About

Hi there, my name is Emma Galloway. I am a chef, jewellery designer and mother of two beautiful children. I love taking photos, cooking and eating, growing vegetables, and travelling. My Vietnamese born, Australian raised partner Si, our kids and I live in Raglan, New Zealand. My hometown.

Having children changes your life.Yes. Having children with yet to be diagnosed food allergies turns your life upside down. Totally, utterly, completely.

As a chef I thought I knew what a hard days work was, but when our daughter Ada came along 4 years ago, cooking no longer seemed so hard. She screamed in pain all day and all night for the first 6 months and was uncomfortable for much longer. I cut dairy and gluten out of our diet and it seemed to help both Ada and I (since pregnancy I had been suffering from an uncomfortable crampy stomach). But while pregnant with our son Kye my body seemed to be able to cope with it again, so I returned to my old eating habits. Kye arrived…..screaming all day and all night just as Ada had. I was more ready to accept second time round that gluten and dairy had to go. So once again I said bye-bye to Turkish bread and Cottage cheese. I  did however still eat butter and yoghurt as my body seemed ok with these. Kye continued to be upset and later developed excema which he would scratch until it bled. At 5 months old after yet another doctor refused to allergy test Kye, I took him to see a Naturopath. Both Dairy and Wheat showed up as the main culprits. That day I stopped eating yoghurt and butter. Two days later Kye’s excema completely disappeared, and he’s had beautiful clear skin up until a month ago. (I tried butter in his diet again!!)

1 1/2 years of being gluten and dairy free, on top of being vegetarian, (thank god I eat fish) and also avoiding ‘windy’ breastfeeding foods like onions, garlic, eggs, broccoli and cabbage has made for a complete change in everything I thought I knew about cooking! There were many moments of despair as I stood staring blankly into the fridge trying to find something to eat..only to close it again hungry and empty handed. But I have come to love the challenge of gluten-free cooking and even though my body now handles some wheat and dairy, I still prefer to eat without.

With all this new-found knowledge a couple of friends suggested I write a blog, to share recipes and information with other people struggling with food allergies and intolerances. I laughed and put it into the ‘too hard basket’ and promptly forgot all about the suggestion. A few months later in the midst of my food blog addiction, the idea once again popped into my head. This time I listened………………………

You may be wondering why ‘my darling lemon thyme’,  especially as you may notice how little I actually use Thyme in my cooking! Let me explain…. I call Ada ‘my darling Clementine’ after that old children’s song, you know the one. So anyway, she got a bit mixed up and started calling me ‘my darling lemon thyme.’ I thought it was too cute not to use, especially as she enjoys cooking as much as I do. At 3 1/2 years old her favourite show on t.v was not High 5 like most kids….. it was “Jamie Oliver” or “Jamie Olive” as she so lovingly calls him. So thank-you Ada, I think it’s the perfect name.           

From my travels and also from working in Australia, my food style tends to lean heavily towards Asian and Indian cuisine. They are flavours that resonate with me…. it seems fitting then that I fell in love with a Vietnamese guy! I love when we visit Ngot -my mother in-law- in Perth, as she spoils me rotten with vegetarian Pho, Spring rolls, Rice paper rolls, Banh Xeo. Yum. As well as Vegetarian, I love cooking vegan food , raw food and all things sweet… so please forgive me if there are only 1:10 savoury:sweet recipes!!!!

These are my stories, my life…. our life, our food. I do hope you enjoy.

Xx Emm