I was having a look at my calendar yesterday and realised Mother’s Day was only 2 months away. Usually I’ll either go back to Newcastle for the weekend and go to a family members place for lunch, or Mum will catch the train to Sydney and we’ll go out somewhere nice. This year, either of those options are going to be near-impossible, unless I want to “just have the salad”.
What better way to make sure I can eat all the tasty things than to cook everything myself? I personally don’t feel comfortable burdening anyone with having to cook things to my strict dietary requirements. Plus, considering how long it took me to get the hang of what I can/can’t eat, what flavours work well, how to use the limitation to my best advantage, etc. I know I can cook amazing, tasty food that the regular person wouldn’t realise is gluten free, lactose free and fructose friendly!
So I started drafting up a menu in my head. A roast chicken is a given, I think. I especially like the idea of the Boneless Roast Chicken featured over at LowFODMAP.com, which is actually a Christmas recipe, but could certainly be used year-round. I’m also really keen to learn how to de-bone a chicken. Bless you, YouTube!
In addition to the chicken, I was thinking something easy to chuck in the Le Creuset and bake. Top of the list would be an oven-baked risotto, with pumpkin, baby spinach and maybe some bacon (ha, certainly no vegetarians in my family).
Sides, easy! A greek salad is simple and fresh, and so easy to make FODMAP free – just leave out the onion! Jane Kennedy has some fantastic ideas for side dishes in both of her books. One is roasted carrots cut long on the diagonal, tossed with parsley and feta (had to omit the garlic, sigh). Another is green beans with butter and toasted almonds.
Dessert, I simply can’t go past cheesecake. A baked lemon cheesecake to be exact (just swap the biscuit base to gluten-free biscuits). This would be the only part that isn’t completely FODMAP free – there is simply no comparison with proper, real cream cheese. (The tofutti stuff can be used for small things, sure, but there’s no way I’d use it for a whole cheesecake.) And if I only limit myself to one small slice with lactose-free ice cream, I should be symptom free. Hopefully.
For snacks pre-meal and post-meal, I’d make a batch of garlic-free basil pesto and serve it with rice crackers. Plus a cheese plate with olives and prosciutto would also go down quite well.
What would you do for a Mother’s Day Low FODMAP lunch?