Delicious Chocolate Coconut Muffins

I have been experimenting with muffins and cupcakes lately, because I have had limited success with anything which doesn't contain banana of late, unless it's quite small it either goes dry or doesn't rise properly. So you can imagine the excitement when I found this recipe - which not only WORKS but as it only has 1 egg it is pretty easy to substitute to make it MEWS free.

Ingredients

• 5oz / 150g Self Raising Dove's Farm Gluten free flour
• 4oz / 100g caster sugar
• 4oz / 200g of either broken up free from chocolate (small pieces can be achieved in a food processor of chopped) or free from chocolate drops/buttons of your choice.
• 2fl oz / 50mls sunflower oil (NOT olive, hemp or heavier oils)
• 4fl oz / 100mls milk substitute of your choice
• 1 egg
• 2oz / 50g desiccated coconut
• optional vanilla essence

Method

• If, like me, you have a Kenwood Chef or a KitchenAid you can quite successfully chuck it all in and whizz it up. Otherwise you need to put flour, sugar, chocolate into the bowl. Mix well and make a well in the centre.
• Pour in the oil and milk into a bowl/jug and break the egg in. (ALTERNATIVELY ADD THE EGG REPLACER IN WITH THE DRY INGREDIENTS.)
•  Beat with a fork and pour into the well you made in the first bowl.
• Mix everything together and stir in the coconut.
• Spoon into cupcake cases, or larger muffin cases. 
• Cupcake cases will bake in 15 mins, the muffins take a little longer. Bake at 180C until golden on top.

Free from "Cheesecake"!!

The is gluten, soy, egg, dairy, oat free.

Ingredients

Base

• 2 packets biscuits (Doves farm lemon and cocoa for us)
• 50g vitalite melted (may need more)

Crush the biscuits and mix with melted butter as you would a normal cheesecake. Spread into the base of the tin.

Filling

• 2 ripe avocados
• a squeeze of agave syrup or other sweete
• ner
• a carton of coconut cream (the cartons not cans - drain the thin liquid out)
• 45g melted choc (we use 100% because of soy and dairy)
• juice of a lemon

Put all the filling ingredients in a blender.
Mix til you can't see green bits.
Spread on top of biscuit base - chill for several hours.

You genuinely will not realise it is not real cheesecake! The is gluten, soy, egg, dairy, oat free.

Simple Potato Cakes

I can't take the credit for this recipe, or even for finding it, but it is definitely one worth sharing!

All instructions and excellent step by step photos  are on a sit called "The Pink Whisk"

A friend said the following:-

"We've made these using pure sunflower spread and rice flour. They are really yummy, Finley adores them. We've frozen them individually, defrosted over night and then put in the microwave for 20 seconds just before eating and they are nice and soft. I did try to defrost in the microwave and they burnt to smithereens!"

"Foods, Moods and Isms" Living the Eosinophilic Life

Great book - currently free on Amazon to download to Kindle.

From Amazon:-

"Foods, Moods & Isms: Living the Eosinophilic Life is the second book in a memoir series. Foods, Moods & Isms details the emotional, humorous, and often profoundly insightful journey of an everyday family raising a child with eosinophilic esophagitis, or EoE. This is a book about grocery stores full of food and tables full of empty plates.

This is a book about being hungry for more than just a meal. This is a book about life with Ewan—a boy who sees life from a unique perspective and says all the things we never knew we needed to hear. 

Alicia Hart, author of Brains, Trains & Video Games: Living The Autism Life, is a wife, mother, and advocate for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder. She has worked for various autism related agencies, early intervention programs, and universities, and has consulted with schools, hospitals, and other programs regarding autism spectrum disorders, eosinophilic disorders, feeding aversions, and augmentative and alternative communication. Alicia continues to write and has planned a series of books. The next book, Synaptic Spaces: Living In-Between will be the last book in the memoir series. You may find out more on Facebook at The Autism Life or at Alicia Hart—Author. There is also a Facebook fan page at Brains, Trains & Video Games and at Foods, Moods & Isms."

May 19th-25th is Eosinophilic Awareness Week

Next Week is Eosinophilic Awareness Week. Read about EGID here.

Gastro research is drastically UNDER FUNDED. It is not "glamorous" and rarely on the radar for celebrities and focus groups, and rarely attracts public interest unlike cardiac care and cancer research. Gastro conditions are badly neglected in the UK when it comes to research funding allocation but without research treatment and outcomes are not likely to improve much.

Approximately 1% of the total amount of medical research funding available in the UK can be accessed for Gastro research. There are currently no listed projects specifically for Eosinophilic Disorders on the National Research database. GOSH are running a Gastro Research Project that will include related conditions/problems.

FABED is the main UK charity supporting families with members (adult and children) who suffer from eosinophilic disease.

FABED are UK partners supporting the United States Eosinophilic Awareness Week next week.This is coordinated by APFED. Last year they made this video to promote awareness.

Read more about Eosinophilic Diseases here.

Next week, do something to raise awareness. Tell someone about EGID and the appalling lack of funding for gastrointestinal disorders in the UK.

PIZZA!!!!

*HURRAH* for high street restaurants offering free from menu choices.

We have been testing a few this year, very cautiously!

ASK

Ask in Ipswich were extremely helpful. They explained that recently their chips have changed and are now coated to make them crispier. This makes them unsuitable for anyone with a wheat or gluten allergy. They always stock small new potatoes in their freezer, coated in a safe pepper/salt/oil combination, part cooked and ready for frying. They also grilled some chicken in the same combination for my two gourmets and served them with a child friendly salad. A real hit!

Sorbet satisfied our allergy requirements too, an excellent meal but a long wait as their online allergen list had not been updated.

PIZZA EXPRESS

Pizza Express have just launched their Gluten Free menu. As a family we love Pizza Express, the menu is pretty versatile, it's quick for the kids and they take Tesco Clubcard vouchers!!  They have a fully comprehensive allergen list but read carefully. Many items are absolutely fine but you might think they are not because the entire dish is listed as containing a known allergen. Meat is sourced locally so check that ham doesn't contain lactose for example.

We were fine - on the children's menu my twins couldn't have the dough balls so enjoyed an extra large salad. One chose a gluten free pizza, no cheese with chicken and ham on top, the other the same but with tuna. That ticked the no MWS and Gluten boxes for us, also Egg free as Archie is on minimal egg.  The gluten free pizzas in the table all say they contain dairy and soya, this is because they ahve CHEESE on. You can be creative, like us and skip the cheese and add alternatives! The pizza base was thin and crispy but a definite improvement on the supermarket bases we have tried to date.

LEGOLAND, Windsor

The Park restaurants and cafes are almost all a big no-no as Legoland now coat their chips and cross contaminate much of their food. However, The Castle Rotisserie (where the large Dragon rollercoaster is) suited us fine. Jacket potatoes with no butter, chicken or baked beans (Heinz which have no wheat flour in) were fine.

The hotel could not have been more helpful. I called the day before then spoke with the chef just before each meal. He cooked safe chips especially for the twins, and there were plenty of meat and veg options. My two ate extremely well! Breakfast was the trickiest but they always have gluten free bread to toast with jams, no spread alternative though. Do ask to have the bread toasted in the kitchen though not on the industrial size "conveyor belt" toaster in the restaurant.

Disclaimer : Obviously YOU know your child's level of sensitivity. Some children will react with microscopic amounts of allergen present. We do NOT avoid food which says "May contain traces of ...." and also do NOT avoid Soya Lecithin as we have always been told that it is a highly purified oil, with no protein present and it is usually the protein people react to. This is NOT the same for everyone.

Next Post - Coffee Shops with safe snacks!

Fun in the Sun!

Summer would seem to have finally arrived, and even if there is a temporary downturn in temperatures forecast for the rest of this week I am hoping, along with so many other EGID parents, that the summer season will herald a period of good health for our children. Obviously the summer presents its own difficulties for allergic kids, the pollen count remains high over much of the summer, but the reduction in colds and similar maladies is a very definite improvement.



I posted last summer about the amazing Bessant and Drury ice creams, but they are pretty expensive and it's nice to find some alternative. But finding summer treats which are free from the main food allergens can be tough, but my scouts have been hard at work and there have been several posts in our Facebook Group which I thought I would share on here.


Tesco have scored highly this week with two discoveries there.
"Strawberry Helter Skelters" are made with coconut milk and are MEWS free. (Milk, Egg, Soy and Wheat) Ingredients are below:-

Also from Tesco are the two finds here --------->
Free From "Banana Smoothies" also made with coconut milk, great for lunch boxes . Unfortunately my fussy pair didn't like them but then they are not huge banana fans.

"Flips" are a new type of crisp/snack.

Lastly one inventive mum has made some smoothie/ice cream (the latter if you freeze it!) from strawberry puree and oatly cream.

Tastes delicious although difficult to scoop into a cone!