Martha's Top 10 Festival Treats

Hi it is Martha here.

I am writing this post because I like food. But it is sometimes hard to find dairy free foods. It is especially hard when a place is new to you because you don't already know where things are. At the moment it is the Festival so there are lots of people in Edinburgh who don't know it very well. There might be some other dairy free people too and this list might help them to get some extra special dairy free treats. It is a list of my top 10.

1)Yo Sushi 
In Yo Sushi the train is really fun. You can choose your sushi from it, and there are lots of dairy free choices. And there are push-y taps on the tables that water and fizzy water come from. They have chopsticks, and kiddy chopsticks and it is OK to use your fingers too. In the middle you can watch the chefs cooking.

2) Luca's Sorbet
You can get Luca's sorbet in different flavours. I have tried lemon, mango and bubblegum (but not all together - bleurgh). On their own the flavours are yummy and there are others I have not tried yet. They also make lots of flavours of ice cream too, but they are not dairy free. There is a special Luca's shop in Morningside, and they sell it in other places including Mimi's Cake Cabin, and sometimes Mimi's have a dairy free cake choice too, so it is worth asking.

Mango at Luca's

Lemon at the Mimi's festival hut

3) Henderson's
All of the food in Henderson's is either vegetarian or vegan, and all of the vegan things are dairy free. So there are always choices of cake, salad, sandwiches, soup and hot things. The date slice is my favourite thing to have there, and my Mummy's favourite thing is the soup. There is a Henderson's in the city centre and another one near Dynamic Earth [- and not far from the Pleasance - Mum!]

4) Pie Maker
This shop sells all kinds of pies. They have both sweet and savoury ones that are dairy free and vegan. In the festival it is open until really late at night. There are a few seats in the shop and you can takeaway too. It would be good for picnics. The one that I had was apple.

It's over there...

5) Dumpling Hut
The little hut in George Square Gardens only sells vegan dumplings. They are very crispy fried, and you dip them into special soy sauce. They are amazing for lunch.

Definitely thumbs up!

6) Sugar Daddy's
All of the things in Sugar Daddy cake shop are gluten free and lots of them are dairy free too. The peanut butter cookie is fandabbydosy. I had it for my breakfast when we went away on a big car journey to go on holiday - that was fun!

7) The Baked Potato Shop
If you go here you can get veggie haggis baked potatoes. Or humous and crunchy salad. [There are lots of other choices too which are all veggie, and lots vegan - Mum]. They are very uber big. It is mainly a take away - they also have exciting juice flavours in their fridge.

8) La Favorita
If you get your pizza from La Favorita, you can have dairy free cheese on it. mmmmmmmm mmmmmm. My favourite topping is haggis, sweetcorn and dairy free cheese. (They do takeaway, delivery and have a sit-in restaurant too - Mum)

Takeaway pizza feast (the night we moved house!)

9) Mademoiselle Macaron
I only tried these yesterday - and there were lots of rainbow colours and flavours. There were 2 that were dairy free: raspberry and orange - so I got to try them both! I give them 20 out of 10.

Look out for market stalls - they also have a cafe

10) Union of Genius
This is a soup cafe. It has different types of soup and different types of bread which you can choose. And you can easily see which ones are dairy free. You have to be careful because it can be hot hot hot hot hot!

Enjoy!

Recipe: Dhal

Today I made dhal. This is not the same as Roald Dahl. It is d-h-a-l not d-a-h-l.
Dhal is from India and it is made of lentils.
Somebody also made it on Masterchef.
It is very healthy because it has vegetables in it.

We ate it with bread (chapatti), and rice and salmon curry.

I think it was 10 out of 10. Next time I would not put the courgette in. I would do the same recipe but with no courgette.

Two thumbs up - ingredients and owl at the ready 

We put in onion and spices first

I chopped the courgette into big bits so I could pick them out easily after because I do not like it.

I put in three scoops  of lentils. 2 were red and 1 was puy 

It already looked really nice. 

I added the courgette one bit at a time.

We stirred it a lot 

It was very good.

Lentil and Courgette Dhal (Serves 4 as main dish, 6-8 as side)

• 1 courgette
• 100ml scoop dried puy lentils
• 2x 100ml scoops red lentils
• 1 veg stock cube
• 2 heaped table spoons jar onions, or 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp hot spice blend (the one we used has turmeric, saffron, cumin, chili, garlic and fenugreek in it)
• Pinch salt
• Pepper

Fry the onion and spices then mix in the lentils.
Chop up the courgette
Add the stock cube and cup of water to the pan with the onion.
Stir well.
Put in the courgette and salt and pepper.
Cook on a low heat for about 40 minutes.
Serve with other types of curry.


The end, bye bye, it is time for stories and bed.

Recipe: Dairy Free Apple Frangipane Tart

I made this. We took it to my friend's house. We played and had tea there. There was lots of Apple Frangipane cake for afters.

I saw this cake on Mary Berry on TV in my Granny's house. But it had dairy in it. There was lots of butter. So we used coconut oil and margarine instead and made this one.

It was very very good. We did a fan of apples.

We had a rolling pin to bash up the biscuits

I squashed my fingers under the rolling pin. Be careful!

It was very hard. My Mummy did cutting after I tried, and I did arranging.

Arranging the apples. Always use flat bits of apple.

The finished fan of apples.

It smelled very very good. Then I burned my chin on the tin because I went too close!

My Mum has written the recipe we used for me.

Dairy Free Apple Frangipane Tart (Serves 8-10)
(It's also gluten free too)

For the base:
90g "free from" digestive biscuits
90g "free from" shortbread biscuits
40g dairy free margarine
40g coconut oil
2 tsp cocoa powder
5 small eating apples

For the topping:
50g coconut oil
75g caster sugar
2 eggs
75g whole skin-on almonds
2 tsp ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C

Crush the biscuits in a bag.
Melt the margarine and coconut oil together in a mixing bowl.
Add the biscuits and cocoa powder and stir until well combined.
Press into the bottom of an 8" tin.

Core and thinly slice the apples (We didn't peel them). Arrange them all over the biscuits.

Beat together the eggs and sugar. Melt the coconut oil, allow to cool slightly then mix into the eggs and sugar. Blitz the whole almonds until they are coarsely ground, then mix them in, along with the pre-ground almonds (which will help absorb some of the liquid), and vanilla extract. Pour over the apples.

Bake for around 30 minutes until golden brown. Cool in the tim before serving.

Review: Akva, Edinburgh

Where we went: Akva

What meal did we go for: lunch

Companions: Martha, jono, ruth, and vicky

What we ate: French toast with banana and honey... and the grownups ate other things too

The review: They served me first - they did actually! It was nice being asked first. The waiter checked that everything was dairy-free (just to make sure) and they made a special French toast for me. The honey came in a tiny pot and I dunked the banana in, poured it over my toast and I was able to lick the honey from the pot at the end!  [NB - activity not condoned by parents!]

In the toilets they had a waterfall tap and a really big sink. 

The cafe was a bit cold because we were sitting near the door  

Next time I go I want to try the other type of French toast - bacon and maple syrup!

How many thumbs up: 10 out of 10 

I Made a Poorly Unicorn Video

I was poorly this week and had a sore tummy. I couldn't go school or eat anything and I stayed at home. Instead I made a video with mummy.

I used 2 Playmobil girls. They are right here watching me write.

Recipe: Banana Muffins

Hello! Martha here, reporting banana muffins.

2 banana muffins on a plate, in my tummy soon

I made them, because I wanted to put something else on my blog. I made them after breakfast and we had them for morning snack. I chose bananas because they are one of my favourite fruits, and we had some. They don't have any dairy in them. They were easy to make and we used one fork and one spoon and one bowl. I sprinkled gorilla (granola) on top to make it crunchy. My Mum has written the recipe for me (and you).

Ingredients (makes 6)

• 1 medium banana
• 1 small egg
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsp self raising flour
• 3 tbsp granola

Preheat the oven to 160C fan (180C) and put 6 cake cases in a bun tin.

First mash the banana in a bowl. Crack in the egg and oil and beat. Mix in the sugar, then add the self raising flour and stir until well combined. 

Spoon into the cake cases and sprinkle 1/2 tbsp of the granola on top of each.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden.

Remove from tins and cool on a wire rack.

Start with a banana

Mashing the banana

Before they were cooked

After they were cooked. This one is the biggest one - my one!

Smelling the yummy smell [Ed - face was further from the muffins than it looks!]

They tasted banana-y. They were very good for snack. I gave them 7 thumbs up out of ten.

Next time I would add dried mango or chocolate chips to the mixture. My Daddy suggested caramel sauce. Mum suggested walnuts.

A muffin inside

Review: My MARTHA's

This is me standing under the sign

This is me with my lunch

This is the chocolate mousse… but you can't see the avocado! 

Where we went: Martha's in Glasgow

What meal did we go for: lunch

Companions: MARTHA and mum

What we ate: wrap with falafel, chocolate mousse, rhubarb compote and sparkling cordial

The review:

I liked the fizzy cordial. The secret ingredient in the chocolate mousse was avocado… but it didn't taste like avocado! It tasted sweet and had seeds on it. The cafe had the same name as me and I like that. The lady behind the counter was nice - she gave me a lot of stickers… and they all say my name on them! (And they are different colours). 

There were lots of things that were dairy-free that I could choose from. It was easy to know what was in things because they had the ingredients written on them. My friend Isabella could have eaten there too, because they also had things that were gluten-free. If I went back again then I'd like to have a rice and chicken box with coleslaw. I would like to take my DAD because he was working.

How many thumbs up: 10 out of 10 

[During the writing of this post, Martha discovered the Shift key, and capitals….]

Hello everyone!

Introducing a new blogger in the family… (answers typed by the lady herself!)

Name: martha
Age: 5
Favourite food: tod in the hol
I heart: sosij and banana and swings and art

And now, it's Mum taking a dictation…

"My blog will have reporting things that I have eaten and made. It is for people that are dairy free."

Yep - that pretty much sums it up.

martha xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx