I'm Gluten Free Baby

The Nutribox - Healthy Snacking Made Easier?

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:11:00 +0000

I'm not a big snack eater, I think I have issues with hunger sometimes, or rather issues with not feeling hungry! I don't know if that is some sort of symptom of coeliac disease, or perhaps that I am so often faced with hunger but nothing readily available suitable to eat that I have got used to ignoring the feeling.

If I do snack, I eather want to eat something really naughty and rammed full of sugar and fat (which we don't tend to keep in the house much), or something quick and healthy. I like fruit and nuts and all that sort of healthy rabbit food, so when Nutribox offered me a sample box to try I was quite excited.

The Nutribox is a box of goodies that arrive by post and you sign up to by subscription. All the yummy things are made with gluten free ingredients (but see the note at the end of this article), all are vegetarian, most vegan and a fair few in my box were raw too. Eating raw is not a diet I know a lot about, but I know it is gaining popularity in the USA and slowly in the UK too, especially as part of the Paleo movement.

So you sign up, pick a delivery window (there are two a month) and then a box comes in the post. Easy peasy! They promise that the full retail price of all the snacks you get will always be more than you pay for the box.

My mini box slipped through the letterbox nice and easy and contained a wonderful mix of brightly colored snacks. To see a what sort of things you can get in your box take a look here, but I got a mixture of dried fruit and nuts, raw chocolate bars, raw energy balls, a 'braw' fruit bar, and some other high energy snack bars. I didn't recognise any of the brands, so that added to the interest.

I really liked the 'raw' choclate by Ombar, amazing stuff. The chocolate flavour was so pure and delicious. I wasn't excited by the fruit and nut packaging, but the mixes were nice, with cute names like 'hot cross bun'. The 'braw' fruit bar was nice (my toddler ate half of it), but I was not impressed by the raw energy bars. As I understand it, these raw bars are made by squishing up healthy things like seeds, nuts and sprouts into a ball, and this remains uncooked to preserve the vitamins and goodness and remain 'as close to nature as possible'. The ingredients do read well, with no nasties, fillers or preservative, but I was not keen on the taste really, and neither was my husband. I do understand that the energy released by these snacks is much slower and steadier than a naughty sweet snack, so that's a good thing. I think my taste buds could learn to like them, but they were not an instant hit. There were only a couple of this sort of thing in the box, and everything else when down a treat. Especially the Ombar raw pro biotic chocolate, did I mention that already? ;)

A 6 month subscription for a Nuribox Mini is of offer at the moment, at £10.41 per month, which is good value as you get loads in the box. It would make a nice gift, and having the box on your desk at work would certainly make a difference to your snacking habits. Boxes are available in different sizes and subscription lengths too.

I think its a good way to discover brands and snacks you wouldn't normally consider, and a great way to kick start a more healthy eating habit.

Overall 8/10, mostly nice snacks, and its brilliant that everything is gluten free too, but do note that the FAQs say:

Are all of your snacks gluten free?

We make sure all of our snacks are made using gluten-free ingredients. However, some are made in an environment which handles products containing gluten so we can't guarantee that there will be no gluten contamination. We suggest that celiacs consult their doctor or nutritionist before deciding whether to try them.

https://thenutribox.com

Heinz Pasta and Sauces

noreply@blogger.com (glutenfreemunchies) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:29:00 +0000

Gluten free spaghetti .....what can I say? I have not had good experience with gluten free spaghetti, generally it just clumps together and is inedible, but I think we may be getting somewhere this time.

Here comes the next review....

Heinz is launching their gluten free range and I have to say their spaghetti is pretty good. I had my doubts, when it was cooking it was doing the same gloopy ‘thing’ that all other spaghetti did, but then somehow magically it stopped and we had individual strands of spaghetti.

To go with the pasta Heinz helpfully provided two sauces and we (Matt and myself) tried the Tomato and Basil sauce.

I am so excited that gluten free sauces are now entering the world of supermarkets! Whilst I am an advocate of cooking your own meals and sauces, sometimes you just want something that you can heat up in a jiffy and enjoy.

This sauce is a tasty treat. It is made up of a rich passata infused with basil....and garlic now this is where I have a bit issue. I get that most people love garlic but there are those out there that aren’t that keen and I’m one of them I’m afraid. Too much garlic makes me ill so once I tasted this sauce and was hit by the garlic then only a couple more mouthfuls were had. I appreciate that for most people the addition of garlic will be welcomed but I would like just one sauce that was garlic free. Sorry.

The only other hesitation I had with the sauce was that it was quite sweet. I think the sweet taste would be lessened if other ingredients were added to the sauce as you choose, I’m thinking a nice bit of bacon, some mushrooms. Mmmmm a feast in the making.

All in all I’m very impressed with the Heinz range and I will definitely be buying their spaghetti when it hits the supermarket shelves. I will also be trying their other pastas which include penne and macaroni; since they’ve got the spaghetti down, the other pastas should be a treat too.

Gluten Free Mac n’ cheese here we come!

Nairn's Gluten Free Porridge Pot - For those in a hurry

noreply@blogger.com (glutenfreemunchies) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:46:00 +0000

Porridge, everyone likes it a different way.

For my first product review I was delivered Nairn’s ‘Gluten Free Easy Porridge’ which can be easily described as porridge in a pot.

I love the fact that some ‘instant’ type foods are now entering the gluten free market. As I’m sure many of you can remember only a year or so ago getting any instant type gluten free product was nearly impossible. Now we are beginning to see sauces, ready meals, desserts all there on our supermarket shelves.

Breakfast is a challenge for a lot of people. We rush around getting the children ready for school, throw food into the pet’s bowls and just about manage to pull a brush through our hair as we head out of the door for work. Let’s face it many of us like that extra ten minutes in bed after the alarm so we end up a little bit behind schedule. On weekday mornings we don’t have time to make pancakes or French toast so cereal it is.

The Nairn’s ‘Gluten Free Easy Porridge’ comes in a cardboard type tub in which you are told to pour in 170ml boiling water. Now this is where I had a slight problem, helpfully Nairn’s have given a line to indicate where the water should go up to. The problem is the line is on the outside of the tub so you have to do a weird pouring whilst squeezing the tub to make sure you get the right amount it. This would be easily fixed though if during the manufacturing process an indent is put on the inside of the tub. See, problem solved and no weird head movement required.

Back to the opening line; everyone like’s their porridge different. I found the 170ml amount of water to be too much. It is recommended that the product be left for 4 minutes, stirred and then eaten. In the end I left it for about 10 minutes and it was still too ‘wet’ for me. Matt, who ate that version, did say that this could be an advantage as you wouldn’t need a spoon and could just drink your breakfast, which he successfully attempted. Sorry that just didn’t appeal to me.

So luckily Nairn’s had sent another tub. Experiment two began. I tried this time with only 110ml of water, I admit I like my porridge thick and not runny. I left the tub to stand for the recommended 4 minutes, but it was still a little thin for me, so I left it for another 3 minutes. This gave me the consistency I liked.

Tasting time.

I have to be upfront, I didn’t actually like the taste of the product. It’s hard to pin point exactly what it could be. I’m not that keen on dried milk so it could be that, but I do know that for me it was a little too sweet. Matt didn’t mind the taste (always handy to have a second opinion) but he could only eat the one as for him it was also a little on the sweet side.

I think you could get over the sweetness element by having a separate sugar sachet but I can see that this does remove a bit of the ‘instant’ element.

So whilst I didn’t like the taste of product I do think there are a lot of reasons why this product is good and would appeal to people.

I can see this product being useful for those food emergencies that do unfortunately crop up when you are gluten free. For example, say you are going away on short notice for a night and you aren’t convinced the place you are staying can cater for your breakfast requirements, these instant pots would come in handy. I can also see them being useful if you are camping, they aren’t too large and the outer packaging is recyclable, so easily got rid of.

All in all I think there is a definite market for this product. Just for me personally the taste didn’t quite meet my liking.

Gluten free and sassy

noreply@blogger.com (glutenfreemunchies) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 18:27:00 +0000

There is no sincerer love than the love of food – George Bernard Shaw

Now I don’t know if that is technically true but I do agree that a love of food is a pretty big thing in my life.

Hello, let me introduce myself, I’m Jenny or as I am known in the world of blogging Glutenfreemunchies; the name says it all, I believe. You will see me popping up on this site every now and then with a product review, recipe post or some other gluten free thought filled post as I work alongside Cat to bring to the world information on what it means to be gluten or wheat free and how this does not mean the end of the world as you know it.

So a little bit about myself. I’ve been gluten free for over three years and I have to say that time has flown by! I thank my lucky stars to be off gluten and wheat, my life has improved so much because of it. Before I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance I was one sick thing. We won’t go into the details because ick, but I have emerged into a world of exciting ingredients and recipes and I can honestly say that if I hadn’t had to cut out gluten I would not have tried half of the things I have over the last three years.

Being gluten free has made me embrace a new world of tastes and textures and it’s wonderful!

I perceive myself to be a lucky woman as I learnt to cook as I grew up and I learnt to cook by one of the best cooks out there in my opinion. Move over Jamie Oliver and Delia Smith and welcome my mum into the top five of cooks out there. Okay so I’m going to be a little biased. I have learnt everything from her and when in doubt about anything food-wise she’s the first port of call.

I think having the ability to cook is a very important skill to have. I really do believe that proper cookery classes should be taught at school because I think it will help reduce issues such as obesity. I’ll get off my soapbox now as I’m not here to lecture.

What I want you readers to know about me though is that I love food, in a way it is an obsession. I am constantly trawling the web for new ideas and I have more cookery books than anything else. I love trying new things, experimenting in the kitchen, sometimes ending up with some amazing disasters but all of it is a learning experience.

So I am here to share some of these experiences with you and show the world that because we don’t eat gluten doesn’t mean that the food is bland and un-appetising. For me fresh, homemade food is absolutely wonderful. To me it is essential to a happy life.

So look out for my next post which will be a product review for something which I think may be one of the best things to help a person on a weekday morning. That’s all you’re getting for now, I need to build the suspense!

Honeyrose Bakery - Yummy Gluten Free Carrot Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:24:00 +0000

What do you like to have with your cuppa tea? A gluten free biscuit? A cookie? A little slice of cake? I would choose the slice of cake every time, ideally a little square slice from a loaf cake. So when I got my hands on some loaf cakes and other goodies from Honeyrose Bakery I was in cuppa tea heaven.

Honeyrose are an organic handmade bakery that do a quite small gluten free range, you can buy their products online or at Sainsbury's and Whole Foods. Most of their cakes are around £3.29, with the cartons of Brownies and Maroons coming in at around £2.69.

I tried out the Carrot Cake with my first cuppa, the cake was lovely and squishy, with just enough spice to go with a cuppa tea. Carrot cake is one of my favorites and I was pleased to find plenty of raisins in there too. The Banana Cake was also nice, but a bit too sweet for me, but I think that's just the way with banana flavored things and it was also a lovely soft cake. You could serve either up and no one would even know they were gluten free, and they have that lovely handmade look and a fresh home baked flavour.

They are the sort of cakes that when I serve them up people ask me 'can you eat these?' as they taste far too nice to be gluten free.

Next I tried some little nibbles (not right away, the next day!). Lime and coconut maroons were first on my hit list and these were really good, the lime is great with the coconut and they were perfectly formed and very moreish.

If you like your nibbles with a bit of chocolate, then the Walnut Brownies are for you. These had a good strong chocolate flavour, none of that cheapo kids chocolate you get in some gluten free products, and plenty of walnut bits. You get a quite a few in the carton too, and they last very well in the cupboard.

If I had to pick one product as my favorite, I would go for the carrot cake, its a good size for the price and really yummy. Much better than some of the supermarket own brand gluten free cakes out there, that are made with cheap ingredients and skrimp on the flavour.

Overall these are great quality products, at a good price, and you dont feel like you are compromising on taste or texture for their gluten free-ness.

AND Honeyrose are a lovely company, they really care and 5% of their profits go to their UK Charity www.yellowflowerfoundation.org.

It's Christmas, get some Genius Mince Pies down ya!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:31:00 +0000

Just 6 more sleeps? 7 more? Ummm well what I do know is Christmas is nearly here, and I have been eating gluten free mince pies for weeks already. Most supermarkets in the UK offer some sort of GF mince pies, and Sainsburys ones use to be the best. Not anymore though, as Genius have offered up some rather fab mince pies this year.

The pastry is flaky, it doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth like other gf pastries can, and there is actually more than a mouse's sneeze of filling in them, quite a lot of luxury style filling in fact.

I have been eating them with cream, or just straight out the packet, and even my three year old was rather taken with them and ate two. And he's not known for eating unusual things.

So if you are missing out on some of the more gluten filled christmas offerings, like xmas pud and pannetone, then at least you can get some really nice mince pies this year.

Maybe once Xmas is over Genius could make some other little pies with this rather fab pastry, I would really like some little lemon meringue pies, or maybe just empty little cases to fill with banoffe pie filling.

On the subject of Xmas, here are some little links for you to some nice Xmas GF food.

Homemade Irish Cream (only if you can tolerate whisky)
Gluten Free Pannetone
150 Gluten Free Recipes for Christmas from BBC Food (including Brussel Sprouts Bhajis!)

Hope you all have a Merry Gluten Free Christmas!

Don't forget, even though my posts on my blog are not that often (I tend to use this blog as an online recipe book), I post a lot (well not too much) on Facebook, so please follow me there. We have recently been chatting about the new GF pizza from Domino's and how to make perfect quinoa. www.facebook.com/imglutenfree

New Recipe Genius Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:25:00 +0000

Genius have recently launched a new version of their popular sliced gluten free bread. The new recipe has fewer calories per slice, and less salt, which all sounds good to me. I have a sensitive salt radar, I hate anything over salted, and I wouldn't say the previous recipe was noticeably too salty, but less salt in your diet is a good thing.

I normally buy Genius bread as my weekly loaf, its the best gluten free bread available in the places I shop.

I have tasted the new recipe and it is much fluffier and less waxy than the original recipe, and I prefer the taste of this new recipe, the lower salt is noticeable and the taste is better for it. The loaf is a bit smaller, but you get the same number of slices. What you don't seem to get are those massive holes in the bread that the original recipe suffered from, and I have also found it lasts longer before going stale. My only negative is it sticks to your teeth a bit, but not so much that I wouldn't buy it, or enjoy its flavour and texture.

I made a couple of sarnis with it, including a tuna mayo one which can result in compete sandwich destruction, but it held up to the last bite. Toasted its great, but most gluten free breads are bearable toasted anyway.

The new recipe has received a fair bit of criticism online, but I would advise you to try it and see if you like it, as often it's the people who don't like something who are the ones bother to say something, which leads to a skewed opinion online.

If you preferred the original recipe bread then you can still get hold of it online, and apparently at some supermarkets, but all my local ones are just stocking the new recipe. There are load of other new products too, some pitta breads, nan bread, bread rolls and the delicious looking bloomer. I have also noticed on the website some fruit bread which I would love to get my hands on, and their new croissants which I'm hoping to try soon.

I have another bread to review this week, which is new to the market, so I will be posting another bread review and I may take some pictures so you can compare texture with the new Genius bread.

Gluten free bread has come a long way in the past couple of years, and I think the new recipe Genius bread is a step closer to the coveted 'real bread' taste and texture. Have you tried the new recipe, what did you think?

Making Proper Gravy - The Gluten Free Way

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:10:00 +0000

For Easter I just cooked up a Sunday dinner, doing two chickens as we had guests. A major part of Sunday dinner for me is the gravy. It's what pulls the whole thing together and a good gravy can juice up the driest meat and save a bad roast potato.

But it's got to be good gravy, and it's got to be gluten free. Here's how I do mine.

Whatever the meat, I cook some veg in the same roasting tray. This depends on the meat, but always includes onions, carrots and garlic. We love garlic. For chicken I also include a lemon cut in half and some streaky bacon strips or cubes of pancetta. For lamb I bung in some rosemary instead. For pork I sometimes bung in an apple, and some fennel seeds. It needs to be the sort of veg that can take a slow roasting and will mush up a bit.

I cook the veg in with the meat, and I add water to the tray when things seem to be getting a bit brown and marmitey. It's important to not let your brown stuff get burnt, keep an eye on things and add more water when needed.

When your meat is done take it out to rest and deal with the gravy. Squish all the stuff in the tray up and mix it round to get all the goodness, then stick it through a metal sieve into a jug. Really squish it through the sieve to get all the good stuff out. You need to put this resulting soupy purée into a tall jug now, and scoop off as much as the fat as you can. Leaving a bit is ok, as it adds flavour.

Put your resulting gravy in a sauce pan and test the flavour. You want to check how salty it is, not enough then add some, too salty then add some water. Your gravy is good to go if you don't mind a but of oil on the top, just warm it up. If you would prefer the fat to be combined then put a bit of gluten free corn flour in a mug, about a couple of teaspoons, add a bit of water to make a runny paste, and whisk this into the gravy. As you warm it up whisk it round and round and it will thicken slightly and the fat will be incorporated.

It's easy to get your gravy just as you like it, to salty or thick? Add more water. Too thin? Thicken with cornflour. Need to add salt?

Importantly this doesn't use any stock cube or gravy granuals, and it's got loads of hidden vegetables in it for some extra goodness. If you are dong chicken I strongly urge you to include lemon, garlic and some sort of bacon. Amazing. If you are doing pork, try some chopped up chorizo, your gravy will be incredible.

Super Crunchy Gluten Free Gourmet Crisps - Darling Spuds

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:42:00 +0000

I read an article online once about why we like crunchy food. It was something to do with the ultrasonic blasts to our ears we receive when crunching, and that the more extreme the noise, the more pleasurable the crunching experience is. (Don't test me on the exact science!)

This may explain why Darling Spuds crisps are so yummy. They are hand cooked, real crisps, with masses of crunch and are gluten free too. I tested just a few flavours, just so you don't have to of course, and I can confirm that while they are all really good, the Fire Roasted Jalepeno one are amazing. Spicy, but still potato flavoured, and perfect with a sandwich or even a gluten free beer or cider.

I'm not the only who thinks these crisps are great, as three of the flavours have been nominated for three Free From Food Awards.

You can pick up these creat crisps at the supermarket, and at Starbucks. There are loads of great flavours, like Sour Cream with a Hint of Mexican Chilli, and Crushed Sea Salt. Try them all, I did!

Your Food Intolerance Q and A Results!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:35:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone who blogged/tweeted/facebooked me a question for Dr Gill Hart from YorkTest. I received some really interesting questions, including some that showed how hard it can be dealing with food intolerance, especially in children. All the answers from Dr Gill Hart are posted below. I have removed your names from the questions, even though some are public via facebook, to preserve your privacy. Here they are!

Q After being diagnosed as gluten intolerant amongst other things, my symptoms vastly improved once I cut all the 'bad' foods out. However after a year of being ok, I started getting swelling in my face, eyes, hands & feet in the mornings which improves through the day. Some days are worse than others but it occurs almost every day, my GP is not concerned, but this has been happening for 2 years now. Is the swelling a symptom of food intolerance? Thank you

A Swelling such as this is usually associated with an allergic reaction, or reaction to environmental factors such as pollens, animal hair, dust mites or face / body creams. However, foods intolerance is also strongly associated with inflammation which can result in a variety of symptoms including swelling. It is really good that you have checked this out with your GP and the next step is to reassess your blood for food intolerance using the YorkTest FoodScan to see if any of your culprit foods have changed. You could also consider taking an AllergyCheck test for environmental allergens such as those that I mentioned above. Let me know how you get on.

Q What are the symptoms of salicylate intolerance? My doc said I have it but I don't know much about it and I'm reluctant to go off even more food .....

A Salicylates are chemicals that occur naturally in many plants, including many fruits vegetables, and herbs. Salicylates can also be found in many medicines, perfumes and preservatives. There are many different symptoms associated with salicylate sensitivity, and I wonder how the symptoms you are experiencing are affecting your daily life. If you can live with your symptoms then that may be alright for you at the moment, but if not then you really need to act. Overall, knowing that you are reacting to certain foods and not doing anything about it can be asking for even more trouble later on so it will be worth the effort. With your diagnosis you need to look at removing foods from your diet that contain salicylates and see whether these improve your symptoms. If not then there may be other factors involved. The symptoms of salicylate sensitivity are very similar to food intolerance symptoms and it would be worth you taking a more general food intolerance test to rule this out.

Q I've been diagnosed for 22 yrs, can you start to become tolerant to wheat etc. If so would there be any long term affects? Many thx

A It is not clear from your question what you have been diagnosed with. But the answer to your question about whether you can start to become intolerant to wheat is YES. There are different reactions to wheat that can occur. The most widely known is Coeliac disease which is caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, however, this is NOT the same as wheat allergy or wheat intolerance. Gluten and wheat intolerances can cause symptoms that are not related to inflammation of the intestines, and are not linked with Coeliac disease, however, they are also very real. Coeliac disease, wheat allergy and wheat intolerance require different tests to diagnose them.

Q Question for Dr Gill Hart Please: My son is now 20mths(dec 16th) but has been Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Egg Free since March 2010, he is on the supplement MaxiJul & Calcuim santos(when my chemist can source it) but I find it hard to keep his weight up. He was under 7kg in Jan2010 - failure to Thrieve - and I managed to get him to 10.3kgs by start of Nov 2010, but then he got his 4 eye teeth(all at once) and due to pain&non eating he went down in weight. He eats well and loves his food but with most things in this diet range being low in fat. Can the doctor Recommend me anything I can do or foods I can give him that will bulk him up? To help him maintain a good stable weight(Based in Rep Of Ireland)Thank You

A I am sorry to hear about your son. I wasn’t clear from your question about the sort of symptoms your son has been suffering from, and why he has been put on a gluten, dairy and egg free diet in the first place. However, the first thing I would recommend is a visit to your Doctor for a review to check his general health. You should also mention any symptoms he had prior to being gluten, dairy and egg-free. Certainly I wouldn’t recommend any dietary changes in children of this age unless under direct supervision from a Doctor or Dietician.

Q I am a coeliac, what are the chances of my baby having an intolerance also?

A Coeliac disease does run in families, and the involvement of one particular gene called HLA-DQ2. If an immediate family member such as a parent or sibling has Coeliac disease, there is about a 5% to 10% chance that that person will have it.

Q How would you know if you even had a food intolerance? what are the common symptoms? my bf gets migraines after dairy products but only some of the time is it an intolerance or a coincidence?

A According to the leading medical charity Allergy UK, over 45% of the population suffers from food intolerance. The symptoms are widespread including gut problems, skin disorders, joint pain, fatigue, headaches and, as likely in your boyfriend’s case, migraines. You will know if you suffer from a full-blown allergy to foods such as nuts and shellfish; strong immediate reactions with severe stomach upset and swelling in the mouth and throat, which can be fatal, are typical of classical allergy reactions. Food intolerance is different; the emerging view is now is that most food intolerances are delayed reactions, taking up to three days to show themselves, and are therefore much harder to detect. The challenge is to determine the exact combination of foods that are triggering the symptoms; the average is five different foods. The fact is that every individual person is unique with a different biochemical make-up, even to others with similar conditions. A recent study that surveyed 514 migraine and headache sufferers showed that 81% benefited in terms of the frequency and severity of their attacks if they removed the foods from their diet that showed a positive reaction in the YorkTest FoodScan blood test. The fact that people saw a return of their migraine and, or, headache symptoms on reintroduction of the foods identified by the test supports the fact that this is an active and specific approach. The test only requires a few drops of blood from a finger prick that can be collected in the comfort of your own home. Now might be right time to get your boyfriend tested.

Q Can intolerance reactions be reduced by taking certain vitamins or by other means? If so, how could I reduce my symptoms? I have quite a few intolerances and they're becoming a large problem because I can’t eat much. Does that mean I’m not very healthy/doing something wrong, or is it just natural? Why do we develop intolerances?

A There are lots of reasons why we develop food intolerances. It has been suggested that increased use of chemical fertilisers, intensive rearing of animals, eating more processed foods, use of more food additives, chemical pollution and stressful lifestyles could all contribute. You haven’t mentioned how your intolerances have been assessed and how you know what foods you are reacting to. To get a definitive assessment you should ideally carry out a YorkTest FoodScan IgG test and use the Nutritionist consultations provided with the service. The Nutritionist will work with you to replace foods that you need to avoid, and suggest any vitamins or supplements you should take in so that you eat a well balanced and healthy diet. Research data show that identifying the actual foods that are causing the problems and then removing them from your diet is the most effective method. I hope that this is helpful.

Q Hi, i have been sort of gluten free for a few months, but i dont really know if i need to be i get sore heads when i eat sertain foods and my right hand side becomes very sore and irattable and it hurts to breath sometimes, but i dont really know enought about it to know what i should or should not eat it does not always happen when i eat gluten, but i also happens when i have milk but no other dairy products. Do u know what could b causing this. Sorry about the spelling lol.

A You haven’t mentioned why you have removed gluten from your diet, but there does seem to be a link between foods that you eat and your symptoms. I suggest that you first get checked out by your Doctor and mention your symptoms, particularly your breathing problems and right-sided soreness. If the Doctor gives you the all clear then you could consider taking a food allergy or food intolerance test. But I would get checked out first.

Q Wondering if the perceived increase in food allergies and celiac is an actual increase among the population- and if so, why does the Dr. think this is happening?- or has modern medicine just allowed diagnosing of previously undetected allergies?

A This is a really interesting question. We need to consider Coeliac disease and classical immediate reaction food allergies separately, as they are quite different. There are many studies that have shown an actual increase in Coeliac disease. One study in Finland shows that total prevalence seems to have doubled during the last two decades, and the increase cannot be attributed to the better detection rate, so it appears to be real. Another study in the US has shown a 4-fold increase in the last 50 years. Environmental factors are thought to be responsible but the exact cause or causes are not yet known. Food allergies too are also on the increase, hospital admissions for food allergies among children have risen by 500 per cent in the last 20 years but doctors do not understand what is driving the increase. Overall, 6-8 per cent of children under three are affected by food allergies, a dramatic increase since 1990. There are several theories about why food allergies are on the increase; homes that are too clean, leaving children's immune systems unexposed to bugs (the "hygiene hypothesis"), a lack of vitamin D from the sun, poorer diets, increasing use of paracetamol (usually in Calpol), and delayed weaning (the introduction of solid foods). The jury is out though. I hope this answers your question

Your Food Intolerance Questions Answered

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:11:00 +0000

I am always full of questions about my food intolerance, and often hear conflicting advice, confusing isn't it? What really happens in my tummy when I eat gluten? How long does it take to fix? What's the difference between an intolerance and an allergic reaction? What sort of tests are there out there? Are they reliable? How will I survive without eating a real mince pie this Christmas?

Are blood test results, from a company like YorkTest, enough to convince your NHS Doctor to agree to a prescription for your intolerance? Should I take the results to my NHS Doctor?

I am also wondering if I take a YorkTest, should I be eating gluten a few weeks before I do the test?

So with the aim of getting your tricky questions answered, YorkTest have made a very kind offer of putting forward their food intolerance expert, Dr Gill Hart to answer any food intolerance questions you may have. I will be collecting questions from readers via twitter over the Christmas holidays, but if you don't have a twitter account then feel free to comment on this post or use my facebook page to post your question. Dr Gill Hart will then answer your questions in the new year!

Dr Gill Hart can answer questions on a range of subjects relating to food intolerance, questions relating to YorkTest's food intolerance testing, or perhaps questions relating to eating healthy after your diagnosis. The YorkTest website has some information about Dr Gill Hart, but I'm just going to say that she knows her stuff.

So go ahead, follow me on twitter and tweet your questions with the tag #gfquestions and I will send them over to Dr Gill Hart, then post your answers over here in the new year!

Purple Potatoes from Albert Bartlet!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:29:00 +0000

I am massive potato fan, potatoes are my second fave carb after rice. When Albert Bartlet sent me some yummy potatoes to write about, a big box of Roosters and Purple Majesty, I was in potato heaven!

Albert Bartlet are the kings of potato production. You have probably had some of their Roosters, perfect little red potatoes which are happy roasted, mashed, chipped, wedged, boiled or whatever you fancy doing with them. They are rather posh potatoes, with clean modern packaging and perfect potatoes every time, they don't even look like they have seen dirt. They really are good spuds though, the red skins look and taste very nice, and I think they are the best potatoes for making wedges with as the texture crisps up well on the outside, the skin is not too thick, and they remain fluffy on the inside. The skins have a pleasant potato flavour without being too strong. I know, I know, they are just spuds, how can I get that excited by them. But when you don't eat wheaty carbs you become excited about the nice non wheaty ones.

Bartlets also sent me some Purple Majesty just in time for Halloween. These spuds are sold at Sainsburys and I'm not ashamed to admit they got me rather excited. With their skins on they are very dark, almost black straight from the packet. Cut them open and the insides are very purple, and very pretty. Good news is they don't stain things much though, so you don't get purple hands.

I had quite a few, so gave some to my Nieces for their Halloween tea, and some to the vicar next door. The vicars wife came running out the house just as I was leaving asking me "what to do with them?", not a question I usually get about spuds. She was happy to hear you just treat them like normal spuds. Bartlets had also sent me a recipe card which I gave her to calm her purple potato panic down a notch.

I made wedges with mine, I'm wedges obsessed perhaps. I prepared them just the same as my normal potatoes, though due to the colour they are a bit harder to tell when they are done on sight only, as you cant see when they are going brown as easily. I had friends around for dinner, so we did a full taste test. Just like the Roosters the wedges were crispy and caramelized on the outside and fluffy inside. The skins thin and with a nice clean potato taste. One of my guests said she could "taste the purple", but we couldn't agree what purple tastes like (unlike pink icing, which tastes of strawberry even if its not flavoured). We ate the lot, and I had made loads, so I think that means they were a success.

For my little boy I made a purple roasted potato the next day. He is only just one year old, and likes to feed himself. The purple mash potato was treated with some trepidation, he giggled at it when I cut it open, but he soon tucked in after some prolonged poking and the first tentative mouthful. They are little spuds, ok size for a kiddy roast potato though.

So... this is quite a long article on the humble potato. But it's time potatoes were jazzed up a bit, and these purple ones are the jazzyest potatoes I have seen for a long while. I'm all for sexing up vegetables, I have heard some sexy multicolored beetroots are next on Sainsburys agenda, and I can't wait!

For transparency Albert Bartlet send me some potatoes for free via Sainsburys, but I could say what I like and have not been paid for this article, as is always the way on my blog.

Gluten Free Christmas at Sainsburys

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 10:55:00 +0000

Yep, it's nearly here, the festival of wheaty delights that you cant have. Christmas pudding, mince pies, panettone, fruit cake, chocolate logs, tins of biscuits, buffets of sausage rolls, and special festive turkey sandwiches.

Thankfully the supermarkets are in on the act and this year we have a great selection of gluten free festive goodies. My favourite Christmas goodies are mince pies and Christmas cake, so I decided to give Sainsbury's gluten free versions a go.

First off I had a go at the Freefrom Iced Mince Pies, priced at £1.99 for 4 reasonable sized pies. As with most gluten free products, the pastry is quite thick, but it is very good. Crumbly and buttery with no chalkyness. Filling was nice and tasty too, but for me the ratio of mincemeat to icing wasn't quite right, with too much of the fondant icing. That said, the icing was nice, just a tad too much of it. I would probably go for the standard freefrom pies next time, as the filling and pastry is very good for a gluten free product. Also worth noting is they traveled well and none were broken or crumbled to bits.

Now for the Freefrom Christmas Loaf Cake, priced at £3.49 for a 530gm cake, perfect size really. I took the cake around to my brother in laws, as he likes iced cakes with marzipan. The cake sliced well, is moist and sticky, and smells lovely. Icing and marzipan not too thick and soft enough to cut well. Tastes simply lovely, spicy, fruity, sticky and moreish. The full Christmas experience. My brother in law said you wouldn't know it was gluten free and the cake was very nice.

My only fault, and its a small one really, is the cake contains figs, which means you get the odd crunchy fig seed. Knowing that there were figs in there this didn't bother me, my brother in law noted you could just think they were raisin seeds. I think I would prefer this cake without the crunch of fig seeds, and I know a few people (like my dad) who hate with a passion any crunchy seedy bits from fruit in a cake.

We only ate half the cake, and the second half of the cake stored very well wrapped up in clingfilm.

In summary, if someone got these in for me at Christmas I would be very, very happy and eat them up with festive glee. If you fancy a little bit of gluten free Christmas in your kitchen this year, nip down to Sainsburys and for a few pounds you can have some lovely festive treats on standby. Just make sure you get me some extra thick luxury cream for my mince pies please!

Gluten Free Beef and Root Veg Winter Stew and Dumplings

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:50:00 +0000

Winter is here and it's time for me to roll out the stews again. I love something you can just throw in the oven and when you open it up again a couple of hours later dinner is all done. In fact I'm thinking of putting a slow cooker on my Christmas list so dinner can cook it's self while I'm out freezing my fingers off pushing a buggy.

Beef stew is wintery, yummy and very flexible. So here is a rough recipe! Serves 4 people. You can swap the root vegetables for any you have, such as turnips or celeriac.

stewing or shin beef 600gms
onions 2 roughly chopped
carrots 2 cut into thick slices
parsnips 2 cut into thick slices
floury potato 1 cut into cubes
gluten free beef stock or stock cube 1 made up to 600ml

olive oil
salt and pepper
gluten free Worcester sauce (tiger do one)
bay leaf 1

For the dumplings
Doves farm gluten free self raising flour 175gms

cold butter 75gms

water
pinch of salt and pepper

Heat your oven up to 160. Trim any bits that look too fatty or too chewy off the beef. Brown the beef first in a good splosh of olive oil, in a heavy oven proof casserole dish. Then add the onions and brown further. When its all a bit sticky and brown (don't worry if it sticks, jammy stuck bits are good for flavour) chuck in your potatoes, all your stock, salt and pepper, a splish of worcester sauce and the bay leaf. Scrape the sticky stuff off the bottom and bring to the boil. Bung in the oven for an hour.

After an hour give it a poke and chuck in the root veg. The potatoes should have broken down and thickened the stew, which is why they must be floury. Add more water if it needs it, remember your dumplings will be steamed on top of the stew so it cant be too thick, but you don't want them to sink too much! Cook for another hour.

When the stew is nearly done make your dumplings. Put the flour in a big bowl, season with salt and papper (and herbs or cheese if you like) and then grate your butter straight from the fridge into your flour. Make a well in the middle and add a dribble of water, then mix with a fork. Keep adding a dribble till you have a lumpy (but not sticky) dough. Don't go crazy mixing this with your hands or anything, you will melt the butter, aim for a scone type dough. Roll the dough in wet hands into golf balls, and bob in the fridge till you need them.

Take the stew out of the oven, check the thickness (boil on hob if too thick, or thin with water) and seasoning. Turn the oven up to 180. When you are ready, pop the dumplings on the top and put back in the oven for 20-30 mins. The dumplings will steam on the bottom and brown on the top. Let them go nice and golden.

Serve up on big bowls with a sprinkling of parsley of you are feeling fancy!

World Curry Festival and GF BBQ Ribs Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:02:00 +0000

Hi, it's been a while, but if you follow me on facebook or twitter you will know I'm still cooking! I had a baby nine months ago, and moved house so I'm busy, busy, busy, but I'm keeping up with the cooking best I can. Here are a few mobile phone pictures of recent dinners... and one picture of who's keeping me from my blogging...

Summer Salmon

Jam tarts

Stew and dumplings

Beetroot salad

The baby!

Coffee cupcakes

Lemon cupcakes

BBQ ribs

The cupcakes have been an obsession. I use the cake recipe from the back of Doves Farm Self Raising Flour, with added flavours. The topping is from the Hummingbird Bakery cupcake book, I like the cream cheese frosting best. It's a fab little book and I'm going to have a go at adapting some of the fancy cupcake recipes in the book, like the 'black bottom' cakes and 'red velvet'. I will let you know if any are a success.

The BBQ ribs may look burned to death in that picture, but they were amazing. There is a recipe of sorts on facebook.

This weekend we are off to the World Curry Festival in Leeds. I'm hoping for lots of gluten free yummys, and hopefully meet a few chefs, now where did I put my business cards?

Easter Gluten Freeness

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:20:00 +0000

I was trotting up the local high street yesterday and spotted eastery goodness in the bakers. Seeing all those cakes and yellow fluffy chicks reminded me how we used to make those cornflake and chocolate nests for Easter as kids. Well Kellogg's cornflakes, like a lot of Kellogg's products, have barley extract on them, so their brand of corn flakes are not gluten free. Whole Earth to the rescue! Whole Earth Organic Corn Flakes are naturally gluten free, and very nice too. The flakes are a bit thinner, but taste just as good. I'm going to give you the Easter nests recipe I used yesterday to make mine, but you can't go wrong really.

milk chocolate 100gms

dark chocolate 100gms

butter 25gms

golden syrup 1tbsp

gluten free corn flakes 200gms

Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a bowl over some hot water. Mix in the corn flakes. Mix very well till its all coated. Press into 12 little bun cases (pop these in a bun baking tray for support). Shape into nests a bit with a spoon and decorate with eastery things.

Traditionally at our house Cadburys mini eggs are used to decorate, which according to the website are gluten free, eggcellent!

I like easter a lot, its a lovely introduction to spring. All the bulbs are coming up, lambs are boinging around in the fields and the days are getting warmer. I don't have a massive sweet tooth, so often ask for a book or something instead of an egg at Easter. I have bought Dexter (our new baby) a totally unrelated gift of a bumbo seat for Easter. It's not like he can eat an egg anyway. Maybe we will have a turkey dinner, which is another tradition from home. Like a second Christmas really.

On the subject of Easter, apparently Sainsbury's are doing a gluten free Simnel cake for Easter, what a lovely treat! I think its the Trufree one.

Hope you all have a lovely gluten free Easter!

Gluten Free Ice Cream Toppings

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:40:00 +0000

I'm a massive ice cream addict. But ice cream can be tricky, fooling you into thinking no gluten could possibly be present, and then surprising you with an innocent sounding toffee ice cream that's packed full of nasties.

At home I keep us stocked with Kelly's Cornish Clotted Cream Ice Cream. Their recipes are gluten free, though they cannot guarantee no gluten in the supply chain, but it causes me no issues.

So, with just vanilla flavour in the freezer, toppings are necessary to jazz pudding up a bit. Here are a few of my favorite gluten free ice cream toppings: -

A teeny cup of hot espresso (with some booze too if you like, try amaretto)
Some crushed salted peanuts
A home made chocolate sauce made from melted dark (or milk) chocolate (25gms), butter (10 gms), golden syrup (1tbsp)and a pinch of salt
Grated chocolate
Dulce de leche (caramel sauce - Nestle do it in a tin, Merchant Gourmet in a jar)
Stem ginger from a jar, chopped with some of the syrup
Bashed up cinder toffee (honeycomb)
Golden or maple syrup (sets like toffee on the cold ice cream!)
Raspberry puree and chopped peaches (peach melba)
Homemade blackcurrant jam (make sure it's not too sugary)
Homemade praline, roast a few nuts in a dry frying pan, bash up, melt sugar in a pan till caramel forms (carefully, megga hot!), tip in the nuts, pour out onto baking paper, then bash up when set. I sometimes add salt to the caramel too (salted caramel is dead trendy at the mo)
The same nut praline but made with salted peanuts, incredible
Good quality lemon curd (mmmmmm!)
Rum soaked sultanas (I don't like raisins!)
Tinned morello cherries in syrup
Crumbled gluten free cookies, shortbread or biscuits
Cinnamon stewed apple
Crumbled meringue

Of course you can combo a couple of these items and make a yummy ice cream sundae. It's fun to think of a cake or dessert you like and make an ice cream sundae in its honour, or just match classic flavour combos, just like the 'jelly belly' jelly bean menu.

Dark chocolate + morello cherries = black forest gateaux
Cinnamon apple + crumbled shortbread = apple crumble
Coffee + amaretto + grated chocolate = tiramisu
Lemon curd + meringue = lemon meringue pie
Coffee + bashed walnuts = coffee cake
Marshmallows + chocolate sauce + bashed biscuits = rocky road
Rum soaked raisins + cinnamon apple = apple strudel
Cinder toffee + chocolate sauce = crunchie bar
Crushed peanuts + caramel + chocolate sauce = snickers bar
Caramel + pecans + crushed shortbread = pecan pie

I can't think of any more right now, if you have any ice cream sundae ideas that re-create classic puddings please let me know and I will add to the list!

I have seen for sale some marshmallow sort of spread from the USA, called fluff I think, which would be nice swirled in ice cream, possibly to make other meringue type sundaes, like a key lime pie.

I also have a thing for sorbets that are flavoured like my fave cocktails, you can make a mojito sorbet, magarita flavour, even champagne sorbet. But too much booze stops it freezing, so just a hint of booze is all that is needed, its not a frozen cocktail after all. More on this later perhaps.

On a totally different subject, I have some good news for 2010. Just before Xmas I had a little baby boy, hes super cute and a very good boy, so I'm not suffering from too much sleep deprivation. Hoping my time off work will mean I can blog much more this year!

Happy new year readers, hope you all had a lovely gluten free Xmas, lets all have a lovely gluten free 2010.

Gluten Free Scotch (or American) Pancakes

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:29:00 +0000

I just made some yummy pancakes for my brunch. This is my third go at making these and this time I think I have cracked it! Quite easy, just make sure you get your pan right and these will come out fluffy and golden. Sometimes in the UK these are called griddle cakes.

doves farm gluten free self raising flour 200gms sifted

runny honey 2tbsp (or caster sugar)

butter 2tbsp melted

salt a pinch

large free range egg 1 whisked

milk 300ml

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk up by hand or with an electric whisk. The texture should be gloopy and your whisk should leave temporary swirly patterns in the batter. This should be much thicker than a french style crepe mix. Leave the mix to stand for 10 minutes.

Now heat up a NON STICK frying pan, don't even try these in a normal pan. Heat the pan slowly to a nice even medium heat and rub a little sunflower oil into the pan with a bit of kitchen towel, we are talking just a smear of oil here to coat the pan.

Using a ladle or a big spoon blob a little of the mixture in the pan, about a dessert spoon, it will spread slowly, aim for pancakes about the size of the bottom of a mug, don't go to big. You will get two or three in your pan without touching if you get good at the pouring out of the batter. They will end up about 5mm thick if you have your batter thick enough, if they are coming out of the pan too thin add more flour to your mix. Never press them down as they cook or you will squish the bubbles.

You can tell when its time to flip, with a spatula, as large bubbles will appear in the surface of the pancake and they will start to pop. This will take about 3 minutes. Also the uncooked batter on the top will start to loose its glossy look and go matt, starting at the edges. Flip carefully with a spatula, no crazy pancake tossing with two or three of these in the pan please!

The second side will only take you a minute or two, and you can take a peek at the bottom to check its golden brown. Don't despair if the first one goes wrong, it always does for me, and the last ones you make will be the best, that's just the way it goes with pancakes.

If you pile these up as you go they will stay warm to bring to the table, or just eat as they are made, which is how we had them as kids. Mum would keep making them until we stopped eating them.

I like mine with butter and jam, or runny honey, maple syrup, even bacon like they do in the USA. I do like to have butter and something sweet though, as I like the salt and sweet contrast. If you are feeling healthy why not have these with fruit and low fat yogurt, and just a drizzle of honey? You can also press fruit into the pancakes as you make them, a slice of banana or a few blueberries looks lovely.

If you make this batter without the honey it makes perfect blinis too for cocktail time.

Kiddies love these, and you can use a pastry cutter to cut into stars and funny shapes to add interest if you like, or if you are very clever you can drizzle the mix into the pan with a chefs squirty bottle, and make any shape you like right there in the pan!

Genuis Gluten Free Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:34:00 +0000

Have you tried this amazing new gf bread yet? It's a lovely gf loaf from genuis, and it's the best gf bread I have used so far. Gluten free bread is often more like cake, and if you try to do normal bready things with it, like make a sandwich, its texture is wrong and you are chewing it forever. Not Genius bread! I got some of the brown and white, it comes whole and you slice yourself.

The first thing I tried making with it was toast, slicing yourself means you can have nice white door-wedges of toast. A couple of thick slices, two mins in the toaster and the ultimate test; loaded with just butter. The result? The best toast I have had for ages, yummy caramelised outside, no crumbling, no overcooked crust and a lovely fluffy middle. Taste is so close to bread you don't need any jam.

So what about a sarni? Someone on the I'm Gluten Free Baby facebook group suggested a chicken salad sarni, so I bunged one together with the brown genius bread, just buttering the bread and including a bit of mayo. Perfect, no hours of chewing and the bread held together, in fact I think it held together enough for a packed lunch with no soggy or crumbly disasters. The loaves are mini ones, so you need 4 slices for a decent round of sarnis for lunch.

My next test was a bit more complicated. Have you ever got gluten free bread wet? It just seems to dissolve into mush, even if its been toasted. So I made some french onion soup and parmesan crutons. Chopped some white genuis bread into cubes, coated with a little oilve oil, and then rolled and pressed into finely grated parmesan cheese. Spread on a baking tray and bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 mins, turning over half way.

Did it hold up in the soup? Sure it did! the bottom absorbed soup but retained its breadyness, the tops remained crunchy. Brilliant!

I also froze some of the bread, and managed to slice and toast from frozen with no problems, though I think I would slice it first before freezing in the future. It defrosts pretty fast once in slices which is handy, with no change to its quality.

The bread itself tastes very bready, and has a sweet maltly flavour I like very much, but some people may not be keen on the sweetness. The brown bread is certainly the malty-er of the two.

You can pick this bread up at Tescos, Asda, Whole Foods and Waitrose. I would like Sainsburys to get in on the act as that's where I do my online shop every week! At Tescos a loaf is £2.49, expensive, as with most gf products. You can get it on prescription too now, how exciting!

Gluten Free Chili Meatball Tacos

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:01:00 +0000

Tomatoes, I love them, and I love sauces made with them, especially Chili Con Carne. But the husband won’t eat mince in a sauce if its in its normal little bobbles form. Meatballs in chili sauce are the answer, squish up the bobbles into balls and he will eat em. So I experimented and made chili meatballs, they were yummy! We had them in gluten free corn taco trays (discovery make them), with sour cream, cheddar cheese and spring onions on top, messy but yum. You can make these any old size you like; I made mine about golf ball size so we had to hack each one in half to fit on the trays.

This recipe is very simple, I’m sure you could work it out, but here it is anyway. This recipe serves two greedy people. Add some more mince and another tin of tomatoes for more people. If you have loads of fresh tomatoes, skin them and use these for an amazing chili sauce.

For the balls
organic lamb mince, 400gms
red onion 1, finely chopped
red chili 1, finely chopped
salt and pepper

For the sauce
good quality tinned tomatoes 1 tin
tomato puree 1 tbsp
white onion 1, chopped
pre mixed chili powder 1 big tbsp (a good one with cayenne pepper, cumin and oregano in, if you get the taco tray ‘kit’ the discovery packet is more than yummy)
garlic 1 clove, chopped
red wine or wed wine vinegar, just a splish
salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg
more oregano if you like!

To serve
chopped spring onion
grated mild cheddar
sour cream
lime wedges

First make the balls, just squish all the mixture up together, season well and make into balls. Bung these in the fridge to firm up.

Now make the sauce, in a wide pan or but hob top pot, gently fry the onions till soft, add the garlic and chili powder and fry for a few more mins. Bung in the whole tin of tomatoes, half a tin of water, a tablespoon of tomato puree and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Bubble this gently for 20 mins or so till cooked and thickened.

While the sauce is thickening you can fry the balls. Fry them over a very hot heat, use a big non stick frying pan or fat will go everywhere! Look to make them brown and crunchy on the outside; don’t worry too much about cooking through yet.

When the balls are lovely and brown pop them in the sauce, DON’T STIR! Just leave them poking out the top of the sauce a bit, turn it right down, and pop the lid on for 10 mins. This will make sure the balls are cooked through without drying them out.

To serve I put a portion of balls and sauce each in a nice tapas style bowl, put this on a big plate each , put taco trays around the edge on the plate and all the toppings in bowls on the middle of the table to share. This is only due to being brought up in a family where the number of items of each type you ate would be monitored for fairness, and by fairness I mean the boys eat more but don’t admit it. Habit makes me serve things up in portions each person to avoid the counting malarkey. If you are all able to just eat your fair portion without a table monitor feel free to serve up the balls in the middle of the table for all to share! Hey even sprinkle them with some fresh parsley and lime zest if you want to be fancy!

On a different subject, I have a new job but at the same office, so prêt is still nice and near for lunch. Today they are finally stocking the ‘the amazing handmade wheat-free orange cake’ which says on the packaging that it is ‘inspired party by customers asking for wheat free goodies and partly by one of Nigella’s early books’, so that will be Nigella’s Clementine cake then. Rather similar method and ingredients to Starbucks new wheat free Valencian orange cake I have yet to get my hands on. Wonder if that was some ‘inspiration’ too?

The packet says 'wheat free', the website says 'gluten free', how confusing, this makes a difference in my eyes.

It also says on the packaging that ‘We think its one of the first amazing wheat-free cakes in the world’, which seems a bit over the top, but it is very nice. And at 1.95 for a piddly little slice of cake it needs to be nice. I’m sure though as choice is limited in delis and coffee shops it will sell pretty well. I have had a lot, lot worse; it doesn’t commit any of the usual commercial gluten free cake crimes (crimes=dry, too sweet, cheap and unnatural ingredients, nasty aftertaste). I am also pleased to see it’s made with free-range eggs. I think eating it at my desk is confusing my new team mates, as they think I’m on some healthy diet due to my constant salad consumption, turning down cakes and biscuits because I can’t eat them, and then scoffing what looks like a prêt cake at my desk.

Tastes exactly the same as the Clementine cake recipe on this site though, also ‘inspired’ by Nigella, so you could just make yourself a big one, cut into slices, freeze and then take to work as it defrosts. I am pleased to see the big chains offering something gluten free though, so I will no doubt be buying the occasional one as a treat. Along with my 'just a treat' can of fizzy cola, which I normally avoid, but now I'm 22 weeks pregnant seem to love. Strange eh? Can't drink too much, caffeine isn't great for me! Pregnancy just adds to my list of stuff I shouldn't eat but really want. Like a cornish pastie, slab of brie, juicy steak and a big glass of white wine. All at once please.

Gluten Free Lamb Koftas (Kebabs)

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:46:00 +0000

Watched some telli program on Sunday where they made these sorta lamb kofta things, didn’t remember the recipe exactly so made mine up as I went along. They turned out yummy and perfect for the bbq if the sun ever comes back again. We have a bbq evening planned this Friday at my parents in law, so I think these will be my contribution, a winning recipe! Though the weather doesn’t look amazing this Friday, so perhaps these will be going under the grill.

This recipe made 4 massive kebabs, which were too big really, so I think six or even eight mini ones would be better from this quantity of mince. You will need some wooden or metal skewers for these kebabs, if you use wooden ones check for splinters and soak in water for an hour first.

organic lamb mince 400gms
red onion 1, chopped finely
large free range egg 1
gluten free breadcrumbs (made mine from one gluten free muffin) a handful
fresh mint 20 leaves, chopped
red or green chilli half, chopped finely
ground cinnamon 1 level tsp
coriander seeds 1tsp
cumin seeds 1tsp
fennel seeds 1tsp
dried apricots 8, chopped smallish
dried oregano 1tsp
salt and pepper

For basting while cooking:
butter 25gms, melted
lemon 1, juiced

Mix together the melted butter and lemon juice and put to once side, this is for basting later. Now grind your whole spices (or use ready ground). Then, easy peasy, stick all the remaining ingredients except the breadcrumbs in a bowl and mush up with your hands till well mixed. Include a plenty of salt, about half to three quarters of a teaspoon, and a big grind of black pepper. The egg will have made this mixture a bit wet and sticky, so now add breadcrumbs till the mixture holds together well, I needed almost a whole gluten free muffins worth of crumbs as my egg was large.

Divide your mix up into six or eight balls and squish into sausage shapes, then spike onto the skewers. Give them an extra squish once on your sticks to make sure they are even and won’t fall off. This is harder with metal ones but you will get there in the end! If it’s really not working try adding some more breadcrumbs for a firmer mix. Oh and if you are worried about your seasoning then fry a bit of mix in a pan to taste it first, but I’m sure with all those flavours they will be lovely.

Depending on your kofta size and type of stick cooking times will vary. I cooked mine under a very hot preheated grill till crispy on the outside, turning once, and they were done through to the middle after 4 minutes each side, but they were massive ones! While they cook brush the lemon butter mix on the tops to keep them juicy and add flavour. Aim for lots of colour on the outside for a bbq flavour.

Serve these in gluten free pitta bread with the following extras, prep your salads first and do your pitas just before the kebabs are done so they are warm):

Tatziki (cucumber, yogurt, garlic, fresh mint, salt and pepper)
Chilli sauce (I bought a nice one at tesco, don’t get the sweet chilli Chinese one, look for a simple red chilli sauce)
Cucumber salad (chopped cucumber, tomato, red onion, olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and dried oregano)
Finely sliced lettuce or cabbage (like kebab shop salad!)

Wet your pitta slightly under the tap then warm under the grill or on the bbq till they puff up, just about 30 seconds each side.

Stuff each pitta with the salads, drizzle on some tatziki, add your kofta off the stick, and then add more tatziki and some chilli sauce if you like things hot. Mmmmmmm so yummy and very filling! If you make mini koftas you can cut your pitas in half to make mini pockets.

I have read a few recipes for koftas that add feta to the recipe that sounds kinda nice, I would cut out the added salt though as feta is salty enough. I think if you had any left over you could warm these up, cut into pieces, in a simple curry sauce and have it with rice.

I also need to let you know that I used my carrot cake recipe again this weekend, but instead of putting the mix in a muffin tin I just bunged it in a small square cake tin, about 18cms each side, but quite deep (it’s for brownies really). Turned out nice, needed 5 extra minutes in the oven, and I sliced into little squares after I iced the lot so it looks like those little squares you get at a bakers. Nice and traditional looking, I just need some teeny marzipan carrots to top each square now for the full effect. Carrot cake is my mother in laws favourite, so maybe I will make another batch for Friday also. Made twelve small squares, which will be perfect for six of us I think. I have four squares in the fridge at work waiting for me, such a shame the other girls here are on a diet, oh well, more cake for me and the expanding bump! (Did I tell you I’m making a baby?!)

Yellow Chicken (gluten free whole curried roast chicken)

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:30:00 +0000

I kind of made this recipe up from lots of other recipes and bunged it in the oven, the results were yummy! It looks quite fancy, and involves skinning a whole chicken and then roasting it in a big pot of thick curry sauce which sticks to the whole chicken and bakes onto it, while also making some runny sauce at the bottom of the pot. I use a big iron casserole dish for this (my large le cruset). A large wide pot is good to enable the sauce to bake onto the chicken at the top, so the chicken isn't totally submerged in sauce, it needs a lid but you can use two layers of foil at a push. A little blender helps with this recipe too, or lots of chopping is needed! It's quite mild and will appeal to people that like korma, masala and butter chicken type curries. You can always bung in more chilli if you want things a bit hotter. I have a spice grinder, so use whole spices. If you don't have one of these then swap for ground spices and use a couple of teaspoons of garam masala instead of the cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamon pod seeds.

whole fresh free range chicken 1, skinned (this is possible!)

greek style yogurt 8 tbsp (a big pot!)

ground almonds 500gms

fresh ginger 5cm cube, skinned and roughly chopped
garlic 4 cloves, roughly chopped

red chilli 1, chopped

cumin seeds 3 tsp

corriander seeds 3 tsp

fennel seeds 1 tsp

cloves 2

whole black pepper 5 seeds
cardamon pods 4, black seeds removed from pods
cinnamon stick 1
ground tumeric 1 tsp
lime 1, juiced
salt

So, skinning this whole chicken isn't easy peasy, but is possible! Start with the breast skin, then work onto the thighs and legs. Don't bother trying to skin the wings. The skin really wont want to come off the ends of the drumsticks, so I just take some kitchen scissors and cut what I can off and then leave a bobble of skin on the end of the drumsticks. If you really yank it it will come off though. Also you wont get all the skin off the chickens back (the bit thats on the bottom when the breasts are facing upwards) so just cut off what you can with scissors and then leave the rest on. What with this skin left on the wings and the back the chicken will be left looking like its wearing a little chicken skin bollero jacket.

Make a few slashes in the breast, thighs and drumsticks and then rub the chicken allover with the lime juice and a teaspoon of salt, put to one side while you make the spice mix.

So, make up your spice mix, grind all your whole spices (except the cinnamon stick) and put these in a little blender, add the garlic, ginger, chilli, tumeric, a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of any oil. Blend this up into a paste. Give it a sniff and if you like bung in some garam masala if you feel it needs it, this will just add more aromatic spices.

Take half this mix and rub it all over the chicken, right into all the gaps and slashes in the meat. This does have blended chillies in it so use some little gloves or a spoon or something rather than marinating your hands in chilli.

Take the other half of the mix and add the yogurt and almonds, and a small cup of water to thin down, it will reduce in the oven anyway. This will make a yellow sauce.

Put the chicken in your big pot, and then gloop over the yogurt almond sauce. Some will stick to the chicken and some will pool at the bottom of the pot. Chuck in the cinnamon stick, bob the lid on and cook in the oven for 1.5 hours (at 180), take a peek every 30 mins. What will happen is first some juices will come out of the chicken and the sauce will go runny, then the sauce will thicken and stick to the sides of the pot and go a bit brown, when its thick you can spoon some over the top of the chicken so it has a nice coating of sauce, then the sauce will thicken more and stick to the chicken, have the lid off for the last 30 mins so it really bakes on and goes a bit brown. If it all starts to look too thick like you wont have any sauce, bung half a cup of water in the bottom and swish around. You are looking for the sauce to be baked onto the chicken breasts and drumsticks, but some thick sauce to still be swishing around the bottom of the pot. You can taste the sauce after an hour as the chicken will be cooked, check its salty enough.

To serve lift the whole chicken out of the sauce, it may fall apart, the thighs will drop off and all sorts, so lift carefully using two big spoons, and maybe some extra help is good. Pop the chicken on a board to rest for a mo covered in foil. Some bits of bones and stuff may be all in your sauce, so I sieve it and then put back in the pot with the lid on and bob back in the oven to stay warm. Oh, don't forget to fish out the cinnamon stick!

To deal with the chicken I just take the breasts off the bone whole and chop in half, then take off the drumsticks and thighs on the bone, I bung this all on a big plate and stick all the sauce all around it, or just stick the portions straight onto serving plates with a big blob of sauce.

Serve with rice, raita, mango chutney, popadoms, and while your oven is on you can make some spicy roast parsnips or something if you like, just cut up and cover with some oil and spices and roast for 30-40 mins.

Raita is easy, mix yogurt with salt, pepper and chopped mint (or cheat with a bit of mint sauce). You can put grated/chopped cucumber in too if you like.

Gluten Free Spicy Lamb Meatball Curry

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:41:00 +0000

This recipe is very easy and cheap to make, but tastes lovely, really warm and meaty! You can also make the sauce in advance, and have the raw meatballs in the fridge, so you can fry the balls and throw it all together when you are ready. I serve with plain boiled rice, popadums, some raita and mango chutney. Serves 4 people. If you buy whole spices you will need a grinder.

For the meatballs
lamb mince 800 gms (a big pack)
red onion 1, chopped finely

garlic cloves 2, chopped

red chilli 1, chopped

fresh corriander handful, chopped

large free range egg 1

cumin seeds 2tsp

corriander seeds 2tsp

fennel seeds 1tsp

cloves 2

cinnamon 1cm stick

cardamon pods 4 pods seeded

black peppercorns 5

For the sauce

tinned tomatoes 1tin

onion 1, chopped

garlic cloves 2, chopped

fresh ginger 5cm, grated

cumin 2tsp

corriander 1tsp

ground garam masala 3tsp

tumeric 1tsp

cayenne pepper 1/2tsp

Ok, make the balls first and put in the fridge to firm up. Grid up the spices, or use ready ground, but fresh ground spices are much better in these balls. Mix the spice mix with the lamb mince, onions, chilli, garlic and finally the egg till its all mixed up nice. Add a small teaspoon of salt too. Squish this mixture up into balls about the size of golf balls, or bigger if you like. Put on an oiled plate or tray, cover and bob in the fridge while you make the sauce.

The sauce is a basic curry sauce, feel free to mess with the spices however you like. So, the usual curry sauce method: Fry the onions till soft, next add garlic and ginger, fry for one minute, then add spices, fry for another minute. Next add your tin of tomatoes, fill the tin with water and chuck this in, and a big pinch of salt. Simmer for 15 mins, lid off, till the raw flavour has gone and the sauce has thickened. You can use a chilli instead of cayenne pepper if you prefer.

To assemble this dish I put the sauce in a big wide ovenproof dish that can go to the table, and put this in the oven waiting for the balls. (If you have made the sauce ahead wait for it to warm up in the oven before you start the balls). Fry the balls in batches in some sunflower oil in a non stick frying pan, fry them quickly on a high heat so they go dark and caramelised on the outside. When each batch of balls is done pop them in the sauce in the oven to finish cooking through. I like to use a wide dish so that half the ball pops out the sauce. So, cook all the balls, get them all sat in the sauce in the oven (at about 160) and do your rice. While your rice is cooking it gives the balls time to cook through in the oven, and they wont dry out cos they are half in the sauce.

Serve up the rice in one big dish and bring the balls and sauce to the table straight from the oven, sprinkle with some fresh corriander to make pretty if you like.

If you fancy it, you can add ground almonds or crushed pistashios to the balls for a more lamb kofta type meatball. Sometimes I add a couple of tablespoons of ground almonds to the sauce.

What I Can and Can't Eat

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:28:00 +0000

I'm blogging this list for people who are cooking a yummy dinner for me and the husband, and have kindly asked what I can eat. The hubby can just refer the lovely people to this post, easy peasy.

On basic terms I cannot eat wheat or gluten. Some items will claim to be wheat free, but not gluten free, or visa versa. I cannot eat these as I cannot eat both wheat and gluten.

What I can't eat: The obvious stuff

Wheat flour
Spelt flour
Bread
Cake
Biscuits
Pastry
Breadcrumbs
Wheat pasta
Pastries
Barley extract and flour
Bulgar wheat (and tabulah)
Couscous
Durham wheat
Rye flour and wheat
Oats
Semolina
Bran
Rusk (in sausages)

Wheat noodles

What I can't eat: The not so obvious stuff

Normal soy sauce (and some other sauces, like teriyaki)
Most sausages
Gravy thickening
Most packet cereal, as they put barley on it (thanks kellogs)
Pre-made or packet sauces
Hams with breaded outside
Salamis and meats with breadcrumbs/rusk in
Some crisps and nachos
Some marinades
Some salad dressings
Some fishcakes
Some sauces, like american mustard
Ice cream with brownies in and things
Chocolates with wheaty bits in or fillings
Some caramel, toffee and fudge sauces

What I can eat

Well anything that's not on the lists above, so meat, fish, veg, fruit, dairy and....
Rice flour
Potato flour
Gluten free flour (dove farm is good - but behaves different to normal flour)
Gram flour (chick pea flour) (this means I can eat popadoms and onion bhajis if not contaminated)
Rice
Potatoes
Polenta
Gluten free soy sauce
Corn products (corn tortillas, nachos, tacos)
Corn flour (this is what I use as an alternative gravy and sauce thickener, or dove farm flour)
Buckwheat
Quinoa

Rice noodles

Also worth noting is I can't drink beer/larger, so drink cider instead, or wine.

Some people struggle with dessert for me, but I can eat meringues, ice cream, sorbet, panacotta, creme brulee, fruit, cream and chocolate, so there are things I can eat! One of my friends makes a lovely gluten free apple crumble :)

What happens if I eat something on the bad list? Well a couple of days later my stomach will be very poorly, and will remain that way for a few days. I also get a sort of wheat hangover, puffy face, headache and aches. On the inside my body is making antibodies to 'kill' the gluten, but these antibodies are eating my stomach villi too. Even a little bit causes my body to make these antibodies, so its very important to not contaminate the food by mixing spoons and things too. It takes about 2 months to fix itself again fully. So yes, even a little but can hurt. Good news is it takes a while to kick in, so I won't vomit over the dinner table if I sniff a breadstick.

Gluten Free Garden Pea and Prawn Risotto

noreply@blogger.com (Cat B) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Some people will tell you risotto is hard to make, and you have to add the water really slowly and stir it exactly every 2.3 minutes with a wooden spoon that has been blessed by a celebrity chef. This is not the case, its dead easy and just like a pasta dish you can bung all sorts of stuff in. The basic risotto is a white rice dish, then you add your flavours, and always finish by stirring in a load of parmesan.

So here is my recipe for pea and prawn risotto. It's like a children's dish in its colours and textures, but its a perfect comfort food for me. A lovely blob of white with bright pink and green accents. If you like prawns in a sauce, like fish pie or 60's prawn mornay, then this will be just your cup of tea. Makes plenty for 2, enough for 3 if you get an extra visitor.

small onion 1, finely chopped
white wine 1 small glass
garden peas, fresh or frozen, 2tbsp-ish (depends how much you like them!)
prawns, the normal sized ones, a small packet/box
arborio risotto rice 1 small cup
1 chicken or vegetable gluten free stock cube, made up as per the instructions
freshly grated parmesan cheese 1 big cup
garlic 1/2 clove grated
olive oil
butter
salt and pepper

In a heavy pan or le-cruset thingy slowly soften your onions in a bit of oilve oil and a nice blob of butter. Slooooooooly, so it just goes mushy and see through golden, not brown. Now add the garlic and cook for a moment before adding the rice. Cook the rice in the onion butter mix till it goes kinda seethrough on the outside, about two mins. Chuck in the glass of wine, and cook off till its all soaked in. Now for the stock, add about a third of the jug (a cube makes 500ml I think?), reduce to a simmer and cook slowly, stiring every 10 mins or so with your celebrity blessed wooden spoon. When it starts to stick and its gone in the rice, bung another third in, and then do the same stiring with that amazing spoon. All gone in the rice? Brill, bung in the rest of the stock. The starch from the rice will make a creamy sauce around the rice, perfect!

1 cup of rice takes about 500ml of stock, check the packet for exact quntities of you like. I just use the 500ml, and when thats all gone I taste the rice, if its too crunchy I just add boiling water in dribs and drabs, then cook and stir till the rice seems right. Its a good idea to have a risotto at a good restaurant so you know how the rice should feel in your mouth, it should be soft on the outside, but still have bite in the centre.

When your risotto is nearly done, add the peas, this will be after most of the 500ml of stock but when it still has about 4 mins cooking time to go. When the peas are done, bung in the prawns, a big blob of grated parmesan, a nice bob of butter and some fresh black pepper. Stir around for one min, then switch off and put the lid on, leave for a couple more mins, it will be all gloopy and the prawns will heat through.

Serve right away, sprinkled with some extra parmesan, and some chilli flakes if you like (we do!). Very nice with some pea shoots ontop if you can get them, or rocket salad on the side. Sometimes I make this with chopped sugar snaps instead. Wanna know what it should look like? Kinda like this.