Forum FAILSAFE DIET

Thought I would start a thread for people to chat specifically about failsafe and the recipes that are Failsafe. I know I am always looking for more to use in my thermomix.

We are a family of 6.  DH and 3/4 kids are A1 dairy intolerant, Myself and 2-3/4 kids are super sensative to amines, the kids all suffer if we have too many Sals build up, but 1 or 2 days every week or so free of Sals is enough we can tolerate Moderate Sals the rest of the time.  Kids are 6,4,2 and 6 months old.

To meet baseline of all of us we are additive, preservative and colour free as per Sue Dengates list. We are also Amine Free. We do tolerate a small amount of Salicylates, and A2 milk. We also kept gluten in our diets for the moment. 

We have been failsafe since Jun 2009.

My Thermomix arrives next week just in time for Christmas and I am was hoping to connect with some failsafe cooks out there!

My husband and I have 3 children.  I am not sensitive to anything, DH suspects amines, but nothing major, DD1 is 4 years and does not seem to be sensitive to anything, DS is 2.5 years and we are still eliminating things, but it seems that amines are the main culprit and DD2 is 6 months and I have just gone back on the RPAH strict elimination diet while breastfeeding her.  I am hoping amines are the problem to make life easier, but we will see.  

We still have eggs and wheat in our diet and I am currently dairy free, but am going to introduce it before Christmas.  If DD2 tolerates dairy, then we will also have that in our diet.

Hope there are others out there who can help me out with my new machine trying to adapt recipes to be failsafe.  Would love any easy hints and tips to start.

Looks like you are on a similar diet to us.   I have every intention of posting my cheesecake recipe soon (contains dairy, but otherwise failsafe).

In regards tips, when I got the Everyday cookbook I went through and found as many recipes I could that didn't need any modifying at all, its much easier to get used to the machine on tried recipes. Once you are used to it it's fairly easy to adapt.

I made the Easy Chocolate cake with carob powder, and used citric lemon juice in a few salads straight off, they all worked well.

The bechemal sauce worked well too.

I hope we will find a few more failsafers. I see in the recipe section we can do a search by Author, I will post when I get the recipes I use all the time up and let you know and you can search for recipes by me and that will give you a start

This week I intend to convert some recipes and try and get as many failsafe ones I have seen tried.  We have no other plans, so I will be in the kitchen as much as I can.

Just made a Failsafe variation of Lasagne from the EDC.

I swapped Pear ketchup with the tomato and added in a tsp of our Vegetable concentrate (uses only vegies we can have instead of recipe in the book).  It was rather delicious.

Here is the link to the Pear Ketchup that I made in the thermomix yesterday:

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/10852/pear-ketchup-failsafe.html

I had made it to have as a sauce on Gnocci, my kids were not a fan of it like that, nor did they like the Gnocci. However they (well the two that ate tonight) loved it in the lasagne, and Dh was ok with it too.

Sorry, I am not used to checking forums as I have never belonged to one before but hope I will get better at it so I can share stuff too.

Is the vegetable concentrate suitable to keep?  I usually just use the tops of leeks when I make a veg stock.  What do you think - can I use those for the vegetable concentrate?

THe stock concentrate has a lot of salt in it to make it keep well, it should last about 6 monyths in the fridge, we go through a jar a week here though so it only needs to last a week.

When I made the concetrate I just used the leftover random vegies in my fridge. The leek tops would be fine, or the whole or just the white bits.  I was told the only essential ingriedients are Onions, celery, salt and carrots. I think to be honest you could leave the carrots out if you needed too. 

Using Leeks, Shallots and other green vegies with nothing major in contrast will give you a VERY green stock, but the taste is fine. It does make my rissotto rather green as well, again, tastes fine.

I think my last stock was Shallots, parsley, onion, celery, one carrot, and salt.  I have put leeks in before too.

Because its only amine free vegetables in the concentrate there is no drama with legnth of storage in regards amines.

Thanks for that.  Will be making a batch before Christmas for sure!  Am also going to try your pear sauce for pasta tonight.  Will let you know how it goes

I just made this recipe, I substituted cashews for the walnuts and Nestle White Melts for the Chocolate.  It is very very morish, need to be careful not to overdose on cashews.

I made a second one just now (its setting in the fridge, but the warm mix tasted good) using White choc melts, 6 Heaped teaspoons of Carob powder, added in with the melts, and 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint essence.  Would be good without the essence as well.

SInce taking possesion of my brand new TMX yesterday, I have used it about 5 times!  Yesterday I made a failsafe Chow Mein - basically just mince and cabbage on rice.  After dinner, I made Carob custard (dairy).  This morning we made pancakes for breakfast - they were the fluffiest pancakes ever.  This afternoon a friend came over who is on a low chemical, dairy free diet.  We decided to try low chemical, dairy free, gluten free, egg free custard.  We used rice milk, carob and home made egg replacer.  It didn't thicken very much and had a sort of floury/rice milky taste, but considering it was free of everything, it held up pretty well (in the same way that Orgran Vanilla Cookies are edible).  For dinner tonight, I whipped up a batch of your pear ketchup with the addition of blended leeks, shallots, brussel sprouts and celery and served it with spaghetti and mince.  DH and I thought it was good, the kids were overtired by the time I servd up and refused to eat it until it was time to clear the table and then they both ate a reasonable amount (about 4 spoonfuls each really!!).  Oh well - I will keep moving on.  DD and DS are 2years and almost 4 years, so they are meant to be fussy.

I bought a thermomix

I've had my thermomix just on 2 months now and my life in the kitchen is now soooo much easier.  We have been failsafe just over 18 months.

Thermomix has revitalised my motivation to make Yummy food, instead of just safe food.

You have me curious now to making an all free custard.  I might play at some point.

We do love the carob custard.  It's also really yummy if you put in agenerous 1tsp of maple syrup in stead of vanilla, which makes it failsafe.

agrantham81 wrote:

You have me curious now to making an all free custard.  I might play at some point.

We do love the carob custard.  It's also really yummy if you put in agenerous 1tsp of maple syrup in stead of vanilla, which makes it failsafe.

Isn't pure vanilla ok?

Also I posted my all free custard on forum thermix (can't work out how to link sorry!) if you want to have a look and a try,  Would love to hear if you have a better idea

Vanilla seems to be something my DH reacts to.  Not sure if its failsafe or not. Maple syrup gives us no reactions, and its very yummy.

Will see if I can find that recipe and have a look.

agrantham81 wrote:

Will see if I can find that recipe and have a look.

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=344.0#bot

This might work as a link......

Sorry I meant to come back and say that I had found it, I got sidetracked looking for a failsafe rice milk recipe to make in tmx,

Recipe looks good, I will try it out with the rice milk I make when I find a recipe for that.

You'd better post the rice milk recipe when you find it

You 2 are so fortunate to have found the TM while starting out on the Failsafe road.  Our family did the full-on elimination 5 years ago without a TM and yep...I got totally sick of being in the kitchen and went a little crazy!!

But that aside I wanted to tell you the outcome of out FS adventure to just encourage you and pat you on the back for doing this for your kids.  They are lucky kids to have such wonderful Mums who care so much they are wiling to search other ways and avoid the Drs office and the drugs that follow. 

 DS 9 is now learning at  his grade level and is mostly cool and calm having avoided ADD meds (the Dr said to try them and that was all he could help with, said FS was rubbish...pooh to him!!).  He is sensitive to sals, dairy, wheat, preservatives, with red fruit being rocket fuel. 

DS 5 who has always had a "clean diet" borders on eczema, rashes, allergies and asthma however remains symptom free just so long as the diet is on track.  He is a sugar flend too so we monitor his intake closely....makes him overactive and ratty.

DD11 has sugar issues which is the only alarming point, I think of the FS diet.  It has way way too much sugar so please do be careful there. 

DS 3 doesnt have any health issues and I put it all down to the clean diet and the journey we have taken in leaning about food additives and the evil food manufacturing industry and having him eat non-processed foods.  His weaning process was so so different to the others given the knowledge I then had about food allergies/intolerances etc. 

So after 5 years we remain additive, preservative and MSG free(my evil ingredient) as well as limited salicylates, wheat and dairy.  Tomato, raspberries, watermelon and red apple skin send DS 9 crazy if eaten more than weekly.  Its so empowering to know this and not just wonder why hes having a melt-down and think hes being "naughty". 

I want to encourage you to listen to your wise Mummy-instincts above all else.  Looking back I already knew deep down there were food issues but I needed to do the diet at that stage as "evidence".  People will think you are crazy...ignore them.  You know your child and family.  You are the expert, not some professional behind a desk.  (Will get off my soap box now!)

You (and your child as they get older) will instinctively "know" what suits their body and what doesnt.  DS 9 says the food is not friendly so wont eat it, even at parties which is amazing to me and the other people who have seen him do this. 

Once again, my best wishes to you on your journey.  I wont be much help to you on specific recipes but happy to chat on FS issues.

with love

Bren  

Hi Bren, we did start and do elimination without Thermomix. 18 months worth of it. Not as long as you.  My kids are amazing at saying no as well. Twice today they really made me proud. Once with Chocolate cake at an anniversary party, and once tonight with iceblocks at friends. They couldn't have the cake, but they did end up having the ice blocks, not entirely safe, but artificial colour free at least.  They are both dreadfully ratty now, but I suspect that is overtiredness.

Anyway, welcome to our little failsafe niche.  Thermomix and failsafe go very nicely together.

Bren, that is such a nice post.  Thanks for the lovely words of encouragement.  We started on our failsafe journey without a thermomix as well, so far I am not totally sure it is saving me time, but that is because I have a 4 year and 2 year old who have both decided to become unbelievably picky eaters! My repertoire of foods that they *may* eat is tiny to say the least at the moment and includes classic non-TM recipes such as chicken nuggets and roast beef/lamb/chicken.  I guess though because I am failsafe while breastfeeding at least I get things that I didn't ever get around to making when I was failsafe breastfeeding DS 2 years ago such as mayo, custard and I am going to try rice milk icecream tomorrow mmmmmm icecream  

I agree with you 100% - it up to parents to follow their instincts and not listen to "professionals" if they really feel something is wrong.  I work in allied health and see so many families come through knowing something is wrong, but paediatrician has said nothing is wrong - once I see them and realise something is most definitely wrong, point them in the right direction etc, these poor parents finally find out that their child has autism or some other kind of disorder and they did nothing until the child was 4 or 5 years old all because a paed said they were ok

I digress - I didn't know what to do until my middle child was 12 months old.  He spent the first year of his life only sleeping for 2 hours at a time in the night and crying.  We were at our wits end, sleep deprived and unwilling to control-cry him which was all the advice we got.  Finally met a great dietitian almost by accident and worked it out.  Luckily my third child was easy to spot even from birth really, but even then it took me 6 months of denial before the sleeplessness got to me and I went strict elimination and dairy free.  One week later and I had a sleeping baby with a proper daytime sleep routine who was suddenly feeding properly.

Thanks again for your lovely email

Wow, you guys are amazing!!  That's a lot of things you have to eliminate!  Isn't it frustrating when people hassle you about how you feed your kids, and think it's all nonsense!!!  I get that too.  Do you find kids grow out of some of their intolerances as they get older?  My 2nd couldn't handle egg for a while, but is okay with it now, and my 3rd couldn't handle any dairy but can have a bit of cheese now...  But our diet is a lot easier than yours - just avoiding sugar, wheat and dairy, and processed foods as much as possible.  Did you find the rice milk recipe, Pippa?  I use almonds in mine as well, or cashews, to make it creamier - and a bit of coconut oil. It's nice.

It's funny how we adjust to our own diets and just get on with it. I think dairy Wheat and sugar would be WAY harder than what I avoid.  Although my list seems longer, it's just what I know now.

We avoid dairy except A2 milk, cream cheese on occasion, and butter.

Most nuts (cashews are ok, but not often).  The processed foods. Although we do have Milk arrowroots from Arnots and Jatz and a few other things.

Our fruits and vegies are a bit limited, but not as much as some, we avoid the ones that contain amines (Tomatoes, Avacodo's pineapple, brocolli, colliflower and more).

Our meat needs to be really fresh, no pork or fish or seafood at all.

OIls are limited to Canola or Unflower.

And there is a bit more to it as well, but its just my nature now and I cant think. Oh Chocolate and Cocoa powder are big no-no's here.

Dairy and wheat are hard though, they are in so many things and the basis of so many things.  I think without nuts I am too fearful to try wheat.

Has anyone tried a Failsafe Gluten free bread in the thermomix?  I would like to try, but all the recipes I find have something in it that we cant have.

I like having this spot to chat about diets, restrictions and dealing with other's who think they know better for our kids.  Its nice to have company that understands

Quirky Cooking wrote:

  Do you find kids grow out of some of their intolerances as they get older?    Did you find the rice milk recipe, Pippa?  I use almonds in mine as well, or cashews, to make it creamier - and a bit of coconut oil. It's nice.

I think the idea about outgrowing some of these things is that dairy and egg can be out grown, but things liike amines etc you don't grow out of, but some children get better at managing the symptoms,  Certainly as DS has gotton older, (he is still only 2 years old) his symptoms have changed and I think are easier to handle, but that is us and everyone's story is different.

I haven't got a rice milk recipe yet.  We can't do almonds or coconut oil either but I am pretty sure there is a recipe in Sue Dengates book, I just have to look.

There is a recipe in Sue's book. I used 50gms Rice, 1000gm water, 20 mls oil, and I left out the sugar, but I think it should have been about 40gms.

I did the rice at speed 9 for 1 minute.  Added the water and oil, 8 minutes 100C. Speed 9 1 Minute. Then strain though basket or cheesecloth.

Here's my rice milk recipe - you can use all rice instead of adding the almonds, and whatever sweetener you usually use, and canola oil (or grapeseed?) instead of the coconut oil... http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fquirkycooking.blogspot.com…

Thanks for those recipes, I'll get onto it some time soon.  We have just lost appliance power for some unknown reason and the electrician won't do anything until under the house dries out....could be a long time. So I need to limit TM use if I want my fridge and freezer etc

Hi there,

I am a new thermie owner (as of last night!!) and we're a failsafe household too - low sals, mod amines, minimal dairy and minimal wheat, and I'm looking forward to life becoming a lot simpler now! This year I want to start testing different foods almost one at a time and find out what quantities we can tolerate. We added a tin of tomatoes to meat sauce the other night and had minor reactions the next day - minor enough I think we could cope with it once a month or so, so that's a win I reckon!

My kids are also similar ages - Mr 6, Mr 4, Miss 2 and one on the way! I'll be really interested to see if this next baby is any different to the other children now that we're failsafe - I can only hope it'll sleep better!!

Looking forward to trying out those milk recipes, and I'm starting my TMX/failsafe adventure with pear ketchup in a minute! We use kamut flour for all our baking and it's fantastic. Doesn't cause any probs for us and it tastes delicious. Am considering buying the grain from now on and just milling it in the TMX.

Looking forward to chatting with you all soon

Welcome Yamama.  I have put some failsafe recipes here, would love to see more. Enjoy your TMX 

Welcome Yamama,

My 4th baby was a bit different in that he slept better. Although right at the moment is not doing so well with sleeping, but then neither am I, guessing he has similar sensitivities.  Although no-where near as sensative as DD.

Funny our kids are the same sexes in the same order.

I am sure you will find life much easier with thermie.

I found a lot of interesting information in your blog. From the volume of comments on your posts, I guess I am not the only one! keep up the good work.

Thanks

http://www.bodyvibrodynamic.com/

pippa wrote:

Quirky Cooking wrote:

  Do you find kids grow out of some of their intolerances as they get older?    Did you find the rice milk recipe, Pippa?  I use almonds in mine as well, or cashews, to make it creamier - and a bit of coconut oil. It's nice.

I think the idea about outgrowing some of these things is that dairy and egg can be out grown, but things liike amines etc you don't grow out of, but some children get better at managing the symptoms,  Certainly as DS has gotton older, (he is still only 2 years old) his symptoms have changed and I think are easier to handle, but that is us and everyone's story is different.

 

I haven't got a rice milk recipe yet.  We can't do almonds or coconut oil either but I am pretty sure there is a recipe in Sue Dengates book, I just have to look.

My husband is allergic to eggs, nuts and seafood but is a lot more tolerant to egg these days. My 10 month old is senitive to corn and tomato... haven't been game enough to try out the above foods yet   I agree with Pippa, egg allergies can be outgrown but the other allergies remain as servere.

Diets for detoxification have come under immense scrutiny over the months that have passed. There are numerous claims that only weight that can be lost is the weight of water from the start of the fasting period and the subsequent loss of weight due to the reduction of caloric intake. A detoxification diet can be quite restrictive, and can go as far as being called as a starvation diet.

http://www.evitalhealth.com/UltraClear_Medical_Food.html    http://petadolexs.wordpress.com/

This is a great thread thanku!

Jo, I've been following your blog sice I got my thermomix earlier this year. Having bought rice milk for years I was enjoying making your rice milk recipe until I saw a new dietician recently who is questioning whether the symptoms I contiue to have might be due to food chemicals. So... am now preparing food from lists of low and moderate salicylates, amines etc. Thought I'd try the cashews instead of almonds in the milk - it turns out well. I've got Coeliac disease and the dietiicans in past years have had me on a FODMAPS diet. Excited recently to find I seem to tolerate pears!! I could eat anything I like... but some things just aren't good for me.

great to have found this thread. I've been thinking about doing the failsafe diet with my kids but just picked up the book yesterday and feeling VERY overwhelmed. I'm going to start just by buying brumbies break and reduce the chemicals in future shops. Don't think just before Christmas and going away that it's the time to do the whole elimination diet - just can't face it for now. Haven't had time to read this whole thread as yet but will soon.

jenny

Can you tell me what the Failsafe diet is?

I have a daughter and husband with allergies so I'm always interested in reading anything to do with allergies. This was such an interesting read thank you!

My daughter started out screaming and spewing constantly and finally the midwife suggested medication for reflux which I wasn't entirely happy with unless completely necessary so when she was 6 weeks old I went off all dairy and gluten products and it made a HUGE difference. She still wasn't a easy baby and spewed all day long still but at least she was happier. It was a big commitment for me to do it but as you know it's worth it. She is 18 months now and weaned onto rice milk. Soy is also no good for her and too much sugar turns her into a monster so I'm thinking about getting her tested. Have any of you had allergy testing or did you just find out allergys by elimination?

Thanks.

kaney2021 wrote:

Diets for detoxification have come under immense scrutiny over the months that have passed. There are numerous claims that only weight that can be lost is the weight of water from the start of the fasting period and the subsequent loss of weight due to the reduction of caloric intake. A detoxification diet can be quite restrictive, and can go as far as being called as a starvation diet.

http://www.evitalhealth.com/UltraClear_Medical_Food.html    http://petadolexs.wordpress.com/

I haven't replied to anything in this thread for a while, but just wondering what this is in relation to?  The Failsafe Diet is a medically researched diet by the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and has no claims to detoxify or enhance weight loss as far as I am aware.  It is designed to identify a persons food intolerences to man made and natural chemicals. 

Kaney2021, I am wondering what were you referring to in your post in this thread? If it was a previous comment, then it is important that it is identified and cleared up.

Cheers

Pippa

Hi Pixie and the Gnome.  The elimination diet has been put together by the RPAH in Sydney and it specifically targets food chemical (natural and man made) as well as dairy and wheat intolerences.  There are no scientifically proven tests for food intolerence, but people claim to have ways of testing that have proven to be successful in some instances.  The RPAH would say that scientifically, the only way to be sure is to do this diet.  I would suggest finding a good paediatric dietician - they are worth their weight in gold.  A Paediatric Allergist may or may not be helpful if it is an intolerence not and allergy.  The one in Brisbane will not consider intolerences as an option, whereas the allergist on the Gold Coast here in QLD is really really helpful for intolerences, but cant test for them, just rule out true allergy.  You can also look at Sue Dengate's "Fed Up" website and her books which are usually held in public libraries throughout Australia.  Your TMX is a great tool to have if you are doing some kind of allergy or intolerence diet because you can make some much from scratch!!

I hope I have made some sense to you.

Cheers and Merry Christmas

Pippa

Thanks Pippa, that does make sense. I will defenitley look up that book you mention. In the last few weeks I actually had a saliva test done on her, which obviously isn't failproof but does give an indication of what to avoid.

The list is long...

Wheat

gluten

yeast

dairy

sugar

chocolate

mushrooms

shellfish

peanuts

margarine

artificial sweetner, colours and flavors.

etc etc

Going to be tricky finding recipes that fit the bill. I've made my first loaf of bread this afternoon that suits her diet.

Thanks for your help and any more would be greatly appreciated.

The FAILSAFE diet is a diet designed and planned to be free of additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers. It is Sue Den gate’s        …