Six Food Intolerance Living

When I tell people about all my food intolerances and explain that I cook almost completely from my home, I often get asked what exactly CAN I eat and if it's hard. Well, it's not hard per se, but is more time consuming. As for the food, well, it's tasty! Here is a run-down of just a few options that I have:

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Sample Menu

Breakfast:
Rice Chex, Honey Nut Chex. Corn Chex, Trix or Honey Kix with Hemp, Rice or Almond Milk and Fruit
Fried Eggs with Beef or Turkey Bacon and Grits or Home Fries
Gluten/Dairy/Soy Free Pancakes or Waffles with Beef Bacon and Fruit
Gluten/Dairy/Soy/Yeast Free Toast with Peanut Butter
Fruit Smoothie
Hormel Canned Corned Beef Hash with Fried Eggs and Fruit
Veggie-Filled Omelet

Lunch:
Any dinner leftovers
Gluten/Dairy/Soy/Yeast Free Flour Wrap, Toast, Corn Tortilla or Rice Paper Wrap filled with turkey, lettuce, tomato, onion and avocado served with potato chips on the side
Hormel Dinty Moore Beef Stew with side salad and homemade dressing
Imagine Brand soups - some are safe
Glutino Brand Gluten Free Chicken Ranchero with Brown Rice Frozen Meal
PJ's Chicken Tamale Frozen Meal
Amys Brand soups - some are safe
Egg/Tuna/Chicken Salad with Gluten/Dairy/Soy/Yeast Free Crackers and Fruit
Chicken, Vegetable and Rice Soup
Green Salad topped with Grilled Chicken and homemade dressing

Dinner:
Grilled Chicken, Lamb or Steak, Baked Potato and Steamed Veggies
Gluten Free Brown Rice Pasta topped with Tomato Sauce and Ground Beef
Chicken and Veggie Stirfry with Gluten/Soy Free Oyster Sauce over plain White Rice
Roast Turkey/Chicken/Beef with Roasted Veggies and Side Salad and homemade dressing.
Taco Salad - romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado topped with grilled meat, black beans and safe tortilla chips
Bunless Hamburgers or Hot Dogs with Potato Salad, Side Salad and homemade dressing
Turkey and Bean Chili

Dessert:
Fruit
Gluten/Dairy/Soy Free Cobbler
Gluten/Dairy/Soy Free Cake
Gluten/Dairy/Soy Free Cookies
Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Dairy Free Gelato
Dairy Free Sorbet

Snacks:
Mixed Nuts (minus Walnuts)
Fruit
Plain Potato Chips
Original Fritos
Gluten/Soy Free Beef Jerky
Fruit Leathers
Rice Cereal Bars
Fruit Smoothie
Hummus and Carrot Sticks

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As you can see, I do not have to go hungry or sacrifice taste just to eat well!

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

Back when I was doing Weight Watchers, I was looking for a lot of meat alternatives. I had already used a lot of turkey breakfast meats and ground turkey in place of ground beef in hamburgers, spaghetti, etc, but ground turkey just did not cut it for a real hamburger. One day, when I was shopping with my Hubby, he saw this:


Buffalo? Ground buffalo? Huh. Then I flipped it over and looked at the nutritional information:


Hm. Not too shabby. So, we took it home, tried it and loved it! It tasted just like beef - but was healthier and thus less WW points. It went straight into rotation! Though, recently, it has not been. I see it at the stores, but we really just don't eat much ground meat much anymore and when we do, it's always turkey.

Well, a few weeks ago, I went into the doctor for a general checkup. Verdict - I have a Vitamin D deficiency (which, if you want to know, I am trying to solve with a good multivitamin and this which has 2,000 IUs of vitamin D in 1 tsp! Wow!) and my cholesterol was high. The over-all cholesterol wasn't so bad, but my triglycerides were way bad ... like nearly double what it should be. Eek! So, anyway, I need to bring it down badly. The doctor prescribed more exercise, less sugars, less carbs and less/better meat (and, surprisingly, the fish oil that I suggested taking helps lower triglycerides too! Score!). Anyway, I started doing some research on sugar alternatives (will discuss this more later) and on meat. I thought - what meats are better for you, which ones have less calories and fat? Then I thought again of that lovely ground buffalo that I used to eat back on Weight Watchers and I dove into the research.

Among other places, I turned to the USDA website for information. Did you know they have a search tool to help you find out what nutrients are in the foods you eat? Pretty cool. So, I looked up all the various meats that I eat to get a better idea and I put together a table.

First, some notes and disclaimers before I share this table. First of all, I am not a nutritionist, I just compiled the information that I found on what I think is an unbiased, trustworthy site. Please do your own research and consult with your own doctors/nutritionists before deciding what is best for you. Anyway, notes - you will notice this table does not include pork. I am intolerant to pork, therefore don't eat it, and didn't include it in this list. I only included meats that I eat, but the USDA link that I gave above should give you information on pork should you want it. I kept all the amounts the same - 1 cup cooked. I tried to pick all ground meats. Buffalo (Bison) only had one listing on the USDA site. I'm not sure if it's ground or steak or what, but it's all I had, so I used it. I also wanted to use all lean ground meats, like I did in the instance of the beef, but ground chicken and ground turkey only had one listing. I'm not sure what percentage these would be or what, but I only had one option so I had to take what I could get! ;) Finally, I rounded. I hate all those decimals, so I used the typical rounding methods - .5 and up got rounded up, .4 and down got rounded down. Easy peasy, right?

So, here are my results based on the information found with the nutrients search on the USDA Website.

	Bison, cooked	Ground beef, 85% - 89% lean, cooked	Lamb, ground or patty, cooked	Turkey, ground	Ground Chicken
Serving Size	1 cup, cooked	1 cup, cooked	1 cup, cooked	1 cup, cooked	1 cup, cooked
Energy (kcal)	192	305	346	296	301
Protein (g)	38	32	30	34	34
Fat, total (g)	3	18	24	17	17
Cholesterol (mg)	110	109	118	128	110
Saturated fatty acids, total (g)	1	7	10	4	5
Monounaturated fatty acids, total (g)	1	8	10	6	7
Polyunaturated fatty acids, total (g)	0	1	2	4	4
Calcium (mg)	11	22	27	32	19
Iron (mg)	5	3	2	2	2
Magnesium (mg)	5	3	30	2	2
Sodium (mg)	76	485	496	545	513
Vitamin B-12 (mcg)	4	3	3	0	0
Folate, total (mcg)	4	3	23	0	0

So, as you can see, buffalo has much fewer calories, slightly more protein, significantly less fat, less calcium, slightly more iron and much less sodium than all the other meats. And it tastes great? Pretty cool!

Another interesting thing I found out from this table - I had no idea just how high in calories and fat lamb was! Yikes! Good thing I only eat it a few times a year. I mean, I really love it, but my Hubby does not, so I only make it when he is out of town or my parents make it when we visit sometimes (and a steak for my Hubby). It is surprising high in magnesium and folate though.

For me, I think what I'm going to do is stick to turkey for my bacon, sausage and hot dogs and use buffalo in any recipe calling for ground meat and limit beef to the occasional steak and occasionally get beef bacon (which I much prefer, but I gotta get those triglycerides down) instead of turkey bacon. Of course, I will start trying to incorporate more seafood/fish and vegetarian meals.

Now, how to sneak a meatless meal by Hubby? ;)

Everyone in my various GF networks have been raving about the new Starbucks Valencia Orange GF Cake! I quickly checked out the ingredients and was pleasantly surprised with it being DF/SF too! Yay! The ingredients are:
Whole Eggs, Valencia Orange Pulp, Almonds, Sugar, Orange Peel, Gluten Free Baking Powder, and Orange Oil.
Isn't it grand when life is nice and simple! And, it looks like they really know what they're doing! They even disclosed how they are manufacturing these little beauties and I have to admit that I am impressed! It's SO nice to have a mainstream company really looking out for us GF!

After searching around for it for a few days, I finally found a store that had them. I purchased 3 - 1 for myself, 1 for my husband, and 1 for later. Hubby and I had one that night for dessert.

For the first one, I thought it was VERY moist, it was not crumbly or dry or grainy, the flavor was pretty good and the serving size was great - not too big, not too small. Now for the bad - only that I thought that it was very orangy. It's okay but a bit strong by itself, but would probably be better with coffee - which I'm sure was the intention. But I couldn't order any because I can't drink coffee black and Starbucks does carry a DF/SF milk (Starbucks, if you are reading, could you please carry a DF/SF milk? Hemp or hazelnut milk would be divine, but I'll settle for almond or rice milk).

Well, fast forward 5 days after purchasing them, I opened up the third one. Short version - not good. The cake had a faintly moldy smell and it was super sticky and stringy. In fact, in my first bite, there was a string hanging from my lip and I thought it was a hair or something. Nope. It was from the cake. It seriously looked like a cobweb. Maybe excess sugar? It's sort of like the strings from Rice Krispie treats or something, but they were tougher - sounds funny, I know, but it's true. I tried taking a picture of it, but it just didn't come out. Anyway, I tried breaking the strings by pulling the bite further from the cake - nope - the strings grew longer. I tried breaking it with my finger. It worked, but I had to pull far and I got a sticky finger. The only other way to deal with them was to spin the cake around until the strings broke. I don't know what all that stringiness was, but it completely turned my stomach. Just to make sure, I pulled a few more bites off with my fork, and sure enough, other bites did it too, so it was not just a fluke. Yuck. I do notice though that there are no preservatives listed in the ingredients, that might be it. The other thing is I see printed "10909 17:34" so I am guessing a manufacturing date of January 9, 2009 at 5:34pm. So maybe it has just been too long? I have seen this before though. When I first started baking from scratch, I made a pumpkin pie. I left it out at room temperature thinking that like store-bought ones, it would be fine. Well, within a week, it was not! The top was super glossy, the pie smelled faintly of mold and it was stringy. I'm thinking whatever happened to the pie has now happened to this cupcake.

Don't believe me? Well, sadly, I'm not the only one with this experience. Ginger Lemon Girl said the same thing happened to her poor cupcake - and what's worse is hers were like that from the day she bought them! She did not the chance to experience them when they were actually decent! :( But, she did really enjoy their Passion Tea Lemonade!

I'm not mad at you, Starbucks. I was and am thrilled, excited and hopeful about your efforts - and especially thankful for your trying to cater to us poor food intolerant people. Unfortunately, this product falls way short of just how good GF/DF/SF can be! If you want some help, I know plenty of recipes that would be better suited for this application! ;)

I just love Asian Pears (also known as Apple Pears, Taiwanese Pears, African Pears, Korean Pears, Japanese Pears, etc - see, they're so good everyone wants to claim them!). When ripe, these babies are very sweet and juicy yet crisp. They are low in calories and yet a good source of both Vitamin C and Fiber.

Wanna know to pick them? They are in season from roughly July to October. Quality Asian pears are best selected by smell rather than by softness. Unlike most pears that give in to a bit of pressure when ripe, Asian pears can be ripe even when they are still firm. So, look for a sweet aroma (though they might not smell as strongly if they're cold) and of course, stay away from pears that are real soft, wrinkled, have scuff marks or are bruised.

Asian Pears are one of the few fruits that I enjoy plain/raw - I just wash, slice, remove the core and eat - skins and all. They are just so refreshing! However, I also enjoy them in smoothies. They are great way to sweeten up smoothies and are neutral enough in flavor that they go with just about everything!

I have also read lately that they are quite good cooked/baked - something I never even thought about doing!. This recipe sounds especially yummy. I also found this recipe and these. Now that I'm thinking about it, these pears are neutral enough that they may be good on salads too! mmmmm ... these ideas are definitely something that I need to try - and soon!

If you haven't tried Asian Pears before, you really must - you can't go wrong!

I'm going to share a little secret with you all today. Ready?

I don't enjoy baking.

Seriously. I only bake because what I can bake at home is both cheaper and MUCH more tasty than an baked goods that I can buy in the store. But do I enjoy it? Heck no. I am a cook at heart, not a baker. I like to mix different meats or veggies together or mix different spices in or use different techniques or adjust things on the fly, that kind of stuff. Things that can not be done with baking.

But, I've also come to the realization that baking will now forever be a part of my life, whether I like it or not. Thus far, I have stuck to following other peoples baking recipes perfectly - very little adjustments (maybe subbing one fruit puree for another or swapping out chocolate chips for raisins, that kind of thing - minor stuff) because I've been too much of a novice to attempt coming up with my own recipe. What ratios to use? What helps with rising? How much rise do I need? lol. I am still confused sometimes! Baking is so hard for me because once it goes in that pan, I can't adjust it anymore! Eek! So, I've been afraid. Until now! I figure, what the worst that can happen? I develop something yucky, toss it and it's over. Or, develop something yummy and delicious! So, a few days ago, I got brave! I decided to try coming up with my very own baking recipe. Here's what I came up with:

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Pumpkin Soft Muffins
from Clara, http://www.sixfoodintolerance.com
Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups Ginger Lemon Girls Master Mix
3/4 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup unsweetened original flavored hemp milk
4 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can unseasoned pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup grapeseed oil
4-5 tsp turbinado sugar (optional)

Directions:
Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl

In a separate, large bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until well combined

Preheat the oven to 350°F

Take 2 12-muffin tins, line 18 with paper liners

Spray the inside of all the liners with 1 squirt of oil spray. Also spray the inside of a 1/4 cup measuring cup.

With the 1/4 measuring cup, take a heaping scoop of the mix, place into one of the muffin liners, continue until all are full.

Sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top of each muffin - about 1/4 tsp each. This gives the muffins a nice crunchy/crisp top.

Bake 30-35 minutes until done.
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If you decide to try these, please be sure to let me know what you think of them! I'd love to hear what you think!

I just love hummus. It's good for you, it's easy to make, it's naturally GDSYWP-free and it's so delicious. And better yet? It's Vita-Mix friendly!

My base recipe can be seen here. That is what I made today. But the recipe is super easy to adjust. Sometimes I add artichokes, black olives, pine nuts, roasted garlic (my personal fav) or whatever sounds good at the time.

What do I dip with now that I'm GF? My favorite is carrots. I love the slightly sweet flavor, the crunch and of course how healthy it is! Sometimes I make rice flour wraps and use that to dip. I also love to use hummus on a sandwich wrap instead of mayo or other condiments.

Basically, you can't go wrong!

Trader Joe's is like THE place to go! Their foods are yummy, cheap and they clearly list all ingredients - thanks, TJs! :D

Some of my favorite things there are:

Almond meal. All Natural. Yum. Not the blanched kind, but still yummy and at a great price! In case you can't see, each bag is 16 oz, 1 pound - for only $3.99! It says right on the bag, great for baking and breading - and they're right! I often use this to bread some chicken breasts for faux fried chicken and it's delicious in my Almond Torte ... which reminds me ... I haven't made that in a while! Why not! Oh, I need to get on that!


Orange Peach Mango Juice. Need I say more? Delish! Half a gallon for $2.69.


Orange Juice. Hubby wanted me to post this. He loves this orange juice. Me? I think it's a bit too sweet and still prefer Simply Orange. But, I guess I gotta give in on some things as long as they're safe! ;) Anyway, this is only $1.99 for half a gallon.


Ridge Cut Potato Chips. These are AWESOME!! The ingredients - unpeeled potatoes, oil (sunflower or safflower) and salt. How cool is that?! The taste great and are really good for lots of different applications - munching on, with sandwiches, oh and GREAT for dipping - we particularly love them with tuna salad. I get a 1 pound bag for $3.29.


Pound Plus Chocolate Need I say more? hahaha These are 500 grams, which is over a pound, thus "Pound Plus." And for only $3.99? Super score! They have 72% and 61%. I actually usually get the 61% because I think it tastes less bitter. But then, I'm still getting used to non-milk chocolate! ;) Anyway, I think that one comes in a brown wrapper? I'll get a photo of that one next time. Just stay away from the blue wrapper one. That one is milk chocolate!


Gluten-Free Pancake and Waffle Mix - 18 ounces for $2.99. This stuff tastes pretty good, but to be honest, I still prefer Ginger Lemon Girls Master Mix Pancakes (except I use 1 full cup of hemp milk), but what I really love is that TJs offers this. I LOVE that I can tell people that there is a commercially available gluten free product that is easy to use and tastes good!


Gluten Free Brownie Mix. 1 pound for $2.99. Again, I like these brownies but I don't find this mix as good as brownies that I can make myself (especially Elanas Brownies), but again, like the Pancakes & Waffles Mix, I LOVE that I can tell people that there is a commercially available gluten free product that is easy to use and tastes good!


Ahi Tuna. Hubby and I love this stuff. It comes pre-marinaded so it has instant flavor, and it's so easy to cook! Just thaw and cook! In the summer, Hubby will throw it on the grill (I especially like when the ends get a bit crunchy) and in the winter, I just broil it in the oven. At $5.49 a pound, we're happy campers!


Almond butter! I usually get crunchy, unsalted for general eating and for this recipe but sometimes I also get smooth unsalted and make these. It's all natural and only $4.99 for a 16 ounce jar - can't ask for much more than that! :)


Other great things they have are:

• I have seen that some Trader Joes carry GF breads, but so far, all the ones I've seen have yeast in them. So, I can't comment on them!
• I have heard that Trader Joes makes a brown rice pasta that is supposed to be pretty good (though not as good as Tinyaka by some reviews), but the TJs that we go to doesn't seem to carry it, so I can comment on those either.
• Vitamins/Suppliments - Again, I haven't purchased any of these, but several are listed as GF.
• A GF Flourless Chocolate Cake - This has dairy in it, so I haven't tried it, but it looks awesome!
• Rice Drink. I forgot to ask for a picture of this. This is the first non-dairy milk that I actually liked. This is NOT the Rice Dream rice milk. This is in the refrigerated section and comes in 1/2 gallon containers. It is TJs brand and the vanilla container is beige and purple. This milk is thinner than the other drinks in my opinion which, for me, makes it easier to actually drink straight. I get unsweetened vanilla and it's great on cereal too or in recipes and bonus - it's cheaper. Can't remember the price right now but I know it comes out cheaper than the quart boxes and I think it tastes much better! :) I'll take a pic at a later date so you'll know what I'm talking about!
  

*** Many thanks to my darling Husband for these photos. Lately, he's been doing all the TJ runs and he took all these nice photos with his camera phone just so I could do this blog post. Yup, he's a keeper! ;)

Believe it or not, Costco is a great place for people with food intolerances! Seriously! I will show you some of my favorite Costco finds:

Remember this post? Well, here is a picture of this awesome stuff! 1 whole pint of Pure Vanilla Extract for only $5.99!!! Woo Hoo! Love it!

I love these chips. They're perfect with salsa, guacamole, chili, Natalie's Black Bean Salsa and tuna salad! Yum! I'm able to get a 22 ounce bag of these for only $4.59!



Yum! What's not to love about this? It is GF/DF/SF and is delicious! My Costco sells these in packs of 3-16 ounce containers for only $8.69!! Wholly is right! ;)




Generic Zyrtec! 300 tablets for $14.99!!! Note, this isn't completely dairy free. It does have lactose in it. However, I've been taking these for months with no side affects, so there must not be too much in there.


Other great things they have are:

• Meat in bulk (sometimes a good buy, sometimes not!). I found a leg of lamb there before for $3.99 a pound!
  
• Fresh fruits and veggies - also sometimes a good buy, sometimes not.
• Juice - if they have a kind you like, their juices usually come in pack of 2 for a reasonable price.
• Vitamins - several of which are labeled GF (and DF or SF)! Nice!
• Contact Lens Cleaner - I don't remember the price exactly on this, but it's CHEAP. I get 3 huge bottles and then I am set for a LONG time (hence why I can't remember how much I paid. I think like $10 for all 3 bottles - but don't quote me on that!)