Guest Blog and FREE recipe by Sonya from Allergysave!

Good afternoon! How are you? We are all great here! It is nice and warm,  we are having a semi relaxing day and catching up on a few things, went to the bank and paid for more COTC books, took the Christmas tree down today to which Master 2 cried “Santa, NO, Santa” …. he he ha ha …. and whilst I write this blog I am enjoying a beautiful and fresh juice that I am obsessed with at the moment! Today I am having apple (1 red and 1 green), 2 pears, 1 lemon (rind on), 1 orange (rind off), cucumber and a gorgeous big chunk of fresh ginger! YUMMO!

apple, lemon, mango, lychee and ginger

apple, orange, lemon, cucumber and ginger

We were so excited to go to a friends place for dinner last night as a welcome home to our friends Steve and Belinda who have been in the NT for 12 months (you can see Belindas super mum interview here http://www.cutoutthecrap.com.au/super-mum-belinda-carroll/ ).

My family last night (Miss 8 was running around somewhere!?)

Today I have a lovely post for you from the beautiful Sonya from Allergysave. I hope you enjoy hearing her very personal story……

Sonya and her little man!

I began my blog Parenting a Child with Severe Food Allergies to keep my sanity when my baby was diagnosed with severe food allergies.

At 4 weeks old he developed severe eczema covering his entire body.  Many nights were spent holding his hands to prevent him from ripping at his skin. I explored every avenue to healing possible. I refused to accept the only option available was to coat him with corticosteroid cream.

I journalled every symptom and flare up sensing it was food related. Unfortunately my dermatologist didn’t agree dismissing my theory quickly due to my lack of medical qualifications – after all I was ‘only a mum’.

Even though I was ‘only a mum’, I ran with my theory managing to secure an appointment with a reputable allergy clinic. Sure enough, Cohens eczema was food related. He was diagnosed with severe multiple food allergies to – peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, rice, corn, oats, chicken, potato, peas, lupin, peaches, fish and shellfish. My daughter was also diagnosed with food intolerances and sensitivities to salicylates and amines.

As we flew home from our appointment with our epipen, my emotions caught up with me and I cried the entire trip. How the heck was I going to feed my children? How was I going to keep him safe? After all, I was ‘only a mum’. Along with the fear, anxiety and hopelessness, I also felt a tremendous feeling of relief. At last, we had an answer. Knowing what you’re up against is sometimes easier to face than not knowing.

Changing the kid’s diets immediately, Cohen went onto formula only (Neocate), while Tiana started the FAILSAFE diet. Within 3 weeks, Cohens skin was eczema free. No more scratching, weeping, bleeding skin. He got his beautiful soft baby skin back!

Cohen….what a cutie!

Then came the slow journey of starting Cohen on solids again, one food at a time. With the extent of his limited diet I became very creative in the kitchen.  One thing for sure was , I never wanted him to miss out. I get so much joy watching him try new creations I have made.

My website provides  information about anaphylaxis and allergies helping desperate mums on the same journey. The vision of Allergysave is to support families living with severe allergies and eczema by helping them to save time, money and stress.

I’m proud to say that every year, Cohen has had a birthday cake. I must admit that the first one was disgusting. But, he still had a cake and blew out the candle. Over the years, his cakes have dramatically improved. This year I enjoyed watching him devour his Chocolate Chia Mudcake (recipe available in my Allergy Friendly Home Cooking ebook).

I’d love to share my recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes….

Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes

2 cups SR gluten free flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 cup caster sugar

½ cup Nuttelex (dairy free margarine)

1 cup rice milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon No Egg (mixed with ¼ cup rice milk)

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Line a muffin pan with patty cases

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and bicarb soda. Using a whisk, mix until ingredients are all combined.

Using an electric mixer, beat Nuttelex and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.

Add egg replacement and vanilla. Beat for another minute.

Combine rice milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl.

Turn mixer down to low, add a third of the flour and beat until combined. Pour in half the milk and beat until combined. Add half of the remaining flour mixture and beat again.

Pour in remaining milk mixture, beat until combined. Finally add remaining flour and beat until batter is combined and smooth.

Spoon batter into patty cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before icing them.

Vanilla Icing

125g Nuttelex

1 ½ cups icing sugar

1 Tablespoon rice milk

½  teaspoon vanilla extract

Place margarine in a small bowl with sifted icing sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until combined. Slowly add the milk and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Spread icing over cupcakes and enjoy!

Would love to have you stop by and say HI on my facebook page!

Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year,
Love Sonya x

A massive thank you to Sonya for sharing her story! Head on over and check out her website, facebook page, twitter dont forget the wonderful ebooks! These ebooks are not only Gluten free but also top 8 free ; peanut, tree but, wheat, dairy, egg, soy, fish and shellfish free!

TWITTER https://twitter.com/AllergySave

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/allergysave

Allergy friendly Christmas Recipes ebook http://www.allergysave.com/christmas-recipe-ebook  

Allergy Friendly Home Cooking ebook  http://www.allergysave.com/recipes/allergy-friendly-home-cooking

WEBSITE: http://www.allergysave.com/recipes

Sonya has been kind enough to offer a massive 20% off her ebooks to COTC readers for 1 week only! (offer ends friday 4th Jan) simply enter the code cutoutthecrap into the discount code section on her website!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead!

Take Care of You,

Collette x

Guest Blog and FREE recipe by Sonya from Allergysave!

Double 2nd Birthday ~~~ 2 days before Christmas!!!!!!

Good Morning! Happy Boxing Day! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day! We sure did! I have some yummy food pictures to share with you from our Christmas Day (here I am the next day STILL full!) but that will be next week…..

Today I wanted to share with you some photos and food ideas from my gorgeous twins 2nd Birthday which was a little play date / afternoon tea on the 23rd Dec….yep thats right, 2 days before Christmas! I know its such a BUSY time of the year for everyone so I made it Sunday afternoon from 3-5 and all but one family could come, which was wonderful! It was super HOT but the kids still ran around and had fun….and as always I had too much food…..some of it never even came out as it wasn’t needed (so very typical of me!)

The 2 years since they were born have gone so fast! They are such gorgeous little people who bring so much joy into our lives!

Birthday morning, opening presents with Daddys help!

My Princess – Birthday morning!

As I had decided to make the entire party additive free I wanted to make sure the ‘Party Bags’ were the same, so I went with little pencils, paper, erasers, balloon, bubbles, farm animal toys, and Yummy Earth lollipops (available through my website). I made the party bags 2 days before.

Party bags

I saw these years ago and finally decided to make them (the ones I saw were filled will lollies) and I made them with home made popcorn!

Butterfly Popcorn Party treats!

Step 1 – make a heap of Popcorn

Step 2 – 3/4 fill clip lock bags (I used small snack ones) with Popcorn and let all the air out.

Step 3 – Tie pipe cleaners around the middle.
Step 4 – Get wooden pegs and glue ‘googly’ eyes on them, or get the kids to draw faces on them.

Final step – place peg in the middle! Cute hey!

I decided on 2 x #2 cakes this year and wanted to make them using the basic “one cake 9 ways” recipe from COTC for Kids. I got pink and blue cupcake cases that were slightly bigger, so ended up making 3 mixtures, which took no longer than a packet cake would….only with these cakes you know what is in them! Instead of using fresh lemon juice, I used store bought additive free pineapple juice. I made and iced the cakes the day before. 

My helper!!!!!

3 mixtures made 24 big cupcakes and then I made little ones with the remaining mixture!

Blue – half done with plain blue icing and the other half with 100s and 1000s – icing colours and sprinkles are additive free and available through my website!

Pink (my hand slipped and I added WAY too much pink colouring!) half left plain pink and the other half with flowers made from Marshmallows (from Aldi – they only have 1 flavour and are the closest to additive free I can find) and a choc drop (also from Aldi, these are dairy but completley additive free)

The finished products! The twins love Toy Story, so I added a few things on there also!

Additive Free Party day food!  Popcorn (homemade) – “French Fries” (packet chips) – fruit – natural lollies & marshmallows – sushi – chicken and turkey meatballs – pinwheels – honey joys – hommus and veg sticks and crackers – fairy bread.  I also bought little paper/wax icecream cups and plastic spoons and made ‘Savoury Rice’ (basmati rice with peas and corn) and was going to serve individual cups of them but we really didnt need it! (I added a few extra veg and they had it for lunch the next day!)

Party Food!

I did a big platter of fresh fruit – just didn’t get a photo! Watermelon, orange, blueberries and grapes…..I love that kids love fruit so much!!!!!!

Hommus with carrot, celery and crackers – hommus made the day before and kept in the fridge. Recipe in COTC. My twins LOVE this and would eat it by the spoonful!

Pinwheels – additive free puff pastry, tomato pasta sauce and cheese! Always a hit! I made these the day before and just reheated them in the oven.

Bite sized Sushi – avocado and cucumber only

Chicken Meatballs from COTC – I used Chicken and Turkey mince and left out the coriander to make them more kid friendly. I served these with sweet chilli sauce for the adults. I made these the day before and once again, just reheated them in the oven when ready to serve.

Honey Joys from COTC for Kids – My mum made these **Thank you**

A few more Party photos….

A beautiful sunny day and a relaxing party as I was organized!

Cake time!

My big 2 year old boy!

My big 2 year old girl….having a GREAT time!

Miss 2 loving one of her presents from Nan and Pop!

Master 2 loving one of his presents from Grandma and Grandpa!

This would have to be my favourite photo from the day! They giggled and giggled and giggled with this new toy from some friends!

and last but not least….Miss 10′s favourite treat…..another thing that never got out at the Party…..but they kids sure enjoyed the next day….frozen choc bananas!

Frozen Choc Bananas!

You will need bananas, chocolate of your choice (I used additive free) and 100s and 1000s

get everything ready & melt chocolate……

Using a fork… dip banana into chocolate, dip ends in 100s ans 1000s and place on a plate. Put in freezer until ready to serve!

I hope you have got some great ideas from this and feel confidant that you CAN have a party thats Additive Free!!!!!

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Take Care of You,

Collette x

My family — tired but happy after a big day of fun and playing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double 2nd Birthday ~~~ 2 days before Christmas!!!!!!

Super Mum "Belinda Carroll"

Good Afternoon and Happy Monday! ….. and Happy Christmas EVE! I don’t know about your home but mine is buzzing with excitement! Miss 10 and Miss 8 can not wait for tonight (it all starts tonight with leaving milk and cookies out for Santa and carrot and water for the reindeer!) and Master and Miss 2 certainly know something fun is happening (not to mention that they were 2 yesterday so celebrations are being extended here!)

Getting ready to party! My twins are 2!

As an adult I still love Christmas and this year I have something even more to look forward to and be excited about….the twins First birthday Party on Dec 23rd last year was the last time I saw one of my best friends in the whole entire world before she left for 12 months with her lovely family, on a life changing adventurous journey….they packed up their quite comfortable life on the Sunny Central Coast to live in a remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory for a year……which brings me to my excitement as I get to see her a few days after Christmas! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! What better person to have for todays Super Mum that “B” herself…..enjoy!

“Belinda Carroll” ….. aka “B”

B and her sons

Tell us a little bit about you and your family?

My name is Belinda and I live with 3 amazing Scorpios. My husband Steve and my 2 beautiful boys,  Archer and Oliver. I am currently working as a teachers aid, but being a mum is my most satisfying job. I have a passion for cooking and am in the process of working my way through COTC for kids (although none of my family members have allergies, we still enjoy and benefit from healthy eating).

B and hubby Steve on their Kimberley Trip

“Family”

What one ingredient can you not live without and why?

I am obsessed with fresh herbs. I put them into everything!! They can change an ordinary dish into something really delicious.

If you had half an hour to cook dinner and realized you didn’t have anything planned, what would you cook?

I have a thing for cous cous at the moment. It only takes 5 minutes to cook. I chop up cherry tomatoes, grated carrot, diced cucumber, shallots and of course fresh herbs!! Sometimes I throw in a tin of salmon or tuna as well. Quick, healthy and yummy!! If you need to eat Gluten Free you could do this with Quinoa instead of cous cous. 

What is once piece of advice you can pass on to other busy mums?

SLOW DOWN!!!!!!! We all know that mums are great at multi tasking, but sometimes we are so busy doing everything at once that we forget to enjoy the present moment.

Having fun and relaxing with her boys!

If you could have dinner with any 3 people in the world, who would it be and why?

Oprah- because she has been and seen just about everything and everyone, and would make interesting conversation.

Russell Brand-because he is really funny and often very inappropriate! Perfect to liven up a dinner party!!

And of course the super mum of all super mums, Collette White- This amazing, talented friend of mine for 15 years, would need to be there to share it with me.

The last time I saw B, a year ago!

Almost a year ago you packed up your family of 4 from the Central Coast of NSW and moved to a remote Community in the Northern Territory for a 12 month adventure. I have had the pleasure of regularly hearing all about it and I am certain my readers would love to hear all about it too! Would you tell us all about it?

A lady came into my work one day and we started talking about her story of teaching in a remote indigenous community. It sparked something inside of me to do the same. I really wanted to experience something different for our family, especially our two boys. They have a very comfortable life and want for nothing. I didn’t want them growing up thinking this was how everyone lives. I wanted to broaden their ideas (ours too!) and learn about another culture. I went straight home to my husband and asked him what he thought. As he is a teacher in a secondary school and loves his job and life on the coast, I wasn’t sure what he would say. To my surprise, he loved the idea, so we began to research communities in the Northern Territory.

We accepted a teaching position in a community called Gunbalanya. Gubalanya has a population of around 1000 and is located in West Arnhem Land, 250 km north east of Darwin.  Our adventure begins!!

“B” ….. on an adventure of a lifetime!

After renting our house out and lots of “are we doing the right thing?”  We headed off in the trusty 4wd that we had bought for this purpose. The road trip itself was an adventure and the boys loved it. 8 days later, we arrived in Jabiru. Jabiru is a town in Kakadu National Park that has the closest airstrip to Gunbalanya. As it was the wet season when we arrived (January), we had to get a 6 seater plane over to Gunbalanya . The roads are completely inaccessible for the first 4 to 5 months of the year due to the flood plains and swollen river systems. So once we were flown in to the community, we were isolated there till May. That was a pretty daunting idea because if we didn’t like it ,there was no way out.

The principal of the school met us on the airstrip and we piled our bags and ourselves into the back of the troopy. She took us on the grand tour of the community (which took about 7 minutes!) and I remember thinking “oh my god, what have we done”. We had left the real world behind and I felt like we were in a poverty stricken 3^rd world country. It was a real shock.

Stone Country Festival

Stone Country Festival

Stone Country Festival

We settled in to our very basic house we would call home for the next 12 months, and started school 2 days later. My husband had a middle years boys class (12-15 years olds).The other teachers said that it was the toughest class in the school. These boys had hardly been to school, spoke minimal English, several of their parents were in jail and some boys didn’t have parents at all. About half of the boys in the class smoke gunja (marijuana) on a daily basis, often given to them by family members. Most boys are a victim of domestic violence, usually alcohol infused violence.

The community is 100% indigenous and Kunwinkgu is their language, so you can imagine how different it was for our 7 and 4 year old starting school there. They were the two new “white kids” that wore shoes!! They settled in well though. Kids really are resilient little beings. In no time, our boys had ditched the shoes and were climbing and swinging out of trees with the local kids.

I also worked at the school, as an assistant teacher. I had never done anything like that before .I found it challenging but very rewarding.

B in Cobourg

We settled in to our new life pretty easily. There were definite challenges such as, having to walk to the only shop to get our food( as we didn’t have our car yet). When it is 39 degrees and camp dogs are chasing you, it is not a pleasant experience!! The lack of fresh produce has been another down side. The shop is fairly limited and really expensive, ( I paid $6.80 for a small shrivelled iceberg lettuce!) For the first 4 months we had our food flown in from Darwin. Another expensive exercise .I have learnt from this experience to never take fresh food for granted. Although, it did teach me to be more resourceful and inventive with cooking, ( I didn’t have much choice!!)

Steve catching dinner!

Learning about the indigenous culture has been one of the highlights. This community still hunts and gathers their traditional foods. After been adopted into a local family and given a skin name, we had the opportunity to go turtle hunting on the floodplains, ( turtles are a favourite food of the Kunwingku people).We spent many a weekend fishing for Barramund, (sometimes we even caught one!!) and tried wild buffalo, magpie goose, wild pig and file snake. We also were taken out looking for bush foods such as native plums and berries. The most interesting food was grinding up green ants to make a tea to drink when you have a sore throat. It actually tasted kind of citrus flavoured.

 I love the way the people of Gunbalanya lead such a slow paced and simple life. A typical day on the weekend would be hunting all day out bush and then coming home to cook their kill on a fire in their yard. The whole family is there and they sit around telling stories .There is no rushing, no watches, no traffic, no after school activities. We have taken on board a lot from these people, and will continue when we come home to simplify our lives and slow down and enjoy the moment.

Gunbalanya

Our kids have definitely benefited as well from the lifestyle. They came to the territory with a small box of toys between them. Watching them learn to make their own fun, climb trees, catch cane toads ,get dirty, throw spears, build cubby’s from junk found lying around has been invaluable to their life .It has really taught them to use their imagination and step out of their comfort zone. There has been no need for fancy, expensive toys and in fact my eldest one does not want to leave and go back home.

There are so many stories to tell, but obviously too many to write now. I will finish by saying that this has been the most challenging, rewarding, heartbraking, frustrating ,interesting but  undoubtably the best thing we as a family have ever done. Leaping out of our comfort zone has not only challenged us to the core on many occasions, but taught us more than we could have ever imagined.

Wow! What a story! Could you pack up your family and do this?! I don’t know if I could be so brave!!!!!!
I hope you have enjoyed hearing this story and perhaps it may inspire you to reach out and follow that dream you have been thinking about??

Here are a few more photos of their journey…

Stunning!

On their way home, back to the Coast, look what they saw!

Litchfield NT

Wishing you all a beautiful, safe, fun, healthy (well as much as you can!) and blessed Christmas! Sending a lot of love from my home to yours as we celebrate the most important Birthday of all!

Take Care of You,

Collette x

Super Mum "Belinda Carroll"