Sharabelle bakes

Banana Project: It started as a joke by friends and family. Every recipe I made seemed to contain banana's.   When my IBS related Food Intolerances became worse, I had to give up all dairy along with other foods.   Shopping and having to read every ingredients labels got depressing.  So I decided to make my own meals and snacks from scratch.  Food became fun again, and eating less stressful.   Most of the dairy free recipes I found on the Internet, where also vegan.  It also just so happened that banana was often used as an egg substitute.   It also appealed to my sense of humour......  Maybe it's just a Scottish thing.  But as someone that mental health problems, being bananas about bananas just seemed appropriate.   Whether you are living with IBS or mental health problems, you've got to keep your sense of humour.   First Recipe: - Sweet potato & Banana Empanada The nights are getting shorter and a l...

Mission: To make as many dairy free recipes as possible with banana. My ' Thank Banana's its Friday' blog is a few days late this week. I was a little distracted  on Friday, my kitchen  sink developed a major leak so I couldn't use it. Then I had an unexpected visitor, my mum stayed over.   Not the best circumstances to have an overnight guest.   Luckily my brother knew how to fix the problem, without having to buy a whole new sink.  So everything was fixed by Sunday.   Blog should really be Thanks Banana's for Brothers....... First Recipe:  Banana GingerBread Cake Duh....  I have no idea why it took me so long to try making Gingerbread with banana's.  I took  a  Vegan Gingerbread Recipe  and swapped the apple puree for mashed banana.   I didn't have any treacle in my store cupboard, so doubled the qty of Golden syrup in the recipe instead. Despite the lack of treacle the gingerbread tas...

Ever had the idea for a recipe stuck in your head, but can't remember where it came from.  I spent over an hour yesterday, searching the Internet for a similar recipe that I could adapt.  Only to eventually find the recipe I was looking for in one of my own cookbooks.  I got the cookbook a few years ago from a friend for Christmas.  She got it for me because it had a section on "Free From" and healthy cookies.   The recipe I was looking for    - Rocky road Wedges "Free from Gluten and wheat, these crumbly wedges contain homemade popcorn in place of broken cookies, which are the classic ingredient in no-bake cookies such as this" I went one further and made the recipe dairy free by using vegan chocolate.   Why no marshmallows?  - I don't use marshmallows as they are made with Bovine or pig derived gelatin, so there not vegetarian friendly.  Iv also yet to find a great free from friendly brand.  Firs...

It's that time of week again....... Thank Bananas it's Friday.   No matter what life throws at me, I always have time for my Banana Project.  Everyone needs a hobby, making as many dairy free recipes using Banana's just happens to be mine. First recipe: Banana Glazed Chocolate Donuts I took my inspiration from this recipe I found on  Food.com . I've made plenty of banana cakes, cupcakes and muffins before, never tried to use them as a glaze before.   My glaze wasn't a total success. The problem was I tried to scale down the original recipe and didn't use enough icing sugar. Not using enough icing sugar also made my glaze too  wet, so by the next day the donuts turned a bit too soft. Next time I'll stick to the original.   It tasted great though, the banana glaze was a perfect match for the baked chocolate donuts. To make dairy free, use a vegan butter in the recipe. Second recipe:   Cream of Banana Soup Got t...

Debenhams Kingsgate Shopping Centre Dunfermline I've been really lucky finding 2  food intolerance friendly cafes within the same week.  Today it we visited the Debenhams Deli in Dunfermline.  Before embarked on some last minute back to school shopping for my niece and nephew.   The chill cabinet at the entrance to the cafe has bottled soft drinks & water, fruit juice and Innocent smoothies.  Along with sandwiches, wraps and Pannini's. The Cafe is Deli style making it easier to taylor options to suit your own particular allergy or intolerance.  Next to the Deli counter is a cake and bake display, that had my young nephews eyes almost popping out.   The kids had a Triple Chocolate muffin and a slice of chocolate fudge cake.  My mum wasn't hungry to settled for a kit kat with her de-caff latte.   For the Lactose Intolerance there was soya milk available, as well as several types of herbal tea. To eat there are a selection ...

Fly Cup Morning and Afternoon Fly Cups were a big thing when I was a kid living in Aberdeen. Fly Cup - Translation: Beverage served with a snack.  E.G A Fly Cup of Tea, or A cup of tea on they fly.   Each region of Scotland has it's own Dialect and slang, Fly cups was one of ours.  My Grandma served it the same time of day. In the morning you could get a biscuit with your drink, Afternoon was cake time.   Even now when my mum and I got out we always have to stop for  a drink, and a little something sweet  to eat.  Developing food intolerance's kind of took the fun out of it.  It was no long what are you going to have, but what can you eat!!! Usually I end up in chain coffee shops like Starbucks and Costa Coffee, because I know they always have a non dairy drinking option.  Iv long giving up expecting to find something to eat as well. So I was pretty excited when my mum discovered a Fair trade Cafe/Shop that stoc...

I'm Banana's about Bananas!!!!  So decided to challenge myself to see how many dairy free vegetarian recipes I could make using them as an ingredient.   It's been a really strange week, after all my bad luck last week things were finally going my way.     - Tuesday:  Doctor impressed with my progress, that has allowed me to return to work.  Opticians told me my my eyesight was improving and I had become less Short sighted in my left eye. - Wednesday :  Lucked out and got an early Dental Hospital appointment to repair my fixed dental brace.  So did not need to take time of work, which was great since Iv only been there 5 weeks. It's been a welcome break from fused cookers and smoking clothes iron.   First Recipe: Banana Flapjacks Flapjacks for me are the original breakfast bar.  My shifts at work mean I am only eating  2 meals a day, so I like to have a snack to eat both on the way to work and back home. ...

Asda Supermarket Dunfermline Free From Products I went shopping today at Asda and was pleasantly surprised to find they have increased their Free from  range of products across the store. They now have a variety of Free From products to rival Sainsbury's.  Supermarkets are still not as good as speciality food stores like Real Foods Edinburgh.  However the range they have, means I need to visit my favourite speciality stores less.  More importantly I can now shop locally.    Picked out a few of my favourite Free From foods and drinks. Kallo Vegetable Stock Cubes  I am yeast intolerant and find that most vegetarian stock cubes have nutritional yeast added for flavouring.  They also use it to flavour most vegan products, including cheese.   I either find the product is lactose free but has yeast added, or that it's yeast free but contains milk!!!!!   So it's good to find a reasonable priced Vegetable s...

Weird Stuff If something strange or unusual is going to happen, it will happen to my mother or me!!!!   I spent the first day of my holiday in Tenerife stuck in the hotel, due to a tropical storm.  Then the plane back was delayed due to mechanical fault, so didn't land in Glasgow till 6am in the morning. 12 hrs later than planned.   Got the first bus back home, only the journey took 8 hours due to the snow and traffic jams.   It normally only takes 1 hr 30 Min's!!!! A few months ago I accidentally cut my ankle while shaving my legs and developed a skin tag infection.  Very itchy and annoying. The more I itched the more it spread...... Spent a night in a Edinburgh Travelodge for my birthday 5 years ago. Then had to spent the rest of my 2 week holiday stuck in my house, because I'd been bitten by bed bugs.  There were so many bites I thought I had chicken pox's!!!   The list goes on..........   Having an anxiety disorder,...

My ongoing mission to make as many dairy free recipes that I possibly can in a year, using the humble Banana.   Iv learnt a lot this week....... The mysterious loud bang in my house, turned out to be a tripped circuit in my fuse box.   Chia Tea contains Caffeine, which I can't have.     Agar Agar has laxative properties and is often used in diet pills!!!! There a 2 good reasons why I avoid caffeine.  1. - It's a stimulant which is not great for people with digestive problems like myself.  2. -Caffeine is also not recommended for individuals with anxiety problems.   So Chia tea and Agar Agar are  now added to the long list of food and drink I need to avoid.   I am looking on the positive side, at least I can still eat Banana's.  Peanut butter & banana noddle salad I took inspiration this week from this recipe for  Thai Noodle Salad with banana peanut butter dressing .  I had some bell peppers...