Tag Archives: Food

Rainforest Flapjacks

Now, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that the past 3 weeks have involved little more than baking and eating an array of M-friendly treats. This week was no exception. Having attempted the series of lemon recipes as well as the best chocolate cake ever and feeling somewhat delighted with the results, we decided that our next baking efforts were going to be the rather exotically named “Rainforest Flapjacks”.

This recipe came home from school and looked easy enough to adapt for M’s dietary needs. I will confess right now to having felt a little frustrated by M’s school’s reluctance to cook with him. The two occasions they have chosen to cook with his class have both conveniently coincided with times when he was away from school. Do I blame them for not wanting to cope with his complex dietary needs? Not entirely, but I have had to deal with the fall-out, disappointment and tears at home.

My solution this time round was to suggest to M that he asked for the recipe so that we could attempt it at home. In due course, the printed sheet made its way into M’s drawer and finally came home in a decent enough state that I could still read the list of ingredients. Everything was easily substituted for M-friendly alternatives and, in the case of the oats, G-friendly millet flakes. I had the full complement of ingredients in either the fridge or the cupboard and so we were ready to start.

As ever, I took my chances and doubled the quantities to make sure I had enough flapjacks to last the week and so we began. The process was easy, the children loved measuring out the ingredients and the odd bit of a chocolate might have strayed into an open mouth along the way. We used a bar of the wonderful Moo-free Cranberry and Hazelnuts chocolate which is both soya- and dairy-free, though plain dark chocolate would work just as well.

The end result was a delight. Both children devoured the first few pieces without hesitation and the double quantity only just lasted the week. G even asked if I could make it without the nuts so that she could take a slice for her packed lunches at school from September.

In case you’re wondering what makes them “Rainforest” flapjacks (as Mike asked), my answer is simple. They contain bananas, chocolate, are perfect for our 2 little monkeys and the name linked in perfectly with M’s topic for school!

This post is an entry into the Foodies100/Schwartz Flavour of Together challenge – you can add your own exotic Flavour story via this link

The Best Chocolate cake in the World

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We’ve enjoyed a peaceful weekend away in South Wales. The weather hasn’t been the idyllic temperatures and sunshine of July, but we had a great time anyway. The odd rain shower or clap of thunder didn’t stop us celebrating my Uncle’s birthday in style. We had a BBQ and buffet feast, including my now infamous Lamb and mint burgers and G and M insisted that I made a birthday cake to mark the occasion.

Courtesy of fanpop.com

Last week’s Lemon drizzle cake was a big success, but I was still not satisfied with the granular nature of the sponge that comes from baking with rice flour. Since then I have been searching for a recipe to make the perfect rice flour cake and discovered this one that assured me that the granular texture would be a thing of the past. Having uncovered such a promising recipe, I just needed a reason to bake it and what could have been better timed than a family birthday?

For the first time I ventured into the mystical world of cooking with xanthum gum – a substance much mentioned in gluten-free cooking, but something I had yet to actually use.

We mixed together the xanthum gum, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and once again watched the chemical reaction between that and the white wine vinegar that the recipe required. M was enchanted by listening to the ingredients fizz and watching the bubbles of carbon dioxide rise to the top of the mixing bowl – “just like the volcano we made with Daddy”.

I had erred on the side of caution given my previously chronicled inability to bake cakes thatrise and made up one and a half times the quantity of cake mix. I needn’t have worried. Perhaps xanthum gum is the answer to my baking issues, I just don’t know, but I had more than enough cake mix to make a double layer cake and a dozen cupcakes too, all of which had a lovely depth to them.

I decided to use the classic flavour combination of chocolate and raspberries and layered the cake with raspberry jam, vanilla butter icing and dried raspberries. I finished it with a garden-themed decorating scheme and was proud of, at very least, how the cake looked.

That evening, I nervously cut into the cake and served it to the assorted, gathered family members. The cake was beautifully moist, the chocolate sweet but not over-powering and, best of all, there was not one single sign of that granular texture I’ve come to loathe when baking with rice flour. G gave it a resounding 10 out of 10, M stated that it was the “best cake ever, cooked by the best Mummy ever” and even the harshest of critics complimented me on how delicious the cake was. So the conclusion I’ve reached is that this is a cake recipe to treasure and I’ve now just got to work out how to adapt it for as many different versions and occasions as possible.

A taste of sunshine

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The weather may have turned a little grey and damp once again, but at the end of last week, we decided to bring a taste of the sunshine into the house and spent Friday afternoon baking. I’d been promising the children a baking afternoon for a while and Friday seemed like the perfect opportunity and a great end to the first week of the holidays.

Despite a little active discussion about what we could make, we settled on Lemon Drizzle cake. I searched for a vegan recipe and found this wonderful one by cookery blogger, Sharon. I needed to adapt it a little to accommodate M’s wheat- and gluten-free requirements, but most of the hard work (making it egg-free!) was already done.

Courtesy of buyfruit.com.au

We dashed out to buy the missing ingredients – lemons – and then returned home, rolled up our sleeves and got started. The children had a wonderful time. G had the responsibility of reading the recipe and method out loud for M and me to follow, whilst M became chief-mixer. We watched the “chemical” reaction between the vinegar, lemon juice and sugar and discussed how the frothiness should help make the cake light and delicious. My adapted recipe can be found here.

The end result was a great success. M loved it, though G felt it was too lemony! Having filled the fridge with lemons, we decided to make the most of them and made lemonade using my pink lemonade recipe without the cranberry juice. We then used half of the lemonade to make some ice lollies, perfect for the hot weather.

All in all, a very successful Friday afternoon!

This post is an entry into the Foodies100/Schwartz Flavour of Together challenge, if you have a great flavour story to share, you can easily do it here

In memoriam

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Why is it that, as soon as you find a particular product or brand that meets your needs and that everyone enjoys, it gets discontinued?

I’ve experienced this many times in my life from a favourite pair of shoes to G’s blanket, but none of these has been as frustrating as the disappearance of foods that not only taste good, but are also M-friendly. It’s a hard enough challenge to feed M and G at the best of times, but when facing the prospect of losing a product purely on the whim of a supermarket, it really takes the proverbial (M-friendly) biscuit.

The latest item to disappear from the local shelves has been Tesco’s frozen free-from pizza bases. These have been a godsend to us as they have been the only pizza bases I have found that are not just wheat-, gluten- and dairy-free, but are egg-free also. I only discovered them around 8 or 9 months ago, but they were a welcome addition to our monthly groceries. M enjoyed feeling “normal” again – as normal as you can be when your pizzas can no longer be covered with cheese – and all was well, for a short time at least. Fast forward 7 months, a quick trip to Tesco to stock up and not only were the shelves bare, but there was not even a hint that these bases had ever existed outside of my very own over-active imagination.

I have been assured by Tesco that this product is still in their free-from range, but sadly my local stores disagree. It may just be that it didn’t sell enough for them to continue to stock it, but I haven’t been able to find it anywhere within a reasonable radius of our house. Well, it was a great 7 months whilst it lasted. Thanks Tesco for bringing such joy to our household; and for then snatching it away without a moment’s notice. I’m back to perfecting my own pizza base recipe, but have lost the opportunity of deciding to have pizza for lunch and having it ready 20 minutes later.

This hasn’t been the first food to disappear without warning from our lives and I doubt it will be the last. I understand that supermarkets are focussed on their profit margins and that our dietary needs are out of the ordinary, but I am left frustrated when something that is, for us, life-changing, vanishes.

Of course, sometimes there can be a way round the missing item. It is possible to order a far wider selection of M-friendly foods from on-line shops than I will ever be able to find in my local supermarket, but then I am hit by higher prices as the retailer is dealing with a captive market. Once you add on postage costs and allow for delivery time, you’re back to a scenario that involves a lot of planning and little spontaneity. I’ve even encountered an on-line retailer who requires me to order a minimum of 6 refrigerated items to make it cost-effective for them and I understand that, really I do; but seriously, who needs 6 everything-free cheeses when really you just want one to try?

So, this post is in memoriam of those wonderful treats that are now gone, but not forgotten: the pizza bases, the sausages, 2 types of mayonnaise and the list goes on.

And, if anyone has a recipe for the perfect everything-free pizza base, or even an everything-free mayonnaise, please let me know!

Eating out

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Unsurprisingly, when you’re having to work with any number of food allergies, it becomes a minefield to negotiate when considering going out for a meal. As food allergies appear to become more prevalent in our society, more and more of the larger restaurant chains are becoming aware of the need to make provision and adapt their menus to suit a wider audience. Charities such as Coeliac UK provide their members with a list of “safe” restaurants to eat and offer advice as to what to do when going out for a meal.

For many families like ours, even this information is not enough to guarantee that we can eat out safely. M is our hyper-sensitive, multiple food allergy suffering stumbling block to overcome when we consider eating away from home. One piece of luck we do have on our side is that M is a complete and utter foodie. He loves food and is prepared to try almost anything at least once, unlike his big sister, who has become increasingly fussy the older she gets. He particularly enjoys eating seafood and fish, though he will readily admit that oysters are not a favourite! And yes, he has tried them, but found them a little too salty for his taste.

However, we have been lucky enough to find a small handful of restaurants that do cater to our needs and that don’t appear to cause a negative reaction in M. There is no guarantee that these would suit everyone with food allergies, but they may be worth a go. I would highly recommend contacting the restaurant before your visit to check whether they can confirm if they can accommodate your specific food allergies, taking a look on-line at their allergy-friendly menus and we have found the Dietetics team at GOSH to be extremely knowledgeable too.

Nando’s: Whilst there are obvious foods that M can’t eat (the wraps, rolls and breads for a start), the chicken is gluten and wheat free and, so far, M seems able to tolerate the chips. What’s more, if you’re at all anxious about what the individual ingredients are, each Nando’s restaurant has a Food and Menu specifications book which is readily available. M loves visiting Nando’s, not least because the children’s menu includes a M-friendly ice lolly as an alternative to the frozen yoghurt offered for dessert.

TGI Friday’s have their “Five Easy Pieces” menu, which provides meal options for those suffering from a gluten or lactose intolerance and includes a child specific selection. M has enjoyed the steak, the chicken tenders and the hot dog without problem, though it is possible that the hot dog contains soya. Unfortunately, they are yet to provide any dessert that suits those who struggle with food allergies, but the main courses tend to be large enough to satisfy most appetites in my experience.

We only recently discovered that Bella Italia has a gluten free option on their menus and have been incredibly impressed with the level of service we’ve had when eating there with M. He chose a gluten-free pizza base, which the manager confirmed was also soya-, dairy- and egg-free, and topped it with their tomato sauce, ham and olives. M was in seventh heaven when we discovered this treat and is desperate to go back with the rest of the family in tow. They also do gluten-free pasta, though we have yet to try that out and were able to provide 2 alternatives for dessert – sorbet or M-friendly ice lolly.

The latest restaurant to jump onto the gluten-free bandwagon is Pizza Express. Their gluten-free menu went live on 1 May 2013 and they have now updated the information to detail which ingredients on their menu should be avoided because they also contain gluten. We tried Pizza Express out with the children last weekend when we were at the Allergy Show and were again impressed with the pizzas that arrived. However, they did mess up the order a little by forgetting to add G’s goat’s cheese on her pizza, but otherwise we were impressed with the meal. Sadly, another without a dessert that suits those with multiple food allergies and M insists that the Bella Italia pizza was far better and bigger.

There are very many local or specialist restaurants out there who will also accommodate the most complex of dietary needs, but these should be a good starting point for anyone with children with food allergies. A word of caution to add, these restaurants are not able to guarantee that no cross-contamination will occur within their kitchens, though they work hard to make sure the risk is a minimal as possible. We have found that by talking to the waiting staff and explaining our needs, we get the best service we could ask for and I would recommend asking them what they can do to make your eating out experience the best one possible.

7 years to diagnosis

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