The Final post for 2011

This is my final post of 2011! I would have never thought at the beginning of last year that I would start a blog and it would be as successful as it has been! I've had readers from countries all over the world reading my blog! There is such a feeling of satisfaction to know that I might be helping someone around the world, I might have inspired someone to go to the doctor to get tested and finally get a solution to there problem.

Personally my year has been filled with a rollercoaster of emotions and bad luck, hospital visits, 2 surgeries and lots of pain from my accident. I had thought about blogging, as I was enjoying reading Lori's blog from RASHM and Emma, from What's in Emma's Brain.

I remember the moment that I decided I would start my blog, it was at a child's birthday party, and a conversation with Emma, who encouraged me to write the blog. I remember sitting at my house typing the very first post, setting up my blog and pressing the publish post button, I sat watching the amount of times that the post was viewed. I was amazed as the numbers of viewers dramatically went up and the excitement was even greater when I read that people from all over the world were reading my blog! As time continued, so did my readers and I was in total amazement at the amount of countries that my readers were coming from!

Even in times when I was too sick, or in too much pain to write my blog, my readers stood by me and where still there when I was back on my blogging feet again. I even had my mum and my husband type my blog, whilst I was lying in bed, or they were sitting next to me.I couldn't believe how much blogging had become a part of my life.

I remeber my first recipe I put up, it was a recipe from someone else, a cookbook or something, as my confidence began to grow, I began to develop more confidence in my cooking, in how flavours worked together, I began to make recipes from scratch, use a recipe as a base and work from there. I now find it difficult to work out how to write down recipes, cause I use a bit of this and a bit of that, that's how I know that my skills have improved. And I love that look on peoples face when they try your food and its like their eating a piece of heaven. That's when you know you have nailed a recipe.

Some of the nicest food I made this year was the Chocolate Baileys and Choc Cream Pavola, with berries (my creation), the Cherry Ripe Cake (Delicieux's creation, I just played around with the ingredients to make it gluten free), the Orange and Chocolate Cake (once again a marvellous recipe by Deliiceux, originally Nigella's) I added orange segments around the outside for decorations, The Chocolate, Almond and Butterscotch Schnapps Christmas Balls, my favourite main meal was probably the mustard encrusted roasted beef (my creation again), and finally the very last thing is the cocktail I created for a Nuffnang competition, a White Nectarine and Butterscotch Schnapps Cocktail (delicious, light and fluffy and not too strong).

It was only recently I joined the Twitter world, and here I came across many fellow food bloggers, both gluten free and standard food blogs! I can't believe how nice some of these lovely women are, Jennifer from Delicieux and JJ from 84thand3rd, I'm also reviewing an ebook for a fellow food blogger, Kim from Simply Natural Health, and Im sorry if I have missed anyone out, but thankyou to all the people that have helped me, let me particiapte in blog hops, which I have enjoyed so much and welcomed me with warm arms into the world of food blogging. I would also like to again thank Emma fro Whats In Emma's Brain for giving me the courage to start the blog and Lori fro RASHM (in a time of emotional turmoil, she gave me the time, to help me out with some beginners questions, for that I am so grateful). Before this point I was kind of feeling like a wall flower, sitting there in the blogging world, but now I have been welcomed by these lovely people, become part of a group, not so lonesome anymore!I also have to mention Nikki From Styling You, she has also welcomed and supported me with open arms! I look forward to joining more blog hops, more competitions and whatever else comes my way. I have to also thank again Jennifer from Delicieux for selecing me along with De Bortlio to be one of the 10 people to win some of their lovely wine, as promised I gave the wine to my best friend and my darling sister, the people who have driven me around and helped so much this years in more ways then words can mention! Thankyou girls, I love you both and am honoured to have you and my other very special circle of friends and family in my life, you know who you are.

I have also enjoyed reseraching the links between autism and the gluten and caesin free diet, the more I have discovered the more apparent it seems to me, that removing gluten and caesin (a protein in milk) has massive positive affects on children on the autism spectrum. With my education background, I also believe that if could have positive affects on children with various behaviour problems like ADHD and ODD, its a simple, non medication alternative. I never claim to be a medical professional, all I put forth is the research and I encourage you to try something for just a week and see if there are any differences, the pros for this so out weigh the cons!

My goals or resolutions for the New Year are as follows;

1. A revamp of my blog, to reach a wider population of readers
2. Follow some dreams I have about gf products and spreading my wings in the gluten free world, there is deinately a hole in the market out there, I hope you will see it all next year!
3. I want to get more of my reviews etc in published print, I've had one local review, its given me a taste for more.
4. I want to write a gluten free recipe book, either published or e-book.
5. To join the blogging world on a bigger scale, perhaps attend some conferences, get to do the fun things that I see other bloggers do!
6. To loose a bit of weight (the most common new years resolution!).
6. To continue doing things that make me happy.
7. A big lesson I have learnt this past year and a bit is that its in times of trouble and hardship, you really find out who your true friends are. I will and I recommend you, to do the same, surround yourself with the people who you love and who are there for you no matter what, in bad times as well as good.

I hope that next year brings me more good luck, good health and recovery. I hope that everyone who reads my blog gets enjoyment help, advice, recipes that they like and can use. I wish everyone good health, good personal contentment and personal happiness. So until next year, drink sensibly tonight, a hangover is not a great thing to have, frock up where ever you are and have some great fun. Remember to follow my blog if you have been reading this, it means so much to me! I get excited when I get a message from a reader or someone follows me or leaves a comment!

So to all Happy New Years Eve, good riddness 2011 and bring on 2012, I have a good feeling about next year! Tonight I'm making my Chocolate Moouse with Cherries soaked in cherry liquer, I will put up photos with the recipe next year. Have a safe night from the summer of Australia, to the freezing cold of Russia and everywhere in between I wish my readers all the best for the new year!

Is what we are eating causing massive health problems?

I love to cook! All types of cooking, I even made baked goods for family and friends this Christmas! Theres something special about the joy of someone else getting pleasure and enjoyment of food you have baked! I even adapted my great grandmothers 100+ year old recipe to make a gf Christmas Pudding! The more I cook and enjoy it every day, the more im aware of the additives etc that are in store brought cakes, biscuits etc! If you make a cake or biscuits at home they only last for a few days, in a sealed container, maybe 5, but they won't last for months like the supermarket brands! I look at the rates of cancer, which are currently 1 in 2 people will end up with cancer and I have to wonder why? This is a matter very close to my heart, I've lost 2 grandparents from this horrible disease and have many family memembers who have fought this disease! Our parents and grandparents, particularly farming families like mine, were almost self sufficient! Take a step back 100 years and you made your own bread, cakes and slices, were all handmade, dinner was often rabbit (a meat killed by the men of the house, or women in some circumstances), nothing was spared, leftovers were used and re used and generally people were healthier! There was no flavour enhancers, little numbers on the back of products, it was only small stores in the city, no such thing as big supermarkets! In the city and country, there was a bread man, a milk man and a traveling salesman to buy things from! What troubles me, is there were significantly less rates of cancer and other diseases! You have to wonder if all these additives, and mysterious numbers in foods are affecting our health dramatically! I know that certain companies sell carcenogenic chemicals to large fast food operators, to go in there food! And it doesn't stop there,some wine companies use such chemicals to clean out their wine vats! All this ends up in our stomachs, processed through our bodies! To me, it has to have some impact on our health, the cancer and disease rates! I even had a gf pudding brought for me, it tasted nice, then I looked at the additives and numbers on the back and I was slightly concerned! Although even 100 years ago, coeliac disease would have existed, but it would have had a different name! I'm glad that we live in an era where diseases like coeliac are recognized and treatable! But I think I'd much rather cook the majority of my food, to remove all the additives and nasty unknown products, then buy pre made food! What's your thoughts on this? Do you agree with me or have another theory? I'd love to hear your comments! Don't forget to follow me by clicking on the follow me tag or follow by email, I'm also on Twitter @MMOAGF and Facebook on the page Mishaps and Mayhem Of A Gluten Freee Life, just click the like button. I await your comments!

Old Fashioned GF Christmas Pudding!

Once again I'm participating in a blog hop, this one is focused on festive favourites and is hosted by 84th and 3rd! I'm very excited to pass my contributions to this blog hop for the second time! My festive recipe is something that has been passed down from generation to generation in my family. My mother even has to make the famous puddings in the same bowl her mother and grandmother used, it's over 100 years old and fine china! It's like one of the bowls that people used to wash in, my grandfather who if he was alive would be nearly 92, and he as a baby was bathed in it! It's truly amazing!



I refuse to carry it and am so scared when I help mum with my sister make the pudding, to stir the pudding on the off chance that I might crack or break this precious bowl! But mum insists that that is the bowl that we have to make the pudding in, for the rest of the year it's stored carefully away, wrapped in a towel, to ensure it doesn't get broken!

Last year, my first Christmas as a coeliac I didn't have the pudding. This year, I modified my great grandmothers recipe (she was the first generation to read and write), so it's highly likely that this recipe is much older and was passed down verbally, like we are doing now, with mother and daughters helping make the pudding and learning the special little tricks! That's why this recipe is so precious! It's a piece of my family history. So I didn't want to cook a pudding from any other recipe, I adapted this wonderful original recipe to be gluten free, so I could eat it! It was just a blending of flours and almond meal and I achieved the perfect balance! But the tricky part of the pudding is not the making, even though my mum made us do everything how her mum did! We made breadcrumbs from stale bread with our fingers, no blenders or mix masters, everything had to be done how it was done 100 years ago!

The hardest part of these puddings is boiling it constantly for 4-6 hours, constantly topping it up with boiling water, it must not come off the boil! Mum has cooked it on the barbeque, but there was problems with the wind, if you are cooking inside just be careful not to burn your stove top! I think grandma had the best idea, cooking in the garage on a camping stove!

It's not an easy recipe but is so moist, delicious and a real Aussie classic. My grandma and my great grandmother, used to put thruppences in the pudding, she did it when I was a child still! It originated from when people didn't have much money, so instead of spending copious amounts of money on gifts, like we do now, Christmas in my grandparents and great grandparents generations was more about spending time with family, having a delicious dinner and finally being able to eat this marvelous pudding that had been hanging in muslin cloth for weeks, the thruppences was the former currency in Australia, and getting these in your slice of pudding was your little present! Fortunately I still have thruppences but I didn't and wont be putting them in my pudding!

So from generations of my family I pass on to you a slightly modified gluten free version of this precious pudding! It's best to cook this about a month before Christmas, to let the flavors blended in, you can also freeze this marvelous pudding!

Traditional GF Christmas Pudding:

Ingredients:
250g butter (leave out at room temperature)
 250g sugar 4 eggs (room temperature)
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup gf plain flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1/2 cup dry stale gf breadcrumbs (leave out, tear into tiny pieces and remove crusts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sultanas
 1/2 cup currants
60g mixed peel
 60g dates
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbote soda
1/2 teaspoon almond essence
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon lemon essence
1/4 cup OP or normal rum
3/4 teaspoon mixed spice (or if no mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger)
1/4 teaspoon ginger
30cm calico cloth

Method:
Chop and soak fruit, essence, and rum for a min overnight (better for a few days). Sift flours and dry ingredients, add sugar, rub in butter (best with cold hands), until mixed through. Beat eggs well, until they are light and creamy and 3/4 of way up the bowl, mix in gradually to dry ingredients. Add fruit grudully, stirring well. Rub gf flour into cloth to cover about 8cm from sides, with more flour in the centre. Place cloth in a colander or bowl. Place mixture in centre of cloth, gather ends together and tie securely with string as close to mixture as possible, leaving a small break (1-2cm), to allow pudding to swell. Tie cloth and put in boiling water for 3-4 hours. Continue to add boiling water every 30 minutes, don't allow to boil dry. Puddings are best made a month or so before Xmas and can freeze. Wrap in glad wrap and finish off with a layer of foil. These puddings can store for months in the freezer and taste great 6 months later! Serve with ice cream and brandy custard, and you get to eat pudding just like everyone else! Im storing half in the freezer and half for Christmas day, the frozen half has actually shrunk, don't stress, thats what it is meant to do.

 Enjoy from my family a precious recipe to yours! I did notice when eating last night it was slightly crumbly, it tastes perfect tho! I'll play around with the flour combo next year and keep you all updated! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Chocolate, Almond & Butterscotch Schnapps Christmas Balls

I am once again participating in a Blog Hop, this time its a Festive theme, hosted by the lovely lady behind http://www.84thand3rd.com , a great food blogger! I have at least 2 entries in this Blog Hop, so I better get this started! A festive favorite in my family since I was a little girl was chocolate or rum balls! I have fond memories of cooking the chocolate balls with both my mum, Aunty and grandma! The best and most fun part as a kid was rolling the balls together, getting chocolate and coconut stuck on your fingers and licking then off when you were finished!



As we got older and became teenagers, it was trying to sneak a rum ball before mum or another grown up busted you! I'm sure the 1 tablespoon of rum in a whole batch was hardly enough to do anything! But with any teenager,it's the thrill of tasting something with alcohol and knowing your not really meant to be eating them!

The funny thing, is there is nothing specifically festive about these balls, but Christmas is the only time of the year that we make these delicious treats, maybe it's the coconut that gives it the Christmas feel!

This year I made some for friends, I decided to make some modifications to the original recipe, I added some almond meal and instead of rum I used butterscotch schnapps, a favorite drink of my friends I was making them for!

The worst thing for me was I made them with gluten biscuits, so I couldn't sample the mixture! But I'm writing this recipe out as gf, as I have a packet of gf arrowroot biscuits in the cupboard, to make these delicious Christmas balls with! Chocolate, almond & Butterscotch Schnapps!

 Chocolate, Almond & Butterscotch Schnapps Christmas Balls
Ingredients:
I packet gf plain biscuits (I'm using arrowroot gf biscuits)
I tin condensed milk
1/2 cup desicatted coconut
1/2 cup almond meal
 2 tablespoons of cocoa
2 tablespoons (or a slug) of Butterscotch Schnapps, to your liking
Additional desicatted coconut
Method:
1. Break individual biscuits into small pieces, place in an electric mixer and blend until there are only small pieces, a very fine substance.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix well in a bowl.
3. Place additional coconut on a plate and have a separate plate for ready made balls.
4. (this is the messy part), remove rings and jewllrey. Using your hands, roll mixture into medium to small balls, roll in coconut and place on fresh plate. Complete until all mixture is gone!
5. Place plate of made balls, in the fridge.
6. Serve and put in a bowl, or in a box with baking paper if it's a gift and decorate with ribbon or a or a  bowl!

Note: you can also make this version without alochol, simply remove from ingredients and they are chocolate balls, still very tasty! To make the gluten version, simply use plain biscuits and follow the same method for the rest of the recipe (if your making for friends and you ate a coeliac don't be tempted to lick your fingers or the bowl! (just remember the puffer fish!)Also the original recipe did not have almond meal, just 1 cup of coconut, so if you have only coconut in the cupboard the recipe will work out fine!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas, Happy Baking xx

Gluten Free Chocolate Cherry Ripe Cake

As you know from previous posts, I have recently joined twitter and made a whole new array of friends, fellow food bloggers. One of the lovely food bloggers, LeDelicieux made a wonderful cherry ripe cake!

It was recently my one year wedding anniversary and I wanted to make something special for my husband, aka Poppa Smurf! The challenge I had was to adapt this marvellous recipe to gluten free, which is becoming easier as I cook more and get to know textures and tastes and the overall appearance!

Gluten free baking isn't always a success and often takes many attempts to get the various dishes right! Often cakes flop, pastries fall apart, biscuits crumble. It's about not giving up! Its about giving it that second or third go, adjusting the ingredients, adding a bit more flour, a different blend, more butter, eggs etc. My advice is persevere, home cooking is much tastier than packet mix or frozen food! When you get the gluten free recipe right, your own cooking, you and your friends and family won't be able to tell the difference between gf and gluten filled food. Bread is the only exception, but pretty much everything else you can make to taste like the original gluten recipe you based it from!

Back to the special Cherry Ripe recipe, derived from the marvellous Delicieux, fantastic food blogger, the link to her site is here http , a must look at! ://www.ledelicieux.com

I wanted to bake the cake in a heart shaped tin, very romantic! Unfortunately I could only find 4 small heart tins, thus I had heaps of mixture left over! What to do???? I quickly decided to get the muffin tins and Xmas cup cake holders out! I was amazed by how much mixture this cake made!I had about 24 large cupcakes that the mixture made! I made these all at the same time, they took roughly 30 minutes to cook, just keep on checking with a skewer!

This recipe is something that you don't try cooking when you don't have much time, with preparation, cooking, cooling, making the butter cream filling, cutting the cakes, filling them and making the ganache, finally coating the cakes with the ganache, decorating with a cherry ripe or fresh cherries, you are looking at 2-3 hours in total! But very well worth it, with the first mouthful, your efforts will be rewarded!

Without further ado here is the adapted:

GF Cherry Ripe Cake (thanks Delicieux for the wonderful cake!)

Ingredients:
Cake:
Butter for greasing pans
1/2 cup gf cornflour
1/2 cup arrowroot flour
3/4 cup rice flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good quality cocoa (I used Cadburys)
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups of Coconut milk (1 large tin was enough)
1/2 cup olive oil (original recipe calls for vegetable oil but I only had olive oil,I think for gf olive is the best)
2 extra large eggs at room temperature (this is important, it can really affect the cake!)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup cherry liqueur (I used Continental cherry liqueur, whatever cherry flavoured liqueur or brandy you can find)
200g glace cherries (a packet), finally chopped
1 cup of shredded coconut

Cherry Coconut Butter cream:
125g room temperature butter cut into cubes
1 cup of icing sugar
200g glace cherries, finely chopped
1/4 cup shredded coconut
2 teaspoons of cherry liqueur (or a small slug)
Red food colouring (optional, I used it and it looked great, just a few drops!)

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup of non thickened cream
300g dark chocolate chopped
1 tablespoon of cherry liqueur (optional)

Method:
1.start with the cake I used muffin tins, you will need at least 24, with maybe a second batch! Best thing about muffin tins is you use cupcake holders, so you don't have to worry about greasing tins! Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350degress Fahrenheit)
2. Sift the flours, cocoa,bicarbonate soda, baking powder and salt. Place in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, add the sugar and mix on low speed until it's mixed through.
3.In another bowl, whisk the eggs, coconut milk, oil and cherry liqueur. With the mixer on low speed slowly add these ingredients to the dry ingredients until mixed through.
4. With mixer on low add the coconut and cherries until just combined.
5. Pour batter into muffin tins, or to make a big cake use 2 20cm tins (my advice is cupcakes/muffins are the best size, due to the sweetness and richness of this cake)and bake for between 20-30 minutes if using muffins, check regularly with skewer as they cook quicker than a larger cake. It's cooked when the skewer comes out clean.
6.Cool in the pan for 30 minutes or more, even put in fridge or freezer to make then easier to cut in half!
7. For the cherry butter cream mix butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the food colouring and mix well. Add glace cherries, coconut and cherry liqueur, mix to combine.
8.For the chocolate ganache, use a double saucepan, the larger one filled with a bit of water and place broken chocolate, cream over low heat until melted, add liqueur, set aside until the chocolate thickens and reaches room temperature.
9. Cut cupcakes in half and fill with Butter cream, place the other half of the muffin on tip of the other half. Using 2 tablespoons pour chocolate ganache completely over the cakes, letting it run slowly down the sides.
10. Decorate with cherry ripes, fresh or glace cherries. I used a cherry ripe cut into very small pieces, 1 on each cupcake/muffin.

Note: to overseas readers Cherry Ripes are an Australian chocolate, they taste exactly like this cake! Very yummy! A great Christmas gift, anniversary or special occasion! A guaranteed hit!

Thanks again to Jennifer at LeDelicieux, a great food blogger, for making the original version of this amazing cake and for allowing me to post my modified gluten few version, for all people to enjoy. This is definitely a recipe that you can't tell is gluten free and is gobbled up by all!

Enjoy and let me know how you go! Don't forget the great competition at Delicieux to win 1 of 4 $100 vouchers from the best restaurants in Australia, only  hours to go and the other amazing competition to win 6 bottles of Fresita Strawberry flavoured wine, definitely enter!

Remember you can follow me on twitter @MMOAGFL, dint forget you can like my page on Facebook and don't just read, follow, even privately via email (you get each new blog post or recipe sent directly to your own email account),

A big thankyou

Just a quick post to say a big thankyou to ledelicieux for winning the DeBortlio wine price! It made my day! For those of you who have read my accident post, you are aware of my injuries. These lovely bottles of wine are going to the amazing friends and family, my support network who have helped me get through this hard time, driving me around, listening, being a shoulder to cry on! I also want to give a big shout out to the chefs and staff at Tahmoor Inn, we had dinner there tonight, the chef made a gf sauce for me, they came out to tell me there was batter on the chips, so I had veggies! It made for a great dining experience and also proves it doesn't matter how fancy the restaurant is, it's about the willingness and knowledge of the chef to help you out! I had a similar experience at Camden Bowling Club, the chef was very accomodating and kept on coming and checking I could eat certain things! Brilliant service and a place where you are guaranteed to have a gf meal and know with confidence that you won't have a reaction! Keep an eye out on this blog for a delicious gf cherry ripe cake recipe! Don't forget to follow me or get the blog posts by email, you can follow me on twitter too @MMOAGFL! Thanks again LeDelicieux and DeBortlio for giving me a wonderful prize! Xxx

Gf fruit n nut health bars!

One of the problems I find with being a coeliac is the lack of variety of snacks! I know there are some delicious biscuits and yummy chips, but when you are trying to be healthy and keep an eye on your weight, they aren't the most ideal snacks.

Also I love baking, obviously, as I wouldn't have started a food blog! But I have a habit of making delicious, sweet tasting treats! I end up eating way too much of this food! Again not so good for the waste line, particularly as my injuries very much limit my ability to exercise and burn off the calories I have digested.

So I set out to make a healthy snack bar, like a muesli bar, something that I can eat, without worrying too much on the calories. My first attempt was based on the popcorn pudding recipe that features on the deserts page, this was tasty but not a success for what I was after (I think the milk had something to do with it!).

My second attempt was a few days ago, inspired to create something delicious and healthy for my new readers and followers on twitter (which has been a large success, and given me amazing contacts!), I flicked through my gf cookbooks for inspiration.

What I created was based on a recipe from The Gluten Free Bible, but I made a few changes. Firstly the original recipe asked for a block of dark chocolate to be swirled across the top, sounds very delicious but didn't quite meeting the healthy treat I was aiming for.

To give the bars a bit extra flavour I added some golden syrup, which was the best decision, it really blended well with the rice flakes, chopped walnuts and cut up raisins, sultanas and dates, I also added some coconut! The only thing that I would change next time is the amount of butter. The original recipe, which I was using as a base called for 1/2 cup melted butter, it made the bars taste delicious and almost had the cornflake patty like taste that my gran used to make as a child, but it also gave it that buttery bottom, on each bar. So instead of 1/2 cup of butter, particularly if like me, your aim is for a healthy treat I would add 1/4 cup of butter, with the golden syrup it should still blend in quite well! I also cut the bars after they were set into long rectangles, you could also cut in half again and they would make great lunch box treats, which would look the same as all the other kids bars, but gluten free!

Without further ado here is the recipe,

GF Fruit & Nut Healthy Bars

Ingredients:

3 cups of crushed gf riceflakes or gf cornflakes (whatever is in the cupboard)
2/3 cups finely chopped dried fruit (I used sultanas, raisins and dates, that's what was in my cupboard, you could also use apricots, apples or cranberries, whatever is in your cupboard, if you have to buy something the remainder will get eaten)
2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped almonds (or other non salted nuts you have in your cupboard)
1/3 cup desiccated coconut (my addition)
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon of golden syrup (be generous, let it overflow a bit!)

Method:

Crush riceflakes or corn flakes (I put them in a bowl and used the back of the spoon, it worked quite well, don't blend as you don't want it too fine). Mix in finely chopped nuts fruit, nuts, icing sugar, coconut, melted butter and golden syrup, mix well.

Line a slice tray with baking paper and place mixture into the tray, use the back of a wooden spoon, to ensure that it is all flat and even.

Place bars in the fridge until set. Once set, cut bars into long rectangular shapes, then cut in half. This makes it easier for lunch box treats. Store in tray or airtight container in the fridge, depends how quickly they get devoured!

Note; if you are making these for your child to take to school, ensure that it is not a peanut free school, just ask their class teacher. If this is the case and your child can eat nuts, save them for afternoon tea treats! However if your child is allergic to nuts, simply add some pumpkin or sesame seeds to bulk it up, the same amount as the nuts. If you want to use the whole 1/2 cup of butter, these would also make great treats in patty or cup cake liners, refridgerate after putting them in their liners, for Christmas you could always use the Christmas cupcake liners! Let me know how it goes!

Also don't forget about the amazing competition at delicieux http://www.ledelicieux.com/ , the food blogger is running, you can win fantastic bottles of De Bortlio wines, it's also packaged in amazing Bohemia art boxes! Makes for great Christmas gifts!

I'm also on twitter you can follow me @MMOAGFL, don't forget the Facebook page and click on like it if you enjoy the blog! It's fantastic to read my blog and it is amazing to follow, if you don't have a gmail account, you can get my posts directly by email, fuss free, no searching straight to your inbox!

Enjoy
xxxx

Butterscotch Scnapps & White Flesh Nectarines Summer Cocktail!

I was over the moon yesterday, when I received an email from Nuffnang, personally inviting me to participate in a food blog competition! A chance to win an chance to attend the foodathon at the Stokehouse in Melbourne! I'm finally a real food blogger, being invited to events and participating in blog hops! Its taken nearly 6 months but it was well worth the wait!

The competition is in conjunction with Schwepps and to enter you have to create a cocktail using a Schwepps drink as one of the base ingredients!The amazing price is a paid flight to Melbourne and a nights accommodation! Wow!

 For my readers my last year and a bit hasn't been filled with the best of luck (aside from marrying the man of my dreams almost a year ago!), I haven't had the best of luck to say the least (I don't want to go into details, lets just say it involves numerous injuries, not being able to work, two surgeries and another hospital stay). But I think of myself as lucky, things could have been worse and so many people have worse injuries or conditions then mine, I'm grateful I'm alive and not worse off. But to win, to change my luck would be truely amazing, encouraging and inspiring, it would tell us all that there is light at the end if the tunnel, my luck can change!

I got this email on Tuesday and immediately got started thinking about what cocktail I would create. I did a quick mental note of the cocktails I've drunk and liked in the past! But the key that I wanted to do with my cocktail creation was to make it original, something that you wouldn't go to your local bar and ask for. My inspiration was seasonal (though the weather at the moment suggests otherwise), with particular focus on the fruits of summer. I then thought of what Schwepps drinks I like the most, find the most refreshing in summer. The conclusion I came to was the fruit I was going to use is white flesh nectarine (with skin on), I then thought of what spirits would taste nice with nectarine, I already had Butterscotch Schnapps, actually I think the spirit was were I first started. The Schewepps lemonade was the most obivious choice with my combination, I wanted the two flavors to come through not be overwhelmed by the mixing drink.

The next addition to my delicious summer cocktail was lots and lots of ice, ice is the key to any refreshing summer cocktail! The best thing about a summer cocktail, is to taste the lovely flavours but without being hit with the overwhelming alcohol flavor! When blending, leave little chunks of ice, it makes the cocktail that more refreshing, chewing on the mini chunks of ice, absorbed by the cocktail flavor, is pure heaven! Guaranteed to have you wanting some more of the Schwepervesence of this delightful refreshing cocktail! The best thing about this cocktail is that it doesn't overwhelm you with the flavor of alcohol, but they refreshing and delightful blend of white flesh nectarines and Butterscotch Shnapps, complimented by the Schwepps Lemonade! I hope you enjoy this cocktail as much as I did! To make more for a party, simply double the mixture!

After much thought the name of this delicious cocktail is:

Serves 2 Cocktail glasses

Ingredients:
2 chopped white flesh nectarines with the skin on
45ml of Butterscotch Schnapps
2 cups of lemonade
2 handfuls of ice.

Method: Place all ingredients in blender, mix on high until ingredients is blended through. The cocktail will give a fluffy fuzz like texture, this is how it is meant to be! Place in a pre chilled cocktail glass and serve with a colorful straw. Enjoy Xx

Chocolate Pavolova for the Pavolova Blog Hop

I'm very excited, not only have I found new food bloggers, I've joined Twitter! If you would like to follow me my twitter name is MMOAGFL, I already have followers in the first few hours of joining! It feels like when I first started to blog and people began to read my blog. Speaking of that a very warm welcome to my national and international readers from; USA,Cananda, Singapore, Russia, France, Japan, Germany,UK and Colombia!, and that's just from this month!

 I've also participated in my very first blog hop! It's a food one, sharing the best pavolova recipes! It's hosted by the amazing food blogger at Delicieux http://www.ledelicieux.com/2011/11/25/black-forest-pavlova/, if you wish to join, clink on the above link to get inspiration for the numerous variations of pavolovas and even make your own! For people who are unsure what it is it is a meringue based dessert with cream and fruit, it has come somewhat of a national icon and even features in one of the most famous children's books Possum Magic!(a famous childrens novel by the talented Mem Fox, a childhood favourite!).Recently there has been some debate if the dish is national to Australia or New Zealand, personally I don't care, it's a national dish now, that most people love, let both countries claim it if they like.

I had so much fun creating my own unique pavolova, I looked at others for inspiration, I even looked up my mums old 1970s cookbook, to see how they used to get them such a perfect! You see this is the first pavolova I've made from scratch, I've used the pre made bases and decorated with cream, fruit and chocolate but this was the first I made from scratch.

I got out my grandmothers Kenwood mixer, an inherited beloved and much used item! It would have to be 60 years old!, everything is so heaving,it's ceramic, not like the plastic designs of today! Sadly my grandmother passed away nearly 5 years ago from cancer, she loved to bake and using her mixer made me feel like she was with me, guiding me and making sure this pavolova would turn out ok! I even began to think like my grandmother and got out the eggs a few hours before to ensure they were at room temperature. Gran was a great cook and nothing seemed to stress her while baking, so when I only had 1 cup of caster sugar, something told me that wasn't quite enough, so I got out the icing sugar, I wanted the soft sweet texture, not grainy texture of normal sugar. I was right, the icing sugar made it perfect!

I wanted to try something a little different, I had lots of inspirations from other bloggers and recipes and I decided on a chocolate pavolova! But the chocolate wouldn't stop there it continued in the cream, which I added Balieys too as well as the dark chocolate! I thought the process through well and even chatted to my bestie, a non pavolova loving gal, even she was inticed by the chocolate and the non traditional nature of my pav! I think it was the chocolate!

The first bite of the pavlova was pure heaven, I got it perfect! It was crunchy on the outside but had that soft chewy like texture in the middle, combined with an expolsion of baileys and chocolate cream and a mouthful of berries! I knew with that first bite that gran had been guiding me and she helped me to make the dish taste and turn out delicious as it did. It made all the piping of messy chocolate meringue, to get a nice shape pav, but messy hands well worth it.

Theres something almost magical, tracending about baking, it moves you to another place, where all your focused on is the subject at hand! Its quite stress relieving, whilst also giving you a feeling of importance and apprehension at the same time. Apprehension about if it will be a success or a gf mishap an experience to learn from or will you glow with pride and self importance as you plate up and serve your dish to your loved ones!

Before I share my lovely recipe with you I would like to thank my new food bogging friends as I embark on my first blog hop, or should I say pavolova blog hop! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did, and my family too. I've read various people say that they only use egg whites snd sugar to create the pav, no cornflower, vinegar or salt, so if the second tine you cook this you want to try it like that please let me know if it turns out and what it tastes like! Without further ado here is my chocolate and berry pavolova with baileys and chocolate cream recipe;

GF Chocolate and Berry Pavolova with Bailieys and Chocolate Cream

Ingreidents:
4 egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup sifted cocoa
1 teaspoon gf cornflour
1 teaspoon white vinegar
pinch salt
300ml thickened cream
1/4 cup Baileys
8 pieces melted dark chocolate
Blueberries
Strawberries
Cherries

Method:
Separate the eggs individually, whisk on high, adding eggs one at a time. Whisk until soft peaks form. Add caster sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, to ensure it is mixed through, add the icing sugar in the same manner until shiny, glossy peaks form. Add sifted cocoa, cornflour, vinegar and saltm fold into meringue mixture.
Draw a 23cm circle on baking paper. Using a spoon and knife, spread dollops of mixture around the entire circle. Pipe remaning mixture around the entire circle, in two layers (see picture if unsure). Add a bit more mixture to the centre. Cook on 140 degrees celicus for 40 minutes or until firm (I turned the oven off and left the door open a bit and let it cook a little bit more for 5 minutes).
Cool the merinuge, it should look like this:

For the cream, whisk a small carton 300ml of thickened cream with 1/4 of a cup of Bailieys or to your liking. Whisk until peaks form. Melt dark chocolate in the microwave, for 30 seconds at a time, mix, careful not to burn the chocolate. Fold melted chocolated through the cream. Add the cream to the centre of the merinuge, making the pavolva! Decorate with berries, I strategically placed, blueberries, cherries and strawberries on my pavolova!
Note: I couldn't resist but this was a little rich immediately after adding the cream, but the next day, when the flavours had blended through tasted much nicer. So something I would recommend making the day before you need it.



Enjoy
xxx

I'm not alone!!!

I'm so excited! Tonight I googled gf blogs, like I have done many times before and have only ever found a few! But tonight there were several from both Australia n overseas! It feels like I've finally joined a group in this rather large blogger community! I've followed and have friends who are mummy bloggers and I enjoy reading their blogs, but now almost 5 months into my blog, I have found some gluten free bloggers! It kind of feels like finally meeting the right group of friends that you click with at school! I have big aspirations for my blog, I'm proud of every reader from a multidue of countries who has read my blog and I thank them, I also hope it has helped them in some way. This blog has turned out to be rather therapeutic when I'm going through a rather challenging time in my life. My goals for my blog by next June, the 1 year anniversary is to have 100 followers! I have 11 now, but I do have alot more readers, so people please follow me, it really is very simple, just set up a profile or use an existing account. I also have a Facebook page, with 18 likes, I would also like for it to reach at least 100 likes on Facebook by June 2012! I also make a vow to meet my fellow gf bloggers and become more involved in the blogging community! I will use my blog to assist in raising money for womens cancer, next October for girls night in! I will continue to blog and create recipes and share, to research the link with improvements in autism and the gf diet, I will write restaurant reviews, making dining easier for others. I will look into cooking food that people can purchase. One day I aim to write a book with my recipes and stories. Welcome new and old readers, dont forget to follow me, I need your help to reach my goal!share this blog with your friends, for the recipes or the stories, it doesn't matter! Show me your support and I will continue to reward your support!

Gluten free Christmas gifts and recipes

I can't believe that it's less than a month before Christmas! I've only just started with the Christmas shopping. After working in retail whilst at uni I despise going to the shops amongst the buying frenzy that occurs in the lead up to christmas! I'm also very aware that so many of the traditional recipes for Christmas are filled with gluten! Instead of an advent calendar, my aim will be to reveal to you gluten free recipes for a gluten free Christmas. Things like puddings (I'm trying to convert my great grandmothers recipe!), to Christmas balls, macaroons, Christmas chocolate, the works, I'll give it all a go! I also wanted to put out their to my readers if they would be interested in purchasing gluten free hanpers or specific dishes such as brownies, cupcakes etc for their friends and family. It's something that can be ordered via an email and paid for over the net, then delivered to your chosen destination. I know that handmade gluten free food, is the best and something specially made for your loved one at Christmas, is guaranteed to impress! If you could please let me know if this is something that you would be interested, either comment or email me. If I get positive feedback. I'll put up a list of products available, with a price list. This idea was a thought that came to me as I try and plan how I can shop without entering a crazy shopping mall at Christmas! I can't wait to hear your feedback on this new idea, remember if you like it say so otherwise it unfortunately won't happen. Look forward to hearing from you shortly!

The ignorance of some restaurants about gluten free food

I've mentioned this in previous posts, but have you ever been so frustrated by the ignorance of some chefs and restaurants in their menu production. Last night I was perusing the menu of a well known and up market restaurant. I was initially impressed by the gf selection they had, but on closer inspection I was a little confused to say the least! You see there were several dishes on the menu that have specific gf ingredients, one was chicken with quinoa. Now as we know, this is definately a gf grain, I've even supplied recipes on the website using the grain. I was amazed to discover that beside these dishes was (to be gf you need to remove the quinoa)! WTF!!! I couldn't believe it! A dish which is renowned for being gf has now been taken off the gf menu and replaced by a more basic alternative of the dish! The ignorance didn't stop there! Another meal on the menu had polenta as one of the key ingredients. For those who dont know polenta is derived from corn, thus it is completely gf. On this menu, for the meal to be gf, the polenta had to be removed from the dish! It truely amazes me that a chef at a high calibre of restaurant, has such little knowledge of gluten, a substance that they cook with regularly but is also something that can cause an reaction, an autoimmune reaction to their customers. When you read this on a menu, it makes you a bit cautious if you choice to eat at the restaurant! If their knowledge of gluten is so limited, which is made oblivious on the menu, will they be cooking the gf dishes, unknowingly with gluten? Have you had the same problem with a relative fancy restaurant, or indeed any restaurant? After my little rant I'll finish on a positive, hats off to the chef at 6 Months in Picton, who has a detailed understanding of gluten and cooks with gf flours to ensure a more enjoyable dining experience for all, without having any unpleasant reactions! Feel free to jump on the rant wagon about the ignorance of chefs about gluten free foods,comment or email your annoyances!

A gluten free high tea

The first impression most people, including myself when I was first diagnosed as a coeliac, would have thought catering for a rather large event, almost impossible! Maybe one or two gluten free food would be available, but that was certainly were I thought that would stop! Last weekend, I assisted in hosting a 'Girls Night In' High Tea, the date had already been post poned due to my recent hospital stay. The messages had been sent out reinviting lovely women, both friends and family, some directly affected by cancer and some who were fortunate enough to have a few degrees of separation from this horrible disease! I was determined to provide a gluten free menu, for my blog, to show my readers that they too can host a party and have some delicious food that was entireley gluten free, and everything was handmade, nothing was processed or store brought. I wanted my readers to know that gf and allergy free parties are actually easy to cater for and don't involve eating lots of pre packaged treats filled with additives and nasty things that I would rather not know about! We had my famous gluten few brownies, the next recipe that will go up on the sweets page (they take only 5 minutes to make and 18 minutes to cook, and they are always a hit!. Then there were gluten free plain cupcakes(the recipe already features on my blog, the perfect addition to the cupcakes was a lovely royal icing recipe I received from my friend Nicci from Cupcakes In Camden http://www.cupcakesincamden.com.au/, with Niccis help I made a lovely icing and Pipped some delicious ribbons and fancy swirls on my gf cupcakes! I felt very proud! I also made a delicious chocolate cake, that was found on taste.com.au (I'll also feature this recipe shortly), Instead of a cake, I made this moist chocolate cake into chocolate Cupcakes! The secret moist ingredient was indeed yoghurt! One of my dear friends thought that I had brought the chocolate cupcakes! I also made my coconut macroons! You may remember, I am unwell so cooking was done over, two days, with plenty of rest in-between cooking and numerous calls to rest and let my dear mother, husband, father and sister set up the lovely decorations and tables! But the gluten free cooking didn't stop there, my sister made a delicious berry cheescake, with gf chocolate biscuits as a base, and my dear mother also made passionfruit kisses, they were delicious, a sponge like texture, with a passionfruit cream icing in the middle, topped off with icing sugar (yet another recipe that will go on my blog)! There were also some petite meringues brought by a dear cousin, that added to the total of gluten free food! The only food that was not gf could have easily been made gf, there were butterfly cakes, which I could have made with my Cupcakes, scone's with jam snd cream, a recipe which already features on my blog. Mum also made a coffee walnut slice, which would with only a few variations, could be made gluten free. My Aunty also made a delicious marshmallow slice, a favorite of my late grandmothers, the only gluten is in the bottom of the slice. My mission is to find the right texture to re create an old family favorite but as gluten free, once I get the perfect mix it will be shared on the blog. My dads eldest sister had made some delicious gluten savory treats, a recipe both myself and my mother have used. It's white bread cut in circles (we use a shot glass)to create a circle, then add cream cheese and sun-dried tomtoes and basil or another alternative is cream cheese, smoked salmon and dill. To make as a gf option, you could use white gf bread, or a nice flavored gf cracker, thus not wasting expensive gf bread! As you can see it is very easy to create a gluten free menu for a 'high tea' or indeed a party. Over the next weeks I will endeavor to create party plans for children's and adults catering to gluten free needs. Please let me know if you have your own ideas, maybe a party you are planning and you need some help cooking gluten free food, or it may be another type of allergy. I can't wait to hear from my readers your thoughts on our 'High tea'and any ideas you need assistance with. Remember the only question that seems silly is the one that is not asked! I hope to share some more ideas with you, I'm thinking of something Christmas like, eatable gifts and gluten free food which can be enjoyed by all! Don't forget to follow me if you like what you read, or even more convienant, follow by email, each new blog post will be emailed to you! Also for my overseas readers particularly in the uk, my lovely in laws have got me brochures etc, of places that sell gluten free food, my dream of really making this blog truly international is coming to fruitation. One last thing, to the store holders at the Sydney gf expo, your reviews are coming, thankyou for your patience as I wait for my health to slowly get better! I can't wait to hear ideas from readers as to want you want as far as party planning etc goes, remember gluten free doesn't mean taste free or packet mix heaven or he'll ad I would call it! I can already hear your brain ticking over as you think of what Christmas dishes and party ideas you have to be transferred to gluten free!I'm excited just thi king about it.

Eating normal food again!

Today and yesterday I got to eat food that I haven't been able to eat since my diagnosis last may!

No things didn't get the better of me and I didn't succumb to cravings.

It started last night with a gluten free frozen pie! I've walked past them many a time at the supermarket and often wondered what they tasted like, but kept on walking. This pie was brought for me, for the first time in 18 months I. was able to have pie and chips! I know you all want to know the outcome of this pie. Well to start I think my
taste buds are slightly adjusted to gf food and I forget what a normal pie tastes like. This pie reminded me of school canteen pies, the colour and texture was different to a gluten pie but the taste was surprisingly tasty! And the thought that I can eat something and feel a bit normal was uplifting, in a weird type of way.

My ventures in eating normal food continued, I was at the local shopping mall, Narellan Town Centre for locals, wandering the food court. Sushi is my normal dish of choice, healthy and gf, but I felt like being a bit naughty
and I wandered over to Ali Baba,the kebab chain and I was completely amazed to discover that they had a gf range!
For only an extra dollar, I had my first kebab in nearly two years! There was not only gf bread but marked gf sauces
and the people working there were well versed in their range of gf products! There was not only kebabs but salad
plates!

I thoroughly enjoyed my kebab, which topped off with hommus and garlic mayo, made for a delicious, mouth watering food experience! With no side effects that I used to have when I ate a kebab, obviously no gluten this time! This kebab shop is definately not in the category of dodgy kebabs, the ones that we all eat after a night out on the
town, after a few beverages! Definately something that everyone must try who is a coeliac or on a gluten free diet.
For a kebab without the dodgy side effects, head to Ali Baba.

Let's hope other food chains follow in their footsteps and we begin to see gf options as something that is
available at all places, making eating out at shopping malls not such a limited experience.

I loved feeling slightly normal again, it was the high light of my day! Sad but true, the feeling of being a bit normal again, to have choice in what I eat was an amazing feeling, that so many of us take for granted!

Enjoy feeling normal like I did, you will enjoy it and share it with others!

A hidden gem in Picton

A few Friday nights ago, I had the pleasure of going out to dinner with an old friend. We were fortunate enough to gain a reservation at '6 Months', a new restaurant in Picton (for locals its underneath the Pumphouse Gym). I've tried a few times to get a booking to this new trendy restaurant, so needless to say I was excited to finally get in!

The restaurant is only small, but that adds to the ambidence created by the overall design. The style is very minimilist, but trendy and extremley city like. Something that a small country town like Picton needs. The setting is a french style, with the decor and walls painted white, and for me the feature was an old rustic ladder, leaning tenderley against the wall. All of these things made a marvellous combination to enhancing the overall mood of the restaurant, and the evening for indivudal groups of diners.

The menu is written on a large blackboard, no individual menus that have been handled numerous times by others, but something nice and big in print, for all to read. The basis of the meals is shared plates, very similar to a Tapas style of dining. All drinks are also for you to bring (how great is that!), water however is provided, and was the drink of choice for both of us on that night.

We had a fantastic waiter, who was not only well mannered, but well versed in the content of the menu (not a trait found in all waiters!). I was in total and utter amazement when I discovered that there was only one meal that I couldn't eat! Generally it's only one meal that I can eat. The extremely talented chef cooks in gluten freee flours to ensure all patrons can experience the delight of the vast majority of the menu! Needless to say I was very excited! A definate restuarant to go to for any coeliacs or gluten intoerlant people!

When a restaurant endeavours to take on the idea of shared plates of their main method for serving food, its the pace that the meals are brought out that makes all the difference! To begin, we had the cured beef, which was cold beef (it had the taste and texture of a prostitio type meant), with sweet potato and a delicious sauce. The presentation was suberb, in theme with the rustic style of the restaurant, dishes were served in a ceramic bowl, with additional cultery for each person to put on their plate. The cured beef, left a lingering delicious flavour in your mouth, activatiting my tastebuds to a whole new level.

There was enough time to digest the first plate and indulge in some catch up converstation before the next dish was served. Our second dish was pulled pork, accompained by a white bean salsa. The pork literally melted in your mouth, with an expolision of various tastes mixed with the salsa, the pork was simply delicious and highly recommended.

The final dish was handcut chips, accompanied by a handmade garlic aioli! They were simply delightful and a fantastic final dish to a lovely meal.

I definately recommend everyone in the Macarthur area to try this hidden gem of the'Dilly'. Prices are extremley reasonable at $30 per head for a selection of 5 dishes from the menu or $45 for all 10 dishes on the menu. With BYO for all drinks, this calls for a very affordable and enjoyable evening at a remarkable restaurant. For bookings at '6 Months' call 0467 666 036.

Enjoy and let me know your thoughts on this great restaurant.

Quinoa, the facts and figures about this ancient grain

Recently I trekked off to the gf expo in Sydney. I have mentioned to my readers this before and I do recall informing my readers I would be writing some product reviews; this was to be done in exchange for some lovely exhibitors displaying my blog cards! Firstly apologies for the delay on this blog post, my health has not been the best of late, even resulting in an 11 day hospital stay! Unfortunately typiintonation the computer is something that greatly aggravates my various injuries and subsequent illnesses. Thankfully I have recruited the assistance of my husband and mum in typing my blog! I had the pleasure of buying what is known as 'The lost Ceral', quinoa and amaranth seeds. As those of us who are coeliacs know, that most grains are banned from our diet, if we follow the diet strictly and correctly! The best thing about quinoa seeds is it's a rediscovered ancient grain, originally from the South of America and was called 'The Gold of the Incas'. It is also filled with an ambudance of healthy minerals, protein,making this grain an essential part of any gf diet, or indeed any diet! There is a variety of types of quinoa based products including; a berry based cereal (of quinona and amaranth seeds), also quinona seeds (which I purchased), there is also a quinoa and amaranth pasta(which cooks in 3 minutes!). Apologies if I have missed any of the great products they have! There website is www.glutengrainfree.com, check it out for yourself or email any queries to info@glutengrainfree.com. I brought the quinoa seeds at the expo, and to be honest I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I cooked the quinoa as per the instructions of the lovely ladies at the expo told me, in a saucepan with chicken stock, instead of water. The flavor was lovely, it had an almost nutty texture to it. I served it with herbed Mexican chicken dish, it was the perfect combination! I'll be putting the recipe up later this week. I urge all coeliacs to buy this amazing grain, checkout the website above, for stockist or how to buy online. But the main reason to buy and eat this grain, is we miss out on so many grains, which are an important part of our dietary needs. So make sure you try this 'Gold of the Incas', please let me know what you think of this amazing grain.

Lethal chocolate cravings

One of the things I miss about not knowing I was a coeliac was eating anything, particularly lollies etc, without checking labels! I had the reaction, I won't even pretend to lie about that, but I became so used to how I felt, bad, almost had a constant puffer fish, exhausted, to the point of lying down at work, to rest, so I could drive home, my iron and iron storage levels were 4, they are meant to be in the low 100's! I even had iron injections! But as I've said in the past, I have a weakness for sweet food, lollies and chocolate (though that's more hormonally triggered)! Now my nutritionist told me that lollies that say glucose from wheat that's ok, it's when there is glucose from starch and other things, that it's a no go zone, full of gluten. Sometimes I treat myself to the occasional Frys turkish delight, which has some gluten, the occassional one is ok, even had the approval from the nutritionist! Sometimes I know, my sweet tooth lures me into a false sense of security regarding any amounts of gluten in various lollies. I recently purchased a packet of clinkers, from memory, I did quicky glance at the ingredients list, (more out of habit than anything else) A glance it must have been, I saw glucose from wheat, I knew that was OK, but obviously that was as far as my glance went!!! I've had clinkers before, but I msut have refrained only having a few each serve! This time there was no refraining, (I'll blame hormones!) All my female readers will understand the almost animalistic need for chocolate, just once a month, but it's very powerful !! This particular day, I honestly would have to say at lease half to 3/4 of the packet of clinkers were eaten in a relatively short period of time! The chocolate craving was satisfied, but only for a short period of time. Within an hour I soon realised that there must have been some gluten in the large portions of clinkers I had eaten !! For some reason when I eat too many lolly based chocolate (accidently) that contains gluten, the affect is not the puffer fish. Let's say, the affect has to do with the production of very powerful and potent methane gas ! I'm not over re-acting on this unfortunately, it's something that's so strong it makes the eys of even myself water and is almost guaranteed to evacuate a room virtually immediately !! You might ask why I share this, but this is part of being a coeliac, it's better to share these stories to know others out their aren't alone. My overall advice is no matter how bad the cravings for chocolate are, stick to the plain chocolate or something you are sure is 100% gf. Or if you want to annoy your partner, family etc. this will always work and you can blame coeliac disease !! he he. Let me know if this has happened to your or your friend or family member.

Missing out on cake, the not so fun part of coeliac disease!

There are so many things as a coeliac we can't eat, so many of our once favorite foods, we are now forever off our menu! On the weekend I was lucky enough to celebrate my husbands 30th birthday! I got up early to decorate the house with balloons and birthday banners! As we were going out for a small family dinner and I'm only a few days out of hospital, I had several rests throughout the day, listening to my body, so I could sit out at at a restaurant without having to leave early! During one of my rests, my lovely mum decided she would make a birthday chocolate cake for afternoon tea! Now as I was asleep, she didn't know my gf recipes, so she made the good old faithful gluten filled chocolate cake! When it cooled, it was generously smothered with chocolate icing and sprinkles (more for the benefit of my 13 month old nephew). My gorgeous husband and adorable nephew blew the candles out after we had warbles a rendition of happy birthday. Being such a young cutie,my nephew with his uncles help, got to stick his hand in the icing, yummy, yum,yum! The cake was cut and everyone but me got a piece! I did eat some icing from the bowl, but it's not the same without cake! My darling sister made an awesome caramel fudge, that was gf, for part of my husbands birthday present, so thankfully I got a small piece of fudge! While watching everyone eat mums signature chocolate cake! My disappoint and annoyance with bring a coeliac didn't stop there. ..... We went to the local favorite Thai, the best I've ver had! We ordered a banquet, and of course my husbands choice for seafood was crispy prawns, full of batter!! Prawns are my favorite!! The vegetables in the chilli jam sauce was delectable, I could only dream of how good it was with the prawns! Handy hint, if your a regular at your local thai, have a chat to them about making a gf dish! I explains my disease and after being a patron for 15+ years, we made an agreement, I would bring in rice flour on a quiet weekday night and I could have those delicious crispy prawns! I was thrilled and will definately be taking her up on the offer! My mouths watering just thinking about it! The cake fiasco continued with a caramel mudcake with candles to complement a delicious meal! In response to the second gluten filled cake of the day, I ordered a dessert, tasty but not as good as the cake looked! But I got to eat dessert! My 30th is soon and I'm ensuring there will be plenty of gf cake for me to eat! Have you missed out too many times on cake? Please share your story with us! P.s when ordering thai be aware that certain sauces my be filled with gluten, familiarize yourself with the menu and curries etc are generally ok, but it doesn't hurt to ask and you could be paying for the consequences for days after if you don't!

Yummy and healthy gf and dairy free treats and awesome Aussie lollies

I recently had a wonderful surprise package from the lovely people at Candy Brokers Australia, stockiest of Florida Natural Products! It was full of a variety of healthy and fun, lollies we all love to eat! It was like Christmas! She sent this to me out of the kindness of her heart! My favorite was the strawberry popping candy, it brought me back to my childhood!, there was cola popping candy, bubblegum clouds ( my husbands favourite), then the healthy snacks, strawberry and a variety pack of natural gluten and dairy free snacks, fruit juice nuggets and natural Mario brothers jellies. The best thing about the nuggets and jellies were they were in individual packets, perfect for lunch boxes, snacks and party treats (without sharing the germs). The fruit based nuggets are targeted for children, but definately something big kids like too. I shared both the strawberry and mixed treats with a few adults who were pleasantly surprisrd by the tasty flavour, made even better by it being almost fat free! Its something that I would recommend all coeliacs to buy a packet of these nuggets, it's something to have on your handbag or lunch box, just to snack on. For those times when your going out and aren't too sure on the availability of gf food, it's definately easy to pack and yummy to eat! I was caught out on the way to an appointment a few weeks ago, a great friend was taking me and we were turned round on freeway due to a fire! Consequently a 30min trip took 1.5hrs! Fortunately I had grabbed 2 packets of strawberry nuggets and stuffed them in my handbag, this was our snack and got us through, both myself and my friend loved them! I gave several of the packets of nuggets and jellies to my Aunty for her grandchildren and a friend with a young 3 year old to eat! The consenus from cousins children was that they liked the treats, they tasted good and the best thing was they had no idea how healthy these tasty new treats were. Unfortunately my friends 3rd old wasn't that fussed but he doesn't like sweet things, his mum and nan loved them though. My friend was happy to try then on her child as they were all natural, preservative, gluten and dairy free! This is so Thing that is important, particularly if your child reacts adversely to sugar filled treats and runs around all hyped up after eating sugar filled treats! You can find and follow the makers of these great products on Facebook under candy brokers Australia. They also have a great selection of lollies etc which we shouldn't eat daily but are a great treat! They also have a fantastic website candy brokers Australia, which lists all their products! The best is they have a gluten and sugar free section, makes selection for parties etc so much easier. There is also a locator to find the neariest stockiest to you or email them and they can arrange something for you! So next time your on Facebook or indeed online, check out their website and see if you can find what you like! A 5 star recommendation from me, a new staple in my cupboard!

My health and a challenge to how you think!

I haven't been well thus the lack of posts, I'm actually writing this one from my hospital bed in the Nuro ward of one of Sydney's biggest hospitals! Im in here due to changes, big changes in me related to the accident! So big apologies for people who are waiting on reviews from the gf expo, they are coming, I just need to get better. The hospital catering has been great! It's actually been amazing to have every meal gf, I always check, almost like an in built paranoia and everytime it's right! But not here! I have choices, there are options and I even had hot toast! A rare thing for a hospital! Being in such a place makes you think about your life, I'm scared shitless about what I can't do, but then I hear other stories and I spent last night thinking of the plight of others. The 21 year old women who is paralyzed from a virus. I was talking to one of the lovely nurses who told me her son, who should be 20 lost his battle with cancer at 8! She felt guilty for not being there for her younger daughter, I assured her she had no choice! And there's the 52 yr old man with autism and other disabilities, who can hardly communicate and is having spinal surgery as we speak. But I think and pray for him now, it's the story of his birth his brother shared that made me horrified, as he had many disabilities the mother was told by the nurse, we can take him away to a hone, you never see him and forget you had a child! She demanded they bring him to her and the family and now a group home and family look after him! A hard life yes, but one that deserved to be lived, a human being! As far as childhood cancer, it's horrible and we try and think it just affects adults! Its ourself protection mode, it's too horrible, so we try and ignore unless it happens to us or someone close. Yesterday I was meant to be having a high tea to raise money for girls night in (a part of the cancer council)it's post poned now, but I will talk about the ugly horrible cancer that robs great parents of their children and innocent children of the majority of their life! But the reason why I write this is to stop and think about someone whose situation is worse than yours. In this fast paced world we have become so self consumed and our small problems become massive to us! Remember just how precious the gift of health is, until that gift has been taken from you and you don't have your health, and not just a cold, poor health that changes your life you really are rich! So next time you stress about the material things, that can be fixed, think for just a moment about those who are sick, who've lost a young one too early, who can't have children and realise how greatful you are; to walk, to work to drive to function normally, all things so many people take for granted. Take the time to smell the roses, watch the sun rise, appreciate your family and friends, because thankfully we don't know what's around the corner and no one is immune from poor health and bad luck! Love like there's no tomorrow, surround yourself with positive people and make every moment count. Take the time to think about those worse off than you, donate to a cancer charity, or care flight, help those who have it hardier than you. If you are living comfortably donate to a charity and help those less fortune than you, or take a walk to children's oncoology ward to put things into perspective for you. There is always someone with worse problems then you! I hope my readers are in better health than me and certainly not as bad as some others in this hospital

Trial the gluten and casein free diet for any child or adult on the autism spectrum

There are many often controversial theories and beliefs surrounding the success of the gluten and casein free diet on improving autism. There are a few medical professionals, one peadritcian in the Sydney area (I'm in the process if contacting this dr), who strongly beliefs in the success of the diet for autism. His waiting list is massive which clearly demonstrates the amount of parents who are desperate to try the diet, to have some improvement with their child. I've had a discussion with various health care professionals who believe in the diet, but also agree that it isn't always successful. I strongly believe that a large majority of the success of the diet is based on two things; 1) how strictly the diet is followed gluten and casein both need to be removed for the diet to be successful. Both gluten and casein are in alot of products! Simply removing bread and cows milk wont work. Gluten is in sauce, it's in chips, it's even in ice cream! If you want to see development in your child, to have them engage more, be more responsive, then you need to strictly follow the diet. See my recipe page for some ideas, (more meals will be put up shortly). 2)the degree of severity of your child's autism. If they are already responsive and are engaging, the diet may not be as successful. This diet change is about behaviour, it is always essential to ensure your child is eating fruit and vegetables and as much freshly made products as possible. Be aware that not all health care professionals will be supportive of this diet. But have strength in your decision and trial it for a few weeks and see if you see any changes in your child. You really have nothing to loose and so much to potentially gain! If you have any questions, please email me and I will do my best to point you in the right direction, via personal email I will give the peadrictians name and website. I wish you all the best in this challenge and I endeavor to provide you with more and more information about the success of this diet for autism. Please let me know how this diet goes for you and please monitor things like engagement, eye contact, response to names etc, that's the real proof if the diet is working!

The joys of eating out as a coeliac!

One of the things I find frustrating as a coeliac is going out to parties, people's houses and restaurants. Before I had the diagnose, I would generally have a flowing top on, just in case puffer fish emerged and pants that would pull up or I could undo the button! (don't lie we have all done it at times, over indulged coeliac or not and had to unbutton jeans because your so uncomfortable and honestly think you will explode!)

But now if we're invited to a party, I have to check what's on the menu, which is kind of impolite (I think most people understand), to figure out if I need to eat before I go, or there are things available to me! I always make my token brownies, to ensure that I can have something when the sweet things are put out! Though the problem is, I have to hide some, and everyone else happily gobbles them up! They can eat everything else and generally that's all I can eat!

Recently we were at a catered for family function, now most meats come with gravy separate, but this was actually smoothered with gravy, despite it being lamb and mint sauce was provided! Thankfully there was chicken that I got to eat (though a magpie stole some of the chicken, cheeky little bugger)!

There are plenty of people who I guess have to do the same as me, people with allergies would have the same problem as me. So I guess I dont suffer in embarrassment alone, as many people are like me and have to check menus, etc and often feel like a real pain when someone invites you to dinner!

My advice to friends and famy of coeliacs and peole on the gf diet, food isn't that hard, in Australia we are coming up to summer and BBQ are always a hit, plenty of butchers sell gf sausages as do the major supermarkets, steaks ate ok, as is fish and BBQ chicken, we just can't eat the seasoning! Salads are ok too, just check the dressing and use common sense, like don't use dressing until the person has checked the ingredients, then your not to blame for any reaction that happens!

Goodluck with cooking (or check my recipes if you want to impress, there are easy recipes up there with more to come soon!)keep an eye out for some more easy recipes!

Delicious Gluten Free Waffles!

At the gluten free expo one of the hi-lights of my day, was meeting a reader in person, in the flesh and she was just as excited to be meeting me as I was her! There's some sense of mystery and excitement, meeting someone who reads your blog or who's blog you read!

The best thing that this lovely reader, not only read my blog but was from an awesome, amazing exhibit, selling gf waffles! Waffles are one of those banned things that us coeliacs longingly look at on menus, in supermarkets etc and remember with a sense of longing!

The best thing about the expo is at least 95% of exhibits had samples, which is always great to try before you buy! And the waffle exhibit had some lovely samples, drizzled with some maple syrup (or it could be golden syrup)! If I had to pick one word to describe these waffles, it would honestly be hard to pick one, but I think I'll stick with delicious!!

I brought a packet and wished I brought more! It was so nice to have waffles, that were gf but tasted actually better than any waffle I've eaten before, gluten filled ones included!

The one tip I would give to people who buy these waffles, they can fall through a toaster, I cooked mine on a sandwich press, after a slight problem with the toaster. And they was no problem on the sandwhich press and they were cooked right through!

I've recommended to the lovely owners of this fantastic waffles business to start a website, so us coeliacs can order these amazing treats to have more frequently! Maybe not so great for the waist line but to feel normal by eating waffles is a well deserved treat!

One of the best things about these waffles apart from how tasty they are,
is that they are made from pemium ingredients that containing no artifical colours or additives! This is much better than alot of the waffles that are brought from the supermarket, which you are almost guranteed will contain artificial ingredients and colours of some degree!

Here is the list of places throughout Sydney areas that you can purchase these waffles; Glenorie Bakeryt Glenorie, The Outback Bakery Windsor and JK Care Loftus & Engadine. Sorry to readers from other parts of Australia and to my lovely readers throughout the world. Welcome by the way to my reader from Kenya! I will keep you posted if these waffles become available in any restaurants or on the Internet!

Remember this is one of the reviews I've done as these lovely people put my blog cards out at the expo on their exhibit, Im doing a bit of a trade off a favour for a favour. Just so you know these reviews are not payed, and I will promise to give my honest opinion to my readers. I also think these reviews are important, I was exposed to so many different gf products I didn't know were out there and I feel it's my job to provide my readers with these options, to make our often boring gf diet that more exciting and even inspire us to cook or attempt to cook a larger variety of food!

If you are near any or the places that sell these wondeful waffles, call in and buy some. You can freeze them, which makes buying extra that more tempting.

But seriously these waffles are so good, that I would recommend a weekend drive, to buy some of these waffles, well worth the treat! Just think of warm, home made waffles, with ice-cream and syrup or topping of your choice! Yummy, its making my mouth water just thinking about it!

How a diagnose can change your life in so many ways!

I've been reflecting recently on how much my life has changed since being diagnosed with coeliac disease last may 2010 (although there have been other major life altering changes, the accident), this post is about coeliac and my journey.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had not heard of the word coealic before and when I mentioned to the specialist he quite arrogantly suggested I had read a magazine or googled and diagnosed myself! My blank expression and when I asked him what coeliac disease was, soon wiped the smirk off his face!I don't blame him, I'm sure he gets lots of self diagnosed patients, dr google isn't always a good thing but we all do it, then freak out at the possible things we could have!

My gf journey continued as I saw a nutritionist, begin reading labels after labels at supermarkets and finding gf recipes! I was pleased to discover that everyone loved the food I was cooking and if I didn't tell them wouldn't know it was gf!

My knowledge of blogging and this community was very limited, I wrote a blog for a uni assignment some years ago and had heard it mentioned in various circles but had no idea about the massive blogging community!

After the car accident I became aware of blogs some old friends from school were writing and I became a regular reader! I had thought many times about writing a blog, particularly with the lack of gf blogs, I wanted to help people, who had gone through a similar situation as me.

It was actually after a conversation with emma from what's in emmas brain (check out my reading list, emmas blog is hilarous, a very talented writer!)that I finally got the courage to start the blog.

I was blown away by the amount of readers and obviously a problem that affects people world wide! As my blog continues, I have also developed an interest into the gluten and casein free diet and the positive affects on autism and behavior! This is a topic that I have been researching on many levels and am enjoying very much!

I guess when someone has a major accident, it's important to focus your energy on something other than your injuries and your accident. The blog, gave me something to think about, and to be honest I was blown away by the response and amount of readers I got!

It was amazing that in a period of about a year, I went from having no clue about coeliac
disease (though I suffered daily with the symptoms) and I had such a minor idea of blogging!
It's something, my health depending, is part of my daily routine, or if I'm not writing I'm thinking about what to write! I love that I could be helping some people, because hearing the diagnose can be scary and you are often provided with little information.

Also the new research I'm doing into autism and behavior with the gluten and casein free diet, is showing amazing progress and I must admit, as a teacher, diet was something that I was very aware affected children's behavior!

I look forward to continuing blogging and I thought I should give a little bio as to how this all started!

If your child suffers autism or any behavior issues, please realise it is ok to seek help, check out this website www.kurlyk.com.au, there is some great advice, behavior charts snd a blog by a fantastic pyshologist, with an interest and expertise in this area, so please check it out. Behavior charts do work, but remember as you will discover by checking put the kurly k site, that you only focus on one or two maximum behaviors at any time, anymore is overwhelming and will ultimately be unsuccessful.

I look forward to continuing my blogging journey with you all! Keep on reading and don't be afraid to ask any questions, I'll do my best to help!

Some recipes will be up in the next week for you to trial, easy family friendly meals!

Adding new pages

This is a short and frustrated post, for a while now I've been trying to make my blog more user friendly and add a page that links directly to all the post I have written on autism, behaviour and the gluten and casein free diet.

Each time I try to add a new page, it comes up as a posting, I've done everything I have done before to add a new page, I've looked on the the help button, viewed you tubes videos, and it appears I'm doing the correct process but something is messed up because it won't let me add that page!

Very, very frustrating!!!! Particualary when your doing what all the help buttons tell you to do, I've gone to posting, to edit pages and add new page and it just doesn't work!

Basically I wanted to put it out there, see if anyone can help me and to let my readers know, some of you may have been referred to my site from another blogger, that I am in the process of making my page easier to navigate.

In the meantime, if you are looking for something in particular and cannot find it in the archives of the lists of post, simply email me and I will send you all the posts.

Thanks for your patience and please let me know if you know how to fix my problem!

The delicious Tasty Bite product

At the recent gluten free expo I attended in Sydney, I had the pleasure of sampling some lovely, convenient, gluten, Kosher and preservative free food.

Prior to the Expo I had arranged with the lovely people from Tasty Bite to do a bit of an exchange, they would put some of my lovely blog cards at they stand and in turn for the favour I would write a blog post about their product, a bit of old fashioned trading!

Tasty Bite stand was the first exhibit we saw when we walked in, I went straight up, chatted to the lovely ladies and tried some of their wonderful meals on some small pieces of pappadums (yes we coeliacs can eat pappadums!!, rather exciting)! Both my mum and I really enjoyed the food that we did try, it is an Indian based cuisine, so perhaps not entirely appropriate for children, if they aren't used to Indian food with a bit of spice!

To be totally honest, prior to the expo I really didn't know what products Tasty Bites provided! As soon as I saw the exhibit I realised that I had walked past their products (they are generally in the Asian/Indian section of Australian supermarkets), each time I went to the supermarket. Not knowing what they were, I hadn't tried them.

I decided after the expo that I couldn't write a post that gave a correct view of the product from the small samples, so I brought some boxes myself. Twice I have tried the Tasty Bite product, the Bombay Potatoes and the Jaipur Vegetables, both times I have served them with rice and pappamdums. These delicious dishes only take 90 seconds to cook in the microwave, you can also cook on the stove top, but I choose the easier option, both nights that I ate these meals, was easy dinner night, my husband had his own individual frozen lasagna, and I had my delicious meals.

One of the most convenient things about these products is they are not stored in the fridge, you simply store them in the cupboard and with a shelf life of 18 months, it is well worth having a couple in your cupboard for those nights where no one can be bothered doing too much cooking!

I only recently discovered that Tasty Bite have a fantastic website which I will provide you with the link to, you can buy their products online, there is also a variety of other things including recipes a blog, testimonials etc. The link that I have provided is a direct link to the gluten free food that they have  It's best to check out the website http://www.tastybite.com.au/ or at the least when you are shopping and before you place one of the delicious Tasty Bite boxes in your trolley, make sure that you are selecting one of their gluten free dishes, as they have a variety of dishes available. But we coeliacs or gluten intolerant people are very used to reading labels of products before eating them! But the best think about this product, is there is table on the back which lists a possible 8 ingredients and things you have to do to store etc, and all you have to look for is to make sure the no gluten box is ticked (much easier then reading the generally long list of ingredients in some products!)

Make sure next shopping trip, or online order, try one of these dishes and if you like Indian food you will be pleasantly surprised, and at a little under $4.00 a box (at one of the leading supermarkets), its a very cheap dinner! Its also something that if your the outdoor type and like a bit of camping you could put this dish over the campfire stove and have it without rice, or if you have an additional saucepan you could also put on some rice too!

Readers please remember, everything I have written is my honest opinion, this was a trade off for the lovely people at Tasty Bite, displaying my blog cards, to hopefully get my blog out there to a wider audience and help more people with coeliac disease.

My only small downfall with this product is when heating  the food in the microwave, because of the curries and spices, it will stain your dish, particularly if using plastic. I used an old plastic bowl to heat the food and covered it with cling wrap (to avoid splattering over the microwave), but as the dish is white, I have a stain on the bottom of my bowl. To me, that's ok, I will make sure that's the bowl I use whenever I eat one of the Tasty Bite meals! If you are into Tupperware and have any of the more recent red dishes range, this would be perfect to heat up the food, as you can't tell that there is a slight stain. I haven't tried heating it up in a non plastic dish, but I'm sure the stain would be much easier to remove if you used crockery and not plastic to heat it, but just be aware that a crockery or porcelain dish may be rather hot, straight out of the microwave!

So make sure you try one of these meals, very easy and to be totally honest, a whole lot nicer than I originally thought. I just checked the packet and the serving size recommends two, but I ate it to myself! (whoops what a piggy I am!). My advice if you and your partner or another person are going to try this you could share but I would use alot of rice and have a few pappadums ready, but if two of you are going to eat this meal, why not heat up two different dishes and have a little feast, a bit of this, and a bit of that, mixed with with rice and the almost compulsory pappadums!

Enjoy and let me know what you think of these very convenient easy meals!
xxxxxx

p.s I have just changed the website, I had the American website up before, this is the Australian website, my fault, sorry if anyone was confused.

Be brave, try the gluten and casein free diet on your child for behavior!

Firstly I would like to apologise to my readers to my lack of posts this week, my health (read accident post if you want more info), this week hasn't been the best and life has been hectic. I will do my best to ensure that post are put up more frequently!

As promised this isn't a review as I will alternate between review and the standard post, but I do want to say to the lovely new friends I met at the expo, fingers crossed I'll be able to get more blogging, and more reviewing quicker than I have been!

I have been doing research both the traditional and face to face with people who work with children, one a experienced psychologist and the other a child care worker and obviously as a teacher I have an educated and experienced opinion about the benefits of a gluten and casein free diet on behavior. Most people focus on this diet as for the autism spectrum alone, but it has a profound positive impact on children with various behavior issues!

What amazes me is this research and success has been around for many years! I have a good friend with a 19 year old son who suffers from, ADD and dyslexia, he doesn't suffer the hyperactivity and it was more a challenge concentrating on one thing at a time, his behavior is excellent (though when he was younger it was a little challenging), his other skills are excellent and he is extremely intelligent. I am qualified to make that claim as I have not only known him for several years but used to tutor him, in English, his knowledge of Mathematics is light years ahead of me! Despite how he is now, as a 3 year old his health and behaviour and development was causing some concern, thus his mother was recommended to remove a large number of things from his diet, gluten and casein was one of the main things! Unfortunately 16 years ago the access to gf products was nothing like it is today, leaving my friend no option but to travel great lengths into small health food stores into the city, over an hours drive, to get some gf pricey things. She's also of
Russian and polish background and her dear mother who was still with us then, baked potato
bread, from only a list of ingredients her grandson could eat and she created a lovely bread! I think it is important to acknowledge this amazing women was very versatile, probably from
surviving a pow camp in WW2! (To create a bread from scratch with limited ingredients and the fundamental ones of making bread removed, clearly demonstrates someone who know what to do to survive, to work with whatever you are give). Thus, he was on this diet for many years and whenever he altered  the diet by eating gluten, there were noticeable changes to his behaviour and other aspects of himself. So being the wonderful mother she is, she kept her son on the diet for several years, despite the difficulties to provide food for him. She is also an avid and fantastic cook (the one who made me the schnitzels), so that made comparably easier, than for someone who didn't cook. But still the point is, she saw improvements in her son and she did whatever she could to keep him on that diet, for as long as recommended!

Now thankfully we live in a world or country at least that provides an increasing amount of gf food, most of which is readily available at a majority of  supermarkets, no trekking across towns and cities anymore (in most cases), just buy the goods in your local shopping! Cook or no cook, you can very easily put your child on the gluten and casein free diet relatively stress free and if you are prepared to cook a bit, either from the large variety of packaged food, or you do the cooking for yourself, you will see the massive benefits in your child in the long run.

My strong advice to you us if you have a child who us on the autism spectrum or has some behaviour problems, try this diet, even for a month and see the difference.
Trial this, diet and observe your child, if in a month or 6 weeks you cant notice any positive behavior and interaction and engagement changes, go back to their normal diet, ultimately you have lost nothing and potentially gained alot! I have prepared tables that are basically a tick a box, which focuses on some individual areas of concern with your child and you give a rating out of 10 based on their daily progress. As it is difficulty to put tables up on the blog, please email me and I will send you the word file. This table is important, as changes generally happen gradually and everyone soon adapts to their child, forgetting how they were one or two weeks prior!

 If you are trialling this diet, please remember that although sugar and caffeine filled drinks like coke a cola, all soft drinks and sports/energy drinks will impact your child's behavior even though they may be gluten free! As will lollies,anything filled with copious amounts of sugar and preservatives is guaranteed to impact your child's behavior. For example; you can't claim the diet is not working if your child has drank a massive amount of sugar filled drinks and eaten lollies! I understand there are times like birthday parties where avoiding gluten and casein is almost impossible, perhaps let them try some food and watch their behavior, is it different? I will write a post later as to how to cater for a child's birthday party totally gluten and casein free!

One last point if you do start your child on this diet, tell their teacher or day care teacher. I have, and most teachers will be willing to do a communication book with you, letting you know how your child's behavior is going on a daily basis, also teachers are the best source to find out if your child is eating gluten filled food from the canteen, or other children! If your school canteen doesn't sell gf food ie; pop corn, a variety of Mammee snacks,gf bread, salads etc, I would strongly recommend talking to the canteen manager, or school principal if you get no progress with the canteen supervisor, about providing some healthy gf options at the canteen!

Please don't hesitate to contact me via comments or email if you have any questions, but take that chance and give it a go, you have nothing too lose and a huge amount to gain. Don't forget to email me if you are trying this diet to get the table, it will help!

Good luck and please let me know how it goes for you.

xxxx



Don't forget in the next few weeks keep watching the recipe page, I will put up quick snd easy recipes the entire family can enjoy fuss free and time efficient!