What Is Left To Eat? -- a Food Journal by Laura Bracken

Friday is company night and it's the one non-vegan meal of the week. Salmon Stir Fry 1 cup of brown rice 1 cup of water (or stock if you like) Some salt A bit (maybe a tablespoon) of coconut oil (optional) Into the Instant Pot.  Manual for 15 mins.  NPR for 10 mins. Salmon fillets Miyoko's vegan butter, melted (I still don't want dairy) Onion powder Garlic powder Smoked paprika Salt and pepper Cayenne Dried parsley Juice of one lemon No measurements... I just throw stuff together.  I mixed up all the stuff above in a shallow bowl then dipped the salmon in and tried to rub the stuff on all parts of the salmon. I then put them into my toaster oven onto a pan in the center (my broiler pan).  The oven was preheated and running at 400 degrees.  The fillets should sizzle when you put them on the pan.  I set the timer for 10 minutes. Onion Carrots Celery Red bell pepper Zucchini Bok Choy Mung bean sprouts These all get a ...

After making my pumpkin pancakes (which were heavenly!), I still had a lot of pumpkin leftover but ... okay, I didn't want to make pumpkin pancakes again because, as good as they were, they require me to stand there at the stove, only cooking three at a time, and that can take a long time when you've got a double batch of pancakes. So I decided to try something that would require less of my time.  As before, I'm using Einkorn wheat.  Feel free to try substitutes if you like (like gluten-free, etc).  I'm also using eggs, so if you're vegan, use an egg substitute. Pumpkin Muffins 3 C canned, unsweetened pumpkin (which is a little under 2 cans) 2 chia eggs (mix 2T chia, ½ cup warm water) ½ C honey ½ C applesauce  ¼ maple syrup (optional) ¼ milk substitute (coconut, cashew, almond, etc) 1 t baking soda 1 t cinnamon 1 t nutmeg 1 t ginger ¼ t cloves ½ t salt 2 C gluten free flour (I use casava) ½ C chocolate chips, I use coconut sugar sweetened...

Today's recipe is neither vegan (although I'm sure it's easy enough to find a substitute for one egg) nor is it gluten free (again, I'm sure it'd be just as good with cassava flour). Learn to substitute to make a recipe what you want it to be.  Experimentation is awesome.  For every 100 kitchen experiments I do, probably only about 2 or 3 are fails. Yesterday was our first storm of the season so we'll call today's recipe my entry into warm, comfort food season. I actually really like winter because I love soups and stews.  Then again, I get excited when summer comes around because it means salads and smoothies.  Ha!  I just like to eat. While the following is not gluten free, I use Einkorn wheat flour because it is non-hybridized (it's still in the same form as it was 30,000 years ago). " Einkorn is the oldest wheat known to scientists and is considered man’s first wheat."... "Einkorn has a higher percentage of protein than moder...

Winner winner chicken dinner! Without the chicken, of course. Made something this morning that turned out awesome (and was fast and easy!). I'm going to share my recipe with you, but please keep in mind that I'm all for alterations.  Use whatever veggies you've got.  And although mine is vegan, feel free to meat it up if that's your pleasure. Vegan Thai Flavors Lentil and Vegetable Stew 1 large onion cut up a bit 2 T broth (or oil if you're not going oil free) 3 garlic cloves minced 2½ cups vegetable stock (or whatever you would normally use) 1 cup uncooked French lentils (use whatever lentils you have) 2 carrots cut up a bit ½ cauliflower cut up a bit 1 large zucchini cut up a bit Salt Red pepper flakes 1 can full fat coconut milk (use low fat if you like) 1 jar Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste (4 oz jar.. see below for list of ingredients) Juice of 1 lime 1 can green beans, drained 1 can peas, drained You may notice there's a proces...

Why yes, it has been an eon since I've written.  A lot has happened, in my personal life as well as my professional life.  But I'm back on track now and will continue to share with you the simple dishes I come up with that center around plant-based, whole foods recipes. No big pre-amble (other than the above)... so without further ado, here's last night's recipe. It started like this... I eat kale but until now only ever raw.  I've never tried cooked kale but I can only eat so many salads before boredom sets in.  AND I had this huge bag of kale in my fridge so... I poured a little EVOO into a pan, sauteed some onions for a bit then threw in handfuls of organic kale cut up. Trying to cut back on salt, I decided to thaw my last lemon juice ice cube (when it's lemon season I juice the lemons and freeze them in ice cube trays... after they're frozen, I empty the cubes into a ziploc bag or other container and they stay in the freezer until needed). ...

I've been able to bring my ph level from 5.5 to 6.5 but I still want to get more alkaline. I've lost a few pounds, so that's good.  And I feel (deep down) that I'm finally eating in a healthy manner.  As I said before, I had been eating healthy FOODS before, but I wasn't eating in a healthy manner (large meals, lots of carbs, lots of oils, etc). Now I want to share a few foods with you. The first is this homemade falafel recipe.  I took the basics from here  and made a few tweaks to it.  Here's what *I* did: Ingredients 2 cups cooked lentils (see below) 2 handfuls of fresh parsley (see below) 1 whole jalapeño, chopped roughly (see below) 1½ tablespoons olive oil 3 garlic cloves Juice of ½ a lemon juice Some salt 2 tablespoons non-wheat flour  Notes To make the lentils I put one cup of rinsed French lentils into my instant pot with 1½ cups of water and some salt and pepper and put it on manual for 1 minute with a 10 minut...

My second elimination diet wasn't yielding any results so I started digging a little and found that I may be suffering from GERD (chronic acid reflux).  This kinda freaked me out because I know someone who died of cancer brought on by chronic acid reflux. I didn't really HAVE heartburn symptoms so I wanted to prove that I didn't really have acid reflux.  I wanted to prove that there's surely something I'm eating that I'm intolerant of and that once I eliminate that food all will be well. Alas, even cutting out my beloved onions and garlic didn't do the trick.  So, I started reading.  I faced my fears and read article after article about acid reflux... mostly googling "Can I have acid reflux without symptoms?" kinds of things. One can take antacids, such as Tums, but in typical Laura fashion I wanted to get more to the root of the problem.  I'm almost always against treating a problem by merely making one symptom go away.  And although ant...

Here are some of the basic concepts: There are a ton of buttons and I mostly use only two of them ("manual" and "saute") "Manual" means you're pressure cooking (which is like speed cooking) Make sure your rubber/plastic ring is inside the lid. Make sure the lid is screwed on and centered (you will hear chimes when opening and closing the lid) MAKE SURE THE DIAL AT THE TOP IS IN THE MIDDLE POSITION ("SEALED") When using "manual" mode just set the time/minutes by pushing the plus or minus sign; there's no "start" button The machine will say "ON" and what it's doing first is getting up to pressure After several minutes, you will see some steam coming out of the vent hole (there's not enough pressure yet to seal it) Once the liquid inside has boiled enough to create pressure, the vent hole will plug up and pressure wi...

Kind of more of the same so no need to post each day, now that we're into the swing of things. The other day I did start off with oatmeal made from oats, frozen blueberries, and a fresh peach from a tree in our yard. And one night I had a salad with vinegar/oil dressing and then a patty of ground bison, coconut aminos, minced onion, garlic, salt and pepper.  (The burger isn't minuscule; I have very large dinner plates.) But otherwise a lot of repeating of what I've had for the first week and a half (which is a huge portion of veggies with lots of fish and some fruit and very little grains).

Today was a real treat.  I kept to my plan but didn't have to cook.  I was at the house of a very caring and clever friend who didn't even start preparing the food until I got there so I could supervise.  It's easy to look at a list of what someone can have and miss the fact that some ordinary and everyday item isn't on there... like tomatoes or eggs.  Or even subtler things like white vinegar (made from corn) or anything with "flavors" (might be yeast, or msg, etc).  So my friend joined me in a day of restrictive eating and the food was super yummy. For lunch we had... Broiled salmon rubbed with olive oil, garlic, and salt Salad of lettuce, cucumber, avocado, carrots (perhaps a few more veggies but I've forgotten) Dressing of oil, vinegar (remember, only apple cider vinegar), and her own Italian blend of herbs Sorry my photo is blocking the entire salad AND it's showing the upside part of the salmon.   I was really quite full after...

A little frustrated that I see no change in symptoms yet.  They're not big, noticeable symptoms like eczema or migraines; they're just bothersome.  My intuition still tells me their food related, so I will soldier on. My fallback food is carbs and I ate plenty yesterday.  I will try to not do that for a few days now. For dinner I had... Leftover tuna salad to which I added some cucumber But then I had a big bowl of watermelon (it was awesome!) for dessert. Watermelon Breakfast was... Roasted chicken Roasted sweet potato Lunch was... Rice noodles with oil and vinegar Cod with coconut aminos To my dinner company I served flatbread with bbq chicken on top and tomato salad on the side. Today is another day.  I'd like to go lighter on the carbs and I'd like to drink way more water.  Fingers crossed.

Some busy days this week and coming up. Had the last of the leftover stir-fry veggie for breakfast. Lunch was a quick fix since someone was coming to the studio in a few minutes. I opened a can of line-caught (yes, that's important) tuna and mixed it with oil/vinegar/dill.  Then added a slice of chopped onion and two chopped celery stalks.  Threw that on top of some spinach and tada!  Two meals worth of yummy goodness. Spinach, tuna, oil, vinegar, dill, celery, onion Afternoon snack was... Roasted sweet potato Dinner was...   Roasted chicken Green beans Preparing for Friday night (I host dinner for three).  Picked up some frozen flatbread pizza and will add BBQ chicken on top (which hopefully won't dry out when I head the flatbread).  I'll also serve a tomato and cucumber salad (I will make my own merely cucumber).  While they have pizza, I may have cod.  I'll try to cook it earlier in the day so it's ready (easy...

Fairly lack-luster about the whole thing.  Kind of makes me realize how focused I am on food all the time. I feel I head toward carbs in times of stress or ennui.  Leftover bison with simple salad Stir fry veggies with leftover rice Applesauce (tiny container) Rice cakes with coconut oil and a fruit smoothie (nothing BUT carbs!) Around 3pm I was feeling deprived and bored (I'd just done 6 hours of inventory for my websites).  I was in no mood for cooking so I reverted to simple (which often equates to carbs).   Spread some coconut oil onto rice crackers and sprinkled with garlic powder and onion powder then popped them into the toaster oven for a minute or two. While those were warming I threw some frozen fruit (unsweetened, of course) into my nutribullet (strawberry, mango, and cherries, for the record) along with some coconut water.   Then I sat down with my decadent meal and watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show....

Had to do something different today to liven things up.  So I did end up switching from fish to meat.  Although I had the last of the leftover salmon and stir fry for breakfast. Salmon with coconut aminos Stir fry veggies For late lunch I was pretty hungry because I waited until after 2pm to even start making it.  Luckily it came together fast. I threw a cup of white Basmati rice into the instant pot (with a cup of water) and set it for 6 minutes on manual with a 10 minute NPR.   Next I sauteed one chopped onion, then added three cloves of garlic (mashed), then one pound of grass-fed bixon... mixed it all up and put the lid on. While those two (the rice and the meat) cooking, I quickly washed and cut up a head of red leaf lettuce and made a vinaigrette (oil, vinegar, salt, pepper... bland, but do-able). By that time, all the bison was browned so I mixed it up again and added about a teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice....

Day 5 was the first day I hang pangs of "deprivation".  Maybe it's because I have some Macadamia nuts in my cupboard and I *love* Macadamia nuts. And while I realize that many elimination diet plans include nuts and seeds and even grains and legumes in their initial three-week cleanse, my intuition tells me that the more "things" I include during this "eating clean" part the harder it may be to discern what is causing additional inflammation in my body. Suddenly three weeks is feeling like a really long time. Nothing new or exciting to report today.  Pretty much a lot of the same foods (salmon, stir fry, avocado).  Tomorrow I may go back to salad... and I may even try some bison (it'll have been a full week of fish). So far, I still seem to have the energy to mow the lawn (which around here is an hour-long ordeal in extreme heat and it's all completely aerobic as I push and pull and wrangle the mower through the Mars landscape that is o...

Still had company today but adapting. Had a marvelous breakfast of roasted cauliflower and avocado "toast". Cauliflower, turmeric, olive oil, salt/pepper Avocado mashed with chopped onion, salt/pepper on rice cake Also throughout the day... Leftover salmon and rice from previous night's stir fry One piece of watermelon More avocado on rice cake I feel I'm eating a good amount.  I do want to pay attention to varying what I'm eating but it's hard during this first three weeks with all the limitations.  I look forward to testing then hopefully adding in (because I really don't think these are causing problems): citrus, nuts, seeds, legumes and possibly nightshade.   In regards to foods in the nightshade family that I like [tomatoes, potatoes (doesn't include sweet potatoes), peppers (doesn't include black pepper), goji berries, paprika, and eggplant], I don't necessarily need white potatoes, but I will cry if I can...

Today was a real trial. I have company for the weekend.  The day started off with me driving to the grocery store to get "bagel fixin's" for them.  Got home and while I'm toasting their bagels and opening their cream cheese, I throw the last of the spinach into a sautee pan for my own impromptu breakfast. Then I look at the ingredients list of their lox.  Amazingly enough, no sugar.  Very unusual.  It's just salmon, salt, and smoke. So my breakfast was one tiny piece of lox with sautee'd spinach.  Lox Spinach sauteed in coconut oil I realize it wasn't much but I had planned to think of what to eat next after they were done with their breakfast. Before I know it, however, we're making plans to go to the movies and... it starts in 20 minutes, so while they're putting their shoes on I grab the bowl of leftover salad from yesterday.  I downed about three bites then we head out the door. Drove a couple towns over, watched the movi...

Yesterday, that first day, there were no less than a dozen times that I decided now was not the time to start this elimination diet. I was having company for dinner.  My kids were coming to visit this weekend.  I haven't gone grocery shopping to stock up on things I need.  I haven't menu planned.  I just defrosted a quart of my veggie soup (which is totally awesome but has some ingredients I can't have in the first three weeks), etc. I realize it's only day 2 today but I'm rather proud of myself for ignoring those perfectly grand excuses not to do this. My intake of carbs was pretty significant today... but man did that sweet potato taste good!  Sorry I forgot to snap a photo of it all roasted and awesome. So how did I handle having company tonight?  As I prepared the salad(s), I put two bowls in front of me.  Mine and theirs.  I chopped lettuce and added to both bowls, carrots in both bowls, etc. Then I put the chicken in their bowl and...

I've been feeling less than optimal.  I think I've gotten too lax with my food habits, so I've decided to do another elimination diet again . I have a better understanding of what I'm doing now so my intention is to be more careful/strict and more observant. I say "intention" because it's so easy for me to plot and plan on paper, but actual follow-through is something I don't have a great track record for. But my intention for the next few months is to chart what I eat and how I feel.  Yeah, you'll probably find this boring so I know I'll lose a few recipe followers, but who knows... I may pick up some interested parties who want to see if they too have food intolerances that are affecting their lives. Day 1: 1 T apple cider vinegar in warm water Warmed some water and added 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.  Vinegar is on the forbidden list for most elimination diets but I use raw, unfiltered, organic apple cider vinegar that...

Had a package of yummy, locally made pesto and wanted to use it before the expiration date so I decided to make an impromptu mix up of ingredients with a Mediterranean flair. I can't tell you how much of each item I used exactly but I will try to approximate. Chicken Pesto Pasta One half organic chicken breast... cook however you like then cut into bite size pieces (or slices if you prefer) One package of organic non-wheat pasta; I used this one  made from lentils ½ cup Kalamata olives cut into quarters (or halves) ½ cup sun dried tomatoes in oil (cut up a bit) ¼ cup chopped organic onion Pesto (I used some organic local made lemon-artichoke pesto ) Pine nuts Optional: feta cheese (I did not use any cheese this time) Cooked the chicken (my usual method... frozen half breast right into a saute pan with a little olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper... brown on both sides then remove and cut into bite size pieces, returning to the pan to cook through. Cooke...

Sometimes, okay... most of the time, I don't do "cooking". When I eat, I have about three basic systems.  Big cooking, something from a recipe start to finish, I do that about once a week.  Two or three times a week, I have leftovers (either fresh from the cooking session or just pull some leftovers out of the freezer).  The rest of the time my meals consist of either salads (which I don't really consider as "cooking" because I already have the dressing made up and I only put 1-3 ingredients in... leaning more toward one... which is lettuce)... so either salads or single foods. Here's an example of one of my "single foods" meals.  Blueberries, macadamia nuts, and tea. I am a big fan of blueberries.  So another easy meal for me is blueberries with a dollop of unsweetened coconut yogurt on top.  And by "coconut yogurt" I don't mean yogurt that is coconut flavored.  I mean yogurt made solely from coconut (dairy free).  My ...