Gluten free holiday - what to take??

I’m on of on a holiday to france with my boyfriend in a week time. Unfortunately you can’t take a ‘holiday’ from living gluten free! I have had numerous gluten free holidays and have noticed that preparing right is the key. I have been searching the internet for supermarkets that sell gluten free products nearby the place I’ll be staying. I also read lots of forums as I feel they give more accurate information. All the information I can find I copy into a word document which I print and take with me. I have also ordered a gluten free restaurant card in French. My French is terrible and I don’t want a miscommunication causing me to eat gluten. Better safe than sorry! When I go on a holiday I always take my ‘gluten free box’ with me. This contains various gluten free products and various kitchen utensils to make sure there’s no cross contamination. We will be camping as well as staying in an apartment, which makes it easier to cook my own meals (contrary to hotels). This the gluten free box I’m talking about:

 

As you can see there’s still some place left, this is where I’ll be packing our campingstuff (plates, glasses, cutlery etc.) I love this box as it fits in the back of the car perfectly. It holds all my essentials and has room left to pack other things! Now let’s tell you what is in it!

This is everything that I have packed at the moment. The night before we leave I’ll bake a gluten free bread in the bread machine to take with me.

 

This is what I have packed food wise.

-          Gluten free pasta from the brand Free from.

-          Foccacia bread from Dr. Schär. This is what I like to have at diner if we’re barbequing which I’m sure will happen at least once!

-          Organic dried figs. I like to take these with me as a snack when visiting places or going to the beach. This way I’m sure I have a gluten free snack with me, when I can’t find anything locally.

-          Rice cakes. I often eat these instead of bread. I only packed one pack, because I’m certain you can buy these anywhere in France.

-          Mixed nutbutter. I always take this to be sure I have something to put on my bread/rice cake. In some countries bread spreads contain gluten. I have no idea if this is the case in France (can’t really find anything about it on the internet).

-          Gluten free muesli. I LOVE this muesli this is my all-time favorite! Quite expensive though, that’s why I take it with me on holidays as a treat. The only thing I have to buy is some (soy) yoghurt and I have my breakfasts sorted!

I also packed some non-food stuff. First I packed some lunchboxes. Easy to bring snacks to the beach or when sightseeing! I also added some ‘pegs’ which I clip onto opened packages to keep them fresh. In the second picture you can see I packed two chopping boards, a breadknife and a sharp knife. I bring my own chopping board to ensure there’s no cross contamination. Then there’s the bakingpaper, we have an oven in our apartment. I use this to make sure my food is gluten free (I also clean the over before use!). And last but not least sandwichbags! They always come in handy when travelling!

 

I'll probaly will be adding some gluten free mueslibars to take with me as a snack and the homemade gluten free bread. I'm also planning on taking my own toaster, but forgot to photograph this!

 

 

Weekly Eats Wednesday- Breakfasts!

Aaah breakfast my favourite meal of the day! In the morning I seem to feel less nauseous, so that's the time of day I try to eat a good healthy nutritious meal. I have noticed that eating smaller portions spread out trough the day helps me feel less sick. So I would usually have a snack a few hours after I have had breakfast. Here are some random breakfasts I have enjoyed this week:

 

Ricecakes made of brown rice, a boiled egg. With this I had a large glass of water and a cup of orange and ginger tea.

 

 

This is a breakfast I had on an examday. It consists of soy-yoghurt, chopped up banana, cinnamon and cocoa nibs. With this I had a large cup of green tea.

 

Breakfast on the go! I took this green smoothie with me to college. It is a spinach, mango and fresh orange juice smoothie.

 

A big plate full of fruit! I enjoyed some grapes, watermelon, banana and blueberries over the weekend! With this I had a large glass of water and a cup of orange and ginger tea.

 

 

Another fruity breakfast. I think this was Sunday's breakfast. It's watermelon, strawberry and mango. With this I had a large glass of water and a cup of orange and ginger tea (can you tell this is my favourite? haha).

Healthy cupcake

Long time, no see! I have been very busy the last couple of months. I have started a new treatment for lyme (which seems to be doing something) and have been very busy with my study. There have been some birthdays and holidays these last couple of months. On one of these occasions I decided to make healthy cupcakes. These yummy cakes consist of fruit and fruit alone. They are super easy to make as all that you need is melon and strawberries!

 

Healthy cupcakes

makes 4

 

Melon

Strawberries

ice cream scoop

cupcakecases

 

♥ Cut the melon in half, and scoop uit all the pits.

♥ With your ice cream scoop scoop uit a melon ball and place this in the cupcakecase.

♥ Decorate your 'cupcake' with a strawberry!

♥ Enjoy!

 

Soup in a bun!

The temperatures are dropping (at least here in Holland!) and the autumn is slowly taking over Amsterdam. People are wearing their wolly coats and are wrapped in their warm winter scarfs. Nighttime falls early over the city. I love the autum, it's such a cozy time of the year! It makes me want to snuggle up in a blanket with a good book and a large cup of tea! It is also time for comfort food. The other day I was craving tomato soup. I decided to spice things up a notch! I served my tomatosoup in a bun, and what a good choice that was! The hot tomato soup makes the bun so flavoursome! I used a storebought glutenfree bread roll, as I was lazy and I didn't feel like baking my own bread. I did make my own (very easy) tomato soup though! I enjoyed every crumb, and will definitely be making this again!

Soup in a bun

 

recipe (serves 4)

4 glutenfree storebought bread rolls (even better , make your own!)

4 cups of sieved tomatoes

2 generous handfulls of fresh basil

1 litre of vegetable stock

 

♥ Heat the sieved tomatoes and vegetable stock in a pan.

♥ Cut off the top of a bread roll and scoop out the bread roll.

♥ Add the fresh basil to the soup, and let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.

♥ Pour the soup into the bread rolls

♥ Enjoy!

Passionate Pineapple

Caprese pinwheels

I don´t read many magazines but there is one I make an exeption for. It´s called Zonder Meer, a dutch magazine full of recipes for people who have food allergies. This recipe is from the newest issue (Nr.6) all credits go to Zonder meer magazine. As the recipe is in dutch I have translated it into English. The pinwheels turned out so good that I didn't see any reason to change anything about the recipe.

  

Caprese pinwheels

recipe

450 g gluten free wholegrain bread mix
7 g dried yeast
20 g olive oil
200 g mozzarella cheese
100 g sundried tomatoes in oil
30 g fresh basil leaves
A sprinkle of sea salt

♥ Dissolve the yeast in 300 ml lukewarm water

♥ Add the bread mix and the olive oil knead the dough until it forms a bal, let the dough rise for 30 min

♥ Preheat the oven to 190 degrees

♥ Slice the mozzarella, basil leaves and sundried tomatoes into small pieces

♥ Cover your worktop with a small amount of cornflour

♥ Roll out the dough into a cm thick square

♥ Sprinkle the mozzarella, basil, sundried tomatoes and sea salt over the dough, make sure to leave 10 cm on the right uncovered

♥ Roll up the dough starting at the left side, then cut the roll into slices

♥ Bake the pinwheels for 20-25 min in the middle of the oven

Nutty brownies

One of my friends sent me this youtube video* knowing I'm always on the lookout for new recipes. After watching the video I decided to give these brownies a go. The only thing I changed is substituting the butter for coconut oil to make them lactosefree. If you do want to use butter in your brownies use the same amount as the coconut oil (130 grams).

Enjoy!

Nutty brownies

 

Recipe

 

200 g dark chocolate (the darker the better!)

130 g coconut oil

1 teaspoon honey

2 eggs

¾ cups coconut flour

¾ cups coconut sugar

½ cup nuts (I used walnuts, but any nuts will do)

 

♥ Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

♥ Roast the nuts and break them up into little pieces

♥ Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil

♥ Add the coconut sugar and the honey to the melted chocolate mixture

♥ Add 2 eggs, one at a time and whisk really well

♥ Add the nuts and the coconut flour

♥ Pour the mixture into a baking tray

♥ Place the baking tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

 

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7CupRVPaHo