Celebrating nine years gluten free

Marking my Coeliac Anniversary - my Coeliacversary.

Nine years ago today I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease and began my journey into the world of all things gluten free.

Coeliac Disease is a lifelong autoimmune condition, where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. In Coeliac Disease, the immune system mistakes substances found inside gluten as a threat to the body and attacks them. This can trigger a number of painful, stressful and uncomfortable symptoms.

I'm still alive and kicking as I've avoided gluten (my Kryptonite) since 2008

Having suffered from a range of symptoms for around ten years I finally received a positive diagnosis of Coeliac Disease following some 'interesting' tests and procedures in 2008. It came as a relief to finally have a name for the mysterious cause of my illnesses and ailments, but at the time I was only given a brief summary and told that I'd have to "cut down on bread and beer". It was only later when I met with my Gastroenterologist and a dietitian that I found out that the only treatment for people with Coeliac Disease is a strict, life-long gluten free diet.

I can't thank Emily enough for her help and support throughout my struggles with the illness. She's been bloody marvellous.

We've tried not to let Coeliac Disease get in the way of things and we're always keen to get out and about to explore new places and try different things. Check out this minigolf/gluten free/coeliac awareness crossover blog post for example

Working together we've plotted the minefield of 'going gluten free' and barring the odd 'explosion' along the way we've found what works for us. At home we're a Gluten Free Zone, however there are a lot of hazards when I venture outside the house. I've reached the point now that except for anywhere that can offer 100% gluten free food and zero risks of cross-contamination I've more or less given up on dining out. The last meal out we had together was in Leeds last December. Happily we've got a return meal at 2 Oxford Place booked for later this month.

I do often wonder how many manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and take-aways consider the impact selling gluten free products (or not) has on their bottom line? If I find somewhere offering gluten free options and no cross-contamination then I'm going to spend some money there (my Coeliac Pound if you will). Plus I'll tell other Coeliacs. A Coeliac will travel a long way to eat safely and with confidence.

While having a life-long condition such as Coeliac Disease can be a pain - and horrible if I 'get glutened' - having the disease has had some positives. I've met great people since my diagnosis and have made some brilliant friends who I've met through Coeliac groups. I've also blogged a lot about living with the condition and the food and drink I've found since 2008.

Why I avoid gluten

Thank you to everyone for their support, tips, help and recommendations over the years. It's been very much appreciated.

For more info do check out NHS Choices and Coeliac UK.

You can also view the first blog post I wrote about gluten free / Coeliac stuff at 'Gluten Free Fish & Chips at Rossi's in Swansea'.

Related blog posts:
- Coeliac
- Gluten Free
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Links:
- Coeliac UK
- Coeliac Disease on NHS Choices

It's Coeliac Awareness Week

Coeliac Awareness Week is taking place from the 8th to the 14th May.

This week is Coeliac Awareness Week. Organised by national charity, Coeliac UK, the focus this year is on dining out gluten free. And being able to do so safely.

Coeliac Disease is a lifelong autoimmune condition, where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. In Coeliac Disease, the immune system mistakes substances found inside gluten as a threat to the body and attacks them. This can trigger a number of horrible, stressful and painful symptoms.

The only treatment is to adhere to a strict lifelong gluten free diet. In the UK it's estimated that 1 in 100 people have the condition.

While more places are offering gluten free menu options it's unfortunate that they are not also controlling cross-contamination risks. As little as one crumb of bread is enough to do a whole lot of damage to the gut of someone with Coeliac Disease.

I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease in 2008 and remember the years before when I could dine out quite easily. Now I barely ever do. The last meal I had out was last December at a 100% gluten free restaurant in Leeds.

I wonder how many manufacturers, retailers and restaurants consider the impact selling gluten free products (or not) has on their bottom line? If I find somewhere safe to eat then I'm going to spend some money there (my Coeliac Pound if you will) - and tell other Coeliacs to as well. Plus, I'll likely be dining out with someone else who is also going to spend money there.

For more information about Coeliac Disease and Coeliac UK's Awareness Week visit the Coeliac UK website. The hashtag for the week is #glutenfreevolution.

Over in the USA the whole of May is Celiac Awareness Month.

Link:
- Coeliac UK

Related blog posts:
- Coeliac Disease
- Gluten Free
- Funny things about being a Coeliac #9 - Menu disclaimers
- My life as a Coeliac in LEGO form
- What a perfect Crazy Golf obstacle for a Coeliac
- Gluten - my Kryptonite

New Free From range at Morrisons

Morrisons launches new Free From products.

Towards the end of last month Morrisons expanded its range of Free From products and the news sent ripples of excitement through the Coeliac and Gluten Free communities. I was particularly excited to hear that there were going to be new Curly Fries in the range, along with a number of other sweet and savoury treats.

The Curly Fries and Mini Hash Browns are only £1 a bag. Bargain

The updated branding, word of mouth buzz and excitement and the promise of new gluten and wheat free products at Morrisons means I've been spending a lot more time (and money) at my local store in Cheadle Heath. Much of the last two weeks has been spent keeping an eye out for the Curly Fries and Hash Browns. Luckily I managed to track some down on my dinner break today. I know what I'll be having for tea tonight!

The freezer section has a number of new Free From products

Looking in the Free From section I noticed a number of other gluten free products from brands outside of the Morrisons own-brand range, which is great to see.

A selection of the new gluten free cereals in the Free From section at Morrisons

Last year Morrisons expanded the range of Free From products available in store and so it's brilliant they are continuing to provide products that are safe and suitable for people with allergies, intolerances and autoimmune diseases (such as Coeliac Disease).

Check out the Morrisons website for details of their Free From range.

Related blog posts:
- Morrisons
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Link:
- Morrisons

100% gluten free places in the UK

There are 100% gluten free places to eat in the UK.

As someone living with Coeliac Disease I am extremely careful about what I eat and drink. Since I was diagnosed in 2008 I haven't knowlingly consumed anything containing gluten. However, I have been 'glutened' while dining out and the effects can be horrific and long lasting. So, I'm always looking for safe and suitable 100% gluten free places to eat at while travelling around the UK.

Before diagnosis I was a very adventurous diner and willing to try all manner of food and drink. Emily and I would enjoy visiting lots of different restaurants and takeaways. Nowadays Emily either dines while I watch, or has to wait to visit a place with friends or family to give it a try.

An incredibly rare sighting of us both dining out at the same time

At one of our last meals out together - way back in May - I was glutened. Since then dining out together has been very limited. While dining at home is safe and we do cook up some magnificent food (and great cocktails), we do miss having the whole meal experience. I am now looking to eat at places that are 100% gluten free and safe for Coeliacs. If it's not, I'll vote with my wallet and go elsewhere (or go hungry).

With my approach to tackling the problem of dining out safely I was incredibly pleased when fellow Coeliac and writer Caroline at the Coeliac Plate website let me know about a series of lists she has put together detailing the 100% gluten free places in the UK! It's absolutely marvellous to see.

One of my favourite places to eat is at 2 Oxford Place in Leeds. The fact that the restaurant is 100% gluten free and safe for Coeliacs is a real weight off the mind. To be able to visit a restaurant and not be on edge from the start is great. On the occasions I've dined there it's been brilliant. Just little things like NOT having to explain to the waiting staff that I have a medical condition before ordering, or asking to see a 'special' menu, makes a BIG difference.

When dining in a 'normal' restaurant that is trying to offer gluten free options cross contamination is possible. If eating there I can spend the whole time worrying about what could've happened to the meal I'm about to eat/am eating/have eaten. It doesn't make for a very pleasant or 'normal' experience and can often feel like the money has been wasted.

So do check out the Coeliac Plate website for more information and the links below for the 100% gluten free lists.

- UK 100% gluten free venues
- UK 100% gluten free – Northern England

Caroline tweeted me about her lists after I'd posted a tweet to fellow gluten free blogger Katie Bucknell asking about gluten free places in Manchester. Katie provided some good tips. Check out her website too.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten free
- Coeliac

Links:
- The Coeliac Plate website
- Katie Bucknell's website

Happy Halloween 2016

Ah, Halloween. The one day of the year when being a Coeliac Disease victim pays dividends. I'll never tire of 'dressing up' as Patient Zero. What a costume.

Not brown bread yet

Related blog posts:
- Halloween
- Coeliac Disease
- Gluten - my Kryptonite
- What a perfect Crazy Golf obstacle for a Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Hurrah for sensible price reductions

Spotting some gluten free bargains.

I've always had an eye for a bargain. This has been honed even more so in the eight years since I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease.

Shopping for gluten and wheat free food is a hassle at the best of times - not to mention the trouble with gluten free prescriptions - and one of my bugbears is the fact that most supermarkets reduce the price of their free from food incrementally, rather than sensibly! This means that the best you can often hope for is to pay about £1.50 for an item near its sell by / use by date, rather than £2 to £3. It's a rare thing indeed to find gluten and wheat free goodies for mere pence.

That was until I found this great haul in Morrisons this evening.

Over ten quids worth of gluten and wheat free food - for just £1.16. Lovely stuff

There were also some bagels and another loaf of artisan bread in the reduced section, but I'm not greedy so left them for some other poor Coeliac to pick up.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Link:
- Coeliac UK

Expanded free from range at Morrisons

Great to see more gluten free products in the Morrisons free from range.

As someone with Coeliac Disease I'm always on the hunt for new and interesting gluten and wheat free food and drink. So I was very pleased to see that Morrisons have really gone to town on their expanded range of Free From products.

Look at that, just look at that. What a sight. What a delight

Yowzers! There are plenty of pie options in the fridge at Morrisons in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire. This time I bought a very nice No-G Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie for my dinner, and a Lemon Pie for Emily to try. I had a nibble to and it was marvellous. I've also got a Morello Cherry and Chocolate Tart in the fridge. We've also tried some of the products in the Great Food range before and they are very good too. We'll have to try the Pure products in the future

There is also some new gluten and wheat free bread from Newburn Bakehouse now in stock at Morrisons, including a sourdough loaf

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Links:
- Morrisons
- No-G
- Great Food
- Newburn Bakehouse

A gluten free burger in a gluten free brioche-style bun!

We're always on the lookout for new and interesting gluten free food and we made a great discovery at Waitrose in Lutterworth, Leicestershire at the weekend when we spotted the packs of brioche style buns made by Just: Gluten Free Bakery!

What a find!

For dinner tonight we cooked up some gluten free burgers from the Co-Operative and put them in the brioche buns. They were delicious.

A fine burger, topped with bacon and cheese and stuffed in a nice brioche style bun. The free from Onion Rings from Tesco were great too. Note the healthy items on the plate

Check out the links below for more info on Just: Gluten Free Bakery.

Links:
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery website
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery on Twitter
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery on Facebook

Related blog posts:

- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

The Chilli Shop in Leeds

While we were up in Leeds to watch some live PDC darts and Hal Cruttenden's stand-up tour we stumbled upon a great shop in the Merrion Shopping Centre.

We were making our way to the First Direct arena for the kick-off of the 2016 PDC Premier League of darts and spotted the Chilli Shop. And what a marvellous shop it is too.

Our haul from the Chilli Shop in Leeds. The flyers for the shop also contain a version of the Scoville scale - a 'Survival Guide' to the hottest things on the planet!

As well as 50 free tasters of the world's best chillies there was all manner of other merchandise and snacks to buy.

Two things caught my eye - the first was 'The Museum of Pain'. This exhibits the hottest chillies in the world, some of which are a mind (and mouth) blowing two million plus on the Scoville scale! As a curator of The Crazy Golf Museum it was great to see the owner of the shop, Frank Jay, has taken the time and effort to display the array of chillies, trinkets, objects and info.

The Museum of Pain - it contains the world's hottest Easter Egg!

The second thing that caught my eye was the Chilli Challenge of the 'Hunger Games' where you got to play some darts, but with the caveat that if you didn't hit the bullseye to win the star prize (a bag of the world's hottest peanuts) you had to do a forfeit.

Darts, with a difference

I stepped up and scored a dismal amount that doesn't need to be recorded here. Needless to say that Emily was brave enough and stepped up to take my forfeit of a spoonful of a Chilli and Garlic condiment. I was more fearful of trying it due to cross contamination with all the gluten knocking around from the crackers used for tasters. For once, Coeliac Disease came to my aid!

We did return to the shop the next day and tasted a few other items and picked up some nice bottles of sauce, including the condiment which has a nice kick to it. We also bought a Goan Curry Sauce that is gluten free.

The Chilli Shop is well worth a visit if you're in Leeds. Do check out the Chilli Shop website for more info and details on how to order online.

Links:
- The Chilli Shop website
- The Chilli Shop on Facebook

- The Chilli Shop on Twitter

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Gluten free at 2 Oxford Place in Leeds

Dining out at 2 Oxford Place in Leeds.

2 Oxford Place gets the double-thumbs up from me

Ever since I heard that a 100% gluten free restaurant was opening in Leeds I had been excited to visit. Luckily we got to eat there on Friday. It was certainly well worth the wait.

The kitchen at The Oxford Place is totally gluten free so I was able to dine without fear of cross-contamination. And even better, I was able to order without having to explain I have Coeliac Disease. I haven't done that for well over six months and it's certainly not a regular occurrence!

Delicious food, great drinks, excellent service, 100% gluten free - 2 Oxford Place is brilliant

We'd arrived in Leeds on Thursday but unfortunately found ourselves at 2 Oxford Place between the afternoon and evening opening times.

With my hunger built and a great looking menu I really wanted to treat myself, so when we returned on Friday we went all out, and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich to start. I then had a huge portion of haddock, chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce for my main course.

One of my favourite meals. And something I don't get to eat all that often

Even though we were quite full of delicious food and drink (we opted for Prossecco, wine and cocktails - although there are gluten free beers available) we had to treat ourselves to dessert. And what a dessert it was!

Look at that Assiette!

The last time we'd had a meal out together in a 100% gluten free restaurant was at The Galley in Plymouth in June last year. On that occasion we were blown away by the dessert. And the dessert we were served at 2 Oxford Place over six months later amazed us again. The Assiette of Puddings to share at 2 Oxford Place included crème brulee, chocolate brownie, cake truffles, and mini pavlovas.

We're still eating some of the dessert after having had to take it away!

We really enjoyed the whole experience of eating at 2 Oxford Place. The food, service and venue are all brilliant and we would definitely eat there again.

Check out the The Oxford Place website for further details, menus and opening times.

Links:
- The Oxford Place website

Related blog posts:
- Gluten free
- Coeliac

Schär gluten free

There are many funny things about being a Coeliac, not least being called a 'Celery', 'Celeriac' or even a 'Solero'.

When I checked my post this morning I didn't expect to be given a new first name on a mailer from Schär Gluten Free!?

I'm used to having a wide range of spellings for my surname - but 'Richard' is normally straightforward

I know I'm good at making up Italian sounding words for foodstuffs, but 'Riamo' takes the biscuit.

Schär used to be known as DS Gluten Free and I've been buying their products since I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease in 2008. At the recent Beds & Mid Herts Coeliac Group Food Fair I added my name to the Schar UK mailing list - my handwriting must've been terrible.

The offending mailer and some of the tasty Schar Milk Chocolate Nobbles that are currently residing in my cupboard

Find out more about Schar UK's products on their website. I'm a big fan of their Chocolate Fingers - I find it impossible to not eat a whole box at a time!

Related blog posts:
- Funny things about being a Coeliac
- Gluten free
- Coeliac
- Schar

Link:
- Schar UK website

Note:
- According to a quick search on the internet 'riamo' is a "first-person singular present indicative of 'riamare'". Riamare means 'to return the love of another' or 'to love again'.

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter. You can also now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.

Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair 2015

The Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair 2015 will be taking place on Saturday 5th September.

Dozens of gluten free food businesses and hundreds of Coeliacs will be descending on The Weatherley Centre in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire for this year's Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair on Saturday 5th September.

Poster for the Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair taking place on Saturday 5th September

The 2015 event will take place from 10am until 2pm, with a £1 admission fee (that also includes entry into a prize draw).

The group organises a number of events throughout the year, and the last large food fair was in 2013. That event had 30 exhibitors and over 600 visitors.

As well as food and drink available to sample and purchase from many of the exhibitors there will also be refreshments for sale including gluten free fish and chips, sausage and chips, and fritters together with tea, coffee and other gluten free snacks.

If the 2013 event was anything to go by there will be more than enough visitors for the exhibitors to promote to. Other Coeliac Groups in the Home Counties and London areas will be advertising the event, and it will be advertised in Coeliac UK's Crossed Grain Magazine.

I enjoyed the 2013 event and it was nice to catch up with fellow members of the group. It was also great to find out about new gluten and wheat free food and drink (including beers). Most of the exhibitors were offering samples for eager Coeliacs to try out. Although I did notice that some of the exhibitors were not giving out any samples - this always seems strange to me as I like to try before I buy. And I've certainly bought my fair share of those gluten free products from brands that weren't stingy with their samples at the fair.

The Beds and Mid Herts Coeliac UK group has over 750 members in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and parts of Essex. I've been a member since shortly after my diagnosis in 2008 and have found the information in the newsletters to be useful. Attending a newly diagnosed Coeliacs event was very helpful in the early days of living life gluten free. I've also made some great friends from being a part of the group.

For more information check out the Coeliac UK Beds and Mid Herts local group page.

The 2015 Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair will be held at The Weatherley Centre, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 8JH.

I'm always keen to find out about gluten and wheat free brands that are suitable for people with Coeliac Disease so please do get in touch if you know of any, or are a producer/supplier.

Links:
- Coeliac UK
- Coeliac UK local group page for Beds and Mid Herts

Related blog posts:
- Coeliac
- Gluten Free

A special gluten free delivery from Udi's

It was very nice to recently receive a hamper of Udi's Gluten Free goodies.

The hamper included bagel chips, cake mix, soft baked cookies, muffins and more.

The Udi's Tiger Bloomer was Highly Commended in the Bread Category of the 2015 FreeFrom Food Awards

The Tiger Bloomer is very good - I had it to hold together a tasty filling of jerk pulled chicken and slaw that Emily cooked up. Sorry there's no photo as I'd got in late from a minigolf trip and wolfed it down!

Do check out my Gluten Free Journey blog on the Udi's website.

Udi's Gluten Free have been operating in the USA since 1994 and launched in the UK in 2013. Do visit the Udi's website for further details of their range and stockists near you.

Links:
- Udi's Gluten Free UK
- Udi's Gluten Free USA
- Udi's Gluten Free blog

Related blog posts:
- Udi's
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Gluteen free?

While in Hastings for the British Minigolf Championships some of my friends and minigolf rivals kindly let me know that Trattoria Italiana on Pelham Crescent on the seafront had gluten free options.

When I went for a look I noticed a funny typo on the menu board!

Gluteen free!

My friend Marion spotted it too. She also asked if Gluteen was some sort of sub-category in the world of Coeliac Disease?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley and so appears in a lot of food and drink. If people with Coeliac Disease ingest gluten it causes the body's immune system reacts by damaging the lining of the small intestine. For more information about Coeliac Disease visit the Coeliac UK website.

I often see Gluten spelled 'Gluton'.

Last week was Coeliac Awareness Week in the UK, while this week it's Coeliac Awareness Week in New Zealand. The whole of May is Celiac Awareness Month in the USA and Canada.

During Coeliac Awareness Week I was once again minigolfing gluten free. Last year I played in the BMGA British Minigolf Championships at Strokes Adventure Golf in Margate, Kent. Check out my blog about the experience.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Links:
- Coeliac UK

Gluten Free Week at M&S

It's great to see M&S celebrating 'Gluten Free Week' in the Luton Mall branch.

M&S's Gluten Free Week is running parallel to Coeliac Awareness Week - 11th to 17th May 2015

As I purchased so much of the gluten free 'Made Without Wheat' range (the gluten free beer was on offer and a chocolate loaf was reduced) the man serving me asked "What's the occasion?", so I told him about Coeliac Disease (albeit not ALL the gory details) and Coeliac Awareness Week.

Much of this gluten free beer, and one of those cakes, is now residing in my fridge and cupboard

Check out the Coeliac UK website for more information on Coeliac Disease. For Coeliac Awareness Week 2015 Coeliac UK is running a diagnosis campaign called 'Is it Coeliac Disease?'.

I'm a big fan of M&S and the gluten free food and drink they stock - not only in the Made Without Wheat section but across many of the other lines in store. More often than not I'll find something new they are doing that is gluten free, which makes shopping a treat not a chore.

The links below have more info on other Coeliac/Celiac days, weeks, and months - there are quite a few special days in May!

Related blog posts:

- Gluten free

- Coeliac
- M&S
- New Gluten Free Beer and Cakes at M&S
- Special May Days

Links:
- Marks & Spencer website
- Marks & Spencer Made Without Wheat page
- Link to a product list of M&S products that DO NOT contain GLUTEN
- Coeliac UK website
- Is it Coeliac Disease? online assessment from Coeliac UK
- The Mall Luton website

Gluten free from New Zealand and Australia

Emily recently returned from our antipodes and brought me back some great gluten free goodies.

Bakeworks gluten free Triple Chocolate Cookies

Ernest Adams gluten free Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kez's gluten free Vienna Eclair biscuits

The gluten free biscuits were all bought from a Countdown supermarket at the Westfield Albany shopping centre in Auckland, New Zealand.

While at the Southgate Melbourne shopping mall Emily also noted that there were 24 places offering gluten free options for diners!

Searching for dining options in the Southgate Melbourne mall Emily found 24 gluten free choices

On her trip to Spain earlier this year I also got a lot of interesting gluten free snack and treats.

It's always brilliant finding (and eating) different gluten free food as the strict and lifelong gluten free diet can get a bit samey.

Links:
- Bakeworks
- Ernest Adams
- Kez's
- Coeliac New Zealand
- Coeliac Australia

Related blog posts
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Gluten Free

- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac
- Coeliac Awareness Week in Australia
- Sin Gluten

My Gluten Free Journey

Check out my gluten free journey article on the Udi's website.

Enjoying a Coeliac-friendly gluten free meal while in Ayr last summer

Udi's Gluten Free have been operating in the USA since 1994 and launched in the UK in 2013. Visit the Udi's website for further details of their range and stockists near you.

The Udi's Gluten Free Blog also has articles from other Coeliacs / Gluten Free people.

Links:
- Udi's Gluten Free UK
- Udi's Gluten Free USA

Related blog posts:
- Udi’s Gluten Free – more than just mince pies
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Gluten free Mike and Ike sweets

I've recently found out that some Mike and Ike sweets are gluten free. Great news as I have a really sweet tooth.

Some of the gluten free sweets from Mike and Ike

I haven't found many sweets to be gluten free, so it's brilliant to have new sweets from Mike and Ike to try.

Links:
- Mike and Ike website
- Mike and Ike on Twitter
- Mike and Ike on Facebook

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Gluten free breakfast GfMuffin

A gluten free breakfast treat.

As someone with Coeliac Disease I'm not necessarily bombarded with advertising via mass media, but I do get taunted/haunted/annoyed when I see adverts, posters, billboards etc. for food and drink that is not gluten free.

One advert in particular has caught my eye over the last few weeks. The marketing campaign by a well known fast food chain has posters for their breakfast item on the way to the platform at St Pancras station so I see it fairly often.

I haven't had a fast food breakfast muffin for many years so decided to make my own.

A gluten free sausage and egg breakfast muffin and hash brown on the side. Next time I'll be adding a slice of cheese too

Living on a strict gluten free diet isn't always easy. While the actual eating of only gluten free food is relatively easy, but finding the ingredients and products you fancy eating can be a bit more difficult. So, in addition to not being able to buy a breakfast muffin from a takeaway, I also had to shop around to find the component parts.

The breakfast muffins took a while to find. I have had the Livwell English Muffins before, but looking in my local supermarkets this time I could only find them in Sainsbury's.

We were looking around for gluten free sausages/squares/patties/sausage meat to use as a filling and while in Tesco Emily spotted the new Fair & Square 97% Pork sausage squares from Heck Food. A nice addition to their range.

For a potato-based side it had to be McCain Hash Browns. They are gluten free and a stock item in our freezer.

Links
- Heck 
- Livwell
- McCain

Related blog posts:
- Gluten free
- Coeliac

A lot of gluten free surprises at Lidl

Stocking up on some new gluten free products from Kelkin at Lidl.

A happy Coeliac shopping for gluten free food in Lidl

A recent tweet by the Gluten Free Guerrillas alerted me to some upcoming special offers at Lidl and I was hoping that my local Lidl supermarket in Leagrave, Luton would have them in stock.

I needn't have worried - there were a LOT of great products on offer!

A great range of Kelkin gluten free products in the Leagrave branch of Lidl

As someone with Coeliac Disease it's brilliant to find new and different food to add to my strict gluten free diet, so thank you to the team at Lidl and Kelkin for stocking so many interesting products. Apart from the Porridge Oats and Muesli (as I'm a Coeliac that cannot tolerate oats for medical reasons) and Rice Cakes (I'm someone who can't tolerate them for taste reasons) we bought at least one of each of the products on offer.

What a haul of gluten free food

I've been really looking forward to trying the Kelkin Chocolate Teacakes, I hadn't bought them in other supermarkets as the price has been too prohibitive, but £1.99 is a much more reasonable price. They were worth waiting for.

The whole range of gluten free products on sale in Lidl were reasonably priced and more akin to what people without special dietary requirements pay for their food and treats. Hopefully Lidl will continue to stock gluten free products and/or arrange future #LidlSurprises for Coeliacs.

Our shopping bags contained the following Kelkin Free From products:
- Lightly sea salted Organic Corn Cakes
- Hazelnut & Chocolate flavoured Rice Cake Bars
- Jaffa cakes - a product I've seen before and scoffed many many times
- Belgian milk chocolate fingers
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Penne pasta, lasagne, spaghetti and a tomato & basil pasta sauce
- Corn flakes
- Chocolate flavoured Teacakes

We also picked up the Organic Buckwheat flakes but on reading the label again at home we noticed that it has Oat Flakes in, so I won't be eating that. It just goes to show how very very careful you have to be when buying food - I always double check, but as the Buckwheat flakes were on the end of the aisle away from the main range of products we grabbed it as we headed to the till.

A Lidl update 25 February 2015:
Fellow gluten free blogger Gluten-free Issi recently tweeted that the gluten free specials in her local Lidl had been reduced and were now even greater value. So yesterday evening we headed to our local branch in Leagrave, Luton to see what we could get.

The pasta and lasagna were also reduced, but we've got plenty of those in the cupboard. Unfortunately the tomato & basil pasta sauce was out of stock. We've got a couple left and have found the sauce is great as a pizza topping too 

Check out the websites and social media links below for more information about gluten free, Coeliac Disease, Lidl and Kelkin.

Related blog posts:
- Coeliac
- Gluten Free

Links:
- Lidl
- Kelkin
- Lidl on Twitter
- Lidl on Facebook
- #LidlSurprises
- #Lidlers
- Kelkin on Twitter
- Kelkin on Facebook
- Gluten Free Guerrillas
- Coeliac Disease at Coeliac UK