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Snack time – spicy paprika crackers Low FODMAP, wheat free, dairy free, gluten free

I have been meaning to look into snack ideas for the low FODMAP diet and wondering how to make crackers. I have been reading on the internet and the methods people use seem simple enough. This is my own recipe – but thanks to those whose recipes I have read – too many to mention individually. However special thanks goes to Jonathan Itchon see the link at the bottom of the page – for providing a ratio to make the crackers. Here is the recipe:

200g of plain gluten-free flour mix

150g of water

50g of olive oil

2 tsps of chilli powder (not a blend of spices, chilli ONLY)

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp of asafoetida

1 tsp of smoked paprika

1/2 tsp of salt

Add the oil to the water, place the flour in a mixing bowl and add the spices, mix well. Add the water/oil to the flour and mix till it has bound together, too wet and add a little more flour, too dry and add water – although the mix did come together very well. Place dough on a large piece of cling film and add another piece of cling film over the top. Roll the dough till it is VERY thin – thinner dough makes crisper crackers. Cut out with a pastry cutter. This is the most time-consuming bit. the dough is quite brittle so take care – or you can always add 1/2 tsp of xantham gum to make the mix more elastic. Place the crackers on an oiled baking tray and cook on gas mark 7, 220 degrees for ten minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

With 2 teaspoons of chilli powder these crackers are hot hot hot! Reduce the amount or exclude it altogether if you find that chillies don’t agree with your digestive system, or if you are making these for children – use animal cutters! Also the whole house was filled with the smell of asafoetida – just be warned! 😉 Also I don’t tend to use much salt in my cooking so they are perhaps less salty than you may be used to. If you have coeliac disease and are following a gluten free diet you must ensure that the spices you buy have not been contaminated with gluten containing grains – wheat, barley, rye. But these crackers were easy to make and has made me feel like trying different flavours – excellent, since ready-made flavoured gluten free crackers are rather expensive. Make some for your food intolerant friends today!

http://thecanaryfiles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ratio-rally-gluten-free-vegan-grain.html

Jules_GastroRD2 Comments

Saturday – Chicken Curry Low FODMAP

Last night I cooked a chicken curry here is the recipe.

Ingredients

6 skinless chicken thighs

1 tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil

1 aubergine

2 large tomatoes

3 teaspoons of cornflour

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

4 split cardamom pods

1/2 teaspoon of asafoetida

1 teaspoon of chilli powder (Omit this if it makes your symptoms worse)

1/2 yellow pepper

1 Green pepper

200 mls of water or home-made chicken stock (without garlic and onion)

Salt & pepper to taste

Method

Cut up the aubergine into small pieces, also cut the tomato

Add oil to pan and heat

Add spices to the pan and cook for a minute to release the aroma

Add chicken

cook for 5 minutes

Then add stock and the aubergine and the tomato, add cornflour (mix with a small amount of water to blend first and make a smooth paste)

cook for 20 minutes. (10 minutes in start to make rice – see below)

Add chopped pepper and cook for 5 -10 minutes.

Rice – 300g basmati rice (2 cups) place in a pan and cover with water 2cm above the rice, add salt to taste then add 4 cloves, a 2cm piece of cassia bark, 4-5 black peppercorns and 2-3 green cardamom pods, curry leaf. Bring to the boil for 15-20 minutes remove spices prior to serving. This tastes a little like pilau rice – add colouring to make this more authentic if you wish.

Serves 4

Jules_GastroRD6 Comments

“Read your labels” – retrospectively is no good! A reflection, a survey and slight feeling of dietetic hypocrisy.

It’s Saturday, I wake and stumble down the stairs bleary eyed, hairdo that wouldn’t look amiss on Edward Scissorhands. Cat’s breakfast is made first and then I make my morning cup of tea. First mistake of the day, I use cows milk – damn, now my inner consciousness devil voice starts to say “it’s only a splash of milk can this make a difference?, go on drink it” I think for a couple of seconds and decide that I will make another cup of tea with lactose free milk, then I make my porridge, again with lactose free milk. First critical lapse incident managed, cool!

Now for the confession. On Saturday I like to go for a coffee at a cafe and have my weekly treat a small biscuit or cake with my coffee. Now I asked for lactose free milk coffee  – ok so far, and then chose a coconut macaroon, wheat free – I did enquire if this was the only wheat free choice and I was told it was. Now, I’m not that fond of macaroons but it was the only choice, so I bought it and sat down to drink my coffee and read the paper. The more savvy of you here will be shouting at the screen “DID YOU READ THE LABEL?”, did I? Well, err, (feeling REALLY sheepish) not before I had bought it and certainly not before I had eaten a good portion of the biscuit :-(. I then decided unconsciously to take a peek at the ingredients list. This is where I was totally disappointed with myself because guess what? Yes!! Someone had added a FODMAP to my biscuit. SORBITOL of all

I don’t go this far! No finger wagging in my clinic.

things, in my biscuit, I felt so disappointed and really guilty of hypocrisy. You may be wondering why I feel hypocritical, well, in my clinic when I see people who have to use special diets reading labels is very important. When it gets to this part I furrow my brow and look quite serious and say “reading your labels is very important to following your diet and here is a list of what to look for”. People often say when I see them again that they have made mistakes and a good proportion of those are through not looking at the label. I suggest to them that this is part of the learning experience and then the advice is then reiterated, read the labels FIRST, before you buy and certainly before you eat.

So, I have joined the ranks of people who make retrospective label reading mistakes, perhaps this is a normal part of changing your diet and maybe everyone does this? At least I suppose you read it to see and are then aware of your mistake, but the damage is already done. It really makes you consider human behaviour in this, why would I do this now, when I was successful earlier on in the day? Was it because earlier I had another choice available, do you think? How many of you make this mistake – perhaps we could do a survey?

Survey is anonymous and will close in 1 month – if you wish to know more check this out  http://polldaddy.com/privacy/ or contact Polldaddy directly http://polldaddy.com/about/

Jules_GastroRD2 Comments

Midweek Low FODMAP special veggie chilli – A warming meal for chilly nights!

Wednesday evening – midway through the week and always a night to have something different. So I decided to trial a Quorn meal using Quorn mince. Here is the recipe

1 400g packet of Quorn

4 red bell peppers

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

1 teaspoon of cornflour

1 teaspoon of cumin

2 teaspoons of chilli powder (hot, hot, hot) if you prefer it less so, use less chilli! Watch this if you find spicy food tends to make your symptoms worse.

salt to taste

Slice the pepper roughly and spread on the oil, roast for 10-15 mins and then add to a food blender with a little water and blend till a smooth sauce is achieved.

Add this to a pan and then add the Quorn, spices and salt. Mix well

Cook for five minutes then add the cornflower directly to the pan.

Cook for 10 minutes and add salt to taste.

Serve with fresh boiled rice.

We are mid month and moving rapidly towards Halloween, and then plans for Christmas. Time seems to go so quickly and the nights are drawing in. It will soon be time to turn the clocks back and you really are aware that we are truly in Autumn. https://plus.google.com/118333009720408143699/posts/h1bkMSMDZt1

I remember how to do this by the rhyme – fall back spring forward, fall is an American word for Autumn but it does seem to work in reminding me which way to change the time. The date is 28th October this year – learn about time changes here:-

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/clock-changes/

I thought this card was very funny! From www.someecards.com

Jules_GastroRD3 Comments

Food, mood and improvement in gut motility? Low FODMAP, wheat free, dairy free, egg free.

So it begins, the Low FODMAP adventure – a tale of gut calming peace. Ready for the story? It began by eating out, but now I am happy to be home, then I can choose myself what to cook for my hubby and myself. Yesterday the weather had been appalling, back in the Pennines again and guess what? It’s raining again, not the raging downpours that happened over the summer, but a depressing drizzle – the drenching sort with no passion, it is so fine it may as well not be happening. But obviously it is, as my returning husband can contest, after going for a run he was soaked to the skin. Food and mood, now that’s interesting – shall we cook something to lift it? (Your mood that is!) Serotonin is a happiness chemical, it is made from tryptophan (an amino acid – building blocks of protein,) by your body and this chemical can lift your mood. It is also suggested that serotonin in the large intestine can help with constipation by increasing the speed the gut moves – some people with IBS-C are deficient, apparently. This seems to be one of the reasons why a low dose of antidepressants can be beneficial for IBS, it increases the amount of serotonin in the gut, thus increasing motility. Can this be done with food, I wonder? Food is better than taking pills, but we don’t have any evidence that food high in tryptophan can increase the levels of serotonin or improve a slow digestive system, so no point in taking this amino acid or foods high in tryptophan to try, until we do. See your doctor if you want to try a drug to help. It’s an interesting hypothesis though – don’t you think? I wonder if anyone will consider trialling it?

Meal

2 Mackerel

brown rice (120g)

2 tablespoons of pine nuts

1 sprig of mint

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt to taste

1.5 pieces of celery

Spray oil

Serves 3 people

Place the rice in a pan and cover with water, add a small pinch of salt, bring to the boil and cook till soft – this will take at least 40 minutes, watch the pan to ensure it doesn’t boil dry – boil a kettle and add more hot water to the pan if needed.

Wash and prepare the mackerel and grill for 10 minutes on both sides till cooked.

Put both the pine nuts and chopped hazelnuts on a tray and put in an oven to toast, watch this closely as it can easily burn.

Chop mint and squeeze lemon.

Add Lemon, mint and nuts to the rice and mix well.

Place the celery in a dish and spray with oil and cook in the oven for 15 minutes until cooked.

Serve and eat!!

Brown rice contains B vitamins, omega-3 oil is in the mackerel and both contain tryptophan – all nutrients suggested to improve your mood, but the main thing here is that this meal is low in FODMAPs, tasty and hot – what other reasons do you need to tuck in?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652519/pdf/nihms76319.pdf

http://www.nuh.nhs.uk/media/11284/Food%20and%20Your%20Mood.pdf

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