I have thought of my little blog often this summer, but my life and the inside of my head have not been conducive to reflective thought and writing. Today, I feel able for a brief post...before leaping back onto the whirling merry-go-round of the day.
I'm just feeling really good about the food choices I/we have been making these past several days, and wanted to write about it. After months upon months of heedless eating mixed with the heavy struggle back toward healthier ways, there is progress!
The other night, we had some steaks, so the Dear Eldest Daughter and I worked together to come up with a healthy meal. We concocted a Southwestern kind of dry rub (sea salt, cumin, oregano, parsley, chipotle chili powder, paprika, and a dash of cinnamon), which we massaged into the meat, then let it sit for a bit, before the Meat Maestro put it on the grill. As side dishes/steak toppers, we made guacamole, pico de gallo (freshly chopped salsa), and the black bean side dish we've been doing lately. It was all sooooo flavorful! And so healthy! And low on the glycemic index! Not one thing in there that compromised the health or well-being of any of us. That felt great!
**Black bean side dish: one can of black beans, drained. One jalapeno, minced. Juice of one small lime, and a dash of sea salt. I just put it all in a skillet and warm it up a little bit. We've been loving this as an alternative to refried beans.
** A friend recently taught me how to choose and prepare jalapenos so
there is no heat, only flavor. Choose a jalapeno that is smooth and
glossy, with no stretch-mark scars. Wearing gloves, clean it carefully,
cutting out the whitish veins inside, and discarding the top and seeds.
The next night, we had hamburgers. I don't eat the bun anymore- avoiding wheat. So, I had a hamburger patty, with a hearty dollop of guacamole on top, with raw sugar snap peas, carrot sticks, and large chunks of cucumber on the side, with watermelon for dessert. Again, so tasty! So healthy! So perfect in regards to the glycemic index! So completely free of foods we can't tolerate! It feels so good to eat this way!
We went to see the movie Brave last night, which was wonderful- I especially loved the short film "LaLuna" before the movie. It was beautiful and precious. Anyway, at the theater, I considered the candy and popcorn, and then I walked away with just my bottle of water! I felt very proud of myself!
And today- I had half a fresh apple to start the day. I found some "Envy" apples at the store the other day, and I really like them. Later, I had a small carton of coconut milk yogurt. Just now, I had the other half of my apple, with a scoop of sunflower nut butter. What a great way to begin my day and my week!
I also weighed in this morning (a dose of reality/accountability that I've been doing for....maybe nine years?) and I am losing weight! At last! I'm not sure exactly how much total, but I think it's approaching ten pounds!
It feels wonderful to be walking a healthier path again!
Showing posts with label dairy-free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dairy-free. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2012
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
What I Can Eat...
Okay, after focusing for all those words on what has been taken away from my plate, I really need to write the other side of it! It is chilly and breezy, and raining steadily outside, so sitting and writing seems especially appealing right now!
I can eat:
Some nuts: macadamia, cashew, pistachio, hazelnut
Beans: garbanzo, black, kidney, anasazi, navy, butter
Raw Seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, chia, poppy
Veggies: green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, yam, bell peppers, squash, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, celery
Meats: beef, pork, chicken, fish
Fruits: blueberries, strawberries, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, lemon, lime
That is a fairly short list, but it does leave me with many options.
For example, one of my main snack foods is homemade hummus. I can't have the garlic or sesame tahini in prepared hummus, so I make my own. I use garbanzo beans, some black beans for flavor, olive oil, lemon juice, a bit of lime juice, and sea salt. It is nutrient dense, a good source of protein, high in fiber, tasty, and easy. I eat it with corn chips (definitely not low-glycemic, but I think the protein balances that out) or with yam sticks (like carrot sticks, but cut from a yam. I don't tire of them nearly as fast as I do carrot sticks!)
I sometimes make a quick little bean salad with a can of butter beans, some olive oil and fresh lemon juice, salt, and some dried herb...like oregano, thyme, or Italian seasoning.
There's a quick soup I discovered, which has saved me from "starvation" or from eating what I shouldn't a number of times. When I've been out being busy and walk in really hungry, this is a good option. I use a can of butter beans, a can of pureed butternut squash (pumpkin would also work), dried onion bits, curry powder, cumin powder and salt. I stir that together and start heating it in a pan, then add about a cup of coconut milk. Without the coconut milk, it is rather nasty. The coconut milk brings it all together into creamy goodness.
Our family has eaten a lot of soup in the last year!
Potato Soup: I found a recipe for Irish potato soup that calls for no milk at all. Diced bacon-sauteed, dried onion bits, dried thyme, potatoes, salt and water. To make it creamy, I can puree raw cashews with water and add a bit of that to the soup. (I have read that soaking the raw cashews overnight makes for a smoother puree)
Bean with Greens and Ham Soup: Cubed ham steak, dried onion bits, dried thyme, cans of several kinds of beans (kidney, black, butter), sugar-free garlic-free chicken stock, water, sea salt. Toward the end I add greens- Swiss chard and green kale, cut into small pieces.
Anasazi Bean & Green soup: I have found dried Anasazi beans and really like the flavor. I make a soup that is basically like the one above, but with no ham, and I start the night before with the dry Anasazi beans.
Red Lentil soup: diced carrots, olive or coconut oil, dried onion bits, dried thyme, red lentils, sugar-free garlic-free chicken stock, water, a splash of lemon juice. *I read that adding the salt too soon with legumes keeps them from getting soft. Wait till they're already fully cooked before adding salt. *I also read that if you bring your liquid to a boil before adding the lentils or beans, they'll be less gassy. I sometimes add small bits of kale to this soup. If the family is in a meaty mood, I'll saute bits of ring sausage that they can add, or cook up breakfast sausage links and cut them into bites, and stir them into the soup. The ring sausage has things I can't eat, but we found a breakfast link sausage that works for me.
Brown Lentil soup: basically the same as the red lentil, but it takes twice as long to cook.
Castle B: This is one of our family puns. I researched the French soup Cassoulet, and took its basic elements to make a soup of my own. The French original takes like two days and has things like duck sausage in it. Our is bites of chicken, white beans (I usually used Cannelinni), carrots, dried onion bits, dried thyme, maybe some dried parsley, chicken stock, a splash of white wine, and water. My husband would call it Castle B as a pun on Cassoulet (which sounds like Castle A), and the name stuck. If I'm tired of eating meat, I make a chicken free version and call it Castle Bean. :)
We have found that the Tinkyada brand Brown Rice pastas (spaghetti, fettucine, elbows) work well for us. I make pesto (can't have the garlic or Parmesan in prepared pesto) to put on it, or we have it with canned or smoked salmon. I make spaghetti sauce for the family, and just discovered a tomato-free alternative that I can make for myself (I wrote about this sauce a couple of blogs ago). Another pasta option is sauteed chicken bites, with thyme and broccoli. I add cashew cream so it feels kind of like my old favorite Chicken Broccoli Fettucine Alfredo. For lunch I'll sometimes cook up some brown rice pasta and have it with steamed broccoli and chia seeds.
We also eat my husband's delicious hamburgers (I skip the bun), grilled chicken (he always makes some for me that fits my needs), grilled pork chops, and steak.
With so many varied food needs, and people eating at many different times, we all just make our own breakfasts now. My breakfast usually consists of: brown rice cooked with coconut oil, raw walnuts, raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds, raw chia seeds, and unsweetened vanilla hempmilk. It's supercharged with nutrients and I feel all virtuous and healthy when I eat it.
This isn't every single thing that I eat, but covers a lot of it. And it's always good to remind myself that despite the limits of my food world, there is still plenty of good stuff for me to enjoy.
I can eat:
Some nuts: macadamia, cashew, pistachio, hazelnut
Beans: garbanzo, black, kidney, anasazi, navy, butter
Raw Seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, chia, poppy
Veggies: green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, yam, bell peppers, squash, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, celery
Meats: beef, pork, chicken, fish
Fruits: blueberries, strawberries, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, lemon, lime
That is a fairly short list, but it does leave me with many options.
For example, one of my main snack foods is homemade hummus. I can't have the garlic or sesame tahini in prepared hummus, so I make my own. I use garbanzo beans, some black beans for flavor, olive oil, lemon juice, a bit of lime juice, and sea salt. It is nutrient dense, a good source of protein, high in fiber, tasty, and easy. I eat it with corn chips (definitely not low-glycemic, but I think the protein balances that out) or with yam sticks (like carrot sticks, but cut from a yam. I don't tire of them nearly as fast as I do carrot sticks!)
I sometimes make a quick little bean salad with a can of butter beans, some olive oil and fresh lemon juice, salt, and some dried herb...like oregano, thyme, or Italian seasoning.
There's a quick soup I discovered, which has saved me from "starvation" or from eating what I shouldn't a number of times. When I've been out being busy and walk in really hungry, this is a good option. I use a can of butter beans, a can of pureed butternut squash (pumpkin would also work), dried onion bits, curry powder, cumin powder and salt. I stir that together and start heating it in a pan, then add about a cup of coconut milk. Without the coconut milk, it is rather nasty. The coconut milk brings it all together into creamy goodness.
Our family has eaten a lot of soup in the last year!
Potato Soup: I found a recipe for Irish potato soup that calls for no milk at all. Diced bacon-sauteed, dried onion bits, dried thyme, potatoes, salt and water. To make it creamy, I can puree raw cashews with water and add a bit of that to the soup. (I have read that soaking the raw cashews overnight makes for a smoother puree)
Bean with Greens and Ham Soup: Cubed ham steak, dried onion bits, dried thyme, cans of several kinds of beans (kidney, black, butter), sugar-free garlic-free chicken stock, water, sea salt. Toward the end I add greens- Swiss chard and green kale, cut into small pieces.
Anasazi Bean & Green soup: I have found dried Anasazi beans and really like the flavor. I make a soup that is basically like the one above, but with no ham, and I start the night before with the dry Anasazi beans.
Red Lentil soup: diced carrots, olive or coconut oil, dried onion bits, dried thyme, red lentils, sugar-free garlic-free chicken stock, water, a splash of lemon juice. *I read that adding the salt too soon with legumes keeps them from getting soft. Wait till they're already fully cooked before adding salt. *I also read that if you bring your liquid to a boil before adding the lentils or beans, they'll be less gassy. I sometimes add small bits of kale to this soup. If the family is in a meaty mood, I'll saute bits of ring sausage that they can add, or cook up breakfast sausage links and cut them into bites, and stir them into the soup. The ring sausage has things I can't eat, but we found a breakfast link sausage that works for me.
Brown Lentil soup: basically the same as the red lentil, but it takes twice as long to cook.
Castle B: This is one of our family puns. I researched the French soup Cassoulet, and took its basic elements to make a soup of my own. The French original takes like two days and has things like duck sausage in it. Our is bites of chicken, white beans (I usually used Cannelinni), carrots, dried onion bits, dried thyme, maybe some dried parsley, chicken stock, a splash of white wine, and water. My husband would call it Castle B as a pun on Cassoulet (which sounds like Castle A), and the name stuck. If I'm tired of eating meat, I make a chicken free version and call it Castle Bean. :)
We have found that the Tinkyada brand Brown Rice pastas (spaghetti, fettucine, elbows) work well for us. I make pesto (can't have the garlic or Parmesan in prepared pesto) to put on it, or we have it with canned or smoked salmon. I make spaghetti sauce for the family, and just discovered a tomato-free alternative that I can make for myself (I wrote about this sauce a couple of blogs ago). Another pasta option is sauteed chicken bites, with thyme and broccoli. I add cashew cream so it feels kind of like my old favorite Chicken Broccoli Fettucine Alfredo. For lunch I'll sometimes cook up some brown rice pasta and have it with steamed broccoli and chia seeds.
We also eat my husband's delicious hamburgers (I skip the bun), grilled chicken (he always makes some for me that fits my needs), grilled pork chops, and steak.
With so many varied food needs, and people eating at many different times, we all just make our own breakfasts now. My breakfast usually consists of: brown rice cooked with coconut oil, raw walnuts, raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds, raw chia seeds, and unsweetened vanilla hempmilk. It's supercharged with nutrients and I feel all virtuous and healthy when I eat it.
This isn't every single thing that I eat, but covers a lot of it. And it's always good to remind myself that despite the limits of my food world, there is still plenty of good stuff for me to enjoy.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Everything-Free Spaghetti Sauce experiment
I have a problem with spaghetti sauce. I love it, but it does not love me. First I learned that garlic is not my friend. Then I realized that tomatoes and tomato sauce do not agree with me. But I really miss spaghetti, so I've made it from time to time and just suffered the consequences. Last night, I tried an alternative, based on something my dad tried years ago.
My dad and my middle sister are both inventive cooks. They like to take a basic food concept and tinker with it. For example, my sister took the idea of dishes like sweet-and-sour chicken, where you have fruit and meat with the sauce, and adapted it. She did sweet-and-sour lamb with strawberries; same idea, but different ingredients. And it turned out really well. Our dad does the same kind of thing with food concepts. Years ago, when I was probably in high school, Dad experimented with spaghetti sauce. It is based on a vegetable puree (tomato sauce) so he wondered how it would work to use a different vegetable. I remember that he made a sauce based on pureed cooked carrots. I'm so glad I remebered that!
**Last night, I wanted to make spaghetti for the family, but I'm a little tired of the price I pay for eating the tomato sauce. I made a regular meat sauce for them, cooking the ground beef (the healthy kind, from our local meat shop), then adding seasonings. Before I added the tomato sauce to the meat, I took out a bit of meat for my experiment. I cooked some diced carrots- just boiled them in water. Then I put the carrots in the blender with some of their cooking water, and blended it till I had a nice puree. I put the carrot puree back in the pan with the meat I'd saved out for myself, and heated it together for just a few minutes. I put my carrot sauce over my brown-rice (gluten-free) spaghetti, and had green beans on the side. It was a little different, but by the time I was finished eating I really liked it! And no consequences to suffer!
I think that if I simmered the sauce longer after adding the seasoned meat, and maybe also seasoned the carrots while they cooked beforehand, the flavor would be richer. I'm dairy free, so I don't know how well Parmesan cheese would go with this. Sometimes I sautee sliced black olives briefly (just till they're warm), in olive oil and Italian seasoning, as an addition to spaghetti. I think that would make a nice boost to my carrot-sauce flavor also. The flavor of the green beans went well with my experimental sauce. I imagine broccoli would, too.
I'm so happy to have found a workable alternative to put on pasta!
My dad and my middle sister are both inventive cooks. They like to take a basic food concept and tinker with it. For example, my sister took the idea of dishes like sweet-and-sour chicken, where you have fruit and meat with the sauce, and adapted it. She did sweet-and-sour lamb with strawberries; same idea, but different ingredients. And it turned out really well. Our dad does the same kind of thing with food concepts. Years ago, when I was probably in high school, Dad experimented with spaghetti sauce. It is based on a vegetable puree (tomato sauce) so he wondered how it would work to use a different vegetable. I remember that he made a sauce based on pureed cooked carrots. I'm so glad I remebered that!
**Last night, I wanted to make spaghetti for the family, but I'm a little tired of the price I pay for eating the tomato sauce. I made a regular meat sauce for them, cooking the ground beef (the healthy kind, from our local meat shop), then adding seasonings. Before I added the tomato sauce to the meat, I took out a bit of meat for my experiment. I cooked some diced carrots- just boiled them in water. Then I put the carrots in the blender with some of their cooking water, and blended it till I had a nice puree. I put the carrot puree back in the pan with the meat I'd saved out for myself, and heated it together for just a few minutes. I put my carrot sauce over my brown-rice (gluten-free) spaghetti, and had green beans on the side. It was a little different, but by the time I was finished eating I really liked it! And no consequences to suffer!
I think that if I simmered the sauce longer after adding the seasoned meat, and maybe also seasoned the carrots while they cooked beforehand, the flavor would be richer. I'm dairy free, so I don't know how well Parmesan cheese would go with this. Sometimes I sautee sliced black olives briefly (just till they're warm), in olive oil and Italian seasoning, as an addition to spaghetti. I think that would make a nice boost to my carrot-sauce flavor also. The flavor of the green beans went well with my experimental sauce. I imagine broccoli would, too.
I'm so happy to have found a workable alternative to put on pasta!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Everything-Free Breakfast
I seem to do my very best at eating healthfully in the morning. I remember to take my herbal thyroid support supplement first thing. I eat a serving of fruit before breakfast. I have a nice healthy breakfast. I feel good as I start my day.
Here is my current favorite healthy breakfast: About once a week, I cook up a big pot of brown rice, with a scoop of coconut oil in it. This way I have a healthy base that doesn't take much time on a daily basis. (The coconut oil is very brain-healthy!) I put a scoop of my coconut brown rice in my favorite bowl, and add whole chia seeds, broken-up raw walnuts, and either raw pumpkin seeds or raw sunflower seeds. I add my milk- which is unsweetened vanilla hemp milk (only 1 gram of carb per serving!!), give it a good stir, then heat it all in the microwave.
Though we have stevia and agave sweeteners on hand, I find that the combination of mild coconut and vanilla flavors is enough for me and I don't need it sweeter. Sometimes I add another teaspoon or two of coconut oil before heating it. The coconut oil gives it a good buttery mouth-feel. I really like this breakfast, and it meets many of my dietary focus points: low-carb, low on the glycemic index, high-protein, high-fiber, nutrient-rich, allergen-free, and tasty!
There's a documentary on youtube about the affect of coconut oil on Alzheimer's symptoms. So interesting! Even though coconut oil is spendy, if by eating it I can avoid Alzheimers, which is a horrible way to end, then I am all for it! Saturated plant fats, like coconut and palm kernel oils, are very different from saturated animal fats. We need them! Our naturopath told us that when nuts and seeds are roasted, the fats in them turn to trans-fats, so we try to use raw nuts and seeds whenever possible. Trans-fats are bad news!
We read about chia seeds in the book "Born to Run." It's a very interesting book- makes me want to go run barefoot! According to what we've read, chia seeds are sort of a Superfood- high in fiber and protein, and other things I don't remember right now. For me, the protein from the combination of nuts and seeds balances out the carbs in the rice, so it won't whack my insulin levels. If I get super nutrients in the process- so much the better!
Here is my current favorite healthy breakfast: About once a week, I cook up a big pot of brown rice, with a scoop of coconut oil in it. This way I have a healthy base that doesn't take much time on a daily basis. (The coconut oil is very brain-healthy!) I put a scoop of my coconut brown rice in my favorite bowl, and add whole chia seeds, broken-up raw walnuts, and either raw pumpkin seeds or raw sunflower seeds. I add my milk- which is unsweetened vanilla hemp milk (only 1 gram of carb per serving!!), give it a good stir, then heat it all in the microwave.
Though we have stevia and agave sweeteners on hand, I find that the combination of mild coconut and vanilla flavors is enough for me and I don't need it sweeter. Sometimes I add another teaspoon or two of coconut oil before heating it. The coconut oil gives it a good buttery mouth-feel. I really like this breakfast, and it meets many of my dietary focus points: low-carb, low on the glycemic index, high-protein, high-fiber, nutrient-rich, allergen-free, and tasty!
There's a documentary on youtube about the affect of coconut oil on Alzheimer's symptoms. So interesting! Even though coconut oil is spendy, if by eating it I can avoid Alzheimers, which is a horrible way to end, then I am all for it! Saturated plant fats, like coconut and palm kernel oils, are very different from saturated animal fats. We need them! Our naturopath told us that when nuts and seeds are roasted, the fats in them turn to trans-fats, so we try to use raw nuts and seeds whenever possible. Trans-fats are bad news!
We read about chia seeds in the book "Born to Run." It's a very interesting book- makes me want to go run barefoot! According to what we've read, chia seeds are sort of a Superfood- high in fiber and protein, and other things I don't remember right now. For me, the protein from the combination of nuts and seeds balances out the carbs in the rice, so it won't whack my insulin levels. If I get super nutrients in the process- so much the better!
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