What is your diet?

First of all, let me just point out for those who haven't been keeping up with this food blog, that I am not dieting. I am working on finding delicious foods that contribute to my health. I also am not on a weight loss plan although I am losing weight, and will probably continue to do so for a while. Part of getting healthier is weight loss for me, tho not for everyone, and I certainly have no intention of ever being skinny or muscle bound. I would like to be a nice healthy weight and to improve my musculature, but I do not want to over do in any area.

Secondly, I will sum it up for you like this. I am eating twice as many vegetables, and half as many carbs with  at least 8 cups of water a day. Most days I drink 8 -10 cups of  water. Of course that is not the entirety of what I'm doing, but that's the simple description, and if that were the only thing I did, it would have improved my health. I am also avoiding most processed foods, and limiting those processed foods I do eat, to mostly things with as few ingredients as possible, and that those ingredients are things easily pronounced such as whole wheat, salt and water = egg free pasta or rice, basil, water as the ingredients on some simple crackers. Things made with whole foods are more likely to end up in my grocery cart than highly processed foods, and whole foods themselves are the most likely to end up there. This along with eliminating foods I am allergic to or intolerant of has made a huge difference in my health.

I use sparkpeople.com as a free food and exercise tracking device, and I also use their site for getting recipe ideas, networking with others who are working on their health. Sometimes I take a day or week off from tracking food, but during that time I still eat in the same basic manner. If I don't feel like measuring things out with actual measuring cups, I use this plate planning method: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/csi/obesity-plate-planner-13.pdf which is basically 1/2 a plate of vegetables, a fist sized portion of protein and a first sized portion of carbs. Sometimes I have a piece of fruit or glass of milk with it. Often I save my fruit for dessert.

Healthy fats. There are a lot of disagreements out there about what healthy fats are, but I have noticed that when I eat more plant based fats I lose more weight, and my cholesterol has been lower, so I've been sticking to that. If I want to eat something higher in carbs, I make sure it's combined with protein and healthy fats, as I learned from the Prevention Magazine titled DTOUR, and later in the DTOUR diet book. I do not follow the DTOUR diet and exercise plan 100%, but I have used it to help me plan my meals. The cook book is great,  so I'm hoping to get that in the future. Every recipe I've gotten from them is pretty easily altered to avoid allergens, and the cookbook has helpful lists of replacement foods for just such a situation. (I scan it every time I'm at a book store) it's really helped me to manage my diabetes and so far I've been able to get off 2 medications since starting to eat more vegetables, less carbs, and all the rest I said above.

Avoiding chemicals has also been really helpful to getting rid of my migraines and reducing my chronic pain. I'm still having a difficult time during Monsoon season, but other than that I have been seeing some great changes. Some are gradual, and some are almost instantaneous. For example the hives I have suffered multiple times a week for my entire life, haven't happened in quite some time. They stopped as soon as I eliminated all allergens and foods I'm intolerant of. Since then I have been able to add some foods from the intolerance list back in carefully bit by bit, but others I haven't been able to add back in. I've come down to a list of about 30 things to avoid. It used to be a much longer list. That, the addition of stretching and relaxation techniques, and avoiding flashing lights, I have greatly limited my migraines which used to be chronic cluster migraines which affected me daily for almost 2 years in a row, but now are much milder and happen much less frequently. I had a migraine the other day after accidentally eating some dehydrated meat with chemicals in it, and then seeing lightning. So they do sometimes still happen, but at least it was only a couple days of being sensitive to light and having a headache instead of months worth.

Two new things I've been trying are natural sweeteners with a lower glycemic index than fructose or sugar, and sprouting things to get higher nutrients from them. In 2 weeks I'll meet with a dietitian to discuss I will write separate posts about each of those as I come to some conclusions.

Hope that helps answer some of the questions people have had. :) Please keep asking questions, and I'll keep posting my experiences. And please feel free to share what has helped you to be more healthy! I'm just learning as I go.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Casserole

We were out of all vegetables and almost all fruit so we made a trip to the closest store. First I did a search for recipes with Quinoa, because a friend had mentioned it, and we hadn't made any lately, but I have a LOT of the stuff in my pantry.

This recipe  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1905451  sounded different, so I bought all the ingredients for this, some things that were on sale, some organic leafy greens and such that looked delicious, and some cherry tomatoes that were on sale. It was a good shopping trip, not too much money for a lot of food. Ironically, Patch also decided to stop by the same store about an hour later on her way home from work.

We'll just have to make sure to eat LOTS of vegetarian meals and salads in the next couple of days. She also did much better at getting a lot of food for a little money, since she only bought things that were on sale in the 50% off section, whereas Carlie and I had some things we knew we needed for the week. It's all good, the house feels bountiful again, and the options for making healthy meals has greatly improved!

Sweet Potato Quinoa Casserole with Cantelope & Wilted Spinach

I actually modified the recipe since the original had a pretty high carb count:  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2227285 this one has about 1/2 the carbs, a bit less fat, and higher protein. It is vegetarian, not vegan like the original, so if you're vegan, use the original recipe :) Or at least use the things which I replaced with cheese. My recipe has more whole, unprocessed vegetables. Be sure to grate the sweet potato, and enjoy!

Eggless, Gluten Free Baking (Low Carb)

Recently I have been trying to find recipes to add zucchini to, and this has lead me to some interesting experiments with eggless, low carb recipes which turn out to be accidentally gluten free. Perhaps eggless recipes need a cook book of their own. 


Since low carb is helpful to regulating my blood glucose, I have been trying to add more low carb recipes to my routine, as well as more vegetables. I don't count vegetables (especially the green ones) as carbs. But we're not here for a discussion about blood glucose, we are here for yum-ness! Or at least I am. I'll leave the diabetes lectures to the nurses and dietitians.


These recipes both turned out delicious, but it was the first time I tried either and I had to replace quite a few ingredients due to allergies. There are a few things I learned and things I plan to try out next time. The Almond Blueberry Pancake recipe does not currently have zucchini because Patch is not a big fan.  That said, she did love the Zucchini Brownies. They are going fast! You can make these without the xantham gum if you don't have any; I will be making a post entirely on xantham gum in the near future. Buying some is well worth your while if you plan to cook eggless and/or gluten free recipes, especially baking.


Some things I've learned along the way:
Brownies are pretty amazing no matter what you make them with
Zucchini, when cooked, actually helps create a flour like texture, especially if finely grated
Replacing eggs in recipes is tricky, but a little xantham gum goes a long way and replaces the stickiness of gluten in a recipe as well. 
Apple sauce may sweeten your recipe as well as replacing eggs and/or fat
Don't forget you may be adding liquid in some cases
< span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">The more eggs a recipe requires, the more difficult it is to replace them, and the more likely the recipe will be too watery.
Just adding flour may not be able to save some recipes,  but give it a shot in small amounts>
Gluten Free flours vary widely and even within the same type (almond flour for example) can vary in moisture content, texture, etc. This can be taken as a fun adventure, or an irritation. I choose the first but feel free to ignore my reality and substitute your own. 


Adding zucchini to recipes can add moisture. Try pressing them against a paper towel lined strainer to get rid of some of the water before adding them to a recipe or you may end up with a batch so watery it won't cook properly at all. This happened to me the first time I attempted zucchini pancakes, major fail. I will be trying them again in the future as well as sweet potato pancakes and a combination. When I get them perfected, I will share them here.

The following recipes were delicious and everyone who tried them is either lying to me or they liked them too. 

Zucchini Brownies
A friend recommended Fast Paleo Zucchini Brownies but they have some things I'm allergic to so I altered the recipe slightly. They smell delicious when baking and were no disappointment! We ate all but one before remembering to photograph them. Photo coming soon. These were a bit more oily than I'd prefer, and I didn't cook them quite enough, so those in the middle tasted a bit more like zucchini than those on the outer edges which people did not guess contained zucchini. The middle however, was moist and delicious. Next time I might add 5 minutes to the baking time.

Minutes to Prepare: 20

Minutes to Cook: 30- 45

Number of Servings: 16

Tips

If you do not have a small whisk you can use a fork to mix the xanthum gum and apple sauce. This is the egg replacer. If you want, you can put a dark chocolate chip in the center of each right after they come out of the oven. I was told to wait to cut these after they cool, but they cut just fine for me right out of the oven.

Ingredients

Almond Butter, 1 cup
Zucchini, 1.5 cup, grated 

Maple Syrup, .33 cup
Almond Extract, 1 teaspoon
Baking Soda, 1 teaspoon
Cinnamon, ground, 1 teaspoon
Allspice, .5 teaspoon
Dark Chocolate Chips, 1 cup

Directions

Preheat oven to 350


Using a small whisk, mix 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce with 1/4 teaspoon xantham gum. Add all other ingredients and mix together.


Pour batter into a 9x9 greased brownie pan


bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until you can prick it with a toothpick and it comes out clean






Serving Size: makes 16 brownies 2.25 inches square

Almond Blueberry Pancakes

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour  1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 

Other Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons almond butter
• 3/4 cup blueberries
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup coconut milk 
• 1 Tablespoon 100% Maple Syrup (or your other favorite liquid sweetener)

In addition:

2 tablespoons butter or oil for frying pan

Directions:Place non stick frying pan on medium-low heat.

Once well blended, mix in all other ingredients. (except  the milk & butter)

Add milk slowly until the consistency is that you would normally expect for pancakes

Lightly coat frying pan with butter (or oil if you prefer)

Spoon onto warm, buttered pan and cook slowly until underside is brown, flip and cook until both sides are nicely browned.
The tops of the pancakes will not bubble like normal pancakes, but may start to appear slightly cooked around the time they are ready to be flilpped.

Recipe makes approximately 12 small pancakes or 24 "silver dollar" pancakes

Tips:

• Be patient. If you cook slowly  as they cook the batter will puff up around the blueberries
• Almond flour is really almond meal and the pancakes made with them can be grainy
• For softer less grainy pancakes, try adding 1/2 a cup of rice flour (tapioca or brown rice) it will raise the carb count, so if that's a concern try a 1/2 cup sweet potato flour (changes flavor)
• For puffier pancakes, you can use sparkling water or mix some xantham gum or guar gum into the mix. I find mixing it into the flour before adding wet ingredients helpful. I don't like sparkling water because carbonation seems to trigger my migraines, so I tend to use xantham gum but more on that later.

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!