Tag Archives: home cooking

Here’s to 2015

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That’s another year done, more adventures experienced and new lessons learned.  We’re starting 2015 with a positive outlook – the switch to NG-tube and elemental feeding has already started to see some health improvements for M and we finally have a plan for moving forward that will be looking for the root cause for some of his health problems.  Both children are happy and settled at school and G is looking ahead to moving into secondary school in September. We’ve met and made friends with several of the lovely FABED families and have been able to help raise funds and awareness for this charity and the condition it supports.  I’m not sure what 2015 holds for us all, but, if nothing else, I’ve learned to hold tightly to my hat as it’s certain to be a bumpy ride!

Wishing you all a happy, ssuccessful and peaceful 2015.  May your wishes and dreams be fulfilled. 

 

Courtesy of connectsociety.org
Courtesy of telegraph.co.uk
Courtesy of minionslovebananas.com
Just some of the children’s creations
This is definitely a t-shirt us #EGID parents need!

 

Stir-up Sunday

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Courtesy of telegraph.co.uk

Courtesy of telegraph.co.uk

Did you know that the last Sunday before Advent is known as “Stir-up Sunday”?  That it’s thought that this tradition was introduced to Victorian Britain by Prince Albert?  Did you realise that the Common Book of Prayer is the source for the nickname as the Collect for the Day starts “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord“?  And I love the idea that hearing those words whilst in church on that Sunday, meant that cooks, wives and servants would be reminded that it was time to get started on preparing the Christmas pudding.

20141123_151640[1]The reason I know all this is that this year Stir-up Sunday fell on November 23rd and I went on-line to track down its origins, whilst G and M helped my Mum create a culinary masterpiece worthy of a M-friendly Christmas.  My Mum was given this recipe a couple of years ago and it proved relatively easy to convert to suit our allergy requirements.  The children have enjoyed making it and this year was no exception, even though we know there’s a good chance that M won’t be able to eat it by the time Christmas arrives.  The recipe was also a great opportunity for M to practice his reading skills and he did a sterling job in making sure that all the ingredients were present and correct.

20141123_154214[1]With all the ingredients in the bowl, the whole family took their turn to stir the mixture and make a wish.  M took a little convincing not to share his wish with the world, but the pudding was made and is now waiting for Christmas day.  I’m assured by those in the family who enjoy Christmas pudding, of which I am most definitely not one, that this is a great recipe and that the pudding is delicious as well as being allergy-friendly.  Definitely one for the cook-book!

Mission Impossible: More Secret Veg

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Courtesy of twirlit.com

Courtesy of twirlit.com

SECRET MISSION (should I choose to accept it!):

  • To find new ways to sneak extra vegetables into the diet of my somewhat veg-averse children without them noticing
  • Avoid the obvious appeal of a delicious chocolate beetroot cake and instead find a savoury dish that achieves similar success

RECIPE 1: Vegetable Fritters

Method:  20141007_173343I took one of the firm favourites in our household, Corn fritters and decided to give it the sneaky veg treatment.  I whipped up a batch of my Canadian pancakes batter, threw in a generous handful of frozen corn and then grated a large carrot and a large courgette into the mix too. I added a little ground nutmeg and black pepper before cooking and serving with sausages and some sliced cucumber and apple on the side.

Result:  Silence as the food was wolfed down, clean plates appeared and the requests for “just one more pancake please Mummy” came flooding in.  The observant pair had noticed the addition of extra veg, but as M likes his carrots cooked and both thought the courgette was cucumber, there was no complaint about my tinkering with this popular dish.

Mission status:  Success

RECIPE 2: Pasta Sauce

Method:  I took an array of vegetables I knew that neither child would usually eat, blitzed them together in my handy food blender and heated the concoction through in a pan before adding to some M-friendly pasta.  My very home-made and rustic pasta sauce was made from tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, courgette, mushrooms, onion, garlic and the remains of an over-ripe avocado.  This time I added a sprinkle of chilli flakes and a dash of rosemary to deepen the flavour.  Once the pasta was well coated in the sauce, I added some diced chicken and grated a little cheese on top before serving to my suspicious duo.

Result:  G and M again munched their way through a generous serving of the pasta dish and were keen to know when I would cook it again.  I poured the leftover sauce into a Tupperware container and now have it stored in my freezer for the next time this pasta dish needs an outing.

Mission status:  Success

EXTRA MISSION: Pizza

20140721_180656Method:  I bravely took a portion of my pasta sauce, added some safe BBQ sauce as well as some pesto before spreading across our home-made pizza bases. I then topped this with a variety of foods including ham, prawns, pineapple, olives and cheese.

Result:  Another resounding success.  The pizza disappeared within minutes and with no comment about the sneaky veg pizza sauce I’d added.

Mission status:  Success

FINAL MISSION STATUS: COMPLETE

Three brand new savoury dishes, containing enough sneaky veg to keep any mother happy, were successfully created and enjoyed by G and M.

A Birthday Treat – Lemon Meringue cupcakes

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This time last year, M was admitted into GOSH for scopes and he and I spent Mike’s birthday away from the birthday boy himself, leaving him to celebrate at home with the rest of the family.  There was a point this year when I thought history was about to repeat itself as we’re once again waiting for an admission date for M, who needs further testing to try to sort out the games his body is currently playing.  However, Mike’s birthday came, and went, with no sign of a phone-call from GOSH and I finally had a chance to make a long-awaited attempt at the Lemon Meringue cake I’d been dreaming of making last year. lemonmeringue

Lemon Meringue pie is Mike’s favourite dessert and there was a time, many eons ago, when I’d actually make him one from scratch for his birthday treat.  With the arrival of G and M, the general busyness of work and juggling the school-run alongside business meetings and the general day-to-day running of the household, I don’t think I’ve turned my hand to such a dish for at least a decade.  Add into the mix, the newer challenges of egg-free meringues and MEWS-free pastry and it’s not been the easiest pudding to make.  I attempted a cheesecake version for Fathers’ Day this year, but that didn’t quite go as planned, so I put my thinking cap on to see if I could figure out an alternative format for this popular dessert.

I settled on lemon drizzle cupcakes topped with vanilla butter-cream icing and small meringues.  I’ve made Lemon drizzle cake before, but found that the rice flour made the sponge taste very granular and I was keen to see if I could improve the texture.  I found a lovely recipe for vegan lemon drizzle cake and read around the options for replacing the flour to make the cake both gluten- and potato-flour-free. 20141015_194117 My final recipe included gram flour – an ingredient that’s been lurking in my cupboard for a while, but which I had yet to brave using – rice flour and tapioca flour and the end result was infinitely better than the last time, though some further tweaking to create the perfect lemon drizzle cupcake is needed.

I whipped up a small batch of my vanilla butter-cream icing and used it to secure the mini egg-free meringues to the top of each cupcake.  I was delighted with how these cakes looked and M spent most of the day, and evening, before Mike got home from work, begging to try one to “just check it’s okay for Daddy!”  I am assured by the family that the cupcakes were a huge success and so that’s another recipe added to my ever-increasing repertoire.

 

National Chocolate Week – Part 2

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Despite arriving late to the delight that is National Chocolate Week, we have been lucky enough to receive another fantastically M-friendly chocolate product to try and then review.  As I mentioned in my last post, Moo-free chocolate bars are a staple in the fridge at 7yearstodiagnosis HQ and this latest find might soon become another permanent fixture in our store cupboards.

chocshotI had never even heard of Sweet Freedom foods until I came across a stray comment on Twitter last month that pointed me in the direction of their allergy-friendly product, Choc Shot.  This chocolate syrup is made in the UK from “Sweet Freedom® (natural fruit extracts; apples, grapes & carob), water, cocoa, rapeseed oil, natural chocolate flavour” and promises to deliver great taste for a low calorie and GI content.  The website includes a wealth of recipe suggestions for using Choc Shot and I couldn’t wait to see whether it could do all that it promised.  M tried it first, opting to have it spread sparingly on a piece of toast, a rare treat in our household.  He liked the flavour, but didn’t love it, finding it quite rich and not overly sweet.  I could quickly tell that it didn’t quite hit the mark here as he hasn’t asked for a second helping at all.

Mark:  A tentative 7/10

20141007_182950However, I was keen to see whether we would fare any better if I used the Choc Shot to cook with and here is where this product really comes into its own.  I decided to whip up a batch of my Canadian-style pancakes for pudding and chose to deploy the Choc Shot in 2 ways to see which worked best to satisfy my hungry hoards.  The first lot was pancakes made with a generous helping of frozen forest fruits  – think cherries, blackcurrants, grapes and blackberries, all the things G wouldn’t usually touch with a barge-pole – mixed into the batter and drizzled with Choc Shot to serve; the second round saw me incorporating both the fruit selection and the Choc Shot into the mixture to produce delicious-looking Chocolate and fruit pancakes.  I dished them up and waited nervously for the reports of my discerning children.  Two rapidly emptied bowls soon appeared on the table, accompanied by requests for more pancakes, even from G, who barely blinked when I told her what fruits were included in her dessert.  I was delighted with this result, not least because the Choc Shot added a delightful chocolate flavour to the pancakes without making them overly sweet.

Mark: A resounding 10/10

20141017_122336The final test was to try the Choc Shot as suggested on the bottle itself – to make Hot Chocolate.  I heated mugs of rice milk in the microwave, added a generous squirt of the Choc Shot and topped it off with some boiling water.  The end result was fantastic – rich enough to feel indulgent, but not too sweet.  It was quick to make and was, by far and away, the best M-friendly hot chocolate I’ve been able to make since diagnosis.

Mark:  10/10

I was impressed with Choc Shot and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for an allergy-friendly alternative for chocolate to use in cooking.  It is readily available from most supermarket chains and is reasonably priced at around £3.50 a bottle.

 

*Disclaimer – We were sent bottles of Choc Shot and Sweet Freedom for the purpose of an independent review and the views expressed are entirely my own and those of G and M.

Who feels like chicken tonight?

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Who remembers that advertising slogan from 20 years ago?  I couldn’t quite believe it when I googled to see just how long it’s been since the “Chicken tonight” adverts first started being played on TV – 20 years and that song is still reverberating around my head as if I’d heard it yesterday.  For those who never had the joy of seeing these the first time round, here’s a quick sample to show you what you missed:

The reason that jingle came to mind is that I decided to attempt a M-friendly version of that other classic, Chicken Kiev.  My reason?  G read something in one of her books where the main character was sitting down to a dinner of Chicken Kiev and she had to ask me what the dish was.  I realised that, as a result of the multiple allergies we deal with in our household, there are several meals I remember from my childhood that G and M have never had a chance to try.  Chicken in any form is a meal they will eat, so I thought it might just be one they could both enjoy and something new to add to their repertoire.

As always, I searched around for an easy recipe and then converted it for the family’s dietary needs.  I always keep any left-over bread crusts or pieces in a bag in the freezer as they are perfect for making into breadcrumbs.  20141003_201701I’ve also used frozen wraps, which work similarly well when making crumbs and add a slightly different texture.  Everything prepped, I coated the chicken breasts, popped them into the oven and kept my fingers crossed.

The finished dish looked delicious and both children commented on how wonderful dinner smelt as they washed their hands and came to the table.  I served it with rice and a mixture of steamed vegetables the first time and with mashed potato (or sweet potato) the second time at G’s request.  The chicken was beautifully succulent and the garlic butter oozed across the plates as the children cut into the Kievs.  Both plates were quickly emptied and G and M have asked me to prepare it again soon.

A Chocolate-Lover’s Birthday

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Recently someone posted a link to this easy cake recipe on one of the EGID support group forums I belong to on Facebook.  I was soon drawn to its simplicity, not least because it was already dairy-, soya- and egg-free, but also because the comments that followed suggested it could be easily converted to a gluten-free recipe too.  What was even better was that I had the perfect occasion to try the recipe out – my Mum’s birthday.  As you may recall, we had planned a special afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian whilst we were on holiday, but the actual date was now approaching and we had a family lunch booked for the day itself.

chocsI think it would be fair to say that my Mum is an avid chocolate-lover, one might almost say a chocoholic and there used to be a time when you’d be hard pressed to find her without an emergency chocolate bar stashed in her handbag, glove box or on the top shelf of the fridge.  Bearing that in mind, it was something of a no-brainer to decide on a cake that would satisfy her idea of chocolate heaven.  The bigger challenge was in making that creation both deliciously decadent and M-friendly.

20140912_225331I doubled up the quantities in the chocolate crazy cake recipe and chose to mix the ingredients in a bowl, rather than in the cake tins themselves as I wanted to make 3 individual layers to sandwich together.  I replaced the flour with a blend of rice and tapioca flour and added a pinch of xanthum gum to help it on its way.  The cakes that came out of the oven appeared to be beautifully moist and not too granular, although Mike’s first comment on tasting some of the trimmings was that they were a lot sweeter than my usual bakes.  I swirled vanilla butter-cream icing with spoonfuls of Grandma’s strawberry jam (all the way from Canada) and used this to sandwich the layers together.  Lashings of home-made chocolate butter-cream icing then covered the entire cake, before I finished it all off with a generous sprinkle of pearl drops, moo-free chocolate buttons and shavings of moo-free orange chocolate.

It looked like my idea of a chocolate-lover’s dream birthday cake and tasted good too.  My Mum thought adding raspberries would have added a little sharpness to cut through the sweetness of the chocolate, but there wasn’t much left after her meal, which is always a sign of a good bake!

60 birthday wishes!

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My Uncle's amazing cake - and delicious too

My Uncle’s amazing cake – and delicious too

This time last year I discovered the recipe for the best chocolate cake in the world and all in the name of baking an amazing cake for my Uncle’s birthday.  This year I was given the weekend off as my Aunt arranged for an old friend, who is also a fantastic cake decorator, to bake the birthday boy a special cake.  However, I couldn’t let my uncle’s extra-special birthday pass without preparing some sort of treat for the whole family to enjoy together, so I instead decided to revisit an old favourite, egg-free meringues.

My original thought had been to use the meringues plus a great new product I’ve discovered to make a M-friendly Eton Mess dessert.  I read about Soyatoo! Rice Whip on the fantastic Lucy’s Friendly Foods blog and had immediately ordered both the rice and coconut whipping cream to keep at home.  I’m always looking for easy alternatives to use for desserts other than just cakes or biscuits and the rice whip fitted the bill.  A couple of weekends ago, I had whipped it to serve with some home-made apple and blackberry crumble and both children had cleared their bowls – a sure sign of a big culinary success.

However, inspired by the prospect of the new Great British Baker series starting next week, I thought I’d give a nod to macarons instead.  I didn’t venture into completely new territory by attempting to add ground almonds to the mix (that’s for another day), but did colour my meringue mixture before baking and paired them into sandwiches for serving.  I made flavoured buttercream icings to sandwich my meringues together and used M and G as taste-testers for the final product.  I had mixed success.  The yellow and pink meringues turned out beautifully, but the orange ones were an unmitigated disaster and ended up in the bin.  I made lemon and strawberry flavoured icing, filled the meringues and served the “macarons” in a dish. I would love to show you how they looked, but I forgot to take a “before” photo and this is all that’s left for the “after” one!

A single, solitary strawberry macaron left

A single, solitary strawberry macaron left

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY UNCLE R!

Delicious date and ginger cake

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I hadn’t been planning on yet another bake, but I remembered at the last minute that the children needed cake for the following afternoon at their holiday club.  Once again I needed to work with whatever was hiding in the cupboards and although G was keen for me to make my chocolate cake, I wanted to head in a new direction.  We’ve only just finished the frozen chocolate cupcakes leftover from our fundraising at the end of May, so I relished the idea of something different.  I’d recently bought a packet of dates and decided to investigate a date and ginger concoction instead.

SAM_1364I couldn’t find a good allergy-friendly recipe to use, but settled on this recipe and adapted it to make it M-friendly.  These days I try to find recipes that have not only already done some of the work for me, be they gluten-free, vegan or otherwise allergy-friendly, but that also look relatively easy to bake.  Fortunately, given my ever-growing experience in the kitchen, I was able to work out my substitutes fairly quickly and, once the children were in bed, started in the kitchen.  My biggest challenge to date then faced me.  My electronic scales had given up the ghost – I’m guessing the repeated falling out of the cupboard really hadn’t helped – and I had to revert to using my Nigella cups for measuring the ingredients instead.  I’ve never baked using just cup measurements before as I usually convert them into grams and millilitres, but needs must and all, so I rolled up my sleeves and got on with it.

20140728_223632I needn’t have worried as the final cake was delicious, though perhaps a little overdone from 5 minutes too long in the oven.  The ginger was a bit strong, though M insists that won’t hinder him eating the cake.  G is less sure, but is happy to eat it in small pieces and certainly didn’t refuse the slice offered to her for holiday club.

Perfect Pizza

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20140721_174621Today a parcel arrived for me.  To say I was excited by its delivery is something of an understatement as the contents of this parcel meant that M had only one request for tea – pizza.  At the Allergy show a couple of weeks ago we discovered the wonders of Mozzarisella cheese, a cheese made from germinated brown rice and which is therefore 100% safe for M.  I recently perfected a M-friendly pizza base recipe too, so this proved to be the ideal opportunity to put these magical ingredients together and taste the final result.

The best thing about this recipe is that it’s quick and easy to make and both the kids love choosing and adding their toppings to the pizza base.  I mixed up the pizza dough, rolled out the bases and then let M and G loose in the kitchen.  Today’s toppings were fairly simple, G chose ham, sweetcorn and grated Ewe’s milk cheese, whilst M settled on ham, sweetcorn, olives and slices of the mozzarisella.  He braved a taste of the cheese before it was cooked, but decided it was too slimy to enjoy “raw”.

20140721_180656

Fifteen minutes later and this was the final result.  The pizzas smelled amazing and both children tucked in.  The mozzrisella cheese got a big double thumbs up from M, so I know it must have been good and he’s asked for the leftovers in his lunchbox tomorrow.  All in all a resounding success and a recipe I’d definitely recommend to anyone.