No Substitute (No GF Love)

Being Gluten Free is certainly eye opening and 2 years into this GF lark I'm still amazed at how GF people and the allergy community can be treated as second class citizens out and about in the real worldof dining! Please let me share my latest experience....as I tell my boys at school, it ends happily so please bear with the sad parts!

My lovely, lovely regular readers will know that a couple of weeks ago Dale was jibbed out of a meat feast extravaganza when the "cave man cafe" was fully booked. We ended up at the superb La Polenteria which was right up my street but left Dale a little wanting. So, being the good wife that I am I suggested we celebrated our 4 year anniversary by trying again and arriving early to tuck into half a BBQ'd cow! Hurrah! Success! At 11.30 Saturday morning we had our choice of table at Bodean's!!! http://www.bodeansbbq.com 

I asked for the allergy menu and was presented with the usual spreadsheet

Possibly should come with a complementary magnifying glass but hey ho at least they had something!

To be fair there was quite a lot to choose from so all was going swimmingly until...

....I suggested the unthinkable! My "burnt ends" come with fries and chips. The fries are cooked in a separate fryer (GF Brownie point awarded) but they are frozen meaning I cannot eat them. ( Coeliac Disease has left me with a weird re heated potato problem! Fab eh?!) so I confidently asked to swap my fries for rice.....ooooo problem! Uh oh! Policy says no substitutions allowed. "Computer says no"! Yep, even though I can't eat the food I have to pay for the food as well as additional money for the rice WHAAAAAT?! I hear you shout! Oh yes, GF madness! Got me humming  Estelle "No Substitute" song though lol!

Ok to cut a long story short (and not dwelling on the fact the food was cold and had to be sent back...hence no photo!) we spoke to the manager. She was very understanding, refunded the money and gave us our drinks free! So that's the happy ending! Well happy-ish....it shouldn't be that difficult though should it?!

Needless to say, we probably won't be rushing back!

However, on a happier note,  just round the corner is The Hummingbird Bakery....now we're talking!

"Made Without Wheat" Red Velvet Cupcake woweeeee! De-lic-ious!!! Can't say anymore than that but my oh my I WILL CERTAINLY be returning here! 

Anyway, found a couple of new things this week that I thought I'd share

These are definitely worth a look. I tucked into them assuming they were chocolate rice cakes (I know, I know, it says corn cakes but I just assumed ok!?) and had I a lovely suprise! Choc covered rice cakes are really tasty and super moreish...and only 118 calories (per serving?!).

I'm so used to tubs of frozen yogurt saying "contains wheat/ gluten" or "May contain....", that I double and triple checked the allergy advice on these little Lick pots! But nope, not a sign so I bought two! This banana and honey flavour pot is sweet and creamy (and fat free!!!!). Found them in Sainsburys and will definitely stock up next time I'm there. Can't wait to try the other flavours!

Well, I'm back into London a couple more times this week trying out some more GF establishments! Here's hoping its a more successful experience than yesterday! Have a good week everyone! X

Gluten Free Rhyme Time

While collecting my ideas for this weeks blog post my "Primary Teacher Mode" suddenly kicked in! It's an annoying trait (so I have regularly been told!) but it just can't be helped! So before I knew it I was merrily humming away to all the nursery rhyme classics, I know.....I know maybe I've worked with 4 year olds for too long but this week I dedicate my post to a trip down memory lane .....soooo are you sitting comfortably?!!

When Goldilicks went to the house of the bears, oh what did her blue eyes see?.......

Well, traditionally not GF buckwheat and rice porridge! BUT hey ho you never know! As currently I cannot eat oats I have been keen to find a suitable porridgey replacement. Sainsburys Freefrom seem to have cracked it. Ok, now prepare yourself it doesn't look pretty...

....but actually I really, really like it! Pour milk over the top amd blitz in microwave for a couple of mins depending on the consistency you prefer! I have been experimenting with adding raisins, blueberries and agave syrup....all good and a great filling substitute for the real thing. Kind of rice puddingy in texture which, for me, can only be a good thing!

Five fat (GF) sausages in a frying pan...

Hmmm doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it?! All hail the fab Marks and Spencer's AGAIN!! They earned super brownie points over the Christmas period with their excellent selection of GF party food and the GF fabulousness just keeps coming! Dale proudly came home with these on Monday (just like a prehistoric cave man providing the meat for his good lady!)

Really, a fancy frankfurter. Great texture with a lovely peppery herby mix going on! They were crying out for a hot dog roll but sadly we didn't quite think that part through! Well done M&S again, you are doing a great job of making your "normal" food GF and it is hugely appreciated among the GF world! Please, please, PLEASE keep it coming!

Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold....

Ok, not quite pease pudding but I'm loving Muller rice at the moment. They really and truly are delicious hot or cold and a great calcium / carb provider (both of which I was told I had to increase). Obviously....to be enjoyed as part of a balance diet etc etc etc.....but loving them none the less!

Jack and Jill went up the hill....

Have you heard of "A Girl Called Jack"? 

Apparently she blogs under the same name but she has totally passed me by.....until now! What a great cook book! The cover states "...delicious and budget recipes", couldn't have put it better myself! Dale has cooked a few already and we have already noticed a reduction in our food bill! It is not a GF cookbook but with a few relatively easy substitutions that problem is solved! So far we have tried "Not Meatballs"

Aubergine meatballs....substituted regular breadcrumbs in the recipe for Newburn Bakehouse white roll bread crumbs and served with Glutafin spaghetti.

And.... "Pork Kokkinisto"

Naturally GF so no prob here! Served with small new potatoes (cooked in the Tefal Actifry....of course!)

Super impressed with this book for GF and non GF people alike! Dale has several more pages marked for this week and I certainly can't wait to sample!

Have a great week everyone! X (@lizprice79)

Better Than Sliced Bread!

My carbtastic week got off to a shaky start when I eagerly unwrapped my second box of Newburn Bakehouse cracker thins (blue cheese flavour) only to discover I had a box of gluten free crazy paving! Yep, it had happened again! 

I don't know what happens between factory and supermarket but the Asda staff may well have played a game of footie with my box of crackers! Sadly I get a similar story from other disappointed gluten free cracker fans! However, don't be put off. They taste great, have a good texture and the little pieces are great for dipping!

So, "What's better than sliced bread?"Answer.... unsliced bread!! After reading a rave review of "Helen's Brilliant Bread Mix" by Helen (no relation I don't think?!) at  http://fabulouslyfreefrom.wordpress.com I thought I should take a little look!

The first part of the test is.....can I manage to produce a successful loaf without supervision / support / guidance from Dale?!?!

The second part of the test is.....does it look / smell / feel / taste like "real" bread?!

This was my first attempt at any of the "Helen's" packet mixes and do you know what?.....it won't be my last!

Soooo.....the packet says just add water and oil.....surely even I could cope with this AND...could it really be that easy?! YEP!! Sure diddly!

This is the mixture before sitting for 40mins in a tray of warm water?

This is after 40 mins

Ooooooo my excitement was already growing! Baked for 35 mins and ...TA DAH!!!!

Woop woop! Proud baker moment ha ha ha!! Yep, I. DID. THIS!!!!

So the verdict is.....easy peasey! Great looking loaf which sliced well.

It has a fabulously crunchy crust (that's not a fancy way of saying I burnt it...honestly!) If I did it again I would probably bake it for a few minutes longer as it was very slightly "elasticy" in the middle but I'm sure that's down to me being a novice in the bread baking department! This is definitely worth a go and tastes very "normal" to me. I also had it for toast this morning and it coped with the toaster very well. My only slight criticism is the size of the slice. Like many GF breads, I don't think you could get a decent sized sandwich out of it and you definitely burn your fingers getting it out of the toaster (cue the toaster tongs!) but I guess you could always have 2 sandwiches?! 

Dale had a life changing experience this week. He has spent the best part of our married lusting after what I have always called "a glorified chip fryer" but this week I has a moment of weakness and caved in!! So I would like to announce the safe delivery of the latest gadget to clutter up the Price household......a Tefal Actifry! For those of you in the dark please let me explain....the Tefal Actifry is a monster of a machine that performs little healthy miracles! A whole kilo of chips can be fried in just a teaspoon of oil! "Whaaat?" I hear you gasp! Yep,  a fat filled chip has now become "healthy" (that was clearly the selling point for Mr Price). Please see below

Actually, it pains me to say it but they were really good and I'm pretty impressed! I'm told we can now "Actifry" a whole host of things....so watch this space!  FYI.... This is a chickpea burger (bargaining tool with Dale....ok....you can have chips.....I want veggie burger lol!). The burger was great...chickpeas, carrot, coriander, cumin seeds, Newburn Bakehouse white roll bread crumbs, Doves Farm GF plain flour and egg all whizzed up in blender and made into burgers! Yey!

Well....as I write I can hear the dull tones of the Actifry whirring in the background (at least he's getting his money's worth!), I'm off to see what's cooking! Have a good week! X

Flipping Crackers!

Well, I appreciate Pancake Day is a little predictable to be blogging about but it'd be rude not to give it a little mention so here goes.....

How ironic in a week where sugar has been deemed the 8th Deadly Sin, there I was pouring golden syrup and chocolate spread onto my pancakes!! Oooops.....well anyway....they were delish!!! Dale used a traditional pancake recipe and substituted regular self raising flour for Dove's Farm Gluten Free 

self raising! I then cranked up the sugar levels by using Silver Spoon syrup and Cadbury's chocolate spread (no GF containing ingredients and no nuts contained woop woop! *although has a "May Contain" for nuts*) Well it's only one day a year right?!

After a year of claiming my prescription items my store cupboard looked a little like the shelves of Holland and Barrett's! I took a year off about 6 months ago and am stil only making a dent in my stash! Dale kindly helped put by rustling up a fab lasagne using Glutafin lasagne sheets

Dale often uses Dove's Farm GF plain flour for his cheese sauce but when he fancies a cheat (which would be all the time if I was in charge!!) he relies on Sainsbury's white sauce with cheese which is listed in the Coeliac UK Food Directory. I find GF pasta is generally quite good. Let's face it, by the time it's smothered in sauce you can't tell what it's like! These lasagne sheets need soaking first and can run the risk of going a little slimy but once cooked all is well!

At last.....I finally found some Newburn Bakehouse cracker thins! I opened my sweet chilli packet with eager anticipation only to find they all looked like this 

Oh dear, guess that's always the hazard with crackers but I was a little disappointed not to have a least one whole one! Anyway, the cracker jigsaw puzzle that lay before before was certainly packed with flavour! Wow, they have a kick! Not too much but definitely a growing warmth that builds up as you eat. I enjoyed my cracker pieces with my soup at work and then with pate (yes, I finally found some GF pate!!) over the weekend!

Not listed in the Coeliac UK Directory but all ingredients are ok! Lovely to have pate again and spread on these zingy crackers it was a perfect match! I'm just hoping in my second box of crackers (blue cheese flavour) I get at least one full cracker!

Last night I dragged a slightly reluctant Dale into La Polenteria http://www.lapolenteria.com in Soho. Let me explain....we were meant to be going to an all singing all dancing BBQ meat feast of a restaurant. Dale had starved himself all day in preparation for this gluttonous trip. However, on arrival we were told there would be a 1 hour 45 min wait which was a little excessive even by Dale's caveman standards! Therefore, you can appreciate his "joy" at my suggestion of visiting La Polenteria (as the name suggests...polenta specialists) located just a 5 min walk from meat eater paradise!

La Polenteria is a cafe style restaurant. Greeted by a small number of tables with candles flickering there is a cosy and intimate atmosphere. You can visit during the day for coffee and cake or even lunch or breakfast all with a polenta twist. They also have a small but perfectly formed dinner menu (vegan, veggie and meat options included). After checking the sauces were GF as well as the polenta I was good to go. I ordered Goulash

and Dale had wild boar. Didn't take a photos of Dale's as it looked pretty much the same! However, they did taste very different! Both were tasty and bursting with flavour! Mine had a little heat but just enough without taking the roof of your mouth! The polenta was creamy and slightly springy in texture....delicious and filling! Very impressed! Dale....well....Dale is still mourning the loss of BBQ ribs  and wings but do you know what.....he was impressed too! We would both recommend...if you're looking for a good GF restaurant with a little twist in Central London give it a go, you won't be disappointed! Also, the wall is covered with polenta facts aplenty so if your conversation runs dry you can also read the wall!!? Lol, sorry Dale! 

Enjoy the sunshine everyone and have a lovely week! X

A Week of Firsts!

This week I did something only fellow Coeliacs will understand....I bulk bought breakfast cereal (and was actually quite proud of myself!!). I recently discovered Eat Natural Buckwheat Cereal! This brings double joy to my heart as all the other Eat Natural products contain nuts (another no go in my diet!!) so to find a product that looks a little museli / granola-ish without containing nuts, oats or anything gluteny was cause of much celebration! Only trouble was I could only get it in Tesco....argh.... Same old prob....don't get to Tesco much, when I do go, they don't always have what I want in stock etc etc etc arghhhh! So I did what I thought best and placed my order with Amazon!

Not quite sure where I will keep 6 packets of cereal but hey, they won't be hanging around for too long because this is delicious! Not only tasty but soooo filling too! I even had to break my cereal + two pieces of toast rule with this one......only room for 1 piece of toast....what a shocker! 

Continuing on the brekkie theme.....we had our Sainsburys shopping delivered this week. Disaster struck when my Newburn Bakehouse seeded loaf had been substituted. I peeped into the blue plastic substitution bag with an air of nervousness (always the fear some bright spark will have replaced my GF loaf with a full on gluten riddled sliced white)..... But I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw a Genius sliced brown loaf! Ok, not quite what I wanted but it was in the right sort of area and as I hadn't actually tried the brown Genius loaf I was up for giving it a go!

As you can see a nice looking bit of toast eh?! Toasted really well and held together. Good sized slices too. Had a better consistency toasted than non toasted, although I still found it a little sticky while I was chewing it. Wasn't my seeded loaf of choice but a great alternative and I would definitely buy again if I wanted a brown loaf. Also, it's been open for 2 days now and the slices are still in one piece....not always the norm with GF bread!

I finally got round to finding and trying the BFree wraps (in Asda).I was pleasantly surprised! We bought them for fajitas and they were great. Couldn't really tell they were GF and Dale enjoyed them just as much as me.

Used here with Discovery World Salsa and Fajita mix. I also tried the wraps for lunch....they were ok but not as great. I think I wanted to put too much filling in (what a surprise!!), which led to a rolling issue! Nevertheless, if you have a small appetite or if you fancy fajitas....these are for you!

Thursday saw a very excited me and a not so excited Dale go to a Gluten Free night at The Brookmans http://www.brookmanspub.co.uk in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire. Well done, woohooooo, congratulations, woop woop etc to The Brookmans for putting on a night like this. It's great to see local places doing their bit for the GF world and I was thrilled to support it.

We had a good night. It was such a novelty to be presented with an extensive menu, all of which I could choose from. Such a rarity these days! The menu had a wide selection of choice from pizzas, to burgers to pub grub classics like Kiev and fish and chips.

We had a slightly shaky start when I doubled checked with the waitress that the frying oil was fresh. She didn't think it was and it would depend on how severe my "allergy" was.....argh!!! Ok, well, I didn't feel it was the time or place to discuss the finer points of Coeliac Disease but I did ask if she would clarify this.....thankfully when she returned she explained she had got it wrong and all oil was fesh for GF night! Phew! Big sigh all round! Maybe this should have been explained to staff beforehand as I expect many Coeliacs would want to double check this!

So we both had the Scotch egg to start

Really nice, tasty and a novelty....haven't had a Scotch egg for years!

Dale had GF burger and chips which I thought looked pretty good...there was a bit or burger envy going on I'm afraid....

.....especially those onion rings! Sadly, they were long gone by the time I thought to ask for a bite! Dale was particularly impressed with the bun (and he is a fusspot!!) it tasted good and held together which is more than I can say for a GBK burger I tried recently! However, I went for fish and chips...

.....they were nice but I wasn't blown away. The chips were good....very goooooood! I hardly ever have fried chips now so this was a real treat! The fish was ok, the batter could have been crisper (Dale stop reading now......Dale's GF battered fish is much better, lighter and crispier but shhhhhhh don't tell him!!....see previous blog posts for example!). The mushy peas were interesting...less mushy and more runny but as I don't like mushy peas or tartare sauce I'm not the best person to comment on this!

I was also a little nervous about the wooden block and possible cross contamination risks.  However, I'm sure dishwashers kill off most stuff and to be fair there was a layer of greaseproof paper covering most of the board sooooooo..

A big GF thumbs up to The Brookmans! I believe these nights will run on the last Thursday of every month. Please keep flying the GF flag and we will hopefully be back very soon!

Ok, well I'm off to enjoy another first.....a bit of Sunday afternoon peace and quiet while Dale is at the football! Have a good week everyone x