Our Family and Food

Meet the Team

We are a family of 6, living in the South West of England. My husband and I both combine full-time work with looking after our 4 children. All in all I would say we are a pretty normal bunch - except when it comes to food.

Although I love to cook, I generally have to adapt most dishes and recipes in order to navigate a range of family food intolerances and/or preferences. In fact, this is something I do so regularly (and with good results most of the time) that the children have suggested that I publish some of my ideas for recipes and workarounds.

So, the intention behind this blog is precisely that. In the coming weeks and months I plan to share some of the sources (outlets, brands, etc.) I have identified as being good places to start when short of time and shopping for restricted diets. I will also share some of the alternatives methods and ingredients I have tried and tested at home and, of course, some easy, family-friendly recipes.

What I don't intend to do is to get into the weeds about the whys and wherefores of food intolerances and restricted diets. I am not a scientist. I am a lawyer. However, I will occasionally link to information I have found helpful or particularly informative about shall issues. I will also tell you about the journey we had to go on before we were able to identify our youngest child's food intolerances, since this may give hope to other  parents in similar position.

But for now, let me introduce you to our family and our dysfunctional diets.

First off, we are (almost all) fish-eating vegetarians. I gave up eating meat in my teens. Meat was something I had never greatly enjoyed eating, so this was a relatively easy decision at the time, centred around concerns about animal welfare (this was a long time ago) and economics. My husband also gave up eating meat when we got together 21 years ago.

Our approach to the kids and meat has been to start them off veggie but to let them choose whether for themselves once they are old enough to want to make a choice. From experience to date this seems to be around the time they start secondary school (aged 11 or 12). Thereafter I won't cook meat at home but they can order what they like if we eat out.

All of the kids are still in full-time education.

Our first born is Meg, aged 18. She tries to limit lactose as this gives her (ahem) digestive problems. Meg loves food and eats all things veggie and fish. She certainly went through the ubiquitous bacon-eating phase in her early teens but I think largely abstains these days.

Then comes Nora, aged 16. She also loves food but has a (relatively short) list of things she doesn't like - peppers being one of them. Nora eats all things veggie, loves fish and at present is an infrequent eater of meat in the hope of growing a bit more before it's too late. (She has also bet me a million pounds that I will lose interest in this blog after a couple of weeks).

Number three is Harry, aged 12. He is very much a growing lad and is already taller than me. Harry is, sadly, a fussy eater who doesn't like fish at all or sadly an awful lot of vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onion which is still visible to the human eye, courgette,...). He is currently a regular meat eater.

Last but not least is Robbie, aged 8. He has significant food intolerances which we have been fortunate in identifying as relating to FODMAPS. He loves food and is my most complimentary customer.

FODMAPS are fermentable carbohydrates, a foodgroup which has only recently been identified as a potential cause of food intolerances such as IBS. More on FODMAPS anon but the link below will tell you more about what Robbie can't eat).

http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/gastro/fodmap/

One of the other grown ups in the team is my husband, Drew, who is mid forties and (sadly) a 'MAMIL'. He eats everything veggie and fish and also eats pudding as though still a teenager, He is wearing his sweet tooth relatively well thanks to the cycling and the 5:2 diet.

Finally there's me. Working mum, turned 50 a few days ago. I eat everything veggie and fish but have in the past 10 days been trying a 'no sugar' diet. More of that anon as well.

Hopefully more to follow - or there will be a significantly wealthier teenager in the South West fairly soon.