Interesting

I find this very interesting...

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/07/19/1-foods-that-arent-food/?intcmp=features

Amazing that there is food in the grocery store that is not even food... This makes so much sense why diseases are more prevalent. It's hard when we've gotten used to these foods and find them tasty...but it's soo bad for us.

Once again, I'm seeing the silver linings of my food allergies and thankful I'm being forced to eat natural... as much as I miss certain foods, it's amazing how deceptive the FDA is and companies are, using fake "food" that our bodies aren't designed to handle...

Curious what others think??

Here We Go Again

So... I think I stressed myself out so badly 10 days ago with boy drama that I gave myself leaky gut again. Seriously. Seriously?! That's embarrassing and a lesson to learn. Sheesh. Sooo last week my nutritionist told me to cut back on sugar... I tried...and did...but still was having it. I've been bloating the past few days and learned that the grapes I ate...yah, can't have those. I'd removed them from my diet for 4 months and tested them ... they were ok... as were the apples and strawberries I had to do at the same time.

Apples already proved to be problematic 2 weeks ago, and now grapes... I assume strawberries will be in the same boat. So those are now on my "never again in my life" list... sigh. No grapes, no grape wine, no raisins. No almond flour too...my nutritionist reminded me that those are the 4 things that I can't keep cleared so my body doesn't have an immune reaction to them, but it has an allergic reaction...just one step lower but still my body can't handle them. And after the way I've felt in the past 3 days, I'd have to agree...not worth it.

My nails have been peeling for the past few months too so I asked her about them...and we tested through minerals...so I've been taking magnesium and seeing that dosage get lowered, which means it's being absorbed by my body, but now I'm also low in zinc, magsomethingorother, and selenium...and one other one. Anyways, all but zinc are pretty low dosage requirements by my body, so that's good... but I guess b/c of my leaky gut, I'm not absorbing these nutrients from my food...

Which means I'd better get my butt back on the repair diet asap so I absorb my nutrients...

Now I get to see how much of the food I bought last week I can actually freeze :( and figure out how soon I can get back on it since I had meal plans for the next few days. BOOOO...

Such a finicky thing. My nutritionist told me that I have more reactions than she does, which is saying a lot...

Trying not to feel discouraged...but just when I think I have this managed, I'm thrown a curve ball. My prayer has become more frequently, Please Jesus, show me how to eat for my body...

More New Recipes

So, clearly I'm on an ambitious streak this weekend...sheesh!!

For breakfast, I tried out a new quinoa/breakfast porridge recipe. It called for cooking the quinoa in coconut milk and adding some brown sugar (I used agave) and strawberry jam. I had some tamarind paste from last fall from some recipe that I've never used up. It's just a fruit from south of the border, and since it was pure fruit puree, I figured I'd give it a try. It also said to top with sliced grapes... I saw another recipe that called for toasted pecans too, so threw those on there too! It was DELICIOUS. I halved the quinoa/milk but accidentally used the full amount of cinnamon and agave sooo I could have gone lighter on the sweet, and am not sure it needs cinnamon, but definitely will eat this more often!

 This is some Fava bean breakfast dip; the recipe said it's good dipped with pita bread. Well, clearly that wasn't an option... I've never had fava beans before either, soo thought I'd try this for another breakfast option... the sausages I normally eat are just so expensive, and I can't do cereal, yogurt or eggs sooo what's a girl supposed to do?! Anyways, this came out pretty good! I wonder if I can dip homemade sausages in it? Or just eat this and some fruit - get protein in that would be filling. Anyways, it's tasty, I'm just not sure what I'll combine with it. But it's a keeper recipe.

 Um, so these pretty much are my new favorite recipe... They are Indian vegetarian burgers. Made with ground cashews, sweet potatoes, peas, cauliflower and curry powder and green onions. Oh.My.Gosh. I might or might not have consumed FOUR of them. Holy cow. I figure they're best hot out of the oven b/c they are crispy, but I will definitely be excited to eat these the rest of this week!

 These are quinoa meatballs - made with bison, zucchini, carrots, scallions...and supposed to have ketchup and soy sauce in them...buuuut I can't do soy sauce and didn't have ketchup. Really drew a blank what to sub for that...threw in some olive oil and garlic and a little balsamic vinegar. I think I don't need soy sauce, but I would try ketchup in the future. But these actually turned out pretty tasty, so into the freezer they have gone for days that are too crazy and I need to pull something from the freezer...Amazing to be at this point where I can make something I can freeze!!

 Uh, this.This is a lentil fennel mint salad. I have hardly ever eaten lentils but bought some on sale the other day and thought they'd be good to incorporate into my diet some how. I've never had fennel before, and I have mint coming out my ears so this seemed like a great recipe. Yah. Um, not a huge fan of fennel... so this will be the one and only time I eat this recipe. It's something to eat, which is good... but yah, not a fan.

 Speaking of not a fan...LOL... oh dear. So, I'm trying to branch out from my $2/sausage breakfast. When perusing the recipes for the sausages (two different ones below), I thought I'd probably have thyme, marjoram and sage at home in the spice cabinet. Uh huh. But I didn't. So I thought I would substitute. Well, fail. :)  The top one was pretty good - I made it with chicken and turkey, and used Chef's Shake blend that I had on hand that was a variety of spices, to sub for the three ingredients I didn't have. It turned out ok and I'll eat them up, but have already put marjoram, thyme and sage on my grocery list. Because this recipe has potential...just if I make it the way it's supposed to be made ;)

HOWEVER, let's talk about the other sausage... This one called for nutmeg, allspice, and the same ingredients above that I didn't have. So, thinking I could wing it and substitute, I used Chinese Five Spice powder, because it had the fennel seed and a few other ingredients I didn't have. It also had cinnamon. Which happens to be a very strong flavor. And which also happens to NOT belong with chicken sausage!! I fried up a bite of each to see how they were, and when I took a bite of this it was all I could do to not throw it across the room. Sadly (?) I'm too cheap to throw it away, tho I was calculating how much money I'd be throwing away if I just chunked it in to the garbage. But, I figured I could suffer through...it only made 4 more patties for breakfast so if I space them out and eat it with some thing I really like (nectarines, anyone!?) maybe it'll be ok :)

Guess you win some, lose some, when trying new recipes... those Indian vegetarian patties were to die for tho... I'm pretty excited to have found this recipe!! :)

And This Makes Me Thankful for my Allergies

I ran across this article tonight:

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/07/12/11-banned-ingredients-eat-in-us/?intcmp=HPBucket

It lists 11 items that other countries ban, but we continue to eat in the US. No wonder cancer rates are so high, illnesses are common place and people often have allergies or issues...

My food allergies are forcing me to have to eat natural and as organic as possible. Even tho this has been a trial and frustrating and expensive...the more I do it, the more thankful I am that I'm learning to put healthier things in my body. Still part of a process, but this cloud has a silver lining ;)

For your own curiosity in case you don't click on the link, these are the items listed:

1. Blue #1 food coloring

2. Blue # 2 food coloring

3. Yellow # 5 food coloring

4. Yellow # 6 food coloring

5. Red #40 food coloring

6. Brominated vegetable oil (found in sodas)

7. Bromated flour (used in baking)

8. Olean (found in potato chips)

9. Preservatives butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)

10. Growth hormones rBGH and rBST (found in dairy products)

11. Arsenic found in chicken feed

Ambitious New Recipes

Tonight I had planned to do a sunset hike in Vail. However, summer monsoon season ruined that idea, so I decided to go grocery shopping (today was pay day!) and try some of the 50+ new recipes I printed off the other day! 

Sooo first off I tried stuffed dates. They are high in B vitamins - which I think I'm lacking in anyways. So they are stuffed with pistachios and orange zest and juice. Surprisingly delicious! A tad time consuming, but great for a future appetizer...I think I'll hang on to this recipe...

 Then I tried this almond flour chocolate zucchini bread. you can see how well that turned out.. sigh. I think by using flax seed eggs, I need to cook LONGER than the suggested time. I think I'll puree the zucchini shreds next time. This isn't very sweet - not a big deal.. and it's pretty moist, so that's good...I think I'll keep the recipe. Throw in some chocolate chips...I like that chunkiness in the bread when there are chocolate chips. Or maybe I just like the chocolate chips ;) So much for cutting down on sugar :-/

 Now THIS is pretty exciting. This is a salad of garbanzo beans, cucumber, purple onion, and green and black olives. I'll let it marinate longer in the fridge, but I'm pretty darn excited about this one. Except...it made a TON. So much for rotating my foods every few days...

 This is a broccoli/mung bean/cilantro salad with a peanut chili sauce (from almond butter). Umm... it's not bad...the mung beans are kinda earthy tasting... so perhaps I'd leave them out next time. It too needs to marinate but I think there is potential. It's another way to eat veggies, so I'm happy for that!

 Coconut flour blueberry muffins... When the recipe says makes 12...I have no idea how the author extends the batter that far. It made 7 small muffins. Maybe that's b/c of flax seed eggs instead of regular eggs (calls for 6)...and that would have expanded the batter more? These aren't too bad...but not extremely exciting and bursting forth with flavor either. The jury is out if this is a recipe worth keeping. At least now I have some food in the fridge.

I have another handful of recipes to try tomorrow... I'm pretty excited b/c I found several recipes for "oatmeal" for breakfast, using quinoa... I found several breakfast bar recipes...and muffin recipes...and sausage recipes. This is a very big deal b/c currently I only can eat two things for breakfast. One of them is a sausage that is $2/sausage. That is SO expensive. So I"m excited to be finding some new things... 

But that's it for tonight. I'm tuckered out from cooking... and I think that I've had too much sugar, as I'm stating to feel aching in my hands and feet :( NOOOOO I don't want to have to do the repair diet again... boo. So hoping it goes away and I can cut out the sugar...

Life

So...I'm asked how I'm doing with my food allergies and it's always a dicey question. I could say "good" today and then tomorrow I'm scratching my head in confusion because something is going on and then next thing I now, I'm back on some minimal diet to repair myself.

However, right now things are good and I'm excited. I've pulled a few new recipes off the internet that I'll start trying. My latest goal is to develop a cookbook of recipes that I LOVE and that those I serve them to LOVE also...then I can't go wrong :)

Along that vein...I made these almond flour "butterscotch" cookies...tried them out on my Bible study group...the first batch I made like the recipe called for and they were kinda hard and crunchy but were still really well received. I made more that were bigger and cooked less so were softer and they were LOVED. Shared them with my aunt and grandma, and they were a hit...then took them on a date ;) and he ate FOUR! Soo that's a keeper recipe!

The other recipe I just tried was for Turtles. Umm...can I say AMAZING?! They are made with Medjool dates, pecans, vanilla seeds and coconut milk and chocolate. A little time consuming but not bad. They are SO WORTH IT. I made them to try out on my Bible study group on Wednesdays...poor guys, they're my new test kitchen ;)

My nutritionist came over at lunch today with her daughter, and their eyes popped out of their heads, they loved these so much. Ignore the peeling fingernail paint...

So I'm about to bring a few to work to test on them, but pretty sure these are going in my permanent file... :)

In other news, all morning my heart was racing. It was SO uncomfortable. It was a panicky feeling, but work was slow, I hadn't eaten or drinken anything I haven't had before, so I had no idea what the heck was going on. I took 2 Tylenol PM's last night so I could sleep, and felt a little racing so thought maybe it was residual from that... finally it tapered off but I mentioned it to my nutritionist. 

Through muscle testing, we discovered that I've had too much sugar (ha!!) and it can take up to 3 days for my body to get it out... which makes total and complete (embarrassing) sense between those cookies and handfuls of chocolate chips and now these turtles, I've definitely consumed my share of sugar. 

Ultimately, this is good for me to have to be cautious on how much sugar I intake, but what a powerful reminder that my body is SO sensitive!!

Today we cleared me for starches, which won't be too hard to stay away from for the next 24 hours... I'm excited because the list is getting smaller and smaller of what I need to clear...dare I hope that only a few more months and I won't have to see my nutritionist every week!? There is a light at the end of the tunnel!! I'm feeling hopeful :)