tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18823844560575595642024-02-19T00:56:55.525-08:0023 days and counting...My story, including having ulcerative colitis, following the specific carbohydrate diet, cooking tasty things and whatever else comes to mind.Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-62752710057887600192012-03-03T19:57:00.002-08:002012-04-08T22:07:34.210-07:00Coffee brownies and coconut cake<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I've been baking sourdough bread from a homemade starter about once a week for a couple of months. This week was my first real success, and I'm very excited. It is one of my two SCD cheats (the other is cocoa) - in small quantities, properly prepared grains don't seem to be causing my digestive system any harm.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I've been reading a lot about bread-making to get to a recipe which works - mine seems to require much longer cooking time than most people say, and much less water than the original recipe I was using. Normally, when I try a recipe and it just doesn't work, I either give up on it and go on to something else on my list, or I try again and hope something works out differently. What the sourdough experience has taught me is not to give up on recipes that have something good going for them, and instead, think about what isn't right and give them a tweak and try again.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I've done this with a few recipes recently, and have been very happy with my results on just the second attempt. With both, I found the original recipe to be too wet - in one, I upped the coconut flour and in the other, I reduced the liquid. I also played with the flavours a little, less sweetness, more spice, to suit my taste. Without further ado, here they are<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Coffee brownies<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Find the original </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.beyondthepeel.net/2011/12/coffee-cinnamon-protein-brownies.html">here</a></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">2 cups cooked red lentils<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1 cup pitted dates<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1 cup hot espresso coffee<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/3 cup cocoa<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">2 tsp cinnamon<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">4 eggs<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/2 cup butter, melted or coconut oil, melted<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/2 cup honey<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1 tsp vanilla<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/2 cup coconut flour<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">2 tsp bicarb soda<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/4 tsp salt<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The day before, put about 1 cup of red lentils to soak (make sure you use a much bigger contained, as the will expand to over two cups before you are done). Soak for at least 12 hours. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Rinse thoroughly, and then cook the lentils in fresh water until well cooked (maybe around 15 mins). Drain, and then leave to sit in a sieve for another hour to get some more of the moisture out.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Brew a cup of coffee, and pour over the dates. Leave to sit for about 5 mins.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Preheat oven to 175C. Line a 9″ x 13″ baking pan with parchment paper and set it aside.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In a large food processor, combine the lentils, dates, cocoa and cinnamon and enough of the coffee that it all moves around. (You could put in all of the coffee at this stage, but my food processor doesn't deal with liquid very well, and if you put much in, it goes everywhere!) Blend until smooth (at least 5 minutes).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Add the eggs, and blend until combined. Then add the coconut flour and blend again. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[If you want a denser, more mudcake-like cake, don't add the eggs until the next stage where you are hand-mixing the ingredients, so that you don't beat in too much air. You can also reduce the bicarb to as little as 1/2 tsp]</span><br />
<br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">From here, I move the mixture to a large mixing bowl. If your food processor is big enough, and can deal with liquid, just keep going in that. Add the butter, honey, remaining coffee, bicarb (sift this in so it doesn't stay in lumps) and vanilla and stir to combine. Throw in a handful of nuts (I used walnuts, macadamias would also be good) at this stage if you want to.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Pour the batter into the lined baking dish, and cook for about 40 minutes. A skewer inserted into the centre will come out clean when it is done. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Coconut cake</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Find the original</span> <u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.foxinthekitchenblog.com/gf-refined-sugar-free/2012/02/recipe-coconut-cake-easy-like-a-sunday-morning/">here</a></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1 1/2 cups shredded coconut<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/2 cup boiling water<br />
1/2 cup almond meal<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">3 tbsp coconut flour<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/2 tsp bicarb<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/4 tsp salt<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">3 eggs<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/3 cup yoghurt<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/3 cup melted butter, cooled<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/4 cup honey<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1 tsp vanilla essence<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Seeds from 1/2 a vanilla pod<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Pour boiling water over shredded coconut and leave to sit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Preheat over to 175C. Line a 8' by 8' cake pan with baking paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Mix almond flour, coconut flour, bicarb and salt together.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">When the boiling water has cooled enough not to cook the eggs, add the eggs, butter, yoghurt, honey and vanilla to the coconut and stir to combine. Pour into the flour mixture and mix together.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Pour into prepared tin and bake for about 30 minutes until the top is golden and firm to the touch. Leave to cool in pan.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Enjoy, sitting inside in the warm and dry, while listening to the patter of rain on the roof, hot cup of tea in one hand and a good book in the other.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-205587784185235842012-02-27T03:30:00.000-08:002012-02-27T03:30:11.396-08:00A blogging come back, and something hot and spicy for Valentine's day<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222;"><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Even though it is still summer, it is beginning to feel like we are well on the way to autumn already. Grey skies and rain, a nip of chill to the air most evenings, pumpkins ripening on the vine and the impending return of all of the pumpkin recipes I love, with the added pleasure of making them with home-grown pumpkins. The fruits of summer are still happening in the garden though - tomatoes, chillies and zucchinis - the former mostly still waiting to ripen, the latter two producing prolifically.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I've been preoccupied for quite some time, overseas holiday, work, garden, karate, jujitsu, relish-making and preserving, but was shocked to find that I haven't posted anything since last July! Since then, I've confirmed that my UC is in remission, and to celebrate the 3 month anniversary of that exciting news, I decided to introduce cocoa into my diet. Digestively, it has gone very well, but if I eat it more than occasionally, unfortunate skin reactions start to occur. So it is reserved for special occasions.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">When I saw the theme for this month's <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/go-ahead-honey-hosts-for-2011-1012.html">go ahead honey it's gluten free</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">, hot, spicy and heart shaped by Heather of <a href="http://www.glutenfreecat.com/?p=9397">Gluten Free Cat</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">, I was inspired to try out something chocolately for Valentine's Day that I've been mulling over for some time. It covers 'hot' and 'spicy', and if I'd been organised enough, I could have managed the heart-shaped too… maybe next year.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Credit for the underlying idea has to go to Naomi - I've made an SCD+cocoa variation of <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/chocolate-cardamom-and-coconut-power.html">this recipe</a> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">a couple of times when I have had days of karate training - it can be difficult to get enough energy to keep going through the day, getting up at 5am to start training at 6, and I can happily confirm that these do the trick. They have a much higher ratio of fat to nuts compared to most energy bars out there, so they are packed with calories without the digestive problems that come with nuts. And they are so tasty I can happily eat them, even when I really don't feel like eating, and the mere thought of my usual go to energy foods (like avocado) make me feel sick.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Beyond being excellent energy bars, using the cocoa butter finely chopped, rather than melted, adds a lovely bitty texture, with the coconut oil holding the other ingredients together.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Ginger noms and choc-chilli noms</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(nom is my favourite word to describe generic tasty food, particularly sweet things. It's late, and I'm not feeling very original right now!) </span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZa2VpFPOFcgmrJywJnzaMlnh_QSPCkKtrD50HCtlTAJmc81zkq8XKGsjci2wmZeTZp6eJz_A5lJ1yLLQEuVFflIvy0R6qnc7Dui4eQ_0lsQi4QByfP4fxlo99jGv4W07j-Hvy0MxfzoL/s1600/CIMG0061.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZa2VpFPOFcgmrJywJnzaMlnh_QSPCkKtrD50HCtlTAJmc81zkq8XKGsjci2wmZeTZp6eJz_A5lJ1yLLQEuVFflIvy0R6qnc7Dui4eQ_0lsQi4QByfP4fxlo99jGv4W07j-Hvy0MxfzoL/s400/CIMG0061.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Ingredients</span></i></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Nom base:</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">60g cocoa butter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">60g dried dates</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">90g cashews</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">35g coconut oil</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Choc-chilli additions:</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">5 green cardamom pods (seeds ground with a pinch of salt)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">1 heaped tablespoon cocoa </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">1 hot red chilli</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Ginger additions:</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1 heaped tablespoon finely diced glace ginger (to make an SCD version, just peel and chop the ginger, cover with water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, drain and repeat 3 times, then add enough honey to cover, and put back over a low heat, stirring every so often until the honey is absorbed and coats the ginger pieces. You can save the water for a ginger cordial. You could also do the same to the chillies for sweeter, less spicy effect)</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1/4 tsp ground ginger</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">1/4 tsp g</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">round cinnamon</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Method</span></i></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Roughly chop the cocoa butter by hand, then add to a food processor with the dates and cashews. Blitz until everything is finely chopped, but not powder. Add the coconut oil and blitz again until everything just holds together.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Divide the mixture between two bowls.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">To the first, add the cardamom, cocoa and finely chopped chilli. Stir to combine.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">To the second, add the glace ginger, ground ginger and cinnamon. Stir to combine. (cocoa would almost certainly be good in this one too!)</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Spoon each of the mixtures into little (ideally heart shaped) moulds, press down firmly, then refrigerate until set.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Share with someone special, with a little glass of something robust (a nice whiskey perhaps?), to complement the rich flavours. Or eat them all yourself in the same fashion, or just lick the mixture off the spoon before moulding and refrigerating… so long as you have plans to work it off later!</span></div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-18898476020353023772011-07-28T03:03:00.000-07:002011-07-28T03:03:57.312-07:00Overwhelmed! (and sweet chilli sauce)Ben (my other half) read a book or article or something on psychology, and how men and women mean different things when they say the same words. It was pretty corny and I can't remember many examples, but one thing stuck with us both: often women are simply overwhelmed and need a hug! Cringe-worthy, but right now, it is exactly how I feel.<br />
<br />
Yesterday was moving house day. When the removalists arrived, we were just realising that the rest of our stuff was not going to be just one car more and trailer load, and that we'd have to come back for a second load. When we got back for the second load, the cleaners arrives 3 hours earlier than arranged, and started cleaning around us while we were still packing. (They did do a fantastic job though!). Then there is the fact that the lounge room floor in the new house is still not finished. Oh, and I have a sinus infection.<br />
<br />
So half our furniture is still in the garage, most of our other stuff is in the attic or in the garage, we can't use the toilet for the next 24 hours, have no showerscreen, or kitchen splashbacks, and have built in wardrobes with no doors.<br />
<br />
But it's home. I love our new king size bed (mostly assembled, at least enough to sleep on) and latex mattress, and new bedlinen. And the gas cooktop is fantastic (at least the 3/5 of the gas rings that are working...). The tiling in the bathroom is beautiful, and I can't wait for it to be warm enough to go out in the garden.<br />
<br />
For now, I'm exhausted and ready for bed, so a very token recipe. I've been missing that very fake sweet chilli sauce, you know the bright red one with lots of seeds in, for a while now, and the other day I had a stab at it, and it worked remarkably well.<br />
<br />
Sweet Chilli Sauce<br />
<br />
750mls apple cider vinegar<br />
500gms honey<br />
3 red capsicums<br />
3 long red chillies<br />
<br />
Add vinegar and honey to a large saucepan over a medium heat.<br />
<br />
Cut the flesh from the capsicums and chillies and roughly chop. Put them into a food processor and puree.<br />
<br />
Add them to the saucepan. If you like the look or texture of seeds in your sweet chilli sauce, add the capsicum seeds to the saucepan as well. (Use the chilli ones if you want it hotter).<br />
<br />
Gently simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until the sauce darkens and thickens. Pour into a sterilised bottle.<br />
<br />
Keeps in the fridge for at least 3 weeks.Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-30659310883701682642011-07-15T04:09:00.000-07:002011-07-15T04:09:45.635-07:00Renovation disasters and internet scamsOkay, so disasters is probably overstating it, but they did all feel like disasters at the time, like when I realised that the bath and the vanity unit we had bought would only allow a 35cm gap to walk through to get to the toilet! (yes, I checked the sizes of the bath and vanity with the renovators before getting them, but apparently they didn't check the plans before confirming the size was okay. And I didn't check the plan either - I'll know better next time).<br />
<br />
And then there was the call telling me that the door into the bathroom is not where it is marked on the plan. Not surprising really, plan of what is meant to be there, not what is there now. Surely they could tell that by looking at the plan and seeing one door marked, then looking at the wall and seeing two doors... Apparently they hadn't, and didn't think that moving the door was part of what they had agreed to do, despite agreeing to the plan with the door marked in a different spot. But they did eventually move the door.<br />
<br />
And there was the wrong, (very, very blue) feature tiles turning up. At least we caught them before they stuck them on the walls.<br />
<br />
Oh, and when we asked when they would need to replacement vanity by, they told us 2 days after they'd previously agreed they'd be finished.<br />
<br />
But given all that, we amazingly look set for our planned 27 July move in date! I can't wait to use my new 5 burner gas cook top, extra wide oven, lovely deep bath, and new king size bed.<br />
<br />
So, as we had to get a second vanity, I've been trying to sell the first one. I listed it on a couple of classifieds sites. A couple of days went by and I heard nothing. Then some guy emails me asking if it is still for sale. I say yes, and for him to let me know when he wants to come and look at it.<br />
<br />
He tells me he is an oceanographer and is at sea at the moment and is buying it for his dad. Could I just send him some photos? So I took some photos, and he replied saying he'd transferred me $700 on paypal. I was asking $450, and the extra $200 was to pay someone to pick it up and $50 for the western union money transfer. Now, this is a vanity with an RRP of $799, and he's paying $750 for a second hand one, that he hasn't even seen. And apparently, I was meant to transfer $200 to someone (in Italy?!) before the paypal payment would be released. And his English is pretty bad... And then there was two fake, but fairly convincing emails, purporting to be from paypal, telling me they were holding money in escrow for me, pending me sending them the western union money transfer receipt number.<br />
<br />
At this point, I decided to just ignore it, but he emailed be again tonight, asking why he hadn't heard anything from me. I considered just ignoring it, but then decided to respond that I wouldn't be transferring any money until I had received payment. Very promptly after that, I received another fake paypal email with the subject<br />
<h1 class="ha" style="background: inherit; border-collapse: collapse; border-right: inherit; color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="hP" id=":oq" style="padding-right: 10px;">***Money Guaranteed<wbr></wbr>**Transfer Funds Immediatel<wbr></wbr>y***</span></h1>telling me:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #330033; font-family: tahoma, times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: tahoma, times, serif; line-height: 1.2em;">Be aware that you are 100% safe with<span style="line-height: 1.2em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.2em;"><span style="line-height: 1.2em;">PayPal</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.2em;"> </span>and you do not need to worry about anything concerning this transaction as we are currently holding the <span>money</span> and it's pending and ready to be credited into your account<span style="line-height: 1.2em;"></span><span style="line-height: 1.2em;"><span style="line-height: 1.2em;"></span><span style="line-height: 1.2em;"> </span></span>therefore you should make proper arrangements with the buyer on how to get the <span style="line-height: 1.2em;"></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #330033; font-family: tahoma, times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: tahoma, times, serif; line-height: 1.2em;"><span style="color: #000099; line-height: 1.2em;">$200</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #330033; font-family: tahoma, times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: tahoma, times, serif; line-height: 1.2em;"><span style="color: #000099; line-height: 1.2em;">.00AUD</span><span style="line-height: 1.2em;"> </span>sent to the address given to you so that we could be able to credit your account after you have sent us a copy of the <span>WESTERN UNION</span> <span>MONEY</span> <span>TRANSFER</span> details given to you at the western union store where you sent the <span>money</span>.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
And this was almost immediately followed by another email from the guy, saying he hoped I'd got the email from paypal confirming payment had been made. I'm kind of curious how long they'll persist. I can see that they might have a fairly decent hit rate on the original attempt, but I would have thought that, once they'd been called, they'd give up pretty quickly. Will have to wait and see...Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-3249054034732065592011-07-09T06:26:00.000-07:002011-07-09T06:26:52.702-07:00Lazy weeknight curries<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Towards the end of my 3 weeks free of dairy, eggs, nuts, fruit and honey, I ran out of in season vegetables to add to my diet, so I decided to start of spices. While I've gained a greater appreciation of cooking without herbs and spices, just letting the flavours of the ingredients speak for themselves with the aid of a good chicken stock, I also find I miss foods with a bit more punch. Cumin, coriander, ginger and turmeric were all successfully added, and I'd decided it was just about time to take a baby step in the direction of nuts, so I whipped up a quick batch of coconut milk, and decided to try something vaguely Thai styled.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I've recently started buying my meat from a local butcher, who does fantastic discounts on bulk purchases, and free delivery on orders over $80. He seems to be able to get in just about anything (for example, suet for my fruit mince and Christmas pudding last year, which I hadn't been able to find anywhere), and almost everything is grass fed and free range. Because of this, I've been eating a lot more pork than in the past. It's seems to be fairly easy to find free range chicken and beef, but pork has been much more difficult to get hold of, so I've tended not to eat it much.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So I had some pork mince (minus the little bit for the kitten, who tells me that pork is her favourite food! nom, nom, nom, purr), and could eat some spices and had a batch of coconut milk soaking (I don't use a recipe for this, just chuck dessicated coconut in with some boiling water - at a guess maybe a cup of dessicated coconut to 750mls water). Then is was just a matter of scouring the bottom of the fridge for the remnants of vegetables from last weeks shopping, before the arrival of the groceries for the new week. I found: 2 carrots, an onion, 5-6 mushrooms, 2 zucchini and some green beans.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So more a method than a recipe:</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Pork green curry</b></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dice the vegetables, while preheating a wok or large frying pan, and start some coconut milk. </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Add a heaped teaspoon of cumin, coriander, ground ginger and turmeric (and chilli, if you feel so inclined) to the wok and toast for a few seconds before adding and browning the pork mince (about 600g). </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Once cooked, remove it from the pan, then added the longer cooking time veg</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">gies (onion, carrot and beans in this case) and cook until they were most of the way done, then added the shorter cooking veggies (here the zucchini and mushrooms).</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Add the pork back to the pan together with some coconut milk and chicken stock, enough to make a good sauce for the curry. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Add some salt before serving. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Serve with fresh coriander, crushed nuts, and/or a wedge of lime.</span></div></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">More recently, I had put all of the ingredients for yummy lemon-thyme lamb shanks (which I'll post another time, I promise) into my slow cooker, but forgotten to turn it on before leaving for work. In arriving home, I noticed the absence of the smell of dinner as I walked in the door. Disappointment!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">I had to come up with something, and quick, because I was starving. I remembered there were some little frozen prawns in the freezer, about the only thing there I could easily use from frozen. Next, the fridge turned up some zucchinis, carrots, a leek, a bunch of spinach, and some green beans. Again, you can throw this together with pretty much anything you've got.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Prawn Laksa</b></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Chop your veggies (I sliced the leek in rounds, chopped the beans in half, washed and destemmed the spinach, and julienned the carrots and zucchini with my <a href="http://23daysandcounting.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-kitchen-gadget-ever.html">julienne peeler</a>)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">. In the mean time, preheat a wok or large saucepan, and get some coconut milk happening.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial;">Add a heaped teaspoon of cumin, coriander, ground ginger and turmeric (and chilli, if you feel so inclined) to the wok and toast for a few seconds before adding some oil, and the veggies that need frying (I threw in the leek and beans). At the same time, put the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial;">julienne carrots in a steamer.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial;">When the frying veggies are well on the way to being cooked, add a good amount of coconut milk and chicken stock (maybe 1.5 - 2 litres in total). Add the zucchini to the steamer, and the prawns to the wok. Stir through the spinach just before everything else is done. Add some salt before serving.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Serve noodles into deep preheated bowls, and top with the laksa. Serve with crushed nuts, coriander and/or a wedge of lime or lemon.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Enjoy! (Both were even better reheated for lunch the next day)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-52436200728873508132011-07-07T04:29:00.000-07:002011-07-07T04:29:30.548-07:00<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">My life has been sugar (ie sucrose) free for almost 18 months, but more recently, I've also almost completely eliminated anything sweet. No fruit, no honey, the closest thing to dessert I had in 3 weeks was soup made from butternut pumpkin and carrots and seasoned with coconut oil and nutmeg. This was to get the healing from my latest flare into the fast lane. I also eliminated eggs, nuts and dairy, as per <a href="http://scdlifestyle.com/2011/03/what-to-do-when-the-scd-diet-isnt-working/">Jordan and Steve's four horsemen</a>.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Two interesting observations arose from this experience. After a couple of days, I had no sugar cravings at all. And my sense of what is sweet has totally changed.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">After 3 weeks and now feeling really good, I decided to have a play with some very low sugar </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">confectionery</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> This fits in well with the theme of this months </span></span><a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2011/06/go-ahead-honey-hosts-for-2011-1012.html" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free</a></span><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial;">,<i> It All Ends here </i>(a la the final Harry Potter film), hosted by <a href="http://www.thewholegang.org/2011/06/go-ahead-honey-its-gluten-free-is-here-july/">Diane of the Whole Gang</a>.</span><br />
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">My aim for my </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">confectionery</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> was to keep the fat content as high as possible (I'm still trying to regain a few more kilos), and the sugar as low as possible (as I'm still aiming to minimise the amounts of inflammatory foods in my diet).</span></span></span><br />
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">My first port of call was coconut oil - I love the taste of the oil, and it combines well with other flavours. So my starting point was to melt coconut oil, a tiny amount of honey and some lemon oil. I have to say, I thought it was pretty good at the time, but now I realise I was just in a totally sugar deprived state and anything vaguely sweet tasted good. So I had to branch out a bit more for the next attempt. This brought to mind coconut concentrate. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it is basically finely ground coconut meat. It has a very high fat content (around 70% I think), and is also fairly grainy, kind of like coconut flour. It is solid a room temperature, and if you want to melt it, you have to do so on a really low heat, otherwise it burns.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I find it convenient to melt a lot of it at a time (I get in in 1kg bags) and pour it in to ice cube trays to have convenient little portions of it, which I throw into anything in which you might use coconut milk. (I do the same thing with coconut oil (in winter, when it is solid at room temperature) and cocoa butter too).</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Anyway, back to the confectionary. I did go through a phase of just eating the ice cubes of coconut concentrate - I find there is something oddly appealing about the grainy thick texture, and the coconut flavour is really strong, and it has something candy-like about it, even though it isn't sweet. So, I figured it's 70% coconut oil, why not dilute it with more coconut oil to keep the coconutty flavour, but minimise the grainy texture (and the fibre content). I've concluded that a ratio of 2:1 oil to concentrate is my preferred ratio, and that it needs minimal honey - maybe a teaspoonful to a cup of coconut mixture. But I think the quantities are very much a matter of personal taste, so here's the method; play around with the ratios as you see fit</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Coconut candy</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Coconut oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Coconut concentrate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Honey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Flavour oil (optional)</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Melt the oil and the honey on a low heat. Remove from the heat and add the coconut concentrate. Cover and leave until it is all melted (if the concentrate does not melt, you can place the whole lot over a very low heat, but watch it carefully). At this stage add the flavouring if you want to. I have done lemon and orange oil, both if which are nice, but possibly a little subtle against the strong coconut flavour. I think mint might be good, but don't have any oil to try it out.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Bearing in mind that you have 3 substances, all with different melting points, the trick is to get everything thoroughly combined and then into moulds before it sets. If you have the time and the patience, I recommend allowing it to cool at room temperature as this give you a lot more time in which the mixture is at a temperature that it will thoroughly combine. If you cool it in the fridge or freezer, you might miss the moment and end up with a triple layer effect with sticky honey on the bottom, and not be able to spoon it into the moulds.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Either way, stir it regularly (more often the colder the temperature) and when it starts to turn into a paste, check whether the honey is settling out at the bottom. If it is, leave to cool a little longer. </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Once the ingredients are able to be thoroughly combined, spoon it into moulds (chocolate moulds, ice cubes, or just spread as a block onto greaseproof paper). Leave until thoroughly set, or refrigerate depending on the ambient temperature.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Serve after dinner with a good black coffee.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Vaguely chocolate like confectionary</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(sorry for the long winded name, but I do get annoyed at the SCD thing of saying 'this is just like X' and then making it, and it isn't much like X at all. Particularly when what you've made is tasty in it's own right. So this is somewhat chocolately, but I'm not going to call it chocolate)</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Cocoa butter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ghee (you could probably use unsalted butter, but I'm not eating butter at the moment. If you want to make your own ghee, check out how <a href="http://www.ayurbalance.com/explore_howtosghee.htm">here</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">.</span></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Honey</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Again, the quantities are somewhat in your hands. I've found a ratio of 1:1 cocoa butter to ghee gives a fairly smooth buttery consistency. (My previous attempt of 1:2 resulted in something much too reminiscent of whipped butter for eating by itself). The honey ratio need to be a fair bit higher than the coconut one. Maybe a big tablespoonful to a cup of the butter mixture.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Follow the above method. You can certainly flavour it if you like, too, or add chopped dried fruit or nuts. I most recently used a vanilla bean which I split, scooping the seeds into the mixture, and leaving the pod in while I melted the fats too.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The cooling process for this one is even more temperamental than the coconut candy. Be very careful that the honey is not separating out, but don't stir too vigorously or you will end up with whipped butter.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Spoon into moulds, or use to coat other thing, like nuts, or balls made out of <a href="http://23daysandcounting.blogspot.com/2011/01/scd-snacks.html">energy bars</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">, or spread into a block.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Serve with dessert that would go with something chocolatey (<a href="http://23daysandcounting.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentines-day.html">like this</a>)</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">, or on its own with after dinner coffee.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And this is where it ends (dinner... and the post)</span></div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-47069462488134800872011-06-27T04:53:00.000-07:002011-06-27T04:53:46.141-07:00Fittings things in<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">A karate instructor I have trained with a few times once told us an analogy for fitting training into your life. Think of your life like a big jar, and all the things you want to do as stones of various sizes. The big stones are the important things that you have to have time for, family, work, karate training… other activities are various other sized stones, right down to fine sand, things like watching TV and browsing the internet. If you start by putting the big stones in the jar first, then the medium sized once, then the smaller ones then the sand, you can fit a lot more in than if you put the sand in first, then the little stones, then try to pack in the big ones at the end.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">For me, this meant karate training is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons. Friends knew that if they wanted me to come around for dinner, it had to be Monday or Saturday or late enough to be after training. Karate was a big stone and went in the jar first. Then uni, family, work etc etc.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Anyway, what got me thinking about this again was that I have so many bigger stones in my life (karate, jujitsu, work, new house and garden, cooking, knitting), and I haven't thought about how blogging fits in, so it has become something that just doesn't get into the jar very often. Which is a shame, because I enjoy writing, and developing and sharing recipes, and being part of the SCD, GF etc blog community. And I do find time to look at most of the blog posts I subscribe to, because the pop up in my email. So I conclude that the reason I haven't been posting is because I have not made sufficient effort to make it a priority.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">As of now, every second part time day off, I'll write a blog post. For this one, a whirlwind update on the last 2 and a bit months.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">April 12, my birthday - went to Sydney for a couple of days. Still being on fairly restricted SCD we didn't eat out, but had many tasty meals in our fantastic apartment in Surrey Hills, including local prawns cooked in garlic oil and tuna steaks. We also saw a ballet version of Madame Butterfly at the Opera House, which was simply magnificent.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">16 April was the 6 month anniversary of restarting SCD properly (the benchmark for the day count in the title of the blog), uneventful, except to note that my colonoscopy was due two days later, but I wasn't well enough for my doctor to want to go ahead with it. Oh, and I was at an excellent jujitsu seminar!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">On 1 May, I made a semifreddo (also the first time I had made SCD french cream, and I fell in love) loosely based on Naomi's<a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2008/01/most-indulgent-hazelnut-semi-freddo.html"> hazelnut semifreddo</a> made SCD legal</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">, and it was just divine. The variations were simply to use SCD french cream in place of cream, home made vanilla vodka in place of liqueur, and half walnuts, half pistachios in place of the hazelnuts (just because that was what I had). I also only folded through half of the praline, and used the rest to sprinkle over the top when served. I still had leftovers, which we had on avocado pancakes with french cream and honey over the next few days too.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">18 May marked the worst bout of food poisoning I've ever experienced, and I can only blame myself - hadn't eaten out in ages. 3 days laid out with D, muscle aches, fatigue, hot sweats, cold sweats, shaking exhaustion. 21 May looked promising, feeling weak, but hungry and able to take a 30 minute car ride to watch a karate seminar, but couldn't possibly have trained. However, by that evening, the UC was back - bleeding, nausea and D, and feeling very depressed.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">It was back on to SCD intro. I've incorporated a number of the GAPS ideas (which I think come from SCD anyway, but maybe aren't made as clear as they could be in BTVC) of lots of stock and soup and casseroles into my diet, but I'm backing off on the fermented foods. I've also gone more hardcore in cutting out potential problem foods, what Jordan and Steve call the <a href="http://scdlifestyle.com/2011/03/what-to-do-when-the-scd-diet-isnt-working/comment-page-1/">4 horsemen</a> (dairy, eggs, nuts and excessive fruit and honey)</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> as well as nightshade vegetables based on paleo diet principles.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Since then, I've got back to a fairly good range of vegetables and meat, and more recently have added carrot juice (a shot glass a day for now), creamed coconut (for fibre in a fairly low impact form), ghee (the first dairy allowed on GAPS, as the vast majority of the milk proteins have been removed), french cream (as a high fat dairy product, it has a proportionately lower percentage of protein), and I had a tiny bit of scrambled egg and cooked apple with breakfast on Sunday. This is a sign of my typical impatience breaking through - adding two new foods at the same time - but I did it acknowledging that if I had a reaction, they both had to go. And with the pork and sage rissoles, fried onions and mushrooms, and mashed veggies, it went so well!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I've also had something of an epiphany about fat. I've been somewhat concerned about the weight loss from November/December 2009 that I haven't managed to regain (13 kg in 6 weeks from a fairly muscular 63kg to a gaunt and underweight 50kg). I've made it back to 58kg at a couple of points, only to drop back to 53-55kg at the first sign of sickness. I've been aiming to get back to 63kg, but not making much progress, and I'm attributing this failure to my lack of understanding of the important role of fat in our diets, particularly in the absence of complex carbs.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I've been using <a href="http://fitday.com/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">fitday.com</a> to track my calorie intake on and off for a while now, and have comfortably been eating about 1800 calories a day, which is enough to maintain my weight if I'm not very active. However, as I start feeling better (a) I start being much more active and (b) I stop tracking things as regularly. So I think that I probably maintain eating about 1800 calories a day, when I should be eating more like 2100 to maintain current weight and more than that to gain weight. I already eat protein for all 5 meals a day, and feel suitably full most of the time, so I couldn't figure out how to get more calories.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Then I thought back to a podcast by Jordan and Steve where they said to liberally pour olive oil or coconut oil over everything. I've found it quite difficult to do - the anti-fat message is solidly embedded from grade 5 health-ed classes onwards - the idea of pouring olive oil, even knowing it's a 'healthy fat', over rissoles, vegetables, steak or whatever I'm eating just didn't seem right. I started doing a drizzle of olive oil, and working my way up as per the GAPs intro diet, but when I one day measured how much I was having compared to the tablespoon I thought I was pouring on, I was amazed - it was less than half a tablespoonful. So now, I have a measure marked on my olive oil bottle in approx 20ml increments, and I melt coconut oil and pour it into ice cube moulds for convenient 14ml portions. I also have a pot of slightly sweetened (maybe half a teaspoon on honey to 200mls of oil) coconut oil on hand, flavoured with vanilla or lemon or orange oil, and I just eat this with a spoon when I want a treat (not that it would count as confectionary to most people, but I'm currently very attuned to even the slightest amount of sweetness as I've had 30 days free of even honey). </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I'm now sitting quite comfortably at 2200-2300 calories a day, which is enough for gradual weight gain with my standard level of physical activity. My worry now is giving up all the delicious fat when I get back to my target weight! :p </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">In other happy news, the former owner and tenant in our new house finally moved out on 4 June. Since then, we have had the place repainted, carpets stripped out, boards rough sanded, kitchen stripped out and new kitchen is in the process of going in, and bathroom starts coming out this week. We're mostly getting other people to do the work, but we did get persuaded into doing the kitchen floor. This involved jack hammering out a 2m2 patch of concrete some 20cm deep, pilfering matching boards from the lounge room (which is getting a new wood floor laid over the top), and cutting and fitting them into the kitchen. It took our whole 4-day Queens birthday long weekend, which was a bit sad, but it has come up pretty well. I've also been doing a fair bit of work in the garden - setting up 6 raised garden beds (from <a href="http://naturalyards.com.au/raisedbeds/">here</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">) and installing watering system for them, setting up the compost bin and starting hacking out the many overgrown and half dead plants around the place. </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I can see it all coming slowly together. The house was disgusting - lived in by 2 smokers and 3 dogs - the window frames run dark brown as I blast them with the steam cleaner! Now, it smells of fresh paint :) In my minds eye, the garden is coming together. In reality, I think it will take a fair bit longer, but crafting the whole garden into a bountiful edible retreat was one of my main motivations for moving from a unit to a house, so I'm happy for it to progress at a leisurely pace.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Well, that's a fairly lengthy tour of the last 2 months of my life. Other than that, there was work, some excellent karate seminars (thanks to Sensei Arie and Sensei Peter), making travel plans (Canada and the US in August/September), kitten cuddles, knitting, karate, jujitsu, long baths, massages... Mmm… brain vagues out in a cloud of remembered relaxedness...</span></div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-30550912511585982902011-04-15T04:51:00.000-07:002011-04-15T06:38:49.320-07:00Excuses and GAPS and breakfast soupSo first the excuses. I've been slack with the blogging lately (not much of an excuse really...), but only with the blogging. Life has been quite busy between karate training, doing a jujitsu beginners course, work has been crazy (not to mention preparing for an interview for a promotion), going away for my birthday, booking a holiday to Canada and the US later this year and deciding to do the <a href="http://www.gapsdiet.com/The_Diet.html">GAPS </a>intro diet. So, where to begin?<br />
<br />
Things have been less than fantastic digestion-wise since January, and i was getting rather sick of it. My Dr had played around with my meds to no avail, and I was feeling a bit down. I restarted the SCD intro diet... almost 6 months ago now... which was great for a fair while, then the improvements tapered off and then...<br />
<br />
Anyway, I'd read a bit about GAPS and decided it was time to give it a go. So I've been making <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/01/12/making-sauerkraut-is.html">sauerkraut</a>, and bone broth, and soups and stews, and more soup, and I feel fantastic. I've had a few days of <a href="http://www.gapsdiet.com/FAQs.html">die-off</a> (I'm fairly impatient, and have been adding more sauerkraut and yoghurt faster than recommended, and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my kefir grains). Coincidentally, Naomi of <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/">Straight into Bed, Cakefree and Dried</a>, has been posting fermented vegetable recipes, and I've already had a go at the <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2011/04/lacto-fermented-pickles-probiotics-that.html">Lacto fermented beetroots</a> and am going to try the <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2011/04/probiotic-carrot-ginger-pickle.html">Carrot and Ginger pickle</a> on the weekend.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dailybitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BuildBreakfast.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2096" height="248" src="http://www.dailybitesblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BuildBreakfast-300x248.jpg" title="BuildBreakfast" width="300" /></a><br />
But what I really wanted to post about is the joy of breakfast soup, a post well-suited to the theme of Hallie of Daily Bites challenge: <a href="http://www.dailybitesblog.com/2011/04/01/build-a-better-breakfast-challenge/">build a better breakfast</a>. I'm with Hallie in that breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. I love eggs, and mushrooms, and tomatoes, fried, or combined in a omelette, with cheese, and salt and pepper... mmm... it's making my hungry just thinking about it, even though I'm still full from dinner.<br />
<br />
The GAPS diet advocates eating a late breakfast, because the body detoxes until about 10am and apparently you don't get hungry until then. I'm a bit dubious about the latter point, but I did notice that, when I thought about it, I didn't really feel like eating my omelette, mince and veg at 7am.<br />
<br />
<br />
In the spirit of doing the diet, heart and soul, I decided to put off eating breakfast until a bit later than usual. This meant having to come up with a work-compatible breakfast, where all that is available is running water and a microwave (I know, GAPS does not approve of microwaves, but you can only take these things so far, and I don't have one at home).<br />
<br />
So on the evening of day one, I piled zucchini, carrots, onion, mushrooms, cassarole beef, a good splosh of tomato juice and another of beef stock into my slow cooker and set it to low overnight. We awoke Saturday morning to the smell of rich tomatoey goodness, which I waited until almost 9am to eat. I figure if not being hungry is a sign your body is detoxing, that being hungry must be a sign it's ready to eat.<br />
<br />
Turns out it was a bit too rich, and a bit to close to karate training at 10:30, and I spent the morning trying to keep my breakfast in my stomach and not of the floor of the dojo (successfully, I might add).<br />
<br />
So I tweaked it a bit for the next time, and now, together with pumpkin soup, is a staple breakfast dish. The quantities are a bit rough, but that's handy in that you can just throw it together out of whatever you've got lying around in the way of vegetables.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Beef and vegetable breakfast stew</b><br />
3-4 good size cassarole steaks<br />
3-4 zucchinis<br />
3-4 carrots<br />
1 red capsicum<br />
1 brown onion<br />
250mls tomato juice<br />
500mls beef stock<br />
2 bay leaves<br />
Dried oregano<br />
<br />
Roughly dice all the ingredients.<br />
<br />
Layer the carrot and onion of the bottom of a 4-5 litre slow cooker. Place bay leave and a sprinkle of dried oregano over the top, then the the diced cassarole steak, then the zucchini and capsicum.<br />
<br />
Pour over the juice and stock, and top up with water (or more stock) to cover the steak (the zucchini and capsicum don't need to be submerged). Turn onto low and leave for about 8 hours. <br />
<br />
This quantity of liquid in a slow cooker will probably give you something more akin to a soup than a stew (mine come out different each time). If you want it thicker, simply ladle off some of the liquid and boil it on the stove top, before returning to the stew.<br />
<br />
The meat, no matter the cut, is by this stage disintegratingly tender, and the warm and hearty tomato base it perfect for cold mornings. It also goes well with the early additions to the GAPS diet: ghee, sauerkraut, yoghurt, avocado and olive oil, and you can pile them all on to it, once you get far enough into the intro diet!<br />
<br />
Another, even simpler, breakfast discovery for me is microwave scrambled eggs. You'll need to play with the timing, depending on your microwave. With the one at work, 2 eggs take about 1:30, stopping to beat them every 30 seconds. I add a good size teaspoonful of ghee to the bottom of the bowl, and a drizzle of olive oil once they are done. I recently tried adding the sauerkraut to the eggs, instead of my soup, and was pleasantly surprised. The crunch and the tang of the cabbage perfectly compliment the smooth fluffiness of the eggs (don't forget to let the eggs cool enough before you add the sauerkraut, otherwise the heat will kill the beneficial bacteria). <br />
<br />
Some of each of these gives you all the protein, fat and vitamins (not to mention the warmth and comfort of a full belly) that you need to get the day off to a perfect start, and to keep you full until lunch (or brunch anyway, the planned topic of my next post for Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free, hosted this month by <a href="http://www.sheletthemeatcake.com/2011/04/april-in-the-raw-go-ahead-honey/">Maggie of She Let Them Eat Cake</a> with the theme of Springtime Brunches).Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-64291455663435384972011-03-24T01:23:00.000-07:002011-03-30T00:44:58.771-07:00Pumpkins and pumpkin recipes<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">It is, apparently, pumpkin time of year. My own ones haven't done so well, having been grown in pots and left to their own devices for a week and a half of the hottest part of summer, the plants disintegrated. But I have watched the prices in the shop drop from $4 per kg, to $3, $2.50 and now $1.89. For a household that usually eats at least a whole butternut pumpkin a week, this has been fantastic, and I think it's now at least 2 pumpkins a week. They are so wonderfully versatile - as nuts are currently excluded from my diet, and I'm trying to keep honey to a minimum, they are the basis of desserts as well as part of breakfast, lunch and dinner. So I thought I'd share some of the creations I've been enjoying with pumpkins recently (and my contribution to this month's </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2010/06/go-ahead-honey-its-gluten-free-hosts.html" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial;">Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free!</span></u></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Veggie mash</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">I've been getting a good supply of spinach from a friend of mine for the last couple of weeks, and it doesn't agree with me, other than in pureed form. However, pureed spinach always seems to me to taste more like dirt and less like spinach than any other way of eating spinach. So I've been pureeing it with other vegies to great effect.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">1/2 butternut pumpkin</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">3 carrots</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">2 zucchinis</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Big bunch of spinach</span> <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Cut the 1/2 pumpkin into 2 pieces and rub with a little oil. Roast the pumpkin at 180C for 40-60mins, or until cooked through.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">In the mean time, peel the carrots, and cut into big chunks. Steam 15-20 mins depending on the size of the pieces. You want them quite well cooked, but not so much to that they disintegrate when you try to pick them up. Place in a large bowl.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Cut the zucchini into chunks and, when the carrot is done, chuck them in the steamer. After a couple of minutes, add the spinach to the water in the bottom of the steamer. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">When everything is cooked, put it all together in a big bowl, and blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. </span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">I eat this for breakfast, by browning some mince, adding some of the puree and serving in an omelette, or on the side of some fried eggs. It's also a convenient veggie side dish for whatever meat you are eating for lunch or dinner.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sweet orange dessert soup</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">I find it is better with all thing<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">s desserty if you don't put vegetable names in the title, but yes, this is a pumpkin dessert soup.</span></span><br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBERTJBl-8t-1dvxo-JbeaA1hc9u_DpCyxtz3OIEnXB5Y52CviZ6WCsKdvC2J7yE9qEuS2Y9oFzVqHhSNx24FVZvD9UdFmqh-ZNJPe016uOmwUA9LMPMAVRdrl-L9pddxe6melrG3vZK-/s1600/Pumpkin+dessert++soup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBERTJBl-8t-1dvxo-JbeaA1hc9u_DpCyxtz3OIEnXB5Y52CviZ6WCsKdvC2J7yE9qEuS2Y9oFzVqHhSNx24FVZvD9UdFmqh-ZNJPe016uOmwUA9LMPMAVRdrl-L9pddxe6melrG3vZK-/s320/Pumpkin+dessert++soup.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The theme of this month's <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2010/06/go-ahead-honey-its-gluten-free-hosts.html" target="_blank">Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free!</a></span><span style="font-size: small;"> is seasonal soups, hosted by <a href="http://glutenfreehomemaker.com/2011/03/go-ahead-honey-its-gluten-free/">Linda, the Gluten-Free Homemaker</a></span><span style="font-size: small;">, and this seems like a fitting contribution. </span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">It's autumn here in the southern hemisphere, and we are already heading into the cold evenings, and early darkness of winter. So there is nothing better to come home to than a steaming hot bowl of thick soup, and better still that it tastes like dessert. I mean, you could have dinner first, but given it's just vegetables, why bother?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">1/2 butternut pumpkin</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">3 carrots</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Cinnamon </span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Nutmeg</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Coconut oil to serve</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Lightly dripped yoghurt/sour cream to serve</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"> </span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Cut the 1/2 pumpkin into 2 pieces and rub with a little oil. Roast the pumpkin at 180C for 40-60mins, or until cooked through.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">In the mean time, peel the carrots, and cut into big chunks. Steam 15-20 mins depending on the size of the pieces. As for the veggie mash, you want them quite well cooked (In cse you haven't noticed, this is exactly the same as the veggie mash. I make them at the same time, and just double the quantity of carrot and pumpkin and use half for each).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Puree the pumpkin and carrot until smooth. Add cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, at a ratio of 1:1. Add water to achieve desired consistency. I like it fairly thick so only add about 1/2 cup of water to this much veg.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">To serve, put a generous serving in a bowl, stir through a good dessert spoonful of coconut oil, and top with a blob of lightly dripped yoghurt (I drip my SCD yoghurt for about 30 mins - which tastes the tangy edge off a bit, and gives a lovely sour cream consistency)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Pumpkin soufflé/pudding</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Another favourite dessert and snack of mine at the moment is this pumpkin soufflé and/or pudding (a slightly different method with the same ingredients yields a quite different texture. The soufflé is lovely straight out of the oven, while it is still puffed and steaming. They are also both great cold, which brings out the coconut flavour a little more, or reheated, for a warm and satisfying snack at work.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">4 egg whites</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">2 cups of the dessert soup vegies (before you add any water - if you are doing the soufflé, it is also a good idea to sit the veggie mash on a tea towel for 15 mins or so to soak up some of the extra moisture, though this isn't absolutely necessary)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">2 egg yolks</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">1/4 cup coconut oil</span> <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Whisk your egg whites until they form stiff peaks. (I highly recommend an egg white attachment for your food processor, or a mix master)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">In the mean time (assuming you can wander off and leave your egg whites beating), combine the vegies, egg yolks and coconut oil and mix well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">If you are making the soufflé, mix about 1/3 of the egg whites through the pumpkin mixture, then carefully fold in the remaining egg white.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">If you are making the pudding, add the pumpkin mixture to the egg whites and beat until just combined.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"> </span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">I like taking these to work, so I make them in a combination of 250ml pyrex dishes, with lids, and in slightly larger ramekins and 500ml dishes for home. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Arrange your dishes in an over tray, and add mixture to dishes. This makes about 8 small serves. Place tray in oven and pour water into tray around dishes to come about 2-3cm up the sides. Bake at 180C for 40-50 mins, until turning golden on top and slightly firm to the touch (they won't be solid, but they need to cook until they are no longer liquidy).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">For those of you following SCD, these are all pretty early stage recipes. Just remember to add the spices as individual foods one at a time. Earlier on in the diet, I boiled the carrots and pumpkin with whole spices tied in a piece of muslin, so I wasn't eating the solids of the spices - not as nice a flavour, but a pleasant change from chicken soup.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Enjoy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">(159(!) days and counting...)</span>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-2407317509860499092011-03-21T04:34:00.000-07:002011-03-21T04:34:33.164-07:00Very belated health update (and cheesecake photo - no recipe though)I've just discovered I've had this post sitting in draft since mid-Feb. I didn't post it straight away because I was waiting to upload a photo to go with it, and then it just got lost, and the cheesecake was not fantastic... so no recipe... anyway, excuses, excuses. I have been meaning to post a health update, and this sets some context, so I figured I'd post it now, and the cheesecake photo is pretty cool: <br />
<br />
Wow, it's been almost a month since I last posted. Life has been pretty hectic and I haven't had a Friday at home since... not sure... until today anyway. First there was Tora Week, a week of crazy amounts of karate, getting too little sleep and generally torturing ourselves. I was a bit stressed about being on SCD for the week (see my previous post) and went a bit overboard with the planning. I took good morning breakfast bars from the <a href="http://www.ccccibs.com/">cccibs cookbook</a>, magic lemon bars from <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2008/07/magic-lemon-bars-scd.html">Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried</a>, and <a href="http://23daysandcounting.blogspot.com/2011/01/scd-snacks.html">my larabar themed energy bars</a>.<br />
<br />
I had been studiously avoid nuts in the leadup to the week, trying to get some post Christmas symptoms under control. But at the first sign of nuts, I started bleeding again. After a brief panic and then realising that there was no pain and no D, I figured I'd live. I needed the nuts and honey to make it through the week, so I wasn't giving them up unless there was no alternative. Fortunately, after a couple of days, my colon got over its initial shock and calmed down, and once I worked out that I needed 6-7 serves of vegies for dinner to keep my energy levels up, I coped pretty well.<br />
<br />
All in all, the week was pretty good. I learned a lot, got a bit fitter and stronger, and our club now has another black belt. Since then, it has been work, lots and lots of work. I had to work one Friday for a sick day I took earlier in the year (yes, I'm a public servant and ran out of sick leave. But at least I have another years worth now - fingers crossed it lasts me a year. Do not want another one like 2010).<br />
<br />
I did get to have today off though, which was good because I managed to capture the energy and enthusiasm of Tora Week before it wore off, and decided I'm going to go the the gym and do some karate every Friday morning, and actually did it too.<br />
<br />
Then I came home to try out a cheesecake idea that I've been mulling over for a couple of days. White chocolate and raspberry. It's inspired by a cheesecake from what was my favourite patisserie in Canberra pre-SCD, which does a few really excellent chocolaty desserts. While most of them are far out of reach (chocolate ot being permitted on the diet), I have been considering that a white chocolate version using cocoa butter may be possible.<br />
<br />
The risk with such things is that the flavour of the SCD yoghurt will overpower the more subtle flavours that one is trying to infuse into dishes, and all you can taste is yoghurt tang. So I started by adding some melted cocoa butter to some sweetened yoghurt to test whether it could pass a chocolaty, and it did, so I decided to give it a try. It's a mixture of a few recipes, some for SCD cheesecake and some for regular white chocolate cheesecake - I hope it has worked. It's still in the oven cooling down, so I can't give a verdict yet, but can verify that the batter was really tasty.<br />
<br />
I leave you for now with a photograph from before it went in the oven.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTCPtp-In8yopucOpPfhacw1js32KLYXK-0I4XgKDHWCDoZVG54Hct80IeIr-QhCutr2SDKWMZljuovok305Pdq8LIaEJcPggcEkkNPFGvTkSn5NLiY3YT8IDKTGGvIlewOGAjJI4lXuG/s1600/CIMG7313.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTCPtp-In8yopucOpPfhacw1js32KLYXK-0I4XgKDHWCDoZVG54Hct80IeIr-QhCutr2SDKWMZljuovok305Pdq8LIaEJcPggcEkkNPFGvTkSn5NLiY3YT8IDKTGGvIlewOGAjJI4lXuG/s320/CIMG7313.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
I promise a recipe soon, all going to plan.Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-6595477363509069102011-03-21T04:23:00.000-07:002011-03-21T04:23:22.986-07:00A moth invasion (and red wine reduction)<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Life has been busy, and I haven't had a weekend free to sit at home and do whatever I want to in ages. That is, until the weekend just gone. I'd had plans to read my new book (The Paleo Solution, a book I bought on the recommendation of someone who responded to my post about doing intensive exercise on SCD and what to eat), write a blog post, and just generally relax and unwind. It didn't happen - it very rarely does, I suppose - life always gets in the way. But it was a good weekend all the same, apart from the moth invasion.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">It's been going on for a couple of weeks now, these tiny little moths, fluttering around the kitchen and hallway, and occasionally in the cupboards. The kitten loves them - she watches them with the intensity of a hunter, with concentration that she doesn't have for anything else. And when they sit on the ceiling or high up on the walls and she can't reach them, she runs back and forth, making this little "aackaackaack" noise. Then when they come within her reach, they are pounced and devoured, and she looks around forlornly, wanting to know where the fun went.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Mid Sunday afternoon, I discovered the source of much kitten-fun in my pantry, in packets of nut meal, jars of nuts, cocoons in corners and under shelves. So Sunday afternoon turned into kitchen spring (or more technically correctly, autumn) cleaning. Those nuts that could be salvaged have now been soaked and dried, packets have been removed and cleaned, shelves and walls have been washed, and contents have been restored, to reveal much more space in my cupboards than I knew I had. So not all bad really.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">The other exciting event of the weekend was making a red wine reduction that a friend of ours served at dinner last year, delicious with blue cheese and dried pear, or brie and dried peach, or I'm sure any other cheese you care to think of. I've been meaning to try it since then, and a 10% voucher, and discovering the same bottle shop had some $2.99 bottles of red (ghastly stuff, but it doesn't matter for present purposes) finally instigated action. So 6 bottles of cheap, nasty red in had (plus a dozen good drinking bottles!), we headed home. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">The directions we had were to add some spices (we went with 1 cinnamon stick, 6 cloves and 6 allspice) and to steam, not simmer, the wine over a low heat until it reduces. The consistency is like a thick molasses, and took almost 8 hours to achieve. We started out in a huge thick bottomed pot, keeping the temperature at around 80C, and when we got down to about 1L of liquid (still quite liquidy at this stage) transferred it to a smaller pot. We took the spices out after maybe 4 hours. Once it started to thicken, a quick taste made mouths pucker, so we started adding some honey. Then some more, and a bit of salt, then some more honey. In the end, we had about 300mls of syrup, containing maybe 150mls of honey (though that would have reduced somewhat too) and about a tsp of rock salt. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">There were several test pieces of cheese over the course of the afternoon, and when the reduction was transferred loving to a storage container and the fridge, a trip to the supermarket yielded some Tasmanian brie. The verdict: quite delicious, if somewhat pricey. If you can find some really cheap red, it is well worth the effort, and I expect the 6 bottles of wine to last much longer than the 12 bottles for drinking!</span>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-14902782826159459272011-02-15T02:06:00.000-08:002011-02-16T00:24:26.297-08:00Valentine's Day (and February's Go ahead honey it's gluten free)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1lG3ZK-00eyXNBZqNjwPW-F6wuP7Hv65rLtYkymYRVLlWwauhxVuvylM80VUxGjuZzA7XiQKCmzheYmRNS6m19NQPhyphenhyphencspmrWEuuH2XjApeu4UqwCQVFzJIAbgF2Gjicihjn6UzZBiAqh/s1600/CIMG7327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1lG3ZK-00eyXNBZqNjwPW-F6wuP7Hv65rLtYkymYRVLlWwauhxVuvylM80VUxGjuZzA7XiQKCmzheYmRNS6m19NQPhyphenhyphencspmrWEuuH2XjApeu4UqwCQVFzJIAbgF2Gjicihjn6UzZBiAqh/s320/CIMG7327.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Valentine's Day was lovely. I'm rather cynical about the whole buying roses and chocolates (not that I can eat them now anyway), but it's a great excuse to eat a nice meal, have a glass of wine or two, and relax and enjoy each other's company.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">My UC has been playing up a bit lately, so I'm eating fairly carefully, so we decided to have dinner at home.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The evening started with a glass of red and brie. No crackers, because I'm off nuts, and we didn't have any crackers for Ben either, though there was my mum's home made quince paste to go with his cheese.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then we had steak - a lovely locally grown, hormone and antibiotic free steak - with mushroom sauce, and a side of roast vegies, and another glass of wine, of course. </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've recently got into eating mushrooms - I've never liked them in the past, but a friend of mine told me I had to try this lovely recipe of hers, and I was converted. </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And finally orange yoghurt jelly, topped with candied citrus peel and white chocolate.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Yum.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The mains are staple SCD meals for us, tried and true, but the dessert is something I've been playing with for a little while, and it worked so well this time that I've put to forward for the February </span>Go Ahead Honey its Gluten Free with it's suitably Valentine's theme, <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2011/01/love-potions-and-charmed-foods-go-ahead.html">love potions and charmed foods</a><span style="font-size: small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Missing chocolate is something I'm sure every SCD'er can identify with, and with its rich and creamy, melt-in-your-mouth sweetness (and, of course, traditional Valentine's connection) I couldn't resist a little bit in the dessert.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> <br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But more than that, it is about sweet fresh citrus, and thick creamy yoghurt, for a thoroughly indulgent and very healthy dessert.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">All of the evening's recipes are below, and head to <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/">Naomi's fab blog</a> for all of the GAHIGF recipes later this month, or by 24 Feb to get involved.<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Mushroom sauce, two ways</b></i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1 tbsp olive oil</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1 tbsp butter</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1/4 medium onion finely chopped</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2 cloves garlic</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">4 medium cup mushrooms</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1/4 cup of yoghurt or 1/8 cup red wine</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">parsley</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Melt the butter, together with the oil, over a medium heat, then add onion and garlic and saute until soft. Add mushrooms and saute until cooked.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just before serving, add the yoghurt or wine and the parsley, stir through and serve - as a sauce on steak or a side. Don't heat again at this stage if you use the yoghurt as it will seperate.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Roast vegies</i></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Olive oil</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2 carrots</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1/4 butternut pumpkin</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2 zucchinis</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1/2 eggplant</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1/2 punnet of cherry tomatoes</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">6 cloves of garlic</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Preheat oven to 200C.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cut all of the vegetables into chunks about the size of cherry tomatoes. Add a good splosh of olive oil to a roasting pan and toss through the carrots. Roast for about 15 mins.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Add pumpkin and roast for another 5 mins. Add zucchini and eggplant and cook for 10 more minutes. Then add tomatoes and garlic and cook until everything is done (at least another 10 minutes).</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">5 minutes before it is done, sprinkle overe the rosemary.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Orange Yoghurt Jelly</b></i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">125g honey</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">grated rind of 1 orange</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">120ml cold water</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2 tsp gelatine</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">160mls freshly squeezed orange juice</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">40mls freshly squeezed lemon juice </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">370mls yoghurt</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Heat the honey, orange rind and 60mls of water and allow to simmer for a minute then remove from heat.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Soak the gelatine in the remaining water while doing this, then add the soaked gelatine to the hot honey mixture and stir until dissolved.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Add the orange and lemon juice and yoghurt and stir thoroughly to combine. Pour into 4 small bowls and refridgerate for at least 4 hours.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Top with a spear of white orange chocolate and candied peel.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Citrus White Chocolate</i></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">55gms cocoa butter</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">1tbsp butter</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">2tsp creamed honey</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Piece of vanilla pod</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">tbsp of candied peel </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Melt cocoa butter in a double boiler over medium heat. Add the butter, creamed honey, and seeds scraped from the inside of the vanilla pod. Heat until the butter and honey are melted, pour into glass bowl and put in fridge.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After about 10 mins, remove from fridge and beat with electric beaters. If mixture separates when left to stand, return to fridge for another 5 mins. Once mixture holds together, mix through candied peel (as much or as little as you like) and pour onto a piece of greeseproof paper. Store in the freezer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Candied peel</i></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Peel of 2 oranges (or other citrus fruit)</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Honey</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cut the peel into small chunks (approx 8mm square). Put peel into small saucepan and cover with water. Simmer peel for about an hour, adding more water as necessary.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pour honey over the peel to about half way up and return to the heat. Simmer until honey is absorbed, and pour peel onto greaseproof paper. Depending on how sticky you like it and what you want to use it for, you can either bottle it once cool, or dehydrate in a food dehydrator.</span></div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-74573589150498702452011-01-12T02:45:00.000-08:002011-01-12T02:57:28.740-08:00SCD and intensive exerciseI have an intense week of karate coming up in a couple of weeks time - a solid 7 days of training 3-4 times a day, with days 2, 3 and 4 starting with a 6am run and training session. This is traditionally followed by a BBQ breakfast and beer. <br />
<br />
The seminar is held in Hobart, and I stay at a hotel (with full kitchen facilities) with my husband and usually between 4 and 7 students. It is always a lot of fun, as well as physically and mentally exhausting, and I'm torn between excitement and dread at its impending arrival.<br />
<br />
This will be the 9th such seminar I've been to (thankfully it only happens once a year!) and first one at which I've been following SCD. Normally the week involves massive amounts of carbs and sugar - four slices of toast with nutella for first breakfast, bacon eggs and more toast for second breakfast, pasta for lunch, rice for dinner and as much junk food as can be fitted in between without throwing up during training, because we know we're burning off the calories faster than we can eat them.<br />
<br />
But this all has to change for me this year. Somehow I have to survive on meat and fruit and vegetables, cheese and yoghurt, and nuts. I'm not up to eating legumes yet, and even nuts aren't completely agreeing with me.<br />
<br />
I've been reading a bit about sports nutrition over the last few weeks. All of the information I have found is based around a normal carb content diet, so it isn't particularly easy for me to use, but I've taken some pointers about what to eat and when and started putting together a plan.<br />
<br />
The main points of what I've <a href="http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sportsnutrition/tp/SimpleSportsNutrition.htm">read </a>seem to be to eat carbs (the form of fruit and vegetable is good) and protein a couple of hours before and within a couple of shours after exercising, and eat a snack of something more sugary like an energy bar or a banana or trail mix half an hour before exercise. I've also heard that milk after exercise is a good way to get back some of what you've lost. And of course hydration is really important. I lost almost 4kg the first time I did one of these seminars, and I think it was almost entirely through fluid loss.<br />
<br />
So here are the basics of my plan. I'd appreciate any feedback or comments anyone may have to offer.<br />
<br />
Breakfast<br />
- pumpkin soup (basically roast butternut pureed with cooked apples, and cinnamon, nutmeg etc) - for carbs<br />
- topped with date and cashew whip (soaked cashews pureed with dates) - for sugar<br />
- also topped with some banana smoothie to thin the soup a little<br />
<br />
Followed by training session 1 for the day: either 6am or 10 am <br />
<br />
Straight after training session 1<br />
- banana smoothie<br />
<br />
<br />
Second breakfast (only on the days that start at 6am) <br />
- beef rissole and fried egg - for protein <br />
- ratatouille - for carbs (I would have sworn that I had posted a recipe for this, but I can't find it. Anyway, eggplant, zucchini, tomato, red onion, capsicum, and herbs)<br />
<br />
Lunch (after training session 1 on the civilised days, after session 2 on the 6am days)<br />
- salad - carbs<br />
- with chicken/tuna - protein<br />
<br />
Afternoon snack (after training session 2 or 3)<br />
- avocado<br />
<br />
Afternoon snack 2 (before training session 3 or 4)<br />
- <a href="http://23daysandcounting.blogspot.com/2011/01/scd-snacks.html">energy bars</a><br />
<br />
Then after the last training session of the day, we take it in turns to cook at the hotel. There are a few people doing things I can eat, like mushroom strogonoff (mine with SCD yoghurt) and Vietnamise salad with rissoles/sausages. I also always cook a huge pot of bolognaise at the start of the week, so I can have that with vegies on the nights when people are cooking food I can't eat.<br />
<br />
And finally, I'm taking some supplies for extra snacking (like the chewy macadamia cookies from <a href="http://www.ccccibs.com/">CCCIBS</a> which is my favourite cookbook, ever, not just SCD) and my mum is making <a href="http://23daysandcounting.blogspot.com/2011/01/scd-snacks.html">labna </a>and knowing her will probably also me a cake or something too. Something sweet is essential to slip into my bag for our regular strolls to North Hobart for coffee, otherwise the cravings for danish pastries, florentines and blueberry house cakes might kill me. <br />
<br />
Plugging what I know I'll be eating into <a href="http://nutritiondata.self.com/">Nutrition Data</a> comes up with 2195 calories a day, and from <a href="http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm">Free Dieting's</a> calorie calculator I know I need 2630 calories a day (based on daily exercise plus physical job), so once the random snacking is added in, I should be getting an adequate calorie intake.<br />
<br />
My carbs:fat:protein ratio is 30:40:30. There's some pretty varied opinion out there about what these ratios should be, from 60:30:10 from the USDA guidelines, to 40:30:30 from the Zone diet, so I really don't know what to make of this one.<br />
<br />
The food plan has an estimated glycemic load of 72, below the recommended maximum of 100, and an inflammation factor of 372, well above the recommended minimum of 50. It's a little low on the various B vitamins, but I take a supplement for that fairly regularly anyway. So overall, I'm fairly happy with the plan.<br />
<br />
But I'd really appreciate if anyone with some more knowledge and experience of sports nutrition has some pointers for me.Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-76137130737484990672011-01-06T23:58:00.000-08:002011-01-06T23:58:16.401-08:00SCD snacksI've been experimenting with some new snack foods, incorporating dried fruit and nuts, recently, and it has got me thinking about sugar and what I've learned in starting the diet again. I think part of the where I went wrong on the first attempt at the diet was over-consumption of legal but advanced foods, and also fruit more generally. While many fruits aren't listed as advanced, the sugar content is high, which promotes inflammation. <br />
<br />
This time through, I've spent more time thinking about snacking and rationing my intake of fruit and nuts. Snacks seem to be the hardest part of the diet for me - breakfast, lunch and dinner are meat and veg, lots of different combinations, which isn't that different to what I used to do. I was never big on sandwiches, and mostly took leftover dinner to work for lunch. But snacks... I would usually bake a cake or biscuits on the weekend to last the week, take a couple of pieces of fruit, occasionally a fun size chocolate bar or a packet of chips.<br />
<br />
I carried this pattern into the SCD with me - basically replacing the cake/biscuits and the chocolate bar/chips with SCD legal baked goods, and the fruit stayed too. I also got into the habit of taking a 250ml container of nuts and dried fruit to work to snack on over a couple of days, but it would only ever last a day. So 4-5 fairly high sugar snacks, and 2-3 with a fair bit of fiber etc from the nuts.<br />
<br />
So I thought I'd write a post on what I've done differently this time through. (I started this a fair while ago, being quite organised and going through week by week. Then I forgot about it, so I've just added a random bunch of subsequent things since then. And all the recipes are right down the bottom).<br />
<br />
Week 1: intro diet - not much to say here, given the limited range of foods. Boiled egg, jelly, and yoghurt (I decided to do dairy from day 3 because it had never given me problems before and given all the prednisone I've been on, I'm a bit paranoid about calcium intake and bone density).<br />
<br />
Week 2: as for week 1 (but I couldn't stomach jelly anymore) with the addition of half a mashed ripe banana or some apple sauce with the yoghurt.<br />
<br />
Week 3 saw the addition of avocados with macadamia nut oil dressing and small pieces of matured cheddar cheese.<br />
<br />
In week 4, I added some sultanas to my apple sauce when cooking it, and stopped pureeing the apples. So sick of eating mush! I also added some cooked strawberries, and also started eating the occasional dried apricot with almond butter.<br />
<br />
I got a bit more adventurous with the dried fruit and nuts in week 5 and made black cake (see earlier post for recipe and explanation of the name), and also started playing with energy bars.<br />
<br />
It all started with <a href="http://www.wellsphere.com/healthy-cooking-article/homemade-lara-type-bars-energy-bars-part-3/191669">this</a> page, which give a great pictoral guide to the textures you are after at the various stages, and the ratio of fruit and nuts you want. I remembered back in my wheat and sugar days these lovely date and orange wontons, deep fried and dusted with lots of icing sugar, and decided to try to capture that flavour in bar sugar free form. That, and I'd just bought some orange oil I wanted to try out.<br />
<br />
What I came up with was so good I've made it about 4 times since then. I used fresh dates, but have been wondering if I could get the same effect with dried dates - much cheaper.<br />
<br />
That said, I did some number crunching and even my most expensive creation (cranberry and pistachio) only works out at $1 for a 45g bar.<br />
<br />
I've put some of the combinations I've come up with - the good ones - at the bottom on this post. <br />
<br />
Another thing I like to snack on is veggie sticks with labna (yoghurt cheese - see below), or just dunked in the macadamia dressing. <br />
<br />
And cakes. Cakes are good too. I particularly like <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2008/05/little-bit-of-summer.html">this one</a> from Naomi at milk for the morning cake - I've done it a couple of times, one with pear and raspberry, and once with pear and mulberry - cherries never lst long enough in my house to make it into a cake!<br />
<br />
If you have any SCD snacks you'd like to share, please add them as comments.<br />
<br />
(I think it is a sign of how well I'm feeling that I had to check my diary to see how many days since restarting SCD... 83 days and counting)<br />
<br />
<b>Macadamia nut oil dressing</b><br />
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">½ cup macadamia oil</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">1 tbsp honey</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">1 tsp Dijon mustard</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">½ tsp grated orange rind (don't add this in early on in the diet)</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">1 tbsp lemon juice</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">2 tbsp apple cider vinegar</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">dash of cayenne pepper </div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">dash of salt </span><br />
<b>Energy bars </b><br />
follow the method <a href="http://www.wellsphere.com/healthy-cooking-article/homemade-lara-type-bars-energy-bars-part-3/191669">here </a>for the following combinations:<br />
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><i>Christmas pudding:</i></div><div class="MsoNormal">1/8 cup raisins<br />
1/8 cup currants</div><div class="MsoNormal">1/4 cup sultanas</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">1/8 tsp spice blend (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves 45:45:5:5)</div><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <br />
<i>Date, orange and walnut:</i><b><i><br />
</i> </b> 1/4 cup chopped dates<br />
1/4 cup sultanas<br />
1/3 cup whole walnuts<br />
A drop of orange oil<br />
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <br />
<i>Cranberry and pistachio:</i><b> </b><br />
1/4 cup chopped dates<br />
1/4 cup cranberries <br />
1/6 cup walnuts <br />
1/6 cup pistachios <br />
1/4 tsp cinnamon, and a splash of rose water <br />
<br />
<b>Labna (yoghurt cheese)</b> <br />
1.5L SCD yoghurt<br />
a few cloves of garlic (or a few more, to taste)<br />
salt and pepper<br />
chopped fresh herbs (or dried)<br />
good quality olive oil<br />
<br />
Either crush your garlic raw, or roast it and mash it, depending on whether you like the tang of raw garlic. Or leave it out if you aren't a fan of garlic at all. Add the garlic and salt and pepper to your yoghurt and drip it for around 8 hours. You want it to be really thick because the next step is to take spoonfuls of it and shape them into little balls and roll them in the fresh herbs.<br />
<br />
A combination of oregano, rosemary and parsley is really good, but you can do any combination you want, or have spare.<br />
<br />
Place the balls into a jar and fill with olive oil. Having done it with cheap olive oil a few times, I can verify that the oil makes a big difference.<br />
<br />
As well as a great dip, this makes a lovely spread. I used to eat it on crispy white toast with these lovely sweet chillies (marinated in massive amounts of sugar I'm sure, and stored in sugar syrup). When I have some chillies again, I'm going to have a go at making something similar with honey...Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-79803797321159398012010-12-20T23:38:00.000-08:002010-12-20T23:38:27.031-08:00Perfect evening out<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's been a while since I've posted, not for any particular reason, just getting caught up in the rush that is pre-Christmas shopping and socialising. But I had to find time to post about dinner on Ben’s birthday. It was his 30th last Friday. </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After banana and orange hotcakes for breakfast and present opening, we drove to Sydney and met up with Taylor (Ben's sister) and Dave (her fiancée) who live in Canada. The Sydney trip has been planned for a while. I'd booked tickets to see the Australian Ballet perform the Nutcracker early in the year but meeting Taylor and Dave was a pleasantly unexpected late edition, as was getting a table at <a href="http://www.tetsuyas.com/index.html">Tetsuya’s</a>. I tried to book for the 4 of us about 8 weeks earlier, with no success; but about a week ago, got a call offering us a table. </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For those of you outside the southern hemisphere, Tetsuya’s is one of the most famous and arguably the best restaurant in Australia. They serve a 9-10 course degustation set menu, which I had thought would be a problem being on SCD, but the chef's were wonderfully accommodating. I'd expected never to eat dessert at a restaurant again, but I got to eat all three courses of dessert! Yum!</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The food was amazing. I wish we'd had a camera to take photos of every dish. The presentation in itself was very special too, so I'm a bit sad not to have captured it more exactly than with my imperfect memory. Also, it got a little blurry in the middle and I can't exactly remember what I ate. I'm blaming it on the many dishes and the long day, but the wines may have had a little something to do with it! Fortunately Ben and I decided to share the set wines - because neither of us would have been able to walk if we'd had one each.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first course was a chilled cucumber soup, bright green and served in a martini glass. It was slightly vinegary and served with 6 individual drops of unidentified oil (it tasted slightly nutty, possibly walnut) on top. The others had a small dollop of sheep's milk ice cream on top.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Next, everyone other than me had kingfish sashimi with soy sauce, and a glass of chilled sake. It was served on a very rustic looking glazed stoneware plate. I had a cherry tomato salad, with the earliest tomatoes from Tetsuya’s garden. It was swimming in a delightfully fresh salad dressing, garnished with pretty little flowers, including a cucumber from the garden.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The last entree was the most intriguing of the evening. Taylor and I were served a 'carpaccio' but told that it was not meat. It was garnished with some small green leaves and lots of little flowers, and we were told we had to guess what it was. It was reddish pink, rather chewy and slightly difficult to cut through. It also had a bit of crunch to it, like apple sliced very thinly. We sat and ate it thoughtfully in tiny little bites, and jealously shared a small amount each with Ben and Dave (they were eating scampi tails in an avocado soup topped with caviar). We ended up guessing tomato or capsicum with much trepidation; I didn't really think it was either, but could think of anything else it might be either. The waiter gave us a hint that it was a fruit, and which point Dave came out with ‘watermelon’, which turned out to be correct. It is skinned; frozen; shaved; smoked; and dehydrated. I wished that I had a bite left to be able to taste it again knowing what it was, but it was not to be. Maybe next time…my 30th in a bit over a year... (hint hint)</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I lost track of the wines well before I lost track of the food, but I recall drinking something cold and white and fruity with this.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I recall that there were two more fish dishes to start the mains, though I’m not sure of the order in which they arrived. We all had something with a crisply fried skin, served with a little blob of something like homemade mayonnaise, which was just lovely. I had a piece of yellowtail kingfish, much softer and more delicate, while the others ate Tetsuya’s signature dish: confit of ocean trout.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Next was a slice of lightly cooked duck with a baby leek curled in the bottom of the bowl, which was served with a glass of Pinot Noir (of course).</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The mains came to an end with a nice strong glass of Shiraz with crispy pigs tail, something lobster-like the name of which I didn't catch, and prosciutto. It was pleasingly salty, which matched the rich Shiraz quite nicely.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dessert started with a pallet-cleansing blood orange and black pepper sorbet for the others and stevia granita for me, served in a double shot glass. It was served with a stevia leaf, of which we all ate a piece: very sweet and slightly herby tasting. It also came with various different berry concoctions. Mine was berries with raspberry puree, I think the others had jelly and/or ice cream with theirs (by this time the wine was really kicking in, and I have no idea what they had next). We had two different dessert wines, which I smelled at greedily, and allowed a little drop to touch my lips.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The second dessert course (multiple dessert courses is just a wonderful idea) was yellow peaches, with zabaglione and ameretti. The combination was lovely, the peaches were a little tart and slightly crisp, the zabaglione was sweet and the ameretti was pleasantly crunchy.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And finally, I had an almond pudding, extruded into a long thin oblong swirled across my plate, with fresh figs and honey meringue, which seemed to have been blow torched into a sweet crispness on top. Ben was brought out something quite chocolaty-looking, with a little candle on top, which was a lovely touch. With this, we all had decaf short blacks, served in cute little glazed terracotta cups, deliciously fragrant and perfect with the sweet meringue.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">We wandered back to the hotel, pleasantly full and just a little drunk, bringing Ben’s 30<sup>th</sup> birthday to a perfect close.</span>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-88139795751752214582010-11-28T03:05:00.000-08:002011-01-12T00:45:22.380-08:00Another relish day (zucchini relish)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-ckSe80mLpH_5Wt8DyTN1d7M2RccGQQj5ePUfIBNZvEc5MDCbBIDPC3uXhyHhGuaj-dKsAJE82hX3wMuqyBwc6cvuXlu2WXhfAdFo1O8AOLxYO2pYhtdmD1pe6OhB_G5nEWWlNChSSHw/s1600/CIMG4526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-ckSe80mLpH_5Wt8DyTN1d7M2RccGQQj5ePUfIBNZvEc5MDCbBIDPC3uXhyHhGuaj-dKsAJE82hX3wMuqyBwc6cvuXlu2WXhfAdFo1O8AOLxYO2pYhtdmD1pe6OhB_G5nEWWlNChSSHw/s320/CIMG4526.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I've been pondering the food related traditions that run in my family for the <a href="http://simplygluten-free.blogspot.com/2010/11/gluten-free-cherry-almond-loaf-go-ahead.html">'family traditions' December Go Ahead Honey, it's gluten free</a>. Tastes have changed over the years, and I have fond childhood memories of foods that haven't been cooked in years, and that I couldn't eat anymore even if they were. </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I've realised that there is a trait passed down the female line of both sides of my family - a squirrel-like addiction to food hoarding. Being in the southern hemisphere, we start getting wonderful crops of fruit and vegetables around this time of year, and I love giving homemade things for Christmas. I remember from my early years my paternal grandmother's pickled onions, lined up in rows in the shed behind the garage - somehow both incredibly sweet and painfully sour at the same time. The smell of rosemary still always makes me think of their garden. The pickled onion recipe is lost as far as I know, and my one attempt at SCD pickled onions didn't yield fantastic results - I mustn't have sterilised everything properly as they developed an interesting fluorescent yellow mould after a few weeks. </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Later, my maternal grandparents used to live on a little farm, with some cows and chickens, and lots of fruit trees and a vegetable garden. Nan would make wonderful jams and jellies, and fruit preserved in syrup, and my brother and I would gorge ourselves on cherries and blackberries whenever we visited at the right time of year, and mum would make summer pudding. (Some time soon I'll have to think about an SCD bread that would work for that… maybe if the cherries are out when I'm in Tassie in January.)</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I have made another attempt at modifying Mum's zucchini relish for SCD, which I may submit. While the recipe itself isn't very traditional (Mum kind of made it up from a very bland zucchini relish recipe a few years ago), it goes with the family tradition of hoarding food in pantries and sheds and anywhere else it fits! </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">My first attempt at the relish a couple of weeks ago was okay - the flavour was excellent as always (how can you go wrong with turmeric and cumin, coriander and mustard), but I cut the vegetables a bit too chunky, and didn't add enough gelatine to achieve the 'finely cut pieces in a viscous sauce' that cornflour creates. I've had some assistance on the chopping front this time - my best friend Maddi, a former chef and a master of knife skills, was visiting; so I thought I'd take the opportunity to exploit those skills for my own gain. (She did get to take some relish home, too!)</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Two things about the recipe that I cannot emphasise enough:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">- chop the vegies really small, 3-4mm cubes; and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">- leave the zucchini and onion in the salt for as long as you can, at least 8 hours, but preferably more like 12.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><h1><span style="font-size: small;">Zucchini relish</span></h1><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2.5 cups finely chopped <span class="il">zucchini (a combination of green and yellow is nice if you can find them)</span><br />
1 cup finely chopped onions </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 tbsp salt</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Combine zucchini, onion and salt in a bowl and leave overnight. Don’t be tempted to skimp on this step or your zucchini will end up mushy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 red capsicum, finely chopped (if I’m making double quantity, I use a red and a yellow capsicum)<br />
70g honey</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 tsp turmeric</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">½ tsp mustard seeds<br />
½ tsp coriander seeds<br />
½ tsp cumin seeds</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">½ tsp gelatine </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">150mls apple cider vinegar <br />
<br />
The next day, add the gelatine to some of the vinegar and leave to sit while you do the next step.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Rinse the zucchini and onion. Place in a pan with the remaining ingredients. Bring to boil and simmer until the zucchini is cooked but still firm – about 20 minutes. You still want all of the vegetables to have some bite.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-ckSe80mLpH_5Wt8DyTN1d7M2RccGQQj5ePUfIBNZvEc5MDCbBIDPC3uXhyHhGuaj-dKsAJE82hX3wMuqyBwc6cvuXlu2WXhfAdFo1O8AOLxYO2pYhtdmD1pe6OhB_G5nEWWlNChSSHw/s1600/CIMG4526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Add the gelatine mixture and stir until the gelatine is thoroughly dissolved. Test that the consistency is correct by pouring some of the liquid onto a frozen plate. Soak and add some more gelatine if it is too runny. (You want it to be thickened, not set).</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
Place in sterile jars and seal with sterilised lids. Makes 2 medium jars, which lasts us a few weeks. This time, I tripled the quantity!</span>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-18589261502079711542010-11-23T03:32:00.000-08:002010-11-23T03:32:09.832-08:00Black cake (fruit cake)<div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I don't usually like fruit cake all that much - it tends to be a bit dry or too rich - but this is really moist, almost pudding-like. Very more-ish. This will be my first Christmas on SCD and, although I eat this cake all year round, I think it will make a pretty good Christmas cake. You could even ice it with SCD-legal marzipan, but I can't think of any replacement for royal icing (not that I really want to - too sweet for my taste).</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span> </span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The recipe has been played around with a fair bit, derived from a non-SCD legal recipe my mum came across about when I was starting SCD. The first time mum made it, it was a bit over cooked (still tasty though) and didn't have a name, so Ben christened it black cake and the name stuck, even though it usually turns out a nice golden brown.</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span> </span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Black cake</span></b></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span> </span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>2.75 cups of mixed dried fruit (I usually just use sultanas and currants, but raisins are good too and I'm sure some homemade candied peel would work perfectly)</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>grated rind of 1 orange</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>1 cup orange juice</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>up to 1/2 tbsp of honey (I don't usually use any as the dried fruit is sweet already)</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>1 tsp bicarb soda</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>1 cup cooked carrot/pumpkin, pureed (about 3-4 large raw carrots)</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>1.5 cups of almond meal</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>2 eggs, lightly beaten</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>2 tsp mixed spice (I used 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cardamom last time, which was a good combination)</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span> </span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Combine the fruit, orange rind and juice and honey in a saucepan and bring to a simmer for a few minutes until the fruit is swollen and most of the liquid has been absorbed. </span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span> </span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Take off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Add the bicarb, then the carrot/pumpkin and eggs and mix thoroughly. Then add the almond meal and spice and mix until combined.</span></span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span> </span></div><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Pour into a 6 inch square cake tin lined with baking paper and bake at 160C until the top of the cake is firm to the touch.</span></span></div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-34434380439912874582010-11-22T01:45:00.000-08:002010-11-22T01:46:13.328-08:00Having UC<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Okay, I’m finally going to write the story of my ulcerative colitis. It’s not something I’ve wanted to talk about, but I’m ready to start coming to terms with the fact that I have a chronic disease, and I think that a part of that is letting people know. A lot of my friends live interstate and I don’t see them often, and others that I see mostly at karate just know I disappeared for weeks at a time, had been in hospital and lost a lot of weight. So I’ll start from the very beginning.(Mum, please don't read this - you know the whole story and I don't think you need to go through it all again).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">[The symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are all a bit gross, and not really things people want to hear or talk about. If you’ve never heard of UC, <a href="http://www.ihaveuc.com/the-signs-you-have-it/">here’s</a> a rough explanation of the symptoms. I’ll use the common online UC abbreviations, explained here for those of you who don’t spend a lot of time reading about IBD: D = Diarrhea, B = Blood, BM = bowel motion.]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The colitis began pretty slowly. I started having symptoms in June 2009, but didn’t think much of it to start with. It was just a stomach ache every week or so and the occasional odd BM. But the frequency and intensity started to increase, and soon I was in the bathroom 5 or 6 times a day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I saw my GP who sent me for blood tests (which were inconclusive), an ultrasound (which showed nothing) and a course of antibiotics (which I took, but didn’t want to because there was no reason to think it was an infection). I finally got referred to a gastroenterologist and a month or so later (Nov 2009) had a colonoscopy and a diagnosis of mild left sided ulcerative colitis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At this stage, I was really optimistic: I knew what it was; there were drugs to treat it; sure it was chronic, but I was going to get into remission and everything was going to be fine. How wrong could I possibly be?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first meds (salofalk enemas) caused me more pain than I was already in, and after 2 weeks I stopped taking them. My gastro was overseas and I stupidly didn’t go to see my GP. I just stopped the meds. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I went untreated for about 3 weeks, by which time I was in almost constant pain. I could hardly eat because of the nausea, and when I did, nothing stayed down. And I couldn’t sleep because of the pain. One evening in tears, Ben decided that I had to go to the doctor. I went to an after hours clinic and was put on prednisone. Man was that great – almost instant relief – I thought I was cured! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I saw my mum for the first time in 6 weeks a couple of days later, and her mouth dropped open when she picked me up at the airport. I looked so sick! She bullied me onto the scales and I discovered I’d gone from weighing 63kg to 50kg in about 6 weeks. But the prednisone was great – I could eat again and I wasn’t in pain. I was really weak and tired all the time though. I just thought I needed to recover from the weight loss and everything would be okay.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The lack of sleep and constant pain really messed with my mind. I hadn’t seen that I had lost weight. I wasn’t weighing myself because I wasn’t well enough to go to the gym. I didn’t realise that I wasn’t eating enough, even though I was only eating a couple of scrambled eggs a day and maybe some potato chips. When mum finally made me look at myself in the mirror, I looked like the walking dead. Somehow it crept up on me and I didn’t see it happening.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">About a week before Christmas 2009, I fainted on the escalator at work. I cracked the side of my head and scraped all up my back. Fortunately, someone stopped the escalator before my hair got caught in the moving parts… Someone called an ambulance and I was carted off to hospital. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I spent 5 days and 4 nights in hospital, and started on salofalk granules as well as methylprednisolone. It was good for the first few days, and made me acknowledge that I was <i>really</i> sick and had to start taking it all a bit more seriously. By day 3, I was feeling better and was so ready to go home. Hospitals are places to be when you are so sick you can’t move – home is the place to go to get well. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I missed Ben’s birthday, but at least I was out in time to fly home to Hobart to spend Christmas with family.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But I still wasn’t well, and whenever I started reducing the prednisone, things got worse. Also, the meds were making me sleep badly, and I was so hungry all the time (probably not a bad thing) and I started growing facial hair and felt dizzy and tired all the time. Fortunately the hair went away when I stopped the meds.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I started on the maximum dose of an immunosuppressant (Imuran/azathioprine) in mid January, which takes about 3 months to start being effective. In the first of many fortnightly blood tests, it was discovered that I was anaemic and started on iron supplements, which at least helped with the tiredness and dizziness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I asked my doctor repeatedly whether there were foods I should or shouldn’t be eating, but he has persistently said that food has nothing to do with it. I found this a bit unconvincing – how can food have nothing to do with the inflammation of a good portion of my digestive system – but he’s the doctor, right?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I gradually came off the prednisone over January and February 2010, but was back on it by the start of March. When it became obvious I was going to have to be on cortisone for a while, I moved from taking prednisone to entocort (budesonide). At $200 for one month supply, it was pretty hefty, but was meant to be as good as prednisone but with less nasty side effects (like bone density loss and affecting thyroid function).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It did nothing for me. And I mean nothing at all.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On 1 April, I went to emergency at the hospital and was admitted for another 5 day stay, and then again on 14 April. (The second time, I discovered that the way to get a bed in emergency immediately is to say that your pain on a scale of 1 – 10 is 8). I did get to spend my birthday in between my two hospital visits with my family in Tasmania.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Over April and May I took most of my remaining 5 weeks of sick leave. One of the things the public service has going for it is generous and accruing sick leave entitlements. When I first started working almost 6 years ago, I remember wondering how you could possibly use 17 days of sick leave in a year… </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the same time, my gastro suggested that I start on infliximab, an IV immunosuppressant. It was the last thing he had to suggest that I hadn’t tried already. It also isn’t covered by the PBS for treating UC, so approx $7,000 for 3 doses. Fortunately, the Calvary Hospital was willing to cover the cost for me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By this time, I was really over it. I’d always thought that I’d get sick, then get better. It is what had always happened before. That there was a pill to fix everything. But the doctors seemed to have no idea what to do for me. I’d been reading everything I could find on the internet about UC and I’d come across a lot of references to the specific carbohydrate diet – I’d even bought the book ‘<a href="http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/book/the_book.htm">Breaking the Vicious Cycle</a>’ earlier in the year, but things were going so well on the prednisone that I hadn’t really looked at it. So I finally decided it was worth a try.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It’s a pretty big change, eliminating grains and sugar and milk were the really big things for me. But I figured I was willing to try anything that had a semblance of a grain of truth to it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I decided I’d go ahead with the infliximab as well, a dose at the start of May, another 2 weeks later and another 4 weeks after that. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It was a pretty bizarre experience the first time. I turned up to the cancer clinic at Calvary Hospital in Canberra, where it is administered. The nurses were great: getting the cannular in first try (I was so over being stabbed with needles); keeping up the cheerful banter. I was amazed how happy a cancer clinic could be.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By the end of the 3 doses, I had also weened off the prednisone altogether and was feeling great. No more B or D or pain.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was sticking to the SCD as well, but rushed into eating advanced foods like nuts and dried fruit and tasty baked things because they are convenient to take to work, and yummy, and filled the gap left by losing home made biscuits and breakfast cereal and bread.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It seemed like everything was fantastic and I was cured. When am I going to stop thinking that?!?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">About 6 weeks ago, everything started falling apart again. It started around the time of a lunch out with work colleagues. Mediterranean looked pretty promising as a cuisine choice for a restaurant – just pick a dish with meat and vegies. Well, every grain free dish had their homemade tomato sauce, which contained ‘just a tiny bit of sugar’. So I bit the bullet and had the roasted eggplant, capsicum and red onions in tomato sauce, which was really, really good. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don’t know if it was related – it was also about 12 weeks since my last dose of infliximab – but I started having stomach pain again, and then D and occasional B.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I waited a week and it just got worse. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the meantime, I was reading more about SCD. It sounds like it is pretty common to have flares around the 6-month mark, and this was almost 6 months to the day since I started the diet. But I also came across a lot more information on starting the diet, and how to introduce foods gradually to give the lining of the intestine time to heal and to work out what your trigger foods are. Just because they are legal on the diet, does not mean everyone can tolerate them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So I restarted the diet, and decided I’d wait a week, and if there was no improvement, I’d make an appointment with my gastro.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But here I am, 37 days later: no visit to the doctor, no new drugs. The symptoms mostly cleared up in a couple of days, and after a solid week of a massive headache, I’ve been feeling pretty good. I found some great new resources like <a href="http://www.scdlifestylebook.com/">scdlifestylebook.com</a> (their free chapter and podcasts are fantastic) and wrote a post on <a href="http://www.ihaveuc.com/yes-crisitunity/">ihaveuc.com</a>, and realised that I am finally ready to talk about what I’ve been through. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That said, I started writing this post well over a week ago. I’ve played around with it a lot: it’s difficult to work out what to put in and what to leave out, and even once I was pretty happy with the content, I had a hard time hitting the post button. I’ve told bits and pieces of this story to different people, but haven’t put it all together in one go before. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It sounds really depressing, and I guess it has been. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone and I understand why UC used to be thought to be a psychological condition – I have thought I was going mad at times. But I’m getting used to the idea that this is something I am going to have to live with. I’m not going to let it be depressing. Most days, I feel pretty good. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">37 days and counting…</span></div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-64701036645652742002010-11-15T02:45:00.000-08:002010-11-22T02:48:53.762-08:00Over doing it (and caramelised pineapple)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG34Wnf6m-uriU0WqzqkdDb8oqOZvse-pcVEtqaEDlvR3L8Wo0fEjlR7Jwp-GyocdiduXQqoPN1Rc3cmWP-m1pBTHRYE3zoe65hLQWbjWBnx252jwyx3RCewP6sLxcfixtnsPdDp7XmQJ6/s1600/CIMG4630.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG34Wnf6m-uriU0WqzqkdDb8oqOZvse-pcVEtqaEDlvR3L8Wo0fEjlR7Jwp-GyocdiduXQqoPN1Rc3cmWP-m1pBTHRYE3zoe65hLQWbjWBnx252jwyx3RCewP6sLxcfixtnsPdDp7XmQJ6/s200/CIMG4630.JPG" width="150" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was a bit dubious about going to the public service Social Network of Graduates (yes, SNOG!) ball. Having been a grad myself some 5 years ago, I wasn’t really sure about doing the whole 22-23 year olds getting drunk in the National Museum thing again, and then there is the whole diet thing with mass catered events, and the fact that I turn into a pumpkin at about 10pm (I blame the fact that I’m still having trouble getting my calorie consumption above about 1500, and I figure I should be eating more like 2200).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But having said yes some time ago, bought a ticket and sent off my <a href="http://www.austinscdfriends.com/articles/article/3691416/94645.htm">restaurant card</a>, I figured I’d better go. Oh, and I had a new hat!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To try to delay the inevitable sleepiness, I decided to have a coffee before heading off (first one in over 4 weeks). Even black, it was sooooo good.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pre-dinner drinks were fun – seeing some quite unexpected faces, like a karate friend from Tassie who we didn’t even know was in Canberra, and meeting new people, and my first glass of red in almost 3 months. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dinner was remarkably good, after a 15-minute wait for my special entrée, and some confusion over the specifics of the diet. Seriously people: bocconcini – which side of the hard, aged cheese/soft, fresh cheese divide does it sit? Not the worst confusion I’ve had – I once got brought a bright purple jelly topped with lemon sorbet with the line ‘I checked all the ingredients myself’. I’m fairly sure it had sugar in! Oh, and there was that time with the gluten-free pasta…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A couple of glasses of red wine later and I was really enjoying myself. I even got talked into dancing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I still turned into a pumpkin at about 11:30pm and couldn’t be persuaded to go to the after-party, but still a pretty good effort, all things considered. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Having not got any dessert (they went the rather lame effort of petit fours rather than individual desserts), I needed something sweet when I got home. I had half a pineapple, and decided it needed to be caramelised (recipe below).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anyway, long story short, I didn’t feel great yesterday. Nothing illegal, but between the wine, coffee, pineapple, yellow squash, eggplant and brussle sprout, my digestive system was a bit overloaded. But two days of strict adherence to the basics of the SCD, and I’m feeling pretty good again (30 days and counting).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Caramelised Pineapple</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">½ pineapple – cut into 1cm thick quarter circles</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1 tbsp coconut oil</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1 tbsp honey</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">juice of half an orange</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Heat oil on medium heat and add pineapple pieces, and cook through. Turn up the heat towards the end to get the outside a little golden. Serve pineapple over yoghurt. Add the honey and orange juice to the pan on a high heat and boil for a couple of minutes. Pour over the pineapple and yoghurt and eat before it cools down too much.</span></span>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-48498975867096540632010-11-12T02:11:00.000-08:002010-11-12T02:26:24.228-08:00Relish dayHave I mentioned how much I love not working on Fridays? I really do. This morning, I went to the markets and bought a whole load of fresh fruit and vegies. It was sunny and warm, and on a day that I don't have to work - spring has finally arrived! <br />
<br />
I'm not meant to be adding new foods today, because Ben and I are going out to a public service grad ball tomorrow, and I put the full SCD list as my dietary restrictions, so I'll probably end up with some advanced foods in there, and feel awful the next day, and I shouldn't be making it worse before I even get there. Ho hum.<br />
<br />
But I always find that I struggle with the diet more at the markets than anywhere else.<br />
<br />
Today was no different, people handing out slices of mango and pineapple, oranges and kiwifruit. I gave in and ate a slice of mango, and then bought 3 (3 for $4, how could I say no?). And a pineapple. When I got home, I blended the ripest mango with a good splosh of yoghurt and some cold water. It was like dessert in a glass, for lunch, and satisfying enough to keep my going for my planned cooking exploits for most of the rest of the day.<br />
<br />
I'd almost run of tomato sauce and needed to make more, and wanted to try a sweet chilli sauce and also to play with mum's zucchini relish to make it SCD legal. I also ended up making curry paste and the orange and date chutney from the <a href="http://www.cookingforceliacscolitiscrohnsandibs.com/index.php">CCCIBS </a>cookbook, and <a href="http://comfybelly.com/2010/03/creamsicles/">orange creamsicles</a>. Now my cupboard is fully stocked with tasty treats again. Man, I love Fridays!<br />
<br />
I'll write up the zucchini relish once I know if it worked (I decided to try gelatine to thicken it, instead of cornflour... could be interesting...). <br />
<br />
In the meantime, here's my cheats SCD tomato sauce recipe.<br />
<br />
Tomato sauce<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
<span lang="EN-US">1 red onion, roughly chopped</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1tsp cloves</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1tsp black peppercorns</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1tsp whole allspice</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">2 x 690g bottles of crushed tomatoes</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">2 bay leaves</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">½ tsp Ground ginger</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">½ tsp Cayenne pepper</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1 tsp salt</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">200ml white vinegar</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">¾ cup honey</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Saute onion and garlic over medium heat until they start to turn golden.</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">While this is cooking, tie the cloves, peppercorns and allspice in a piece of muslin.</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Add the remaining ingredients, apart from the honey, and simmer for an hour.</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Add the honey and simmer for another hour, or until the sauce is about half its original volume.</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Pour into sieve and grind through with a pestle into a sterilised jug. Pour into sterilised jars and store in the fridge.</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Enjoy! My favourite at the moment is a rissole, with a slice of cheese, tomato sauce and dijon mustard. The idea was from McDonalds cheeseburgers (I really do need to do something about some pickles), but executed oh so much better.<br />
<br />
27 days... </div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-68163042301334636342010-11-10T02:49:00.000-08:002010-11-12T02:25:09.562-08:00Best kitchen gadget everOkay, I don't normally jump to buy something just because someone somewhere says it's great, but I do have a thing about kitchen gadgets, and food, and kind of miss noodles so when I saw this <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/comfybelly-20/detail/B0000CEWJD">julienne peeler</a> I decided I had to have one. I couldn't wait for it to be posted to me so went to my local kitchenwares store and bought one (and a few other bits and pieces, of course!).<br />
<br />
That night, we had <a href="http://comfybelly.com/2010/09/zucchini-pad-thai/">pad thai</a>, with prawns and chicken, and zucchini and carrot noodles. I'm not up to eating garlic or chilli or scallions yet, so I had to modify it a bit, and added some green beans too. Yum! yum, yum, yum! 3 days later, I had to have it again (as well as having had leftovers for lunch at work). In between times, we've had a beef stirfry (with zucchini and carrot noodles) rissoles with grilled (julienned) vegetables. Nothing is safe from being shredded into long thin noodle-like strands. I'm trying to figure out what else it will work on, and if I could make a relish with julienne vegetables... all coiled up into the jar...<br />
<br />
...Anyway, back to the present.<br />
<br />
If you are thinking of doing SCD, or just cutting back on your consumption of wheat or grains, zucchini noodles are the answer. You can have them with pasta sauces and stirfry and don't taste like vegetables, and even just steamed vegetables taste better cut into neat little strips. (I really have to start keeping my camera in the kitchen so I can show you... oh well... next time...)<br />
<br />
25 days and counting...Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1882384456057559564.post-8805945032398314962010-11-08T00:09:00.000-08:002010-11-12T02:25:35.301-08:00Starting a blog<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I've always thought of blogging as somewhat self indulgent. Sure it can keep your family and friends up to date with your lives when you aren't nearby, but that struck me are rather too much like those Christmas letters that some people send to everyone they know that are an excuse to brag about their wonderful children and perfect lives (surely everyone is irked by these, not just me… right?). Also, I'm not really someone who seeks to be the centre of attention - anyone who knows me will know that this the understatement of the century. But I've recently written a couple of posts on <a href="http://ihaveuc.com/" target="_blank">ihaveuc.com</a> (excellent website - if you've found this site because you are searching for stuff about ulcerative colitis, I highly recommend you check it out), and found it to be very cathartic. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I've also found it really helpful to read some other the blogs of other people with chronic inflammatory diseases, to know I'm not alone, that not going insane and that other people out there feel the same way. If I can do this for just one person, I can justify the self indulgence! (I also adore recipe blogs, so I'll throw some recipes out there as I go too - some of my own creation/adaptation and links to particular favourites from around the place).</span><br />
<br />
<div class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Anyway, I guess I'd better say a bit about me (assuming that someone other than my mum is reads this). I'm starting writing this blog because I have ulcerative colitis (UC), and the title is because I am up to my 23rd day on the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD). I'll get back to this a bit later.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I was diagnosed with UC just over a year ago, and had been having symptoms for about 6 months before that. For a while, it defined my whole existence - it's difficult for it not to, when you are in constant pain, going to the bathroom 8-10 times a night, sleeping 3 hours a night (in 20 minute blocks) if you are lucky. I've spent almost 3 weeks in hospital (6-7 days at a time). I lost 12 kilos before getting things under control, and have gain back 7. Thankfully I'm past the worst of it and ,determined not to get back there again, and I'm working towards the point where my life does not revolve around my health. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Besides UC, I have a pretty full life. I work at the Tax Office as a legal adviser - it's not something I ever saw myself doing, but after getting into tax policy at Treasury when I first started working, tax somehow just seems to click with my rather analytical mind. I've been working 4 days a week since I got sick, and it is the best decision I have ever made. To start with, having Fridays off was to give me more time to attend the many medical appointments and to sleep (having used up all my generous public service, 17 days a year, sick leave in 3 visits to hospital and recovering) but it has more recently turned into a day to shop for food, and prepare food, and just generally enjoy myself. I highly recommend a 4 day week and 3 day weekend to anyone and everyone who can manage it!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I also learn and teach karate. I had been learning karate for about 5 years when my husband (Ben) and I moved away from our home town (Hobart, Tasmania) to Canberra for work. Our Sensei encouraged us to start a karate club, which we have been running for a bit over 5 years. We teach 3 times a week, and train with a couple of fellow black belts once a week, and every visit home is a marathon of karate classes and private lessons, to try to keep up to date and maybe even improve a bit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I also have a rather severe love/hate relationship with online poker; a crazy little foundling kitten who was excellent company at 4am through the worst of my illness; and an obsession with food. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Which brings me full circle to what I wanted to be the subject of this post. I have been told by several doctors that diet is not a factor in UC, but quite frankly, I don't believe them. I started on the SCD over 6 months ago (if you want to know more about it, check out <a href="http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/index.htm">breakingtheviciouscycle.info</a>) but because I was symptom-free due to massive doses of prednisone, I didn't do the introductory diet properly and when my symptoms started up again about 4 weeks ago, I decided to start again and do it properly.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">This involves a chicken soup, beef mince, carrot and egg (and yoghurt, if you don't have a problem with dairy) diet for between 2 and 5 days, followed by the gradual reintroduction of other foods, one at a time, at intervals of 2-4 days to observe possible negative reactions (there is a chart of the food stages at <a href="http://pecanbread.com/p/how/stages.html" target="_blank">pecanbread.com</a>). Did I mention I am obsessed with food? This has been really difficult, and I have to admit to cheating a bit, adding more than one food at a time and occasional cheating of having advanced foods. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I'm currently allowed to eat:</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Meat and fish</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Eggs (lots and lots of eggs)</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Cooked: carrot, zucchini (peeled until a couple of days ago), spinach, green beans, pumpkin, tomato, asparagus, apple, pear, sultanas and currants</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Raw: avocado, ripe banana</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Honey</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Almond milk, almond butter (and trying almond meal tomorrow)</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Yoghurt (lots and lots of yoghurt, homemade, fermented for 24 hours to get rid of the lactose)</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese (real stuff made from milk and cultures, not synthetic chemicals)</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Sugar-free dijon mustard</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Homemade tomato sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Oil (olive, grapeseed, macadamia, coconut)</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Butter</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Vinegar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">I'm trying really hard not to become obsessive about all bad things in foods, but there are a number of reasons it is difficult. SCD categorises foods as 'legal' and 'illegal' which is a really useful mindset to have. Not just allowed/not allowed but illegal gets you thinking about it in the right way. I also visualise things I can't eat, like sugar and flour, as poison - this is particularly useful to stop me licking my fingers when I'm making biscuits for Ben and have gooey ginger and cinnamon-scented dough all over my hands. And the more I read about sugar substitutes and the various chemicals put into foods (either directly, or feeding/injecting the animals we ultimately eat) the more scary it all seems.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Being on a really restricted diet has made me appreciate food in an extremely intense way. I've always liked food - cooking really tasty things and then savouring eating them in good company. I was the kid that ate the cupcake from the bottom up, to leave the best bit with all the icing til last (okay, I admit it, I still do). But this is something different. I made hollandaise sauce on the weekend, to go with runny poached eggs, rissoles (bacon for Ben) and spinach. I've made it before, and it was good, but this was just divine. A bite of egg, hollandaise, and rissole was one flavour. Runny yolk on rissole another. Spinach, egg white and hollandaise…. I've better stop before I drown in my own saliva. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Then I started work on the cupcakes I'm taking to work for morning tea tomorrow. Lemon meringue - almond based lemony cake, more dense than flour based cupcakes, lemon butter sweetened with honey, and the meringue icing (to be made later this evening). I had to make almond butter in the process and had a bit leftover and just ate a bit off the spoon - kind of like peanut butter, but with a much more subtle flavour. Then I thought, this would go with a dried apricot (one of my occasional cheats - I've had 4 in total since restarting the diet, and they are really moist and gooey and oh so good), so I carefully spread a dried apricot with a teaspoonful of almond butter, and ate it in five little bites, carefully chewing eat one until it disappeared. Soooo good. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">It really is the simple little things in life that make it all worthwhile.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Anyhoo, the recipe for the cakes can be found <a href="http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/2008/07/low-salicylate-scd-birthday-and-lemon.html">here</a> (milk for the morning cake is not only my current favourite blog, but also a favourite book as a child). Time to go make that icing...</span> </div></div>Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16020231164958339536noreply@blogger.com1