Delicious Beginnings PART II

To me, early mornings are just so much more bearable when there is a delicious breakfast to wake up to! So i thought it would be fitting to conclude my first post 'delicious beginnings' with a delicious and healthy breakfast recipe that i has sends me bouncing out of bed all the time! It's a perfect start for a low FODMAPPer, full of calcium, low GI carbs and antioxidant rich berries. Like many people I personally don't like to drink rice milk because it is quite watery but I find it works really well in this recipe as it is quite sweet and not overly creamy. So give my delicious porridge a whirl!

My raspberry and maple rice milk porridge

Serves 1

1/3 cup fresh/frozen raspberries

boiling water

1/2 cup quick cooking oats (Home Brand or Lowans - not Uncle Tobys)

1 cup rice milk, plus extra to serve/cook with

maple syrup (approx. 1 tablespoon)

Saucepan Method:

1. Place oats in a saucepan and add just enough boiling water to cover the oats. 1/3 cup should be about perfect.

2. Add the rice milk, stir and leave to soak for 10 minutes while you do your make up/get dressed etc. This step just helps to soften the oats so they are nice and creamy instead of chewy!

3. Then bring the mixture just to the boil and turn down to a low/med heat so it simmers gently. Stir constantly. You may find the mixture gets really thick. Add more rice milk if this occurs. Generally 1 simmer this for about three minutes or until the mixture is nice and creamy and when i taste it, the oats are soft. Take off the heat and stand for a little bit while you get the bowl, spoon, syrup etc ready.

4. Spoon into a little bowl add a dash of rice milk (as it cools the mixture can get really gluggy so this is just to keep it creamy), a dash of maple syrup and top with raspberries. ENJOY!

MIcrowave Method:

1. place oats in a large microwave proof bowl. I say this because I myself have had too many incidences where the cooking oats have overflowed into my microwave. Not a fun start to the morning. To the oats add just enough boiling water to cover (about 1/3 cup). Add rice milk, stir and stand for about 10 minutes (longer is even better) while you do your hair/shower etc. This step just helps to soften the oats so they are nice and creamy instead of chewy!

2. Place the bowl in the microwave and microwave on high for 90 secs. Stir. Microwave again for 90 secs. Make sure that the mixture can be stirred easily at all times. If after 90 seconds it is really gluggy, add some more rice milk. If you don't do this, the oats become really tough and leathery. YUK!

4. Spoon into a little bowl add a dash of rice milk (as it cools the mixture can get really gluggy so this is just to keep it creamy), a dash of maple syrup and top with raspberries. ENJOY!

Delicious Beginnings

Welcome fellow FODMAPers!

Have you ever eaten certain foods that made it seem like someone stuffed a balloon in your stomach? Ever won way too many belching contests after dinner? I HAVE!

For years I have been suffering with food intolerances and have spent a considerable quantity of my valuable daily energy on trying to avoid wheat and dairy (and caving constantly! ...oh pastries you are so evil!), only to find that my rather socially undesirable symptoms are worsening!

Well as you can imagine one can only go so far without seeking more advanced medical advice. This is exactly what I did yesterday during my first visit to the dieticians office. After listening intently to a my recounts of various situations where my stomach has decided to hate me, she concluded that I try a low FODMAP diet. So what does this mean??????

Well according to my little handout, there is a certain group of sugars that including fructose, lactose, fructans, galactans and polyols that are sometimes poorly absorbed in the small bowel. As they travel through the bowel they are fermented by bacteria and can cause horrible symptoms such as bloating, wind, diarrhoea etc.

I have been given a low FODMAP diet guideline which details foods to 'limit or avoid' and foods that i should be able to eat freely. As a lover of fruit I was a little more than sad to discover that my beloved pears and apples would have to be tossed out the window, along with avocados, onions and other foods that my palette adores (but my stomach may not).

SO WHY HAVE I CREATED A BLOG?????? Well, as a lover of food, cooking, baking and just about anything food orientated I am determined not to have a boring, indulgent free, flavour free diet! So I will be posting regular tried and tested recipes that i have found or formulated based upon the low FODMAP diet plan. Now I must stress that I am not a trained medical professional, I am just a normal UNI student with a passion for healthy cooking! Some of these recipes may contain very small amounts of FODMAP ingredients but I promise to specify where these are present.

So if you have recently been put on the low FODMAP diet and are feeling a bit down in the dumps about it, use my blog as a bit of inspiration and feel free to try my healthy and always delicious recipes!

Feel free to send me recipes for your own delicious creations too. Together we can keep each other on track and INSPIRED!