Apples!!

Ok, so the nutritionist just met me for one more clearance before Moldova. I kept my salt clearance - whew - and now just have to wait 24 hours before eating chocolate liqueur (aka, chocolate chips that I can have) and then I can have my scones! :)

Last night for my Bible study group, I made two gf recipes - one that were vanilla lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting...which I think were pretty good (I couldn't eat b/c of the salt) but the almond flour cooked awfully quickly so they were more on the well done side. Then I made these s'mores things in muffin tins - almond flour crusts, melted chocolate and a marshmallow type of whipping cream at the top. I received tons of compliments on those! Labor of love, but good to know they were great too! :)

So my nutritionist just tested me for apples, strawberries and grapes, and apparently my body is ready to try them again! She told me to eat just one apple and see how I handle it...eat it at home and not on my trip ;) but that once I got it out of my system, my antibodies towards apples disappeared...so, I'll be testing fo' sho'! That's kinda exciting. As much as I like orange and grapefruits and pears...they were getting a little redundant. It's great to have more variety so I can make sure I don't eat too much of one thing...always hard anyways as a single...I mean, you buy a thing of strawberries at the store and they go badly so quickly but if you can only eat a few a day but not every day, I mean, what's a girl supposed to do?! :)

I have a friend at Bible study who has been challenging me to believe that God can totally heal my allergies, so I'm excited to see overall how my faith is increased through Moldova.

Anyways, feeling very encouraged and hopeful after today's appt!!

Salt

So, with my trip to Moldova coming up in FOUR days! :) I had to make a conscious choice on what to clear ahead of time. Yes, the clearances revolve around being able to eat those almond flour scones ;) I figure that is substantial to take on the plane until I hit Europe.

So, my nutritionist came today and I asked her to clear me for salt...since I was reacting to that but have ignored that - which explains things now, I guess - so I can't have salt for 24 hours...I think that will be a bit harder than I would anticipate! For example, tomorrow I can't have my sausages b/c the ingredient says "spices"...which could have salt. Can't salt my food...so will get creative with other seasonings...but salt is in so much, it's tough to be very cognizant of what I'm eating! Which, you'd think I would be by now...but sometimes I have those brain lapses.

Tomorrow she'll clear chocolate liquer for me so that I can have the chocolate chips.

Lo and behold, found out that I can't do sunflower oil right now either...which, is good, since I can polish off an entire bag of sweet potato chips in one sitting very easily...but a lot of things are made with "sunflower and or safflower oil"...which doesn't help! I need to know which one it is! :)

BUT this explains why I've had a lot of bloating and stomachaches recently... At least that's been the issue and not hand and feet cramps, so it's not as "serious"

And...I might have come home from work with enough time before the nutritionist came that I could scarf 2 of my chocolate cupcakes since i know i won't be able to have them for 24 hours b/c of the salt ;)

In other news, it's pretty comical to look at what i've bought and packed for Moldova...Literally probably 40 granola bars, 9 packets of tuna, 8 packets of olives and lots of dried fruit and then some quinoa.

I haven't had green olives in over a year, so tested them yesterday...not sure if it was those olives or some other factor, but by the time it was lunchtime and I was at a grocery store, I started feeling very jittery and getting minor hot flashes...came back to work and emailed my boss to watch me in case I passed out. It was a super weird feeling. Thankfully it only lasted for 30 minutes but then turned into a stomachache that felt like a rock in the pit of my stomach :(

So had to cancel my plans to go on a hike after work, and instead came home and watched two movies while laying on my bed. Which.I.Never.Do. Eh, at least I could!!

Ok that's all. Not an overly exciting update. Thankful that God has provided some food that I can take overseas...deifnitely will be a faith building exercise to see what I can eat for a whole week there!! But I'm excited to HAVE to trust God :)

More cooking

This weekend has become the weekend of trying out new recipes! And learning what I won't cook again ;)

For starters, thanks to my new friend Nick the fish guy at Sprout's :) I cooked Ahi Tuna with a sesame seed oil and toasted sesame seeds, ginger and green onions... It's supposed to be super raw...so was tender...but I had a difficult time psychologically eating something so raw... sooo I'll finish it up, but I won't do that again I don't think.

 Then I bought a Kobucha squash a few weeks ago, in an effort to branch out and try new thing...so I looked up a recipe on line and found how to roast it...it's a Japanese pumpkin I guess. It was not bad...kinda sweet...Kinda a lot of work for it tho... so probably won't try that again either...

 THEN I tried a new recipe in my greens cookbook - white beans and greens patties. I kept out the salt since I think that's been affecting me, and um, liberally salted them after sampling them b/c it definitely needed salt! The thing with patties is I can never make them crisp enough!!  Soo they're ok but won't make them again. At least I'll have a few things to eat for variety this week.

 Next I tried a recipe a coworker gave me a few months back...shredded carrot and shredded sweet potato patties...those REALLY didn't hold up either :( Sooo I'll eat them b/c they're healthy. I also used flax seed eggs instead of regular eggs to bind them, and that may not have been the best idea...

I have one more patty recipe that includes chicken and sweet potatoes, but has to marinate for a few hours or overnight so I'll probably make it up for later. I'm kinda done with the failures in the kitchen for today.

I might have eaten a few cupcakes to make it better... ;)

Cupcakes!

I seem to go in spurts - having creativity and willing to try new recipes, and then falling into the habit of putting buffalo meat on spaghetti squash and calling it good - hot or cold. HA! Just put food in my body so I'm not hungry; I don't care what it tastes like.

Anyways, I found a recipe for garbanzo bean cupcakes with garbanzo bean and nutella-like frosting.

So I thought, gee, this sounds great. There is basically no dessert that I can eat, and you know how you get those cravings for sweets?? Well, just eating Raw Revolution chocolate power bars is a weak fix. Thankfully I have discovered garbanzo bean flour.

So I made them up tonight. The funny thing is, I'm so used to subbing things in recipes and really knowing ingredients, that when I read the sugar to put in, I was like HOW much sugar?! I haven't had sugar in a recipe unless it was agave in a LONG time! So I cringed. I really cringed. HA. Anyways... These are GOOD! I mean, I probably have low expectations ;) and a "normal" person may have a different opinion... but I'm aliking these much! They stick to the wrapper, and don't rise - they sink instead...so those are the drawbacks.

The cupcake I made with garbanzo bean flour and coconut milk (instead of regular) and flax seed eggs instead of regular. With all the substitutions I wasn't quite sure how they would turn out. I don't think the substitutions negatively affected them.

 The frosting is garbanzo beans (healthy right!? ;)) and nutella made from almond butter and more natural....

These pretty much made my night. I've been feeling super lonely lately, which is ridiculous, sooo when lonely, eat chocolate, right?! ;)

Roasted Black Beans

Ok, finding more foods that I can eat and like!! I just roasted some black beans. I think I tried this once before and wasn't impressed. Let me just say, OH MY GOSH DELISH!!!

http://communityfoodcoop.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/roasty-toasty-black-beans/

This is the website I used. Amazing. I sprinkled salt, garlic and onion powder pretty heavily on them. I think I could eat the entire jar. Except that would give me some major issues ;) Soooo I'll try to have self control. Anyways, great new munchie!!

Also, the fish guy at Sprouts gave me a great recipe for salmon. I'm learning to buy it fresh and not freeze it - then it's more buttery. I lightly coat it with agave and lightly coat it with some brown sugar. I tried it with sage, and with salt, and just like it was too. Anyways, it's DELISH! So another food idea... :)

I've discovered green beans, and rediscovered cauliflower...tho that's not good to heat up at work ;( I get comments, along with broccoli and cabbage. Sigh. So either eat them cold or eat them at home.

I ran out of sausages this morning so had quinoa and turkey deli meat and sauteed onions for breakfast... ok, not bad...have to get outside the box on breakfast foods.

I'll be experimenting with quinoa flour soon!! I found a recipe for quinoa pancakes...very eager to try these!!

And at work we are having a panini potluck and I figured I wouldn't participate, but realized that the cumin garbanzo bean flatbread I made, could work as a sandwhich bread and maybe I could find some things to put on it...!

Lastly, I have discovered kombucha...and tried the chia seed kombucha drink today. It's a really good probiotic and super healthy, low cal ... I made the mistake of trying a bitter one first that tasted like liquid sauerkraut - nasty! But as long as you get a sweet one, totally golden :) This one with chia seeds was pretty gnarly cool to drink. I let my boss have a sip and watching his face go between shock and surprise was hilarious :)