Autumn Wild Rice & Mushroom Soup

Even though I've lived in the desert for over 20 years, when Summer finally starts to make its exit, I always start craving soups, stews, and chili! Maybe it's a throwback to growing up someplace that actually snowed, because my husband's the same way. And he does make a mean chili! And quite a few amazing soups! We'll have to convert some and post the recipes. So anyway, it looks like Fall is actually here. How do I know? Well our annual resident Canada Geese are back in the park. I hear them every morning. I think there are about 30 this year, and they love to hang out in the grass right across from our house, pecking at the grass and eating whatever it is they eat in the park.

So I'm a big fan of mushrooms - more so than my husband. And I just had this feeling that I needed to make a soup with mushrooms and wild rice. The tricky part is that it can't be a "cream" soup, since I can't have the dairy. I found a recipe from Megan on the Gluten Free Vegan blog that I decided to give a shot. I made some adjustments, omitted a couple of items, and ended up with a good, basic, somewhat creamy mushroom soup that I will definitely make again. However, next time I will not omit the suggested whiskey! I decided to use a variety of mushrooms, including a package of sliced baby bellas and another package that was a blend of shitake, cremini, and oyster mushrooms. Hey, when the recipe said to use any of these types, I decided why not try all of them? ;) Here's my version:

Ingredients

• ½ cup wild rice (I used Lundberg organic wild rice)
  
• 2 cups water
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 16 oz. (2 sm pkgs) sliced mushrooms (cremini, shiitake, oyster, and baby bellas)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 tablespoons Earth Balance vegan butter
• 1 tablespoon Avocado oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• ¼ cup whiskey (I omitted this to my regret)
• 1 tablespoon organic blue agave nectar (maple syrup would probably be better)
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I used Imagine brand organic vegetable broth.)
• ¼ cup unsweetened plain Sunflower or Coconut milk

Instructions

1. In a large stock pot bring water, wild rice and salt to a boil. Cover and reduce heat, cover and simmer until most of the rice is tender, roughly 45 minutes. 
2. In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the vegan margarine with the Avocado oil over medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms. Saute until mushrooms start to get golden brown, about 5 minutes.
3. Add additional tablespoon of vegan margarine. Add in garlic, onion, and dried thyme. Saute another 10 minutes until softened.
4. Add agave nectar and stir for about one minute until liquid evaporates.
5. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Transfer half the mixture to a blender - our Vitamix works wonders here! Puree the mixture for about a minute, then return it to the pot. Add the cooked wild rice and unsweetened Sunflower or Coconut milk. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often. Heat through and serve.

The Citrus War of 2013

So what do well over 100 bored high school students do to entertain themselves on a nice, warm Wednesday Autumn evening  in Phoenix? Why, strap on helmets (yes, helmets) and pelt each other with fruit in the park and the streets, of course! Such was the commotion that sent our dogs into full-on freak-out mode last night around 10 pm. At first, all we heard was a small ruckus - squealing, yelling, and screaming in front of our house - and I was a little worried about the cars, so I turned on the porch light. That's when I realized there was a decent sized group of kids on the edge of our yard. Rich stuck his head out to see what was up and realized they were throwing things at each other. His request that they not make a mess in our front yard was either ignored, or more likely not heard, as they were having way too much fun running, laughing, screaming, and winging fruit at each other.

Rich went into the back yard to check the side street and watch the evening's entertainment. We live at the end of our block, right across the street from a park. It turns out there were WELL over 100 high school students yelling and running through the neighborhood, pounding each other with fruit, until someone inevitably yelled, "Cops!!!" It was quickly echoed by others, and yes, the police did show up - by car, by SUV, and even by helicopter. Kids went flying in every direction. It was pretty hysterical to watch through the front door. The helicopter had the search light on, as they circled the park and our neighborhood. They were using the loudspeaker, and they were clearly chasing down anyone they could catch trying to make a break for it.

I have to say I feel somewhat sorry for these kids. While I'm not thrilled about the dozen or so oranges in our front yard and street, no damage was done. And as my husband said, "hey, it's biodegradable." Ha Ha  It could have been MUCH worse - like the teenage "fight club" the police broke up in the park a couple of years ago, although at least those guys were wearing sparring gloves and using referees.  However, when you start charging $1 admission to a couple hundred 18-25 year olds, city officials tend to frown on that kind of thing going on in the park.

According to our neighbors, the kids named tonight the Jr. vs. Sr. Prom Citrus War... or something along those lines. There ammunition depot (or what's left of it) was a couple of big, black trash bags full of fruit, which I found in the park this morning at the base of a tree directly across from our house. 

What I really want to know is who in the world thinks this stuff up? Maybe it's a normal thing here where citrus trees grow on every corner? I'm guessing a few of them are going to be sporting some nice bruises tomorrow...and secretly giggling in class as they remember running from the cops over a bunch of fruit.  Let's hope it's the worst thing they ever do... but I doubt it. By the light of morning, the gutters and a few yards (including ours), as well as the park, are polka-dotted with fruit - mainly unripe oranges, some grapefruit (ouch!), and some apples. But the neighborhood smells citrusy-fresh! :)

Our First Organic Garden in Phoenix

So rather than focusing on a specific recipe today, I'm going to share a little bit about our garden. When we started eating more whole plant-based foods, and buying more organic, we realized it made sense to try to start growing some of our own food. Rich has always had a green thumb and a passion for gardening. I may not have green thumbs (yet), but I do love growing things, and much of that probably came from my parents. I used to hate having to help cover plants in the winter, or carry them into the sun porch. My dad spent a lot of his spare time building flower beds, trellises, etc. and gardening to his heart's content. It's a gorgeous backyard! My mom still keeps it up as much as she can, but it's a lot of work for one person!

My dad, who was an architect, actually built the fence around the backyard, the brick patio from the back doors all the way out to the fish pond, and a wooden "stage" and gate from the main yard to the back portion where the garage is. He and my brother even built a tree house way up in a huge elm tree outside my second story bedroom window! It was a great house and yard to grow up in! This photo shows the patio with the oak tree we planted after my parents bought the house in '72. You can see the grapevines over the trellis at the end of the garage and the plants at the edge of the fish pond, which is just out of sight behind the patio table. The fence line in the background follows the driveway which curves along the side of the house around to the back, where the garage was detached, facing sideways, as it had actually been an old two story carriage house from when the house was built in the 20's! Again, a super-cool house for a kid to grow up in!  I had many adventures in this backyard!

So back to our desert climate organic garden. My husband doesn't do things in a small way. I jokingly call it the Williams Botanical Gardens. We had 7 cubic tons of quality organic soil delivered, which we tediously transported into a 25 foot long garden bed and 21 above ground kiwi crates from Sprouts! We've started composting, and the City of Phoenix sells cutoff versions of curbside trash bins (like at the top of our driveway in the picture to the right) for $5.

Rich built a double-decker structure out of the crates to create a space for hanging plants, along with shade for the plants underneath. We took a couple of classes and planted watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, tomatoes, swiss chard, jalapenos, serranos, mint, basil, Thai basil, rosemary, and more!  We waited a little late to plant in the Spring - it was already warming up - so we didn't have great production, but we did get to enjoy a few things. Not everything made it, though.

So this time, Rich really did his homework, consulted the local experts' planting calendars, and we figured out what we really wanted to grow. He even found better, natural ways to fend off pests - such as those evil green tomato worms that can singlehandedly strip plants of all their leaves in the blink of an eye! One of the reasons I haven't posted in the last few days is that we've been racing the clock to get everything planted and drip lines run. Rich got the first batch of seeds, plugs, and plants into the ground by himself, but I've been helping this time around with everything from planting the seeds to measuring, cutting, and hooking up the drip lines. It's a labor of love!

The list this time around includes bok choy (top left), sugar snap peas (bottom right), parsnips, carrots, radishes, bell peppers, arugula, Texas sweet onions, pearl onions, tomatoes, arugula, butter lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard... sorry, my writing was just hilariously interrupted by the 10 pm edition of Jr. vs. Sr. Citrus Wars from a local high school! Maybe I'll describe it tomorrow to give you the full effect!  Anyway, the seeds Rich planted a few weeks ago are doing amazingly well and I can't wait to watch what I planted grow! Stay tuned...! :)

Surviving Weekends on an Elimination Diet

OK, I'm really looking for help here! How in the [beep] do you get through the weekend without all the usual go-to foods and beverages? As desperate as I might sound (and feel at times), the weekend wasn't too bad. I'm quickly finding that skipping foods every other day (not eating the same thing two days in a row) isn't as easy as it might sound. I'm a busy girl. I appreciate the convenience of leftovers. So tomatoes, garlic, and onion are very likely going to end up in my stomach two days in a row. How does my stomach know 24 hours from 48 hours anyway? And what constitutes skipping a day. If I go 25 hours in between foods, that's more than a day, right? (sigh...)

Say Cheese!

So actually the hardest thing has been the cheese. I really want cheese. Stinky, creamy, yummy cheese. The stinkier, the better. In fact, my husband makes a dirty martini with blue cheese and olives that he calls a dirty boot. It's awesome. But I did buy some Daiya shredded soy cheese, the mozzarella style, and it's not bad. I'm hearing more and more about how soy isn't good for people with Thyroid issues, or maybe it's just those with Hashimoto's, so I'll have to dig into that some more. However, at the moment, it's the only form of cheese I can have that's reminiscent of the normal stuff. I'm absolutely dying to experiment with a gluten free pizza. I know there are many recipes and options out there. I aslo bought some Tofutti "Better than Cream Cheese" and it, plus the Daiya, were great on a baked potato!

I think the best thing about getting my mindset right with regards to this dietary lifestyle change - because let's face it, it's not just a "diet" - is that I don't spend so much time looking at a lot of the junk in the grocery store. I'm starting to have this mental dialogue running that just "knows" that stuff is bad for me and doesn't care about it, doesn't even want to look at it. Some of it is tempting, probably out of old habits, but for the most part it's like I'm on a mission in the store. Get in, grab what I came for, and get out! Although, it has been fun wandering some of the aisles, looking for things that I can add to my menu.

Gluten Free Vodka

So if you're like me and you like an adult beverage or two to unwind on the weekend, there are definitely options. There are many potato-based vodkas out there, and Tito's, based out of Austin, Texas is great! It's getting amazing reviews (and I can vouch for how smooth it is) and the Tito's web site is very clear about being gluten free. I've even seen Tito's advertised in Southwest Airline's Spirit magazine. A little lime or lemon, a little cranberry juice, or a little gluten free Bloody Mary mix, and you're all set. I'm also a huge fan of the hard apple ciders, like Angry Orchard, Crispin, Ace, and Woodchuck. Each of them are clear on their web sites about being gluten free.

Gluten Free at Big Lots? Sweet!

My best find of the week, thanks to my mother in Texas, is that Big Lots carries a smorgasbord of Bob's Red Mill brand flours and mixes! We're talking good prices, expiration dates that were NOT in the next 6 months, and lots of variety!  This is really cool, because if you've shopped for gluten free products for very long, you know that things cost quite a bit more than your normal processed I would never have even looked there! I came home with more of the gluten free and rice free brownie mix and cornbread mix that I made earlier this week. I also bought a package of cinnamon raisin bread mix, which I figure will do in a pinch this week if I'm craving breads or sweets. I'll post an update with how that turns out.

This afternoon was spent planting another round of seeds with my husband in our fairly new organic garden. He's really gotten into it and I think we're going to have a much better harvest than our 1st attempt at the beginning of the year. The seeds are taking nicely, and many of the plugs (tiny transplants) are doing OK so far. Maybe I'll post on the garden periodically to show it's progress. It's amazing to realize how much I've learned in such a short time, considering I was juicing kale and other things that aren't good for people with thyroid issues. For more on that, the Livestrong web site has a pretty good write-up on how the brassica family of plants suppresses the thyroid gland. Cooking them cuts the goitrogenic properties down quite a bit, so we're still planting kale and bok choy. I just won't be eating large quantities of them raw.

Well, my brain is tapped for the day. Heading out for some more ALCAT blood work in the morning. 'Til next time!

Thank God for Gena Lee Nolin and "Thyroid Sexy!"

Today was definitely a pay-it-forward kind of day! I've been part of the Thryoid Sexy community for a while now, thanks to friends who saw my fb post about being diagnosed with Hashimoto's. If it wasn't for this gorgeous and generous woman, as well as Mary Shomon, and I can't forget stopthethyroidmadness.com... I would not be on the path I am. I would have listended to my (former) endocrinologist, a known "expert" from Mayo Clinic and Past President of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and I wouldn't be on any medication or have dug into the ALCAT test to find out I'm gluten-intolerant. I wouldn't have kept searching for an open-minded, well-educated doctor, who believes in treating Hashimoto's the right way. And I would still most likely be dealing with horrible, frustrating, random eyelid swelling and puffiness!

Gena has become the spokesperson/advocate for thyroid disease. Her story is amazing, having been on Baywatch, while feeling lousy, fighting depression and weight gain, and ultimately being misdiagnosed, told it was all in her head and that she just had postpartum depression. She, too, kept looking for answers and, because of her, Thyroid Sexy was born! So how did I get to meet my hero?

Gena is now a best-selling author! Her book, Beautiful Inside & Out - Conquering Thyroid Disease with a Healthy, Happy, "Thyroid Sexy" Life - just came out this month and is already at the top of the lists! Lucky for me, she lives here in Scottsdale, and I happened to see (at the last minute) Gena's post that she would be signing copies today at Barnes & Noble in Scottsdale. I got there about 30 minutes early, met many other women dealing with Hashi's and Graves Disease, and got to meet Gena. She sat down and had a lengthy, unscripted, heart to heart talk with a small audience, answered questions, and encouraged us to share info with each other. We talked about the gluten connection, and I mentioned my awesome doctor that actually prescribes natural dessicated thyroid medication. She signed and gave away copies of her book, which I can't wait to start reading! She is such and inspiration, having lost over 40 pounds, going from around 180 to her current weight of 135! She looks amazing, is very down to earth, and I am so grateful to her for the ripple effect she has started!

Through me talking to others, another woman approached me who is currently battling the swelling eyelid horror that I was dealing with last year. She said she never would have associated it with thyroid issues or Hashimoto's if I hadn't said whatever I said. She is not diagnosed yet, but she is battling all the classic Hashi's symptoms, and she now has hope that she won't have to wake up on random days with crazy, swollen eyelids and bags under her eyes! Again, Gena is directly responsible for that connection. I also got a signed copy of her book for a good friend who lives in Australia and is battling Hashi's and adrenal fatigue. It's because of a friend reaching out to me that I am now armed with better information and am improving my health. Let the ripples keep spreading! }i{ (This is my butterfly-symbol tribute to Thyroid Sexy!)

Two Deliciously Easy Ways to Enjoy Quinoa!

Thursday felt like I've got this thing down! But it's hard not to feel optimistic when drinking out of a rockin' new, bright and colorful Wonder Woman mug! Ah... now I can have my roasty cup o' joe with my childhood heroine and feel invincible! I also tried out some coconut creamer - not too shabby! Breakfast, in general, was fine, but nothing to write home about - an egg, ham, and applesauce. Quick and easy - and most mornings, there's just not enough time for anything fancy.

Quinoa with Lime, Mint, Garlic, and Tomatos

Lunch, however, was one of my recently discovered all-time favorites, Organic quinoa mixed with tomatoes, red onion, garlic, fresh mint, and fresh lime juice - adapted from this Gluten Free Goddess recipe! I'm quickly growing to love quinoa! It's a nice rice and pasta replacement, with protein, but not all the starch! Here are some good tips from Bon Appetit! 

I like to cook the quinoa in a rice cooker, with a 2 to 1 water to quinoa ratio. Do yourself a favor and buy the prepackaged, pre-washed kind. One of quinoa's nifty little evolutionary tricks to try to rule the planet is that it has a bitter coating to keep critters from eating it. It's totally safe to eat, but I've tried rinsing the bulk stuff from the bin at Sprout's, and I just don't like the way it turns out. So the added price is well worth it. Here's the step-by-step recipe:

• 1 cup organic, pre-washed quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1-2 limes
• 1-2 roma tomatoes, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup diced red onion (use sweet onion for a more mellow taste)
• 1 good sized minced garlic clove
• 3-4 mint sprigs (wash, remove and chop mint leaves)
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (optional)
• salt to taste (optional)

Instructions: Cook the quinoa in a pan (follow the directions on the package), or follow my favorite method of using a rice steamer! Simply add 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water (I add a little extra splash) to the rice cooker and start it up! To keep the bottom from getting too cooked or carmelizing, keep an eye on the steamer and shut it off as soon as it stops steaming - ususally about 15 minutes in my rice cooker. If you're like me, a timer is a good idea. You don't want the quinoa mushy or crunchy - just chewy! After all, we're not making mint-lime-garlic oatmeal. You can either prep everything else while it's cooking (not a bad idea so you can keep an eye on the steamer), or you can wait and do it while the quinoa is cooling. Simply add all the chopped and minced ingredients, squeeze the fresh lime juice over it all, toss, and chill it in the fridge! Super easy! Personally, I like extra lime juice on this, and the longer it sits in the fridge, the more the flavors meld. This is a particularly light, but delicious salad! Servings: 4

Shrimp Pomodoro with Quinoa Linguine

Dinner was one of my husband's specialties, pasta with shrimp pomodoro. This was our first time trying quinoa pasta (linguine, to be exact)  and we both loved it! Score!

Instructions: Simply saute fresh minced garlic (1-2 cloves) and about a half cup of chopped onion in a skillet with a little olive oil until the onion is starting to turn translucent, but still fairly white. Add in 3-4 diced fresh tomatoes and cook until it's starting to turn saucy. Add in a handful of fresh, chopped basil for added flavor and serve over cooked quinoa pasta! This should make 3-4 servings, depending on who's eating, and if you're serving anything else with it. It's absolutely delicious, and great with a hearty red wine! We had a bottle of Bogle Essential Red - a heavenly combo!

That's if for now! If you try any variations on these recipes or have other tips and comments for cooking quinoa, please leave comments. Peace out!

Three out of four isn't so bad!

This one's going to be a doozie.  I'm still getting in the habit of keeping a food journal and updating the blog, so this post is going to span the past few days. Oh well! Keep on truckin!

So I started this dietary change on Sunday, and so far it's been a little like the Texas Two-Step - the version where it's two steps forward, one step back. It's actually going really well, and there's been some role reversal in the Williams house! My hubby's been very busy, so I've been doing most of the prepping and cooking, and a lot more of the cleanup than I used to!  I admit it, I've been fairly spoiled by a man who loves to cook and is damn good at it. So changing what we eat and trying to rotate things is, in some ways, more of a challenge for him than for me.  Many people automatically assume that by cutting out gluten, rice, chicken, almonds, etc. (you know the story...), that our diet must now consist of cardboard, tofu, and grass. Well, we're not vegetarian - just eating WAY less meat, and no chicken for me! Our meals have actually been really good! And that's one of the things I love about any time we've tried a new diet in the past - we inevitably discover something new. So what has the lineup looked like for the past week? Here's a recap of the last four days and some notes about some products we tried.

Day 1 (Oct. 13, 2013):
Our first day was detailed in my last post. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, ham, and a plum. Lunch was amazing, because I never EVER thought I would like cauliflower, but the chile-lime-cilantro roasted cauliflower was a huge success! Dinner was a nice raspberry glaze salmon filet, with asparagus and wild rice.

I have to share the fact that I have once again gotten my husband to like, much less eat, something he wasn't very excited about. He was really skeptical about the wild rice, but this Lundberg Organic "Exotic & Savory" Wild Rice, cooked in veggie broth, is absolutely delicious. Score! Once again, we have a winner.

Day 2:
The second day started off great, but dinner was a bit of a backslide. We started off with a blueberry, banana, coconut milk, and pecan smoothie. Delicious! We love keeping frozen peeled bananas and other fruit on hand, as smoothies are actually a regular feature at our house. My snack was an apple and a handful of walnuts. Problem... for the life of me, I can't remember lunch! I was diligently trying to finish up our 2012 income taxes, which I just as diligently avoided all year, as our CPA filed an extension for us, but we missed the deadline to get our info to him so that he could meet the October 15th deadline. We had so much going on, we caved and ordered take-out from one of our favorite local pizza places, Uncle Sam's. I figured it was kind of a quasi "last supper" for me, at least as far as their heavenly onion rings, honey hot wings, and white pizza go. So yeah, I pigged out on gluten, dairy, more gluten, and chicken... and I loved every minute of it... including the Cabernet I almost forgot to mention. But on the bright side, I finished our taxes with one day to spare, using TurboTax for the 1st time ever for our personal AND business taxes, and saved us almost $300 in CPA fees. And we jumped right back on track the next day.

Day 3:
Tuesday started off with more frozen fruit - a strawberry, peach, sunflower milk, and cashew smoothie. I had to try a sip of the unsweetened Sunflower Drink, as I really didn't know what to expect, and didn't want to ruin a perfectly good smoothie. It was actually good and reminded me of almond milk. Sunflower Dream is the only brand I recall seeing at Sprouts, but I will definitely buy it again to avoid burning out on all things deliciously coconut. 

Lunch was a hastily prepped salad consisting of chopped cucumber, tomato, avocado, cilantro, sweet onion, garlic seasoning, lime juice, and a hint of sea salt. We both LOVED it! Definitely another keeper.

 I hate to say it (or do I?), but dinner was so delicious, I ate it before I remembered to take a picture. We sauteed chopped turkey breast cutlets, onion, and zucchini slices, and served it with an acorn squash I microwaved with Earth Balance organic coconut spread and a light dusting of brown sugar and cinnamon.  I'm supposed to limit my sugar, and I've been pretty good about it, so this was a treat. The only downside is that we were really hungry, and it takes over an hour to bake acorn squash in the oven, so we ended up trying the microwave directions on the label that actually came on the squash. We had to cook it longer than it said (more like 12 minutes than 8!) and it didn't cook consistently. Lesson learned.

By now I had figured out that the hardest part of this change is giving up all the convenience foods and treats. Even so many "healthy" or gluten-free pre-packaged foods have dairy, rice, almond flour, or something else I tested sensitive to. Fearing another wimp-out, like our pizza, etc. the night before, I scoured the shelves at Sprouts and found that (Hallelujah!) Bob Mill's makes a gluten free brownie mix without rice flour!  I've only eaten maybe four of them today... can you blame me? Rich isn't all that impressed with them, or so he says, but we both keep eating them, and it's the only chocolate I've found so far that works for the diet!

Day 4: I made it through today!
Today's breakfast was a bowl of Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Instant Quinoa & Oat Hot Cereal. On its own, it might have bordered that bland, cardboardesque diet I dreaded. But add in some sliced banana and honey, and it was pretty tasty!


Lunch was awesome in the sense that I discovered another great quick and easy meal! I actually managed to find a soup that doesn't have rice, chicken, dairy, or gluten!!! Amy's Organic brand, which I typically like - even though it's quite a bit pricier - has a Lentil Vegetable soup with onions, lentils, carrots, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, green beans, olive oil, garlic, sea salt, balsamic vinegar, "spices," and black pepper.  Insert back flips here! It was really tasty, although I was working from home and (oops) left it on the stove too long, so a small layer tried to merge with the bottom of the pan and, therefore, got thrown out. :(  I also fixed a decent sized salad of spring mix, romaine, red bell pepper, red onion, and cucumber. And lo and behold, I even found a prepared salad dressing I can have - Trader Joe's Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette!  I absolutely love Trader Joes' and regularly tease my mom that I live so close to one (1 mile), while the cosmopolitan city of Amarillo, TX does not. But I sent her TJ's goodies for Christmas last year like a good daughter, and of course we shop there when she comes to visit. But back to salad dressings... We've been making our own (very good ones, I might add) recently, with apple cider vinegar (Bragg's is my favorite kind!), avocado oil, etc. Hmmm... I feel a future post coming on... Well, so many of the bottled dressings have rice vinegar (hello...! no rice for me!), but this one is actually spot-on for what I can eat.

Dinner tonight was quite tasty, but again, no picture. It consisted of sauteed onions, red potatoes, and sugar snap peas, with a slice of pork loin. Yummmm...!  Followed by brownies! I even managed to clean up, load the dishwasher, make lunch for tomorrow (you'll have to wait til tomorrow!) and still have time to write this post! So things are getting a little easier, I'm getting a little faster in the kitchen, and I'm discovering some easy meals that are definitely repeaters, which should help keep me on track!

Day One!

We have lift-off!  We're a few days late, but I spent much of this past week in Portland, OR and you can't visit THE CITY of food and beer without sampling said food and beer. Not me. The Deschutes Brewery actually has a decent gluten-free beer, but the other 5 samples in my variety pack of liquid love were definitely not GF, but they were mighty tasty. And then there was Weinhard's... and Salvadore Molly's..., but I digress. After flying home, we couldn't let all the cheese, bread, and other tasty occupants of our fridge go to waste - could we?  That would be blasphemy! So after multiple attempts, we're finally off and running! There is no turning back if I really want to see if changing my diet affects my thyroid blood work. I'm optimistic that my energy, weight, and sinus issues will decide to come along for the ride.

The challenge is the rotation I'm supposed to magically puzzle together. The food I have mild sensitivities to are not supposed to be eaten more than every four days. The tough ones for me include olives (olive oil!), lime, eggs, and peanuts. This is somehow supposed to be juggled with eating foods I'm NOT sensitive to every other day to avoid building up sensitivity. It's like tricky dance choreography - it easily took twice as long to plan our meals for the week as it normally does. And with this new way of eating, it definitely requires planning! Like most things, I'm hoping it will get easier with time.

Roasted Chile-Lime Cauliflower

We started our morning with scrambled eggs, ham, and a plum that really needed another day or two of ripening - not the best start, but workable. I'm definitely not a fan of eating hard plums. Lunch, however, consisted of an amazing Roasted Chile-Lime Cauliflower recipe (and the only cauliflower I've ever loved), along with a cup of black-eyed peas. The cauliflower recipe came from the Profound Hatred of Meat blog, roasted with chili powder, lime, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil - then garnished with cilantro. Finally! A reason to buy cauliflower other than an occasional ambition to widen my culinary tastes, but ending up as a biology experiment gone wrong in the fridge. This will make my husband very happy. We've definitely found a new favorite we'll be making again! 

So now that I've had olive oil, which we used to cook with almost daily, I now have to rotate and avoid olives/olive oil tomorrow. I'm not sure how that's going to work out for garlic, onion, and pepper. I'm hoping that skipping them every couple of days will be good enough. But we're going to at least attempt to rotate daily through the following oils: olive, avocado, peanut, occasionally canola, and my all-time favorites - sesame and coconut! We're aiming for four meals a day, since that's supposed to keep your metabolism revved up. So later, we'll be attempting an Asian slaw, followed by salmon with wild rice and roasted zucchini for dinner.

I'm really looking forward to discovering new foods and eating more variety - such as my newly acquired taste for cauliflower - okay, so far only if it's bathed in lime, chili, and garlic. I also discovered Sunflower "Drink" in the not-milk section at Sprout's yesterday! Since I can't drink almond or rice milk for the next few months, and I'm hearing controversy about soy being bad for Hashimoto's sufferers, I'm switching to coconut milk and trying the sunflower milk. We've also decided to avoid alcohol as long as possible, with an occasional glass of wine, GF apple cider, or potato vodka when it comes to the holidays or special events. Let the GF, dairy-free, rice-free, almond-free, chicken-free, black bean & garbanzo bean-free, oh-my-god-what-can-I-eat-that-I-didn't-eat-yesterday-and-when-can-I-have-a-drink rehab begin!!

One Last Hurrah!

Sea Kaying at Santa Catalina

Vacation was great, and I managed to eat somewhat healthy on the cruise, while enjoying one last fling with bread, chocolate cake, and many other things on my taboo list. The funny thing is - two of the ladies in our group on the trip were Celiac and could not have any gluten whatsoever. I almost felt guilty!  "No, I'm not supposed to be eating gluten either, but I'm going to anyway...right in front of you!" Muhahahahaha!  I'm actually very lucky, in some respects, since eating gluten doesn't make me sick like it would have either of my new friends.  Presumably, it's an issue more related to my Thyroid, and continuing to eat it would likely cause my Hashimoto's Disease to progress, speeding up the attach on my Thyroid gland.  In fact, it wouldn't have been all that hard to eat gluten-free on the cruise.  Both GF friends actually had a special waitress that took their dinner orders one day ahead, and the kitchen would make anything on the menu gluten-free! Go Carnival!  So yeah, I still ate whatever I wanted.

So at this point, I'm hopefully two days away from cleaning up my diet to eliminate the foods I reacted to in my ALCAT blood test.  In the meantime, I plan to eat "normally" for the next two days. Which includes a doughnut (special trip to a local doughnut mecca), beer, french toast, and Thai food (which I had tonight).  However, I walked to the local Trader Joe's this afternoon to stock up my hotel room fridge with fruit, salad, coconut milk, and a few other "acceptable" foods to get me through the week, once I begin on Tuesday.  The big challenge is finding gluten-free items that don't contain rice flour, almonds, or dairy.  I see many salads in my future.

So goodbye, cheese, rice, flour, chicken, etc. I's been nice knowing you.  We'll meet again soon.  You may not recognize me, though, because I plan on being thinner and having more energy.  And if my husband sticks to his plan to cut out much of what I have to avoid, you may not recognize him either.  I'm kind of looking forward to that moment.  Maybe I will finally be able to justify storing those totes of skinny clothes in the garage!  On that note, it's time for bed. I think I'll dream of flat abs, running another half marathon, and size 6 pants.

So who's Sam and what's this about corners?

I grew up a Texas meat-eating, BBQ-loving, Coke-drinking girl. And I like dark beer.  I’ve tasted the gluten-free stuff and it’s…ok.  So what could convince me to change my diet to gluten-free, dairy-free, rice-free, almost-meat-free, and much more? (much less?  Oh whatever...)  It's not a trend/fad/bandwagon thing.  I love my wings and beer.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  So who is Sam???

Are you ready for it?  I have no idea whatsoever who Sam is.  "Sit still, Sam. We're going around the corner," is something my Dad used to say on road trips, and now it's a family joke.  Personally, I love it and thought it was an appropriate name because... well, call me weird. My brother and his family have an awesome dog named Sammy, but I digress.  The name of my blog refers to the fact that I've got a challenging road ahead of me.  But, challenges force us to turn corners and grow, and that's my goal.  Don't get me wrong - I love my life.  But it took several health issues and scares to start waking me up. What I've been doing might be getting me by, but I realized it's not working out so well long-term. It's time for some changes. And fortunately, my husband is right there with me on the same page. 

Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. - November, 2010

This is me and my husband, Rich, a few years ago in Washington D.C.  Not too shabby! A little overweight, but fairly young, healthy-ish looking, and happy. In reality, we were both struggling with our weight and energy levels, not feeling so great, never quite reaching certain goals, and clueless that things were about to start getting worse - especially our health.

Rich has Graves Disease, the most common form of hyperthyroid disease, but he's been in remission for 10+ years. He's taken radioactive iodine to kill the thyroid and even had surgery where the eyeballs are "temporarily relocated"  to remove orbital bone, alleviating pressure behind the eyes. No, I'm not kidding. 

I've fought allergies all my life and have been pricked and poked so many times, I think I might be a human voodoo doll. A few years ago, we found out Rich is just as allergic as I am to about as many things, plus pistachios. That was a fun New Year's Eve when we discovered that little gem! He also suffers from migraines, dermatitis, and occasional ADD-type focus issues, and we both struggle with lack of energy, weight-gain, thyroid issues, and the allergies I already mentioned.

After random eyelid swelling and multiple tests, I was diagnosed in early 2013 with Hashimoto's Disease, the most common hypothyroid autoimmune disease. Basically, my body has decided my thyroid gland is not my friend and is on a slow and steady mission to kill it.  (You can read my story here.)  Additionally, I was just recently diagnosed as having “a severe reaction to gluten/gliadin” and cow’s milk/casein, as well as chickpeas.  I’m also moderately sensitive to rice, almonds, and a whole host of other things.  I’m not surprised by the gluten-intolerance diagnosis, based on recent articles about the potential gluten-thyroid connection, (even my doc is on board with that theory), but I’ll post more on that later.  So the prescription is to eliminate these foods for 3-6 months and then slowly add items back in to see what I can tolerate after my body heals. That's right. I have to live without cheese, pho, decent beer, my favorite pizza, wings...(sniff).

It’s not easy to find dairy-free, gluten-free, rice-free, almond-free recipes out there!  Gluten-free flour mixes alone often contain rice flour and/or almond flour, not to mention all the rice-based substitutes for pasta, pizza crust, and everything else!  So I'm now discovering quinoa pasta and how to make other replacement foods, which leads me to the reason for this blog!  I'm psyching myself up to drastically change my diet as I start phase 1 of the elimination diet.  I’m also not supposed to drink alcohol while letting my system heal.  Therefore, I’m on a mission to find more recipes that don’t taste like cardboard or veggie-flavored dust.  I also plan to track my progress, vent my frustrations, celebrate my successes, and share recipes and resources with others in the same boat.  I’ll also try to spread the word out about the evolving treatment of Thyroid diseases, as they have gone long neglected and under diagnosed, and many doctors still don’t ask for the right (complete) tests!  I, personally, wouldn’t be on medication and getting answers if I hadn’t been persistent and found a great, open-minded doctor who has experience with the “new” treatments.

We leave on a cruise one week from tomorrow, so I'm waiting to jump off the high dive until we get back. You can't seriously expect me to give up wine and chocolate-molten-lava-oh-my-God-cake on a floating buffet! So I have two more weeks of eating things I may never eat again - at least not without paying for it in some way. Because I can tell you right now this girl WILL taste Guinness, hummus, Godiva green tea ice cream, mango sticky-rice, and buffalo wings again in this lifetime!

I'm excited to see how I progress, as I hope to lose 20 pounds, as well as reduce (and hopefully reverse) my health issues! So, I'll post about our diet/health changes, but I also plan to get into a few other topics, as well. And frankly, I may bounce all over the place, as this is just an outlet for me to share whatever the hell is going on and whatever I feel like venting about or celebrating. As I mentioned, hopefully it will help me, and maybe it will help someone else. The universe is a pretty surprising place.

In the meantime, if you're looking for gluten-free, dairy-free, rice-free (and more!) recipes, check out my Pinterest boards for my growing collection of info and recipes.  If you find others, find better substitutes, or try recipes and have feedback, please leave your comments!