Dinner and snack ideas please

mymo

I need a bit of help please, my teenage daughter is suffering from what we have most recently been told is acute gastritis, and has been told to eat a bland diet, no onions, garlic, tomatoes, spices etc, no red meat, little pasta, no acidic fruit. She's getting bored with the foods as they aren't that tasty. Spuds rice and veg with chicken or fish (white fish like pollock, cod and sea bass), and some plain butternut squash soup, is all she's eating.
I need some ideas, every recipe I find has something she can't eat or I adapt ones I have ad they don't taste as nice.
Anybody have any ideas for recipes without any of the above?

Dizzyblonde

Hi, I feel your daughter's pain because I had a peptic ulcer years ago and had to eat bland food for quite a while. I've moved this to the Nutrition & Diet forum because I think you're more likely to get helpful replies in here.

Moved from Food & Drink.

Asporadic

Salt is your daughters new best friend. Here in Ireland people dont have much imagination when it comes to salt. We just buy plain old sea-salt and sprinkle a little bit over our potatoes and thats about the height of it. Even a lot of our chefs arent clued in to it. Salt can and will work wonders on bland meals. Do your a daughter a huge favour and buy this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Salted-Manifesto-Essential-Mineral-Recipes/dp/1580082629/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1369736889&sr=8-3&keywords=salt+book

Once you have read that start buying different salts. Buying nice salts can be a bit costly, but in your daughters case it will be worth every penny. Seriously, you really havent lived until you have tried a nice salt sprinkled over some bread fresh out of the oven.




Butter. Do I even have to elaborate on this? Butter, when used correctly will turn foods into something sent from the heavens. New potatoes, risottos, fish pies (like a shepards pie except fish instead of mince oh and lets not forget the white wine) etc.




You said spices are off but what about herbs? If herbs are good to go then you really dont have an issue. At the minute Dunnes are selling plants (from O Hanlons I believe) that are great. You buy a parsley plant (or whatever plant takes your fancy), it comes in a pot with soil. All you do is take it home, put it in your window. Add a little water and then grab a couple of leaves every time you're cooking. I cannot over-emphasise how great fresh herbs are and they will really make a meal come to life.





And lastly, I wouldnt normally recommend this, but in your daughters case you could probably make an exception. Monosodium glutamate. You know when you eat certain foods and you just cant stop eating until its completely devoured. MSG can take a boring food and make it delicious.

Now the thing is MSG does come with some health concerns (Im not sure if they have ever been proving or not), however if as suggested above this is only a temporary diet then Im sure your daughter will be fine. Besides, she (along with everyone else in Ireland) is probably already eating buckets of MSG without even realising it. If you read ingredients in lots of sauces/takeaways/chocolates/sweets/breads/salamis/pizzas etc they are all chock-a-block.

Go to your nearest asian store and they should sell it in little bags of 100-200 grams. Its not expensive either.

Best of luck with the diet. Hope it all works out for her