Sharabelle bakes

Cooking when you have a  chronic illness When people talk about not being able to cook, you just assume there not confident in their food knowledge.  When I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia I discovered how much having a chronic illness could also affect my ability in the kitchen. I've had IBS for over 20 years, you never really get used to living with food intolerances.  It gets worse as you get older.  You can develop new symptoms and the food you can safely eat can change.   I've always been lactose intolerant however 2 years ago I had to add gluten to my do not eat food list. I'm basically a lactose and gluten intolerant pescatarian, who  follows a  Low Fodmap diet  to manage my IBS symptoms.  It's a bit of a mouthful to say, which means I rarely talk about it. Low Fodmaps is short for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, which are more commonly known as carbohydrate. ...

Traditional scone's One of my favourite topics of conversation is food.  I can get over exciting talking about food and recipes.   I often take it for granted that people have the same cooking knowledge as I do.  However I've come to realise that I was lucky to have a mum and grandma to teach me how to cook and bake. Over the years Iv discovered a lot of ways of how not to do things in the kitchen. For me kitchen disasters, are just a way of learning what not to do. This knowledge comes in handy when people ask me for advice.  Scones is top of the list of recipe that I'm asked about.    There are 2 recipes below that I use, the second one is for soda bread.  When my hands started to get bad due to fibromyalgia, the soda bread recipe was the  easiest  one to make.  Sometimes we have to adapt the way we could and bake to make up for health problems.   TOP TIPS Mindful baking   I practise m...

Gluten free When you have a food intolerance there are certain things you miss more than others.  One of those things for me is Jaffa cakes.  So I was really pleased to find Kelkin  gluten free jaffa cakes in my local morrisons. They are what I call accidently dairy free,  they contain egg so they are not vegan.   Kelkin produce gluten free foods, so they advise that their products might contain milk, eggs or nuts. For insurance reasons food producers have to put this on their labels, incase there is cross contamination with the other products they make.   I'm only lactose intolerant so there okay for me to eat, if you have a milk allergy they may not be suitable. Wouldn't it be great if we could just go grocery shopping without having to check all this information. Taste wise they reminded me exactly of the original Jaffa cake.  The base a soft cake, the layer of orange jelly made using pectin from fruit and finally the ...

Why Honey is not Vegan Definition of Veganism A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practise of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals ." There has been a big debate among vegans over whether honey can be eaten or not.  Since technically the Bees make the honey, so taking it from them is considered as exploitation. One article I read even went so far to say it should be considered as animal cruelty. Other arguments made say bees pollinate the majority of our vegetable and grain harvests.  Some producers have their own bee hives just for pollinating their crops. Which could also be considered exploitation.  So how far do you...

Whats does it really mean? www.freeimages.com Pasteurisation - When a food item, like milk, is heated to 72 Celsius for a minimum of 15 seconds to kill any harmful bacteria it may contain. Homogenisation - When milk was sold in bottles the cream would separate and float to the top.  My grandad used to use the cream for his morning porridge.  Today milk is now processed under high pressure to combine the two together.  So basically it's just a big word that means mixed together. Skimmed milk  - Is made by removing the cream that separates from the milk, rather than mixing them together. Semi-skimmed milk  - Only half the cream is removed from the milk.   Nutrition dairy Nutrition - Vitamins A and D need to re-added to skimmed and semi skimmed milk as these are lost when the cream is removed.   - There are competing arguments over whether skimmed milk is healthier or not.  Some feel you do not ...

Bicarbonate of Soda Not just for baking I don't remember how it started, but it ended up as a joke between my mum and I.  All the things that you can do with bicarbonate of soda.  Every time we needed to do something in the house, "get the bicarb out" Why bicarbonate of soda? It's a chemical compound that's a type of salt. Historically it's been used in one form or another since the Egyptian times, when it was used in natural form as Natron. It's seen as Eco friendly, which is something we all need more of in this world.  It's the one kitchen item you can use to bake a cake, then clean the oven it was baked in.   The Kitchen helper - Chopping Board : To get rid of strong smells and odours from your chopping board, sprinkle on 3 tbsp of Bicarb followed by enough water to moisten.  Leave for 15 Min's, the rub well clean then dry. - Worktops :  Use the same principle as above, to clean down your worktops.  Only use ho...

FROZEN VEG SOUP I had a duuh moment, the idea is so simple I can't really call it a recipe.  It's just so obvious, I really can't believe I didn't think of it before. Since being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, my life has changed a lot.  I have gone from being an enthusiastic cook, to someone afraid of using a knife.  The Fibro means my hand can often shake.  I tried using my blender to chop my veg, which worked great.  Until it came to cleaning it, when I cut my hand on the blade.  I have had to adapt the way I cook, to make it safer. Frozen chopped vegetables are available in every supermarket and there is now a wider range of available. From simple bags of frozen chopped carrots, to mixed vegetables. My nearest supermarket Morrisons, now have chopped sweet potato.   They are also now more affordable, making them ideal for cooking with. Frozen vegetables are just as good as fresh. In some cases they are better, since they are f...