Peas- the bane of my existence

I've always eaten a wide variety of foods, and even liked most veggies, including broccoli, but peas have never really been my thing.

Then I married my husband.  The only vegetable he would eat was peas.  It was the first vegetable I offered to my son.  He liked it.  His favorite book was, "Little Green Peas".  Just as I was accepting the fact that I was probably going to be eating peas for the rest of my life; I found out my son was allergic.  An allergy to peas.  Yes, who knew this was possible.  My son's doctor joked that he had an allergy every kid would love to have.  I then informed him it was the only veggie my husband would eat.  "Oh,"  I think was the response I got.

Peas are not listed as a common allergen and up until recent times, they were fairly easy to avoid.  We avoid Chinese food and we are careful with fried rice and Mexican rice, as you sometimes find peas in it.

Ok- so we avoid peas and beans (he developed an allergy to this a little later on).  No big deal- plenty of different options

Fast-forward a couple years and as I'm trying to eat healthier, I find out that many health foods are now incorporating pea protein in it.  My son's nutritionist was happy when she found out my son liked dried foods and gave me a list of things he could have- I had to point out to her that half of the things on the list had peas or beans.  "Oh," the common response...

I just recently found out that my body has developed antibodies to dairy, eggs, gluten and wheat.  Pretty much everything you bake with.  Did I mention God blessed me with good baking skills?  Yep, sometimes the heavenly sense of humor escapes me...

I'm not allergic to the above foods in the way my son is.  It kind of requires me to go back to my immunology class I took 15 years ago, but the body can react differently to different compounds.  My son has a Type I Hypersensitivity which means he can actually go into anaphylaxis with exposure to certain foods.  My type of hypersensitivity just means the foods do not sit well with my immune system and has actually developed measurable antibodies against the foods, trying to protect my body from them.  This means I feel physically ill, but fortunately won't die.

As I'm trying to take control of things, because I like to cook, and most of all like to enjoy food, I've been trying to explore my "Vegan- meat" options as I've coined it.  I basically am vegan- except I eat meat.  Yeah, that's not contradictory at all.  I've found that as people have gotten healthier and more have embraced a vegan lifestyle, there are all sorts of dairy-free alternatives and egg-free alternatives.  Yay!  Then I discovered a lot of these items and recipes incorporate peas and beans.  Pretty much any vegan smoothie has pea protein in it and apparently the most nutritious non-dairy milk and yogurt- is pea protein...

Somehow... everything comes back to peas.