Sharabelle bakes

Chestnuts My baking and cooking experiments have taken a nutty turn lately. So far Iv made a Mushroom and chestnut pie for Christmas dinner, used them in a Meatless loaf recipe, added chopped mixed nuts to my banana loaf and attempted to make Almond cream cheese.  Like all of my experiments, they never quite turn how I expected....... Yesterdays experiment involved the chestnuts I had left over from Christmas dinner. I bought them  Frozen and already peeled, which made the cooking a lot easier.  Chestnut and apple muffins I started by cooking them for 15 minutes, blended them till smooth then added Agave Nectar to make them into a sweet chestnut puree.  (You can cheat and buy sweet chestnut puree pre-made in a can)  I then replaced the banana for the puree in one of my muffin recipe.  Again tastes pretty good but I know they can taste better.  Chestnut is a delicate flavour so I didn't add any spice or vanilla extract in case it  overwhelmed the taste.  

STRANGE BUT TRUE If your lactose  intolerant you might be surprised to find that shops own brand products are more often dairy free than there more expensive counter parts.  Asda smart price   Digestive biscuits Ingredients - Wheat Flour, Vegetable oil, sugar, wholemeal flour, partially inverted sugar syrup, Raising agents (sodium bicarbonate, Ammonium Carbonates) salt Allergy info - Contains Gluten & Wheat, May contain nuts or seeds. I bake my own cookies, biscuits and cakes.  Once in a while it would be great to buy some instead, however Iv found that Free from brands are generally more expensive.    To be universal allergy free, products are usually free of just about everything.  Gluten, wheat, nuts and dairy. I only need them to be dairy free........ It all started with chocolate covered peppermint creams.  I made my own for Christmas, they taste great but are really messy to eat.  Next step, why not try to make somekind of peppermint squares.  Fo

Weather for wellies Today started yet again with torrential rain, another downpour is forecast for tomorrow morning. When you  live in Scotland, Random extreme weather is pretty much the norm.  There are 2 routes you can take with this knowledge.  You can ignore it's happening and wear inappropriate clothing for the weather.  Or like me, be prepared for all eventualities.  For today that meant wearing....... Tights, leggings, socks and Wellies.  Along with a thick jumper and waterproof jacket.  Lol, there is method in my madness.  The layer of tights, leggings and socks keep me warm  While the Leggings and wellies keep me dry, as they leave less surface for the rain to soak.  Being fashionably dressed at all times, just isn't worth getting a cold for!!!!  I think dressing appropriately for the weather is a sign of maturity.  Or possibly my age,  as it's a lot nearer Forty than thirty these days.  Iv seen women of all ages wear Ugg style boots in sun, rain

I had a slice of homemade Birthday cake yesterday, one that I didn't have to make myself.  I hadn't been able to do that in over a year.  Mum and I went round to my brothers, because the kids had arranged a little party for their dads birthday.  Homemade birthday sign, party food and birthday cake.  It also involved Gangnam Style from 3 year old nephew.    My niece has recently also had to give up dairy.  Her mum had baked a Dairy free birthday cake for her dad  so she would be able to eat it as well.   I know the trouble iv gone through living with a food intolerance, It must be ten times worse for a kid when there too young to understand.  All they will know is that there different.  Kids just want to be able to eat the same things as there family and friends.   I think it was a great idea of her mum.  I know I loved being able to eat the same as everyone else xx  

Christmas Breakfast Plate of cornflakes Oat and Banana Pancakes Christmas Lunch Mushroom and Chestnut pie with Roast veg and cranberry sauce Followed by homemade  peppermint  creams Christmas Supper Dairy free sticky toffee cake with custards Finished my festive day with a mug of soya milk hot Chocolate and a dairy free orange and poppy seed cookie. Id been awake since 5.30am.   Nothing to do with it being Christmas day.  More due to my IBS, I sometimes don't sleep very well.   Which is why I kind of got a bit carried away in the kitchen by 9.30am I had  ................. - Baked Whole wheat Scones for my Brother G  (Its his birthday tomorrow) - Banana and nut loaf for my mum (She had some over ripe banana's) - Rolled pastry for Mushroom pie  - Stewed apples so i could - Then used the leftover pastry to make little apple pies - Prepped the veg for lunch After a visit from my mum and niece and an exchange of pressie, I

Christmas Eve Quiche Festive Season baking All done.... - Pavlova baked and collected - Dairy free Christmas Eve Quiche baked, to use up the egg yolks from the pavlova - Dairy free Chocolate mint peppermint creams - because Christmas wouldn't be the same with out them Mum arrived for lunch, lucky I had some fresh baked quiche.  We then spent a few hours baking desserts together for my brother and sister in laws family dinner.  - 2 x Sticky toffee pudding (Rick Stein Recipe) - Dutch apple cake ( Rachael Allan recipe  ) All I need to do tomorrow is make my Mushroom and Chestnut pie, for my own meat free/ dairy free Christmas dinner.  I'm now totally exhausted......  Which was the plan,  Iv kept myself busy to keep the depression at bay. Lol, baking for Christmas has taken my mind of the festive season.  It's been worse this year something i wasn't expecting.  The only reason i can think off is because I'm doing more.  This tim

Coconut Macaroons dipped in dark chocolate Dad dropped by earlier so we could exchange christmas gifts and taste tested one of my coconut macaroons.  He tried to go off with one of my chocolate dipped ones, I gave him the extra's instead.  Apart from that he seemed to enjoy them.  Coconut macaroons are one of the easiest recipes that you can bake for a gift.  Easy coconut macaroons 2 free range eggs 8 oz Desicated coconut 5oz caster sugar No need to separate the yolk from the white.  Break into a bowl and beat together well.    Then add coconut and sugar.  Mix well together, then leave for 20 mins to firm up. Pre-heat oven too 180 celsius or 160 for fan assisted oven, and grease a baking sheet. Wet hands then form mix into golf size balls.  Then place on baking sheet. Cook for 20 mins.  Turn baking sheet round after 10 mins to get an even colour. Loosen on baking sheet when just out of the oven and leave to firm up.  Top Tip

Yeast free cinnamon roll During Christmas  bakery's and cafes are all full of delicious looking festive treats.  The  problem is I can't eat them..... bah humbug.  When you have IBS and food intolerance's,  Christmas becomes an obstacle course of temptation. I couldn't resist taste testing a  full dairy chocolate brownie, that Id baked as a gift.  Not a great idea when your lactose intolerant.  When you know you can't eat or drink something, it just becomes more of a temptation.  Which is why I always try to make my own dairy free version.  Iv been searching the net for a yeast free, dairy free cinnamon roll recipe for a while.  It's hard to find both dairy free and yeast free recipes, so as usual I decided to try and make my own. I took my basic scone recipe, rolled it out flat and topped it with cinnamon sugar, chopped apple and nuts.  Then rolled it again into a log shape.  Cut it into 8 even portions and placed them on a greased baking tra

When baking with CBT doesn't work After writing a blog about using CBT to bake, I really should have taken my own advise.  I had a baking disaster when making a Bakewell tart for my friend D.  A major almond junkie. What a Bakewell tart should look like....... Everything was planned and organised.  Id rolled out and lined the pastry tin the day before and kept it chilled in the fridge.  In the morning before I left for the pantry I looked and weight some of the ingredients. I even sieved the jam, since D isn't keen on the seeds.  All I had to do once I got home was pre-heat the oven and make the cake batter.   The first problem was I hadn't weight out all the ingredients.  The second problem was I hadn't taken into account how stressed I get after travelling by bus home from the Pantry due to my anxiety disorder.  The bus's are even busier at the moment due to all the Christmas shoppers.  Note to self:  Don't bake when your stressed!

Baking with Cognitive behaviour therapy When I started therapy to help  my mental health problems I never thought Id be using it Bake!!! It helped identify 2 of my most negative thought patterns, I was self critical of myself and had control issues.  I'm not going to lie and say I'm cured and I that don't have the same problems. However knowing your problems and being willing to admit to them, is part of the process of managing them.  In a way this blog started because of my therapy. The stigma associated with having a mental health condition is one of the main problems.  It makes it harder for individuals to ask for help. But If no one talks about mental health problems how are people that haven't experienced it start to understand? Meaning the stigma will always remain.  (this made perfect sense in my head, not sure if it translate well to the written word!!!!)  A few years ago I agreed to bake 100 cookies for my nieces and nephews Christm

Christmas Star cookies Forget the 12 days of Christmas, I feel like I'm doing the 12 bakes of Christmas. ~ First Bake of Christmas ~ Started baking on Saturday to restock my snack supply.  Finally settled on making Banana and peanut butter cookies.  I swap the mashed banana for the egg in a normal cookie recipe.   ~ Second Bake of Christmas ~ On Sunday baked the above Christmas Star Cookies as gifts for a few friends.  The recipe I use makes 3 dozen so it was a pretty big bake.  Once they were cooled I drizzled icing over them as decoration.  I stacked them off set so they looked like Christmas tree's. ~ Third Bake of Christmas ~ On the same day started baking for mum's Christmas Hamper.  I made a Christmas Tea loaf, by swapping the raisins for seasonal mixed fruit that included dates and cranberry's.  ~ Fourth Bake of Christmas ~  Prep work for a Bakewell tart.  Iv rolled shortcrust pastry and lined a foil pie tin an

Chocolate dessert and cafe con leche You may be thinking what makes me qualified to dish out stress management tips for travelling.  Especially since I'v mentioned in previous blogs that I have mental health problems.  Lol, basically my whole day revolves around reducing stress and avoiding panic attacks. Over the past few years as part of my therapy Iv had both anxiety management and relaxation classes.  (Relaxation takes a lot of hard work!!) So why not take advise from someone that deals with anxiety on a daily basis? Iv been going on winter sun holidays to the Canary's for a few years now, I find travelling by plane for a few hours a lot less stressful then getting on a 20 min bus journey.  Iv tried out a few tricks and tips over those years and these are the ones that work best. Plan ahead Book a room to stay in an Airport hotel the night before your flight, if your flying in the morning.  Make the experience a part of your holiday.  Same goes for your return

EATING OUT  in Lanzarote Travel diary - Eating dairy free, yeast free, meat free, low sugar and fat I don't eat out often due to a mix of my anxiety disorder and IBS food intolerance's.  Crowded noisy places are difficult for me to handle, then there's the extra obstacle of working out what food on the menu I can eat.     For the first problem I find sitting at a chair with my back to the rest of the restaurant helps.  With the second problem I tend to go on line and check the restaurants  menu's out before picking where to go out and eat.  Either way it limits where I can go, which is why we went Self Catering.  So how do 2 women with IBS and totally different food triggers find some place to eat........ Lol, every time we went for a walk round Costa Teguise we would end up reading restaurant menu's.  We eventually found a few places to eat out in the evening.  Our first meal was in  El Maestro restuarant       (website link) On the

IBS Travel Journal Mum and I both have IBS, to make things even more complicated we both have different types of IBS and foods that we need to avoid.  We decided it would be easier to go Self Catering on our holiday to Costa Teguise in Lanzarote.  I usually go All inclusive, Iv only ever gone Self catering before on Caravan holidays in Britain.  Going Self catering abroad is another thing entirely..... I searched the Internet and found information on the 2 main Supermarkets/Supermercados retailers in Lanzarote and there locations in Costa Teguise.  There are several Eurospar and Hiperdino's in the resort along with independent shops.  - Euro Spar locations - Hiperdino Express locations Both have a good selection of Gluten free  ( Sin Gluten) products.  Even if your not wheat intolerant, check these out as I found many were also Dairy and egg free. The Eurospar on the Ave de las Islas Canarias has a better selection of dairy free milk and dessert products

Beach at Costa Teguise  I went from drinking peppermint tea at a beach side cafe on Thursday morning, only to travel back to the Scottish cold weather.   On the positive side, we were just glad there was no snow!!! Iv survived a week without a computer or Internet access, keeping only a travel journal so I could note down useful information for other food intolerant holiday makers.  Whether for yourself, family member or friend. First Blog - Airport Food. The first stage of any holiday is coping with Airport food.  You need to arrive early to check in for your flight or like us the night before, so I spent a lot of pre-holiday planning on finding places I could eat.  We travelled from Glasgow airport so I checked out the Places to eat on the Airport website. I'm pretty limited in what I can eat.  Dairy free, yeast free, meat free, low sugar and low fat.  Wetherspoon' s  - The Sandpiper -Before airport Security - Opening hours 4 am till last flight

  Cookie Pizza Pie with white chocolate chips and chopped cadbury fudge Taking a break from my blog for a little bit, while I'm away on holiday.  I'm planning to keep a note of  any food intolerance friendly places that I find on my travels.  Just been to Sainsbury's to stock up on Free From products for the flight.  Iv mentioned before that the Sainsbury's store Cafe in the Kirkcaldy store serves soya milk drinks.  Highlight of my day was finding they also have a Free from Christmas mince pie for sale at the checkout.  They have a special on, if you buy a hot drink you get the mince pie for half price.  It was good to see the offer was on both the normal and free from pie's.   Tasted great, has a lovely crisp pastry would definitely recommend.  Ignore there Free from Chocolate Brownie, I had that last time and it's really dry.  Free from doesn't have to mean Free from taste.  As well as organising for my hols, Iv also had to organise

Dairy free, meat free Shepherd's pie Iv been craving comfort food since the weather got even colder.  One of my favourite comfort dishes is Shepherds pie, so I thought it was time it got the meat free and dairy free makeover.  As a budget baker and cook I always make more than one portion at a time, so I can freeze the other portions.   Your using the same amount of time and more importantly electricity, so why not.   Make your own convenience food for those busy days.... Due to the absence of meat I'm calling this one Shepherd-less pie.  The mushrooms give the filling a meaty taste. While the parsnips add a little sweetness to the top.  It's a lovely hearty winters meal, that tastes great.  This is one veggie only recipe that I know my meat eating family would also love.  Shepherd-less pie - Makes 4 servings Topping 2 parsnips - diced 2 potatoes - diced The smaller the dice the quicker they will cook.  Boil them together in the same pan,

EAT WELL PLATE I don't discuss it in every blog post but If you've read my  -About Me page you will know I have a mental health problem.  It's been over 10 years since I was diagnosed with depression and only in the past few years, with an anxiety disorder.  Due to some great therapy and supportive friends and family I try my best to control my mental health problem, and not let the mental health problem control me. What's this got to do with food?  Well a lot...... I also have IBS and Food intolerance's, which can reduce the amount of nutrients absorbed through my digestive system.   People with depression and other mental health problems have been found to have low levels of essential nutrients and vitamins.  It was okay for my Doctor to say my low moods can set off my IBS and vice versa, but it helps more to know why.  It's easy to start eating healthy, when you become intolerant to most bad foods.  Pain has that effect.  As a former comfort eati

School Winter Fair Ingredients to make Sugar Cookies Got the call to duty this week.   Next weekend is my nieces and nephews School Winter Fair, I'll be on holiday so I'm going to miss it.  But that doesn't mean I can't make a contribution ahead of time.  The plan is for me to bake the cookies this weekend, so they can be collected and stored in a freezer till there needed.  Last year I baked 100 Christmas Cookies for the kids to decorate themselves at the fair.  Due to equipment restrictions it took a lot longer than I expected. Making the dough and cutting  out the cookies didn't take long, however I could only bake 1 tray of cookies at a time in my old cooker.  Never thought I'd every get bored of baking cookies...... This year I only needed to bake 80, my brand new double oven made the task a lot easier.  I made the dough on Friday and chilled in the fridge overnight.  Then started the rest of the process this morning at 7 am, I was finished by

Scottish Book Trust   The 26th November - 2nd December is Book Week in Scotland.  11am at my local library today, I joined others Scot in celebrating St Andrews day by having a blether about Scottish books.   We talked about the books we had just read (Mine Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre) and looked at Scottish based stories and authors.  Books have kept me sane. When my mental health problems were at there worst 3 year's ago I re-joined my local library's reading group. More importantly I took my first steps towards re-joining social life.  Iv found focusing on a good story by reading on bus's, can help stop me from having full blown panic attacks.  Getting lost in the story helps block everything out, probably because reading is an active thought process. I really enjoy getting together with other folk over a cup of tea and discussing a book.  Funnily enough it's the books we don't like that cause the most debate at the group.  It's als