With one thing and another time has passed us by again, not only have we arrived in November in a blink, we have already managed to get half way through it.

It’s been a couple of months of catching up with admin and motorhome bits. Can you believe that FAWKS is nearly 3 years old – we can’t – time has flown by. The good news though is that he passed his first MOT without any issues. Always a concern when you have imported a vehicle and it hasn’t actually had any previous UK based checks.

We got back from our last trip at the end of September, and very soon afterwards held the annual Macmillan Coffee afternoon at my mums. Where once again we raised a huge amount of money for the fantastic Macmillan nurses – and of course, plied my mothers friends with lots of lovely cake, scones, clotted cream and homemade jam…what’s not to be happy about!

Mid – October saw FAWKS through his MOT and service with Iveco, and as the process takes that bit longer on the motorhome we had to leave him with the garage (IVECO) for four nights. The first time in nearly three years that neither one, or other of us, have stayed in the motorhome overnight. And previously, the only occassion was during Keith’s mum’s post hip-op recovery, when Keith stayed with his mum for ten nights. It was very strange to say the least.

My brother however, was hugely accomodataing and let us stay at his. In fact as it worked out either we, or he, were barely there so it was home from home – just with a bigger kitchen and views of Windsor Castle…. which admittedly were quite nice!

We used the time (and locatoon) to visit Hughendon National Trust, make the most of Windsor – including some lovely walking in the Great Park, catch up with a few people and head to the Theatre in London, which we don’t do very often. Although with hindsight, my choice – Operation Mincemeat – was a bit average this time and although it was ok, I wouldn’t jump from the tree tops to recommend it.

I know that some of you will be surprised, but we have only eaten out twice since our last post – and bizarly on subsequent days – as I have been knuckling down and focussing on FODMAP to get on top of these intolerences.

Before I entered the FODMAP elimination stage we took my brother out for a curry, and we caught with Richard at Claro’s in London, both of whom were hugely accomodating to my already ‘known’ gluten and dairy intolerances – as well as being pescatarian! – talk about being difficult!! Claro’s was quite unusual, hosting a lovely mediterranean focussed menu which included falafel prawns which were delicious, and an incredible Bread and Butter Pudding apparently…. the latter not being gluten-free unfortunately!

In addition to our trips to London, we have also had a quick hop, skip and a jump over to Europe for the Habitation check in Belgium. The trip was originally planned to be for 5 weeks and include a quick tour of France to visit a couple of our favourite restaurants whilst picking up olive oil and wine, but we decided against it this time due to my food limitions. There will always be next year!

So, this time it was just 9 days stopping overnight in Bergues, France where I think we made the local ‘off licence’ very happy. Despite having been there a long time, his product range is a little unusual, stocking wine, beers, spirits and ciders from small producers as well as a few other artesanial food products, so compeating against supermarkets in the current climate is definately pinching him. He was however very pleasantly surprised when we bought 12 bottles of wine on the way out….and even more so when we popped back in 9 days later to buy another 6. Now we just need to work through them to see whether we want to buy then again.

Begues always works well as a stopover for us if we are heading East. This time sandwiching 4 nights in Middelburg, Netherlands – as we love it so much – and 4 nights in Rotselaar just outside Leuven for the habitation check….as well as incorporating the obligatory trip into Leuven to do our best to buy out the Vaude shop…

A short, sweet trip but enjoyable all the same. Always good to see beautiful places and we do feel like we have a 2nd home in Rotsellaar, Belgium where our motorhome dealer is. It is a bit of an unusual relationship as they welcome us with open arms like family, and even enjoy socialising with us, what more can you ask for?

As you can imagine the food journey has been a learning curve. We have been experimenting with cooking dishes that are Gluten and Dairy free, low FODMAP whilst also trying to get them to taste good! It is a bit of a quest, but we are getting there.

Although I had been doing my best to avoid dairy, gluten and oats for a little while now, it has been 4 and half weeks since I started following the FODMAP diet, cutting out all the other bits and which is another learning curve. Not only do you need to cut all garlic, onion, mushrooms (except oyster) and many other day to day delicacies from your diet, you also need to restrict portion size of everything. The latter has tripped us up more than the former, but we are getting there now.

Obviously, it has been important to also ensure that there is ample protein and a nutritional balance in each meal, which when also restricting beans, lentils and pulses has been a bit of a juggling act. We have however managed to get on top of it a little more and found that we have a good variety of tasty meals now.

We have adapted existing recipes – like soups, chilli, pie, curries, tagine, pasta dishes – including lasagne – and some desserts. Introduced new options like rice noodle stir fries, rice dishes like biryiani’s. And there are even a few of the old favourites that didn’t need to change at all like kedgeree and risottos.

Keith has managed to convert our sourdough ferment into a Gluten Free version by using rice flour originally, and now we have changed to buckwheat. Finally producing some decent subsititutes for naan bread, which is great…. he has also nailed the pancake/wraps by switching out chickpea flour for buckwheat flour… the tortillas however, are still a work in progress – albeit not as bad as the original ones!

I have also produced a ‘reasonable’ shortcrust pastry and cobbles, that although they aren’t quite the same as gluten ones, are acceptable… I will continue to work on them to see if I can improve them at all… as I do feel that the cobbles are still a little ‘squeeky’!

Some of the new recipes that we have worked on over the last couple of months that deliver on taste and are easily adapted to FODMAP are as follows:-
– Roasted Courgette and Carrot Hummus – you can switch out for any roasted veg and it is a great replacement if you don’t like or struggle with beans
– Apple and Pea Chutney (Prashad)
– King of Rice (Prashad)
– Seedy Snack Bar (Rhitrition)
– Creamy Korma (Bosh)
– Green Rice (Prashad)
– Pumpkin, Carrot and Ginger Soup (Dr Rupy)
– Round Aubergine Satay (Prashad)
– Lentil and Thyme Soup
– Layered Biryiani (Prashad)
– Millionaires Crumb
– Cauliflower Capeonata (Riverford)
– Fenugreek Saag (Prashad)

We are about to head off on a short trip away, so I plan to start the next phase of ‘Re-introduction’ when we get back… so will keep you updated and will do my best not to leave it so long for the next update!

In the meantime, our map – just in case you want to visualise the trip.