The Gluten & Dairy Free Lunchbox Trials.

This has not been fun. With Torin being at school five days a week this year (finally) I have concluded he would be bored witless with eating rice and/or corn thins every day. But he's fussy. And there are many lunches we have that need to be served at a certain temperature.

So my evil plotting mummy tactics have been in overdrive. Starting with the introduction of salad. Every night with dinner we have been having salad to get him away from the idea he has to have mashed potato, peas and carrots with every meal. I had been able to replace the vegetables easily enough if they were cooked. Although he STILL refuses to eat green beans??? So I have been buying gluten free sorbet and gluten free ice cream cones to provide incentive to eat dinner. Being that I'm picky about some things too, I've even provided different types of salad vegetables so we can determine what he deems edible. Spinach leaves and ice berg lettuce = FAIL. Cos Lettuce = WIN!

At home I make my own tortillas and finally have a press (which I bought from Monterey Mexican Food for anyone who is after one. They're a brilliant business to deal with). But after a while they go a little hard if not wrapped in plastic and popped in the fridge. And they're not big enough to roll.

So I bought some Old Time Bakery Tannour Bread which works beautifully for wraps. The ones I made for today's successful lunch had gluten free ham, Castlemaine Dips Hommus, shredded cos lettuce and grated carrot. So I finally have one more thing I can add to Torin's lunchbox. Yay!

The Better Batter.

We're pretty lucky to have a Gluten Free Fish & Chip shop here in Ballarat. It means that from time to time I can have night off from cooking!
Another store I have been pleased to find is Abunda - a dedicated gluten free mini supermarket.

So last week I went into Abunda and got some rice noodles. I'd been checking the supermarkets and couldn't find any, and I had been hankering for a stir fry instead of fried rice!

Stir fry is simple here - snow peas, capsicum, water chestnuts, yellow beans - tossed in the wok with sea salt and ginger and rice noodles.

But we will be moving one day, and there mightn't be a fish and chip shop that does gluten free so I thought I'd use tonight to try out a gluten free batter recipe as well. I've never made batter before really, other than the once time I cooked oysters in tempura batter from my Jamie Oliver cookbook. I think I even used packet mix tempura batter for the last chicken nuggets I fried *blush*. This batter is simple and light, and I can see it working for all sorts of things, chicken, fish, vegies, the lot!

Gluten Free Batter for Deep Frying
1/4 cup cornflour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
3/4 cold water

Whisk together until the batter streams in a ribbon off the fork or whisk. It needs to be runny, but not too runny. Coat fry-able item in batter and toss into hot oil. Remove when golden brown.

Ice Ice Baby - a Summer Treat

And with a new season on it's way in, our gluten-free, dairy-free journey has taken another step. Different foods on the menu, mean more items to be closely examined in the supermarket.
So Good soy ice cream is safe if it's Vanilla. But not if it's chocolate. Nestle Icy Poles are safe (and now marked gluten free on the package) but I've never really forgiven them for that bad thing they did.

So before investing in an ice cream maker and doing it all myself, I thought I'd give sorbet a go by hand first.
When I spotted Kiwi Fruit on special, it was all the inspiration I needed. But having never made sorbet before, I had a lot of research and reading to do.

My first port of call was my friend Skipper. She had loads of wonderful recipes on hand but hers contained egg. As Baby E hasn't had egg yet, I kept looking. And I stumbled across a familiar place - the blog of Pig in the Kitchen, another Mum with an allergy child! And even better, a starting point on how to make sorbet!
I particularly liked how her recipes were more rustic (so many recipes demand you force the fruit through a strainer).

Kiwi Fruit Sorbet.
250 grams white sugar
600 mls water
9 kiwi fruit, [peeled and roughly chopped
0.25 teaspoons xantham gum
1 teaspoon citric acid

In a medium saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the water. When dissolved, throw in the fruit and remove from the heat. Allow to cool. Pour into a blender. Add citric acid and xantham gum. Blitz until smooth. Pour into a metal tin (I used a cake tin) and freeze for an hour. Remove from freezer and beat with a handmixer. Put into freezer containers and re-freeze.

So it's almost Christmas.

And I was trying to be all bah humbug about it. But when you have friends who are Christmas-obsessed it's hard to just pass it all by.

Today, I was innocently standing in my kitchen making the kids some corn tortillas from scratch for lunch. As I rolled out the dough and daydreamed, I somehow ended up grabbing a cookie cutter. I must say, it was easier than having very wonky circles because I cannot for the life of me roll balls of dough into circles. When I'm rich, I'll buy a tortilla press!

I am pretty happy with how these turned out. Even happier to be able to say they are free of gluten, dairy, egg, yeast and fructose and are still tasty!

Corn Tortilla Recipe.
1.5 cups cornflour
0.5 cups cornmeal/polenta
1.5 cups hot water
1 teaspoon Nuttelex dairy free spread

In a bowl, mix the cornmeal and cornflour. In a jug stir the margarine into the hot water until melted.

Pour liquid into the corn mix and stir with a metal spoon. Allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, knead until smooth. Roll dough out between two pieces of plastic (I used shopping bags!). Carefully peel back plastic and gently fry in a dry pan for a minute on each side. You can use cookie cutters to make shapes, or for larger tortillas, use balls of dough about the size of a peach rolled out.
If you make smaller ones with the cookie cutters, you could probably cook them a little longer to dry them out and use them as chips for dipping.

Pumpkin and Pine-nut Risotto.

This is a simple dish and one that everyone seems to adore.

Pumpkin and Pine-nut Risotto.
Half a butternut pumpkin, peeled, cooked and mashed
2 cups arborio rice
4 cups vegetable stock
nutmeg to taste *optional
small handful of pine nuts, lightly toasted
oil for cooking

Heat oil, add rice and stir through until translucent. Add stock one cup at a time until completely absorbed. In between the 3rd and 4th cup of stock, stir through the mashed pumpkin (and add nutmeg is you like). Add last cup of stock. Serve garnished with toasted pine nuts.

Ok. So some of mine were a little more than lightly toasted. Feel free to turn a blind eye!

Three Jars Full!

Well there will be three, but currently there is only two.

I've put my food processor to hard work this morning and have already made Pesto (sans cheese) and Macadamia Nut Butter. To complete the trifecta, I will be adding Hommus once the chick peas are all soaked.

Please excuse the shocking photo. It's from my phone as I can't find my rechargeable camera batteries.

Dairy Free Pesto is super easy. I can honestly say I think I have only ever bought pre-made Pesto once.
All you need is Fresh Basil, a little garlic, some pine nuts and olive oil (which isn't even really necessary in my opinion). I pick 3 handfulls of basil leaves. Process in food processor. Add 1 handfull of pine nuts, lightly toasted (I pop mine under the griller for a very short time). Process a little longer. Add one clove of garlic, crushed. Process until you're happy with it. Add oil if you wish. But remember if you use pesto for lots of different things, it doesn't always need to be "oily" so you can add the oil later if you need to.

Even simpler again, Macadamia Nut Butter. Take one 250 gram bag of natural macadamia nuts (not roasted not salted, just plain naked). Add a handfull at a time to food processor until the consistency you prefer. If they get dry, add a little oil (I used rice bran oil). And there you have an awesome spread for your toast!

And yes. In realise it looks like someone has been stuck into the pesto. I was hungry and I can recommend it with cheese in an omelette!

No Tomato Pizza - A new challenge

With Bridie reacting to all things Fructose, we've had to avoid tomatoes a bit. But with Torin begging for pizza, I've had to put my thinking cap on. Now there are other ways of avoiding putting tomato on your pizza. Pizza Bianca uses dairy, such as sour cream, but we're dairy free. Some pizzas have pesto (which generally also contains dairy in the form of parmesan cheese) but my basil is yet to grow. It has little tiny shoots but it'll be a while yet.
And I wanted RED! Sweet and red....So this is what I did:

Roasted Capsicum and Garlic Pizza Sauce
2 large red capsicums, de-seeded and quartered
1 whole bulb of garlic

Place capsicum skin side down on tray. Place whole garlic bulb on tray. Roast in oven preheated to 180c for 30 minutes. When soft the garlic will jump out of his skin with a gentle squeeze. Pop the garlic cloves and capsicuim in a food processor and whizz until chopped. There's your sauce!

For the base we used this recipe except we used White Wings GF flour this time and a little more water.
We topped it with chopped mushrooms and soy cheese, 20 minutes in the oven (190 C) and it was great!

Potato and Lentil Patties with Satay Sauce.

I am SO utterly bored with food right now. And to top it off, tonight we were GOING to have meat. But alas! I forgot to take it out of the freezer so last minute eeeek! what shall we have for dinner!!!

So time to scan the pantry (yes, it's becoming a habit) and I spot potatoes and lentils. Then I *sigh* because how utterly boring can you get? Resigned to my fate of cooking the most boring dinner in the entire universe, I wander over to tidy up the bench from lunchtime and spot the peanut butter.

And then one of those weird little light bulbs appeared above my head. LOL!

Potato and Lentil Patties

4 medium potatoes, cooked, mashed and cooled
1 cup red lentils, cooked in two cups water
2 tablespoons No Egg beaten into 1/4 cup cold water
OR 1-2 eggs lightly beaten

Scrunch it all together. Form into patties and shallow fry. Easy!

Satay Sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 large tablespoon oil (I use rice bran oil)
1 generous teaspoon ground coriander]
1 clove garlic, crushed

Pop the lot in a small pan. Stir until mixed and runny.

I am grateful it is Friday. I plan to ignore the dishes and put my feet up!

When rice cakes are good.

Inspired by Vittoria's "Beyond Rice Cakes" post, I've been pondering the different ways one could make rice cakes interesting.Years ago, before any knowledge of coeliacs disease, I would go through stages of living on rice cakes in the name of weight loss. But really, after a while they do tend to taste like polystyrene. They are boring.

I have to say, rice thins have made a difference. Less blandness, easier to disguise with a nice topping/filling. It's also good to see corn thins or rice and corn. Makes it taste a little less "white".

Now Torin is more than happy to eat Rice cakes with peanut butter until the cows come home. But I am certainly not. I get bored with food VERY easily. So the following are things I top or fill my boring old rice cakes with to make life a little "sexier".

* Tofutti "Better than cream cheese" and smoked salmon. Open sandwich style. Sometimes with a little dill.
* Home made hommus, spread thickly
* Fresh mashed avocado
* Home made dip - pumpkin, basil and chickpea
*Apricot jam and chopped walnuts
* Ham, mustard and cheese (although the cheese we buy is soy cheese, but that's only for dairy free folk)
* Grilled eggplant and tahini
* Mashed, cooked kidney beans and salsa
* Mayonaisse/Salad cream and shredded chicken
* Sundried tomato and grated cheese
*Cream cheese (or replacement) and jam
* Tuna, mayo and chopped celery
* Cream cheese and sultanas
*Peanut butter and chopped celery

Now that's all we have had so far. And it's certainly not boring or dull. You just have to know that the rice cake is just replacing the bread. And the bread didn't "make" the sandwich. Then lunchtime gets all Zen. *wink*

GF Banana Pikelets for Baby!

I had to share this recipe. The little kids had it for lunch. It lasted about 4.7 seconds. I even had a bite (which is a big thing for me because I loathe banana) and they were good! Really good! Very quick and easy too.

GF Banana Pikelets
One large banana, mashed
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup GF flour

Stir banana and orange juice together. Beat in flour (I used a handmixer and it took no time at all).
Drop spoonfulls into a hot frying pan. Fry until brown on each side. Allow to cool and serve.

This made 7 wee little pikelets. See photo below so you get what I mean.

Bacon and Baby Spinach stuffed Mushrooms.

I'm running out of ideas. I needed to try something new. I have found myself stuck in a kitchen rut.

Bridie has hit the "Oh I am two and I can't possibly eat anything you serve me" stage. Thankfully, Torin missed that stage but he's now on the "I am sooooo very hungry Mummy, I want MORE" stage. So we seem to be eating piles of rice, anything that can be squished into patties or croquettes, mountains of pasta and corn tacos, tortillas and chips by the shipping container.

So I wanted something different. And I took my time today cruising around the fruit and veg. shop and saw these awesome big fat field mushrooms. And they spoke to me. They did, honest. They told me to get stuffed.
So I had my revenge!

Bacon & Baby Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms.
(For each serve you will need...)
1 enormous mushroom (think Alice in Wonderland)
1 loose handful of baby spinach leaves
1 rasher of bacon
1 clove of garlic, crushed
A little grated cheese

Preheat oven to 180C.
In a saucepan, heat a little oil and cook the bacon and crushed garlic. Throw in the spinach leaves and warm through.
Wipe the mushroom clean and place on an oven tray, top down. You could remove the stem if you wish but I didn't bother.
Fill the mushrooms hat with the bacon/garlic/spinach mixture and grate a little cheese on top. (We use Delre Mini-chol Soy Cheese -it's vegan!)
Place in oven for 20 minutes.
Laugh like a maniac for getting revenge on those ill-mannered mushrooms.
Serve. We eat small. Maybe it's an entree. Could also be a side-dish? It could even be a breakfast!

Sweet Potato and Tuna Patties.

Wow!
These were so unbelievably good. Honestly, I'm normally pretty *meh* about food. But these patties hit the spot and were so easy!

Sweet Potato and Tuna Patties.
1 large sweet potato (peeled, cooked, mashed and cooled)
1 bunch Pak Choy (sliced finely)
1 425 gram tin of tuna in olive oil
1 egg
Cornflour to coat.

Mix sweet potato, tuna, pak choy and egg until combined. Scoop up fistfulls (the mixture is quite "wet"). Coat in cornflour and gently fry until browned on each side. These could probaly also be done in the oven if you preferred.

The kids loved them! Always a plus ;)

Chicken and Corn Risotto.

It appears that Miss Bridie may have fructose malabsorption on top of Coeliacs! So I've had to revise my weekly shopping list.

So I decide this week we'd get a few things we don't usually get. Ears of corn was one of those things.

Chicken and Corn Risotto
1 cup arborio rice
1 chicken breast
1 ear of corn
4 cups warm vegetable stock.
Oil (for cooking)

I used the same method as I used for the Garlic Chicken Risotto but made a few changes.
I used half as much rice, but the same amount of stock. This is because I shaved the kernels of corn of the ears and added them to the risotto after the second cup of stock. This gave them a nice cooking time and allowed the risotto to have a true corn flavour.

Garlic Chicken Risotto.

This risotto is absolutely basic, and simply delish! The great thing about risotto is all that time you spend stirring, gives you a little bit of daydreaming/thinking time. Which as a solo parent, I don't get very much of.

Garlic Chicken Risotto.
500 grams skinless chicken breasts, cubed
8 cloves garlic, crushed
olive oil
4 cups vegetable stock (warm)
2 cups arborio rice

Gently heat the oil and saute the garlic. Add the chicken and brown. Remove from pan and put aside. Pour rice into pan and stir until coated with oil (you may need to add a dash of oil). Heat until rice becomes somewhat translucent. Then add a cup of stock and stir until absorbed by the rice. Continue adding stock a cup (or ladle) at a time until it is absorbed. The rice is ready when nice and plumped but al dente in the middle. Pop the chicken back in the pot. Stir through and dinner is ready!

I have to say, this Gluten and Dairy free gig hasn't been all that hard. Dishes like this risotto have been part of my cooking repertoire for years. Other dishes we've frequently made have only had to have parts replaced. Now that we've found a great GFCF Cheese, we are once again enjoying nachos and tacos. With the help of ready made gluten free flours, pizzas, pikelets and cakes have become simple. And with Summer on it's way I am looking forward to eating a lot of salads and fruit. I am ashamed to admit that I don't eat any fruit. I buy it for the kids but I've never really got into it myself. So I have plans to make use of melons (cantelope and honeydew) for breakfasts. And I'm going to learn how to use my own barbecue!

Broccoli Soup in the Slow Cooker

I really worry about us all missing out on calcium being dairy-free. You might have noticed I sneak sesame seeds into a lot of stuff. I went to the dentist on Monday and he said my teeth were certainly very healthy but my gums are receding and I may have bone loss. Yet another side effect of coeliacs disease. So I'm off to get x-rays to check on my poor old bones, and in the meantime am on antibiotics to clear up any infections in my gums.

Back to calcium! For anyone on a dairy free diet, there ARE ways to still get enough calcium.
Leafy greens are good (bok choy is best!), blackstrap molasses and sesame seeds are high in calcium. And soy beans and soy milk contain lots too! I found a very helpful list, which shows you how much calcium you're getting from alternative sources here.
Broccoli Soup.
4 "trees" of broccoli
2 large potatoes
2 litres vegetable stock
2 teaspoons of cumin
2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Cook in slow cooker for 6 hours (low) or 3 hours (high).
Puree in blender. Then serve or freeze.

GF Crumpets, Take Two! (Success)

I never would have thought I would be so utterly, insanely impressed with being able to make my own crumpets.
But there they are>>>>

Before I give you the recipe, I'll give you a few tips to make life in crumpet-making town a little easier.

• Make sure your batter is runny. If in doubt, add water.
  
• Do NOT mix the batter between rounds. The air bubbles need to stay there.
• Be prepared to spend a little time making these. Keep the heat LOW and go slow.
• Don't expect them to look like shop-bought ones, because they're not.
  
• Keep It Simple!

The Amazing GF Crumpet Recipe:
300 Grams gluten free all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 sachet dry yeast (7 grams)
1 teaspoon caster sugar
400 mLs tepid water

Sift flour and baking powder into a clean dry mixing bowl.
Mix yeast and sugar into water and pour into flour. Mix until you have a nice smooth batter (I used a hand-mixer on low speed). Allow to sit while you prepare your egg rings and frying pan.
Once the batter has air bubbles that can be seen it is ready to cook. Pour into egg rings until 3/4 full and cook over low heat until bubbles form on the surface. Cover and cook until top is no longer runny.
Makes 12.

When cool, pop in toaster and serve with drizzlings of honey. :)

Father's Day Quesadilla Breakfast...and a mistake...

Breakfast Quesadillas.

1 packet Diego's GF Corn Tortillas
Grated mini chol soy cheese
scrambled eggs (free range, organic)
middle bacon
button mushrooms, sliced

To make this all happen at once, I preheated the oven to 230 C and popped the bacon in on an oven tray. Bake for 30 minutes.

I popped the mushrooms in the microwave with a knob of dairy free spread in a covered dish. Four minutes for 1200W microwave.

I scrambled the eggs in a saucepan with dairy free spread and a splash of rice milk.

For the tortillas, I sprayed one side with olive oil spray and heated until soft. Flipped over and sprinkled grated cheese on top. When cheese was melted, I removed from the pan, popped bacon, mushrooms and scrambled eggs in and folded over. Serve with freshly ground pepper and sea salt.

The mistake didn't happen in the kitchen. My mistake is kind of really a vent...
All of this was planned for my ex-husband. He sees the kids EVERY SUNDAY. And sometimes he's late. Like today.

And this means me trying to get the kids to wait for something until Daddy is here ends in tears. So while his lovely breakfast is congealing on the kitchen bench, Torin is howling in his room and Bridie is sulking. And I typed this one handed because the howling woke Edan who is now climbing all over me.

I give up trying to be nice. I really do...

Nested Eggs and Red Soldiers!!!

Oops! I had visitors today and forgot all about dinner until it was nearly dinnertime! So a quick assessment of the pantry and fridge and I came up with this kid-friendly dish. Eggs poached in mashed potato nests served with a side of sweet potato chips for dipping!

Red Soldiers (sweet potato chips)
Preheat oven to 220 C.
Peel one large sweet potato. Cut into think chips/wedges. Lightly coat in olive oil, season with sea salt and ground pepper. Bake for 45 minutes (but shake the pan every 15 to make sure they cook evenly).

Nested Eggs (eggs poached in mashed potato)
Make up mashed potato as you normally would. One small potato to one egg is the best ratio.
Spoon mashed potato into baking receptacle. I used ramekins which each fit 2 potatoes worth of mash and two eggs. Muffin trays might work? Or one big baking dish would also be fine.
With a spoon, poke little wells in the mash. Crack eggs into a cup and pour into the holes. Bake for 20 minutes so the yolk is still runny.

Serve with soldiers and dip into runny egg!

I found this dish good because once everything is in the oven, you have time to set the table and so on. Pretty low maintenance dish.
:)