Kath & Kris

We first met as housemates nearly 10 years ago whilst sharing "Hollywood" at South Curl Curl on Sydney's Northen beaches. We quickly discovered that apart from our common love of the sea and being active, we also shared a love of good food that was quick and easy to prepare - that way we could spend more time doing the stuff we really liked doing, like being in the sea surfing and swimming and in my case also on it, training for the 2004 Olympic Sailing Team.

Apart from the normal everyday challenges of not having much time, I was also still getting used to the fact that I'd developed IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and with it a growing list of foods that it was safer not to eat. This also meant that the trip to Coles required attention to detail that most people don't understand and therefore wasn't as simple as pulling stuff off the shelves and sticking it into a trolley.

The up side of it all was that I was forced to eat fresh or freshly prepared food. The down side was that although that's how I generally ate anyway, my diet needed some readjustment so that it didn't include many of my favourite, easy to use foods including breakfast cereals; bread; pasta; tomato; cheeses, milks and yoghurts made with cow's milk; garlic; onions; vinegar, and sugars other than fruit sugars.

Now, if you've ever taken the time to read the really, really fine print that the "Ingredients" are always listed in on the very last place on the pack you'd ever think to look, you'll know that pretty much everything that's in any way prepared or processed contains some of this stuff. Add to the above list the fact that pretty much the only animal protein my body was prepared to digest without argument was eggs, and that Kath was pretty much vegetarian in her eating habits, and you'll understand that variety was limited. In fact, my sister commented recently that she used to think that there was only air left to eat with that list of exclusions, and she always wondered how air tasted so good when she'd have dinner with me.

The fact is that there's plenty of stuff left over to eat even with that list of "contrabands": you just have to find it. Ten years ago, it was harder than it is now, and while that's certainly because there are more IBS and Vegetarian awareness around now, it's also down to knowing where to look.

And here's a good place to start....