What I can't have

For the past week I have been having an endless discussion with myself.  Okay, it isn’t endless.  It will end next Tuesday.  But the discussion is all about what to “test” first.  What food shall I eat next Tuesday, when I can eat something different?  Milk?  Eggs?  Cheese?  Tomatoes?  Wheat?  What will it be?  I have been leaning towards milk first.  I will be visiting my parents that day, so I need something easy to prepare.  Milk does that.  So does cheese.  I could easily drink a glass of milk with each meal, without straining anything.  Cheese also is easy.  Add a little grated cheese to my turkey for dinner, a little melted cheese to my broccoli at lunch, and just a nice slice of cheese at breakfast.  Not a problem.  However, I will be cooking in my mother’s kitchen.  Maybe I’d better stick with milk.

At least, that was the discussion until Monday night.  My husband is a volunteer firefighter.  And the department has training on most Mondays.  Except one Monday a month.  One of the other volunteers turned it into social night.  Spouses are welcome, although I think I’m the only one who comes who hasn’t also volunteered with the department. (There’s something about the department that practically compels wives to volunteer with their husbands.  I don’t know why.  But they all do it.  And they all love it.  If I weren’t working out of district all week, I’d be seriously tempted.  But I am working out of our fire district, and have much too little time at home as it is!  Oh well.)

Anyway, it was social night last Monday.  And I came, as I do, for the games.  I love board games and have a husband who does not love board games.  So I came.  I was good.  I brought foods that were on my diet.  I brought my turkey stew, which was pretty bland, because I forgot to add seasonings.  And I brought a can of olives, which I devoured (and I am still feeling the effects).  But I was not warned.  They were having spaghetti.

Let me say first, I was good.  I reminded myself that two weeks work should not be thrown away on a whim, an impulse, a momentary need for tomato-pasta-goodness.  But I felt it.  That voice that calls to me.  Okay, okay, I’ll confess!

I love spaghetti.

It’s true.  I have had a love affair with spaghetti since I was a kid.  My brother is probably the one most of my family would associate with the food, since the days when he could only say pascetti.  But I love it every bit as much as he does.  Maybe more.

There is something about pasta when combined with tomatoes that makes a meal better.  Any meal.  Add a little meat to the tomatoes and just a hint of cheese and you are almost there.  Add a little garlic bread and you have found the food of the gods. 

That is what they ate.  I ate stew.  Pretty bland stew, too.  At that point I had forgotten to add seasonings.  In my defense, I had barely arrived home when I had to grab my food and go.  Once I added seasoning the stew was pretty tasty.

Once I am eating tomatoes again, I will share my secret spaghetti sauce recipe.  It is my husband’s favorite.  Until then – I can dream!

Two down

Today is the start of week three.  For this week I need to be extra vigilant in measuring my blood sugar, my pulse rate, and my moods.  This will establish the baseline for the future.

It has not been an easy journey.  I am craving foods more than ever.  And food is everywhere!  Before I started this, even when I was on a diet, I could still eat what I wanted, when I wanted, I’d just have to “adjust” my diet to allow for the calories.  And often I forgot the adjustment.  Which may explain why I’m still well over 200 pounds.  But this diet is different.  Partly because I know that this phase is temporary.  I will someday be able to test those foods again.  Maybe in a slightly different format, but I will test them and find out how I react to them and also find out how to do them better.  I have eaten a lot of “okay” foods in my life because I was too much in a hurry or too gluttonous to find a better alternative.  At this moment, I have to find an alternative.  And that has made me more aware that there are good alternatives out there.  All I need is a little creativity.

I am also being forced to plan ahead.  I cannot eat something less healthy because I forgot my lunch.  Old excuse.  Forgot my lunch at home, have to eat fast food again! Oops!  Sorry!  Now, if I forget my lunch, I go hungry.  There aren’t a lot of alternatives available for me now.

The other reason this diet is different is because I’m detoxing.  If I cheat, even once, I have to start all over.  I don’t want to start over.  I have two weeks invested in this process.  I don’t want to waste two whole weeks. 

I feel like I’m entering a new phase.  This is the truly scientific phase.  I have learned a lot about what I can and cannot do.  I’ve learned to make dishes with turkey that I would never have thought worked with turkey.  And they worked.  I’ve learned that I can plan ahead and make food that is tasty and good.  (I still haven’t cracked the breakfast issue – what do you eat that is breakfast when you cannot have grains or eggs?  But I am enjoying the foods I eat.)

So now I will monitor my body.  I will pay attention to what I eat, how much, and how my body reacts.  And in the end I will be healthier.  That is my goal.  That is my expectation. 

Onward, ever onward!

Lettuce enjoy

I discovered a wonderful secret! Lettuce leaves make excellent “tortillas” for fajitas.  I’m trying to think what other Mexican dishes might work.  Unfortunately, the lack of beans and cheese makes it very difficult to think of a dish I can try.  But turkey fajitas is definitely a new favorite for me!

I made regular fajitas for the rest of the family.  I served them tortillas and a beef, pepper, onion mixture that never fails to please me.  My only problem was when they began adding my lettuce leaves to their fajitas and I ran short.  Oh, well.  I don’t have to eat the turkey and onions as a fajita, it makes a great dish on its own.  I still was able to eat a few small fajitas before I was left with just the filling.  I have added the recipe below.  I hope you enjoy!

Turkey fajitas

1 lb turkey breast
2 lg onions
olive oil for frying
8 lg lettuce leaves

Slice onions into narrow strips.  Set frying pan to medium-high heat and add olive oil.  Add onions.  Cook onions past the translucent stage until they have some additional color.  Remove from pan and set aside.

While onions cook, slice turkey into narrow strips.  When onions have been removed from the pan, add additional olive oil  and cook turkey until no longer pink.  Add onions back to the pan and stir together until hot.

Use lettuce leaves as you would a tortilla.  You do not need to “wrap” the lettuce leaves, fajitas are to be left open along one side.  Eat with your hands or a fork, your choice.

NOTE: if you are testing nightshade vegetables, you may add bell peppers by cooking them with the onions.  If not, it’s good without them.

On the charts!

Today I have a success worth mentioning.  As I have been practicing my new diet, as well as exercising more, I have been losing weight.  I weigh in each morning using Wii Fit (I also weigh in on the more accurate bathroom scale, but Wii Fit is more fun).  As part of the weigh in procedure the screen displays your BMI on a visual scale.  I have been off the top of the scale since I began.  Yes, I confess, my BMI was over 36.  But today I weighed in and discovered – I’m not off the top of the scale any more!  There is a small line of color above the marker.  A very small line, true, but I am not off the top!  Woohoo!

I do not know if I should attribute this success to the diet, to the fact that I am now drinking plenty of water (averaging about 80 ounces or more per day), to my increased exercise, or to the fact that I seldom eat anything in the evenings now.  It has been more difficult than I anticipated to create food I can eat when I get home. 

Whatever the reason – I am on the chart!  Woohoo!

Chips and Fish

Ever since I began this diet, I have been losing weight.  Far too fast, really, to be sustainable.  As of yesterday I was down 9.8 pounds.  Then this morning I was up 2 pounds again.  I blame two things.  First – I ate really late last night.  Second, I didn’t drink nearly enough water yesterday.  We will see how I do in the morning.  Again I ate really late but I drank plenty of water today.  We shall see tomorrow.

Tonight’s dinner was fish and chips.  I made them separately.  I confess at the end of the day, unless I am pre-prepped and planned ahead, I don’t exactly think straight for cooking.  And when I buy something to cook on the way home, I am definitely not pre-planned.

I bought some cod.  I just pan fried it with a little salt and pepper in some olive oil.  Yummy!  Then I made more of the sweet potato chips I described a few days ago.  Happy stomach.. 

I confess, I tried sweet potato fries, but I didn’t have much success with them.  I think I either need to experiment more, or find a recipe.

Ground to dust

I failed.  I admit it.  I tried to make turkey sausage.

I have never fully appreciated before how very dry turkey is.  I must remember in the future - lean meat means dry meat.  All that juicy goodness in a hamburger or a sausage patty comes from the fat.  I didn't really think about it until now.  Well, until I made turkey sausages.

I had about a pound and a half of turkey breast left, as yet uncooked, so I ground it in my food processor.  I mixed spices and ground them, mixed them into the meat, let the whole thing blend overnight in the fridge.  I gave it every opportunity to taste right.  And it did.  It tasted like sausage.  Unfortunately they are so dry I have to drink a glass of water per bite.  I've been eating them, partly because if I don't eat them then I have to cook something else.  And I was a little out of ideas.  And out of turkey meat yesterday, if truth be told.  Fortunately I also went shopping yesterday.

This failure is not my only report, however.  Behold a small success.

Today I was expecting guests for dinner.  Not wanting them to have to suffer from my peculiar diet, and not yet certain of my recipes for common foods, I bought hamburger.  I decided to make hamburger patties for everyone else and turkey burgers for me.  But after the sausage fiasco I was a little nervous.  I thought of everything I'd ever learned about making moister foods.  I don't know if I heard it somewhere, or I thought it up, maybe it's common knowledge - but shredding vegetables and mixing them into the meat makes a much moister patty.  I did a taste test - I made two patties, added shredded zucchini to one and shredded sweet potatoes to the other.  The sweet potatoes win!  The recipe isn't ready to share yet, as I really think I need to shred the sweet potatoes much finer, but it made a fairly decent burger.  I used lettuce leaves for the bun and put a little guacanole on top.  Guacanole?  That's Guacamole without the peppers or tomatoes.  I'm still working on that one, also.  I should have a recipe in a few days.  I have to have some kind of dip for my chips!

Crunch Time

I found it.  It still exists. The crunch. 

Understand – I like them.  Carrots, rutabagas, parsnips, sweet potatoes.  Roasted they are delicious.  Raw they are frequently sweet.  I like to shave them – slice them wafer thin with a potato peeler – and add them to salad. 

But once you cook them, they don't crunch.  Slice them thin, they don't crunch.  And uncut and uncooked they are hard to eat.  Besides, no matter how munchy they are, they never really crunch.  Not with that crackly crisp crunch that comes from chips and crackers and all those junk food goodies we love so much.  And I miss the crunch.

A stalk of celery will give a suggestion of a crunch.  But then it is followed by munch and fiber and it just isn’t the same.

When you can’t have all those additives, and you can’t have almost anything that even hints at starch – no potatoes, no grains, not even rice – then how do you find the crunch?

I found a way.

Thanks to olive oil, sweet potatoes, and my trusty potato peeler. 

Sweet Potato Chips

Equipment needed

My eensy weensy spider

Pan with a lid or spatter guard

Potato peeler

Baking sheet

Baking rack (like you use to cool cookies)

Spider

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 large sweet potato

Directions

Pour about 1 to 1 ½ inches of olive oil into the pan.  Heat to a medium high heat (I had it set to 8 on my stove).  I used a large saucepan.  However, a frying pan will give more surface space and allow for larger batches.

While oil heats peel the sweet potato.  Once the outer skin has been removed pat the potato dry.  Then use the potato peeler to shave thin slices.  It doesn’t really matter what shape the pieces end up.  These are for crunching, not dipping, so skinny pieces work as well as fatter ones.

Once the oil is hot, add sweet potato slices to the pan.  Don’t add too many at one time.  They need room to move in the oil as you stir them.  Stir them with the spider to keep them from sticking together.  I usually stir three or four times during frying.  Make certain the chips turn at least once for even cooking.

From left to right
blech, acceptable, yummy, chewy

When chips start to brown at the edges, use the spider to remove them from the pan.  Place the chips on the drying rack and allow them to drain and to cool.  So be careful.  Leave them in too long and they will be inedible.  Too short a time and they will be chewy.  It will take some trial and error to get them just right.

I don’t know how many servings this makes.  I can tell you that this pile of chips was half a sweet potato minus the ones I ate before I took the picture.  Enjoy!

 

Something Fishy

Today I had a little variety.  I bought a filet of sole last night.  So I looked up some instruction for cooking sole this morning.

Someone remind me to look up the recipes before I start buying the ingredients.

Most of the recipes I saw had a lot of ingredients that were not allowed but were essential to the recipe.  As in "dredge in flour" or something similar.  I did find one interesting looking recipe for a coconut avocado relish over Barbecued Dover Sole.  But I do not have a barbecue grill ready for use in January, and fish doesn't sit.  Not well and not for long.

Eventually I found Bob.  He had a recipe for Dover Sole in Parchment.  I made a few adjustments.  I forgot the celery and added parsnip instead, because I had extra parsnips from the other day.  And I definitely had to cut a few ingredients.  But it worked really well.

To adjust the recipe to make it ED (Elimination Diet) worthy change step three.  Arrange the vegetables on top of the fish.  Do everything else the same.  You might want to cook the fish for one or two minutes longer.  My fish was just a little bit underdone.  But that does depend on the thickness of the fish.

I didn't have as much moisture with the fish.  But that's okay.  The fish itself was moist and delicious.  AND IT WASN'T TURKEY!

See you all tomorrow!

Dining and Whining

Sometimes I think if I have to eat another green leafy vegetable my ears will grow.  Another bite of turkey and you can add a black hat with a buckle to my outfit.  I am tired of turkey and vegetables!!!

I'll be the first to confess - I'm a carboholic.  And by carb I mean grains.  Light fluffy breads.  Sweet luscious cakes.  Day old doughnuts dipped in hot chocolate.  Sodapop, complete with carbonation.  Toast, oozing butter.  

There are doughnuts here, in the office, leftover from this morning's safety meeting.  Doughnuts, just a few steps away.  And there's half a case of rootbeer leftover from a holiday party.  And I'm drinking my 4th bottle of water for the day and eating 4 ounces of turkey with vegetables.

How long must this torture continue!  It is endless in nature, it began before the dawn of time and will continue until the rivers run dry!  Curses, I say!  Vegetables are beginning to grow from my skin.  My heart has been replaced with a rutabaga and my lungs with lettuces.  I no longer gobble my food but gobble my speech!  When will it end!

And thus ends day two of my experiment. 

Go!

I have started.  Yesterday I ate turkey and vegetables.  That was pretty much it.  Oh - and an apple for dessert.

It was in some ways a good day and in some ways a bad day.  Breakfast and lunch were salad with baked (overly dry) turkey.  I did not do a good job roasting this turkey.  And I remembered how very much I hate dry food.  I managed to avoid the hiccups, but barely.  yes, dry food gives me the hiccups.  And for some reason, water doesn't seem to fix the problem.  I usually eat my food with something thicker than water.  Like creamy salad dressing. So when I ate my salad for breakfast, I was concerned.  I knew I needed a way to fight the dry.  Then it came to me -

AVOCADO!

I think that may become my new war cry.  Can't you see me rushing into battle screaming "AVOCADO!" at the top of my lungs?  Well, you don't know what I look like, so you can't see me, but you get the idea.

Avocados are creamy bundles of incredible texture.  I personally do not care if it tastes wonderful or not (but ti does taste pretty good) I care about the texture.  Creamy and smooth and easily blended into all kinds of things.  I might even be able to create an elimination version of guacamole.  With sweet potato chips.




Okay, time to wake up from the daydream.  So I added half a guacamole to my lunch time salad and it made a big difference.  If I had a mini blender here at work, I might make myself an avocado salad dressing.  Avocado, maybe a little onion powder, blended until smooth. I think the boss might frown on adding kitchen equipment to the office, though. I'll try it at home one day and let you know how it works.

Dinner time was pretty good.  I made a turkey stir fry.  Nice, moist food.  It tasted pretty bland.  I wonder - after I've had three weeks of no sugar and very limited salt - how will it taste then?

At the end of the day I had a baked apple.  Apple and cinnamon and no sugar.  I don't think I baked it right.  I'll have to work on that.

Get Set!

Yesterday I was getting ready and now I am set.

It was kind of funny yesterday.  One, I succumbed to the "last time" temptation.  The last time I get to eat bread for who knows how long.  The last hamburger.  The last cinnamon roll (very gooey, warm, and delicious).  The last of a lot of things.  At the same time, I was thinking about possible meals.  Let's see, salad with turkey strips.  As a change, maybe baked turkey with salad.  And just for some variety, I think I'll have turkey on a bed of lettuce with a variety of vegetables.

Hm.

Then I started thinking.  Seriously thinking.  I can have stir fry.  There are a lot of stir fry vegetables that are not on the okay list (like snow peas and peppers), but I can have broccoli, carrots, onions, and cauliflower.  Add a little zucchini and I've got a decent stir fry.  I can't season it with soy sauce.  In fact, anything you buy in a liquid form is pretty much off limits.  But I can make a sauce.  Maybe a little reduction of ginger or something similar?  That might make a good addition to the stir fry.  Maybe some ginger-infused olive oil.  Or I can cook it in coconut oil for a change of pace.  Anyone know where I can buy coconut oil?

I can make a turkey salad.  You know, like chicken salad.  A little chopped turkey, a little celery, a tiny bit of onion, preferably green onion. I know mayo is on the no list, but avocado is approved.  Take a few avocado slices, mash them up, and I have a nice creamy substance, guaranteed to hold my turkey salad together.  Now that sounds good on a bed of lettuce, or maybe rolled in a lettuce leaf, like a wrap.

So I am feeling much more hopeful.  I'm going to write up some recipes and see how well they work.

Yesterday was also shopping day.  I have learned a lot about "basic" ingredients.  Did you know ground turkey has flavoring added?  Yep.  They say all natural, but they don't say what.  Which means I can't have it because I don't know what I'm getting.  Milk substitutes have a lot of additional ingredients.  I am pretty much learning that if I want something plain and simple, it isn't going to come from the supermarket.  I'll be doing a lot more shopping at the local butcher's shop and the fruit and vegetable stand.

By the way, anyone have a suggestion for breakfast?  I have found a recipe for sausage seasoning, and as soon as I find my meat grinder I can start making turkey sausage.  Maybe I can try sweet potato hash browns.  Surely somewhere there's a recipe for that.  I'll keep you posted.

You know, if I can find enough tasty options on this diet, maybe I can get my husband to try it.  Now that's an idea.

Get Ready!

What can I say?  I thought it was important to start with some records.  I took my blood sugar level.  New monitor, new strips, new sticker.   (That's stick-er, really.  Not little paper things that get glued to me and say I was a good girl who didn't cry, but a nasty little sharp device whose only purpose is to make holes in human flesh.  Not pleasant, but all part of the process.)

Who knew it would take so long to learn a new device?  Of course, the fact that it has no instructions . . . . Three failed test strips later I was very frustrated.

Can I just say - I love the internet.  Looked up the instructions, realized what we were doing wrong.  One more test strip and I was done!  No more poking holes in my fingers!  Good thing I poke the sides of my fingers, or I would probably not be writing now.

Today I cook and clean out the kitchen and shop for my new me.  I'd ask you to wish me luck, but I already did that.  Twice.

See you soon!

The Beginning

Welcome to the beginning.

This blog is partly my own personal crusade against sugar and salt and their overabundance in my life. It is also partly my personal journey to self-discovery, food-wise, that is.

I don’t want to preach, but I am convinced there is too much salt and sugar added to the processed foods we have come to rely on. Not just pre-packaged meal kits (frozen or dry). Even the ordinary canned foods. Did you know they add sugar to canned beans? Seriously, beans? Since when do we need our beans to be sweet? And I don’t even want to think about the amount of salt in a can of mushroom soup. Still, I have both in my pantry. Cans of beans and cans of soup. And I use them, too. And maybe that’s why so many foods have so little taste. I believe our tastebuds start to ratchet themselves down when we expose them to too much salt and sugar.

Additives aside, I am starting to experience food-related problems. Bloating and issues sleeping, not to mention extreme thirst, sugar-crashes, and other problems. Including depression. Some of them I can probably blame on diabetes. Am I diabetic? I think so. I haven’t had a test to say so yet, but I have my suspicions. Some of the problems, though, are most likely from food ‘allergies’. I guess that officially they are actually called food sensitivities. Whatever we call them, I mean reactions to food that are unpleasant. I don’t like it, my body doesn’t like it, and I want it to stop.

I’ve decided to kill three birds with one stone. Of course, it’s a pretty big stone, but hey, if it works, it works! I’m going on an elimination diet. And I’m going to try to use it to reset my taste buds, stabilize my blood sugar, and find out what foods I can and cannot eat with abandon! (I love the idea of eating with abandon. It sounds so decadent. Even when what I’m eating is lettuce.)

What is an elimination diet? Well, a very good explanation exists here. Or here. Or here. The short version - if you suspect you have a food "allergy" or food sensitivity, you can find out without the benefit of a doctor or expensive tests. You start by eating a very restricted diet. No potential trigger foods. Then, after you have a chance to adjust to the new diet and flush the toxins out of your body, you start testing various foods. Adding them back into the diet, one isolated food at a time. Find out if you react to it. That's it in a nutshell.

I begin this week. Not tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to prepare for it. Mainly cooking up all the out of bounds foods I have in the house and getting them ready for my husband to reheat. I’m going to hide them in the downstairs freezer. He can bring them out when he wants them. We have an agreement. When I’m home, he eats my way. When I’m gone, he can cook what he wants. Just don’t expect me to clean up after them. This cooking binge I’m going on tomorrow is my last great gift to him before I begin the health thing.

Wish me luck.