New GF finds in Tesco

I paid a visit to our local Tesco this morning, to buy a birthday card and cake for my housemate, and as I was also procrastinating from revision, I decided to look round. I found four products that I hadn't seen before that were gluten free.

I had been informed by a fellow coeliac that Tesco Onion Bhajis had a new recipe and were now gluten free. While I was looking for them I found Tesco Simply Cook Swedish Style Meatballs which are GF. I then found the bhajis which were indeed GF.




I then went to pick up some tinned tuna and found tins of Tuna and Vegetable Salad and Tuna and Mixed Bean Salad. These looked perfect for mixing with cooked rice or pasta and making a salad for lunch.

Finally to the freezers where I found Tesco Crispy Potato and Mediterranean Vegetables along with a Crispy Potato, Bacon and Cheese. I couldn't believe these would be suitable for coeliacs but they are also GF.

So my procrastinating from revision turned out to not be completely wasting time!

Eating Gluten Free in Lille

I know I've been promising a report on how I found eating GF in France. My excuse is that I'm still revising, and trying to find time to speak to/visit my boyfriend, Ina. I was about to put a post together for here when I went to his blog and realised he had already blogged our meals in France more than satisfactorily. So for now I'll just link you to that post:

Eating in Lille



There are some more rather nice pictures on there too.

The only thing I will add is that the pancakes at the creperie were made from buckwheat (sarrasin). They were only available on the menu as savoury options (galettes), with the sweet pancakes being made from wheat. However, with a quick chat to the waitress, we managed to get me both sweet and savoury versions made from sarrasin.

Result!

Plantain with Chicken and King Prawns in a red wine sauce

I am aware I haven't yet finished posting about France, I'll get there eventually!

I've just spent a few days with my lovely boyfriend. This involved a trip to Cadbury World, Birmingham and lots of chocolate!

After a day of chocolate I planned to cook something savoury. I spent a month last summer volunteering at a health centre in Ghana and became very fond of West African food. Recently I found both yam and plantain in my local Asda store. These are both naturally gluten free and used as a rice/potato substitute in Ghana.

I decided to buy some plantain (from the banana family but less sweet) to form the basis of our evening meal. I decided to fry it, first peeling 2 green plantains then chopping them before shallow frying for about 5 minutes.




This was then served with chicken and king prawns in a home-made red wine sauce. I coated the chicken in GF flour and fried it with a red onion. I then added some chicken stock (Kallo stock cube) and cooked the chicken. Finally I added the prawns with some red wine (brought back from France) and Bisto Best. This was served with the fried plantain and a mix of boiled vegetables and was delicious!

Plantain is so easy to cook and so versatile and tasty! I highly recommend experimenting with it.

France - the journey begins!

My last week = Birmingham to Reading (120 miles), Reading to Dover (200 miles), Calais to Lille (100 miles), around Lille (about 50 miles), Lille to Calais (100 miles), Dover to Reading (200 miles), Reading to Birmingham (120 miles), Birmingham to Manchester (100 miles). Total = about 1000 miles of driving! Not bad for a week!

The story starts before France when I arrived at my good friend Ina's house, with the plan of cooking him a lovely meal. The pork and cider casserole (recipe coming when I perfect it!) left plenty of cider to drink and the scene was set for a perfect seduction! (news = I have a new man!)

So after a stupidly late night and an even more stupidly early morning, we arrived at Dover quarter of an hour before our ferry was due to leave, only to find it had been delayed by half and hour! Typical French!

I spent most of the ferry journey attempting to sleep unsuccessfully while I prepared myself for driving on the wrong side of the road, and more of Ina's appalling map reading! (we had a half an hour detour to Gatwick on our way from Reading to Dover, while we were on a pretty tight time schedule!)

Luckily the ferry had a supply of mini snickers bars to keep me going!

More to come later when I've done some revision!

I'm back!

Apologies for being quiet for so long. I've just finished a rather hectic term at uni and then went to France to relax.

But I am back now! So check back over the next few days to hear all about my trip to France and how I got along with the gluten free diet out there.

Lots and lots of cakes!

Friday was Aston University's Live Music Society's annual Battle of the Band competition. I am good friends with the guys in one of the bands who were competing.

Someone had the great idea to make lots of tiny fairy cakes and ice them with the band's name. I am well known for my love of cooking and was enlisted to help. I don't like baking anything that isn't gluten free (as half the fun is in the eating :P) so I made them all gluten free!




It took two of us 5 hours to produce the 300 mini cakes but it was great fun! Needless to say when they were given out as a promotional gimmick at the gig we were sick of the sight of them.

But it paid off! Leg!-End X were crowned champions of Aston BOTB 2008! All hail the Leg!-End!
Congratulations to the boys on their achievement!