Welcome aboard…
My name is Kate, Thank you for visiting!
I am a mum of 3 young children aged 5 and under, married to a fellow northerner. We run a graphic design and marketing company together, of which I am the creative director. I am a passionate cook with an unwavering goal to create inspiring gluten-free food for my family. The rest is all down to this little man shown in the photo above, our middle child, William, aged 4.
At the age of 18 months William was diagnosed with coeliac disease. When you get the diagnosis, an immediate strict life long gluten-free diet must be followed with no compromise. We were due to attend a children’s birthday party the very next day which reaffirmed how quickly we needed to change his diet and ultimately our families lifestyle. It was both daunting and stressful in terms of what changes needed to be made.
This is a short video I made, which won a national video competition run by the Coeliac Society, describing our experience of William being diagnosed with coeliac disease and the changes post diagnosis.
I felt there was a very limited number of recipes aimed at young children living with the disease that would also appeal to non-coeliac families. It took a good six months before we really got to grips with what he could eat and couldn’t eat (and we are still learning). I wished that in the moment William was diagnosed there had been a recipe book to guide us through the 1st six months. There just wasn’t such a book available so I decided to write one to help other in the same situation. Can I Eat It? is designed to allow families to eat inspiring food together regardless of this auto-immune disease and help families through the early days after diagnosis.
The title of the book was an easy decision as it is something William says over and over on a daily basis to make sure he isn’t going to eat something that will hurt him. I wanted to be able to answer “yes” every time.
Can I Eat It? includes information about coeliac disease, my top 20 cupboard essentials to get you started, family main meals, desserts, tasty snacks, school lunch box ideas and party treats (which for a child is an integral part of their busy little lives) and every recipe includes a full page photograph to refer to.
Whilst the majority of people that write recipe books work with a team of skilled people, Can I Eat It? is entirely my own creation. I planned my recipes, made them, fine tuned them, tested them on many guinea pigs, created the food styling, photographed them, designed my book, created the e-book and finally my website. My book was written whilst juggling our 3 young children and running our own business so usually one or more of the children were clinging on to my ankles or trying to remove parts of the recipes as I photographed them! You can imagine the stress levels!
My vision: I want to help many families in similar situations to ours.
The video below tells the story behind my book.