It can be a huge challenge to feed three people on the spectrum (myself included), and NT Dad just gets whatever the family is eating. There are families who prefer to eat gluten/casein free diets ... I have absolutely to admit that I did try those!!! I still have my recipe books ... I remember making a GF pizza, and my husband wasn't too keen on the idea of GF pizza base, so I ordered him some takeaway pizzas, and made the kids a GF pizza.
The kids told me that they didn't want the GF pizza, they said it was (something very impolite) and refused to eat it, and told me they wanted their father's pizza from the store.
Fast forward something like 8 years later, I have converted them to home made pizza out of choice, necessity at times, and definitely as a health preference. I haven't gone back to the gluten free base, but I have compromised and endeavour to make most things that we eat from scratch.
I became food additive and trans-fat neurotic a few years back. Is it easy to make stuff from scratch? Not altogether, it takes planning, and definitely there are some useful tools that make life infinitely easier. With websites like Taste, Best Recipes, and All Recipes - you can all but do away with a collection of recipe books, because they're pretty much infinitely packed with everything you can think of (mind you I maintain quite a collection of recipe books). You can also find plenty of gluten and casein free recipes too.
I have got one youngster that hates fish, and pretty much anything that looks like salad, and for fruit will only touch apples. The other one (now a teenager) has got a humungous appetite, but his protein variety is limited to fish, home made rissoles, burgers, sausages, chops - which is fine really, but you can throw out any variation of pasta bake, mixed together food, casserole or otherwise, and especially things like spaghetti bolognese ... (yuck, its made with mince). He told me he wasn't too fussed on meatloaf either. He wants to know why people bother to make mince. It is a cheap source of protein, and for an ultra low fat variety, I prefer turkey mince. But he won't touch things like shepherd's pie, lasagna or anything like that. When we have a casserole, or anything he won't eat - I keep some frozen fish fillets in the freezer on standby to steam so that at least he will eat something. Ahhhh ... the challenge.
