Saturday 30 August 2014

Family gathering

Very proud of my eldest son. He wants to be a chef when he grows up and his Grandad managed to get him a morning working at Langan's in London on Friday. He had a great time and helped to prepare lunch, peeling vegetables and dipping orange peel in chocolate. He loved it and still wants to work in the restaurant environment.  To do this he has had to spend a couple of days at his Nana and Grandad's, so today we've gone down to pick him up and spend the day day having a get together. I took myself a Tesco free from bake at home roll (which by the way are delicious, much nicer than the normal free from rolls) but C had taken Grandad shopping and bought me a loaf of genius bread and some cider! Also they had remembered not to put peanuts out as L is allergic to them and had made sure that the food was safe for her. We've had a great day and are all free of stomach ache etc :)



Monday 25 August 2014

McDonalds

I want to have a little moan.
I wouldn't say we eat here often, but when we're out and about with the kids and we need a quick bite to eat, that doesn't cost us a fortune, we often give in to the kids and go to McDonalds.
Today I took two of my children and my god daughter shopping at Milton Keynes and the children wanted McDonalds for lunch.  When I was just soya and lupin free I could eat here, only the nuggets or selects, but it was still a meal.  Now I'm gluten free as well, I can only have the garden salad, fries  and drinks (not the cappuccino if you have the chocolate sprinkles though)

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/whatmakesmcdonalds/questions/food/gluten/which-of-your-products-are-gluten-free.html

I am quite disappointed that a company as big as McDonalds don't have a gluten free range, they say that their chip fryers are safe for gluten free, hence the fries being ok to eat, so they could easily cook gluten free nuggets etc in there as well.  It wouldn't be too hard to have gluten free rolls for their burgers either on a 'safe' area to serve up, they keep all of the vegetarian food separate from the meat. I don't know if there is gluten in the actual burger patty, but I seem to remember my daughter's friend eating just a patty with her fries when I took them there a few years ago, so that would open up a much larger menu for coeliacs and people following a gluten/wheat free diet.

Holibobs

We spent a wet ten days in South West Wales earlier on in the month and as it was self catering I was confident I would be fine.  We were glamping and so had limited cooking facilities, for a quick dinner one night we thought we'd do soup.  I couldn't eat any of the packet soups, but found a tin of big soup that looked fine.  Everyone except myself and my youngest were having the packet soup, we were having the big soup, which I'd managed to convince my youngest was stew!  I cooked them in separate pans, using separate utensils and it tasted yummy.  However after about half an hour I started to get stomach ache, and was unwell all day and the next day :(

On a positive note, we went to New Quay and found a lovely little fish and chip shop called 'The Lime Crab'.  Initially I only went in to revive myself with a coffee after an extensive day on the beach (it was only cloudy, not rainy, but windy) and then crabbing off of the causeway, whist I was in the queue I noticed a chalkboard with 'gluten free chips, chips for all :) ask for details' and 'Gluten free fish now available :)'  So whilst ordering my cappuccino, I asked for details, all made separately and cooked in a separate fryer, no extra charge either.  I went back to the family and told them and we all decided that we would have dinner from there that night.  I received my order and the staff kindly wrote on my box for me so that we wouldn't get muddled as it was now raining and we had to go and eat in the car rather than along the sea front, typical British summer!

Monday 4 August 2014

Family gathering

At the weekend we had a family gathering to celebrate a birthday and to welcome a new baby into our family.
I decided it would be much easier for myself and my Aunt, who was preparing the food, if I took along food that was safe for me to eat.  I took a portion of gluten/soya free, home made lasagne, my bread, and some nibbly bits.  (Nakd cocoa and orange bars, homemade lemon muffin and crisps I know I can eat).  I also took a few sweet bits that are free from nuts for L just in case, as once the food is out on the table it isn't always easy to tell if it's safe for her to have and I didn't want her to be left out if the other children were munching away.
A lovely and food safe evening was had by all, my Aunt joked that in future we should all bring our own food as it would be much easier for her!

Ock n Dough

I went out for dinner with the girls the other night.  Luckily I did my research before I went and wrote down the meals I was allowed.  I wrote them down because although the website does indeed have an allergy menu, it is not in a format which is printable.  It can be stretched to be read online (if you are on a pc not a phone), but when you print it, it is not readable.  Armed with my small list of mains, sides and deserts (I was very happy to have found a couple of deserts that I was allowed) off we went to the Ock n Dough in Wellingborough.  We had to wait for a table so I thought I should just double check that the meals I had written down were still valid and asked to have the allergy menu to peruse whilst we had a drink and waited for our table to become available.  A friend accosted a waiter and asked him if he could bring the allergy menu over to us, and was told that they did not have such a thing.  I was disappointed as I had hoped that they would have changed this after I bought it up last spring when the same thing happened.  They have a gluten free menu available, but not the allergy one.  The waiter did say he was happy to go and speak to the chef for me, but as the menu at the pub was the same as the one online I said not to worry.  I do feel that such a big chain as the Hungry Horse ought to have the allergy menu available in the pub as well as online as it is not always possible to check online, it also makes an impromptu visit less appealing when you are dicing with death.