A simple but tasty meatloaf free of salicylates, amines (assuming mince is fresh) and glutamates. For those without intolerances, it can be served with a tomato sauce, such as my sugar-free Garden Sauce.

"Failsafe" refers to foods that have no additives and are low in amines, glutamates and salicylates. This meat loaf recipe can be easily adapted by adding other foods to it if you don't have intolerance issues.

Ingredients:
1 kg beef mince
1/2 cup rolled oats (chopped not whole)
Piece of white leek stem, sufficient to be equivalent to 1 onion, finely chopped
2 tsp dried chives
2-3 TBSP finely chopped fresh parsley (or 1 TBSP dried)
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180C/350 F and grease a loaf tin
2) Place all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix thoroughly, using your hands at the last to ensure thoroughly "gooshed" together
3) Press mixture evenly into loaf tin
4) Bake for 1 hour, until well cooked
5) Pour off excess fat if desired - I pour it into a bowl and leave it to set, then feed it to the chooks or dogs
6) Turn out onto chopping board and slice.

Serve with mashed potatoes & suitable vegetables, or rice and vegetables, depending on your tolerances.

Notes:
*Onions and garlic contain low levels of amines and moderate salicylates, unsuitable for a sensitive person or during elimination. Leeks are much lower in both, and are a good substitute for onions in most recipes. The white stalk can be used instead of onion, and the green leaves can be used as a vegetable, or instead of spring onions.
* Parsley and chives contain the lowest salicylate and amine levels of all tested herbs, and are considered safe for most people
* Rolled oats are a substitute for breadcrumbs - they have no amines or salicylates and do not contain gluten. Celiacs should use specifically gluten-free ones, if tolerated. Other options include breadcrumbs (we don't use them as we're wheat and gluten free, and the gluten-free breadcrumbs usually contain rice and/or corn which are high in amines and/or salicylates), almond meal (salicylates) or steamed cauliflower that has been chopped to crumbs in a food processor (amines and salicylates)
* Those without any sensitivities could add spices such as curry powder (1/4 tsp), and other herbs such as oregano and thyme (1-2 tsp each) and serve with a tomato sauce.
* For the mince to be safely low in amines, it needs to be preferably less than 2 weeks from slaughter, bought and used the same day or frozen for less than 4 weeks. (Amines increase as proteins age). Most cheaper mince in the supermarkets were vacuum packed, and could be sold "fresh" up to 3 months old. These must be assumed to be very high in amines. Find a butcher who makes his own the day the carcass comes in, and buy from him on that day. Mad Butcher is often a good source.

An experiment combining ideas from several recipes, these are really good! Sugar and gluten free, only good fats, tasty, and they will keep in the fridge for a few days, are foldable, and can be used as a substitute for wraps or tortillas. Fill or top with your favourite things!

To make pikelets instead, see Healthy Pikelets

Ingredients:
1 cup wholegrain rolled oats
6 eggs
1/4 tsp xanthum gum
dash pure vanilla extract
dash fresh cream
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp Stevia blend (optional - leave out and add salt to taste instead if you want to use for savoury fillings or toppings)
1 cup cottage cheese

Method:
1) In a food processor or blender, grind rolled oats into a powder
2) Lightly beat eggs with xanthum gum, then add to food processor with all other ingredients
3) Process until smooth
4) Lightly grease a non-stick pan with coconut oil or butter, heat over medium heat
5) Pour in one ladle of batter, and tip and rotate pan to spread thinly
6) Cook until lightly browned on the bottom, and bubbly on top, then flip and brown second side.
7) Top with your favourite sweet or savoury toppings and enjoy!
Once cooled, cooked pancakes/crepes/wraps may be kept in a sealed bag in the fridge for a few days, and pulled out for a quick meal or snack.

This recipe is based on an idea from I Quit Sugar, but I used a completely different spice blend, hoping my daughter and I could tolerate it. It was tasty, but also proved that I am going to have to go low-salicylate; this meal is very high in salicylates (though not as high as the original recipe), and I slept for less than an hour as a result.

Inspired by fellow vege gardener Katrina P, I decided to experiment with a way of doing pumpkin soup I hadn't tried before. It turned out delicious!

This recipe would be nice with chicken too. The Phillipino guys my husband works with told him that duck will taste better and be more tender if it's boiled first, before other stages of cooking. He mentioned this to me without any further details, so I guessed. This recipe turned out really well, using 7 duck breasts from our own ducks which we slaughtered and froze a wee while ago. The meat was much more tender done this way, than the duck I did previously without pre-boiling.

Ingredients:
8 portions of duck - either a whole duck cut up, or breasts or other parts of your choice.
1/2 cup rice flour
Salt
25g butter or duck fat
250g smoked bacon, chopped
250g mushrooms, wiped and halved
250g baby onions, peeled
600ml chicken stock
1 tsp dried herbs (I used chives, thyme would be good too), or a few sprigs of fresh thyme, left whole.

Method:
1) Place duck portions in a pot, cover with water, and bring to the boil then simmer until cooked through, about 10 mins for breasts. Lift pieces out with tongs and place on a plate to cool down and dry off.
2) Pat chicken portions dry, place in a bowl with half of the flour and toss to coat. Optional: fry the pieces in the frying pan first until browned all over, then transfer to casserole dish before frying bacon etc as follows...
3) Melt butter or fat in a frying pan, cook bacon, mushroom and onions for 5 minutes, then transfer to casserole dish with a slotted spoon
4) Stir remaining flour into pan juices and cook one minute. Remove from the heat and whisk in stock, adding slowly at first and whisking until smooth. Place back on heat, bring to the boil, and simmer, stirring, until thickened - about 2-3 minutes. If using dried herbs, stir into sauce. Pour over the duck, bacon, onions and mushrooms in the casserole dish.
5) If using fresh thyme sprigs, add to the casserole dish. Cover and cook 180C (350F) for one hour. Remove thyme sprigs.  

A quick and tasty way to cook leeks as a side-dish.

Wanting a good substitute for our old favourite crumbed, fried schnitzel, I played with some ideas, and came up with this recipe, which worked very well. The result was a healthy, tasty crumb mix that stuck to the meat very well.

Prepare the crumbs earlier in the day, in case you need to dry them out in the oven, and prep the meat early enough to allow it to sit in the fridge for 3 hours before cooking.
Crumb mixture:
Place in food processor 1 1/2 cups ground almonds, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/4 red onion, finely diced, 1-2 TBSP dried oregano and a little salt. Process until finely crumbled. If the mixture is too wet, as mine was because I went a bit overboard with the onion, spread over a shallow oven dish, and bake on fan-bake at about 120C, stirring from time to time until dried out. Pop back in the clean, dry food processor with some extra almond meal and process again to break up any clumps.

To crumb meat:
Line up three bowls, one containing brown rice flour, one with beaten eggs, and one with the crumb mix. Dip pieces of meat first into flour, then in egg, then in crumbs. Lay in a tray, separating layers with baking paper, and refrigerate about 3 hours. This will help the crumbs to stick to the meat, though you can fry it straight away if needed.
Cooking: heat some oil of your choice in a large frying pan, and cook crumbed meat on each side until cooked - the time depends on the cut of meat, but for schnitzel it's about 2-3 mins per side.

A healthy low-carb alternative to traditional mashed potatoes, this is a good side dish to serve with a variety of meat meals.

Method:
1) Steam 1 or 2 bags of frozen cauliflower florets (or a whole head of cauliflower, cut into florets without excessive stem) until tender. I needed to do this in two batches as my steamer isn't big enough, so kept the first batch warm in the oven while the second batch cooked.
2) Place cooked cauliflower, with any excess water drained, into a food processor. Add a generous knob of butter, seasonings to tastes
3) Process until smooth and fluffy, adding an optional TBSP or two of cream, heavy cream, coconut cream or sour cream if needed/desired.

Serve hot. Serves 6-8

Talk about healthy! This delicious meal includes steak, sweet potatoes plus 5 other veges! Once the veges are prepared, the meal is very quick to cook, so you could do most of the chopping and prepping in advance, then pull everything out the fridge and cook this lovely, colourful and healthy meal in 20 mins flat.

There are three parts to this meal - the steak, the kumara noodles, and the vege stirfry. Have the ingredients for each part prepared before you slide the kumara in the oven and start cooking.

Preparation for meal for 6:
1) You will need 150g of steak suitable for frying per person (900g for 6 people), preferably at room temp, so if frozen, put it in the fridge the night before, then get out early enough to reach room temp shortly before you want to start cooking.
2) Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and line two large oven trays with baking paper - set aside.
3) Finely slice 2-3 red onions
4) Crush and mince 3-4 cloves garlic, and place them aside in a bowl with the onion
5) Prep the following veges and pile into a large bowl: 24 brussel sprouts, base removed and cut in half, 3 cups finely sliced red or green cabbage, 10 large leaves of kale or silverbeet, chopped. (Note: alternatives to brussel sprouts are more cabbage, or roughly chopped broccoli or cauliflower  - 3 cups). Try to have a mix of colours - I had green cabbage, so used mostly red silverbeet leaves. Rainbow chard are many-coloured silverbeet plants, very easy to grow.
6) Melt 4-5 TBSP coconut oil in a small pot
7) Peel 2 very large or 4 medium orange kumara, wash and pat dry. Now use a peeler to cut the kumara into ribbons - do this over a large bowl or pot. The bulk of the ribbons may surprise you, but it will reduce down considerably upon cooking.
8) Make sure you have on hand - 2 lemons, salt, butter, coconut oil

Cooking:
Kumara Noodles: Toss the kumara ribbons with the melted coconut oil. Spread out onto oven trays, and bake approximately 20 mins, rotating the trays a few times, or using fan bake, until the noodles are golden and crunchy
Steak: Season the steak on both sides with salt (and pepper if desired). Heat 3 TBSP coconut oil in a frying pan. Add steaks when the oil is hot, and cook on both sides until done - 2-3 mins for medium rare, a bit longer for well done. Remove streak from pan and place on a plate, cover with foil and let rest for 5 minutes while you cook the veges.
Vegetable Stirfry: In a clean frying pan, melt 3 TBSP butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is softened. Add the other veges, stir, pour over 3/4 cup water, and cover pan, cooking veges for 3-4 mins until brussel sprouts softened and other veges wilted. Season with salt, and squeeze over the juice of 1-2 lemons.
Serve: Place a piece of steak, and a portion of the noodle and veges side by side on 6 plates. Admire the lovely colours. Eat and enjoy! :-)

This recipe comes from Trim Healthy Mama, and is something I'd been wanting to try. They were different than I'd pictured, but good topped with Raspberry Cream. A friend had given me some egg replacer, and I wanted to try that, so I used it in this recipe. I ended up adding more water than the box said, as the mix was so thick it would barely move.

Ingredients: Old fashioned oats, low-fat cottage cheese, egg whites, baking powder, sweetener, vanilla
Method:
1. Put 1 cup of oats into blender and blend until the oats turn to powder
2. Turn of the blender and add 1 cup of egg whites (about 7 egg whites, or use bought 100% egg whites) and 1 cup cottage cheese. (I used 2 1/2 tsp Organ egg replacer, available from Countdown, plus 5 1/2 TBSP water)
3. Add 2 tsp baking powder, 1-2 tsp stevia sweetener blend, and dash vanilla. Blend well
4. Heat non-stick griddle or frypan to medium temp. Spray with a tiny bit of oil spray, or moisten with the slightest amount of butter.
5. Ladle mix onto skillet or pan in desired pancake sized shapes. You may use an egg flip to help spread the pancakes out a little since the mixture is quite thick. (An understatement - it's very thick, even after I added more water! though I don't yet know what it would be like with actual egg whites)
6. Once the bottom of the pancakes are golden brown and the tops have bubbles, carefully use your egg flip to free edges from sticking then turn the pancakes to brown on other side.
7. Transfer pancakes to a paper towel for a minute before placing on a serving platter.

Makes about 9 medium sized pancakes, or 3 serves.

Top with a handful of berries or fruit, a couple of generous tablespoons of yoghurt, and a swirl of sugar-free syrup.
Or serve with fried eggs.

The first time I tried them, in Week 3, I topped mine with Raspberry Cream