#lifewithallergies

[reilalin]

Snapshots of my entire night and morning. I tried to go to bed early last night because I am still sick and Foodie Fest really took it out of me with the 95 degree weather, even though we were only there an hour and a half. I went to sleep around midnight and was awoken at 2am by a crying, vomiting Lily. Finally got her to sleep on her couch bed and then noticed Phoenix was still having random hives pop up every where. When we first got to Foodie Fest, he had a random grouping on his right thigh. I thought it was from the barbecue smoke in the air or the heat. But for the last 18 hours, the hives subside and keep coming back even though he has changed clothes and I spot cleaned his skin and applied creams. I just got out of the shower with him hoping that will help. I still have a megaton of errands and housework to do. I’m too sick to keep up. (¬_¬) #mypoorkids #lifewithallergies (at Enterprise, Nevada)

[lovehoperomance]

The look on people's faces when they offer me food and then immediately realise I can't have it is both the best and worst part of having coeliac disease (a gluten allergy). I end up feeling guilty and apologising to them. Reminds me of Carl Barron, "I've got his spit on my face and I'm worried about HIS feelings. You go 'Sorry Carl' and I go "Nah, nah it's alright, I love being spat on."' 😂 #glutenfreelife #lifewithallergies #coeliacdisease #carlbarron

[wowyoucanteatanything-blog]

Chicken with sweet onions, spinach and couscous

Tonight’s supper was a new recipe I tried with great success.  Took a while to make but it will get faster with practice, and boy was it worth it.  So yummy!  The recipe asks for chicken thighs but I had some breast fillets that needed using up and those worked perfectly in place.  The spinach was also my own addition, again because it needed eating up, but I think it worked really well and I would definitely recommend adding it if you have any.  

P.S. Apologies for the terrible photo, my phone died so I only have my kindle camera which is front facing and makes taking photos of anything other than my face really tricky

Serves: 4 

Takes: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

25g/1oz butter (I used my normal Pure Sunflower Margarine, and couldn’t be bothered to measure it out so I guessed a dollop)

3 onions, thinly sliced (ok so I didn’t realise it said 3 til I read it just then, I only used 1/2 an onion but that seemed enough for me, pretty much however many you have and how much you like onions)

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tbsp plain flour

8 skinless chicken thighs (I used 2 large chicken breast fillets, which was all I had)

300ml/1/2 pint unsweetened apple juice

1 tbsp tomato purée

OPTIONAL Roughly half a bag of baby spinach, washed (or however much you want to add, but I think more is better here)

mashed potatoes/rice/couscous to serve (I used couscous partly because I thought it would go better, and partly because I forgot to start cooking the rice and couscous is super quick so yay)

Recipe

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan.  Add the onions and stir well.  Reduce the heat and cook gently for about 15 minutes until they are softened and dark golden.  Add the garlic for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.

Transfer the onions and garlic to a plate.  Season the flour. (Ok so this is super vague and I got kinda confused, not sure if it meant to season the flour with the onions/garlic, or season it separately with pepper and other spices.  I went for the former, but that made the flour turn into a kind of onion/garlic paste and therefore didn’t transfer to the chicken so well, so next time I’m gonna try the latter and see if that works better.)  Dust the chicken with the flour, shaking off any excess.  Cook in the pan for 10 minutes, turning half way through.

Pour in the apple juice and add the tomato purée.  Stir well, scraping the bottom of the pan.  Return the onions and garlic to the pan, cover with lid and cook for 20-25 minutes, until the chicken has cooked through and the sauce has thickened.  (I don’t have a lid for my frying pan so I just kept an eye on it and added water/more apple juice if it started to dry up too much, but the end the sauce should be pretty gooey and thick anyways so it’s by no means a disaster if it completely dries up when you’re not looking)

I added the spinach about 5/10mins before the end of cooking time, and let it wilt and mix in with the sauce.

Source: BBC GoodFood Cheap Eats recipe book

[wowyoucanteatanything-blog]

Daily life

Been uneventful food-wise the last few days. My second attempt at the cheesy pasta bake lasted until tonight's supper. Bought sushi from Tesco in town this afternoon, their "large mixed sushi selection" is the largest supermarket sushi selection that contains no egg or milk and is absolutely yummy! I should really try some proper sushi from a restaurant some time, I've only ever had it from supermarket ready-to-eat sections... quite often it's all I can eat from there because it's otherwise all sandwiches with butter or mayonnaise in. Not complaining though, love sushi! While I was in town I picked up some Plamil egg free mayonnaise (essential for a tuna lover such as myself) and a "moo free" dairy free Easter egg... which I may or may not have eaten in one sitting... :P

[wowyoucanteatanything-blog]

Travel

Recently, the biggest and most surprising impact my allergies have had on my life have been to do with travel.  A friend from university lives in Benin, and she has always said that if anyone wants to visit her there, they are welcome.  I spent a gap year working and have a pretty decent amount of money saved up, so I decided to go for it and was super excited to spend two weeks over Easter in an incredible country with my friend.  I felt confident going because I would be staying with my friend and her family, who were very understanding about my allergies and catering for me, and who knew the country and the local food well.  Benin is a country that has Yellow Fever, so I would need to have the vaccine for that before I went, but I didn’t see this as a problem.  Unfortunately however, I did some research and discovered that the yellow fever vaccine is cultured on egg.  I had already sent off my visa application by this point but I was able to put this on hold (had several chats with the Benin Consulate now, they’re really friendly!) while I sought medical advice.  This I did, and last week I had a telephone consultation with a travel nurse who does a clinic once a week at my local surgery.  Apparently the advice in her handbook said that the vaccine was unsuitable for those with a “confirmed anaphylactic reaction to egg”, and the nurse warned me that 60% of those who catch yellow fever die.  I have never had an anaphylactic reaction to egg, but I have a confirmed allergy it and I think this is more due to careful avoidance than the strength of my allergy.  Either way, we agreed it wasn’t risking either taking the vaccine or going to Benin without it.

Obviously this scenario is unique, and this post is hardly every day advice, but it highlights the unexpected and far reaching impacts of allergies.  I am incredibly disappointed not to be able to go on this trip, and it’s probably the most upset at the unfairness of my allergies I’ve ever been.  99% of the time I don’t really think about it, I almost always make my own food, when I’m at home my mum is an amazing cook and there is very little in the house I can’t eat, restaurants are constantly getting better at allergen listing - I’m just completely used to them, and it’s nothing more than the way my life works.  But it’s times like this, when a simple, easily manageable allergy to egg prevents you from a once in a lifetime trip to West Africa, that all I want to do is curl up and sob my eyes out at how unbelievably sucky allergies are.  And every so often, that’s ok, because quite frankly they are. 

[wowyoucanteatanything-blog]

Daily life (including doughnuts!)

Well, yet again, eaten pretty badly today.  I think if nothing else, this blog will make me more aware of the junk I eat and hopefully I’ll eat better!  Today was another busy day with lectures and meetings, so I've been up on campus again all day.  So far today I have eaten:

bowl of cornflakes

2 1/2 doughnuts

packet of crisps

Yeeaahhh, not ideal... but what’s that I hear you say? Doughnuts? But I thought she was allergic to eggs and milk, surely both ingredients in those delicious doughy rings??  Aha!  Turns out doughnuts can be very simply made with neither of these, and with the unquenchable sweet tooth that I have, this is excellent news.  My friend is a fantastic (and dedicated!) baker, and introduced me to this recipe.  It uses the very surprising secret ingredient of mash potato!! In the video, it suggests using instant mash, but obviously to make the recipe dairy free real mashed potato is needed, but that isn't a problem.  You would absolutely never know the doughnuts contained mashed potato, and they are so delicious :’D But anyhow, my friend made a batch last night, with various fillings and toppings that were all suitable for me, he’s the best :’) Candied maple bacon topping with maple custard filling, and dairy-free chocolate topping with normal custard filling, onmononom... That’s custard made with Birds custard powder and soya milk, of course.  So tasty <3

Plan for supper, salmon fillet, mashed potato and LOTS of peas!!