Elimination Diet - Wrapping up week 1 (Steak/Risotto Recipe)

Sammit and I have survived our first week of the elimination diet (suggested by my ND to see if I have any food allergies).  While it hasn't been easy, it hasn't been as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Week 1 - Cons:

1. I'm still really focused on the foods we can't eat.
2. Dear god I want a glass of milk.
3. I miss the taste of butter.
4. I've avoided a few social engagements because of diet restrictions.
5. This takes a lot of planning - there is no alternative.  If I forget to pack lunches the night before - I'm late to work - eating out at work is absolutely not a fall-back option.

Week 1 - Pros:

1. I'm eating way more vegetables than I used to eat - now realizing that I didn't eat nearly as many veggies as I thought I was.
2. I'm eating different foods (celery root, yams, kale, brown and wild rices, fish, salads, olive oils); there's a variety in my diet that I lacked before.
3. I'm learning to cook in a way I didn't know I didn't know.  I've always thought I could cook - and while I can make food, I'm not sure if I can cook.  I'm picking up new techniques that are necessary now.
4. While I don't feel completely different - I have felt more energized a few days this week.  Still inconclusive though.
5. I've eaten some of the best meals I've ever made this week - and here I'll share one:

Simple Seared Steak with Complicated Asparagus Brown Rice Risotto

I started the Risotto when I took my steak out of the fridge (to let it come up to room temp before cooking).  This particular cut (I wish I had taken a picture prior to cooking it) was purchased at a local market.  We typically get our meat from a local CSA - but the storm last month prevented me from picking up our order.  While I love the idea of our CSA meat - I have some trouble with a few of the cuts and I really enjoyed having a nice trimmed flank steak from the store.  This was a grass-fed, grain-finished cut sans antibiotics.

Risotto:

1 cup brown rice

7 cups HM beef stock (can use boxed stock, but nothing beats this gelatinous nutrient filled goodness)

1/2 cup shredded beef (optional, I had a little left over from a roast a few days ago)

1/2 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 3rds

Steak:

Favorite cut of steak - sized appropriately

1 Tbs. coconut oil

1 cup HM beef stock

Directions:

1. Pull the steak out of the fridge and let it come up to room temp on the counter.  Bring 7 cups of beef stock to a boil on the stove while browning 1 cup of rice in a large pot.
2. Add a ladle of boiling stock to the browned rice and stir.  Risotto cooks slowly - so keep stirring the rice until all the stock has been absorbed.  Add additional ladles of stock one at a time, waiting until the last has been absorbed before adding another.  Stir stir stir, keeping the pot on medium-low heat.
3. After 30 minutes preheat your oven to 500 (F) with an oven proof pan inside.  When the oven comes up to temp - move pan (use an oven mitt!) from the oven to a stove burner on high.  Add coconut oil and let it heat up.  Lay the steak in the pan and DO NOT touch it - let it sear and get back to stirring the risotto.
4. After 2-3 minutes flip steak and allow the other side to sear for the same amount of time.  Once seared on both sides, put the pan and steak(s) back into the oven and cook for additional time.  I prefer 3-4 minutes or so for a  medium steak (145-150(F)).  In the mean time, stir that risotto.
5. Pull steak out and allow it to rest on a plate for 10-15 minutes (cover in tin foil).  If risotto looks creamy - test the rice to see if it is soft - if soft, stir in asparagus and beef (and a spoon of butter if you're not avoiding dairy).  Turn heat off and cover.  
6. In the mean time, deglaze the steak pan.  Add 1 cup of beef stock to the hot pan and scrape the delicious little bits from the bottom until everything is loosened.  Bring stock to a high simmer and allow it to reduce and thicken into a delicious sauce - pour over steak and risotto and serve.

My rice was a little undercooked - but after
putting it back on the heat for about 10 minutes - it softened right up.

52 New-To-Us Soups - #2 Chicken & Vegetable Soup

Shot of my counter amidst this soup affair

1/2 gallon HM chicken stock (highly recommended, though boxed stock or broth will work)

4-5 carrots, chopped (I like slicing diagonally)

2 celery stocks, chopped (1/4 inch thick, including leaves)

1/4 large celery root, thinly sliced

1 bunch green onions, sliced

1/4 head green cabbage, sliced into ribbons

3 cups shredded chicken (left over from roasted chicken)

A few large pinches of salt

1 tsp white pepper

All my ingredients - getting to know each other

 Directions:

1.  Heat stock in a large soup pot.  Add carrots and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add remaining veggies and simmer for another 5 minutes.
3. Add shredded chicken and heat for another 5-10 minutes.
4. Serve Hot.  Reheats well, but looses color. 

I think this would be really cook with a little tomato paste or some dropped eggs (neither of which are available to me while testing allergies).

Poached Pears

Disclaimer: When I was looking for information on the foods Sammit and I could or could not eat while searching for my suspected food allergy I found a lot of conflicting lists.  In the end, I settled on the list of foods to avoid from my ND - so I apologize if this recipe contains foods that you are not able to eat on your elimination diet.

 Sammit and I put together a nice dinner last night (when I say together - I made dinner and Sammit set the table and did the dishes).  I foil baked [Wild Alaskan] cod with some Old Bays & garlic and added a side of wild rice (cooked in HM bone stock) and steamed broccoli.  I was going to take a picture because it was just beautiful - but I'm finding that the better the meal, the less likely I am to have a picture.  I'll work on that.  But the real show stopper was dessert, something to which we thought we'd long said goodbye while looking for my allergy: poached pears!

Now, I've never made or had poached pairs before this, so if you're familiar (and a big fan) you might not like these.  We aren't wine drinkers and rarely ever have it in the house so even though the alcohol would cook off (alcohol is not allowed on the ED) we didn't use any in our recipe.  We also can't have processed sugar, so the simple syrup was out as well.  What to do - What to do?

2 cups water
2 Tbs. wildflower honey (from this Adorable man at the Eastern Market)
1 Tbs. maple syrup (we are using up our grade A and are searching for a local grade B variety)
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, seeds removed - reserving both the seeds and the pod
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped or grated (less if you find ginger to be strong)
Handful of blueberries
2 firm pears, cored with skins peeled off (skins and core can be composted or used as an ingredient to flavor the liquid)


Directions:

1. Add all but the pears to pot appropriately sized to house the pears and bring to a boil.  (I used a high walled but small pot that made it easier to evenly cook the pears - however the lack of surface area caused the syrup to take longer to reduce).

2. Turn the heat down to a simmer and gently add the peeled pears (as they cook they will become easier to bruise).  Place a lid on the pot and let simmer for 20-30 minutes (I let them cook while I made dinner).  Alternately you could put them in an oven-safe pot and let them bake at 250 for several hours.


3. When pears are soft (20-30 minutes on stove top), gently remove them from the sauce and let them cool.  Strain out the solid contents and keep the liquid in the pot - placing over medium heat and allowing it to reduce (stirring regularly) to your desired syrup thickness - I like mine to coat a spoon.  Now - you can keep the blueberries to serve, but we composted ours - they looked too much like Violet Beauregarde for my taste.

4.  Spoon syrup over pears and serve.

Liquid reducing into a syrup

Sammit and I loved the taste of these - pears, honey, ginger with hints of cinnamon and specks of vanilla and blueberry - not to mention the gorgeous color.  A true compliment from Sammit is him remarking on the food without me having to ask if he likes it (he likes everything).  Not only did he think they were delicious, he suggested we serve them at a dinner party; we don't really have dinner parties, but the thought was touching and I'll put these on the short list of things to serve his parents someday.  We also both agreed that as long as it doesn't turn out I'm allergic to dairy, these would be fabulous with some real whipped cream or a dollop of ice cream.  And should I ever decide to get really crazy, I thought about coring ice cream and serving it INSIDE the pear.

Our final product

Changing Our Diet - Elimination Diet Day One

Sammit has committed to completing an elimination/challenge diet with me this month.  My Naturopathic Doctor (ND) suggested I do this to tease out any food allergies or intolerances I might have that are causing  a slew of symptoms (headaches, chronic fatigue, mood swings, difficult weight loss, low body temp).  The biggest suspects are gluten, soy and dairy but as a precaution we're removing a plethora of foods.  Sammit doesn't think he has any allergies, so he's completing the diet for moral support - also because I prepare 100% of the household food.

We're eliminating: corn, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes (other than sweet), citrus, melons, bananas, strawberries, all gluten (wheat, rye, spelt, oats, barley, breads, pastas, pastries, etc.), all soy, peanuts, pistachios, cashews, sesame seeds, red meat, smoked meats, shellfish, catfish, deli cuts/hot dogs, sausage, all dairy, eggs, refined fats, sweeteners (other than honey and small amounts of maple syrup), caffeine, and alcohol.

It sounds like a lot - and in all honesty, it is - but I'm realizing that a good part of it is because I don't know how to cook much beyond meat and potatoes.  We're left with a large variety of fruits and vegetables, rice and grains (amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, millet), some nuts and seeds, pastured poultry and wild fish, olive and coconut oils, fresh herbs and spices and teas - this is delicious stuff, if you know what to do with it, and I'm slowly learning (slowly being the operative word).

Today's menu included:

Breakfast: Blueberry/Cherry/Grape Mix

Lunch: Fresh Greens Salad with HM Italian Dressing, Rice & Beans w/ Shredded Chicken sauteed in  Coconut oil and seasoned with cumin and cilantro

Dinner: Sweet Potato "fries" and roasted chicken breast.

Snacks: Herbal Tea, Raw Seed/Nut Mix (Brazil Nuts, Almonds, Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds), Apples

I made the mistake of putting red pepper flakes in my rice & beans mix, not making the connection that it contained "peppers"and Sammit made the misstep of eating a mini-snicker's bite - so we're off to a rocky start.

Mexican Fried Beans & Rice with Chicken and Cilantro