Tag: food intolerance

Gluten free, low lactose rosemary and olive bread

The seat in the wood has intrigued me since I stumbled across it, looks home made, old – it has certainly seen its fare share of winters, I guess. It doesn’t overlook a repose worthy view and the valley’s features are obscured by the wall when seated, but is certainly a welcome resting place from the steep climb of the valley side. A haunting melancholy spot in an old oak forest – to come home to a meal of rosemary and olive bread is certainly what’s needed to cheer up the spirit after today’s walk! Check out the recipe below.

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Ingredients

450g gluten free self raising flour

1 teaspoon of xanthan gum

3 tablespoons of olive oil

15 green olives

salt

350 mls of lactose free milk

5g of rosemary leaves

Spray olive oil

2 eggs

50g of Parmesan cheese

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Method

Wash your hands

Measure out the lactose free milk, add eggs and olive oil mix well, add salt to season.

Weigh out the gluten free flour and add the xanthan gum, and mix well.

Grate the Parmesan cheese and add 2/3 to the flour leaving the remainder to sprinkle on the finished bread.

Chop the rosemary finely and add to the flour.

Slice the olives and add 2/3 to the flour leaving the remainder to decorate the top of the bread mix before cooking.

Mix the Parmesan and olives into the flour, make a well in the centre of the flour mix and add the liquid ingredients.

Incorporate the liquid into the flour till everything is blended in.

The finished mix has a slightly sticky texture.

Oil a tray well and add the mix, wet your hands and smooth the surface and add a thumb print in lines down the bread as a decoration.

Spray the surface of the mix with olive oil

Add the remaining olives and cheese.

Cook for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean at gas mark 6 or 220 degree centigrade.

Serves 8-10

For a low fodmap diet xanthan gum is possibly fermentable but is in the bread in very low levels (less than 0.5%) so most people should be OK to have a portion.

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Prunes – natures laxative.

“I hope my tongue in prune juice smothers, If I belittle dogs and mothers”

Ogden Nash

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Ogden Nash was an American poet who suffered from crohn’s disease according to Wikipedia, his unfortunate demise was after a lactobacillus infection after eating poorly prepared coleslaw as the Wikipedia site states. Interesting quote about prune juice, do you get the feeling he detested prunes? Prunes might have resulted in symptoms for him – depending on his crohn’s disease. I can only speculate, but what do these dried fruits do for us? Should we in fact include them in our diet? The following post by Compound Interest explains the chemistry behind the prune – or dried plum.

http://www.compoundchem.com/2015/09/01/plums-prunes/

Prunes do in fact improve constipation – but for some people at a cost – the reason they do is down, in part to the large amount of sorbitol and fructans they contain, these FODMAPs or fermentable sugars draw fluid into the small bowel and rapidly ferments in the large bowel. Sorbitol is also found in sugar free mints and gum – often a warning is given on these to avoid eating too much as a laxative effect may be the result. Not great if you have IBS and bloating and are intolerant to sorbitol. Prunes could also result in symptoms for people with active crohn’s disease too – perhaps that is the reason they are suggested by Nash to be a treatment to instill an avoidance of denigrating your mother! Or alternatively it might be just down to taste or personal preference. But to help constipation if you don’t suffer from IBS, bloating and excessive wind – they are worth a try – introduce them in your diet slowly so your bowel adjusts to the extra fibre they contain. These sugars can also have a pre-biotic (food for bacteria) action, so it is worth including some in your diet if you tolerate their effects!

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Low Fodmap, Gluten free, low lactose pancakes

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According to Wikipedia’s reference for Shrove Tuesday pancakes represent the sun in pagan mythology and eating them gave power, light and warmth of the sun. Pancakes were also a way of using up rich food before the fasting of lent in the Christian religion. Either way these delightful disks are a treat with sweet or savoury fillings and I like the association with the life giving sun when it has been so cold recently. Enjoy….

Ingredients

3 large eggs

50 mls Lactose free milk

100g of wheat free, gluten free flour

Pinch of salt

Spray oil

Method

Weight out the flour into a mixing bowl and add the eggs and a small pinch of salt.

Mix well and add enough milk to make a thin batter that coats the back of a spoon.

Pour the batter into a measuring jug.

Heat the frying pan and spray some oil – pour in enough batter to thinly coat the bottom of the pan and move the pan till the batter is even and pour off the excess back into the measuring jug.

Cook for 30 seconds maximum till dry and and flip over the pancake to cook the other side.

Serve warm with lemon juice and sugar (traditional way) or anything that takes your fancy!

 

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Gluten free low lactose crumpets – better to make these at home!

This recipe is really easy to make and is gluten-free, low FODMAP and low lactose. These are really nice to enjoy toasted with a little free from spread (and jam if you wish) on a cold winters day after a long walk in the countryside! It was really cold outside when the pictures below were taken but the benefit of being outdoors is the atmospheric sky and moss-covered surfaces – showing that winter is really here!

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Ingredients

300 g Gluten free self-raising flour

1 teaspoon of dried yeast

2 eggs

3/4 pint of lactose free milk

Salt + pepper

Method

Remove the eggs from the fridge and leave to warm to room temperature. Heat the milk till luke warm (body temperature.) Weigh out the flour and add the eggs, milk, yeast salt and pepper. Mix well and leave somewhere warm for the yeast to begin to rise, heat a frying pan and using spray oil to fry and using a cooking ring sprayed with oil place this in the pan and fill the ring with 1 cm depth of batter, you should see small bubbles forming on the surface of the crumpet. Lift up the cooking ring turn the crumpet over and cook through. If you are avoiding yeast then try a little more baking powder in the batter instead.

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Gluten free, cow’s milk free rose pancakes for the breakfast diva!

Make these for a special occasion – gluten and cow’s milk free pancakes with an extra special flair for a birthday or wedding breakfast, of in fact you can make them plain for a tasty cooked alternative to kick start the day. I was asked to review an almond flour by a manufacturer Sukrin who donated the flour for the review. I liked the flour, it was tasty and worked well for the recipe. For other manufacturer recommendations such as suitable for low carbohydrate and paleo diets, this may well be the case, however I don’t advocate removing the carbohydrate totally from from your diet or having a very low intake of carbohydrate for healthy people – carbohydrate is food for the brain and fibre containing (or wholegrain) carbohydrates are prebiotic, food for your gut bacteria. If you are having gut symptoms changing your types of carbohydrate may be a better option that stopping eating carbohydrate altogether – just ensure you have a medical diagnosis first before making any changes to your diet and request a referral to a dietitian! We do now know that changes to diet can affect the variety and number of gut bacteria that live in your digestive tract and we do not yet know what the effects  low carbohydrate diets have on long term digestive health. Our gut bacteria help with producing vitamin K and produce short chain fatty acids which help to keep the tract healthy. Most dietary changes Dietitians advocate are to identify a particular food intolerance culprit – this not only has benefits in reducing symptoms, but also means you can continue to have as varied a diet as possible.

You can taste the almond in these pancakes and they are very filling. Please also note whilst these pancakes are free of gluten and cow’s milk they are not suitable for the exclusion phase of the Low FODMAP diet in large amounts, almonds should be eaten in small amounts only (almond – as nuts – less than 10 at any one time.)

DSCF1609modIngredients

3 eggs

100g of almond flour

2 or 3 dessert spoons of rose syrup

200ml of hazelnut milk

a few drops of food colouring and edible gold glitter if you really want a decadent treat!

Spray oil to fry.

Mix the eggs into the almond flour, add the syrup and nut milk to the mixture then add the the food colour. Spray oil into the pan and using a piping bag pipe swirls of the mix into the pan and fry until the base is cooked and then finish the cooking in an oven at gas mark six for 5-10 minutes.

 

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Marrow – a tasty vegetarian meal

DSCF1685modThis is a really tasty recipe that can be quickly prepared for an evening meal.

Ingredients

1 Marrow (or as in the picture above 1/2 a green and 1/2 a yellow marrow)

400g of new potatoes leave on the skin for added fibre

1 tablespoon of pine nuts

1 tablespoon of chopped hazelnuts

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

a handful of fresh coriander leaves

1/2 lemon (juice only)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Wash the marrow and slice in half – remove the seeds from the centre of the marrow and discard.

Slice the marrow into 2cm thick slices.

Wash the potatoes and slice into 1cm slices

Chop the hazelnuts

Into a baking tray add the above ingredients, the pine nuts – add lemon juice to the garlic infused oil and season. Mix and pour over the ingredients and mix till the oil has covered all the vegetables.

Place in a preheated oven at gas mark 6 until soft.

Serve with a handful of fresh coriander leaves.

 

 

 

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