I remember sitting in the doctor’s office and hearing I had to give up dairy. He had a strong suspicion it was aggravating my asthma. (He was right.) I didn’t know where to start when I found out I had food allergies.

My brain was going through the list I had kept for the last week, tracking everything I ate. There was milk, or butter, egg, or cheese in everything. What on earth was I going to eat? Carrots? I already had several food allergies to deal with, so this was going to be a challenge. I faced a similar challenge when my allergy tests suddenly showed a new allergy to gluten a couple years ago.

At the time, I wished I had a friend to walk with me through the grocery store to help me find food that I could eat. I’m going to be that friend for you! While I can’t actually shop with you, I’ve created this list to give you a place to start.

Finding out you have food allergies can be very daunting. It’s hard to know where to start when you’re trying an elimination diet or cutting out whole food groups. It felt like a huge potential waste of money to pile items into my cart, wondering if I would even like any of them. And, unfortunately gluten-free and dairy-free foods have a bad rap for being tasteless or gross.

Although I’ve tried some weird things over the years, the good news is that there are many, many allergy-free options that are delicious! This list is made up of the options I love best, so I can save you some of that trial and error.