Did you know that often a person can become addicted to the very food that produces an allergic response from them? This is called allergic addiction syndrome. When a person stops eating food they are allergic to which their body has become “addicted,” they can experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, such as headache, fatigue and anxiety. Eating more of the food can actually improve the situation by suppressing the withdrawal symptoms, but this can become an unhealthy cycle of addiction that can lead to even more health problems. Allergy experts call this suppression of symptoms by allergenic food masking because it masks the true allergic symptoms. This explains why a lot of people have a hard time eliminating food from their diet to which they have been found to be allergic.

Have you experienced allergic addiction syndrome?

I’ve been asked to start blogging again with more than just recipes. I used to blog all the time, but my free time has been eaten up with homeschooling, case studies and finishing my thesis. Plus, I lost all my previous blog posts with a server issue. Serves me right to not have a back up. Anyway, what would you like to see me blog about? General allergy related stuff, health stuff, food stuff, all of the above? I welcome your opinions. Because of the amount of spam I get each day, my blog is set to show only posts from pre-approved commenters. So be patient if your comment doesn’t show right away. Of course if you spam this blog, your comments will be deleted. Have a wonderful day.

In honor of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday and all it’s craziness, I decided to pull out one of my favorite Cajun recipes. Who doesn’t like a great Jambalaya, right? This one is quite easy once you get all the prep work done. The great thing about Jambalaya is that there is really no right or wrong way to do it. Although many consist of chicken, sausage and seafood, you can alter it to fit whatever you like. You can do all chicken, no chicken, shrimp, no shrimp, sausage, no sausage, etc. However, since my blog is dedicated to allergy free, this is my allergy friendly version. My kids absolutely devour this dish. Look for natural chicken or turkey andouille at your local whole food store. There are brands that don’t have all the junk in them. When in doubt, though, you can just leave the sausage out and do all chicken. It will still be super tasty. This recipe makes a bunch to share with family and friends.

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken or turkey andouille sausage, cut into bite size pieces*
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 bunch of scallions, chopped, green and white parts (a few tablespoons reserved for garnish)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes**
1 tsp cajun seasoning***
2 cups quick cook brown rice

Directions:

Season chicken pieces with garlic salt. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in dutch oven. Add sausage and cook until browned. Remove sausage to bowl and set aside. Add additional oil to skillet if needed. Add chicken and saute until starting to turn opaque. Add scallions, bell pepper, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables a softened, about 5 minutes.

Return sausage to pot. Add broth, tomatoes and seasoning. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Continue to cook uncovered 3 to 5 minutes until of desired consistency.

Serve with reserved scallions sprinkled on top.

* You can also use regular andouille sausage, just adjust oil as needed as some sausages have more fat than others. However, the chicken or turkey andouille creates a lighter dish.

**If you are allergic to tomatoes, you can leave them out and it would still be tasty. Add a little smoked paprika to the seasoning step to add a little color and smokiness to the dish in place of tomatoes. I also love the taste of fire roasted tomatoes in this dish. If you use fresh, you may have to adjust your liquid.

***There are several tasty brands of cajun seasoning available. For this dish I love the Slap Ya Mama seasoning.  You may need to adjust to taste. My family likes spicy.

****If you are not allergic to seafood, try also adding a few shrimp to this dish during the last 5 to 10 minutes of cook time.

Get printer-friendly version here. If you try this recipe and like it, I’d love to hear from you.

© Copyright 2012. Michaela C. Jones. Please do not copy, repost or reprint without permission.

Great news. The Make It Allergy Free mixes are on the way. Soon you will be able to enjoy some of my favorite recipes all pre-packaged and ready for you to cook up a storm. The mixes have been on the horizon for a while and now all of the pieces are finally coming together. I am so excited. Stay tuned for more details. Coming very soon.

While scanning through health and news stories, I came across this interesting article regarding food allergy testing. The article notes that some studies have shown that skin pricks and blood tests may not always be accurate indicators of a food allergy; that only ingesting the food can give you a true result. While I still think it is important to get allergy tested if you suspect a food allergy, this study does lend credence to my belief that if you listen to your body, it will tell you what it does and does not like. For instance, I do not test for a full wheat allergy myself, but I have allergic symptoms to it due to a cross allergy I have with grass. I feel much better when not eating it. We additionally found out my girls have an additional allergy that we did not know about upon ingesting the allergen. A test later proved it to be true. I personally, however, would never suggest that anyone intentionally eat a food they think they are allergic to just to test it without medical supervision. However, this is interesting all the same. What do you think?