Kitchen gadgets - my thoughts...

With so much innovation in and around the kitchen these days, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the choice - high speed blenders for smoothies, juicers for... juice, fancy pants all in one machines that cost a quarter of my monthly mortgage payment... I could go on. Now, I know I'm an exception when it comes to kitchen gadgets, in that I use mine regularly. Part of the trick to that (I think) is that none of them are tucked away in a cupboard.

My beloved kMix lives on the fridge and is used for all our baking exploits as you can see above - most recently M's Funfetti birthday cake ably assisted by my helper.

Similarly my much battered Kenwood food processor lives on the shelf below our microwave and is used at least twice a week. It makes such short work of prepping veggies for dishes like my Tomato, veg and lentil pasta sauce or our new favourite Mexican Rice Bowls

My bread maker is being used much less at the moment (damn you Slimming world and your anti-breadness) but is a Godsend in this heat. I can pop the ingredients for a loaf in overnight and wake up to allergy friendly, fresh bread in the morning.

I've toyed with buying other gadgets; the blender that came with my food processor isn't watertight so is no good for smoothies (I tend to use a stick blender and stick to fruit avoid the slightly more taxing green smoothies), and a spiraliser go in and out of my Lakeland basket so often it looks like they're on Strictly.






And then we come to juicers - I've dithered over a juicer for a few years now. Often prompted by an afternoon perusing the Lakeland catalogue I think of the wonders I could knock up with end of the week fruit - or just with the half punnet of this, that or the other that Harry has decided he no longer likes at all, having previously inhaled them at light speed. Yes, blueberries I'm looking at you. However I've never got as far as committing to a purchase - I quite like the look of the Panasonic juicers swayed in part by 'easy to clean' in the description.




On sweltering days like today I'm especially rueing my dithery nature as I battle to get Harry to drink any fluids - something tells me a drop of fresh juice in his water bottle would help much more than my futile attempts at bribery with grapes, attempts at playing cheers (which annoying always works for Daddy). We've always avoided anything akin to squash or baby juice, but as the thermometer tips 30 degrees and my anxiety about a dehydrated bubba does the same  (Oh how I miss breastfeeding on days like today) some freshly pressed juice in some chilly water might be just the ticket.


What are your favourite kitchen gadgets? Do you have a juicer? What are your experiences?

This post has been sponsored by Panasonic, all content and views are my own

Bread in the bread maker and Cow's Milk Protein Allergy

Six months ago I wrote about Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy and bread. At the time, borne purely of frustration at not being able to find bread which didn't change its recipe as soon as Harry got used to it, I started using my Panasonic breadmaker again.  I was given it for Christmas 10 years ago and I am still happily using it weekly. The security and peace of mind it gives me knowing exactly what is in each loaf is priceless. Of course I could make bread by hand, and for many years I also did. However daily life with a toddler does not lend itself to peaceful 10 minute kneads, followed by a leisurely prove by a radiator (living in a draughty Edwardian house, that's the only sure fire way to make my bread rise) This way I can pop the ingredients in the breadmaker before bed, so that there is a loaf ready for breakfast. It really is such an easy way to ensure Harry’s safety and wellbeing and to maintain the illusion of being an organised wife and mother. 

That is not to say that we never buy bread, I’m good, but I’m far from perfect. At the moment we tend to rely on Waitrose Essential wholemeal loaf  Aldi crumpets and their Fruit loaf as our standby dairy, soya and egg free bread products. Whilst I’m happy to recommend these today, if you are thinking of picking them up and are catering for either your own allergies or those of a family member, please read the label. We’ve been caught out recently by a loaf we’ve bought multiple times in the past only to find on arriving home that the recipe has changed. For any other customer this would not be noticed, for us it could cause Harry a lot of pain. Fortunately in my new be-spectacled state I noticed before I sleepily aimed slices at the toaster, but I could have easily overlooked that essential double check. Something I've got used to not doing because I'm making my own and am safe in the knowledge that I know what I'm working with. 

Over the past 6 months I’ve made dairy free, enriched fruitbread as well as my usual white and wholemeal loaves in the breadmaker. Out of the bread maker (following my day at River Cottage)I’ve made lots of soda bread and flatbread. It is safe to say the my son loves carbs, especially those in bread form. Preferably with humous. Lots of humous. Which he shares with anything and everything within a 6 foot radius of his highchair.

Last time I wrote about bread and CMPA I included my staple recipe for a 50:50 wholewheat loaf, whilst this hasn’t changed, I’ve made it a slightly easier to work with printable below.

print recipe

50/50 Wholewheat bread

by Penelope Reader December-06-2015

A dairy free, soya free, breadmaker friendly recipe

Ingredients

• 200g Wholewheat flour
• 200g Strong white flour (include a little extra for dusting)
• 1 tsp Fast acting yeast
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 280ml Warmish water

Instructions

1. Put the yeast in the breadmaker tin, top this with the remainder of the dry ingredients 2. Add the oil and water 3. Select sandwich loaf cycle (and if you are me, go to bed)

Details

Prep time: 5m Cook time: 5h 0m Total time: 5h 5mYield: 1 Loaf

This post has been sponsored by Panasonic. All content and views are my own.

Bread, Cows milk protein allergy and food labelling

Finding dairy and soya free bread is hard work - made all the harder when brands change recipes with no publicity. This post is a plea to all allergy parents to check the labels, even of things you've been buying for a long time - every time to make sure the allergy information is the same. I've included a bread recipe at the end as that way you know exactly what's in it - it's breadmaker friendly for ease/ laziness (if you're me!)

Useless fact of the day - I'm a glasses wearer -  only for close up things, so blogging, reading, sewing, knitting - that kind of thing. Oh and now shopping. One of the things I've come to realise about having a baby with CMPA is that you have to read the blooming labels. All of them. Every time.

Case in point - Aldi bread. We love Aldi in this family, their Super 6 fruit and veg form the basis of our meal plans. As does the special offers they run on meat (M is particularly happy on the weeks they include bacon). As a rule we don't buy much that has labels per se - we eat a lot of fruit and veg, rice, quinoa, coucous, lentils etc and of course fish and meat. We do have pasta but normally that's fine ingredient wise - although I never buy fresh pasta.

Bread products on the other hand are a minefield. Most of the time I make my own bread. I think I'm the only person still using their breadmaker on a regular basis. Lately though I'm having a break from it as I was eating waaay too much and also I've been really run down of late (that's a post in itself). Sometimes though it's nice to be able to pick up a loaf, fling it in the trolley and get on with the shop safe in the knowledge that my carb loving bubba can have his toast and fruit spread. But. Of course there's a but. A massive one. BUT... then Aldi changed the recipe for their breads. No fanfare, no publicity - just walloped soya flour in them. I get it, wheat is expensive - soya flour is cheap. There goes all our bread. Of course it's labelled properly, but I didn't think to check as I 'knew' it was dairy and soya free.

So a quick plea to stores and brands - if you change your recipe to include known allergens - please, please please can you pop something on the packaging or something for the shelf edge. Allergy parents are meticulous at checking, but sometimes - just sometimes we think we're safe in the knowledge that something is safe for our babies and suddenly it's not.

Alternatives I've found thus far are: 

Hovis seed sensations Update 9/7/15 Hovis have changed the recipe of the original seed sensations to include soya flour. However, they have updated their packaging to reflect this. Please double check before purchasing. I got a loaf this week that was fine, others have got new loaves.
Sainsburys Basics crumpets
Sainsburys white pitta bread (wholemeal has soya flour)
Sainsburys Morning rolls (other breads in storedo contain dairy and soya so these are a may contain)
Sainsburys white wraps
Jacksons bloomer loaves
Waitrose essentials white loaf
Waitrose hot cross buns (how did I not know this at Easter?!)
Waitrose rosemary foccacia (pack of 4 mini breads)
Morrisons garlic flatbread

Tesco finest seeded loaf
Tesco wheatfield wholemeal batch
Tesco plain tortilla wraps
Iceland burger and hotdog buns
New York bakery bagels (Harry loves the mini ones) 

Obviously please check these if you're sensitive to 'may contains' and for any recipe changes.

Here's our incredibly simple 50/50 wholewheat bread recipe that I do in the breadmaker...

50/50 Wholewheat bread - dairy free, soya free, breadmaker friendly

200g wholewheat flour
200g strong white flour (plus extra for dusting)
1 teaspoon/ 5g fast acting yeast
1 tsp sugar
Half a teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon (or a big glug) olive oil (plus extra to oil the worktop)
280ml warmish water

As I said, I use the breadmaker and pop it on a Sandwich loaf cycle - leave it be and go about my day, but if you were to do it by hand it's super simple just a bit more input from you.

Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, olive oil and water together until you get a dough.
Knead on an oiled surface for 10 minutes
Lightly oil a mixing bowl, pop your ball of dough inside. Cover with cling film and leave somewhere warm for an hour to rise
Tip the dough out onto an oiled surface again
Knead for another 10 minutes
Shape into a loaf shape - be that a round cottage loaf, or pop into a loaf tin - if using a tin, flour it. If cooking free form, then dust your baking sheet with polenta or flour
Leave to rise somewhere warm for another hour
Bake at 180 for 30 minutes or until the top is nice and golden and the bottom sounds hollow when you tap it.
Resist the urge to eat warm, slathered in almond butter and banana. Just me then? OK...

Huge thanks to the mums and dads in the Cows Milk Protein Allergy support group on Facebook for helping me track down a comprehensive list of alternative bread products. Especially Christine Kelly who was fabulous!

Of all smells, bread...

... wrote George Herbert, and by George (see what I did there!) I think he may be right.


Now, I hate Monday's with a passion. A passion that cannot be communicated in writing alone - believe me you just need to see my face as I lumber onto the packed tube at 7.30am to understand the depth of hatred I reserve especially for this time of the week. This Monday however was different, I awoke at 6am, as usual, swore at the alarm, as usual and then inhaled (well to be honest I guess I inhaled before then as I wasn't waking up dead or anything). I inhaled the scent of warm bread. As I believe in honesty I can't write that my eyes popped open and I lept from my bed like an excited 6 year old on Christmas morning, but I certainly made my way to the kitchen a little more briskly (and with less swearing) than usual.


Opening my new Panasonic breadmaker (not the fancy schmancy one that lets you add raisins and seeds, but it's nearly as good) I found a loaf of warm, white, heavenly bread. I should also explain that I think low-carb is the work of the devil. Pasta, potatoes, bread were invented to be enjoyed, are comforting, and it's Winter for the love of God. Your body needs them - not in vast quantities I give you, but still, in balance.

















A breakfast of bread, with butter and honey followed as did a cup of tea. Now that is how all Monday mornings should start.











In the breadmaker at the moment... half white bread flour and half wholemeal... experimentation is starting! Watch this space....