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

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...