Cooking with Alpha-Gal

Cooking with Alpha-Gal July 10, 2025

Now, to my fellow Alpha-Gal sufferers—here’s the truth: you can cook chicken 365+ different ways. You don’t have to eat the same meal twice in a year. Variety is possible, even with restrictions.

I’m 55 this year (2025), and I was officially diagnosed with Alpha-Gal in January 2024. But looking back, I believe I’ve had it since I was nine, when the migraines and inflammation started. Over the years, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, IBS-C, IBS-D, chronic pain, chronic migraines, and a laundry list of “maybe” conditions like Ehlers-Danlos, POTS, and fibromyalgia. Testing was always “pending,” until it wasn’t—because after marrying my third husband at 53, I lost my SSI and medical insurance. No more testing. No disability benefits. Apparently, being a stay-at-home mom for 27 years doesn’t count.

So here I am, still disabled, still unable to work, and still needing income. My husband is disabled too—a Type 1 diabetic and dual transplant recipient. We make do, but it’s tough. What I can do is sit at my computer on good days and type out recipes. My kids have been begging me to do this for years.

Between my background in graphic design and my experience cooking three meals a day for 36 years (that’s over 26,000 meals, give or take), I finally realized: I have something valuable to share.

Living with Alpha-Gal: The Long Road to Diagnosis Aug-4-2025

I wasn’t officially diagnosed with Alpha-Gal until 2024, but the signs were there decades earlier. Migraines, inflammation, mystery symptoms—misdiagnosed and misunderstood.

It felt like my entire life was spent being "misunderstood".  I am not alone. Sadly, realizing that so many of us out there, men and women alike, have spent years, decades, feeling like this, only to find out there are so many of us. That is what a newly found "Disease" does.  The disease isn't new. The name for it IS.  I am so grateful that this diagnosis came when it did. 

The diagnoses, I have found, are just the beginning. Especially in my case, where it might be quite a while before I can get any therapy for it. So I have found other routes to "take care of my health". Not just through food, but making sure I am diligent with all the aspects of Alpha-Gal. Medications (I now take vegan herbals), food additives, shampoo, and soaps, nearly everything in the store on the shelves that is "Processed" has something in it that Alpha-gal reacts to. So, you learn some tricks along the way. Like making your own seasonings, your own soaps, lotions, and shampoos, or doing good research to find "home-made vegan" products to replace what you can no longer have and can't or don't have the patience to make for yourself.

Losing access to testing and support was devastating. But it also pushed me to find purpose in what I could still do: cook, create, and connect with others facing the same challenges.

Cooking with Variety: Birds, Fish & Flavor Aug 12, 2025

Alpha-Gal might take red meat off the table, but it doesn’t mean flavor has to go with it. There are endless ways to cook poultry and seafood—and I’m here to explore them all. Which, you know what that means? Right? I am here to SHARE them all with you, the readers, the brothers and sisters in suffering.  I will share whatever I learn. Either on this blog or in the books I create. (You can find them in the drop-down menu above under "Freshly Released".

So if you’re ready to rediscover joy in the kitchen, follow along. I’ll be sharing fresh ideas, old favorites, and plenty of experiments—so you don’t have to stress about what’s for dinner.

Discovering flavor Aug 29, 2025

Just found a recipe I will be transforming to Alpha-Gal friendly

With the holiday season quickly approaching, I am looking for simple recipes, tasty recipes, and consciously sinful recipes to share with my readers.   The one I will be working on next is:

Individual Pecan Pies (Air Fry/Oven). Not only will it be Alpha-Gal friendly, it will be "processed sugar" free (mainly have Monk fruit sugar, coconut sugar, or something like that), using Diabetic friendly carbs.

Let the testing begin.

Found this image on SouthernBite.com, looks promising.   So follow along so you can get a taste of it too.