Month: May 2012

LOFFLEX recipes Third Edition

Ground rice pudding Annette Sharp RD

50g Ground rice

25g Sugar

600ml rice milk (plain or vanilla – try to get one with added calcium)

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Flavouring tinned pears, pineapple juice honey/cinnamon/cardamom to taste

Method

Place ground rice, sugar and milk in a small non stick saucepan and whisk until smooth. Gently bring to the boil, stirring whilst cooking – the mixture should quickly thicken into a custard consistency.Continue to simmer over a very low heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a bowl, cover and leave to cool of can be eaten whilst warm. Can blend cold pudding to achieve a very smooth consistency.

Rice Flour Pancakes

1/2 cup of rice flour

300mls of milk

2 tbsp caster sugar

oil for frying

Whisk ingredients together and fry small pancakes (approx 2 inch in diameter) in a small amount of oil until dark golden, serve with jam made from allowed fruit or honey.  Alternatively omit the sugar and add herbs and serve with meat or fish from allowed list.

Chicken Noodle Stir Fry My Le Lac RD

100g Chicken Breast

50g Courgette (skinned and sliced thinly)

50g Mushrooms (chopped)

Dried Rice Noodles

1 tbsp Vinegar

1 tsp sunflower oil/olive oil

Salt to taste

NB this counts as one portion of vegetables

Bring a pan of water to boil, place noodles in the pan

Cook the noodles till softened, drain and rinse in cold water to prevent them sticking together

In a non stick pan heat the oil, add the chicken

When the chicken has browned add the courgettes and mushrooms

When the vegetables have cooked add the noodles and stir fry, them add the vinegar, salt to taste and serve.

Moroccan Lamb Tangine Layla Brown RD

Serves 4

2 tsp black pepper

11/2 tsp paprika

11/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp turmeric

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1x shoulder of lamb, trimmed and cut into 5cm/2 inch chunks

2 large carrots, peeled and grated

2 tbsp of garlic infused oil

3 peppers

115g canned apricots

55g stewed plums

1 tsp powdered saffron

brown rice miso

1 tbsp clear honey

2 tbsp coriander

2 tbsp flat leaf parsley

Place the black pepper, paprika, ginger, turmeric and cinnamon into a small bowl and mix to combine. Place the lamb in a large bowl and toss together with the spice mix. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/gas 2

Cut the remaining food into small pieces/chunks and place in a slow cook oven or casserole dish along with the other ingredients and brown rice miso, water and cook for approx 21/2 hours till meat is very tender.

Place in a serving dish with fresh herbs.

Serve with boiled rice.

Please note: Everyone’s dietary tolerance of foods, with crohns disease, is individual. If you suspect you have problems with these ingredients please check with your dietitian if the ingredient is OK for you, before trying the recipe. The recipes are designed for stage 1 of the LOFFLEX diet, but occasionally people can have reactions to foods in stage 1, so it is very important to keep in touch with your dietitian, when following the treatment.

Related articles

Jules_GastroRDLeave a comment

Coeliac Awareness Week, food labelling and celebrity intolerance!

Sausages may contain gluten via fillers or bin...
Sausages may contain gluten via fillers or binders such as Butcher’s Rusk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have had a very busy week and been unable to blog, my wish was to blog of my findings at the end of Coeliac Awareness Week however we were extremely busy on The IBS Network stand at the Allergy and Free From Show – I needed a weeks rest (but I was still at work during the day!) It was an experience to follow the gluten-free diet again, I did find it much easier second time around but the challenge was eating out, of which it was my first experience. I managed to resist the temptation of eating the ginger biscuits left on my tea-tray in the hotel room and survived the eating out experience. I did find discussing my requirements a little difficult at first, being someone with a shy disposition (you may find this a little difficult to appreciate, but I assure you its true,) I was soon used to the challenge of asking how food is cooked and served.

At the show, a colleague informed me that someone was selling a freshly cooked sausage 97% gluten-free – we discussed this, why make 97% gluten-free sausages? Why not go the whole hog, so to speak – 100% gluten-free and suitable for all? Who were these sausages aimed at? Clearly not people with coeliac disease, perhaps those with gluten intolerance?  I suspect that 3% gluten may affect those with gluten intolerance also. Or possibly aimed at those with the highly exclusive condition ‘fashionista celebrity gluten hypochondria’ who follow the latest dietary trends and can afford to be a little selective in their gastronomy – perhaps now I am being a little too cynical or cruel? I am sure you will tell me, if I am! Am I suffering from celebrity intolerance, I wonder? This food was being provided freshly cooked for direct sale – not prepackaged, but freshly cooked food in restaurants and cafe’s provided for those with coeliac disease is included in the new UK 2012 gluten-free food legislation and to be labelled gluten-free it should have been tested and have no more than 20 ppm of gluten. What this does show is industry food labelling obfuscation at its worst – despite the fact we now have regulations regarding the labelling of gluten-free and allergen containing foods. We do seem to have individual suppliers who still persist in supplying food that is unsuitable for those who need to avoid certain components that may cause illness. Unfortunately I didn’t have adequate time to discuss this with the vendor as we were so busy, but I do hope that someone had the time to elucidate them with the details of the legislation.

Where I felt that I was of use was to explain about contamination risks for coeliacs with the hotel before I left. If you recall the breakfast was a buffet style with gluten contamination risks with serving cutlery, this was discussed when I checked out of the hotel, I did suggest that it may have been better to provide and gluten-free cooked meat and cheese on a separate dish and avoid contamination in the kitchens, then people with coeliac disease could be a little more confident in the food provided. I still feel that people with coeliac disease will still struggle with eating out despite the new legislation, but we must continue to explain what is needed to the catering industry and if this is done sensitively, working with the industry, awareness hopefully will increase. Let me know of your experiences of coeliac awareness week, eating out, food labelling and the new legislation.

Jules_GastroRD2 Comments

Thursday and London gluten free life

Less than 24 hours in London and feeling slightly claustrophobic – missing green spaces. I suppose I need to give you an update of where I am with the gluten-free challenge. Breakfast today was the same gluten-free rice cereal with milk + no yoghurt. I arrived in London arround lunchtime and had my lunch at Nando’s – this was OK, I checked that all that was cooked on the griddle was chicken and sweetcorn – so no contamination. The waitress didn’t understand what I meant by coeliac disease but she let me check their allergy book, which had all the dishes clearly labelled so it actually was fairly easy to see which dishes were OK as in ‘no gluten containing ingredients.’ My evening meal was at Carluccio’s and again the gluten-free menu was clearly labelled. If I had made a mistake I wouldn’t be aware of it though, not having coeliac disease – so as I am often told in clinic I have to go on trust that no contamination has occurred. My hotel is nice except for one small problem – I have a packet of ginger biscuits on my tea making tray, this is testing me and my resolve – it would have been a nice touch to have a packet of gluten-free ones. I await the joy of breakfast! Good night :-).

Jules_GastroRDLeave a comment

Update on the gluten-free diet

Todays blog is very brief as I am packing to go to London for the Allergy and Free From Show but I need to tell you about todays events. My tuna pasta salad was a disappointment I managed to eat about 1/3 of it before I gave in and purchased a gluten-free chicken and salad roll from the hospital cafe. This was very reasonably priced – not much different from the other sandwiches on offer, but it was rather high in calories – 500 Kcal per small roll but it was filling and very tasty. My meal tonight was unplanned and because I am really busy I cooked some rice and used a gluten-free butternut squash soup to flavour it – a bit unconventional but it was very nice and filling. I also ate one of my scones 🙂

I have a different type of pasta to try but this will not be until Sunday, which I assume is the final day of the challenge, but I will try even if it is after awareness week. The picture I have posted was of the stand that I arranged with the local coeliac group last year, we were privileged to have a photo of it in Crossed Grain Magazine.

Jules_GastroRDLeave a comment

Day 3 – getting complacent?

Just look at my scones, aren’t they just perfect? Guess what? I made them without the recommended 28g of oil – so slightly lower in fat too, so I’m not just thinking of gluten-free now, but healthy eating – multi tasking diva, lol! They were from a packet mix so I suppose I cheated a little but so what? Just a good food for a treat, they are a little better having been made for a day and they don’t have the ‘bicarbonate’ taste you sometimes can get after eating scones. So all good then?

Well, perhaps I speak too soon – all was not perfect with the pasta I made for my lunch. I followed the instructions on the packet. I always tell people to do this, since a previous experience of ending up with a lump of starch once when preparing gluten-free pasta. I was stirring the pan as advised as tasted the pasta which was a little too al-dente, then in a matter of seconds it went very mushy. I have still prepared my pasta salad for lunch so I will report back how this tastes later today.

I’m up early today, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready for whatever the day may bring. Reflecting on things this morning and I do feel that it is really important as a dietitian not to impose your food likes/dislikes on others, I have always been somewhat aware of this when I recommend sip feed drinks to patients but also in clinic. I recommend those people who are newly diagnosed coeliac, it is really important to try as many different foods as possible as we all like different food. I may not like many of the gluten-free biscuits, for example, but others may – so I would advise to try again with foods if you are struggling with. So don’t let my feelings on gluten free biscuits cloud your judgement, they are worth trying for a treat. This is also good advice for people who have been coeliac for a number of years and who are stuck in a rut of eating the same food all the time – my experience over the past few days is that even in a short period of three years the choice of gluten-free food has improved significantly.

Jules_GastroRD4 Comments

Day 2 and Counting – no near misses today

Made it – day two, no near misses, up to now, at least! So I had the same breakfast as yesterday, which I am still enjoying – not like my foray into gluten-free in 2009 – I’m unsure what has changed perhaps it’s my improved knowledge of the diet.

My lunch is shown on the right, it consisted of

1 fillet of smoked mackerel

1 boiled egg

5 radishes

2 celery sticks

2 inch slice of cucumber

5 mushrooms

and 2 slices of my wonderful (?) gluten-free bread

Unfortunately I forgot to take some fruit with me today so I arrived home ready to devour ANYTHING,  I would have eaten a scabby donkey if one were available – they are gluten-free :-). The one problem with the gluten-free diet if you are not used to it planning is needed. What to have for my meal? Whilst preparing my meal I had 2 small gluten-free corn cakes and a banana.

My bread has gone stale now – so ready for toast, 2 slices of bread (or brick – which describes it a little better!) with Edam and some ham (packet ham – avoiding contamination.) I did really enjoy this and it has filled me up. The gluten-free carb foods do fill me up I wonder if that is because they can be higher in fat to improve the texture? I don’t think my bread will last another day so I have wasted that mix, about 1/3 of a loaf, I might try freezing some next time, but I don’t think I have enough mix left to make another loaf.

The good thing about following the diet is that I can’t have any biscuits – My one and only weakness!! 🙂 I am going to try to make some scones now – so watch out for another culinary disaster.

Jules_GastroRD2 Comments