Christmas isn’t the same without a trifle I think, that’s when you’ve got children with dairy and egg allergies it makes making a trifle quite tricky! Even more tricky when one of them can’t have cornflour! So this year I decided to attempt a trifle which was dairy, egg, and cornflower free. I’ve perfected my cornflour free custard so this recipe uses that instead of birds custard powder or custard using egg.

For the sponge:

• 225g Plain flour (or use Self-raising flour and reduce the Baking powder to 2 heaped tsp)
• 3 heaped tsp Baking powder
• 100g sugar
• 2 large over ripe bananas, mashed
• 75g Vegetable, coconut or Sunflower oil (weight)

For the custard:

• 2 tbsp of dairy free margarine (I use Vitalite)
• 2 tbsp of plain flour
• 1 cup of dairy free milk (I use Koko)
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

Other ingredients:

• 1 pack of raspberry jelly
• 1 punnet of raspberries
• 1 tin of sliced peaches
• Vegan squirty cream (I use Food Heaven whipped vegan spray cream)
• Glacé cherries
• Sherry or brandy optional

To make the sponges, Combine the bananas (mashed) with the sugar and oil. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in. Line two round sandwich tins with grease proof paper and oil. Split the mixture between the two tins and bake at gas mark 6 for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean. Leave to cool.

In a jug, make the raspberry jelly according to the packet and pour into the dish for the trifle. Add the raspberries and place in the fridge to set.

To make the custard, add the margarine and the flour in a saucepan and heat, stirring until you get a dough ball. Add the milk slowly little by little to make a roux. Do this slowly to avoid lumps. Once you have a custard consistency, add the sugar and vanilla. Leave to cool before pouring over the jelly or the jelly will melt!

Add the custard on to the jelly. Get your cooled cakes and slice off the top. Add a layer of cake on top of the custard, and spoon some of the syrup from the peaches on to the sponges. You can add brandy or Sherry too if you’re not giving this to the kids!

Layer the drained sliced peaches. Then place in the fridge to set the custard. When you’re ready to serve, squirt the vegan cream on top (it doesn’t hold its shape well for long so don’t add the cream too early!) and decorate with glacé cherries!

Today I thought I’d attempt vegan meringues. My eldest loves meringues and has them with raspberries and vegan squirty cream for dessert quite often, but my younger daughter doesn’t get to eat them because of her egg allergy. When I heard you could make them using chickpea water I was surprised but figured I’d give it a go!

Ingredients

400g tin of chickpeas

100g of granulated sugar

Drain the chickpeas and save the water. You can use the chickpeas themselves for something else like curry. Whisk the chickpea water until it forms soft peaks similar to whisked egg. Gradually add the sugar and continue whisking until it’s glossy and forms stiff peaks.

Pipe the mixture in to small 10cm rounds. Place in a preheated oven at 100c for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let it cool before serving with vegan cream and strawberries or raspberries!

Things I learnt: it takes AGES for the chickpea water to whisk to the right consistency so be patient and use an electric whisk unless you want arms like Popeye! Also it needs another good 10 minute whisk after the sugar is added! My first attempt the meringues went a bit flat as I don’t think I whisked them quite long enough.

Yesterday Ty had his first allergy appointment. It was touch and go whether we‘d make it thanks to his sister being admitted to hospital for 4 days with a chest infection, then Ty catching bronchiolitis, and the knock on of him not feeding giving me a mastitis near miss, but we made it to St Thomas’s in the end!

Ty wasn’t too happy about being jabbed 14 times, but we now know he’s sensitive to dairy and oat (no Oatly barista for you my boy! Such a shame!) and allergic to egg (huge reaction!) and WHEAT! I’m elated that the peanut was negative and that there’s so few allergies, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was gutted and a bit stumped with the wheat allergy. Both girls have always been fine with wheat, so it’s a new allergen for us to contend with, and with SY being sensitive to corn and maize, I won’t be able to cook gluten free pasta for the whole family, so it looks like another different meal to make for the third kiddo once he’s fully weaned!

I’m also terrified of giving him peanut even though the test showed he’s not allergic. The allergist is keen to get him weaned ASAP due to his eczema and family history of allergies, and early introduction of peanut is shown to prevent peanut allergy in 80% of babies given it early. We’re to give him 3 teaspoons of peanut butter 3 times a week once he’s used to swallowing solids. This irrationally fills me with dread as I’ve been conditioned to fear the peanut! Not to mention the worry of having peanut butter in the house with two very allergic girls! But it needs to be done and how amazing would it be if he grew out of all his allergies and didn’t develop a peanut allergy!

I guess this means you can all expect a new set of recipes coming up on the blog in the next year as I muddle my way through dairy, egg, oat and wheat free baking!

Yup… winter is officially here. How do I know? Because Daisy’s been in hospital for 3 days (so far) and counting with a bad chest infection!

Every year as soon as the air gets cold, she starts coughing. If we’re lucky, her inhaler is enough to keep it at bay. Usually we have at least one trip to A&E for steroids and nebulisers and she’s sent home. This year she got a cough and I could see her ribs sucking in struggling to breathe, and we thought “uh oh, A&E trip on the cards…” but she was so perky we weren’t sure if it was necessary or not. We took her in anyway, and good thing we did. The consultant said she was a very poorly girl when she came in. 3 days of nebulisers, oxygen, antibiotics, steroids, magnesium sulphate, inhalers, and we’re still hovering around 90% O2 saturation with crackles in her right lung. Takes me back to when she was 6 months old and her big sister was in hospital with pneumonia. Now her little brother is almost the same age and we’re in hospital for her.

Hats off to the NHS, they’ve been amazing. I cannot imagine having to weigh up whether to take a child in to hospital or not because you’re worried about the cost. We’ve had hospital stays with both the girls, and I’ve lost count of how many trips to A&E we’ve had because of their chests, not to mention the first class treatment we’ve had at the paediatric allergy clinics. Plus the children’s ward here at the Princess Royal University Hospital is wonderful, with a brilliantly resourced school room which staved off boredom once she was well enough to go without the oxygen mask. We’re very very lucky.

So, I’m on a mission to avoid another winter chest infection. Apparently her brown steroid Clenil preventer inhaler should be used 2 months before you see the benefits (meaning we should have started in September), so we’ll know that for next year. Snoods with a face mask to combat the cold air. No more chucking her cardigan off at the first opportunity. No more swimming in cold swimming baths. And I’m buying an O2 monitor so we can check her O2 sats from home as soon as she shows signs of respiratory distress to take the guessing out of A&E trips….

Roll on spring I say… but for now, let’s hope this is the first and last infection of the winter. We can only hope!

Today I was publicly shamed for not keeping up with my housework. Stood having a bit of a chat in the playground, waiting for the bell to go, one of the mums exclaimed that she’d got some housework done on her day off and the hubs was complaining he’d spent it doing jobs round the house. “God I wish I had more time to clean up” I said. “I’ve got 3 full laundry baskets full of dirty washing even though I’ve been doing 2 loads a day!”. Cue us laughing about never ironing anything and me admitting I love pinafore dresses because you can hide a multitude of sins, coco pops and toothpaste stains. Then one of the mums looks at me in horror and exclaims “shame on you!” and proceeds to tell me how naughty I am that I don’t keep on top of the housework. I reply that I have 3 kids, one under 6 months old, and to be honest I just don’t have the time to keep the house up to scratch. She replies that she has 2 kids AND a full time job and she manages to keep a spotless house. The bell goes and the conversation is cut short before I can reply, but in my head I’m thinking a million different responses I could have said if a) I was more confrontational and b) thought it wouldn’t have ended unpleasantly. The fact is, there are so many things I could have said, but all of them would make me sound like either I’m not coping, or I was looking for sympathy, and I’m neither.

The fact that I’m breast feeding a snack feeder who feeds every 1 1/2 hours, or the fact he’s velcro baby when he’s teething and won’t be put down without crying.

The fact that having 3 kids means no matter how often I do laundry, there’s permanently baskets of the damn stuff piling up and it never goes down.

The fact that I have kids with eczema and asthma, who need their bed sheets changed more regularly than most, which makes the laundry situation even worse.

The fact that I still suffer from anxiety for various different reasons and don’t cope well being at home alone for days on end so end up escaping out the house, meaning the housework slides.

The fact that I have 3 kids with allergies, all different, meaning I have to cook 3 different dinners, breakfasts, lunches/packed lunches every day which means my kitchen is permanently a bomb site because the dishwasher is loaded and unloaded twice a day and the sink permanently has pots and pans in it.

The fact that I’m trying to be a mum, a photographer, take artwork commissions, author a blog, keep up 4 Instagram accounts admin 3 Facebook pages and 2 Facebook groups for allergies and eczema, and keep up with being class rep, homework, dates, classes, clubs for 2 different schools, on top of all the usual life admin that goes with running a household.

The fact that I’m permanently exhausted because I co sleep with baby, my 4 year old never sleeps through, and we’re usually up at 5:30am meaning I just don’t have the damn energy to blitz the house even if I do find the time, so sometimes I choose to just sit and watch Riverdale on Netflix instead of cleaning the damn bathroom because why the hell shouldn’t I?!

I could have said all of that. But I didn’t. Because it’s no one else’s damn business. Because I shouldn’t have to defend myself. Because actually I think I’m coping bloody well given I’m 5 months in to a family of 5 and I’ve escaped the dreaded post natal depression this time and am actually quite goddamn proud of myself. And despite it all, and despite me knowing she’s wrong and it’s ok to be 5 months in to maternity leave and have a house that’s a tip, I still feel shit.

Words carry weight. They have an effect on others. Why do we as mums think it’s ok to look down our noses at other mums who aren’t parenting and living to our own standards? We teach our children to be kind and empathetic, yet some of us can’t manage to demonstrate these qualities ourselves? When someone says they’re struggling, why is it ok to respond with scorn instead of asking if they need help? Why judge when you can be compassionate? No one knows other people’s truth. That mum who’s always late and forgets everything may have lots going on at home you don’t know about. The mum who always bails on birthday parties may be suffering from crippling anxiety. It’s so easy to judge when you aren’t living in someone else’s shoes.

But. There is always a silver lining. Thanks to one person’s inability to show empathy, it resulted in others mums being so kind and lovely, offering to come hold baby or meet up for a cuppa. Which kind of made everything ok again and restored my faith in humanity a little!

I guess the point of this is to say, be KIND. Don’t JUDGE. We are all trying to keep our heads above water, keep our kids fed, happy and in one piece. So if the carpet has crumbs, there’s pots in the sink, and the laundry is overflowing, don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s NORMAL. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Because if their house is spotless, I can guarantee it’s at the expense of something else. Something always has to give. We’re not super human. And that’s OK. I’m ok.

Allergy awareness, and educating the children around your child on the dangers and consequences of allergies, is something that concerns most allergy parents. With stories reported in the news of fatalities due to bullying, keeping your child safe and ensuring that their classmates understand what it means to have allergies can be a very real concern. So imagine my delight when I received an email from my daughter’s school informing me that they were planning to have a theatre company visit school and perform an allergy awareness play!

The Kids Active Theatre Company came along last week and perform their show, based on the book “Me and my auto-injector pen”. Described on their website as “a 40-minute interactive presentation, PIP and two other characters, will use five learning styles to teach in an animated, fun manner all about food allergies. With the use of props, puppets, speech, song, conversation and logic, the characters will open up the conversation to the children through humour and play. The play conveys the importance of allergies without dumbing down the subject matter, but also not frightening the children with horror stories.”

My daughter came home and said it was really funny, and the main character had allergies to a lot of different foods like dairy, fish and nuts. I’m so happy that all the 7 and 8 year olds in her year have learnt a little bit more about allergies and what it means to need treatment for an allergic reaction. I’m sure even she learnt a lot having never had to use her epi pen (thank god). It’s unbelievably forward thinking of her school to get the theatre company in to do the session and I wish more schools would be as proactive in educating their pupils about allergies.
Details of the theatre company and how to book a performance are in the link below. Let’s hope more schools invest in this kind of session!

https://www.katheatrecompany.com/bookings-checkout/allergy-awareness

The lovely people at Medpac recently got in touch over on Instagram and gifted me with one of their medicine bags! It arrived in the post today and I’ve got to say I’m genuinely really impressed. As the girls both require epi pens and inhalers, we always have medication in packs on hand for each of them, but it’s always a squeeze to fit 2 epi pens, inhaler, spacer and piriton in one bag. I also worry about leaving the meds in the car on hot days or in our porch in the winter and the effect the extreme temperatures could have on the epi pens. So I was so pleased when I opened the mail and saw the medpac I’d been sent. I think the bag we have been sent is the large size, which comes insulated (hurrah!) and as I excitedly started packing medication in to it (sad I know!) I was so thrilled to see it easily fit everything with room to spare.

The medpac also comes with a little contact card for the outside and a treatment card with space to list treatments, conditions and emergency contact information. The zip is thick and sturdy and the whole bag seems very well made. It’s also a very bright orange colour which is easy to spot in an emergency.

We’ll be using this one for sure, and keeping it in the car for emergencies! I’m really chuffed with it to be honest as everything fits so tidily inside and we really needed a bag for the car now we’re constantly ferrying one or both kids to Brownies, music classes, swimming, ballet, gymnastics, parties etc, and still haven’t gotten 100% of the time in to the routine of making sure we have medication with us!

Big thanks to Medpac for the bag!

Halloween is almost upon us, and for parents of kids with allergies, trick or treating can be more terrifying than the Halloween decorations! Sweets and treats such as chocolate and things with nuts in can be potentially life threatening and the temptation to prevent your child from knocking on stranger’s doors and asking for unsafe treats is understandable. But so is the reluctance in making your child miss out on yet another fun activity that all their friends are participating in. So here’s a few tips and ideas to survive this spooky holiday.

The teal pumpkin project is an initiative by FARE designed to sign post allergy sufferers to houses catering with safe or alternative treats. Placing a teal pumpkin outside your house shows trick or treaters that you’re handing out non food treats. The FARE website also has a teal pumpkin map where you can find allergy safe houses to knock on, or add your house to the map for others to find: https://www.foodallergy.org/education-awareness/teal-pumpkin-project/map

Finding a teal pumpkin is nearly impossible in the uk shops, so if you want one, buy some teal acrylic paint and DIY it with a shop bought pumpkin! Just don’t forget to pin yourself on the FARE teal pumpkin map if you’re planning on handing out safe treats or non food treats!

Another idea, something we do in our house, is the Switch Witch. Being in the UK, there aren’t as many houses participating in Halloween in our area, and only 1 house displaying on the teal pumpkin map, so we do the switch witch. Each year, the kids leave out all their sweets for the switch witch along with a note, and she comes when they’ve gone to bed and switches their sweets for a gift! The kids love that they get something fun instead of the sweets, such as a toy, or you could switch the sweets for safe ones! Only problem is, you end up with buckets of sweets the kids can’t eat, so 3 guesses who ends up eating them instead……

Living on a small close which is quite a friendly community, I also supply my neighbours with sweets the kids can have. They then just knock on our neighbour’s doors and that’s enough to keep them happy!

Whatever you decide to do for Halloween, stay safe and have fun!

Coolings is our favourite day out! So much so that we got annual membership meaning we can take unlimited trips there! It’s grown and expanded hugely since we first started going a few years back.

A short drive from Bromley, in Knockholt, the trail is set in 6 acres of woodland, and is home to goats, pigs, a duck pond, wallabies, ferrets, rabbits, chipmunks, budgies and other small birds, chickens and lots and lots of birds of prey (owls, kestrels, vultures and a kookaburra which my kids have to sing the song to each time they see it!). There’s plenty of little huts to play in and explore, and there’s a schedule of animal handling and birds of prey displays throughout the day. You can also buy feed for the animals.

The garden center itself also has mini diggers the kids can sit on and dig sand for a small fee.

The nature trail has a cafe and garden center shop and plenty of parking. Entry is £6.99 for adults, £4.49 for children over 5.

If you do decide to visit, make sure you don’t turn in to the first Coolings garden center, as the nature trail is at the second Coolings further down the road!

So this one is maybe more of a couple of hours out than a day… but still it’s fairly cheap and it’s fun for all ages and kills a few hours! Sparrows Den enchanted village adventure golf is at the bottom of the aptly named Corkscrew Hill in West Wickham. There are 12 holes, all fairly easy, decked out with various fairy garden ornaments such as toadstools, giant creatures, logs and fairy house. Little tip, the hole at the back of the course about half way round is easy to get a hole in one if you give the ball a hard enough whack to get it round the corner… the camber does the rest (and your kids think they’re a golfing genius!). It’s £5 per person for a game, so pretty cheap if only the kids are playing. Theres also Foot golf (not entirely sure what that is to be honest!) and pitch and putt. There’s also a little cafe serving tea, coffee and soft drinks.