FREE!

Or, closer to it.  This past week I accidentally had sugar twice with NO reaction.  During three trial runs, my reaction revealed itself as a fraction from what it was.  No immediate super-drowsyness or the many other symptoms associated with sugar.  This is the last food group that was completely off limits!

After two and a half years, I can go out and order anything I want.  I don't have to constantly check ingredients and ingredients of the ingredients in restaurants. No more long discussions with the head chef, back and forth between staff members to take apart the menu, nervous or incorrigible waitresses, no scouring over notebooks and webpages to view the truth about the food being sold in every restaurant that is run differently.  I wasn't sure if having sugar back in my diet was ever possible.  This week has been very surreal and I am still trying to comprehend the fact that I can eat out and participate in potluck-like dinners.

Sugar is not something I can have all the time, and probably never will be.  For one, this intolerance has a high likelyhood of getting worse again if I over do it.  Therefore, I have to be strict on dosages.  Also, it's sugar.  If It start eating too much of it, it's straight back to Appleton's Suicide from Sugar to regain my perspective.

Whether I have sugar only when I go out, on rare occasion, or once or twice a week, I don't know yet.  Depends on how my body will handle it now and in what amounts. Having experience with 9+ food allergies, I can say with out hesitancy that sugar is the hardest.  It's just in too many things.  And there is a HUGE difference between being able to have something a little and not being able to have a single gram of it. 

I think the next milestone will be to not be dependent on 9 supplements or to not have to "rotate" so many foods -- wheat, eggs, yeast...

(Really excited about the holidays this year!)  Whoo!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of lights
James 1:17a

To be assembled, or pre-assembled...

Love this cookbook!

Power Foods from the editors of Whole Living Magazine (which I might add is a great magazine to peruse for recipes)

It's always hard to get enough vegetables into one's intake without creating numerous side dishes.  However, this book uses vegetables as the basis of nearly every meal.  Many recipes don't involve wheat either!

I love cooking -- as I'm sure my regular readers have read before.  There is something comforting about making your own meal and knowing what's in it.  And it's necessity, so you might as well make it great, right?  Yeah, I know it takes time.  And no, I do not have all the time in the world.  Having to work 50+ hours a week often leaves its mark.  You just get used to the time it takes and use it to relax, talk, listen to great music, or catch up on audiobooks.  It also helps scrape off the rush-rush attitudes that feed us Americans, as well as sticking with portion control. 

God gave us the ingredients to use.  Not using them...well, I think we've paid our price.  I honestly believe all these chemicals in the environment and food we are using (ridiculous amounts of sugar, too) is a huge contributor to rising behavioral disorders and numerous cancers.  What's even sadder is that there are a lot of people who do not know how to cook a basic vegetable or piece of chicken.  Unless it goes in the microwave, instant-add-water, or comes from a restaurant, it's a foreign concept.  I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong to enjoy such things once in a while, but it is awful to think that humans cannot even cook food unless it comes pre-assembled any more.  Why has it come to this?

Even when I do try the few pre-made frozen meals that I can have, my body and taste buds always relent with "what the heck is this!?"  Fresh always gives me better energy.  Seriously, it's amazing and totally worth the time.

Next up: a very, very big change!  Stay tuned.

Oh yes, this cookbook rocks!  This is "poached salmon with asparagus, herbs, and baby greens."

--
Quick Stir Fry:
Throw some vegetables (snow peas, peas, corn, garlic, carrots, broccoli, etc.) that need to be used up into a skillet with a bit of preferred food oil.  Once cooking, put the lid on to keep in the steam.  Stir occasionally.  Meanwhile boil rice noodles (or what ever pasta).  Once vegetables are soft but still bright in color -- about 10 minutes, I think -- put in drained, cooked noodles.  Mix well. Add some oregano or other favored spices.  Then (the best part) grate desired cheese over stir fry.  I used Vermont sharp-cheddar and it was great.

If you put thinly sliced veggies -- like zucchini, radishes, and asparagus  -- on a panini grill or cast iron grill it makes some great tastes -- with or without adding oils and spices.  It's pretty quick too!

Artificial what?

What can better be better than fresh donuts in the morning?  Donuts made with pronounceable every day ingredients.  Yep!  Real food.

Now sugar is the only food group that I completely have to avoid.  From 9+ down to 1 -- praise God! -- I call that success.  However, this is America and sugar is in practically everything.  It's pretty sad that I can't eat at some places because their menu is literally 99% sugar.  Seriously, does pizza crust need sugar?  Grilled chicken in a salad? Come on!

There is an awesome picturebook put out by Candlewick press entitled: How did That Get in My Lunchbox?  This book helps illustrate what is used and how bread, cookies, and apple juice is created from the very beginning (such as growing wheat or picking an apple) to being displayed on the shelves for public consumption.  The sad part is that this book was created because most (urban) kids don't know that true food does not magically appear at a grocery store.  As a matter of fact, they think unpronounceable ingredients is the way food has always been consumed.

Feeling gross yet?  Apparently there was an ending "We like sweets a lot, but they make your insides rot.  So, remember it's your body And the only one you've got."  Personally I like this latter ending better.  From this video, it's hard to decipher whether they are pro or con "modern technology food."

Ode to Cheez-Its

Ode to Cheez-Its (which will soon turn into Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies, as there is less unnecessary ingredients)

Orange squares transfer
salt crystals to my tongue. 
A zesty crunch to the 
taste of melted cheese 
throughout my mouth, spreading to
my whole being.
Dear Cheez-Its, your 
wheat does not turn my stomach or head, your 
dairy does not swell my throat. 
I can enjoy you now,
every square your red box gives.

Happpeeee!  My wheat reaction used to cause an itching of the hand upon a mere touch, and one fragment would send my body into attack.  Now, two years later, it's almost gone!  Only very few reactions remain after eating six or so servings of wheat.  Miracle?  Yes, thanks to skilled doctors and the grace of God!  The severe reaction I had had led me to believe that I would never get wheat back.   It's also a milestone in that wheat was the first established allergy, and now I'm leaving more and more behind.    Next battle is bringing down those genetically pre-determined ones...

System Crash

This past week my supplements were changed.  Why?  Well in one word: grass.  Turns out, even though the allergy to trees is gone, I am still reactive to grass.  The odd thing is that it wasn’t really attacking my sinuses that much.  It was attacking the gut, in turn, releasing too many toxins into the body and disrupting the steady incline of health that was happening.  And, in that instability something kept giving me wicked cramps. Could not for the life of me figure out the trigger.  Eventually I was able to link it to chocolate.  For reasons unknown, the grass aggravation led my body to dislike chocolate – which is one of the harder foods to digest.

Yes, I can’t have chocolate for at least three more weeks.  Really, at this point, taking away a small food group isn’t that bad.  Even though it is chocolate, and yes I keep stopping myself from counting down the days – just in case the re-introduction doesn’t go well— until I can have it again.  I will admit that it was very hard to peel myself away from the bag of chocolate chips I had just opened.  I think it took about three days to stop digging into it.  To distract myself I began experimenting with caramel (with great success).  The domino effect of chocolate was a reminder over and over to press on.  When something causes that much pain…STOP…even though it’s frustrating and becomes yet another deprivation. 

Speaking of, did you know that almost every broth has added sugar?  There is no reason for it to be there!  Yeah, let’s just say going grocery shopping during an energy crisis is like trying to pick apples, only to find that 95% of them are rotten and no good.  But you still need the apple, less you have the room, skills, and time to grow an apple tree from a bit of earth. F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N.

Anyways, the subtraction of one specific supplement completely depleted me of energy and focus. Replacing it with stress, frustration, anxiety, and a very scrambled thought process.  Hence, the crash.  Going back to the life of making it through work, eating, only then to lay down till it’s time to go to sleep is not fun – no matter how many Adventures in Odyssey, audiobooks, or movies I can catch up on all week.  Energy is a precious gift; don’t waste it!

Right now I am perusing Laura Martin’s Green Market BakingBook: 100 Delicious Recipes for Naturally Sweet and Savory Treats by Laura Martin.  It uses maple syrup for most of its recipes, separates everything out by seasons, and seems to understand the concept of allergy/restrictive cooking. So far, I am loving this book.  I just had the best blueberry scone ever!  I especially loved the contrast between the moist bread and berries against the honey-topped glaze.  Where would we be without cooking? (And please don’t say fast food.  Nauseating hazardous disguises of food that stuff is.)

Too Amazing to Not Share

A friend's brother was diagnosed with bone cancer in December.  But he didn't do chemo.  Instead, he completely cut meat, sugar, juice, and canned foods from his diet. For 3 months he ate nothing but organic veggies, Quinoa, wild rice, as well as some flax seed oil, cottage cheese, and berries. A few days ago I received word that the cancer is completely gone!  That is amazing!  It is INCREDIBLE what natural foods will do!

Spring Fever No More!

Baby green balls sprouting from the trees.  Cherry blossom petals painting the streets.  Grassy and flowery smells of spring.  It's so great to be able to enjoy all this without my head exploding and my eyes itching.  Besides the fact that my Allersode drops are working -- basically an allergy shot for the pollen stuff without the trauma of the needles -- my body is healing itself.  Yeah spring!  Yeah no Kleenex desperation every other minute.

And, speaking of healing, I can have yeast and aspergillus again!  That brings my allergies from nine to three food groups -- sugar, wheat, and eggs.  Yes, these are still restrictive, especially not even being able to have a fraction of a gram of wheat or sugar, but the absence of six other food groups is massive.  Hallelujah!

My new cooking fascination is 100% fruit concentrate -- yep, that frozen stuff in a can you use to make juice.  Turns out it is a great sweetener like maple syrup.  I learned about it from Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free by Janice Feuer.   The cookies in it have the consistency of Chips Ahoy, seriously! They were fantastic.  The cherry pie was pretty great, too.  I did learn though, to keep the concentrate flavor in mind when baking.  Let's just say that orange concentrate in zucchini bread had a pretty interesting taste.

Hard to believe I've been sugar free for two months now.  And, I don't miss it.  Well, okay, truth be told here, I do miss it when it seems everyone else can have it.  After all, this is America where people enjoy HFCF in applesauce (blech!).  Plus the convenience factor -- I mean, making practically everything by hand is time consuming.  It is here that I have to remind myself that in hindsight being allergic to sugar is really good (wheat, too), and that I have my kitchen.

In my shoebox of a kitchen, I can make anything from lasagna to candy bars to lamb stew to donuts.  I have been blessed with the ability to cook very well.  And to be creative.  For me creativity is a must and one of my sanities.  I've meant other people on similar diets who are in a rut or struggle to use a cookbook, especially when almost every recipe requires a conversion of some kind.  How?  Personally I'm all for playing with my food. :)