STOP! It’s NOT a Fad!

Hey guys and girls!

(Featured photo is from Madam Waffle in Lincoln – Blog post coming soon!)

I apologise – I haven’t posted in a while as i’ve been poorly and waiting to be diagnosed for this. that and the other – But thats another story!

SO! Walking into a Pancake shop and asking if they have anything Gluten Free – they had and offered me fruit..
I obviously understand about cross contamination and how it’s “difficult” to keep things okay… (totally kidding, unsure how this is difficult, but HEY! Thats me!).

It got me thinking about how a lot of people genuinely think Coeliacs Disease and Gluten intolerance is a fad. It also got me thinking about all the annoying and irritating things that are said to me and other people.. SO! Here’s a list of what NOT to say to someone with Coeliacs disease / that is Gluten intolerant – Not just written by me, but by others too!

“Do you need to be gluten free or you jumping on the band wagon?”
Yes, Yes we do. Unless you want to swap bodies for the day and deal with the pains and large amount of toilet paper that needs to be bought?
“Can you eat meat?”
Yes? Are animals made from Wheat?
“One won’t hurt!”
Have you been in the situation of your gut feeling like it’s punching itself over and over? Would you tell someone with a nut allergy that “One wont hurt!” ? No, didn’t think so!
When you ask if a milkshake is gluten free and they say no because it has milk..
Come on now, lactose is dairy.. Gluten is wheat.. they don’t even start with the same letter!
“I think you’re ok to have these, they’re vegan”
Just don’t… literally, don’t.
“Oh yeh, you’re not allowed milk and butter are you?”
Again, that’s dairy..
“She’ll grow out of it though won’t she?”
Do you grow out of your stomach and intestine?
“I used to have that but I’m fine now!”
Are stomach transplants expensive? Give me the number..
” Don’t give me any of that gluten free rubbish!”
Don’t give me any of that rubbish attitude! Oh wait..
“Well.. what can you actually eat then?”
A LOT! Just not as many takeaways and processed food!
“You should de-sensitise yourself by introducing tiny bits of gluten into your diet so that your body gets used to it.”
That’s not how it works – I beg you read google.
“I’m sure they do baked potato if you ask..”
Maybe I don’t fancy me 8th potato of the week!
When sitting down and asking for a GF menu – “Which one of you is the odd one”
Well, It’s not hard to see which one of you is the insensitive dickhead..
“I got crackers for you as you can’t eat bread!”
….Eye Roll.
“Oh you don’t eat wheat, or oats or anything. How do you manage?, I CAN EAT ANYTHING !”
Thanks for that hun, I hope i sleep better tonight now you’ve told me about your amazing diet.
“Just take the noodles out” or “or Just scrap the top off”
Yeah, take those nuts out the Nutella too, nothing like a bit of cross contamination for breakfast.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition. This is where the immune system – the body’s defence against infection – mistakenly attacks healthy tissue.

In coeliac disease, the immune system mistakes substances found inside gluten as a threat to the body and attacks them.

This damages the surface of the small bowel (intestines), disrupting the body’s ability to absorb nutrients from food.

It’s not entirely clear what causes the immune system to act in this way, but a combination of genetics and the environment appear to play a part.

Coeliac disease isn’t an allergy or an intolerance to gluten.

If you do this, the below dictionary explanation is what we do..

eye-rolling

ˈʌɪrəʊlɪŋ/

noun

1. the action of rolling one’s eyes, typically as an expression of exasperation, disbelief, or disapproval.

“there’s been plenty of eye-rolling and head-shaking over the pronouncements”

adjective

1.causing someone to roll their eyes in exasperation, disbelief, or disapproval.

“the lines are delivered with eye-rolling attempts at whimsy and satire”

There’s ALOT more, but heres a start. If this is you – give it a thought before you speak!

Bees xo

GF – Top 10 Pancake Toppings.

Excuse the bad photo on my featured photo! It’s a photo of a video from the most incredible pancakes I had last year.

It’s exactly a week today until pancake day and it’s only last year i had amazing pancakes. Before then they were pretty standard and stodgy due to the Gluten Free flour and ratios we mixed.

Here’s my top 10 pancake toppings ready for next week!

Nutella Pancakes! Pop the Nutella inside the pancakes and fold them over whilst they’re still in the pan, this way it melts. Serve them with orange, cherries, grapes, vanilla ice cream and maple syrup – All these flavours should be okay together, but they SO are!
Bacon and Maple Syrup. You can never go wrong with smoked bacon and syrup. Super simple but SO nice.
Peanut Butter and Banana. The banana breaks the peanut butter up so they’re not super sickly.
White Chocolate and Strawberry. – Melt the white chocolate and add into the middle of the pancakes, slice some strawberry too! Roll them up so theres filling all over.
Lemon or Orange Juice and Sugar. – It’s simple, easy, and works. Seems plain, but they’re full of flavour.
Sliced Peaches and Cream – add a little bit of sugar too so it’s a little sweeter.
Full English Pancakes – Sausage, Bacon, Egg, Tomato – Any excuse to have a fry up, and adding pancakes just makes it better.
Pizza Pancakes – Make your pancakes as usual, add a pinch more salt, fry, then add tomato paste, cheese and toppings of your choice, place under the grill for 3 minutes to melt the cheese.
Chocolate Orange Pancakes. – Add a spoon of coco powder into your pancake mix, fry up, serve with Orange juice poured over them, chocolate orange pieces, fresh orange.
Rainbow Pancakes – Add some food colouring into the pancake mix and fry as normal. These need some sort of topping too – but th ey look pretty cool.

Give at least one of these a go, tag me in your post and let me know what you think!

Bees xo

GF – Chilli Con Carne

The weather last week was freezing, snowing, and horrible! So it was time for some comfort food in-between work. We made Chilli con carne and it was beaut. We had it with Gherkins (my favourite), tortilla chips, Sour cream, rice, cheese and guacamole. We got the recipe from the BBC website too, but then altered it to be GF.

This is what you need..

2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1kg/2¼lb lean beef mince
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato purée
2 red chillies, thinly sliced, or 3-4 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 stick cinnamon
1 beef stock cube
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 x 400g can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 large bunch coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Method

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan with a lid and fry the onion and garlic until softened. Increase the heat and add the mince, cooking quickly until browned and breaking down any chunks of meat with a wooden spoon.
Stir in the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, fresh chilli or chilli flakes, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and Worcestershire sauce and crumble in the stock cube. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook over a gentle heat for about 50 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally until the mixture is rich and thickened.
Add the kidney beans and fresh coriander. Cook for a further ten minutes, uncovered, before removing from the heat, adding any extra seasoning if necessary. Serve with rice, guacamole, sour cream and everything else!

Enjoy, its really yummy!

Bees xo

GF Eating Out – Chiquito’s

Hey Guys,

Last night me and my mum went shopping and decided to have dinner out. We some how ended up in Chiquito’s and we were pleasantly surprised with the amount of gluten free options that they had on their menu.

They even had Gluten Free Desserts, which we all knows near enough impossible at a lot of places!

I ordered a Mock-jito for my drink as I was driving, it was so nice and really refreshing. You could either have it with Ginger beer or Lemonade, so i had lemonade.

We were going to order starters but decided not to, so i ordered a side of Halloumi. It came with a Cranberry salsa, that was really sweet but really tasty! These cheese itself was undercooked ( i mean i guess you say cooked? ) and it was really cold on the inside which was sad.

My mum ordered a bog standard chilli con carne for her main. It’s one of her favourite dishes and i tried a bit as thats also gluten free and it was SO good! I forgot to take a photo though which is annoying..

I had Steak fajitas for my main. The steak was cooked really well and it was cooked with onions and mixed peppers too.

It came with 4 corn gluten free wraps, fresh Salsa, Cheese, Guacamole and sour cream.

It was all really tasty and the service as pretty good too. We’ll definitely be going back to try some other bits from the menu!

Bees xo

Travel – Barcelona

Back in my little corner of the internet for my first new blog post of 2018!

We had such a busy Christmas, traveling here there and everywhere to see the family, but for Dan’s birthday and Christmas present I only got him a few silly little bits – because for his main present, I bought us a little city break and we had a couple of days in Barcelona. He’d been before but all he did was sit on a beach, so it was time for us to explore!

We woke up on the 27th and left my house (in the snow) at 4:45/5am – I was SHATTERED – Yet some how still managed a full face of makeup, as I knew as soon as we got there, we’d be exploring.

We landed around 1pm, got a Taxi to the hotel, got changed quickly and went exploring straight away. We got a taxi into the city centre as we wanted to make the most of our time there, so figured we’d sort out and work out the Metro on the way back, when we were no longer in a rush.

Our hotel was super cute. We stayed in a Spa hotel, yet didn’t actually use any of the spa, or even set foot in it because we were just too busy and the opening times of the actual spa itself clashed with everything we’d planned to do.

As we got into Barcelona city centre, Dan spotted my favourite shop before I did. Sarah told me there was a slide to get in, so of course, i needed to have ago.

HELLO SEPHORA!

The side was actually really fast, and I made Dan go down it first, I needed my instagram photographer at the bottom before me, or who else would i get to take the photos!?

I love, love, LOVE, Sephora.

But I stand by what i’ve always said – it needs an ABH counter. In my opinion it’s literally all thats missing.

We left with my Valentines day present – which i’m annoyingly not allowed until February. I can’t really moan though, i mean we did go to Barcelona for Dan’s birthday / Christmas present in the first place, after all!

I really like graffiti, like actual nice pictures etc, not the rubbish random letters done with spray paint that aren’t actually meant to be anything. I loved looking in the graffiti tunnel in London, and there was quite a lot around Barcelona. Dan hates graffiti, so every time I take a photo of any, he makes comments about any slight smudge of the wrong colour on any brick or paint work for the next week, purely to prove his point.

After exploring and looking around we found a little cafe to get some food, so of course we’re in spain, so we ordered Paella.

The place itself was super cute, it wasn’t very warm though, I was freezing whilst everyone else as sitting in T-shirts more than happy.

We ordered Olives to start, but they came with gherkins and onions, so i was in my element. I just stunk for a while after.

When the Paella came it was MASSIVE. Dan’s convinced it was only for 2 people, but i’m pretty sure 4 people could have eaten it and been more than happy.

Wherever we went to eat we kept being offered bread, and Dan kept declining it which was nice, look at him thinking about me and my non bread diet.

I got super excited about the Christmas lights so wanted to photo with them – turns out that the photo we actually took with them – they flashed off. Absolutely gutted, i promise they were cute!

I took a photo of these crisps just because they were Barcelona crisps and it made me kinda chuffed..

On our way back we went to La Rambla.

La Rambla is a street in the centre of Barcelona. It’s lined with trees and a mall. It stretches for around 1.2 kilometres connecting in the centre with the Christopher Columbus monument at Port Vell. It’s full of pavement cafe’s and souvenir kiosks.

It’s honestly amazing, you just need to be really careful as theres a lot of pick pockets around. Luckily we had our things in my bag which i wore round my front.

This may seem like nothing, and I can’t eat it because it’s full of Gluten anyway. But look! A bucket full of McDonalds Chicken Nuggets and Cheese bites! My Niece and Nephew would be in heaven with this!

The following day we woke up early as Tom and Alex had got us tickets to a tour of Camp Nou.

We left the hotel and followed google maps for all of 20 seconds, before we realised you could literally see it from out hotel.. Safe to say we took a slow walk down and managed to not get lost!

We got there and there was loads to see, and we found out that Dan’s not so short after all! .. Well, I mean, he’s slightly taller than Messi so?

There was SO much to look at.

Dan had an amazing time, even if i did make him take 400 photos…

By the end of the tour he said he was “All photo’d out” and we were really hungry so we took a walk and found somewhere to eat, and ordered some Tapas.

Our eyes were clearly too big for our bellies, we ordered Patatas Bravas, Garlic Prawns (which Dan liked because they were already half peeled..)

Squid, Chorizo Sausage,

And a plate of Meat and Cheese.

We were SO FULL! We jumped on the Metro (We found some train tickets that were like 14.50 euros, that covered us for unlimited travel for 48 hours – so these were perfect for us.

We ended up back at La Rambla, because we really wanted to see it properly, in the day time.

As soon as we got into the market area it was UNREAL. This isn’t even 1/4 of the first chocolate stand.

Marzipan fruits, and fruit jellies,

Look at how many jelly sweets there are! AND the fried eggs were bigger than my hands!

Fish, and nuts, fruit, chips, pizza, crisps, whatever you can think of, it was there.

I got some chocolate covered strawberries that were 1 euro ( i think ) they were so yummy, and gluten free too!

Here you decide what you want to eat, and they cook it for you there and then.

More chocolate… i was legit in heaven.

They had truffles that were genuinely bigger than my hand..

We walked out the other side of the market and walked around. I really wanted to see some of the Gaudi buildings around Barcelona, but as we were there for such a short time, I came to terms with the fact we weren’t going to have time, so we’d need to come back to see them.

Until I found some really cute and interesting looking stained glass windows and was staring at them for ages, i’m pretty sure Dan got bored of this, so we walked around the other side of the building to the front… Andddd it turns out we were already at one of The Gaudi Museums..

After this we decided to head towards the Metro.. and of course do a little more shopping, so Dan being Dan, and knowing how much I love Sephora ( I had walked around the football stadium with him for hours the same day ) said we could go back to Sephora. I won a hair treatment but have beauty works hair in the front of my head, so figured that was a no. They swapped it for a mini make over for me, so I queued up to get my mini make over, took one look at the state of her pallet and decided that was definitely going to be a no..

We walked some more, it got cold and we some how got peckish, so we stopped at Planet Hollywood in Barcelona. I had a Mocktail (non alcoholic cocktail) with orange juice, mango juice and red bull, it was SO nice but super sweet!

The gluten free options were amazing, but we knew they’d be good because of when we went to the Planet Hollywood at Disneyland Paris.

We ordered Nachos “For 2 to share” but they came out and they were absolutely HUGE! We definitely didn’t need mains..

So we went straight to dessert! It was SO good! This was a chocolate brownie sundae, but the brownie was gluten free. It was so yummy and warm.

Warm brownie with ice cream is something I really miss from when i was able to eat normal food.

We left and it had got really cold. I say this but the coldest it was the entire time we were there was 14 degrees, so i’m kind of unsure how i can say it was cold when it was -4 at home!

The following morning we were going to get the Metro to the airport as it was a simple get on and wait 32 minutes and get off at the last stop. The Metro station was also a 6 minute walk from our hotel, so really easy and super close. There was problems on the track, luckily i got a notification on my phone at 1am. So we ended up getting a taxi.

Heres my, it’s 4am, how is it already home time face.

We got to the airport and headed straight for “breakfast”.

Everywhere we go we always make sure we have a Burger King or McDonalds, so Dan decided we were getting a Burger King at the airport. When we arrived he didn’t fancy it and neither did I.

This was until I saw a huge sign that said “SIN GLUTEN!”

Gluten free Burger King! This meant we were definately having Burger King for Breakfast now!

Check out my Gluten Free Burger, WITH BREAD all wrapped up like a normal burger. The bread was so soft and lovely too! I wish they did this in the UK.

We got on the plane 50 minutes late because we were delayed. Then the plane didn’t take off for another hour and a bit. We were supposed to land back at Birmingham at 8:50am and didn’t land until 12:30pm. We wouldn’t have minded if we were in the airport at this time, but we were literally stuck on the plane. It’s safe to say I was really happy to finally get off of the plane!

We collected the car, and headed home. We climbed into our Christmas PJ’s and watched way to much of a box set on sky Q and snuggled into bed.

I cannot wait for our next adventure, and our first adventure of 2018!

BEES XO

GF – 15 Minute, Quick Tea.

It’s cold, it’s dark by like 4pm and although we’re only a few days away from Christmas, i’ve never felt less Christmassy..

SO GIVE ME ALL THE CARBS!

I got in from work not knowing what I fancied for dinner, and I was really annoying myself. So Of course, it had to be something with chips (I really needed the carb input..) so Garbage fries it is!

So, heres a super easy way of making them in less than 20 minutes!

You need –

2 Potatoes sliced into chips (keep the skin on)
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Parsley
2 Eggs
1 Green Chilli
1 Red Chilli
2 Salad Tomatos
Spring Onions
Smoked Bacon
Cheder & Red Leicester Cheese (grated)

Slice your potatoes into chips, keep the skin on and get them in the fryer or oven ASAP.
Dice the tomato, Slice the Chillis and Spring onions.
Cut your bacon into cubes, and fry it until it’s crispy in a little olive oil.
Grate the cheese.
Get your chips out and drain the excess oil off of them.
Fry your eggs – We want runny yolks!
Add salt and pepper to taste and shake them to even out the seasoning.
Add your chips to an oven proof dish and sprinkle the cheese on top – pop them in the oven for 4-6 minutes so the cheese melts.
Get the chips out, sprinkle your crispy bacon, spring onions, chillis, and diced tomato on top.
Add your Eggs on top and sprinkle with paprika and Parsley and the left over grated cheese.

EAT!

I had mine with loads of Sour Cream, and it definitely filled the Carb Craving! This fed 2 of us and there was still LOADS left…Oooops.
The best thing about this is it’s naturally Gluten Free so there is no need to swap anything!

Bees xo

M&S Gluten Free

Hey Guys, Welcome back to my little corner of the internet.

As my ASDA Gluten Free post seemed to help a lot of you (Thanks for messaging me and letting me know what you’ve tried etc, I really appreciate it!) I thought i’d try one for M&S.

Below i’ve got a selection of their normal GF Range and a selection of their “Christmas Range” also. Take a look and if you’ve tried anything else let me know!

Just to let you know, I missed a few photos, so found them on google!

Beef in Black bean sauce with white rice
I Personally didn’t like this, but I’m not a massive fan of Chinese food. also at £9 a portion, i’m probably not going to buy this again.

Sweet and Sour Chicken with white rice
I liked this, but again there was something missing. For me it needed a lot of salt and again, this was £8. £8 for a ready meal to me seems insane..

Spaghetti Bolognese
It’s hard to go wrong with this as it’s a pretty simple dish. It was nice, nicer when I added a lot of parmesan onto the top of it too! This was £7.

Lasagna
I really like M&S’ Lasagna. It has a lot of cheese and sauce on it and is really nice with a side salad and some home made garlic bread to make it into a meal! This was £7, so the meal does end up expensive by the time you’ve bought the other bits.

Mac and Cheese
Their Mac and Cheese is BEAUTIFUL! It’s not as good as Amy’s kitchen’s, but it is still really nice. It’s really creamy and you get ALOT. This is £7.

Spaghetti Carbonara
This was nice, even nicer with extra cheese, but isn’t everything? The portion of this seemed a lot more than the other pasta dishes they do other than the Mac and Cheese. This was £7.

Chicken Arrabiata
This was literally BEAUTIFUL! The chicken was cooked perfectly, there was enough sauce and the pasta wasn’t hard. One of the best Gluten Free ready meals they sell, easily. This was £7.

Smoked pork shoulder with apple barbecue sauce
Don’t let the picture confuse you, it is just the meat. It’s nice, but it’s not £12 nice. It would be better as a burger topper or mixed in with a pasta bake.

Tempura Chicken Tenders with Sweet Chilli Sauce
I can’t even describe these. They’re AMAZING!
I was worried the batter would go soggy but it didn’t and they were crispy and just.. basically you need to go and try these. The Sweet Chilli Sauce isn’t too spicy either, it’s got just enough of a kick to it. These were £8, but the packet itself could easily serve 4 people and they’re suitable for freezing too!

Scotch Eggs
I gave my mum a bit of one to try and she agreed they taste exactly the same as normal Scotch Eggs. These are something we ALWAYS have in the fridge now! They’re not the usual smaller portions cause their gluten free either, theres a full egg in there.

Cheese Crackers
They taste really good, they’re only £1.99 too.. But you kind of only get 4/5 whole ones in the entire packet. I ended up pouring mine onto my plate and dipping them in butter and grated cheese.. Still good though, but try not to forget to take your butter out the fridge a while before so it’s as soft as possible and slightly spreadable!

Chicken Pie
I didn’t have much filling in mine, the pasty was pretty dry too. When I had it the second time i added some brushed egg on top of it and it cooked and tasted a lot better.

Cod Fillet Fish Cakes
These are beaut, Crispy and full of fish! Bigger than i thought they’d be too. I have them with either a Salad or Chips and mushy peas.

Rhubarb Crumble
I really wanted this to be amazing, it wasn’t crunchy just very soggy. I’m going to try it again though and try and cook it slightly differently! Maybe i’ll try and add extra custard too. I’m not ready to give up on this yet!

Steak Pie
This was the same as the pasty in the Chicken pie above. This one did have more filling though which was a bonus I guess. Pies are really easy to make when you have GF Pastry in, so i’ll probably just stick to that from now on!

M&S has released it’s “Gluten Free Christmas Range” So I’ve tried a few bits that are below. If you’ve tried any of them, let me know!

British Ham Platter
This is £20 for around 40 slices. Theres 3 different types of ham which would be perfect for a family gathering.

The Gluten Free Party Selection
This comes with 64 pieces. A mixture of 18 barbeque pork belly squares, 12 mini chicken kievs, 10 sticky chicken yakitori kebabs, 12 sticky asian style chicken lollipops AND 12 mini toad in the hole with caramelised onion chutney.. ALL of this is only £30 and it honestly tastes great! You need to try it over the Christmas period.

Tandoori king prawn ring
This is £10 and the prawns are really meaty. Grab these if you see them cause they’re almost always sold out.

Sticky Chicken Yakitori Kebabs
These are amazing, theres so much meat on them and you get 20 for £14 which is an absolute bargain.

Gluten Free Sandwich selection
You get 14 Quarters which is like, 3 and a half sandwiches for £13. It isn’t the best value but theres a lot of filling in the sandwiches.

Cheese Celebration Cake
I mean look at this, Is this not a cheese lovers dream? If gluten free cakes haven’t stepped up by the time I get married, this has to be my cake.. Or maybe I should just be a little extra on my next birthday (which is in February, just so you don’t forget guys..) and get this as my cake! Although it is £155..

Bacon and Cheese Rolls
Cheese wrapped in smoked bacon.. AND you get 32 for £8. It’s safe to say i’ve just *attempted* to eat an entire pack of these for dinner.. and i’ve got no shame about it. They’re amazing! Grab these whilst you can.

Hog Roast on Mini Crackling plates
You get 24 for £14. They are literally circles of crackling with pulled pork, sage and onion stuffing and caramelised apple sauce on. They’re delicious! I hope they do these all year round.

New York Cheesecakes
And now it’s time for something a little sweeter. The Vanilla New York cheesecakes. They used to come with 1 in a box and it was kinda too big for one portion but not enough for 2. They’ve now upped their game and you get two in a box for £3.50 and the portion size is pretty damn perfect! Make sure you try these if you see them!

Gluten Free Extremely Chocolatey Party Cake
This is £25 which is mad expensive for the size it is. They say it’s 16 portions but unless you’re a mouse it’s about 10-12.

Christmas Gift Bag / Hamper
This is a bargain! It’s reduced from £40 to £32, but i feel even at £40 it was still a bargain! You get a bottle of Bordeaux Merlot, A Gluten Free Christmas Cake, Cluten Free mince pies (x4) , Gluten & Dairy free Christmas pudding, Hazelnut and Cinnamon Latte popcorn, Gluten and Dairy free box of chocolates, the Junco Shopping bag AND it’s sent with a personal message too! This is the perfect gift for your gluten free Friends, Families or work colleagues!

If you see anything else Gluten free in M&S let me know so I can give them a try myself!

Bees xo

GF – Christmas Desserts

Hey!
So it’s coming towards the end of November which means most people are in Christmas shopping mode! Whether is presents and gifts or food, everyone loves new things and products – and of course a bargain!

We went to ASDA at Fosse Park and had a look at their Christmas Gluten Free range of deserts – and we were pleasantly surprised!

It’s not that long ago that even getting a cake or a loaf of bread that didn’t resemble a door stop or a brick was impossible – so ASDA, You’ve stepped up, and we’re all very grateful!

£1.50 for 4 gluten free mince pies?! This is mad, they’re usually £2 each from the bakery near me!

This Christmas cake is from the ‘Extra Special’ range… and it better be extra special for £6.50..

He’s no Colin the Caterpillar, but he is Roddy the Reindeer and thats enough for me! He’s £6, so if your birthdays in December.. This is a must!

Again from the “Extra Special” range is this Yull Log. I’ve actually tried this, It has ALOT of icing but its really nice with some cream poured over it! It’s £4.50, but you don’t need a huge slice to calm the sugar crave!

I NEED to try this Chocolate and salted caramel naked layered gateau. I’ve been back a few times and it’s always out of stock – If anyone tries this, let me know how it is please! It’s £6.50, which again, nearly £7 for a cake is ALOT.

I really want to try this gingerbread tree kit! It’s £3. I had their ginger bread kit last year and it was really heavy and pretty dry. Fingers crossed this recipe is different!

£4 Christmas cupcakes for £2.50.. They’re basically asking you to buy 2 boxes at once!

This Red Velvet loaf cake is AMAZING! It’s £3. I was worried it was going to be really dry, but it isn’t at all. This will definitely be eaten a few times a week as the cake itself is pretty big and comes in a resealable container.

This Ice Christmas cake is £2.60, and also resembles a door stop, or brick.. I’d pay a little more and get the “Extra Special” one..

Again, I haven’t been able to find these yet, but you get 6 for just £1.20. Perfect as a snack for yourself or a little one!

This christmas pudding was actually really heavy and stodgy. It’s £1.50 but it isn’t very big. Its an individual pudding but i prefer the Free From ASDA’s own Christmas Pudding Below..

This Christmas pudding is £3, it’s bigger and also tastes a lot more amazing! It doesn’t sit as heavy and isn’t as stodgy either. It’s really nice and i’d totally recommend trying it. You can scoop it out the container if you don’t want to eat it all at once too.

So! Exciting news, if you look in the fridge isle, with the normal desserts, theres loads that aren’t actually labeled as Gluten Free – but if you read through the ingredients they actually are!

This Belgian Chocolate and salted caramel roulade is £4 and its huge! It can easily be pudding for 5 people.

Not feeling in a chocolate mood? Try the Sicilian Lemon and Mascarpone roulade – it’s also £4 and is the same size as the chocolate one above.

ASDA’s extra special hand finished raspberry and prosecco pavlova stack – It’s £5. I haven’t found it yet as it’s always sold out. This is one i HAVE to try asap though, it looks amazing!

It’s only £2.50 for 2 toffee and pecan roulades! Thats £1.25 each.. I could only manage half of one and i have a massive sweet tooth!

If you want something slightly less sweet (only slightly less) then they also sell Raspberry Roulades too! They’re the same size and again they’re £2.50.

The ASDA Extra Special Belgian Chocolate and black forest meringue was SO GOOD! This is definitely one to eat after a family meal or when you’re sat in bed and want to binge eat sweet things with a chick flick on – it’s £6 though.. so not a dessert for every week!

And lastly, the Belgian Chocolate and salted caramel pavlova wreath. I didn’t like this, it was way, way, WAY too sweet for me! Maybe in very small amounts i’d actually manage a portion! This is £6.

Found any other Christmassy Gluten Free Goodies in ASDA? Drop me a message and let me know so I can try them!

BEES XO

GF – Microwave Mug Cake

Hey Guys,

It’s November, the days are short, the nights are long.. and the snow flake came on my car’s dashboard this week which means – It’s Officially winter!

Climbing into bed on Tuesday night, I needed a pick me up of sugar whilst i binge watched Netflix – So came across a recipe for Mug cake and swapped a few bits to make it Gluten Free! It was beaut, so clearly, I need to share the recipe with you!

Ingredients you need:

4 tbsp Gluten Free self raising (SR) flour
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 medium egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
A few drops vanilla or other essence (orange, peppermint etc)
2 tbsp chocolate chips/nuts/raisins etc (optional, but why not?)

Use the largest mug you have to avoid it overflowing in the microwave!

Add the flour, sugar and cocoa powder to the mug and mix.
Add the egg to the mixture. Mix in as much as you can but don’t worry if there’s still dry mix left.
Add all the other ingredients apart from the chocolate chips etc (if you are adding) and mix until smooth. Add the chocolate chips and/or the nuts/raisins and mix well.
Centre your mug in the middle of the microwave and cook on high for 4-5 mins, or until it has stopped rising and is firm to the touch. Watch it rise as it cooks!
Let it stand for 30 seconds – 1 Minute.

Add some cream or ice-cream on top – and you’re done!

Mug cake 2

No, it isn’t a faddy diet..

Hey guys,

I’ve been super ill this week. I’m still getting used to only seeing Dan on weekends and was being dramatic, so he planned a perfect Saturday of lunch, shopping, pumpkin carving and watching the football and eating junk food.

I finished work on Friday night and got home, he was still awake and i was ridiculously excited to actually do something with out weekend!

On Saturday we woke up and got ready, jumped in the car, and off we went..

Can we all appreciate my fluffy new coat from boohoo, Dan had to tell me it looked okay a good 5 times before I actually left the house..

The last time we went to Prezzo the food was awful. We went for our anniversary. His food was really nice, but my pasta was cold and hard, i sent it back 3 times and then gave up.. we ended up sharing a side salad and his risotto, which he’d ordered gluten free – cause he’s a good egg. We rang them and emailed them and made a complaint and they emailed us a voucher across to try again.

The Prezzo where we go to is never busy, so it seemed like it could have been a one off.

We ordered cheese and caramelised onion garlic bread to start (this is gluten free) it was really nice too!

For our main, Dan had a calzone with different meats in and some chips with cheese and bits on. I had a carbonara pasta bake (ordered gluten free) – it was meant to be spaghetti but they don’t do gluten free spaghetti so they bought it out with this kind of pasta.. oh and i had a side salad too.

We ate LOADS and we were so full! I had stomach ache when i was sitting down but just put it down to eating too much..

What a mistake that was. Our shopping trip got cut short because i literally couldn’t manage it – I got home and felt ill. Stomach cramps were awful and i was in a lot of pain..

Sunday we had a lazy day, we carved some pumpkins but i slept a lot of it, but that was kinda okay cause there was football on so i wasn’t being annoying or irritating..

When I have gluten i turn into a different person. I’m sick a lot, my iron levels drop, i lose weight really quickly. My mouth is full of ulcers and my teeth hurt. My stomach literally feels like someones got an ice cream scoop and is trying to get the perfect scoop over and over again. My balance ends up poor, i’m forgetful and i end up with what i would consider as.. the worlds WORST BLACK EYES!

The photo below is with a colour correction kit on it, 2 types of concealer, double wear foundation – and you can still see them. I’m not confident enough to put a no makeup selfie on to show you the extent of how bad they go.. but it isn’t pretty.

On Tuesday, they’ve admitted they’d made a mistake and there was cross contamination – this is clearly the understatement of the century – but hey. I can safely say i don’t want another voucher as compensation.

I’ve been to the doctors twice, and i’ve now been put on a BRAT diet. This means all i can eat for the next few days is –

Bannans
Rice
Apple Sauce
Toast (plain)

and clear liquids, so water, Apple Juice, etc.

I’m totally unsure how they can completely mess someones meal up and use the wrong pasta especially when there was only 4 tables actually in use in the entire restaurant.

Coeliac UK know about it, so hopefully they’ll step in – they don’t deserve to be credited.

When people say to you..

“isn’t it annoying to be gluten free?”

“attention seeking”

“Don’t you miss cake?”

It’s honestly the most annoying thing in the world. If i could eat gluten i would. I miss McDonalds chicken nuggets and warm chocolate fudge cake so much!

I haven’t always been gluten free. I ate a dodgy burger when i was 16 or 17. It hadn’t been cooked properly, had been on a floor and was contaminated with anything and everything you can think of. This led me to be REALLY ill in hospital for a long time, and salmonella. I remember eating it. I had 3 bites before i felt ill. An hour later i was in my mums bathroom vomiting blood and ruining her wall paper. It’s safe to say I don’t really remember much for the next few moths. It then took well over a year for the NHS to diagnose me, but since then, sticking to a gluten free diet really works!

People that go Gluten Free for a trend annoy me. Some of us don’t have the choice. but each to their own i guess…

The worst part of this is – I’ve missed halloween and halloween week at work, which is my favourite time of the year too!

So yeah, No thanks Prezzo. We won’t be back..

Bees xo

The magical place for GF..

Hey!
I’ve been crazy busy and feel like there isn’t enough hours in the day to blog at the moment! We’ve just got back from taking my niece to Disney land for her birthday and after the “meal” at the airport i was really really worried about being about to eat at Disneyland and not having to live off of Crisps and ice tea.

We flew from Luton airport and got there just after mid day. We went to Frankie and Benny’s for an all day breakfast (the normal thing people eat at the airport before they fly right…?)

When we got there I asked for the gluten free menu. The main menu looked amazing, there was SO much stuff on it and i fancied so much of it!

…I got half a side of A4 paper as my menu and there was a breakfast on it. Looking at it properly i couldn’t even eat the chips as they were cooked with onion rings etc. How hard is it to keep oils separate? But hey, how bad could it be?

I ordered the chicken burger with a sour cream potato.

The chicken burger was meant to be full of salad, so lettuce, tomato, relish, mayo, red onion, cheese and bacon.

This is what i was presented with – a dry chicken burger that was still pink in the middle and a jacket potato that was harder than my mums rock pool in the back garden.

I made the most of it, but it was AWFUL. – To make matters worse, desert wise i could have a fruit salad or nothing.

After this i was even more worried, the last thing I felt like doing after only recently hitting my target weight was living on salads for the week.

When we bought the Disney land tickets we got free discount vouchers for planet Hollywood. We’d eaten there before and it was alright, not great but we thought we’d give it a try.

We walked in, got seated straight away, i asked for the Gluten Free menu and it was already in the normal menu! I loved this because it’s sometimes awkward asking for the other menu when they’ve already sat you down.

There was SO much on the menu to choose from!

From burgers to pastas, steaks, pizzas and more! – I don’t think i’ve ever had this much choice GF food wise in one place.

The first day i rushed because i didn’t look properly and realise that there was more than one page. I just ordered a margarita pizza. I wasn’t that hungry and for the price i wasn’t expecting much. The photo makes it look so average, but it wasn’t, it was beaut! It was crispy and didn’t have the horrible stodgy dough taste a lot have, plus it wasn’t stick thin either!

The second day i looked at the menu so much more – and i got stuck.

Luckily I have a really understanding boyfriend that knows how difficult eating out can be for me – so he also ordered his food Gluten free and picked off the Gluten free menu so i could have some of his…

We ordered a pepperoni pizza and a BBQ chicken, bacon and cheese burger – and Dan cut both in half so we could have half each! The chips were gluten free too! Plus all the portions were massive!

I’m really lucky that Dan understands how excited i get about good GF menus..

The bread on the burger was soft and toasted (this never happens)

They asked us how we wanted the burger cooked (we had medium and it was perfect)

They filled everything up just as much as the usual and non gluten free portions – and they didn’t cost any more than the normal ones – which is again really rare!

If you see a Planet Hollywood i strongly suggest nipping in and ordering some food! Just don’t order sides, you really don’t need them! We were stuffed for hours after!

It’s safe to say when we go back i won’t be worrying or stressing myself out about being able to eat an actual meal again!

Bees xo

Eating out – GF Style!

I haven’t posted in well over a week! I’ve been super busy! So here.. Have a blog post!

Having Coeliacs means it used to be really hard to eat out and stuff! Lots of waiters and waitresses have no idea what it is or just think you’re being fussy. People don’t realise the smallest bit of gluten or wheat can knock you off your feet for a few days leading up to a week!

Saying this though, I HATE asking for the gluten free menu, asking if stuff has gluten it and i especially hate it when at parties everyone makes a massive fuss. Theres always way to much gluten free food made cause I’m normally the only one that eats it! I really don’t need 9 different sandwich choices!

Although saying this, i went to my uncles wedding last new years eve and the food there was AMAZING. They did everything gluten free for me! 4 different types of pizza, fish and chips and LOADS more! It was great, i couldn’t eat the next day though, i was way too full still.

If you’ve just been diagnosed it can seem really difficult to eat out, so below are a few of my favourite and least favourite places to eat!

Wagamamas

Wagamama’s is our go to whenever we’re in town. Although the menu isn’t labeled that well, it’s super easy to swap stuff. So i have ramen, and then take bits out, add bits in and then swap the noodles for rice noodles. The chefs are great, they always ask if you want extra bits too!

Toby’s Cookies

Slightly different here.. Toby works for the same company as i do, he bakes, ALOT. He promised me cookies for ages and then he finally made me an entire batch. My bosses tried some too and they said how good they were. They were honestly the best cookies i’ve ever eaten! Imagine Millies cookies (that don’t do gluten free when they blatantly could) and then times this by like 54234! Thats how good these cookies are.

The Otter

At the Otter it’s really easy to eat gluten free. The majority of the things on the Roast dinners are gluten free. Above is the Mixed roast dinner platter, it’s SO GOOD! They have a full gluten free folder too and they’re happy enough to go through it with you. Obviously just don\t eat the Yorkshire puddings!

Also at the Otter they have GF Puddings! I find when i eat out, i end up with ice cream most of the time.. I like ice cream, but when theres cake on offer, does anyone REALLY want plain ice cream?!

The cake i have is a carrot cake cheese cake, so it’s carrot cake on the bottom with a creamy cheese cake top. The bottom is kind of hard but it all equals out if you eat it with the topping!

Bella Italia

The first time i went here it was great, the second time it was awful but still LOADS better than Ziti’s (this was awful and doesn’t even deserve a post)!

I went a few weeks ago with my friend Charlie who is also GF.

The gluten free garlic bread to start with his really good but fills you up quickly!

I had the Carbonara for main, and Charlie had some pasta with prawns and stuff. The pasta was cooked perfectly and you could tell it hadn’t just been heated up etc.

On the menu, the chips said they could come as a GF option, we both had stomach ache after, so we’re guessing the chips are maybe fried in the same oil as the Gluten products. – The food here is great but maybe stay away from the fried products!

Ed’s Easy Diner

This was.. an experience.

When we went in we got seated pretty much straight away. The guy seating us grunted cause i asked for a gluten free menu but i got one eventually!

The waitress came over to say they had NO gluten free rolls for hotdogs or buns for burgers… Ok, so they’re a burger bar? And they have no bread.. ok cool, we’ll go old school and have it without bread.

Once it came it was AWFUL. It was so over cooked, tasted like metal and it wasn’t edible. Luckily i’d ordered bacon cheese fries which were pretty good. Dan ordered chilli cheese fries that definitely weren’t worth £5.90. My Bacon ones only looked better cause they doubled up the toppings for me due to the lack of bread..

If i went here again, i’d definitely only have the chips and a milkshake..

Harvester

We only went to harvester last minute for puddings cause apparently their GF puddings are really good… Yeah, no. This isn’t the case. They have ONE GF pudding which is a sticky toffee pudding, great yeah? The last 3-4 times i’ve been they’ve been sold out..

We ended up ordering milkshakes which were apparently called “Freak shakes” Dans was decent, mine was just overpriced vanilla ice-cream with 4 marshmallows and some rock hard candy floss on top.. Never again.

Handmade Burger Co

This was great, the bun came separate too and it was sealed so it wasn’t dry! my burger had cheese inside of the burger, by the time you’ve actually built the burger its huge and you kinda can’t pick it up. It was really nice though & i can’t wait to go back!

Frankie and Benny’s – Breakfast.

It never looks like theres much food, but it always fills you up! Plus it only costs like £5.95 or something cheap! You have to mix match – take some stuff off and add some stuff. Depending on which branch you go to depends on how they cook stuff. So be super careful and make sure you know how the potatoes and stuff are cooked!

Mcdonalds

Mcdonalds is just that bog standard burger and chips. With how big the company is you’d have thought they’d have SOMETHING gf, but no. I have a big mac and chips – with no bread.

YoYo Frozen Yogurt

Last summer i went to Alicante. They had this little frozen yogurt bar that had EVERY flavour and topping and sauce you can think of. You pay for how much it weighs but its definitely worth it! Theres fresh fruit, dried fruit, cold sauces, hot sauces, sweets, nuts, jelly sweets, chocolate and SO much more. We need one of these exact places in the UK.

Pizza Hut

Pizza hut is nice due to the Salad bar, but its kinda like, if you wanna risk that nothings contaminated with gluten then do it. The pizza bases are pretty hard so you need the salad or the sauces. Along as you have a lot of toppings its pretty good!

Dominos Pizza

The only side you can eat is coleslaw now.. The pizza bases are pretty chalky and wayyy to expensive. But along as you have the dip and ALOT of toppings it’s pretty tasty! It’s always fine when you’re hungover.

Peter Pizza

Peter pizza is this magical place where non of the pizzas are dry, the gluten free base actually has a really nice crust and they do about 12-15 different types of pizza. You can have them with or without sauce, add or take away toppings and everything is so tasty! It fills you up super quick though. They’re proper pizzas cooked in a huge stone pizza oven too! I know they have a restaurant in both Leicester and Loughborough but I’m unsure if they have one anywhere else!

They also do Nutella pizza for desert which is incredible, i LOVE chocolate but even i can’t finish it!

Five Guys

Five guys is the only place i don’t mind eating a burger without bread. It’s a fixed price once you’ve chosen your burger then you just add whatever toppings and sauces you like. If you go for the GF option they have two. They either serve it in a tray for you or wrap it in lettuce leaves. The lettuce wrap is the one i always have, its really messy but really nice so it’s totally worth it! Chips are GF too!

Anyone else had good and bad experiences when eating out gluten free? Drop me a message of new places to try too!

Bees xo

#SundayFunday – It’s TOO hot!

On Friday Dan Surprised me and came up on Friday night before i went to work instead of Saturday! I’d been pretty grumpy all week from over worrying and being a massive girl about not seeing him!

It’s like a weekend tradition now. EVERY Saturday Dan gets a fry up and most Sundays too! So me and my mum keep seeing who can buy the best stuff for the best fry up etc..

It’s like 30 degrees this weekend which to me is insane, we live in the UK.. I swear it’s never this hot?! So we decided to eat in the garden..

I found out my step dad grew fruit and veg in the garden too, literally didn’t realise until my niece pointed out some strawberries on a random plant.

Everyone else is having the best time, we’ve got all the Family over andddd I’m stuck with the worlds worst hay fever, can’t see due to streaming eyes but its totally worth sitting outside with my niece and two nephews!

Sunday Sunday & it’s actually Sunny, Of course this means a BBQ!

Being gluten free people get a lot more excited about BBQ’s than i do. I just like all the different salads. Mint salad is my favourite, it’s made from Fresh mint, Cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, white wine vinegar and olive oil. It’s SO good, my mum had it at a Spanish restaurant years ago and now we always bug her to make it!

I wore the cutest shorts today. It comes as a two piece from boohoo.com for £12! The tops exactly the same print as the bottoms and it’s so light weight, they’ve still got them now and they’re perfect to chuck on, on a hot day!

We stayed in this weekend cause it was just TOO hot to do anything else. I had a really fun weekend playing far too much swing ball and sitting in a child’s paddling pool though!

Until next week,
Bees xo

#SundayFunday – Bank Holiday Edition.

SO! It’s a 3 day weekend and I’m shattered and feel like I’ve been busy busy!

On Saturday we went to Dan’s for his little sisters 18th, they went for a meal but I had last minute plans with some friends so went there instead! I wore this really cute navy and white play suit from boohoo and a denim jacket to dress it down a bit, i also had a double belt on from Toyshop. For once a belt actually fits me properly.

Me, Phoebs, Tom and Keable went to Nandos. They didn’t check how our food was and it made me sad. We were literally just going for a quick Nandos and a catch up, and this somehow turned into bowling. They had no lanes, so this some how turned into a night out instead..

Phoebs was busy so it was just me Tom, Keable and Alex joined us after he got back to Leicester. We invited Billy but he was busy. So it turned into just us four.

Keable accidentally somehow found a Nandos chicken, We named the chicken Nunny and this chicken then came on a night out with us..

We had pres at Ashleigh Road for what could be the last time ever. (This is VERY heartbreaking), i had about 2 or 3 drinks and then Tom did the usual of picking me up off the bathroom floor. We dusted me off and then headed into town.

They JOKED about us walking there, me, walk? Haha. It’s still funny thinking about it now..

Alex found this birthday badge which he then wore for pretty much the entire night..

We left, then went to McDonalds and headed back home. We ate drunk mcdonalds, i borrowed a t-shirt and watched Chicken Run. Chicken Run then turned quite deep and into politics and was compared to a concentration camp at like 4am. I can’t really remember much of this..

I got the taxi driver to pose with the chicken… i think we paid him extra for this?

See.. still have the chicken..

On Sunday i made in home about midday, i slowly but surely climbed into bed and went to sleep.

I eventually got woken up to my mum telling me we were going out for dinner.

I wore a similar outfit to yesterday but a white play suit instead. They’re super comfy and only £14 at the moment too with free next day delivery.

We went to “The Otter” it was really nice but i don’t think much to the service. They bought my stater out with normal bread even though we’d checked repeatedly. They took it back and then bought the same starter out with crumbs all over the plate and Gluten Free bread separate. This may not seem like a big deal, but anyone who’s medically Gluten free can tell you it is..

They’d ran out of roast dinners too, so i had a lamb shank instead.

Mum wanted a cute picture of us, so here, look.. a cute picture..

I had a hissy fit at the table cause The Otter has the BEST puddings, and they’d ran out of everything gluten free. I legit felt like crying… but no! The waitress found me the last 2 pieces of Gluten Free carrot cake and put it into one MASSIVE piece. Safe to say i had to adjust my belt after eating all this..

Look, another cute photo. I have a round face and Dan was actually pinching me in the back here..

BETTER THOUGH! I’d gone through this entire hangover day and then my mum bought this bad boy to me… 36 packets of my favourite crisps.

Today i woke up and i’m yet to get dressed. I still have stomach ache, i’ve watched way to many films and picked at food all day.

I have work tonight and I’m seeing Nathan in a bit to catch up too!

It’s time to nap..

There’s ALOT more, but heres a start. If this is you – give it a thought before you speak!

Bees xo

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EAT!

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M&S has released it’s “Gluten Free Christmas Range” So I’ve tried a few bits that are below. If you’ve tried any of them, let me know!

If you see anything else Gluten free in M&S let me know so I can give them a try myself!

Bees xo

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Use the largest mug you have to avoid it overflowing in the microwave!

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Wagamamas

Toby’s Cookies

The Otter

Bella Italia

Ed’s Easy Diner

Harvester

Handmade Burger Co

Frankie and Benny’s – Breakfast.

Mcdonalds

YoYo Frozen Yogurt

Pizza Hut

Dominos Pizza

Peter Pizza

Five Guys

Bees xo

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Until next week, Bees xo

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SO! It’s a 3 day weekend and I’m shattered and feel like I’ve been busy busy!

Bees xo

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Until next week,
Bees xo