Strong Start and tasty end of the day

I am not having any eggs this first week as part of my elimination diet, but my David (hubby) and Lexi (daughter) can. So I made mini breakfast quiches.

I made 12 with 3 organic large eggs, egg whites (egg beaters), Al Fresco brand chicken sausage (tomato and basil flavor), and shredded cheddar cheese. I used organic Pam spray and based for about 20-25 minutes on 350.

I ended up using a small spatula to get them out of the muffin pan....verdict was that they were very good! The best part is that I put individual servings in baggies ready for breakfast next week for David and Lexi.

My breakfast today consisted of a banana and a smoothie with a banana, frozen berries and coconut milk.

Since I did not get up early, my breakfast also doubled as lunch. I had another banana for a snack along with a cup of earl grey tea sweetened with agave nectar.

Dinner was yummy and easy. David grilled boneless skinless chicken on the Big Green Egg (best grill ever!) and we topped with salsa. David and Lexi also topped with pepperjack cheese. We had a side of brown rice couscous (gluten free!) and a salad. I bought a tasty ginger dressing at Whole Foods that fits in my elimination diet.

The best of the day though was dessert! I was having withdrawals for sweets so I experimented with making gluten free, dairy free, egg free cookies.  Browsing some blogs to try to find a recipe was not successful for the ingredients I had on hand.

So I improvised!


I did not calculate my measurements (why I would stink as a baker). I started with 1 cup of brown rice flour. I added baking powder, sea salt, agave nectar, and coconut milk. Mix well and added organic dairy free and gluten free chocolate chips. I cooked on 350 for 25 minutes. The result were sort of tasty dense cookies. What made it awesome was adding them to my scoop of chocolate ice cream. This ice cream is made from coconut milk and is also dairy and gluten free. It did have a coconut flavor, which I like, and was very good with the cookies. Delicious!

I am not seeing any difference yet on my "output", it is still often and comes about urgently. What I have noticed so far is that I do not have a stomachache after eating.

I also had a sample pineapple piece at Kroger today and less than 15 minutes later I had to stop shopping to use the restroom. I don't think that pineapple is citrus (I am avoiding citrus the first week), but this may be a trigger for my tummy.

Day one and adventures into socca bread

After the revelry last night for New Year's Eve, it is time to start my lifestyle change of eating habits.

I hope to have some weight loss happening too as a result so I took my measurements. I have no intentions of putting them here!


To start today, I modified a socca bread recipe to make it sweet for brunch.

The normal recipe called for chickpea flour and various herbs. Since I am now doing my elimination diet, peas and beans are eliminated for the first week. I used brown rice flour instead. I added cinnamon and nutmeg for the sweetness.

The basic recipe calls for:
1 cup flour (chickpea or whatever flour you choose)
1 cup water
2 teaspoon olive oil
Seasonings of your choice (alternately you could saute some and put in batter.)

Sift the dry ingredients and whisk in the remaining.

Use a iron skillet or a deep dish pizza pan. Put it in the oven and preheat oven to 450 degrees. When oven reaches 450 degrees, take out the pan and swirl a little extra virgin olive oil in it. Pour the batter in and cook for 15-20 minutes. Flip the bread and cook on the other side for 5 minutes or so more. Note that the times are going to be totally dependent on the size of your pan. Keep an eye on it and determine what your cooking times will be. You don't have to flip the bread, but you may want to broil it for a few minutes at the end to brown the top some.

My bread was cut with a pizza cutter into 6 slices.

I topped mine with organic cashew butter and all natural blueberry jam. Yum!

I like it a lot! Hubby thought it was pretty good and daughter thought it was okay. I think mine would have been better to cook it a little longer, but I was afraid of it burning.

To drink, instead of my usual coffee and flavored creamer, I had Rooibos tea sweetened with Agave Nectar.

Dinner is in the crockpot, beef with organic tomato sauce, organic bay leaves, sea salt, garlic pepper and water. I am not sure how I will serve it, but it sure smells good!

 Happy New Year Day!

Prepping for the new year

I guess I should not be surprised at Amazon's selection of organic foods. I was first intrigued by the organic Kraft Mac and Cheese. The reviews were good too on them. I hope the family likes it because I bought a case of them!

Search Amazon.com for organic food

In addition, I got a variety of snacks that had good reviews and also are organic. Taking my lunch is going to be the challenging part of the day for me. I have to have convenience or else it won't be something I can maintain.

Amazon prices are fairly comparable for bulk buying....at least for where I have looked so far.

Looking for the deals!

So my daughter and I went to check out Harry's Farmer's Market. A first for both of us. It is a huge store, and I felt so out of place. Not because the employees were unfriendly or anything. It was laid out so differently and had stuff I had never seen before.

I was pleasantly surprised that the produce was not incredibly more expensive than regular grocery store prices. There was, as expected, more choices than my regular grocery store.

What I'd like instead though is to support the local farms (especially during peak season). I found a great resource for co-ops and/or buying clubs for produce, Organic Consumers. It is good to see all the local farms around I never knew about! Sweet! At first glance, the prices are very comparable in price to other produce at Harry's at other major grocery chains, but I can be assured that the farmer is organic.

I also found a local chicken farmer through Local Harvest that is raising chickens with no antibiotics and no steroids. They have of course already harvested this year's poultry, but I am considering pre-ordering some birds for next year. I have got to find out how they are processed....I don't think I will be able to do much "processing" on my own (ie cutting off chicken head or feet YUCK)

Recipes for Elimination Diet

I am not one for trying to reinvent the wheel so finding recipes for my dietary needs is super important. I just found a site will a good amount of recipes for healthy eating and specifically for the elimination diet.

Nourishing Meals

I had to look up what quinoa was...

Per Wikipedia:
Quinoa (pronounced /ˈkiːnwɑː/ or /kɨˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish: quinua, from Quechua: kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds. Its leaves are also eaten as a leaf vegetable, much like amaranth, but the commercial availability of quinoa greens is currently limited.

Conflict of thinking

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am Thrifty (yes with a capital T!). I have been an avid coupon user for everything possible...groceries, restaurants, shopping, you get the idea.  Grocery coupons are not the best catalyst for enabling healthy eating. I may be changing my eating, but I still plan for looking for ways to save money.

As I become more familiar with brands of organic and natural foods, you better believe I will be looking for coupons and sales!

I am already in contact with a rancher to buy part of a cow for meat. Their cows are grain fed, not hormones and all that good stuff. These make naturally leaner cuts of meat and are supposed to taste better. Buying a cow in bulk (half or whole) actually costs less per pound than getting the same quality meat in the store.  Luckily I have the freezer space to do such a thing.

I also am looking for co-ops and farmers markets for fruits and vegetables. If I am industrious enough, learning to can may be in my future too!

Planning...planning....and more planning

Once I decided that I was tired of having daily stomach issues, I went on a search for what to do about it.

I've always had a good idea that some foods were causes. For example, I think I am lactose intolerant so I avoid drinking milk, and use Lactaid pills when I do have dairy. Maybe it helps some, but it certainly did not solve my issues.

I think that corn causes my joints to hurt....then again maybe that is in my head too!

Instead of guessing or assuming,  have decided to find out for sure once and for all. Once I have set my mind to something, I like to plan and plan some more before I start. My plan so far is to find out what foods are normally good for starting an elimination diet so I can get my baseline and keeping a food diary (this is a MUST!). Here is what I have:

On the initial elimination diet, you can eat the following foods:

• any vegetable but corn, peas or beans
• any meat but bacon, sausage, hot dogs or luncheon meat
• rice, oats, barley and the grain alternatives amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat (available at health food stores)
• any fruit but citrus (also avoid any fruit you currently eat more than once a week)
• bottled, spring or distilled water and herb teas.

This info was picked from www.cfids.com relating to chronic fatigue. I don't suffer from this, but the idea for finding out what foods cause physical issues is the same.

I will stay on a diet of these foods for about 6 days. If at the end of the 6 days, I feel better and don't have the same stomach issues, it will be time to start to add certain foods back in the days that follow. If I still have issues, I will be eliminating foods that I ate that week.

The planning I am still doing is what I will eat at least for the first 2 weeks. My husband and daughter are not doing the elimination diet, but are on board for the change to healthy eating.  I don't think I would be able to do it if they were not on board (thanks family!)

My sister has similar digestion issues like I do, so she is planning on doing the same elimination diet as me. We are working together to come up with good recipes to keep us on track.