Morning Glory

Six weeks into the diet, I'm finding my food creativity coming back. Last week I modified a traditional Morning Glory muffin recipe to be GAPS-friendly. Instead of wheat flour I used coconut and sunflower seed flour; instead of sugar I used honey; the rest: apples carrots, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, eggs, baking soda, raisins, sunflower oil, stayed the same. They didn't rise too high but they tasted delicious! For those wanting the recipe here it is:

GAPS Morning Glory Muffins
1/2 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup sunflower seed flour (raw seeds ground in a coffee grinder)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 pst. cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (or nuts of your choice)
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 cup finely grated carrots
1/2 an apple, peeled and grated
1/2 cup chopped pineapple
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sunflower oil
2 tsp minced fresh ginger (or 1 tsp powdered)

Mix wet ingredients are dry ingredients separately then combine. Bake in muffin tins at 350° for 35 minutes. Enjoy!

A Perspective on Time

I must admit that when I first heard about the GAPS diet I was floored and dismayed by the recommended 18 month duration (and more for some patients). A year and a half? That long? Really? I couldn't fathom no grains, starches, most beans, and no sugar for that long, I was already restricted in what I could eat. How would I do it? I consoled myself by thinking it would only be a year for me—after all I've been working on my gut issues for years, seven in fact, since my unsolicited affair with Giardia. Surely I was further along in my healing than those still undiagnosed and suffering the worst symptoms.
It's been a month so far and lately I've been thinking about a certain 2 1/2 year-old, a member of my extended community, who has been dealing with Leukemia for over a year now. Just past babyhood when she was diagnosed, her family was given the news that treatment would last 2 years. Two years of chemotherapy, injections, hospital stays and worries over infections. I know there are plenty of people struggling with illness and I'm not trying to compare my diet woes to those in real crisis. I thank G-d for my health all the time. My point in mentioning this family's ordeal is the perception of time. Two years seems like an incredibly long time to endure such hardship. But we do what we have to. I have a choice about my treatment. The adorable toddler does not. So I'm going to try not to think about the process from the beginning as a long arduous hike up a hill, but rather see it from the end—the goal of being completely healthy, at my peak. And rather than count down my time as though a prison sentence, I'm going to count forward, day by day, meal by meal really, and mark progress in accumulating successes, accruing health bucks into my bank account of life. How's that for a lot of mixed metaphors?!
Onward.

The Glory of Apple Crisp

Normally a fall dessert, apple crisp has reentered my life in a spring awakening. Together with my trusty sidekick in all things dessert, my daughter and I threw together a GAPS crisp this afternoon. We were getting a bit tired of the 4pm dessert break of banana ice cream and needed to switch things up. Given that I'd just picked up a whole case of organic apples from my greengrocer (Russo's for you eastern MA folks) and storing them in a tepid basement and expecting them to last is iffy at best, I decided to culinate (not a real word, I know, but seemed fitting)
Here's the recipe: sliced organic Fuji's with a drizzle of honey, covered by a mix of: ground and whole sunflower seeds, coconut flour, mashed dates and a little sunflower oil (the coconut oil would have made it too greasy, I think). A bit of cinnamon and ginger and it was ready to go. One bite and I had the strongest urge to jump into a pile of leaves and throw them skyward. Given that last fall's leaves are composting in the back yard bin, I opted instead for eating another helping of apple crisp.
I'm feeling better day by day, the real reward for being on this strict diet, and happy to have reached the one month milestone. Yay
P.S. My long-awaited kombucha is done! And it is delish! When the main batch was done, I bottled it and added a couple tablespoons of black cherry juice (no sugar added). It fermented two more days in the bottle. I tried some today and it was perfect: just the right amount of fizz, a slight sweet cherry flavor and all the healthy goodness it's reported to have (I'm taking this one on faith since I can't actually see or taste the beneficial bacteria). The next batch will be ginger honey, I think or maybe mango, depending on what strikes my fancy that day. Salut!

Banana 'ice-cream' and Birthday Cake

Still plugging away at the diet but have introduced more foods since the initial first couple weeks of chicken soup and friends. I'm eating salmon and tuna, more veggies and raw fruit in smoothies and snacks. I've also added what I call "Glorious Nuggets of Joy", a spontaneous name that clearly came from desperation for sweet snacky-type things. They're a concoction of mashed dates, shredded coconut, sunflower seeds ground into flour and peanut butter, all rolled into two-bite balls and coated in crushed sunflower seeds. It's amazing how cravings for sweets still persist but not for the traditional baked goods and sugar-laden desserts. These little beauties satisfy that end-of-meal treat that I've missed these past few weeks, but are still well within allowed parameters. The silly name was maybe created to boost their appeal and to delight in the notion that yes, dessert still exists in some form on this diet.
Speaking of dessert, my darling daughter, freshly home from college, shared a new recipe with me— she made me a batch of banana 'ice-cream' which is nothing more than frozen sliced bananas and creamy peanut butter pureed in the blender. OMG, (I usually save that expression for my writing young adult novels), this stuff is spectacular! Totally unexpected! It's creamy and sweet and cold...can't be described, you must try it to believe how good it is. Somehow it's more than mashed frozen baby-food banana. And I'm not just saying that because I can't eat dairy. The commercial coconut milk ice cream has some serious competition on my palate, but it has sugar. Not my new banana whip (must think of a better name).
I baked a real cheesecake for my son's birthday today and though I looked longingly at the creamy middle and graham cracker crust, I instead enjoyed a bowl of the leftover surface decorations: strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. I mixed in some fresh chunks of papaya and I was all set.
Life goes on. Maybe on his next birthday I'll have a big slice.

Fallen Off the Blogger Boat

It's been two weeks on the GAPS diet and I have to say I'm sick of it. Truly. I had been going strong up until now but in the last few days the gas and bloat came back and so did my frustration. If I could hire myself out to fumigate a house with roaches, I'd at least make some money at this, but hanging out in the good company of friends has been embarrassing to say the least. What do you do: pretend nothing has happened and look at something interesting on the wall? look accusingly at any available toddler in the room (should you be so lucky to have one on hand)? or admit that yes it was you who overpowered the air freshener? Thank goodness for the gentle spring breezes that have returned after a sealed-house winter, but my gas (yes, I'm taking ownership here) is a whole 'nother animal. It's hard to know if this unpleasant symptom is due to new food introductions such as raw veggies, and fruits, or if the offending odor is due to die-off of unwelcome bacteria. I think it's the latter because it's there no matter what I eat.
So back to my house reno analogy: let's say I've just pulled up some old brown carpet that covered the living room floor (this part in real life is a true story). The previous multiple owners dating back to 1893, smoked cigars, groomed cats, spilled haggis and beer, sweated out a hundred sit-ups, crawled and had spit-ups, and think of all the bugs that have died right there under their feet! You disturb a hundred years of crud and it's going to smell, not to mention cause a fit of coughing and sneezing (I had to leave the house and not come back until the next day).
Well I can't 'leave' my body, so I'll have to put up with this part of the process. And guess what we found under those rotten shreds of matted brown pile? log-cabin oak floors with a bird's eye maple center! I'll settle for wide-board pine as long as it's structurally sound and smooth to the feet.
Onward, to the dining room...

Talking Shmaltz

I've been thinking about the staple foods that are part of the GAPS introduction diet: chicken soup with vegetables, sauerkraut and chicken fat, or as my parents and grandparents called it: shmaltz. That pale yellow floating blanket that I've always skimmed off the top of my soup and thrown away. Pleh! Bad for you! Good riddance. Well apparently our bodies need saturated animal fat to survive. And my ancestors from eastern Europe, ate plenty of it. Who knew? They did, it seems. My paternal grandfather lived to 102, and boy did he enjoy his shmaltz! Without the aid of nutrition books or the resources of the world wide web, that generation knew enough to eat chicken soup. And sauerkraut. The old common wisdom that when you get sick you should eat chicken soup, has also been proven to be beneficial in more than a hot-soothing-liquid-like-Mom's-homemade kind of way. Here's just one article about the science of chicken soup: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/the-science-of-chicken-soup/
We also now know that sauerkraut and other fermented foods such as kimchi have an abundance of probiotics, vitamin B and copious quantities of C, all in a form highly available to our bodies. So for now I'll be eating like I'm from the old country.

Day 9: No Whey!

I've followed the GAPS diet, eating my chicken soup as instructed, adding the sauerkraut liquid and one other ingredient: whey. For me this is a huge leap of faith because I haven't had dairy in seven years. Eating even the slightest amount causes days of misery—just not worth it. Dr. Campbell- McBride explains the need for getting our probiotics from food and yoghurt is one of those beneficial products that, those of us with compromised digestive systems, should include on the menu. But she suggests testing for a true milk allergy first and then proceeding with caution. I passed the first test by letting a bit of whey from goat's milk yoghurt dry on my arm. If no rash appeared the next day then it's unlikely there's a strong allergy to dairy. Other tests I've taken in the past have shown the same thing. But I do have a dairy intolerance. Once a few years ago I had some gluten-free pie. The crust, I was told, was also dairy-free, but one bite and my tongue screamed "BUTTER!" I was at a dinner party and couldn't bring myself to spit it in a napkin, so I swallowed, partly curious whether I had gotten over the intolerance after four years of avoiding dairy. The next morning I had my answer. And the next day. And the day after that. One bite sent my gut into a frantic evacuation drill—though this was no drill, it was the real thing. I've since had a healthy fear (if you can call it that) of dairy products lurking in dark cookies and cakes pretending to be benign. So you can imagine how hard it was for me to pour even one tiny teaspoon of whey into my soup. The first day wasn't so bad. Second day: looking promising. Third day: still feeling okay. Whey day four I was gassy and didn't sleep too well. But my optimism said: "It's stress! It's been a crazy week." Happy to believe, I added TWO teaspoonfuls of whey yesterday, day five. Sadly I was up all night with gas cramps. While I won't call the whey test a total failure, I have learned one thing: you can't rush progress. It took decades to get in this sorry shape, it will take more than a week to heal from it. So for now dairy and I are going our separate whey. (Sorry, couldn't resist : ) ). The homemade goat yoghurt in the fridge will get slipped into a smoothie for the dairy eaters in my house. The pizza remains a distant hazy dream.