27 Things You're Used To If You Have Coeliac Disease and/or Food Allergies

1. Having to explain what you can and can’t eat to literally everyone.

2. Hanging out with a group of friends and having to watch them eat pizza.

3. Or Chinese food.

4. Or basically anything that tastes good that you can’t eat.

5. And you have to provide your own snacks whilst you watch everyone else eat the good stuff.

6. Being the party pooper that can’t have a piece of birthday cake.

7. At least there’s wine.

8. Having to bring your own everything to a family gathering whilst trying your best not to offend your relatives and their best pasta bake.

9. Going out to restaurants and grilling the poor waiter about the ‘safe foods’ on the menu.

10. Then lecturing them on how you need it prepared with as little chance of cross-contamination as possible.

11. Yet they still serve your gluten-free meal with bread.

12. Also knowing that when said waiter finishes their shift, they WILL be plotting your death.

13. Getting majorly aggravated when restaurants change a recipe and you can no longer eat it as a result.

14. Or when your number of choices on a menu goes down quicker than a shot of tequila.

15. Shopping at Whole Foods and watching people buy boxes of brownies because they’re gluten-free and therefore will make for perfect weight loss food.

16. Having people sneer at you thinking that you are also one of those people.

17. Having the occasional ‘why me?’ meltdown, wondering how bread could play you like that.

18. Walking past a Krispy Kreme stand and thinking about how you really didn’t appreciate the time you had together and that you shouldn’t take donuts for granted.

19. Paying twice the price for basic food stuffs.

20. And having to pay double for parking because it takes so much longer to shop because of inspecting every list of ingredients.

21. When withdrawal gets too much and you're convinced that the food is trying to seduce you.

22. So you try to justify suffering for 24 hours.

23. All in the name of a greasy, cheesy, gluten-y, allergen-filled chimichanga.

24. Binge drinking corn-distilled vodka because you’re totally responsible and committed to a gluten-free life.

25. And then the next day, having to stick with just a greasy hash brown from the Drive-Thru when a double sausage and egg McMuffin is the only thing that can truly save you.

26. That feeling of genuine excitement when you look at the ingredients and find out something that you’ve always loved is [insert allergen here]-free.

27. And then having all dreams dashed by the dreaded label: ‘may contain traces of’.

8 Free From Freezer Favourites

Generally speaking, I love cooking fresh foods and make everything from scratch, but we all need freezer food. Freezer food is amazing because all we have to do is throw it in the oven and eat it, and works perfectly in the following scenarios:

• you've finished work late and you're stomach is contemplating eating itself
• you feel like reliving your favourite primary school-style dinners
• hangover from hell
• similarly, suffering from non-self-inflicted illnesses and needing feeding
• you just can't be arsed

Since I was diagnosed (we're gearing up to Month #3 people!) I've turned to frozen food for all of the above on several occasions, so I feel ya. Just to make things easy for you, here are a few frozen gluten-free/dairy-free/egg-free gems that have been approved by my taste buds:

1. Tesco FreeFrom Thick Pork Sausages

Generally, I'm dubious of anything that moves me out of my food comfort zone. I've been a Richmond sausages girl from the word go, so moving onto another brand (even more so, gluten-free) did make me a bit dubious at first. Why I bothered to worry I don't know, theses are literally incredible. They taste exactly like normal Lincolnshire sausages! They churn out a bit more fat than I generally like, but other than that I don't have a bad word to say about them.

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2. Sainsbury's Freefrom Cod Fish Fingers

Fish fingers was one of those foods that I ate probably once every few years - maybe even every five - and I always had good memories of fish fingers at school. I'd fancied them for a while just before I was diagnosed, and when I found these in Sainsbury's I thought why not kick the craving and try them out. Just like the sausages, you could blindfold me and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between those and normal ones. Now I've always got a box in my freezer.

3. Georgia's Choice Mexican Bean Bakes

I've never actually been one for bean burgers, despite the fact that I pretty much love all vegetables, beans inclusive. When I saw these it was actually the fact that it was a Mexican-style bake that I picked these up, and I'm so pleased I did. They're packed full of so many vegetables and goodness, and they have just the right amount of chilli kick. I bought mine in Sainsbury's but I know quite a few big supermarkets do stock them.

4. Tesco FreeFrom Onion Rings

I love onion rings. If ever I went out, to a burger place or similar and they had onion rings on their menu, I was getting a side of them and there was no stopping me. These Tesco onion rings are massive, and the coating is lovely. I will say that occasionally there is the odd onion ring that seems to be more ring than onion, but I can't criticise this particular brand alone because we've all been there.

5. Amy's Kitchen Gluten-Free Mexican Beans & Rice Burrito

I love me some Mexican, especially burritos. I found it really hard to find a picture, so if you could all be dolls and imagine this exact product in the same packaging but green, and with gluten-free on it, that would be great. These burritos are packed full of beans and rice, just like it says on the tin, and it's a really nice gap filler if you eat it on its own, or if you make some skin-on fries and a salad makes a great dinner. I couldn't find any supermarket websites that showed they stocked the gluten-free version, but I bought mine at Whole Foods.

6. Georgia's Choice Gluten Free Fish Cakes

Much like the Mexican bean bake, these fish cakes have a perfect crispy coating that doesn't distract from the flavour. The inside of fish cakes can seem a bit sparse sometimes, where you can't even taste the fish, but these Georgia's Choice ones are lovely!

... and obviously I couldn't NOT mention these:

7. Walls Swedish Glace Non Dairy Frozen Dessert in Smooth Vanilla

To be honest, I don't know why they call this 'frozen dessert'. It kind of tells you not to get your hopes up and that there's a chance that it's going to taste more like a vanilla sorbet. Wrong. It is so damn creamy, it's creamier in taste than most actual ice cream. It also comes in a raspberry flavour, but I think that this is an old wives tale or something because I'm yet to find it anywhere *sulks*.

8. Booja Booja Hunky Punky Chocolate Dairy Free Ice Cream

I always loved the infamous Chocolate Fudge Brownie, and I found that Booja Booja chocolate ice cream alternative is basically that without the chunks of chocolate fudge. Bold statement I know, but this is some seriously good ice cream, full of flavour, mega-chocolatey and really enjoyable. Just break up a gluten-free brownie and you've basically got your own Ben & Jerry's, minus the nasty allergy aftermath.

Click the images to shop these products at your local supermarkets.

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Symptomising Coeliac & Friends

When it comes to food allergens, there are apparently over 300 different symptoms that can indicate an intolerance of any one of them. This explains why at first it's so tough to diagnose the little buggers.

Everyone's story is different when it comes to symptoms, so I'll give you a run-through of mine.

Around two years ago, I first went to my GP (then in Southampton where I was at uni) complaining of extreme lethargy, brain fog, migraines, general aching and not feeling 'right'. My mum was diagnosed with under-active thyroid a few years ago, so immediately this was the doctor's concern for me. Blood tests came and went - several times - and nothing flared up on the thyroid front. It was clear that if it wasn't thyroid, my doctors had no real interest in investigating any further and blamed it on all my partying at uni. I wasn't a crazy party girl, so to me this was complete bull, and just an easy way for them to sweep a student patient under the rug for a while. I visited doctors on maybe four occasions for the same problems over and over again. No thyroid, no problem.

When I moved back to London in January, I went and saw my new GP after feeling gradually worse from around November of last year. I also found myself experiencing really strange moodswings, something that I never really suffered from. One day I would be super happy and excited and the next I could have three consecutive days of feeling sad, crying or desperately wanting to for no reason, and just feeling majorly down in the dumps. I explained to my doctor that I was in a pretty hectic job (some days I was working 19/20 hours), but that my tiredness and other symptoms had been something going on for a long time. I didn't even think to mention my mood, as I assumed it was because of the stress from work. After realising that my mum suffered from thyroid, he immediately said that he wanted to check mine out; I told him that I'd been tested several times and that it had been ruled out, but he explained to me that under-active thyroids drop gradually, and just because it appeared 'normal' on tests, didn't mean it wasn't worsening. I was put in for more tests and once again, no thyroid worries. I was however, anaemic.

The anaemia was a big surprise for me. I've always been quite tanned, no matter what time of year, and I just put my slightly paler-than-usual skin tone down to lack of sun and being cooped up in an office all the time. By this time I'd left my job; there were multiple reasons but I found my health deteriorating, and to put it bluntly, I was my number one priority. I went back to the doctors after finishing the course of iron tablets that I was prescribed, and was given an appointment with another doctor - my family doctor, funnily enough - who pointed out a vitamin D deficiency as well. I was sent away with a supplement on top. I decided as vitamin D equals sun, I needed a holiday right?

The infamous 'Gluten Baby'

I went to visit some family in Spain. I laid in the sun every day and slept most of the time. I didn't tan like I usually did, and went a funny grey colour. I hated it because everyone I saw made a comment about how white my skin looked in comparison to normal, and asked if I was okay. At this stage, I started to notice that despite how healthy my diet was (I actually cut out goodies etc in an attempt to see if it made any difference), that I was gaining weight at an alarming rate when I shouldn't have been, and it took longer than usual for bloating to go away after meals and so on. I actually laughed at the fact that a guy once offered me his seat on the tube thinking that I was pregnant. On top of that, everything in the digestive department wasn't so hunky dory and hadn't been for some time; it went from one extreme to the other. I didn't make any connection at the time.

Whilst I was away - I was with my mum - my mum noticed that I was waking up with large bruises across my body and asked what was going on. I told her I'd been getting them for a while but I must've just been accidentally hitting myself whilst I was asleep or just being clumsy without realising. She saw a rash on my feet as well, and I told her I was getting these 'heat rashes' regularly too. I think it was at this stage that she began to worry.

My friend's mum was diagnosed with a couple of food intolerances around that time, one of which was wheat, and as much as I knew what wheat was, I didn't really get it all. I did what all nosey people do, I took to the internet and thought I could maybe offer some food ideas or something for her once I understood a bit more. I ended up being directed to a page about gluten, gluten intolerance and Coeliac disease, where there was a list of symptoms. Out of nearly twenty symptoms, there were only three on that specific list that I didn't end up checking off. It was time to go back to the doctors.

I felt that if I went to my family doctor again he may be able to help a bit more as he knows my family's background. Disclaimer: he didn't, and he was useless. He had no interest in helping me out, and I ended up going back over to Spain to pay for an over-the-counter test in a pharmacy in a little village (that's the NHS for ya, ladies and gentlemen!), and as you know, the rest was history.

In hindsight, it took two years, minimum, for this to be diagnosed. Thinking about it even further back than that, my diagnosis answers a lot of questions that doctors couldn't answer before. For example, last summer I was hospitalised in Spain for an allergic reaction to liquorice (one of its main ingredients being gluten - HELLOOOOOO!), and when I was asked if I had Coeliac then, I said no. But of course, I didn't know at the time. But it just goes to show!

One of the itchy rashes that appeared mid-reaction

It can take years for Coeliac, gluten intolerance or other food allergies to finally be detected, which is why it's super important to keep an eye on your health and if anything doesn't feel right, go to your GP. If your GP says there's nothing wrong, only you know your body; you're entitled to speak to them and tell them what your body is telling you. Here are some of the symptoms that I encountered at different stages before my diagnosis, and some still creep back in if I'm accidentally gluten-ed or eat something that's been cross contaminated:

• Extreme lethargy
• Aches and pains in muscles and joints
• Migraines
• Brain fog and confusion
• Moodswings (uncharacteristic)
• Anaemia
• Vitamin deficiency
• Tooth discolouration (I had a single tooth that confused dentists for discolouring with no explanation)
• Weight gain (although most Coeliac sufferers actually suffer from weight loss)
• Bruises
• Stomach pain
• Constipation
• Diarrhoea
• Extreme bloating (aka Gluten Baby)
• Hair loss
• Rashes
• Extremely dry skin
• Numbness and pins and needles in hands and feet multiple times a day
• Mouth ulcers
• 'Chicken skin' (slightly bumpy and red skin on the backs of the arms)

Remember, these are only just a few of the possible symptoms. Trust your body and if it gives you any of the following on a near daily basis for a prolonged period, make sure you check it out. I promise you, diagnosis is the first step to feeling better again... Finally!

Making Peanut Butter Cookies

Instagram people will know that I love to bake cookies. Why pay £3 for a pack of eight biscuits that you're not overly keen on when you can make a rich, gooey batch of peanut butter cookies in the comfort of your own kitchen?!

I've also had people over on Instagram request for me to write a post dedicated to some of the gluten-free and vegan cookies I've posted on several occasions, and you'll be pleased to know that all bar my shortbread-style biscuits, they all follow the same basic ingredients. I love the versatility of this recipe and hopefully if you try it out you'll be able to play around with it too.

RECIPE

(makes 8 large cookies)

1/4 cup non-dairy spread of your choice

1/4 cup peanut butter (use a little bit more if you're using crunchy over smooth)

1 flax egg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 cups GF flour

plus any additional ingredients you want to throw in there!

I'm going to show you the process from when I made my last batch, which were the PB crunch cookies. Here was everything that I used:

As these are vegan (as the majority of my treats are), I've experimented with both the Orgran No Egg Egg Replacer - you can buy it here - and a flax egg as my egg replacements, and both work equally as well as each other and help keep the cookies moist. This time I was working with the latter so started by preparing the flax egg (one tbsp flaxseed, three tbsp water) and left it to one side for about five minutes so it became a much thicker consistency.

In a separate bowl I creamed the peanut butter and the non-dairy spread and got them well blended, then added the sugar (I only had demerara that day but I usually use two different sugars) and the flax egg. Gradually I added in the vanilla essence and all of the other dry ingredients and got a mixture that looked like this...

Because it was quite dry, I added a couple of drops of almond milk (I didn't even measure how much it was that small an amount, I just did it slowly so I could keep mixing and see if it improved the batter). Looks a lot better now right?

Then using a spoon I scooped the mix onto baking parchment and put them in the oven at 180C.

25 minutes later, there they were!

It really is a simple recipe, and as I said before, so versatile. I definitely have plenty of ideas up my sleeve to experiment with in the future with this recipe as a base.

As you can see from the photos, I made these with crunchy peanut butter so the texture was completely different from the other batches that I'd made. I actually prefer using smooth peanut butter, but I didn't realise I was out of it until I'd started prepping the flax egg, but these definitely made a nice change and mixed it up a bit.

Here's the first batch of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies I made; these follow the same basic recipe as the cookies above, but use smooth peanut butter and just have chips added into the mixture!

Previous batches I've made include a fruit and nut style cookie (with raisins, which work surprisingly beautifully with the peanut butter) and chocolate chip peanut butter cookies (dairy-free chocolate chips, obvs!). Another great thing about these cookies is that they're so moist that they can be stored in tupperware and can last up to four or five days after baking day. Well, that's if they last that long...

Review: Get The Glow by Madeleine Shaw

As I explained on my Instagram, cookbooks have never really been my thing. I've always had my own recipes and on occasion took to the internet to spice things up a bit. With the frustration of having to change my diet so drastically after establishing my favourite personal recipes, I kind of had to be grateful for the faddiness of 'eating clean'. I bought this alongside Deliciously Ella (Ella Woodward) - the review is coming! - in the hope of getting some ideas.

The first section introduces Madeleine's 'six week programme', breaking down the weeks individually and discussing what should be introduced to and banished from your belly. The weeks go as follows:

• Week One: 'Ditch the Junk' encourages you cut out all sugars
• Week Two: 'Fat: Friend or Foe?' differentiates the good fats from the bad
• Week Three: 'Eat Clean, Think Clean' promotes self love and positive affirmations
• Week Four: 'Beat the Bloat' pushes a completely gluten-free diet
• Week Five: 'Rest and Digest' talks about mindful eating and exercise
• Week Six: 'Live Your Glow' concludes the programme, touching on maintenance and ethical food sourcing

Now I must start by saying I love this book, however, this section of the book does contain a tiny bit of pseudoscience in places, much like most clean-eating books currently circulating. This aside, this section is super helpful and informative to those who are new to this way of eating, or people who want to know more about key nutrients. A very minuscule criticism I will make (this is my inner bopo babe talking) is about the few references to weight loss as a result of adapting to the programme. If it was down to me, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it, but I understand that there are more people out there who want to eat healthily with weight loss as a key objective. However to me this isn't a selling point; the 'glow' is something that prioritises you feeling better over dropping a dress size, and in Madeleine's defence, increased health is her most important consideration.

Now for the fun part, the FOOD!

No dishes are void of colour, flavour, or goodness, and with 100 recipes to choose from, there's something for everyone. The fact that all dishes are gluten-free is obviously a bonus, and with the exclusion of dishes that are egg-focused (for example the yummy-looking pea and dill omelette with smoked salmon), everything is pretty easy to substitute where needed in order to fit in with my diet. I've noticed that with my diet, I do use more sugar than I used to, so it's nice to know that with the occasional recipe extracted from this book (especially the desserts), my sugar levels are safe.

I'm most excited for the chocolate hazelnut crepes, the Mexican BBQ grilled corn and quinoa salad with chilli salsa, and of course the raw lemon cheesecake!

Most people's concerns with cookbooks that feature clean and raw recipes are the cost of groceries and their availability. Yes, some ingredients can be tough to find and little bit pricey, but I shop frequently at the likes of Whole Foods and Holland & Barrett, where I generally find everything I need. I'm also pretty used to paying more for my groceries these days anyway, so personally for me this makes no massive difference. However, I got my mum (who has no intolerances or allergies and eats a normal diet) to have a look through the book and see if there were any ingredients that she didn't know of or thought were generally inaccessible. There were no ingredients that jumped out at her as something new to her or too expensive to buy. She said that she noticed that lots of the ingredients reappeared in other recipes, which therefore makes it more economical. We all know there's nothing worse than buying special ingredients for one recipe and then leaving them in the cupboard never to be used again.

Overall I think it's safe to say that this book is gorgeous, both in content and in layout. Madeleine's collection of recipes and friendly introduction leaves you eager to get cooking and working on your glow. I would most definitely recommend this to anyone who fancies a fresh injection of goodness into their meals!

You can get your copy of Get The Glow (£20, Orion Books) here.

RATING: ★★★★★

Are You Getting Any?

Vitamins and minerals, I mean!

When I first got ill, it seemed to be a mix of stress, tiredness and all-in-my-head-ness. Doctor's had ruled out thyroid (my mum has underactive thyroid) on several occasions. It wasn't until after about six months of feeling like crap, they told me I was anaemic. In hindsight, amongst everything else, the doctor probably should've looked into this a bit more carefully alongside all my other symptoms, but I optimistically moved onto my family's GP for him to do some more digging. The optimism didn't last. He had zero interest in the slightest, if anything, he made me feel like I was just wasting his time. If I even mentioned anything to him his response was 'you're 22, you're meant to feel like that' to 'I know, I have a pHd'. The first time round, I was given some iron tablets and sent on my way. The plan was once I'd finished my prescription of them to go back for more bloods. When I returned, feeling even worse than I did before, tests showed that I was now vitamin D deficient, too. He gave me tablets and then told me to go and see some sunlight and I'll feel better in a week. Even with anaemia and a vitamin deficiency amongst everything else, he still told me there was nothing wrong with me. I got increasingly worse and the rest is history...

Many people who suffer with coeliac disease have iron and other vitamin deficiencies amongst the rest of their symptoms. Others include magnesium, zinc, vitamin K and essential fatty acids. The latter is one of many reasons for weight loss in coeliac sufferers and consequently malnutrition. If this is you, or you think that you may have any form of deficiency make sure that your GP is either prescribing you with something or recommending a store-bought supplement in order to treat it.

As my vitamin D and iron levels are fixing since my diagnosis, I've bought a general multivitamin, probiotic and aloe vera from Holland & Barrett

Once diagnosed, it's important to keep your meals and snacks packed full of the vitamins and minerals that you need. For the sake of keeping risks of osteoporosis at bay, the general population's calcium requirements are less than coeliacs, and calcium deficiency is common post-diagnosis. A lot of gluten-free substitute meals are fortified with calcium and iron to help keep levels up at a healthy level among other vitamins.

A lot of your required vitamins and minerals can be found in dairy and eggs, two things that are, as you already know, off the menu for me. The majority of non-dairy milks are fortified as are some egg replacements, but it's important to know alternatives that are also providers of all the goodness that our bodies need.

There are common misconceptions when it comes to vitamins and minerals, especially in younger people. For example, I always associated vitamin C with just citrus fruits, iron with spinach and vitamin E with a really lovely Body Shop face cream I used to use! For those of you who are a bit like me, here are a few lesser-known sources of some of your key nutrients:

vitamin A: fortified milk, liver
vitamin B6: meat, non-citrus fruits
vitamin B12: fish, fortified cereals and grains

vitamin C: dark green veggies, strawberries, tomatoes

vitamin D: butter, fatty fish, eggs

vitamin E: salad dressing, nuts, seeds

calcium: broccoli, white beans, kale, almonds

magnesium: wholegrains, seafood, cocoa

iron: dried fruit, eggs, poultry

Making Chocolate Fudge Muffins

One of my favourite pastimes has always been baking. Admittedly, it was a case of going out and buying some eggs and a box of whatever Betty Crocker creation I fancied making that day. Since going everything-free I've had to hold back on baking from a box, saddle up and get on with it from scratch.

I'd made these before I started my blog and had mentioned them to my mum. Yesterday I was craving a muffin or spongey cake of some description and decided to whip up a batch of chocolate muffins with chocolate fudge frosting.

This is what I got together to make the muffins:

First off I mixed all dry ingredients...

...And then all the wet ones (ugh doesn't that look grim?!)

Then it looked like this. Note: Do not, I repeat DO NOT, run your finger round the bowl for remnants once you've put the actual muffins in the oven. GF batters and mixes are for the most part super gross.

Once I got those beauties popped in the oven, I got to work on the frosting. Now this part you CAN eat from the bowl, winner. Mixed up these in a little bowl (you can tell I forgot about photographing these until afterwards)...

...And I got this gorgeous frosting that DEFINITELY competes with Mrs Crocker.

25 minutes later I got the then-little cakelets out of the oven and got these monster muffins; I know they look average here but they are literally gargantuan.

Annoyingly I then had to find myself something to do, because it gets ridiculously tempting to eat the frosting before the muffins have cooled down. I just about made it to cooling stage - I got carried away reading the wonderful Fat!So? (Marlin Wenn) - then slathered on the frosting, and helped myself to the rest with a spoon. I let these set a bit so that the frosting slightly hardened, but they would be equally nommy if you wasn't in the mood to hang around, which normally I'm not. I sprinkled some dairy-free fudge over some of them just to add extra fudginess (because who wouldn't want that?).

Also, if you were clever enough to notice that I baked seven and iced six, that would be because my favourite critic (mum) got lucky cupcake numéro siete! And the verdict from Mother the Gluten Lover? She actually preferred these to 'normal' muffins - couldn't ask for more really could I?