Meal prep on a FODMAP diet does not have to be hard. I know that it isn’t as if you can just order in or get pre-made meals from your local market. Nobody wants to spend an hour each day in the kitchen just to make a meal that doesn’t make them ill. That is why your freezer is your friend. When I first married my husband many moons ago, he thought that freezing food would render it virtually inedible. I would tell him that his meal had been previously frozen and he would complain that it was not as good as something made fresh. I then set out to prove him wrong.. I stopped telling him when something had been frozen and he stopped complaining. Now he enjoys frozen meals, even when I tell him it has been frozen with no complaints. This is how I spend 1 day a month cooking dinners for my mother in law that last for a month.

As we head into summer, my mother in law is still craving soups. Her favorite seems to be the Moroccan soup, but she still enjoys the others. Her taste tends towards warming spices like turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, and coriander.

Last weekend she let me know that her freezer was feeling pretty empty and the choices in the dining room didn’t let themselves to the FODMAP diet. I came up with a plan on Thursday night to make her a selection of her favorite soups.

Moroccan Soup (recipe in a previous post)

Carrot Ginger Soup

Parsnip Soup

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

After shopping Thursday evening at my favorite store, Berkeley Bowl, I got in with the help of my husband to peel and cut up the veggies. I have found that the cooking itself is not the hardest part, the veggie prep is. That is what seems to take the longest amount of time and given that I make large batches, having the husband peel and run the veggies through the food processor is a huge timesaver for me.

In the winter, having a large pot of something on the stove is great. The house gets warm and full of wonderful smells, but in the summer the last thing I want is something boiling away heating up my un-air conditioned home. This is why the food processor is essential for getting things sliced thin to minimize the cooking time, and save my hands from all the time chopping and slicing.

Over the course of a day I was able to get all four soups cooked, blended, bagged and frozen. I find that using quart size freezer bags with two cups of soup in each, frozen flat allows me to get more packed in the freezer. Once frozen, I am able to place them like books for easy access and the thawing time is minimized. She just places the frozen soup in the refrigerator the night before and when she is ready to eat, she puts the bag in water that she has boiled and turns off the heat. The soup gently warms in the bag and VIOLA! Dinner.

in 2020 my mother in law was diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowl syndrome) For months and months she had experienced impacts to her health that nobody was able to diagnose. Finally she found a doctor that was able to diagnose IBS as the culprit. While not an earth shattering diagnosis, it was certainly life changing.

In the beginning, we thought little of this. She is living in a retirement community for active seniors that provides a variety of meals in a central dining room. As the pandemic hit, they switched to meals in their apartments with a menu distributed the night before. Residents were instructed to make their selections and leave them in a basket at the end of the hall. This all sounds wonderful, right? We thought so too, but how wrong we were.

Given that visitation was restricted, and at times prohibited, we saw her less and less. There were however frequent phone calls and texting. Often we would hear how she was struggling to eat anything and was feeling ill. Then we noticed the decline in her ability to process information, quick to temper, and her voice weakening. I started to question her about her eating and she would lament how difficult it was to find food for the central dining room that didn’t make her sick. When we visited with her, she appeared weak and fragile.

This is where my brother in law stepped in and found a FODMAP friendly meal delivery service. The meals sounded wonderful and flavorful and were delivered once a week in “easy to heat” portions. We celebrated as a family as now we didn’t have to worry about mom not eating.

She got her first box of meals that she had chosen from a large menu and for the first time sounded excited about eating again. The first meal she cooked lacked flavor and she found it difficult to heat up. Parts of the dish were overcooked and others were ice cold. She began to again dread meal time as this food just did not work for her. There had to be another way to get her meals that were easy to prepare and had the amped up flavor that she loved.

In thinking about the problem, I could only come up with cooking for her. This is where I had to immerse myself in all things FODMAP. I started by downloading the Monash University app and researching all taboo foods as well as food that they give the greenlight to. If you are new to the the FODMAP lifestyle, I highly recommend starting there. Next I started to research recipes that were FODMAP friendly. I would often read a recipe only to discover that it contained ingredients that were high in FODMAPS, or that woudl be great prepared and eaten the same day. This would not work for us as my plan involved cooking meals and freezing them so we could drop off a couple times a month and she could easily heat to eat.

Now, in my house, cooking with garlic and onions happens with every meal. My husband in particular loves garlic, and he will often have us add more to boost flavor. In talking with him, a life without garlic is unimaginable. Is is a flavorless landscape and not a world he would want to be a part of.

So, you love onions and garlic, but you also have IBS. I feel you on this one! Alliums impart a depth of flavor to most dishes and now you can’t have them. If it were not for those pesky short chain carbohydrates, food would tasty. Despair not, there are options. Here are a few of my favorites:

Scallions: Scallions or green onions can be used on a FODMAP diet. The key to this ingredient is to only use the bright green tops and never the light green/white root end. Use these as a finishing flair to dishes, sprinkle in while cooking to infuse flavor, or do both. All in moderation of course. The best part about scallions is that you can regrow them. Snip off the deep green tops and pop the white root end in a jar with some water and within a week you will have more deep green tops to use in your cooking.

Chives: Chives are wonderful but not often used. A sprinkle of these will really bump up the flavor profile.

Leeks: Much like scallions, just the deep green tops. I always recommend sautéing these before adding to your recipe as they can often be tough to chew. You will want them softer and the flavor really shines once cooked.

Onion or Garlic Infused Oil: Sounds weird that you cannot eat onions, but you can have onion infused oil. In the process of infusing oil, the short chain carbs are retained in the onion, but the flavor permeates into the oil.

Asafoetida ( Hing ) : Most have never heard of this wonderful spice. It consists of the ground root of a perennial herb. It is oniony, garlicy, funky, and delicious! It is often referred to as Stinking Gum or Devil’s Dung. Do not let these nicknames fool you, this spice is a delicious flavor bomb. A little of this pungent spice goes a long way so I usually order a few ounces at a time. Store in an airtight container and in a cool dry place.

I am lucky enough to live in the Bay Area of California and that means ethnic shops and spice shops galore. You can also find this online from retailers like Amazon, but be aware that many are cut with wheat products. If you have a wheat sensitivity, I recommend ordering from a reputable source like the Lhasa Karnak Herb Company in Berkeley California.

Fodmap food doesn’t have to be bland!