With the winners of this years Free From Food Awards still tightly under wraps (and then many will not be suitable for MEWS free) until Tuesday night I thought I'd share some of my food hero's with you. These are nothing to do with the actual awards, and there are lots of other good products around. These are just some of the products that have made my life easier and meet our needs as a family.
One of the frustrating things about being a Registered Dietitian is that we are not allowed to recommend a particular brand of product over another. I think that's all very well when you're talking about 'low fat spread', but with allergies, it's different. There often is only one suitable brand. Here are some for starters...
Breads and Flour Mixes (where the recipes/method need adaptation to make milk, egg, soya and wheat free, I have included a link)
DS (Dietary Specials) for Soft White Rolls, - great store cupboard standby, when we can get hold of them, don't know why more of their rolls are not egg or soya free.
Bob's Red Mill for Wonderful Bread Mix (sadly we can no longer use this as it contains chick pea flour and mini monster can no longer tolerate pulses, but really does as it says and makes a wonderful loaf)
Orgran for Easy Bake Bread Mix (as well as several other of their products) - very versatile as can use smaller amounts of mix as needed with equal weight to volume e.g. 40g mix plus 40mls fluid. I use for 'emergency' bread, sausage rolls, pizza bases etc
Gemma at Iced Gem Bakes for her recipe's, especially for bread recipe (Contains nuts) which I have adapted for seeded bread, hot cross buns, cinnamon and raisin bread, malt loaf, and bread rolls (will post recipes one day...). Her Celebration Cakes book is pretty good too.
Hale & Hearty for Pizza mix (for bread sticks), Chocolate Chip Biscuit mix (for instant homemade cookies or lollies)
Pasta, Noodles etc
Amoy for Straight to Wok Ribbon Rice Noodles for the times I've got home late from work and need an instant carbohydrate
Merchant Gourmet for One Minute Intant Polenta
King Soba for Pumpkin, ginger and rice noodles (admittedly, I selfishly ate all these and didn't share them with the children... We did use their Black Rice Noodles for spaghetti monsters though...)
Le Veneziane for Tagliatelle that doesn't break up when cooking or mixed with sauce!
Treats and Occasions
Sainsbury Free From Jam Tarts - the only ones that don't contain egg (but does contain Almonds)
Tesco for Free From Digestives (thank you for taking out the soya flour)
Pudology for Strawberry Puds for an extra special treat
Bessant and Drury Ice Creams for allowing my boys to finally enjoy banana splits
Mortimer for Pure Chocolate Powders - including white!
Dr Oetker for having so many cake decorating products that are suitable (particularly chocolate beans meaning Smarties cookies were possible)
All that remains is to eagerly await the results of the official awards...
The Official Awards can be found here.
