Sharabelle bakes

Iv spent the last few years,  reading food ingredient labels when shopping.  The amount of foods that milk powder or whey is added too is pretty depressing. Like milk protein being added to sandwich chicken roll....  However this is offset against the foods that I surprisingly find to be dairy free.  Buying Free From products can be expensive, so It's great not to be completely dependent on them.  It's also great to find products you can adapt to make dairy free, like cake mixes.  I'm Lactose intolerant, which means eating or drinking any dairy causes me a lot of pain. I wouldn't recommend trying these if you suffer from a milk allergy.  Large manufactures can not always guarantee against cross contamination with other products they make.   Cake mix I discovered this trick when I was on the Weight Watcher diet!!!  It's a cheats variation on a Wacky cake recipe, since all the ingredients are already weight out.  Place cake mix in a bowl, add

    A tale of 2 cookies      Forget pies, cups cakes and meringues, there are 2 things I'm always asked to bake for friends  - Scones and Cookies .     For special occasion I bake giant versions of my cookies.  So when a friend asked me to make some for them to give as gifts, I thought why not.  Only one of the giant cookies needed to be Gluten free.    Iv never baked with Gluten free flour before so was slightly concerned, however I do love a challenge.    I'm lucky in away that I only have food intolerances, eating a trigger food will only cause me a lot of pain.  For people with allergies it can be life threatening, either way it adds a whole new level to food safety when cooking or baking.   First cookie: 1    Normally when I bake a Giant cookie, I use an entire batch of cookie dough.  My cookies use a 2:1 ration.   For every 2 oz of flour, I use 1 oz of sugar and vegan butter. It's a great way of memorising recipes and quantit

 www.Stock Food.com What are Oatcakes? - Wiki As a Scot I'm pretty serious about my Oatcakes, which means there shouldn't be any dairy in the recipe.     I get annoyed at food producers who add diary to products that shouldn't have any Being lactose intolerant is hard enough!!!!  The traditional recipe calls for lard or dripping, more modern baking production uses vegetable oil or palm oil instead.   Which makes their Oatcakes naturally dairy free and vegan friendly.  All except the cheese ones..... You would be amazed how many people ask.  It doesn't seem to compute that cheese is made from milk!!!!!! They do make other products that contain milk so I would not recommend them for milk allergy sufferers.   I'm also yeast intolerant so can not eat bread.  Instead of sandwiches for a light lunch I like to eat savoury crackers, like Oatcakes.  I love to top them with humus or peanut butter. They are also a great bread substitute for dipping

Artichoke hearts        I enjoy trying out new ingredients, however I don't always have the money to buy them.  Which is why I love the discount and ugly veggie shelves at my local supermarket.  My bargain ingredient this time was a can of Artichoke hearts.     Then comes the problem, my enthusiasm takes over and I am left wondering what to do with them!!!   Iv only eaten them once before on a pizza, so had no idea what to do....     Vegetarian Times    Vegetarian times is a great resource for inspiring recipes.  Just because you have a limited diet doesn't mean it should be boring.   I made there Chickpea, artichoke heart and tomato salad.  It tasted great and didn't take long to make, will definitely be making this recipe again.  Chickpea, artichoke heart & tomato salad To make this Dairy free,  you could replace the feta cheese with some diced tofu. Marinated first in the same vinaigrette from the recipe. Or as Iv done just left

          Less well know than Haggis, tablet is another traditional Scottish food that's a whole lot sweeter.   Scottish Tablet - wiki    One of our regular customers at work dropped off some home made Tablet for us this week.  As always everyone but me could eat it, so I took a piece home for my mum instead.  It got me thinking that there must be some way to make it dairy free.   Shop bought packaged Scottish tablet is never as good as homemade.  As a child growing up in Scotland, I have fond memories of the sweet.  It was sold at cake and bake sales, and if you were really lucky the little corner shop would have a regular supplier.  It was always wrapped into portions with greaseproof paper, that way you knew it was authentic.        Scottish Tablet recipe     Traditional Scottish tablet is not exactly dairy free.  Usually I can use a free from substitute's, however the only recipe I knew was made with Condensed milk.  So Iv kind of giv

My mum knows how hard it is for me to find dairy free products.  She gets more annoyed than I do when were out for a fly cup and I can't get anything to eat.   Fly cup: Scots for an illicit cup of tea or coffee.   Traditionally there's a morning and afternoon fly cup   When she finds anything she buys it for me to try out. On this trip out she discovered   Angelic Gluten Free  cranberry crunch cookies, at Loch Leven Larder.     Loch Leven's Larder   Gluten free, egg free, dairy free and reduced fat.  Less than 75 calories per cookie.  I bake a lot...  which is probably an understatement.  Baking dairy free is pretty easy, baking reduced fat is pretty easy, however doing the both together not so much.   Then you add on gluten free,  high on impossible.   However the guys at Angelic Gluten free have done it.  If my mum had not told me it was gluten free I would never have know.    The texture and the mouth feel were great, the taste even better.

Had a Birthday day out in Edinburgh Today, Its one of my favourite places to go.  For me Edinburgh is one of those city's that has a soul,  It's vibrant and alive and has something for everybody.  Best of all it has a lot of Vegetarian Restaurants.  Usually when I go out to eat I end up eating what a chain restaurant considers Vegetarian food.  They seem to think you can not have a decent vegetarian meal with out cheese!!!!  Being  Lactose intolerant it drives me a little barmy sometimes.... Curious Tea Rooms   13 Fredrick Street, Edinburgh.  Just off Princes Street First stop of the day was too the Curious Tea rooms. Styled on an old fashion tea shop and inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It comes complete with a chair and table on the ceiling.  They specialise in Loose leaf tea and have a whole tea menu to peruse.     I had some loose leaf  Mint chocolate Rooibos  A unique tea that starts with a taste of chocolate, then finishes with a hint of chocolate.  It wouldn'

I remember sitting on the balcony of our time share apartment in Paris, watching the city wake up.  An old woman going by, still in her slippers carrying fresh baguettes. Some things are universal, my grandma would go to the same baker shop every morning for Buttries (Aberdeen rolls). In Fife where I live now, you'll see people buying there fresh bread rolls with their morning paper. No matter which country you are in around the world, they will have their own form or version of bread and their own daily morning ritual.  I'm both yeast and lactose intolerant. Since my IBS has become worse and new trigger foods discovered and removed from the list of foods I can not longer eat.   It's the simple things I miss....... I miss bread, I miss the fresh baguettes we would buy in Paris.  The buttries we would toast and slather with butter and home made raspberry jam.  I miss tearing open a fresh baked morning roll and eating it simply with butter.  The food I eat might b

123RF  It's funny really I have no problem talking about my digestive issues or IBS, but never really talk about my nasal problems.  For a really long time now Iv had a problem with my nose.  Iv been checked for allergies and told I don't have any, so the term they use for my problem is "sensitivity".  Therefore I have a sensitive nose!!!  (It's always best to see the humour in any situation, no matter how bad) All I know is that I have a near constant post nasal drip.  It's not like the mucus that you get when you have a cold it's often thinner and can drip at the worst possible times. At work I'm constantly washing my hands after blowing my nose.  No matter what time of year it is: whether it's sunny or cold one thing is contestant the drip from my nose.... Iv just had Turbinate reduction surgery to help with my problem, as I was finding it hard to breathe through my nose as well. Iv tried sinus sprays before, and I hate to

Wiki Flax Flowers I first discovered linseeds, when I was surfing the net looking for natural remedies for my IBS.  I was already aware that   Peppermint  helps reduce stomach ingestion and intestinal gas.  ( Or as I like to call it Windy pops )  So I was interested in finding out if there were any other natural remedies.  It was through my research that I discovered that Linseeds had a lot of other healthy properties. Food facts: - There a great source of Fibre  - They contains Omega-3 which has anti-inflammatory properties that aid the digestive system. ( Bonus : Cooking does not breakdown the omega-3 fatty acids in Linseeds .)     - Nutrition Facts      Linseeds are very low in Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Thiamin and Manganese. - Pre-biotic  Which can aid the digestion and help reduce bloating, by promoting friendly gut bacteria.  From a budget point of v

    Large Vegetable Samosa   Marks and Spencers Health and Nutrition site  I'm not Vegan, I just love a lot of Vegan food.  Using the Label also means I do not need to get into a long conversation explaining that I have IBS and several food Intolerances, one of which is lactose/Dairy. Vegan food blogs and sites have been a great inspiration the last few years.  Proving to me that you don't need dairy or animal products like meat and poultry to have an interesting and varied diet.  I can still eat seafood, eggs and honey all food that are not part of the vegan diet.  Out of respect for vegans I wanted to make the distinction clear.  It was when I became lactose intolerant that I discovered how hard it is to find dairy free food in many supermarkets, restaurant and Cafes.  There's plenty of alternatives for Gluten free Products, while there are hardly any for Dairy free, which really annoys me Considering there has been a bit of a  trend in pe