Wheat-free Christmas Menu

                                                      Wheat-free Christmas Menu 

I've created a healthy menu to celebrate Christmas for both Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day (Continental and English customs) avoiding wheat, apple and tomato as an M.E survivor who can eat some sugar. Some of the ideas should be suitable for those with M.E who cannot eat traditional Christmas pudding and Christmas cake.  Those with M.E cannot afford to indulge themselves by eating rich or fatty foods. Eating any added sugar feeds the yeast in the digestive system and one can end up feeling toxic for days or weeks, as a result.  This adds to the fatigue and other symptoms so best to "go easy". As for any dried fruit, I never touched it in M.E as it packed full of sugar and has moulds too.

Christmas is a time to eat foods that one usually does not normally eat, not necessarily to indulge in rich food. Christmas is also not necessarily just about traditional dishes, but they have their place.

Traditional English Christmas foods that I am including are:  figs, smoked salmon, chopped chestnuts, Brussels sprouts, honeyed parsnips, duck fat, plums, cranberry, Stilton, port and possibly brandy butter. I have also tried to use foods plentiful in season, such as Brussels sprouts and parnips. Incidentally, buckwheat is not wheat and could be eaten by those allergic to wheat (though best to test it first in very small quantities).

Christmas Eve

• Warming spiced parsnip and carrot soup (with a little coriander)
• Ham and cold Italian cold meats, with roasted peppers in the Italian style, pickles, buttered new potatoes, crumbled Stilton and salad.
• Chocolate Cherrymisu"  (cherries with coffee and juice soaked wheat free trifle, topped with Baileys Chocolate Luxe,  with Italian mascarpone and whipping cream)
• Coffee or tea and mints

Christmas Day

• Smoked salmon on homemade buckwheat blinis, with a little cream cheese
• Chicken breast in gravy with cranberry and port sauce, accompanied by venison and bacon sausages, Maris Piper potatoes roasted in duck fat, fried brussels sprouts in garlic butter sprinkled with chopped chestnuts and honey-coated roasted carrots
• Wheat-free unsweetened fresh fig crumble with single cream (or brandy butter)
• Coffee or tea
• Port

Christmas Cake

Homemade orange-iced plum and wheat free "Christmas Cake", flavoured with a little Cointreau.

Anyone interested in the recipe for any of this, please email me.