Sunday, June 27, 2010

Vegetarian Burrito

Recently we got out the gluten free vegan cookbook. This is a great thing to do right before making a shopping list, because it usually requires ingredients which don't last long. In this case, as usually, it turned out to be delicious. I did have to make a few modifications due to my personal preferences and allergies, but I tried things I had thought I was allergic to and been avoiding my whole life like tomatoes. Turns out, they're delicious in a burrito! (duh)

These can be vegan depending on what tortillas you use and how you cook your beans, or of course you could add meat if you're a raging carnivore. But they were delicioius as is, so I recomend you try them as are unless you're allergic or intollerant to something on this ingrediant list. Also, they are gluten free if you use

large rice or hemp tortillas (gluten free)
1 can pinto beans drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yam or 2 small yams
1 cup chopped white onion
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 seeded and chopped red bell pepper
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 cup seeded and diced tomatoe
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

prick yam all over and and cook through (5 to 6 minutes on high in microwave or 400 degrees for 20 minutes in the oven) rinse, strain and cook pinto beans
while the yams cook put olive oil in a skillet on medicum high heat and sautee chopped onion, then add bel pepper and then add garlic. Sautee them all well and then add the cooked, chopped yams. Finally add the rest of the ingrediants and mix together.

We put some of the ingredients into tortillas, had 2 burritos and saved the rest of the mixture in the fridge in an air tight container till later. It was delicious for the next 2 days whenever someone wasn't around to help and I wasn't up to the task of food prep. So it would probably be a great thing to have in the fridge for a pre-teen to pop in the microwave the next day. I just put some in a tortilla and heated it for 1 minute. Wallah! Lunch!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. Obviously you can tweak the recipe to your own tastes, but we loved them just like this. Even Patch and Carlie admitted to loving them. We also love this with black beans as the original recipe called for.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

FINALLY Clear Dietary Restrictions

It has been a challenging year and I've been a bit silent this month on my food blog. For that, I apologize. The good news is, I have had my food intollerance test, gluten, candida, caeisin and sugars tested. That and more actually.

I found out that I have a low thyroid problem, and am starting a new medicine for that tomorrow. I suspect that will help loads with my energy and weight loss. This could in large part explain why I can eat less than most people I know, but still gain weight. And why this last time I went on weight watchers it didn't work. I'm excited and hopeful.

I also was given foods to avoid. Eventually I will try a rotational diet which is meant to help avoid building intollerances to any foods I currently can eat.

The good news, I am NOT caesin or gluten intollerant! I now have 5 test results at 2 different times in my life saying I am not gluten intollerant in any way. I still make gluten free foods sometimes, so will post gluten free recipes along with the others...but if it doesn't say gluten free in the tags, don't assume it is please.

I will be trying both regular nonfat milk and lactaid to see which my body processes better. I did notice that when I was gluten free I was able to drink milk and eat cheese without a negative reaction. So I suppose it was some combination perhaps of carbs and milk that was upsetting my stomach.

My sugars were high, so I was told to cut out sugar, honey, and sodas. I'm still allowed to eat fruits (PHEW) and I believe I can still use small amounts of agave nectar or prickly pear. Which is a relief since both are in plentiful supply here in the Sonoran Desert, and I really love them both. But I will not be replacing all the sugar I drank and ate with other sweetners. I will be striving to have a balanced, low carb, low sugar, low fat way of eating. I will be not eating foods I am alergic to, and avoiding almost all foods I'm intolerant of. There were 3 lists of intollerance. Red, Orange, and Yellow. The red and orange are out. Finito. I was told I could eat the yellow. I will be eating them, but will strive not to eat too much of them, because I do not want to end up having them jump up higher on the scale of food intollerance.

Here's a list of the foods I can not eat at this time and for at least 3 possibly 6 more months:
Allergies: Crab (never again, Ige Allergy) Brocoli, Eggs, Squash, Watermellon, Red Zone: Carrots, Codfish (does this mean I need to avoid my fish oil pills and go back on meds for cholesterol?) Mushroom (yay!) Orange Zone: Asparagus, Black Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea, Chicken, Egg Yolk, Ginger, Grapefruit, Lamb, Lemon, Pecan, Plum, Sessame. And to avoid because of the candida, bakers yeast, brewer's yeast, Cane sugar, Fructose sugar, and honey.

I think there's a few other things I'm mildly allergic to that I am not remembering offhand, but the ones I listed are the ones I started avoiding this month. And no hives since avoiding them. I forgot about the watermellon at a BBQ, and 15 minutes later had hives. I forgot about eggs being the major ingredient in the quiche muffin I tried out one day, itchy itchy scratchy scratchy. Eating things my body is intollerant to or allergic to raising the inflamatory response, and that causes more fibro pain along with the hives I've experienced in the past. This means my Fibromyalgia Syndrom will likely be helped by this new way of eating.

Thankfully I haven't forgotten anything since. And as I learn to avoid foods that my body doesn't like, I am sure I will start feeling better. It is REALLY nice to not wake up covered in hives. I hope there's no summer heat rash in store this year either. We'll see, but I'm hopeful that if I'm not eating eggs and other things that I'm allergic to there will be no itchy hives to wake to in the middle of the summer nights this year. Wish me luck!