Tag Archives: Egg free

Perfecting Christmas stuffing

With Christmas now less than a mere 3 weeks away – and counting – our preparations are in full swing. Christmas lists have been created; letters to Father Christmas written; Christmas cards written and very nearly sent; presents bought, wrapped and squirreled away until the tree is up; and my attention has now turned to the small matter of the food.

Courtesy of mirror.co.uk

A couple of weeks ago, I was given the job of cooking a Sunday roast for my Aunt whilst she was staying with Mum. As I prepared the chicken and veg, I felt a sudden desire for stuffing to accompany the meal. I have fond memories of delicious home-made stuffing on Sunday lunch-times as a child and realised, with a pang, that G and M would have no such recollection due to their food allergies. As a family, stuffing disappeared from our table two and a half years ago when M first started on his MEWS-diet. It has made the occasional reappearance at Christmas for us adults, but never in a M-friendly format.

Inspired by the pleasing aroma of chicken seasoned with sage that was drifting from the oven, I decided then and there to find a recipe for stuffing that I could tweak to meet G and M’s food requirements. I sourced a vegan recipe for Sage and Onion stuffing and set about pulling the necessary ingredients from my Mum’s cupboards to start the mixing process.

M helped create the perfect breadcrumb

Despite my fears that this would turn out to be an unmitigated disaster, the final outcome was delicious. Sadly, I was unable to convince G to even try a tiny morsel, but M set to with gusto. He enjoyed the flavours, though he complained it contained too much onion for his tastebuds. My final recipe can be found here and I am hoping to add recipes for other varieties for Christmas as I try them at home. It was a great result for a Sunday morning’s work and I’m looking forward to tweaking more recipes to accompany the Christmas turkey. The only question now is which one to adapt first – Chestnut, Sausagemeat, Cranberry or maybe all 3?

Unfortunately, I forgot to photo the final product and we ate the lot, so you’ll have to be satisfied with a photo of the pre-cooked version!

A Pizza Express birthday

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The first day of December heralds the start of the busy season for most, but an especially hectic time in our household. As well as the much-awaited day itself with all the associated celebrations at school, work, choir and church, we also have to fit in a 10^th birthday and a wedding anniversary. This weekend we got the ball rolling in fine fashion with an early birthday celebration for G.

Whilst G is most definitely a December baby, this year other commitments near her birthday led to my decision to throw her party early and sneak it in at the end of November instead. The first discussion was about the format her party was going to take. G was keen to combine cooking or baking with a sleep-over. I was less keen. The prospect of organising a group of near 10 year-olds (and two 7 year-old boys) to prepare, cook and possibly decorate a selection of M-friendly foods lacked appeal. Add in M’s inability to settle and sleep at the moment and I could see that it was more likely that full-scale battle would break out, rather than the joyous birthday celebrations G had in mind.

Thanks to some wise words from Canadian friend F, I found the perfect solution – a pizza-making party at Pizza Express. Now I appreciate that throwing a pizza party for a child with wheat- and dairy-intolerances and her multiple food-allergy suffering younger brother sounds somewhat off the wall, but thanks to the gluten-free menu introduced by Pizza Express earlier this year, we knew it was a viable option. We discussed our requirements with our local restaurant and were reassured that both children could participate fully and work around their dietary restrictions.

The date was duly booked, invites sent, travel arrangements made and finally the day dawned. Following our prompt arrival at the restaurant, each child was given an apron and hat to don before their starters of garlic dough balls and a side salad were served. Thanks to the information provided by Pizza Express, I was fully equipped for all eventualities and the chef was able to lightly toast 4 slices of M-friendly bread, which was served with garlic butter that I had prepared at home.

Next the task of making the pizzas themselves. G, M and their friends were given a ball of pizza dough each and were then instructed in the art of rolling, pressing out and filling the pizza pans. The children had varying success with their pizza bases, but eventually, after a couple of false starts, everyone had a base to be proud of. They were then given a selection of toppings to add before their pizzas were baked in the ovens. G and M were able to take full part in this, preparing pizzas for Mike and me to enjoy.

Stretching and fitting the dough to the pan

Adding the GF tomato sauce to the base

Once these pizzas were ready to be cooked, G and M were then given the opportunity to make their own lunch. Our party host was fantastic and explained just how Pizza Express make sure that their GF options are kept safe from the risk of cross-contamination in their kitchens. The GF pizza bases are pre-made and kept in separate storage as is the GF tomato sauce for the base and they use different pizza pans to cook the GF pizzas, which are easily distinguished from the normal ones. I had brought our own supplies of grated goats’ cheese for G and chunks of Violife vegan cheese for M, which is both dairy- and soya-free.

G’s with goats’ cheese and ham and M’s with black olives and Violife cheese

We finished the meal with a small portion of ice-cream with various toppings they could add at their discretion. Once again I had been able to bring with me a tub of Booja-booja chocolate ice-cream for G and M to enjoy and was thrilled to discover that the Pizza Express toffee sauce was safe for them too as the party host had made the effort to check the detailed allergy listing for all their products and could reassure me that it was safe.

A game of “Pin the moustache on Paulo” entertained them whilst the pizzas were cooking

All the children had a wonderful time and we were hugely impressed by the attention to detail that PIzza Express makes to ensure that their allergy-friendly options remain safe, even down to serving G and M’s pizza on separate platters to once again ensure no cross-contamination occurred. It was a real treat to be able to offer a “normal” birthday experience to G and for them both to enjoy the birthday celebrations with their friends.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

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I’m disappointed that my surprise post to wish Mike a very special birthday whilst M and I were in hospital didn’t quite work out as planned. I’d forgotten that the vagaries of the blogging system mean that even a scheduled post requires me to log into my account at some point. I’ve decided to post it now, even though it’s a little late, because we didn’t forget it and we wanted to make sure Mike knew we hadn’t!

It isn’t quite the birthday we had planned. Presents were bought and wrapped, cards chosen and written and I’d searched high and low for a way to make a M-friendly lemon meringue themed cake to mark the occasion. I was even prepared to put my new meringue recipe into action as the topper.

Well, I can dream that it might have resembled this!

However, M’s admission to GOSH for scopes has played havoc with my best made plans and instead, Mike will be celebrating his birthday with G and my Mum, whilst M and I spend another day incarcerated on Kingfisher ward So, what M and I both want to say is “Happy birthday to a special Daddy! We love you lots and will see you soon.”

Courtesy of depositphotos.com

Play-date anyone?

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It is amazing how something so simple can make such a big difference to a small child.

As M started a new school this September and is still getting to know the children in his class, we decided to invite a new friend home for tea after school. M chose C, another child who’s new to the school. I ambushed his Mum a couple of weeks ago to broach the subject of whether he’d like to come home for a play, eventually got round to passing on my contact details and finally settled on a day.

Courtesy of gsapublishing.com

This Tuesday I left work promptly to make sure I was in the right place at the right time to pick up M, C and G. The weather held so they could all burn off their energy and excitement by bouncing on the trampoline and tearing around the paddock like wild things. I chuckled quietly to myself as I heard the 3 of them discussing the ghosts in our house and heard C promising that he would bring back his ghost-detector from home once he’d fixed it – a child with an imagination to match M’s, I thought. I fed them everything-free fish fingers, potato wedges and a variety of veggies determined by the preferences of each individual child. We even survived M having a soiling accident and successfully changed him without C being aware it had even happened.

Nothing particularly out-of-the-ordinary or revolutionary, you might be thinking and you’d be right. The bit that made all the difference came when C’s Mum came to pick him up.

“Thank you so much for having C home for tea,” she said, “he’s the happiest I’ve seen him since we made the move.” And then she uttered the magical words, “Would M like to come home to ours for a play-date next Tuesday after school?”

Before I’d even had a chance to reply, she continued “I can cook just plain chicken drumsticks with vegetables for them for tea, or you can pick him before tea if you’d prefer.”

This woman, who has swiftly become a new friend, had unwittingly just rocked my world. In the last 2 years, since we embarked on our free-from journey with M, he has been home to friends’ houses just twice. The prospect of feeding my food-intolerant child was too daunting to so many of the Mums I’d got to know during M’s first year of school that they just stopped inviting him back after school. One Mum had even told M three separate times that she’d talk to me about arranging a day and what he could eat, and then never bothered to make that effort. Needless to say, that was a friendship that quickly fizzled out as M couldn’t understand why the promised invite never came.

So, for someone who’d known us approximately 5 minutes to take M’s situation and tricky diet completely in her stride and willingly offer to have him home from school, has felt like a real blessing. We’ve got to iron out a couple of wrinkles that are playing on M’s mind – chiefly his medicines and the whole “what if I have an accident whilst I’m at C’s house Mummy” concern – but I’ve got those sussed and I think M is reassured that every eventuality is covered.

Which leaves my 7-year old eagerly anticipating the opportunity to fix the broken ghost-detector – “though I’m not entirely convinced he’s not just making the whole thing up Mummy” – and me as one happy Mummy.

*I’ve just found this article “I’m not neurotic, my kid has food allergy” which helps you understand even more about how important this sort of compassion can be to a family supporting a child with food allergies

The Battle for Breakfast (magnificent muffin recipes included!)

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Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_to_work_on_an_egg

Who can forget this advice?

Over the past 12 months, there has been a lot in the national press about the numbers of children who are arriving at school without having eaten any breakfast. More schools have introduced breakfast clubs, in some cases financially supported by the teachers, to ensure that pupils get that all important start to their day. The benefits of a good breakfast to see us all through our day are well-documented and as a Mum, I’ve tried install those principles in my children.

G is a fantastic breakfast eater and always has been. I remember, at an early age, picking her up from nursery and being told by the astounded key-worker that she had eaten 3 whole weetabix for her breakfast that morning. What amazed me more, was that she had already eaten a full bowl of cereal (2 weetabix) at home before getting to nursery – where my tiny mite had put those 5 weetabix we will never know, She happily munches her way through an overflowing bowl of rice pops and cornflakes with raisins and milk and, if she has enough time, then another bowl will be consumed too.

Courtesy of controlengeurope.com

M is the complete polar opposite of his sister. He is much more like me and doesn’t like to eat as soon as he wakes up in the morning. The problem is that due to his sleep issues, I inevitably have to wake him for school and even showering and dressing before we attempt breakfast rarely achieves much success. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get M to eat even a scrap of breakfast, which simply reflects his current health and declining appetite.

Which is why I’m constantly and desperately searching for a tasty morsel that will entice him to eat first thing, whilst being relatively healthy. We’ve tried toast, bacon sandwiches, cereal, porridge, fresh fruit and yoghurts, all with relatively limited success. One day he’ll eat something like it’s going out of fashion, the next day it’s like getting blood from a stone. I was stuck for ideas until last weekend, when inspiration hit. We were up in London for an extended celebration of my Mum’s birthday and at breakfast on the Sunday morning, G disappeared off to the buffet and came back bearing a mini chocolate chip muffin for me as a thank you for taking them to London for the weekend.

As I munched my way through this tiny treat, it struck me that it was just the thing that might tantalise M’s tastebuds first thing in the morning. All I needed to do was find a muffin recipe and do some of my free-from jiggery-pokery to turn it into the perfect M-friendly nibble. We had a huge amount of rapidly-browning bananas in the fridge, so a recipe for banana muffins seemed the obvious choice. I found one, played around with the ingredients and ended up with this wonderful looking batch:

By the time I got round to photographing the end result, 3 had already been devoured by G&M – success!

Excited by the instant success, and with some left-over bacon and soya- and dairy- free cheese (yes such a thing really does exist) lurking in the bottom of the fridge, I found, adapted and baked a recipe for bacon and cheese muffins. These turned out a little more anaemic-looking and seem to be a recipe I’m going to need to tweak a little more to perfect:

Less golden than the banana ones, but still delicious

So, from one evening’s work, I’ve found 2 new recipes – banana muffins and bacon & cheese muffins – and have a pair of happy children. The only problem? As much as M loves the muffins, it appears they weren’t the weapons I was searching for and the battle to get him to eat breakfast rages on!

Simple Pleasures

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When in the midst of dealing with the complicated life that is M, it’s really easy to get bogged down with the problems and overlook the simple pleasures in life. As the saying goes, sometimes you need to just stop and smell the roses. Despite the challenges of the last few months, there have been some wonderfully simple pleasures that are a precious reminder of just how good this summer was between the difficult bits:

Standing in the back garden with the children and watching the Red Arrows fly overhead
Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
G & M using walkie-talkies made from nothing more than scrap cardboard and their imaginations

Drinking an ice-cold glass of home-made lemonade
Without the “pink”
Taking the train into the city and walking around on a local Art trail whilst investigating the area and sights

Watching G and M cheer as Andy Murray won Wimbledon
Courtesy of capitalfm.com
Watching G and M then recreate the Wimbledon moment using our washing line and their beach tennis set

Late night cuddles with M and early morning ones with G

Enjoying some classic Disney films before bed and finding some new favourites
Courtesy of hdwpapers.com
Home-made burgers cooked on the BBQ

Camping in the garden – well this was one for Mike and the kids, I am definitely never, ever going to consider camping to be a pleasure of any kind

G & M spending hours out in the garden: building dens, climbing trees and bouncing on the trampoline

Courtesy of dartmoor-npa.gov.uk

Long lazy summer days spent lying on the beach, building sandcastles and splashing in the sea

Perfecting a myraid of free-from, M-friendly recipes and enjoying tasting each and every one!
Rainforest flapjacks

Pen-blwydd Hapus Mamgu!

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Or, for those of you not fluent in Welsh, “Happy Birthday Grandma!”.

This weekend we celebrated my Mum’s birthday with her and what better way to celebrate than to try out some new recipes, especially those for cake! All recipes have been adapted for a MEWS-diet and I have to say a special thanks to fellow blogger, lucysfriendlyfoods, for her egg-free meringue recipe and invaluable advice for an alternative to soya protein:

Pea protein – a new ingredient to me, but the key to a successful egg-free meringue

I made, and we all enjoyed, successful chocolate meringues and carrot cake. G and M gave both recipes a 10 in their taste tests and I finally feel as if I’m beginning to crack the M-friendly baking dilemma that’s been threatening to beat me for a couple of years. What better way to share than some photos from the day:

At this point, the mix tasted a little like that American delicacy, Marshmallow Fluff!

The final product – perfect and delicious egg-free chocolate meringues

And who’d have thought you could go from this…

…to this?

Happy birthday Mum!

Viva Portugal – and our answer on a postcard!

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Courtesy of mapsof.net

Preparing for this summer’s holiday to Portugal went well as we completed the Pellet study with M and I finally answered the question of how to carry all of M’s medicines and foods without paying for an extra bag. So, all I needed to do in the last two days was pick up our holiday money, pack the suitcases and speak to GOSH about the test results from the abdominal x-ray.

Needless to say, the first two list items were quickly ticked off and I even managed to fill the extra suitcase for M without forgetting anything essential. Tracking GOSH down and speaking to them sensibly took a little longer. I was anxious to discuss the results of the Pellet Study and what the next step was before we went on holiday, especially given that M’s move up to his new school was imminent soon after our return. The registrar I finally spoke to on the Friday morning had a real mix of news for me.

The good news was that the x-ray showed that M had passed most of the radiopaque markers – his x-ray was a mix of images 1 and 2 – which suggested that there was no real issue with his gut motility. The bad news was, that despite 12 days on an increased level of Movicol, M was still heavily impacted. What wasn’t clear was whether we had ever successfully emptied his bowel or if he had become re-constipated during the 5 days he was not taking the Movicol during the study.

The next decision was not an easy one to make, especially with a week abroad on the horizon. We had to continue with the Movicol, taking 4 sachets daily for the week we were away, which would hopefully keep things moving and empty his bowel out as was so desperately needed. Both the registrar and I felt it was likely that the 4 sachets would be too much for M’s system, but we really had no other choice and reluctantly I agreed, with a follow up phone-call planned for the first Monday back home. Into the suitcase went the required sachets and extra packs of pull-ups to see us through the week.

Despite the challenges we knew this would bring, we were determined to enjoy the much needed break and the sun. We set off with plenty of time to spare “just in case”, breezed through check-in and customs, survived the 2 hour wait to our flight and eventually landed safely in Faro. An hour’s taxi ride to the resort, a quick late night tuna pasta dinner (courtesy of the supply suitcase) and we were into bed for a good night’s sleep before our holiday started properly.

The week was amazing. The kids loved every moment of both the beach and the pool and we were all amazed at how much their confidence had grown in the last year. M revelled in splashing about and jumping waves, which was something he wouldn’t do the first time we went just 2 years ago. He was also brilliant at wearing a pull-up under his swimming trunks to avoid any unwanted problems in the water. It was far more challenging to change him because of the combination of damp bodies, tight-fitting pull-ups and wet trunks, but we survived it.

He had his moments and we had a couple of major melt-downs as he let out his frustrations about his condition and all that was going on. Unfortunately, Mike suffered the brunt of this as he’s not usually the one on-hand all day, but he survived it too. The upside is that it gives more ammunition and examples to pass on to the CAMHS team when we see them later this month to argue the case for M needing more support to cope with his emotional and psychological well-being.

M’s trusty friend “Cat”, came on holiday with us and the maids made M smile by dressing him in M’s pjs

We even managed our meals. This year we chose to eat breakfast and lunch in our apartment every day, rather than venture to the breakfast buffet provided at the hotel. It was a difficult decision because both children love the opportunity to chose from the vast array of food available, but we knew that it would be a far too limited choice for M. Instead we ate out every evening at a number of local restaurants along from the hotel. One of the best things about eating out in Portugal is that it was surprisingly easy to accommodate M’s food restrictions. His love for most things fish and seafood meant that we were able to order fresh fish that was cooked in olive oil with a side order of chips and he was satisfied. We found that most of the restaurants were helpful in preparing prawns or fish without any sauces and we skipped dessert as none of us needed it.

As expected, the movicol made the week difficult, but it made a big difference to be dealing with all the stresses and strains in a sunnier climate. We all needed the break from the daily grind at home and I came back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the challenges of the new term.

One of the many sandcastle creations M built during the week