Breakfast Bites

Haven't been feeling too great for the last few weeks so have been trying to go back to food basics to see if it helps :) have seen a lot of 'egg muffin' breakfast recipes so thought I would give some ago! 

Sharing this as it's such a simple idea but felt a lot more satisfying than just have some scrabbled egg.

I used:

3 eggs

100g of mixed ham and turkey meat

Quarter of a red onion

Half a grated courgette

Splash of soya milk

A pinch of salt and pepper 

But the beauty is you can easily make them vegie or try out different combinations, just add whatever you fancy :) 

This mix fitted perfectly into this silicone cupcake mould:

And after 20 mins on baking on 200, they came out looking like this: 

Enjoy! 

Gluten Free Liquorice!

Yesterday, my 'Blue Monday' was turned on it's head when I discovered that a shop on my local high street does GLUTEN FREE liquorice!

I know liquorice is not for everyone but for me it reminds me of weekends and my grandparents and yumminess so I was particularly gutted to have to add it to the long list of things that contain flour. I know that you can get it online but I am often begrudging of the delivery prices which them make a a rather expensive treat, the shop is called Charlie's Sweet Emporium: http://charliessweets.co.uk/ their website shows where quite a few shops are in the UK and the very nice ladies serving told me that all their stores do a wide range, so after having a cheeky sample of a few i decided on a mix just to be sure and got all these for £3! (Well, I may of eaten a few before managing to take a picture...)

Vozar's- Gluten Free Restaurant, Brixton Village

The weekend I was taken to Vozar's for a celebratory meal and having pledged support to get it on it's feet I have been excited about a visit for months!!

It has developed from WAG Bakery which I'm sure many people are familiar with as I always see raving reviews about their cakes and bread but had not yet been able to sample it myself- this is their website so you can have a gander: http://vozars.co.uk/

I was a little apprehensive about what Brixton Village would be like but it is so easy to get to from the station and when you walk in Vozar's is right in front of you, a cute little cafe on the corner of a busy strip with lots of other lovely looking restaurants. 

Having been drooling over the menu for days I had already decided my boyfriend and I would be sharing the scotch egg and chicken strips to start, unfortunately they had run out of scotch eggs (very popular!) but I was nowhere near disappointed with the crab meat dish I chose instead:

                                       

Literally piled high with moist crab meat and underneath is pile was half a soft toasted roll! 

Chicken Strips- HEAVEN! These were exactly how I remember Schnitzel tasting, so yummy I could easily of had 2 plates of these for dinner! 

For our mains we had the Pork Belly, which as you can see looked (and tasted) amazing, served with and appley sauce and creamy mash 

                        

Now, at this point I definitely did not need pudding, but after a rest and this little one having been calling to me I gave in and ohhhhh was it good :) The crust was crisp but not dry and custard was the perfect very occasional dairy treat! 

I really can't reccomend this place any higher, it would be amazing to see them go on to have a larger premises but we will definitely be back!! 

Easy Peasy Pesto Pasta

This horrible weather led me to making this for dinner this week as after trudging in the rain I just wanted a quick fix of something yummy! 

A a 'Free Fromer' I am often looking for new weird and wacky ideas, but sometimes it's nice to go back to basics and just have a replacement of something 'normal'

The pasta I have used here is Sainsbury's Free From Fusilli which I find to be one of the best replacements, some baby salad leave and chicken diced and stir fried with a generous helping of this yummy pesto:

Part of Asda's new Free From selection I have found this to be a cheaper alternative (£1.90) to some of the other health store options and just as good! It says only to keep in the fridge a few days after opened but I often leave it a few weeks and after a quick mix it taste just as good as the first time :) 

Meaty Turtles!!!

My boyfriend and I are massive foodies and often like to have some fun with the food we make :)

This is one of our favourite creations:

This would be great for kids, free from or not :)

Essentially the Turtles are a meat feast! 

One here is made simple with a beef and egg patty mix with a few herbs and the other with turkey mince,  (a personal favourite of mine) and then topped with Mrs Crimble's Gluten free sage and onion stuffing- a total over indulgence! 

Using streaky bacon you then 'weave it' to make a bacon lattice which you place on top before popping in the oven, along with some of The Black Farmer Daughter's chipolata sausages which can then be cut cut up and popped in to make the head and legs- Ta Daaaaaa! 

First Free From Trip to Wagamama's

I aimed to do one post a week on here, but with all the eating out i've been doing over the holiday i'm getting a little carried away and I was so impressed with my dinner last night I just had to share!
I used to love Wagamama's and always ate there as a treat while at university but usually I now now that Duck Gyoza's and Chicken Katsu were not such a good idea!! I was excited but a little apprehensive  that a free from trip would not be quite as good but i had read good things online and so went with some friend's to the Wimbledon Branch last night.

As soon as I asked for the Dietary Advice folders our server brought them over, enquired as to whether I had used them before, which I said I had not. He then very kindly explained that one folder highlighted gluten free (and many other allergens) and the other then showed you the modifications that you could make if you wanted to, for example not having Teriyaki Sauce.

My server however recommended the new Chilli Squid, the work 'Deep fried' is usually a cause for concern but he assured me it was a celiac favourite and one of the Itame dishes which you can get in chicken, prawn or tofu and was described as'rice noodles in a spicy green coconut and lemongrass soup topped with stir-fried chicken, beansprouts, chillies, red and spring onions, bok choi, peppers and mushrooms.' which both sounded good to me so i took his recommendation and ordered the chicken itame and the chilli squid side and this was the result:

CHICKEN ITAME

CHILLI SQUID

Safe to say I was not disappointed,  in fact I was a very happy bunny! The Itame was much like a Thai green curry in flavour, the chicken moist and with the flat rice noodles it was both flavoursome and filling, and the Squid? Amazing, closest thing I have had to batter in 18 months and the sauce was also gorgeous, will definitely be back for more :)

Lighter Lunch- Fresh Spring Rolls

Losing weight is not something that comes easy to me but even I feel that I have definitely over indulged a little tooo much over the festive period! Currently on a library lunch break from trying to finish my latest assignment so thought I would share one of my favourite lighter lunch options :)

 First I stir fried some prawns with some Gluten Free soy sauce, a clove of garlic and abit of sweet chilli sauces just to give them some flavour, but you could also use chicken, pork, beef or tofu depending on your tastes








I would usually use vermicilli rice noodles to do thes but i'd run out so used rice instead which actually worked quite well, if you are using rice/ glass noodles them you just have to rest the nest of them in boiling water for about 10mins before ricing them in cold water and chopping them us, I also had an avocado in the fridge but they are great with spring onion, or finely sliced carrot, cucumber or a combination!

 I had picked up these Rice Flour Pancakes from Morrisons but have seen them in more supermarkets recently for about £1.50, you get a fair few in them and they last once opened. I  used a shallow bowl to soak them in hot water for 20 seconds before putting them on the chopping board, make sure you only do one at a time though because they are quite fragile!

I then took a handful of rice, compressed it together and placed it in the middle of the rice wrapper, added my other ingredients before rolling it up, taking care to fold the bottom and the top first so none of it spilled out.

 To get the effect of being able to see the prawns and avocado, place this on the wrapper first and bring all section in, so when you turn it over you can see through the wrapper.

These are my final 4 rolls, already to take for lunch, just need to add a splash of sweet chilli for a yummy sarnie alternative :)

Turning Over a New Leaf!

Hello, this is my first attempt at blogging and so I thought the first day of the year would be a good place to start :) 

Last night to celebrate New Year's we went to see the Panto in Wimbledon and then went for an amazing Chinese meal at Confucius. I was so pleased with how accommodating the staff were even though it was a busy night and being brought lettuce leaves to be able to enjoy our Duck was an amazing touch :)