gluten free familyA mum's blog about gluten-free living in Australia

Its officially that time of year when gluten free bloggers set aside their oven mitts as they are sucked into the gravitational vortex of the silly season.

As neither of us are hosting festive dinners this year it will once again fall upon our shoulders to help the little ‘uns to duck and dive the wheaten onslaught of puddings and pies.

To this end we are getting ahead of the game by baking a little batch of gingerbread men that may help to ease the seasonal pain. The recipe was swiped from here. (I had hoped to experiment a little with my newfound knowledge about flour substitution but alas as always, time got away and here I am taking the easy road once again.)

As we munch our way through these tasty little fellas, please enjoy a safe and festive season and we will be back around mid January.

LH & MB

Sometimes you just want to break out and do some experimentation in the kitchen – and I’d really like to start creating some of my favourite recipes from some non-gluten free favourites too. So where do I begin?

Once as rare and hen’s teeth, gluten free cookbooks are now popping up everywhere.

The only problem is that the vast majority of them fill their pages with home cooked main meals that few of us struggle with. I mean, do we really need guidance on how to cook our lamb shanks and french beans gluten free?

The ones that I have learned to seek out give gluten free versions of the meals I’ve generally had to do without – lasagne, canelloni, quiche, pancakes – and the list goes on…

These are wonderful books to have on hand – but sometimes you just want to break out and do some experimentation – and because I have been feeling adventurous of late, I really want to start creating some of my favourite recipes from non-gluten free favourites too. Read the rest of this entry »

Want to know the best way to sniff out the gluten content in food? Check out the label. If no gluten is listed, “no news is good news” says dietician Kim Menzies who presented her tips and tricks for reading gluten free packaging labels at the recent Gluten Free Show.

All potential allergens must be listed on the food label, so if gluten or a gluten containing product like wheat, barley or malt is not listed on the label, it is gluten free, she says.

That includes products that use compound ingredients like mayonaise. If one of these makes up less than 5 per cent of a product, the ingredients that went into it need not be disclosed – but the allergens must. Read the rest of this entry »

Chang's pre-cooked noodles

Its not easy pleasing everyone in my family at dinner time, but noodles have stood the test of time as a perennial favourite.

Thin rice vermicelli noodles are probably our favourite type – but on a school night I rarely have time to do all the soaking and drying that is required to ensure they don’t turn to a gelatinous mess at the bottom of the wok.

So it was with some relief that I spotted a packet of pre-cooked gluten free noodles from Chang’s.

They are thicker than vermicelli – more like the width of spaghetti – but they keep their form very well in a fry pan – and have quite a delicious recipe on the packet – which I have (very loosely) adopted. Read the rest of this entry »

My Christmas girth may not yet be as wide as Santas, but some gluten free mince pies I found in Coles health food section have certainly made my festive season a bit jollier than last year.

Made by a manufacturer called Jon-Jon, these mini gluten free mince pies are handy little bite sized treats that have rather taken my fancy. And when it comes to calorific damage control – I am hoping size really does count.

But if you really must have something a little larger than Jon-Jon’s tasty bites, then you might like to check out your nearest gluten free bakery. Read the rest of this entry »