As if food shopping wasn't hard enough for us already, reading labels, trawling the aisles searching for something safe only to pick up your usual 'safe' treat to find they have only gone and changed the ingredients and added in that deadly allergen! I've lost count of the times I've thrown my head in my hands and screamed with frustration in the middle of Asda or Tesco because they have changed the ingredients AGAIN!! Having to go home to Jasmine without that special treat because it is now unsafe and watching her little shoulders sink and a frown appear across her face, but, she still hugs me and says don't worry mummy i'll be ok fills me with an overwhelming sense of pride and sadness at the same time, a little girl who is so resilient and just takes knock after knock but picks herself up and gets on with - she definitely has taught me the real meaning of resilience!
Some days I have to go to three, maybe four supermarkets just to get a suitable weekly shop, we avoid all MAY CONTAINS and the following ingredients, Dairy, Eggs, Soya, Mushrooms, Pineapples, Peanuts, Tree nuts and Cranberries for her allergies, then we have a strict Gluten Free diet because Jasmine also has Coeliac Disease so we avoid Wheat, Rye and Barley. I can no longer go to three or four supermarkets and we are lucky if we manage to get a click and collect slot from Asda every 10-14 days so I have been scouring the internet trying to find some of the foods Jasmine loves and have come across a couple of handy things that have helped us loads.
Doves Farm have started a Gluten Free box for £25 its like a blind box so quite exciting for us when it arrives. We got pancake mix and Jasmine had delicious pancakes for the first time ever - we also had plain flour, chocolate star cereal and some very tasty oat bars plus, pasta, porridge oat and cornflakes - delivered straight to the door no hassle! definitely worth a look.
We also found Morrisons do a food box - we ordered the Meat Box for £45 - it was a risk because we couldn't guarantee it would be Free From but, we were pleasantly surprised, gluten free burgers, sausages and meatballs were amongst some of the produce we were lucky to get so, a real treat because Jasmine hadn't had sausages for 9+weeks and they're her favourite! They also had a nice roasting joint of beef with a pouch of Gluten Free Beef gravy - so smiles all round when we had that! Morrisons have recently added a Gluten Free box to their list of essential food boxes so may be worth a look if you don't have to avoid any other foods apart from gluten. This was also delivered by courier so didn't have to fight for a delivery slot!
We also managed to get our hands on some Betty Crocker Gluten Free cake mix and some egg replacer so, we have been able to indulge in yummy safe chocolate cake!!
These are our best essential finds at the minute, treats are minimal but we have been making the best of it and when we find more hidden treasures, I will be sure to share them with you #staysafe
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