It’s such a lovely little ray of sunshine when another blogger decides they like your scribbles well enough to consider you for an award! There’s so much blogger love going around, and I’m excited that some of that love came my way this time Thank you TheGreatZambini for thinking of me!

The Versatile Blogger Award goes out to the most multifaceted bloggers. Those who fall into many categories, and between others. In Norway we’d say these blogs are a bit like potatoes; namely loved by all and can be used for anything. Pretty awesome really!

A nomination for the Versatile Blogger Award gives the receiver an opportunity to applaud their favorite blogs. An awesome chance to share the love!

The nominee is encouraged to:

• post the award picture on the blog
• give a link to the blogger who nominated them
• nominate their favorite blogs

I just love a chance to highlight my favourite blogs! Being a dedicated Gluten Free blogger, I would like to take this opportunity to pass the nomination on to other GF bloggers with a decidedly Versatile streak! The nomination asks for 15, but my list counts 7 so I recon that leaves me some room to refill my list as more gems come my way

I love and adore Celiac Kiddo and I’m certainly not alone, so a nomination decidedly belongs on her blog!

I am crazy about GlutenfreeGus these days; a well-written blog with amazing food and brilliant pictures! My second nominee for sure.

Dear Zoe from RubadubdubBlog certainly deserves a nomination for her beautiful photographic journey, lovely recipes and generously heartfelt stories. This one’s for you Zoe!

Celiac&AllergyAdventures is my fourth nominee. She has a wonderfully consistent blog, heaping with posts that never compromise on content. She also caters to a wide variety of readers and surely helps them all with her info. Well done Amanda!

I’ve recently found a new little GF treasure by the name of BasedOnASprueStory. This is the place to go for a gluten free pick-me-up! Rarely have I seen coeliac adventures projected so lightheartedly, and I just looooved her fairytale edition. A must-read!

I used to live in NZ, it will always have a place in my heart.. and my GF go-to blog from the land of the long, white cloud is CoeliacDiagnosis-GlutenFreeOMG!

Last but not least a shout-out to TheGreatZambini, who already has the award I know (but why not wallpaper with it), but surely deserves another nomination. Zambini really embodies what this award is about; versatility!

Thanks all for awesome blogging, love ya!

Celiac Disease and Migraines.

I got glutened last week. Again! And again it happened after what seemed like an endless conversation about pitfalls, followed by nodding and quite convincing agreeance. Never the less, somewhere between waitress and chef the message got lost. Why must it be so hard?

At that point I felt as though I had reached a ceiling for what I am willing to put up with from this disease. I can’t even go out and have a salad now? Come on!

One of my favorite things to do has always been exploring new foods and restaurants, often combined with travel. To this day I don’t know how I’ll get through a journey to a remote destination being coeliac. I do know however that I will have to find a way or my life will have changed more than I can accept.

My biggest goal with Thank Heavens is to ultimately be able to educate food suppliers en mass. I want to reach so many more than I can right now, and much faster than the snail trail I seem to be leaving behind. One restaurant at a time, limited by the amount of eating out I am able lock down is simply not fast enough. I’d like to be able to provide and secure correct information to the right people wherever coeliacs eat.

(source)

It would be so lovely to know that we are safe. I’d happily settle for a limited selection if only I knew it couldn’t harm me. It is hard enough finding a potential restaurant, not to have to go through the same old arduous explanation process yet again. It’s just sometimes too much on a Tuesday evening. Not to mention that we all know just too well that no matter how meticulously you explain yourself, eating out is always but always somewhat of a gamble. In fact even in the circumstances where we are quite safe, our minds will be working overtime to process the unknown. We just never know, and that stress is from time to time more than enough.

But we have to live a little! And to be able to do that we need to find tools that ease the process and give us better odds.

For me, the explanation process is the worst part. I keep rehashing my “control questions”, such as:

• Do you use a separate grill for your GF bread?
• Do you have separate utensils?
• Is there any chance that the produce may have been in contact with gluten during handling?
• Do you have access to an ingredient list for all components?
• Can you use clean tools to prepare my meal?

How I feel sometimes..
(made with a photo from ehow.com)

Many of these questions que pointers that Joe Blog hadn’t thought of. And why should he? I sure didn’t know much about cross contamination before I was diagnosed.

Often it’s the conversation between the two of you, and the way you get your point across that makes all the difference. Joe gets the basics and passes the message on to the kitchen. However, Joe can’t deliver the whole story, and he certainly can’t get the urgency across the way you can. So along the way, in spite of good intent, details get lost and you get glutened.

Yeah, no wonder it goes wrong..

I suppose we can never be sure about handling. We have to simply live with that uncertainty, unless we wanna eat at home for ever. We can however do a lot to at least eliminate Chinese whispers.

So as much as I would love to scan through every kitchen, obviously I can’t. I did however make you a Restaurant Card that you can print out and take along on your next outing. The card contains the most important information your chef and waiter should be made aware of, and it not only cuts out the element of confusion, it also takes the pressure off of you.

Imagine being able to eat out without engaging in a 15 minute discussion with waitstaff!

I hope this tool can come in handy. Make sure your waiter reads it and then hands it to the chef. all you have to do is let them know that what is written on your little card is very important.

The card is in a PDF file on a link just below the post. Print the card out and fold (or cut/glue) front and back together. The card will fit nicely into your wallet!

I also have 10 laminated wallet size cards to give away to my wonderful readers! Just let me know that you want one and Paypal me the postage, and I’ll send it off to you pronto

Enjoy your dinner!

Link to PDF Here——> restaurant cards

You might also like:

Mix Your Own GF Flour!

What’s Up With Gluten?

A GF Cheat Sheet!

Feel like sushi but can’t get safe fresh-but-previously-frozen-yet-yummy fish just like that? I sincerely and wholeheartedly recommend making these insanely delicious Hoisin Chicken Maki Rolls!

In this post you’ll find step-by-step preparation, great links, and a video tutorial for maki rolling.

I love sushi, and preferably the genuine version. I’ve always tended to stay clear of the westernized alternatives that generally have less fish and more mayo. However, being coeliac, sushi is often the one and only option, and the good ol’ salmon/tuna with rice and nothing else is admittedly starting to wear me down just a little. Are you feeling it too?

Here to save us is the Hoisin Chicken Maki! Nothing deep-fried and no mayo, slightly westernized I must admit, but full of goodness and absolutely bursting with flavour.

These are awesome if you’re having friends over for a wine-and-nibble night, perfect for a little cook-and-gaze dinner for two, or fun to make with your kids if you recon they need a bit of contemporary multicultural input without the raw fish.

Whatever the occasion, you are going to absolutely l.o.v.e the taste of these easy-peasy-japanesy maki rolls!

This Maki recipe came about when we had quite a bit of leftover chicken from my Special Roast Chicken. Nothing says multiple-dinners-in-one like a huge roast chicken! There’s SO much food in a whole chicken, it is always well worth the effort. -Not that there’s much effort, just check out the recipe and be amazed at the ease! Never ever throw away leftover chicken, not even the bones. It can all come to good use, trust me.

You’ll need:

Gladwrap (clingfilm) to cover the sushi mat
Chicken (preferably leftover roast chicken)
Avocado
Spring onion
Lettuce or baby leaf spinach
Cucumber
Sushi rice/ glutinous rice (Nb: has nothing to do with gluten!)
Rice wine vinegar
Sugar
Vegetable oil
Salt
Water

Sushi mat

(source)

Nori sheets

(source)

Sauce:

GF soy sauce
Natural crunchy peanut butter
Sesame oil
Honey
Rice wine vinegar
Garlic
Chili paste

Hoisin Sauce Recipe Here!

First off you need to whip up a batch of my Gluten Free Hoisin Sauce. I recommend doubling the recipe (if you are 2 people, even more for a family), as you need sauce both for cooking and dipping.

Secondly you need to cook up some sushi rice. No, this is not the same as just any rice! Sushi rice is short grain and has a ‘stickier’ texture that will help hold the maki together. If you try to use long grain rice you will probably not succeed..

Recipe for perfectly cooked sushi rice here!

Once you’ve cooked the rice you want to spread it out into a pan and allow it to cool. It should be nice and sticky, and cold before you start rolling your maki.

Whilst the rice is cooling you need to get that leftover Roast Chicken out of the fridge!

My Special Roast Chicken

All you need to do is shred the meat with your fingers. Pull it off of the bone and make good use of whatever’s left.

Shredded roast chicken meat will have a different flavour and texture to simply frying up fresh chicken breast. Naturally you can do as you please or use what you have available, but personally I prefer the shredded variety.

Once the meat is shred, pop it in a hot frying pan and add just enough Hoisin Sauce to suit your taste buds. Some like it dripping in sauciness, I like it just sticky enough to add a bit of flavour. Just make sure you don’t let the meat sit there and boil in the sauce. You just want to warm it up enough for the chicken to soak up that lovely hoisin flavour. Remember, the chicken is previously cooked (disregard this if you are in fact using fresh chicken breast! If so, make sure the meat is cooked through thoroughly before you add the sauce!), so leaving it on the heat for too long will dry it out. Also, the sugar content in the sauce will soon make it into syrup or even burn if you leave it to boil.

Once the chicken is nice and sticky with hoisin sauce, you wanna take it off the heat and let it cool down.

Whilst the chicken’s cooling you can start chopping your vegetables. Remember that the Maki roll is long and slim, so try to make your vegetables the same shape. Make slim sticks of cucumber, spring onion and avocado, and shred the lettuce (or spinach) finely. You’ll soon find that if your ingredients are too chunky, you won’t be able to roll very nice Maki.

Alright,you’ve got all your components so now the fun (or the real work?) can begin!

The first thing I recommend you do is wrap clingfilm around your sushi mat. If you get rice stuck in the gaps you’re looking at either accepting it as a permanent feature, or taking on the challenge of cleaning it with toothpicks! personally I say don’t go there Wrap your mat well, and you can just slip the clingfilm off and put it in the drawer for next time!

In preparation, make sure all your ingredients are within reach or you’ll have a seriously sticky kitchen at the end of it.. Make up a bowl of water with a tad of rice wine vinegar to dip your hands (and your knife if need be) in.

1) Lay the Nori shiny side down on the mat, with the stripes parallel with the sushi mat sticks.

2) Using wet hands, spread rice evenly on the nori . Try to keep it at max 1 cm or your maki will be less of a roll and more of a lump. Spread rice all the way to the edges, but leave about 2 cm of nori empty on the end furthest away from you. If you fail to leave this bit without rice your maki won’t stick shut.

3) Starting about a third of the way into the sheet, start placing your ingredients horizontally onto the nori. I dare say less is more on this one.. it soon gets a bit too plump and messy if you go heavy on the goodies in this step

4) You will be using the bamboo mat to roll the maki. Carefully hold the filling in place with your fingers as you grab on to the mat with your thumbs. Let your thumbs pull the mat up and around the nori, rolling the maki away from you.

(source)

5) At the point where the mat has done a full circle and touches down, you wannna press the maki roll firmly before you readjust and keep rolling. Once the maki has done a full turn, the little lip of nori that you left without rice will ’glue’ onto the outside of the nori sheet. This end should be facing down so the maki roll is held in place.

If all this sounds japanese to you, check out this handy little film!

6) Voila, you have a maki roll! Make sure your knife is nice and sharp, hold on to the maki and carefully slice the roll into whatever thickness suits your chopstick skills! If your knife isn’t awesome then it might help you to sparingly dab some of the vinegar/water onto it for better glide.

7) Repeat until everyone’s had a go at it (or alternatively until you run out).

Your yummy homemade Hoisin Sauce can either be spread onto the ingredients inside the maki, used as a dip or both. Whichever way you eat it, it totally makes the dish so don’t skimp

You might also like:

Quick Teryaki Salmon!

Crab Taglitelle!

Great Japanese
in Takapuna!

I just luuv hoisin sauce. Not much beats crispy duck rolls with a saucy hoisin wrapped around it like a velvety blanket of deliciousness! If only all hoisin was gluten free..

.. actually, I take that back. -If only all hoisin was as delicious as this Gluten Free one! It’s perfect!

For a “once-off” batch you’ll need:

4 tbsp GF soy sauce
2 tbsp natural, crunchy peanut butter (can use black bean paste, but I like peanut – and I like it crunchy!)
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 clove minced garlic (I love these for convenience!)
2 tsp sesame oil (a bit more if you really enjoy the sesame flavour)
1 tsp crushed chili/ chili paste (once again, I often use these)

I put everything in my little Philips hand blender (which I use for everything), and give it a quick twirl. The sauce comes out super smooth with little crunchy peanut bits still in it. I love it so much!!

Never buy jarred hoisin ever again, you’ll just end up throwing out the excess. Just make up what you need, enjoy the freshness and give yourself a good pat on the back

Once you’ve got your Hoisin, you can make these delicious Hoisin Chicken Maki Rolls:

Hoisin Chicken
Moreish Maki!

You might also like:

Quick Teryaki Salmon!

Sassy Tuna!

No-Bake Coconut
Lime Nibbles!

Just wanna share my thoughts on Banjo the Carob Bear. Perhaps I can save you from the experience..

Banjo the Carob Bear looks very cool. In fact, at a glance it really can be mistaken for delicious real chocolate (not that I mind carob)!

That is however where the resemblance ends.

This jolly little fella smells like something died inside the package. Seriously! In fact the smell is so foul that I actually felt my stomach turn, what were they thinking?!

Now, one should think a smell like that sets off a pretty obvious red light.. then again, so-called health food these days can send off mixed warnings, so I unfortunately gave it a go.

The first bite made me gag a little, and for some stupid reason I still went in for seconds (??). I must have felt strangely obliged to giving it a chance.

Two bites in I literally threw it over the balcony. I got up, opened the balcony door and threw it with force as far away as i could. I’m pretty sure I saw some seagulls taking off in dread as the little bundle of yuck hit the ground.. At this point I was nauseous and seriously couldn’t bear the thought of that sordid stink seeping out of my bin.

Needless to say, I was sick that night and it was not from gluten.

I sincerely hope I never see Banjo the Carob Bear again in my life! Please don’t buy this for your kids (unless you feel the old soap-in-mouth trick isn’t quite punishment enough and you’re after an upgrade) .

Yuck!

You might also like:

Testing Triple Berry
Yoghurt Rice Cakes

Testing Raw
ChocolateTruffles

Testing
iHeartBrownies

If there are people out there who spend time sitting by their computers in eager anticipation of my thrice-a-week posts, I’m afraid they will have been disappointed during the last week.. Yes, I can quite imagine the despair moving like an earthquake through the thousands of homes world-wide; “Oh no, we haven’t heard from Kristine this week!” As if! Well, a girl can dream

However, to the dearly treasured following that I do have (who probably at this point are looking up from the screen thinking “it’s been a week already?”), I do apologize. As I mentioned in my last post my parents are over from Norway. I haven’t seen them in 7 months and they’re only staying 10 days, so my posts have been put slightly to the side. I hope you’ll forgive me, and I aim to wipe out any grudges by sharing a delicious recipe for iced sweet tea that is sure to tickle your fancy!

I quite agree with Ms. Poppins that a spoon-full of sugar tends to make the medicine go down, and so this recipe should do the trick.

I originally found this beautiful iced tea recipe via Pinterest from a blog called Craving Comfort. I changed it only a little bit, and I assume you can do the same to suit your taste, but the “secret” ingredient I would not dare touch as it totally makes this tea!

For my jug I used:

4 teabags (Wedgwood Picnic Tea)
3 cups boiling water
4 cups cold water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda (!)
1/2 lemon, sliced

Sprinkle baking soda into the jug, add teabags and pour over hot water (careful with glass jugs!)

Cover the jug and let it steep for 15 minutes before you remove the teabags and add sugar. Take care to stir until the sugar is completely dissolved before you add cold water.

Refrigerate and add lemon + ice cubes before serving it.

This iced tea is divine and completely free of that bitter tea “after-taste”!

Yum-yum-yum!!!

I’m having a sleepy day. I went to bed sleepy (naturally), woke up sleepy, and now I’m contemplating duct taping my eyelids open.

Is it the weather? It’s been grey for days and it makes me not wanna get out of bed.

When I feel like this I tend to crave colourful food full of vitamins and life. Probably to counteract that lazy feeling, or perhaps it’s my body speaking up, wanting a refill.

I more or less accidentally bought the coolest kitchen gadget on Amazon the other day. I thought I’d clicked a button for conversion into Australian dollars, but turns out that button was some sort of insta-purchase.. Anyhow, I’ve now got this really cool supertool that curls and cuts and slices vegetables. Not a bad mistake at all, I have been using it all the time since it arrived! It makes funky things like curlyfries and zucchini pasta. You can find this cool contraption here.

Today I’m making medium-rare lime tuna with crispy sweet potato and lamb, leek & thyme sausage.

For 2 people you’ll need:

1 large sweet potato
2 lamb, leek & thyme sausages. I use these because i just love them
As much fresh tuna as you desire
Chives
Lime
1 tsp of butter
A dash of olive oil
Cracked salt and pepper to taste

Start by setting up your super cool spiral veggie cutter! Peel the sweet potato, cut into it lengthwise about half a cm deep, and place it onto the veggie cutter. Spiral away to get little julienne sweet potato pieces.

Pour some olive oil in a frying pan and make sure it’s hot before you fry the potato. You wanna toss it about and make sure it fries evenly into crisp little fries that are still soft in the middle. Once they’ve got a nice crispy coating, rest them on some kitchen towel to drain the fat off of them.

Fry up the sausages until they are cooked all the way through. Take them off the heat and slice them thin, before you pop them back into the pan to crisp the surface.

Melt some butter in a hot pan and pop the tuna on the heat. Pour over a generous helping of freshly squeezed lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste. You can cook the tuna as you prefer it. Personally I like it nice and pink in the middle, with a crispy crust. Tuna will cook very fast, so if you want that pink centre you need to keep an eye on it! The cooking time will depend on the cut of tuna and the heat of your pan, so instead of giving you a time to go by I’d say flip it when the heat has coloured half the steak, and then give it just a quick fry on the other side. Whatever you do, don’t leave it on its own! And remember, it will keep cooking after it’s off the heat, so take it off just a bit before it’s where you want it.

When the tuna is ready, cut it in half to expose the beautiful pink flesh, add pieces of lamb sausage and top with crispy sweet potato. Drizzle chopped chives over the plate and enjoy this gorgeous plate of perfectly combined colours and flavours!

You might also like:

Norwegian Meatballs!

Quick Teryaki Salmon!

Sugar-Free
Coconut Lime Nibbles!

(source)

At 00.50 tonight my parents will be touching down on Australian soil for the first time ever. They’re mid-air as we speak, and no doubt dreaming of sunny days and never-ending beaches in the magical land of Oz.

The dream..

Meantime I’m in my office wearing a hoody and drinking a hot cup of tea as the rain slams aggressively against my window.. Ouff. The storm should be over in a couple of weeks though, just in time for my parents to head back home!

..the reality

If you google “rainy day activities on the Gold Coast” you get some brilliant suggestions. I personally can’t wait to visit the local “plate painting hobby display room” and “my local library”. Not to mention the rather obvious option of “putting on a raincoat and taking advantage of an empty amusement park”. Surely my mum and dad will jump at the opportunity to visit Movie World during monsoon. Nothing beats a rollercoaster ride in a horizontal rainstorm!

(source)

On the upside, Australian meteorologists have a success rate ranging in the 50/50 region, so the last word might not be spoken on the subject.

That being said, inside time is cooking time, and I’m in the mood for something truly Norwegian. It doesn’t hurt that this recipe is hot and hearty.

Every man and his dog have heard of “Swedish meatballs”. Much thanks to Ikea I’m afraid. In all fairness to the Swedes, Ikea hasn’t done much to recommend them. The best parts of the Ikea meatball plate are the potatoes and the lingonberry jam.. It must be said that its’ homemade counterpart is a completely different story. Never the less, Swedish meatballs do not come close to the recipe I’d like to share with you!

Norwegian meatballs are called “Medisterkake” and they will blow your mind. They are so flavourful, moist and moreish that you’ll never look back. Naturally, anything made in your own kitchen from scratch beats any store-bought product (in my opinion), but it’s usually “too much of an effort” for people to bother. The Medisterkake meatballs are fairly easy to whip up, and I always make a big batch to freeze for later. You will not regret putting the effort into these gorgeous little dinner treats, and you’ll never go Swedish again! (-Sorry neighbors, love you lots but it’s a meatball thing).

For about 20-24 meatballs, you’ll need:

1 kg quality (stall free) pork, minced (to be ground)
4 tsp salt
3 tbsp potato starch
1/2 tsp nutmeg (ground)
1/4 tsp ginger (ground)
2 eggs (can be left out for egg-free version)
2,5 dl or 1 cup of milk

Vegetable or chicken stock

The milk and the meat must have the same temperature (fridge cold).

Start by grinding the mince. You can use any kitchen machine with a blade. Once the mince is ground properly, then add the salt. Use your hands to work the salt through the meat. Once the meat has a nice, soft concistency you add the spices and the potato starch. Keep working the mixture like a dough (get in there!), then add the milk gradually once the spices and flour have been thoroughly worked through the meat. Add eggs (if apliccable) and keep mixing. Make sure you mix the liquid in thoroughly before you add more, each time.

I cheated and added the milk (gradually) as I was grinding the mince, only because I was using a mixer from hell which needed a bit of encouragement. But don’t do what I do, do what I say

Once the mixture is done, heat a frying pan and melt some good butter. Of course, if you don’t like to use butter you can opt out, but it really does give the meatballs a good flavour and a crispy crust.

Make balls with a wet spoon in your hand. The balls should fit inside your fist, so not small like the Swedish version.

You wanna fry the meatballs on both sides until they get a nice brown look, but not all the way through.

Boil vegetable or chicken stok in a pot, and when the meatballs are done in the fryingpan you pop them over into the hot stock. Let the meatballs simmer (but not boil) for 10-12 minutes until they’re cooked all the way through.

Before you serve them, pop them on a tray in the oven at 180 c for 15-20 minutes.

We serve them with baked apples, potatoes,”rødkål” and of course plenty of lingonberry jam (which incidentally can be bought at ikea ha).

Lingonberry jam is made from what in Norwegian is called “tyttebær”. Norwegians march out by the thousands every autumn, armed with buckets and “berry pickers” in efforts to secure a sizable storage of berries. Just enough to get us through till next autumn.

I’ve spent many an evening with my family in front of the TV with a tray of tyttebær on my lap. My dad was the berry cleaning champion. He had an awesome trick with a wet towel that I’ve never quite been able to copy..

“Bærplukker” (berry picker) & Tyttebær

Homemade Tyttebærsyltetøy (lingonberry jam)

The Ikea version

After you’ve rushed to Ikea to work out the fascination with this little red bush berry, you might wanna try your hand at making the delicious “rødkål” that so perfectly complements the meatballs!

To make rødkål you need:

750 grams of fresh, red cabbage
2 apples
1 tsp salt
 2 1/2 dl (1 cup) of the broth from cooking the meatballs
2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp sugar

Chop the cabbage finely and cut the apples into wedges (peeled).

Layer the cabbage and apples in a big pot and add the salt and vinegar.

Bring to the boil and let simmer for 45 minutes. Add sugar to taste.

The meatballs freeze and reheat in the oven wonderfully! Double the batch and you’ll have 3 or 4 dinners ready made. Make up some gravy from the stock, some cream and gf flour if you’re into gravys. Caramelize it slightly for the perfect brown cream gravy!

You might also like:

Quick Teryaki Salmon!

Super Succulent Roast Chicken!

Homemade Honey Ice Cream!