MMMM chocolate cake...

My fingers are sticky

The keyboard is sticky. The table is sticky. The knife is covered in smears of chocolate fudge. I can feel the sugar sticking to my teeth. Yum.

I made chocolate cake. It is nearly 8 inches tall. I have never managed to make a cake that tall, free from or otherwise! I am well chuffed. It was gooooood.

The recipe is another one from Allergy Free Deserts (German Chocolate Cake). I will try to post the recipe tomorrow. I would make one big change next time - the only chocolate flavour comes from 14oz melted chocolate, which to my taste buds is not enough. There is still a strong chemically flavour, which I think comes from the Trex that I used instead of the Hard Palm Oil. It makes a great substitute though, and is easily purchased in the supermarket.

Next time, I would sub 1/4 cup of the flour for 1/4 cup of cocoa, and see how it turns out. It looks impressive though, even if the taste is nearly there...

When she says to let it cool before icing, she really does mean completely.... not just cool to touch on the outside. My icing is now a pool of gudge. Oops.

What a week!

Well, that week's been, ummm, interesting!

On Saturday night, we went out to a friend's silver wedding celebrations, and had a marvellous time. We had a lovely meal, although even though the restaurant knew our dietary issues in advance, every course had to be sent back at least twice for things to be changed! I'm not sure if we ate something that we shouldn't have - we tried so hard.

On Sunday, Niblet started to refuse all feeds and on Monday refused both feeds and solids. When we took him to our normal weekly baby clinic, he had lost 5ox. That morning, we also got blood in a stool from him. Our health visitor told us to take him to the hospital to get checked over, so we did. We waited so long in casualty, it was awful. Thankfully my friend and her 6 month old baby came with us to keep us company. Eventually they decided to admit him again, to keep an eye on what was going on. Then the consultant on duty came to see us. She wasn't one we had met before, although she was lovely, and she decided to send us home, s they weren't going to do anything overnight anyway.

We went home, and on Tuesday, he ate one feed. Not much, but an improvement. Each day he is taking more breast feeds, and more solids. Today he did well, he still hasn't taken many daytime feeds, but at three pancakes for breakfast, a hot dog and some veggies for lunch (a yummy, rare breed one, which was free from...) and then THREE bowls of pasta with creamy veggie and bacon sauce. To top that off, he then ate 1 1/2 flapjacks too... talk about a change!

And the experts say....

Well, to be honest, they don't say much. Our paediatrician is lovely, but realistically has no idea what is going on, and just keeps trying to reassure me that he is fine, and will grow out of it. I don't know when I should start believing that. We went for his 6 week check up today, and he IS actually plodding along, better than I expected. He is still between the 25th and 50th centile for weight, on the 75th for height and on the 91st for head circumference.

Developmentally, he is doing well. He is just about walking (can do about 4 paces on his own), is cruising round furniture, has a good pincer grip and babbles, like he is discussing things with you! I'm relieved about that, at least.

She is happy to refer us to Bristol Children's Hopsital, for a second opinion, although doesn't think they will suggest anything new. We still have no diagnosis, just a suggestion from St Thomas' that it is EGID. The Gastro-consultant in Exeter said he thinks it is a 'non-IGE mediated food sensitive enteropathy.' Catchy, huh?!

From what I can understand, that just means things get worse when he eats something he reacts to.... to me, that sounds less a diagnosis, and more a description....

Anyway, she wants us to hold off trying to re-introduce any of the foods that we have cut out until after his 1st birthday, and to increase his anti-histamine medication (Alimemazine), to try to reduce allergic reactions, and to try to help him sleep better at night. I don't mind that he still wakes and feeds. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a full night's sleep, but if he needs to wake and feed, then he needs to. I'm really worried that making him sleep more will mean he eats less, and then stops gaining so much weight. Only time will tell, I guess.

We've given it a try tonight - double the previous dose, but still half what the gastro-idiot consultant wanted to give him (when he suggested sedating him overnight, and tube feeding him Neocate....) At least he has gone to bed on a nice big tea, so he should have the energy he needs to see him through most of the night.

Fridge Tidy Pasta

In our house, this is known as fridge tidy pasta, or 'If It's Pasta' meaning 'If It's in the fridge, we'll use it up!'

For two adults and one baby with a big appetite!

200g gluten free pasta
2 cloves garlic, minced / crushed
1 white onion, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
3 rashers bacon, in pieces
(I really want to do 4 of something now!)
1 aubergine, diced
1 courgette, diced
(And any other veg that need using up, like peas, broccoli is nice here too, in small florets)
Water
Dried tarragon and dried basil, ground black pepper
1 tbsp oat cream
1 tbsp rice flour

Fry the garlic, onion and celery until it starts to soften. Add the bacon, and fry until cooked. Add the rest of the vegetables, and fry off for a few minutes.

Put the pasta on to boil. Put a timer on. Don't do what I did and end up with overcooked pasta.

Add a slosh of water to the vegetables, to help them cook properly. When the veg are softened, take a stick blender, and blend about 1/4 sauce. This will help thicken it. Add the dried herbs and the black pepper. Cook for a minute or two (depending on how long your pasta has left!)

Mix the rice flour with some water to make a paste, and pour this into the boiling sauce, stirring all the time to avoid lumps. When this has boiled and thickened, add the oat cream.

Your timer should be going off about now. If you forgot to set it, try your pasta. If you can smear it across the worktop, it is overcooked. If it is still crunchy, it needs longer. If it is about right, drain it.

Add the drained pasta to the sauce, stir well and serve.

If you are making this for grown ups only, and no babies, you might want to add some salt to the pasta water, and to the sauce.

Something good amidst the frustration

I am getting so frustrated about my diet at the moment. I miss all my favourite foods. I know that I need to change my mindset, and start embracing the new way of eating, but it's just so hard.


It's just not fair.


We went to a local market today, and there was a lovely smelling (and looking) food fair too. My husband succumbed to the 'All you can drink gravy' from the Dumpling man that was there, and it looked so good. I just kept borrowing the tub so that I could have a smell of it, as that is as close to eating it as I was going to get! It was a beef filled dumpling, with peas, gravy, horseradish cream and gherkins.


Watching him eat it was torture. I'm so jealous, and frustrated that he can still eat what he wants, without a care for me, and what I can and can't eat. It's bad enough that he has all these lovely, forbidden foods in the fridge that he can take for lunches at work, but to sit there in front of me and eat it all just seemed so mean...


Hmm. This is turning into too much of a rant, when there have been some really good things going on. Maybe I need a Pollyanna moment, and start thinking about what there is to be glad about.

1. Niblet is slowly but surely gaining weight. He's a much happier chappy. He spends hours of the day giggling. Apparently me getting cross and shouting at Daddy is the pinnacle of funny.
2. I've lost all of my baby weight, and more besides, without having to go to the gym!
3. I'm eating new things that I would never have tried before, and loving them (mostly) Hello Falafel, where have you been all my life?
4. I'm going to appreciate real food so much when I can eat it again! 

As the dumpling man today said - the food world is a little grey at the moment, but one day I'll get handed a pack of felt tips...


I think I might have been handed a colour or two over the past few days, in the shape of two fantastic cookbooks, both by Elizabeth Gordan. From her book 'Allergy-free Desserts', from which I have fallen madly, head-over-heels in love with her chocolate crinkle cookies.. they are amazing. I added a bar of dark chocolate, and didn't roll them in sugar, and they taste fantastic. They are like the best sort of cookies that you can buy.


The second book that I bought was her 'The complete allergy free comfort foods cookbook'. I made her pop-tart style breakfast things... I can't remember what she called them. I made one fatal error with them. I looked at how much jam she said to put in the middle of each (1 1/2tsp) and thought 'that doesn't look enough'.... it would have been.  I put nearer two desertspoons in... needless to say they are REALLY sweet...That didn't stop me eating two one and a half of them...The pastry is so flaky - the addition of lard really makes it light and lovely. I would never have thought that the pastry was allergy free, but it is!


I might have to try making some of the pastry into gluten free 'croissants' and see what happens....


I sound like an advert for her, don't I?! I'm not, but I've really enjoyed being able to make most things in her books, with very few changes...

It burns! It burns!

It is so hot here, I feel like I am slowly melting.

Look, the sun! It's been so long.

 The temperature hit 28C today, and it is feeling every bit that hot. There isn't a breath of wind to cool you. There is however a rocket lolly. Niblet and I are enjoying the fact that they are on special offer in Sainsbury's at the moment, and there is nothing in them that we can't eat! Result!

He ate a whole one yesterday - he's only nine months, and that's a lot of lolly!

Too hot for porridge.

It really is too hot for porridge. We had run out of bread - well, we have the less than tasty loaves that the Dr prescribed (Ener-G Six Flour Loaf, this one) Does anyone know of a good one that we can get on prescription?

Anyway, we had pancakes recently, and cereal, and granola, and I've run out of new ideas for what to eat for breakfast. It really is a challenge. Before cutting things out, I'd have had toast, or cornflakes, with lashings of melting butter on the toast, dripping down my fingers, and layer of marmite on top, with a lovely cup of tea, with skimmed milk..... yum yum yum... I miss that. I wonder if I'll ever start enjoying gluten free bread with sunflower margarine?

Let them eat cake!
So I thought, what do we both like to eat? Cake.

Niblet will happily eat all his breakfast (3 bowls of rice crispies, with Neocate) and then go back for cake. I wanted to make something that wasn't too sweet, that I could have with a drink for breakfast, with the texture of cake, but without feeling naughty, if you know what I mean.

I settled on cornbread... lovely and soft, giving and nutty. The recipe comes from my new favourite allergy friendly baking book, written by Elizabeth Gordan: Allergy-Free Desserts I swapped the cornflour and the corn meal (3/4 cup and 1/4 cup) for 1 cup of chickpea flour (gram flour). It meant that it kept the yellow colour, and the nutty taste that the corn would give it, but was something we could eat. We cut it into squares, which we ate warm with lashings of raspberry jam. I meant to take a photo, but in all honesty, I was too busy eating it, and stopping Niblet from spreading the jam all the way across the garden (we had an outside picnic!)

It is one to make again, but I would make some tweaks to it - I would probably add some cinnamon, and some mixed spice, a handful of dried fruit, and maybe some seeds (I'm thinking the crunch of pumpkin with some sesame and sunflower seeds, mixed with demerara sugar and sprinkled on the top)...

A life begins without.

In the beginning, was the post.
I never know how to start a first blog post. Do I assume that there is no-one listening, and start winter batting to myself? Do I assume that you will all one day, want to read my first great missive? The one that started it all?

Well, let me start by introducing myself. I'm a part-time teacher and part-time Mum. I've just finished a 37 week stint at home with my baby boy, which I loved more than I ever thought possible. I'm now on the summer holidays and going back prt time in September, after 3 weeks full time, which was really hard work.

Boy, oh boy! What's happening to you?
My little man started life well, being born on time, weighing 9lb 10oz, putting him on the 97th centile! Then at 4 weeks, he stopped gaining weight, and it was found that he had a tongue tie. This was cut at seven weeks, and we then were hospitalised because he refused point blank to feed at all.

He started to receive treatment for reflux, as he also vomited all of the time. Later we started to get bowel problems. He was re-admitted, on average, every three weeks, as he had the same problems again. We were getting no-where, and in desperation, a friend suggested cutting out dairy and soya, which, under the dr's supervision, we did. We saw a huge improvement in him. He was no longer screaming all day, every day. He started to be the happy boy that I knew and loved.

All better now! Right?
But he wasn't sorted. We had more refusals, more admissions and more weight problems. He has now dropped to the 20th centile. With the dietician, we tried an elimination diet, for both him and me (as I was still breast feeding him). It was hard work. We cut out dairy and soya still, but also nuts, eggs and wheat / gluten. We saw a huge difference in him.

Then we started to see more usual allergic reactions (blistered mouth, hives, puffiness in his face) to bananas, tomatoes and strawberries. We cut those, and things settled for a while.

We saw a specialist allergy peadiatrician in St Thomas' hospital, who suggested it could be EGID, more specifically eosinophilic oesophogitis (ee or eo for short). He referred us to another specialist back in May, and we have been waiting ever since. Our local hospital have given up trying to find a cause, or investigate, and we are struggling without any help.

No more, please.
Since then, he has also become allergic to coconut, fish and shellfish. We also have issues with beef and corn, although these are intolerances, rather than allergies.

Anyway, this blog is a sounding board for me, as I am sure my friends and family are fed up of hearing about it all. It's also going to be a place where I post recipes and meal ideas, things that worked, and things that didn't. I hope that one day, it can help another family who are going through the same as us.