Tag Archives: Egg free

Our birthday boy

Over the past few days, we’ve been celebrating young Master M’s 8th birthday. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long since he first crashed into our world and whilst the time hasn’t been easy, it certainly has flown past fast. The last 8 years have been filled with a lot of laughs and smiles and it’s exciting to see just how our “little bean” is growing up. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of health worries along the way – this blog wouldn’t exist without them – but those haven’t overshadowed the joy and good times of having M as part of our family.

M has become a little boy with a big personality. Like most other boys of his age, he loves everything Lego, Star Wars and Angry Birds and is a keen member of our local under-8s football team, where he can be found most Saturdays running around the pitch and even occasionally kicking the football. He loves discovering new things and although he’s not the most academic of children, his passion for new facts, knowledge of the world and probing questions have been flummoxing his teachers for years. M does struggle due to his dyslexia and dyspraxia, but the strides he has made since we got the diagnosis last year are amazing and he never lets them stop him being an active participant in class. He enjoys school now more than I ever thought possible and is keen to get there each morning to spend the day with his friends.

He adores his big sister and even though he spends most of his spare time planning new ways to wind her up, he will be the first to leap to her defense or comfort her when she’s upset. He will go off to search for a scrap of her “rag” when she’s in tears, though he will also hide it from her when he’s in one of “those” moods. They love nothing more than playing together in the garden and enjoyed most of the weekend’s sun by washing my car with M’s brand new super-soaker.

Perhaps more unusual is his flair for all things theatrical. M has never been backwards in coming forwards and I have photos of him stepping up to perform karaoke age 4. He loves to perform and is always looking for the next opportunity to do so. His current favourite musical is “Singing in the Rain”, though he’d probably also mention “Lion King”, “Matilda” and “Oliver!” in no particular order. M has a dedicated dressing-up wardrobe and has fancy dress to meet every occasion. No matter what character you’re looking for: be it “Odlaw” from Where’s Wally, “Bert” the chimney sweep from “Mary Poppins” or the “Ringmaster” from “Ninja Meerkats”; I can guarantee that M will have already been there and worn that!

When it comes to coping with his EGID and his diet, M is a trooper. He takes his medicines with the minimum of fuss and accepts the food restraints with relative good humour. He’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, far from it, and really struggles at times with frustration and anger that this is his lot in life. Yet he nearly always bounces back and keeps going with a positive attitude. The latest challenge of no potatoes has been one of the hardest M has had to face and he has really found it difficult to accept that he might have to avoid them longer term; but even he has had to agree that things have improved since we whipped them out of mealtimes and is now hoping that our next GOSH appointment will bring a food trial instead.

To celebrate in true style, I once again attempted to bake the double and created 2 cakes for M to enjoy – one for our family dinner and one for him to share with his friends at his party. The first he chose from my cupcake decorating book and the second was inspired by G and M’s current passion for all things “Despicable Me”. It took two long and extremely late nights, but I achieved my goal, was pleased with the results and, more importantly, so was the birthday boy himself.

Pancake party

Something nutty for the weekend

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Having tried a variety of snacks over the last few weeks – Dorset apple cake, chocolate chip cookies, ginger cream biscuits and banana bread – I decided it was once again time to turn my hand to something new. This time I felt inspired by the children’s love for all things peanut butter and decided to venture into the world of peanut butter cookies. I’ve sampled these delicious treats when visiting family and friends in Canada, but have never thought to bake them at home. We are extremely lucky that neither M or G suffers from a nut-allergy, so I was keen to perfect this recipe as another addition to my ever-expanding repetoire of M-friendly snacks.

"Perfect" cookies, courtesy of www.alaskafromscratch.com

“Perfect” cookies, courtesy of http://www.alaskafromscratch.com

The recipe I found was easy to follow, easy to adapt and most definitely easy to bake. The first batch of cookies spread to an unbelievable size, so once those had been devoured – and trust me, they really didn’t last very long at all – I used the remainder of the dough to cook another batch. This time I popped a spoonful of dough into each well of a muffin baking tray, which produced a more even and crispier version of the cookie. M loved the second batch even more than the first as he prefers his cookies with a crunch.

You can find my adapted recipe here, but I have to confess that I’m still working on reducing the sugar content as they are extremely sweet and I think could be just as good with a little less sugar. Enjoy the weekend!

My “not-so-perfect” ones

School trip!

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WOW! Haven’t things changed since we were young? Way back when, I remember the school trips from my Junior school years. They always seemed to be to places of historical importance or museums and not necessarily to the places my friends and I would have chosen for a day off school. As I got older, the trips involved a little more travel and even, very, very occasionally, a theatre trip, or suchlike, that required additional financial input from willing parents. These days school trips appear to have changed dramatically or, at least, that appears to be the case this term for my pair. They appear to be far more exciting than any school day out that I remember.

Courtesy of http://www.education-gate.com

M’ school trip happened a couple of weeks ago and, as it fell on a day I didn’t have to work, I tagged along for the ride. The day itself was grey, wet and miserable, but that didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the 27 7- and 8-year olds going out for the trip. We clambered aboard the bus and off we set, amongst much discussion of just how long it would take for us to reach our destination. Fortunately, a mere 20 minutes later we arrived, disembarked and were ready for the next 2 hours. Our location? Pizza Express!

Last year, Pizza Express teamed up with the Children’s Food Trust to encourage children to get cooking. They offer free visits to schools, where the classes are taught about the provenance of the food they eat, learn basic health and safety in the kitchen and have the opportunity to make their own pizza to enjoy. What was even better, from my point of view at least, is that Pizza Express offers an excellent experience for food-allergy sufferers, which meant that M was able to participate fully on the day itself.

They started with a tour of the kitchens and a quick step into the enormous fridges – if they dared. We saw the pizza ovens, where we were told that a pizza takes no more than 4 minutes to cook, which certainly left us adults scratching our heads and wondering quite why it takes so much longer when you’re waiting at your table! This was followed by a food-based quiz, where 1 of M’s classmates impressed me by being able to identify oregano just from a photo and the children were able to taste, if they wanted, some of the ingredients they would be using later. Next, the pizza chef on site prepared from scratch one of the most popular pizzas, cooked it and offered a slice to everyone there.

Finally, as every child was now nearly at bursting point, they were sent to wash their hands thoroughly before starting to prepare their pizzas. An impressive array of ingredients was set out on the tables, enough to satisfy even the most picky of eaters, without overwhelming them with choice. Pizza bases were passed along the lines and the restaurant manager made certain that M’s gluten-free base was on its own tray to avoid the risk of any cross-contamination. M was given his own spoon and first go at the tomato sauce, so I was confident that his pizza would remain “safe”.

Every Pizza Express restaurant has a reference folder which shows every ingredient used in their recipes and indicates what allergens each contains. I was confident that the pepperoni provided was M-friendly, but it was fantastic to be able to check so easily and without fuss. I had prepared some slices of our newly discovered Violife cheese too, which meant M could finally have a pizza with cheese, rather than without which has so often been the case. M stood happily with his friends, laughing and chatting as they each designed their idea of the perfect pizza.

Once the pizzas were made, including those of all the teaching staff and parent helpers present, they were popped into the massive ovens to bake. As soon as they were ready, they were placed into individual takeaway boxes for transporting back to school and each box carefully labelled with each child’s name. All the hard work done, it was back to the coach and to school, ready for a pizza lunch.

It was great morning out and once again my heartfelt thanks go to Pizza Express for ensuring it was an experience that M could share in too, despite the multiple food allergies. Not only do they provide great ingredients and plenty of allergen information, but they are clearly conscious of the risks of cross-contamination for food-allergy sufferers and work hard to ensure those are minimised as much as possible. I was impressed with the birthday party we had there for G and equally so that time and care was taken to make sure that this school trip was 100% successful too. I have no idea what trip is planned next, but I suspect it will take a lot to beat this one!

Banana bread to rival the Godmother’s!

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Courtesy of minionslovebananas.com

As part of our recent plan to given M a substantial bedtime snack, M and I sat down to discuss what sort of foods he could choose from before bed. I originally proposed a bowl of cereal or a couple of slices of toast, but quickly learned that this caused M no end of confusion. Sometimes M struggles with his understanding of the world, can take things a little too literally and is very much a creature of habit. Unexpected changes to his routine have been known to throw him for a loop and cereal at bedtime proved to be one such thing. M very much associates cereal with breakfast and just couldn’t grasp that it would be okay for him to have it again later as a snack. No amount of patient explanation would persuade my obstinate lad to change his point of view and so I gave in to the inevitable, abandoned that suggestion and hunted around for some “acceptable-to-both-of-us” alternatives.

We agreed on a few staples from the fridge and the store cupboard including Wot no Dairy! yoghurts, Frank* bars and Nakd bars, but I wanted to add something new to the equation too. Thinking hard, I remembered that M had been requesting banana bread for a while and I wondered if I could once again find and adapt a recipe to satisfy this craving. Around 4 and a half years ago, one of M’s godmothers, L, looked after him for an afternoon whilst I was at a check-up at our local eye hospital. I’m not sure she’ll even remember the occasion, but M certainly does, predominantly because that afternoon they baked banana bread together. This banana bread has gained a position in M’s memory as the best, most delicious banana bread in the whole wide world ever and nothing has ever compared, or even come close. He talks about the amazing smell and delicious taste, whilst the rest of us have, I have to confess, pretty much forgotten all about it,

My challenge, therefore, was set. To create a loaf of banana bread that not only met M’s current dietary requirements, but that also needed to equal the memory of L’s bake all those years ago and I was ready to give it a go. I found a relatively simple recipe, adapted it to suit and set about whipping up my masterpiece. The smell of baking banana bread tantalised both M and G, who were forced to wait patiently until bedtime to sample it.

Our kitchen was silent as they took their first, and then subsequent bites and Mike and I waited nervously for the verdict. G declared it instantly as the “best thing she’s eaten, ever” and was full of praise. M was a little more discerning in his comments. My banana bread was great, as the empty plates in front of my children attested to, BUT it comes a very close second, as L’s still tops the rankings in his opinion. So L, if you’re reading this and have even the vaguest recollection of that now infamous banana bread and the recipe you used, please give me a clue, so that I too can bake the “Best banana bread in the world”.

Ginger creams

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Since our appointment at GOSH at the beginning of January, I have had to flex my baking muscles in an attempt to create some tasty treats for M. Some of our old favourites have had to be shelved due to the additional exclusion of potatoes and raisins from his diet and choices have become limited. I’ve chosen to work within the constraints of rice flour, despite how granular it can taste, as we are fortunate to receive this on prescription for M. This means that every new recipe has to not only be delicious, but also moist enough to incorporate the rice flour and disguise its texture. I can’t imagine that my baking and cooking adventures will continue at the current rate, but this week’s offering is a definite winner and one I’m delighted to be able to share.

Courtesy of thedailybalance.com

One of my all-time favourite treats has to be Fox’s Ginger Crunch Creams, which combine a deliciously crunchy ginger biscuit with a cream filling that has a hint of ginger too. I’m a big fan of ginger of any kind, always have been and, having been treated to one of those delicious biscuits recently, I decided it was about time I made a version M and G can eat. I have never made ginger biscuits before, so wanted a recipe that was relatively simple to adapt for M. I found. and rejected, a number of recipes that I felt had too many steps and ingredients to work in a M-friendly environment, before settling on this recipe by celebrity chef, Paul Hollywood, who is now perhaps best known for his role as a judge on the Great British Bake-off.

As this recipe for his Mum’s ginger biscuits contains just 5 ingredients, I felt up for the challenge and set about making my M-friendly adjustments. The whole process was quick and easy, and I was very impressed with the results. I decided to leave a handful of biscuits plain, but whipped up a delicious ginger “cream” filling to sandwich the remaining pairs together. I used a simple home-made buttercream icing that I flavoured with some ground ginger and created my home-made ginger creams.

Both G and M enjoyed the biscuits, although I may have added a little too much ginger to the filling for their taste, which was reflected in their scores of 7.5 out of 10. I have taken their comments on board and will try to remember to reduce the amount of ginger I use the next time I bake these treats. I am certain that it would be relatively easy to also adapt both the biscuit and cream filling recipes to mimic the others currently produced by Fox’s, or indeed any other flavour that might be enjoyed. The rest of the family loved them and I can highly recommend them dunked in a nice cup of tea!

Time for elevenses – choc chip cookie anyone?

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Another peaceful Sunday afternoon could only mean one thing – another chance to try my hand at a new recipe. Since our last visit to GOSH, M’s diet has become even more restricted and I desperately needed a new treat to add to his lunch-box and hopefully bring a smile back to his face. Whilst the children were outside enjoying some long-awaited sunshine and Mike was working on our bathroom renovation plans, I sat at the kitchen table, pouring over my vast array of cookbooks. This may come as something of a surprise, but I only have one that is dedicated to allergy-friendly cooking, instead I prefer to take my inspiration from regular recipes, which are adapted to suit M’s food needs.

Courtesy of theguardian.com

I had already looked through my store cupboard to see what interesting ingredients might be waiting for me to use them and stumbled across a pack of Moo-free dairy-, and soya-free chocolate drops. For those who have yet to discover the delights of Moo-free chocolate, this amazing product has been a real revolution for our household. Not only do they produce chocolate buttons, but themed chocolate bars for Christmas and even Easter eggs that are suitable for both dairy- and soya-allergy sufferers. I added their Cranberry and Hazelnut chocolate to M’s Rainforest flapjacks recipe, which became an instant hit in our household last summer.

Chocolate drops could only mean one thing – chocolate chip cookies. I had a quick hunt through the books and found a recipe that seemed to be easy enough to convert for a M-friendly batch. It came from a fundraising cookbook called “Squeeze your Lemon”, which Father Christmas kindly left in my stocking a few years ago. I hadn’t before attempted a recipe from here, so was excited to see just how well the cookies would turn out.

The recipe itself was easy to follow, though the end result was a little sweet for my tastes. G and M sampled them warm from the oven and, after mere seconds of deliberation, awarded them – and me – a more than satisfactory 9 out of 10. The only complaints were that they were too crumbly, which is probably due to the rice flour used, and that they were too puffy! M insists that they would have been near-perfect if only I had made them a little smaller and flatter. Either way, the recipe worked well and a cookie has found its way into 2 small lunch-boxes every day this week. A definite bake to add to my ever-increasing repertoire, which makes it a success in my book.

Sweet – and Savoury – Crumble

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I love cooking, I really do, though it has to be admitted that sometimes I get more than a little fed up of constantly re-hashing the same old recipes week in, week out, to feed my terrible two. We are not a family that eats a great deal of puddings, but I do like to occasionally whip up a special dessert for after Sunday lunch if inspiration should hit. Last week I decided to use up the blackberries that had been lurking in the bottom drawer of the freezer for a while and add them to that old family favourite, apple crumble.

I have to confess that I am so adept at making crumble these days that I no longer weigh and measure out the ingredients, but rather use my experienced eye to achieve the mixture I’m after. However, with a view to wanting to add this recipe to my blog, I took my time and painstakingly recorded each and every element of my recipe to share. A delicious apple and blackberry crumble served with lashings of custard, made using Bird’s Traditional Custard powder, which is amazingly gluten-, dairy-, egg- and soya-free when mixed with old faithful rice milk, was the perfect way to finish off our Sunday lunch.

During the week that followed, I took my standard crumble recipe and adapted it to create a delicious, if unusual savoury dish. Here and now I admit that I cooked this for just Mike and me, knowing full well that my chances of getting G and M to eat it were somewhat slim, BUT there is no reason why this couldn’t be served to food-allergy-suffering children as it was, for the most part, M-friendly.

This time I cooked mushrooms, onion, garlic, courgette, sweetcorn and tomatoes together and added a hefty sprinkle of madeira, thyme and creme fraiche* to make the base. I then mixed in some rice before covering the whole with my crumble mix. For this savoury dish, I made the crumble without any sugar and instead included chopped chestnuts and some more thyme to taste. As this meal didn’t need to be M-friendly, I also stirred in cubes of blue cheese, though this could easily be replaced with the wonderful Violife vegan cheese that I have recently discovered for M. I baked the final dish for around 25 minutes and served hot.

I was delighted with the end result, which could easily be adapted to include other veg or meats depending on your own tastes. My recipe was based on whatever was hiding in the corners of the salad bins at the bottom of the fridge and is a meal that I know I could convert for M and G’s tastes too. An easy dinner and one perfect for a cold winter’s night!

Courtesy of telegraph.co.uk

* you could easily replace the creme fraiche with coconut cream or any other grain-based cream if you need it to be dairy-free.

National Spaghetti Day

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The accidental discovery through Twitter that January 4th is National Spaghetti Day was a welcome answer to that age-old dilemma in our household of what precisely to cook for dinner. I’ve never been that impressed with gluten-free spaghetti as it has inevitably turned into lumps of glutinous mess, rather than the delicate strands it starts out as, no matter how I’ve cooked it. This time I decided to try some of the Glutafin spaghetti we were given at the Allergy and Free-from Show back at the start of last summer to see if I could get a better result.

The biggest decision I had to make was what sauce to concoct for G and M. They’re not too keen on a traditional bolognese and I wasn’t sure I could adapt a carbonara recipe without a little work beforehand. There’s nothing I love more than just throwing together ingredients from the fridge and, as M had expressed a desire for prawns the night before, I decided to base my pasta sauce on those and the little smoked salmon I had left after Christmas.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photo, but the pasta was delicious!

Using my fail-safe base of onion and garlic, I added the prawns, some smoked salmon trimmings, corn, peas and some chopped chestnuts. One of the challenges that we’ve given G for 2014 is to choose a new vegetable or fruit to add to each meal. The variety of fruit and vegetables that she eats is relatively limited and we have struggled to successfully increase the amount she will eat. At every meal, I am now offering her a choice of 2 she dislikes or hasn’t tried before. She can choose which one she would prefer and then add it to the meal in some way or another. For this meal, G had the choice of adding tomato to the main course or orange to her pudding and quickly decided on the tomato. I added a chopped tomato to the pasta sauce and finished it with some coconut cream.

I cooked the spaghetti in strict adherence to the instructions on the pack – boiling water, a tablespoon of olive oil and stirring the pasta only once before allowing to cook for 10 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised by the results and the spaghetti was an immediate hit with both G and M.

This was a quick and easy pasta recipe that made use of some of the leftovers from Christmas and a selection of vegetables from the fridge and freezer, whilst being completely M-friendly. You could obviously add whatever vegetables you wanted – I added courgettes and mushrooms to the sauce for Mike and me to enjoy – and can always use cream or creme fraiche instead of the coconut cream if you don’t need to be dairy- and soya-free. Best of all, it got that all important extra vegetable into G with the minimum of fuss!

A Duo of Birthday cakes

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As this year was a milestone birthday for G – her first in double figures – I wanted to bake her a cake she’d love and remember for a long time. Some time ago, I had seen this post by fellow allergy-friendly blogger, The Free From Fairy, and had duly filed away the information in the depths of my memory ready for the right occasion. I loved the idea of creating a cake for G that would be as unique as she is and would have that often elusive wow factor too.

The morning before her party dawned and having bought every colour of icing under the sun and ensuring I had enough supplies of all the key ingredients, I started to bake. In an attempt to make the cake extra-special, I decided to sandwich together layers of chocolate cake as well as plain sponge and used the tried and tested recipes I had developed earlier in the year. The chocolate cake was perfect, but I wasn’t happy with the plain sponge layers as they were too soft in the centre to allow me to successfully cut and stack the cake as I needed. I desperately searched for an alternative recipe and quickly found one that I tweaked according to the new principles of allergy-friendly baking that I have learnt this year. This second Victoria sponge worked brilliantly well and has now been added to my allergy-friendly repertoire.

With cakes baked, layers trimmed and stacked and my icing ready, I attempted to construct G’s rainbow pinata cake. I filled the hollow with a selection of G- and M-friendly sweets before struggling to cover the structure with icing, ready for the final decoration. I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t totally happy with the end result. I found it hard to create the stability needed using an “everything-free” sponge cake. With hindsight, I wish I had assembled the cake layers whole, rather than trying to create the arch of the rainbow as I think the outcome would have been even better. All that being said, G and her friends loved the cake and were thrilled to discover the pinata-effect of the sweets hidden away in the middle of each slice.

Of course, me being me, I wasn’t satisfied with just one cake to celebrate such an important occasion and once the party was over and done with, I set to finding the perfect creation for the big day itself. My inspiration for this second cake came from the amazing book, “Cupcakes, cookies & pie, oh my!“, which had been part of my recent leaving present from my job. G and M have spent hours drooling over the wondrous creations featured between those pages and I determined to create a cupcake piece of art just for G. I now have several great cake recipes to choose from, but stuck to our new favourites of Chocolate and Victoria sponges, though I ambitiously attempted to marble these together for the cupcakes.

The challenge this time round was that I needed to bake the cakes, ice and finish the decorations all in one day. Usually I bake the day before and then spend the evening before the party finalising my ambitious decorating plans, but with G’s birthday falling on a Friday, I had to do it all whilst the children were at school. Cupcakes and 8-inch cake baked, I started to prepare the icing, which needed carefully combining to ensure I had the final effect I wanted. Everything ready, I put all the component parts together and perused the final masterpiece. G had fallen in love with the cupcake peacock in the recipe book and I have to say, it has quickly become one of my favourite bakes too. Needless to say, the birthday girl was delighted and it tasted pretty good too!

7 years to diagnosis

Searching for an answer