Yummy pizza topping

I didn't even care that there wasn't any cheese it was so good!

but cheese might have made it look prettier...?

The toppings were:
- BBQ sauce
- chick peas
- pre-cooked cauliflower florets
- leftover chicken from when I used this chinese chicken recipe
- roasted beetroot (from our veggie patch! Just roast with olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of water all in a closed pouch of aluminium foil for about an hour, peel and slice)
- diced red capsicum
- sliced English Spinach (also from our veggie patch!)

all on a GF pizza base (I used a pre-made one this time)

Enjoy. 

Easy lunch ideas for a hungry Mummy

Salmon and radish salad - see below for recipe :)

When you are breastfeeding you tend to be very hungry and when you are on a restricted diet as well you are even hungrier! It's very important to eat well to ensure your health as well as your baby's, so having some things in the cupboard/freezer helps you to do that. Otherwise you end up eating rice crackers or something without much goodness in it.

Here are some good things to have in your pantry or freezer for times when you need a quick but yummy and nutritious lunch:

- Tinned salmon - I loved red salmon but it's quite expensive. I buy a few of the little tins when they are on special. Salmon with the bones left in is a good source of calcium as well as omega 3 oils - both important for breastfeeding mummies.

- Tinned tuna - lots of the flavoured ones are safe to eat but always check the labels.

- Brown Rice Cakes - buy the thick ones and they make a great substitute for a sandwich. And because they are made of brown rice they have a lower GI. You can top them with hummus/dairy & egg free dip, lettuce and a tin of tuna/salmon - yum - or avocado or even just butter and a spread.

- Soup - this will be something you need to make yourself. I tend to make a batch of vegetable soup each week which serves as a meal for all of us and then I freeze the leftovers in single serves and defrost one for my lunch. That gives me at least 3 healthy lunches with minimal effort.

- Leftover meats or sliced ham etc - good to have in the fridge to put on a rice cake or eat in a salad. A dietician I saw with my older daughter recommended having protein in each main meal as it helps you fill up and gives you energy.

- Canned legumes - my favourites are lentils and cannelini beans, but chick peas, butter beans and more are also great. Add them to a bowl of salad. A simple salad is leaves of oakleaf or butter lettuce plus half a can of tinned lentils (drained and rinsed) and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar - delicious!

- And for a special treat every now and then - Hash Browns. I buy a 1kg bag of them and keep them in the freezer. I will get out 2 to cook in the oven as part of my lunch. I love them and feel like I've had a special treat even though they aren't that bad for you. My kids have cotttoned on to them now and so I have promised them some on the weekend!

I've just finished eating the salad I created for lunch today pictured above and it was great - I grabbed some butter lettuce and a radish out of our vegie patch and added a small tin of red salmon and half an avocado. Yum!

Snack Search

I did the grocery shopping today for the first time in a little while. My husband has been braving the Saturday supermarket rush since the little Miss was born - what a legend. My aim (as well as getting our weekly food) was to find some yummy and healthy snacks for me. Since I am breastfeeding I am super hungry and especially because a wheat and dairy free diet tends to have a higher Glycaemic Index - you get hungry quicker! I bought quite a few things but here are two that I have tried since coming home and think are great:

Freedom Foods Ancient Grains Super Bar

photo from here

You can tell it's good for you but the syrup makes you feel like it's a treat. Miss 3 also tried it and wanted one for herself (I told her she could have one when she's older and so she decided it would be when she was 4!). A box of 6 cost me $4.39 which is expensive but if you consider how much a chocolate bar costs (oh if only I could have a chocolate bar!), it's actually good value.

Woolworths Macro Free From Moroccan Pumpkin Dip
I do love hommus but to have another option is exciting! My friend from church told me about this range, so I looked out for it and chose this one. I had it on some rice cakes with lettuce (from our vegie patch!), cucumber and tomato for lunch. Delicious. I'm looking forward to trying the avocado one - it could work well with tacos or something when I can't get a good avocado.

The quest continues with Sweet Potato Fries

Well, I went off dairy a week ago and even after 5 days there wasn't much difference in her rash. It was a little better but we were also using hydrocortisone cream and serious moisturisers on her so that it didn't get too awful. So 2 days ago, I went off wheat. And already it is looking better. I was hoping to not have to go off wheat since Miss 3 is back on wheat these days (although more on that in another post) but it looks like wheat might be the main culprit for Miss 0's reaction at the moment. So I have been seeking yummy lunches and here is one easy and delicious recipe that I'm enjoying this week that I got from Bill Granger's 'Every Day'.

Sweet Potato Fries (serves 1)
1/3-1/2 sweet potato (depends on its size and your appetite), peeled and cut into batons
a generous shake of paprika
a little shake of cayenne pepper (your preference as to how much heat you want really)
salt (again, to taste)
a couple of tablespoons olive oil

ready to go in the oven

Preheat oven to 230C. Toss the batons in all the other ingredients. Place on a baking tray in a single layer and bake, stirring occasionally, for 30min or until golden brown. Bill recommends serving with lime wedges (which I am trying today and it is great!). I used to like them with mayonaise but that's out at the moment...

I'm no food stylist and I have a new baby so you are just going to have to cope with these pics - they were super yummy and filling though and that's what counts :)

PS - sweet potatoes are also known as kumara and yam depending where you live

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.

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.

Chinese Noodle Salad

This is such a yummy salad and it can be done gluten free thanks to this product:

Here's the recipe


1/4 large Wombok/Chinese Cabbage, sliced thinly
1/4-1/2 bunch of shallots (green onions), sliced
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 packet Chang's Gluten Free Fried Noodles, prepared as per instructions

Mix cabbage and shallots in a bowl. Roast the sunflower seeds in a frypan or in the oven until turning golden and put aside until ready to serve salad. Prepare dressing as per below.

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Mix the dressing ingredients by shaking together.

When ready to serve, mix cabbage with seeds, then add noodles and at the last minute the dressing. Mix well and enjoy.

Note: If your family can have nuts, you can roast some slivered almonds as well and add them to the mix. They make it really yummy but it's not an option for us.

Beef Marinade #1 - Balsamic and Soy

photo from here

I found this recipe here and tried it on some rump steak. It was really yummy.

This is my version:

3 shallots, finely chopped

3 Tbsp GF soy sauce

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 tsp (or you can get away with less) fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Combine ingredients in a bowl/jug and then use it to marinate the meat. According to the website, 30mins should do tender cuts or 3-24 hours for tougher cuts.

We have thyme and shallots in our vegie patch - gotta love fresh herbs!

Margarine

I have been using Nuttelex for my daughter's replacement margarine since the beginning. While I was at the supermarket the other day I spotted Meadow Lea has a Dairy-free spread as well, and it was on special! As much as I appreciate Nuttelex providing for us for so long, I also really appreciate saving money where I can, so I think I'll be going with Meadow Lea while it's cheaper. The only thing to be cautious of is that it is much more easily confused with a normal Meadow Lea so you have to be extra careful to avoid accidentally contaminating it! I have written my daughter's name on top as an extra visual cue.

Cheezly

I have seen this product mentioned on websites but never found a place that sells it, until I went to Choices Bakery and saw it in the fridge (it comes in a roll). Having had other soy cheeses without success, I thought I'd give this one a go, given its claims to being yummy and able to melt. I always feel my daughter is missing out on the true pizza experience when I put her pizza in the oven without cheese!

We tried it and it didn't quite melt as you would expect normal cheese to melt, but it did it better than the other ones I've tried. It also tasted reasonably cheesy and my daughter actually ate it all compared to the absolute 'No' we got with the others. I don't know if she'd like it without it going in the oven but we'll try it soon. It's a pity it's supposed to be used within 5 days of opening - we won't get through it.

Soy Cheese

Kingland Soy Products (website not great but you can see the logo) make a soy cheese without the dairy protein starter. It comes in a roll (like devon/polony) and wrapped in a pale yellow wrapper. I found it in Coles (finally!) and bought it. My daughter has had a bit of cheese a few times before we realised the dairy allergy and she loves it. So we tried the soy cheese today and she popped it in thinking it was normal cheese and unfortunately she didn't like it very much.

I think it would be best used mixed into other foods, like on a hamburger or something else. I don't know what I'll do with the rest. I'm not going to pursue it with her. It's not fortified with calcium. It just would have been a great extra food.

I also bought Tofutti's soy sliced cheese. I tried one and it was a bit yukky for me, but it could be nice mixed in a sandwich etc. She's yet to try it, but I think it will be a similar reaction.

Oh well.

Devon #2

Since my last post, a new devon product is on the shelves. It's Little Chef Devon 500g. It only contains soy so that's good news for my family. It doesn't taste too bad at all (on the devon scale, that is!).

I can't find a link about it, and so far I have found it only in Woolworths.

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.

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.

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

A great recipe from Julie's blog that we have tried a few times. The kids don't really like many orange vegetables currently but the adults loved it and it will be a good one for the future. I love how coconut cream makes things creamy without the dairy!

Curried Sweet Potato Soup
This recipe serves 6 people.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 teaspoons curry powder
• 1.2 kg sweet potato, diced
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 large apple, peeled and grated
• coconut cream and crusty bread, to serve

Method:

• Heat oil in fry-pan. Cook onion and garlic 3-4 mins or un til tender. Add curry powder and stir for 1 min
• Add onion mix, sweet potato, chicken stock and apple to the slow cooker
• Stir to combine ingredients
• Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours
• Turn slow cooker off and blend with stick blender until soup is puree and smooth
• Serve with 2 tablespoons coconut cream (per bowl) and bread.

(If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can simmer all ingredients covered for 30+ minutes, or until sweet potato is cooked, then blend and serve as above)

BBQ chicken beware

So far we have been fine with BBQ Chickens, but today my daughter had a reaction. We can't be sure what it was - the seasoning, what the chicken was sitting next to at some point, or if it was cooked on the same rotisserie that cooks ones with stuffing (?? is that possible or does the stuffing go in afterwards?), or the person cooking mixed in something when serving it (the tongs to pick it up, the gloves etc). So, we will just have to take note of the store we bought it at, keep asking questions about the seasoning when we can and keep buying the plainest ones we can, making sure there's no stuffing.

Tonight I served it with corn, broccoli and my rosemary potatoes.

Savoury Pancakes

These were inspired by a friend who used to make them for her kids regularly.

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup GF plain flour
Equivalent of 1 egg using No Egg
pinch salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/2 zucchini, finely grated
1 small carrot, finely grated
small can corn, drained (or fresh cut off 1 cob)
tomato sauce

Mix flours, No Egg, salt, water and milk until you have a batter. Add in vegetables and mix until well combined.

Add oil to heated frypan and pour mix into fry pan. Brown each side and transfer to a plate.
Serve with tomato sauce.

For those who can eat cheese, add grated cheese to the batter before cooking.

Play with the amounts of buckwheat (maybe put less in, it is pretty bitter and darkens the mixture) and liquid (more milk, less water; less of all liquid to make them thicker). You could add meat on the side if you wanted to add more protein.

Travel food

It's difficult travelling with a child with allergies to mainstream foods.

Whenever we are going out for dinner or lunch, I tend to pack my daughter's meal and take it with us, rather than risk trying to find allergen-free food. For lunch I take a thick slice of her bread with Nuttelex to spread on it and some fruit. For dinner I pre-cook GF pasta and some veggies. Then for the lunch or dinner I take a Rafferty's 'spout pouch' (our allergen-free choices are 'Hearty Beef and Veggie Puree', 'Tuna & Rice Vegetable Puree' and 'Bangers & Mash Vegetable Puree') for her to have as well. She loves the spout pouches and those particular choices. We have tried a few in the lumpy range but she's rather specific on flavour. They are great to throw in the bag, you don't need spoons or bowls and you know it is organic and reasonably good for them.

Devon

Polony, Balony, whatever you call it :)
It isn't a particularly healthy option but is an Australian favourite with kids, especially with tomato sauce. It is usually made with wheat flour but I have discovered that Woolworths now makes a pre-sliced and packaged Devon that is gluten free. It isn't as nice but it is great that it is there. I am pretty sure there is another brand in WA that is gluten free but Woolworths appear to do the only one available in NSW. There doesn't seem to be very much available at all these days. Ham seems to be the popular one these days!

Roast Chicken dinner

Since I mentioned roast chicken last post, I thought I should tell you what I do. This is one of the easiest and most delicious meals we have at the moment.

A good quality (hormone free) whole chicken
salt
freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry.
Season with salt and pepper inside and out. Truss legs together if you have kitchen twine (I don't usually).
Place in roasting tray (I have one with a rack so I can put vegies underneath) and cook until juices run clear (about 1-1.5hrs depending on size of your chicken). For example - 1.5kg chicken takes about 1hr15 if you start the oven at 220 for 15min and then turn it down to 200, according to a Bill Granger recipe).

Putting a lemon inside the chicken gives a lovely flavour.

I usually serve with potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato and peas. I usually half cook the potatoes (halved) and sweet potatoes (large pieces) in the microwave, drizzle them and the pumpkin (large pieces) with olive oil and place them in the tray under the chicken for the same amount of time as the chicken. Then I cook frozen peas and make gravy with Gravox powder, boiling water and the juices from the chicken. I have used gluten free flour, the juices from the chicken and pepper before as well to make the gravy (I think that's all the ingredients).

Enjoy.