cooking for special diets

The vegetarian thread here got me thinking... do any of you have or cook for a family member who has a special diet for whatever reason?  How do you work their needs into your daily meal plan?  What do you do when you eat out?

My son had a benign brain tumor when he was 14.5 and part of his treatment included six weeks of radiation.  Since having radiation he has an abnormally sensitive gag reflex and struggles with textures of foods.  For some reason he can't tolerate red pasta sauce, but can tolerate it on pizza and he eats ketchup like it was a food group all on its own.  What I do is when we're having a tomatoey meal I will take his portion out before I add the tomatoes and I'll add other seasonings so he's not eating bland pasta with butter.  When we eat out he knows what he can and can't manage.  We love Indian food and live a short walk away from an amazing Indian restaurant and everything there (even if the sauce contains tomatoes) agrees with him.

We've never experienced anything negative when eating out... and if there is something he can't handle we'll ask for it to be left out of his dish if possible. 

We'll be going to Florida in late Jan/early Feb (hopefully if hubby and I can get that time off work ) and that means seven days of eating out.. this should be interesting!

Anyway I'm interested in hearing how you manage your own personal needs when it comes to food or those of your familly.

Those are great sites, Pete.  I don't know if they apply to my son but I do know a few people who would find their info very useful. 

I'm suspecting a week of chicken fingers and fries and pizza if I can get him to try it.  Both of my kids are silly when it comes to American pizza... my husband had a bad pizza experience in Boston many years ago and shared it with the kids and the last time we were in the  US neither of them dared get pizza when we had lunch.  I did and it was fine.. my only complaint was the veggies were thicker sliced than I would like them but I get that here too.

I didn't even think about salt... I rarely cook with it as well.  My mother had to cut salt out of her diet when I was in middle school and I got used to the taste of food with out added salt.  My husband hasn't ever complained about my food being non-salty but one thing I had to learn when I started cooking in this business is to use salt.  The only place I don't add any salt is the soup kitchen... the clients there load the salt on their food (it looks like it snowed) so I figure they can live without the extra.

I don't eat dessert most of the time when we eat out and if I did it's fruit sorbet or something along those lines.  I'm allergic to eggs so it's best to be safe than sorry.