Lamb Roast

A great and delicious way to have red meat.

Serves 4 with leftover meat

500g leg of lamb
1 clove garlic, halved lengthways and sliced
1 sprig rosemary, divided into small bits
Olive oil
Vegetables for roasting

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Place lamb in roasting tray (or on roasting rack) make vertical slits on top of the lamb and slide a slice of garlic and bit of rosemary into each of the holes. Drizzle lamb with olive oil and rub in gently.

Cook lamb for 15min in oven and then reduce temp to 180C. Continue cooking for a further hour and a quarter or until you think the lamb is cooked. Rest the lamb before carving. Serve with vegetables.

The leftovers are great the next day too.

A great website - Everyday With Allergies

I stumbled on this website while looking for a scone recipe. I'm yet to try any of the recipes but they look fabulous. I'm definitely bookmarking this site and am tempted to buy her recipe book too. I think I'll try making the chocolate cake first! Her post about soy cheeses also encouraged me to go looking again.

Click on this link - Everyday with Allergies

Morning Tea with a group

Twice a week my kids eat morning tea with a large group of children. This can be quite a stressful situation.

The first morning tea is a creche situation when I go to a women's bible study. Here the morning tea is totally provided and due to the allergy situation, the only things that are served are fruit and plain corn thins. It is a very healthy morning tea for all the kids as well as being safe and means I don't worry that my kids might get someone elses food while I'm not there to control it.

The second morning tea is at playgroup. There can be up to 25 kids and parents there so it's pretty crazy. Thankfully the kids all sit at tables but they have a shared morning tea. We bring a piece of fruit but some parents bring other things like popcorn, biscuits, cake etc. When we started playgroup this year, the playgroup coordinator made an announcement about my son's allergies and asked that people don't bring anything with nuts in it. So far so good.

Since then, my daughter was diagnosed with gluten, dairy and egg allergies - non life-threatening but health-affecting. I spoke with the playgroup coordinator this term and we worked out some guidelines that would make it better for everyone.

These are what we agreed on:
- Morning tea is only to be eaten in the morning tea room at the tables (this was expected anyway, but not always abided by) and no food in the play area where possible.
- People can still bring biscuits, cakes etc to share but know that my daughter can't eat it and protect her from it eg: fruit is on a separate plate to other foods and try not to cross-contaminate serving implements (something that still happens, so I try to serve her early)
- A reminder of no nuts (My son's allergy is life threatening. The group needs to care for him) We avoid things with nuts in the ingredients list. My allergy specialist said to ignore the warnings of 'this product may contain traces etc' because it is used too widely now in this litigious society.

The playgroup coordinator announced it to everyone and thankfully, no-one seemed to have a problem with it.

I bring a container of food my daughter can eat (including something yummy, like "Itsy Bitsy Bears" - everyone else gets something yummy so she should too really) and she gets to have a bowl of the fruit as well.

It's a lot less stressful knowing that everyone in the playgroup is aware of my children's allergies. They ask about it and I can educate them. By them knowing, they can help me protect my children as well. Preschool will be our next hurdle. I'm thankful for all the kids with allergies who have gone before us - paving the way would have been hard work.

Can I encourage you to tell coordinators about your children's allergies. The more people who know the better. And I think it's important for the kids to keep hearing it as long as it's presented in a way that doesn't bring any shame on the children. Keep an eye on their reaction to announcements and keep talking to them about it and help them know that it's ok to have an allergy (we have no control over who gets them) and that they must not eat what makes them sick. Teach them to ask before they take food as well - a self-control skill that is good to teach to any children - but one worth being strict on early with children with allergies.

Try it again

My daughter is a pretty good eater, but she has gone through fussy phases. One example is fruit. She would refuse banana, orange, mandarin, apple and pear and only want watermelon. For a while I had to just have watermelon in my fridge at all times, but I kept offering and offering and all of a sudden she is eating them all! The biggest surprise and relief was banana.

As a baby, I refused banana and as an adult (despite a few attempts) I still can't eat it. So I assumed she might be the same. The only reason I kept trying was because it's such a great fruit (a meal in itself at times!) and with her limited diet, it would be wonderful to have in her diet. So, praise the Lord, she now eats one a day - apart from about a bite's worth at the end...don't ask me why, but she won't eat it. Strange and kind of cute, but since I can't eat it, a bit of a waste :)

Book review: Friendly Food

Friendly Food is a recipe book created by the RPA Hospital allergy unit and has great recipes in it helping you to avoid allergens, chemicals and/or additives. Although a lot of the recipes aren't useful to our family (eg they have nuts or something else in them that can't be replaced), a lot of them are great and enough to make it worth buying. We are currently borrowing one from a friend but have bought one online and hopefully it will arrive soon.

So far I have made fish patties, crunchy chicken bites and vanilla cookies from it and all have been really tasty.

Breakfast

Breakfast is quite limited for my daughter (17mths) really. She is allergic to most breakfast cereals, and doesn't have enough teeth for a lot of the allergen-free ones :). So she gets a concoction which I created and she seems to enjoy it. It's texture allows for her to feed herself with a spoon because it doesn't fall off the spoon and it gets some calcium, iron and fibre into her.

Here's what she has:

2 dessert spoons of cooked apple, pureed roughly
5 overloaded teaspoons of Farex (Contains: ground rice, maize flour, soy flour, vitamins (Vitamin C, Niacin, Thiamin), mineral (Iron)
1/4 cup GF rice bubbles (Freedom Foods)
40-50ml soy formula

She also sometimes has a slice of GF toast with Nuttelex spread and then, about an hour later,a banana.

I think once her molars come through, we might look at something more crunchy but it's suiting us so far.

Bread again

We had been using Springhill's fabulous bread mix until I realised that I could be getting more calcium into my daughter if I could put soy milk in the bread mix. Springhill didn't suggest milk as an alternative to water, so I have gone back to Orgran's bread mixes (white and wholemeal) I use up to 500ml in the loaf, so that makes a big addition to her weekly intake of milk, given her dislike of it.

Book Review: Managing Your Child's Food Allergies

I heard about this book on the radio and went out and bought it that same day.

The Complete Australia Guide For Parents: Managing Your Child's Food Allergies

It goes through the following things, plus more:

- What is a food allergy
- Understanding anaphylaxis
- Food-allergy testing
- Getting the message across to family, caregivers and schools
- Understanding food labelling
- Keeping your food-allergic child well fed
- Living positively with food allergies

It is a great way for parents new to their child's diagnosis to familiarise themselves with everything about allergies, plus a few chapters of it would be helpful for extended family or friends to read, if they are having a hard time coming to grips with the news. It also considers possible reasons for the unbelievable increase in food allergy in the western world. There are many options but I want to point out (because lots of people think this and say it to the mother) that maternal diet while pregnant/breastfeeding has nothing to do with causing food allergy. That has been scientifically proven.

I am going to go back and read a few chapters again, especially about keeping my child well-fed. I encourage to you get your hands on a copy. I am pretty sure I've even seen it at Big W (which would, no doubt, be the cheapest place to buy it) and you can get it from numerous online stores like Borders (free postage) and Angus & Robertson.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I made a chicken noodle soup the other night based on this recipe. It was delicious but not devoured by the kids. The chilli could have been responsible, but also soup is a bit tricky for kids. The noodles were fun for them both though. :)
Here's my version.

~ 400g chicken breast, cooked and shredded. (I actually used chicken leftover from a stir-fry the night before and they were tenderloins, my favourite bit of the chicken)
125g rice vermicelli (Changs do a pack of 4 individual portions and I used 2)
1L chicken stock
1L water
2 carrots, diced
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried chilli (up to 1tsp if you like it hot and don't have to worry about kids not liking it)
salt and pepper
3/4 cup fresh parsley (I didn't have any so didn't put it in, but I can imagine it would be better with it)

Heat 1 tbsp oil in large saucepan over medium heat and add onion and garlic. Stir for a couple of minutes until softened. Add carrots and celery and cook, stirring regularly until vegetables are slightly softened (6mins or so).
Add stock and water to pot and bring to boil. Season with salt, pepper, rosemary and chilli.
Add chicken and parsley. Simmer uncovered for 15-20min.
Add noodles and simmer for 5min.
Season with pepper as required and serve.

Xantham Gum

I've just bought some because I've read about it on various allergen-free websites as being useful in baking etc. It can be used to thicken and stabilise dairy replacements like soy milk so that you can re-create the richness of sauces normally created by cream, butter or eggs. It also adds volume and viscosity to gluten-free breads and doughs.

My only concern from reading wikipedia is that it can be produced from wheat and therefore can have a wheat gluten residue. So check that it is gluten free before buying it.

I am going to use it the next time I make pizza dough and see what difference it makes. Normally the dough breaks up quite easily when you roll it. So I'll let you know how we go.

For cakes, add 1/4 tsp xantham gum per 150g (1 cup) gluten-free flour.
For breads, add 1 tsp gum per cup of flour.
For pizza dough, add 2 tsp gum per cup of flour.

Menu Planning

After a recent melt down when I was feeling the strain of cooking for my daughter and thinking of meals to cook her that she would eat, I realised that I was doing it the hard way. I was trying to think of what to cook for dinner on the day, with no real planning apart from having staple meats/vegies etc in the fridge. It really makes things a lot more difficult for someone who isn't very good at just throwing fabulous kid-friendly meals together.

So, I have started menu planning my weeks again. I plan a week at a time, make my shopping list and then only have to shop once a week (unless we run out of bananas or yoghurt as tends to be the case!). I have felt a lot less stressed this week. It also helps me look at what my daughter is getting and can show me if I am missing any food groups/nutrients too.

Green Olive Baked Chicken

Here's a classy recipe that my Mum loves to cook

3/4 cup pitted green olives, halved
1.6kg chicken (8 pieces. My mum uses deboned thighs)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp grated lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
250g cherry tomatoes
Cracked black pepper & sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 200C. Soak olives in cold water for 5 min to remove excess salt. Drain.
Place chicken in baking dish, a piece of garlic under each portion.
Combine olives, parsley, lemon zest, tomatoes, pepper, salt & olive oil and spoon over chicken.
Bake 45-55min or until chicken is golden and cooked. Place on serving plates and serve drizzled with pan juices.
My Mum serves hers with broccolini, roasted halved potatoes and boiled/microwaved sweet potato.

Because our kids are keen on plain tasting food at this stage we baked some plain chicken as well and then gave them the vegies as well. It didn't take any extra time and we had a fabulous meal.

Cooking for big groups

We are part of a church community and so cooking for big groups sometimes happens. It is a wonderful thing when those cooking can provide a meal (or one of a few) for people with special dietary conditions.

I read this blog post a while ago by Nicole (her blog is 168 hours) that gave a great and easy recipe that would suit my daughter. There's also a link to a downoadable cook book by Petersham Baptist Church that you might like to take a look at. The Ratatouille, Chicken Noodle & Corn Soup and Tacos can all easily be free of dairy, egg and gluten, and a few others are reasonably easy to adjust. It's great to have the numbers done for you when you want to cook big!

Here's the recipe:

Thai chicken

3 kgs chicken
5 tins coconut cream
1 medium bottle sweet chilli sauce
1/3 cup fish sauce
2 x 1 kg bags of frozen 'oriental vegies'
3 bunches coriander (to add at the end)

Put it all in the pot and cook until chicken is cooked through. That's it!