GF Museli Biscuits

Firstly I have to say how excited I am to reach 5000 readers since starting this blog. It totally blows my mind! When I first started writing, I honestly thought it would be read by a small number of people, I remember calling my husband and mum each time someone from a new country read my blog! It's also nice to chat to your friends or people you told of the blog and they know what you wrote about!

From starting out in my kitchen, telling my story to the world, I have expanded my blog and plan on this year making it bigger and better than last year. Since then I have particiapted and loved doing it in #SABH Blog Hops, I've joined Twitter, made some wonderful friends, who I can't believe how honestly caring and helpful they are! My posts have been featured in other blogs, I was successful in writing an article as life as a coeliac that will feature in an online website, I have reviewed an e book and had my first ever competition. I thought about changing to a different hoster, but I'm going to revamp, maybe with some help, make my blog more user friendly and encourage people to not just read but follow or get an email link of my blog.

I want my readers to share in my excitment and the next post I will be announcing a competition!

But this post is the recipe, of some delicious museli biscuits that I spoke about in the previous post, how to pack a healthy lunch box. I want people to know that this is a really easy recipe, it is healthy, wholesome and tasty. I know it is easy to buy pre packaged food for your children or yourself but taking a few minutes of your time to make these delicious healthy biscuits, put them in your childrens lunchbox, take them to work, have as a snack, with a nice cup of tea. They are simply delicious!

I honestly think we need to get past the packet mix, love affair we have at the moment, along with frozen, pre packaged biscuits and foods. Have you looked at all the numbers on these products? Often they are chemicals, toxic things that we are putting into our bodies. I know what it's like to be busy, working and trying to run a household (I'm not a mum, but I know plenty). I challenge you to make these biscuits or my healthy banana muffins, they are a staple in my household, I know I can have them as a treat and I know exactly what is in them, and there is no processed pre pacakged food. You can honestly taste the difference!

I can't claim all the glory for this recipe, I was flicking through the pages of Woolworths Fresh, February addidtion and I found a recipe for Museli Biscuits, it called for gluten museli and wholemeal flour. I replaced the Museli with GF museli, a Basco brand of museli, instead of wholemeal flour I used Flaxmeal. You could really taste the difference. The only sweetener in these biscuits is honey, a natural source and 1tsp of vanilla, no added sugar, all natural flavour enhancers.

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they tasted! You could no only taste how wholesome the biscuits were, but they were tasty and healthy! Even better, I had to stop myself from eating too many. I'm certain they wouldn't have been so healthy if I ate so many. I managed to control myself, I can guarantee kids would love these. I used the museli that was in my cupboard. If you are making them from yourself or your children and they have other allergies, ensure the museli meets your individual needs.

Healthy Museli Bisuits

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of Museli
1/2 cup Flaxmeal or (brown rice flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celicus. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Combine museli, baking powder, flaxmeal or brown rice flour into a bowl. Whisk vegetable oil, honey, vanilla and egg together in a bowl or jug until well combined. Pour into the museli mixture and stir until well combined. Drop spoonfuls onto baking trays. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Note: Set the oven timer on, they cook so quickly and you don't want them to burn. You could cook these before breakfast and have them ready to put into lunchboxes by the time everyone is ready for school and work!

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @MMOAGFL, I'd love to hear from you, you can also follow us on Facebook under Mishaps And Mayhem Of A Gluten Free Life.

The wonderful #SABH is running the February competition starting from the 20th February to 27th February 2012! The theme this month is Love at First Bite! My mind boggles with all the things I can make. If you are a food blogger come along and join us!

The GF Lunch Box

One of the hardest thing about being a coeliac is your extremely limited options for lunch and snacks. I didn't find out until I was an adult that I was a coeliac, but for parents of kids with the disease I feel for you! As a teacher I know that kids compare what is in their mates lunchbox and often if it looks different some kids can be rather nasty. The worse thing is, the ones who are best at this are very sneaky and try and look like the innocent party all the time! But we teachers are on the prowl for these kids, protecting the mental sanity of all children.

A gluten free lunchbox is really not that hard to pack and I'm going to show you how to do it, relatively fuss free, without looking so bizarre and different to everyone else's lunch! I'm even including a lovely healthy snack for recess (morning tea)!

But first, parents I know your kids can be hard and you are very busy but breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Any experienced teacher can walk into a classroom in the morning and pick the children who havent eaten breakfast, they are tired, can't concentrate, won't participate in class discussion or activites and sometimes fall asleep! Find a healthy cereal, not sugar filled cereals and yes you can find GF varieties! They give children a sugar high, then they come crashing down! Most schools have breakfast clubs that for a gold coin donation or some schools it's free, children get cereal, toast, fresh fruit, milk and juice or water. This is a fantastic facility and provides no real excuses for the child not having breakfast! Now if you run a busy schedule and breakfast is hard to get your child to eat, then breakfast club might be for you. If your child is GF you can always purchase their favourite cereal (museli, rice porridge etc) and a loaf of GF bread and leave it at the school, where breakfast club things are stored! Even if it's a once off it saves your child eating unhealthy things for breakfast, or not eating anything at all! Speak to your child's teacher and if they aren't sure the deputy or principal, most schools will be fine with this!

Recess is often hard for GF children, as everyone else doesn't have things they can't eat! But it isn't that hard; mammee make some great rice based snacks for kids which all kids eat, there are more rice based snacks coming on the market, seasme snacks, sultanas and sultanas with apricots come in lunch box snack sized options (check out the health food aisle for more options). The best and healthiest food is one not brought but made at homee by you (preferably from fresh not packet ingredients), its all about time, involve your children in the cooking and cleaning up process, it teachers them many things! You can make healthy muffins (see my banana muffin recipe), museli cookies ( the recipe I will put up tomorrow), And don't forget fruit and vegetables! The recommended serving suggestion is 2 pieces of fruit n 5 vegetables daily! Often our meals don't include all those veggies, so include some in your child's lunch box. Some chopped carrot, cucumber, fresh fruit salad, fruit etc, the list goes on! These are healthy foods which take a short time to prepare! Every class I've taught has had crunch n sip, a morning break where for 5 minutes they sit down on the floor and chat, eating their fruit or veg and drinking water! They are excited about this!

Lunch is the hardest part of a GF lunchbox! The bread isn't that tasty and doesn't make the best sandwiches, you can try it and see if your child likes it! Other options are wraps, but I'm not very impressed by what I've seen. Then there is rice cakes, you can get flavored rice cakes and put the topping, such as ham, cheese and tomato in separate bags and they can put their lunch together in class, I have no doubt they will enjoy this! Also left over rice, or tinned flavored tuna, on rice cakes is another option.

Try and cover the food groups in their lunchbox, add some cheese, a yoghurt, for their dairy and always include at least one piece of fruit! Now as crackers aren't as filling as bread always have some rice crackers, sultanas or their favourite snack! Don't forget water, this is so important! Not cordial (maybe as a weekly treat), have it in a drink bottle they can refill, also put it in the fridge the night before, so it's nice and cold. Buy a soft lunch bag that fits an Ice brick for meats and dairy products!

Now comes the canteen, some are great others sell sweet sugary and salty snacks and sugar filled energy drinks! Some canteens sell GF food, others don't! The school canteen is almost like a right of passage, your child will feel left out if they can't visit the canteen even once a month! I still remember ordering days were Friday and I felt so special, my favourite day! If the canteen doesn't sell gluten free food, make an appointment to see your principal and discuss that GF food should be available for your child! It's on the market and a healthy option!

Most importantly tell your child's teacher of their intolerance or coeliac disease, even provide some information to the teacher about the disease. They need to know, children can swap lunches without realising and the teacher can't be at fault if they aren't informed! Most teachers will be willing to send a note out to other parents, to lessen contimation, also when it's a birthday party and there is cake if the teacher informs you, you can organise a special cake or cookie treat for your child!

So in a nutshell, provide a variety of healthy but filling snacks, alternate lunches, would you like to eat the same thing daily? Put an ice brick in their lunch box or bag. And as soon as you can make an appointment with the class teacher (talking to them in the morning while they have 25-30 kids, is not the best time!), ask for an appointment that suits you both, it could even be a phone call! And if the canteen isn't providing GF options, chat to the principal (they aren't monsters)and will listen to your rational concerns.

Please let me know if this has helped you? I'd love to hear positive and negative food allergy or coeliac stories from school. Is your school helpful and understanding or the opposite?

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @MMOAGFL and Facebook under the blog name.

The lovely Jennifer from Delicieux is running a comp to win a great vegetarian cookbook, click on the link to enter!
http://www.ledelicieux.com/2012/01/30/mushroom-risoniotto/ goodluck! I hope my readers and myself win!

Vero Cafe

One of the most infurating things as a coeliac, if going out shopping, and the lack of selection for both snacks and lunch. Often your limited to sushi, chips ( and risk the oil, batter etc), salads (then numerous questions regarding the content of the dressing) and then there is the occassional cafe that sells a few gluten free cakes!

I don't live near the city, I am at what you could call the bottom of the Southern Highlands, a semi rural, small but expanding country town. Out here the blocks are significantly larger, and the house prices somewhat cheaper, the down side to this lifestyle is living 20-30 minutes from the nearest major shopping complex, movies, multiple restarants etc. Subsequently my selection of gf food is even less than it was before.

However, I am a frequent visitor of Narellan Town Centre (the closest shopping centre). I recently stumbled across a lovely cafe Vero Cafe, it has recently changed ownership, as I walked closer I saw the sign I love to see the gf symbol!

The first time I ate at this wonderful cafe, was for lunch with girlfriends, one of my friends mother and two prams! We carefully positioned ourself in a corner, as the cafe is on the smallish size, we didn't want to take up all the room! After we arranged our seating, I picked up the menu......

WOW!!! I was so excited, there was not only a gluten free vegetable fritta with a delicious side serving of salad, for a very reasonable price, but there was also gluten free bread available! You could choose to have the bread fresh or toasted, for only an additional $1 (considering it costs at least $5.50 for a loaf of gf bread, this is a resonable price!). I was more than happy to pay the additional dollar!

How exciting!!, I could have a toasted sandwich if I wanted! If you had asked me before I was diagnosed if I would get excited over a toasted sandwich the answer would have been NO! But gf bread is so hard to find at Cafe's, and it's so nice to feel normal, to have a simple toasted sandwich, and have the confidence that you won't get sick!

Aside from the food, the service was outstanding. I was ensured that all of the food was gf, and this was guaranteed as the owner was a coeliac and sampled the food herself! That was enough convinving for me! All our needs were met, the coffee was delicious as were all the meals.

My second visit was to sample the gf cakes and coffee. I had a delicious chocolate cheesecake, it was so cute!, in a little patty cake holder. The texture was betweem cheesecake and cake and the size was perfect! My dearest friend had the gf chocolate cake (she is not coeliac or gluten intolerant, the cake simply looked delicious!), it was simply delectable! It had a ganache type icing, and the inside was so rich and moist and yummy!! The two of us couldn't finish one piece of cake! The prices were very resonable between $4.50 and $5.50 per cake! The selection of gf cakes was also outstanding!

I have been back numerous times, in which I have tried the gf toasted sandwiches, delicious mango and pistachio macarons! Each time I visit the cafe, which is quite frequently, there seems to be a new selection of delicious gf cakes to tantilse your taste buds! I have also tried a delicious crispy asian salad, also gf free. The sizes and prices are always perfect! The coffee is a natural rainforest blend and is always made to perfection!

The final element that makes this Cafe a step above the rest, is not just the gf options, but they also take orders. That's right you read correctly! So if you fall in love with a cake, you can simply place your order and have it on a regular basis!

If you are a local, or are travelling through the Camden, Narellan, Macarthur area, I suggest you stop in at the town centre and try this wonderful Vero Cafe! I would also suggest visiting this cafe, if you are thinking of establishing your own cafe with gluten free options and use this as a base, a guideline for how to develop your own succesful gluten friendly cafe!

You will find the cafe at the Woolworths end of the Town Centre, if you have any queries you can call ahead on 4647 6001!

Enjoy and let me know how your visit is, tell them that the gluten free blogger sent you, they will know who I am! I can't wait to hear your opinion, but they get 5 stars from me!

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @MMOAGFL or Facebook under Mishaps and Mayhem Of A Gluten Free Life. The lovely Delucieux is running a comp to win an ice cream maker, entries close today!, click on the link to enter http://www.ledelicieux.com/2012/01/18/cuisinart-ice-cream-maker-giveaway/. Goodluck!