Tag: coconut free

Chicken Noodle Soup | Healthy |Gluten Free

This gluten free chicken noodle soup is warming, nourishing and healing. Especially if you make the broth yourself.

You can find a very basic broth recipe here. Chicken broth tip: Save up all your chicken bones in the freezer, then, when you have enough bones, put them all together to make a big pot of broth. Freeze your broth in a silicone muffin tray, or repurposed glass jars. If you use glass jars, make sure you only fill them 3/4 of the way up, and cool the broth in the fridge overnight first, before putting in the freezer.

I always use organic, free range chicken when I can. I get ours from Bostocks, Organic Free range chicken.

Instant pot or pressure cooker

If you have an instant pot or a pressure cooker, you can cook the chicken legs for 10 minutes, then add the veggies and cook for 5 minutes. I prefer to cook my broth in the pressure cooker too, which I have instructions for in the broth recipe. Don’t forget to save your chicken bones from this recipe, to turn into more broth!

You can also use any cut of chicken you like, I chose this one because it has joints, which are great for making broth, and also it’s a great budget friendly cut of meat, especially if you are trying to stick to free range, organic. It’s also fairy hardy, and doesn’t tend to overcook and go tough easily like chicken breast does. You could also use drumsticks as a budget friendly option, or any cut you like really, keeping in mind that chicken breast will need to be removed as soon as it’s cooked through, then added back through right at the end.

If you are a fellow Kiwi (New Zealander) then you can find gluten and dairy free recipes like this, including all the ingredients, for 5 nights, delivered to your door (for a price so good it should be illegal – just saying) from Kete Kai food boxes. All gluten free recipes developed by me, and quality tested by my family, before making their way to you.

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Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup

This gluten free chicken noodle soup is warming, nourishing and healing.
Prep Time40 mins
Course: dinner, Main Course, main meal, meal, Soup
Keyword: allergy friendly, chicken, coconut free, dairy free, egg free, gluten free, gut healing, healing, noodle, nut free, soup, soy free
Servings: 6

Ingredients

  • 2 Whole Chicken legs I use Bostock Brothers Organic Free Range Chicken
  • 1 Onion
  • 1/4 Pumpkin
  • 1 carrot
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 Leek
  • 2 potatoes
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 100 g rice vermicelli noodles optional
  • 2 stalks celery
  • A few leaves of silverbeet or other greens spinach, kale
  • 2 Litres chicken stock or broth
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 Tablespoon Oil
  • 1-2 teaspoons sea salt depending on how salty your stock or broth already is
  • Fresh parsley

Instructions

  • Dice onion and garlic. Cut pumpkin, potatoes and carrot into cubes. Slice the celery and leek.
  • In a large pot, with a lid, fry the onions, celery, leek and garlic in the oil for 1 – 2 minutes.
  • Add the chicken thighs and cover with the water. Put a lid on your pot and let simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes.
  • Add the potatoes, pumpkin and carrots to the soup water, along with the salt and curry powder. Replace lid. Cook for 8 minutes.
  • Remove the chicken thighs from the water and set aside to cool. When the chicken legs are cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and add it back into the soup. (save the bones to make more broth).
  • Add the noodles, salt and juice of half a lemon. Cook for a further 5 minutes with the lid off.
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste 👌

Kayla

Simple Nourishing Chicken Broth | Low Histamine

This low histamine chicken broth recipe makes a perfect, nourishing base for soups. It can also be added into casseroles, rice dishes, gravies or anything really, it’s very versatile.

When we first started down a path of gut healing for our children with food allergies, all the information was screaming out that bone broth was going to do wonderful things for their health. But many recipes failed to point out that meat stock and bone broth were two different things.

Meat Stock or bone broth?

Broth is bones with no meat, and water, usually cooked for 12 – 24 hours, sometimes longer, depending on the type of bones. This long slow cook produces histamine, and is generally not recommended for anyone beginning their gut healing journey. All of my kids reacted to any moderate or high histamine foods, including bone broth. You can imagine my surprise and confusion when I saw that they were reacting to what was supposed to be a very gentle and nourishing food. Thankfully, you can make something that is just as nourishing and recommended for the beginning of your healing journey, and that is meat stock. Technically meat stock is joint bones, with meat on (not necessarily all the meat) simmered for a few hours, with or without added vegetables.

This chicken broth recipe is a cross between meat stock and bone broth – depending on your need you can change up the bones to include joint bones (more collagen) bones with meat, or bones without. I have made it using only bones, but keeping it short cook and it has worked great as well. To make it even lower histamine, cook in a pressure cooker for 30 mins to 1 hour – the faster the cook, the more histamine friendly it is. This is how I cook it every time now.

If you would like to make the soup pictured with your broth, you can find the recipe here. If you would like more info on meat stock, bone broth and how it works for healing you can find that here.

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Simple Nourishing Chicken Broth

This low histamine chicken broth recipe makes a perfect, nourishing base for soups. It can also be added into casseroles, rice dishes, gravies or anything really, it's very versatile.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time4 hrs
Course: dinner, Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: Gluten free
Keyword: broth, chicken broth, chicken stock, coconut free, dairy free, easy recipe, egg free, gluten free, grain free, main, main meal, nut free, paleo, soup, soy free, stock

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken carcass from a leftover roast chicken or bones from chicken wings / legs / thighs etc.
  • Enough water to cover the bones this will depend on the size of your chicken usually around 1L of water – filtered is best
  • A couple cloves of garlic omit the garlic if you’d like to sneak the broth into things like smoothies and ice blocks 😉
  • Optional: Leftover vegetable peelings, carrot or parnsip tops, celery stalks, and herbs.

Instructions

  • In a large stock pot, slow cooker or pressure cooker, cover the chicken bones with water.

Slow cook:

  • Set on high for 4 hours.

Pressure cook:

  • Set to pressure cook following your cookers directions, for 1 hour.

Stock pot:

  • Simmer on low in your stock pot for 3 – 4 hours. Keep an eye that it doesn't overflow, or reduce too much. You want the simmer to be enough to cook the bones but not so much that it's boiling.

  • Once the time is up, strain the liquid from the broth through a sieve into a large bowl or container. Discard the bones and garlic and keep the liquid. Pour it into a container, i usually use a glass jar. It keeps in the fridge for up to a week, especially if it remains sealed under a layer of fat on top. Or you can freeze it. I use my silicone muffin tray to freeze in blocks which I can take our and use as needed.
  • If you'd like to drink the broth as is, then add some salt, herbs, ginger, turmeric and garlic to taste, before heating and serving. Otherwsie you can use it as a soup base, to cook rice and pasta in, add to casseroles, curries, mince and stews. If you have it unflavoured you can even add it to smoothies and ice blocks!

Kayla

5 quick gluten, dairy and egg free weeknight meals

Here are 5 easy, and healthy weeknight dinners, that are free from dairy, gluten and eggs, most can also be free from nuts as well. The bonus about most of these is that you can very easily double the portion and have a meal that lasts two nights, or another full family meal for the freezer. They all freeze well and are generous sized portions that easily feed my family of 5. They are picky-eater-friendly with lots of hidden veggies. 

This is a family favourite, free from dairy, gluten, soy and also has options for egg free. Its quick and easy to throw together on a busy night. Who said creamy pasta was a thing of the past!
If you are after a meat free meal, then you could try this Veggie Nacho recipe instead. This is naturally free from dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, nuts, and coconut. Is packed with veggies that no one will notice, and lends itself well to batch cooking to put some in the freezer.
This Recipe has 8 hidden veggies in it, and is free from gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts and coconut. The veggies come together to make the beautifully textured and richly spiced butter chicken sauce, with cauliflower lending its creamy texture to balance everything perfectly.
This recipe is a firm favourite with everyone who has tried it. Free from dairy, gluten, eggs, soy, nuts and coconut, and also nutritional yeast, which you find in most dairy free ‘cheese’ recipes. This is easy to throw together and my buddy eater’s plates are always licked clean.
Perfect for quick Friday night fake-aways! Actually quicker than ordering out! If you need a coconut free curry, then try this Beef Curry here instead – you can put it in the slow cooker in the morning and come home to dinner made on Friday night.

Kayla

Hey there, Allergy Mama

Hey there allergy Mama,

I see you, up late at night making safe cupcakes to take to the birthday celebration tomorrow. 

I see you, reading all the food labels at the supermarket and quizzing the restaurant staff with tireless questions. 

I see you, wondering was it food? Which food was it, or is it just a tummy bug? I know – the guessing game is just so tiresome. 

I see you, lying awake at night worrying, feeling guilt. The guilt. It’s relentless. Did I do this to my child? Could I have done something better? Could I have prevented that reaction? Could I be doing more to help? 

I see you, hide your disappointment that your child didn’t get invited, because of his allergies. That she missed out, yet again, because of her allergies. 

I see you, in the kitchen. Always in the kitchen, planning, baking, preparing, chopping, cooking. So much food prep, but without it, they would suffer. 

I see you, holding open tired eyes, making yet another dinner when you wish you could just order take out, like everyone else. 

I see you, with a forced smile and a heavy heart, as you reply ‘no thanks, we can’t eat that’ for the hundredth time.

I see you, do your best to mend a child’s broken heart, as they face the disappointment of not being able to join in, or eat the food. While you silently pick up the shattered pieces of your own heart. 

I see you, holding your screaming baby, dropping silent tears down his back, because you know, that this road ahead will be long. 

I see you. And I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for mending broken hearts with your homemade cupcakes. Thank you for showing up, everyday, even when it feels too hard. Thank you for asking the hard questions, and sharing the harsh truths. You were chosen for this, because you are strong enough, you are smart enough and you are brave enough. 

I was you. I am you. We are all in this together. Thank you for joining me in this beautiful community here, full of love, support and of course healthy, allergy friendly food. 

If you want a space to connect and have a chat, you can find me here

Love and Peace,

Kayla

Kayla

Pumpkin Soup


You Need

1 whole crown pumpkin
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 rashers bacon
400ml stock or broth (water also works if you have neither)
1-2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp natural sea salt

What to do

Wash any dirt off the pumpkin and put the entire pumpkin skin, stalk and all into either your slow cooker, pressure cooker or oven.

Slow cook: On high 4-6 hours, low 6-8 hours.

Pressure cooker: Add 1 cup water pressure cook 30 mins and leave to rest 30 mins.

Oven – 180 deg c for 2 hours

Once the pumpkin is cooked, leave to cool. Then peel the skin off – it should only take a minute to get all the skin off and should come away like paper. Pluck the stem out and then cut in half and scoop out the seeds and discard.

Add the flesh to a large stock pot along with the rest of the ingredients and cook until bacon is heated and liquid is simmering. (Usually I pop the lid on and leave to simmer 10 mins).

Blend everything until smooth, I use my vitamix and blend in batches.

Serve with more salt, cracked black pepper and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if you can have it. Fresh herbs that lend well are parsley, chives & coriander.

Notes:

If it seems bland or unbalanced it usually means it needs more salt.

Sometimes I cook the pumpkin then store the cooked flesh in the fridge to make soup later in the week. Sometimes I save some flesh to put in baking (like these muffins or waffles) or to hide in other dishes like mince (my kids don’t like plain pumpkin).

Kayla

Dairy Free Butter Chicken |Coconut free

This dairy free and coconut free butter chicken is one that the whole family can enjoy. When we were coconut free I missed curry so much, I spent a lot of time trying to create something that was just as delicious as the cream or coconut laden version, that was family friendly as well. At the time I made this we were dairy free, coconut free and cashew free (among other things) and it was so hard to find recipes that could resemble anything creamy without any of those ingredients. It’s safe to say that iv’e nailed this one. No dairy or coconut required as the cauliflower helps to achieve that creamy texture. It’s fragrant, smooth and delicious.

Anyone else struggle to get veggies into the kids at dinner every night? Eight veggies crammed in and disguised as butter chicken in here! This one is solving all sorts of problems! 

The lemon juice

If you don’t have lemon juice on hand, you can replace that with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. 

Veggies out of season?

Here in New Zealand when veggies go out of season, you either need to take a second mortgage to pay for them, or they are just straight up not available. Seeing as i’m also budget conscious I’ve adapted to do without certain veggies when they are out of season:

Zucchini – replace with another ¼ of a cauliflower. 

Tomatoes – replace with another ½ cup tomato passata / puree. 

If you would like a delicious gluten, dairy, soy, egg, nut, yeast, grain and coconut free (instant!) naan bread recipe to go with this, you can find that here. 

I love to hear when you make my recipes, don’t forget to tag me on Facebook and Instagram. 

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Butter Chicken – Dairy Free, Coconut Free

This butter chicken recipe is not only dairy free and coconut free, its also free from gluten, eggs, nuts and made predominantly of vegetables, that your family will have no idea are in there!

Ingredients

The Spice Mix

  • 2 teaspoons Cumin
  • 2 teaspoons Garam masala
  • 2 teaspoons Paprika
  • 2 teaspoons Ginger
  • 2 teaspoons Turmeric
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper

The sauce

  • ¼ large cauliflower or 1/2 a large
  • 2 small carrots or one large
  • 1 large zucchini
  • 1 red capsicum
  • 1 small onion
  • 3 large cloves garlic (about 2 Tablespoons)
  • 3 mushrooms
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1 cup water or broth
  • ½ cup tomato passata or purée
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 500 – 700 g boneless chicken breast or thigh.
  • Chilli to taste

Instructions

  • Measure out all your spices into a small bowl and set aside. Half will go in your sauce and the other half will coat the chicken.
  • Cut up the veg into rough pieces, the carrot needs to be the smallest as that takes the longest to cook. Add them to a pot with a swig of olive oil and gently sauté. Add Half of the spice mix and sauté for a few minutes until everything is coated and it smells fragrant. Add the water / stock and cover for ten minutes or until all the veggies are cooked through. (See notes for pressure cooker instructions).
  • While it's cooking, cut up the chicken into 1cm slices, all of similar size and coat with the remaining spice mix. Set aside to marinate, until the sauce is done.
  • When the veggies are cooked add them with the cooking water to a blender. Make sure you leave the top open where you would feed things into for the steam to escape or the hot pressure might build up and you will be cleaning butter chicken off your walls! I usually cover the top with a tea towel as I'm blending so none escapes. Blend it all together until the sauce is thick and smooth. Add the tomato passata / purée & lemon juice and mix through. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. If it seems quite sharp or bitter, it may need more salt.
  • Now you can either put the sauce aside in the fridge and let the chicken marinate further until dinner time (I usually prepare the sauce earlier and then cook the chicken in the sauce at dinner time). Or you can add the sauce back to the pot, gently heat and add your chicken to cook in the sauce. It’s a thick mixture and sometimes thick molten bubbles can erupt from your pot, I tend to cover the pot and keep the heat low, so I don’t have molten butter chicken bubbles erupt in my face! Check every five mins and remove from the heat when the chicken is all cooked through.
  • Serve with your choice of rice (basmati, jasmine, white, brown, cauliflower) and if you have more time (said no Mum, ever 😆) you can make my naan bread to go with them.  I add chilli oil or flakes / powder to the adult dishes after serving and leave mild for the kids. We dont want to risk any complaints at this point!
  • Now watch your family inhale their invisible veggies and ask for seconds!

Notes

To make the sauce in a pressure cooker, simply roughly chop all the veggies into page chunks, add to your pot with half the spice mix, and the water, and set to pressure cook for 7-10 minutes. Then Follow the rest of the instructions as above. 

Kayla

Double Chocolate Caramel Slice

Free from Dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, coconut, refined sugar & options for gluten & nut free. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup oil (olive oil, melted coconut oil, or butter)
½ cup sweetener (rice malt syrup, maple syrup or honey)
1 T vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mixed seeds (I used sunflower & pumpkin) finely ground up in a food processor or blender. Almond meal will work if no need for nut free.
1 1/2 cup gluten free flour (or whatever you use – gf blend, spelt, whole-wheat, buckwheat)
1/2 cup cocoa or raw cacao
1/2 cup rolled oats (the quick cook kind – or give them a quick buzz in the blender to break them down ) or quinoa flakes for gluten free.

Caramel
7 fresh medjool dates or 1 cup small dried dates
1/2 cup water + 3/4 cup warm water.

what to do

Preheat oven to 180 deg c.

Date caramel:

Boil the dates in 1/2 cup water to soften until all the water is evaporated.

Add them to a blender or food processor with 3/4 cup water. If you use a food processor you might only need 1/2 to 1/4 cup water. Blend until smooth. Return to the pot and stir over med heat for five or so minutes or until the mixture is super thick and sticky.

Slice:

Measure all the dry ingredients into a bowl then add the wet ingredients and mix to combine.

Divide the mixture in half. Press half into the bottom of your baking tin.

Spread your date caramel on top, but not quite to the edges.

Now roll out (or press with your hands) the other half of the chocolate mix between two sheets of baking paper into a thick slab just smaller than the shape and size of your tin.

Take the top sheet off and pick up the slab and flip it down on top of the caramel layer. Gently press out to the edges which should also squish the caramel to the edges.

Pop in the middle of the oven to bake for 25 minutes.

While its cooking make the chocolate icing for the top.

Remove from the oven and let it cool in the tin (can even chuck the whole tin in the fridge or freezer) **IMPORTANT** – this step is vital, or your slice might crumble! Make sure it’s properly cooled before removing from the tin. Then ice with either homemade chocolate, melted dark chocolate, ganache or your preferred icing. You might like to base this on whether it will be travelling in a lunchbox and is at risk of melting. Slice and Keep in fridge or freezer. This can be eaten straight from the freezer. I freeze then put in lunchboxes frozen in the morning. Ashton recons it’s good at morning tea (hasn’t made it past morning tea yet 😆) with a cool pack and in an insulated lunch bag. And that’s with my chocolate recipe (made with cocoa butter) for the icing.

Kayla2 Comments

Chocolate cake – allergy friendly, indulgent & healthy

Well, as healthy as the word goes with cake! Better than many options and yay this one is coconut free!

Having three kids means not only three birthday cakes a year, but I also have to make cake every time someone else has a birthday celebration so my lot don’t have to miss out. My usual go to cake has coconut oil and coconut flour which I can’t have this year because I’m breastfeeding our baby with a coconut allergy. I love the wacky cake recipe for its allergy friendliness using gluten free flour. Not so much all the sugar though. And quite frankly I feel like I’ve made about ten wacky cakes this last year due to ease and it being a fairly fail safe and crowd pleasing cake. But for Hazel’s first birthday this year I wanted to make her a cake with a little less sugar and a little more goodness.

So here came this recipe, gluten free, dairy free, soy free (though the chocolate I use in the ganache does contain soy lethicin, which we are ok with), nut free, egg free, coconut free, refined sugar free and contains vegetables. Now that’s a cake I’m happy for miss 12 months to scoff. And me, I was also happy to scoff this cake. It was truely delicious. It freezes well, so you can make ahead. I doubled the mixture and divided it into three, to make a three layer cake.

Ingredients

1/2 c cocoa or cacao powder
1c gluten free flour (I used Edmonds gf plain flour)
2 Tb psyllium husk (most supermarkets stock this in the health food section)
2 tsp baking soda + 1 tsp cream of tartar (OR 2 tsp baking powder)

2 c Kumara (purple skin) or carrot finely grated
1/2 c maple syrup (or make a syrup with 1/2 cup sugar + 1/3 cup boiling water, then cooled)
1/2 c water
1/2 c oil (I used light olive oil)
1 t vanilla extract

what to do

Preheat oven to 160 deg fan forced (180 deg regular).

Measure out the wet ingredients + grated veg and add them to a bowl. Sift over all the dry ingredients and mix together. Let it sit for a couple minutes while you grease your cake pan, it will thicken as it sits. Pour into very well greased or lined cake tin (recommend a spring form tin).

Cook for approximately 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. And it feels the same to touch in the middle as it does round the sides.

Cake notes:

If doubling the mix and dividing into three cakes, cook each cake for 20 minutes.

I make a chocolate ganache using two blocks of Whittaker’s dark chocolate, melted with 3/4 cup of almond milk and spread this between the layers with refined sugar free raspberry jam and also used the ganache to coat the outside of the cake to make it smooth for the white fondant icing over the top.

To make this cake, after I assembled with the ganache, I rolled out ready made white fondant icing and placed it over the top of the whole cake. I made two plaits with the remains and curved them into a circle on the top. Then added the fresh berries just before serving.

I assembled the cake and ganache then froze the whole cake overnight before adding the white icing on the day, then let it to sit out and thaw until later in the day.

Kayla