Karage

Karage or JFC (Japanese Fried Chicken) as it affectionally known has been a big family favourite for many many years.  It all goes back to when my big sister was living in Japan in the 90s, yes the fabulous 90s! When she returned home to Oz after 10 years she bought with her an infectious love for all things Japanese and some truly awesome recipes, but none as well received as Karage. Believe me it's super easy and super tasty, the best fried chicken you will have!
Basically you marinate chicken pieces in soy sauce, crashed ginger and crashed garlic, flour them and deep fry.  Since having to remove garlic from my diet just over a year ago we haven't gotten to indulge in this 'home made take away', then just last week it occurred to me that this is possibly one of the easiest receipts to turn into a FODMAP friendly meal. So here it is.

• Start by chopping up a chicken breast into small nugget size pieces
• Marinate the chicken for at least two hours in soy sauce and crushed ginger
• Either toss the chicken pieces through some plain flour covering well or if you want to keep them GF make a batter using 1 egg white and 2 tablespoons of cornflour.
• In your Wok heat some garlic infused olive oil (garlic infused olive oil is your best friend when you've had to cut garlic out, you get the flavour without the nasty side effects)
• When your oil is hot, carefully place your chicken in, its best to cook it in a few batches. Your Karage is ready not only when your chicken is cooked through but when it is golden, crispy and delicious.

It can served with pretty much any sides you like, chips, rice, salads, remember its just a yummy fried chicken so very versatile, we've used it as sushi feeling before, and would be yum in pita wraps or tortillas for a japanese mexican fusion. Just let your taste buds do the judging, Enjoy!  

The last piece of our family puzzle.

Wow
I can't believe it has been 8 months or so since I last posted…I reason why I hadn't posted…We fell pregnant for the third time and quite frankly I was way to tired to even think about blogging, and probably just a little bit lazy too.
Fast forward to early January 2015 and we welcomed our third little princess into our family.  Bring on being sleep deprived once again, thrown up on at all hours of the day and night, and being completely and utterly in love all over again. It's an amazing thing to realise that you have even more love to give.

Even though having a new born is exhausting, I actually feel like I have more energy now than when I was pregnant.  My pregnancy wasn't really complicated, even though I had gestational diabetes for third time, but it was very draining, and that most likely is due to having two children to look after 24/7.  It's not like you really get to have a truly restful day when you are running after a 3 year old and a 1 year old while your hubby is working on the other side of the country.  But we all got through it unscathed and now feel truly blessed.  All the extra hormones, the feeling crap all the time (at the start), the exhaustion, the tears, tantrums (from all of us at some points), the diabetes blood sugar tests, and of course the being huge, sore and uncomfortable was all worth it!

So welcome Miss Briar, you are much loved by all of us already and have truly completed our family.

Low fodmap Singapore noodles

As you can probably guess I have been spending a lot of time recently researching and playing around with low fodmap recipes, trying to get as much taste as I can without compromising my dietary needs.
A couple of weeks ago I discovered Singapore noodles were very easy to make using low fodmap options, and it has quickly become a favourite in this house … so here it is.

To make the low fodmap Singapore noodles you will need.

• 300 grams of chicken ( I like to use tenderloins)
• 300 grams prawns
• A small red capsicum, finely sliced
• 3 spring onions, greens only and finely sliced.
• 250 grams Vermicelli rice noodles
• 1 tablespoon chinese rice wine
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 teaspoons minced ginger
• 1/4 cup chicken stock (I make it using 1 massel chicken stock cube containing no onion or garlic and 1 cup of boiling water)
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• vegetable oli.

Start off marinating the chicken and prawns in 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of the ginger and the tablespoon of chinese rice wine.  Let marinate for at least 40 mins.

When you are ready to cook, boil some water and make up to stock, and soak the vermicelli rice noodle for 5 mins, drain the noodles and set aside.

Heat some oil in your wok and stir-fry the chicken and prawns, when cooked through remove from the wok and set aside.

Heat some more oil, add the curry powder, stir-fry for 30 seconds and then add the spring onion, capsicum and the remanding 1 teaspoon of ginger. Re-add the chicken and prawns along with the chicken stock and the rest of the soy sauce.  Add the noodles and toss until completely coated.

Kid noodles...

Tonight I made a kid friendly version as well seeing as the Singapore noodles are too spicy for our little ladies.  In a separate fry pan, I stir-fried some of the marinated chicken, added some spring onions, capsicum, frozen peas and corn, then added some noodles and 1/2 a cup of chicken stock….easy peesy and tasty!

Enjoy

Low FODMAP Fajita seasoning.

I love mexican food, in fact I love it so much I would even go as far to say that it is my favourite cuisine.  Since going on my low fodmap diet about 4 months ago our weekly mexican nights became a thing of the past and I only cooked mexi after I had been extremely good and felt I deserved a naughty treat. You see all the packet mixes of seasoning all contained powdered onion and powdered garlic, two of the biggest no noes!  Then I got the bright idea to make my own seasoning, one that is friendly to my dietary needs, honestly I don't know why it had never occurred to me before to do this, not only was it super tasty, but it will work out so much cheaper!! I had to have a little play around with the spices as all home made mixes still used garlic and onion powder, but I think I came up with a winner.  Now I just need to create myself a tasty gluten free tortilla (I'm not overly keen on corn tortillas) and my Mexican loving life will be complete.

So here is my new Low FODMAP chicken fajitas.
Seasoning 

• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 2 teaspoons chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1 'Massel 7' chicken stock cube (these cubes are garlic and onion free stock cubes)

Cooking 

Cut up the greens of spring onion and a red capsicum, cover your chicken in the seasoning.

Heat up some garlic infused olive oil and fry off the spring onion and capsicum for a few minutes then remove from the pan.  Add some more garlic infused olive oil and fry the chicken, once cooked through re-add the spring onion and capsicum.  

The perfect filling for a wrap, especially when covered in lactose free cheese!!!

YUM YUM!

What an easter!

What a busy easter we have had here, it was going to be a quiet one with just me and girls, but while hubby was on his R&R brake he got a bad cold and had an extra week off work.  It turned out he was still here for easter and was on the tail end of his man flu so well enough to enjoy some festivities with us.  We baked hot cross buns (read about it here), dyed eggs, had a beautiful good friday feast, a family trip to the zoo and of course the Easter Bunny left the girls a little easter egg hunt on sunday morning, complete with bunny paw prints and all!  

I also taught myself how to crochet over the easter period which has been so much fun, I can't wait to be able to share with you all some of the great things I will be making my family.

Now hubby has gone back to work and Easter is now just a memory I'll hopefully have some more time up my sleeve to blog more!

Chicken & Corn Soup…Low FODMAP

We are a bunch of sickies here today with lovely snotty noses, when this happens in our house i always turn to making some chicken and corn soup, I know the girls will eat it and who doesn't love some warming soup when you have a cold???

This was my first time having a cold while living a Low FODMAP life, so it was the first time I have make this soups using Low FODMAP friendly stock cubes and it turned out just fine.  The Massel stock cubes I used were found hanging out in the stock section at our local Coles and contain NO garlic and NO onion, making them much more foddy friendly than other stocks, and a much easier and quick option than making up your know stock.





                                                                               

This is an easy soup to make , all you need is
A cooked chicken breast that you can shred
4 cups of water and 4 chicken stock cubes making a litre of stock.
2 cans of creamed corn
The green ends of 2 spring onion finely chopped
An Egg
A teaspoon of minced ginger
Some rice vermicelli noodles

I like to cook my chicken breast in the oven on some grease proof paper and lightly sprayed with some cooking oil, once it is cooked and resting, I put the water and stock cubes into a large soup saucepan over a medium heat, once the cubes are dissolved I add the two cans of creamed corn and give it a good stir with a wooden spoon.  I now shred the chicken with two forks and put it and the spring onion to the soup. After another good stir, I add the ginger and lightly beat the egg, when putting the egg in I stir continuously until it is cooked through, so I don't end up with clumps.  Now with the rice vermicelli you don't really need a lot, I just like to brake off a hand full and throw it in.  One the noodles are all cooked through it all done and ready to serve.

A week of gratitude, day seven

Today i am grateful…

1. For baby panadol bring my baby's temperature down.
2. That miss 3 has worked out how to put her own slippers on
3. For morning skypes with my husband xo