Nourishing Foods for a Limited Diet

This is my weekly post talking about what’s been twisting and brewing in my kitchen.  It is part of Wardeh’s Tuesday Twister at GNOWFLINS. Check it out!

It’s been a busy and eventful week!  I have been very inspired and have been experimenting with new and wonderful recipes!  My week started out last Sunday with a renewed inspiration and dedication to creating traditional foods that are very nourishing for the body.  Wardeh’s post about reversing food allergies through traditional foods got me started with this.

Midweek, I was contacted my someone who had emailed me a few weeks ago asking for help with menu planning for a very limited diet.  The first time she emailed, she was reacting to many foods including all grains, eggs, casein, poultry, and milk.  On top of that, she also has celiac disease.

Last week she emailed me and told me she had been doing the GAPS diet and program.  She said that it was not only helping with her problems, she was becoming “un-allergic” to foods that had previously upset her.  Her diet is still very limited but she is looking forward to introducing more foods and sounds really good!

Now, when I hear the same thing twice in one week from two different sources, I feel like “someone” is trying to tell me something!

I checked out GAPS and was intrigued by what it claims to help people with!  In a nutshell, it aims to heal the gut lining, and therefore helps adults and children with an array of digestive AND mental problems such as:  depression, celiac disease, non-anaphylactic food allergies and sensitivities, autism, ADHD, colitis, obsessive compulsive disorder, Chrohn’s, learning disabilities, diverticulitis, candida overgrowth, and much more!

I am almost finished reading the Gaps Guide, by Baden Lashkov and will soon be ordering the book, The Gut and Psychology Syndrome, by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD.  I am completely fascinated by this diet and program and am really enjoying reading it!  I am still learning so much;  when I am a bit further with it, I will write a more thorough post about it.

Fermented Carrots:
So my week started with making some Fermented Gingered Carrots, from Nourishing Traditions by  Sally Fallon.  I had tried making these a couple years ago and completely messed up the measurements somehow and didn’t pound the carrots enough so that they weren’t under the liquid.  The result was very salty carrots that didn’t really ferment properly.

This time, I think they turned out properly but still a bit salty.  I really like them on brown rice or on steamed veggies.  Fermented veggies are supposed to be eaten in small quantities and with other foods so I guess that is why!  They aid in digestion as they contain beneficial bacteria, such as the strains found in yogurt and kefir.  Fermented veggies are great for people who can’t eat fermented dairy products.

Soaked Oatmeal
Last week I decided to test the theory that if grains are properly soaked that they are easier to digest.  I haven’t eaten oatmeal for over a year and wanted to make some for Elijah, so I decided to give it a go.  I soaked it with goat milk kefir overnight and then cooked it according to directions in Nourishing Traditions.

The first day I felt great.  By the next day in the afternoon, I felt a reaction coming on.  For me, I get depressed, spacey, and frustrated easily.  This lasted at least a good two days, telling me my body was simply not ready for even properly soaked oatmeal.

Soaked and Dehydrated Almonds

My next experiment was soaked and dehydrated almonds.  Although I have soaked nuts and seeds for recipes, I hadn’t tried dehydrating them in the oven until last week. Nourishing Traditions calls them “crispy nuts,” and they are prepared this way to remove the enzyme inhibitors that are naturally occurring in nuts and seeds.

The first problem I had was my oven simply won’t go below 170 degrees.  The recipe says “no more than 150 degrees.”  I’m not one to let that stop me so I just went ahead and put them in the oven.  Well, I put them too low in the oven and some of them ended up burning slightly on one side.  I moved them up to the top rack after I realized this.  They also were not all “crispy.”  Anyone have tips on dehydrating nuts in the oven without a dehydrator??

Grain-free Brownies made with Sunflower Seed “Flour”
Despite my somewhat failed attempt at the almonds, I decided to try a “snack” recipe from Nourishing Traditions for brownies made from sunflower seeds.  They are made from strictly ground up sunflower seeds, carob powder, salt, vanilla and water.  That’s it!

You basically combine everthing into a thick dough, and then pat it into a pan and then bake it at 150 degrees F, for 24 hours.  Well, I ended up baking mine again at 170 degrees, but on the highest rack this time.  I also only baked it for, I think, about 16 hours.  It gets a little fuzzy after 12 hours how long it was!

These are really good!  You can taste the sunflower pretty strongly but they are a great snack!  Once they cool, you can cut them into pieces and then store them in an airtight container in the fridge.

Goat Kefir Popscicles

Inspired by Wardeh’s Kefir Pops, I used some goat milk kefir from the Common Market to make some popsicles for Elijah.  He loves them!  He even had them for breakfast in his pj’s.  The only problem is he throws a fit when I make them and then put them into the freezer because he wants them NOW.  Pour guy!

Potato-free Smashed “Potatoes” – made with cauliflower
A lot of people can’t eat potatoes so I decided to try something I had been wanting to try for a while – mashed cauliflower.  I added goat milk, butter, salt, garlic and nutritional yeast.  The result was good, however, I have to admit they didn’t get eaten up like most of the other food does around here.  I think they’d be really good added to something or with gravy.  I’m dreaming up a potato free Shepherd’s Pie, which these would go very nicely with.

Zucchini “Pasta”

If you haven’t see the raw zucchini pasta that a lot of raw foodies make, here is a link to a video demonstrating how to do it.  However, I don’t follow a strict raw food diet and I really can’t manage to eat raw zucchini.  I saw a recipe somewhere (can’t remember where now) for the same idea of using a vegetable peeler to peel strips of zucchini to make noodles.  Instead of eating them raw, you saute the zucchini strips a little bit in olive oil, just until they are wilted but still bright green.  I decided to give this a go to go with our spaghetti sauce, and it was a big hit!  I also made brown rice noodles because I wasn’t sure if my husband and son would like the zucchini noodles.  But my husband and I both liked the zucchini ones better!  As for Elijah, I don’t think he was very hungry because he wasn’t eating much of anything, but he did try the zucchini noodles.

Beef Stock
I make my own chicken stock, which is super easy and super nutritious for you.  However, I have always been a little afraid or shy of making beef stock.  I don’t know why, maybe because those bones seem so foreign to me.  But I am learning that beef stock in particular is very healing to the gut lining.  The GAPS diet/program begins by using beef stock and vegetables to make blended soups.  This is the initial stage and is said to help the gut lining heal.

So I finally gave it a try, following the recipe in Nourishing Traditions.  I ended up cooking it for about 28 hours.  Minimum time is 12 but you can cook it as long as 72 hours.  I strained it last night but haven’t yet tried it.  I’ll keep you posted on this!

Coconut Biscuits

This was a spontaneous creation that I made in less that 30 minutes after I saw the recipe on Gapsguide.com.  They are made from coconut flour, eggs, honey, salt, coconut oil and optional shredded coconut and dried berries.  I made them plain without the shredded coconut and dried berries.  They turned out good, but a little dry.  I added an extra egg than was called for because my eggs were a bit small.  I’d like to try it again and change it a bit to see if I can make them more moist.  Elijah gobbled these up with plenty of butter added to them!

Did I mention I also made pot of black beans?  I don’t know how I ended up making and trying so many new things this week but that’s what happened.  I think it also has to do with the fall weather coming on.  When the weather gets cool, a lot of my energy goes into cooking!

What about you?  What are your favorite nourishing foods?