Thursday, August 25, 2011

New ideas!

I've been experimenting a lot lately. I've realized that I eat better and my food probably tastes better than 90% of other Americans! Being allergic to food has given me a deep appreciation of how to make delicious food with very few ingredients and how just a little of some foods can make a huge flavor impact!



Fried Trout: Today, I bought a fresh trout, rubbed sea sat into both sides and dusted with flour. In a cast iron skillet I heated some salt and added a few drops of oil when hot to create a non-stick surface. Then I pan fried the trout until lightly brown. Added some ghee (Clarified butter) and then fried the fish until cooked through. (to finish, I patted the fish with paper towels to remove as much oil/butter as possible). Served with veggies and squash, and a few slices of lemon, all briefly fried in the left-over oil.



Pot Pie:

Cooked rice
homemade chicken broth
cooked chicken, shredded
rice flour
veggies
Rice crackers, rolled out and uncooked


Place one large rolled out rice cracker into a pie plate. Cook until just barely crispy. Place the other large cracker on a baking sheet and cook until one side is done only.

Cook veggies in a large pan, adding chicken broth when necessary. When cooked, add chicken and a bit more broth but not enough to make a soup. Add a liberal amount of flour and stir until thick. Add in rice and mix together.

Place rice, veggie, and chicken mixture into cooked pie crust. Place half-cooked rice flour cracker on top (uncooked side up). Poke a few holes with a fork and sprinkle with salt. If cracker is cooked on both sides, wet the exposed side with water or butter/oil. Cook until top is crispy.




Pad Thai/"Thai Peanut" Chicken

Cooked chicken, shredded or chopped
Peas &/or broccoli
lime juice
cooked rice or rice noodles
peanut butter (or other nut/seed butters)


Mix lime juice with peanut butter. Add water and salt until a thin consistency. Cook veggies. Add veggies, chicken and peanut sauce together in a pan and cook until peanut sauce thickens. Serve on top of rice or noodles.




Venison Ragout

Venison (or other game meat), chopped into bit size pieces
Flour
salt
oil/butter


Put meat into a plastic bag. Add flour and a liberal amount of salt. If you tolerate any seasonings, add those too. Shake well and make sure meat is coated thoroughly.

Heat a skillet with salt and when hot, add a few drops of oil. Add floured meat and pan fry. Add a bit of water when it starts sticking. Cook until done. When cool, can be used on salads, in a stew, or mixed with rice. Add a dash of lemon when done cooking for extra flavor.




"BLTA" Salad

lettuce (iceburg)
rice crackers or rice cakes (crumbled)
avocado
lemon and lime juice
any other veggies or fruits (dried or fresh) tolerated


Mix lettuce, rice crackers/cakes, and any other veggies and fruit. Slice avocados into dices and add to salad. Sprinkle with a liberal amount of lemon and lime juice. The rice cakes/crackers will soak most of it up.




Chocolate-peanut butter cookies

Raw chocolate (raw cocao and sugar/agave nectar only), chopped
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
flour (optional)


Beat eggs into peanut butter. Add sugar and a little flour and mix well. Add in chocolate. Drop by the spoonful on a baking sheet (covered with tin foil for easy cleanup) and flatten with a fork. Preheat oven (very very important!) Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes. Let cool. (cooked peanut butter seems to be a lot more tolerable for digestion for me than uncooked peanut butter... and since you are only eating a fraction of an egg in each cookie, it is tolerable!). If baked longer and without flour, they can be crumbled and used for a pie crust. Easily made without chocolate.



Mochi

plain mochi from whole foods refrigerated section.... follow package directions!




Burgers

Ground meat (lamb, venison, beef, etc)
Starches (crumbled rice cakes, crackers, grits, or flour)
salt & seasonings (if tolerated)
baked rice flour crackers


Mix meat with starch, salt, and seasonings. Press into patties and grill. Break crackers into burger size pieces. Serve burgers on crackers. If you tolerate it... use pear ketchup or grilled onions on top.


stay tuned for sweet potato recipes and maybe fish sticks soon....

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ground Chicken
Starch- Crumbled Rice Cakes, cream of rice, flour, quinoa flakes, etc
Salt
Onion Salt
Rice Noodles (I use GF Tinkyada White Spaghetti)
Chicken Broth (homemade from boiling a chicken- i keep 1.5 cups of broth frozen in jars)
Veggies (I use frozen peas and broccoli)

1) Bring broth with a tiny bit of water to boil. Break spaghetti noodles into 3rds and drop in.
2) Meanwhile, mix ground chicken with starches and regular salt. Roll into small balls and drop into broth and noodles.
3) When noodles and chicken balls are almost done, add veggies and onion or onion salt for flavor (if tolerated).
4) Cook through. Remove from stove and let cool slightly before serving. Pasta should make it thick.

Friday, June 24, 2011

My Diet

In the morning I have cream of rice with a bit of maple syrup, or dehydrated apple and pear (I use my dehydrator a lot) or pear and/or apple fruit rolls I make in the dehydrator (they turn into more of a fruit chip tho).

For lunch and dinner I have a bowl of white rice with lemon or lime juice, and either chicken, lamb, fish, buffalo, or venison. Or, I alternate with days of split pea soup. I have some green beans, frozen green peas, asparagus, butternut and acorn squash mixed together, or spinach with my meal. Sometime I make a bread like cracker out of rice flour and water which I bake, or have white rice pasta.

For snacks, I have rice cakes with peanut butter, iceberg lettuce (plain), a pear, a half an avocado, crackers (made from rice from the store), or make chicken nuggets or chicken patties. I make a salad dressing sometimes with avocado, lemon, and lime juice with a little salt and water. Sometimes I tolerate a few drops of orange juice or grapefruit juice for variety in my dressing (only on really good days!). I occasionally will eat some raw celery sticks too.


Currently I trying out different types of squashes, and working to expand my vegetable and grain options through trial and error. I'm also trying to find a way to tolerate fats again and find more portable, snack-like items. I'm making slow but steady progress. Most things are a resounding no when I try them. AND, seeing that for 2 weeks of the month I am miserable because I am literally allergic to myself (estrogen, uhg) and can't test new foods, it is a slow process. Its a race to find new foods as fast as I become sensitive to "safe" ones.

Ideally, I would get on a good exercise and self care program, do a thorough detox, get on testosterone, see a naturopath specialist, a specialist in autism, an acupuncturist, and a homeopath. If I did all that, I bet that I would be a LOT better off. *sigh* Its a goal I am working towards.....

Monday, May 9, 2011

What the hell!

I've been doing really really well the past 8 weeks and have been very happy and (relatively) healthy on my diet of rice, peas, apples, pears, chicken, and fish. I will occasionally have a few vegetables too like asparagus and spinach, and I have lots of limes and lemon juice every day.

Then suddenly last week I crashed. I've been barely able to keep my eyes open and they burn and i just want to sleep. Sleeping doesn't help. I wake up feeling like I haven't slept yet. At first I thought I was reacting to something and becoming intolerant to rice. But I think my body "ran out" of some vital nutrient or mineral or enzyme. I don't know. My usual supplements and such are having no effect, good or bad. I have no motivation to do anything, and almost don't care!

I've also known that there are bottlenecks in my detox pathways and that something is lacking. But it just occurred to me that one of the pieces of the puzzle must be something I am biosynthesizing because if I sit long enough, I start feeling better, but a brief exposure to a toxin will put me back at square one. I'm thinking it is amino acid related. I think the key is figuring out why I am not metabolizing lipids. For some reason I tolerate non-seed based plant fats better like peanut butter and avocado (I think, not sure, I just tried some and so far so good), but not animal based fats. geee..... this kinda reminds me of a few years ago when just 6 grams of sugar would give me a diabetic blood sugar spike! so.... now i just gotta figure out which thing i'm not making.

Great news though.... I seem to tolerate venison no problem (its farm raised!..... totally weird) But YAY! No more chicken and fish every day!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Fun with Fruit

How many ways can you use apple and pears?

Puree apples and pears in a blender (with just enough water to make it go). Pour onto a flat try and place into a dehydrator. Place in the refrigerator for a few hours/days to make them easier to handle, otherwise they can be difficult to peel off the tray. Instant fruit roll snacks (actually they are more like fruit crackers)!


Eat apple and pears as is.


Applesauce. Pearsauce. Apple & pear sauce. (Cook chopped fruit and then mash and then cool)


Cook apples and/or pears with chicken or other protein.


Frozen fruit Popsicles. Cook down fruit into a puree and add sugar and lemon/lime (like you are making pie filling). Water down. Pour into icecube trays. Freeze.


Freeze pear slices for a quick snack.


Sorbet. Blend rice milk with frozen fruit and some sugar (opt.) until sorbet consistency.

How to be creative with rice

Split peas have become a serious staple in my kitchen.

My favorite is cooking the peas with some apple and lime juice or just with celery and then pureeing them with rice. Makes for a great simple and hearty meal.



If you can tolerate chicken broth, Risotto is another great meal option. Arborio rice (it is a white rice) slow cooked with broth, plus a little lemon/lime juice and some cooked peas, pumpkin/squash, or asparagus (or any other veggie you tolerate) added in at the end. Pieces of chicken or ground chicken makes for a complete meal if you add that in too.



Also, a simple Spanish Paella would be another option. My electric stove top makes the use of my paella pan non-functional, otherwise this would be another staple. It's worth looking into.



Homemade rice milk....... rinse your rice before you cook it and save the first rinse water that now has rice starch in it. Use slightly less water than normal for rinsing and rinse longer on the first rinse. Add a slight bit of oil and sweetener (both opt) and shake well. Use within 24 hours.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Oxalates

I'm having major health issues again. I was doing really well. I had a breakthrough and found that vitamin D and lime juice helped my symptoms. Then, after a few days, they started to make them worse. I'm back to square one. Except now I can barely choke down my rice, peas and fish because I've eaten only that for months and chicken gives me a stomach ache. Up until a few months ago, I had a stable diet of food that was gluten free, dairy free and soy free. I had a lot of choices. But of what is left, all of it has either oxalates, salicylates, amines, or sulphites. Usually, it is just one or another, not combinations. Those are my four main "new" problems. The next big breakthrough can't come soon enough. I'm hungry, miserably sick, and loosing my grip on reality and on my body. It feels like life is slipping away from me. Right now, I'm battling oxalates. I've discovered my sals limit is a bit higher than I expected (a moderate to low range, instead of the low-negligible range I originally thought). The reactions from sulphites is so strong that I don't dare eat small amounts. So, unfortunately, I've been eating more oxalates in an attempt to get food in me.

In the end.... i feel miserable if I don't eat food or if I do eat food. It doesn't freaking matter.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Alternative Bread version

YAY! The rice flour tortilla recipe I developed can be made with millet flour as well! 1 cup flour in 1 cup water. They are easy to roll out if you put a dough ball in a gallon ziplock bag.


I bet other flours, like Buckwheat could be used as well. If anyone tries it, let me know!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Peas!

Split Pea Soup

Green split peas (sorted and rinsed)
water/stock
salt
onions, garlic, celery (if you tolerate)

1) If you tolerate onions, celery and garlic, cook a small amount in a sauce pan with oil.

2) Add peas and water. Add twice as much water as peas.

3) Cook on med-low for 30-60 minutes.

4) Puree in a food processor or blender.

5) Serve with rice flour tortillas.

Monday, January 24, 2011

More rice flour tortilla uses

I made fish tacos and apple-pear pie this evening for dinner. Yum!


Fish Tacos

2 rice flour tortillas (see previous post)
2 fresh fish fillets
sweet rice flour
salt
iceberg lettuce

1) Mix a little bit of flour with salt. Dust the fish in the flour. Bake according to the type of fish until done. If you can tolerate it, mix in some cream of rice grits into flour mix and fry fish on stove top in a little oil/butter.

2) Make rice flour tortillas. Save third tortilla and set aside for pie. Keep tortillas for tacos warm on the stove top on low, flipping often.

3) Optional: chop up lettuce. Fry up briefly in a pan with salt (use cabbage instead and onions and oil/butter if you can tolerate).

4) Assemble by putting lettuce and fish inside tortilla.




Apple-pear pie

1 uncooked rice flour tortilla
1 golden delicious apple, peeled and chopped
1 pear, peeled and chopped
sugar (1/2 cup to 1 cup, according to desire)

1) Place tortilla in a mini-springform pan or a small pie pan. Cut any extra pieces off if it doesn't fit inside nicely. Set aside.

2) Bake for a few minutes on 400F. Try to keep as much of the sides standing up as possible. It may be necessary to pull them up if the collapse. Bake until it has formed a shape, but not crispy!!!

3) Meanwhile, cook down apple and pear in a sauce pan with sugar. When soft, mash down with a potato masher. Cook until it looks like chunky applesauce.

4) Spoon fruit mixture into pie shell. Place extra shell pieces on top and put in oven.

5) After a few minutes when pie shell pieces on top start to become solid, pull pie out, wet a finger and gently wet top of pieces (you may need to do this a few times). Sprinkle sugar liberally over the entire thing.

6) Bake until sugar caramelizes and entire pie look solid. Remove and let cool before eating.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Chicken Recipes

Apple Chicken Stuffing

Rice Flour crackers, crumbled
Golden delicious apple, diced
salt
chicken w/bone in
Celery, chopped (if you can tolerate)


1) Mix crackers, apples, and celery together. Place inside chicken cavity (or under chicken breast).

2) Bake as usual. Cover with a lid or foil.

3) Serve with rice.



Chicken Patty Sandwich

Ground chicken (ask butcher to grind fresh)
Cream of Rice grits, rice cracker crumbs, or puffed rice (from a rice cake), etc
Salt
optional: other flavorings such as onions, celery, etc if tolerated


1) Kneed salt, rice, and any flavorings into chicken. Form a patty.

2) Place on grill.

3) Serve with iceberg lettuce, pear ketchup, and a rice tortilla or pita


Chicken Nuggets

Ground chicken
rice flour
Cream of Rice grits
salt

1) Mix salt, cream of rice, and rice flour together.

2) Make a well formed ball with a heaping Tablespoon of ground chicken. Dredge in flour mix and flatten slightly.

3) Bake (or pan fry in oil).



Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Rice Flour tortillas/crackers/pita bread!

I have BREAD! It took becoming allergic to literally EVERYTHING in the world for me to figure it out. This is a great versatile recipe. :-)

1 cup water
1 cup rice flour
salt
oil

Boil water, then dump flour into the water and put on low. DO NOT MIX the flour in. Just let it sit in the boiling water for a minute. Then mix.

Let sit until just cool enough to handle.

Flour a flat surface or board. Sprinkle flour on top of dough and kneed. The more you kneed, the better the bread is. (there will be a point when it gets too sticky to kneed).

At this point, decide if you want tortillas, pita bread, or crackers. If you want tortillas or pita bread, divide into 3 parts. Roll out into a large circle (adding flour to the board and on top liberally to prevent sticking). If you want crackers, roll the whole thing out into a rough square.

Tortillas: Add to a hot skillet individually and cook on medium until just before it browns, but not totally browning. Flip over and heat the opposite side. Remove from skillet/griddle and add butter if desired, to keep it extra flexible (not necessary though), OR, cut into pieces and fry for tortilla chips.

Pita Bread: Place on a pizza stone or baking sheet. Cook at 350 to 400 degrees, watching to make sure they don't get too tough on one side. They should puff up. Flip over periodically, but be careful you do not pop the puff and burn yourself on the steam.

Crackers: Put rolled out dough on baking sheet. Sprinkle oil and salt on top and brush out (the thinner, the better. You can add other spices and cheese and stuff at this point too). Cut with a pizza cutter (that rolls) or a knife (this can be difficult because it is somewhat sticky). Bake at 400 until throughly crispy. This may take a while, so periodic taste tests are required. Cool before breaking apart.


***Adding spices and other flavorings to the water right before the rice would provide a lot of variety and additional flavors, if desired. You can add a bit of baking soda or baking powder to the flour as well for a little extra rising and flavor.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Even smaller list!

Ok... so I'm having problems with MSG and oils. My list of safe foods:


Pears (Peeled)
Apples (Golden Delicious)
Chicken (fresh)
White fish
Sushi rice
White sugar
Peas
Iceburg lettuce
Salt

Friday, January 7, 2011

"Cabbage" Rolls

ground meat (chicken, beef, lamb, etc)
rice (prepared as desired)
lentils, split peas or mung beans (prepared as desired)
onions, garlic, celery, other spices (as tolerated)
Iceberg lettuce or cabbage leaves


1) Fry ground meat. Fry with onions, garlic, spices, etc if those are tolerated.

2) Mix meat, rice, and lentils/peas/beans together.

3) Add mixture to lettuce or cabbage leaves. Tuck over sides and roll up into a log (you can use the same method as rolling a burrito). If desired, tie together with a string.

4) Steam rolls until lettuce/cabbage is just soft.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Update list of what I can eat

Well... my list of safe foods is rapidly shrinking

Pears (Peeled)
Apples (Golden Delicious)
Chicken (fresh)
White fish
Sushi rice
White sugar
Peas
Kelp & Seaweed
Iceburg lettuce


Salt
Safflower Oil
Sunflower Oil
Ghee