"Oats, I liked you before, but now I have found quinoa flakes."

In light of our recently diagnosed coeliac child I have discovered some new  ingredients I had seen but never used before.

All of a sudden i actually need to know what the heck Xanthan gum is. ( A  great replacement for gluten)
 Not to mention the fact that you need to stock way more flours than we would have before, 
In my cupboard at this very minute.

Potato flour,
rice flour 
tapioca flour
Sorghum flour 
soy flour
Buckwheat flour
cornflour

maize flour

Crazy i know, we even needed a new pantry organisation system  and heaps more jars to keep it all.

I have even been experimenting with my own pancake mixes, the kids aren't complaining at all. In fact I am getting good feedback. I don't mind the buckwheat box type but as a keen cook and a person that never bought packet cake, pastry etc before I'd rather steer clear of them. 

 In my hunt through heath food stores, I have discovered that these new found ingredients are not that cheap and nor are they in quantities I want, I used to buy  10 or 15 kgs of flour for goodness sakes. 

So I have found that my local dried food and nuts store NSM has an incredible selection of bulk ingredients and yes they had all of the above at way cheaper prices.
Also the Asian supermarkets are great for tapioca pearls, rice vermicelli and rice paper, all in larger packs than the supermarket. I have a rice paper eating machine at home now, so I need the 30 pack thank you. 

 I have absolutly been loving finding an alternative to oats. See I liked oats, as an ingredient I made my own mueslis, bars, crumbles, etc, We even had a 5 Kg bag of beautiful organic oats that we swapped with our neigbour.  But oats as a porridge, I have never really been a fan.I always felt like i was missing something, not quite getting what was so good about it.  I guess we were always eating it too late, It would set up or I couldn't summon the kids to the table fast enough they'd come in dribs and drabs and the porridge would just go all blahhh.

Now.... 

I have now made rice flakes into porridge
and my new favorite is quinoa flakes as a porridge. 
Both of these maintain a creamy lovely texture and don't set up quite like oats, I  love that it's what I wanted out of oats.
Even my son who never liked porridge oats is just loving the rice porridge.

As you may have read in my last post Circe ( the recently very ill one, or Coeliac Circe) is not yet back on the conventional breakfast bandwagon. No she is still getting the night before leftovers, but that's ok I am rolling with it, she's eating that's all I care about.

I am also using Physillium Husks to boost our fibre and LSA. 
We are eating more nuts and seeds, even more than we did before.  Phoenix is eating pepitas, sunflower seeds cashews and almonds for goodness sakes, I always wished he would and now that our snacks are a little more limited he is trying new things. 

This was this morning's breakfast  for my high schooler, and I. 

Quinoa porridge made with skim milk, drizzled with honey sprinkled with physillium husks, LSA and some poached Bartlet pears, eaten outdoors before the sun even peeked over my fig tree and the heat of the day set in and all the other children were all still tucked in their beds. Now that's bliss.



  

   

Sometimes you just gotta let it all go.

I just hit delete on a big post about what we'd been up to. The start of high school the start of prep and the start of a new school, an illness that is still keeping my little darling Circe from doing all she wants to do, like wearing a ballet skirt and balancing bananas on her head and even both at the same time. I deleted it all, ever done that, I do it often now.

Instead I thought I'd tell you the funny things I've had to feed Circe at breakfast since she became ill and since her gluten free diet. She's not keen on the gluten free cereals, who is? I've been making some into honey joys and rice crackles,  it's like a birthday party everyday here, minus the cake!
So, Circe  goes to bed  each night thinking she'll eat more of her yummy dinner as soon as she opens her eyes ( and not a moment later.) No matter what it was she wants it.
Now this is hard for a person like me Breakfast is breakfast, even if I wake at noon ( never happens) I want bacon and eggs or yoghurt and fruit.

Since being ill her appetite is all over the shop!, she eats constantly, her tiny body is working so hard to just feel full. She is not absorbing fats yet so she is just hungry all the time. Her tummy though is trying to process it all with a small intestine that has atrophied with coeliacs. Now this also seems to have made want foods that you would not normally eat first thing in the morning.

For example

I've fed her rice paper rolls with Tamari one day at breakfast, she'd even had them at 1.00 am in her bed half in her sleep.
I've given her ginger ale with soda at 7.00 am.
I've even cooked up a handful of rice noddles and last nights osso Buco for breakfast.
She's had me reheat curry and rice first thing, before I can even have a cup of tea.
She's had spaghetti bolognasie beside her beans on rice toast
I have given her fried rice of which she'll eat two bowls.
We've even had sushi.
Her new thing is ham and cucumber on tooth picks.
Not to mention the little addiction.
She is so addicted to peckish thins, a plain gluten free rice cracker. She asks for them whist she waits for the breakfast/ dinner( whatever it is) when I say she can't have them till morning tea she thinks that's millions of moons away. And it is cause she is waking, starving at 6.30 am.

This is our conversation of late regarding the peckish thins

Circe: " Mum, can I have one of those crackers thingis, what are they called again?".
Me:" rice crackers?"
Circe: " Yes, they're so crunchy and a little bit salty"
Me:" But you've had hundreds"
Circe :" Mum.... I don't want hundreds, I just want one"
Me: "You want one.... for the hundredth time today".

Seeing as I have been spending so much time in the kitchen and she is overseeing all that I am doing, I set up a little sleeping mat for her there.
She gets quite tired, her legs get tired and achy so she spends hours on this mat. Today I snapped her having a colossal three hour nap.

Tomorrow I'll show you how I spent that nap time giving Miss five all of my attention, because she needed it, this has been really hard on her.