I think I would roast a turkey...that's got to be better than turkey patty on top of rice.
Can you make broth out of the bones? Turkey and rice soup? Won't taste like much without onion....but...
What are they trying to eliminate from your diet?
Linda C

Linda, I told DSW to get a turkey to roast, he said he didn't want to heat the house up. *grrrrrrrrrrr* I agree, it would have been tastier, healthier, and less expensive. Anyway.... *moving on*

The Dr. is positive that something I'm eating is bothering Drake. She's not sure what. The point of eliminating almost everything, just eating the least allergenic foods from each food group, is that when I add foods back, the offending food will cause a reaction in Drake and then we can pinpoint what that food is. Then I can continue to avoid that food.

The usual suspects are tomato, citrus, cruciferous vegetables, certain animal protiens, dairy, wheat, nuts. I have no idea what's bothering Drake.

Interesting....green squash, if it has the skin on will bother me.
And turkey but no chicken....also interesting...
You could roast a turkey outside....either in a borrowed roaster or on the grill...
If you lived close to me, I'd roast you a turkey!!

The first thing I'd do is buy turkey cutlets, and a bunch of possibilities should open up. Skewer and grill them. Slice and saute. Pound and wrap them around one of the other few foods you can eat.

It's not clear if you are allowed any fats to help make your diet more interesting. I would think small amounts of oils would not be offensive, something like an organic canola or an EVOO.

Consider using brown rice instead of white rice for more flavor and nutrition. Yes, it takes longer to cook, but you can cook two cups at a time, have some fresh with vegetables, then keep the rest refrigerated, and use it to make pan-fried patties, a smooth porridge, or plain fried rice.

By yellow squash, do you mean winter squashes like butternut, buttercup and acorn? They can be very satisfying, especially baked or roasted, when the flavors concentrate. With those and with the sweet potatoes, you can make homefries and soups, pureed or chunky, in vegetable or turkey broth.

Don't do deli turkey.

Pears: Grated raw. Poached, broiled, grilled, baked. Reduce the juice to use as a sauce. Make pearsauce as you would applesauce.

You can grind millet in a blender to make millet flour, and use it to make waffles, pancakes and crackers. Whole millet cooked for 30 minutes in 2x the water makes a porridge that you can eat plain, or shape into patties to let cool and then pan fry.

My guess is that for the next couple weeks, you are going to be looking and feeling great. You'll have good energy, beautiful skin, clear thinking, sound sleep, excellent digestion, and a happy baby!

Try this site for information on healthy eating, especially a grain-based diet.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Kitchen Dakini

I'd second staying away from deli turkey. It was the one food my son couldn't handle when he switched to solids. Set him up for a sure bout of the runs.

One recipe suggestion would be stuffing zucchini with a mix of ground turkey and rice.

Well, I could make a nice vegetable side dish with sweet potatoes and pears, cubed and baked or roasted, that would go nicely with the turkey. Some rice cooked in the pear juice and some of the rice milk could make a passable rice pudding, even better with bits of pear stirred in. I like zucchini and yellow summer squash just sauteed with a tiny bit of olive oil, some salt and pepper.

I know I'm probably odd, but I grew up on plain boiled white potatoes, which I like either hot or cold with just salt and pepper. One of my favorite lunches is just a sweet potato, cooked in the microwave and then mashed with salt and pepper.

"Scalloped" potatoes might be viable with the rice milk, although I've never tried that. A "shepherd's pie" with the turkey, rice, cubed squash and a grated potato "crust" would be good too.

Good luck, I don't know what in the heck to do with millet, having no experience with that at all.

Annie

I'd be concerned that the sliced turkey might have additives. If you could roast a turkey, you would get drippings which could be used to add flavor. You could make gravy with millet flour or rice flour as a thickener.

If you have a covered grill outside, you can put the turkey in a roasting pan and put it in the grill to cook with indirect heat. At that point, it is pretty much the same as you would do when cooking the turkey in the oven. If the oven is kept closed, I don't find cooking with it inside heats the house much - especially if the oven door is kept closed. A remote read cooking thermometer would minimize the need to open the door to check on the turkey. Because modern ovens are usually well insulated it is better than cooking on the stove even when the stove cooking is done for shorter time.

Not sure where you are located - if it is somewhere where the temp drops during the night, you could cook the turkey in the morning or evening. Or could a friend with AC cook the turkey for you?

Or what about getting a turkey breast or other turkey parts? That should take less cooking time than a whole turkey. Or cut a whole turkey into parts - the butcher might do that for you.

If you can use the bones to make a stock, then that could be used in place of water for cooking rice to add flavor.

What is DSW? I haven't managed to decode that one. I think if you are putting up with a limited diet for 2 weeks to help your son, DSW can suck it up and live with the heat of cooking one turkey.

Yeah, I know who DSW is but what's DSW stand for? I've been wondering, too. I just did a search and you seem to be the one that uses this!

Dawn refers to her husband as Dear Sweet William, or DSW, LOL.

I agree on the whole turkey. In addition to the preservatives, deli turkey can have an inordinate amount of salt. I'm not even sure what some of it is and I know several children who don't tolerate it well. Heck, I don't even tolerate it very well...

Annie

Oh Dawn I certainly feel for you. Hayden had gained back his birth weight when we went in for his 2 week check but all the weight is going to length. He has grown out of the preemie clothes, his little arms and legs are sticking out of all his clothes. The Dr has us supplementing his feedings 2 times a day with formula and I get to pump at those times. Luckily we just got a new top of the line medula breast pump so it takes half the time that the old pump took to empty me out. I was just talking to my mom last night about how lucky we were that Hayden is taking the milk so good and that we don't have to worry too much about my diet.

Stacie

As I understand it the DS part can stand for Dear Sweet or Dumb S... depending on the time of day or poster using it. I think Dawn most means Dear Sweet but if he won't let her roast a turkey in the house that might change.

Not much for ideas here Dawn. Hope Drake gets better soon so that mom can have dinner again. Maybe a soup with turkey, rice milk, squash, potatoes. Different types of rice might help some... basamati, jasmine, ect...

michael & lyra

I'm in agreement with the people who suggest avoiding deli turkey. Between the salt, nitrates and other stuff, I bet that isn't what the DR had in mind.

Can DSW get you just turkey legs or something to make soup from?

Gosh I hope you and little one start to feel better soon. That is really scary when the little ones are not thriving.

Alexa

Thanks all. And Linda, if you lived near , I'd love it if you roasted a turkey for me!

DSW = Dear Sweet William, most of the time. Bunnyman has it right though. : P

We have central AC, but the heat index here is 105. Even with the AC running full blast, it's about 80 degrees in the house. DSW has been cooking on the Foreman grill, in the rotisserie, in the toaster oven, and on the stovetop. OH, and of course, the nuke-o-blaster. I could roast a turkey myself, I guess, but I am pretty sleep deprived and busy with Drake and Zane.

Alexa, Drake is gaining weight ok, I think.... he's growing right out of the teensy cloth diapers we got for him. We'll find out when he gets weighed at the docs tomorrow morning.

Simmered turkey is reliably moist and doesn't heat up the kitchen much. IMO the white meat from roasted turkey runs the risk of being too dry when the dark meat is finally cooked.

I found this recipe on-line:
http://recipecircus.com/recipes/Nannyto6/TURKEY/Simmered_Turkey.html
But the one I use is from the Frugal Gourmet cookbook and doesn't use any seasoning or vegetables. Serve hot or cold, and it's moist enough to reheat as desired. You could thicken a gravy with potato starch or even ground up rice.

Save the cooking liquid for soups. I usually take the meat off the bones and simmer the bones, skin, wing tips, etc. in the liquid for a stronger broth. And you can skim the fat from the top for cooking if you aren't allowed other fats -- it doesn't have the greatest flavor, but it would allow you more cooking options.

If you have a preference for either light or dark meat, or want to make less turkey at a time, it's easy to prepare this recipe with turkey parts. If you eat both types, use them for different dishes to make it feel as if you have more variety.

You can smoke the turkey for a significantly different flavor unless your doctor is concerned about natural smoke. Or stir-fry turkey in recipes for chicken. Or make a variation of arroz con pollo. You can also use it in recipes for veal.

I can also envision all sorts of soups, including cold ones, from different combinations and chunk sizes of these ingredients.

Barbara

A plain bowl of millet does NOT a good meal make. LOL

Oh, my.

Stacie, I'm glad Hayden is doing well.

I think I'll make a rice pudding with diced pear for a midnight snack tonight. For supper I'm going to eat sweet potato and squash. I had a HUGE turkey patty and baked potato for lunch, thanks to DSweetW.

I think I'll make him smoke a turkey for me this weekend, though. *cracks her whip* I mean, last weekend he smoked a pork butt, which I am allergic to. It's in what little freezer space we have left. I think he can do that much for me.

Why Dawn, that wouldn't be for YOU, that would be for Drake. (grin) It's the least a new father could do for his boy.....

Annie