A Theory

First, a quick shift--I am updating my meal schedule to the following:

Breakfast

Lunch

Smoothie/snack

Supper

For one thing, trying to fit in eating five times a day was inconvenient and time-consuming.  Plus, I am not feeling as hungry in between meals, so the mid-morning snack isn't really necessary.  My weight has pretty much stabilized, so that isn't a concern.  And finally, smoothies in the winter weren't going to be very appetizing, so decided to have snack as an option in the afternoon instead.  

I have had several people ask me what I thought brought all my health issues on so suddenly.  The truth of the matter, though, is that it wasn't sudden at all, but had just reach a point of affecting my general health.  Two of my symptoms; my red cheeks and nose, and my constantly runny nose have been around for years and years.  I chalked the redness up to being my particular coloring, and the runny nose was simply allergies, though to what exactly I could never quite figure out.  It was quite a revelation to me when both these issues improved dramatically as I have changed my diet.  

As I said in the first post, I am not dealing with allergies.  I don't react to my lotions which I am sure contain corn derivatives.  Nor do I have issues with basic soaps or with shampoos and conditioners.  It is only what I eat that causes problems.  Thinking back on how I never have been able to tolerate a lot of whole grains, my guess is that whatever the body uses to process these foods is in short supply in my body.  And, with growing older, I am speculating that my body is producing even less of whatever that is, thus causing me to react more strongly to these foods.  I will probably never get a definitive answer, but this is my theory, and I am sticking to it! :-)

Now comes the big menu organization.  I have to put things into some kind of routine or system so that I don't have to always be figuring out what to do on the spot (a very stressful place for me).  Now that I pretty much have my parameters in place, I can look for a variety of recipes to use for each food.  I will write these down and then be able to quickly put together a varied weekly menu.  But, as is always with organization, things always look worse before they look better.

Looks like my kitchen table will be out of commission for meals for a while.  Once I have my recipes in place, I will begin to post them here.  Until next time!  :-)

Winter Readiness

Winter is the quiet season for the yard and garden, which is a good thing for me with holiday preparations before me.  Though our garden isn't productive currently, we wanted to give it a little boost by planting some winter rye which we will then turn in before spring planting.

I am calling this our mini-meadow.  It will be nice to have a touch of green when all the yard grass has browned from freezes.  

This past summer we planted some Barbados cherries.  Though it wasn't the best time to be planting them, they have settled in quite happily.  We didn't really expect them to do much this year except get established, but they surprised us by blooming toward the end of summer and now have put on their lovely red cherries.  They are supposed to be a favorite of birds, so perhaps we will have a little extra feathered activity around the yard this fall.

Setting the Parameters

At the beginning of this year (2010) I began to notice a significant change in my health.  While the changes may have been coming on gradually, they now started to affect my day to day activities.  In the spring, mainly as an experiment, I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet.  I saw an initial improvement and began to recognize the specifics of how I responded to certain foods.  After many ups and downs, I have eliminated everything from the plant family that contains grains.  This includes not only all grains, but also pseudo-grains, molasses, and cane sugar.  Dairy also seems to be factor, so that is gone as well.  My health is much improved and the reactions have pretty well subsided.  

I am beginning this blog to offer menu plans and recipe ideas that I have developed or come across in my search for meals that fit within my current parameters.  When I first reach this point of limitation in my diet, I was pretty discouraged.  Eating seemed like it was going to be this continuous monotony.  Thinking about it, though, made me realize how often grains were a part of my meals and that they were simple being replace with other things.  

Because I am not trying to follow a specific diet, but rather working towards what my body in particular needs, not all the recipes will suit the needs or limitations of others.  What I hope to accomplish is not just the passing along of recipes, but ideas that others can modify to fit their own dietary needs.

In addition, I want to say that I don't think grains are evil, but rather that, for some reason, my body seems to be lacking what is needed to process them.  I am not dealing with an allergy, but with an intolerance or sensitivity.  I love to make bread (and eat it), but that is no longer an option for me if I want to feel well.  So here are the foods I am working with (I will modify the list on this post as it changes):

Proteins:
     Eggs
     Chicken
     Beef


Starches:
     Sweet potatoes
     Potatoes
     Pumpkin
     Winter squashes
     Legumes


Sugars:
     Maple syrup
     Honey


Fruits and vegetables


Because the starches I am now using don't have quite the staying power of grains, my eating schedule goes something like this during the day.  I am still early in this process, so there will probably be shifts and changes along the way.


Breakfast
Snack
Lunch
Smoothie (where I add my supplements such as calcium and iodine)
Dinner

Breakfast generally consists of an egg, a starch, and a vegetable.  Snack is fruit and a protein. Lunch and dinner are either a meat, starch, and vegetable, or a meatless main dish like lentils plus a vegetable and a fruit.  With my smoothies I am currently experimenting with a base of either coconut milk or soymilk with a combination of frozen fruits. 

So, that is the broad framework and I hope to fill in the specifics in future posts.  Here is to happy eating! 

Another Catch Up

I feel like I dropped off the planet for a while with all my diet issues, but life has reached a more sane level, so time to do a little catch up.

Knitting:

A recent trip enlightened me to what great travel projects small hats can be.  Easy to pack and nice to pick up in quiet moments, a hat in progress will definitely be a good thing to have on hand for future travels.

Here are pictures (finally!) of two that I completed earlier in year.

The first hat was fun to make until the decreases at the top.  Knitting four stitches together at once was a trying process.  However, I did see some projects where the knitter did a different pattern for the crown, so may give it another go sometime.  The second hat was just a pleasure all the way around.  It will definitely be one I make again.


Quilting:


I had a grouping of fabrics in my stash that were green and purple with the feature fabric having a pattern of grapes on it.  While I really like the fabrics, the colors were not something I would use in my house, so I decided to make a giveaway quilt.  

Here is "My Father's Vineyard":

My camera did not capture the colors as well as I would like, so it is hard to tell how well the fabrics work together. (something to work on)  This quilt had several firsts for me.  It is the largest quilt I have made so far, and the first time I have done a pieced backing.  It is also the first time I have done an all over quilting design, and I find that I am not a fan.  I will probably stick with motifs and fill designs that work within the parameters of the block pattern in most of my quilts, but I will not rule out giving all over quilting a try again.  

Endings and Beginnings

Life is returning to a measure of stability.  Where I have currently ended up is eliminating everything that is in the plant family that contains grains.  This means all grains, all pseudo-grains, sugar cane, and molasses.  The jury is still out on how much I can tolerate nuts and seeds.  Dairy is also gone.

Consequently, baking is pretty much non-existent since my diet is mostly composed of fruits, vegetables, meat, and eggs.  That being the case, I am no longer going to post to this blog.  Instead I am starting a new blog called Elzbee's Place (a more generic name in order to be more flexible in this journey).  http://elzbeesplace.blogspot.com/

My hope is to offer recipes within my diet limitations so that those who share those limitations might find it helpful as I have been helped by others' blogs through these changes. 

A Baker's Demise

It is amazing how quickly one's plans can be completely overturned.  Last week I had a strong reaction to some of my gluten free bread.  What!?  And then later in the week to some wild rice.  Okay, this is getting out of hand and I need some help, so on Thursday I am going to see my doctor.  I haven't done this before now because I didn't want to go the medication route which, to me, would be just trading one set of problems for another.  The other factor was that I didn't really have anything concrete to tell her.  Now I can say that when I eat such and so, this is what is happening.  I am still not interested in pursuing medication, but I hope to get some direction to see if there might be another underlying issue that is causing me to continue reacting.  That, and possibly get a referral to a good nutritionist who can give me some dietary direction.  

That being said, baking is going on the back burner for a while.  Hopefully not permanently, but we shall see.  

A Relative Peace

Well, the white bean flour was not so great for my baking, but it does work very well as a base for soup.  My husband had some dental surgery this week and needed to be on a liquid diet for one week and then a soft diet for six weeks.  That means a lot of soups on the menu in the days ahead.

White Bean Flour Soup
  
1/2 cup white bean flour

1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1 inch lengths

1/4 of a medium/large onion, chopped

1 cup chicken broth

Salt

Sage

Cumin

Cooked rice

Note:  I often don't measure my spices, but am guessing that I used about 1/2 teaspoon each.  Adjust according to taste.

Place chicken thigh, carrot, and onion in a sauce pan.  Add enough water to cover.  Bring to a boil and then simmer until chicken is cooked.  Place chicken and vegetables on a plate.  Pour broth into a measuring cup and add water to make 2 cups.  Return liquid to sauce pan and add 1 cup chicken broth.  Bring to a boil.  When broth is boiling, whisk in the white bean flour.  Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring with the whisk.  Pour broth into a blender and blend for 1 minute.  Cut chicken into cubes and add it, the vegetables, and the seasonings to the broth in the blender.  Puree.   Return soup to sauce pan and keep on low heat until ready to serve.  Spoon soup into bowls and add rice. 

I my last round of baking I used the following combination:

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup oat flour

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal

I stopped using the guar gum since I didn't like the results, and I want to see what I can do without using additives.  I used two eggs instead of one in my muffin recipes and was pleased with the results.  Biscuits are still a work in progress.  Otherwise I made granola, with some minor adjustment.  I will write out the adjusted recipes in my next post.

I am still have some reactions, but they are minor.  I am not going to do any other adjustments to my diet for a while, but am keeping a food diary and noting reactions.  Cooking doesn't seem so overwhelming, and I have determined for the most part what ingredients are safe for me to use.  Ahh, hopefully a peace that will last for a while.