gluten-free scones and cooking with a little sister

There has been such a flurry of cooking here lately and some particular people around here prefer to cook not with the gluten-free flour so eldest boy has not really been getting to enjoy all the yummies coming from the kitchen.
Which has lead him to do some cooking of his own. He loves lemons and we have a pile of them so after browsing through the cookbooks he settled on Lemon Butter and scones to go with them.
Whenever someones cooking, like a magnet comes a little three year old shouting 'I'm helping!'
And whether or not the help is wanted she stays until licking and dipping requirements have been satisfied. Which as seen in above photo can lead to some fiesty (and messy) times in the kitchen.
But in the end the results are oh so good and with lots of Lemon Butter to spare I discovered it goes quite nicely with ice cream.

color :: green

Green: In my pursuit of regaining some of my long forgotten energy I've been juicing this last weekwhich was pretty hard-I even gave up the coffee!!! Now I'm transitioning to green smoothies. My lovely hubby bought me a new amazing blender that does nearly everything and today I had my first green smoothie- I had it all! And it was yum.
For those who are curious-
- 2 frozen bananas
- a chopped green apple
- bunch of kale
- water

allergy -free cooking

In an effort to figure out some health issues with 9yob we have embarked on a 3-6month period of staying away from foods that his blood test showed highly reactive to. This includes eggs, sugarcane, dairy and gluten and a few others like his much loved oats. We usually have porridge for breakfast most mornings.

To support and perhaps improve over all health ( thinking especially 2yog who still wakes with wind issues a few times a night), we are all doing egg, gluten, sugar and dairy free. And can you believe our chickens only just started laying a few weeks prior to us starting this new eating plan so we will be giving eggs away to friends and neighbours.

The hardest meal to adjust too has been breakfast as everyone liked their milky porridge or muesli and we have yet to come up with a milk substitute we like.

Although hard these changes have been very positive. I feel more organised with our weekly menu, we aren't eating out as much, we are trying a variety of foods and generally eating better.

I've been using Zylotol and Agave syrup for sweeteners in baking and really no one notices the difference. There are so many substitutes available now its just a matter of finding one that works for you and your own needs.


Some favourites have been these morning muffins especially good on these cooler mornings and they are literally gone in minutes. I'm not sure wether it will get easier or harder as we go along but so far the transition hasn't been too difficult and really the kids have adapted so well with few grumblings- I think all the baking goodies helps.

days of summer ~ 20

:: smoothies!! A great place to add some not so loved but needed nutritious goodies. I add a little flaxseed oil, a little rice protein powder, sometimes sunflower seeds and all the favourites like banana ( i keep all the over ripe ones in the freezer), frozen berries, natural yogurt, orange juice and honey.

something yummy : Blueberry Desert Cake

To improve the health of our family, some of us have been going wheat and dairy free and we are all benefiting from it as you can see from the photo above. Not wanting to miss out in the baking department because of our recent dip into gluten free we have been testing different flours and recipes trying to come up with yummy alternatives to old favourites. And this one was a big winner.  We 're talking no leftovers for mumma with her cup of tea later that night, we're talking the plate licked clean!!

8yo boy chose this one from gluten free and easy by robyn russell.( The photos are beautiful and the recipes really are easy, this book is a great entry into gluten free cooking. It's in the side bar if your interested.) and he did most of it himself with me hanging around  helping when asked. He loved pouring over the ridiculously yummy sauce and licking the insides of the pan as did the others when there noses told them the cake was out of the oven.

So here's  the recipe (let me know how it goes) :- as I'm typing this down I've realised that I didn't quite follow it exactly I'm a 'can't follow a recipe to the t' kinda girl so I'll add my substitutes in brackets.

you'll need-

70g blueberries use frozen if you can't find fresh ones rather than canned. (I always have frozen berries in the freezer so we did the frozen option).

1 1/2 tblspn castor sugar

zest of 1 orange

80g a good gluten free flour

60g polenta 

80g almond meal

2 tspns baking pwdr

1tspn xanthum gum

teeny bit of salt

3 eggs plus 1 egg white

100g butter melted

1/4 cup buttermilk ( i use a mix of half natural yogurt and half full cream milk instead of buttermilk)

75g castor sugar, extra 

1/4 cup apple puree 

1-oven to 180 C & grease a round springform tin

2-mix blueberries, sugar, orange zest in a saucepan and stir until sugar has melted in the berry juice. put aside.

3-In a bowl mix the flour, polenta (instead of polenta as we didn't have any we just used more g-free SRF), almond meal, baking pwdr, xanthum gum and salt.

4-In a seperate bowl beat eggs, egg white, extra sugar, melted butter, buttermilk, apple puree until frothy and then add to dry ingredients. Pour into cake tin and gently swirl in blueberry mixture.

5-bake for 35-40min or until golden and cooked in centre. Leave in pan for 10min. Turn out and serve with blueberry sauce.

Blueberry Sauce-

1/4 cup of sugar with 1 tblspn of  the leftover orange squeezed & 125g blueberries in saucepan and stir until boiling, reduce heat & simmer until berries are juicy. Add I tspn of cornflour to a little of the sauce and stir into rest of sauce. Simmer until it thickens. Remove and stir in 100g blueberries. 

Enjoy on a table laid out all nice with flowers and tea.

And more gluten free goodness to come.