Life after gluten
As part of an experiment to try and nail down the source of some ongoing fatigue issues, I am doing a trial off of gluten, oats, and dairy. Both my mother and sister have been off of gluten and dairy for years, so really I probably should have been doing this for a while.
It has been helping some, but it isn't entirely clear if it is the absence of these things or the addition of more produce and whole (non-gluten) grains. I did go to a wedding over the weekend and cheated with a wedding cupcake, and have had stomach cramps that made me dream that I was shot in the gut and has been less than comfortable today. Where there have been similar mistakes, I realized that gluten makes me painfully gassy and dairy makes me constipated (sorry if TMI). So there may be something to this. I've never really done well with diets to lose weight because results weren't fast and they just didn't matter sufficiently to me. But the threat of horrible stomach cramps is a GREAT motivator.
I have found a lot of gluten free products and a lot of dairy free products and have discovered how frustrating this venn diagram is. Lots of gluten free goodies are full of dairy and butter, lots of dairy free contains gluten ingredients. Clearly, this is just to screw with me. I also don't eat pork (the smell absolutely disgusts me after years as a vegetarian), and I'm also allergic to strawberries, eggplants, and cherries (and likely a few other things). So this starts getting fairly complicated quite quickly. I've spent more time reading ingredients this past month than I think I have my entirely life preceding it.
Anyway, the upside here is that I have been discovering lots of delicious and distracting safe recipes in addition to yummy summer produce. And for anyone else going through the same thing, maybe these will be helpful and comforting.
West African Peanut Soup
This was pretty easy to do and tasted as though it was WAY more complicated than it was. I wasn't sure about the ingredients, but as I was cooking, I started salivating because it smelled so good. As someone who is definitely not an expert in West African cuisine, I can't attest to its authenticity, but it's pretty awesome. Recipe is at http://cookieandkate.com/2013/west-african-peanut-soup/
Roasted okra, Indian style
So, I discovered previously that Indians know how to do okra in a way that makes it not gross and slimy. The key is to roast it in the oven, rather than fry or stew. Here's a quick, approximate recipe, but give it a try with what you have and what you like:
Quinoa salads
I've found that these are super simple. Cook 2 cups of quinoa on the stove, and toss into a large bowl, then add in different ingredients that strike your fancy, and it'll last for multiple meals as a quick, easy cold salad. I've tried variations with avocado, black beans, and tomato; mushrooms and onions sauteed with wine, cucumber, and red peppers; and most recently canned diced tomatoes, chick peas, and artichoke hearts.
Sweet potato home fries
I have previously relied on weekend breakfast that didn't really vary: fried eggs, turkey bacon, and toast. Clearly the toast is not on the menu regularly because breads without gluten or dairy tend to be rather unpleasant and expensive. But home fries give me a great, hearty starch to start my day. I've done it with sweet potato, or sweet potato and regular potato, with onion, maybe some garlic. It's awesome. It goes great with eggs and my turkey bacon (which is gluten free already, hooray!).
Rhubarb reduction
Another thing that has been surprisingly key to maintaining my sanity has been gluten free pancake mix. And best thing on top of that? Rhubarb reduction. I made it basically like a rhubarb pie filling, and added a little extra canola oil (mostly by accident), which means the lack of butter is more tolerable. I used 2 full stalks of rhubarb tossed into a pot on the stove on medium with less than 1/2 a cup of sugar, and about 1/4 a cup of canola oil (which could be seriously lowered if you're not so keen on it). I let it sit up on the stove on simmer (after bringing to a boil) and it kept really well afterwards in the fridge for the next episode of pancakes.
Chipotle kale
I love kale. I love dark leafy greens cooked with spicy and surprising ingredients without pork (refer to paragraph in intro). I happened to pick up a few chipotle peppers at the store and tried it in some kale after I bought the big giant bag of kale that's nearly half my own height. I cooked the kale with 1/2 a chopped red onion, a few chopped cloves of garlic, and 1/4 cup of olive oil, and about the equivalent of a bunch of kale. IT WAS AWESOME. It smelled great, and it was awesome.
Watermelon with balsamic
In a surprising turn for one of my favorite things about summer, just adding a drizzle of balsamic vinegar makes for a surprising sweet, sour, salt combination. Those who can do dairy, it goes fantastically with goat cheese, but as that's off the menu for now, I still find that it's a great treat with just the watermelon and the balsamic.
Easy Risotto for variations on a theme
So, the reason why soup recipes encourage you to only add rice at the very end or even separately from the soup is that the rice will keep absorbing the liquid even after it's done cooking. It's a greedy little grain. So, I've found that if I use some chicken stock and some red lentils (and probably some other beans and veggies), and let the rice cook a while longer, it creates a fairly creamy risotto without any actual cream or cheese. It's actually better if you freeze it and then re-heat it for your individual portion. I dropped off about a dozen helpings of this for a friend who is super-Celiac after her father died, to make sure that she had some easy, safe foods to nourish her. It was a fairly basic version with chicken stock and chickpeas, and she love it - and ended up finding new ways to mix it up with other spices, herbs, veggies, etc.
Other delicious random things that I've discovered:
It has been helping some, but it isn't entirely clear if it is the absence of these things or the addition of more produce and whole (non-gluten) grains. I did go to a wedding over the weekend and cheated with a wedding cupcake, and have had stomach cramps that made me dream that I was shot in the gut and has been less than comfortable today. Where there have been similar mistakes, I realized that gluten makes me painfully gassy and dairy makes me constipated (sorry if TMI). So there may be something to this. I've never really done well with diets to lose weight because results weren't fast and they just didn't matter sufficiently to me. But the threat of horrible stomach cramps is a GREAT motivator.
I have found a lot of gluten free products and a lot of dairy free products and have discovered how frustrating this venn diagram is. Lots of gluten free goodies are full of dairy and butter, lots of dairy free contains gluten ingredients. Clearly, this is just to screw with me. I also don't eat pork (the smell absolutely disgusts me after years as a vegetarian), and I'm also allergic to strawberries, eggplants, and cherries (and likely a few other things). So this starts getting fairly complicated quite quickly. I've spent more time reading ingredients this past month than I think I have my entirely life preceding it.
Anyway, the upside here is that I have been discovering lots of delicious and distracting safe recipes in addition to yummy summer produce. And for anyone else going through the same thing, maybe these will be helpful and comforting.
West African Peanut Soup
This was pretty easy to do and tasted as though it was WAY more complicated than it was. I wasn't sure about the ingredients, but as I was cooking, I started salivating because it smelled so good. As someone who is definitely not an expert in West African cuisine, I can't attest to its authenticity, but it's pretty awesome. Recipe is at http://cookieandkate.com/2013/west-african-peanut-soup/
Roasted okra, Indian style
So, I discovered previously that Indians know how to do okra in a way that makes it not gross and slimy. The key is to roast it in the oven, rather than fry or stew. Here's a quick, approximate recipe, but give it a try with what you have and what you like:
- Preheat oven to about 400
- Take bag of frozen chopped or whole okra (I don't always have the patience to prep, so frozen veggies are awesome), place in bowl along with 1/2 a red onion cut into long strips
- Take 3-4 tablespoons of curry paste from a jar and stir into the okra and onion
- Once oven is ready, spread onto a layer of tin foil on a cookie sheet or casserole pan (this stuff gets messy)
- Roast for about 30-40 minutes until okra is tender and your kitchen smells so tasty
- Probably best to let it cool for a few minutes so that you don't burn your mouth on the tasty goodness, and it goes well just on a bed of basmati rice
Quinoa salads
I've found that these are super simple. Cook 2 cups of quinoa on the stove, and toss into a large bowl, then add in different ingredients that strike your fancy, and it'll last for multiple meals as a quick, easy cold salad. I've tried variations with avocado, black beans, and tomato; mushrooms and onions sauteed with wine, cucumber, and red peppers; and most recently canned diced tomatoes, chick peas, and artichoke hearts.
Sweet potato home fries
I have previously relied on weekend breakfast that didn't really vary: fried eggs, turkey bacon, and toast. Clearly the toast is not on the menu regularly because breads without gluten or dairy tend to be rather unpleasant and expensive. But home fries give me a great, hearty starch to start my day. I've done it with sweet potato, or sweet potato and regular potato, with onion, maybe some garlic. It's awesome. It goes great with eggs and my turkey bacon (which is gluten free already, hooray!).
Rhubarb reduction
Another thing that has been surprisingly key to maintaining my sanity has been gluten free pancake mix. And best thing on top of that? Rhubarb reduction. I made it basically like a rhubarb pie filling, and added a little extra canola oil (mostly by accident), which means the lack of butter is more tolerable. I used 2 full stalks of rhubarb tossed into a pot on the stove on medium with less than 1/2 a cup of sugar, and about 1/4 a cup of canola oil (which could be seriously lowered if you're not so keen on it). I let it sit up on the stove on simmer (after bringing to a boil) and it kept really well afterwards in the fridge for the next episode of pancakes.
Chipotle kale
I love kale. I love dark leafy greens cooked with spicy and surprising ingredients without pork (refer to paragraph in intro). I happened to pick up a few chipotle peppers at the store and tried it in some kale after I bought the big giant bag of kale that's nearly half my own height. I cooked the kale with 1/2 a chopped red onion, a few chopped cloves of garlic, and 1/4 cup of olive oil, and about the equivalent of a bunch of kale. IT WAS AWESOME. It smelled great, and it was awesome.
Watermelon with balsamic
In a surprising turn for one of my favorite things about summer, just adding a drizzle of balsamic vinegar makes for a surprising sweet, sour, salt combination. Those who can do dairy, it goes fantastically with goat cheese, but as that's off the menu for now, I still find that it's a great treat with just the watermelon and the balsamic.
Easy Risotto for variations on a theme
So, the reason why soup recipes encourage you to only add rice at the very end or even separately from the soup is that the rice will keep absorbing the liquid even after it's done cooking. It's a greedy little grain. So, I've found that if I use some chicken stock and some red lentils (and probably some other beans and veggies), and let the rice cook a while longer, it creates a fairly creamy risotto without any actual cream or cheese. It's actually better if you freeze it and then re-heat it for your individual portion. I dropped off about a dozen helpings of this for a friend who is super-Celiac after her father died, to make sure that she had some easy, safe foods to nourish her. It was a fairly basic version with chicken stock and chickpeas, and she love it - and ended up finding new ways to mix it up with other spices, herbs, veggies, etc.
Other delicious random things that I've discovered:
- Hard cider is awesome and a great thing to distract me from the lack of beer. I don't drink much, but I've always loved the taste of beer was something I knew I would miss. Also, sorghum beer is NOT sufficient for anything other than cooking.
- Chocolate almond or coconut milk (there's also soy and hemp, but those pale in comparison). It feels like a delightful juvenile indulgence and it's awesome.
- Chocolate Chewies and Macaroons from Whole Foods are expensive but delicious and totally free of dairy and gluten. Strongly suggested.
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