I am one month in. And what I am becoming really good at, is reading labels. ALL THE LABELS. So much reading. Every single grocery trip. Every single item picked up off the shelf that's pre-packaged. I've made mistakes not catching a hidden ingredient, and it's a small emotional set back when I feel like I've wasted hope in getting to eat something new, and money on something I can't ingest and my family wouldn't eat.
Some tips on label-reading: the less ingredients, the more likely you can have it. Remember, you can still only have those 20-ish ingredients plus the new ones you are adding in. There will be many UNTESTED items and chemicals on labels in pre-packaged foods (even seemingly good for you ones) that you won't be able to have yet. YET. One day, but not any day soon.
The longer I am on this diet, the closer I get to sharing family meals again. Finally, after a month in, I can now get to one or maybe even two meals a week that can be a whole family affair. As every two days I get to try and add a new food back in, sometimes I've had a few setbacks and had to go back again to try and isolate a culprit that created tummy trouble.
I thought I would share with you some of the "meals" I've made over the weeks, especially after I could really add in new ingredients.
{In a future post I will also share some of the places you can find some of these foods, trying to be inclusive of communities that may not have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. You can do it at a local grocer or at a Wal-Mart, you just won't have the same kind of selection I am lucky to have access to being in a larger city. I will also share some online links for ingredient shopping too.}
This was the cod I baked and made an olive mix as a "bed" next to the barley.
Then... I realized the barley had better salty flavor when I mixed the olives into the barley mix.
As soon as I was allowed to add back in Turkey as a protein, I got excited!! This dish was a ground turkey with mushrooms flavored with onions and garlic, and as soon as I could add in goat cheese - I found this variety similar to a feta cheese crumble and it made the perfect kind of topping for this dish!
As the Super Bowl was quickly approaching, I needed to find a way, any way, to get enough items added to my list so that I could make NACHOS! I mean, who watches a Super Bowl without nachos?
So then I realized I also had to set out to find tortilla chips that would fit the bill of my restrictions. For me, it meant they could be made of corn, and would have to be fried in either coconut, pecan, almond or olive oil. Sadly, that meant no added or unknown or untested oils like safflower and sunflower or vegetable - all of which are mainly popular for the pre-packaged chips.
Luckily, I was able to find these chips made only with sea salt and made in coconut oil - YAY!! I found these at my local Whole Foods store:
Then I was able to find some shredded goat cheese and it was like a whole new world opened up to me and I was no longer deprived of all the gloriousness that would be nachos!!! Nachos have become a new staple in this diet when I don't have any ideas, need something quick, or I just need to feel some "normal". Thank you Whole Foods for this... thank you.Here you can see I would even add tortilla chips to a "fajita bowl" when I found turkey breast meat sliced up kind of like a chicken breast. This allowed me to cook it up with onions and green peppers and add the beans to make a little fajita bowl. Or I could use the little pita/tortillas I made if I wanted to eat it like a burrito.
By Valentine's Day, I had located some "chocolate" chips made with cacao, and some cacao butter chips so I could melt the chips down to a more liquid state to dip strawberries in for a near-normal dessert experience. I have found the chips in a few local grocery stores. Cacao is actually less processed than the cocoa chips and powders we usually see on the shelves, so it therefore actually contains more nutritional value. Cacao nibs are actually considered a "super food"!
Again, read the labels to keep out unwanted ingredients. I have made a mistake here too and couldn't use all the varieties I had purchased. At least I have options!
If you don't already know that LOCAL honey use can improve your allergy reactions to your environment, I'll take the opportunity to share that information with your now. My local allergist says 1 tsp of local honey a day can help reduce your bodies' response to environmental allergens like pollen. We have some local fruit stands, and I found THREE local options!!
This was the first "FAMILY" meal I got to make. I used my pressure cooker to make up some turkey leg quarters, used the stock to make my gluten free turkey gravy, used the rice cooker to make rice as a side dish for the turkey and gravy (they do that here in the south), and then I made some snow peas with coconut aminos, onions and garlic. Coconut aminos are a great alternative to soy sauce. AGAIN - read the labels, even at the healthy places! I first picked one up at Whole Foods and realized I couldn't use it because it contains an allergen. THEN... I found another version at Trader Joe's that was safe. My daughter and husband both enjoyed our family meal. And therefore, so did I! VICTORY!!!!
It may have taken a month to get to share ONE meal, but we all made it. It DOES get better.
Keep doing the work for your health.
You can do this.
Kodi
Some tips on label-reading: the less ingredients, the more likely you can have it. Remember, you can still only have those 20-ish ingredients plus the new ones you are adding in. There will be many UNTESTED items and chemicals on labels in pre-packaged foods (even seemingly good for you ones) that you won't be able to have yet. YET. One day, but not any day soon.
The longer I am on this diet, the closer I get to sharing family meals again. Finally, after a month in, I can now get to one or maybe even two meals a week that can be a whole family affair. As every two days I get to try and add a new food back in, sometimes I've had a few setbacks and had to go back again to try and isolate a culprit that created tummy trouble.
I thought I would share with you some of the "meals" I've made over the weeks, especially after I could really add in new ingredients.
{In a future post I will also share some of the places you can find some of these foods, trying to be inclusive of communities that may not have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. You can do it at a local grocer or at a Wal-Mart, you just won't have the same kind of selection I am lucky to have access to being in a larger city. I will also share some online links for ingredient shopping too.}
This was the cod I baked and made an olive mix as a "bed" next to the barley.
Then... I realized the barley had better salty flavor when I mixed the olives into the barley mix.
As soon as I was allowed to add back in Turkey as a protein, I got excited!! This dish was a ground turkey with mushrooms flavored with onions and garlic, and as soon as I could add in goat cheese - I found this variety similar to a feta cheese crumble and it made the perfect kind of topping for this dish!As the Super Bowl was quickly approaching, I needed to find a way, any way, to get enough items added to my list so that I could make NACHOS! I mean, who watches a Super Bowl without nachos?
So then I realized I also had to set out to find tortilla chips that would fit the bill of my restrictions. For me, it meant they could be made of corn, and would have to be fried in either coconut, pecan, almond or olive oil. Sadly, that meant no added or unknown or untested oils like safflower and sunflower or vegetable - all of which are mainly popular for the pre-packaged chips.
Luckily, I was able to find these chips made only with sea salt and made in coconut oil - YAY!! I found these at my local Whole Foods store:
They carried a yellow corn and a blue corn variety - you will see in the following pictures that I have indulged in both varieties!!
Then once I could add in pinto beans to my diet - I was ready to make my nachos!! Now these were not the most amazing nachos I have ever made - but to my deprived taste buds, they were wonderful. And such a blessing to finally feel like I wasn't completely deprived on this eating plan. I was able to smash up some of the pinto beans with garlic into a refried bean texture, adding another layer of flavor and texture to the nachos!
Then I was able to find some shredded goat cheese and it was like a whole new world opened up to me and I was no longer deprived of all the gloriousness that would be nachos!!! Nachos have become a new staple in this diet when I don't have any ideas, need something quick, or I just need to feel some "normal". Thank you Whole Foods for this... thank you.Here you can see I would even add tortilla chips to a "fajita bowl" when I found turkey breast meat sliced up kind of like a chicken breast. This allowed me to cook it up with onions and green peppers and add the beans to make a little fajita bowl. Or I could use the little pita/tortillas I made if I wanted to eat it like a burrito. 
Again, read the labels to keep out unwanted ingredients. I have made a mistake here too and couldn't use all the varieties I had purchased. At least I have options!
Then I was able to add mint, then watermelon, then honey. So I have been enjoying one of my favorite summer fruit salads with mango and strawberries with these fruits also! You might try to experiment using your own allowed fresh herbs.
If you don't already know that LOCAL honey use can improve your allergy reactions to your environment, I'll take the opportunity to share that information with your now. My local allergist says 1 tsp of local honey a day can help reduce your bodies' response to environmental allergens like pollen. We have some local fruit stands, and I found THREE local options!!
This was the first "FAMILY" meal I got to make. I used my pressure cooker to make up some turkey leg quarters, used the stock to make my gluten free turkey gravy, used the rice cooker to make rice as a side dish for the turkey and gravy (they do that here in the south), and then I made some snow peas with coconut aminos, onions and garlic. Coconut aminos are a great alternative to soy sauce. AGAIN - read the labels, even at the healthy places! I first picked one up at Whole Foods and realized I couldn't use it because it contains an allergen. THEN... I found another version at Trader Joe's that was safe. My daughter and husband both enjoyed our family meal. And therefore, so did I! VICTORY!!!!
It may have taken a month to get to share ONE meal, but we all made it. It DOES get better.
Keep doing the work for your health.
You can do this.
Kodi
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