Packed lunches

I've been really struggling to make interesting MEWS free packed lunches for my twins. Few egg free breads are palatable if they cannot be freshened up in the microwave which is obviously not possible at nursery/school. My two (currently!) seem to like Falafel, which is quick and easy to make. The Orgran one is OK, the Hale and Hearty mix is less crunchy (smoother consistency) but sloppier if mixed as instructed and more difficult to make round balls to fry. These also seemed to dry out faster in the fridge. Our favourite is the one our Co-Op sells, the "Just" range.
(If you are ok with corn Barkat make one with few ingredients but I have not tried this mix myself.)

So, today's cooking session was devoted to making Falafel and finding something to add with it. I have some tiny tupperware boxes I put sauces and dips in, so one twin has mayonnaise and the other ketchup to dunk these in tomorrow.

Given the bread problem mentioned above, I have been taking the advice on a friend on how to perfect rolls made with the Juvela Harvest White bread mix. I had no END of trouble getting the correct mix prescribed, this is the only one Suffolk PCT will sanction for those who are gluten free which is also dairy and soya free. DO read labels and check any bread mixes if you are lucky enough to receive gluten free prescription food. Mixes frequently contain other foods many children are excluding as they tend to cater for the gluten free category only.

This bread mix works particularly well as rolls, and you can now buy dairy AND soya free cheese from a couple of sources. I used this to create a cheezy topping on some rolls today, you could make cheese twists or even add some to the mix and make cheese rolls! I am indebted to Rebecca for these fabulous tried and tested suggestions.

Holland and Barrett on the high street stock Redwood Cheezly Soy free  which is easy to source, but our favourite is the Vegusto cheese!  BE WARNED though, their cheese contain nut protein, and NOT ALL their products are free from major allergens. They are intended as Vegan cheese products. The Melty is fab, often out of stock...... and the hard cheese we like is the No Moo Aromatic Cheddar. Strong tasting, but my daughter likes strong flavours! Her twin won't touch ANY cheese substitutes :S

So here we have some with and some without cheese. I have eaten these too, they are very palatable but do take some practice getting the method just right.

Please do email me any of your lunch box ideas to help others!

Raising Awareness for Eosinophilic Awareness Week

Healthy Eating - What it means for us

 The third week in May is Eosinophilic Awareness Week. Help raise awareness of food allergies, and their impact on young lives by considering sharing this child-friendly information with your child's school:-

"There are different types of food allergies. We have Eosinophilic Disease, when the body gets confused and thinks some foods are like germs and need attacking. The problem is this attack can end up hurting your body too! Eating those foods make your throat, tummy or bowel red and sore and stops them working properly. If you are not careful then things we all take for granted like eating, swallowing and digesting food don’t happen properly. Going to the toilet can be painful, take a long time and be really difficult.

Like any other food allergy you must stop eating the food your body is reacting to. Some people react in a quick, dangerous way to foods. This can be life threatening. Others react more slowly but the long term effect can be very serious. All our bodies like to be cared for, letting them get red, sore and swollen for long periods of time can damage them. Our bodies work best when they are properly cared for. We all try and look after our teeth by not eating too many sweets! If you have a food allergy you look after your body by avoiding those foods your body reacts to. Sometimes that means you cannot eat foods which have important things in them for growing. That can mean you need to find those important things in other foods, or in a special formula drink, and take medicines to keep healthy.

We all know someone who cannot eat nuts, or eggs, maybe both. Imagine not being able to eat anything made from milk, AND nothing made from wheat, gluten - which includes oats - OR soya. It’s hard. Getting enough energy is really important - we use a lot of it in school! So sometimes food you might think is less healthy is just right for us! Healthy Eating is really important. It is about looking after your body. But most of all it is about eating in a way to take care of your own body in the best way possible for you."

Healthy Eating?

This was published as a Blog post here and on my personal Blog, but it's such a hot topic I have made it a permanent page - at least for now!

Today K and A's school included in their weekly "newspaper" an editorial on "Healthy Eating", asking parents to support the school's two week drive to improve on an already ongoing campaign.

But just what IS Healthy Eating? The school in question have twice termly cake sales, and hands out sweets in birthday assembly, which hardly fits the "Healthy Eating" criteria that the school is so keen to promote? But actually I have more support for cake sales than you might think. The key to good health is usually a balance in all things, cakes have their place in our children's diets as much as fruit, more so if you speak to a dentist - many of whom deplore the plethora of dried fruit snacks which are the biggest culprits for causing cavities in young children today. On the subject of fruit generally the message is the same, balance is key:-

"It might seem counter intuitive to think that a food with lots of sugar is good for your teeth, but fresh fruit is good for your teeth when consumed as part of a balanced diet."

However frequency also matters, and the modern craze for snacking does no one's teeth, blood sugar or appetite any favours.

Given that my younger two are on such restricted diets their school's two snacks a day (which has to be fruit or cheese) means we probably hit 5-a-day by lunch time, so I am not going to lose any sleep about the odd free-from cake which their school very thoughtfully provides for those unable to buy the regular cakes at their charity sales.  My bigger concern is the drive for low fat-high sugar foods, the demonising of animal fats and the rising importance of carbohydrates in society- and initiative endorsed by successive governments over the past couple of decades. The NHS' "Eatwell Plate" demonstrates clearly this change in focus, and the obesity surge and diabetes time bomb are evidence of how badly wrong politicians and health experts have been. The comments at the bottom of this NHS page do a far, far better job than I could of explaining how skewed our thinking has become about fats and carbohydrates. The processed food industry has been key in promoting grains and sugars, particularly fructose and sucrose with government support but many people are cottoning on slowly, with a surge in online writings trying to expose the myth that vegetable oils are good and animal fats are bad. Even schools are caught up in the effort to increase carbs and fruit and this frustrates me considerably.

My biggest issue with the "Healthy Eating" campaign though, be it at their school or elsewhere, is that I would really prefer my kids to eat for fuel and pleasure - social, sensory, satiety pleasures - and not think too much about it. I resent having to read every label, cook everything from scratch all the time and stress over their daily intake as it is, I try hard (and it IS hard) to ensure their lives are as normal as possible, that they don't feel too different and they don't miss out. But most of all, I would like for food and eating to be necessity not a focus, to take a back seat in life and just be something I as their mother need to consider. If we get through a day where the children have eaten when hungry, had their fill and run off back to more interesting activities then I have succeeded. A day spent thinking about every bite, each ingredient, its impact and value is a day wasted for a child, it is the responsibility of adults to feed their children appropriately and make it as mundane a process most of the time as filling the car with petrol. Of course food is to be enjoyed, but to make it a major or even the sole focus of a child's life for even a short period of time is as bad as ignoring natural appetite.

I have to say, I write none of this whilst wearing an imaginary halo, I fail miserably at this ideal many days and the children's extremely restricted diet makes it very, very difficult to achieve even our own version of normality. But my heart sank reading that newsletter column tonight, because all my efforts made on a daily basis will be shot down in flames in a misguided fortnight of demonising fats, pushing carbs, vegetable oils and fruit - but most of all in drawing attention to something which I would prefer my children not to have to think about. Add to that the fact that they will most likely be discrediting foods my twins rely on to keep them well and it's not going to be a positive experience I fear. I hope I'm wrong.

Chocolate and Pear Muffins!

Sound different? Unusual? They are delicious!

We were a little tired of the delicious Banana Muffins...

and I had rather too many squashy conference pears in my fridge... so decided to get inventive.

I peeled and cored four small pears. Chopped and microwaved them until cooked. Then substituted the bananas in this recipe for pears, and substituted 1 oz of the flour for 2 oz cocoa powder. (Pear is a little wetter than banana so needed more dry ingredients.)

I have also substituted apple and blackberries in the same way before, but strained the excess juice out first and added an ounce of oats to soak up the moisture. Not all of you can have oats I know (and I don't know if gluten free oats would work as well) but worth a try if you can!

Bake as before, and Voila!

Running for Gt Ormond Street Children's Charity!

On May 13th our eldest son is running to raise money for GOSH Children's Charity, and specifically to raise funds for the new Gastro Research Project.

He has always loved Athletics and currently runs with a local club, enjoying a very successful 2011/2012 season so far! Several members of our family suffer with Gastrointestinal Disease and associated conditions. Josh's youngest siblings are treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital and we as a family are incredibly grateful for the support and treatment we receive from there. The twins' Consultant has recently climbed Kilimanjaro to raise funds for new gastro research and treatment so Josh decided to do his bit! Climbing mountains was a bit ambitious, so instead he is running 5K in Suffolk on 13th May at Alton Water, in Suffolk.

Josh regularly runs between 2 and 7 K, competing several years above his age group. He too has suffered gastro issues as a young child and joint problems since and really hopes GOSH can help make a difference for others.

We and so many others would be incredibly grateful if you felt able to sponsor him, our JustGiving Page is here.

Oven Baked Rissotto

Free from Dairy (IF THE CHEESE IS EXCLUDED) , Soya, Wheat, Gluten, Egg and Corn.

You need:

• 250g smoked bacon chopped into small pieces
• 1 onion chopped
• 1oz Pure Sunflower or similar
• 10 oz Arborio rice
• 150g cherry tomatoes (I often replace this with 300g mushrooms)
• 700ml chicken stock 
• 2 oz grated parmesan (leave out or substitute if dairy free)

Instructions

• Heat oven to 180 degrees
• Fry bacon pieces in casserole dish (dry fry) for 3-5 minutes until golden and crisp. Dish need to be able to go on hob.
• Stir in onion and butter and cook for 3-4 mins until soft
• Pour in rice and mix well until all rice is coated in juice from onions
• Pour in wine and cook until all liquid absorbed
• Add cherry tomatoes, hot stock and give quick stir
• Cover with lid, put in oven and cook for 18 mins stirring occasionally (I did it twice).
• Stir in parmesan and stir until melted
• Serve and sprinkle with extra parmesan

Free From Chocolate Muffins

This recipe has corn and eggs in it, you can easily swap the eggs out with egg replacer though.

Ingredients

• 1 x 100g dark chocolate
• 3 1/2 oz (95g) instant polenta
• 1 x 100g pack blanched (ground almonds are fine too) almonds
• 3 1/2 oz (95g) butter or margarine
• 3 1/2 oz (95g) icing sugar
• 2 level tablespoons cocoa
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 -2 dessertspoons of milk (of your choice - almond?)

Method

• Whizz the polenta and almonds to a fine powder in a food processor.
• Melt the chocolate and margarine.
• Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and beat the egg whites till stiff.
• Pour the chocolate mix into the dry ingredients and then stir together.
• Fold in the egg whites divide into muffin tins (the mix should fill the tins) bake for 16 -20 minutes at 200C or gm 6 until they are firm to the touch.