Craving Cinnamon Rolls...

Thanks to a fantastic baking mix I found I have been able to get creative with baked goods.  I have yet to figure out a good yeast raised roll recipe but in the meantime these will work. :) 

Baking mix, maple syrup, butter, cinnamon, almond milk and SO tasty :) 

The next day I tweaked it a bit for blueberry biscuits.. also fantastic! 

The gluten free- sugar/sweetener free mix I found is from Walmart.  I'm trying to find a link for it online but haven't had much luck. I will update with the name/brand shortly.  

Pizza as it looks now

I have discovered cauliflower crust pizza. It's wonderful. It definitely gets the job done giving up traditional pizza. I still miss tomatoes but this satisfies for crust! 

Roasted garlic, ham and kale pizza

Home made turkey sausage, black olive and green pepper pizza 

Garbage pizza (last night's leftovers, today's pizza- green bean, black olive, pepperoni, ham, Swiss, corn, chicken , mushroom) 

Mac and cheese, because it's my favorite

It has been way too long since I have had Mac and cheese. It is one of my top three favorite foods! Tonight for dinner I made gluten free extra sharp white cheddar Mac and it was fannnntastic. 

Heavenly carrot cake

Gluten free, sugar free carrot cake with maple cinnamon icing 

Cauli-crust

I tried my first cauliflower crust tonight and I have to say it is amazing! 

1 c shredded/minced cauliflower

1 egg

1 c mozzarella cheese

Season to taste

Cook for 13 mins on 450

Top however you like

Cook for 10 mins or until cheese is brown and melted

It is far better than I ever imagined! 

Good-bye Gluten!

So it would appear that Celiac's is the primary cause for my issues.  We are just at the end of getting an official diagnosis but it is the thing that all specialists, myself and my family agree fits every test, every mri, every symptom, and of course the diet changes are a bit indicator of diet related issues. I just went through a week long gluten challenge, adding much gluten and all triggers back into my diet to see how I responded with pain/skin/etc and to follow up with labs to see if they show a more clear picture with a flair going on.

So here on out.. it's no:

Sugar
Milk
Soy
Tomatoes
Gluten
Raw Garlic
Raw Onion

Peanut butter no-bake heaven!

Gluten, dairy and sugar free no-bakes! 

1/2c melted coconut oil

3T honey 

1/2c unsweetened peanut butter

Add oats until thicker texture ( approx 1-1 1/2c)

Mix together coconut oil, honey and peanut butter. Stir in oats. Scoop into mini muffin tins and freeze approx 15 mins. Pop out of tin into Baggie or container and store in fridge. 

Yummy x infinity! 

Couscous, where have you been my whole life?

I have recently rediscovered couscous and I'm in love. I make it with a little olive oil and chicken stock then butter to finish.

We have been adding more grains and couscous cooks so quickly and easily it is great in a pinch! 

Tonight's dinner:

Grilled chicken and potatoes over whole wheat chicken couscous with tzatsiki sauce ( Greek cucumber yogurt sauce.) 

Yummy! 

Chocolate!!

I found a recipe for home made dark chocolate and tweaked it with coconut oil since I didn't have cocoa butter. 

Honey, melted coconut oil, vanilla and cocoa powder. I poured it into my bear molds and added some chopped cashews. After a bit in the freezer they easily popped out and I store them in the fridge. 

Round 2 was a peanut butter chocolate bark. I smeared unsweetened peanut butter in a pan, poured the chocolate mix on top, frozen to set then chopped into pieces. The peanut butter is a but sticky so I store this in the freezer.

This definitely satisfied my sweet tooth while helping me to get my daily coconut oil. 

Bread

I've been on an adventure to find a good bread recipe. Here are a few I've worked through. 

Almond honey bread:

Almond flour, whole wheat flour, honey, almond milk, coconut oil and butter

To go with the amazing warm bread coming out of the oven I started making chia jam!

Strawberry rhubarb chia jam:

Honey, strawberries, rhubarb and chia. 

I've also made a plain strawberry version that is just as tasty! I eat this stuff on everything! My favorites are yogurt and warm bread. My family likes it on vanilla ice cream. 

Oat wheat bread:

Oat flour, whole wheat, egg, half and half, coconut oil, butter, honey and water

Hummus flatbread/crust:

We ate this with chicken, cous cous and Greek cucumber sauce then made a chicken three cheese flatbread  on the leftovers for dinner.

It was nice and crusty! 

Garbonzo bean flour, water, olive oil, sea salt, while wheat flour 

In the end the oat wheat loaf is my favorite. I make I weekly and my kids love it also. The flatbread is super tasty also with a great crunch to it. 

Bread is back on the menu! Color me happy! :)

Heaven in a Bowl

My new favorite food- Peanut Butter Brownie Sundae 

Black bean brownies with Peanut Butter Chip Frozen Yogurt (previously posted)

Brownies:

Oats

Black beans

Honey

Cocoa powder

Vanilla

Dark chocolate chips

Walnuts

Coconut oil 

Baking powder 

Ginger chicken and black bean lettuce wraps

I've tried more and more to use leftovers in new ways. Today was a "cleaning out the fridge" lunch. The results...

Ginger chicken and black bean lettuce wraps:

Grilled chicken breast

Evoo-ginger-soy sauce-garlic-honey-hot sauce

Black beans

Quinoa

Onions

Peppers

Peanuts

Broccoli

Carrots

Iceberg lettuce

(I prefer water chestnuts in my wraps for the crunch, but these are great for leftovers )

Friday Night Special

We just had a fantastic dinner- all made within restrictions. 

Seared Scallops over quinoa with White Wine Mushroom Cream Sauce:

Scallops seared in butter

Quinoa made with chicken stock 

Sauce- mushrooms, onion, olive oil, white wine, salt, pepper and Greek yogurt 

 It was my first time searing scallops at home and I have to say they were perfection! I think seeing so many poorly made scallops on Hell's Kitchen inspired me to pay more attention. If you watch the show you know the scallop station is always a challenge. 

Following that I made a pie today. I was attempting pie crust with alternate ingredients. Pie is one of my major food groups, you know along with cheese, coffee, bread and potatoes. 

So attempting home made pie crust for the first time and with alternate ingredients my expectations were low. The results were fantastic! The crust is super flaky and tasty. The only place I notice a big difference is the edges. I don't long to break the crust edge off on the entire pie to eat alone as I do with regular crust. But this is a much healthier version and very good. 

Triple Berry Pie:

Crust- almond flour, unbleached flour, coconut oil, egg, vinegar, water, salt

Filling- strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raw local honey, chia gelled, egg, dash of unbleached flour 

It's been a very tasty evening in! 

Peanut butter chip frozen yogurt

So I made some tasty dessert tonight for myself. Enter Peanut butter chip frozen yogurt:

Greek yogurt

Honey

Fresh peanut butter

Coconut oil

Semi sweet mini chips*

* yes, I know semi sweet mini chips have a small amount of milk and sugar. They are a cheat for me. It's a small amount of cheating that adds a lot of happy to lots of things I've made. So I let it slide :)

I'm trying not to eat it all in one sitting! It's amazing!

Alternate flours - and the art of pancake making

I have been working on a pancake for myself with alternate flours. Today I found a mix that is everything I dream about in a pancake.

Pecan pancakes:

Almond flour

Almond milk

Honey

Flax meal

Baking powder

Egg

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Pecans

Cooked in butter

Also this week I attempted chicken tenders fried in olive oil. 

I dredged in a beaten egg with honey and a mix of:

Brown rice flour

Flax meal

Salt *pepper* garlic powder

They were excellent!! The flax was very much like a Panko texture. I will make these again! 

Veggies on the menu

Snack time - steamed artichoke with herb butter 

Parmesan garlic roasted spaghetti squash to go with our leftovers: 

Mango Cream

I'm not a huge ice cream fan but the rest of my family loves it. I like to keep something sweet on hand and easily accessible if possible. Tonight I decided to put together something Ice cream like and see what happened. It's amazing. 

I give you Mango Cream ( frozen yogurt/ice cream) 

Frozen mangoes

Frozen pineapple 

Honey

Full fat Greek yogurt 

Almond milk ( unsweetened) 

Vanilla 

My two year old just fought me for my bowl. Even my husband said he would eat it. It was that good. Definitely a win! 

Spice cake

Just made a tasty spice cake as an afternoon treat for the kids and myself 

Almond flour

Brown rice flour

Honey

Pecans

Unsweetened applesauce

Nutmeg-ginger-allspice 

Egg

Oats

Butter and honey on top 

It's wonderful! 

Tonight is birthday dinner for my mom. Trying to make it special and still make it something I can eat. I'll let you know how it goes. 

A Super Bowl feast even I could eat

I was hungry by the time this was done so I ate before I photographed :) 

Left to right...

teriyaki turkey meatballs:

Ground turkey

Rice flour

Salt- pepper-garlic

Almond milk

Sauce

Soy sauce

Honey

Garlic

Ginger

Olive oil

Sausage stuffed mushrooms

Sausage

Brown rice flour

Onion

Portabello mushrooms

Seasoning

Butter

Buffalo chicken dip

Chicken

Greek yogurt

Cream cheese

We were out of Frank's sooo Texas Pete 

Blue cheese

Corn chips and whole grain wheat bread to dip

Salad with home made creamy balsamic dressing 

Need to do better

So I made a few exceptions this week. We had pizza (no tomato sauce but white flour crust), I had a cookie and I did eat a tomato at a store tasting a sample. It sis me go over well. This was all within 24 hours and my hands went nuts. 

As of yesterday the cracks were so many and so painful as well as new blisters that I could not grip with either hand. I was very strict yesterday with diet and today already I am seeing improvement. I have to remember this is not like a weight loss diet where a few exceptions now and then won't break the bank. The impact is quick and painful. I need my hands.. Therefore I need to be more careful always. 

Snack time

My kids love "chewy" bars. I'm not a huge fan of the ingredient list so I'm attempting to create my own, healthier, recipe. Attempt one today worked well but I will make a few changes next time. If these were for me to snack on I would definitely use almond flour ( which I'm out of today.) So this batch is for the kids. 

Chocolate "granola" bars:

Mini semi sweet chips

Honey

Flour

Baking powder

Unsweetened apple sauce

Vanilla

Almond milk ( unsweetened) 

Egg

Coconut oil

Oats

 

Put a little South in my dinner

Tonight's menu: 

Whole chicken all day in the crockpot

Collard greens

Boiled beets with sea salt and butter 

It was excellent! My first time making collards and I loved them. I could have set the chicken and beets aside and eaten that entire bowl of greens. To my two year old the beets were "red potatoes" and after eating one he told me that he did in fact like red potatoes. 

Mom 1

Toddler ... Well I got a point for the red potatoes tonight! 

Lactose!!!!!

So I added back in dairy products, butter, cheese, eggs and half and half being the ones I use the most. I had no issues and all was well. My hands have been doing amazingly well the last few days and I thought no tomatoes, no white sugar, no white flour were the reason. Yesterday I made some sugar free, wheat free, gluten free brownies with no issues, but then drank a big glass of milk after both that I ate (afternoon and evening) and suddenly I was having a hand flair up as well as asthma symptoms. I started looking at the common dairy-mucus-asthma idea and only found very mixed reviews to the legitimacy. Reading further I found the two big issues with milk are lactose intolerance and milk allergy from the casein protein. So I started to dig deeper. For those with lactose intolerance I went on a hunt for what products triggered and what products did not. Butter, Cheese, Half and Half and Full Fat Greek Yogurt are all lower in lactose or in the case of the yogurt, have probiotics to help digest the lactose so those who have a LI are not as impacted by the lactose. So while some folks with a high intolerance can still see issues even with the low levels of lactose in these foods, most people with a LI can eat these without issue. BINGO! So it would appear one of my triggers is not dairy- but lactose! For cooking I can easily sub almond milk, and I already take extra calcium. I will have to dig into options for those times I do want a nice tall glass of whole milk. I know there are lactose free/reduced versions. I may also experiment with local dairy milk as opposed to grocery store milk and see if there is any difference in reaction dependent on how they are processed.

Hand update

So I've been : 

No tomatoes

Very little/no white flour

No sugar (sub honey) 

Also cut out 90% of all processed foods but still eating some crescent rolls about twice a week and non ketchup/tomato condiments once a week. Eating out about once a week. 

Hands are amazing. I even washed dishes today without feeling like they were on fire and no skin issues. 

Amazing! 

Finding a good middle ground

Today I dove into some old recipes made a new way. For lunch I made poppyseed chicken. Instead of canned soup I used chicken broth, seasoning and milk. I added Greek yogurt for the sour cream

And I prefer it with a little cheddar cheese. It was amazing. I made a friend's rice recipe- brown rice made with chicken stock and butter.  It may have turned me into a regular rice eater. I served the chicken dish over the rice. Lunch was so good I couldn't wait for dinner to eat leftovers. 

This afternoon I decided to make some chocolate chip bread. The dough was more of a cookie consistency so I decided to bake them as cookies instead. They are very good cookies but I probably could have baked them as muffins as well given that they are a more cake-like consistency. The cookies are almond flour, egg, baking powder, rolled oats, almond butter (unsweetened), honey and applesauce also unsweetened with mini semisweet chips. 

My two year old has loved them all day. He just walked up to tell me they were good chocolate cookies. I call that a win! 

Moving forward

While it has not been perfect I consider this elimination diet project a success. (See hand photos) Going forward I will continue to work on diet, whole food, clean eating and avoiding trigger foods. I'll maintain this as a food blog in that journey and try to share some great recipes along the way. Other positive impacts include a complete lack of sugar cravings, junk food and processed food cravings are down. That alone is huge. 

Hands day 1:

Left

Right palm

How far I could open right:

Approx day 3:

Same progression- left-right-open right 

6 days in:

 

9 days 

So now we come to today: 16 days after I started, after adding back a few things to check reaction, overall my hands are in great shape from where I started. 

While they are far from perfect it's easy to see that cutting out so much junk in my diet and clean eating really had a positive impact. I feel like things are moving in a good direction.