That’s right, today sees us reaching the magical half-way point in our week-long attempt to keep to M’s diet.  So far the journey hasn’t been too bad.  Both Mike and I have had to deal with unexpected hunger pangs, but overall, the challenge is working well and really is showing me what M has to deal with on a daily basis.

Today’s challenge has been a different one yet again.  G is baking at school today as part of her Enrichment morning and so I had to provide alternative ingredients to enable her to fully take part.  The choice was to make either Chocolate Chip muffins or Rocky Road.  I made the decision that Rocky Road was the more G-friendly recipe and, what’s more, both children have been begging me to make it with them at home and this ticked that box for G at very least.

As we are following the M-diet this week, I decided to try and replace the relevant ingredients with M-friendly alternatives.  The 2 key ingredients were Rich tea biscuits and butter.  The butter was easy as I just packed up the Dairy and soya free spread that was lurking in our fridge and crossed that off the list.  The Rich Tea biscuits, however, proved to be more problematic.  There are Rich Tea alternatives out there, but they either contain soya or egg, neither of which M can eat.  I found, in the end, 2 possible alternatives: Doves Farm Fig and Quinoa cookies or Against the Grain Ginger crunchies.  Unable to make a decision, I did the rational thing, I bought both and let G decide.

She opted for the ginger biscuits for the Rocky road and the fig and quinoa cookies for a snack after school.  It was a real delight that she brought some home for us all to sample as I had to refuse the delicious-looking Banoffee Pie on offer in the office at lunch-time.  I was very good as I sat around the lunch table with 5 colleagues all enjoying their slices. Tempted?  Yes.  Did I succumb?  No.  The Rocky road was sweet and ginger-y, but delicious and certainly we’ll be making it again.

Wednesday is swimming night, so the children usually eat a lighter meal in the evening.  I had a tough decision as to whether to share the Chicken and sweetcorn soup with them, or make baked potatoes as I normally would.  Guess what?  I let them decide and they both opted for the soup.  The chicken soup was fabulous, the gluten-free toast less so.  It contains pear and so tasted sweet to me, but both children love it and it’s one of the few things I am able to get on prescription for M.  I don’t think I’ll be rushing to share it with him on a regular basis though.

Our meals today looked like this: