Quinoa-stuffed Roast Chicken

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free

If you've been reading Gluten Free Food Freak for long, you'll know I'm a fan of food that's a bit, well, left-field. And this qualifies I reckon. Basically, you stuff a chicken with loads of quinoa, dried fruit and nuts and then roast it.

This is the first time we've had it, and it is absolutely superb. The stuffing is lemony and sweet, and it keeps the chicken beautifully moist as it roasts. And even better, it's dead simple and quick to make. It's going to be a regular visitor to our table I reckon. So onto the recipe...

Gluten free quinoa stuffed roast chicken

A couple of handfuls of dried berries/fruit - we used cranberries, blueberries, apricots & cherries (these are nice because they're a little sour)
A couple of handfuls of nuts - we used almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and pistachios - crush them with a rolling pin
150-200g quinoa - use the upper limit if you've got a really large chicken.
Zest and juice of one lemon

Boil the quinoa for 10 minutes then drain and pour a little cold water over it - not to cool it, just to stop it cooking. The heat left in it will help it in the cooking.

Mix it all up in a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil then pour/stuff/press it into the cavity of the bird. Really push it in, then wedge half the squeezed lemon in the neck hole to keep it all in.

Roast your chicken for about an hour and a half at 180 degrees C. Check it's cooked in the usual way - remember it will take a little longer than a non-stuffed bird to cook.

Scoop out the stuffing and serve with something green and tasty. Mmmmm... :-D

We roast a lot of chickens, and this has to be one of the best gluten free roast chicken recipes we've tried. Give it a go.

Coconut sweet potato with white fish

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Here's a quick run down on last night's dinner - gluten free coconut sweet potato and white fish.

2 onions
1 inch ginger root
2 cloves garlic
250ml coconut milk
6 spring onion, cut on the diagonal into 1 inch pieces
mini sweetcorn, cut on the diagonal into 1 inch pieces.
2 sweet potato, sliced or cubed
3 white fish

Either microwave or par-boil the sweet potato for 5 minutes.

Blend onion, ginger and garlic. Lightly brown the blended onion mix in a frying pan, for about 5 minutes. Add the spring onion and mini sweetcorn and brown for another 3 minutes, then add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add the sweet potato and cook for a few more minutes, until it's cooked.

Meanwhile, prepare the fish. Place the fish on a piece of aluminium foil, season and spray a little of olive oil. Grill for 3-4 minutes each side under a hot grill.

Feed this gluten free food to baby too, and watch them scoff it with glee! (Making sure there are no bones in the fish first, of course).

Lima beans with chilli - gluten free recipe

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

We seem to have been eating a lot of beans recently. The aim is to cut down on the amount of meat we're eating, but at this rate the next drive will be to cut down on the amount of beans we're eating. Oh well, it passes the time.

So, onto this warming comforting gluten free recipe...

Lima beans with chilli

400g tin of lima beans, or, as we used, butter beans
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
Olive oil
200g chopped tomatoes, or equivalent fresh tomatoes
60g sunflower seeds, dry toasted on a pan
1 chopped chilli
Chopped coriander

Fry the onion and garlic gently in the olive oil until softened. Add the sunflower seeds, tomatoes, chilli and beans and heat through. Season with salt and ground black pepper.

How simple is that? It's not posh nosh, but it is gluten free, tasty and extremely quick, which is never a bad thing after a long day.

Gluten Free Biscuit Recipe - Gluten Free Stem Ginger Biscuits

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Gluten free biscuit recipes are my nemesis. Luckily this recipe for gluten free stem ginger biscuits is great - delicious "more-ish" biscuits that are crunchy, not crumbly, not too sweet and hold together well. Oh and are covered in a ton of chocolate :>) Plus they're egg-free too and can be made dairy-free if you use dairy free margarine instead of butter.

Gluten Free Stem Ginger Biscuits Recipe
175g gluten free flour (plain)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
100g butter or dairy free margarine, plus extra for greasing the baking tray
50g caster sugar
50g preserved stem ginger, finely chopped.
300g of 70% dark chocolate

Heat the oven to 16OoC (fan assisted) or 18O0C normal or gas 4. Grease your baking tray
Beat the butter/margarine and sugar until pale and creamy, or whizz in a food processor for a couple of minutes.
Sift into the butter and sugar mix, the flour, ground ginger and baking powder.
Add the chopped stem ginger, and mix until it forms a stiff dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 30 minutes, in the fridge.
If you are feeling lucky, roll out the dough mix onto a floured surface to about 3-4mm thick, and stamp out biscuit shapes. If you're mixture sticks to the board or cutter's don't dispair. Just take small golf ball sized portions of dough, and pat out flat biscuit shapes in your hands.
This makes for more interesting, irregular biscuits, which are obviously home made.
Bake the biscuits for abou 15 to 20 minutes, or until they have turned lightly brown and are just crisp. Allow to cool and then transfer to a wire rack.
Meanwhile, heat up your chocolate in a bowl inserted into a pan of hot water. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the biscuits in a random manner.

These biscuits will not go off as I guarantee you will eat them all before they get a chance to go mouldy! But if you've got more restraint than in our house, they will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

This is such a reliable gluten free biscuit recipe, I've made it 3 times since I discovered it a couple of months back. Gluten free stem ginger biscuits are available in the shops but trust me, when you've tried these ones, you won't go back!

Gluten free snack - Avocado & ground seed rice cake

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

How many times during the day do you think "Ooh, I could do with a snack"?

And how many times is finding a satisfying, healthy gluten free snack just too much hassle?

Well here's a goodie...

Avocado & ground seed gluten free snack

I hate rice cakes. I hate the fact that I have to eat them, and I hate that they explode when I try to eat them. But then I came across Kallo rice cakes, which are altogether a better behaved snack. So I'm living with it.

So you need...

Rice cakes (duh)
An avocado
A lemon
2 spring onions (scallions / green onions), thinly sliced
Ground pepper
Something fresh for the top - cucumber, watercress, lettuce...

How to make ground seeds
A jar of ground seeds - ok, ok, not so easy. But not so hard either. Get a jar, fill it with half flax seeds (linseeds), a quarter sunflower seeds and a quarter pumpkin seeds. Blend them in a small chopper until they are the consistency of bread crumbs.

(These ground seeds are not only tasty, but a tablespoon a day gives you a good natural helping of your essential omega fatty acids. Keep em in the fridge in the jar and sprinkle them on your cereals, rice cakes, soup, whatever.)

How to construct your gluten free snack

Mash up the avocado with the sliced onions, lemon juice and pepper to taste. Mix in about a tablespoon of the ground seeds. Spread on the rice cakes and top with your chosen salad veg.

One medium sized avocado will make you 4 chunky rice cakes - more like a gluten free meal than a gluten free snack I guess.

More on gluten free snacks

Authentic Italian Gluten Free Ravioli - with Creamed Ricotta, Pine Nuts, Parmesan and Herbs

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Yeast free

Ready made gluten free ravioli doesn't exist. Anywhere. So I had to make my own.

Having spent a wonderful week in April by Lake Garda in Italy, being cooked for by a real Italian coeliac chef, I realised it wasn't so bad making your own gluten free pasta. And so Gluten Free Ravioli filled with Creamed Ricotta, Pine Nuts, Parmesan and Herbs was made.

Being slightly foolhardy, I made this dish for the first time, for a dinner party with a few friends. Luckily these friends are very understanding of all things gluten-free, and I even managed to enlist one of them in the ravioli forming!

Gluten Free Ravioli

These amounts are per person, so just multiply up by the number of diners.

1 tablespoon of mild olive oil
100g of gluten free flour e.g. Schar (in Italy, Schar sell a special gluten free pasta flour)
1 large organic egg,
Optional - a teaspoon of xantham gum
Extra flour to dust your worktop

Put your apron on, and roll up your sleeves, you're going to get messy! Reserving a small amount of flour, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. (Alternatively you can use a food processor, but by the time you've washed the fiddly bits and pieces, you probably haven't saved yourself any time). If the mix is too wet, add the reserved flour, or if it is too dry, add a little of the egg white you've got spare from the filling recipe, or a little more olive oil.

Keep mixing until you've formed a ball of pasta dough. Take the ball out of the bowl and place on a floured worksurface. Knead the dough for about 3 to 5 minutes, pushing the middle of the dough out and forming it back into a ball again. Wrap the kneaded dough in plastic and allow to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make your gluten free ravioli filling, have a glass of wine and blether with your mates.

Creamed Ricotta, Pine Nuts, Parmesan and Herb filling

Makes enough for about 4-6 people

400g ricotta cheese
1 egg yolk
about 50g of grated parmesan cheese
about 25g of pine nuts, toasted and crushed
3 large handfuls of fresh herbs e.g. parsley, basil, mint, roughly chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
pinch of grated nutmeg
mild olive oil

In a bowl, beat the ricotta, egg and some of the parmesan cheese, until it is light and creamy. Fold in the pine nuts, herbs, nutmeg and season with a small twist of salt and pepper.

Take the rested pasta dough out of the fridge and roll out at least 2 sheets to about 2 mm thick and about 100mm wide. Work with one pair of pasta sheets at a time so they don't dry out and go crumbly (a major problem with gluten free products - that's where the xantham gum can help). Put a large teaspoon of filling in the middle of the sheet at one end, and repeat this every 50mm or so along the length of the pasta sheet. Lightly brush water on the pasta, around each dollop of filling.

Take the second pasta sheet and gently lay it upon the first. Gently press the top sheet onto the bottom sheet, carefully pushing out any air around the filling (important to take the time to do this well, otherwise the air gaps will get filled with water when you cook it, and you'll have soggy ravioli). Now cut out each ravioli with a knife or crinkly cutter.

You can cook the gluten free ravioli straight away or keep it in the fridge for a few hours. Cook in a large pan of salted boiling water for 3-4 minutes - when they're ready they'll float to the surface. Scoop out the gluten free ravioli with a large slotted spoon.

Serve drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkling of parmesan. Even gluten guzzlers will be hard pushed to know the difference between wheat based and this delicious gluten free ravioli.

2 Scrumptious, Easy Gluten Free Recipes for Dips

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Here are a few gluten free recipes for dips, free to go with whatever you choose! I like to eat my dips with vegetable sticks or with gluten free tortillas. If you're feeling a bit fancy, you can use whole baby sweetcorn, mange touts or sugar snap peas as tasty dippers.

When I was pregnant, I spent a lot of time staring into the fridge looking for something quick and tasty to snack on (which I did about 8 times a day, putting on more than a third of my body weight.... which thankfully, I've now lost again!!). Dips and dippers are great to have in the fridge for pregnant ladies, hungry kids and fellow fridge-mates alike.

1. Gluten Free Recipe for Dips - Tomato and Kidney Bean Salsa

2 x 400g tin of tomatoes
1 x 400g tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
olive oil
1 bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Seasoning

Saute the garlic, onion and chilli on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer for 10-15 minutes, until it is darker red, thicker and tastes sweeter. Mash up the kidney beans and add to the cooked tomato mix. Add the coriander (cilantro), and lime, then season to taste. I much prefer this cooked tomato salsa to the raw ones, as it sticks to the dip better and is much sweeter.

This dip can be served at room temperature (but don't leave it out all day unless you want to cultivate some bacteria!). This makes a decent amount of dip, so freeze what you don't use straight away. Also makes a great accompaniement to fish, burgers, or pitta breads.

2. Gluten Free Recipe for Dips - Avocado Guacamole

2 or 3 ripe avocadoes
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 ripe tomato, finely chopped
bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro)
optional - fresh red chilli, finely chopped, or dried chilli flakes.
juice of 1 lime
seasoning

Peel and destone the avocado, then mash the green flesh in a large bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. If you like a hot dip, then add either fresh or dried chilli to suit your tastebuds, and mix in well! Taste and add seasoning appropriately.

These gluten free recipes for dips can be adapted to suit your tastes. Some people like hot dips, some don't, especially kids. If you prefer things sweeter, you may want to add a small amount of sugar. Some people aren't keen on the after effects of eating raw garlic and onion, so you may want to lightly fry and cool them in the second gluten free recipe for dips. However you choose it, enjoy!

Deceptively Easy Gluten Free Tortilla Recipe

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

I was mighty pleased to stumble upon this wonderful gluten free tortilla recipe a few years ago, and it's been a firm favourite since.

Deceptively Easy Gluten Free Tortilla Recipe

400g (1 cup) corn flour
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 pinch of salt
about 250ml warm water (2/3 cup)

Mix the flour, oil and salt in a large bowl, and add the water gradually until the mixture is a firm, dryish ball. If it's too dry, add more water, or if it's too wet, add some more flour. Knead the mixture for a minute or so to ensure it is thoroughly mixed. Make about 8 flat tortillas by patting them with your floured hands or roll them out on a board with a rolling pin.

The husband prefers to take a strong plastic bag and place the uncooked tortilla ball inside the bag, and press down with a saucepan until it's only a few millimetres thick - the plastic should peel off easily and leave you with a lovely thin tortilla, ready to cook.

Meanwhile, heat a frying pan until it's almost smoking hot. Add your tortillas and cook on one side until it is golden brown, then turn over and cook the other side. Serve your gluten free tortillas with a gluten free dip, such as hoummous, guacamole or tomato salsa.

Some manufacturers are clued up enough to make bags of gluten free tortillas, so check out the ingredients listing and you might save yourself the hassle of making your own. (Even though it is actually an easy recipe, it's nice to cut corners sometimes!)

Relax, the list of naturaly gluten free foods is huge

The good news is there is a huge list of naturaly gluten free food. When you find out you have celiac disease, it can seem like there is nothing in the world that you can eat. And as the Western diet relies heavily on wheat based foods, you’ll probably have to break lot of life long habits to ensure you are following a naturaly gluten free diet.

Here’s the list of naturaly gluten free food.

Fruit – strawberries, blueberries, grapes, oranges, kiwi fruit, bananas and all their nutrient rich friends.

Vegetables – every single last one of them – packed with vitamins and minerals, so can’t be bad.

Nuts and Seeds – almonds, peanuts, walnuts, they’re all naturaly gluten free. Great sources of essential oils and other goodies.

Meat – yep, you guessed it. All meat is gluten free (although by the time you get to eat it in a restaurant, it may have been coated in flour, so just be careful!)

Fish – just like meat, all naturaly gluten free.

Grains – buckwheat, rice, quinoa, amaranth, tapioca, sago, millet, corn are just a few naturaly gluten free grains. Wheat is obviously out, as are rye, barley, bran and oats.

Pulses – lentils, kidney beans, haricot beans are all gluten free, and great fibre sources

Eggs and Dairy – natural yoghurt, cheese, butter are all good for a gluten free diet.

Drink – water (!), tea’s, coffee and pure fruit juices are all gluten free. Beer unfortunately is not.

It starts to get tricky as soon as the food has been processed e.g. a grain is milled, as cross contamination can occur and “filler” ingredients such as starch can be made from wheat. This is where joining your local Celiac society is invaluable, e.g. http://www.coeliac.co.uk/ as they provide a detailed, up to date list of all gluten ready made food and ingredients.

So although you may have to brush up on your home cooking skills, there are plenty gluten free recipes which allow you to cook from the huge list of naturaly gluten free food.

Is Your Child Playing With Gluten Free Play Dough?

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Does your coeliac child get to play with non gluten free play dough? Chances are, unless you made it yourself with gluten free flour, the playdough will contain a high percentage of wheat flour. As most kids invariably like to put things in their mouth, you could be unwittingly allowing your child to eat gluten.

Gluten free playdough, luckily, is easy to make, so here's my recipe for gluten free play dough.

Makes enough to keep a small one happy for ages.

400g (1 cup) of rice flour plus 400g (1 cup) of cornflour OR equivalent amounts of any gluten free flour
400g (1 cup) salt
4 teaspoons of cream of tartar
800 ml (2 cups) water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Food colouring

In a large saucepan, mix all the ingredients with a whisk to get rid of any lumps.
Gently heat up for 5 minutes or so, stirring to make sure no lumps form (just like making a roux!) and eventually the mixture will become firm.
Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then knead the mixture for a couple of minutes, to ensure there are no lumps.

You can now start playing with the gluten free play dough! Any creative masterpieces can be left to air-dry for a few days then painted with kid-friendly non toxic paints.

As this mixture contains a huge percentage of salt, it will keep for a few months in a sealed container, and better still, will taste so disgusting, your child will be dissuaded from eating it.

You can now rest easy knowing that your child is playing with celiac friendly gluten free play dough, (plus give yourself some super-parent points for being so hands on!) Remember to give this recipe to your nursery, so they can make gluten free playdough too.

Tip - I keep my nursery supplied with gluten free flour, so they can make fairy cakes and other fun stuff without me having to worry.

Beef & rhubarb stew (yep! :-)

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Fantastic, more freaky gluten free food, just the way I like it. I mean, beef and rhubarb ?

I might not have chosen this recipe, but for the fact that about the only thing that our sorry, sun-starved waterlogged vegetable patch produced this year was a couple of pounds of rhubarb.

But this is a tale with a happy ending. Read on...

Beef & rhubarb stew - gluten free as always

About 1lb cheap beef, diced - you're going to slow cook it so it will be tender
Chopped onion
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 tsp chilli powder
Half a cinammon stick
400g tin pinto beans (or similar)
1/2 lb rhubarb
Splash or two worcestershire or soy sauce (tamari is our standard gluten free soy sauce)
Brown sugar

Fry your onions and garlic in a little oil or butter, browning the onion a little. Then add the beef and fry quite hard, browning the meat to give you extra flavour. Add chilli powder and cinammon stick and fry for another minute.

Add water and beans and bring to the boil. Set to a simmer and put the lid on the pan. Simmer gently for about 1 1/2 hours then add the rhubarb and cook a little harder with the lid off. You want to reduce the sauce right down until it is thick. Then taste and add salt, pepper, sugar and add gluten free soy or worcestershire sauce until you're happy with the flavour. I found I had to add a surprising amount of sugar to balance the rhubarb's sharpness.

The resulting dish is tasty and tangy, well-rounded with the browned meat flavours, the sharpness of the rhubarb and the sweetness of the sugar. Somewhat surprisingly!

And there we have it, a strangely successful gluten free recipe from Gluten Free Food Freak.

Cannellini Beans with Bacon and Sage

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Straight into tonight's gluten free recipe, as I'm trying to watch my fave BBC spy programme Spooks....

500g of dried cannellini beans soaked for 6 hours, then boiled hard for 10 minutes and left to simmer for 1 hour.
OR 3 400g tins of cannellini beans
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 fresh bay leaves
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
14 fresh sage leaves
2 large onions finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped into small strips
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
juice of 1 lemon.
4 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped.
Seasoning to taste

Saute the onions and garlic, with 4 of the sage leaves, for about 10 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the bacon pieces and cook.

Meanwhile, heat up the beans with either the water you cooked the beans in, or with fresh water if you're using tinned beans. Add the thyme and sage leaves and white pepper. When the onion and bacon is ready, add to the herby beans. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Just before you serve, add the lemon juice, fresh parsley and season to taste.

I must admit I had a problem with this recipe - what do you serve it with? In the end, we had it with fresh corn on the cob. It's a strange one to me to only have one "thing" on my plate - usually there is rice or polenta or some other starchy thing. Well, I proved myself wrong as it was truely delicious and didn't need anything else to make it a complete meal.

Baby had herby garlic polenta, cubed and lightly fried, with some mashed beans and whole ones to throw at the terriers. Luckily my food is back in favour in baby land. Demands from baby for corn on the cob encouraged us to give her one to chew on (with only a few kernels), which she was delighted with (safety note - we always sit with baby when she eats and are aware that things like sweetcorn may present a choking hazard).

Note to self; leave bedroom door open tonight to ensure any noxious bean gases are free to roam the house and leave space for life giving oxygen!

Tagine of Lamb with Fruit and Almonds

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free

Here's yesterdays gluten free recipe....

Sunday's are about being busy doing nothing, so after lunch, I made our dinner and put it on the stove to slow cook while the gluten free family took the terriers out for a forage in the woods. Before I tell you the recipe, let me tell you about the abundance of fresh forest mushrooms growing at the moment. We've got eggy yellow chanterelles and fragrant branched oyster mushrooms on the hill behind our house, and there were even more on the dog walk. I am going back there tonight with a bag and get me some fresh fungus!

Gluten Free Tagine of Lamb with Fruit and Almonds.

A tagine is a Moroccan cooking dish, with a conical lid which allows the spicy steam to condense and fall back into the stew, making sure your meal is moist and the meat tender. Most people don't have these at home, so I used a cast iron casserole dish with a tight fitting lid (It's a 1970's classic orange Le Creuset, handed down from the mother in law).

500 g of trimmed, diced lamb
1 tablespoon of oil
3 strands of saffron
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (or fenugreek - see why below)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large onion, finely chopped
100g pitted prunes
100g dried apricots
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/2 cinammon stick
grated zest from one lemone
50g almonds, halved
Serve with brown rice.

What seems like a huge ingredient list is in fact mostly spices, so don't be put off! First off, heat the oil in your dish or pan. When the oil is hot, put in the saffron, pepper, ginger and cinnamon. (Note on cumin - as the husband is allergic at the moment to cumin, I didn't add this, but I reckon you should put it in. I used the same amount of fenugreek instead - you know the stuff - that's what your armpits smell of after you've had a big curry dinner!)

Give the spices a minute then add the meat and stir it around to brown it for 3 minutes or so. Add the onions and enough hot water to cover the ingredients and bring to the boil. Cover the dish, lower the heat to a very gentle simmer and leave for 2 to 3 hours. (Best to put too much water in than not enough and risk boiling dry! You can always reduce the liquid by 10 minutes of hard boiling at the end.)

Add the prunes, apricots, cinnamon stick and lemon zest to the stew and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cook some brown rice. About 5 minutes before the end, toast the sesame seeds and almonds in a dry frying pan, until they are lightly browned. Watch out as the sesame seeds might pop! Add the nuts and seeds just before you serve. Season to taste.

Well tonight baby was not happy with her gluten free baby food! Mum has crashed and burned on the food front! I blended some of the stew and served it with the rice. She was happy enough to eat the rice and whole pieces of lamb, but absolutely refused point blank to eat the blended mush. To be fair it did resemble the contents of her nappy and was a very strong taste. Ah well, you live and learn! She did, as ever, eat her strawberries and blueberries with much gusto.

It's a dilemma knowing what to do when baby refuses your lovely gluten free baby food. Do you keep trying, winding her up to the point she refuses ALL food? Or do you call it quits and get something out of the freezer or open a ready-made jar, praying she still likes it today? I think that is the eternal parent's struggle - the balancing act between pushing their taste boundaries or making sure their bellies are full.

Back to the recipe, if I made it again, I'd probably omit the sesame seeds and put a squeeze of lemon juice to counter the sweetness from the fruit. Other than that, it was a tasty treat after getting soaked in the woods.