What a party, what a friend

My oldest friend turned 30 last week! She had a great party with an awesome cake and a candy table!

As a coeliac you start to get used to going to party's weddings etc and not being able to eat the cake. That's one of the reason why I started baking more, so I can eat cake and take it with me to various functions. It makes me feel a little bit more 'normal' (whatever that may be).

Can you imagine my excitement when my oldest friend told me that she had ordered gluten free cupcakes, just for me at her birthday party!! She knew that I couldn't eat cakes at birthday parties etc and share in the celebrations and she wanted me to be able to celebrate just like everyone else. And I guess most importantly to celebrate with her, we have been friends since we were 8!, 22 years! Through good times and bad, laughter and tears, grief and loss. It's funny how you get a more symbolic as you get older, simple things like showing an old and dear friend just how much you care is shown in a cupcake!,

You might be thinking 'Woo bloody hoo' its only a cupcake! But this wasn't cupcakes that she cooked herself or even went to the local bakery, these were specially made Tiffany & Co themed cupcakes to match the gorgeous cake! An extra cost that really wasn't necessary and all the more appreciated because of the thought behind it.

I'm going to give credit where credit is due, Nicci from Cupcakes in Camden http://www.cupcakesincamden.com.au/ did an amazing job not just with the cupcakes but the main cake! The gf cupcakes were chocolate, they were awesome, so yummy and moist, and the icing, oh the icing was pure blue heaven! A true sign of a good gf cake is when you can't tell the difference between that and a gluten cake and when others eat it and can't tell the difference. Nicci has realised that there is a big market out there for not only gf cakes but gluten and dairy free (something which I will discuss in future posts). If you need a gf or indeed a gluten cake for a special occasion, I definitely recommend Nicci, not only are the cakes gorgeous, she is friendly and helpful. We are going to keep in contact and who knows what the two of us will come up with! Here is a picture of the famous cup cake.

I did mention that my friend also had a candy table! Like me when I first heard of it, you might be thinking WTF??? It was a table that was styled by the amazing owner of 'Letter D Parties and Paperie. It was a candy or lolly table set up with the Tiffany colour theme, old fashioned bottles and some fantastic candy! The best bit, particularly for big kids like me, was that the guests got to fill up their own favour box (lolly bag) with the selection of fantastic lollies! This was honestly the hit of the party! Something that the majority of guests hadn't seen before but were amazed by it and enjoyed every part of it! I haven't seen a table photographed by so many guests before! The only candy that I really couldn't eat was the licorice twists, which I loved BD (before diagnosis) but otherwise the majority of other lollies were okay. But I'm sure if a candy table is something you wanted to have you could most certainly pick the lollies that were definitely gf so you could safely enjoy all the sweets! Here is the link of the birthday girls candy table! Amazing I know! http://letterd.com.au/inspiration/

I'm now equipped with some awesome ideas to start planning my 30th!

A GF weekly meal plan

I'm a bit excited! I've come up with some more ideas to share with you.....

I know that last post I put out a challenge for you to trial the gluten free diet. I know that the hardest thing to commit to something new is getting the ingredients and figuring out where to start. So I've done the hard work for you. I've completed a weekly meal plan for all meals, and the recipes can be found on the blog.

It's simple......Print off the plan (you may need to hi-light and control p to print) figure out what you need to buy, go to the supermarket buy the ingredients and your challenge can begin.

WEEK 1 GF MEAL PLAN

	S	M	T	W
B	Scrambled eggs	GF cereal	GF toast	Yoghurt and fruit
S	Fruit	Piece of GF cake	sultanas	popcorn
L	Potato and ham soup	GF toasted sandwich	Potato and ham soup	GF sandwich
S	Piece of GF cake	Fruit	Fruit	Trail mix
Di	Roast Beef and veggies	Creamy chicken pasta	Beef strongaff	Stuffed chicken breast
De	Small serve frozen yoghurt	Fruit	Fruit	Small serve frozen yoghurt

	T	F	S
B	GF cereal	Boiled eggs	GF cereal
S	Fruit	Carrot sticks	Trail mix
L	Rice cakes with ham cheese tomato	Rice with a small tin of flavoured tuna	Salad with meat or tuna
S	GF cake	GF rice crackers	Fruit
Di	Chinese Marinated pork ribs	Lamb in cranberry sauce	Sausages and veggies
De	Fruit	Small serve of ice cream	Chocolate mousse

Note: All recipes for the meals, soups and cakes can be found on the blog. Write your shopping list for the week based on the meal plan. The Saturday meal of sausages is just an easy to fuss dinner, you might choose something else you have in the freezer that won’t take long to cook. This is a guideline feel free to mix around as much as you like. It’s a good idea to make a pot of soup on the weekend and put in the fridge or freezer, they make great nutritional lunches through the week. Remember you need to drink at least 2L of water each day. Don’t forget some alcohol such as beer and scotch etc contains gluten! Any questions send me a message or email on mmoagflife@gmail.com

Evaluation of GF Diet

For each point use a scale of 0 for nothing to 10 being the worst possible. Bowel movements are affected by gluten in people who are coeliacs or have an intolerance, so although it may seem a bit too personal (this is only for you) record how many times you went to the toilet each day. This record is useful for yourself to monitor the success of the diet and very helpful to show you doctor or nutritionist if you want to seek further advice.

Day	Bloating	Bowel	Cramping	Tired
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

I will also put up an evaluation form if you are trying the gf diet for autism or behavioural issues. This will be added later in the week when I gather more information about the benefits of gf diet on autism and behavioural issues.

Please feel free to contact me to ask any questions and let me know how you go with this challenge.

Goodluck
xxxx

A challenge

I was out with my oldest friend today for her birthday and we got to chatting about gf food. Whenever she comes over to visit, she will generally bring some tasty goodies for me! She actually said that she has developed a taste for some of these foods and that she feels better when eating gf products.

It's not wise to completely remove gluten from your diet if there isn't a dietary need, but certainly reducing the amount of gluten you eat or removing it for a short period of time, will definitely do you some benefits.

So I have decided to put it out there to my lovely readers, I challenge you to remove gluten or as much gluten as possible from your diet for a week! This is a fantastic idea for those of you who my be experiencing some symptoms that I have mentioned are related to coeliac or you just simply feel yuck after eating certain foods.

Before you ask 'how can I possibly do that?', I would like to draw your attention to the various recipes that I now have on my blog. There is a variety of main meals, soups, sweets, cakes and desserts that you can try. The only meal of the day that I haven't got recipes for is breakfast. My advice for you while your on the challenge as gf cereal is rather expensive eat porridge (oats) there isn't conclusive medical evidence that they contain gluten or eggs or yogurt.

I know there is lots of cakes and yummy food in my recipe collection but please make sure you eat your daily serve of fruit and veg!

Also to follow this challenge correctly you will need to remove packaged food that contains gluten, remember to read the label of everything you eat and wheat from sugar is okay (that means most lollies) but wheat starch or anything else is not!

Please keep me updated on the progress of your challenge, I'd love to know how if works for all of you.

Any questions just comment or email me and I'll try and answer it asap.

Don't procrastinate another day, give it a go.......

p.s recipe of the day will be in the cakes and sweets section!