Cabbage Rolls - Yum!

These are the cabbage rolls we made the other night. They were yummy! The recipe goes a bit like this:

Heat oven to 180 degrees C

Finely dice about 300g lamb

Cook 1 cup brown rice.

Blanch 8 large cabbage leaves.

Mix rice, lamb, some sunflower seeds, a little salt.

Place lumps of the mixture into a cabbage leaf and roll into a little parcel.

Place parcels in an oiled oven dish.

Cover the dish with a lid or alfoil.

Cook for about 20mins.

Enjoy!

The Plan

Ok, so before we go any further, I have promised and promised to show you The Plan. It's becoming almost like the Epping Rail Link. I bet you don't think I'm ever going to deliver. Well here it is: The Plan.

The point of the diet is to establish which foods you are allergic to or intolerant of. The structure of the diet is this: To detox the body for a period by eating only known hypoallergenic foods, then challenge the body with foods that are known allergens for many people until all major foods have been tested. The detox weeks allow the body to recover from masked food allergies (those which don't usually give immediate reactions, either because they are slow acting, or because they are so frequently eaten). Being free from these ongoing reactions means you become more sensitive to food allergens when they are reintroduced. The challenge can run for as long or as little as you need, but the aim is to test a wide range of probably allergens.

In our case, the detox part of the diet consisted of 1 week of eating only lamb, sweet potato, beans, sprouts, apples, pears, sea salt and maple syrup. Then in the second week we introduced 3 other low allergen foods in succession, every second day - brown rice, avocado, and banana.

Today we start the challenge part of the diet, and we have just semi-finalised our list of challenge foods and the order of introduction. On advice we have left wheat and milk until a way into the diet to allow further detox time from these foods. The timing of introduction has been a little affected by logistics. I am going on a camp in 3 weeks in Northern Victoria for a subject I am tutoring at uni. There will be limited cooking facilities and while everyone else will be catered for, I will have to cook for myself. I therefore wanted to test wheat and yeast beforehand so I can make some bread to take up there with me for easy lunches. So, without further ado, the challenge list is:

1. Eggs

2. garlic

3. soy

4. chicken

5. broccoli

6. oats

7. milk

8. wheat

9. yeast

10. beef

11. mushrooms

12. oranges

13. red wine

14. tomatoes

15. sugar

16. lentils

17. capsicum

18. corn

19. shop-bought bread

20. gluten-free pasta (Ellie), pasta (D)

21. potato

22. licorice (Ellie), chocolate (D)

23. onion

Some questions you're probably wondering about: Where's the white wine? We're gonna cheat a bit and introduce it on an off day - this wednesday at Wednesday Night Dinner. In a small quantity, of course. Why is garlic practically first? Because we love it and it's a great flavouring agent to open up the range of meal scenarios (eg you can start making stocks and soups once you have garlic). Why are eggs actually first? Because we have chickens (and they lay eggs, duh)! Why is onion last? Because I hate it anyway, but I think I should probably test it. Why is gluten free pasta on the list for Ellie? Because I am intolerant to durum wheat, which is used for pasta. I eat gluten free pasta as an alternative, and as I frequently east pasta it is important to know I can still eat it. Ditto for the licorice/chocolate. Will the list change? Yeah, probably things will be shuffled about as we decide we can no longer live without X, but Y is less important.

So, now that you've seen "the plan", I'm gonna go and show "the plan" to someone else...

Day 14 - Eggs!

Today is day 14. Today we get to start the challenge part of the diet. Today we get to eat eggs. This is great news, as we have chickens, and they have just gone back on the lay. The photo above is D peeling his eggs for breaky this morning. Yes, the eggs are slightly blue. That's the colour eggs our chickens lay!

We have 3 soft boiled eggs for breaky this morning. Then another hardboiled one for lunch. I've been feeling a bit funny since, but it's hard to tell if this is from the eggs or spill over from feeling a but funny from the oldish rice that I ate yesterday arvo. D also felt funny last night, which is why we're putting that one down to keeping our rice a little long and not to anything else.

Well, as for my crash on Wednesday night, it could be the avocado, so I've stopped eating avocado since then. However, given I had no stomach pain or anything else digestion related, I think it was probably just a good old CFS crash. I don't usually get them with quite so little warning, however I had had a couple of busy days and I've also had a bit of trouble eating enough at times. Given we've had no carbs and then very little carbs in our diet, it's pretty tricky to make sure you get enough food in to stay full for any length of time. D confessed he doesn't eat 3 meals anymore, he just eats continuously. So, I have since been careful to get enough food in throughout the day. So much so that at a training session on Friday, a colleague of mine who I haven't known for long said: "So... you like fruit then...". Cue sheepish, slightly uncomfortable look from me. "Well, so far you've eaten an apple, a pear, and a banana, and it's only lunchtime". Ok, fair cop. But you just wait til we go on field camp together, then you'll think I'm a proper weirdo.

This arvo we went shopping. D and I usually get a vegie box from uni, and buy other necessaries sporadically from butchers, grocers, supermarkets occasionally and the local deli. When we go to supermarkets together we tend to get a little overwhelmed. Relatively unexposed to supermarket specials, we go nuts for 2-for-1s and price-cuts. Today, with a limited range of foods to buy, we restrained ourselves a fair bit, but did end up buying rice milk, soy milk, and soy flour! Soy pancakes here we come (on Thursday)! We're also planning a Thursday lunch-date for edamame. Yum! And tonight, we're going to cook J's suggestion of dolmade-style lamb , beans and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves and baked. I'll report back on our success or otherwise.

Day 11 - Down For The Count

Maybe avocados were a bad idea. Or maybe I just got unlucky. Either way, I left Wednesday Night Dinner early last night feeling fluey and off colour. Woke up this morning feeling worse and have been back in bed sleeping since then. More once I can think straight again.

Into Temptation Knowing Full Well The Earth Will Rebel...

So far one of the hardest aspects of this diet has been social, and mostly around our friends temping us with yummy things.

Wednesday Night Dinner last week was our first test, and with another tonight I'm sure we'll be tempted again. We also spent Friday night with friends in Daylesford celebrating a birthday. The birthday girl had requested snacky foods (thinking that we could snack and play board games). Her mother, who never does food by halves, had cooked up an incredible storm, and there were about 20 different amazing-looking (and smelling!) dishes crowding the table. With such a smorgasbord of dishes, it was really hard to resist. D asked at one point if we could chew stuff up and then spit it out. I said No, and then I said it was up to him. In the end he didn't.

We had a federal election on Saturday. Being politically aware, Saturday night was a bit of a nail-biter for me. Fortunately I had a few lovely friends to share it with. They, however, were all merrily drinking red wine, and I wasn't. It was (still is - counting ongoing, Parliament hung) a very close election and having something to calm my nerves would definitely have been a good thing!

D also went to a concert on Thursday night with the boys. I imagine he found it quite difficult being on the water while the others happily downed the beers (and offered them to him too). My housemate G was very impressed with his willpower, but couldn't help taking the piss by adding: "Oh, but there was that kebab he ate on the way home."

I know my friends have their hearts in the right place. They're just trying to share their yummy food experiences with us. Thanks guys, but it'll be a good few weeks before we'll be able to succumb!

Food Intolerances and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Just a quickie to bring your attention to this:

Nightlife with Tony Delroy -Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is the primary reason for doing this diet. I manage it pretty well but do have suspicions that there are a couple more undetected food intolerances that are giving me grief. I was particularly interested to hear Leigh Hatcher mention his diet and the fact he eats like a diabetic. I have certainly been feeling better on our very restricted diet, and I will keep in mind the role of simple sugars and carbohydrates as we introduce those things. I also found the bit about lactose intolerance interesting. When I did a food intolerance test I did not show up as lactose intolerance, but I had already been off the milk for about 6 months. I am pretty sure I am in fact lactose intolerant, but this diet will give me an avenue to test this more systematically than I have previously. It is also interesting because it is a genetic condition, and therefore has some relevance to my family.

Day 9 - Brown rice, runnin' around in my brain...

Our diet progresses, and we're now allowed brown rice in addition to the other things. D and I had thought this would be very exciting, and we built up much anticipation before Monday (aka Brown Rice Day). However, when our Monday morning breakie bowl of rice arrived, we discovered it's really not that exciting. It's just brown rice, and we're not like my sister S who loves rice and will quite happily eat it by itself.

However, by getting a bit inventive (and because I was craving some edible sweetness and needed a quick meal), I discovered a yummy combo last night. Brown rice, poached fruit and their juices, and maple syrup. Yum! It's just like rice pudding, except without any of the things you usually put in rice pudding (apart from rice, I guess). Best dinner since starting this diet. Not that that's saying much. Every other one has been lamb, cabbage, and beans, plus or minus some sweet potato.

We have had some lovely recipe suggestions from friends. Most notably J who may well get some phone calls form me as I get more bored. She came up with dolmade-style lamb, rice and mince packages, amongst other inventive suggestions. My friend L also suggested sweet potato mash. D turned up his nose at this suggestion, adding: "I'm sure it's fine with butter". I think he has a point, but it may yet come into play.

Tomorrow we get to introduce avocados. This seemed non-controversial until I was at my aunt's place last night. When I mentioned this progression, her friend said: "Oh, I'm allergic to avocados". Uhoh, spanner in the works. I did some quick research today and it turns out both avocados and bananas can cause allergies, but this is primarily linked to latex allergies. Kinda weird. But anyway, I think we'll go ahead as planned. I also think that while it would not be ideal to introduce an allergen this early, we are probably sufficiently detoxed that we would be able to idnetify any reaction.

Moving from the "food goes in" to the "stuff comes out" part of digestion, our friend F asked about poos. F, D says: "Few and far between" (he's missing his museli). I haven't noticed a difference. I think we'll leave the topic there unless good cause arises. If we're having embarassing reactions to food along the way I'll probably stick to vague descriptions and let you wonderful people exercise your imaginations(or not, if you'd prefer!).

I realised yesterday that I am going on a camp in a few weeks. This is going to be a royal pain in the arse. It will be a pretty hectic week, and while everyone else will have their meals prepared for them I will have to slave in a very substandard kitchen (possibly only a microwave, I might need to take a camp stove I think!) to cook my own meals. Sucky. Oh well, c'est la vie! The timing of the camp will influence the order of introduction of food. It will be much easier for me if I have tested some more cold lunch foods before then, and maybe wheat and yeast (so I can make bread beforehand to take along). D and I will sit down in the next couple of days and put together "The Plan"* and I'll show you "The Plan" shortly, with a bit more of an explanation of what the premise of the elimination diet is. Til then, eat well!



*That, my darling sisters, is for you. I hope you laughed. :)