The Great Paleo Experiment. Day 1

I've finally decided to break down and try the Paleo diet for 30 days. I've been gluten free for ages, and that helped my health for the longest time, but in the last year or so something else is going on. I've been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia because they can't find anything wrong with me. It's been an ongoing pain battle, but here lately the pain and inflammation are out of control. I decided I needed to try *something* at this point. So starting out here's the list of issues:
- insomnia
- exhaustion
- high levels of pain (6 or above)
- severe depression
- constant sweet craving (to try to counter the above.)
- mental exhaustion

I've tried being vegan for a while and it made things worse. I ended up anemic which I am still battling. I added dairy back in and it seemed to have increased the inflammation. So... here we are. :) Technically I started paleo yesterday but slipped up and feel even worse today so I'm counting today as the start.

This week's menu

roast chicken (broke out the rotisserie)
herbed pork loin in au jus (crockpot meal - I've been having a love affair with it lately)
pot roast with sweet potatoes and carrots (also from the crock pot)
grilled salmon with cauliflower "rice" and steamed veggies (asparagus or broccoli)
grilled tilapia with the "rice" and veggies
chicken stew (to use up some of the roast chicken)

Breakfast will probably be things like I had this morning 4oz roast chicken and a 1/4 avocado. Not sure about snacks yet, that's probably when the fruit will make an appearance.

I'll post in here recipes that I find/try, but also will have posts that talk about how the experiment is going. I'll label the recipe ones so you can just skip to them.

Watermelon Strawberry Soup

Ah spring!! The weather is getting warm, the days are getting longer. I love this time of the year. I came up with this because I had some fruit left over and needed to do something with it.

Watermelon Strawberry Soup
4 cups seed watermelon
2 ripe banansa, peeled
1 cup apple cider or juice
1 cup potato milk, thickened (optional)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 ice cubes
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
¼ cup cold mint tea
fresh mint sprigs
In blender, puree melon, bananas, cider, yoghurt, cinnamon and ice cubes
til smooth. Pour into a pitcher or a bowl, add sliced berries and mint tea.
Chill 1 hour. serve with mint sprigs.

Been a while

I've been so busy I've all but forgotten about this blog. :)

I will be posting some new stuff here shortly. I'm trying a new food system where I make up a menu style list and pick my weekly meals from it. I found the idea here http://thelittlebig.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/life-list-create-a-working-menu/ and thought it was an awesome idea. I'll post it up once I get something going.

New home

If you're reading this, chances are high you just got a ton of old entries in your RSS reader!

We just moved homes from a hosted account into a Blogspot account - but the domain name still works just fine.

Welcome - we plan on posting more awesome recipes soon!

Gluten Free (Vegan) Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Gluten Free (Vegan) Pumpkin Spice Muffins

    2 Tbsp ground flax seed

    6 Tbsp water

    1 tsp Vanilla Extract


    1/2 cup Vermont Sugar Free Maple Flavored Syrup (can use brown rice syrup, treacle, corn syrup or regular maple syrup)

    1/4 cup Canola Oil

    1/4 cup Applesauce, unsweetened

    1- 15 oz can Pumpkin Puree

    2 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour


    2 tsp Xanthan Gum

    1 tsp Baking Powder

    1 tsp Baking Soda

    1 tsp Cinnamon

    1/2 tsp Allspice, ground


    1/2 tsp Cloves, ground

    1/4 tsp Ginger, ground

    1/4 cup powdered sugar + 1 Tbsp water (optional)

    3/4 cup dried cranberries (optional)

    1/2 cup Walnuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Generously grease or line muffin cups with paper liners and spray with cooking spray. Set aside. Beat Eggs, vanilla, honey, oil, applesauce and pumpkin together until well combined. Set aside. Mix all dry ingredients together. Then, stir in egg mixture; add raisins and nuts. Mix just until blended. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Combine the powdered sugar and water to glaze if desired.

These can be slimmed down even more by increasing the applesauce by 2 Tbsp and reducing the oil by 2 Tbsp.

Makes 12 muffins.

If fruit or nuts are added, recipe will make 24 muffins.

Number of Servings: 12

Nutritional Info

  * Servings Per Recipe: 12

  * Amount Per Serving

  * Calories: 143.2

  * Total Fat: 5.7 g


  * Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

  * Sodium: 170.6 mg

  * Total Carbs: 22.9 g

  * Dietary Fiber: 3.7 g

  * Protein: 2.6 g

3pts for those of you who do WW.

Pizza

Pizza has been the long-standing wish for me. Because of the dairy allergy, it makes it much tougher.  However, I have managed to find ways around it. I can’t eat soy cheese, but I did find that I tolerate sheep cheese and pure goat cheese reasonably well. So that sorted the cheese, but how to get a decent crust. I think I found a good one. Let’s just say I really don’t miss Pizza Hut anymore.

Gluten Free All Purpose Pizza Crust

1-½ cups Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour


2 teaspoons Xanthan Gum

½ teaspoon Sea Salt

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

¾ cup Warm Water

1 teaspoon Sugar

1 egg*

2 tablespoons warm water

2 teaspoons Yeast, Active Dry

1 tablespoon thyme, fresh**


1 tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped**

Combine yeast, sugar and water in a large bowl and let stand about 5 minutes. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Add egg and oil to wet ingredients, then add dry ingredients. Mix with a blender for a minute, adding a teaspoon of water if dough moves up beaters. Scoop onto greased pizza sheet. Wet your hands with water and spread dough over sheet and smooth. Cover with favorite sauce and toppings. Bake at 425°F for 15-20 minutes.

*Eggless Option: Combine 1 Tb Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tb Water. Let stand for 2 minutes, then use as egg.

** I also use dried herbs for this, mostly due to laziness. My usual blend is oregano, thyme, basil and garlic powder.

Pancakes

So I realize I’ve been woefully neglecting this food blog. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking or experimenting. In fact, recently I’ve worked out all sorts of great gluten free/allergen free stuff - pizza, pastys and pancakes. The pancakes are fabulous!! Very light and fluffy. Now we tend to eat with lemon juice and sugar (British way), but feel free to pour on the maple syrup or fruit sauces.

Beth’s Pancakes

¾ cup Gluten Free Flour blend

¼ cup Potato Starch

2 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tbsp. Baking powder

1 tsp Guar gum

1 Tbsp. Flax seed

3 Tbsp. Warm water


1 cup Dari-free Milk (or whatever milk/milk replacement you prefer)

2 Tbsp. oil

2 lemons

sugar

Mix flax seed and 3 Tbsp warm water in a bowl. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, starch, guar gum, baking powder, and sugar into a bowl. Add milk, oil and the flax seed to the dry ingredients.

Heat a non stick pan up. Pour scoops of batter into the pan. Depending on the size of pancake you wish, use a 1/4 cup to a large scoop. Cook til large bubbles form in the dough, then flip. Cook for about a minute more.

Serve with lemon juice and sugar.