Swivel Store For Herbs and Spices - Have It, Love It, Solved A Big Problem!

Swivel Motion In Action

This caught my eye a while back but I wasn't sure if it would do the job as well as it appeared to in the photos. After being bought it as a gift I can honestly say that not only has it saved us a decent amount of shelf space, it's also made finding our herbs and spices really easy, not something that was previously the case.

I use lots of herbs and spices in my cooking and I used to keep them divided in two separate trays on one shelf. It meant that I could keep them all together but apart from the ones at the very front, I couldn't identify the others easily.

Just When You Think You've Got It Sorted - Gluten In Skincare

Contains Gluten

I'm not afraid to admit that when it comes to cooking, I'm on gluten free auto pilot. It comes so naturally now that I find it a breeze but that's only because I've immersed myself in learning as much as I can about ingredients, it didn't just happen overnight.

So there's me thinking I'm 100% gluten free but due to one little 15ml pot of eye cream, it's transpired that I am not.

New To The Gluten Free Diet - Eating Out

It's tough enough in the beginning to eat safely at home on a gluten free diet so eating out poses a new challenge. You know what you can eat and how to avoid cross contamination when prepping and cooking food but what about when you aren't in control of the situation?

The problem here is that you are putting your well being into someone else's hands. Can you trust that they will be aware enough to understand not only what gluten is but also how to avoid cross contamination? It's a huge thing to put your trust in someone like this.

New To A Gluten Free Diet - Cross Contamination

As if it isn't hard enough getting your head around going gluten free to begin with there's other factors outside of what foods you can and can't eat. Cross contamination is when a gluten free food comes into contact with gluten, thus making it contaminated.

The easiest way that this happens is in the preparation or cooking processes. Say you use a chopping board that has just been used to slice bread, regular bread. Whatever you put on that chopping board is now contaminated with gluten. If you put gluten free bread into a non exclusively gluten free toaster? Contamination. Fry chips in oil that has been use to fry non gluten free breaded or battered items? Contaminated.

If you're eating gluten free but still feeling unwell, this may be what's causing it.

What Can I Eat On A Gluten Free Diet?

Back in 2009 this was the question that I was constantly asking myself. What can I eat? I'd spent two years in a pitiful state of zombie-like existence and once I knew that the gluten free diet would change that I embraced it fully. This didn't mean it was easy though, embracing it and understanding it were two very different things.

My natural inclination was to head straight for the free from aisle in my supermarket, if I said it was gluten free I could eat it, right? I ended up with biscuits and a couple of meals in pouches that you just poured boiling water into, I vividly remember getting tins of Orgran Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce. With hindsight, a nutritional nightmare, at the time, a few weeks spent eating flavourless foods that were of terrible quality. I still can't look at a tin of that Spaghetti without wincing.

If I were to be able to go back in time and advise the old me at the time of going gluten free, this is what I would tell myself...

A Natural Alternative To Lemsip

Cold Fighter

As written about in a previous post, Lemsip's are gluten free (except for the Lemsip All In One Wild Berry and Hot Orange) but they don't agree with me. I've used natural remedies for years because as a child I was constantly on some form of medication even though I didn't have a long term illness. I just used to get everything going and I put that down to the fact that I had no immune system due to all the drugs I was given unnecessarily.

I'm not going to tempt fate but as an adult, aside from the need to be gluten free, yeah. I like natural remedies.

Superpowers!

I was watching the Morrissey and Stephen Colbert interview where they talked about Morrissey's militant vegetarianism and how for the day that he was on set, the entire building had to be meat free. Everyone had to adopt the vegetarian diet whilst he was around.

Initially, I was thinking, what a cheek! Then it struck me, if I could have the power to make everyone gluten free in my presence, would I?

Claims For Gluten Poisoning - Is It Possible?

I've been in conversation with an online friend and fellow coeliac about this subject for a couple of years now. As coeliacs, do we have any rights concerning being glutened, either when eating out or when consuming products that are incorrectly labelled as gluten free at home? 

Vita Coco So Much More Than Just A Nice Drink

I've been feeling really groggy since last Sunday. Very, very tired during the day, no get up and go, brain fog, my stomach has been quite unsettled and I've also had a really nasty water reaction on my palms that have left them cracked and sore. I figured it was the stress of the move still pouring out.

Nah ah.

OPI Nail Polishes And Treatments

I wrote a while back about OPI Nail Envy having wheat protein in it, but despite contacting OPI on numerous occasions to find out which of their others products may also contain it, I never got a response. As I still have lots of their polishes, I wanted to know if they safe or not and the answer came thanks to my Mum!

QVC UK sent out an OPI product directory with her last order and in the back in gives the ingredients for all the OPI things that they sell. That's pretty darn cool.

Is This What Got Me Through My Glutening?

You may or may not know, but I was glutened on Friday. First time in over a year. Thing is, this time it has been a totally different experience in getting over it. We're now at Tuesday, a mere five days since it happened and I am relieved and happy to report that I don't appear to have any remaining glutened symptoms.

Our Ever Evolving Kitchen

I don't know quite how it's happened but recently I've realised that I now have a 100% gluten free kitchen! That makes me smile.

During our time living together our eating habits have changed tremendously, when we first moved in together I was a vegetarian and had been for 2 years, he was a steak fiend. We rarely used to eat the same meals and looking back I absolutely hate the idea of that.

It's Not Just Me Then

A couple of days ago I read a cartoon on the very funny but sometimes too close to home Celeriacs. It was entitled: You Don't Get Invited To Things. It got me thinking, that hasn't been the case in the past but it seems like it is now, I think I've probably used up all my invites by previous panicked declining.

Coeliac Disease and Stress

I've come to realise that being gluten free sadly isn't enough when you're a coeliac. No matter how well I feel on a long stretch without being glutened, there is always one thing that drags me down to utter exhaustion and that is stress.

Gluten Free Oyster Sauce and Soy Sauce

Don't you just hate it when a store stops stocking a product that is a staple ingredient in your kitchen? I do, and it keeps happening.

Prior to being gluten free one of my most favourite ingredients was oyster sauce. We would buy a huge bottle of it from Tesco that would last for ages. Then I found out that I couldn't have that particular brand because it had wheat flour in it. Oh well. But then after much research I found out that Blue Elephant Oyster Sauce was gluten free. Yay!

Stuff People Say To Coeliacs

They forgot "you need your head checked".

Coeliac Tiredness

I don't recall a time in my life when I've ever been well rested because I've always had insomnia but recently the tiredness has been getting progressively worse. I haven't had any glutening episodes recently though I have been a bit run down due to chest problems, and I continue to have late nights which isn't smart but, well, that's just the way I am.

Gluten Free Meal Planning

All You Need Is Cheese

Something that has really helped me on my gluten free diet is meal planning. I don't mean being regimental about it, but by us planning meals on a Friday night in preparation for our Saturday shop, we rarely waste ingredients and are never stuck for what to eat.

Vita Coco

If you want a really refreshing drink then this has to be right up there. I've been drinking Vita Coco for a long time now and I definitely feel different for doing so. It kind of gives an instant boost when you drink it, you really feel as though you're putting something healthy into your body.

Stovetop Smoking - A Favourite Way To Cook

I absolutely love smoked foods and for the past year and a bit we've been smoking our own thanks to a nifty stovetop smoker that does the job with minimum effort on our part.