For one week, I'm writing down everything I do to prepare food. Not the buying, not the eating, just the cooking. It's been mostly about making dinner, since breakfast is usually each person on his/her own, and lunch is usually leftovers from previous dinner.
Friday.
0900 Put chicken in crockpot on Low, sprinkle generously with sea salt. Cover.
1100 Add ground turmeric, paprika and a little hot cayenne to the chicken - gives it a nice color and great flavor.
1215 Pretty late to start cooking lunch, but was busy with baby. Wipe mushrooms with a paper towel, slice, sauté in ghee. Meanwhile, wash and chop broccoli. Cut "bark" off broccoli stems and chop too.
1235 Remove mushrooms from skillet, add the broccoli and more ghee. Toss frquently.
1300 Put mushrooms back in with broccoli, add salt and a crushed garlic clove. Serve with leftover spaghetti squash and meat sauce for lunch.But first a generous helping of picled carrots, green beans, broccoli, onions and garlic,with a drizzle of EVOO.
1430 Chicken is cooked, but not too cooked. Put skin on baking sheet for "chicken chips." Remove all the meat from the chicken in the crockpot, Return all the bones and cartilage to the crockpot, add 2 qts water, turn on High. Store the meat for later use, put skins in fridge.
1510 Done with sorting chicken,
1700 Turn crockpot to Warm, Take open box of Aroy-D coconut milk from fridge, notice half of it is lovely clump of mostly oil, guess you couild call it coconut cream, and the rest is liquid. Pour the liquid into a glass bottle, label it Lite coconut milk with yesterday's date (when the box was opened). Spoon the "cream" into Vitamix blender (about 3/4 cup), add remainder of frozen mangoes DH left in fridge to thaw several days ago, must use soon, about 1 cup. Add 2 tsp Martinique rum. Process on High. Pour into pudding cups, cover, refrigerate (found great glass pudding cups WITH LIDS (plastic) at a dollar store).
1720 Decide to make salmon for dinner. Preheat oven to 375 F. Defrost 4 salmon fillets in microwave, one at a time, about 2 mins each. Meanwhile, clean up and dig into fridge to look for a side veggie to cook. Find fennel bulb. Put salmon fillets in small square Pyrex, smear with coconut oil, sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning.
1735 Place salmon in oven. Slice the fennel bulb. Place slices on baking sheet. No oil,, no seasonings.
1740 Put fennel in oven. Peel one carrot, then keep peeling to make slivers for the tossed salad.
1745 Put baking sheet with chicken skins in oven (was in fridge).
1750 Remove salmon from oven. Continuing with carrot, switch to slices. Put carrot slices and slivers in salad bowl. add previously fermented (pickled) carrot slices and 1 Tbs of the juice. Add freshly crushed garlic clove and 2 Tbs EVOO. Top with lettuce and sprouts.
1805 Fennel has brown tips. Remove from oven. Wash cilantro, about 1/2 bunch. Dry in salad spinner.
1810 Process cilantro in small but fast food processor until chopped fine. Add about 1/2 cup previously fermented whipping cream yogurt and salt to taste, process until it's a lovely green sauce for the salmon (should also have put in capers, whole, or even pureed into the sauce). Transfer to puddung cup to serve with salmon.
1820 Puree fennel in same processor without washing.
1830 Serve!
Crockpot still has simmering chicken broth, which I'll leave all night.
Showing posts with label crohn's disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crohn's disease. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
You are what eats what you eat
That's right. "You are what you eat" is passé. The Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) theory gives us new
insights on personality, heredity, and development, and adds new shades of gray
to the nature/nurture debate.
What you eat goes through your gut, gets digested, and becomes you. So we all learned in grade school. But now a much more complex process is being uncovered by researchers everywhere. Our intestines are host to trillions of bacteria, yeasts, bacilli and other microorganisms, all of which have a DNA of their own (all together, about 150 times the number of genes in the human genome). They exist in a kind of organized ecosystem, vying for nutrients and space just like flora and fauna do in the seas or in a tropical rainforest. I like to think of it as a coral reef, beautiful, fruitful, and fragile, with new layers building on top of older layers. The first layer, as Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride explains so well, is formed during the first 20 days after birth.
Wish I had time to read more, and write more. But this is becoming clear as research confirms Dr. NCM's theory: we are what eats what we eat. Our personalities are influenced, in varying degrees, by the gut biota that feeds on what we swallow.
So, "Be all that you can be", “To thine own self be true”, and “Discover yourself”: free yourself and your family from the microorganisms that undermine your mental health and alter your personality. Eat the nutrient-dense foods indicated in the GAPS nutrition protocol, and avoid foods containing toxic ingredients like sugar, starches (i.e., almost all processed foods) and industry-created chemicals. Listen to Mother Nature, who made our guts and all the food they’re meant to digest.
What you eat goes through your gut, gets digested, and becomes you. So we all learned in grade school. But now a much more complex process is being uncovered by researchers everywhere. Our intestines are host to trillions of bacteria, yeasts, bacilli and other microorganisms, all of which have a DNA of their own (all together, about 150 times the number of genes in the human genome). They exist in a kind of organized ecosystem, vying for nutrients and space just like flora and fauna do in the seas or in a tropical rainforest. I like to think of it as a coral reef, beautiful, fruitful, and fragile, with new layers building on top of older layers. The first layer, as Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride explains so well, is formed during the first 20 days after birth.
The
French wikipedia articles on probiotics and the microbiota mention that there
are 400 different species of bacteria living just on the average human
hand (yes, in spite of all that handwashing and dishwashing), and over 10,000
in the human gut (this
article says 40,000!). Meanwhile, the
MetaHIT (Metagenomics
of the Human Intestinal Tract) research team, in Europe. presented a paper on Enterotypes (April 2011), which says the human population can be
divided into three groups according to gut biota (biota is a more correct term than flora, because it includes both flora and fauna
and anything in between). So there’s
all this diversity (40,000) but much similarity from person to person. To quote: “each individual harbors some 170 bacterial species out of
a total of about 1000 that are predominant in the gut. Most of these species
are common to many individuals, showing that we are all rather similar.”
As the GAPS book explains, the influence of gut flora on mental function is
huge. The heartbreaking stories of autistic children whose symptoms all
disappear when the child receives Clostridia-eradicating medication, only to
return after a couple of weeks because this medication itself is too toxic to
be taken any longer than that, are illustrations in point. The parents
get a glimpse of who their child "really" is. Who is the real
child? The autistic child that the parents live with day in, day out, or
the child within, the child they hope to know some day? Wish I had time to read more, and write more. But this is becoming clear as research confirms Dr. NCM's theory: we are what eats what we eat. Our personalities are influenced, in varying degrees, by the gut biota that feeds on what we swallow.
So, "Be all that you can be", “To thine own self be true”, and “Discover yourself”: free yourself and your family from the microorganisms that undermine your mental health and alter your personality. Eat the nutrient-dense foods indicated in the GAPS nutrition protocol, and avoid foods containing toxic ingredients like sugar, starches (i.e., almost all processed foods) and industry-created chemicals. Listen to Mother Nature, who made our guts and all the food they’re meant to digest.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Quick and Easy Coconut Milk Yogurt
I've revised my coconut milk yogurt recipe. It's much faster, much easier. No
heating, no cooling down, no watching temperatures. Because it's made with coconut milk it has no lactose and no
casein, so no 24-hour incubation needed. You do need a blender and a yogurt
maker or other way to keep the microorganisms thriving at their favorite
temperature for 8 hours. I use a crockpot plugged into a dimmer switch.
If you are doing strict SCD or GAPS you must make your own coconut milk. There are lots of good recipes on line for this. I actually use Aroy-D Coconut milk in 1 litre TetraPaks, which has won awards (I know...). It lists only coconuts and water as ingredients, and as far as I know, the TetraPak packaging contains no BPA, which canned coconut milk (like all other canned foods) does contain.
Dates are added to provide food (fructose) for the microorganisms that turn milk into yogurt (Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, etc). Dates are said to be very digestible, but if you prefer, you can replace the dates with 1 Tablespoon of raw honey.
The unflavored gelatin sets the yogurt to a soft gel as it cools. One pack of gelatin usually sets 2 cups of liquid to the bouncy "Jell-O" consistency we all know. Here we're doing over 4 cups of liquid, so it won't be as firm as Jell-O, but of a gentle consistency that blends in a heavenly way with the coconut milk's creaminess. Gelatin is also very soothing for the digestive system.
Keep refrigerated, like any yogurt. Should keep well for at least a week but in my house it's gone within about a day, so it's a good thing it's quick and easy to make again!
COCONUT MILK YOGURT
Ingredients:
4 cups coconut milk , at room temperature or up to 42 C
1 package yogurt starter or the dose for 1 quart milk
1 package unflavored gelatin (1 scant Tablespoon) or 1 1/2 Tablespoons unflavored Vegan Jel
5 raw dates, pitted
Directions:
1. Plug in your yogurt maker to warm it up. Place all the ingredients near your blender.
2. Pour the coconut milk into the blender jar (use the jar measures to get the right amount if using canned milk). Start the blender on a low speed, take off the whole lid, and sprinkle the unflavored gelatin and the yogurt starter into the middle of the swirling milk. Turn off blender, add dates, put the lid on, and process on high for 1 minute, until dates are liquefied. Pour into yogurt maker and follow your usual yogurt-making steps. Incubate 6 to 8 hours.
3. After about 6 hours, the yogurt will still be liquid and the cream will have risen to the top. No worries! Mix well and taste the yogurt to see if you prefer to let it ferment longer. If it's got that great yogurt taste, put the lid on the container and refrigerate. After cooling 1 to 2 hours (depends on your container), the gelatin will be starting to set, and it will be starting to separate again. Mix again (add 1 tsp vanilla if desired). Cool 2 to 3 more hours before serving.
If you are doing strict SCD or GAPS you must make your own coconut milk. There are lots of good recipes on line for this. I actually use Aroy-D Coconut milk in 1 litre TetraPaks, which has won awards (I know...). It lists only coconuts and water as ingredients, and as far as I know, the TetraPak packaging contains no BPA, which canned coconut milk (like all other canned foods) does contain.
Dates are added to provide food (fructose) for the microorganisms that turn milk into yogurt (Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, etc). Dates are said to be very digestible, but if you prefer, you can replace the dates with 1 Tablespoon of raw honey.
The unflavored gelatin sets the yogurt to a soft gel as it cools. One pack of gelatin usually sets 2 cups of liquid to the bouncy "Jell-O" consistency we all know. Here we're doing over 4 cups of liquid, so it won't be as firm as Jell-O, but of a gentle consistency that blends in a heavenly way with the coconut milk's creaminess. Gelatin is also very soothing for the digestive system.
Keep refrigerated, like any yogurt. Should keep well for at least a week but in my house it's gone within about a day, so it's a good thing it's quick and easy to make again!
COCONUT MILK YOGURT
Ingredients:
4 cups coconut milk , at room temperature or up to 42 C
1 package yogurt starter or the dose for 1 quart milk
1 package unflavored gelatin (1 scant Tablespoon) or 1 1/2 Tablespoons unflavored Vegan Jel
5 raw dates, pitted
Directions:
1. Plug in your yogurt maker to warm it up. Place all the ingredients near your blender.
2. Pour the coconut milk into the blender jar (use the jar measures to get the right amount if using canned milk). Start the blender on a low speed, take off the whole lid, and sprinkle the unflavored gelatin and the yogurt starter into the middle of the swirling milk. Turn off blender, add dates, put the lid on, and process on high for 1 minute, until dates are liquefied. Pour into yogurt maker and follow your usual yogurt-making steps. Incubate 6 to 8 hours.
3. After about 6 hours, the yogurt will still be liquid and the cream will have risen to the top. No worries! Mix well and taste the yogurt to see if you prefer to let it ferment longer. If it's got that great yogurt taste, put the lid on the container and refrigerate. After cooling 1 to 2 hours (depends on your container), the gelatin will be starting to set, and it will be starting to separate again. Mix again (add 1 tsp vanilla if desired). Cool 2 to 3 more hours before serving.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Almond Milk Recipe
RECIPE:
Ingredients:
1 cup raw natural almonds
filtered water or tap water if you normally drink it
vanilla extract optional
almond extract optional
1/4 cup coconut milk optional
Soak almonds for at least 2 hours. I find that's the minimum to get the nuts to jump out of their skins. Some recipes call for soaking 12 to 24 hours, but I find that the taste gets more bitter with a prolonged soaking. I like soaking about 6 hours. Rinse several times thoroughly with good water.
"Blanch" the almonds, that is, remove the toxin-laden skins by squeezing the nut between your thumb and index finger, The nut inside will pop right out! I admit it takes a few minutes, you can do it while listening to an audiobook for example, anyway it gives you an excuse to sit down for a few minutes. You have to keep the almonds wet because the skin dries fast and sticks firmly to the nut when dry. Frankly, some pop right out, some you have to peel.
Put the almonds in a blender with 2 1/2 cups water (room temperature). Blend on high for one minute. In a Vitamix, about 30 seconds is plenty.
Pour the milk into a strainer lined with a juicing cloth. Put another 1/2 cup water in the blender jar, swish around to rinse out ALL the almond foam and add to the almond mixture in the strainer. That's a total of 3 cups water for 1 cup almond milk. Let the milk drip out for 15 to 30 minutes, then press out by hand (see my first post on how to do this) or in a press.
Add vanilla and almond extracts to taste, if desired. I use 1/2 teaspoon of each, if at all. I prefer to add 1/4 cup of coconut milk, which removes the dry edge that raw almond milk tends to have, and adds creaminess and sweetness. See my last post on Mixed Nuts Milk for how I arrived at this formula.
This makes a pretty thick milk, no guars, gums or xanthan anything needed. It keeps about 3 days in the refrigerator, but in my house it's gone within 24 hours. So I set my cup of almonds to soak every morning and some evenings too.
Ingredients:
1 cup raw natural almonds
filtered water or tap water if you normally drink it
vanilla extract optional
almond extract optional
1/4 cup coconut milk optional
Soak almonds for at least 2 hours. I find that's the minimum to get the nuts to jump out of their skins. Some recipes call for soaking 12 to 24 hours, but I find that the taste gets more bitter with a prolonged soaking. I like soaking about 6 hours. Rinse several times thoroughly with good water.
"Blanch" the almonds, that is, remove the toxin-laden skins by squeezing the nut between your thumb and index finger, The nut inside will pop right out! I admit it takes a few minutes, you can do it while listening to an audiobook for example, anyway it gives you an excuse to sit down for a few minutes. You have to keep the almonds wet because the skin dries fast and sticks firmly to the nut when dry. Frankly, some pop right out, some you have to peel.
Put the almonds in a blender with 2 1/2 cups water (room temperature). Blend on high for one minute. In a Vitamix, about 30 seconds is plenty.
Pour the milk into a strainer lined with a juicing cloth. Put another 1/2 cup water in the blender jar, swish around to rinse out ALL the almond foam and add to the almond mixture in the strainer. That's a total of 3 cups water for 1 cup almond milk. Let the milk drip out for 15 to 30 minutes, then press out by hand (see my first post on how to do this) or in a press.
Add vanilla and almond extracts to taste, if desired. I use 1/2 teaspoon of each, if at all. I prefer to add 1/4 cup of coconut milk, which removes the dry edge that raw almond milk tends to have, and adds creaminess and sweetness. See my last post on Mixed Nuts Milk for how I arrived at this formula.
This makes a pretty thick milk, no guars, gums or xanthan anything needed. It keeps about 3 days in the refrigerator, but in my house it's gone within 24 hours. So I set my cup of almonds to soak every morning and some evenings too.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Coconut Milk Yogurt
A big item on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is the 24-hour yogurt, with its much-needed probiotics. But there is a troubling fact: making yogurt gets rid of the lactose in the milk, but what about the other milk components that are possible Crohn's irritants? Casein for example.
So I wanted to give coconut milk yogurt a try. Doing my homework before messing up perfectly good coconut milk, I looked at what other websites offer on the subject. Some websites, including at least one yogurt starter website (don't actually remember which), say it can't be done. Hey, I like a challenge, and the benefits were just calling to me. For example, another benefit is, it wouldn't have to incubate 24 hours, because the extra time is needed to make sure the bad lactose is all eaten up by the good bacteria. Coconut milk yogurt would also bring in all the amazing benefits of coconut oil, the relatively complete proteins of coconut milk, and the aromatic flavor of coconuts. So I just had to find a way.
The problems that made coconut milk yogurt impossible were, 1) it stays liquid, 2) it separates, and 3) it doesn't have enough sugar to feed the bacteria. To solve 1 & 2, I retained the services of unflavored gelatin. Of course, if you're only going to use it for smoothies (and it is a terrific smoothie ingredient), or you like liquid yogurt, or you're a vegan, you can just leave out the gelatin. Just shake before using. For the third reason I called good old dates, my new favorite sweetener, to the rescue. So this yogurt recipe needs a blender, to liquefy the dates, but I soon realized that it also helps mix in the gelatin and the starter, making coconut yogurt not only possible, but the easiest yogurt to make!
One more comment: I only use TetraPak (UHT) coconut milk, not canned milk (when I can't make it from the nut). No BPA. Also, UHT stands for Ultra High Temperature, which means the milk does not need to be brought to near boiling: it is already quite sterile. So there's another time and energy saver.
In fact, this method shortcuts so many of the usual steps of yogurt-making, AND the result is SO DELICIOUS!
COCONUT MILK YOGURT
Ingredients:
4 cups coconut milk (home-made or in TetraPak - no BPA) at room temperature or up to 42 C.
1 package unflavored gelatin
3 to 6 dates (with 6, the yogurt will be slightly sweet; adjust to taste)
1 package Thermophilus/Bulgaricus/Acidophilus yogurt starter
Equipment: a good blender, a plug-in yogurt maker. If your yogurt maker is the type that just insulates heated milk, you'll have to heat the coconut milk to the correct temperature before starting
Assemble all the ingredients near your blender.
1. Pour coconut milk into the blender jar. Start the blender on a low speed, take off the lid, and sprinkle the unflavored gelatin and the yogurt starter into the middle of the swirling milk. Turn off blender, add dates, put the lid on the jar, and process on high for 1 minute, until dates are liquefied. Pour into yogurt maker and follow your usual yogurt-making steps. Incubate 6 to 8 hours.
2. At the end of the incubation period, the yogurt will still be liquid and the cream will have risen to the top. Mix well, refrigerate one hour, then mix again. The gelatin will be starting to set, which will keep the yogurt from separating again. After a few more hours of cooling, the gelatin will have set to a soft gel. One pack of gelatin usually sets 2 cups liquid to the firm "Jell-O" consistency we all know. Here we're doing 4 cups liquid, so it won't be as firm.
My yogurt maker is an old crockpot with a cracked bowl, plugged into a dimmer plug. The yogurt goes into a glass jar (mason-type) that fits nicely in the crockpot. I put a potholder under the jar to keep the temperature even, and the lid on the crockpot. It didn't take long to figure out the right dimmer setting to get an even and continuous 42 C for incubating the Thermophilus/Bulgaricus/Acidophilus yogurt.
So I wanted to give coconut milk yogurt a try. Doing my homework before messing up perfectly good coconut milk, I looked at what other websites offer on the subject. Some websites, including at least one yogurt starter website (don't actually remember which), say it can't be done. Hey, I like a challenge, and the benefits were just calling to me. For example, another benefit is, it wouldn't have to incubate 24 hours, because the extra time is needed to make sure the bad lactose is all eaten up by the good bacteria. Coconut milk yogurt would also bring in all the amazing benefits of coconut oil, the relatively complete proteins of coconut milk, and the aromatic flavor of coconuts. So I just had to find a way.
The problems that made coconut milk yogurt impossible were, 1) it stays liquid, 2) it separates, and 3) it doesn't have enough sugar to feed the bacteria. To solve 1 & 2, I retained the services of unflavored gelatin. Of course, if you're only going to use it for smoothies (and it is a terrific smoothie ingredient), or you like liquid yogurt, or you're a vegan, you can just leave out the gelatin. Just shake before using. For the third reason I called good old dates, my new favorite sweetener, to the rescue. So this yogurt recipe needs a blender, to liquefy the dates, but I soon realized that it also helps mix in the gelatin and the starter, making coconut yogurt not only possible, but the easiest yogurt to make!
One more comment: I only use TetraPak (UHT) coconut milk, not canned milk (when I can't make it from the nut). No BPA. Also, UHT stands for Ultra High Temperature, which means the milk does not need to be brought to near boiling: it is already quite sterile. So there's another time and energy saver.
In fact, this method shortcuts so many of the usual steps of yogurt-making, AND the result is SO DELICIOUS!
COCONUT MILK YOGURT
Ingredients:
4 cups coconut milk (home-made or in TetraPak - no BPA) at room temperature or up to 42 C.
1 package unflavored gelatin
3 to 6 dates (with 6, the yogurt will be slightly sweet; adjust to taste)
1 package Thermophilus/Bulgaricus/Acidophilus yogurt starter
Equipment: a good blender, a plug-in yogurt maker. If your yogurt maker is the type that just insulates heated milk, you'll have to heat the coconut milk to the correct temperature before starting
Assemble all the ingredients near your blender.
1. Pour coconut milk into the blender jar. Start the blender on a low speed, take off the lid, and sprinkle the unflavored gelatin and the yogurt starter into the middle of the swirling milk. Turn off blender, add dates, put the lid on the jar, and process on high for 1 minute, until dates are liquefied. Pour into yogurt maker and follow your usual yogurt-making steps. Incubate 6 to 8 hours.
2. At the end of the incubation period, the yogurt will still be liquid and the cream will have risen to the top. Mix well, refrigerate one hour, then mix again. The gelatin will be starting to set, which will keep the yogurt from separating again. After a few more hours of cooling, the gelatin will have set to a soft gel. One pack of gelatin usually sets 2 cups liquid to the firm "Jell-O" consistency we all know. Here we're doing 4 cups liquid, so it won't be as firm.
My yogurt maker is an old crockpot with a cracked bowl, plugged into a dimmer plug. The yogurt goes into a glass jar (mason-type) that fits nicely in the crockpot. I put a potholder under the jar to keep the temperature even, and the lid on the crockpot. It didn't take long to figure out the right dimmer setting to get an even and continuous 42 C for incubating the Thermophilus/Bulgaricus/Acidophilus yogurt.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Ginger juice
Ginger is such a gut healer, this is a way to have it on hand, ready to use. My Crohnie just adds water to taste and drinks it like ginger ale without the gassy bubbles. Or sugar.
Chop one or two whole "hands" of fresh ginger root into chunks small enough not to jam your blender. No need to peel the ginger. Put the ginger in the blender. Add water to cover plus about an inch. Liquefy. Strain. Bottle. Store in fridge. Keeps well, but I can't say how long, it gets used up fast. Good thing it only takes a few minutes to make a new batch.
Use in soups, sauces, vinaigrette or salad dressing, fruit smoothies (also throw a lot of coconut milk in your smoothies! and Kefir!), to make tea (just add hot water), cough syrup/decongestant (just add honey and lemon). Let me know other uses you may find!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Why this blog?
My household is going on the SCD diet. We have 1 gluten-sensitive person with allergies, 1 Crohn's disease sufferer, 1 person with arthritis, and 1 person with mental health issues. Crossing my fingers SCD will help us all.
It's really hard not to cheat, so I have to learn FAST how to make all the LEGAL foods.
But I love the challenge, I love to cook, and I love respecting nature. That reminds me the SCD diet calls for a lot of meat. Ugh. I tend toward vegetarianism. But my CD sufferer's told me for years that meats get digested well, whereas raw veggies... pain, pain, pain!
I'm writing down my recipes, so why not post them too? That's why the blog.
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