Pass the nutmeg

My mom is a wonderful cook. All growing up, she always had a fabulous homemade dinner on the table when we came home from school. I'm still constantly calling her from the grocery store asking her about some ingredient or asking her how to making something.

One of my favorite dishes she makes is pork chops in a creamy mushroom sauce. Basically, it's pork chops slow cooked with cream of mushroom soup. But of course, I can no longer eat cream of mushroom soup since 1. it has cream in it, and 2. soups are thickened with either flour or cornstarch, neither of which I can have. So I decided to make my own cream of mushroom soup.

I found this recipe on food.com and it sounded simple enough.

• 8 ounces fresh mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons onions, chopped
• 1 -2 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 -3 tablespoons flour (separated)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup light cream or 1 cup evaporated milk
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1. Cut the mushrooms into slices.
2. Melt butter in large frying pan. Add in onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until onions are soft.
3. Blend in 2 T. flour and stir.
4. Add in the chicken broth and heat until slightly thickened while stirring frequently.
5. Stir cream with additional 1 T. flour and seasonings. Add in cream to soup. Heat to thicken while stirring frequently.

I switched out the flour for almond flour, which seemed to work just fine. I also used some of my homemade yogurt in place of the light cream. I boiled it down probably just a little further than you're supposed to to thicken it up a little.

I have to say, it came out pretty good. I don't feel that the yogurt changed the taste much at all. And the nutmeg really set it off! That's the taste that I've really  noticed each time I've tasted it.

So I seasoned my pork chops with a little thyme and rosemary, seared them, and covered them in soup to simmer. You're supposed to let it simmer for about 3 hours to get them really tender, but I didn't have that kind of time and only let them go about and hour and a half. They were good, but would've been even better with that extra time.

Overall, big success as an SCD dish. I just had leftovers for lunch and it was just as good. I almost wanted to lick the leftover soup off the plate. Even if I wasn't on this diet, I would probably use this recipe in the future.

Yummy in my Tummy

It's been a difficult couple of weeks on this new diet, trying to figure out what I can eat and making sure I have all of the ingredients that I need and making sure that foods settle well with my stomach. At first it was hard to get a variety of food because it's best to introduce new things slowly, that way you don't overwhelm your body and you also can keep better tabs on how different foods affect you.

However, a major concern for me has been making sure that I get enough calories. I've already lost a little weight in the past few months and this diet has made it a little difficult to gain it back. I started by making my yogurt out of whole milk and even half-and-half. I also added in almond flour. It may have been a little early for me to start eating this, but at the moment, my concerns for getting enough calories outweigh that.

I made some banana muffins last week which came out pretty good. I also tried making some cinnamon cookies. They came out alright, but I overlooked them a little and they're a little crunchier than I normally like my cookies.

So today, I decided to make another batch of muffins. I found a recipe on Amy McKenna's blog for lemon poppyseed muffins. I followed her recipe and added a honey/lemon glaze on top. And they are oh so good!! I'm having to exert a large amount of self-control to not eat the entire dozen. I try to keep my nut flour intake to about 2 muffins a day plus maybe a cookie at night. Plus, I need things like these to eat throughout the week. I've already eaten 2 this morning and I really want to go get another one. I may have to hide them from Jarrod!

SCD Lemon Poppyseed Muffins (from roboranch.com) with a Honey and Lemon Glaze

Muffins
3 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated lemon rind
1 Tbsp poppyseeds
3 cups almond flour

Glaze
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
A few drops of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325.
Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a large mixing bowl, use an electric beater to thoroughly combine eggs, honey, butter, baking soda, salt, and lemon juice.
Stir in lemon rind and poppyseeds.
Stir in almond flour, a cup at a time, to make a fairly thick batter.
Spoon batter into muffin cups.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown, springy to the touch, and a toothpick comes out clean.

Combine glaze ingredients. I just squeezed a few drops of lemon juice from the other half of my lemon.
Mix until thick.
Spread over cooled muffins.

And I am in heaven...

1 week later

I've been on this new diet for a full week now, and can I just say, What a week it's been! I knew this was going to be difficult, but it has been a really tough week. The first few days were so restrictive that I didn't even want to leave the house because the smell and thought of food was driving me crazy. But I went out to a restaurant for the first time this weekend (not eating, just visiting) and it went OK. I'm not going to lie, it was hard watching other people eat all of the foods that I'm craving, but smelling the food was actually nice. You can kind of pretend that you're getting to eat it! (Wow, that sounds pathetic)

I was wanting to do a slow introduction onto the diet, but I realize now that I don't think that will work for me. I don't know that I'm disciplined enough to take a couple of months before I actually have a range of food that I can eat. I do know some foods that are more difficult to digest, so I'm holding off on those for now. I've added in some fruits and veggies and an assortment of meats (grilled up some lamb chops yesterday, yum!). My "splurge" was picking up some colby jack cheese and fresh almond butter. I maybe should've waited a little longer, but like I said, if I didn't have something good soon, I was going to go crazy.

I also made myself a almond butter & banana milkshake today with homemade yogurt. The yogurt is pretty tart, but I added in some honey and that helped. I guess it's just something I'll have to get used to.

I've been obsessed the past few days with looking up recipe ideas that stay within the limits of the diet. The thing is, eating on this diet (once you're fully on it) isn't difficult. You can make some great meals and there are pretty good substitutes that you can find for almost anything (except chocolate... sad). It's really just the matter of being able to go out to eat. I know I've harped on this a couple of times now, but that's a pretty big deal for Jarrod and me because we love to go out to eat. I love getting dressed up and going somewhere nice and having someone else put together the meal (and clean it all up!). Now, going out to eat is mostly going to be for other people, and I'm just along for the ride. I am planning on making some calls to some of our favorite places to find out if their food will be alright. I'll have to stick with meats (without certain rubs and spices) and veggies and salads.

Well, I've gone through all of this and haven't even mentioned how I'm feeling. I'm still doing just OK. I was feeling better for a couple of days, but then started feeling a little worse. The hard part is that I don't know what's causing it. It could be symptoms from the diet cleaning out my system and flushing the toxins; it could be that I ate something that didn't agree with me and I should avoid in the future; it could be that the diet isn't working. I suppose I'll have to wait it out a little longer to see more results. I think also that my body is adjusting to not being on any major medication. Still waiting to see what my future holds in that area. But all in all, I'm still hanging in there and waiting to see where this all leads.

Why is every commercial about food?

Seriously! The day after I start an uber restricting diet, I'm watching a little nighttime TV before bed, and EVERY commercial is about food! Oh, and everyone's eating on the show, too! Is it always like this? Or is it like when you're playing the Alphabet Game in the car as a kid and you can't find a stupid 'J' and once you finally, there's a 'J' and every sign you pass??

In all seriousness now... my first couple of days on the new diet have not been the easiest, but honestly, it's not been the food that's been the problem. I starting getting a horrible headache on Sunday afternoon while my mom was helping me get food prepared and it lasted until sometime this afternoon. Along with that came some nausea which made a couple of the meals a little difficult, but I'm doing much better now.

The food really is not too bad. Just a little monotonous (and it's only day 2). For the next few days, my diet will continue to consist of eggs, homemade chicken soup, grape jello, and hamburger patties or fish. The first 5 days is meant to clean out the system and sort of start to "reset" things. From there, you can start adding in more veggies, meats, fruits, nuts, etc.

Once you get fully on the diet, there are lots of options, but it does take some time to get there. Plus, going out to eat is pretty much always going to be a bit of a hurdle. But I know this is going to be a healthy lifestyle choice, even regardless of my Crohn's. Healthier, all-natural foods instead of so much processed foods. I'm kind of excited about it.

Ok, seriously just saw Red Lobster, Campbell's Soup, Fiber One Bars, a commercial not for burgers, but with them in it, and General Mill's cereal all in one break.

You can plan on me

I love a good plan. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the new and spontaneous and am always happy with a good surprise, but I really do love have things figured out. You can ask my husband, when I have a plan and suddenly something comes up to change it, I get a little flustered. I pull out the ol', "But I had a plan and if you change this then it's going to change this which means that this is going to happen and oh my god! the sky is falling!"

I've done my best over the past year or so to work out a good weekly plan. I actually never kept track of it all until I started planning my wedding and I realized I needed a calendar to keep myself aware of what all I had to do and what deadlines were approaching. Now, I can't live without my planner that I keep in my purse. It's one of the few things besides my wallet and cell phone that I have on me at all times. I like being able to look ahead and see what's coming up. It also provides a nice record of the past when I look back at what I wrote in there. Also, keeping up with the budget is always important. We consistently struggle with the amount we spend on food, usually eating out. So I try to balance that out by keeping the grocery bill as low as possible. And since just going to the store and shopping aisle-by-aisle means that I'll be bringing home a bunch of stuff that I don't need, I try to come up with a solid meal plan each week. That way when I go to the store, I know exactly what ingredients I need and don't end up buying unnecessary stuff. Here's what I've got lined up for this week:

Monday: Stuffed pork chops and green beans
Tuesday: Tuna casserole (or tuna catfish, as I used to call it as a kid... I'm not sure why)
Wednesday: Chicken parmesan rolls
Thursday: Tacos
Friday/Saturday/Sunday: Jarrod's going to be out of town, so I'll probably just scrounge stuff up around the house or meet up with someone to eat.

So here's to a year of great plans and hopefully some great surprises, too!

So much for my good intentions

I thought I'd be ambitious with my cooking this week. Plus, crab legs were on sale and we never get to eat crab legs. But I quickly figured out why you pay so much for crab legs at a restaurant.

Well the packaging said to steam for about 3 minutes. I put about an inch or so of water and steamer basket in my pot, got it boiling and everything, and put in the crab legs. Within about a minute and a half the thing was boiling over. It was very strange, since like I said, there was only an inch or maybe 2 of water in this huge pot. But it got all bubbly and made a mess all over my stove. So I did my best to keep it steaming without continuing to make a mess.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also was heating up the butter for dipping in on of my measuring cups and the cup cracked open across the bottom and spilt melted butter all over my microwave.

Then, once we got everything cleaned up, we gave them a try. And you know what? They weren't bad! Really good, actually. Only problem was we didn't have the right tools for eating crab legs. Then once we got about halfway through, I started noticing that the meat was mushy and kind of slimy feeling. And the smell... oh my goodness, seriously the smell was as acrid as hair dye in an enclosed space. The taste was about as bad. The problem was, by the time we realized they just weren't cooked enough, we'd already broken most of them open so we really couldn't try cooking them anymore and we just had to throw them out.

I really hate wasting food. Especially nice food that I don't buy often because it's expensive. To top it all off, my house now smells like crab. I've had to windows open and candles burning hoping to get rid of it, but it's still pretty bad. Even my jacket, which I had out last night, still smells like it.

But I suppose you live and you learn. Everyone's going to make a failed meal every now and then. I'll know better if I ever decide to try again to make sure that all of them get cooked evenly. For now, I may stick with forking over the extra cash to have them professionally cooked.

Adventures in Grilling...Part 2

I was wrong to worry. They were delicious! My husband is the grilling master. I'll never doubt him again... maybe. But they weren't too spicy and tasted fantastic. I guess I'm gonna have to send Jarrod out in the cold to fire up the grill some in the coming months because I don't think I'll last until Spring without some grilled goodness.

Adventures in Grilling...Part 1

I am so excited about the Fall! In the coming weeks you'll see lots of posts about all of my big plans for the season! But one thing that upsets me about moving into the chillier part of the year is the end of grilling season.

As a wedding present, Jarrod's aunts and uncles all pitched in to buy us a Weber grill and, let me tell you, it's one of the best presents we got! We use it all of the time and Jarrod has become a grilling master. There is nothing this man can't cook on that grill. Filet, kabobs, sashimi tuna... it all comes out amazing.

However, tonight we're making ribs, which we've never done before. And I'm a little nervous. Really it's because I wasn't sure what kind of sauce to get. Neither Jarrod nor I are big BBQ sauce people, so I was on the phone with him while at the store today trying to figure out the best kind. Jarrod told me to get the John Boy and Billy Grilling Sauce and I'm not so sure it was the best choice. First of all, it's not BBQ-y at all... and I feel that ribs need to be BBQ-y. Also, I think it's gonna be too spicy for me. Oh well, we'll see in a couple of hours. Post 2 COMING SOON!