Discoveries!

So yesterday after work I was really really craving something sweet, so I went to the co-op and found some dairy free, soy free chocolate chips that I can have so I could make some scones. They were yummy! But I kinda went overboard and ate like 3... Which the recipe says it's supposed to make 16 scones but I can never get them that small, so I make them bigger so I only made 9. So really it's like I ate like 5 of them... And holy moly I felt so sick. Probably because I ate so much at once but I just lay on the couch after that being like ugh. The left over scones don't even sound good today. Which is weird because used to be I could scarf practically that whole recipe! But this is a good thing, because that means maybe my body is getting used to not having so much sugar all the time. I still eat a lot of fruit, and every once in a while I will cheat on the candy but not as often or in a while. So that's good! I'm getting better! Slowly but surely.

Anyways, the really exciting thing is that while I was at the co-op I was wondering, seeing if they had anything new and exciting for me. And I found 2 things that I'm stoked about! First off, I found a bottled salad dressing that I can eat! Annie's organic lemon and chive dressing. Nothing bad in it, yay! Which is awesome, because I really don't mind at all making my own dressings, but it's just that most dressings I make at home are vinaigrettes and sometimes you want something a little more creamy. So I'm excited to try this one. Also, Daiya, which is a vegan cheese company, now makes cream cheese! They have plain or chive and onion, so I grabbed the chive and onion one to try it, because I can eat that one too! And it's pretty good too. Obviously not quite the same as dairy cream cheese, but it's good and no soy or gluten or anything. I'm thinking it will make a really good pasta topping. Like I used to make pasta with prosciutto, broccoli, and goat cheese, and it was so good cuz the goat cheese would melt a little and it would all get all creamy. So I'm thinking I will try that again with the Daiya cream cheese instead of the goat cheese. Plus a little walnut oil and and a little salt. YUM.

Blueberry Waffles... yup you heard me right.

Ok very excited about this recipe. It is another of my new favorite discoveries. Haha I've noticed that everything new that I make is all of a sudden a new favorite thing because I just get so excited when I find something that is yummy but follows all the rules! So this one is adapted from an entry over at Food.com I again can't say I'm the sole author of this recipe. But I did make a few adaptations, like taking out the sugar and adding blueberries.

2 cups white rice flour
1 cup arrowroot starch
1/2 cup tapioca flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups milk (dairy free works of course)
1 package (6 oz?) blueberries

Mix dry ingredients together, then stir in wet ingredients. Might need a couple more splashes of milk to thin it out a little more, but no more than a few tablespoons. Mix in blueberries right before you are going to put them in the waffle iron, and then just make them as you would any other waffles in your waffle iron.
Now side note, this is a double recipe, so I usually make half of them and then stir the blueberries in and make the other half. Because they don't have any sugar in them, they make amazing plain waffles for dinner waffles (topped with the extra filling from your pot pie?) or they work really well for waffle sandwiches. Fry up an egg and stick it between 2 quarters of a waffle (my waffle iron is a Belgian so it makes circles) and maybe throw in some veggies or some sliced turkey or ham. Yum. And then the half that have blueberries are good just warmed up with a little butter on them. Also they freeze really well, so that's great because you can make a batch on Sunday, throw them in the freezer, and have breakfast for the whole week! In my waffle maker this recipe makes about 8 waffles, so I end up with 4 plain and 4 blueberry.

Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ok new favorite thing. This dressing is SO GOOD! I've been trying to come up with a dressing I can eat, because most salad dressings at the store (ok all, I have yet to come across one I can eat) have either soy or sugar or tomatoes or peppers or paprika or something that I can't eat. So I was on a mission to make my own. And I love raspberry vinaigrette so I figured why not try that? So I will admit, this recipe is taken straight from someone else, but it's so good it doesn't need any changes. Sometimes you find recipes that are good but still need a few finishing touches, but this one isn't. It's just straight up delicious.

So here goes, got this from Meatless Meals for Meat Eaters and it is AWESOME!

1/4 cup pureed fresh raspberries
1/4 cup EVOO
2 1/2 TB balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper

Whisk all ingredients together until blended. Or if you are like me, put them all in a spare pint sized mason jar and shake vigorously.

This was awesome. The only thing I would say is maybe a little less balsamic vinegar depending on how vinegar-y you like your dressings. Like maybe only 2 TBS instead of 2 1/2. But that just depends on personal preference.
Last night I used this on a salad with baby greens, romaine lettuce, broiled chicken, walnuts, carrots, cucumber, and halved grapes, and it was awesome. The grapes gave it some sweetness to counteract the dressing (I like to put strawberries on salads like this, but that is on my no-no list, as is apples which is my other go to salad fruit, but I'm so glad I discovered grapes) and it all just fit together quite well. And I'll bet this would make a really good marinade, maybe on some salmon for a salmon salad? I am not really a big salmon fan, but I'm trying to branch out and make fish more often. Because it is really good for you, and then it helps me eat something other than chicken at pretty much every meal.

Veggie "Pot Pie"

Ok so this was the first thing I made at home, and it could probably use some work (mainly more spices) but I will tell you what I did so far. As you might know, my parents are vegans, so that's the reason this is a veggie pot pie. But I'll bet it would be awesome with some broiled chicken or leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner. Also, the reason "pot pie" is in quotations is because you make this in a casserole dish and it only has one "crust" (I used biscuits, so it's really more like veggie and dumplings? but baked?) so it's not really actually a pie. Anyways, here goes nothing.

Filling

4 cups veggie broth or chicken broth
4-5 cups chopped veggies of your choice (I used broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, peas, and carrots)
1 cup almond milk
About 1/2 cup all purpose gluten free flour (we used rice flour)
1 TBS minced garlic
onion powder, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, etc to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Put broth in a soup pot, add veggies, and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about 20 minutes, until veggies are cooked through and soft. Stir in almond milk and flour, and cook until warm again and thickened. Put in a casserole dish and top with biscuits.

Biscuits

This recipe was inspired by this recipe from Simply Gluten Free for pretty easy biscuits.

1 1/2 cups rice flour
3/4 cup arrowroot starch
1 TBS baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 tsp COLD fat (butter, shortening, Earth Balance)
3/4 cup milk (dairy free works too!)

Mix together dry ingredients, and then cut in the fat until pieces are no bigger than peas. Stir in milk slowly until dough forms. Piece of sections of dough and flatten into circles. Place circles on top of the veggie mixture in the casserole dish. Bake entire dish at 350 for 25 minutes until warm and bubbly and biscuits are starting to get browned.
To make biscuits by themselves, preheat oven to 400 and bake for 20 minutes on greased cookie sheet.

So the filling makes a little more than filled the pan I was using, but the leftovers are really good on either rice or waffles (recipe for waffles coming soon!), since it is all creamy and delicious. The biscuits might make a little bit too much too, but when you are putting them on the filling, I would say err on the side of thinner rather than thicker. I made my biscuit layer pretty thick and it just seemed like a little bit too much bread on there.

Traveling with food allergies

Have to say, this trip was not too bad! Thankfully it was just me going over to Wyoming on the bus, so no plane trips or anything where I'm getting sick or having to eat in the airport or anything. And then I was just staying with my parents, and it was just the 3 of us, so I didn't have to worry too much about feeding a bunch of other people. So that was nice. It was a good trip though! It was a lot of fun, just getting to hang out with my parents some and help them with the store. It was their spring grand opening, so it was crazy busy! I helped out at the store some, but I don't know much about hardware or ranching, so I mostly just carried people's packages out to the car and cleaned things up. Also on Friday they were serving root beer floats and pulled pork, and on Saturday they were serving hamburgers, so I worked the food tables mostly those days. So I would help out at the store for a few hours, and then go home and clean the house and make dinner for my parents. Ha I was more the maid than anything, but that was ok! That was what they needed. And then I got to be there for Mother's Day, which was really good because it was my mom's first Mother's Day without her mom, who passed away in February. So I know that was hard for her, but I was glad I was there for her. So that was fun.
As far as food-wise, it was good in some ways and hard and terrible in other ways. I was cooking most of the food so I could make sure it was all things I could eat, so that was good! But then doing things like serving hamburgers and root beer floats and not being able to eat them, or we went out to eat once and it was so hard, I had to have a salad with just vinegar on it because I didn't know what kind of oils and things they had in the dressings. So at least I could something to eat, but still it sucked to be sitting there in a restaurant looking at this menu full of things I couldn't eat.
Since I got home I've been doing pretty good, except this weekend I have been really bad, I was guarding a swim meet yesterday and they had a bunch of free food for the coaches and the life guards and I cheated a little bit and had some things I probably wasn't supposed to. But other than that I've been sticking to my diet, taking my supplements, etc etc. My skin has definitely calmed down a lot from what it was a couple weeks ago, though I had a doctor appointment on Wednesday and she said that there's a couple places that might need surgery in the next few weeks if they don't get better, so I'm really hoping if I'm really good for the next few weeks then they will calm down and not need surgery. So we shall see.
Anyways, that's really all that's going on here, just trying to deal with food and all that. I have made some awesome things to eat lately though so I will have to post some recipes in a little bit too. Lots of things I made at my parent's were really good. Plus I have a few things to try still that I have ingredients for in the fridge. Yay food to eat.
Also, tonight I'm going to see the new Star Trek movie and I'M SO EXCITED!!! Haha random I know, I just had to throw that out there.

I'm alive!

Haha just incase anyone was concerned, I am actually alive. I know I've been away from here for a few weeks, but I have been busy. Finishing up the school year working on campus, went to Wyoming to visit my parents for a week, then when I got back I started my early morning (like be at work by 5 kind of early) shifts at the pool so then I have been napping all afternoon. And trying to get my workouts in as well as find time to work on my summer reading list and catch up on Doctor Who and all my nerdy shows that I watch. It's been busy! But it's been good. I love summers in Bozeman, it's just such a gorgeous area. It rains a lot in the first month (like today, it's been raining for the past 4-5 hours straight, at least) but then everything is green and beautiful and I just want to go hiking and hang out in the sunshine all day every day for the rest of the summer. So I'm excited it's finally summer! Anyways, today is my day to be productive inside since it is pouring outside, so I'm off to start some laundry and clean the kitchen, but I might take a break later and watch a movie or something so then I will tell you all about my life the last couple weeks. It's been hard dealing with the new food rules, and I won't say I've been perfect, but it's been good too :)

MRT

Yay, finally got my results!! And life is about to get real crazy. So my doctor says she still wants me following the non-inflammatory diet that she gave me last time as much as possible, but those are more like guidelines of what I should be eating, not actual rules. Like if I mess up every once in a while it's not the end of the world. But these things from the MRT she says for sure don't mess up. So yellow I can't eat for 3 months and red I can't eat for 6, and maybe never. Which makes sense, because I need the inflammation to go down. So here goes!

Red: Cabbage, Leek, Soy

Weird, right? Cabbage?? The soy doesn't surprise me, but cabbage and leeks? Weird. I love cabbage! Also my doctor said I needed probiotics, but I'm not supposed to have dairy, so she wanted me to eat sauerkraut, because that's a good source of probiotics. So I've been eating cabbage every day for the last month! No wonder my skin has been acting up a little. So obviously going to not eat that anymore.

Yellow: Apple, Avocado, Beef, Buckwheat, FD&C blue #1 (blue food coloring), Goat's Milk, Ibuprophen, Paprika, Peanut, Phenylethylamine, Rye, Sodium Metabisulfite, Spinach, Strawberry, Tuna, Vanilla, Whey

So some of those don't surprise me, like I already knew I was lactose intolerant so the whey isn't all that shocking. Or peanuts I don't even like so that didn't surprise me at all! But some of them are sad, like apples and avocados and strawberries and spinach. :( those are some of my favorite foods! I eat spinach almost every day. Others are just random, like umm blue food coloring? huh? But, I'm glad I finally have answers! So yay!

So here goes 3 months of not eating anything of the above! Though I think I will wait a week to start because this is my last week on campus and quite frankly it is just so hard to stick to any diet when I'm eating most of my meals at work. Because half the time there isn't labels on anything I'm eating, and nothing is organic at work, and all these other things. But Friday is my last day on campus, so come Saturday it's hard core diet time. Also I'm going to Wyoming to hang out with the parents for like week starting next Tuesday, so that will help too. I sent my mom and email giving her the list, so she will make sure I don't eat anything too bad :)

Turkey Soup

So tonight I found out that turkey, carrots, sweet potato, asparagus, celery, and quinoa make a pretty dang delicious soup. So that made me happy! I was just using up left overs in the fridge and that's what I came up with. Which is why I love soup so much, it's so easy to just throw together some random ingredients and pour in some broth and call it good. YUM!
Also, my dr apt is in 1 week! So that's exciting :) hopefully she has some plan figured out for me for the summer. And hopefully I get my MRT results soon. I don't remember if they send them right to me or to my doctor, but I sent my blood off 2 weeks ago tomorrow, so I'm hoping they should come in soon if they are sent to me, and if they get sent to my doctor then I will get them on Monday. I'm excited! Scared that it's gonna be something crazy but also excited! :)

Fish Taco Bowls and my new favorite thing

OK so it's pretty easy for me to get discouraged about food lately with so many things I can't eat and then I feel like all I do is mess up, especially at work when I don't actually know half the ingredients I'm eating so I could be messing up without knowing, but that all changed tonight. I made the best dinner ever!!! So I normally am not a big fish fan, anything that tastes like the ocean smells is just not ok with me. Do I love the smell of the ocean? Yes. But do I want it in my dinner? NO. So most seafood is out. I do like shrimp, but shrimp is not allowed on this diet. But, one kind of fish that I do really actually like is Tilapia. It's less super fishy tasting. So the other day at the store, since I'm trying to branch out and all that, I figured hey why not? And bough a couple tilapia filets. Best decision of the week I have to say, because it led to tonight's amazing dinner: Fish Taco Bowls.
So no processed foods for me, that pretty much means if I want grains they need to be in whole grain form. I have been using brown rice tortillas every once in a while, but the brown rice bread that I have gives me gas, so too processed obviously. So tonight I made fish tacos without the tacos! With mango salsa (see, told you I would reinvent Mexican food with no tomatoes or peppers). And it was awesome! So here goes

Fish Taco Bowls
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tilapia filets
1 tsp each: salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
olive oil for frying

Cook the rice according to package directions, and then mix with black beans. Put in the bottom of bowl. Meanwhile, mix the spices together and season both sides of the tilapia filets. Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, and put the tilapia filets in the oil (I only made 1 tonight then I have left overs for tomorrow but you could of course make them both). Cook on one side until white (4-5 minutes?) then flip. Leave cooking on the other side until a crispy skin forms (6? minutes) and the fish is white and flaky all the way through. Place the fish on top of the bean and rice mixture, and top with some mango salsa. Enjoy!
*Cooking times are very very estimated as I was talking to my roommate while cooking and not in any way paying attention to the clock

Mango salsa
1 mango, diced
1/2 avocado, diced
1 tsp minced garlic
2 shallots, diced
1 tsp lime juice
salt to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl. Viola!

Ok and then I had some asparagus in the fridge that I needed to use up, so I figured hey why not eat that up tonight too? So I made prosciutto wrapped asparagus... Umm new favorite thing ever. It was so good! All salty and flavorful and yummy! And so easy. Seriously, I just took a package of prosciutto, cut all the pieces in half, and wrapped each around a piece of asparagus. Roasted it all in the oven, 400 degrees for 12 minutes, and it was perfect. The asparagus was nicely cooked, the prosciutto was crispy. IT WAS AWESOME! New favorite thing :) Didn't even need any extra spices or seasonings or anything because it already had so much flavor. YUM!

These two things made me really happy that I can still make yummy delicious food and not break my diet. So that was awesome. I know I can make good food at home, but sometimes it's hard when I don't have much time or I'm just not feeling like cooking. So these made me happy. Didn't take too long, tasted delicious, and followed all the rules. :)
Now I just have to work on eating better at work. It's so hard when there's things like unlimited pop and pizza staring me in the face and I have to sit there and go, yeah I'll eat my vegetables... and then most salad dressings at work have dairy or sugar in them, so I'm pretty much just stuck with oil and vinegar which is not all that exciting. Which is not a bad meal really, I actually like vinegar and oil and eating my vegetables is good for me of course, it just sucks when you have the same thing every day. It gets old real quickly. So that is where all my mess ups come from or where it gets real hard, is at work. I can't wait for it to be summer when I make all my own food and then I know for sure what's in it.

Diet... again hehe

Ok so the last couple days I've been messing up a lot, and sometimes on purpose just because I'm craving something so bad but as previously stated I'm going to stop that. I realized today (and a lot lately really) that I am really bad at sticking with things when they get hard. I just give up and do whatever is easier. But who really wants to be the person who can't fight for what they want? Or who just gives up on everything? I want to be healthy and I want to be fit and I want to be a strong person. So I'm working on it. But I'm also realizing that it doesn't happen over night. Of course, but it's hard to realize that. I think oh I can just do this now, but sometimes you mess up. But I'm really hoping that next time I mess up I don't take 3 days to get back on the horse like this time. Also my goal is to go the next 2 weeks without messing up. I just want to get to my next dr appointment! Then I don't have to go in and say I'm a horrible patient. Cuz that's never fun.
But I realized this morning at work (while I was daydreaming because there were only 3 people in the pool) that I'm gonna have to make some new habits if I want this to really work. First off, they always say when you get a new diet you can't expect to eat like you did before. I realize this, and it makes sense, but it's weird to actually go through personally. Like I said earlier, I love Mexican food but now I can't have tomatoes and peppers. So I'm just going to have to reinvent Mexican food in my mind to not involve tomatoes and peppers and corn tortillas. Will it be hard? Yes, but can I do it? Yes. Secondly, I'm going to have to realize that this is a months or years long journey, not a week. I can't expect to be ok with my new diet in 3 days. I have to get through the cravings of the old diet first, and then still give my taste buds time to change and for my mental state to get used to the new way of eating. My cousins recently went vegan and they said it took a good 4-6 months before they really got used to their new eating routines and didn't think something was "missing" from their diet. So I just have to accept I'm in this for the long haul. Which is hard, but isn't my health worth it? Thirdly, I think I need to get of Pinterest. Does this make me sad? Yes. But, looking at food I can't eat for hours on end really doesn't help. Also the other night I was really tired and planned on going to bed by like 9:30 or 10 but didn't get to sleep til 11 because I was browsing Pinterest. I've realized lately I'm kind of becoming a smart phone addict. I will just sit there and play on Pinterest or play games or surf the internet on my phone for hours because I think I have nothing else to do, but really my bathroom needs to be cleaned or I could at least be reading a book if I just want to sit there and not move too much. So I think that's another thing that will help, is not looking at food I can't eat on Pinterest all day. Sometimes I do find things that I can adapt, but generally it just makes me want something I can't have. Also it kind of takes away my own imagination. So I will have to work on that. Lastly, I need to be more prepared for food emergencies. Half the time I cheat on my diet it's because I am tired and don't feel like cooking or I'm working 12 hours a day and only have time for microwaveable food. So I'm thinking on my days off I really need to work more on making food for the days I do work 12 hours a day. And usually I'm ok about that, but I've been so focused on making good whole meals and all these creative things for me to eat that then it takes so long and I'm too tired to actually do it. My cousin Cathy always compliments me on the fact that I am creative enough to make whole meals and dishes to eat when she will just have a cooked sweet potato for dinner and call it good, but sometimes I think she has the right idea. Like last week I made baked pork chops and apples, which were delicious, but then I only had left overs for one day and I ate those one night that I didn't have to work because I was tired and didn't feel like making anything else, so then the day I did work I ended up eating microwaveable things that I am not supposed to eat. And let me tell you, I can tell a difference on the days I mess up versus the days I don't because holy gas machine. Sometimes I think I could power a small car. It's ridiculous. So, I'm thinking on my days off (like especially tomorrow since I have the whole day off and not just an afternoon) I'm gonna work on making more food that I can just grab and go. Like bake 4 sweet potatoes and throw them in a bag, make a double batch of quinoa salad, mix up some turkey salad that I can throw in a brown rice tortilla (the bread that I bought gives me gas, I think because it has agave nectar in it, but the tortillas have been fine so far), cook some plain chicken breasts or pieces of steak to just have cooked meat to throw on a salad, etc etc. I am usually a person who likes to just wing things, but when you are dealing with as many food restrictions as I am currently you can't really wing things. Also it will be good practice for going back to school in the fall when I will have to start packing lunches again. So I think this will be good for me.
So those are the things I've decided I need to work on the most, and will be working on over the next couple months. I can't wait until summer starts (only 3 more weeks of working on campus!) when I don't have to stare at food that I can't eat all day and I don't have to work 55 hours a week so I will have more time to devote to figuring out food and recipes and stuff. For now I am just going to do things simply. Also, I am going to visit the 'rents for about a week after school gets out, so then I can have my mom help me out with ideas, because moms are great for things like that. :) Also my mom is an awesome cook. So yay! Vacation!
Anyways, off to bed cuz I'm exhausted and it's 10 at night which is way past my bedtime even on a Saturday night. But wish me luck! This will be a very hard but hopefully very helpful and personal-growth-inducing couple months.

Diet

Ugh this is so hard. I am not going to lie, I've made it very few days without messing up. It's really hard to make sure I'm eating the right things especially when I'm at work and I can't always read ingredients. But I can tell when I am messing up cuz I get more gassy and stuff. So I am bound and determined to go the next 2 weeks until my dr appt without messing up! So even though after work I want nothing more than air heads, I'm gonna do it! Though I really hope that my doctor at my appointment says I can eventually have some of these things back because I miss mexican food. And without salsa and peppers I'm not sure how I'm going to make mexican food. But that's my favorite! So hopefully that works out soon haha.
Anyways not much of a point to this note other than I keep messing up but I'm going to try really really hard not to!! And thanks for the encouragement so far Cathy and everyone else. 2 weeks til my next dr appt. I can do this!

PS

Hopefully tomorrow I get my MRT!! Woot!! So excited to finally have some answers. I just have to call the FedEx office tomorrow and see what time their last shipment out is, to make sure I have time to go get my blood drawn and then get it back to the office. Sometimes I hate not having a car. A trip that could take 20 minutes if I had a car takes 1 1/2 hours because I have to walk all the way downtown after work to get the blood draw and then all the way back to the office. Good thing I have long legs! So hopefully FedEx will still send out packages at like 5 o'clock or something because I work until 3:30 so if they need it before 3 or 4 I'm kinda SOL. So someone cross your fingers for me, I'm gonna need it!

Gyro Salads

YUM! Made some awesome dinner tonight! I've been experimenting with this coconut milk kefir I found, it's the only non-dairy non-soy yogurt I have found that doesn't have sugar in it. But it's kinda weird... it's just so liquid-y! Which is what kefir is, it's pretty much drinkable yogurt. But that's still just so weird to me. I don't know that I could ever just drink yogurt... But I'm thinking it might have some applications. Like maybe a little bit poured over some baked apples or pears or peaches or something? Kinda dessert-ish. Mmm that sounds yummy right now. Anyways, moving on to what I actually made today...

So, gyro salads! Kind of. I'm stealing ideas from work :) so at work they make this beef souvlaki and the souvlaki sauce that they make there is AMAZING and by far one of my favorite things ever. However it is made with yogurt and as previously stated I'm stuck with liquid yogurt. Also the souvlaki sauce has white wine in it and no alcohol for this girl! So I blended the beef souvlaki with the beef gyro, using the meat recipe from the beef souvlaki and then some homemade tatziki sauce with the yogurt. And it was delicious. Though I felt like such a snob at the store the other day, make sure I bought only organic free range ground beef. Or they were having a sale on these pork chops that were from a local dairy farm, where they used up their waste products from making cheese to feed the pigs. And so then I REALLY felt like a snob cuz I was like well, I'm really not allowed to eat dairy, so if they are fed dairy will there be dairy in the pork? UGH. I hate being all high maintenance like this. Oh well. Moving on to food!

So for the meat, here goes
1 pound ground beef
1 TBS minced garlic
2 tsp oregano
pinch of salt and pepper

Mix all the spices into the meat. The end. :) Set it aside in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavors marinate, cook it when you are ready to eat!

Homemade tatziki sauce
1 cucumber, diced
2 tsp minced garlic
1 TBS diced fresh dill
1 TBS lemon juice
pinch of salt and pepper
about 3/4 cup (?) coconut milk kefir

Mix all the ingredients together, lessen or add dill to taste since that's a pretty strong spice! Again let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to marinate.

Then when it comes to meal time, it's easy! Brown the meat in a skillet (or you could bake it in the oven, spread it on a sheet tray, throw it in at 350 for about 15 minutes), throw some lettuce on a plate, top with extra veggies of your choice (I threw in some carrots, I'll bet it would also be really good with some radishes and onions), top with some of your meat and then spoon on some of the sauce! Enjoy! It was delicious.
One note though would be to not also slice extra cucumbers on top. I made a salad base just like I would any time, lettuce, spinach, carrots, cucumbers. And then I put the tatziki sauce in which is pretty much all cucumber and went oh.... that's a lot. Not that I don't love cucumbers, but it was a little overwhelming. But still yummy.

Also, on a side note, I must have ate something I wasn't supposed to tonight cuz man I cannot stop farting. I think it was peaches. I had a couple cans of peaches, I was going to make a peach bake again but then got distracted this afternoon. But after dinner while my roommates and I were just sitting on the couch watching the ACMAs I was like man I really want something sweet. So I figured I would just eat a can of peaches, since I wasn't going to use them to make the peach bake. And also I had specifically bought the kind that aren't in syrup they are just in their own juice. Which I'm not supposed to have fruit juice but I figured hey I would just drain and rinse them before I used them for anything. But tonight I just drained the can (not in a colander or anything, just pouring out what I could get) and then just ate them straight from the can and called it good. Less dishes that way. And within 10 minutes I was gassy. It was so sad! I was enjoying a quite nice gas free day until that happened! But this makes me really sad because it might have been the juice but what if it was the peach? What if I'm so sensitive to sugars I can't have any fruits at all? Or only the ones that have hardly any sugar in them, but that means no peaches or apples or watermelon. Which is just depressing! Those are some of my favorites! So I'm really hoping that it's just because there's still inflammation going on since I haven't been on the diet that long, and that after a few weeks of healing I will be able to eat fruit again. Because fruit is delicious and if I am told I can't eat it ever I think I will cry. Actually, not think. Know. I will bawl. Especially with summer coming up when all I want to do is eat cherries and watermelon all day every day. I don't even care that I can't have alcohol or chocolate as long as I can have my fruit! So we shall see how that progresses with how I'm feeling. Next time I want peaches I will definitely rinse them well first! Or just eat fresh ones. Those just aren't in the store yet.

Homemade Granola Bars

Umm Fail. Ha I tried to make some homemade granola bars today and they just didn't turn out all that great. Not too bad, but not something I want to eat every day.
First off I wasn't using any kind of recipe for them, just winging it. And I've never made homemade granola bars before. So I just threw some stuff together and called it good. So anyways, here's what I did.
Mixed together cooked quinoa, chopped almonds, unsweetened coconut, a little cinnamon and a little nutmeg in a bowl. In another bowl I mixed almond butter, cocoa powder (is that the same thing as raw cacao? That's the only chocolate I'm actually allowed to eat... I'm thinking now though that those might not be the same...) some stevia and some rice milk until it was kinda the consistency of cake batter. Mixed the chocolatey stuff in with the nuts and quinoa, and then baked them all at 250 for 30 minutes. Probably should have cooked them warmer, but I just wanted them to get a little drier but not all crispy. So anyways, learning experience.
So taste wise, they aren't too bad really. Not very sweet but then again I am trying to not eat sugar and get myself away from sweet things so in a couple weeks when my taste buds start to change they might seem too sweet. The flavor of the quinoa came through quite a bit, but that isn't too bad. I think I would do less coconut next time though. I'm not actually a huge coconut fan.
So all in all they aren't the best thing I've ever tasted, but not the worst either. I will keep playing with it. They might grow on me :)

On a side note, for breakfast this morning I made "Paleo Breakfast Burritos" that I had found on pinterest and those were delicious. It suggested ham slices, but I used turkey. Anyways, I sautéed some broccoli and spinach, then scrambled them up with some eggs and a little salt, pepper, and garlic. Put the eggs into 2 turkey slices, rolled them up and called it good. I did throw the rolled up turkey on the stove for a minute in the pan just so they would get warmed up but you probably wouldn't have to do that. And they were delicious! Had that and an apple and called it a good breakfast. They probably would be good with some salsa or avocado slices on top, but since I currently can't have salsa (no tomatoes... sad face) and didn't have any avocado then that didn't happen. But they were still awesome.

MRT and life discoveries

So, still haven't gotten my food intolerance test. I know, it's been like a week since my appointment. But they were out of kits when I went, and they said they should be in on Monday, so I figured hey, no big deal, I will get it then. Plus they were having the store downstairs, which is like an herbal shop, make me my yeast pills so I figured I would get it all on Monday. So I got a call on Monday from the herb shop, and they said they had my yeast pills ready, so I walked all the way to the shop (probably about a 30 minute walk from my house depending on how fast I go and how many times I have to stop at a light) and get my pills, but the MRT kits weren't in yet. So they said they would call me when they came in. So they called me on Tuesday that they were in, but then I was reading my paper that my doctor had given me for what she was "prescribing" and along with the yeast pills I am supposed to take Caprylic Acid pills.  So I asked about that, because I couldn't remember if I was supposed to get those from a different spot or not, but she said no I needed to get that from them, but those wouldn't be in until Thursday. So on Tuesday I had to work at the pool anyways, so I figured I'm not gonna walk all the way out there 3 times in one week, so I figured I would just go get everything on Thursday. But then I got out of work late on Thursday afternoon and then had to work at the pool so I didn't have time to go pick everything up. So I finally went to pick up the acid pills and the MRT test kit today, but then I look at the kit and it says it has to be taken Monday-Thursday. Why, I have no idea. But that meant that I couldn't get it today. SO I will have to go get my blood drawn on Monday. Good news though is that I do have my acid pills (haha makes it sound like drugs) now so I can start my yeast regimen tomorrow, which is good because that is supposed to go for 3 weeks. And my appointment is 3 weeks from Monday so if I want to be done I better get on that.

Also, this whole thing is a learning experince. It's crazy how many things you don't even think about until you can't eat them. Like things I have learned this week:
Coconut Milk Plain Yogurt has sugar in it. What the frick.
Sauerkraut is a good source of probiotics. Who knew?
I am going to miss tomatoes. Shocker, because I don't like fresh tomatoes, and I think I can live without spaghetti, but dang am I going to miss BBQ. I can't think of a way to make BBQ sauce without ketchup.


But anyways, moving on to things I can eat! I think this weekend I'm going to attempt some dairy free homemade tatziki sauce :) and maybe some gyro salads. With the sauce as a dressing. Because I love creamy salad dressings, like vinagarettes are good too but my all time fave salad dressing is and forever will be ranch. I just love the creamy spiciness of it. But I have yet to find a dairy free ranch that is anywhere close, so I might have to just give that up. But I'm hoping I can find some other creamy dressings to help me get through. Like tatziki salad dressing! Woot. I will let you know how it comes out :)

Non-Inflammatory Diet

So my naturopath gave me this hand out about how to eat a non-inflammatory diet, which she really wants me to do, especially for the next few weeks while I'm working on getting rid of yeast and figuring out my food allergies and things like that. It's really interesting! But sounds good for you. So for the next about 6 weeks or so (if not the rest of my life) depending on the results of my food intolerance test I get to eat things like:
Vegetables!! (include at least one green one daily)
Grains like millet, quinoa, and brown rice
Any kind of legumes and beans other than soy beans and peanuts
Ocean (not farmed) fish, but no shellfish
Free range and organic meats (Though she says to eat ones you don't normally eat to give your gut a break which is interesting because I pretty much just eat chicken when it comes to meat so it would make sense that my gut might need a break, but then I don't know what to do with myself. Beef and pork are out unless they are organic... Maybe I will start eating more lamb. Though I just continued reading and that is only allowed once a week. Guess it's turkey time for me! Or maybe I need to learn to like fish...)
Fruit, but only 1 to 2 servings a day
No sugar unless it's things like agave, raw honey, or stevia, and only with meals..
Nuts and Nut Butters ok (again other than peanuts)
Oils are allowed, especially coconut oil, EVOO, flax, hemp, walnut, almond, and avocado
Free-Range organic vegetarian eggs (which are the only kind I eat anyways)
LOTS OF WATER!

Things I will not be eating:
Sugar
Animal milks and cheeses
Chocolate
Gluten
Peanut butter/Peanuts
Meats or Eggs that are not organic and free-range
Nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant)
Caffeine (no coffee or tea)
Corn products
Soy products
Dried fruit
Fried or Processed foods
Alcohol

Ok this totally makes sense. I will give her that. Things like caffeine and alcohol, I don't care who you are you can't say they don't give you digestion issues. But some of them I find interesting, like peanuts? Not that I am sad about that, I hate peanuts and peanut butter. Call me crazy but I think they are the most disgusting thing in the world. That is like the one food that I will not touch with a 10 foot pole. And the processed foods thing makes sense, who really wants all that junk anyway especially when you are trying to clean out your system. In general I think this is a really good idea though, it should help me a lot. And then I will get my intolerances test back and then we shall see what I really can and cannot eat. But my doctor said to kinda ignore the 6 weeks part of it so I'm thinking this will be my recommended diet for the rest of my life. Because I obviously have gut issues going on so those would be better avoided if I can just stick with this. So this will be hard but I'm pretty excited! Haha I'm going to have to figure out some new meats to eat though... This is gonna be weird.

Also I made an appointment with the other naturopath that my doctor recommended, but that appointment isn't until mid-May. I figured I should get through the rest of the semester working so much before I tried to fit in more doctors. Also I am then going home for a weekend so I pushed it back another week. For now I will just work out in ways that don't strain my knee too much. But that means no running :( which is sad because I really was starting to enjoy it. And I still want to do the color run in September! So hopefully I can be fixed in time to train for that :) I would like to be joint-issue-free come about July, then I will have time to train for a 5k in September, and also come the fall I want to start taking Pink Glove Boxing, so if my knees are still messed up then that wouldn't work out very well I have a feeling. So hopefully this knee problem isn't too serious. *Crossing fingers*

Naturopath

Ok, so first off sorry I have been absent for a while, just not much has been going on! I went on a couple more runs and managed to hurt myself already, so that sucks. I have been having knee problems for a while, they just usually don't come back this fast. By a while I mean like years. They just usually only come up when I work out a lot or run a lot, but this time it only took like 2 or 3 runs to start up again. So I asked my naturopath about it and she recommended another naturopath that is really good with knee issues. I was assuming that since it was just the one knee it's probably more likely to be from an injury than from food things, but she said that if I hurt myself a long time ago I could be setting myself up for problems later. Like I think I hurt my knee in 8th grade, so she said by favoring it for a little and then not getting it healed completely, now it's a place that is already slightly aggravated, so if I eat things that would be causing inflammation it could be showing up in that spot. So even though it's just the one knee it could still be related to food intolerances and stuff. But she said this other guy is really good with knee adjustments and stuff, like she has seen him save people from knee surgery and stuff. Which would be awesome, because I don't want to have to have knee surgery!! I've been thinking about that the last couple days because I don't know how on earth I would fit a knee surgery into my life right now. So I'm going to call on Monday and see if I can get an appointment with this other naturopath so maybe he can fix me!

Anyways, so that's about all that's been going on with me lately. Nothing too exciting in the food or cooking world either. I've been playing with my juicer a lot though so that's fun! :)

So, my appointment this morning was awesome! I am already in love with my naturopath and I just met her. She seems awesome and like she really knows what she's doing. So I was talking to her and telling her my whole kind of history with the HS and how I knew there were some kind of food intolerances going on just not sure what they were. And she said that she has worked with some other people before that had this same disease and as they worked on getting food intolerances under control and hormone imbalances and stuff all fixed that they got way better! So I'm super excited about that!! Cuz it would be amazing for my life to not have to revolve around a dermatologist anymore! Plus we also talked about how I have a lot of constipation problems and everything else that's going on, so I'm excited! So she has me starting to take magnesium because that's supposed to help with constipation issues and then she has me taking vitamin D because most people in this area are low in vitamin D. Lack of sun and all that fun stuff. Plus she was thinking I could have some yeast problems just because of the fact that most of my HS is in my armpits, which is a warm sweaty area that yeast loves. Plus I have had a couple yeast infections so she just figured it wouldn't be bad to do a yeast cleanse. So she is getting me some yeast pills or whatever made at a botanical store, so I can take those. And she's really hoping between doing the yeast cleanse for a few weeks and then dealing with my food intolerances when I get those test results back I should be able to make some improvements on my HS :)

Also, my naturopath is pregnant and going on maternity leave come May 1, so I have another appointment at the end of April before she leaves, to talk about food intolerance issues and stuff. And then she's gone for about 3 months, so then I will have the summer on my own do not eat anything bad and then she will get back in the fall I think so then we can chat again! But I feel like with the food intolerance test and one more appointment I will have a good start! So yeah I'm pretty stoked!

Juicer!

I officially have a working juicer!! YAAAAYYYY!!!!!
I got my replacement juicer in the mail yesterday, and it works! So I'm pretty darn excited.
I made some apple juice last night and quite frankly it wasn't all that great, but not because of anything that was wrong with the juicer just because all I happened to have on hand were some Fuji apples, and that was a little too sweet of a juice for me. Also I don't really like plain apple juice anyways. BUT I'm excited to play with it and make some orange juice and some carrot juice and beet juice and everything in between!

Life and Mexican Food :)

Woot! This has been an amazing couple of days :) Nothing too crazy as far as figuring out what foods I should and shouldn't be eating, but as far as cooking and life in general it's been awesome!
First off, I am in love with those chocolate chip scones. They are amazing. I've been having them for breakfast the last couple mornings. YUM. The only thing is they do give me a little gas, I'm thinking it's because of all the sugar in them... Sugar is starting to give me gas issues. At least that's what I think it is. Idk we shall see. Less than 2 weeks til my doctor appointment! yay!!
Also, when it comes to life awesomeness, I ran a mile today!! You might not realize how exciting that is, but I have never ran a mile without stopping before. Like I always make it like half a mile or so and than take a walking break or something. But I did the whole mile without stopping! And only in like 10 minutes which I'm pretty dang excited about! Also it was my first jog in forever, I usually swim more, and in all honestly usually just don't work out at all. I'm kind of a lazy person. BUT I am trying to work on that, and it was so nice today when I got off work, it was like 40 degrees and sunny. It was beautiful! So I was like what the heck, I'm gonna go for a jog. And I knew what loop was about a mile because it's the one my roommate does, so I did the loop and just told myself not to stop unless I absolutely couldn't breathe. I just kept going. And I did the whole thing!!! I'm rather proud of myself right now :)
Anyways, moving on to cooking... Mexican food adventure!! Umm, it was awesome. So I will just go with the recipes and then I will make comments after :)

Homemade Rice Tortillas

1 1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup arrowroot starch
1 tsp salt
2 TBS Crisco
1/2-3/4 water

Ok so this recipe was supposed to have xantham gum in it, I would say about a teaspoon. BUT, brilliant me over here ran out and didn't remember that at the grocery store... so they didn't have any. But I would recommend definitely putting in a little bit. It would help them stick together better.
Anyways, so mix all the dry ingredients together, and then stir in the Crisco. This is easier to do with your hands, just make sure it gets all mixed in really well. There shouldn't be ay large chunks, so run it all through your fingers. Then starting with 1/2 cup and then adding in no more than 1 TBS at a time, mix it in with either a spoon or your hands until it's damp, but not wet. It should be able to stick together, but not be sticky and stick to your hands. For me it took about 3 tbs. Then, when you are ready to make tortillas, just grab a handful at a time, roll into a ball, and then roll out on a floured surface until they are pretty thin and whatever size you want them. If you want pretty big ones then grab a pretty big handful. My mix made about 10 5-6 inch tortillas. Then once it is rolled out, put it in a hot DRY pan on the stove, for about 20 seconds one one side and about 10 on the other, until there is some brown spots like you see on normal tortillas. The end! Keep them under a dry towel or something to keep them warm until you use them, but I recommend using them right away!

Black Bean Filling

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
3-4 slices red onion
1 TBS minced garlic (I'm lazy so I use the stuff from the jar)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Ok so I have this cool little handy chopper thing, so I used that for the onions and the cilantro, if you don't then you will have to just chop them up by hand as small as you can. So put the black beans in a bowl, slice the red onions into quarters and put them in the chopper with the cilantro and pulse until finely chopped. Mix with the garlic and the black beans in the bowl. That's it! Personally I added a little cheddar Daiya too just because hey who doesn't love cheesy tacos? But that is totally optional!

Avocado Dipping Sauce

1 large avocado
1 TBS minced garlic
1 tsp each salt and pepper
1 TBS lemon juice
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used coconut milk, but if you can have dairy I would recommend greek)

Chunk up the avocado and put it in the chopper with the garlic. (This would actually probably be easier in a food processor, but quite frankly I was too lazy to pull out another appliance. So that is all up to you.) Wait until it's pureed and mixed in with the garlic well. Put in a bowl, stir in the lemon juice, yogurt and spices. That's it!

Ok now notes. Definitely add the xantham gum to the tortillas, because mine did crack and fall apart a little bit. Which kinda sucked because then I had to eat them with a fork. But they were delicious! Also a little cilantro in the dipping sauce would probably be really good, but I didn't want to overpower on any one spice. And, I tried to make fried tacos, but the tortillas didn't really fry up well, they just kept falling apart and soaking up oil but not getting very crispy... So I would actually recommend making the filling (probably without the cheese) on the stove so it can get warmed up! Then you can have hot tacos. Maybe even mash them a little bit with a potato masher if you have one.
Then to assemble the tortillas, spread a thin layer of the avocado sauce on the inside, fill it with the filling and dig in! You can always put more dipping sauce on top, or on the inside if you want it to be more on the tacos than dipped in. So yeah, yummy!! Enjoy!!

Also, tonight for dinner I just wanted a salad, so I threw some of that filling on top of the lettuce and some of the avocado sauce and a little ranch. And it was delicious! So also makes good salads, and tomorrow morning I think I'm going to try making it into a breakfast burrito :) mix in a couple spoonfuls of the filling with some eggs and scramble. I'm excited. It's gonna be delicious! So this filling is also super versatile! Which is great, cuz then you don't have to just make the same meal every day.

Ok so this was super long but hopefully worth it. ENJOY!

PS

Right, I forgot. I also made some gluten free brownies, just that was just from a Betty Crocker box. And I just made them to take to dinner tonight at my friends because I felt the need to contribute. I don't know how they are yet but I'm sure they will be yummy. Wow I seriously have been baking up a storm today. But it's been fun :)
So excited for tonight, corned beef and cabbage. Seriously one of my favorite meals of all time. I don't know why I just love it. And now it's corned beef and cabbage and brownies! Haha even better :)

Baking Adentures!

So today has been fun, I've been alternating between baking and tv watching all day. It's great. Gotta love my days off! Haha. But anyways, I tried a few new experiments today which may or may not have worked out. Also there was supposed to be a Mexican adventure for dinner but then I got invited over to a friends for corned beef and cabbage for St Patty's day so Mexican food adventure will be happening tomorrow! (sorry for the delay Cathy). Haha I like how I call all of my cooking these days adventures. Though they really kind of are. You never really know what you're going to end up with sometimes.
So anyways, first off I made these gluten free muffins just from a mix my mom had sent me, it was from Namaste Foods. And I'm sorry, I usually like that brand, they have good pasta, but these muffins were nasty. I felt really bad but they went straight in the trash. They just had such a weird after taste. Kinda like when you put too much baking powder in things, and you get that weird metallic and sour taste? It was like that. Yuck, didn't like it.
So then baking adventure 2 was the almond flour muffins from the almond flour cookbook, the apple cinnamon ones. Which I had made one other time but with frozen berries, and they didn't come out great because I didn't let the berries thaw first so the extra water in the dough made them a little soggy. But they still tasted good. Anyways, but this time the adventure was protein muffins, so I subbed 1/2 cup of the flour with 1/2 cup of protein powder. Cuz I figured hey now they are an even better breakfast muffin, 6 more grams of protein per muffin. Though don't quote me on that, that is a very rough estimate. So they came out ok, the dough came out really thick so then they burned a little bit, and they taste a little funny but not necessarily bad. I only had vanilla protein powder, so it might taste different if you weren't using flavored powder... Idk that one still needs a little experimentation. So I will keep trying those. Just like the waffles, I will keep experimenting with them too :)
And thirdly, I finally made the chocolate chip scones! And umm YUM. Didn't mess with anything on that recipe, and they came out awesome. And delicious. So finally a successful baking adventure!
Ha what can I say, I'm really not much of a baker. I don't mind it, it's nice that while it's in the oven I can sit on the couch and watch Dr Who, but really cooking is my true love. I just don' t like how precise you have to be in baking, I like to just throw things together and see what happens. But that's ok, I will keep working at it. And to look forward to later in the week, what we also have coming up is.... Mexican food adventure with Black Bean Tacos, with homemade tortillas and a garlic-avocado dipping sauce. Also, we got homemade buffalo chicken pizza, with homemade vegan cashew cream cheese. So get pumped about that :)

Cough drops..... ?!?!?!?!?

Ok so I have decided that there is something in cough drops that my body just does not enjoy. Yesterday I stayed home sick from work (though it hardly counts as ditching since it's spring break and it was going to be ridiculously slow) and then today I'm still feeling a little sick and I also had (very minor) surgery this morning on my skin. So pretty much that all is to say that I have been sitting at home doing nothing all day. And, this is really weird, but when I'm sick all that I want to eat is orange juice and cheese. And I'm not necessarily talking like cheese flavored chips or crackers, though that would work, or even cheese and crackers, though that would also work, I'm talking literally just chunks of cheese. Like hand me a block of cheddar and I will just gnaw pieces off of it. Like I said, weird. However, since I am trying my darndest to not eat dairy and not give in to all the cravings my body gives me, which is really hard after years of doing just that, I said no to the cheese. But that means I really gave in to the orange juice. So anyways, pretty much all of this is to say that I haven't had much to eat today except a bowl of cereal for breakfast,  bowl of soup (which actually did have dairy in it but that was a while ago), tons of orange juice (like we are talking 2 cartons in as many days.... yeah) and then cough drops. And I had soup for lunch and felt fine afterwards, and then started with the cough drops this afternoon and now holy moly. I can not stop farting. And they are stinky! Like not just plain ol oh oops I farted whatever, but more like omg I farted and it was loud and now no one is going to want to be within 20 feet of me! And the only thing that I've had to eat in the last few hours that could have caused this is cough drops. Also this is not the first time I've made this observation. I remember last time I was sick thinking something weird was going on, but that time I had the sugar free ones, so I figured it was that since sometimes sugar alcohols can give you gas. But this time it was the regular ones. Same brand tho, it was the Luden's cherry ones. Though I've also been having some Halls fruit breezers. Hmm. IDK what it is! Could be the sugar in them maybe, or the medicine or something? I have no idea. All I know is it's getting pretty rancid and I think that no matter how sick I am I will never be touching cough drops again for the rest of my life.

Decisions, decisions

Does anyone else feel like there's just so many decisions, so little time? Or so many great ideas and no time to act on them? Or like you have so many ideas swirling around in your head you just really don't know where to start. Ok take me, I'm trying to decide if I want to make this blog a full time gig or not. Which if I did it would probably be this summer when I have more time to dedicate to cooking. And photographing. And all that fun stuff that having a food blog entails! Or then, if I do have a blog, what kind of stuff do I want to make? Will it be vegan? Will it not? What if I have these great ideas and then in 2 weeks when I have my dr appointment they tell me not to eat that anyways? What then? Ha I just really need this appointment to come so that I can get started on my own food journey :)
Ok lets go back to food ideas. I have so many swirling around in my head, that I don't even know where to start. Also I don't have that much time to be dedicating to just cooking, when I'm working 55 hours a week and then there's laundry and cleaning and of course you have to watch your favorite TV shows and then there's recreational reading that I just love to do, etc etc. Anyways. But I'll give you a few examples of things that are going through my head right now that I eventually want to try.
Homemade granola bars (even just in this category the options are endless! do we want chocolate or carob, stevia or real sugar, how many oils, do we want protein powder, do you want oats or just quinoa, maybe some mixed nuts, you could do chocolatey ones you could do nutty ones you could do apple cinnamon or blueberry and yogurt.... so many ideas!)
Protein breakfast muffins
Buffalo cream cheese pizza, with gluten free crust (maybe cauliflower crust?) and homemade cream cheese
Cauliflower alfredo sauce
Homemade marinara
Mango Jalapeno shrimp skewers
Lasagna with homemade "ricotta"
Smoky butternut squash and "bacon" soup
Homemade chicken pot pie muffins
Meatloaf or Meatballs that don't use bread as a binder
Homemade bread or rolls? Because sometimes you just need to feel like you are really getting a good whole sandwich and not just making every sandwich idea into a salad
Homemade tortillas with a garlic-avocado-yogurt dipping sauce
Homemade sweet chili sauce with stevia because who doesn't love sweet chili sauce with their spring rolls?
Or just general ideas that aren't for something specific, like I've heard avocado works as a good binder for gluten free baking, maybe I should give that a try, and then do I want to try eggless as well and go vegan with it, or what?

And then there's all the overall food ideas for me personally, like do I want to go vegan myself, which would be a lot of work also being soy and gluten free, or maybe more like a flexitarian that eats meat sometimes but not every day. And what kind of things are really making me fart? Because tonight at work all I had to eat was some cantaloupe, and some broccoli and zucchini with hummus and oh my goodness the farting would not stop. But on the other hand, still not pooping! HAHA. And then my cousin told me about the blood type diet the other day, which says I shouldn't be eating chicken. If I eat meat I should be eating lamb, mutton, venison, or rabbit. RABBIT! Where do you even find rabbit. Do they use that as a meat source anymore?

Haha as you can see I'm a little overwhelmed by all of this! Which is understandable, there's so much dietary information out there that it does take a little trial and error. Though hopefully I can figure out something by about Sunday so that I know how to grocery shop. I think I'm just going to pick a direction and stick with it for a couple weeks, and if it doesn't seem to be working for me well then I can try something new! It's just all a little daunting right now. But I will figure it out.

Vegetables!!

OK so I am one of those weird people that really like vegetables. Pretty much no matter what way you cook them, or just eating them raw, I just love most vegetables. I even love Brussels sprouts. Yup, that much of a veggie lover. But at the same time, it gets boring eating them every day the same way. So I made up these the other day.....
Creamy Roasted Vegetables!

Started from a recipe on Pinterest (of course) hehe but here goes

2-3 cups of whatever veggies you like (I used Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower)
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 tsp each: parsley, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, dried chili flakes (optional depending on spiciness)
1/2 cup hummus, flavor of your choice (I used roasted garlic, if you are going to use something else I would add garlic powder to the list of spices)

Preheat oven to 425, toss the veggies with olive oil and spices, and then roast for 20 minutes.
While still hot, stir in the hummus, and it will melt a little and get all rich and creamy and delicious :)

The end. It's that simple.

To switch it up every while you could try adding some nutritional yeast, make it kinda cheesy, or switch up the flavor of hummus you use. I'll bet it would be real good with roasted red pepper or pesto hummus. YUM.

Waffle Adventure

So I finally got around to making those pumpkin waffles I have been talking about for forever. And holy cow... who knew a waffle recipe would be so difficult. It really wasn't a hard recipe, I was just trying to make it a little different and it didn't like it! Which is why I'm calling this morning my waffle adventure.
So the recipe calls for egg white beaten until stiff peaks form. This is my being really lazy but I didn't want to get out a hand mixer just for that, so I just beat them with a fork until there was some bubbles and called it good. Yeah, it really didn't like that. The dough was a little too thin that way, so the waffles wouldn't stay together. So for the last one I stirred in some more flour, and then it worked! But it was a little burnt :( but that's probably because of the 2 before this that I had had to scrape off the waffle maker... maybe some pieces were left.
Alright, so the egg thing is totally my own fault, but if I want to make these vegan they can't have egg whites in them. And, there's nothing really that quite is the same in the vegan world as beaten egg whites. Not when you need it to get all fluffy and stuff. So I was thinking, I will try them with more liquidy eggs, so then if you needed to do egg replacers you would know what was going on. But to do it that way it will take a little more flour. Also I'm thinking a little more pumpkin would be nice, just because I love pumpkin so much. :)
So all in all, eventually I got one whole waffle to eat, topped it with some vanilla coconut milk yogurt and some fresh sliced strawberries. (I'm trying to cut out sugar, so even though the yogurt had sugar in it I figured it had to be better than me drowning it in maple syrup. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself) And it was delicious! But, this recipe will take some work before I feel like I can post it online. Especially when it comes to vegan-izing and gluten-free-izing it all. But I'm sure in a few weeks, once I have had a few weekends to practice it will be great.
Anyways, I should probably go clean my kitchen now after all that craziness. :)

Dairy... ugh

Ok so me and dairy are really not getting along right now. It's getting real bad. I've been trying to not eat dairy but every once in a while (like today) I do so on accident. Like today for lunch I went and had a fruit smoothie cuz I wasn't super hungry and it sounded awesome. And they put boosters in them, like protein and energy and stuff. So I had them put a protein booster in mine, thinking I was being all good and getting my fruit and my protein. A no sugar added smoothie too, so no yogurt or ice cream or anything, just fruit and juice. And like half an hour later, I had the worst gas. I was farting like nobody's business. I felt so bad for everyone that had to work with me lol. And I'm sitting there going what the heck? Fruit and juice? But then I realized the protein mix in was probably whey protein, which would be dairy. And I was like oh... that makes sense. Like seriously, I can have only 2 bites of something dairy, even things like cheese and yogurt that used to not affect me too bad, and it is like Mount St Helen's up in here. It's ridiculous. But this is a good incentive to really stop eating dairy! And read labels real well, because who wants to be the awkward one farting in the corner? Um, not me.

Also, I'm debating re-vegan-izing (yes, made up word) myself. I was a vegan for a while but then when I found out I was gluten intolerant I was having trouble balancing them out. But I think now that I've realized that I really can plan ahead what I'm eating and I know really how much proteins and carbs etc I need, and it's not just based on westernized thinking of that if you aren't having steak at every meal you aren't eating enough protein, I think I could balance it out. It will take work, but I think I could do it. Debating. Then I could have great basis for an actual blog, because how many vegan, soy free, gluten free, sugar free blogs could be out there, really? I could get famous! Haha not that I really have any desire to be famous... but still. Could be cool to see some food I made up on Pinterest. :)

taco rolls ups

Hmm... So that was a bit of failure. I'm going to have to work on this recipe. First off, the spring roll wrappers I had were a new brand and I really don't like them. They never really got pliable like they are supposed to. Even after sitting in water for a while they were still a little soft. Also they were really big, so when I rolled them there were lots of layers of spring roll. And then I tried baking them for a while, and they just kinda smelled like melted plastic after that, so I just ate the filling out, and called it good. I didn't eat the rolls because I was a little scared. They should be able to get hot tho, since spring rolls can be fried, so I don't understand why they couldn't be baked. This recipe will take some work. And probably a new brand of spring rolls.
The filling was good though, it was just some chicken cooked in taco seasoning (still working on making my own sometime for that, this one had dairy in it) and some olives and a little cheese. Dipped in some salsa. It was good! But will definitely have to figure out the whole spring roll situation.

Travel

So I have to say, I am not as dedicated as my lovely cousin Cathy. I felt really bad for her and everything that she was dealing with, but I have to say she stayed classy! Only caused drama one time which is very impressive. Personally, I decided I didn't want to cause a huge stink and just made sure to stay away from gluten. Other things on my list are still voluntary currently, so I just figured I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe after my dr appointment in a month I will have to become a little more of a drama queen. But for now my trip went very smoothly!
Also now I am back to Montana and back to my routines, so hopefully I can figure out more time to work on this blog of mine. I'm considering taking this out of BlogSpot and moving on to like an actual website that is just mine. Debating it. I have to think about this. Maybe that will be my summer project or something, when I have a little more time to dedicate to cooking and writing and stuff. Still just trying to figure out what I really want to do with this blog, like if I just want it to be for me, or if I want it to be for the world or maybe eventually a source of income or if I want to be "blogger famous" or whatever. Which obviously would take some work.
Anyways I'm off to make some dinner eventually, gonna try some baked taco spring roll roll ups. Might have to come up with a better name for those lol. I will let you know how they turn out. :)

It's been a while

OK I know I haven't been on here in a while. But not really much new to report. I tend to overestimate how much food I can actually eat in a certain amount of time, so I still haven't started my new diet because I am still working on eating all my leftovers and freezer meals and things so that my food doesn't go to waste!
So probably come Sunday I will be on my new diet. And guess what the first things I'm going to make are? Yup, you guess it. Pumpkin waffles and Chocolate chip scones! (Maybe carob chip scones since I'm trying no sugar, but will probably make at least a couple first the regular way to see how they are supposed to come out before I start changing the recipe).
My cousin just found out that she is allergic to eggs and sugar, and I'm trying to stay away from sugar, so I'm going to try to make them egg and sugar free scones. So we shall see what happens.
Also just because I was curious I looked up the other day on the internet to see if you could get yogurt anywhere that is not made from either dairy or soy. And I did find some places where you could buy almond milk yogurt! Which makes me super happy. Because remember that peach breakfast bake I made? It was so good with yogurt on top. And pretty easy to make dairy/soy free because you can just use apple sauce instead of butter. And now I can have yogurt too! Or I'll bet those pumpkin pancakes would be good with yogurt and fruit on top rather than syrup. Though I will have to check for sugar content. There were also some recipes for homemade yogurt, but this is how I feel about that...

 

 

But if I am trying to cut out sugar as well I might have to try making my own. We shall see. I'm guessing that's not something I will be able to just go to the store and pick up, because well, I live in Montana. Yup, not much here when it comes to food things. But that's ok it might help me learn more how to make things on my own! So we shall see what happens.

Anyways just wanted to say GOOD LUCK! to my cousin Cathy. I know she has been having a rough time dealing with all her new allergies and trying to find things to eat, especially when she is out on the town. So good luck girl, and hang in there. You will figure it out, I promise. And if there's anything I can do, just let me know!

I'll keep you guys all updated come Sunday once my new diet really starts. For now I'm going to enjoy some valentine's day candy. :) 

Highs and Lows

Haha so I have to share this. Today after work I went over to the coffee shop, because I decided since today is my last day I could get coffee, because they use soy milk and everything has sugar in it and too much caffeine isn't good for you anyways, I should go enjoy my one last latte. And they had a sign up saying that they now offer rice and almond milk. And I was so excited! I was like omg no soy milk I can have coffee still! Or even though most of the flavorings have corn syrup most likely, I can have chai at least still! And then I remembered that sugar is also on my no-no list and chai mix definitely has sugar in it... sad face. But at least now if I want some tea with milk or something I can have that. Usually not a huge milk in tea person but with the right tea it's pretty good. And I know they have stevia there, so I can get some fruity tea with a little almond milk and stevia. Sounds good to me. Anyways, just had to share that moment. I was so excited! And then so sad. But I'm back to pretty even now. :)

Musings

Hmm so not really sure what to be talking about but I feel like I should be talking about something.... There's just so much going through my head right now that I can't even process. So I'm just going to ramble!
First off, VERY excited for my cousin Cathy, who just had her first appointment with a nutritionist and feels much closer to her goal of solving leaky gut! Which is awesome! A crazy way to get there it sounds like, but I'm very happy for her. It's crazy how different Eastern and Western medication are. Considering my history with Western medication, I am becoming more and more inclined to give Eastern a try, but it sounds like that could be an interesting experience! But I'm excited to try! So over being a pill popper.
However, about that, I made a big oops and apparently scheduled my naturopath appointment for Feb 11 (which is Monday) rather than March 11 like I meant to. So I won't be able to make it on Monday but now March 11 is full... So I had to move it to March 29, which is another random day we have off of school (and thus work) so I don't have to take time off for my appointment. But that does mean a few weeks more until my appointment. But that's ok, I'll just work on my own for now! Though after what Cathy said sometimes I wonder if I even want a food allergy test anymore! If she wishes she hadn't gotten it, it seems like a waste of money now after talking to her new person. But I do still want to keep my appointment and see what they say. Also I'm trying to fix a different problem than leaky gut since I'm trying to fix HS. So the food might be very prevalent there! So I think I will just ask the doctors what they think. That sounds like a plan.
Anyways, speaking of food things, another couple things that Cathy's new doctor told her are that sugar is toxic and soy is bad. Now I already knew that soy was bad, almost all of the soy in our world is GMO. Which is generally considered to be bad for you. Who knows what is going on with things that aren't natural. But at the same time, so many people blame the prevalence of gluten allergies on GMO things, but did you know that there actually is no GMO wheat on the market? There's wheat that has been adapted by selection, but only selection of genes that are already there. No crazy new never heard of genes. Which I find interesting. But also think we should try to stay away from GMO foods. I googled this real fast, and the top GMO foods in this country are: Corn, Soy, Sugar, Aspartame (fake sweetener), Papayays (?), Canola, Cotton, Dairy, and Zucchini (Source here). Now I don't really know how sound this source is, it was just the first thing that popped up on google. BUT I do know that corn and soy are very GMO heavy, so I'm just gonna go ahead and trust this list. Which is sad because I love zucchini... Hmm gonna have to start buying organic! The funny thing is, generally organic is considered ok and not GMO, but when it comes to soy there has been so much genetic modification that even the organic is GMO usually. So pretty much all soy is bad juju.
So I think I'm going to try a self diet, where I don't eat things that I shouldn't. Hmm, brilliant move there. Lol. But I'm talking choosing between all these things as far as what to eat and what not to eat. So, I'm definitely saying no GMO. Also I know I already can't eat gluten. And I have found out from others that most people who are gluten intolerant are also intolerant of dairy and/or corn. Which both also happen to be on the GMO list. Now I did not know that sugar was on the GMO list, but I have also learned that sugar is not in any way good for you, even natural sugars like honey and maple syrup. It just messes with your internal systems. Especially when you eat too much of it. If you have never read Lick the Sugar Habit by Nancy Appleton I highly recommend it.
SO, all this to say that come Monday (I have to wait until Monday because that's when I get paid and will be grocery shopping... before that I will be eating whatever is left in my cupboards) this will be my new self-inflicted diet: no gluten, no corn, no soy, no sugar, no dairy. And let me tell you, it is going to be HARD. Even just the no corn is hard with still getting sweets from other ways, the no sugar thing is gonna kill me. And I know everyone says oh the cravings will go away in a few weeks, which I do appreciate and am happy to know, but it is such a hard 2 weeks to get through! GAH. I haven't actually made it yet even on the corn thing. I think the most days of not eating corn I've made in a row is like 5? And sometimes it's just an oops I forgot to read a label thing, but sometimes it's just me giving into cravings. So I really need to work on this! Thankfully I have a pretty creative head when it comes to foods, and so does my cousin and my brother so I will be able to come up with some awesome recipes for my journey I'm sure, which I will of course share with you. But I'm definitely gonna miss some things. Like cheese. And cornbread. And all sugar products.
Also, I think I've mentioned this but I am pretty lactose intolerant so I really shouldn't be eating dairy already, I just am bad at sticking to that one. Which is another thing I have been really thinking about this week.
I am terrible and making new habits. I will just say it. I'm a pretty lazy person and I like my routines. It is so hard for me to change. I hate getting up before I have to, even if getting up early means I can get a workout in that I know I won't do later because I'm tired. I will hit the snooze for an hour rather than get up and do my pilates. I will just sit and play games on my phone or scroll pinterest at the end of the evening instead of doing something good for me, like some yoga or even just reading a book. I think I have a screen time problem. Dang iphones. I love it, but man sometimes I just need to lock it in the corner or something. And when I realize things like this, it's very easy for me to get down on myself. Like why I can't just do something that I know is good for me? Does anyone else have this problem? I know I should get up and do my pilates and some jumping jacks, but I just hit the snooze. I know I need to not eat dairy or sugar but hey look at me eating ice cream. And I don't know why. I need help. If anyone has some ideas let me know because I am getting so frustrated with myself!
That's another thing I'm asking for. I want someone to hold me to this. Cathy, if you want to just text me once a week and be like hey how's the diet? And send me a couple words of encouragement. I just need to know that someone else cares that I'm getting healthy. Which I know people do, but sometimes no one says anything. Or anytime I talk to my mom about how I need to start working out more she just encourages it because of a weight loss thing I feel like. Which yes I do need to lose weight, my BMI is 26 which is technically overweight. But I feel like there is so much more to a "getting healthy" journey than just a number on a scale and I feel like that is all people reduce it to. And that's not enough motivation for me. Also it's hard to do something just so that I don't have a heart attach in 30 years. That's not much motivation either. I already know all this. I need something else. I just haven't figured out what it is yet.
So, I'm going to be sad for just one more minute here and then it's going to get exciting again. I know they say when you have allergies or if you are on a diet, not to focus on things you can't or don't eat anymore, because that just gets you down. You are supposed to think of all the things you can eat! But I feel the need to have a moment of silence for the things I will no longer be consuming....
Cheese. Chocolate. Ice Cream. Cornbread. Candy. Most alcoholic beverages. Chocolate milk. Goat Cheese. Jam. Any processed foods. Butter. Cookies. Birthday cake. Fudge. Anything with soy or corn oil, so probably no potato chips or French fries. Popcorn. Ranch dressing.
OK this is getting depressing, I'm done. Now, on to the exciting things I will be making, and attempting relatively soon!
Coconut rice
Any new kind of meat creation
Chili
Homemade marinara sauce and spaghetti (maybe even with meatballs)
Pumpkin waffles
pumpkin bread
anything with fruit in it! Fruit syrup for pancakes and waffles?
And this summer when it's bbq season again it's gonna get real crazy up in here. I got a few ideas, like homemade teriyaki sauce for grilled chicken or shrimp. Or there's this mango jalapeno shrimp that they make at red lobster which sounds awesome so I might have to attempt some homemade version of that. (I love shrimp but I really only like it bbq'd because it's less watery that way if you are wondering why I have to wait for summer for these)
Lots of soups
Pastas with new sauces that don't have dairy or gluten, like my brother made gluten and dairy free alfredo sauce, might have to play with that some. Though I don't know what I would use as a butter substitute since the only non-dairy butter I know of is soy based... Or maybe like an avocado sauce so it is still creamy, or some good oil/vinegar sauces
homemade salad dressings?
Homemade granola bars?
So many great ideas! Things I can still eat! YAY.
So one exciting things is that stevia is still allowed in this diet. Pretty much the only sweetener allowed but at least it's there. So maybe I can still have birthday cake :) or like in that pumpkin bread I want to make it probably calls for sugar, so I'll just try it with stevia. Or Cathy keeps telling me I really need to make these chocolate chip scones. But, no chocolate, so maybe I will just  make them into blueberry scones with stevia. Or maybe cranberry, since I probably don't want the extra liquid of blueberries, so if I did cranberry I could use craisins. Or maybe dried blueberries! So many ideas.
I will keep you all updated on how all of this goes. I can plan all I want, but the hard part is really putting it all into action. Because sometimes I just really want chocolate. Like every month when I am PMSing.
Anyways I'm gonna go order some almond flour online. Y'all have a good night!

Cookbook!

Got my almond flour cookbook today!!! YAY! So So So So So SO excited! I just want to make everything. But, as per requested, I will definitely be starting with the scones. Also I need to get good almond flour, and I will probably have to get it online, because I used Bob's Red Mill almond flour the other day and I wasn't a huge fan. It was kinda grainy. I used it to make sugar cookies for my fruit pizza (which was delicious btw) and they tasted really good once they were baked, but the dough was pretty grainy. Like when you ate a bite of dough it felt like it wasn't mixed all the way and it was like you were still chewing chunks of nuts. Didn't really like it. What's the fun of making cookies if you can't eat the dough?

So anyways, just wanted to say yay I got my cookbook and I can't wait to try it!

The insanity of my life

So, this has been a very interesting week. And by interesting I mean hellish, emotional, crazy, busy, insane, painful, oh and did I mention insane and crazy? So I haven't posted since Tuesday, so let's see what's been happening since Tuesday...
Well on Tuesday I think I mentioned this, but I was in loads of pain in my armpits, which I probably tied to swimming. Oops. My own fault, but still not at all fun to deal with. So I was still in pain come Wednesday, but I had a dr apt so I was hoping that would make me feel better. Which it didn't. I went to the dr on Wednesday and she drained a couple of the really big abscesses (eww, I know) and so then they kind of felt a little better because some of the pressure was off. But it usually takes a few hours for them to really feel better, so didn't make a huge difference at that point. And then she proceeded to tell me that one of them is looking a little big, and this is the second time she has had to drain it, so it might be a good idea to look into surgery on it. Which this is not the first time I've had surgery, I've had like 4 or 5 so far, but it's just so disheartening every time I have one. I think I'm getting better with the no gluten and stuff and then something acts up anyways. Which I do generally respond very well to surgery, it does get rid of the problem, but I just hate that I have to have them. So after 2 days of large amounts of pain and no sleep because of said pain, to then be told maybe another surgery (which are really painful even though she uses anesthetic because I metabolize drugs really quickly so it's hard to keep up) was just the last straw. I went home and ate my weight in chocolate (bad, I know) and watched the Big Bang Theory for like 2 hours. That is my feel better show because it always makes me laugh. That one and How I Met Your Mother. And then I had told my mom to call me when she was free, so she called me about 9, and I decided it was a good time to have a complete emotional break down and we talked until 11 at night. Basically it consisted of "my life is insane and I can't handle it anymore." There's so many things that I want to do but I just never have time! Like I only have 1 day off a week that I'm not working at all, and 3 days a week I'm working for almost 12 hours. 13 hours if you count transportation time. It's ridiculous. And then I hadn't had any sleep and then I was all bummed because of my surgery. I can generally handle my skin disease, I'm usually just like whatever I have a problem ok cool moving on. But when it is causing me that much pain, I can get really down about it. So between all of that together, I cried and Mom fixed all my problems. It was great. Ok, to just give you a picture of what I'm talking about, this was my week last week.
SUNDAY: Swam with Masters, 10-11:30, stayed home after that, it was nice, got some laundry done, cooked some food, got ready for the week, etc. Probably went to bed about 11 pm
MONDAY: Got up at 6 am, left my house at 6:45, worked 7-3:30, got home about 3:45. Made that avocado chicken salad, made a sandwich, subbed for someone at the pool, so left my house again at 4:40, went to work 5-6 at the pool. Only worked an hour, because they didn't really need me and I wanted to swim. Swam 6:15-7:45, got home about 8, watched the biggest loser, went to bed about 9:30. Woke up at 12:30, in super amounts of pain, slept very fitfully and not much until 6.
TUESDAY: Got up at 6, worked on campus 7-3:30, got home about 3:45, left my house at 4:40, worked 5-8:30 at the pool, got home about 8:45, went to bed about 9:30, still in lots of pain, still didn't get much sleep
WEDNESDAY: Got up at 6, worked on campus 7-3:30, after work went to the grocery store and the dr, got home about 5:30, hung out at home til about 9, had an emotional breakdown until about 11, talked to my roommate about it because she had heard me crying until about 12, went to bed about 12:30 because I took a real fast shower first
THURSDAY: Got up at 6, worked 7-3:30, got home at 3:45, did some paperwork online for work, took a shower, left my house at 4:20 because I had to go to CVS and pick up a prescription before work, worked 5-8:30 at the pool, got home about 8:45, had a glass of wine and went to bed at 9:30.
FRIDAY: Got up at 6, finally got a decent amount of sleep but still exhausted, worked 7-3:30 on campus which was crazy because it was MSU Friday where all the prospective high school students come check out the school, went home about 3:45, left my house at 3:50, walked to the pool, picked up my paycheck, walked to the bank and then back to the pool, got to the pool about 4:45, sat for 10 minutes, worked 5-8:30 at the pool, got home about 8:45, ate some dinner, then my friend picked me up about 9:30 and we went to the movies, got home about midnight, went to bed
SATURDAY: Alarm didn't go off, woke up about 8:45, ran around like a crazy person, got to work about 15 minutes late (I'm supposed to be there at 9), worked 9-6 at the pool with a 1 hour lunch break, came home, went to the grocery store so that I have all my food for Super Bowl Sunday, got home about 7 from that, ate some dinner and now I'm writing this.

Yeah.... INSANE. Which usually I wouldn't have worked at all Monday, and on Friday I usually would have had more time at home because I don't have to pick up a paycheck every Friday but still. It was crazy. So you could see how there would be no time to do fun things, or even things I need to do. Like I still haven't called the company about my juicer. And I've been meaning to make time to finally learn how to snowboard, but not really time for that. My one day off from work I'm at home doing laundry and grocery shopping and cooking and it's not even really a day off. But Mom told me that it's ok to say I'm doing too much, or I bit off more than I could chew, so I decided to give up a night at the pool. So I talked to my friend Maggie who just graduated and is looking for more hours and I told her I wanted less, so she will be working Tuesdays for me at the pool for the foreseeable future. YAY one more night at home. So that means I can maybe do things like make Monday night laundry night which will free up a little more of Sunday. Or maybe actually make it to masters more than once a week because I have another night I can stay home and cook or do whatever I need to get done. Hopefully that will free up a lot of time. Which I am super excited about. So I feel a lot better about that. Also my armpits are not nearly in as much pain, so that's better. And there's a 3 day weekend coming up in a few weeks so my friend Kayla and I made plans to go snowboarding! So I finally sort of feel like I have a bit more of a handle on my life. It's a good feeling. Mom's are awesome like that.

On a side note, last night for dinner I made a grilled cheese version of that avocado chicken salad sandwich, a couple slices of provolone, some Anaheim peppers and red onions, and it was awesome. Highly recommended. :)

So anyways, this was pretty much just to say sorry I haven't been posting all week, but you can see why. Also I haven't been doing great in the food department, sometimes I just didn't have time to eat anything except what was the first thing I could get my hands on so I messed up a few times I know. Gonna try to get back into it really well on Monday. But only about 5 weeks until my naturopath appointment, yay!

Hope you all had a better week than I did

Avocado Chicken Salad

My latest (and almost greatest) food invention recently... avocado chicken salad! I made it last night (ate in on my Pamela's gluten free/corn free bread that I made!) and it is delicious. Got it off Pinterest (of course) but adapted it a little. And it's actually really really good!!
I'm not a huge fan of mayonnaise, I will use it for chicken and tuna salad and on BLT's and that's about it. Otherwise I just don't really like the taste. But it is a really good binder for salads, and there's just something about a BLT with mayo that is for some reason better than one without it. I dunno what it is. Maybe just because I don't like dry sandwiches and not many other condiments go well with bacon. But anyways, this stuff was awesome, and NO MAYO! Which means instead of those nasty unhealthy fats from mayo you get really healthy fats from the avocado! And avocado is still pretty creamy so it makes a good binder. So here we go:

2 chicken breasts, broiled, and diced
1 ripe avocado
1 TBS plain greek yogurt (optional, I think it makes it a little more creamy, but if you are trying to not eat dairy then omit it obviously)
1 tsp salt
A splash of lime juice
Chopped cilantro to taste

Mash up the avocado until creamy and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Stir in the diced chicken and viola! If you are going to use fresh cilantro I would suggest mixing all the ingredients except the chicken in a food processor so then you get it nice and chopped and you don't feel like you are eating leaves. I used dried cilantro (the store was out of fresh) so I just mashed it all with a fork.

Mom, if you are reading this I'll bet it would be good with some tofu crumbles or other sort of vegan protein. I know Dad wouldn't like it, but it might be a nice sandwich change for you!

Might even be good as a grilled sandwich with a little provolone or something? Mmmmm might have to try that next.

And as far as I know, yay Cathy finally a recipe I'm posting you can eat! I think.

On another note, I am in high high levels of pain today and not liking it. I'm still not completely sure why. My armpits have been a little twingy and a little sore since I started not eating corn so I was wondering if that might be related but I was feeling healthier so I thought it couldn't be that. Though I'm thinking that that is about the time I started swimming pretty regularly again, so I'm wondering if it's because of the chlorine. I've never really had too much of a problem before, but I'm usually pretty good about showering right when I get out of the pool and the last couple days I didn't. Like Sunday I just figured I would shower when I got home, so it was about an hour after swimming that I showered, and then I was a little sore, and then yesterday I didn't shower right away because again I figured I would shower when I got home, but then I got distracted because I was watching the Biggest Loser with my roommates, and then I was just exhausted so I went to bed without showering assuming I would be fine until morning. Holy not fine. I woke up at about midnight in so much pain and my shirt was actually stuck to one of my armpits because I think a little sore had opened up. So I ended up sleeping in no shirt the rest of the night so it could have air. And then this morning in the shower I washed them like 4 times with antibacterial soap and they felt a little better, but still really sore all day. That's the problem with this disease, there's no instant fix. Once I get a sore and it starts hurting, it's gonna hurt for a few days even if  remove the problem. So I'm thinking I won't go swimming tomorrow night even though that's my day off and I normally would swim just to give them a break. And then on Saturday when I have to get in for my lesson I'm definitely taking a shower right after! Hopefully that's all this problem is, just the chlorine and showers because I can fix that. If it's because I'm not eating corn then I don't know what to do, because not eating it I do feel healthier but if it's going to make my armpits hurt to not eat it, then that would be against the whole point of this, which is to try to make my armpits pain free! So hopefully it's just the chlorine. I'll keep you updated. I do have a Dr apt tomorrow so we shall see what she says.