Not A Trace Awards 2016

Regular readers will know that each year I have my own little awards ‘ceremony’ where I acknowledge the best products / companies in various categories.

The awards for 2016 are obviously a little late(!) and as my blog posts were few and far between last year, due to a certain little person taking all my attention, the 2016 awards are more a summary of my blog reviews from last year.

Despite my inability to blog of late, it’s great to have had over 58,000 blog views since Not A Trace began. I am also very proud to see the constant stream of views every day even if I haven’t blogged for a while. Thank you to you all!

So, on to the awards / 2016 round-up….

Bristol Coeliac UK Local Support Group

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll be aware that I have spent a number of years trying to reinstate the Bristol Coeliac UK Local Support Group (the original post from 2014 can be found here).

I didn’t think it was right that a city the size of Bristol didn’t have its own group and that its members had to travel further afield to go to events. Well, things have changed…..

We now have our own group!! 🙂

After a lot of years of effort from a group of very committed people (who are now committee members), the official group had its launch back in July 2016. I was due to have been at the event, but was instead in hospital being unexpectedly induced, so sort of had my hands full!

The event was a resounding success and was just a taster of things to come for the group.

At the start of this month we held our first coffee morning at Windmill Hill City Farm, which was well attended and helped to raise funds for future events. The donations we receive from members are extremely important as we are a self funding group, so if we don’t receive the donations then unfortunately we won’t be able to put on the events.

You’ll be pleased to know that there are more coffee mornings in the pipeline, as well as some free from taster evenings and even our very own food fair!

In order to find out more about our upcoming events, pop over to our official group Facebook page, as well as the Coeliacs in Bristol Facebook group which also shares details of our events.

It’s Not A Trace’s birthday!

I’ve just been reminded that it’s my blog’s birthday today! Happy Birthday Not A Trace! 🙂

My blog was set up 3 years ago for two main reasons: the first was to allow me to have an outlet to share my gluten free views and reviews and the second was to hopefully help other coeliacs and gluten intolerant people along the way.

During the last three years the blog has had over 48,500 views, which I don’t think is bad for little old me!

Bath & West Wilts Gluten Free Food Fair – 21st November 2015

I’m sure any local readers will have seen details about this event both on my Facebook page as well as the local Facebook groups, but this is a quick reminder that this event takes place next weekend (Saturday 21st November) from 10:30am – 2:30pm at Bath Racecourse, Lansdown.

Entry to the event is £2 (with accompanied children being free of charge) and there will be more than 35 exhibitors from the gluten free world, along with representatives from Coeliac UK and local dietitians.

Bristol Coeliac Group – Meet Nos. 4 and 5

Coeliac UK Local Bristol Group update

As well as providing you with the lowdown on our latest group outings, I also want to use this post to update you on the Coeliac UK Local Bristol Group that we’re working to reinstate.

At present we have a committee in place and we’ve all signed up to the Coeliac UK constitution. We are now waiting for the go-ahead from Coeliac UK to move things forward, but unfortunately they already had commitments to start other groups during the first part of the year, so until they’re up and running it’s a waiting game for us.

That said, I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve made to date to put a committee together and fingers crossed we will hear some more news soon!

Bristol Coeliac Group – Meet No. 3

The third outing for the ‘Coeliacs in Bristol’ Facebook group, hopefully soon to be renamed ‘Coeliac UK Bristol Group’ if everything goes according to plan(!), was earlier this month when we booked to have a gluten free Christmas meal at The Townhouse on Whiteladies Road.

There are always new faces at every gathering, as well as some familiar ones, and it was great to see that this continued at this meet up.

We had decided to go for The Townhouse as it was recommended by lots of members of the group, and I’d been there previously myself. On my first visit the food was absolutely stunning, but unfortunately the restaurant let themselves down on the service as it was a very busy day and it seemed that they didn’t have enough staff to cater for the guests. I was keen to see if this had been improved.

Bristol Coeliac Group – Meet No. 2

You may recall that I’ve been trying to persuade Coeliac UK to re-establish the Bristol Local Group, but when I was advised that they wouldn’t be considering it for the time being I went ahead and set up a Facebook group of coeliacs and gluten free-ers in Bristol. The main purpose of the group is to be social and arrange monthly meet ups, but also with the intention of being able to show Coeliac UK that we mean business (details of our first meet up can be found here).

Well, it worked!

On Tuesday I contacted Coeliac UK again and advised them that we now have our own Bristol Facebook group with over 100 members and a lot of interest in re-establishing the group.

On Thursday I received the following response:

Bristol Coeliac Group

When I was first diagnosed in January 2013, I was advised by Coeliac UK that the Bristol Coeliac UK Group no longer existed and was advised that they ‘have tried on several occasions to set up a Local Group but lack of engagement by Members in the area made this unsustainable’.

I tried broaching the subject with them again a few months ago and received the following response:

We have had Local Voluntary Support Groups in North Bristol and South Bristol but sadly these were both closed due to lack of support from Members. We then had interest shown a couple of years ago from Members in the area and set up a Bristol Local Voluntary Support Group but again, due to the Committee Members standing down and getting no support from Members in the area to form a new Committee, the Local Group was subsequently closed.

Therefore, and I am sorry, but we would not consider reopening another Local Group in Bristol at this particular time. However, as we say to all our Members who enquire about Local Groups, should we have significant requests relating to a Local Group in Bristol we will give serious thought to writing to Members to ascertain the level of support in the area and consider reopening a Local Group in the future.

As you probably know by now, I don’t let things lie, so I replied saying that as far as I’m concerned it’s ridiculous that somewhere as big as Bristol doesn’t have its own group, which yielded the following response:

Coeliac UK Birmingham Group – Gluten Free Food Fair

After missing out on this year’s Allergy Show, myself and @carriesquair decided to go to the Coeliac UK Birmingham Group Food Fair which was held yesterday in Sutton Coldfield.

One of the main reasons for going was that there was going to be gluten free fish and chips, but we also thought it would be great to see some of our Twitter friends and some amazing gluten free brands!

We arrived at the venue not long after the doors had opened and there was a massive queue outside! This was obviously going to be one very busy food fair!

Phil Vickery Seriously Good! Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix

When I was first diagnosed with coeliac disease I regularly came across gluten free recipe books from TV chef Phil Vickery and quickly ascertained that he is also an ambassador for Coeliac UK, so he really does know his stuff!

After speaking to Phil on Twitter he offered to send me some of his gluten free mixes and I was delighted to receive 2 mixes in the post. One was the Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix and the other was the Vanilla & Raspberry Cupcake Mix, but I haven’t got around to trying the second mix yet, so I will post an additional review of that once I’ve tried it out.

The mixes are manufactured by Squires Kitchen and here’s a little bit more about their partnership taken from Squires Kitchen’s website:

Squires Kitchen has teamed up with Phil Vickery, one of Britain’s favourite chefs, to help you create delicious gluten-free cookies and cupcakes time after time. A leading name in gluten-free cooking and baking, Phil Vickery has made it easier to bake for special diets with these fantastic gluten- and dairy-free cookie and cupcake mixes.

An active ambassador for Coeliac UK and the author of several gluten-free cookery books, Phil has used his wealth of experience to carefully formulate this delicious gluten- and dairy-free chocolate chunk cookie recipe. Just follow the simple recipe on the box to create cookies that are just as chewy and irresistible as traditional recipes.