talkhealth Blog

It’s that time of year again. Do you know what the best thing about Christmas is for me? Starbucks. I know. That’s pretty sad isn’t it?

You see, at this time of year, Starbucks bring out two things that I absolutely love. One is their Xmas blend coffee beans which are lovely and mild but slightly spicy ( I stock up for the whole year). The other is their mince pies. In my, obviously expert opinion, Starbucks do the best mince pies you can get.

I have a little weekly tradition that I do with my daughter. On a Thursday it is late night shopping in town which means Starbucks is open late. We go into town when I finish work at 5pm and first head to WHSmiths where we buy her a book or two. We then head to Starbucks where she has a hot chocolate with whipped cream on it, a gluten free brownie, a fruit smoothie, and a packet of crisps which she dips into her hot chocolate when she has eaten the cream off the top. This is gross but it makes her so happy that I always smile to watch her!

I love this mother/daughter time. As she gets older I find we can now hang out together and chat rather than me always having to be a mummy and I totally love it.

I usually make sure I don’t buy anything for me that she can’t eat i.e. anything with Gluten in it.

But…

…I can’t resist the mince pies. So a couple of weeks ago when the mince pies first came out I got the usual in and bought a mince pie for myself.

“Can I have that?” she asked.

“No it has wheat in it”

“Will it make me sick?”

“Yes”

“I want a mince pie”

And I sat there eating it while she watched every mouthful go into my mouth with her beautiful big blue eyes.

“We’ll make some just for you” I said.

Last year was the first year I made Gluten Free mince pies and they are pretty good even though the pastry isn’t as light as I would like it to be.

So after I had gathered the ingredients, we set about making the mince pies together.

Here is the recipe in case you are interested.

http://www.themoiderer.com/blog/2011/11/gluten-free-mince-pies.html

They turned out pretty well. She loves them which is what’s important. I need to get the balance right on the Xanthan Gum – it’s still not as crumbly as I would like but there is nothing wrong with the taste.

So now I can have a mince pie in Starbucks without feeling guilty because I know she can come home and get one of her own. The Gluten Free life is turning me into quite a domestic goddess!

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Dawn

I am just about 39 years old, married with a daughter who was 3 in July, 2011. I live in Dundee We discovered my daughter was wheat intolerant when she was 2 using a process of elimination. When she was 2.5 we got her registered with a dietician who did a symptom based diagnosis of Coeliac. They suggested we keep all Gluten out of her diet and reintroduce gradually when she’s older. So far we have only seen a reaction to Wheat and not all Gluten and it is showing no signs of disappearing unfortunately. She used to get mild Eczema when she ate chocolate or too much dairy but she seems to have mostly grown out of that now.