Gluten Free Eating in Bruges, Belgium

Myself and a group of friends went for a city break last week to Bruges and had an amazing time :) I thought I would write a blog about it as when researching food I had found lots of negative reviews and even one saying it was one of the worst places they had every visited to be gluten free! Needless to say knowing it was famous for Beer and Waffles which are famously not Gluten Free I was a little apprehensive and as we went on the Euro Star made sure that most of my suitcase was filled with food rather than clothes, but it turned out to be a much easier experience than I had anticipated!

On the first night after wandering around we ended up in an Italian restaurant (which I will try to find the name of) and the staff were brilliant, the chef asked what kind of flavours I liked and made me up 2 varieties of tomato based sauce to accompany my starter and my main!

Grilled Scallops in Tomato Sauce

Garlic and herb  Chicken with pick and mix salad

The second night after getting on Trip Advisor I had found a place called 'Beer and Ribs' which had amazing reviews and booked a few weeks in advance which I was glad I did as for a larger group they already had limited space!  I had already emailed to find out what the ribs were marinated in, they did 4 different types smokey BBQ, Chilli, dry rub and chocolate and beer, the latter being the only one unsuitable because of the beer but that sounded good to me! It got better on arrival as a plate of nachos and all you can eat ribs for 18 Euros is a bargain and the nachos were pure maize so I got to eat almost exactly the same as everyone else :) Genuinely the best ribs I have ever eaten, smokey BBQ literally fell off the bone so could not recommend it more highly! 

Nachos to share with a variety of toppings

Meaty perfection!

Lunches admittedly were a little more tricky and not a huge range of 'safe' options but there was lots of salads and omelettes which I stuck to and took a roll with me, which for a weekend was more than adequate!

Hardest bit of the weekend was watching everyone with their amazing looking waffles covered in chocolate and cream BUT I found so much amazing dark chocolate it more than made up for it, even chocolate covered

marshmallows and also some lovely Macaroons in a beautiful shop off the main square and have come back well stocked up with buttons from the Chocolate Museum! 

The other thing that is worth a mention is the 'Frites' museum- all about potatoes and chips which made for an entertaining trip for the group of us, could be very educational if you are a veggie fan but the best bit was hands down tasting the chips at the end which are all cooked in front of you and individually fried :) Nothing tastes better than food you know won't make you ill! 

So all in all- don't panic! I know experiences all vary but I wanted to share how positive mine was and that I found there is much more to Belgian food than unfriendly waffles and beer. I didn't even have to use my language cards as everywhere we went into English was very well spoken with a good understanding of Coeliacs and being Gluten Free! 

Dairy free Chocolate Banana 'Ice cream'

There are 2 awesome things about this, first the main ingredient is fruit so it's basically heathy and the other is that you only really need a few other ingredients to make it yummy! 

Pop a sliced up banana in the freezer for an hour or two, then stick it in the food processor and tadaaaa banana like frozen goodness! 

The first one I just added honey and then popped it back in the feeSer for half an hour before munching

 and although not quite up to Ben and Jerry's standards considering it is basically just fruit I'm not complaining! 

Second time I was a little naughtier and added a tablespoon of peanut butter, tablespoon of coco powder and then topped with some sprinkles :) 

Valentines pudding idea perhaps?! 

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! 

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! 

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 :)