Tag Archives: wheat free

Yet another chicken recipe!

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We might be nearly 9 months into life with a NG-tube and in theory should have long since said goodbye to its presence in our world, but the reality is very different. M hasn’t been able to progress beyond our 4 staple foods and it is becoming increasingly challenging to make rice, chicken, cucumber and apple into a tasty and interesting combination for 3 meals a day. 20150710_203444M’s steady consumption of new favourites tempura batter chicken nuggets and arancini di riso has resulted in the purchase of our first-ever deep fat fryer – a piece of kitchen equipment I never envisioned gracing my kitchen’s counter-tops – and I have been concerned about the amount of fried foods he’s now eating on a regular basis. Thanks to a recent post on The Recipe Resource’s Facebook forum, I converted the cornflake-covered chicken balls to a M-friendly version and found a healthier twist to chicken nuggets for him to enjoy.

They were really simple to prepare and it would be easy enough to adapt the recipe to suit your tastes and dietary needs. I’ve added both sage and thyme to the mix and both proved popular with M and G alike and I’m sure you could spice them up with chilli flakes for a more “grown-up” flavour.20150723_190656 The quantities would be easy to adapt too, so that you only make what you need for a meal-time, although M has enjoyed them cold for his packed lunches recently too. I also took the basic recipe and made some crispy fish balls for M’s white fish challenge, which I’m sure, with a little bit more time and effort, could be moulded into all sorts of interesting shapes. It ultimately turned out to be yet another food fail, but M definitely enjoyed the bite-size fish nuggets whilst he could.

A taste of Asia

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Belonging to an on-line support community such as FABED is fantastic, but also really something of a mixed blessing. The joy of being able to build friendships, ask questions and sometimes simply celebrate a milestone with others through a deft few keyboard strokes is always tempered by the isolating knowledge that these families, walking a similar path to ours, might live hours away from us and chatting in person is not always easy to do. We have been lucky enough to meet up with some families over the last 4 years and have some amazing new friends who really understand the stresses and strains of living with a chronic illness. By far and away, one of the best benefits has been sharing recipes and restaurant recommendations and it was following such advice from a fellow FABED Mum that we recently ventured into a completely new dining experience for us all.

To say we were impressed from the moment we stepped through the door of our local Wagamama restaurant is no overstatement and not one part of the experience that followed let them, or us, down. I’ve learned to broach the subject of M’s complex dietary requirements at the restaurant door to save heartache all round and their greeter not only made a sensible suggestion based on the short list of safe foods I gave him – Mini grilled chicken noodles minus a few ingredients – but also headed off to talk to both the chef and the restaurant manager to confirm they could prepare a tasty meal for M that would be as free from cross-contamination risks as they could make it. Reassured that they could accommodate his food needs, we took our seats before perusing meal options that would also suit the rest of the family. 20150725_174814Whilst M was hugely excited about having rice noodles for his dinner, G was less keen, but with 3 different types of rice available, even my pickier eater was happy.

The restaurant manager acted as our waitress and was invaluable in helping us make sensible choices for all the family and our differing allergy requirements. The greeter had done a great job of passing the information on to her and she started by addressing how they would prepare M’s meal to ensure it was as M-friendly as possible. As M is only able to tolerate rapeseed and coconut oils at the moment, the chef suggested they steamed him a fresh piece of chicken, which had not been marinated, and which would not have the risk of picking up any food or oil traces from their other pans. They also cooked a fresh batch of rice noodles, again in a clean pot to avoid obvious cross-contamination and served them with a healthy portion of cucumber “noodles” – a meal fit to tantalise our young foodie’s taste buds. The plate that appeared was impressive and M gave the meal a well-deserved 9/10 (he wasn’t so keen on the cucumber noodles and docked them a mark for that presentation!).

G chose a stir-fried rice and chicken dish (Mini chicken cha han) from the children’s menu and we saw, once again, the impressive and extensive knowledge the restaurant staff had about their food when I asked if the dish was both gluten- and dairy-free. 20150725_175253The manager knew without checking that the sauce contained gluten and advised that most of the other sauces they use in their dishes do too. However, she was able to recommend Tamari sauce, which is gluten-free and would add great flavour to G’s meal. G was as delighted as M when her bowl arrived at our table and she awarded them a well-deserved 9.5/10.

Mike and I were not only thrilled to have found a restaurant that was hugely capable of meeting our exacting requirements, but also had great meals ourselves. The service was fantastic and when a small error resulted in the wrong side dish arriving at our table, they prepared the one we’d originally asked for and gave us the wrong one for free. Back in March of this year, there was a furore when newly introduced EU legislations required restaurants to provide information about the top 14 allergens contained in their menus and over 100 top chefs and restaurants condemned the requirements as an unnecessary and inconvenient constraint on the spontaneity and creativeness of their profession. From the faultless service to the extensive menu knowledge, every single thing about our meal at Wagamama screams out that no chef worth his salt need be worried about such demands and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this restaurant chain to anyone looking for an allergy-friendly place to eat.

Perfect pancakes

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During our recent GOSH appointment, the conversation naturally turned to the food I’m cooking for M these days and how we could continue to vary the options available to him with such limited ingredients. The subject had turned to our plans to introduce white fish and whether there were any M-friendly free-from fishfingers on the market, which there aren’t. I was just saying that I had perfected a rice-flour tempura batter, which would be ideal for making fish bites, when M, without looking up from the handheld computer device he was engrossed by, piped up to inform them that “…Mummy cooks me chicken nuggets and deep-fried rice-balls and flatbreads and pancakes…” before carrying on with his game. The conversation paused briefly as the dietician took note and then carried on from there, but it made me realise that I had never shared my rice-flour pancake recipe and I vowed to change that as soon as I could.

20141007_173343Pancakes are one of those recipes that I attempted very early on in our free-from journey and are still a family favourite 4 years on. I make the big, fluffy ones most associated with North America and use the batter as a basis for other savoury treats such as corn or courgette fritters. The basic recipe contains very few ingredients and proved easy to convert to the updated M-friendly version that you can find here. I flavour them with a variety of green herbs and they form a tasty accompaniment to any meal, enjoyed by the whole family, not just M and I even cooked them recently when he had a friend round for tea, where they proved to be a hit.

One of the best things about these pancakes, other than how quickly you can whip up a batch, is just how versatile they can be. With a few careful choices about flavours, they can be either savoury or sweet and both have proved popular with M. They will also form the perfect platform for our mini-challenges on spices and flavourings over the coming weeks, which I know M can’t wait to try.

Quick update

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Stocks-Update-1With 2 weeks left to the end of term, there’s so much going on that I’ve barely got time to sit down and commit any useful thoughts to paper, so I’m afraid this post is just going to be a quick update.  We’ve just had our first appointment in the new “Complex gastro and nutrition” clinic that our consultant and lovely specialist dietician have started at GOSH.  The thinking behind this new clinic is that for children like M, who have a chronic gastro condition such as EGID as well as significant, complex and multiple food allergies, there needs to be regular meetings with both a gastro consultant and a dietician to ensure that everyone is singing from the same song sheet when it comes to treating the health of that child.

Hospital appointments always induce mild nerves in me, but this time round I felt more apprehensive than usual.  We are now into month 8 of the NG-tube, when the initial plans were that M would have it for no more than 3 months at most and I was concerned that there might be discussion about removing the tube in the near future.  M’s health has been so significantly improved since we went elemental in December that I don’t want to rock the boat any more than is necessary until we have a huge improvement with his diet.  generic round label_1265358343With only 4 foods on our “safe” list out of 12 tried so far, it has been a much longer process to reintroduce foods back than any of the medics expected, although, to be honest, Mike and I had always anticipated it taking a full year, if not longer.  At the moment, M is coping well with his tube and is keen to keep trying new foods, so there are no concerns that the presence of the tube is having a detrimental effect on him in any way.

So, in a snapshot, the outcome of our appointment was this:  that on almost every level, his health is remarkably stable right now and even his hay fever isn’t causing too many issues this year; but the area of most concern continues to be his ever-growing list of multiple food allergies.  Our dietician is very worried that M is struggling to tolerate so many foods and now refers to him as one of her “biggest, but loveliest challenges”.  The process of reintroduction has been so slow that until we have at least another 2 or 3 back in his diet, we cannot change the amount of E028 he’s having via his tube and so the tube obviously needs to stay in place.  We have chosen the next 5 foods to try – white fish, pear, GF oats, venison and coconut – and will also be doing some mini-challenges to see if we can have some more spices and flavourings to add into my recipes.  I will continue to remain in regular phone contact with her throughout these trials and we will keep persevering with the food challenges until our next scheduled appointment in around 4 months time.

A cake for every occasion

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We might have had Christmas, Easter and at least 2 birthdays since M first had his NG-tube, but they’ve all been celebrated without a morsel of cake passing his lips for 7 months.  He enjoyed Foxes Glacier mints for Christmas lunch, a “fake” cake for his birthday and a passable rice-flour biscuit for Easter; but we were all fully aware that none of them could possibly replace the role of cake in so many celebrations.  PV-2The harsh reality of so few ingredients has meant that even at my most inventive, a successful cake replacement has just not been achievable, but with the re-introduction of apple in the last couple of weeks, M’s dream of cake could, and has, finally been fulfilled.

It is all thanks to one of the lovely Mums that I have become friends with through FABED and whose son, under the care of the same consultant as us and who M met during his hospital stay last December, is a few weeks ahead of M with his food reintroductions after time on the elemental diet.  R and I have spent time chatting, texting and e-mailing about the boys and where we each are along our respective journeys, sharing stories and giving tips whenever possible.  Having gained the advantage of those few extra days, R has had some useful tips when it’s come to preparing food for M, the best one being this M-friendly cake recipe that I was able to try out at long last.20150626_144401

Apple purée is a popular egg-alternative, though not one I have previously used in my M-friendly baking as I have preferred to bake with ground flaxseed meal or mashed banana. With banana being a definite no for the time-being and flaxseed being low in our priorities of new foods to trial, it was finally time to put apple purée to the test. The first job was to prepare some apple purée before having to deal with the tough task of stopping M devouring it all at each and every opportunity that arose until I had a chance to actually try out the cakes. Despite his best efforts and enjoying lashings of purée with his rice pudding, there was just about enough leftover for these delicious apple and rice flour cakes.  The recipe is simple, easy to follow and perfect for anyone with such limited safe foods and, what’s more, I’m certain that it would be easy to replace any of the ingredients with an alternative that suits your particular dietary needs. The cakes are deliciously moist and have been a huge hit with M, who is asking for them morning, noon and night and are definitely a great addition to his school lunch-box.

Tempting tempura

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I can’t begin to tell you how much I love being able to post new recipes on my blog once again.  Having a fourth safe food has really opened up some exciting opportunities for experimenting in the kitchen and I’ll be sharing the successes over the coming weeks as well as possibly lamenting the disasters.  Today’s recipe is actually one of the first I adapted when we started the process of food reintroductions and, just like my chicken liver pâté, is an old favourite harking back to the days when the children were small.  Arancini di riso, or Italian deep-fried savoury rice balls, have become a firm favourite for M’s tea and G, Mike and I all enjoy them occasionally too.

20150618_171855The key to their success lay in perfecting the tempura-style batter I wanted to use to coat them, as breadcrumbs won’t be seen in my kitchen for quite some time.  Tempura is a traditional Japanese light batter, which is typically made using flour and water, though some recipes include egg too.  I am very much a visual cook, rather than one to strictly follow a recipe and so my first few batches varied massively as I played with the quantities of rice flour and sparkling water used until I reached my idea of tempura batter perfection.  Using sparkling water makes the batter even lighter, but you can easily substitute it with cold tap water and will still end up with a delicious dish.  My final recipe has been carefully measured out and written down to share.

For me, the best bit about cooking Arancini di riso for M is that there are no rules.  Of course there’s a traditional Italian recipe, but you can add whatever you want to suit your dietary needs.  We have graduated far beyond the plain rice balls that I started with and now have numerous successes under my belt.  M’s current favourite is rice mixed with shredded chicken and cucumber and seasoned with salt, pepper and plenty of sage.  With my tempura batter recipe perfected, I have used it to cook M-friendly chicken “nuggets”, which have also been a big hit.  With the addition of apple, I’m planning to try a dessert version soon using stewed apple and some home-made and M-friendly caramel, but that, as they say, is a story for another day!

Year 6 Camp, here G comes!

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This weekend has been a busy one, perhaps busier than expected for me given that Mike and the kids have been away on their “Dads and kids” camping trip.  Instead of taking time to spoil myself in peace whilst they enjoyed the glorious sunshine and camp activities, I sorted, washed, shopped and ticked things off a list, all in preparation for G’s Year 6 camp next week. She’s there for 4 days of adventure: from archery to rock climbing and caving to kayaking, and it’s promising to be an adrenalin-filled time away from home.  It will be the first time she’s stayed away for any length of time, apart from during school holidays with my Mum, and I know she’s been feeling a little apprehensive about it all.  The strain of not knowing in advance who she’d be sharing a room with took a bit of the shine off her excitement and she was anxious to confirm that she could opt out of the caving, the one activity she has said she doesn’t want to do since we first heard about camp back at the start of the year.

The one part of her week away that has not been of concern for her has been the one that I’ve been able to contribute to:  her food.  I’ve met with her teacher, Miss K, and the Head throughout the year to discuss the catering arrangements at camp and had an unprecedented 3 meetings the week after half-term as well as multiple e-mail exchanges to ensure the final plans were watertight.  Miss K spoke to the camp cook to discuss G’s dietary needs and was reassured that they are well-used to catering for children with food allergies.  We had talked about the types of food that would need to be considered for G – GF bread (Genius brown), DF spread (Vitalite Dairy-free) and DF milk (Rice dream) amongst others – and armed with brand names, Miss K has been able to confirm with the camp that these will be available for G.

Mr._WorryI am confident that breakfast and lunch will be okay, but it is still the dinner arrangements that are causing me mild moments of suppressed panic.  If G was “just” gluten-free, I’d have fewer concerns; if she was “just” dairy-free, I’d be only mildly worried, but the combination of both, whilst so much easier to manage that the multitude of allergies of others in our household, requires a little more forethought.  When discussing the menu with Miss K, I realised just how much planning is needed to make G’s meals safe, something that probably seems strikingly obvious to everyone else, but is so second nature to me that I’ve had to learn how to effectively micro-manage these finer details.  It’s not as simple as ensuring that GF pasta is cooked for lasagne or GF sausages provided for sausages and mash as she can’t have cheese or white sauce, mashed potato needs to be made with both DF milk and butter and there’s the hidden use of flour to thicken sauces.  Those are the little things that sometimes slip under the radar.

So, the school and I have reached a sensible arrangement.  I am providing some safe foods for the week for G for those “just in case” moments – cartons of rice milk, safe drinking chocolate, GF breakfast cereal and a loaf of GF bread.  There will also be a packet of GF pasta and a GF/DF curry sauce tucked in that will take up little space, but will give me some invaluable peace of mind. I’m also packing a special camp “swap box” as an alternative to the lure of the vending machines that her friends will undoubtedly be pillaging at all times of the day and night.  In there will be safe biscuits, snacks and a few bars of our ever-favourite Moo-free chocolate to ensure that she has the opportunity to gorge herself at midnight alongside her room-mates.

Today I handed over that precious bag of food and, tomorrow morning, as M and I wave her off on her adventures, I know that she’ll enjoy a mostly worry-free fantastic week away with her friends and my concerns need only be small.

Feast or famine

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There are times when recipes, just like buses and blog-posts, can be hard to find and then, just when you think you’re in for the long haul, a whole host of them appear from nowhere and flood your every waking moment.  Over the last few weeks, I’ve been desperate to find some more alternatives to plain chicken and rice to tempt M’s taste buds and it is thanks to some canny suggestions from M’s dietitian, a lovely reader and even my hairdresser that this past fortnight has seen me trialling some new inventions of my own.

or-kitchen-gf1Today’s recipe is one that might not appeal to everyone, but it has certainly been a huge hit with M:  Chicken Liver pâté.  Both G and M love pâté and when they were little, I found a quick and easy recipe and regularly used to make my own.  I’m not quite sure why it didn’t cross my mind to revisit this recipe in recent months, but thanks to a throwaway comment from our lovely dietitian about the possibility of cooking lamb’s liver and kidneys when M trials lamb, Chicken liver pâté suddenly sprang to mind. I spent a productive hour or so flitting between my computer and my recipe books, searching out traditional recipes as well as some that are dairy-free and quickly came to the conclusion that, with a clever few tweaks and variations of my own, this was definitely something I could cook up for M.

20150602_182343The base ingredients are easy to source: chicken livers, oil, rice flour, rice milk and herbs and seasonings; and I think that the recipe is easy to follow.  In my latest batch, I also added the last remaining drops of the “Rice whip” rice cream I had managed to buy months ago, which gave the pâté a creamier texture, but isn’t necessary to make a spread that everyone can enjoy. The pâté has given M another fab alternative to the monotony of his daily meals and he’s currently loving his pâté “sandwiches” (rice cakes with pâté) for lunch, instead of the dry alternative.

20150610_175428Pâté perfected, it was now time to put my second plan into action and create a M-friendly version of Beef Wellington.  Sadly at the moment for us there can be no pastry, mustard, mushrooms, crepe or indeed beef, but there is chicken, chicken liver pâté, cucumber and rice and that, I decided, was more than enough.  I carefully cut into a chicken breast and created a pocket, which I filled with thin slices of cucumber and lashings of the pâté.  I coated the filled breast with a rice crumb and then oven-baked.  M tucked into it heartily last night and devoured the lot, which was just amazing to see.  So that’s another dish to add to my repertoire, though perhaps the end result was more “Chicken Kiev“, than “Beef Wellington”, a “Chicken Wellington” you might say!

 

Flatbreads and Fajitas

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It’s been quite a while since I last had a new recipe to share, but this one has become a definite favourite at home and M asked me to share photos of his “most delicious meal ever!” on my blog.  Chichen_Itza_El_CastilloWe are still stuck at 3 safe ingredients plus oils for cooking at the moment and it’s becoming more and more difficult to make rice, chicken and cucumber even remotely interesting to eat at every meal-time.  The inspiration for this new recipe came from G and her current post-SATs topic about the Mayans.  They had been looking at food in current day Mexico and she came home raving about wanting to try fajitas:

“Once M can have some more foods, then you could make him spicy chicken and find some safe wraps and then we could both try chicken fajitas.“

Her enthusiasm was catching and, as G is so often reluctant to try new flavours and ingredients, I started to wonder whether I could jump on this Mayan bandwagon and transform our staples into a version of this popular dish.  My first challenge was to find a recipe that could provide the wraps needed and stumbled across this great one for rice flour flatbread.  Deciding to not run before I could walk, I started by trying my hand at making flatbread and seeing what response it got from my discerning duo.  The recipe was easy to follow and simple enough to accommodate M’s new food needs as it just requires rice flour, water, oil and salt.  Flatbread made, I nervously served them and watched the entire plateful disappear before my eyes – an instant hit.

The original ingredients- I failed to get a photo of the finished fajita!

The original ingredients- I failed to get a photo of the finished fajita!

With the flatbread puzzle solved, it was now time to construct some M-friendly chicken fajitas for dinner.  I finely sliced some strips of cucumber, pan-fried some chicken with lots of black pepper and thyme (he’s not yet allowed to trial chilli flakes or anything spicier than green herbs) and used some of the home-made chicken liver pate I’d perfected at the weekend to add a little something extra.  He wasn’t quite sure how to put them together, so we decided on a thin spread of pate on top of the flatbread, a sprinkling of cucumber and some small pieces of chicken, before rolling the lot into a shape vaguely reminiscent of a fajita.  G added some sliced carrot and mayonnaise to hers and they both quickly scoffed the lot.  This is the first “sandwich” M has been able to enjoy in a long time and I doubt it will be the last!

United we stand

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Yes, you guessed it, today is:

U for Unite-page0001

and signifies perhaps the hardest challenge we’ve taken on for EGID awareness week, ever. This week Mike and I are standing in solidarity with M and with all those other brave souls out there who have to battle with EGID every day and have no chance to opt out when things get tough. For the past 2 years, I’ve documented how we’ve followed M’s diet for the week, restricting our diets as he has to restrict his and even drinking the occasional glass of Neocate Active to get a glimpse into that aspect of his life.

IMG_0940When we first started planning our activities for this year’s awareness week, I briefly considered eating like M again, but dismissed it, thinking that the limitations of 3 ingredients and a litre of E028 on a daily basis might just prove to be too much for both Mike and me.  However, fast forward a few weeks to my preparations for my newspaper interview and I revisited the idea of “eating like M” and wondered if actually this might be something we could achieve.  I chatted it over with Mike, debated whether we could do it and, both being keen to give it a go, decided this would be our diet for the week.  Each day will be filled with 3 meals of rice, chicken and cucumber prepared in a variety of ways and Mike will even be drinking the litre of E028.  I have undertaken this with careful consideration of my own T1D and will be keeping an even tighter eye on my blood sugar management to make sure that I stay fit and healthy during the week.  I have also opted out of the E028, but will be partaking in a pint of Neocate Active everyday to show willing.

We’re not on our own either as there are other parents, family members and friends who will be spending some or all of this week eating like their loved ones. Trust me, it’s not an easy decision to make, but is a great way to raise awareness and get conversations started, which is reason enough to stick to it for a week. I am filled with admiration for just how well M has coped with such a bland diet for so long and have been struck with the harsh reality of how much pain he must have been in for years to be able to cope with these limitations just because it’s helping him feel better. Three_Musketeers_SwordsSo tomorrow when you’re tucking into your bowl of honey nut corn flakes or a bacon roll for breakfast, or sitting with your feet up dunking a chocolate biscuit into your cup of tea, or perhaps even enjoying a plate of fish and chips for tea, spare a thought for M and the others like him who are eating a restricted diet right now or may not be able to eat anything at all.  This week it really is a case of “All for one and one for all“.