Wheat Protein in Ecover Washing Up Liquid... Eeek!

Most of you lovely people who read my blog on a regular basis will already know that I am gluten intolerant. I mention it here and there but I try not to 'go on' about it too much because I don't want a defunked set of genes to define me or my health. That being said it is a major part of my life that I have just learnt to live with. I have to check the ingredients of everything I buy to eat or drink, and I mean everything. If I am eating out somewhere I have to check how meals have been made and exactly what is in them, some places just hand me this massive allergy book of their food that I have to wade through and try and work out exactly what is safe-ish for me to eat. If I don't stick to being gluten free I get really ill, I get stomach cramps that are so painful that I can do nothing but lie on the bed and cry, I get numbing bouts of exhaustion, my whole body aches, I feel uncomfortably full even when I haven't eaten followed by feeling starving even though I don't want to eat. Then I get this weird brain fog so it is really hard for me to concentrate and I get cranky because everything is an effort. Plus a myriad or other symptoms. I'm sharing this here because I just want people to know that people aren't gluten free because it is the cool new diet, it isn't a lifestyle choice, its choosing between health and illness. (If it was a choice I would eat pork pies, black pudding, chelsea buns, oh the mouth watering list goes on).  

With all this in mind I bought some new Ecover washing up liquid at the weekend, I had just finished a bottle of the camomile scented one (this one has no wheat in it) and I was super happy with how long it lasted and how well it washed even the dirtiest of pans. I picked up the lemon and aloe vera because it was the only one the shop had. At home when I was waiting for the kettle to boil I absent mindedly read the ingredients and stopped dead when I read WHEAT PROTEIN! This spread a mild form of panic over me (I'm sure people with food intolerance/allergies with be able to relate to this). Wheat protein in washing up liquid, I would never have thought of reading the ingredients on such a product. I searched the internet to try and find out if it was still safe for me to use and couldn't really find an answer. I was mostly met with the reply of 'As long as you don't eat it haha', well thanks for this lighthearted approach to my possible foreseeable future on the toilet, but I am going to wash plates, bowls, eating utensils with this washing up liquid and if it has a lot of wheat protein in then it could cause me problems. 

So as a last resort I emailed Ecover for some help with this issue and they were really quick at replying and were pretty helpful, this was the reply that I got:

Good Morning Kirsty and thanks for your email

We do use wheat protein in our Lemon & Aloe washing up liquid but you would only really have an issue with this if you ingested the product as it makes up 0.04% of the product. Our Camomile and Marigold and Grapefruit & Green Tea washing up liquids don’t contain any wheat protein

I have a severe gluten allergy myself and I am fine with the lemon & Aloe but if you want to be extra sure then we would recommend rinsing the plates after washing.

After reading this I think that I will use this washing up liquid as it does only have a tiny amount in it, but I will keep an eye on my health and just see how it ticks along. I haven't been too well lately but I think I may have tracked it down to some cheeky barley malt in Vimto... Ooops. 

Hope this post helps people who might also be worried about this (I hope I wasn't the only one lol). 

Much Love.

xkx

Coeliac Awareness Week - Yummy Gluten Free Garlic Bread.

It is Coeliac Awareness Week this week, so I thought I would share my super easy gluten free garlic bread recipe. Warm, soft and buttery on the inside with a slight crunch on the outside. I must admit I used to be very lazy and just buy garlic bread and put it in the oven to heat it up. When I found out I was gluten intolerant I couldn't do that anymore. So I had to take matters into my own hands and make my own! I don't make my own bread, I have tried a couple times and once the 'bread' is cooled I could defend my home against an intruder with it, it is that hard and dense. I have found that gluten free ciabatta or regular gluten free rolls work brilliantly though. So this is how I make my garlic butter. 

I don't ever really measure this recipe because it is so easy to make yummy. This is what you need:

1 knob of butter
6-7 cloves of garlic (I like my garlic butter strong, reduce this amount if you want)
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 teaspoon of dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon of dried tarragon

Put the butter in a cup in a bowl of hot water (so the butter starts to melt). Peel the garlic cloves and grind them into a smooth paste in a pestle and mortar, you could just chop the cloves up small if you don't have a pestle and mortar. Put the garlic paste in with the butter and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Stir this until the butter has nearly melted and add the dried parsley and tarragon. Then add the rest of the olive oil. You want the garlic butter thick but pourable. All you need to do now is to slice into some rolls, you want to leave one edge uncut so the slices don't fall apart and spoon the garlic butter down every cut you have made. Put them on a baking tray in an oven heated to 200 degrees C for about 5 minutes, until the crust of the bread has just started to toast. 

Hope you enjoy <3

Much Love

xkx

Gluten Free Rhubarb Bread & Butter Pud.

I had some Yorkshire forced Rhubarb kicking about in the fridge and it needed to be used up before it went over so i decided that it was pudding time. I chopped up the rhubarb and stewed it with a little sloe gin. Next I added some fresh grated ginger and raisons, then just let it simmer quietly and cook down so the rhubarb turned into a thick syrupy mess. I tasted it and added 1 tablespoon of Demerara sugar just to sweeten it up a touch. 

After I had made my rhubarb compote I had a forage around the kitchen cupboards to try and figure out what to make. I decided to make a quick custard, this was actually pretty easy, I have tried to make custard in the past and have stuck to recipes religiously but all I have ended up with is weird, eggy lump broth. So this time I took a deep breath, cracked an egg and whisked it with a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar. I whipped it until it was really frothy, whilst I was doing this I had a cups worth of milk in a small saucepan on the hob warming. When my egg and sugar mixture was frothy and the milk was just below the boil I poured the milk onto the egg gradually and whisked like crazy so it didn't curdle. I transferred it back to the small saucepan and heated it gently and kept whisking. It did threaten me with turning lumpy but I whisked like my life depended on it, no curdles for me today! After that I added a large flourish of nutmeg. 

I spooned the compote into two ramekins then tore a small slice of brown gluten free bread into each one to cover the rhubarb. When that was done I poured over the triumphantly un-lumpy custard, pushed any rogue bread so it was submerged then left it to rest for about an hour. When it was pudding time I cooked them in the oven on 180 degrees fan for about 20 minutes. 

This was super yummy, I haven't had bread and butter pudding since well before I found out I was gluten intolerant, so it felt like a real treat. I think I might try a marmalade flavour one next. I also realise I shouldn't really call it bread AND butter pudding because I didn't add butter but I can be a dessert maverick sometimes.

Hope you are having a great Saturday <3

xkx   

Snowy Saturday at Belton House.

It has been snowing all day and most of last night, Ed and I decided not to risk taking Doris for her MOT retest because the roads weren't great and we didn't want loads of salty road crud getting underneath her, as she needs some rust treatment down below anyway. So we rescheduled her in for next week. 

So after we had gluten free crumpets and scrambled egg for breakfast we decided to venture out and have a snow adventure. I whipped out our National Trust memberships and we went to Belton House. It is possible that this is the most beautiful National Trust place that Ed and I have visited so far and the snow made it even more sparkly.  

What a perfect day we had, full of adventure and we even had a hot soup picnic in the car before we set out home. I can't wait to visit this place in the summer when the gardens are all beautiful and groomed. Now we are tucked up under a rug on the sofa watching Eat Pray Love and I am trying to contain my wanderlust.

Hope you are having a great weekend <3

xkx 

A Very Moomin Birthday.

It was my birthday on Saturday and I decided to go home to my parents for the weekend. I wasn't expecting a cake but when Ed and I got there on Friday my mum was so excited that she couldn't keep it a secret until Saturday. This is possibly the best cake in the world! It has some of my favourite things on it, moomins, bats and toadstools! (I will be letting Ed eat the bats because I always think that black icing tastes a bit funky).

This is a gluten free victoria sponge with butter cream and home made raspberry jam... or in other words YUM YUM! I did feel sad cutting this lovely cake up but it was worth it because it is delicious and moist. 

Hope you all had a fun weekend and that your Monday was as good as a Monday could be.

Pre-Wedding Day to do List!

So today is the day before my wedding! Eeek. So this is my picture to do list that I have had to get sorted before the big day.

7:30am - Get up to dye my roots back to Ariel red. This takes a good few hours as I have to pre-lighten my hair first.

10:30am - Make sure all the paper work is sorted for tomorrow and sort out all the music that we need for the ceremony.

11:00am - Check the rings are somewhere safe!

11:05am - Watch a cheeky episode of Buffy, as Ed has gone to get his hair cut.

11:30am - Finish my vows whilst watching Buffy.

2:30pm - Get back from shopping and give my bouquet a once over.

4:00pm - Make a little fascinator for tomorrow.

6:00pm - Have gluten free fish and chips *YUM*.

8:30pm - Finish last minute food shopping for our little wedding lunch tomorrow, then chill out with my gorgeous husband to be and my lovely parents.

Tomorrow is the big day!! Can't wait <3