Tag: Diet

Shopping, Sleeping, and Heartburn

On By WendyIn Acid Reflex, Life, Meniere's DiseaseLeave a comment

Yesterday my husband had the day off because he has to work this Saturday.  It’s neat to have him all to myself on a day during the week, but it’s sad we won’t have Saturday.  So we decided to do some shopping!

Streets at Southpoint Mall, Durham, NC

 

The Christmas shopping sales started a little early this year.  We got a flyer from Macy’s and they had a Cuisinart Immersible Blender on sale for $18.99, I was excited because I really needed to replace mine.  I was also looking for a mini-slow cooker. One that’s only about 1.5 quarts, I found one at J.C. Penney for only $9.99!  What a great find.

We walked the huge halls of The Streets at Southpoint Mall for a couple of hours, checking prices, deciding on if we really needed something, and finally having lunch.  I was so tired.  But we had 2 more stops to make.  One at Target to see if they had a couple of things we needed, that trip proved fruitless.  And a stop at the hardware store to pick up a timer for my crock pot, so I can now leave it on when I leave the house and don’t have to worry about getting home to turn it off, and a couple of other things we needed around the house.   We got a call while we were in the hardware store and found out it would be a good time to go and pick up one of the Crock Pots I’m borrowing for Thanksgiving.

So off to pick up the Crock Pot….and a nice visit with our friends.  Including seeing their new baby.

By the time we got home I was exhausted.  My whole body hurt.  Especially my hip.  When I tried to sleep last night my hip hurt so much I just couldn’t sleep, even after taking Trazadone.  I also had to take a pain pill.  I hate taking all that medication.  Finally, I got to sleep, and it wasn’t really that late.

Just like me asleep with the dog and cat.

This morning I got up and ate some breakfast, but I felt so droggy.  I felt like I was still feeling the effects of the drugs I took the night before.  So I put some beans, BBQ sauce, and Chicken hot dogs in the new small cooker and I went back to bed, I did not want a repeat of the way I felt on Sunday.  I slept until about 3pm.

When I woke up, I felt much better, and the house smelled like someone was cooking. Of course, it was my slow cooker telling me I could eat any time I wanted.  I was surprised that it was pretty good.  There was a lot more liquid in the mixture than I put in, so I would have liked it more if it was thicker, but it was still good.  I ate my Beans and Dogs with my home-made Sauerkraut.  It was very good.  However, before I was even finished I was running to the bathroom, again.  Every day, it’s crazy.  I keep having to run to the bathroom from 1-5 times a day.  (3 today)

So later, I wanted something else to eat but I was afraid of eating anything too heavy.  Unfortunately, I’m out of bread and haven’t made any, and I’m also out of any plain crackers.  So my darling husband make me a few pancakes.  After eating I’ve had the worst heartburn.  I took Maalox, something I don’t like to do, I stretched, my husband patted me on the back, I burped a lot, but nothing seemed to help.  Finally, I ate a little apple sauce, and everything is calming down.

I read about an Acid/Alkaline diet a while back and the main part of it I didn’t really pay attention to, but I did decide to try some eating some of the foods that they have on the highest Alkaline list when my stomach starts to scream with too much acid, and acid reflux.  During the summer, this is easy because Watermelon is a very alkaline food, but now that it’s fall, I didn’t know what to eat.  So of course, I searched the handy-dandy internet (how did we ever get along without it?), and found that apples are also a highly alkaline food.  Not as alkaline as watermelon, but still pretty high.  And the pectin in applesauce is supposed to help with GI problems.  Maybe I should eat more applesauce, or perhaps I should make another apple crisp?  Ummmm, apples.

Oh no, I think I got Glutened.

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Stuart and I decided to go out for lunch on Saturday.  We went to this little Mexican/El Salvadorian restaurant.  We’ve been there before and I haven’t had a problem. but I ate something different this time.  I still can’t figure out what may have had the gluten in it.

I had a bean enchilada, something I’ve had there before, with no problems.  (they are made with corn tortillas).   I also had a Pupusa, this is something I haven’t had before, but the waitress assured me that it was made completely from corn.  After reading the description on Wikipedia, it also says that the batter is corn.  It looks like a polenta pocket with a filling inside.  I had beans inside.

 

Pupusa with Curtido - photo courtesy of Wikipedia

 

“Pupusas are similar to corn tortillas, only thicker and stuffed with cheese, beans or meat. The pupusa originated in El Salvador, but it is also popular in neighboring Honduras.” – whats for eats.com

“Pupusas are typically served with curtido (lightly fermented cabbage slaw with red chilies and vinegar) and a watery tomato salsa.” – Wikipedia

Both the Pupusas and the curtido were very good.  The enchilada was good too.  The only other thing I ate were some of the tortilla chips, and a little salsa.  Their chips have always been 100% corn, but I didn’t ask this time, so maybe they changed them.

All I know is that as soon as I got home I was running to the bathroom with the worst cramping and you know…..  However, the way my GI track has been acting lately maybe I wasn’t glutened.  Maybe it just didn’t like something else.  The biggest reason I was pretty sure it was gluten was because of the pain.  All the other GI problems I’ve been having haven’t caused pain.  However, every time I get glutened it hurts.  The reason I think I may not have been glutened is because it didn’t last long.  Curiouser, and curiouser.

I know I should go on the elimination diet, but it is so hard.  I think I need help.  I can’t imagine cooking for my husband or watching him eat all this good food, and I have such a limited palette.   I have found that soy milk really bothers me.  High fat dairy bothers me.  Although, I can eat most cheese.  And I’ve found that really anything with much fat bothers me a lot.  I’m trying to slowly stop eating meat.  (for 2 reasons, 1- most of it seems to make me feel bad., and 2- for ethical reasons.)  However, I decided I needed to clean out the freezer of all the meat we had in there first.  Mostly it’s just some chicken, and some sausage left.

This weekend I made an 11 bean and sausage soup.  (I will insert a picture later)

I found an 11 bean soup bag that is gluten free at Whole Foods.  It says to add a whole lot of meat to it: ham hock, sausage, chicken breast…    I didn’t do all of that.

11 Bean and Sausage Soup

  • 1 bag 11 Bean Soup mixture with seasoning packet (the seasoning were mostly italian seasonings)
  • 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (or you can do what I did, I had some crushed tomatoes and some spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator and I mixed that together so I wouldn’t waste it)
  • 1 package (4 sausages sliced into about 1″ sections) Aidell’s Italian Style with Mozzarella cheese.  (you could use any sausage you want here, including one of the many meatless sausages.  There is a soy chirizo from Trader Joes’s that is meat and wheat free.)
  • 1 medium sized onion chopped (large pieces are fine)
  • about 4-5 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2-3 cups unsalted Chicken Stock (or Vegetable Stock)  I use Kitchen Basics unsalted stocks.
  • 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
  • You will need to add more water as this cooks.

This soup turned out to be very good.  But I made a very major mistake.  I didn’t soak my beans.  I thought since they were going to be cooking for so long that I really didn’t need to.  All I can say is: Soak Your Beans!

I put all of the ingredients in my slow cooker and cranked it up on high, thinking we could eat in 4 maybe 6 hours.  Well, That was at noon and at 8pm the beans still weren’t done.  We decided to turn it off and start again in the morning.  At about 8am my husband turned it back on, but low this time, and it cooked until nearly noon.  Finally, the soup was ready and really good.  My husband loved it.  I ate around the sausage.  I thought the beans were delicious without.  Of course, the flavors from the sausage were in there, but hopefully  I didn’t get as much fat.

I don’t salt anything.  I’m on a low salt diet, and I find I’ve started really enjoying the flavor of the foods I eat without salt.  So the only salt in this recipe came from the sausage.

This made about 12 servings, 1 cup each.  It will probably be about 8 servings for us.   We ate on it Sunday, I put a container in the refrigerator for left overs, and I put a pint in the freezer for later.

My Slow Cooker is such a saving grace on days I simply can not stand up long enough to cook a meal.  If I don’t feel like standing up long enough to put things in the slow cooker, I can usually talk my husband through that one.  He tries hard to make life as easy as possible for me with all that has been going on.

Easy Apple Dessert

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Last night I decided I’d like to have something a little sweet, but didn’t really know what I wanted.

We just bought some lovely organic apples, and my husband loves my Apple Crisp, but I didn’t want to take that much time.  So I came up with this:

 

Easy Apple Desert

 

 

  • 2 Honey Crisp Apples cut into thin slices
  • A little bit of Earth Balance Buttery spread, a couple of teaspoons probably.  (you might be able to leave this out.
  • 1/4 cup apple juice , or a little more depending on your apples.  You will be reducing the apple juice and this will add a good amount of sweetness.
  • ground cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.
  • a little bit of agave or other sweetener if they aren’t sweet enough.  (this is to taste.  I added light agave, it comes in a squeeze bottle so I just squeezed a little over the apples.)
  • gluten-free oats (I blended these in the food processor so they’d be more like quick oats)   (I’m not sure how much I added, I just sprinkled some in to see how it would work, then added a little more.  Probably no more than 2-3 tablespoons)

Put the apple juice and apples in a small skillet and cook over med-low heat until the apple juice is reduced  and the apples are as tender as you like.  (we like ours a little crunchy)  Add the Agave, or sweetener now.  The Agave made it a little thicker and a tad sweeter.  Add the Earth Balance and oats, they won’t get crispy like they do when you make apple crisp, but they add a good texture.   Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.  I didn’t add enough at first, but it can be easily added when you are eating them.  That way if one person likes more cinnamon or nutmeg they can add more.

I enjoyed this a lot.  I kept thinking it needed ice cream (well Rice Dream would have been better for my tummy).  My husband said it was good, but missing something.  I asked him if he really wanted ice cream with it, and he agreed he thought that was the missing ingredient.  He still prefers the Apple Crisp because he likes it when the oat topping gets crunchy, and I think he also likes it more because it has sugar and brown sugar in it.

All in all, this was a very good, light desert.  You can play with it to get the taste the way you want it.  I’m trying to reduce my sugar intake, but you could add sugar if you wanted.

Recipe Testing – Citrus Black Bean Soup

On By WendyIn Diet, Gluten-Free, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’ve been a tastetester for recipes for Kathy Hester’s upcoming Healthy Slow Cooking Vegan Cookbook.  (No, this isn’t the name, I don’t know what the name will be yet.)

I made the most delicious meal from one of her recipes yesterday, and it was so easy.  I just put everything in the slow cooker and let it go, then we had Citrus Black Bean Soup that evening.  The recipe makes this a pureed soup, but we liked it chunky with all the beans, it kind of had the consistency of a chili.  Oh but it didn’t taste like chili.  The seasonings worked so well together.  I was just thrilled.

I decided to have mine on top of brown rice, and then I mixed in some steamed collard greens to make this a complete nutrition meal.

I know you are just dying for the recipe, but you will have to wait until Kathy’s cookbook comes out.  However, you can check out many of her other recipes on her blog: Healthy Slow Cooking. I started following her blog right after she first started it and became a fan immediately.  I love food that is easy, good, and nutritious.  How great is that?  So check out her blog, and keep a look out for her cookbook.  I’ll keep you posted.

A good and very bad Sunday.

On By WendyIn Meniere's Disease, whole nutritionLeave a comment

The day started out well.  I still couldn’t hear, but I was feeling ok.  So we decided to take a trip to the NC State Farmer’s Market.  We were on a quest for pumpkins!  We spent nearly an hour and a half picking out the perfect pumpkins for us to decorate, or just use as decoration.  It was much fun.

Since there isn’t any organic produce at this farmer’s market, after we got our pumpkins we decided to make a run to Whole Foods.  Look at the wonderful produce we picked up.  The winter squash came from the farmer’s market, the rest came from Whole Foods.  Most are organic and local, some are just organic, and well, a few are grown conventionally.

On the way home from Whole Foods I started having a vertigo attack.  At the first sign of dizziness I took my medication, but it didn’t really help.  The swaying and bumping in the car was horrible on our 40+ minute drive home.  I will never go that far from home when I’m having Meniere’s trouble.  I should have known better.

Shortly after we got home I started throwing up.  The attack started around 4:30pm and finally stopped around 7:00pm.  Actually this was a fairly short attack, considering I’ve had them last over 8 hours before.   However, it was particularly violent.  I’m so sore and tired today.  I will have to just rest and recover.

Getting things done

On By WendyIn Diet, Gluten-Free, RecipeLeave a comment

Today I’m no longer running a fever, but I’m still have GI distress.  Oh well, don’t know why I’d expect that to change.

I started taking probiotics before every meal, hopefully this will help get my gut back to normal.  I also restarted taking my multivitamin, and extra B-12 + B complex supplement.  I tested low on B-12 but B-12 should be taken with a B complex and if you are a little older (over 40), like I am, you should take your B-12 sublingually (under your tongue).  B-12 isn’t absorbed as well in the stomach as you get older.

I also completely cleaned my kitchen. (more on cleaning green in my next post)  I wanted to make sure I’m not accidentally getting any cross-contamination from my husband’s gluten food.  He doesn’t bring much gluten in the house, a loaf of bread, and cereal of his own.  However, today I realized just how many crumbs from his bread and toaster get everywhere.  He has his own toaster, but have you ever noticed how many crumbs there are around a toaster and on the counter near a toaster, even if you clean them up every day.  I’m afraid I may have been getting gluten.  So we’ve decided there will be no more regular bread with gluten in our house.  I’ll just make bread more often, and Stuart can use the toaster oven like I do.

My favorite Gluten-Free Bread recipe is:

Flax, Quinoa, and Almond Meal Bread

(this recipe originally came from Kira at The Medicine Women’s Roots blog, but I changed it a lot)

Preheat oven to 375F.

  • 1 Cup Milled Flax Seed
  • 2/3 Cup Blanched Almond Meal (could probably used unblanched)
  • 2/3 Cup Quinoa Flour
  • 4 Teaspoons Baking Powder
  • ¼ Teaspoon Salt
  • 2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
  • ¼ Cup Olive Oil, Butter, (do not use butter to make this dairy free), Grapeseed Oil, Coconut Oil (only use unrefined with a sweeter bread)
  • 4 eggs
  • water to texture desired, just enough so that the batter pours in the pan thickly.  It took a little over 1/2 Cup of water for this recipe. The more water you use the longer it will take to cook.

Mix dry ingredients together.  Gently beat eggs together before adding to dry mixture.  Add oil.  (I had my coconut oil in a mixing cup and added the eggs to mix together but the coldness of the eggs turned the oil solid, it was difficult to mix the solid oil in the batter.

Add water a little at a time until you get the desired consistency to pour thickly into your loaf pan.

I used a Pyrex bread pan with parchment paper, cooked at 375F for 40 mins.

I hope Stuart likes it. 

This afternoon we went for a walk around the block.  It’s nice to get outside this time of year.  The weather was beautiful today.  As we walked we saw a few neighbors out doing the same, we stopped and chatted for a while.  That may not be great for exercise, but it was great for the soul.

Flax, Quinoa, and Almond Meal Bread

Not a great start…

On By WendyIn whole nutritionLeave a comment

I have a fever today.  Not enough to worry about an infection or anything from the colonoscopy I had yesterday, but enough to make me feel very icky.

So I’m not saying this is day one.  Day one will be the day I start the elimination diet.  However, I am going to attempt to incorporate more exercise in my life every day.  Today, I will at least do some stretching, since I don’t feel well I don’t think a lot of exercise would be a good idea.

I’m finding myself hungry a lot lately.  Nearly every time I eat I end up in the bathroom, you would think that would discourage me from eating, but I get so hungry.  I’ve decided to start eating small amounts more often to see if that works.

I just ordered the book, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, I’ve been reading the authors’ blog and I think that the elimination diet in the book may be very helpful to me.  As I believe I’ve mentioned before, I would prefer to eat whole foods as much as possible.  Nothing can beat home-made food made from the freshest ingredients.

The book should be here some time between October 26 – 30.  I can really get started on trying to figure out what I’m having trouble with at that time.  I downloaded the list of things you can eat on phase one and I think I’ll try to start eating mostly these foods even before the book arrives.  The elimination diet actually starts with a 2 day green smoothie detox, however after my extreme cleanse for my colonoscopy I may not do this part.  I don’t really like green smoothies, I’d much rather just eat the greens.  I’m sure the smoothies are so you can digest the greens easier, but the taste of the greens and fruit mixed just doesn’t hit my taste buds right.

So there’s the plan so far.

A New Me in One Year

On By WendyIn whole nutritionLeave a comment

I’ve been struggling with my health for most of my life. The past 2 years have been especially trying.

Today I had a colonoscopy, and it found nothing unusual. I’m tired of feeling bad and no one being able to tell me why. I’ve had lower GI problems for over 2 months now, and I’ve gained about 25 pounds in these 2 months.

Tonight I emailed a couple of nutritionist in the area asking if they can help me with an elimination diet to see if there is something in my diet that is causing this havoc.

I also walked around the block for the first time in months.

I should mention that I have many other things afflicting me:
Meniere’s Disease
suspected Celiac’s Disease (I am gluten-free and it has helped me immensely.)
Wheat Allergy
Hypothyroidism
Hypoglycemic
Chronic hip pain (I had a torn labrum twice last year. My orthopedist would like to perform surgery to see if he can figure out what is still causing so me so much pain. I’ve had numerous MRI some with dye, and none of them show anything that can explain the amount of pain I’m having. Note: this is a new doctor, not the one who did the 2 surgeries last year. He thinks my hip-joint could be pinching the cartilage, it wouldn’t show up on the MRI because you are in a relaxed position. My muscles and tendons are also too tight, even though I’ve had a lot of PT.)

This blog is going to follow my life over the next year, and my attempt to get healthier.