Hi guys. I'm not going into work today - I've had a rough night. My husband woke up last night totally covered in hives and with swollen tongue and lips :-( It's happened before (we have an epi-pen thank god), it happened usually when exposed to trace amounts of shellfish (I threaten our food servers everywhere we eat), but we know there was none last night. :-( So we're faced with possibly a new allergy. The doctor told us not to have any nuts or legumes for a while, since those are the most common triggers (last night we had PB&J and some hummus and fresh vegetables for dinner.... so it could be anything.... the peanuts (please god no...), or sesame seeds (tahini in the hummus), or god forbid, the garbanzos themselves (which would mean other beans including soy could be off the menu forever!)

IF this is the case, I don't think its safe for my husband to remain vegetarian. Can you guys suggest a nice safe dinner for me to make for the next few days? I was thinking some seitan but even the seitan in my fridge has been seasoned with soy sauce! Its probably just because I'm running on one hour of sleep, but I'm having a hard time coming up with something to make. Oh, and something not too acidic/fatty either, he's been having some unrelated tummy troubles too :-( :help:

hmmmm maybe I should have posted this in a more-trafficked forum :-(

I read this, bstutzma- I just didn't know what to say! I'm very sorry for what you and your husband are going through.

I think that I've come up with something for you to eat, though.
I'm making gnocchi for dinner- maybe you could do the same? I got the recipe from my roommate's latest GQ Magazine. It calls for:

2 baked potatoes, cooled and skinned (it's important to bake them and not boil them, because you don't want a lot of excess water in them)
1/2 c flour plus additional for cutting board and cookie sheet
Salt

1. Add 3T salt to a pot of water, and then bring it to a boil. Mash potatoes thoroughly with a fork, or use a ricer if you have one. Place the mashed potatoes on a cuting board, add salt, and begin sprinkling the potatoes with flour. Work the potato/flour mixture into a dough with your hands until you can form a ball that maintains it's shape. You'll know that the dough is of correct consistancy when you are able to pinch off a small piece of it, roll it into a little ball, and put it into the boiling water without it breaking apart. If it does break apart, then you'll need to add more flour to your dough.

2. Cut the dough ball into quarters. On a floured cutting board, roll one of the quarters into a long rope about 1/2 an inch thick. With a knife, slice the rope into little pieces about the size of tootsie-rolls. Place the little 'dumplings' onto a floured cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.

3. To cook, add the dumplings to the boiling water in batches. When they begin to float, after about 2 minutes, they're done.

4. Remove the gnocci with a slotted spoon and add them to a large pan of simmering sauce (This recipe calls for tomato sauce, but because that's quite acidic you could try something else entirely. Maybe basil pesto?

I plan on serving mine with steamed kale. My potatoes are baking in the oven as we speak :)

agree with stellar-- i read it and didn't know what to say either.

i mean, in the longer run you could make your own seitan so you don't have to worry about the soy sauce.

what about quinoa and some steamed veggies? quinoa has a good amount of protein (and i think all the essentials).

that's all i can think of right now.