The News On Food

Friendly Food – food for life Cook book – why use it

Friendly Food – part of the Food for Life series published by Murdoch Books, was written by the allergy experts at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit in Sydney Australia. The people behind the Friendly Food cook book are Dr Anne Swain, Dr Velencia Soutter and Dr Robert Loblay. Friendly Food was first published in 1991 and the latest edition is 2006 (Green cover shown here available to purchase).

Friendly Food is very popular in Australia and certain parts of the world, with those who suffer from food intolerance symptoms, food allergies symptoms, gluten intolerance and various other food reactions.

When we were conducting our food elimination diet to find out what our food intolerance symptoms were linked to, we used Friendly Food. I had an earlier version of Friendly Food (purple cover) and while I found this earlier publication of Friendly Food to be worthwhile, the 2006 edition is much more appealing. So, I actually have an old copy and the latest edition on my book shelf and I still use them today even though we do not have the food intolerance or leaky gut  issues we had eight months ago.

Friendly Food – the review

In my opinion, Friendly Food is a must have book for those who have food intolerance symptoms or various food reactions. Listed below are the good, the bad and the reasons I like using Friendly Food and why I highly recommend it overall:

1. Aesthetically appealing; the pictures contained in Friendly Food are professional, clean, appealing and tempt you to try the recipes contained there in. While there is not a picture for every meal, you will still feel encouraged to experiment with the recipes in the book simply because everything about the book is luscious. I would class the photography in line with a Donna Hay or Marie Claire cookbooks.
2. There is a section at the front that talks about understanding food intolerance, naturally occurring chemicals, food additives, food intolerance symptoms, allergies, coeliac disease and general information. A great introduction to the book.
3. Critical to this book is a selection of charts that list food and the level of naturally occurring chemicals in each. For example, Friendly Food provides a food chemical chart for vegetables and shows a rating of naturally occurring chemicals in common vegetables. To explain further, Friendly Food may list Green Peas on the chart and show a symbol of “G” and “S” next to it thereby telling us that green peas have naturally occurring glutamate (MSG) and Salicylates  in the column marked “moderate”. The benefit of this is that you can vary your diet based on the charts. Hence, you may have green peas in your meal once a week and use vegetables listed in the “low’ column for naturally occurring chemicals for the remainder of the week.  This all depends on what the results are after you conduct your food elimination diet.
4. There are ample recipes to choose from and if you use this book in conjunction with The Failsafe Cookbook (Updated Edition)
   and  additive alert as we did, you will find meal times less stressful. While Additive Alert is not a recipe book, it contains a much more comprehensive list of food additives to avoid than Friendly Food.
5. The recipes are easy to prepare and the key is in having the ingredients handy to use this recipe book successfully.
6. Friendly Food also has a section on environmental sensitivities.
7. There were a select few recipes in Friendly Food that I found either did not work or did  not appeal to me.  The Buckwheat pancakes turned out like cardboard pancakes and neither the kids or myself liked them. You need to make sure you don’t overcook the golden syrup slice. The potato souffle was temperamental; but then, aren’t all souffles a bit like that? The sugar glazed potatoes did want to stick to the pan and the crumpets were great but watch they don’t burn on the bottom. There were a few other little things with the Friendly Food recipes but on the whole, I would not be without this book.
8. One down sides of any change in diet based on food intolerance symptoms or food reactions in general is that you do need to access ingredients that are not always found easily. So, you need to start to stock different products in your pantry to successfully change your health by changing what you eat.
9. There is a brilliant index at the back of Friendly Food organized into recipe categories such as “dairy free”, “nut free”, “egg/dairy/gluten/nut free” to name a few. It is also ordered into “low chemical”, “moderate chemical” for example so you can select recipes based on the level of naturally occurring chemicals in food. This allows you to plan a week’s menu around the levels of naturally occurring chemicals in foods.
10. The recipes themselves tell you the chemical rating and whether the recipe is nut or gluten free for example so you don’t need to turn to the index at the rear of Friendly Food to double check. Very handy for when you want to select a meal quickly.
11. The outer cover of Friendly Food is a cross between soft and hard cover. It is a flexible cardboard front with a lovely smooth, low gloss cover.
12. The size of Friendly Food is appropriate so easy to grab and flick through. Size is 19cm  / 7.5 inches wide when closed, 23.5cm / 9.25 inches high and 2cm / .85 inches thick.

Based on my review above, you can see that Friendly Food cookbook is a valuable resource to have in your kitchen. It will also help you understand your own food problems a little better and assist you in your dietary changes until you can heal your body.

Friendly Food – Contents

Friendly Food contains over 245 pages of information and recipes. From inside the book:

Friendly Food Contents:

• 6 – food allergies and intolerances
• 26 – breakfast
• 48 – light bites
• 82 – mains
• 120 – sides
• 138 – breads and pizzas
• 150 – tea time
• 184 – after dinner
• 214 – kids
• 234 – basics
• 240 – useful information
• 245 recipe lists

Friendly Food – where to get your copy

The picture of Friendly Food at the start of this post is also a link. Otherwise you can  click here to buy your copy now.

Please leave your own feedback on recipes from Friendly Food in the comments section so others may read and learn or offer their own advice.

Disclaimer:

I’m no medical expert and information contained on this blog is written through my own experience. Please consult an appropriate professional about your situation.

An introduction to dehydrated food

There are many benefits to dehydrated food and I bought a food dehydrator for the purpose of introducing raw foods to my children. For those of you who suffer from food intolerance symptoms, you can use a food dehydrator for red delicious apples, golden delicious apples, mango, pear and possibly even banana, until the body has been healed and is ready to accept different types of food. Suffering from food intolerance symptoms is difficult and dehydrated food is certainly a snack you would want to add to the limited food you can consume. Using a food dehydrator is a good way to incorporate enzyme rich food into your diet provided you dry your food using a low heat setting. Not all food dehydrators are created equally and I did a lot of research before purchasing a food dehydrator. Dehydrated food is a good alternative to freeze dried food with both having different textures. Dehydrated food is also a good alternative to canned fruit or fresh fruit if you are travelling, great as a quick healthy snack to keep in the cupboard and an easy, healthy snack for toddlers or as lunchbox ideas for kids. It is handy to have dried snacks in the cupboard in case you are out of fresh produce and cannot get to the grocer, so you can easily pull the dehydrated food from the cupboard and add it to your child’s lunchbox; easy! You will also find it is easier on the budget to use a food dehydrator than purchase freeze dried foods from your local grocer.

The problem with dried fruit you buy at your grocer is that it is usually laden with sulphites, also known as sulphur dioxide or food preservatives 220 to 223. We shall cover sulphites in another post. I highly recommend you avoid sulphites where possible, especially if you are an asthma sufferer or are prone to chronic fatigue syndrome.

If you are going to make your own dehydrated food, it is a good idea to try and buy local, fresh food. It is better to buy local than organic that has been stored for weeks before put on the grocer’s shelves. Even though it takes longer, I suggest using the low heat setting on your food dehydrator for the benefit of retaining maximum nutrition in your dehydrated food.

Food Dehydrator Review

There are a few things I took into account with my research before purchasing a food dehydrator.

1. How easy it is to access one tray of food without having to pull all the other trays out in the process
2. How evenly the food is dried; which comes down to the food dehydrator shape and air flow
3. How easy the food dehydrator trays and mesh liners are to clean
4. What is an energy efficient food dehydrator?
5. Is the food dehydrator thermostat controlled so you can vary the drying temperature?
6. Does the food dehydrator have a timer?
7. Size of the food dehydrator for storage (keep in same place for use and storage)
8. Reviews from others who have purchased a food dehydrator
9. Noise level of the food dehydrator
10. Warranty information should something go wrong
11. Price comparisons
12. Where I could keep my dehydrator given that there is a constant fan sound. i.e. you don’t want it near the bedrooms even though it is not that noisy.

An Excalibur 9 tray food dehydrator was what I purchased as Excalibur dehydrators are considered to be one of the best on the market. The Excalibur 9 tray food dehydrator takes a bit of work to fill so I do think the Excalibur 5 tray food dehydrator would suffice in most cases unless you are an avid user. The benefit of an Excalibur 9 tray food dehydrator is that you can fill as many trays as you need. Keep in mind, I have 3 children and I aim to buy large qualities of fruit both to use as dehydrated food and as a fresh supply. We use the living foods heat setting for everything and the timer is good because you can monitor how many hours it takes you to dry your food. You can lift the lid at any time to remove trays if one food dries faster than others without impacting the drying process too much. This is also beneficial because you can take your dehydrated food out when it is dried to your own personal satisfaction. Dehydrated food recipe books generally give you a guide to let you know if there is still too much moisture. On the whole I find the Excalibur 9 tray food dehydrator extremely easy to use and I highly recommend it should you be looking to make your own yummy dehydrated food. Oh and don’t anticipate the dehydrated food being in the cupboard very long as the kids devour it!

Dehydrated food tips and ideas

I’ve dried mango, apple, banana, kiwi fruit, strawberries, pineapple and pear. I’ve also made some banana coconut cookies using raw coconut, and I’ve made some corn and flax seed crackers. To learn more about raw food recipes you can click on this link. There is so much more you can make in a dehydrator and I’ll be sharing some great raw food cookbooks coming up soon. If you do purchase a dehydrator recipe book like this one shown below then I always use the living food heat setting regardless of what the book says.

I’ve done the hard work for you with my research and I’m happy to hear your own comments on food dehydrators.

Apple Peeler, Corer, slicer

This little apple spiral machine shown in the picture here is such a time saver. It is easy to clean, store and use and if you have children, it is a great way to get them to join in on learning to live with raw foods. This is an apple corer, apple slicer and apple peeler. To use it, simply sit it on a bench top, wash your apple, put it on the prongs, decide if you want it peeled or not and move a slider accordingly and wind the handle to start the process. The apple is cut into a spiral (which the kids love to see) and you remove the core from the prongs once complete. I then use a kitchen knife to cut the apple in 1/2 and then arrange it on the dehydrator trays. I find you can fit about 2 & 1/2 granny smith sized apples on one dehydrator tray. I’ve included a picture of the apple peeler, corer and slicer so you can see what it looks like. You can click on the link below to purchase your own apple peeler, corer and slicer to save time and effort.

Feel free to leave your own food dehydrator review below, hints or tips in the comments section of this blog. Enjoy your dehydrated food!

Disclaimer:

I’m no medical expert and information contained on this blog is written through my own experience. Please consult an appropriate professional about your situation.