Elimination Diet Link

A friend of mine passed me this link before Christmas. He suffers from IBS and goes into this elimination diet from time to time. He cuts sugar and any other foods likely to cause allergies and then re-introduces them. He suffered from adult acne (like me) but since he started on these "detoxes" his skin cleared up.

I really was not in the mood to start any diet right before Christmas and I'm afraid to say that I still ain't. I think you have to be mentally prepared to embark on an elimination diet and stick to it. But
if you are this link is a very good starting point.

Dr Joe Fitzgibbon has a clinic in Dublin. I have never been to it but you can download and print the elimination diet from his website for free. It guides you through it step by step.

http://www.joefitzgibbon.ie/dp.php?c=resources

Low FODMAP Easy Meatballs

Sometimes I make a big batch of meatballs, freeze half and serve the other half with tomato sauce and spaguetti. They couldn't be simpler to make...

Ingredients:

• 800g mince beef
• 1 1/2 or 2 cups dry gluten free breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp dried herbs
• 1/2 cup water
• salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix all the ingredients together by hand. Make little balls, more or less the same size so the cook evenly, and place them on a baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes.

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Gluten and Dairy Free Applesauce Muffins

I have to admit that I wasn't very good at Christmas. I ate a few things that I'm not supposed to, not many mind you, but I was wandering if I could re-introduced some types of food since I have been on this diet for nearly two years. Well, I am done experimenting for the time being...

I tried to go back to soya milk, mainly because of the cost, a 1 litre carton of hazelnut milk cost over €2 while I can buy 1 litre of soya milk for 85 cents. I was OK for the first day but I got extremely bloated after each meal afterwards. I stopped two days ago and I feel much better already.

I also had a few Brussels sprouts on Christmas day. Oh my, never again! Then to top it up I went out to dinner with friends. Of course the only thing that I could eat was salad and I decided to blow out and suffer later. It was two weeks later when I started to feel normal again.

Onion, garlic, dairy, cruciferous vegetables, peppers and gluten are the main problem foods for me. I also haven't eaten legumes in a year and a half.  Of course there are other foods that I avoid but I still feel that I haven't mastered this diet. I think it's time for me to do some  more research and update my list...

I am not sure if people on a Low FODMAP diet can tolerate applesauce but I can  have a couple of these muffins without any symptoms afterwards. But everyone is different...

I got this recipe from "the vanilla.COMpany" website. It's a socially conscious site dedicated to the promotion of pure, natural vanilla and the support of vanilla farmers worldwide and it's run by Patricia Rain, author of The Vanilla Cookbook.

I have to say this is the nicest muffins I've had in a long time. My son and my husband love them and they are very easy to make. The recipe is supposed to make 24 muffins but I think she means cupcakes because I only had enough dough for 12 muffins.

I omitted the pecans and the frosting and instead I sprinkle some granulated sugar on top of the muffins.


Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten free flour
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup sunflower oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped (optional)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 12 muffin tin with paper cases. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside. Blend oil and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, applesauce and then the dry ingredients. Stir in nuts if using. Sprinkle the muffin tops with a little sugar and bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

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One-pan Roast Chicken, Potatoes, Carrots and Cherry Tomatoes

This is what we had for dinner today. No need for parboiling the veg, just throw everything in...


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 kg chicken
• 1 lemon, halved
• 50g dairy free margarine
• 2 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 7 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 400g cherry tomatoes
• 2 tblsps cyder vinegar
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan. Place the chicken in a big roasting tin without strings. Put the lemon into the cavity. Rub the margarine, herbs and seasoning over the chicken. Arrange the potatoes and carrots around it, drizzle everything with oil, season and toss together. Roast for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 200C/180C fan and roast for 45 minutes more. Mix the vinegar and oil with the cherry tomatoes and stir into the tin, then return to the oven for 15 minutes more.

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Gluten and Dairy Free Clementine Cake

Happy New Year everybody!!!!!!

 I hope 2014 brings happiness, love, health and prosperity to all. 

I had a nice, quiet Christmas. My little boy wasn't sick and enjoyed Christmas day immensely, I can say without a doubt that Christmas is his favourite time; summer, Halloween, Easter...they don't come even close!

My first recipe for 2014 is from the Nigella Lawson website. She uses ground almonds in lots of her recipes which is quite handy for those of us who avoid gluten. She made the cake using a 21cm tin. I
used a 23cm, the same that I use for her olive oil and chocolate cake (one of my favourites). Because this is a dense, moist cake and I didn't want to risk burning the top and under cooking the centre I tried not to make it too thick.

Now, I have a confession to make: I'm not sure if what I used were clementines or satsumas but I can tell you they worked! By the way, I made the marmalade you can see in the picture. My first time making jam!! I cheated, though, I made it in my breadmaker machine which has a jam programme. I had to run the programme twice to get the right "jelly" consistency but it came out perfect. And you guessed it, it's clementine marmalade! I bought lots over Christmas and I had to use them up...

Back to the cake, if you are in a hurry to eat cake this isn't going to be for you. You have to boil the clementines for two hours! But I think it's worth the wait and what I like most about this cake is that it's flourless and has no oil or butter, all the moisture comes from the fruit.

Ingredients:

• 375g clementines (approx. 3 medium-sized ones)
• 6 large eggs
• 225g white sugar (my husband thought it needed more sugar, I thought it was fine, up to you to increase the amount...)
• 250g ground almonds
• 1 tsp gluten free baking powder 

Method:

Put the clementines in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the pips. Blitz the fruit (skins, pith and all) in a food processor.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Oil and line a 23cm Springform tin. Add all the other ingredients to the food processor and mix.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for and hour. Cover it with foil after about 40 minutes to stop the top burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, on a rack, but in the tin. When the cake is cold take it out of the tin.

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Dairy & Gluten Free Chocolate and Banana Muffins

These muffins lasted a day in my house. Great success. I found the recipe in the Tesco website (www.tesco.com/realfood).  It is a very handy recipe, something else to bake other than banana bread with overripe bananas...

Ingredients:

• 50g cocoa powder
• 125ml boiling water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 125g gluten free flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150ml light olive oil
• 4 ripe bananas

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170C. Place the cocoa powder in a bowl and mix in the vanilla extract and boiling water. Set aside to cool slightly. In a separate bowl mix the bicarbonate of soda and flour. In another bowl beat the sugar, oil and eggs together. Add the cocoa mixture to the sugar mix, then add the flour. Mash the bananas and stir into the mixture. It will be very wet and runny but the muffins will rise nicely. Pour it into a lined 12 muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes.

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Roast Chicken with Roasted Cumin and Coriander Carrots

I haven't posted any recipes for a while, I am just not having a great month. My son was in hospital  again last week. We only spent two nights there, thank Goodness, but that is already too much time for a little boy who has been in the emergency department three times in five weeks. He's on his fourth course of antibiotics for a throat infection and while he is well on them he gets very sick once the course is finished. He's got seven more days left on this course and I'm praying everything will go well this time...

I checked the blog today wondering if anybody is still looking even with the lack of recent posts and to my surprise I had a comment awaiting moderation. I always thought people stumbled upon this blog and moved on... Thank you Sarah!! You've made my day.

Anyway I wasn't even going to post this recipe but I had my brother and his family over for the weekend and when I cooked this dish for them he told me to put it up on the blog...

It's such a simple and easy recipe that it feels silly posting it. When they were over I didn't want to spend my time with them cooking in the kitchen. I cooked the meals that I normally cook during the week: easy, simple, cheap and child "friendly"...

Ingredients:

• 2 small chickens, around 1kg each (cleaned and ready to roast)
• 500g carrots, halved lengthways
• 500g parsnips, halved lengthways
• light olive oil
• 1/2 tblsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tblsp ground coriander
• 1kg frozen roasting potatoes (I buy Tesco everyday value, no gluten, just potatoes and oil)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Pour some oil on top of the chickens, add salt and pepper and rub with your hands all over until well mixed. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes in a big roasting tray. In the meantime put the carrots in simmering water for 10 minutes until they are just tender. Drain well and tip into a roasting tin. Add 2 tablespoons of light olive oil, cumin and coriander, plus plenty of seasoning, and toss together.
When the 45 minutes are up add the frozen roasting potatoes in the chicken tin and toss with the chicken juices. Put it back in the oven with the carrot and parsnip tin and bake everything for a further 45 minutes or until the chickens are cooked and the vegetables are starting to brown at the edges.
Serve with green beans or a salad.
.

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Low FODMAP Kale Soup

I'm a bit wary these days of labelling my recipes low FODMAP. The quantities of allowed foods change very often and mostly on the minus side. I'm waiting for the promised app for android mobiles, I know there is one for the iphones, but basically, I just go by with what I know so far...

Kale has a strong taste so I was quite surprised to hear my fussy little eater asking me to make it again. He has been unwell lately, the poor thing can't shake off a sore throat that has been bothering him for twenty days now. I can't wait to take him off the antibiotics but as soon as he finishes a course his tonsils swell up again. Fingers crossed this will be the last...

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of kale, roughly chopped
• 1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 and a half litre of chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• a little oil for frying

Method:

Wash and chop the kale. The way I do it is by rolling the leaves like a cigar and chopping them discarding the tough stalk. Heat a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil in a big deep saucepan and add the kale. Once is wilted it will reduce its volume by a third. When the kale is wilted and a deep green in colour add the parsnip,  potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Puree with a hand blender.

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Low FODMAP Baked Vegetable Omelette

When my husband tasted this dish he said it would be great as a filling for a quiche. To be honest I couldn't agree more, the only thing is, I have never made pastry in my life but I reckon it's about time I tried.
 
 Ingredients:

• 8 eggs, beaten
• 1 courgette, diced
• 6 tomatoes, diced
• 1 tblsp each of fresh: parsley, mint, chives
• 3 slices gluten and dairy free cooked ham, chopped (or cooked bacon)
• 4 tblsps rice or almond milk
• oil for frying
• salt

Method:

In a frying pan sautee the courgette. When is about half cooked add the tomatoes, ham and herbs. Keep cooking all the ingredients until the mixture is fairly dry then add to the beaten eggs, season with salt and add the milk. I didn't actually measure the amount of milk, I just add a swig according to the quantity of eggs but I think 4 tablespoons should be about right. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 30 minutes, until the top is firm and golden.

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Flourless Mocha Mousse Cake

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I found this delicious recipe in the YOU magazine that came with the Irish Daily Mail paper many, many Sundays ago.

When you eat this cake at room temperature you will find the texture soft and mousse-like, which is very nice, however I do prefer to eat it chilled when the texture reminds me of a baked cheesecake, yummy...

My son wasn't a fan of this cake, he found it too bitter. The plain cocoa powder dusted on top certainly add a touch of bitterness to the already not too sweet taste and maybe the next time I make it I will dust it with some icing sugar instead for a little extra sweetness ('cause I'm definitely making it again!).

Ingredients:

• 250g dairy free dark chocolate about 50 per cent cocoa
• 250g dairy free margarine (plus extra for the tin)
• 1 heaped tblsp light muscovado sugar
• 50ml cold espresso
• 1 tsp dark rum
• 6 medium eggs, separated
• 50g ground almonds
• Dairy free cocoa for dusting

Method:

 Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Grease a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin about 8cm deep. Break up the chocolate and gently melt it with the margarine and sugar in a large mixing bowl set over a pan containing a little simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth and combined. Stir inn the espresso and rum.
Whisk the egg yolks for a couple of minutes in a medium bowl using an electric whisk until very pale, moussey and doubled in volume. Fold into the chocolate and margarine mixture, followed by the ground almonds.
Using clean beaters, whisk the egg whites until stiff in a large bowl and fold into the chocolate base in 3 goes. Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 15 minutes until the cake appears risen and cracked around the outside and the surface has set with a glossy sheen; it will remain a little liquid in the centre.
Run a knife around the top of the edge and leave it to cool in the tin, then loosely cover and chill for several hours or overnight. Lightly dust with cocoa before serving, then remove the collar of the tin.