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.

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!

Avoiding Contamination #2

I posted about this a while ago and here's another tip.

Fact: Gluten free bread tends to require toasting to improve it's enjoyment factor.
Another fact: Toasters are covered in crumbs
One more: If you put your gluten free bread in your toaster, you will risk contamination from other breads.

What can you do about it? Well, if you only have a small toaster, I would buy a cheap second, especially if your child reacts easily. For us, we have a 4 slice toaster and we have dedicated 2 slice sides to be gluten free. It works pretty well, gluten free bread tends to need a lot longer in the toaster, so we keep the timers set - so if you put your normal toast in the GF side - you will be 'punished' with burnt toast :)

If you keep using the same toaster it's worth thinking, as I read here, "Why don't you just sprinkle bread crumbs on your food?"

Allergen free on the Central Coast

photo from here

We recently had a week up the central coast (NSW) and I found this bakery via google and found that there was a stockist near us. We bought some of their buns and they have been thoroughly enjoyed by our little girl who loves having rolls like us.

Choices Gluten and Wheat Free Bakery

photo from here

Hello again.

A friend told me about this store and I finally had some time to go and visit. It's simple and small but it has a great range or foods that are mainly gluten & wheat free but many are dairy and egg free as well. They have 4 locations around Sydney - Turramurra, Bella Vista, Mona Vale and Bondi Junction.

They specialise in breads, pastries, pies and cakes but have other things as well. You can check out their website here and I realised that they deliver all over Sydney and delivery is free if you spend over $40. It's not hard to spend $40 because it is expensive, but having tried it with my daughter and seen how she eats it really well has encouraged me to go back. We have tried the fruit loaf (smells fabulous and my 3 yr old eats the crusts she won't eat!), hamburger buns and par-baked buns. They are all able to go in the freezer which makes bulk-buying a great idea. I just placed an order for the fruit loaf (2 of them!), and buns as well as a banana loaf pre-mix and noticed that they have started selling Christmas items so I have ordered some mince tarts to keep in the freezer. And it's nice to know I don't have to do the drive out to Bella Vista again unless I want to!

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.

Pizza base

I adjusted this recipe from a sister-in-law who got it from a Super Food Ideas magazine years ago.

2 cups plain GF flour (I have discovered F.G. Roberts brand flour and it is working really well)
1 packet dried yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp caster sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt

Put yeast and sugar in water and leave to become frothy.
Sift flour (I didn't do this - I think the flour might be a bit weird to sift but I haven't tried it) into bowl, add salt, oil and yeast mixture. Mix to combine.
Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until it is 'playdough like' (the real recipe suggests til it becomes elastic, but you won't really get that with GF flour).
Add more flour if necessary. Cut in half and roll out to make two rounds.

I reduced the amounts so as to make one small pizza for my daughter. I found I had to add more water but maybe I got the math wrong.

I topped it with tomato paste, sliced mushrooms, diced red capsicum, sliced zucchini and cannelini beans and cooked it at 180C for 15min. Best to put it on baking paper so that it doesn't stick to the tray. I also cooked up a beef steak, planning to put it on the pizza in slices but ended up just putting it on the side since the pizza went in the oven before the steak had cooked enough.

The Real Bread mix

This is a fantastic bread mix by Springhill that my daughter really enjoys, and I did too while I was still breastfeeding. It smells 'real' as well!

Click here to check out their website.