Turnip & Ramp French Fries!

Holy smokes, I just made these and ate them faster than lightning! They are SO GOOD! They are a great potato substitute, with only 4.4 grams (loosely) of carbs, vs. potatoes' 19 grams (per 3.5 oz. serving of each)

So I'm starving and didn't have the patience to bake or broil them, I just heated some olive oil in my steel frying pan and sliced half of a big turnip root into thin french fry-like slivers, and put the lid on for about 5 mins or so. Then I chopped up about 4-5 little ramp 'bulbs' and mixed them into the turnip slices, and simmered for another 5-6 minutes....

When it was all said and done, I added a pinch of sea salt for the real "french fry" effect, and I'll be damned if I'm not about to go make the rest of that turnip root!!

Ramps are so cool, I wish I could have found some in the wild--I know of a great patch of them on the trails by my house back home :-) But the co-op has them in fresh, and they are possibly my favorite "bulb" for cooking!

Needless to say, I'll be buying many more turnips to mix in with my stir-fries soon!! A great potato substitute!

Awesome Candida-Safe Coconut Vanilla "Kheer" Recipe!

I just had to pop on for a late post about this delicious and super-easy "Kheer" (Rice Pudding) recipe that I whipped up yesterday!

I had a recipe from the Candida Diet website, but it was basically just brown rice and coconut oil and maybe some nutmeg or cinnamon..... that was kind of rough....

So, real quick, here goes:

-cooked brown rice
-as much unsweetened almond milk as you'd like the pudding consistency to be
-1 tbsp coconut oil
-vanilla extract to your taste preference
-cardamom seed (whole or ground, to your liking)
-coriander
-cumin
-pinch of stevia

+any other spices or chopped nuts you might like to add! I omit the raisins, candida diet-style, but this makes suuuuuch a good treat.... especially when you haven't had anything sweet including fruit in awhile! I used a few raw macadamia nuts in mine tonight.....nom......

And it's good cold or hot :-D

Tomorrow or Saturday's experiment includes....... khichri! Lentils & rice soup mildly spiced with Indian spices..... I'm already drooooolinggggg.....

A shot of some kheer!

Candida Diet Week 15! Oxalate Breakdown!

Ever notice how long it takes some things in the body to heal? I've had 2 marks on my face (not that noticeable, thankfully) for awhile now. One since '06! One since just this past December/January..... or consider broken bones or injured nerves...

The body can sometimes take awhile to heal. I plan on following the general candida routine for awhile. With slight variations as I go, but it's such a healthy diet. I've gone all of today without yogurt (which has been the only dairy I've consumed since January) But every now and then I feel it's best to even go without yogurt, and when I'm done with the yogurt I have in my fridge, I'll likely not get any more for at least a week or more.

Also starting tomorrow I'll be not devouring almond butter :-X I'm going to aim for a week without almond butter, and see where I go from there. I feel like it's been too much of a fixation, and I'll be trying to add more beans & legumes into the mix to get the protein. It's gotten so much easier as time's gone by. I know so many more quick and easy recipes and have gained a good knack for how long things take to make and when to prepare them so I'll have them through a long day away from home. Quinoa has been such a great find. I still believe the best philosophy is "Everything in moderation (including moderation!)" A quick read-up on quinoa has the following:

"Quinoa is not a commonly allergenic food and is not known to contain measurable amounts of purines. However, like all members of the Amaranthaceae-Chenopodiaceae plant family, quinoa does contain oxalates. The oxalate content of quinoa ranges widely, but even the lower end of the oxalate range puts quinoa on the caution or avoidance list for an oxalate-restricted diet. "

So what are oxalates, exactly? Trusty wikipedia explains:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalate

Basically oxalates in food can bind with things like calcium and cause things like kidney stones.

So wow... here's news to my ears too! The more I'm reading, I see a lot of my favorite candida diet foods are pretty high in oxalates! Hahah c'est la vie.... ya just can't win 'em all can you.

Well that's helpful knowledge though, and much more ammo to steer clear from so much almond butter! Apparently almonds, beans, and kale are on the "high oxalate" list. Pardon me while I make a cup of magnesium tea :-X Here is a .pdf describing oxalate foods, if I haven't scared you away already!

http://www.pkdiet.com/pdf/LowOxalateDiet.pdf

Looks like avocado, yogurt, eggs, and lentils are still on the safe side! I've been kicking around the idea of reintroducing some fish into my life, and this seems to send me another step in that direction, as fish has no (or minute) amounts of oxalates, but a great amount of protein.... hmmmm.... we'll seeeee........

But anywho, "everything in moderation" really just can't be stressed enough. These foods high in oxalates certainly offer plenty of other nutritional benefits. If I could work out some type of fast once a month, I think my body would be pretty content.

Here's to my non-planned-yet-Easter-themed Resurrection! Here's to no almond butter all week and another new way of life, as each day is the first day..........

Power Breakfast

So here's a quick shot of the power breakfast I just mentioned in the last post.... I added clover sprouts to it this morning, and edible violet flowers for aesthetics :-)



I also love to have a couple brown rice snaps with almond butter on them to top things off with the protein ;-)

Candida Diet: Week 12 and Onward!

Well then!! Guess it's been a little while, but I'm still plugging away and feeling GREAT and learning more and more and trying newer and newer things with foods!

I've been practicing yoga every morning when I wake up, and walking/jogging afterward! Couple nights I didn't get to sleep til later, and it was a little harder to rouse myself the next morning.... but it feels much too good to not start the day off with a little movement! Even if I don't have much time, I still at least do some yoga... and a quick jog wakes me up like nothing else!

A typical day-et (my diet through the day) starts off with a power breakfast, after the yoga and/or jogging. This usually consists of the following!:

-1 cup cooked quinoa (protein party!)
-curry seasonings, focusing on that turmeric! (strong anti-cancer)
-1-2 fresh whole garlic cloves crushed and mixed in (SO good for you in many ways)
-1 cup fresh steamed kale (calcium, lutein/vit. A (EYES) )
**Sweet page on Kale**
-1/2 to 3/4 cup steamed broccoli OR asparagus (CALCIUM, alkalizing to the blood)
**Broccoli Page** **Asparagus Page**
-kelp seasoning for iodine (THYROID REGULATOR!)
and
-3-5 tablespoons shelled hempseeds (protein party #2! +amino acids, calcium, and more)
-2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (B VITAMIN + AMINO ACID CENTRAL!!!)
-as much avocado as I'm craving! (protein AND lutein for the eyes)

And depending on how I'm feeling, I'll often throw a hard-boiled egg in the mix. That provides lots of essential things, including lutein again.

I've also been tossing in fresh weeds from my yard! Day-lily root/leaves (sweet & crunchy!), purple deadnettle, chickweed, or speedwell! And though not from my yard, sometimes I use fresh shredded ginger....

Purple Deadnettle:

Chickweed:

I love experimenting with new breakfast ideas for this mix! I'll take a picture of it sometime too, it's really a beautiful meal! :-P It's tonnns of protein (comPLETE protein, that is), but enough other nutrients that help process the protein, and lots of fiber... The broccoli AND the kale are very high in calcium. For those of you reading this who know me, this next statement is a bold, bold statement! I actually find after eating this that I can go well into the afternoon before eating again or just being hungry. And that's after a full morning of gardening and landscaping! I don't usually eat the meal until after my yoga and morning jog are done, so it helps recharge me after the initial morning energy burn, and I like to think that the nice protein party helps keep things smooth for my muscles after a long walk/jog combo. It's also helpful to not eat before doing yoga OR jogging, just way easier on the stomach.

One more fine recipe I've been concocting is a very gluten-free Tabbouleh recipe! It's so easy it almost hurts!

-1 cup cooked quinoa
-1/2 cucumber
-1/4 - 1/3 tomato
-as much parsley as you can take!
-as many hemp seeds as will mix in!
-any seasonings you'd like! Black pepper goes good, maybe a touch of real sea salt.. maybe even a pinch of minced green onion would be good! OH and some fresh MINT!!! Lots of room to create!

Chop up the cuke and the tomato, break up the parsley, and mix it all together in a bowl and enjoy! No further heating involved! I make 1-2 huge batches of quinoa per week these days, so a recipe like this is further made easy... saves a step to cook the quinoa beforehand. It is SUCH a good cold summer 'salad,' and gives you another protein boost mid-day if you need it!

This recipe holds nicely for at least a few days in the fridge! And it's suuuuper carry-along-able! I'm gonna take some pics of these things soon (the power breakfast and the tabbouleh!) They both look like art!!

But as for the diet, I'd like to share that it will be the 3 month mark soon (started Jan. 4, and by April 4, I'll be rolling into the fourth month!) and I've successfully not had a single piece of chocolate (or cheese!!!!) I've had a minimal amount of rice noodles, and 4 slices of bread when I decided to use up the last bit of Sami's bread that I had in my freezer. I've had no fruits or fruit juices, but lots of veggies and veggie juices!

I realize it sounds strict, but I really do feel that my body is happy for the break in carbs and sweets, and it could use the better part of a year to cleanse itself of a diet that I've had for 25 years. Not that my diet has been poor for 25 years, but it's been a lot of the same stuff.... If I wasn't feeling so good or losing drastic amounts of weight or my skin was turning pale or I had any negative symptoms, I'd gladly reintroduce some of these avoided foods... but a scale I just recently looked at was reading 120 last time I saw it, and my face is still embarrassingly pink much of the time! :-P I also wake up with so much energy... I breathe deep and 'wake up' for about 5-10 minutes... dream processing, mapping my morning out... maybe check my planner.... but then once I've settled on a morning gameplan, I explode into the day (WHAM!!) Hahah feelin' great. Haven't had any of these allergies people keep talking about here in the Appalachias... or any other ailments for that matter!

So that's the scoop through to week 12 and a little beyond! Hope this is still posing as a helpful resource for people, and I still encourage any questions or comments! Check back soon for recipe pictures!

Thanks as always for reading!
~D.L.

Dalai Quote

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.
..................................... Dalai Lama

Rainy Day Black Beans 12 & 35

Had to throw a little Dylan play on words with the title there :-X

But get this... I just made a black bean soup so fast and so easy that I've already eaten my share of it and am left wondering what I might've done incorrectly. That was WAY too easy. I'm missing my Mad Mex fixes from the 'burgh, but this recipe brings things home for me in a real big way. It's super rainy, so I wanted a nice hot creamy soup, and I didn't want to leave the apartment again if I can help it.... so using 4-5 things that I already had, I whipped this dish up in 10 minutes flat, if even that.

-1 can organic black beans
-1/2 packet Bearitos "Mexican Rice Seasoning" (I've been WONDERING what to do with this stuff, for like a year or more hahah)
-several pinches of cumin
-several pinches of cayenne pepper
-several twists of the ol' black pepper mill
-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
-1 green onion 'stalk' (optional!)
-1,2,3,4 dollops of thick Greek yogurt to top the dish off!

I just opened the can of beans.... poured the entire can into a pot without draining them. I'm stranded without a blender or food processor...not even a potato masher... so maybe that was a blessing; I just used the bottom of a glass, and I smashed down some of the black beans, giving it a creamier, beanier consistency. Spellcheck don't tell me beanier isn't a word!!! I'm not listening! So the cup is actually much easier to clean up than the whole blender/food processor operation.

From here, I added about 1/4 or 1/3 of the Bearitos Rice Seasoning packet... tasted the results, and it already tasted creamy and good... but I tossed in some cumin, cayenne, and black pepper, and WHAM, it zipped up a notch!

Then I chopped up one green onion stalk, which took all of 45 seconds.... and tossed that into the brew!

Just for kicks (and/or B vitamins & amino acids!) I chucked in 2 TBS of nutritional yeast! It doesn't affect the flavor, for worse OR for better! It just gives you a bit of more nutrients... iron, B vits, amino acids, minerals, etc.....

So the soup was perfect at this point... so I served it up in a cozy little bowl. And Mad Mex always plops a dollop of sour cream on top of theirs when they serve it.... but a slightly healthier variation I decided to try was a dollop of Fage Greek yogurt!! WOWWWW..... not sure how to describe it.... but I think I'm going to go get some more!

Yum, just finished my second bowl.... truly delicious.... easier than easy.... here's some lil pics for reference!

I highly suggest you give it a whirl! Personalize it! Add a jar of salsa instead of seasoning mix if that's what you have!! I didn't have any salsa... and the Muir Glen plain tomato sauces and tomato pastes I have, have citric acid in them..... supposedly not recommended for Une Candida Diet.... I was a little nervous not having the tomato element in the mix, but it turned out PERFECT regardless! WooHoo!!

~D.L.