Naked Coleslaw - Low FODMAP and Syn Free

For the next few weeks we are following the FODMAP eating plan.

For years the hubby has suffered from digestive discomfort and one day while he was looking on the internet he discovered the FODMAP plan. FODMAP stands for Fermantable Oligo-saccharides Di-saccharides Mono-saccharides and Polyols, otherwise known as FODMAP's. FODMAP's are carbohydrates that can be hard to digest and cause digestive discomfort and eliminating foods which contain these carbohydrates can ease symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, gases and bowel problems. They are found in various fruits, vegetables, dairy and many other foods. After doing my own research and visiting various different websites I now have a list of FODMAP foods. The list is divided into two sections, high 'red' FODMAP foods, which I need to avoid in the hubby's meals and low 'green' FODMAP foods which he can eat.

This has meant that my meal plans need to be planned more carefully. Now when I write my weekly meal plan I am carefully looking at the ingredients that are needed for each individual meal and adapting them accordingly.

When I was planning this weeks meals I found a recipe in the Slimming World magazine that I knew everyone would love, but it was served with a homemade coleslaw which contained many high FODMAP ingredients. This got me thinking how I could make a coleslaw type salad that is both syn free for me and, of course, low FODMAP for the hubby. What I created was a huge success and is now a firm favourite.

This is what I did...

Peachy Giant Couscous Salad with Del Monte

We all love fruit. It is the one food which the children have free run of. We keep the fresh fruit in baskets in the fridge so that it is easily accessible. This is great for their health but the amount of times I have gone to the fridge for some fruit to find that the kids have eaten it all are endless. That is why we always keep some tins of fruit in the cupboard. So when Del Monte asked me if I would like to create an easy recipe using some of their fruit I could not wait to get started.

To get my ideas flowing they sent me a lovely hamper full of Del Monte goodies.  The hamper included some of their new kids Squeezie pouches. As soon as the children saw the Minnie and Mickey design they could not wait to try them. The pouches are 100% fruit based and are aimed at children aged 3 - 9 years old but even my 12 year old wanted to try them! The children got to try two of the new flavours, apple and mango and apple, strawberry and blueberry. Both flavours were a huge success and we will definitely be keeping an eye out for them on our next shopping trip. They are perfect to pop in the bag for days out or for the children's lunch box.

For today's recipe I have used some of Del Monte's tinned fruit. Did you know that tinned fruit can be more nutritious than fresh fruit? This is because the fruit is picked when it is fully ripe and is processed immediately. This locks in the goodness that can deteriorate over time. A recent study actually found that when they compared fresh, frozen and canned foods the nutrients were surprisingly similar. Plus when the fruit is kept in a can it has a longer shelf life. Inevitably this reduces food waste and saves us valuable money!

This recipe is a deliciously healthy salad recipe that contains fresh vegetables, chicken and the star of the dish, Del Monte peaches.

This is what I did..

Winter Kale Salad

At the moment we have got a lot of kale in the garden ready for harvesting. Kale is one vegetable that I think often gets over looked. We get bored of eating it the same way, steamed, so I am always looking for new ways to add this super food to our diets. Now that we have had our first frost I know that the kale will be even sweeter and perfect for salad!

One thing that kale is great for is as a salad. It has a firmer texture and fuller flavour than lettuce and, in my opinion, makes a more filling salad. Today's recipe contains 6 delicious vegetables and is jam packed with goodness. It is perfect as a lunch or goes great with a jacket potato.

This is what I did...

#FloraLunchbox Challenge - Getting the Balance Right

All parents who have children of school age will know how hard it can be to give your children a good variety of packed lunches. But it is not only variety that is important. We also need to ensure that they contain a good balance of nutritional elements that are essential for good health.

Flora have recently conducted a survey regarding children's lunch boxes and their results have shown that this is a common dilemma that parents face. I was not surprised that they had found these results, however what I was surprised about that only 1.6% of children's lunchboxes are meeting school food nutritional standards! This percentage has only increased by 0.5% in the last 10 years! Only 1 in 5 lunchboxes contain any salad or vegetables! The report illustrates that the majority of lunchboxes do meet the standards of protein and vitamin C, which is great, but there is still work to be done.

To help parents Flora has sent out 631,000 lunchboxes and lunch meal planners to retailers throughout the country. The guides are intended to make packing a lunch easier. I was sent one of the lunchbox bundles and have found the guide to be an immense help. The guide sets out exactly what our children need to be having in their lunchboxes.

Degustabox - September Contents and Recipe

It is that time of the month when I share with you what foodies treat arrived in Septembers Degustabox. As with each month, the box contained a wide variety of products from snacks to drinks, from desserts to lunches. There really is something for everyone each month.

Today I am going to tell you about all of the products that arrived and share a dish that I have made using one of the products that came in the Degustabox.

• Metcalfes - A dark chocolate treat that is both delicious as well as light. The popcorn base has been topped with the finest Italian chocolate.
• Get Fruity - This Tangy Pineapple, Coconut and Lime bar is 100% natural and made from gluten free oats and virgin coconut oil. It contains so refined sugar and is produced on a nut free site.
• Say Yes to No - These toasted bread chips are so moreish! They contain no artificial colours or flavours.
• Hartley's - These little pots of jelly, went down a treat and had disappeared thanks to the kids as soon as they saw them!
• Mrs Crimble's - We have tried Mrs Crimble's products before but have never seen the gluten free pasta before. This is a product that we are excited to try!
• Chia Bia - We love chia seeds and were not disappointed with these ones.
• Miso Tasty - Miso soup is made from 12 month fermented rice and this soup has been paired with wakame and spring onion which comes in separate sachets to retain the true miso flavours.
• Cirio - I have featured Cirio's borlotti beans in today's recipe. These beans are ready to eat and are delicious in a salad.
• Teisseire - This raspberry and cranberry squash contains zero sugar and gives water a lovely refreshing twist! Perfect for this sober October!
• Cape Drinks - Both the sparkling pineapple and passion fruit and the sparkling peach and lychee drinks are made with rooibos tea and a full of anti oxidants. 

As you can see the products are all that little bit different from what you usually find in the supermarket and that is what we like most about Degustabox.

Now let me tell you about how I used the borlotti beans in a quick and easy salad!

This is what I did...

Beetroot, Goats Cheese and Borlotti Bean Salad

Ingredients

75g mixed leaf salad

1 small fresh beetroot, thinly sliced

Goats cheese, cubed

1 x 150g tin of borlotti beans

1tbsp truffle oil

1tbsp balsamic oil

Method

1 - Mix the truffle oil with the balsamic vinegar in a bowl

2 - Place the mixed leaves in a large mixing bowl, add the borlotti beans and pour over the oil

3 - Mix the ingredients thoroughly

4 - Serve the oil coated vegetables on a plate, top with the slices of beetroot and scatter the cubes of goats cheese. I have not added an amount as you can add as much or as little as you wish!

This is such a quick and easy lunch and can easily be packed in a box and taken out. The truffle oil combines perfectly with the balsamic to create an easy yet full of flavour dressing. The beetroot that I have used in this recipe was freshly picked from the garden, but you can use any fresh beetroot.

If you would like to try Degustabox yourself they are offering Hijacked By Twins readers the chance to receive a whopping £7.00 off your first box when you add the promotional code BLDEG15 at the checkout!

Enjoy x

Disclosure: I receive a monthly Degustabox for the purpose of my posts. No cash payment was received. All views and opinions are my own and 100% honest.

Green Veg and Mint Risotto

Risotto is a great meal to sneak some extra vegetables into the kids. Today's recipe is easier and quicker than a traditionally cooked risotto. It requires a lot less attention and is perfect for when the kids are off school and we have less time for cooking.

This recipe focuses on green vegetables and is full of the flavours of summer. This is what I did...

#CookBlogShare Week 28 - The Homegrown Round Up

Welcome to another round up of CookBlogShare recipes. As always there were so many delicious recipes linked up last week. But one thought kept popping up as I was reading the posts. That thought was "Ooooh we have that growing in the garden!" So bearing this in mind I knew what my round up would be. 

Here is the homegrown round up and here are my four favourite recipes from week 28 of CookBlogShare...

Spring Time is Coming!

At last it really does feel like spring is almost here. With the feeling of spring in the air it is time to start thinking about what fruit and vegetables we are going to grow this year. We are very lucky to have a lovely long garden, one third of which is a dedicated veggie patch.

I cannot take credit for the wonderful area that we have got. It is all thanks to the hard work that the hubby puts in. We have four raised bed, a fruit cage, sheds, chickens and a greenhouse. Now is the time of year that we plan what vegetables we are going to grow this year. We look at what we use the most and the cost effectiveness of growing our own.

So far we have decided to grow:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Aubergines
• Sprouts
• Courgettes
• Parsnips
• Broccoli
• Peas
• French Beans
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Gooseberries
• Blueberries
• Limes

You can grow a lot of your own vegetables in your garden but greenhouses certainly do enable you to grow a wider variety of fruit and vegetables. In our greenhouse we grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, chillis, aubergines and even limes! We really would be lost without ours! Growing our own fruit and vegetables has saved us money and has certainly reduced our carbon footprint. But we also get a great satisfaction from eating food that we have grown ourselves. You simply cannot get any fresher, being able to go down the garden and harvest your food. Not to mention the reduction of food waste, when you pick what you need there is no waste!

Getting the children involved in gardening is not only a lovely family pastime but it also educates them about where our food comes from and the growing cycle. They get to experience planting the seeds, nurturing the seeds as they grow and finally seeing the end product cooked and eaten. We have also found that the children are more likely to try new foods, especially if they have helped to grow them. The other year we grew sugar snap peas but not one of them made it to the kitchen table as the twins kept picking them and eating them while out playing!

If you have a good area of garden I would definitely recommend looking into growing your own fruit and vegetables. Investing in a greenhouse is a must where possible. But most important of all have fun, together as a family, in the garden. Our favourite time of year is almost upon us so bring on the longer days, sunny weather, barbecues and homegrown food!

Enjoy x

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post

Spicy Tomato and Butternut Squash Soup

We recently had a glut of lovely, fresh, homegrown tomatoes. They all seemed to go red around the same time hence having so many.

My favourite thing to cook when we have so many tomatoes is a soup. You can't beat a good, homemade soup. They beat pre made, shop bought soups any day and are so much healthier. They are also so easy to make at home and a great way to use up any vegetables that may be getting to the end of their best. If you make a big pan of soup it is easy to divide up into freezer bags to freeze. To defrost simply place the frozen soup in a pan over a medium heat until it has reheated! In my soups the only thing that I add to the vegetables is a stock cube for a bit of extra flavouring, there are no hidden nasties which makes them so much better for you than mass produced soups.

This is what I did....

Augbergine Ratatouille

I always love a good ratatouille as a main course, I just wish my family did! However they do like it as a side dish so next time I make it I will make extra for me and a different main meal for them. Ratatouille is a great dish that can be adapted to what vegetables you have that need using up or if you have a glut of home grown vegetables! In this recipe I used a marrow, which is just a large courgette so it will work with either.

This is what I did...

Shiitake Mushroom, Kale and Bacon Spaghetti

I find that my children will eat just about any vegetable if it is combined with pasta or spaghetti. That is how this recipe came along.

We love to grow our own fruit and vegetables and have got a lot of kale that is ready for cutting. I knew that the children would not like it if I served it as a side vegetable, but if it was mixed in they would. When I went down to the vegetable patch to collect some kale I also got an onion, a garlic and a chilli for the meal.

This is such an easy meal to make that is full of flavour. I can see that this meal is going to be a favourite!

This is what I did...

Stewed Homegrown Rhubarb

We have been delighted to see that our rhubarb has returned in the garden and it is already big! It seems to have shot up over the last two weeks. I can see us having a lot of rhubarb over the next few months.

Rhubarb is a lovely versatile vegetable, yes it is a vegetable, until recently I thought that it was a fruit. Rhubarb can be used in a variety of desserts from crumbles to pies, from cakes to jams. With it returning to the garden so early it is always one of the first things that we get to harvest.

This is the second harvest that we have had so far this year. Last time I made a rhubarb and strawberry crumble which unfortunately did not last long enough for me to take a picture, so this will be a recipe that I will be sharing in the future.

Today I thought that I would share with you the base of all my rhubarb recipes.

My Stewed Rhubarb.

With the stewed rhubarb you can use it is a variety of recipes. I have got a few rhubarb based recipes planned and I will be referring back to this recipe.

Gardeners Frittata

After returning from holiday we found that we had a few vegetables to harvest. We had some large courgettes, onions, beetroot, tomatoes and an aubergine. They all needed to be used sooner rather than later so I came up with a recipe that incorporates all of them along with eggs from our chickens.

This is what I did...

Gardeners Frittata

Ingredients

1 large courgette, quartered and sliced (2 med or 3 sml)
2 small onions, chopped
3 small beetroots, chopped
1 small aubergine, quartered and sliced
6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
8 eggs
Fresh parsley
4 slices of prosciutto
50g mature cheddar cheese, grated
1 tbsp  olive oil

Method

1 - Heat the olive oil in a saute, oven proof pan.

2 - Gently fry the onions, beetroot and courgette over a medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

3 - Add the aubergine and fry for a further 5 minutes.

4 - Mix in the chopped tomatoes and chopped fresh parsley, I used 2 teaspoons but you can add as much or as little according to taste.

5 - Beat the eggs and pour over the vegetables and give it a quick stir to ensure the eggs are evenly distributed.

6 - Leave over a medium heat and cook for 10 minutes.

7 - Lay the strips of prosciutto over the top and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

8 - Place the pan under a high grill and cook for about 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the egg has set.

This is a great and versatile dish in which you can use most vegetables that need using up. Thus saving food waste! I served the frittata with potatoes but you could also have with salad, chips or as it is for a light lunch.

Enjoy x

I am sharing my Gardeners Frittata with Honest Mum's Tasty Tuesdays

Cheap Budget Meal - Courgette Ratatouille

At the moment we are inundated with lovely, fresh, homegrown courgettes. So any meal that involves using courgettes is being cooked!

This dish is a lovely main meal or as a tasty side dish.

Courgettes are free is grown in the garden but to buy they are also cheap. This meal is a great way to get some added goodness into the family's diet!

A healthy, quick, easy meal!

That is why I am featuring this recipe as this weeks Cheap Budget Meal.

Courgette Ratatouille

Ingredients

3 courgettes, sliced (99p)
1 onion, halved and sliced (16p)
250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced (99p)
400g tin chopped tomatoes (31p)
1tspn mixed herbs
Cayenne pepper
Olive oil
50g mature cheddar cheese, grated (£1)

Method

1 - Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a deep saute pan

2 - Place the courgettes, onions and mushrooms in the pan and cook for 5 minutes

3 - Once the vegetables are starting to soften add the tin of tomatoes, mixed herbs and cayenne pepper according to taste

4 - Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes

5 - Transfer into an oven proof dish, scatter over the grated cheese and place under a high grill to melt the cheese

As we grow courgettes I was able to cook this meal for a minimal £2.46! That is just 49p per serving! If you need to buy courgettes it will still be a budgeting £3.45, that's just 69p per serving (5 servings).

Enjoy x

How Does Your Garden Grow - Week 28

What glorious weather we are having!

I love it but the plants are not too happy with the heat. However the butterflies seem to be enjoying both the weather and our plants. We have had so many fluttering around. They are so pretty to see. Along with the butterflies are many bees around the clover on the lawn and lavender.

This week I thought I'd update you on how our vegetable garden is coming on as well as a few photographs of some pretty flowers which are opening up.

This is how our garden has grown this week...

I love going down the garden to harvest vegetables for our meals!

My herb garden is getting full!

Our first aubergine is growing.

We have some bizarre looking cucumbers growing
(they are supposed to look like that!)

Carrots are just ready to harvest.

Our huge cabbages!

Our courgettes are enormous compared to last year.

This is the first year we have attempted to grow sweetcorn and
it is doing so well.

We have our first ears of corn coming.

Our lovely, full greenhouse.

I took this photograph of the Dahlia at dusk, I loved how vibrant
the pink looks against the dark leaves 

A different variety of Allium which is opening up

The butterflies visiting

The Sweet Peas growing up the children's swing

The Dahlia in the day time

Another Dahlia opening up

Some pretty Fuchsia's in a pot on the door step

As always I am sharing how our garden has grown with the lovely Manneskjur - How Does Your Garden Grow?