Tag Archives: GlutenFree

Banana Bread! (eggfree, glutenfree)

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It took social distancing and Covid19 to get me blogging again I guess. Trying not to waste and we live in banana land! So, off I went, scrolling for recipes that are gluten free, egg free, corn free and use bananas. None of the recipes suited me. Im not a fan of powder egg replacer or flax egg. Both banana and chickpea flour can be used as egg replacer right? So. Time to make my own recipe. I will spare you all the details. There was Bread 1, 2 and 3. In the end bread 3 won hands down and this is what Im sharing with you today 🙂

Dont be afraid to experiment, so many recipes call for things we may not have at home. Half the recipe here is bananas anyway so dont stress to much if you add or remove or adjust elsewhere!

You need:

  • 5 Bananas (bananas here are pretty small so you can absolutely use less if you have big ones)
  • 3 tbsp sugar or other sweetener.
  • 1dl chickpea flour
  • 1.5 dl gf flour blend (switch the half for gf oats if you prefer)
  • 1 dl milk
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • Cinnamon, to taste. I used about half a tbsp
  • OPTIONAL extra – seeds, gf oats, raisins, whatever you like. Ive done batches with raisins and seeds on top and some with oats inside and all of it works! You dont need any of it, but you can absolutely use your imagination here. Perhaps chocolate chips?

Mash your bananas well. In all my version the bread that turned out the best I used my electric whisk to get all the banana lumps out and the bread turned out the fluffiest, so mash a bit, then get that whisk out!

Add all other ingredients and mix well. Yes, you can do it in any order you like, its absolutely ok!

The bananas make this cake (hateword number 1) moist enough on its own, so I added no oil to the batter. I did put some oil on my parchment paper though.

Pop it all in a bread tin and place in a 185 degree (pre heated) oven for 45 minutes.

Hot tip, banana bread is BETTER the day after you make it. If you absolutely cant wait though, at least let it cool down before you cut it. All my banana breads end up looking a little burnt, I think its just the caramelising of the bananas? They dont taste burnt 🙂

Enjoy!

My top 6 #Back2School items for an allergy kid!

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So, Im one of those mums remember? (Eye roll as you see fit). As one of those mums back to school is a little bit harder, and a little bit more stressful. Whether you are new to the allergy / celiac game or an old timer, my list of must haves may help make your life a teeny bit easier. Aili was diagnosed as a baby, not yet 2 years old, now she is over 7, and making sure I have these allergy must haves around is totally routine.

  1. Gluten Free labels! I stick these on all our lunch box containers, these serve as a great reminder for any teacher or other adult approaching my child and hopefully reminds them to not touch my carefully prepared allergy safe meal. These are from Ladybug Labels and they ship internationally. The labels are dishwasher safe and stay on for a long time. Through the years I tried many different brands and these win hands down. The quality is superb and they are easy to peel off and stick. (http://www.ladybuglabels.com)
  2. Name labels. The last thing I need is for my kids to lose anything (they do, anyway obviously, especially my son, lol), but even worse would be their stuff getting mixed up with someone elses. All their lunch gear including cutlery has a name label. Again I tried many different ones from different companies and these are now my go to every year. Delivery is fast and cheap even for international delivery. I always get the plain label, it sticks well, peels off easily and is dishwasher safe. I still have some labels from when my son was 4 that are stuck on! He’s almost 10 now, thats value for money right there! These are from Easy2name and come in lots of different colours. (https://www.easy2name.com)
  3. Good lunch boxes! My kids bring lunch to school every day and I need something that lasts, is good value for money, and works! It needs to be able to keep my kids food hot or cold, and I need to be able to clean it easily as it goes in to a contaminated environment on a daily basis. We now use only Pottery Barn lunch boxes. The kids get to pick a new one every second September, so we have a few, the first ones we ever got are still alive and kicking (!). We use lunch boxes for every day outings as well, so even though the Pottery barn boxes aren’t exactly cheap, the fact that they are practically indestructible makes them value for money. I pop them in the washing machine regularly to clean them and so far, no problems! Pottery Barn also delivers internationally! (http://www.potterybarnkids.com)
  4. Good Thermoses! My son goes through anti cold food phases, especially in winter. Ive tried so many thermoses its unreal, many of the kids ones are actually good, but to small for my growing boy! I also found many are hard to open once the hot food is in and I prefer my kids to be able to open their own containers. Surprisingly, the best food thermoses I have found are the IKEA ones (or maybe not so surprising, it is SWEDISH after all, haha). They are a great size, easy to open, no flimsy silly seals that come off after 5 uses, and best of all, I can wash them in the dishwasher (they do say not to, but I do and so far no problems). As far as affordability goes they are amazing. The food stays nice and hot too which is obviously great as so many thermoses don’t keep their heat well. (http://www.ikea.com)

     

  5. Baby Wipes and hand wipes. Seriously, you cant get enough of these babies! I keep them in every school bag, in every handbag and each kid has some in school. The baby wipes are sometimes on special and you can get a box with it, cover the box in funky stickers and make it non babyish for school. Alco gel is of no use as it does not kill gluten or other allergens, allergens need to be washed / wiped off! You can get wipes in pretty much any shop. Not all wipes are gluten safe! Johnsons contain no gluten.
  6. A good freezer block. Again, I tried so many. Having had my kids in school in Dubai I may have gotten overly paranoid about the whole cooling issue, but unless you are sending a hot lunch you really do need to worry. These allergy / celiac kids are often more sensitive then others, and the last thing we want is to give our kids food poisoning. I have every size and shape imaginable, these ones are firm favourites as they are slimmer then others, come in pretty colours and stay frozen until lunch time even though they are slimmer. I got these particular ones in Jula. (Yup, another Swedish shop!) (http://www.jula.com)

Anyone want to add anything? Is there something you cant live without for sending your allergic or celiac kid to school? Id love to know 🙂

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Tesco Poland – Thank you!

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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!

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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!

5-years

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

 

Holland & Barrett

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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!

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http://www.hollandandbarrett.com

On a Pancake mission – Day 3

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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.

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

 

Sometimes I just want to scream- an update on our diseases.

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I am trying to process all this new information, come to terms with it, understand it…. but its hard to come to terms with things that are maybes, things that aren’t for sure.

With the Celiac process I also felt sorrow, and guilt (because mummy didn’t know) and then I read and read and read and learned whatever I could, made a support group because there wasn’t one, met others and I processed. I not only processed but I excelled in my knowledge, helped others (and still do) and it was all ok. Celiac was ok, our disease was not a lonely thing. We were “severe” symptom wise and issues wise, not those happy go merry celiacs that go out and function somewhat normally. We had issues, many of them. Now ofcourse I know most of those issues were probably not celiac at all but all the other crap that we now know about.

Trying to process a disease that I have to google every time I need to write it because I cant learn to spell it (hypereosinophilic syndrome) , trying to process a disease that she probably has but they dont want to say for sure yet because there is no damage, (lupus and rheumatoid arthritis), trying to process and understand a disease that is super rare and the only specialist that deals with it in the country we live has closed down his email and no doctors know how to get us the help we need (Ehler Danlos Syndrome). What else…? Haha, I mean, we for real have to think twice to make sure we include everything when we are told to give a medical history. The allergies and the celiac take a backseat will you, you are so minor I mostly forget! I even find that offensive myself as a celiac advocate, but it is how it is right now.

Then there is her immune system, a system that we know its faulty, but they cant figure out what part. She gets sick and her system doesn’t respond, she doesn’t fight. Her levels are ok on paper, but in reality…. not so much. They are testing and re testing, the road has already been so long, and yet there is an awfully long way to go before we actually get to someone saying a. yes, this is whats wrong with her immune system, or b. There is nothing wrong with her immune system and whats happening is a symptom of her other disease(s) that are not yet fully diagnosed. 

Meanwhile we are at home a lot. We rest. We eat. We try to live a normal life. What is normal anyway? This is normal to us, pretty much has been for years, naming the crap really doesn’t make much difference in how we live, although I must say I do feel better.

When baby girl says she has a bad day now and she’s tired, I let her stay in bed all day. A year ago I would have felt guilt, guilt that she isn’t playing outside, guilt that we never DO anything, guilt that she didn’t get enough fresh air etc etc etc. All that guilt by the way, it wasn’t my guilt, it was the guilt that society puts on you when you have a child that doesn’t look sick. If they don’t look sick they cant be, and so they must conform to a life where you do stuff every day, go out every day, dont use a puschair when you are 6 etc etc etc. Now the only guilt I have is that I pushed her when obviously on those bad days she needed to rest.

Oh, and I have guilt about her hair! Gosh, this hair that we grew and grew, and she would cry when we brushed and I thought she was just being a kid. She asked to cut it, and I didn’t say no, but I talked her in to keeping on with growing it long, every time. Now after reading and reading I realise that most EDS patients have “hair pain”, many cant stand to have their hair brushed as there is so much pain involved. Who the hell am I to try to talk her in to having it long?? I listen now. I have learned to listen with ears that aren’t tainted by our societies pre set expectations of what life should be like. I listen like a true listening expert and whats more, I hear her.

I will keep processing, I will keep on hanging in there. Check in on us on facebook (which is far easier to update then here).

Love and spoons

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Glutenfree / Eggfree cupcakes

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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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Crazy about Dahl

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I have a thing about dahl lately. My kids have a thing about dahl lately too! Sons thing is eating 2-3 bowls of it in one sitting, and daughters thing is refusing to eat any at all. Ho hum, you cant win them all.

Did you know you can make kick ass awesome dahl without having a cupboard full of fancy spices?

Let me teach you my base dahl, then you can play around with it and create your own version.

You will need: (No measurements, sorry, I suck, I know!)

  • Lentils
  • 1 onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • tumeric
  • fresh ginger
  • 1-2 tomatoes
  • 1 lemon or lime
  • chilli – optional

for different variations you can add spinnach, chickpeas, paprika, different coloured lentils, carrots…. the sky is the limit 🙂

So, you need lentils. For a starter outer I suggest red lentils. Wash them well and pop them in a large saucepan with water. Id say 2 cups of lentils and 4 of water, add more water if needed. Add about half a teaspoon of tumeric. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down. Red lentils are pretty fast so you can start prepping your other stuff almost straight away.

Finely chop your onion, if you have a kid who thinks onion is poisonous like me, then you can puree the onion in a mini chopper. Its magic. I do this all the time and point blank lie. Works a treat.

Mince your garlic (one of them garlic press majiggys is perfect).

Slice or chop a small amount of chilli, I use red for more colour but use such a minute amount it really doesn’t give much spice at all.  Add the chilli to your garlic pile.

Grate or slice some fresh ginger. I always keep mine in the freezer, so its easy to scrape off the amount I need with a sharp knife. Add the ginger to your garlic and chilli pile.

Cube your tomato. Some say to take the peel off, I dont bother.

Once your lentils are close to done then continue with these final steps.

Add your oil of choice to a frying pan, I use extra virgin olive oil, over low to medium heat fry the onions taking care to not burn them or let them go brown. You want them soft. This will take about 4 minutes. Then add your garlic, chilli, ginger pile. Take extra care now to not let this burn, burnt garlic is not nice.

Once your lentils are done, add all your goodness from your frying pan in to the lentils and also add your tomato. Add salt and squeeze half a lemon or lime in to your dahl.

I like to add a few leaves of baby spinach, it gives such awesome colour.

Once you graduate from this dahl you can start using more grownup lentils and spices if you like 🙂 The one pictured has baby spinach and the lentils are brown and red mix. YUM!

I serve mine with a naughty blob of butter 🙂 You can make it less liquidy and eat it with rice too.

Swedish Coconut Balls!

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Yes, I know, this recipe starts out with you doing a double take and going, “coconut balls?????”

All Swedish kids grew up with coconut balls, its not something parents generally make, instead the kids do it, its an activity and a sweet treat all in one. Although in Swedish, kokos bollar doesnt sound so, eeehm…. wrong? lol

Once upon a time some people called this something else that is very very racist, those people are now being told to say chocolate balls instead. Im not sure what all the hu haa is about to begin with, I have always said coconut balls as have most my friends and family. So coconut balls is what you will call them as well 🙂

This recipe will not work if you cant tolerate oats. Make sure you buy proper glutenfree oats and not any old oats, as normal oats can contain a fair amount of gluten.

You will need:

  • 100g butter, room temperature
  • 1.5 dl sugar
  • 3 tablespoons coco powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar (scrap this if you dont have it)
  • 2 tablespoons strong coffee (or water if you dont want to risk making the kids hyper)
  • 5 dl GF oats
  • desiccated coconut, for rolling the balls

The rest is really very simple. Add all the ingredients in a bowl and get your kids to mix it.

Really really mix it, squish, sqash, knead, bash….. until its all mixed. Then roll the mix in to small balls which you then roll in coconut. Once done, refrigerate. Then eat. Or eat as you make it. With a spoon. Then you can skip the coconut too 😛

For a healthier version play around with it, add some coconut oil, chia seeds, less sugar etc. The possibilities are endless.

Enjoy!