Book review - Recipes for Oscar: Our Family Favourites (Getting Creative with Food Intolerance)

I've just read a fantastic cookbook written by Sandra Gleeson from Cooking for Oscar (www.cookingforoscar.com).

Sandra has a child who is sensitive to Salicylates, Glutamates, and most artificial colours, preservatives and additives. This was determined after trialling the RPAH (Royal Prince Albert Hospital) elimination diet. Sandra's little boy, Oscar, was unable to sleep more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time as a baby. She says she found the diet was hard, but not as hard as living with a child who wouldn't sleep. The diet was a success, and Oscar became a much happier, calmer child, whose sleeping problems disappeared. As a result of the diet, Sandra started developing her own recipes and modifying other recipes to suit Oscar's needs.

She shares her recipes on her blog "Cooking for Oscar" (www.cookingforoscar.com). As a lover of printed cookbooks, she started exploring ways of having her overflowing folder of recipes printed as a cookbook and e-book. This book "Recipes for Oscar - Our Family Favourites" is the result.

I reviewed the e-book version on my computer. I found it very easy to read and find recipes I was interested in. The recipes are accompanied by lots of photos - the sort I like - real photos of real food, looking the way it would if I cooked it, not the photo-shopped version you normally see in commercial cookbooks!

Sandra covers main meals, desserts, snacks, salads and sides, cakes & special occasions - Easter, Christmas and the bane of a parent's life who has a child with food intolerances - the birthday party - with over 100 delicious recipes.

Some of the recipes are suitable for the RPAH elimination diet, others are suitable for food challenges or re-introduction of different foods. Sandra has noted the chemical level of each recipe under the food title, so you can easily work out if that particular recipe is suitable for your family.

This is a book I will be using for my family, and would certainly recommend it to anyone who has a child with food intolerance issues, or is concerned about the amount of unnatural additives, preservatives and colours in children's food these days.

I became aware of this cookbook through a facebook group I am a member of.  My family started trialling the RPAH elimination diet some weeks back, after I read Sue Dengate's book "Fed Up" (upon the recommendation of a nurse who witnessed my son's behaviour).  In her book Sue describes a lot of symptoms/issues that my children are dealing with, and I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a go.  It certainly hasn't been all plain sailing, but we have definitely seen improvements in their behaviour since starting the diet.  The diet is fairly restrictive for a while, and so I have been eagerly reading cookbooks that provide me with inspiration on how to prepare low chemical/low additive meals.  I am very happy to add this book of Sandra's to my collection.

Disclosure: I received this book free from the author to review as a blogger. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

To obtain further details about this book, go to www.cookingforoscar.com or to order a copy go to http://au.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3389091 (to order the printed version) or http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/288477-recipes-for-oscar-ibook-edition (e-book version)