Indian in Broadbeach, QLD

We were staying in the beautiful Broadbeach for our trip to QLD. They have a cool strip full of restaurants and take away places but it was all a little pricey being the fancy area it was. We decided to go with Indian and we are so glad we did. Most of the curries were gluten free (stated on the menu) and they did pupadums. I had a chicken and spinach curry and it tasted amazing. 

Dinner at Jupiter's casino QLD

During our holiday on the Gold Coast we decided to go to Jupiters Casino for dinner, as we were staying over the road from it. I looked on their website before heading there and found a place called Spinners that had a good menu and did gluten free. I was excited to see what they had to offer and lucky for me there was plenty. I went with a garlic pizza bread for starters, traditional Thai beef salad and some chips with garlic aioli. It was all very good and filling. Plus I felt fine the next morning. Yay!

http://www.jupitersgoldcoast.com.au/dining/spinners/Pages/default.aspx

A burger that looked like a burger, QLD

I am currently on holiday on the Gold Coast staying in Broadbeach. We haven't really bothered with dining out for dinner, so have just been finding takeaway and eating in our room. It's been a real struggle finding anything gluten free (takeaway) in Broadbeach, we nearly gave up and had a packet rice from the supermarket. But we tried one last area and found a little burger bar that did gluten free so I enquired and was disappointed to hear they cooked the gluten free burgers with the normal burgers. That's no good for me, but the lady was really really sweet and checked with the chef about all the ingredients and to see if the bun could be cooked separately. In the end they cooked it in the oven and were cautious about the preparation. It tasted very fresh and was nice to have a burger that actually looked like a proper burger. So after all it shows it doesn't hurt to ask and pester the staff!
http://www.freshlystacked.com.au/

Mums pasta salad

Mum made me some seperate pasta for a BBQ on the weekend (gosh she is good!). You can have it hot or cold I reckon and it would be very easy to make.

Ingredients: 

• Pasta
• Sundried tomatoes
• Olives 
• Chorizo or salami 
• Thousand island dressing 

Method:

• Cook pasta 
• Dice tomatoes olives and meat
• Add to pasta 
• Cover with dressing 

Done!

Spag Bol with Kangroo mince

Spag Bol (Spaghetti Bolognese) is one of my all time favourite dishes. Its quick, its easy and its cheap and its something you can eat all year round. Now that I have to have it gluten free I tend not to use long spaghetti has it always goes gluggy and just isn't the same, so I used spirals or shaped pasta. Also this time i decided to use kangaroo mince as its rather lean meat and has a stronger flavour, but still tasting similar to beef.
Here is my easy method for cooking one very satisfying spag bol:

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of gluten free pasta of choice
• 500g-1kg mince (kangaroo or beef) 
• Raguletto pasta sauce
• Coles tomato paste
• Sweet chilli sauce
• garlic
• salt and pepper to taste 

Method:

• Boil a pot of water before putting in the pasta, stir occasionally until cooked. 
• Fry in a pot or fry pan the garlic and the mince until cooked.
• Add the sauces and bring to the boil.
• Drain and rinse the pasta.
• Add the pasta to the mince/sauce and stir until sauce is thickened. 
• Serve with salt and pepper

I find the spag bol always tastes better the next day, so if you cook too much, save some for the next day or cook it the night before you want to eat it. Enjoy!

Curried sausages and corn cous cous

I had a packet of sausages left over from a BBQ we held so I decided it was about time I learnt how to make curried sausages. I used to hate sausages with a passion, I am not sure why but now I love them and they are pretty much always gluten free wherever you buy them from.
I found an interesting recipe that used apple sauce and fruit chutney online at: http://www.food.com/recipe/curried-sausages-198901 it looked visually good and seemed really easy to make. As I thought it was easy and also cheap to make, phew! (I also added some sultanas and a mixed veggie medley instead of the potatoes)
Now with curried sausages you need to have a staple starch with them I believe and as our rice cooker died and potato makes me sick I decided to go with the gluten free alternative to cous cous and thats corn cous cous. It was really really easy to cook with a bit of water, salt and dairy free butter (normal butter can be used of course).
All up the meal was very satisfying and flavoursome and even better when I had it for lunch the next day!

Lunch at Garden of Vegan

Finally I got to go to Garden of Vegan today for lunch, I must say I was rather excited, unlike Mums partner who wasn't too keen at all! Each day of the week they have a different menu so your never stuck having the same thing, so you certainly need to go each day of the week at some stage.
I decided to go with a carrot/veggie satay salad which was made of mainly all raw carrot, bean sprouts, coriander, raisons and a few other things, topped with a satay sauce all vegan of course. As everything is Vegan all their food is gluten free, dairy free, preservative free, so pretty much just made up of all fresh veggies, fruit, seeds, herbs/spices and natural grains. The meal was very tasty and healthy thats for sure and everyones meals looked fantastic. I devoured my lunch and washed it down with an almond milk chai. Yum, then to top it all off we all shared some vegan cheesecake while we contemplated what it was actually made of!?
Its one very cool restaurant but is very tiny, best to reserve a seat or get takeaway and sit in the park.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garden-of-Vegan/192886460819904