Planning your family menus to be nutritionally balanced when you deal with allergies can be a challenge, but with a little planning your family can still enjoy wholesome nutritious meals.

First it is important to know exactly what foods are included in the allergy. It is easy to say a person has an allergy to a particular food such as peanuts, but there is much more to it than just peanuts. You need to be aware of every food that may incorporate peanuts or peanuts like foods into them. Many food use peanut flour in them as a thickening agent, such as soy sauce and many other oriental sauces and flavorings.

To cook meals that are allergy free takes a little more time and effort, but it is far less expensive than trying to buy foods that are specially made for people with allergies. Planning for eating this way starts with shopping properly. You need to learn all you can about not only foods that contain these ingredients, but also about the food additives that contain hidden amounts of these ingredients.

Fortunately most foods are marked with any allergenic ingredients on the labels but this is no guarantee that it is safe for a person with allergies to eat. Eating with an allergy does not mean that a person has to go without or not be able to eat a well balanced diet. In fact quite the opposite is true, once you learn how to cook for someone who has an allergy you will find you eat a much healthier diet.

Buying foods that are “allergen free” or are guaranteed free of allergens is a very important part of helping to insure that your meals are safe, however this can become very expensive. One of the best ways to ensure that the meals you prepare are safe is to cook them from scratch yourself. This way you will know exactly what is in the food you are serving.

Shopping for the necessary ingredients may involve having to go to more than one store unless you are very lucky. You will need to shop at health food stores, organic food stores and if you are lucky your local supermarket. It will take a while to learn where to go and what to buy at each store to get the best prices.

Now that you have your shopping plan you need to learn how to cook all over again. Cooking for someone with allergies takes learning some new skills as you will be using different ingredients to replace the ones you are used to. For example cooking with rice flour instead of wheat involves a totally different process to create baked goods.

When you are planning your meal it should still contain the same basic ingredients as always, you just have to allow for the allergy. Your meal should include a source of protein such as a meat or fish, a grain like rice or even couscous, a vegetable and a source of calcium like milk or rice milk.

There are plenty of cookbooks that are designed especially with different food allergies in mind, take the time to pick several of them up for use in varying your menu. One thing is for sure having a food allergy does not close the doors to eating a well balanced diet it actually opens up whole new avenues and gives you a chance to try new and delicious dishes.