Deliciously Moist Gluten Free Lemon Drizzle Cake

My favourite cake nowadays is lemon drizzle cake, I like it sandwiched together with lemon curd and iced with lemon glacé icing.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

Cake:

                  225g soft butter
               
                  225g caster sugar

                  225g gluten free self raising flour (My preference is Doves Farm)  http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/flour-and-ingredients/gluten-and-wheat-free-s-r-white-flour-x-1kg/

                  4 eggs

                  1tsp Xanthan gum (optional)

                  Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Method:

                  Beat the butter until pale and fluffy 

                  Add the caster sugar and continue to beat for about 3mins

                  Add the eggs one at a time, whilst beating the mixture

                  Add the GF SR flour a little at a time, whilst beating, add in Xanthan gum if using
                  Zest and juice one lemon and add to the mix, beat for a further 2 mins

                  Divide mixture between two greased and lined tins and bake at gas mark 4 for 30 mins


Lemon Drizzle:

                    Zest and juice of 2 lemons

                    25g caster sugar

Method:

                   Zest and juice two lemons (or one lemon and one lime) into a saucepan

                   Add caster sugar

                   Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, take off heat and wait for your cake to cook.

                  Once the cakes are cooked, do not allow to cool down, prick all over with a fork and drizzle your lemon syrup over your sponges.

                Sandwich the two halves together with lemon curd (I usually make my own but ran out of time today and so used shop bought instead) but to make it you need:

                2 eggs, 75g caster sugar, 50g unsalted butter and 1 lemon.
             
                 Break the eggs into a heatproof bowl, beat using a fork, add sugar, rind and juice of lemon and the butter in cubes.

                 Place bowl over a saucepan with a little water in, do not allow your bowl to touch the water, heat until just bubbling stirring with a wooden spoon continuously.  It will take about 20-30mins to thicken, so you need time and patience!  You know it is ready when it will coat the back of a metal spoon. 

               Take if off of the heat and allow to cool.

Icing: 

This stage is optional as lemon drizzle cake is delicious without, but we love it with the icing on.

                  125g icing sugar

                  Juice of 1 lemon

Method:

                  Sieve your icing sugar into a bowl, carefully add your lemon juice a little at a time until your icing is the correct consistency.  I like mine to be quite stiff, so that you can get it all over the top of the cake, and it just starts to drip down the sides, but doesn't go everywhere.

Enjoy :)

Lupin Girl x

I am linking this post to #FoodPornThursday



FreeGo

I recently discovered a website which sell only gluten free foods.  Not only is everything on their gluten free, but you can then select your allergens from a menu and it will show you the foods which you can eat.  The company is called FreeGo and their website is

www.freego.com

Here is a voucher code for new customers, you will get £10 off of your first order of £20 or more, well worth a visit!

http://freego.refr.cc/WF3TP4B

I placed an order for R and myself and was rather impressed with what we received. 

There was only one item which R didn't like, that was the Outback Animals, I cannot eat them as they have soya in, he said they were bitter and dry, so I guess they have quite a lot of cocoa in, but my eldest son likes them.

R was over the moon to be able to have ice cream in a cornet again (unfortunately I still can't as, you guessed, they've got soya in!) R said it tasted just like a real one, and has happily been munching ice creams in the depths of winter.  He hasn't tried the ice cream boats yet, but I imagine that he will enjoy those too.

The Mini Moos chocolate bars were a big hit, he particularly liked the orange flavour, but has happily munched through the rest of them too.

My little gem were the sponge fingers, gluten and soya free, I can't wait to make Tiramisu again, my all time favourite desert, and one I thought I wouldn't be able to have anymore!

For those moments when you're a bit nibbly in the evenings, after the children have gone to bed, and you've settled down to watch something you want to watch on the telly, rather than the children's channels, a bag of Portlebay popcorn really hits the spot, we had cinnamon swirl, lemon sherbet and very berry flavours and all of them are delicious.

For some reason I haven't taken a picture of the cinnamon ones, but they were just as yummy, the lemon and berry ones have more of a zing to them, and in all of the flavours you get a bit of the flavouring stuck in the corner at the end, which you just have to dip your finger in to dig out and lick off, not that I'm a big child or anything lol  My only comment against them, is that the pack isn't quite big enough, you really need a few more in there, but I'll definitely be ordering these again.

We tried the meatballs for dinner the other night, they are quite grown up meatballs, full of flavour and not like the mushy ones from a tin that my son had been used to, he did like them, but said he wouldn't want them all of the time.

We had had the breakfast biscuits before, and they are ideal for those days when you don't have time to get any breakfast.  I like to keep a packet in my bag in case I get stuck out with nothing available that I can buy to eat, as I end up with a migraine if I go too long without food, I think it's something to do with my blood sugars, so it's important for me to have something with me to prevent this, although if you don't store these carefully you end up with crumbs!

The only thing we haven't tried yet is the gravy, but I'm looking forward to trying it with a roast, I haven't had real gravy for quite a while (it all contains soya) and so we make do with a thickened up stock cube, not quite the same!

There is a lot of choice on the website, and the delivery was quick and the website is easy to navigate and read.  I was very impressed and will be using it again.

Lupin Girl x



Gluten Free Fish and Chip Shops

You might have guessed from my Chinese post that I miss proper chips, fish too for that matter.  We never had them regularly, but now I can't have them, I want them lol.  so when I saw a post on Facebook which has a list of GF fish and chip shops I had to have a look.  Apparently it's not conclusive, it only lists members, but it's a start and might help somebody (Not me though, as there aren't any listed near me, but I thought I'd share it anyway, 'cause I'm nice like that!)

http://www.federationoffishfriers.co.uk/pages/gluten-free-directory-596.htm

There is also a dedicated Facebook page for people in the UK

https://www.facebook.com/groups/312693812482/

On this page was this link

http://friarspride.com/gluten-free-map/

You put your postcode in and a distance you want it to search, and it finds any that have been listed, there's one near me :)  Woo Hoo

I have also heard that there are fish and chip shops out there that do GF chips (not always anything else) on certain nights, I think when they change the oil, so it's always worth asking your local one, and if enough people request it, you never know, they might start doing it.

I hope some of you can now enjoy a nice (unhealthy) gluten free fish and chip shop treat for tea occasionally :)

Lupin Girl x

Gluten Free McDonalds

For a birthday treat the grandparents took us to McDonalds (R's choice)  We don't eat in McDonalds very often, and we've hardly been at all since R had to go GF.  I knew that we wouldn't be able to eat the rolls, and the last time he was taken to McDonalds R would only have the fries and a drink as he didn't want to eat the burger without a bun, so I was prepared this time and took a pre-cooked Tesco white roll with us (the only one's I've found that he will eat)  I took a Newburn Bakehouse thin with me for mine.

We got a trainee on the checkout, but she knew exactly how to put through the order, our order is a pain in the backside lol as both R and I have to order without the bun, and L orders hers plain as she doesn't like the pickle, onion or sauces!  Still we always get our order freshly cooked and hot fries.

The lady gave us our drinks, and told us to take a seat and once our order was cooked she would bring it over, we only had to wait about 2/3 minutes before it arrived, and then we placed our burgers into our rolls, R had a quarter pounder, and I had a quarter pounder with cheese (R had my pickles as I don't like those either) and it was delicious, but why on Earth McDonalds cannot provide gluten free rolls over here is beyond me, they do in Spain, so it's not like it isn't feasible in their restaurants, and it is a bit of a joke that they charge the same, but we're getting less!

Do you think if we all emailed them they'd change?  It must be worth them doing now, and if they got in their before Burger King they'd win all of the gluten free customers from them as well!  Because even though out of the two I prefer McDonalds, if Burger King started to do GF buns I know I'd go there instead!
Maybe I need to start a petition?

Still R had a great meal and enjoyed his birthday treat so I guess that is all that matters.

Lupin Girl x

Gluten Free Zombie Cake

I asked my son what cake he wanted for his birthday cake, and eventually he settled on a zombie cake.  He had Googled images of cakes and decided upon one with brains showing and an eyeball hanging out!

I made a Madeira cake:

Ingredients:      GF Plain flour  225g
                         GF SR flour     225g
                         Butter               400g
                         Caster Sugar    400g
                         7 eggs
                         4 Table Spoons Milk  
                         1 teaspoon Vanilla essence


Method:

Place soft butter into a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy, then add the caster sugar and beat well.

Add the eggs one at a time whilst beating.

Add the flour and continue to beat well, add the milk and beat (once you think it's mixed, beat for another 3-5mins)

Halve the mixture, add black food colouring to one half, green to the other (make sure they are allergy friendly)

You could add a teaspoon or two of xanthan gum, although I didn't and although I really thought it was going to be crumbly, it wasn't.

Pour into a greased and lined 9 inch round tin and swirl colours together a bit. Bake on Gas mark 4 for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, mine was done in 1 1/2 hours, but check by skewering in the middle and if it comes out clean, you're cooked.

Allow to cool completely.

Once completely cool, mix up some buttercream:

Ingredients:

                    75g of soft butter
                    175g icing sugar
                    Few drops of Vanilla essence
                    Milk/water until the right consistency

Method:

Beat the butter until pale and fluffy, the carefully add icing sugar and vanilla essence, the carefully add a little milk/water, you need the icing to remain fairly thick.

Spread the buttercream over your cake, no need to be overly neat as you're going to cover with fondant.  Allow to go hard.

Sprinkle icing sugar over your work surface and roll out green fondant, then lay over your cake.  Smooth over with your hands and cut off excess.  

With your excess icing mould a nose, and eye sockets, stick to the cake using a little water.

Make two eyeballs out of white fondant, stick one into a socket using water, and leave the other one for now.

Mould a little black fondant for the mouth, place a little into the second eye socket and make two pupils for your eyeballs.  Stick your mouth onto the cake using water.

Using red fondant make some wiggly worm shapes, cut a slit in the forehead of the cake and peel open, place wiggly worms into the gap for the brain.

Make some really thin wiggly worms out of the red and attach to the eyeballs for veins, make one longer 'tendon' and place so it is coming out of the empty eye socket, place eyeball at the end of the tendon and stick in place using water.

Use remaining thin wiggly worms to place over the face as you like.

Mix a little green into some white to make dirty teeth and stick into the mouth.

Voila, one zombie cake!

Have fun making this for your little monster!

Lupin Girl x

Laser Maze

My son had his party at Laser Maze in Wellingborough yesterday and they were clued up on gluten freeness. They offered GF pizza, either cheese or pepperoni and said it was all prepared separately from the ordinary pizzas. He didn't actually eat much of it, far too much excited chatter about who shot who in the last game for eating pizza! He hasn't been poorly though so it must have been safe. 

So my rating? A big 10/10 for Laser Maze Wellingborough for making his special day a pain free day too :-)

Uh oh! **Update**

Well as delicious as that Chinese was, something has made me unwell, severe stomach cramps etc.  I feel a bit sick and itchy too.

I don't know if it was the fact that it was deep fried, I don't really eat anything deep fried anymore, and when I had a very greasy breakfast (out at a restaurant) the other week I was ill after too.  Or if it's the corn, there was cornflour and oil in the recipes.

Something else for me to monitor!

Guess I won't be going out to buy that deep fat fryer so I can have authentic fish and chips lol.

On the plus side, R seems ok, it's one of the few nights that he hasn't told me that he has tummy ache (seems to be a recurrent thing at bedtime at the moment!)

I hope anyone else who tried it wasn't ill and that it's just my fussy system!!

I've taken my antihistamine  and some painkillers and am going to go and cuddle up with my  hot pack :(


The itching got a lot worse and I developed a few hives, I had more antihistamines and the lovely people on the Facebook pages allergy buddies, were making sure I wasn't alone and had my epipens handy in case it continued to get worse, instead of better, thankfully the antihistamines kicked in and I was ok-phew!

My hubby pointed out that I'd put pineapple into the sweet and sour sauce, and although it is in my recipe, I don't usually remember to buy it and so we have it without.  I can't remember the last time I ate fresh pineapple, but do remember that it always has made my tongue a bit bobbly feeling, the only pineapple I've had more recently was off of the top of pizza's, but since going GF I've not even done that, so it's probably been a couple of years since I last had it.  Maybe it wasn't the deep frying after all, and I can invest in a fryer and have 'chip shop' style chips with some gorgeously battered fish after all!

After all that fun last night!  We've had a lovely afternoon over at my friends house, chatting whilst the children ran riot!  Actually they were very good, and made some lovely Hammer bead designs and played with the Lego :)

Lupin Girl x

Allergy safe Chinese New Year

          Gong Hey Fat Choy

Wow! I don't know what else to say about the batter.

It was amazingly crispy and light. My chicken balls were far, far better than any I ever had from a take-away. I will no longer be mourning my loss, but celebrating my gain (just think of the fish I could have with some lovely chips!)
 

The recipe made a huge plateful (fed 5 easily) 

The recipe can be found here:

 http://lupingirl.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/sweet-and-sour-for-chinese-new-year.html
 

I made egg fried rice as well. 

Boil rice, scramble an egg in a wok or frying pan, put rinsed rice into scrambled egg and stir-delicious 

The Amoy straight to wok noodles were a big hit too
 

 

My only disappointment were the fortune cookies. They tasted delicious but were small, sweet American pancakes rather than fortune cookies, like I say, nice, but not quite right. I will have to search some more for a more traditional recipe and just use GF flour maybe?
 

I'm also not sure I liked my fortune:
 

 'The greatest danger is your stupidity'
 

Lupin Girl x

Gluten Free, Soy Free Sweet and Sour for Chinese New Year

As tomorrow is Chinese New Year (Year of the Goat/Sheep.)  I though I would find some gluten and soy free recipes.  I love Chinese food, and since becoming allergic to soy I've not been able to order a take-away or go to a Chinese restaurant, so I use a family recipe for sweet and sour sauce, I don't usually do much measuring out (you might have guessed by now that I tend to do a lot of my recipes by eye and taste lol) but here is a rough guide:

Ingredients:

                  1 cup of ketchup

                  1/4 cup of pineapple juice (I use tinned)

                  1/4 cup of vinegar (I used to use malt, but now use red/white wine or cider depending upon which I have in the cupboard)

                  1/4-1/2 cup of caster sugar (depending upon how sweet you want it)

                  1tsp of cornflour mixed with a little water so it's not lumpy

                  Pineapple chunks (If you fancy them)

Method:
                This couldn't be simpler to make, simply throw everything into a glass jug (plastic ones tend to melt because of the sugar) and stir, taste to see if it's as sweet/sour as you like, adjust to taste with more sugar/vinegar if not.

                 Place in the microwave for 1 minute, stir, microwave for another 30 seconds, stir, repeat until as hot and thick as you like (shouldn't need more than another 30 seconds, but this will depend upon your microwaves power.)


I have seen recipes on line which include stem ginger and the juice in this however I've not tried as it's not something I ever have in the house.

I usually make this for a stir fry, but I really fancy the battered chicken balls, which were always my favourite from take-aways, and so I have been looking for a decent crispy gluten free batter, and I came across this from Free From G's blog:

http://www.freefromg.com/2013/04/gluten-free-crispy-batter-finally.html

It looks simple to make and I have the ingredients, gluten free flour, chilled water, and sea salt.  Doves Farm is my gluten free flour of preference and so I'm going to give it a go.

To go with my sweet and sour chicken we are going to try Amoy's Straight to Wok Rice Noodles as that way the whole family are eating the same thing, and hopefully they will be softer than the dried rice noodles I have used before, I will cook some rice too.

As it is Chinese New Year though, I want to make some Fortune Cookies to have, I made them once before but needed a gluten free recipe this time, and have come across this one:

http://honestcooking.com/gluten-free-fortune-cookies-recipe/

Again I have all of the ingredients in the house, as my son made gluten free corn-bread at school.  The ingredients needed are, egg, sugar, corn oil, water and cornstarch.  I will find some funny printouts to put inside of the cookies to make them more authentic.

I have a lot of new things to try here, and so will update, with pictures after I've made them, but wanted to put this up in case you are looking for ideas for tomorrow.

Lupin Girl x

Yummy fillings

Just a little update today on our pancakes as we tried out a couple of new fillings.

The recipe I gave yesterday (doubled) made 20 good sized crepes. 

 

The new savoury filling we tried, was B's idea and it was cheesy beans, the pancakes were scrummy and a good start for our pancake dinner. 

The new sweet filling, was actually two fillings, but based on the same principle. Caramelised apples/bananas. 

To make the caramel all I did was melt a good knob of butter (I didn't measure/weigh anything) in the frying pan that I had made the crepes in, then add caster sugar and the sliced apples or bananas. They only need to be in the pan for a couple of minutes, then turn using tongs, and remember to be extremely careful as the caramel is super hot and burny :-)

How did you eat yours?

Lupin Girl x

Pancake Day

Pancake day, or Shrove Tuesday, as it should be called, is tomorrow. 

So I thought I would share with you my recipe for delicious gluten free pancakes, and waffles.  Why just stick to pancakes, waffles are scrummy too!

This recipe makes Crépe style pancakes.

You will need:

                      1 cup of gluten free plain flour (I use Doves Farm http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/flour-and-ingredients/gluten-free-plain-white-flour-1kg/
                      1 cup of eggs
                      1 cup of milk
                      butter for frying with

(I double this recipe to make lots of pancakes, or sometimes do one batch with 'ordinary flour' but that makes cooking them more of a hassle as I don't have two frying pans of the correct size.)

Method:
                    
             Pour the cup of gluten free flour into a large mixing bowl, and add the cup of eggs and cup of milk, then beat well with a hand held beater until combined well.  It should be the consistency of cream.

             Get your frying pan hot, add a knob of butter and coat the frying pan with it, use a ladle to spoon in your mixture (one ladle per pancake, although this will depend upon how large your frying pan is, so adjust to suit your needs.)  You will need to keep the frying pan fairly hot as you cook.  (I find I need the extractor fan on full blast too, and sometimes the window open otherwise the smoke alarms go off!)

            The pancakes are ready to flip over once the edges start to lift (if they're still stuck to the pan, then they're not ready to flip.)  Use a fish-slice to turn them if you don't fancy tossing them into the air to flip them.


Waffles:

To make waffles I use the same ingredients, but you will need about an extra half a cup of flour as the mixture needs to be thicker, more batter-like otherwise it runs out of the waffle maker.

Sweet toppings:

               My favourite is the traditional lemon and sugar, but it is closely followed by warm berries, especially if we are having them as a desert, a scoop of ice-cream goes extremely well with them too!
          
              Chocolate spread is a winner with my children, sometimes with the warmed berries, sometimes by itself, they like to roll them into sausage shapes if eating with chocolate spread too.

             Strawberries and cream or ice-cream is another hit with our family, as is maple syrup or golden syrup, depending upon which I have in the cupboard.

Savoury toppings:

             The best by far (well in my opinion) is bacon with maple syrup, it is a really lovely breakfast pancake or waffle, sometimes we mix the bacon into the batter for the waffles so that it cooks inside them, then just drizzle with the maple syrup, mmmm.

              Another lovely filling is cheese, it goes lovely and gooey, and you can add whatever you fancy with it, bacon, chicken, or keep it veggie with peppers, asparagus, or mushrooms.

The list is endless, and I would love to hear how you like yours, so feel free to comment below, and we might even give your favourite a go in our house.

Happy flipping everyone,
Lupin Girl x

Yorkshire Pudding Review

So today, I tried two different recipes for gluten free Yorkshire puddings.

The first recipe I have tried before, and it was successful then, however today they came out like cakes, solid and thick, so I think I must have done something wrong, to make this review fair, I will review the ones I made a couple of weeks ago.

I got both recipes from a Facebook group called Coeliacs in the UK, and both make 12 Yorkshire puddings.

Recipe 1:
               Crack 3 eggs into a jug and then pour milk up to the 1/4 pint mark
               2oz cornflour
               2oz GF flour (I use Doves Farm http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/biscuits-and-cookies/gluten-free/gluten-and-wheat-free-s-r-white-flour-x-1kg/ )

Method:
              Place a little oil into a muffin tin and put into a hot oven to make the oil HOT
             Add wet mixture to dry mixture and beat well using a hand held beater, make sure the mix has lots of air in.
             Spoon some mixture into each muffin section, but only fill up to 2/3 full as they will rise.
             Put the tray into the oven (gas mark 7) for 15/20mins.

Result:

Recipe 2:
               1/4 pint of milk
               3 eggs
               3oz cornflour

Method:
             Place a little oil into a muffin tin and put into a hot oven to make the oil HOT
             Weigh out the cornflour and add the milk and eggs, and whisk well using a hand held beater, make sure the mix has lots of air in.  This mixture is very runny!
              Spoon some mixture into each muffin section, but only fill up to 2/3 full as they will rise.
              Put the tray into the oven (gas mark 7) for 15/20mins.

Result:

Verdict:
             Everyone in our family loved the second recipe best, they were enormous, light, fluffy and very tasty.  This will now be our Yorkshire pudding recipe, only I will make up twice as much, as we need twice as many lol

Lupin Girl x

            

Dinner Review

Last night's dinner, and pudding were amazing! 

The Pork Saltimbocca (available in the ordinary meat section, not with their free from selection) were so tender and juicy, they were a delight to eat and I could have eaten two!  The cooking instructions were clear and simple too.  My husbands wedges were a great accompaniment and easy to make;
                        
                         Simply cut your potatoes into the desired wedge shape and par boil in some water (about 10mins.)  Get some oil and flavour with herbs and garlic and get it very hot, then carefully put the drained wedges into the oil and roast for about 20mins on a high heat (gas mark 7/8)

I love baking, however it is fantastic to be able to find a ready made cake for when you're feeling lazy, and we all have days like that :)  The Marks and Spencer  Made Without Wheat, Gluten Free Victoria Sponge was a revelation, it was light and fluffy and full of flavour, it actually tasted just like I remember Victoria Sponges tasting pre gluten freeness!

I didn't have room for the bread last night, but have had it for my breakfast this morning, and again top marks for Marks and Spencer as it tastes as good as it looks, just like REAL bread!  It is called Made Without Wheat, Gluten Free Sliced White Boule and I will be going to my M&S Food shop specifically to buy this.

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

 

I hope you've all had a good day, whether or not you celebrate Valentine's Day.

 

Our lovely children made us breakfast in bed, and then my wonderful mother in law came and took them to the cinema and to McDonalds (although my GF son only had chips as didn't fancy the burger without the bun and so I've had to re-heated some frozen, left-over, home-made GF stew for him) so that we could spend some time together, and so we mooched around some shops and popped into Starbucks for a Caramel Macchiato (my favourite, and one of the few things I can have from there!)


We have sorted out the trundle bed in the girls room so that there can be a movie night in there tonight, as J has treated me to some lovely food from Marks and Spencer.  He has bought me a Made Without Wheat, Gluten Free Sliced White Boule, which looks amazing, it looks just like REAL bread, and I can't wait to try some.  We've got Pork Saltimbocca with his fantastic home-made wedges for dinner and then a Made Without Wheat, Gluten Free Victoria Sponge for pudding (all of it is free from soya, lupin and my other allergies too) and to go with it all we have some lovely Simply Pink Moscatel from Tesco, I've not tried any of this before so will update tomorrow with how it all tastes, but for now I can't wait!!

 

 

We don't really do presents, as we do this on our Anniversary instead, however he has bought me a lovely engraved, allergy alert hear-shaped necklace (the engraving says Anaphylaxis Epi-pen carried (see below) as I can't really wear the bracelet I have to work (not to mention the fact that I can't find it at the moment either!)

 

 

Lupin Girl x

Gluten free tomato pasta sauce

Here is my sneaky pasta sauce. I use it as a pasta sauce, and as a base for bolegnaise, lasagne, chilli, shepherds pie etc it is an excellent way of getting vegetables that your children 'don't like' into them. For instance my boys don't like olives (nor do I much) but ate this :)

You will need:

A little oil for frying

1 large onion

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

A splash of red wine vinegar

A desert spoon of sugar (if required)

Any vegetables you want to sneak in!

Method:

Heat the oil in a sauté pan, fry off the onion, and any vegetables that you are sneaking in which need frying (peppers, mushrooms etc)

Add a splash of red wine vinegar. 

Next add the tinned tomatoes and any other vegetables and cook through until hot. 

Taste, add the sugar if required. 

Ladle some of your tomato sauce into a deep container (I use a large Pyrex jug) and blend with a hand blender being very careful not to get splashed, it is hot. 

Pour into a container to cool, or over gluten free cooked pasta to eat immediately. 

You can also add garlic and herbs as wanted. 

Enjoy!

Lupin girl x

Always read the label!

I needed a quick dinner last night and so decided to cook sausage and mash with veg, gluten free for me of course.  R isn't keen on the gluten free sausages so he was having Heinz gluten free beans and sausages.  My youngest daughter asked what she was having, I looked puzzled and said
                         'you liked the sausages last time we had them.'
To which she replied
                         'but I don't like the mash.'
I tried to convince her that she did indeed like mash, then jokingly said
                         'do I have to make it pink like when you were little?'
                         'Yes' she replied with a big grin, and so I tipped in some pink food dye and dished up, yes it did look odd lol, and she still didn't eat it!  Then we dashed out to my son's club. 

Whilst I was sitting on a bench watching him, my stomach was hurting big time, I gobbled down some anti-histamines and some Ibuprofen and wondered where the toilets were, I've never been so glad to get going home again, and sat huddled on the settee with my hot pack feeling sorry for myself, the R said his tummy was hurting too.  I reluctantly surrendered the hot pack to him and gave him some Ibuprofen and Piriton, and went to see what on Earth was in the food dye.  It said:
                           May contain, soya (I'm allergic to), gluten (me and R cannot have), celery (I think I'm allergic to), mustard and milk! 
Needless to say it has gone into the bin!

I felt really bad for poisoning R (and myself) and wished I had read the label, I'm usually very good at checking everything.

We snuggled up watching T.V feeling very sorry for ourselves, and both fell asleep, I am pleased to report that both of us feel much better this morning, although tummies are still tender.

So, lesson learnt, no matter how much of a rush I am in, or how daft it seems that something would contain gluten, or any of my other allergies, I will always check the label, even if it is something we have regularly, just in case there has been a recipe change.  I felt awful having to write it into R's food diary, writing that is bad enough, knowing you are going to be judged on everything you feed your little one, but having to write in there, 'Oh and I poisoned him' didn't make me feel like a very good mum!

Here's hoping Friday the thirteenth is going to be kinder to us!

Lupin Girl x

Birthday cakes

I love baking, and have made most of the birthday cakes for my children since they were born.

I had always made them using 'ordinary' flour up until my eldest daughter had a couple of friends who were coeliacs, because I didn't want them to be unable to take away a piece of birthday cake with them I made her cakes GF.  The first year the Mum of the child let me use her flour and baking powder to make the cake, and I followed the recipe on the back of the flour packet, and this was the result

 

 

The icing was from a Nigella recipe for Autumnal Birthday Cake   

 

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/autumnal-birthday-cake-157 

 

 

The second cake I made I used a GF chocolate brownie cake mix which was lovely and moist and enjoyed by everyone.

 

 

 

 

If I have made a 'normal' cake for birthdays, which is most of them, then either I haven't eaten them, or I have made some GF cupcakes to have instead.  Last year when R was told he was gluten intolerant and possibly allergic to wheat, I decided to make his Sister's cake GF so that he didn't feel left out when everyone else was eating it.  I made the chocolate brownie recipe (which is on my blog.) 

As my daughter was turning ten, I made the one as GF and the zero 'normal', again it was delicious and the squeals of delight from my non GF daughter when she saw her cake were just brilliant :)

 

 

 

Happy baking everyone,

Lupin Girl

Breakfast trauma

My youngest woke up in a right grump this morning, not what I needed with a banging head and a stinking cold!  There wasn't anything he wanted to eat, everything was such a chore, you know the scene right?

I had lunches to make, my hair to sort out, make-up to do and to get us all where we needed to be on time, the usual, I didn't need him sulking across two of the dining room chairs hiding in a blanket!

He was sulking as I had said he couldn't have pasta for breakfast, one of his big sisters had made some 'ordinary' pasta for her lunch, and was stirring some cream cheese through as a sauce.  I didn't have time to cook the tomato sauce that R wanted on his GF pasta as he doesn't like cheese, and therefore he was having a sulk and I was an evil Mummy.

His ordinary cereal was boring, he didn't want porridge, or toast, and I didn't want him to go to school without any breakfast, then I had a brain wave, I told him he could have some of the flapjack he made if he had it with a banana and some milk, or I could make him a banana smoothie to go with it instead.  He looked at me like I'd gone mad, flapjack for breakfast?  I reassured him that it wasn't a trick, but if he wanted it he needed to have it now, he sat up, threw off the blanket and asked for the smoothie with some flapjack please, and he ate and drank it all, result, one happy little boy, who had eaten a healthy breakfast without realising, which equalled a happy mummy :)

To make the smoothie all I did was place 500ml of semi-skimmed milk into a blender with a banana which had been broken into large chunks, then whizz it up for a few seconds, I let R taste it to see if it tasted good, or needed anything else adding (I don't like bananas) he said it was brilliant and I poured it into a glass for him (his big brother had a glass too.)  I have had requests for berry smoothies next :)

On a facebook group I belong too called 'Coeliacs in the UK' I saw a post for flour less pancakes, using only bananas and eggs (2 eggs to each crushed banana) which I'm going to try for the kiddies as again, they'll think they're getting a fab breakfast (which of course they will) but it will be a healthy breakfast, I will plan this on in advance for a day when I have a bit more time in the mornings (it will be interesting to see if either myself or L like these as neither of us like bananas!) I might even do them in the waffle maker if the batter is thick enough.

If anyone has any other tips for quick and easy, healthy breakfasts that kids will enjoy to break up the monotony of either toast or cereal, I would love to hear them :)

Lupin Girl x

5th blood test and flapjacks

L had her 5th blood test this morning, she was happy as she got to watch some Despicable me in the waiting room first, and that her cream had been on for two hours by the time we went in.  She said the lady doing it was very good (she is also the lady who did her first blood test in this series and L rated her highly then) she took the tourniquet off at the earliest opportunity and the play nurse was fab too, she had L trying to spot Wally and made her laugh, before we knew it, it was all over, and she didn't feel faint at all (I was a little worried after last night, but all was fine.)  She had her can of Pepsi and some Haribo (I always give her high sugar foods after as it helps to stop her fainting) and went off to school.

After school R and I decided to make some flapjacks, so he has something to eat when nibbly that is 'simple' and that he can take to school in his lunch box.

We used this recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8840/funky-flapjacks

We made just plain flapjacks and I only had honey so used two tablespoons of that instead of one of honey and one of golden syrup.  I split the 'wet' mixture in half and used (in separate bowls) half the amount of oats as GF and half as ordinary for the rest of the family.  The 'normal' flapjacks came out fine, but the GF ones were very crumbly, so I'm not sure what went on there.  R said they were very tasty, however I think they'll be too messy to go in his lunchbox, good job he's hot dinners tomorrow :)

Take Care,

Lupin Girl

Quick apple crumble

I posted a picture of my apple crumble on Twitter earlier, and promised to post the recipe here, with everything that's gone on tonight, I'm only just getting around to it!

I didn't weigh out anything. 

Chuck some peeled, cored and chopped apples into a saucepan with a little water and sugar, simmer until squishy. 

In a separate bowl mix some GF flour, GF oats and brown sugar (I'd run out so just used caster) chop up a bit of cold butter and rub through your fingers until crumbly. 

Place some of the apples into individual dishes and sprinkle the crumble mix on top. 

Place in an oven on gas mark 5 (sorry I don't know C or F)  for about 12-15mins (this will depend upon how big your individual dishes are, but until golden)

Eat and enjoy, but be careful the apple will be like molten larva!

I've just realised that I didn't have a reaction to this! Maybe because it's cooked?

Lupin Girl x

Another mystery reaction!!

So I do dinner for the gang, pulled pork rolls, using left over pork from dinner last night. With lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, homemade apple sauce and mayonnaise. (I has jacket potato with cheese and the salad as I didn't want pork again after yesterday) I send L up to change ready for her club, and she comes down howling saying she's got tummy ache. To begin with I suspected she was trying to get out if going to her club, then she clung to me saying she felt like she does after her blood tests (faint) and her chest was hurting. She wasn't wheezing or struggling to breathe so I gave her Piriton and Nurofen and kept an eye on her (pretty easy as she was sat on me lol) it took about an hour but she improved and is now fine, back to annoying her siblings, but I don't know what the reaction was too. She ate the same type of roll, from the same packet, as she had on Saturday. Leftover pork from yesterday, freshly made apple sauce, (apples, water and sugar), mayonnaise (same jar as Saturday) and lettuce (this is new as I'm trying to get her to eat more fruit and veg, it is Tesco mixed leaf salad) then she had skimmed milk with a milk straw (one of those straws that turns your milk into milkshake as you drink), she's had these before, but not for a week or two, and she had milk on her cereal this morning? Stumped again! (She didn't eat the tomatoes or cucumber as she doesn't like those)

Grapes

We had a some of red grapes last night and R said he had a sore throat and tummy ache about 15mins after eating them.  He didn't go blotchy, but we gave him some Piriton in case.

I also had stomach ache last night, but we'd had pork for dinner, and I'd had quite a bit, and I know pork can give me stomach ache.  R also had a lot of pork and some crackling, so I'm wondering whether it was the pork, the grapes, or the fact that it was almost bedtime and he was hoping to stay up and snuggle with us instead of going to bed!

My stomach is still tender this morning, R hadn't mentioned his at all, ate breakfast as normal, but then I asked him, and he said it hurt a bit (should learn not to ask these questions as it just reminds them about it lol)  Still all at school, which is good, and I've written it in his food diary in case we ever get to see an allergist.

L isn't looking forward to her 5th blood test tomorrow (don't blame her really) I'm really hoping that something comes of all of these tests considering they're not testing for cyclic neutropenia in the recommended way.  They're only doing one blood test a week for six weeks and the National Neutropenia Network, and just about anywhere else I look, say the only way to test is to do at least three blood tests a week for six weeks.  Will definitely be asking to have her notes sent to one of the two Dr's in the UK who are a part of the NNN when I speak to L's consultant next time we see him, as it's such a rare condition, with only 1 or 2 people in a million having it that I think she needs reviewing by a specialist and the NNN website says that they're happy to review informally as well as formally, just hope he doesn't get all humphy about it.

Hello and Thank You xx

Wow!  I'm astonished at the amount of people who have read my little blog over the weekend, and I just wanted to say:
          
                               Hello and Welcome

Thank you to everyone who's been to have a little look, I hope you enjoyed what you read, and will pop back now and then to see what's been going on in my rather hectic life. 

Feel free to pop your email into the box on the right, I won't send spam, Blogger just sends you a snippet of my post which you can click on to come here and see the whole post.

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Take Care Out There,
Lupin Girl x

Pizotifen

My migraines have been getting worse and I'd stopped taking Pizotifen in a sulk as they didn't seem to be helping and I was fed up of effectively paying for a migraine!  I decided I couldn't cope without anything and so I went back to the Drs to see what else I could try. They have doubled the dose of Pizotifen to two tablets a day!  I'm zonked. I'd forgotten how much they knock me out. They have said I can decide when to take the, one at night and one in the morning, two at night (I don't think I'd ever manage to get up if I did that!) two in the morning, one in the morning and one later in the day. I started by taking one at night and one in the morning and was falling asleep before I'd laid down and struggling to get up, now I'm trying two in the morning, I'm ok during the day, but completely whacked by bedtime and I still find it hard to get up, but lets face it, I've never really been a morning person lol. Since taking this new dose I've had migraine headaches but not as intense and without as much aura, I do find I'm muddling my words though. I'm only on the second week so I'll see how it goes but may need to go back. 

Tasty nibbles

Ok, when the Dr said to keep R's diet plain so that if he reacts again we'll have a chance of knowing what it is too, I thought that would be quite easy. 
I make most of our dinners myself, this week we have had, jacket potatoes, stew, chilli, stuffed peppers and gammon and chips.  Even deserts aren't too much of a problem, we don't have them every day but I quite like baking (see my Bakewell tart post earlier on) but I'm struggling for ideas for tasty nibbles, things for lunchboxes in particular, R often has the same thing in his lunch box, typically:

                      a sandwich or Thin (GF) with ham or tuna mayo (home-made)
                      free from chocolate brownie from Tesco,
                      cucumber and or cherry tomatoes,
                      a fruit string/school bar/fruit
                      and a yoghurt/frube
                      with a drink.

I had (just before his reaction) bought some animal biscuits from Australia via Freego.com, but he didn't like them.  He will take fruit, for instance today I sent in tinned peaches (I did open them for him and put some in a tub lol), but it's the change from the free from chocolate brownie I'm after really, we're going to have a go at making GF flapjack using his GF porridge oats this weekend, but I need more easy and cheap ideas that he's going to like, they don't have to be overly healthy as he has plenty of healthy options to take from salad items and fruit as he eats lots of those.

I'd love your suggestions :)

Bakewell Tart

I had a Bakewell tart given to me for the rest of the family, and I remembered how much I like it, I've not had it for ages, so I thought I'd find a recipe for a gluten free one and have a go at making one for R and myself.

This is the recipe I used, it's from Doves Farm and was very easy to follow, and the result was amazing, R had two helpings, and I'm just waiting for the kids to go to bed so I can have another sneaky piece :)  

http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/bakewell-tart/

It's lovely to have something delicious that was actually quite quick to make (I even made the pastry, very proud of myself) as I had made a rice pudding yesterday for R to try, but I overcooked it as we were out so it was a bit dry and he didn't like it :(

10/10 for tastiness

Update

I took R to the Dr's yesterday, and was told what I expected really.  Keep a food diary, don't give him those crackers again (Really!) try to keep his diet simple for a while to see if he reacts to a 'whole' food otherwise it was probably a colouring, flavouring or preservative and we've really got no way of knowing to what.  If it keeps happening to go back and he'll refer him to an allergy specialist, if he gets an ana reaction get immediate help, and then he'll be referred.

L also had her 4th of 6 blood tests this week, and was a little star again, although she did tell them off as they squirted her with the freezy spray lol, the lady had forgotten that she'd just wiped the numbing cream off of her arm and squirted without thinking, L was not impressed! The lady was very apologetic and told L to just remind them next time not to use it :)

Oh, and the expensive animal biscuits that I bought for R so he could have something different in his lunchbox, which looked similar to everyone else, were, apparently disgusting!  So the others (who liked them) are having them instead (one less thing to order next time!)

I think we're all up to date now, for a while anyhow.

:)

Mystery reaction

Looks like I'll be off to the Dr's in the morning with R as he's had a reaction to some GF cheese crackers I bought for him.  He started grabbing at his throat and I thought one of the crackers had scratched on the way down and gave home his drink. He said it still hurt so I gave him Piriton.  Then he came out all blotchy on his face and neck. His throat stopped hurting after about 15mins and his blotchiness went away a bit later on, he's now curled up next to me on the sofa (9.45pm) so I can keep an eye on him, but all seems fine.  He's got no known allergies other than possibly wheat, which isn't in these, the allergies mentioned are milk and egg, both of which, up until now, he's been fine with?  It was definitely a quick reaction to something though.  I've got the box with the ingredients on, and the box for the new pie we had (Genius GF Chicken Pie) (only allergen mentioned is egg) and the new GF ice-cream cornets that he tried out too (soya and it says it's not suitable for people who are allergic to nuts or sesame).

That was definitely a worrying evening!

Apples!

So, I have decided to try and eat more fruit, as I really don't eat much.  I grabbed an apple when peckish and munched away, it was really nice, lovely and juicy.  Then I felt my throat tightening, not dramatically, just like when I'm beginning to get asthma.  Then it started to itch a bit and my lips went tingly.  I grabbed two antihistamine and my inhaler, took them all, and waited, I decided to wait a few minutes to see if these worked before using my epipen, and thankfully they did, the swelling went down, although I could still feel itchiness, but I was ok.  (This was on Saturday)

I am now wondering if whether my reaction last weekend to the porridge was in fact a reaction to apple and not the 'may contain soya', as it was spiced apple porridge that I had eaten!

Another food to get tested for when I visit the allergist in September (wheat, peas, celery and apples!)

#adultfoodallergies