Juice, juice, luverly juice!

Actually, not 'juice', but cordial, or - if you prefer - squash. I discovered Suma Organic Apple, Raspberry and Cranberry Juice pure fruit concentrate in my local independent health food store this afternoon. It's refreshing, contains just concentrated fruit juice and a very little goes a long way (dilute with water). Which is good, cos it's really quite expensive (the RRP is a whopping £3.59!).

N.B. Photograph taken from the Suma website.

Two more fruit bars and a rant

Was delighted to find a couple of new (well, new to me) brands of fruit-based bars at my local independent health food store. Larabar Cherry Pie (very tasty) made entirely of cherries, dates and almonds and Go Natural Fruit Medley, which comprises dried peach, apricot, apple, pear, mango and pineapple with some rice flour and non-scary preservatives.

American and Australian manufacturers lead in this area. Off the top of my head I can only recall one manufacturer, Village Bakery, that produces candida-friendly (although, it should be pointed out that these - and those referred to above - aren't specifically marketed as suitable for the diet) in the UK. And the resultant food miles really bothers me. Come on all you snack and cake bar producers - get your acts together!!!

OMG!!!! Ice Cream!!!!

Quick. Open your copy of Cooking Without by Barbara Cousins (see previous post), and turn to page 245. Seriously, it is AMAZING!!! I realise I haven't actually consumed any ice cream for two and a half years, but this candida-friendly version (maintainers only) seems fairly evocative of the real thing, at least in taste. The ice-crystally texture is more akin to sorbet, but who cares? It's ice cream people!!! (Can you tell I'm just a little bit more than ecstatic about this find?!).

The recipe calls for frozen fruit, and Tesco very handily produces ready chopped frozen fruit (I used banana and strawberry) for smoothies. Which makes this recipe an absolute breeze. Oh, and I used full fat goats milk instead of the recommended soya, rice or almond milk, and it worked out fine. A sturdy blender or food mixer is essential too.

Right, I'm off to have my third helping this evening! *stuffed to the brim with luverly stuff*

Fridge Fruit

Leading on from my previous post, at Somerfield today I discovered 'Fridge Fruit', manufactured by SPC, a 1 kg pot of pear, peach and pineapple in apple juice, and crucially, no citric acid (though it does contain ascorbic acid - no one has ever said to me, 'Djinn, you can't have ascorbic acid', so I don't worry about it!). Once opened it needs to be kept in the fridge and eaten within seven days. Good with yoghurt. Not personally keen on pear (don't like the gritty texture), but I lurve peach and pineapple. :)

Even fruit is getting sweeter!

This makes for disturbing reading!

Sweet things continued

In my continuing quest for sweet, but anti-Candida diet friendly, things to eat, I've come across Fruit 4U bars, made by Lyme Regis Foods and purchased at Waitrose, as individual bars or in boxes of five. There are three flavours: Apple, which is okay; raspberry, the best in my opinion, and black cherry, which I haven't tried as it doesn't appeal. They're kind of similar to the Frutina Fruit Snacks I bought at Holland & Barrett, but more cakey and less leathery. Not bad, anyway.

The raspberry version (which is what I have to hand at the moment) is comprised of 94% fruit (apple and raspberry juice concentrate - 10%), non-hydrogenated palm oil, pectin, soya lecithan and natural flavours (whatever those may be).

Here's a photy from the Lyme Regis Food website so you'll know what to look out for.

Snacks!

At long last I've found a range of snack bars (which are actually quite delicious) and suitable for an anti-Candida diet! They're made by Wallaby Australia and are available from 'Holland and Barrett'. I've tried the yoghurt fruit and nut bar (see picture) and the macadamia and cashew bar. Both really, really good :)

They probably wouldn't be suitable for someone just starting out on the diet (because of the nuts and fruit), but for those maintaining, like me, they should be fine.

Frozen smoothie mix

I'm very penitent. Following my refined sugar slip-up the day before yesterday I've just been eating pure, unadulterated, healthy food. Though having said that, it was the first sugar I'd knowingly imbibed since 20th May. That's not bad going!

In my continued quest for something anti-Candida friendly and sweet I've discovered frozen smoothie mix from Tescos (see pic - from the Tescos website). I'm trying the Strawberry and Banana flavour at the moment, but they also do a tropical fruit and red berries version. The smoothie mix consists of just fruit, basically; chopped and frozen and packaged in individual bags. The directions suggest you defrost it slightly in the microwave and then whizz it up with fruit juice. I've been trying it with goats milk and plain yoghurt instead, and very good is it too!

A great find

During my very successful trip to Tescos last Friday I came across 'Clearspring' Organic Apple and Apricot Fruit Puree Dessert (see pic). They also do Apple & Blueberry and Apple & Strawberry varieties: two 100g tin foil trays of pureed fruit per pack, great mixed into yoghurt with a sprinkling of cinnamon. And they contain nothing but fruit...even better!

Sweet things

Finally I got around to trying out one of Pamela Singh's recipes. In desperate need of something chilled and sweet, I had a go at her kulfi recipe. Oh dear - wasn't very successful. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the recipe. Personally, I just don't like the favour of cardamon. Bit soapy, like Parma Violets - yuck! The actual coconut, (goats) milk, yoghurt mixture tasted a lot like uncooked victoria sponge mix - which wasn't altogether unpleasant. Shame, cos I wasted half a fresh mango on it.

However, I did find some all fruit snacks (fruit, concentrated fruit juice and natural flavourings) at Holland & Barrett yesterday. Here's a pic from Goodness Direct, so you can know what to look out for. I tried the apple and apricot and the apple and blueberry versions. Not bad - very sticky and quite sweet, but packed full of natural fruit flavour. I don't suppose it would be a good idea to eat them on a regular basis, but for an occasional treat I'm sure they aren't too bad and probably infinitely better than the odd bar of diabetic chocolate I've been known to scoff at weak moments!!