'Tis the season

I love Christmas. 

It's a time to be thankful; a time spent with family. Oh, and an opportunity to eat your body weight in scorched almonds.* 

Family, food, and festivities. Seriously, what's not to love?

Plus, with more and more gluten-free Christmas treats like these now available, food intolerances are no barrier to enjoying the Christmas cheer. 

Along with celebrations and credit card debt, Christmas also brings with it summer warmth and delicious berries - meaning it's time to replace my winter rice porridge with delicious summer muesli.

Now finding muesli that's both gluten-free and low-FODMAP can be pretty tricky, especially since most dried fruits wreak havoc on sensitive tummies. 

But this recipe is just the ticket. 

It's light, scrumptious, and tummy friendly. 

Packed with the good energy you need to get you through your Christmas shopping. 

Tummy-friendly summer muesli

Makes 8 servings (3/4 of a cup per serving)

2 cups of gluten free cornflakes 

1 cup of buckwheat puffs

1 cup of millet puffs 

3/4 cup of chopped nuts

1/4 cup of sliced almonds

1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup of dried cranberries

1/4 cup of banana chips (broken into pieces)

1/4 cup of desiccated coconut

Mix all the ingredients until well combined. Keep in an airtight container. 

Serve with a low-FODMAP serving of summer fruit, your milk of choice, and a dollop of yoghurt. 

Note: A serving of muesli is low in FODMAPs. However, some of the ingredients can be high in FODMAPs if eaten in large quantities. 

* Dark chocolate scorched almonds are the business - delicious and low-FODMAP in moderation. But if you do plan to eat your body weight, I can't guarantee that you won't get a stomach ache. 

Guest post: What the gluten-free diet isn't

Recently I got the awesome opportunity to contribute a guest post for Glutey Girl. And here it is! 

Check out this link for my musings on common misperceptions about the gluten-free diet (plus the recipe for my decadent 'cream cheese' bagels).

Madonna biscuits

Gluten-free baking can be a challenge. And, in my experience, no form of gluten-free baking is more challenging than the humble biscuit. 

Gluten-free biscuits either turn into buttery pancakes or gritty sanding blocks. Or, if you're particularly lucky, some weird combination of both. 

I've tried countless recipes for gluten-free biscuits with little success. I thought maybe it was just me. Perhaps I just had biscuit-cooking incompetence to go with my intolerances? 

But my mother has assured me that is not the case. My Mother's garden statue, Madonna, has been lovingly doused with baking on a number of occasions after ill-fated attempts at making gluten-free biscuits - and Mum's a baking guru.   

So, in the end, I have given up and decided to make up my own biscuit recipes. 

These are my super easy peanut brownies. They are gluten-free, low in FODMAPs, and low in sugar. Plus they are pretty tasty. Sorry, birds - none for you today!

They also make use of Healtheries ground LSA (linseed, sunflower, and almond mix), my favourite new addition to our kitchen. Add a tablespoon to brown rice porridge for a delicious, wholesome breakfast.

Enjoy!

Madonna biscuits.

Madonna biscuits 

Ingredients 

25g butter 

1/2 cup of oil

1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter

1/3 cup of golden syrup

1/2 cup of desiccated coconut*

1/2 cup of ground LSA (linseed, sunflower, and almond mix)* 

2 cups of gluten-free flour blend (Edmonds is good)

1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips* 

2 tsp vanilla 

1 egg 

Method

Preheat oven to 180'C. Gently heat butter, oil, peanut butter, and golden syrup in a pot until a smooth consistency. Set aside to cool for a few minutes. In the meantime, grease your oven tray. Then mix together coconut, LSA mix, and flour blend in a bowl. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and egg to the wet mix and stir. Combine wet mix to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Roll into balls and place on the oven tray (2-3 teaspoons of batter per biscuit). Flatten biscuits slightly with a wet fork. Bake for 12 minutes. Makes 20-24 biscuits.

Note: I don't like my biscuits too sugary, but you could add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar to the pot if you want some more sweetness in your life. And, if you can tolerate it, these would be amazing with melted chocolate drizzled on top. 

* These quantities are such that a 2 biscuit serving is low in FODMAPs. Larger quantities can be high in FODMAPs, so eating the whole batch in one sitting should probably be avoided if you have IBS.

  

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