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.