Chicken Tikka Masala with Naan Bread - Allergy Free!

I've had a hard time lately with the cravings. It's been 6 weeks now that I've been gluten, milk, egg, soy, nut/peanut and fish/shellfish free. 6 weeks to go until I can begin to reintroduce the groups one at a time. See this post for the WHY of what I am doing.

When I first began, I couldn't imagine what I would possible eat, and while some days I get rather sick of rice chex and rice milk, or rice cakes and sun-butter, other days are surprisingly decadent! This was one of those days.

Chicken Tikka Masal with Naan Bread!
The original recipes are here and here.
I substituted coconut yogurt where it called for regular yogurt, egg replacer for eggs. Also instead of using any fat to "fry" my naan in, I did it in a dry hot skillet.

You Got Some 'Splaning to Do, Lucy!

The post I have been promising that explains what I can and can't eat right now and why. I will try to refrain from rambling.


The bulleted version:

• I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis 
• I was also having stomach cramps and other GI issues
• I've long suspected I had some undiagnosed food allergy
• EoE is thought to be caused by reflux and/or food allergies so I sought a specialist
• Specialist put me on a diet for 3 months which eliminates the 6 top allergens
• Begininng Jan 15 I've been milk, gluten, egg, soy, peanut/tree nut, and fish/shellfish free
• My GI problems and pain have decreased quite a bit

Brownies!

It's been a month since I became Allergy Free. I was about to link to the post explaining what that means exactly, but apparently all I 've written is post that promises a more in depth post later. That will eventually come, but the synopsis is that  I've been a whole month without wheat, milk, eggs, fish/shellfish, soy, tree nuts/peanuts! Wow! No sandwiches, no pizza, no burgers...none of the stuff I formerly survived on.

A few days ago I made brownies! This recipe is NOT my own.
It came from Chocolate Covered Katie

You can visit her site for the full recipe, but here are the ingredients if you are curious!
She has tons of great recipes, so go check her out!

• 1 1/2 cups black beans (1 15-oz can, drained and rinsed very well) (250g after draining)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (10g)
• 1/2 cup quick oats (40g) (See nutrition link below for substitutions)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or agave (or honey, but not for strict vegans.) (75g)
• pinch uncut stevia OR 2 tbsp sugar (or omit and increase maple syrup to 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup coconut or vegetable oil (40g) (See nutrition link for substitution notes)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup chocolate chips (115-140g) (Not optional. Omit at your own risk.)
• optional: more chips, for presentation

***********************************************************************

Not a food blogger. My very non-fancy pic is of the batter.

My recommendations. (UPDATED)
I followed the recipe as is but only had rolled oats. The difference in these two, from what I can see are the quick oats are smaller. So next time I think I would put the rolled oats in my food processor first to get them to a fine powder before adding the other ingredients. As you can see in my pic, the oats left the batter kinda chunky.

Also, I cooked mine for the specific amount of time, but they still seemed kinda "loose". I froze the batch and once thawed they are firm enough.

EDITED 3/2/15
I made a second batch of these this weekend and they were even better! I did process the rolled oats this time and cooked for about 25 minutes. They were even better than before! YUM!

You can't taste the black beans AT ALL! YUM! These are awesome with a big glass of milk, or in my case, rice milk!

Hold the Hormones Please

It's been a week since I deactivated my FB account. J. is now fully running the business page, so I don't even have that responsibility. Woo! Frodo says that I mention "Now that I am off Facebook..." about as much as he mentions, "Now that I am 18..." Ha! I don't believe I do, but now that I am off Facebook, I feel so free. ;) Probably freer than he does being 18 and still having over a year of high school left.

The 80s Big Hair, Big Glasses and Big Hormones!

Speaking of being 18, I did a bit of time traveling this week. I became an awkward hormonal teen-ager, a less awkward but more hormonal 20 year old, found a Swede on the internet, had a baby and a large dish of hormones with a side of hormones and a big slice of hormonal pie for dessert. Boy was I a mess!

No Tardises (Tardi?) were involved, instead my weekly decluttering session found me with a pile of old diaries, photos and letters. And afterwards I fell in love with my husband all over again (and told him so)! Someone give this guy a lifetime achievement award for "Surviving Hurricane LeeLee." I still have my moments but, thank you Jesus, knock on wood, throw a pinch of salt, do a little dance (make-a-little-love-get-down-tonight), my hormonal drama is nothing like it used to be.

Now that I think about it, the disappearance of my hormonal outbursts coincided with Frodo's entrance into puberty. Fortunate Coincidence or Divine Intervention? We may never know. But even though Frodo is only a Severe Thunderstorm Watch compared to Hurricane LeeLee, the world (nor the King) would ever survive our double deluxe bacon hormonal cheeseburger.

As promised the "protein bar" report!

I used to be a big fan of commercial protein bars. At work, I didn't always have time to eat, so it was a way to keep the hunger at bay. Eventually I grew tired of them, but when I knew I was going to have to do the elimination diet, I tried to find an allergy free version.. I could find nothing free of all 6 allergens. Then I found Tessa Domestic Diva. This is her recipe:

No Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lara Bars - Paleo

Prep time:  5 mins

Total time:  5 mins

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 2 cups roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds
• 15-18 Medjool dates, pitted
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt, or more to taste
• ¼ cup mini dark chocolate chips, to taste
• 2-4 tablespoons coconut oil if necessary

Instructions

1. Place tasted sunflower seeds into the bowl of a food processor. Whir for a couple of minutes and watch as the sunflower seeds turn into a flour and then start to clump up a bit as it converts towards a butter!
2. Add in your dates and salt, and process to break up and pulverize the dates. Mixture should be sticky and press together easily. If not, add a tablespoon or two of melted coconut oil.
3. Add in chocolate chips and pulse a few times just to mix.
4. Press the sticky batter into an 8 x 8 or comparably sized pan. I like to line with waxed paper for easy removal.
5. Press the mixture evenly into the dish.
6. Refrigerate or freeze to firm up, then slice up into desired shapes &size.

*******
Again, this is not my recipe. It belongs to: Tessa Domestic Diva She has tons of other great recipes, so go check her out!

My own photo of them doesn't show the absolute yumminess of these! If you like sunflower seeds, you will love these!

I keep mine in the freezer. But they traveled well when we went to dallas in a insulated bag. They do get really soft if kept out for too long though.

Mine, made about 5 bars and if I calcuated everything correctly this is about 500 calories a bar and 10 grams of protein. Quite a bit, so don't go chowing down the whole batch even though they are yummy enough to do just that!

Life Without Food

Food is/was such a big part of  the social part of life, at least in my circle. We gather, we eat. We watch tv, we eat, we play board games, we eat, we travel, we eat. In fact, any road trip, with my family (mom, aunt, sisters), starts with a sausage biscuit or the like. We pack snacks to eat in the car, we plan where we will eat at our destination, we have snacks for the hotel room, and sometimes we even buy food as souvenirs.

It's been over two weeks since I eliminated wheat, eggs, milk, soy, nuts/peanuts, and fish/shellfish and while I have figured out what to eat at home, eating anywhere else is still a bit daunting.. This past week, we had an overnight trip to Dallas for my mom's doctor's appointments, and beforehand I was totally obsessed with what I was going to eat while I was gone.

I made out of this world protein bars (a post on that later), packed avocados, rice cakes, apples, pears, tangerines, oatmeal, prunes, sunbutter, water, as well as a knife, spoon and bowl. I was prepared for the apocalypse.

We ended up at a mexican restaurant for dinner and my planned meal of fajita meat went out the door when the manager, who was graciously working with me, informed me that it was marinated in soy. I couldn't even have the corn tortilla chips because of what they were fried in. The manager ended up having the kitchen whip up what turned out to be THE BEST meal I have had in quite a while. Fresh avocado, basically how I do it at home, with cilantro, lime and salt, but they brought me the most amazing corn tortillas, plus their phenomenal salsa and fresh tomatoes! I was a bit stuffed when I left, but comfortably so. In the past, after leaving a mexican restaurant I would have been miserable after eating a least a whole basket of chips myself, plus whatever else I stuffed down in the main course.

Many people expressed sympathy when they heard the news of my impending food/life change, and yes, I admit, I acted as if I were going waste away on a deserted island.If this is life without food, then I'll take that meal every day of the week! :)

Eliminate the Negative

I am giddy with excitement because I am about to deactivate my facebook account. It feels akin to shedding all of my outerwear after walking outside in the cold.. It was necessary, and comfortable, but after awhile it becomes cumbersome. Then I start to sweat and itch and oh sweet relief when I am able to disrobe, wrap myself in a fuzzy blanket and curl up with a good book.

I've taken breaks before, but there are always those who say, "You have to go check out what she said on FB." or "Just log in and look at their vacation photos." With deactivation, there will be no logging in. The heavy coat, scarf, gloves, and boots will be packed away in the attic and I will run barefoot and carefree across the lawn.

Okay, so what is so bad about facebook? Nothing. Facebook can be an awesome tool. The problem lies within my reaction to Facebook. When 20 seconds of scrolling through my news feed leaves me depressed for half a day, there is a problem. When there are people I genuinely like in "real life" whose posts on FB make me want to push them in a lake, there is a problem. When I have 30 seconds of free time at a red light and my first action is to tap the app, there is a problem.

I will miss certain people, but will hopefully be able to keep in touch with non-locals through email and text. And if you just can't live without your daily fix of my wordy wordiness, bookmark my blog and stalk me!