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

Gluten free lunchboxes

I have become a bit obsessed with finding quick, great tasting gluten free carb options for school lunchboxes this week.

Why?  I recently went back to fulltime work and with relief handed the dreaded lunchbox duties over… and that’s when gluten free choc chip cookies & mince pies quietly started to find their way into the daily mix. Oops! Time for a lunchbox overhaul. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently embarked on a new strategy to make carbs more tempting to my gluten free kids.

I blogged about it at the time so I have decided to write an update because we have been having quite a bit of success with the plan – which basically involves them making their own meals.

Here is a chronicle of our latest efforts:

The first involved them designing their own pizzas, a no brainer and predictably popular.

The second was more experimental: roll your own uncooked ricepaper springroll. Read the rest of this entry »

It can be a complicated world out there for the gluten intolerant.

On top of not being able to eat wheat, many of us must avoid other stuff too, and the most common “poisons” seem to include soy, dairy and yeast.

Soy is one of the more controversial of these ingredients – and recently someone wrote in to chide us for ‘promoting’ soy products on our blog.

They claimed soy was far less healthy than the food business would have us believe.

Yet another wrote in to defend soy, saying that without it, many breads and pastries would be rendered inedible.

I must admit to being a fence sitter on this particular issue. I think people must make their own decisions when it comes to what they can and cannot tolerate.

As I personally don’t know for sure whether soy, yeast or dairy are healthy or unhealthy for the general population, I’ll have to stay on that fence for the time being. 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 »

My pepperoni pizza from Hugos

Happy Mother’s day gluten free mums everywhere.

I was whisked away on a ferry to Manly to a well heeled but very comfy lounge bar-style Italian eatery called Hugos which is on the pier near the ferry terminal.

As we entered, I wondered (to myself) how I was going to eat my way around this particular menu. Imagine my glee then, when I noticed the small print at the end of the pizza part of the menu that almost every pizza was available as gluten free if requested.

Now those who have read recent posts will know I am a bit of a pizza fan so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this random encounter with a gluten free pizza menu.

But when it arrived it was a beautiful thin crust pizza covered in pepperoni and mozarella cheese ($24). I doubt I would ever have picked it for a gluten free base in a blind tasting.

Neither would my fussy-pants todder who scoffed large quantities.

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LH

Eagle Boys gluten free pizza

I’ve just spent a week on holidays at the coast where the gluten free pickings in the local restaurants were very slim indeed.

From crumbed calimari rings to open chicken schnitzel sandwiches and beer battered chips, we were beseiged by wheat at every front from breakfast ’til bedtime.

Lucky for us, Eagle Boys Pizza have started offering gluten “friendly” takeaway pizzas which eased the relentless hunt and gathering expedition for a tasty gluten free bite.

Sceptical as I was about takeaway pizza (I generally find commercial bases stodgy and cardboard-like) Eagle Boys have created something decidedly delicious which even the non-gluten free in the household were more than happy to gobble up.

Dominos have also been selling gluten free pizzas since last November, so we decided to try out one of theirs too while we were away just to give our GFF readers the fullest picture.

You know what?  It was pretty good too.  And while I definitely preferred Eagle Boys, which was a little lighter on topping, my fussier half preferred the Dominos – so we can’t name a definitive victor in the taste stakes.

Recently Eagle Boys passed another important taste test: Lizzie, the 5 year old daughter of co-blogger, Mandy, is famous for picking the toppings off gluten free pizzas (both homemade and shopbought) and handing you back the base – but she stunned us all and ate three whole slices of an Eagle Boys ham and cheese pizza.

The Eagle Boys pizza was also quite a bit cheaper (though the pizzas were bought in different regions), and the company also says that nearly all of its toppings are gluten “friendly” (22 pizza choices) – a few more than Dominos which offers a range of 13 gluten free toppings.

“We’ve invested the time and resources to craft a base which is not only gluten-friendly but also tastes great and complements the fresh pizza toppings”, says Eagle Boys CEO Tod Clayton.

Eagle Boys also say they prepare their pizzas in a gluten free kitchen. [ED: Actually after rereading press release I have realised it is not a seperate kitchen at all so perhaps it is not such good news for those that must avoid trace fragments. Apparently calling it 'gluten friendly' rather than gluten free  acknowledges that pizzas may incur accidental cross contamination.]

I don’t think either pizza maker is yet able to claim a completely gluten free product, and on the basis that our household seems to be able tolerate the odd trace fragment of gluten, I think the Eagle Boys pizza gets my vote – for the time being at least.

LH

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