Bolesławiec

Posted on 12/05/2016 by lindaFB

I have to tell you all about our little trip to Bolesławiec! Although dont ask me to spell that again, or say it, its really hard to say it.

Basically, every Polish person knows this town, and so do most tourists. Its where the famous polish pottery is made and sold.

Now, Im a white and pastels kind of girl, not really in to these patterns and stuff, so when hubby asked if I will be buying anything I said “no, probably not, but its the kind of place you have to have been to”. (Im laughing now as I write this- just wait)

So, off we went in the car, we were in a group so drove there together, the drive was around 1 hour and 15 minutes from Wroclaw, and that was not the kind off full blast driving I may have done if I was alone.

Im not going to bore you all with every minor detail, lets just say we went to A LOT of pottery shops. In the first one I bought a couple of things, in the second some more, and so on….. Yes. I bought something in every shop. And let me tell you, pastels and white NO MORE. Polish pottery all the way! We had Chris with us, my friend from the blog Kielbasa stories, we met online via another blogger almost 3 years ago, now we are like bff’s that never see each other, we talk (online) almost daily. She is a bit off a polish pottery addict and I never really got it. Now, Im totally there, she just laughed and said “I knew it!” Basically, its all her fault. She was an awesome guide though, took us to all the right places. Lets get to the pictures, because this is totally a picture post!

Obviously (I mean, obviously) I came home and realised I pretty much have to go straight back because I need more! Heres the stuff I didn’t buy and absolutely need (need. As in, I MUST HAVE IT – you will all help me explain to my husband right?) I mean the sink, I need that sink in my life!

I was sending images to relatives throughout the day, and this pottery may very well be the reason some finally come to visit, LOL!

My haul below, not bad eh? (why didn’t I buy more!!??)

I used half of it already, and Im happy to report it somehow matches my white and pastels!

After we had shopped and browsed some second hand stores we went for lunch. A place called the Blue Beetroot owned by a british-polish couple, real fish and chips, steak pie and other goodies, never mind that stuff though, they managed to feed us gluten free people pretty well, and nobody got sick. They have menus in English and all the staff spoke excellent english as well.

Great day, highly recommend it if you ever go to this area. I cant wait to go again. Thanks Chris! (<- In a good way and a bad way I think….)

Its May again

Posted on 05/05/2016 by lindaFB

May is important in my house as its Celiac awareness month. This is the first May that we know for sure all 4 of us have it. May is also Ehler Danlos awareness month, and Lupus awareness. How awesome is that? (Or actually not so awesome as it happens). As you know my daughter has EDS and is under investigation for Lupus. May is also when her birthday is!

I will do my proper Celiac awareness post later in the month, but for now, please, if you do follow my blog, pop to my facebook page and share some of the celiac awareness posts Im sharing in May. There will be a new one daily, all tagged #celiacawareness #nochoice #pleaseshare . Maybe we can reach another family like mine, a family that suffered greatly and had never even heard of celiac disease. Maybe we can help prevent some suffering somewhere. So head over, like or share or comment. And Thank You!

Tesco Poland – Thank you!

Posted on 04/05/2016 by lindaFB

Remember some time back when I wrote about Tesco Poland and how absolutely awful it was in terms of free from? I sent that blog post to every Tesco head office address I could find, tweeted it repeatedly and emailed SO many people. Then… a few months back things started happening in Tesco. A free from shelf appeared, then two shelves, then three…. the bio section grew as well. I kept saying to hubby, I HOPE they bring their free from range over, its SUPERB… then I started seeing the Free From lactose free stuff (this from a shop that didn’t even have basic lactose free milk before). The Free from cottage cheese arrived a few weeks later, and I was like “YES!!! They are SERIOUS”. We now have a gluten free section that would put most other shops to shame, bigger then Auchan and carrefour for sure… and today…. oh wow… today, there was a free from sign on the freezer, and there was ICE CREAM! And there was jumping up and down a little and squeals of happiness and YESSS!!!!!!

Now all we need is the pies, the ready meals, the lasagnes, the cottage pies the everything!

And one of the leading sandwich meat factories went gluten free a couple of months back, and another looks like its following suit! POLAND, you are shaping up nicely for people like us! Im so happy. Really. Its only food… and yet its the normality of walking in to a shop and being able to buy something that others take for granted.

Tesco Polska, dziekuje bardzo!

Inne wiadomości na temat życie bez glutenu w Polsce, nie zapomnij śledzić nas na Facebooku.

5 years gluten free!

Posted on 31/03/2016 by lindaFB

We have been gluten free for 5 years this week. 5 whole years! I remember it like it was yesterday. We were called in to the clinic, it was a Saturday morning, they had some results they said. Aili had been in and out of hospital, I was drained, mentally and physically. My life revolved around my screaming baby and lots of vomit.

We went in, the clinic was busy, lots of screaming kids, everyone was rushed. All the staff knew me by then, by voice, by name, by daughters name. We were ushered in to see the dr between two others who had appointments, it was rushed, no examination, papers handed over. I had been hoping it was lactose, but it wasn’t, it was gluten and my whole world was spinning.

We walked out, papers in hand. Gluten cant be in to many things right..? My son was hungry, my baby girl was hungry, we were in a mall and the mall was spinning. I let out a small sob. My drained self couldn’t cope. That small sob was it. My husband rolled his eyes and told me not to cry again, our life was a mess.

I never cried about gluten again. I cried many times since obviously, but not about gluten in particular.

We went to mc Donald’s. Son had a burger, Aili had some fries. No gluten in fries right…? We went home. We went home and nothing was the same again…..

It was good different though, not bad different, because the vomiting….? It stopped that day. Our girls life was saved that day. It continued to be saved every day since.

I look back at that day now, and I feel sorry for the exhausted mum that I was, and I wish I could have given that mum a hug and told her it will all be ok, that its only hard at first, and that life will get better now. I wish I could hold that mum and tell her to cry it all out, get it over and done with – the crying. I wish I could go back and smile at that mum and encourage her, because back then, going gluten free seemed like such a huge huge task, keeping my baby girl safe seemed so impossible.

I was so tired from months of illness and hospital and clinic visits that any task – no matter how small- would have seemed impossible that day.

We did it, of course. I did back then what I still to this day do with all the new stuff. I learned everything I needed to learn, I got on with it, I looked forwards and upwards and onwards and I remained as positive as I possibly could, and I have, almost every day since. Even in my darkest deepest moments of despair, I am still a very glass half full kind of girl.

Gluten now, 5 years later seems like such a minor thing compared to all the things we are facing today. Sure, its hard still, but its second nature, I have done it for so long it no longer bothers me.

If you are that mum that I was that day, today, tomorrow, yesterday… please know this. It gets easier. Really. It really really does.

Happy 5 years to us!

Dont forget to join me and my family on Facebook! 🙂

Holland & Barrett

Posted on 27/02/2016 by lindaFB

Oh my gosh! WHY Did I not know about this before? A few days ago I stumbled upon Holland & Barrett while searching for gluten free, eggfree cornfree flours. Randomly clicked around and a few minutes later realised they do International delivery! And guess what, it works out cheaper (delivery wise) then amazon to Poland!

Shopping Corn free, gluten free , wheat free and egg free means there is very very little available to us, but after clicking our allergens on the left and reading ingredients I found flour (!!), bread mixes (!!) biscuits and mayo. Anyone else who is corn free on top of gluten free will know my joy. Soups, so mummy can make lunch occasionally without cooking! Gravy, because making it from scratch every time gets so old, sweets, because kinder egg chocolate – however nice it is – gets boring after a while, ice lollies, because, ICE LOLLIES! Fancy teas for mum, because hey, Im worth it!

Then the joy when half the order came just 3 days later!

My joy though is nothing compared to the joy of little madam who got to eat mayo!

And in 2 days there will be more joy when the rest arrives!!

(This is like the kind of jumping up and down screaming joy that only teenage girls feel. Its A W E S O M E!)

Thank you Holland & Barrett, you made my day!

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com

On a Pancake mission – Day 3

Posted on 26/02/2016 by lindaFB

Its ok that day 3 is almost a year later right? 😀

My sister in law sent me some links to recipes using chick pea water instead of eggs. Pretty cool right? Im sure you have seen some floating around also. Of course being me, I didn’t save any of the recipes she sent me, but who needs a recipe right? I made my own.

This is a small batch (will feed 2-3), double the amounts of flour and milk for a larger batch.

You will need:

1.5 dl gluten free flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1-2 tablespoons of sugar
1.5dl milk
1 egg – or in this case, the “juice” from 1 jar of chick peas.

I used an electric whisk to combine it all and fried my pancakes in butter.

These pancakes were easy to fry, again, careful with the heat, they burn pretty easy! Taste wise they taste like the real thing! Daughter gave them a 5/5 and a visitor (not GF or Egg free) said they taste like pancakes! Cant get much better then that! I really liked these, not doughy at all. My favourite so far!

You cant taste the chickpea juice at all.

Dont forget to “like” GlutenFree & Me on Facebook!

Glutenfree / Eggfree cupcakes

Posted on 11/12/2015 by lindaFB

I use my own blog when I bake because I rarely save or write down recipes. Then the other day, I wanted to bake cupcakes, and I couldn’t find the recipe on the blog! HOW did I not share this with you all?

Its my base cake recipe that I tweak and change as needed and use for everything!

These cupcakes are egg free and you do not need an egg replacer 🙂 I use schär universal mix which is their corn free flour, so the end result is gluten free, egg free and corn free 🙂 You can easily do then dairy free or lactose free also 🙂

You need:

3dl gf flour
2dl sugar
2teaspoons vanilla sugar
2teaspoons baking powder
2dl water
50g butter or substitute

Mix all dry ingreds in a bowl. Melt butter, dont let it cool. Add water to butter and add the liquid to dry stuff. Whisk on high til smooth.

Put in 12 cupcake liners or in 1 large cake tin.

Bake at 225 degrees celsius for 10 minutes for cupcakes and 175 degrees celsius for 40 minutes for large cake.

I skipped the vanilla and added 2 tablespoons of coco powder. Try with cinnamon for Christmas!!

Enjoy!

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Gluten Free in Poland

Posted on 26/08/2015 by lindaFB

Im on so many gluten free forums and Im constantly replying to the same questions about gluten free in Poland, so time to make a post me thinks!

Being gluten free in Poland is getting easier and easier. While some smaller towns mainly sell gluten free in specialist “health food” stores, larger chains usually have some items available. Some shops will have just a few items, scattered around the shop, others will have huge sections or even entire aisles dedicated to gluten free.

The main Polish brands are all clearly labelled with images for egg free, gluten free, wheat free, lactose free and so on. Its really very easy, even if you don’t speak Polish to find what you need.

The main chains that stock gluten free are:

Auchan, most stores have a large gluten free section.
REAL
Carefour, some of the larger stores have an entire aisle dedicated to gluten free.
Piotr i Pawel
Alma
Intermarché
I will mention Tesco here, because they recently introduced gf bread to their stores, this is all they will have though, so if you want other things and have other supermarkets available, give it a miss. Edit April 2016. Tesco has recently done a magic turnaround and is now one of the best for GF near me. Go Tesco!

For eating out, the words bezgluten and bezglutenowy will be your best friend. Both mean glutenfree. Pronounced how they are read. A visit to celiakia.pl (Polands celiac society) is well worth your while. The english section is tiny, but if you stay on the Polish section you will find lists of restaurants checked and approved by the celiac society. Menubezglutenu is another site which lists places with a glutenfre menu, you can search using a map, in polish and english. Many upmarket restaurants have their own gluten free menus. Steer clear of basic road side establishments, as they mainly serve gluten loaded traditional Polish cuisine and will probably not even know what gluten is.

Poland also has some 100% gluten free establishments.

Dom Pod Ptasznica – a gluten free guest house in the mountains. The owners are both celiac and all the food they make is gluten free and wheat free.
Friendly Food Poznan – A totally glutenfree cafe / restaurant with amazing food. Review here.

Some of the common (gluten free) Polish brands are:

Balviten
Natura (meats)
Bezgluten

Some other things to look out for:

Grycan ice cream, all but 2-3 flavours are gluten free and labelled accordingly
Goplana chocolate, Poland’s oldest chocolate brand, all labelled bezglutenowy on the back and super yummy (I have yet to find a flavour with gluten)
Costa coffee (also sometimes called coffee heaven) have individually packed cakes that are gluten free
Trendy Vegan / vegetarian cafes seem to be all over Poland, they will usually also have a ton of gluten free stuff on their menu. Check them out!
Rossman – while a sort of chemist, often stock gluten free items.

If you are an expat, several pre schools now offer bezgluten food and have been trained and approved by the celiac association. YAY! 🙂

Be careful with:

Polish hams, sausages and bacon – almost all contain gluten
The famous polish kielbasa! ONLY buy the ones labelled gluten free.
Cross contamination, while many places may be able to give you something gluten free, the knowledge regarding cross contamination can be a bit hit and miss
Bakeries offering gluten free, these items may very well be baked on site which would make them low gluten, not gluten free, always ask and dont buy anything that isn’t individually wrapped if you are shopping in a bakery that also handles gluten items.
Airports! If you are going to be stuck in one for a while, bring food. Not even Warsaw airport has anything on offer.
Hospitals. No, really. Polish hospitals are terrible at feeding celiacs. If you end up in one (God forbid) you need to bring your own food. There are some exceptions to this, the lung clinics in the mountains see CF patients from all over the world and they are usually ok to feed those with allergies and celiac also.

Enjoy Poland and have fun 🙂

For more tips on Poland and gluten free life in general, join me on facebook!

Germs, school rooms and dreaming of a farm!

Posted on 23/06/2015 by lindaFB

Not feeling very “bloggy” lately. I can honestly saw we are all exhausted.

End of May, I finally went to the hospital and handed all our papers in. So many hospitals working together on our case. I just wasnt ready to hand it in sooner. It looks like they will still want us to go to Warsaw to check something there. We have the unexplained signs of autoimmune activity and bla bla bla. Bla bla bla may seem a bit blasé, but I just cant manage more then that right now. Im tired of “it” constantly being what our life revolves around. Waiting now to see how often we need to re test her igg’s also.

On a very positive note, she has not had pneumonia since she was taken out of school. TOUCH WOOD (as she sits downstairs with a big wheeze and a cold). She even had the same 48 hour cold / virus that here brother had a few weeks back, and hers ALSO lasted 48 hours. I almost cried with relief. I had no idea her immune system knew how to do that!!

The doctors are hopeful that this break is all that we need, but lets see, only time will tell.

On the school front, we have our plan, and our back up plan. She will have tutoring in school 3 times per week without germy other kids around. Hopefully she will still be ok with this once flu season starts, if not we will have to take her out fully. Im ok with all of this, I have gone over the plan in my head a million times!

New house is looking fab, and thanks to my Pinterest research, our school room eats other peoples school rooms for breakfast! We LOVE the school room, its probably our favourite room! A couple of more things to do, then its all ready.

We had Celiac kiddos birthday party just a few days after moving in, and it was fab! I thought the preparations would send me in to a stress fit, but it really wasn’t so bad! Guess Im becoming a pro at catering to people the gluten free way. Even the corn free and egg free is getting a tad easier, although I do miss being able to buy bread!

Our biggest enemy lately is not gluten anyway, its those pesky germs that everyone carries around, the stuff that lives in peoples noses, the stuff that little kids sneeze out and cough out and touch and then attack celiac kiddo with. Ok, fine, nobody is attacking, but sometimes it really feels like it. Its SO hard keeping her safe without going overboard.

I go to the supermarket early in the mornings now when its not so busy, that way she wont need a mask, more times then one Ive changed checkout after seeing a snotty cashier sneeze / cough in her hand and then carry on moving peoples groceries to bags. I don’t even want to start thinking about the stuff we don’t see!

Im telling you, the only safe way to live is in a house in the country, where you grow and raise your own food! It used to be a sort of joke I told, but I am more and more serious about it as time goes by! haha (any excuse to wear wellies full time really).

So, thats us! 3 more days of school, then maybe, hopefully, we can all re gain some energy! Which might mean more blog posts. Lucky you 😉

-Linda

The image is of a big scary germ. Obviously. Just incase you didn’t get it 😛

Playdough Contamination.

Posted on 25/11/2014 by lindaFB

I had a discussion with a lady who runs a big (gluten free) blog here in Poland about Playdough. She said its ok for her (celiac) kids to play with as long as they wash after, Ive always said no way Jose. Playdough residue sticks to your hands, under your nails and gets everywhere. Any classroom with gluten free kids should (in my opinion) be a gluten playdough free zone. If other kids play with it little bits will get everywhere, on the floor, on their shoes etc, the risk of contamination is just to large, and one that is easy enough to eliminate.

Our school uses playdough, but Celiac kids class all use gluten free playdough. I bought enough for the whole class and I have extra at home that can be brought in any time. You can also easily make it, but Im lazy 😉

We are on week 3 now after contamination. Something went wrong in art class and celiac kid got given a piece of playdough to stick something on to something with. She wiped her hands after, but with play dough, wiping is just not enough. There should be nail brushing and plenty of hot soapy water all supervised by an adult and even then its just not a great idea as residue may still remain on the hands or in the environment.

I picked her up that day and her tummy was huge. Imagine a 5 year old girl about 7 months pregnant. Thats how her tummy looked. Of course at that point I didn’t know why, I just knew there had been contamination. I also knew it must have been little, because she was not in extreme pain.

Celiac kid was home then for a couple of days, I cant actually remember why, but for the following two weeks she had diarrhea and also a few occasions of vomiting. Horrendous stomach cramps, mainly in the evenings or after eating. Of course all this has its own issues, fear of using the toilet, having small accidents in school and being embarrassed, ashamed and insecure. Fear of eating because after eating there is more stomach pain. Tearful, cranky, very very tired etc. I obviously don’t know all the symptoms, because many of them she would be to young to explain to me.

It took a week or so to get to the bottom of what contaminated her. I am not angry that it happened, its all a learning curve, for all of us. The art teacher had not received the same paper work as the other teachers and was not aware playdough had gluten in it. I blame myself for this, although some may argue its the schools job. I say its all our jobs. And now me, the teacher and support staff will be sure to remind / point out an extra time that playdough has gluten and where the gluten free one is kept. Celiac kid herself is also old enough to ask and has been told that asking is a good idea.

My point here is, that gluten playdough is not really safe. There is a risk involved. If you have Celiac kids, please do not allow them to use gluten playdough in school. Make gluten free one (I have a ton of pins on pinterest), or buy it. Below is a gluten free brand widely available in many countries.

So we continue on with week 3 after contamination, we continue being dairy free while she heals, and give extra cuddles and probiotics. For some playdough, all this, is definitely not worth it.

Remember also, that not everyone will have a clear reaction, damage on the inside still occurs!