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

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 »

Last week I regaled you with tales of supermarket aisles and vacuum packed bread in the UK, and I pondered the future of gluten free products here in Australia.

Now its time to discuss some of the other potholes we encountered on the road, oceans away from the comforts of our own sweet kitchen.

As always, the biggest trouble we had was with eating out. Hot chip fatigue set in early this trip as munchkin refused any type of potato foodstuffs that didn’t come heavily salted in a foil packet.

Britain proved especially challenging for us here because although the supermarkets offered a good selection of GF wares, very few cafes had any non wheat options whatsoever.

That’s a bit of a departure from our experience here in Sydney where a friand, muffin or an almond biccie can be found most decent coffee brewing establishments.

Then there were the restaurants and pubs which boasted little other than off-limits delights like scampi, beef and ale pie and sticky toffee pudding. Read the rest of this entry »

Anaphylaxis Australia recently asked restaurants in this country to move beyond their ‘fear’ of people with food allergies and “address the risk it posed to a growing number of Australians”.

It says six per cent of children, and four per cent of adults, live with a lethal allergy to common foods or ingredients such as shellfish and nuts, and most fatalities occur while they are dining out.

The organisation said the key was to incorporate food preparation processes that would not enable cross-contamination, and to train staff to ensure they were aware of the risks and transparency in the menu, and be familiar with procedures for dealing with allergic customers.

It struck me that while anaphylaxis prevention must undoubtedly be at the very top of a restrateurs priority list – many of these sorts of measures could also help coeliac sufferers who can also experience very severe responses to cross contamination of common cooking ingredients.

Read the rest of this entry »

found at Aldi

Price is always an issue when it comes to gluten free goods so it would be pretty great news if discount supermarket chain Aldi picked up some gluten free product lines in a serious way.

With this in mind I had a search around Aldi at Top Ryde last weekend but all I turned up were a couple of Freedom-brand cereals.

However the good news is that a friend of Lucy’s (my co-blogger) has had more luck. The products in the picture were found in an Aldi in Sydney’s inner west.

According to the person who found them, this gravy mix and tin of spagetti were the only gluten free products in the store – but the unique packaging of these products leads me to wonder if there may be more to come… Read the rest of this entry »

Psssst, all you gluten free folks in Melbourne busily planning your day out at the Irrisistable Gluten Free show on October 2-3, we have some free double passes to give away (value of $40 – so a decent saving). [UPDATE: COMPETITION NOW CLOSED]

For the unitiated, the show is being held at the Melbourne Convention Centre and will feature loads of food stands, educational sessions and live gluten free cooking demos.

I think we have made it pretty clear how much we love gluten free food fests here on the GFF blog. They are where we catch up on all the hot new products and sample fairly large quantities of cake. We also try to sit in on the many interesting talks from nutrition and lifestyle experts.

Grownups will have to pay $20 for entry to the show and it will cost $15 for kids aged 12-16. Family tickets are also available for $50 – that is unless you enter our competition and win a free double pass.

All you have to do is email us at mail@glutenfreefamily.com.au with the name of the show in the subject bar. The first five replies will win a double pass each which we will post out to you.

Don’t be jealous Sydneysiders. On November 20 – 21  the Irresistible Gluten Free Food Show will take the floor at the Royal Hall of Industies, Moore Park. the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour.

LH

One of the tough parts of being a blogger is reviewing products.

This week we were really put through our paces, chomping our way through a feast of bakery goods, this time dispatched our way from Melbourne bakery, Silly Yaks.

Baguettes, rolls, loaves (fruit and plain) pies (savoury and sweet), sausage and vege rolls, nocchi, quiche, pizza bases; I’ve tasted most of these things over the past seven days and I must say it has been rather a pleasure.

The whole family enjoyed the fruit loaf at breakfast time and the rolls and baguettes were handy to grab from the freezer when we needed them.

The tomato/chilli nocchi made a very nice lunch for two, and I also sneaked a yummy sausage roll when no-one was looking.

But the highlight had to be the pies – both large and little. They have tasty, tender pastry that contains a variety of ingredients such as rice, soy, tapioca and maize flour. Read the rest of this entry »

Melinda's Risotto cakes

My British heritage makes me partial to bit of stodge – but when you have to dodge wheat it’s not always so easy to get your hands on.

That is why I have taken note of a few new products that might find a warm welcome in my pantry.

Melinda’s – the packet mixes with the funky pink packaging in Woolworths Naytura section – have launched a couple of new products that we tried out over the weekend.

The first were Tuscan-style risotto cakes, and the other was lemon curd cupcakes.

My co-blogger Mandy sent some of her caramel cupcakes off to school for a cake day.

What we liked about these products was that they were very simple to put together. Instead of sacrificing flavour for simplicity, Melinda has put little sachets of yummy stuff that you add to the mixture at the last moment.

The risotto cakes have a lovely rich vege sauce that gives them the kick that that kind of food needs. Likewise the lemon curd cakes have a luscious lemon curd sachet and the caramel cupcakes came with a pouch of yummy caramel.

It’s a clever way of giving home made food a bit of extra zest without asking busy cooks to go stock up on obscure ingredients or spend precious time grating lemon rind. Read the rest of this entry »

As one of our Facebook followers commented, gluten free sweet treats are pretty easy to pull together at home. It is the creation of tasty savouries where new inspiration is most welcome.

For this reason, one of the highlights of the gluten free expo for me was the Diego’s stand. They make gluten free corn tortillas which are sold in Coles, IGA, BiLo and Foodland – and are also sold by Woolies under the Select brand.

But what was really great was that they were demonstrating were some brilliant new ways to use them. Though regretfully I did not get to their official cooking demo, I came away from their stall with two great new ideas to add to my arsenal of kid-friendly carbohydrates.

In the absence of specific instructions, I decided to put these to the test at home:

1. Yummy tortilla triangles:

They used a flat sandwich maker to make it. They sprayed the tortilla with oil, spread it with red pesto and added diced ham and cheese and folded it half. They then toasted it (the toasting irons need to touch to get the right effect). After it was cooked they sliced it into portions. Read the rest of this entry »

There is more to say about the Sydney Gluten Free expo than I can possibly put into one blog post so please stay tuned over the next few weeks as we report on the many new products, write about some of the experts’ opinions and more importantly review some of the wonderful new products we got out hands on at the show. Here’s a quick summary and a taste of some of the things we will be reporting on here in coming weeks:

Coeliac Vaccination: we’ll give an update on where the vaccine development is at – plus write up some of the (possibly controversial) thoughts about Coeliac disease v gluten intolerance from the man who is leading the research, Dr Robert Anderson.

Lots of brand redesigns and product launches: Prepare for the battle of the cake and bread mixes as some of our favourite brands expand their product ranges substantially.

Bakeries open their doors: A bunch of bakeries are springing up all over town with fresh and gorgeous gluten free baked fare. Read the rest of this entry »