Cauliflower Fried Rice

A nice alternative to using grains. Alters the texture, which is a nice change. Also read earlier in the week that cauliflower is a super food. So that’s a plus.

Appropriated from:

http://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2013/03/cauliflower-fried-rice.html

Had all my ingredients chopped and blended before cooking (i.e. carrots, spring onions, shallots, cauliflower, cabbage).

Started with frying the shallots with olive oil until translucent. Added the chopped carrots and cabbage. Let these fry for a bit, constantly moving ingredients. Then added spring onion and cauliflower. Corn.

 

Resources for Food Intolerances

I have recently experienced another intestinal blow-out after foolishly believing i had built up my tolerances for certain problem foods once again.

I had been going incredibly well monitoring my intake of high salicylate products and problem fructose vegetables garlic and onion. Plus ruling out dairy products completely. Originally my naturopath identified that i have an intolerance for lactose (although recently i have wondered whether this is for casein instead – the protein in dairy).

Last weekend i had the honour of attending an old school friends wedding up in Alice Springs. I became blasé about what i was eating due to the massive quantities of delicious foods. So the accumulation of rich foods over the weekend and following into the week (when i consumed some onion at a Japanese restaurant on Monday night, then partook in a delicious Roo Bolognese made by one of my housemates on Tuesday night, followed by some fish oil liquid on Wednesday morning) blew my small intestine and spleen into throbbing, painful time bombs.

It is only now, after not being able to eat anything for Thursday and part of Friday, that i have been able to stomach a bowl of porridge. Last night was incredibly exciting that i was able to consume a soft boiled egg on a piece of toast!

So i am hoping it is only up and up from this point. I will be strict over the next couple of weeks and will aim to initiate a proper elimination diet at the end of my semester (November).

The below links are a combination of information that i hope will direct me through this venture.

Disclaimer: This information has been obtained for personal use so has not been prescribed officially by any medical professional.

 

Elimination Diet – Food Challenge Protocols

FODMAPs

Elimination Diet – Strict and Moderate

Elimination Diet – Simple diet

Elimination Diet – RPAH Shopping List 2007#

Elimination Diet – RPAH Problem Additives 2008#

Elimination Diet – RPAH Medicines, Hygeine, etc 2008#

Elimination Diet – Meals and Snack Ideas _milk and wheat free

Elimination Diet – Food Challenge Protocols

Salmon and Avocado Pasta

Simple and tasty meal. You can swap around ingredients as much as you like. However, i feel as though with such simple ingredients you appreciate the flavors more so. You could also add some Parmesan cheese as a finish if you don’t have a restrictive diet such as meself.

 

Rice and Corn Penne Pasta

Olive Oil or Sunflower Oil

3-4 Shallots

Large Tin of Salmon

Half Firm (otherwise turns to mush) Avocado

Handful of Sugar Snap Peas (Top and Tailed)

Parsley (to garnish)

 

1) Put two thirds of a pot of water on to boil.

2) Dice shallots, pop into a fry pan with choice of chosen oil. Simmer until soft. Remove from heat.

3) Add penne to boiling water with a punch of salt.

4) Boil kettle. Blanch sugar snap peas. under cover.

5) Dice parsley, slice avocado, open can of salmon and drain (taking out bones).

6) Once pasta cooked through drain and place back into dry pot. Add all prepared ingredients, stirring through.

7) Serve it up and get it in’ya.

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Home Made Hommus

1 can of chick peas (drained and washed well)

olive oil

1 lemon (juice of)

Salt and Pepper

1 Table Spoon Unhulled Tahini (sesame seed paste/spread)

Using a magi-mix (or similar device) pulse chop and mix chickpeas until all broken. Add a slurp of olive oil, half of the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Continue pulsing until mixed in. Add a generous table spoon of tahini and the rest of the lemon juice. Mix again. Adjust according to taste.

Goes well for a snack with corn chips or crackers or toasted bread. Also acts as a good spread to compliment wraps, sandwiches or even spread or dolloped on chicken or other meals.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie

This is a simple concoction that i just stumbled through one night. Sadly there are no photos for we gobbled it up in a blink of an eye.

Olive Oil

2 x Sticks of Celery (thinly sliced)

2 x Carrots (peeled and diced)

1 x Parsnip (peeled and diced

Salt an’ Pepper

500g Chicken Mince (thighs if at all possible – i know they are fatty, but they sure taste good)

2 x Sweet Potatoes (Peeled and diced)

1 x Cob of Sweet Corn (Peeled)

Preheat oven to 200 Celsius

1) Put the sweet potato in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil then simmer until soft. If you have one of those double layer saucepans where you can simultaneously steam something up top then pop the sweet corn in to cook at the same time (note: it may not take as long as the sweet potato to cook).

2) Add oil to large frying pan (preferably non-stick) and throw the celery in to similar for a minute or two. Add salt and pepper. Then add carrots and parsnip. Simmer for a few minutes.

3) Remove vegies from pan and place into a bowl. Put the chicken mince in and separate from it’s mass to finer density (ala Bolognese). Brown chicken.

4) Remove sweet corn cob and slice off cooked kernels to add to vegie mix. Add vegies back into pan with browned chicken. Mix and slowly cook through for several minutes. Meanwhile,

5) When sweet potato is cooked, drain water from saucepan and mash – you can add nuttlex (although i reckon this intrudes on the flavour of the vegetables) or rice milk if sweet potato is too dry/hard.

6) Lay cooked mince and vegies into ceramic baking dish, leveling the mixture off to be even throughout. Lightly pat and smother sweet potato mash over mince and vegies until covered.

7) Pop the assembly into oven to cook for roughly 20 mins – until light browning and hardness of sweet potato.

You could easily do this dish with pastry and/or add more things in to brighten it up. However, from what i have learned about my diet, it’s all about simplifying recipes and pulling out aggravating agents (ie. chilli, garlic, onion, etc.) rather than creating an explosion for the taste buds.

This dish was surprisingly tastey for a half-arsed concoction.

 

Adjustments to recipe in shown image are as follows: I blind-baked some gluten and dairy free pastry for this one. Then finely sliced parsley that i mixed in with the sweet potato. Salt and pepper plus sunflower seeds as finishing touches on top.

Chop Soup

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Couple sticks of celery (chopped) and/or shallots

Couple of carrots (chopped)

Couple of parsnips (chopped)

Salt an’ Pepper

(Optional) Quarter red cabbage (chopped)

3 or 4 lamb chops

Cup an’ a half of lentils (Well rinsed beforehand)

A tin or two of diced tomatoes

A slurp of water

Method:

1. Chuck the first three vegies in a large soup pot with a generous slurp of the olive oil and S & P. Cook for 5 or 10 minutes whilst continually stirring.

2.Towards the end of the 5 or 10 minutes toss the cabbage in (if you dig it) and cook for a couple of minutes.

3. Remove vegies from pot – chuck ’em in a bowl or some such device – then pop the chops in the pot to lightly brown on either side.

4. Once chops are lightly browned (don’t go overboard, a few seconds on either side) then toss the vegies back into the pot. Then add lentils and diced tomatoes and water to just cover the lot.Simmer for 15 or 20ish minutes until chops are tender (slice one open to see how they’re going).

 

This recipe is a piece of piss and a hearty meal if ever i’ve encountered one. Great for those winter nights or when you are just after something wholly substantial to fill your guts.

With this basic beginning one can adapt to suit other similar casserole dishes (ie. chicken thighs are a winner – instead of simmering them best to slide them into the over to braise until tender – winner).

 

 

Lemon Tarts (SCD and medium salicylate)

I whipped this up substituting the almond meal with hazelnut meal and butter with copha. Then i just limited the honey used in the recipe – i think i halved it from memory. I had a small slice just to be on the safe side. I whipped it up for Mum’s Birthday dinner. It seemed to please everybody in the fam so this recipe gets a big TICK. It was also swell coming across this blog, for it is incredibly difficult finding low salicylate dairy free recipes.

Crust

8oz (225g) ground almonds

2oz (55g) cold butter

2tbs light set honey (clover, sunflower etc)

Line your chosen tart tins with baking parchment, a circle in the bottom should be fine.

Chop the butter into small cubes and place everything in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles damp crumbs and is starting to clump together.

Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and press it up around the edges and evenly over the bottom with your fingers. If you have hot fingers then you may want to do this roughly and then refridgerate for about 15 minutes before finishing the job neatly.

Gently prick the bottom with a fork.

Pop in the fridge while you heat the oven to 150C. Then bake for 5-10 minutes until the edges of the crust are light golden brown. Cool on a rack.

Filling

8 egg yolks

1/2 cup (125ml) clover honey (or other light clean tasting honey)

1/2 cup (125ml) lemon juice

1/2 cup (225g) cold butter

zest of one lemon (optional)

Cut the butter into small dice.

In a bain marie (or a heat proof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water) stir together egg yolks, honey, lemon juice and zest. Whisk constantly until it feels hot to a finger dipped in.

Start adding the butter a couple of chunks at a time, whisking constantly. When each chunk has melted, add another couple and so on until all are used up and the filling looks glossy and thicker.

Continue cooking and whisking for another 5-10 minutes or so until the curd is thick – but remember, it will thicken further on cooling so you don’t need to cook it until it is as thick as cold curd.

set the bowl into cold water to take the heat out of it and stir a few times over the next few minutes to prevent a skin forming.

Pour evenly into the waiting tart shells and leave to cool. You can refridgerate them, which makes everything easier to unmold, but the curd will have little beads of condensation on the top (personally I don’t mind this at all). Leave for a couple of hours to firm up and then dig in!

http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2009/05/go-ahead-honey-its-gluten-free-lemon.html

 

Classic Dairy Free Chocolate Mousse

This blue my socks off the other night when my sister Kelly whipped it up for desert. Probably shouldn’t have the inulin in the sugar/dairy free chocolate but gave it a whirl. Blown away by the fact of having a DESERT! since being on the diet (going on three to four months now). Must give this one a go again for mousse has got to be one of my all time favorite deserts.

 

This recipe is Vegetarian, Gluten free, Wheat free and Dairy free.

ingredients

serves 6

225 g (8 oz) of (Dairy Free / Gluten free) dark continental chocolate
15 g (1/2 oz (1 tablespoon of Dairy free margarine
1 tablespoon of Cognac or brandy
4 large free-range eggs, separated
6 ramekins

method

1. Break the chocolate into small pieces, place in a large bowl with 4 tablespoons of water and melt in the microwave.

2. Stir in the margarine and Cognac and microwave very briefly.

3. Now stir in the egg yolks. in another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are stiff and forming firm peaks.

4. Now fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture using a metal spoon.

5. Gently spoon the mousse mixture into each ramekin and carefully level off.

6. Cover each mousse with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and chill them for several hours or until they are firmly set.

7. Remove the clingfilm (plastic wrap) and serve each ramekin on a little plate with a couple of tiny
Gluten free, Dairy free cookies,

My Diet

THE BACK STORY

So, here’s the spiel:

10 days into my epic around the world trip, whilst staying with a dear friend (Gilar) in Jakarta (Indonesia), i overloaded my stomach with copious amounts of sugars and spices. Worst of all, one night whilst visiting one of Gilar’s friends in nearby Bandung we decided to dine out at a four star restaurant in the hills. Incredible location – but that’s another story. About three hours after consuming a feast of a meal i woke to chunder my guts out. Unfortunately i had eaten the Gado Gado dish (a local raw vegie salad drizzled with satay peanut sauce) that, i suspect, was not washed correctly. So i had quite the violent reaction to the dish, being up all night as my body went about the business of evacuating all known offenders.

The next morning i tried to shower and get active once more only to find myself doubled over on the tiled shower floor with the water spraying over me and Gilar and his friend hollering out to me from the neighbouring room to make sure that i was alright. I had blacked out. I couldn’t stand the smell of breakfast much less consume anything. I even struggled with the consumption of water.

So Gilar decided the best thing to do was to rush me back to his place in Jakarta and put me to rest. We went to the local doctor for i was struggling to keep a settled stomach on the drive to the train station. So the doctor handed me a bunch of antibiotics and hopped on a train.

I rested up for a couple of weeks at Gilar’s place to feel like i was strong enough to continue on my journey. Then, once i had postponed my flight for a week i decided i should continue on with my adventure.

Fastforward a month later. I’m in India, having just met up with a travel group to tour from Delhi to McLeod Ganj to Bir and back to Delhi again. After having had a couple of spicey curries i find myself up all night once again on the toilet. The group must travel on, leaving me to fend for myself cooped up in a hotel room. Thankfully the group manager (Lincoln), a close friend of the family, was a great support to get the ball rolling for medical attention. A doctor from the local hospital rocked up and prescribed an IV drip of antibiotics and fluids over night that an attendant from the hospital would monitor. Then another handful of antibiotics to get me over the next couple of weeks.

I began to recover once again, although, the similar feeling in my guts told me i should be careful with what i eat.

Fastforward again. I’ve just landed in Prague (Czech) and am staying at a couch surfers place just out of the city. I am beginning to feel a loss of appetite and having issues on the toilet. So i hurry my trip up and zip across to Salzberg for a quick tour of the city. My condition drastically worsens and i have stopped eating. I jump on a train straight to St. Gallen where i have phoned ahead to family friends who live there.

The next morning Kerrie, one of my mum’s closest friends who i am staying with, takes me to her local GP. After some blood tests the doctor asks us to come into her office. She tells me that i need to rush off to the hospital immediately for i am a heartbeat away from liver failure. Once she told me this it was as if everything hit home and the enormity of my health problems surfaced in my consciousness. I immediately became faint and had trouble heading out of the building to the taxi.

I rested at Kerrie’s house for a month. Hoping, praying, that i would recover in time to continue on with my journey. But as the days rolled over it became evident that i would need to jump on a plane back to Melbourne to seek further medical help and allow my body more time to recover fully.

Since being back down under i have had several relapses. One actually landing me in an ambulance and a hospital bed for a week. I developed a rare strand of urinary tract infection and encountered horrendous back pain among other ramifications of having such an illness. Chronic Fatigue disallowed the possibility of work or study for the rest of 2010.

After seeing countless practitioners both from the pathological world and alternative world i found a Naturopath/GP team South of the city who seemed to make a desired effect upon my condition. Their thoughts; to starve the parasites (presumably i still have these critters around http://www.badbugs.org/contact.htm) of salicylates (natural sugars) and nurture my digestive enzymes into a slow recovery seemed to work. Or should i say, IS working (knock on wood).

From the Vega testing (in layman’s terms: a machine which monitors what substances your body needs at that particular time) my Naturopath conducted upon me she found that i am intolerant to dairy and have been consuming too much sugar. From my understanding, dairy has an accumulative effect upon my body. A little bit over a long period of time will still put me in a compromised position of headaches, bloating, constipation and phlegm upon phlegm. So i have had to rule dairy out completely. This has incredibly lowered my body weight for i am no longer getting the large quantity of fats that are in milk, cheese, and yogurt.

THE FACTS

Ruling out dairy (even goats and sheeps milk) is a tricky thing for butter is used in quite a few recipes out there.

Salicylates is also a tricky thing. In this list below i am needing to stick to the low moderate to low intake of foods in order to get by. It makes for an incredibly basic diet, however, i am finding my taste buds are opening up to the subtleties of each taste. It seems as though we are so used to disguising the simple tastes of vegetables and meats with harsher flavors (chilli, garlic, ginger) that we no longer appreciate the essence of the food that we consume. Quite the tragedy i think.

http://salicylatesensitivity.com/about/food-guide/

I am constantly surprised with the possibilities of recipes out there that are still completely nourishing and complex and still fit my bill. With every friend or family member who is up for the challenge i find a new perspective of looking at this challenge of a diet. It is inspirational to see such people take up the challenge and create something fantastic!

I am getting used to the fact of not being able to have deserts at the moment. This is not as bad as it sounds. For i still have some great fruit that i can transform into more wholesome deserts for myself and others if need be.