Chicken Sesame Stir Fry

This recipe is so delicious and so so simple! You can whip this one up as soon as you get home from work and it will only take 20 minutes!! I got this recipe from Kate Scarlata's website. She has a few good ones on her blog .... My boyfriend loved this dish and he is a fussy eater.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast about 200 or 300 grams
2 tblspn soy sauce (I used Tamari which is gluten free and low sodium)
1 tblspn sesame oil
1 tblspn minced ginger
1 tblspn sesame seeds
2-3 cups of any veggies you like (I used carrot & zucchini)
Olive oil
Brown rice (I used a packet of the 90 second ready brown rice)

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds and minced ginger together
2. Add in chicken then put in the fridge for 15 minutes to marinate
3. Cut up your vegetables while your chicken is marinating
4. Cook chicken in a frypan until brown and cooked through then transfer to a plate
5. Put in olive oil and sauté vegetables until al dente
6. Add back chicken and add in brown rice
7. Mix up and serve

Orange Choc Chip Cookies

These cookies are so tasty and so easy to make! You can leave out the orange if you like or leave the chocolate and add lemon and orange zest!  There are so many options!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup gluten free plain flour
1 cup soft brown sugar
150g softened butter (I used nuttelex)
1 egg
1 tspn vanilla extract or essence
1 cup chopped dark chocolate (I used 85% dark organic chocolate)
Zest of 1 orange



Method:

1. Step 1
   Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick paper. Beat 150g softened butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract for 1-2 minutes or until smooth and well combined. Beat in 1 egg.
2. Step 2
   Stir in 1 3/4 cups plain gluten free flour. Stir in 1 cup dark choc bits and orange zest until evenly distributed. Spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on the lined trays. Press down slightly.
3. Step 3
   Bake for 15-18 minutes or until light golden and cooked. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

New Website!!!

Hi everyone!

I can finally announce I have a new website up and running! It is still in it's early stages and has only JUST gone live but I can say I am very proud of it! My brother and Dad are very talented people who helped in setting it up. Please go on and have a look and also click the link to my Facebook page and Instagram page to like it www.lowfodmapliving.net

Mel X

Comforting Pumpkin Soup

Winter is here and it's time to bring out the soup recipes! Unfortunately nearly every soup has onion and garlic in it, and I mean every soup! Even if it calls for stock cubes, as most stocks bought from the supermarket have hidden fodmaps in them. I've created the below soup which I believe to be FODMAP friendly. I have used my frozen stock cubes from my homemade stock in an earlier post (worth making!). If by any chance you notice something is not FODMAP friendly in this let me know :)

Ingredients:

1. Kent pumpkin, peeled and chopped roughly
4-5 washed (or brushed) potatoes, peeled and chopped roughly
2 Smallish carrots, peeled and chopped roughly
2 Tspn cumin powder
6-10 cubes of homemade stock (in earlier post) Salt and pepper

Method:

I simply just cut everything up then in a big pot, put in all the veggies, frozen stock cubes, cumin, salt & pepper and fill the pot with water just enough to cover the veggies. Bring to boil then turn down to simmer until veggies are soft. If you have a bar mix then I suggest you use that to blend everything. If your like me and don't own one then I put the soup in batches in the blender. When you serve the soup you could drizzle a bit of lactose free cream on top and add some fresh chives if you wish. I hope you enjoy this! Let me know if you like it.

My Weekend ......

So I thought I'd write about the weekend I just had as I am still recovering and thought there might be others out there who have had the same thing happen to them.

I went away for a night with my boyfriend and one his best friends to a good friends 30th. During the day on Saturday I got up early, had a smoothie for breakfast then headed off for a session of hot yoga. After this I went to the market and had a wonder around and bought I bottle of kombucha (love this stuff). When I came home I had some of my homemade granola and a couple of homemade rice paper rolls .... When we left we thought we could get some dinner on the way and we were sure if not on the way we could get food at the venue where the 30th party was. My biggest dilemma was that when the food came out it was all foods I couldn't eat .... Like nothing at all! It was spring rolls, meatballs, sausage rolls, party pies etc. all from frozen food packages so I knew everything would be full of nasties and not on the low FODMAP diet :( I was so hungry that I thought, well I'm just going to have to eat ..... I instantly found myself getting bloated and I thought 'yep I knew this would happen and it's not going to be good' after eating the food and having a few glasses of wine I found I instantly turned drunk .... It was sudden and quick. When we got back to the motel I ended up being really sick. I was vomiting for hours and just felt so so sick like I haven't in a long time.

The next day was not any better. I had the hangover from hell! I kept vomiting throughout the day and just could not eat.... It was horrible. When I eventually got home and my boyfriend put me to bed , I had a sleep and woke up feeling better. My stomach however felt like it had been ripped apart ..... I still couldn't eat ... I managed to get down some soup but my stomach just felt swollen, tender and sick :(

I went to bed and managed to get a good sleep but waking up today to get ready for work my stomach was still not better! It still felt like it had been ripped apart ..... I ate some of my granola and I just felt uncomfortably full .... I wasn't hungry all day but forced down som sushi because I knew I had to eat. I drank tea to try calm my tummy but it didn't help.

I have definitely learnt my lesson to be careful when drinking alcohol. Obviously my body is really clean on the inside from all the good food I have been consuming and my body completely rejected all the toxins and bad stuff! I think I can officially hang up my drinking boots and enjoy maybe one glass when out ....

Has anyone on the low FODMAP diet had any similar experiences where your body has just rejected something bad?

Quinoa Granola with Olive Oil and Rice Malt Syrup

This recipe is delicious! It has to be one of my favourites so far and it is so so easy to make and lasts for 2 weeks in jars or containers. You can also eat is as a snack in the afternoon or for morning tea like you would a trail mix.


I had mine with sliced bananas on top with a bit of rice milk for breakfast this morning but you could use lactose free yoghurt and some blueberries or anything thats on the low FODMAP diet ... Bananas, raspberries, kiwifruit ....

This makes 6 cups, I will be making double next time as I have a feeling I will get through it pretty quick!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup rice malt syrup (You can also use maple syrup if you wish)
3 cups quinoa flakes (I just got these from coles)
Sea Salt
1 1/4 cups of raw walnuts, chopped roughly
1 1/4 cups pumpkin seeds, chopped roughly (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius (400F)
2. Whisk together the olive oil and rice malt syrup (or maple syrup) in a large mixing bowl
3. Add the quinoa flakes, stirring to combine thoroughly.
4. evenly spred the quinoa on baking paper lined tray and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
5. Stir every now and then untilthe flakes are dried and crunchy and a lovely golden brown, about 25 mins.
6. Let the quinoa mixture cool completely before mixing in the nuts.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Banana Cake

This gluten free banana cake is really yummy but I found it to be a bit of an odd cake to make ….

The reason I say this is I have made it twice with the first time being a big fail. I followed the recipe word for word and both times it still came out the same. What happens is that when you have mixed all the wet ingredients together you then sieve the flour and bi carb soda in … then you fold it all through gently, not over mixing. The first time when it was finished cooking it had pockets of raw bi carb soda or flour in it … It honestly tasted like poison.

When I made this for the second time on the weekend I did exactly as the recipe said but when I got to combining the wet ingredients with the dry it turned lumpy again! I was so mad and I didn’t want to risk cooking it to have those pockets of raw bi carb soda or flour again! So I tried to sift it through my sieve …. This worked because it took out all the lumps. But be prepared to stand there for a while. Because the batter was so thick it didn’t easily pass through so I had to keep scraping underneath to let new batter come through. It was taking so long that I ended up making a smaller cake …. The end result was really really good but you need patience with this one and if anyone has a better idea on what you could do to prevent the lumps I am all ears! I am not the best baker so don’t know why this keeps happening. Ok so here is the recipe ……

Ingredients:

328g Brown sugar (a lot I know)

328g Bananas

3 Eggs

84ml olive oil

170ml Lactose free milk ( I used rice milk but almond milk would work and any lactose free milk)

300g Gluten free plain flour

18g Bi carb soda

Method:

1.       Preheat the oven to 185C. Mix together the sugar, bananas and eggs in a bowl until light in colour and doubled in volume

2.       Mix together the oil and milk in a separate jug and pur slowly into the banana mix.

3.       Mix together the flour and bicarbonate of soda and sieve

4.       Add to the banana mixture and just fold through gently. Do not over mix

5.       Pour into a pre-greased, lined loaf tin. Bake until a skewer comes out clean and the top bounces back. I put my timer on for 20mins and checked it then just kept checking every 10mins until the knife came out clean.

I will upload a picture very soon (I’m on a different computer)

Also please let me know how you go with the batter and if it is lumpy etc. I’d love to know if someone has had a break through. It’s unfortunate as this cake is really yummy!