A couple of products we are enjoying

Potentially the tastiest cupcake we've made.

Icing and Sprinkles certainly make it more exciting!

Just like Cheerios! Well, almost.

We purchased these from Allergy Train's website. Eggs are suggested for the cupcake mix but we just used the equivalent of No Egg.

Wheat, no wheat, wheat, no wheat

Our attempts to get our girl onto wheat continue with a current break from wheat again. It doesn't seem to be causing any allergic reactions now but she just wasn't getting better from a cold/cough that she had so we have gone off wheat again to see if she'll get better. It hasn't been an immediate response but no doubt she'll need time to get it all out of her system again. Then we'll head back to wheat but this time very, very gradually on the advice of the allergy specialist we consulted before going off it again. It is very hard to go very gradually I must say.

On the food front, we had a chicken salad this week that was made up of baby cos lettuce, baby roma tomatoes, celery chopped, carrot chopped, red capsicum sliced, butter beans and grilled chicken (adults had a caesar dressing too!) and Mr 4 declared it to be the best dinner ever! Miss 2 declared butter beans to be the best bit (I wasn't very surprised) but she consumed a lot more vegetables than she normally does. They both helped me prepare it and I think that was partly why they enjoyed eating it so much. I think the best bit was watching them make the little lettuce leaves into beds for their other vegies and gobbling it up! Fun.

I'm still not planning to blog regularly - we are expecting our 3rd child and planning a move interstate - 2 very big events really - but I will pop in every now and then :)

A break is in order

As my regular readers may have already guessed, I'm feeling the need for a bit of a break from blogging about food. So I will take some time off and reassess at the end of it. I hope this blog continues to be a resource for lots of people with food allergies.

We are currently back to wheat free because my daughter's lip started getting it's eczema again and her back was continually spotty so we are giving her body a break. Then we will start again. Probably just with irregular dinners with wheat in them rather than bread for lunch every day like we have been doing. Thankfully she hasn't put up a fuss going back onto the gluten free bread.

I hope you have a good few months.

BBQ sauce

Not many regular BBQ sauces are wheat free, but Woolworths Select's BBQ sauce is so that's what we have in the fridge.

Menu Plan Monday and cookbook review

A great resource!

Another week, another menu! How great was Kate's win on Masterchef last night?! We were very excited for her.

Monday - homemade pizzas - they are great when you have others over for dinner - easy to multiply!
Tuesday - Fish in Foil with vegies
Wednesday - Roast Chicken and vegies (leftover chicken used on sandwiches for next 2 days)
Thursday - Spaghetti bolognaise (using pork & veal mince)
Friday - Pea & Ham Soup
Saturday - Went out to an Italian restaurant with the kids - Miss 2 had a pizza with no cheese - amazing to think that we can do this every now and then - having wheat in the diet certainly makes it easier!
Sunday - Turkey burgers - fantastic - we all really enjoyed them - I'll blog about it soon.

I bought this cookbook a while ago and found it fantastic to browse and inspire me with different ideas. I especially like the section with cookies/ cakes etc because that is the area I tend to struggle with. Each recipe has a code at the top to tell you what it is free of and a lot of the recipes are free of most allergens. The author is a Mum of children with allergies and she found she was supplying recipes to lots of her friends and so the cookbook was a natural progression. She has sections at the back with information on all the allergies she provides for in the book as well as a shopping guide with allergen information for lots of regular grocery items like flours, stocks, margarines, processed meats, sauces and snack foods. Really helpful and worth buying especially with the price. She also has a website that you can check out for more allergy information.

Popcorn Chicken

mmmm popcorn chicken

I was inspired by this post by Our Gluten Free Family a while ago but it has taken me a long time to manage to do it. Here's my recipe for Popcorn Chicken. Enjoyed by adults and kids but definitely only a 'sometimes food'!

Serves 6
500-600g chicken tenderloins
salt
pepper
1/2 cup corn flour (maize not wheaten - check ingredients carefully)
1/2 cup potato flour (I think potato starch might work better, but this was fine)
1 teaspoon Morrocan Seasoning (this has wheat in it - so I would do a combo of spices for wheat free)
a shake or two of garlic salt
rice bran oil for 'deep' frying

Salt and pepper the tenderloins and sprinkle with some of the flours, cover and refrigerate for 30mins. Chop the chicken into 1cm cubes (approximately).

Mix all the dry ingredients plus some more pepper in a shallow dish. Toss the cubes of chicken through the flour and ensure good covering. This takes a while because the meat is so small (you can cut it bigger but make sure you cook it appropriately).

Heat oil in a pot (I used my cast iron pot and had the oil about 2-3cm deep) and when it sizzles around a piece of chicken, it is ready. Cook chicken in small enough lots so that the pieces can cook evenly and not be crowded. The flours don't colour very much so take them out when they are coloured and the chicken is cooked. Remove chicken to paper towel on a plate. Tenderloins tend to cope with overcooking better than chicken breast.

Serve with vegies or a healthy green salad (you will appreciate the health even more!!) or just as a hot snack for a party etc. The kids enjoyed the leftovers cold the next day.

Tip: Lower the chicken pieces into the hot oil with a heat resistant utensil. This will avoid splashing of hot oil.

Pea and Proscuitto Risotto

I love risottos and so am always trying to find ones that the kids like. I thought this one might work but they weren't too keen. But I'd say that other kids might enjoy it especially those who aren't fussed about texture and onion (my kids tend to reject anything made with onion... D'oh!)

I used this recipe from Taste.com.au but made quite a few adjustments so this was my recipe:


5 1/2 cups water
3 tsp Massel Salt Reduced Chicken Stock Powder
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
1 large celery stick, trimmed, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup brown rice

230g (1 1/2 cups) frozen baby peas and corn

20g (1/4 cup) finely grated parmesan (be careful not to contaminate your working space or the portions for dairy-free people)
4 thin slices proscuitto (but in retrospect, pancetta probably would have been wiser because the kids really didn't like how salty it was and pancetta isn't quite so salty.)

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Boil water in kettle. Pour into heat proof jug and stir in the stock powder.
2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add the rice. Cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until the grains appear slightly glassy.
3. Add 1/2 cup of stock to the rice mixture and stir until almost absorbed. Add a ladleful (about 250ml/1 cup) of stock to the rice and stir regularly with a wooden spoon until liquid is completely absorbed. Continue to add stock mixture, a ladleful at a time, stirring regularly and allowing the liquid to be absorbed before adding the next ladleful. Put in peas and corn when you think the risotto is just about ready and stir until rice is tender yet firm to the bite and risotto is creamy. Put risotto in bowls for those who are dairy free and then add the parmesan. Season with pepper. Leave for a few minutes
4. Meanwhile, place the proscuitto/pancetta on a large baking tray. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes or until crisp. Set aside to cool slightly. Break into coarse shards.
5. Divide the risotto among serving bowls and top with the pancetta. Season with pepper to serve.
   

Menu Plan Monday and our wheat-eating girl

You had to be quick!

 Monday - My Mum made us a sausage casserole served with rice and corn chips
Tuesday - The children had chicken nuggets, chips and vegetables
Wednesday - Homemade Pizza night
Thursday - Beef and Mushroom pie - I used this recipe from Taste.com.au - so yummy but the pastry is puff pastry so has wheat in it. You could use an allergen free version like this one.
Friday - Beef and Sesame stirfry - we enjoyed it so much last week that we made it again!
Saturday - Pea and Proscuitto Risotto - stay tuned to get the recipe :)
Sunday - Popcorn Chicken and vegies - if this works out I will post the recipe!

Cookie - Butterscotch Biscuits - from the Failsafe cookbook done with GF flour. Very sugary and very yummy. They only have 4 ingredient so it was super easy as well.

Regarding Miss 2's wheat eating - she is eating some each day (she was very unhappy when I gave her GF bread for lunch today in an attempt to finish it off: "want normal bread!") and just has a couple of spots on her face that aren't normally there. I think lots of kids have spots on their face and parents wouldn't be worried about them but since she normally had a clear face, I know that they must be related to the wheat. Still they are very small and the eczema hasn't returned so we will continue. Usually I just do one meal with wheat and the other two are wheat free apart from every now and then (like having puff pastry on the pie!). We make sure that it is pretty plain wheat food - like white bread or things with little other ingredients so that we know if she gets another reaction it will be wheat related, not some preservative etc.

Sesame Beef Stir-fry

Here's a great family-friendly stir fry that we all enjoyed. Something that is great about it is that it doesn't need any allergen substitutes for my kids. My sister-in-law Soph has done a post with my recipe on her blog so click here to check it out. You can also read an interview she did with me the day before.

Menu Plan Monday

Yikes - I'm not ahead with my posting this week. Here's the menu:

Monday - Mushroom, Bacon and Spinach Pasta
Tuesday - Chinese spiced roasted chicken nibbles, rice and vegies
Wednesday - Kids had leftover chicken
Thursday - homemade pizza night!
Friday - out at sibling's house for dinner - kids had chicken and vegies for dinner (thanks K!)
Saturday - Fish, chips and vegies - I attempted crumbing the fish and frying it - bit of a fail - the crumb came off in the pan so we ended up with fish with crumb sprinkles - still yummy though - phew!
Sunday - Beef stirfry - Will give you this recipe on Wednesday :)

Hope you have a great week and maybe some sunshine!

Allergy Testing - what to take with you

image from here

An allergy test takes a long time. At a private allergy specialist you arrive, wait, meet with the Doctor and take a history, go out, wait for the nurse, have skin prick tests, wait for 10mins for the reactions to occur, go back into the nurse, she measures the reactions, then you wait for the Doctor again and then they see you and tell you what everything means. It's a long time for kids especially if they are the one with the itchy arm. You will need to take a good amount of food, special treats, comfort items and anything that will keep them sitting still or happy waiting. Here's what we took to our latest allergy test with Miss 2:

- morning tea snacks - corn thins, fruit
- special treats - itsy bitsy bears, mini chuppa chup lollypop
- comfort item - her muslin wrap that she likes to snuggle
- my iPhone with Dora episode and Justine Clarke on it

I knew that the Doctor's waiting room had a decent amount of toys and books so I didn't need to take any but if it's your first time, I would take a couple of books at least.

We had morning tea while we waited to see the Doctor the first time. The chuppa chup lollypop was the best thing for having while we waited the 10mins for the reactions to occur - it kept her hand busy and you could cope with keeping an eye on the other one and making sure she didn't scratch. Her wrap really helped her deal with the pain of the skin prick test. I used the itsy bitsy bears to keep her quiet while the Doctor explained the results to me.

I also took her out for a special lunch afterwards and that was something she could look forward to.
Do you have any allergy test tips?

Pizza Bianca

Miss 2's pizza bianca

This is an entree pizza that my husband and I love, especially when it was made at a fabulous Italian restaurant in Perth that we used to visit. Pizza bianca means white pizza so it basically means no tomato sauce. We make this version (not as skillfully!) at home regularly on a small pizza base and we make a separate one for Miss 2 and these serve as a starter (not the whole meal - not enough vegies for us! It's more of a garlic-bread-type side).  We use the normal base recipe (sometimes we add the chia seeds) and then here is what we put on top:

olive oil
garlic thinly sliced
fresh rosemary, removed from stalk (we have some in our vegie patch - it's so easy to grow - but you can use dried)
Salt

Drizzle the olive oil so that it is generous but not leaking off the sides, place your preferred amount of garlic slices and rosemary on top and then season with salt.

Place in the oven and cook until garlic is cooked and pizza is looking pale golden. Yum!

Menu Plan Monday - holiday edition - and Allergy tests

My poor little munchkin - she scored dustmites too this time...

We had Miss 2's allergy testing 2 weeks ago - it had been a year since her last one and I didn't hold much hope for any changes. The big surprise then was that she didn't react to the wheat skin prick test! I could hardly believe it! Egg had also gone down and that indicates she might be ready for a baked egg challenge in hospital in 6 months time (baked egg meaning baked foods that have egg in them like a cake/muffin etc). So we followed the Doctor's advice and gave her part of a water cracker (nice and plain wheat, no complications) and 20mins later, a bit more and so on. It seemed ok. So for the rest of the week we tried bits and pieces of wheat in meals but soon found that she was getting spots around her mouth and on her body and her eczema was returning. So I rang the Doctor and they told me to let it clear and start again. So we are almost ready to do that - Miss 2 is very sick at the moment (unrelated to allergies) so we think we will wait until she is in full health to start challenging her immune system again. Fun fun.

We were on holidays over the last 10 days at a house near the beach. It was fabulous. Here's the menu - a reasonably easy holiday menu. Note that some of the meals weren't wheat free but could easily be made so. The best thing I did was travel both ways with frozen bolognaise in a container which meant all I had to do was to cook pasta when we got there/home and heat up the bolognaise.


Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise
Thursday - Pizza (using store bought bases)
Friday - Chicken and Vegie stirfry (using store bought honey, garlic & soy sauce) on rice
Saturday - Soft Tacos with mince and vegies
Sunday - Fish and Chips (from the takeaway shop - grilled fish for Miss 2)
Monday - Pasta with Bacon, Mushroom & Spinach - I substituted spinach for peas in this recipe
Tuesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise (cooked enough to freeze for Saturday night)
Wednesday - Chicken Stir Fry (to use up the rest of the sauce)
Thursday -Sausages, mash potato and vegies.
Friday - Roast Chicken and Vegies

I think I might put my spag bol recipe up soon. I just realised I don't think I've put one up.

A change is as good as a holiday

I've been trying to think of a more concise name for this blog and I think I'm happy with this one. Does anyone get what I'm trying to do with the name? My husband thinks it's a bit of a stretch :) Oh well, even if you don't, I think it rolls of the tongue better than the sentence that was my blog name before!
I had a great week away with my family and am looking forward to getting back into blogging proper on Monday.

Holiday time

I'm taking this week off while the school holidays are on. Looking forward to sharing some exciting news with you next week!

If you haven't already, feel free to subscribe to my feed (see the 'Keep Up With Me' section on the right).

Have a great week

Chicken Noodle Soup

A yummy chicken noodle soup.

2L Chicken Stock (I made my own similar to this recipe, using a chicken carcass and kept the carrots to use in my soup)
2 chicken breasts
2 portions rice vermicelli noodles
half a cup frozen peas and corn
1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley (I kept it mostly out of the kids' soups and just gave them a little bit and mixed the rest in for us)


Make your own stock. B

Guest recipe: Muesli (Granola) Bars

If only I'd waited while it cooled - it was still yummy

It's been a while since we've had a guest recipe but here's another from my good friend. Her children also had to avoid soy as well. Muesli bars are often a source of nuts or traces of nuts and they are unbelievably expensive too! Here's one you can make at home that everyone will enjoy.

180g Nuttelex (dairy free spread)
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup each of dried apricots and dates – chopped
1/2 cup plain GF flour
1/3 cup pepitas
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 egg equivalent of no-egg (Egg substitute)

Place Nuttelex and sugar into a small saucepan and stir over a low to medium heat until Nuttelex has melted and the sugar has dissolved, set aside to cool slightly. In a large bowl, mix oats, apricots, dates, flour, pepitas and sunflower seeds. Make a well in the center of the dry mix and add the cooled butter mixture, egg and vanilla.

Stir until well combined. Spread evenly into an 18x28 greased tray and press down firmly, bake for 25-30mins at 180 degrees or until golden brown. Then allow to cool and slice into fingers.

We didn't have pepitas so added puffed amaranth instead. We also halved the recipe so it didn't fill the tray but it still worked. I reduced the amount of apricots and added in sultanas instead because we try to avoid sulfites. I was a bit keen and took the slice out before it cooled and it all fell apart so I encourage you to be patient - I think it will cut better if you wait! :)

Menu Plan Monday

Also egg free!

It's been a while since I've done my Menu Plan Monday but here it is again!

Monday - homemade fish & chips
Tuesday - chicken sausages and vegies (thanks Soph!)
Wednesday - Roast chicken and vegies
Thursday - Pasta with mince (we had some frozen leftover burrito mince the other week to use - yay for minimal cooking!)
Friday - We had friends over for dinner so the kids had chicken nuggets and vegies
Saturday - We tried a new pizza base by Old Time Bakery that I found at the supermarket - the kids both ate it so as not to waste any and both really enjoyed it. I had a taste and thought it was pretty nice with a not as nice aftertaste but overall a good thin and crispy base. We'll use the other one when we go on holidays and I'm not up for making our own. I like the fact that you can freeze the 2nd one for up to a year!
Sunday - Chicken noodle soup and toast - I made my own chicken stock (we bought a chicken carcass for about $1 from the butcher - bargain!) and we used vermicelli rice noodles. I will post this recipe later in the week.

Vanilla - a flavour saviour

In general, allergen free foods don't taste anywhere near as nice as 'normal' foods. It has been hard to work out how to make things more enjoyable. Here is one tip - use vanilla in baking. Most of the recipes that I've liked when I've baked allergen free have had vanilla essence or vanilla beans in them. It's a pantry essential.
Here's a few recipes that I use vanilla flavouring for -
Sultana and Oat Cookies
Vanilla Bean Biscuits
Brownies
Berry Muffins
Wacky Cake
Coconut Vanilla Icing

Pea & Ham Soup

Before stirring the meat in. I used yellow split peas. Next time I think I'll try to find green ones for the colour.

An amazing slow cooker recipe for pea and ham soup from a friend of ours. We made it over the weekend and it was well-received by all except Miss 2... she struggled with the texture I think but had 3 spoonfuls with the promise of yoghurt to follow! Despite that, I think it is a fantastic recipe. It can also be done in a pressure cooker or on the stove top but you'll have to work out your timings for them.

1 cup split peas (yellow or green), washed and soaked overnight

~8 cups water

1 (~700g) ham hock (a ham shank is better I think but harder to get)

1 chopped onion

Pepper & salt (usually the ham is salty enough but I added a tsp of chicken stock powder)

2 chopped carrots

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

a chunk of pumpkin, chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled & chopped

You can add other soup vegetables like celery if you like.

Place eveything in the slow cooker (include the water that the peas were soaked in as part of the 8 cups and add more if you need to so that you cover everything in the slow cooker) and cook on low for about 7hrs or until the meat is falling off the bones.

After it is finished, remove the bones and as much of the meat as you can. Blend the soup (you don’t have to, but I prefer to. You can just give it a good stir and it will mostly break down anyway but still stay a bit chunky – depends how you like your soup). Chop the meat into small pieces and put back into soup. Stir and season with pepper again if you think it needs it.

Hot Chips & Chicken Salt - Red Rooster & McDonalds

Having fun with a birthday treat earlier this year :)

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while because last year we went to Red Rooster for hot chips and, after it taking a very long time for them to find the ingredients of their hot chips and chicken salt it then turned out that it had gluten in it. So we went back to our safety zone of McDonalds fries (download the food sensitivity table or look at the ingredients list)

However, I thought I would check the nutritional information again and looks like they no longer have any allergens in them. So whether or not the information I got first was right or not, you can now know that their chips and chicken salt are free of gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanuts, treenuts and all other main allergens. Nice to know that a more solid potato chip is available.

Read more about hot chips and which other ones have allergens here.

Sultana and Oat Cookies

I think these are the best allergen-free cookie I have made so far. Crunchy but slightly soft inside. Yum!
I adapted this recipe from Taste.com.au.

The amount below made 14 cookies. You can easily double the mixture:

65g dairy free spread
1/4 cup caster sugar and brown sugar mixed together (about half and half)
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
Equivalent of 1 egg using No Egg
1 cup gluten free self raising flour
1/2 tbsp soy milk
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sultanas
another 1/2 tbsp soy milk

Preheat oven to 180C.
Add sugars and vanilla essence to the dairy free spread and mix with electric mixer until creamed. Add egg replacer and mix until well combined (takes a little bit of time).
Sift in flour, add the first bit of soy milk and stir until combined well.
And in oats, sultanas and the rest of the milk and combine.
Roll into balls, place on baking paper on a baking tray and then press down with your fingers or fork.
Bake in middle of oven for ~17 mins or until golden. Mine took 17mins :)

Menu Plan Monday

I really do the planning!

Bit late this week!
Monday - Lamb and Vegetables (my husband and I had a fantastic lamb curry so I just made plain meat and 3 veg for the kids)
Tuesday - I'm going to try out a Chicken Parmigiana using soy cheese (normal cheese for the rest of us though!). Will tell you about it if it works!
Wednesday - pizza night - will use chia seeds in it and mushroom, zucchini, corn, capsicum and maybe ham on top.
Thursday - soft tacos - those tortillas will get another workout!
Friday - Fish and homemade chips and veg.
Saturday - Will be out for a shared dinner - have arranged for the sausages to be gluten free and will be making and taking a pea & ham soup that is allergen free for everyone but hopefully she'll try it. Will take along a bread roll from Choices too.
Sunday - leftover soup (hopefully!) and toast. Maybe a Raffertys sachet for her if she baulks at the soup. Easy dinner day!

Ideas for picky eaters and more

I watched this interview and thought Kelly's suggestions for introducing foods to picky eaters quite useful. Similar to what I said a while ago but more specific. There are some other good tips as well. Kelly's focus isn't feeding children with allergies but I think there are lots of useful things. Our Gluten Free Family will probably have the rest of the interview up soon or you could follow the links. Apologies for the way the video goes on the screen - I haven't designed the blog for wide screen! And you'll probably need to turn it up.

Mrs Robens Tortillas

The results!

The all important fold and hold test!

The other day I ordered a tortilla mix from the Allergy Train website. I made sure I put burritos on our menu plan and so on Sunday it was burrito time! The mix instructions are designed for the mix to be used all at once so I had to work hard at working out my ratios but I managed to make just enough for 3 tortillas. One problem was that you need a tortilla press but I used our sandwich press (with baking paper because we often put buttered normal bread in there) and although they were a bit thick, we had success! My daughter really enjoyed them and they rolled really well - no breakage - a very important thing in the gluten free world! I tasted them and they were very pleasant, even in the aftertaste. So we'll be doing that again soon. These tortillas also might be a good lunch option for when she starts school (but hopefully she may have grown out of the allergy by then...?)

We filled our burritos with chicken and chick peas seasoned with an Old El Paso burrito mix and pan fried, grated carrot, diced tomato, cucumber slices and shredded lettuce. Yum.

Popcorn when travelling

Normally I like making my own popcorn but it's a bit of a hassle on holidays so we buy Coles butter or lite butter microwave popcorn. It's only allergen is soy (so fine for us!) an it is quite tasty. We prefer the lite for health reasons and the salt is a little overwhelming in the butter version anyway. So that's what we will have for a snack this long weekend while we are here near the beach. Have a great long weekend those of you who have it - are you doing anything special?

Banana Muffins

I know they are expensive, but when you have kids with allergies, you just have to bite the bullet to ensure your children eat well and are full and healthy. So after a short hiatus, my common sense, and a desire to support the Queensland farmers, means we are back on bananas, although slightly less often than normal.

I make this healthy tasty (normal flour/milk) muffin all the time for my son. He loves them. Yesterday I gave them a go with gluten free flour and soy milk. Even I thought they tasted yummy and I can't stand banana (and don't particularly like GF flour either...!).

Here's the GF recipe:

Rice bran oil for greasing
2 overripe bananas (I had to put them aside especially!)
2 tbsp Honey
1 1/2 tbsp Rice Bran Oil
3/4 cup soy milk
1 1/2 cup self raising gluten free flour
1 tbsp psyllium husk

Preheat oven to 200C. Grease 9 muffin pans in a muffin tray with oil.
Mash bananas in a bowl with a fork. Add oil, honey and milk and mix well. Tip: if you do oil first and have a squeezey honey (ie don't need to scoop into honey) the tablespoon you use will be oily and the honey will slip out easily!
Add the flours and mix together quickly with a spoon. Don't overmix - lumpiness is fine in a muffin mix.

Divide mixture into muffins pans and bake for 20mins or until skewer comes out clean.

The muffins freeze well.

Never leave home without it

I have rarely forgotten our kids' medication when we have gone out and, thankfully, never been in a position where we had a reaction and couldn't do anything about it. I want to encourage you to never leave home without your child's medication because you never know if or where a reaction could occur and sometimes even unpredictable reactions occur. A couple of examples from our life:

- I was buying a few things at the supermarket with my Mum. We had the 2 kids in the pram - they didn't get out/touch anything/eat anything - all of a sudden I noticed that there are itchy welts appearing on my son's face and they were spreading by the second. Antihistamine in and the reaction slowed and stopped. We have no idea what caused it - was it an airborne reaction or did he touch the pram wheel that had something on it and rubbed his face? Very thankful for meds then and although he had a reaction, I appreciated that it was very educational for my Mum to see how quick, real and mysterious reactions can sometimes be.

- At playgroup last week I was about 30 seconds behind my daughter to the morning tea table but by the time I got there another mother had set her up with a bowl of fruit and crackers - she is allergic to all the crackers that were in her bowl and had already had a bite out of two of them. Thankfully she barely reacted (her reactions are pretty mild compared to my sons's) and I didn't need to medicate her. But she became very distressed that I took the food away (I think she thought she was in trouble, rather than the loss of the food - I need to work on not showing panic!), poor thing, and it took about 5min to console her. Funnily enough, I had to give my son some antihistamine because he had a reaction - big itchy welt on his chin and cheek. I have a feeling coconut could be the problem (we have had 3 possibly coconut related reactions). It's not a nut and he hasn't been tested for it due to no concerns in the past, and what I've read tells me that there isn't actually a test for it...
Most of the mums at our playgroup are very aware of my kids' allergies and always ask before serving my children anything. Unfortunately this mum's English is pretty limited and it seemed like she didn't know. It's possibly time for another announcement about my kids.

I pack our medications in the bag pictured above - it is a formula bottle bag so is insulated - good for temperature control and protection for the glass antihistamine bottle, it's also red and therefore easy to locate. We have the antihistamine, epipen and asthma gear in there. It's easy to carry on your shoulder or pop in the nappy bag.

How do you carry your medications?

Allergy Train Website

Hopefully they will look better than this one

Oscar's Mum blogs about cooking for her son who has food intolerances and I enjoy reading because sometimes we cross over in what we can cook. The other day she blogged about succeeding in cooking tortillas - I have been looking for a successful tortilla recipe/mix for a long time (we love tortillas!) and so her link to the Allergy Train website for Mrs Robens Tortilla Mix was quite exciting.

I have placed my order (along with a couple of other things - had to make the $12 postage worth it) - and will let you know how it goes. By the way, I noticed that you can get a lot of Eskal brand items including the ice-cream cones that I mentioned on Wednesday.

Ice Cream Cones

We recently instituted Friday night ice-cream after dinner. The kids are super excited about it and often try to work out if it is Friday yet. Miss 2 can have soy ice-cream and we are currently using So Good's Chocolate ice-cream. I was at a specialty shop and happened on some gluten-free ice cream cones by Eskal and so I snapped them up. Both kids really enjoyed having them and we saved washing up 2 more bowls :)

There's lots more gluten free products by Eskal here - we have enjoyed the Deli Crackers before but haven't seen many of the other products in regular stores. I think some aren't dairy free so make sure you check.

Menu Plan Monday and Garlic Bread Recipe

Home made "everything-free" garlic bread was a hit!

Monday - Nachos at our brother and sister-in-law's
Tuesday - Baked fish and vegetables
Wednesday - Homemade chicken nuggets made with crushed plain potato chips rather than rice crumbs (from Friendly Food Cook Book)
Thursday - Homemade Lasagne witha frozen lasagne for my daughter from Choices Bakery and garlic bread
Friday - Bacon, Leek, Zucchini and Mushroom Pizza (base from Choices too)
Saturday - Kid's dinner with cousins - Chicken Nuggets, chips and Frozen vegies
Sunday - Easy Meal - Leftovers for adults, scrambled eggs on toast for Master 3 and boiled potato with Nuttelex and peas and corn for Miss 2. She really enjoyed it!

Unfortunately, the lasagnes from Choices was a big fail. I had a taste as well and it really was pretty disgusting. The garlic bread, praise God, was a hit and saved the meal! Here's what I did:

1 tablespoon Nuttelex
1/4 clove garlic, very finely chopped unless you have an excellent crusher (I found a very small clove instead of dividing but if you just multiply the recipe you could just freeze the leftovers)
1/4-1/2 tsp finely chopped parsley

Mix all the ingredients well and butter onto a slice of bread. Put into preheated oven at 180C and cook until a bit golden on the edges.

Avoiding Contamination #3

The Microwave.
It tends to be full of crumbs doesn't it? I used to just pop our bread in on it's own to defrost it. Now I have to be regular in cleaning the microwave and always use a plate. This helps to avoid contamination.
I had better clean my microwave...!

Menu Plan Monday

Choices small pizza bases - pic from here

Here we go again! Hope you have a great week.

Monday - at my parents place - sausages, rice, mashed pumpkin, peas/corn and tomatoes
Tuesday - we had a dinner out and the kids had spaghetti and meatballs from the freezer
Wednesday - baked fish, rosemary potatoes and vegetables
Thursday - Hamburgers
Friday - Pizza with my daughter's pizza base from Choices to make life a bit easier this week
Saturday - Veal Schnitzel
Sunday - Beef Stir-fry - an improved version - I added some water and cornflour to make more of a sauce.

Baby Mum Mums

Photo from here

Another blessing for babies with our sort of allergies - Baby Mum Mums are a rice rusk that softens easily and is a great little snack. They say that they are for children over 1 year of age but I gave them to Miss 2 quite a bit before that and, as always, kept an eye on her while she ate. She still enjoys them now. You can get 3 types in local supermarkets - Original, Vegetable (it has carrot and spinach powders - I figure it's worth choosing that one even if the amount of vegetable is minimal) and Banana. Read more about them here.

Vanilla bean biscuits

I adapted this recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Allergy-free Cooking for Kids book.

125g Nuttelex
1/2 cup Gluten Free Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Bean Paste (or 1 vanilla bean)
1 1/4 cups plaing GF flour

Place Nuttelex in a bowl and sift icing sugar into it. Put vanilla bean paste (or seeds) into the bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in siften flour in two batches (just not all at once really).

Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Shape the dough into a log (diameter as big as you want the biscuits to be). Wrap in clingwrap and put in the fridge for at least 30mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line baking tray with baking paper.

Cut log into ~1cm slices. Place slices on trays about 2cm apart. Bake for about 12mins or until they get a little golden. Cool on the trays.

And as for the recipe book itself. Now that I own it and have looked through it, it's only ok. Unfortunately they separate the allergy free recipes - so it would help if your child was only allergic to one of the egg, dairy or gluten. But for my girl needing to miss all three, I still have to do almost as much substitution as a normal cook book. Lots of great kid food ideas though.

Menu Plan Monday

Vanilla biscuits

Here's my offering for this week

Monday - Spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday - Nachos
Wednesday - Pork chops and vegies
Thursday - Homemade pizza
Friday - Roast Chicken
Saturday - BBQ sausages, chicken and salad
Sunday - Left overs "Things on a plate"

Snack - vanilla biscuits

So your child has allergies...

Here's a few suggestions of what to do first
- Follow your allergist's advice. Eg - remove allergens from their diet, buy medications as required, such as antihistamines and epipens and make sure you always have them with you, tell everyone who cares for your child the action plan for when an allergic reaction takes place.
- Meet with a dietician who is experienced in children and allergies. It's worth paying for if you can afford it. They will go through your child's current diet, make suggestions for changes and give you ideas for substitutes.
- Meet with your GP if you think your child is lacking nutrition somewhere and work out if there is anything you can do - like going on vitamins with iron, like we did.
- Work out what substitutes there are for your child to help you cook more eg No Egg, GF flours, Milk, Margarine etc and buy them.
- Find recipes that help you cook good food for your child - your local library should have a good selection, look online (you are here already!) and speak with friends who might have ideas.
- Something I've yet to do, but is a good idea, is join up to your local allergy support network such as Anaphylaxis Australia. They will keep you up to date with the latest information about allergies.

Feel free to contact me if you want to chat personally about anything. It's a tough road.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Not covered in cheese :)

These have been a hit and I have made them regularly since.

500g beef mince
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 cups GF bread crumbs
1 egg equivalent of No Egg
salt and pepper
1/2 finely grated medium carrot
1/4 finely grated med-large zucchini
1-2 clove garlic, crushed 
1 tin diced tomatoes
1/2 same tin water
pinch of salt
1/2 -1 tsp sugar
GF spaghetti for 4

Combine mince, crumbs, No egg, parsley, vegetables, salt and pepper and combine well with your hands. Form meatballs into balls that are about 2 tablespoons worth. I often do this while the kids are in bed so I tend to cover and refrigerate for a few hours. Probably not a requirement but I can't tell you!

Heat some oil in a pan with the garlic. As the garlic starts to fry, add the meatballs and cook until they are browned all over.

Add tomatoes, water and sugar and salt (to taste) and simmer for about 10-15mins, adding more water if necessary and then keep simmering until it is reduced to a sauce.
In the meantime prepare pasta according to instructions and drain when ready.

Serve meatballs and sauce over the spaghetti and for those who can tolerate dairy, add freshy grated parmesan cheese.

Menu Plan Monday

Baked beans on toast from toasto.com

Monday - out for dinner
Tuesday - Roast beef with vegies
Wednesday - Steak sandwiches using leftover steak and roast vegies
Thursday - Homemade Pizza
Friday - Spaghetti and Meatballs (this is such a hit - will blog the recipe this week)
Saturday - Baked Fish and vegies (made by my DH!)
Sunday - Baked beans on toast - bit of a fail for my daughter - she didn't like them, despite her love of all other canned legumes :(. So still on the hunt for a super easy dinner akin to this - your ideas are appreciated!

Chia seeds

Chia pizza - yum

I recently bought a packet of chia seeds from the supermarket. There has been a bit of hype about them being a super food and really good for you so I thought I would see if I could easily add them into my daughter's diet.

Chia seeds are part of the mint family and rich in omega-3 fatty acids as well as providing protein, fibre, and some essential minerals (phosphorus, manganese, calcium, potassium and sodium). More information is available at Wikipedia or just Google it.

So far I have added them to pizza dough and scones (not GF ones though yet). Apparently they go well in salads to add a bit of crunch. For the pizza dough, I just added about 1/4 tsp to the single serve.

On the packet of seeds it also tells you how to make Chia gel, which you can use to replace eggs, oil and/or butter. Combine 1 part Chia Seeds to 9 parts water and whisk to blend the seeds. Stand for 15mins and then whisk again. Put into airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Pretty cool! Will try it soon.

Edit 22 October 2011 - I recently read that people who were allergic to nuts could be sensitive to chia seeds. So please be cautious if you/your child have nut allergies. I am glad I read it because it explained my son's eczema that had strangely returned. We had been eating a loaf of bread with chai seeds in it that week.

Chocolate muffins

My muffins, or cupcakes, as my 3 y.o. son told me they were!

I want to link you up to a fabulous website - Literary Viands. It has yummy recipes for sweet treats and good ideas about substitutes for different foods. I made the chocolate muffin recipe and it was great. I susbtituted for the egg using No Egg and I used soy milk and there were no problems. They looked really yummy too!

Little Caesar's Pizzeria

It just looks - and tastes - like a normal pizza!

My husband and I love this Perth based pizzeria. Their pizza creations are amazing - including their dessert pizzas! When we lived in Perth we used to head way out to Mundaring when we found out about it and since we were in Perth the other week we took advantage of it's new Hillarys location and the fact that they have gluten free pizza bases and soy cheese options. The staff were really helpful in working out what toppings my daughter could have and we ended up going for the Oka which was just sauce, cheese and bacon and my daughter enjoyed it (she loves bacon!) and I really enjoyed the taste I had as well. It even tasted good the next day - we took the rest home. So for those of you with (or without!) allergies reading in Perth - check them out!

Corn Chips for Nachos

Nachos are so easy. And since my discovery of Mission White Corn Tortilla chips, I feel a bit better about giving them in a meal to my children! They have 310mg/100g sodium whereas the Doritos Original I was using beforehand have 435mg/100g. So they still are a 'sometimes' dinner but are a bit better for us when we do have them.

Here's my recipe from last year.

An Easter Treat

The chocolate eggs I mentioned last month have been a hit - Bonvita Rice Milk Chocolate Half Eggs. They are fairtrade as well and a good size. My daughter loved being able to get a chocolate egg each day like her brother as we read through part of the Easter story on the 12 days before Easter. I bought these eggs online at The Cruelty Free Shop. There's quite a lot there that I'd love to try - soy condensed milk, dairy/egg free mayonnaise to name a couple.

Menu Plan Monday

Hello! Happy Easter and Happy ANZAC day - lots to celebrate and be thankful for.
What a wonderful holiday we had and it was a nice break from blogging too. Ready to go again!

Here's the week's menu

Monday - Slow cooker chicken and vegetables
Tuesday - Out for dinner - the kids are having a sleepover!
Wednesday - Homemade pizza
Thursday - Spaghetti and meatballs
Friday - fish and vegies
Saturday - Sausages, vegies and rice
Sunday - Sausage casserole (using leftover sausages)

2 weeks off!

It's holiday time! See you in a couple of weeks :)

Creamy chicken pasta

Not particularly gorgeous looking... but yummy :)

We really miss creamy sauces and I found a recipe that I could adapt using soy milk.

Serves 4

GF Pasta to serve 4 (400g-ish)
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 onion, finely chopped (I left this out because the kids aren't keen on onion)
2-3 chicken thighs, sliced 1-2cm thick
375ml soy milk
1 tsp GF cornflour, mixed with 1 tbsp water and mixed into a smooth paste
1/2 cup frozen peas/corn (or other vegies that work for you)
4-6 medium sized button mushrooms, sliced
salt and cracked black pepper

Cook pasta according to instructions.

In the meantime, heat some oil in a pan and add the garlic, onion and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until just soft. Then add the chicken and cook until almost cooked through.

Stir in the milk and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring regularly. Add the peas and corn. After a couple of minutes, stir cornflour paste into the sauce and simmer for a few minutes or until it thickens. I think I had to add a bit more than what the recipe suggested.

Add drained pasta, salt and pepper and toss until combined.

Soy Milk

I have finally taken my daughter (Miss 2) off formula. The allergist had recommended putting her on formula and staying on for a while so that it could provide more vitamins and minerals etc. My decision to take her off was my own since we can't see the allergist until June and it was made easier by the discovery of this soy milk by Vitasoy - Soy Milky Kids. It has added vitamins (D, B6, B12, folate) and minerals (calcium, iron) and iodine. It is also made from non-GM ingredients.

Yummy Broadbeans?

I'm not that keen on broadbeans normally but these are fabulous. They are crunchy so not for children who aren't able to chew crunchy things well yet. But so delicious! And despite the brand name, there are no nuts in their processing plant at all so there are no concerns about even traces.

Woolworths is making improvements

excerpt from the newsletter announcing a new frozen foods section in the stores

3 months ago I had the opportunity to speak with a manager at Woolworths supermarkets about their allergen-free range. I received an email from them 2 weeks ago announcing a lot of their changes and new products. I was excited to see such quick results and impressed with how many new products they have added to their range, especially some things that I suggested! Hopefully I will see it played out in store when I next go.

Pea & Proscuitto Risotto

1L chicken stock, heated
1 tbsp olive oil
6 slices proscuitto
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine/vermouth (optional but it really adds to the flavour)
1 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper
(and for those who can have dairy, you will like to have 1/2 cup parmesan cheese to add after removing enough for the person with an allergy)

Heat olive oil and add proscuitto, onion and garlic and fry slowly until softened. Add the rice and turn up the heat, stirring constantly. After about a minute add the wine/vermouth and keep stirring. The alcohol flavours will evaporate.

Once the liquid has cooked into the rice, add the hot stock and a pinch of salt. Turn heat down to a simmer so the rice doesn't cook too quickly on the outside. As the stock gets absorbed, add another ladle of stock. Keep this going until the rice almost cooked, adding the peas with the last ladleful.

Spoon risotto into bowls (if you are adding parmesan you could do it individually or just take out enough to feed those who don't have it and then mix it through the rest - but make sure that you take enough!) and serve, adding pepper as desired.

My recipe is an amalgamation of this recipe from Taste.com.au and Jaime Oliver's 'The Return of the Naked Chef' Risotto recipe p134
I think the sage (in the Taste recipe) would be a great addition if you fried it up in some sort of oil rather than butter (although the butter would probably be even better... :) oh well, let's not talk about that!)

Did you know?

My son's skin prick test for nuts. Even the specialist had a disbelieving chuckle. Poor kid.

A child does not inherit a specific allergy from either parent, but it does inherit the likelihood to become allergic and the allergy itself can manifest in any form (eg food, environmental, medical).

If neither parent has allergic disease, offspring have about 20% chance of developing an allergic disease.
If one parent has an allergy, the likelihood jumps to about 30-40%.
If both parents have some sort of allergy, their child has a 60-80% likelihood of developing allergic disease.

The severity of an allergic reaction cannot be inherited.

It is unlikely that genetics are to blame for the increase in rate of allergic disease.

I have medical allergies and my husband has asthma and a lot of environmental allergies such as dustmites. So not really surprising that we have 2 allergic children.

How do your chances rate? And, if you have children, do these percentages fit your family?

Reference - Managing Your Child's Food Allergies by Alison Orman. Harper Collins 2009, p12

Easter time

Photo from here

As we get ready to remember Jesus' death and resurrection at Easter time, it becomes all too obvious that my daughter will miss out on the sweet treats that Easter tends to bring with it. We normally prepare for Easter using Resurrection Eggs with the kids and this year my daughter will be old enough to sit and listen to the short bible readings. Last year we gave my son a mini chocolate egg as he sat and listened so this year he is looking forward to the same. I think that sultanas might be the way to go with my daughter since I don't think she will be that keen on faux-chocolate. Still, just in case, I have found some eggs that are made with rice milk and are even fair-trade so I will blog about them when they arrive and we've tried one.

In the mean time she will be eating Choices' Hot Cross Buns to celebrate Easter. Yummo!