Just Another Day in the Kitchen

I woke up the other morning and emptied the dishwasher, washed my kitchen floor, and whipped up some homemade yogurt, almond milk, and Green Juice all before leaving for work at 7:15am. The almond milk was divine and flavored with organic vanilla extract and Medjool dates. I enjoyed the milk all week over Nuts & Raisins granola from JK Gourmet. I saved the almond pulp, dried it in the oven, blended it in the food processor and voila! I had almond meal which I made into SCD Cheddar Crackers (from the Healing Foods Cookbook).

The Green Juice was... interesting but I think I will invest in a juicer so that I don't get so much pulp. I am juicing these days to try and alkalize my body a bit more. The Green Juice recipe is courtesy of Dr. Oz and is on Oprah's website.

When my husband came home that evening he was amazed at how much I had accomplished so early in the morning. In truth it seemed like little effort to me. These days I think nothing of throwing together a quick SCD hummus made with tahini, lemon juice, navy beans and roasted garlic (the recipe is in Eat Well Feel Well).

As a matter of fact I am meeting up with some girlfriends tonight and plan to bring along some SCD versions of my favorite classic snacks like Cheddar Crackers with Thyme, Parmesan Artichoke dip, Roasted Garlic hummus and a nice dry white wine to accompany these delicious morsels.

I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Grillicious!

One of the signs of spring is that we spend a lot of quality time with our grill. We visited my sister-in-law a few weeks ago at her home in Florida where we BBQed as well. Our favorite grilled foods are shish kabobs of all varieties. In Florida we had chicken with peppers and sweet onions. We also experiment with zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms, tomatoes, pork, beef, and shrimp. Shish kabobs become one of our everyday work night meals similar to stir-fries in the winter.

Other fun dishes and drinks that are nice accompaniments include a fruity wine Sangria, tomato, avocado, cucumber salad, and lots of fresh fruit for dessert.

Grilling is wonderful because it is a sign of warmer weather and more visits from friends and family. It also means less dishes and pans to wash!

Happy Grilling

Uncle Bob

Everyone should have an Uncle Bob. I visited my in-laws this weekend and my uncle Bob made an SCD binder for each house in the family so that when I visit people will know what I can and cannot eat. He inserted tabs and included the Legal/Illegal list from the Breaking the Vicious Cycle website as well as our favorite SCD recipes. What a guy!

For dinner we celebrated the spring weather with shish kabobs made of chicken and beef (marinated in oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and spices), red and orange peppers, sweet Vadalia onions, and cremini mushrooms.

Appetizers were thick tomatoes layered with fresh basil, avocado, and drizzled with oil and vinegar (the non-scders had mozzarella instead of avocado).

Dessert was a fresh fruit platter with organic red grapes, fat strawberries, and juicy pineapple. We topped that off with a game of Trivial Pursuit and called it a night.

Traveling and Technical Difficulties

I spent the last few weeks traveling around for business visiting both Kentucky and California. In California I was lucky enough to meet up with another SCDer and have some tea. We both agreed that it is amazing that when I work in California I am in the building across the street from her. We speculated on how many other people are right outside our doors who are also on the SCD and/or living with Crohn's.

While traveling I stuck to my usual routine of bringing my own staples (yogurt, stew, cookies, crackers) and then buying salads with grilled chicken/shrimp, hamburgers, grilled fish, steamed veggies, etc. I feel like I have this "domestic traveling with the SCD" thing down. Now my next challenges will be to travel internationally (I would love to go to Italy) or even to take another cruise. I have heard that other SCDers have enjoyed cruises with no problem so maybe that will be my next adventure.

Upon my return home I found that our computer was on the fritz. We had to completely re-image it and upload everything again. This, of course, was not fun but the good news is it seems to be back in business.

As of late we have been very busy at work so dinner has been a quick stir fry or something on the grill. As the weather continues to improve the grill becomes our best friend on weeknights. We are mindful of grilling on low to medium heat however, as I have read about some concerns with high heat and carcinogens. I suppose to be 100% healthy we should just be eating organic raw vegetables for the most part. Hmmm- I will leave that to the rabbits for now.

Today's Breakfast- Cinnamon Raisin Scone from the SCD Bakery
Lunch- Yogurt with fruit and honey
Dinner- Not sure - something with ground turkey probably

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's Off to Kentucky I Go

I am flying out to Kentucky for a quick three day trip. I made my new favorite beef stew to bring along. It is from Cooking Light magazine and is called Beef Daube Provencal. This stew is really amazing. It calls for beef broth but I just substitute my home made chicken broth (which I make, pour into ice cube trays, freeze, and then store in plastic bags). It also calls for serving the stew over egg noodles which, of course, I omit. It also calls for canned tomatoes but I am sure you can jut cut up your own.

At the very end of the cooking process I add sliced mushrooms and frozen peas as well. This stew is the best you will ever have.

SCD Artichoke Dip - Seriously!

My sister-in-law made this dip for a family party. I adapted it to be SCD Legal and added a few other ingredients. I brought the dip to a relative's house on Easter and everyone wanted the recipe.

I enjoy this dip with the Cheddar Crackers from the Healing Foods cookbook. If you have not tried these yet then you are really missing out. They are my new FAVORITE SCD snack. I eat them with guacamole, salsa, cheese, and now this new dip. They are super easy to make once you get the hang of it. Also, I noticed that Raman Prasad has some Chile-Lime crackers in his new fabulous SCD cookbook. I am going to try those next.

SCD Artichoke Dip

- 3/4 cup SCD mayo
- 1 cup Parmesian Cheese
- 14oz Can Artichokes (drained and chopped)
- Dash SCD Garlic Powder
- 2 tbs Parmesian Cheese
- Diced Tomato
- Diced Avocado (do not dice until you are ready to add to the dip or they will brown)

Mix first 4 ingredients together and spread in a baking dish. Sprinkle Parmesian cheese on top. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. Check to see if it is lightly browned.

Remove and let cool a bit. Add chopped tomatoes and avocado to the top and serve with the SCD crackers.

HEAVEN

Thank You Easter Honey!

The Easter Honey, aka my husband, spent all day yesterday making me Easter Candy. God bless that guy! I may have got the shaft in the digestive department but let me tell ya folks, the universe made up for it in the spousal section of my life.

Here's what he left in my basket:

- Peanut Butter Ice Box Truffles from Grainfree Gourmet Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner

- Peanut Butter Caramel Crisps from Grainfree Gourmet Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

- Lemon Coconut Macaroons from Eat Well Feel Well

Thank you Easter Honey!

PICTURE- Rolling Peanut Butter Ice Box Truffles in shredded coconut.

Chicken Soup Snore to Chicken Soup Star!

Last weekend I came down with a cold. My husband had it the week before so it was no surprise when I woke up Saturday night with a depressingly sore throat. I remembered all of those studies that say chicken soup helps you get over the common cold faster. I will admit that I am not a huge chicken soup fan. When I think about it all I get are images of sick kids and bland crackers.

That being said, I was determined to get over this thing asap because of a busy work week ahead. So I purchased a chicken and made up some basic broth simmering it for about 3 hours. Once that was complete I started on the soup by adding back the chicken, some carrots, celery, onion, a bay leaf, oregano, and parsley. Starring at the pot I knew that it was your every day chicken soup...Yawn.

So in a moment of inspiration (and desperation for a more exciting dinner) I added lots of chopped tomatoes, spinach, and a rind of Parmesan cheese.

Well folks, let me just say that THESE little additions did the trick. The rind of cheese (which you should remove before using or you run the risk of your husband biting into it and looking horrified) added a perfect background of Parmesan flavor. The spinach and the tomatoes brightened things up a bit and added more antioxidant power.

At the very end as I was serving this chicken soup extraordinaire, I added a biscuit from the new Grainfree Gourmet Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner cook book.

We had chicken and biscuit soup. It was great stuff and the perfect medicine for my cold.

Ooh La La Focaccia!!

On Tuesday I had a bad gut day so I implemented contingency plan A (the intro diet of yogurt and chicken broth) and B (an immediate acupuncture appointment). Plan A & B came through again and I have been feeling like my old (hungry, happy) self ever since.

We SCDers are lucky to be on the diet in a time of such creativity. As you probably know, there have been a slew of SCD cookbooks published lately. I am attempting to try out various recipes in each over the next few months.

I have started out with Raman Prasad's Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This book if choke full of exciting international recipes and ideas for great substitutues e.g., SOY SAUCE!

One of my favorite aspects of this book, in addition to the superb recipes and fabulous pictures, is the great writing and humor. Raman's stories have always cracked me up. Even in the hospital they had me laughing out loud. If you have not read the archives of his SCDrecipe.com blog you really should. He introduces each chapter with a short narrative and his pickling experience had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.

So I started out with the Focaccia recipe because umm rosemary, bread, hey that sounds like a good place to start to me! We enjoyed it with "spaghetti" bolognese and it was wonderful but I think it was even better the next day after it had time to firm up a bit.

After reading Amy's post about the Beef Vindaloo I decided to try that. I love Indian food and have missed it greatly on the SCD. Well those days are long gone. This dish is truly remarkable. The spices were so fun to mix and looked really beautiful. I wanted to take a picture but I have misplaced my camera. It was super easy to throw together and made the whole house smell delicious. I enjoyed it over a bed of spinach and am taking leftovers to work today.

If you have not seen this gem of a cook book you really should check it out.

Good Gravy!

A few weeks ago we made this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network. It was wonderful and had actual real gravy! The recipe calls for canned beef broth (which is NOT SCD legal) so I substituted homemade chicken broth instead. It was delicious.

If you are OK with red meat then you definitely want to try out this gem ...a "must add" to your menu.

Meanwhile, Back on the East Coast

I am back on the East Coast where things are.... dark, cold, and non-California-ish. Even though I was traveling for work (which means I sat in a small office for most of the time I was there), California still persissted on being its pleasant self. I stayed in a cozy hotel in Santa Monica about two streets from the Pacific Ocean. My little hotel room had a small but very useful kitchenette where I prepared almost all of my meals. I was also in walking distance of Whole Foods which I frequented almost daily.

The best part of the trip though was going out to dinner with The Communicatrix who is one of my favorite bloggers and who is also on the SCD. It was oh so cool to get to meet her in real life (where she is just as funny) and to have someone to talk SCD shop with (and she is way more knowledgeable). Also, it was really the only time on SCD that I have ever been able to go out to dinner, let someone else order and then say "I'll have what she's having." All you SCDers know that is wicked cool (opps, there is the east coast slipping back in).

Last weekend I celebrated my mother-in-law's 70th birthday. My father-in-law made a big non-SCD lasagna along with some SCD vegetable soup (well, he tried to at least) and I made two SCD lasagnas. One which was an adaptation of the GrainFree Gourmet recipe and another that was all vegetarian for our friend...the vegetarian.

So far this week we've enjoyed "spaghetti" bolognese (made from zucchini noodles of course), and two delicious stir-fries that my husband whipped up with onions, peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, Bok Choy, chicken, etc.

Unfortunately today has been a little shaky so I have been sticking to SCD yogurt, tuna fish, and now some peppermint tea. Hopefully better days (and cuisine) ahead.

PICTURE- Hubby Stir Fry #2