I do remember my mother saying that the hardest thing about cooking for us when we were little was coming up with ideas, and I absolutely agree. But of course she was much more skilled than I am at cooking a meal with a view to the next meal—that is, what she would do with the leftovers. I tend to put any leftovers in the fridge and then forget about them until far too late.

I’m sure I’m not unusual in this—I suspect that proper meal planning is a skill that is in decline. One of my sisters has a fabulous recipe book that takes her through the year week by week, showing how to make meals that can be repurposed later in the week. I envy her the structure—but it wouldn’t work for me, because it doesn’t offer gluten free solutions and it is very heavily meat-oriented.

But I’ve come across a potential solution…It’s a recipe subscription package called Eat Real With Me, developed by Amy Jensen.

Amy calls it ‘meal stacking’. She provides the plan for the week (plus recipes and a shopping list) and shows how by cooking a 20 minute meal on day 1, you would have enough for two 5 minute meals on days 2 and 3. Her recipes serve 2, so they’re easy to multiply up for more. They look delicious, it’s all real food—and everything is gluten free.

Some of the ingredients on the shopping list are American-only, so if you’re based in the UK you might need to do a bit of translating. But if, like me, you look for recipes online these days, you’re probably quite familiar with some of these terms. And at the moment Amy’s meal-stacks tend to be meat or fish-oriented, but I can see how they could be turned into vegetarian meals and—best of all—everything is gluten free.

For example, by preparing Baked Fish with Caper Raisin Relish and Roasted Vegetables on Day 1, you would have quick gluten free meals of Southern Chopped Salad and Cumin and Paprika Chickpea and Quinoa Bowls for Days 2 and 3.

A typical week’s recipes:

• Pulled chicken tacos (20 mins)
• White bean and chicken chili (5 mins)
• Verde chicken enchiladas (5 mins)
• Lemongrass burgers with thai sauce (20 mins)
• Lettuce wraps (5 mins)
• Coconut rice bowls with lemongrass dressing (5 mins)

Doesn’t that sound good? Do go and check it out…

Especially, if, like me, you’ve run out of inspiration or just don’t have time to plan.

*** Please note that this post includes affiliate links to Amy’s site. This means that if you buy something after clicking on that link, I will earn a small commission. Your purchase won’t cost you any extra.

I’ve had a number of messages over the last few months asking for help with deciphering some of the American cooking and ingredient terminologies—which are almost, but not quite, the same as they are over here. Things like:

• What exactly is broiling? (She sent me pictures of the dials on the cooker in her dorm for this one)
• What should I look for if I want double cream?

And given that yet again yesterday, I had to look up what a stick of butter weighed (in order to make egg-free sticky toffee pudding), I thought I’d document some of the differences we’ve found here—for our use, but also for yours, in case it’s helpful.

Ingredients – Dairy

Ingredients – Vegetables

Ingredients – Sugars

Ingredients – Baking

Others

Measurements

Cooking

I’m sure there are lots more—and of course, there may be regional differences in both countries!

To start the celebrations, they’ve created a celebrity gluten free recipe calendar for 2018, with recipes for each month provided by well-known names such as Coeliac UK’s Patron Caroline Quentin, Food Ambassador Phil Vickery, BBC MasterChef winner Jane Devonshire, Paralympic gold medallist Craig MacLean MBE, TV presenter Lorraine Pascale and country singer and TV personality Megan McKenna.

And the recipes sound really good: nasi goreng, beer battered fish and chips, chocolate mousse with honeycomb…every month has a recipe card which you can detach and keep.

If you’d like a copy for yourself—or would like to give one to a coeliac you know—they are available to order and cost £10 each, which includes delivery to all UK addresses. And at least £5 from the sale of every calendar will go towards the charity’s work to improve the lives of everyone who needs to live gluten free.

Coeliac UK work hard to fund research into coeliac disease, to fight prescription cuts, to lobby Parliament and to advise people on issues around coeliac disease and managing the gluten free diet.

We joined Coeliac UK over 20 years ago, and found their support very useful, especially in the early days of dealing with a new diagnosis; and I’m still a member. We may not consult the Food & Drink Directory as often as we used to—I used to carry it around everywhere—but it is still within reach.

So: who do you know who’d like to receive a calendar for Christmas?

And: Happy Birthday Coeliac UK!

Whether you live in the UK or are just visiting, and you need to eat gluten free, it’s useful to have a list of recommended places to eat.

Obviously there are a number of ways you can find suitable places…

• You can ask a local (always a good option!)
• You can search on TripAdvisor for gluten free restaurants anywhere in the world, and find out what other people think of them. Don’t forget though, that each review is only the thoughts of one individual on one day—things may be different when you visit.
• You can check out the list of places accredited by Coeliac UK. You can be sure that the accredited venues have been assessed by experts.
• There are many blog posts with recommendations for places—a quick search will bring up a long list. Don’t forget to check the date when the review was written, and then look up any place they recommend to be sure it is still in business, and still receiving good recommendations.
• And now there is the map of winners of the Free From Eating Out Awards. This shows the winners for the last three years on a map, so you can find highly rated places in your area. Don’t forget, too, to look at the shortlists for the last few years. The shortlists for each of these awards is also a list of highly recommended places, even if they didn’t win an award on the night—the shortlist for 2017 is here.

The best gluten free restaurant in the UK

Well… obviously there isn’t a single best place. But Mommi, in South London, was the overall winner this week of the 2017 Free From Eating Out Awards. I haven’t been there—it’s a long way from where I live. But I have eaten at a number of Gold Award winners in the last few years, and can recommend this as a way of selecting your next meal out—in 2017, I particularly enjoyed eating at The Clink.

And if you haven’t yet tracked down a dedicated gluten free restaurant, and need to eat gluten free, then you should—it is great to know that you could eat anything on the menu…and to have a real choice of options.

Congratulations to Mommi on their win this year—and to the FoodsMatter team for organising another successful year of judging and awards. Bring on 2018—let’s eat out!

If panettone is one of your Christmas treats—but you need to find a gluten free version—do check out this list (Christmas 2017). But you’d better move fast, as some of these are in short supply. Don’t forget you’ll need to add postage if you buy online…

Carluccio’s will sell you a traditional gluten free panettone with sultanas and candied fruit peel online (500g). Or in one of their shops, of course!

Apparently Sainsbury’s have a gluten free chocolate chip panettone, made by Nutri Free, but I’ve not been able to find it there. The same brand is available at Ocado in both the original and chocolate chip varieties, and at Just So Italian in the chocolate chip version. This one weighs 600g.

Coori have gluten free panettone for sale: traditional or chocolate, and unusually these are also available in a lactose free version—hurrah! These are also 600g – panettone are big cakes.

Various places (such as the Ethical Superstore, or Natural Collection) have a 500g Probios organic gluten free panettone available here in the UK.

Schar used to do one, but it doesn’t seem to be available any more – even on the Italian site. However, this one looks interesting, if you are US based: Trentasette gluten free panettone with raisins (no candied fruit). It is only 250g (so smaller than most) and available from Amazon.com or from Pasta Cheese (only 3 left here!)

It is possible to buy gluten free panettone made by Motta from etalianfood.com (400g) – or, for a change, a gluten free pandoro cake (500g) made by Bauli!

I’ve never tried this kind of cake, but it originated in Verona, and is traditionally a golden-yellow star-shaped cake dusted with powdered sugar. If you want one of these, you’d better go quickly; there is limited availability. If you’d like to find out the difference between panettone and pandoro cakes, Italy Magazine has some information. Etalian are based in Italy but will ship worldwide.

So: there’s an increasing range available, including a lactose free version, which is good news.

Panettone is popular in my house; but I’m quite tempted to try the pandoro cake this year just because it’s different. Do let me know if you’ve found any other suppliers of gluten free panettone…