Tortillas

Soft tacos are a great meal for kids - I find that my son will even eat lettuce when it is wrapped up in a tortilla! I have not yet found a pre-packaged tortilla that is gluten, dairy and egg free (usually the egg is still there) and they usually don't wrap very well either.

Laucke's Easy Baker's Gluten free bread mix have a tortilla recipe on the side of the box. I used it tonight to make some tortillas for my daughter and they went down a treat. They smell and taste pretty disgusting to the normal eater but she was happy to have something the same as us that she could "woll" (roll up). She even ate the grated carrot! I didn't attempt the lettuce - I just wanted her to eat it.

We filled our tortillas with taco seasoned beef mince (with finely grated zucchini and carrot plus cannelini beans), lettuce, grated carrot, mushrooms, tomato, avocado and (for those who could) cheese and sour cream.

Berry Muffins

2 cups GF self-raising flour
2/3 cups castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum (if you have it - if not it isn't a big deal - click on the link for why to use it)
Equivalent of 1 egg with No Egg
3/4 cup soy milk (you may need a little bit more but see what the mixture looks like)
125g melted butter substitute (Nuttelex)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup frozen berries

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease 12 hole muffin pan. Combine dry ingredients and then stir in wet ingredients. Mix until just combined (muffins turn out better when you haven't mixed them too much) and spoon into prepared pan. Bake for about 20mins.

I made mini muffins today with this recipe and halved the recipe - it made 17 mini muffins although I probably could have made the mixture go further.

These are the best allergen-free muffins I have made so far and our visiting friends said they quite enjoyed them!

Bacon and Mushroom Pasta

This is one I made up (although I'm sure it has been done before me!) and it has become one of our favourites.

Serves 4

4 rashers bacon, chopped into 1cm sqaures
4-5 large button mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
gf spaghetti for 4

Cook spaghetti as per instructions. Add the peas into the water just before spaghetti is ready so that they are ready together.
Meanwhile, cook the bacon until cooked as much as you like.
Make the heat low and add most of the oil and then the garlic. Gently fry the garlic for 2 min or so. Add mushrooms (they will suck up most of the oil) until cooked, add the rest of the oil and then return bacon to pan to reheat.
Drain pasta and peas and add them to the fry pan. Mix it up until well combined. Serve.
Add pepper, and parmesan for those who can have it.

Psyllium

Fibre is something that is often lacking in a gluten free diet. Psyllium husk is gluten-free and helps add fibre to the diet. My daughter's regular breakfast cereal seems to have gone out of production so we are using another rice puff and adding psyllium. It's a good thing to have in the pantry.

Play Dough

I'm still mastering this...

Cooked playdough
3 cups gf flour
1.5 cups salt
6 tsp cream of tartar
3 tbsp oil
3 cups water
few drops of food colouring

Pour all ingredients into a large pot. Stir constantly over medium heat until a dough ball forms by pulling away from the sides. Remove and knead dough until the texture matches playdough (1-2 minutes). Store play dough in plastic container. It should last for 3 months.

Morrocan Lamb Shanks

This is a fabulous recipe from www.taste.com.au

I haven't tested this on the children yet, but I think they would like it because of the sweetness of the dates. I would serve it on rice or potato (or maybe even polenta if I was up for the challenge) for them rather than the couscous (it is made of wheat).

Click here for the recipe.

Hamburgers

Here's a recipe I adapted from Jamie Oliver's Botham Burger (Return of the Naked Chef page 196)

500g beef mince
equivalent of 1 egg using No Egg
1/4 cup or so of rice/corn crumbs (or fresh ones if you have some leftover gf bread), so that it isn't too sloppy basically
a shake of ground cumin and coriander (depending on your child's tolerance of spices)
half zucchini and carrot, finely grated
salt and pepper
Other hamburger toppings
Allergen free bread slices or bread rolls

Mix all the ingredients (except other topping and bread rolls!) together under well mixed. Form into patties.
Cook in oil and when browned through, place on paper towel to soak up some of the oil.
Serve in rolls with toppings and sauce etc.

When I made this for us, I made my daughter's pattie separately first and then used normal egg and breadcrumbs in the rest of the meat. I also added finely diced onion and dijon mustard and a bit more of the spices. Just don't forget to cook the allergen-free patty separately/first.

Travelling in non-English speaking countries

We are planning a trip to Japan in January and are very much looking forward to it! We are going skiing with friends. My only major concern is the fact that I can't speak/read Japanese and we will go to restaurants and I have a child with a life threatening allergy. You can only imagine my relief when I read on an SMH article (4th comment) that there was a Japanese restaurant in Sydney that not only provided allergen free (and environmentally friendly ways of eating/presenting etc) food but that they offered to provide a free personalised information sheet in Japanese to present to restaurants telling them about the allergy and asking them to provide appropriate food. I have been in contact with the owner Yukako and she has been very diligent in asking questions and being in regular contact. I just received an email telling me that she is starting to write up the information sheet now.

Here's the link, just in case you ever Japan is on the itinerary - Wafu.

If you are planning a trip, it might be worth finding someone who speaks the language to write up a sheet for you (in the language and corresponding English). I'd be happy to pay for that peace of mind!

Baked Pumpkin Risotto

My Mum gave me this recipe when I got married. It is simple to prepare and you just put it in the oven. I've adjusted it to be allergen free, but it's also great with 'normal' ingredients!

Serves 2-3 adults (or 2 adults, 2 toddlers)

1 cup Arborio rice
2.5 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock (ensure gluten and dairy free if powder)
4 tbsp dairy free spread (Nuttelex)
350g pumpkin, peeled & diced
1/2 onion chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
cracked black pepper
sea salt
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (for those who can have it you can stir it in after taking enough out for those allergic)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C
Place arborio rice, stock, Nuttelex, onion, garlic & pumpkin in an oven proof dish and cover tightly with lid or aluminium foil.
Bake for 45min or until rice is soft
Stir through pepper, salt, parsley (and parmesan if possible) and serve.

You can add more vegetables to this like fresh spinach (chopped) and peas in at the same time as the pumpkin etc.

Nachos

Serves 2 adults, 2 toddlers

300-400g beef mince (depends on how much meat your family eats really)
1 packet plain corn chips
1 sachet of taco seasoning or just some mexican chilli powder (mild/medium). If you want it a bit saucy, use the taco seasoning, if more plain mince with flavour use the powder.
1/2 carrot, finely grated
1/2 zucchini, finely grated
1/4 cup rinsed canned chick-peas or red kidney beans or cannelini beans
1 ripe avocado, mashed
1-2 tomatoes, diced

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Cook mince until browned, add in carrot and zucchini then add in seasoning/powder and some water. Once it has reduced again, add in chick peas/beans to heat up.
Place corn chips in individual bowls. Add meat on top. For people who can have cheese (or you could use soy cheese), put grated cheese on top. Place in oven for ~5min or until chips are heated and cheese is melted.
Add tomatoes and avocado on top. You could add more things like rocket or lettuce or more grated carrot. For those who can, add sour cream.

Persevere

My daughter has had a well-documented struggle to drink milk of any type. Since the allergy specialist told me to give her soy formula, I have offered it to her every day, despite rejection every time for 4mths. It was easy to be frustrated at the wasted formula and money (I think most of the first tin of formula went down the drain) but looking back, my perseverance paid off.
Earlier this month we had a breakthrough. 60ml as a drink was a huge deal. Now, almost a month on from that, she is drinking 200-300ml a day! We praise God for this and are really glad we persevered. 4 months (when you look back) isn't so long and it is worth it for the result. She's looking a bit chubbier (in a good, healthy baby kind of way - she's a slim girl) and seems to be more content.

Another story of perseverance to success was with her vitamin supplement. It's a liquid and doesn't taste particularly nice. When we first gave it to her, she screamed, cried etc. It would have been much easier to give up. But we calmly gave it to her each day (unlike the milk, we actually made her have the vitamins) and now she happily takes it. It's just part of the routine. Worth persevering.

So, if your child needs to have something, I encourage you to persevere with your plan and not let your child take control. They don't always know/like what's best and it will get easier over time.

Vitamin supplements

When your child has numerous allergies, it is likely that they won't be getting all the vitamins and minerals they need, especially if, like our daughter, they refuse to take formula (which has a lot of the vitamins and minerals in it). We saw our GP a while ago and she suggested going on Pentavite with iron (available from chemists). Thankfully we had had a blood test that helped us work out what she was missing (iron and calcium). The change in her appearance was substantial - we had grown so used to what she looked like that we didn't even think she looked anaemic. Looking back, she looked quite unwell!

Can I suggest that you see your GP and/or a dietician and get advice regarding vitamin/mineral supplements. Your child might not need a blood test to work it out either. Supplements are not worth the expense if they aren't justified, but very much worth it if they are.