Ways to Save Money on Gluten-Free Foods

In my experience, having a gluten allergy means that you are likely to end up spending more money on your weekly grocery shopping trip than you have in the past (before you discovered that you had this allergy). There are some ways to cut down on this expense, and make eating gluten-free a little easier on your budget. If you, or a family member, needs to start eating a gluten-free diet, this is going to change how you plan meals and shop for groceries. In general, shopping for foods that you can be certain are gluten-free can be expensive. There … Continue reading

What Kinds of Foods Contain Gluten?

I recently discovered that I am allergic to gluten. Despite having many other food allergies, this newly revealed one had me a bit perplexed. I knew that I needed to avoid foods that contained gluten from now on. The problem was that I had no idea what sorts of foods had gluten in them. It was time to find out! Years ago, I had allergy testing done. At the time, I was informed that I had allergies to wheat, (and a few other grains). This was ages ago, long before the phrase “gluten allergy” was all over the news. At … Continue reading

More About Gluten Free Flours

Rice flour is probably the most commonly used flour for the person on a gluten free diet. However, white rice flour is not particularly nutritious. So if you’re looking for a more nutritious alternative try brown rice flour, which as its name suggests is made from brown rice. I always use brown rice instead of white rice for meals, so it makes sense to use brown rice flour as well as it has higher fiber content because it includes the bran of the rice and hit has not been over processed. It is however heaver than white rice flour so … Continue reading

Experiment with Different Flours

For the person who is gluten free, you can tend initially to stick to using either rice flour or a general all purpose gluten free flour. For self raising flour this is usually a combination of rice flour, soy flour, maize starch and tapioca starch. Gluten free flours don’t rise as well in cakes and bread as wheat flours so I often add a little baking powder as well. Recently though while shopping, instead of just reaching for the rice flour and the self raising flour, I had a little more of a browse. I ended up coming home with … Continue reading

Gluten Free Double Choc Cookies

For all you chocolate lovers, I’m going to share with you one of my daughter’s favorite recipes for gluten free cookies. She uses it all the time. If you’re a chocolate fan, you will love these. They are very more-ish. Whenever she makes them, people rave over these cookies. Warning – they are very rich. This recipe will make about 20-25 depending on the size of your cookie. But I’d suggest you make at least double that as people love them. You could also put one batch away in the freezer if you manage to keep them out of eager … Continue reading

Keep it Simple

Cooking for guests can sometimes be tricky, particularly if they have any specific allergies. I try to always check with anyone we invite for a meal if they have any allergies. There’s nothing worse than watching everyone tucking in to a meal and not being able to eat it. It’s something I encounter at times if people don’t know me well and know I am wheat and gluten and honey free. One of the people we had over for a meal didn’t eat red meat or chicken. Not a problem, I assured her. The weather was cool and I had … Continue reading

Shopping Tips

Check out the specials in shops from catalogues and mark those of interest. Only buy things on special if they are products you are actually going to use it in the near future. It’s not a bargain if you are not going to use it. Shop from a list, written out at home after checking the pantry and meals planned to see what you will need. Read labels carefully, especially if you have allergies to certain like sulfites or preservatives. Don’t assume low fat means it is healthy for you and low in calories. Often when they take out fat … Continue reading

Meat Pancakes

One of the things I loved as a kid was when Mom made meat pancakes. It is a great way of using up leftover roast meat. It was one of those casual meals we often had for Sunday evening dinner. I just assumed all families knew about meat pancakes. When I married Mick he’d was skeptical at first, as he’d never heard of such a thing, but he soon became a big fan of them. Often we have cold roast beef or lamb with salad for lunches but the other day when we’d had roast beef he said, ‘Make sure … Continue reading

Christmas Carols

I’m a sucker for Christmas carols. Three of my favorites are ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel,’ ‘O Holy Night’ and ‘What Child is This?’ Mick’s favorite, as others mentioned in the forum, is ‘Silent Night.’ But, as Janet and others said there are so many great carols to choose from. One of the reasons I particularly like ‘What Child is This?’ is because the birth and the death of Jesus are linked together which they should be. Too often it seems people want to enjoy and celebrate the Christmas story and the birth of Jesus as a baby but forget … Continue reading