of a cooking rut. More than a few of the recipes appeal to kids' tastebuds. The few recipes I tried turned out excellent. I've always wanted to make a white chicken chili and there is a great recipe in this cookbook. There are plenty of photographs of the recipes and the pages are very high quality, glossy paper.

With a son diagnosed with multiple food allergies before the age of 1, feeding became worrisome and stressful. We were desperate to find healthy and safe meals for our son as he continued to grow and as he became ready for more diverse foods. Allergies or not, the recipes we've gotten from Cybele Pascal's book, Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking, have been easy, delicious and straight-forward. I bought a separate allergy-free cookbook by a different author, and was quite disappointed in how censored (stingy?) the Food Allergy Mama was in naming actual names of products she used in her recipes (which we didn't find too tasty anyway). Not so with this book by Ms. Pascal. Not only does the reader get tips on specific products, but one also gets tips for making recipes more efficient with various tools/techniques. This is such an important benefit (and plain kindness) for those new to the world of food allergies who are worried and desperate to find advice on how to start feeding themselves or their loved-ones nutritiously and safely.Kudos to Cybele Pascal for a terrific cookbook!

I feel like that should be the default title for my Amazon reviews. So often, I end up reviewing something simply to make up for unwarranted bad reviews by people who didn't understand the purpose of the product or book. Know what you're buying, and don't dock an item if it doesn't magically do something outside of its stated purpose. Examples:1. "My reasons for cooking allergen fee include HEALTH. These recipes use processed ingredients such as margarine, canola oil, soy cheese..." This was the review that prompted my counter-review because it's uninformed, incorrect, and lacks thought all around. Margarine is used because butter is DAIRY. Non-dairy "butter" is called margarine. It's really that simple. Not all margarines are created equal, so a savvy chef should be able to find one that fits his or her needs. You could also use coconut oil or sustainably-harvested palm oil instead. That's what I do. Canola oil is probably specified because "vegetable" oil is often made from soy, and this is a soy free cookbook. If you don't like canola oil, use a different oil. And the supposed soy cheese? Where? Daiya cheese is soy free. You find an unprocessed, allergen free cheese, and you'll be a millionaire. Possibly even richer, because an unprocessed cheese would be a miraculous new discovery. All cheese is necessarily processed. It has to be, because milk doesn't turn into cheese by itself. Minimally processed (old fashioned) cheese is nice, but when you have multiple food allergies, you don't have much of a choice.2. "Relies heavily on Daiya cheese, which I find disgusting." That's because Daiya is so low allergen. Most dairy free cheeses use soy. This book is meant to be soy free. If you don't like Daiya cheese and don't have a soy allergy... use another cheese! While you're enjoying your diary free, non-Daiya cheese, you can also thank your lucky stars you have a choice. Not everyone does. Docking this book for including a cheese that fits the stated purpose (free of the top 8 allergens) is ridiculous.3. "It's not for the Autoimmune Paleo protocol." This one makes me want to give my face some keyboard. Of course this book isn't for the AIP. It also isn't for the low histamine protocol, but you don't see me docking the book for that. Why? Because that's not what the book was made for. It's for people with multiple food allergies. It says that clearly on the cover. If you want a cookbook for the AIP, find one that is for the AIP. Don't give this book a negative view because it didn't do what it never said it was going to do.If I sound a little frustrated, I am. Trying to find and make food with multiple food allergies and intolerances is incredibly difficult, and I deeply appreciate what Cybele Pascal did in writing this cookbook. Criticizing this book for not being something else - when it is already reaching for an extraordinarily challenging goal - is just absurd. I will update my review later when I have had time to test try a few recipes.I can say that, so far, the recipes I have seen look like any substitutions will be easy (eg lite tasting olive oil for canola oil). And, although the one review had me concerned that this book was full of processed junk, I am happy to say that isn't the case. The processed foods in the book are there for a reason (ie allergen-free cheese is necessarily processed). Of all the fast and easy recipe books I've seen, this one uses the most whole foods.

It contained nice and well-prepared recipes... If you're looking for true comfort foods and can't have the "real" thing this is a good book for you. While the meal might only take 30 minutes to prepare, Finding some of the ingredients could take much, much longer, since they most likely won't be in your local supermarket. However, it did open my eyes to ingredients that I didn't know existed.

I bought this book like so many others, looking for interesting foods I could cook that would help keep me gluten-free. My doctor says, however, that I may have other allergies not yet diagnosed. Then Cybele Pascal wrote a book that is without gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, and sesame. Can you even cook if you leave out all these items? I bought the book thinking it probably was a waste of money and everything would taste like cardboard. But, surprise, it is wonderful. I have read it from cover to cover, marking all the recipes I could make that I like, and that don't use impossible ingredients. So far I have made a tex-mex casserole, chicken pot pie with biscuits, mac & cheese, and beef broccoli stir-fry.The author uses the first 28 pages to explain what equipment you need to cook with, and that she has kids with all these allergies, making life nearly impossible. Then she has chapters which include soups, stews, pasta, casseroles, chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and lamb. Toward the end of the book she has included two of my favorite chapters, a chapter on vegan cooking, and a chapter on how to duplicate "take out food" such as chicken nuggets, tacos, pizza, mu-shu pork, burgers, and sloppy joes.If the book had a downside, it would be that she doesn't have any breakfast recipes, and very few salads. But all in all, a wonderful cookbook and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has allergies, of any kind.

My daughter was recently diagnosed with wheat, egg, and peanut allergies and I was feeling really overwhelmed about what to cook. Being a busy family I don't want to cook separate meals and was looking for recipes that everyone can enjoy. This cookbook has really been a great help, the recipes are tasty and simple to prepare. We really enjoyed the chilli Mac and the chicken a la king.One note though, I'm not sure everything can really be prepared in under 30 minutes, at least not the first few times you make the recipe. You'd have to really use her tips of using kitchen gadgets and buying precut celery, red onions etc, which I prefer not to do.Despite that I still think the recipes are delicious and this is a great cookbook for a family who has a member with food allergies and needs recipes that are safe and also delicious for the non allergic members

Do many recipes! Just what I needed

This is a really great cookbook with tons of allergy free recipes from an author who has professionally cooked and has a family and herself coping with food allergies. I have tried several recipes from the book and my family and I really enjoyed each one we have tried so far. The recipes don't take long to make and they are packed with flavour. There is no gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish or sesame in any of the recipes. I have tried the Salisbury Steak with Mashed Potatoes, Tomato Soup, Penne with Hemp Seed Pesto and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Sunbutter Dan Dan noodles, Teriyaki Chicken Thighs, Thai Turkey Larb, Thai Chile Sauce, Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry, Beef Stroganoff with Buttery Noodles, Center-Cut Pork Chops with Apricot Glaze, Garam Masala Lamb Chops with Cumin Quinoa, and my family enjoyed them all. There are many more recipes to try such as Pot Pie, Pizza, Lamb Kofta Kebabs, Twice Baked Potatoes, salads, stews, chile, etc. that we are looking forward to tasting. I will definitely be looking out for more cookbooks and recipes by Cybele Pascal, especially since many other allergy cookbooks I have tried have not had the same quality of recipes nor the number off allergens removed that I have needed, forcing me to either abandon half the recipes as being unsuitable or else the taste just wasn't there. This cookbook is a winner and it is nice to finally be able to eat most of the recipes in a cookbook!

Picked up this book after my son tested positive for all the common food intolerances. I’ve already made so many recipes and love her creativity with Asian, American, Italian, Spanish cooking options. You can tell she’s a foodie and knows how to eat well and she’s put lots of thought into these recipes to recreate favourites. I’ve made the Shepard pie, love the Dan Dan noodles recipes so good. Kids absolutely are enjoying everything and I’ve noticed a difference with my son’s eczema. Thanks for writing such a great cookbook it’s been on my kitchen island for everyday meals.

Excellent cookbook! Recipes are ever so good

Great cookbook for those with food intolerances.Contains a good mixture of dishes which should keep anybody satisfied with an excellent variety in tastes and textures.Would have given it a full 5 stars but some of the ingredients can be a pain to source outside of specialist shops or healthfood stores