A little bit of everything

I was reading Elana’s Pantry and came across this post.  Another woman battling fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue who is seeking improvement via her diet.  It’s crazy, isn’t it?  How many of us are out here suffering, losing our hopes and dreams, and living in daily pain?  Who knows if our fibro, etc, caused our food intolerances or our food intolerances caused disease?  I have no idea.  But I’ve felt the difference in my body enough to know they are connected somehow.

It’s amazing how many people I’m reading about who are managing their fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, epstein-barr, lyme disease, ms and lupus through dietary changes.  It just blows me away.  Why aren’t more people talking about this?  Am I just listening in the wrong places?

I think about the heightened suicide rate in people with fibromyalgia.  Or the women with fibro that went to Dr. Kevorkian to die because they had no hope.  And I was getting there…I was getting to the place of “what’s the point?”  If living means pain and only being able to do the things I love about 5% of the time then how long do I really want to go on?

Well, help came in the form of someone else with fibromyalgia who told me that I had to change my diet.  It took me over a year to screw up the guts to try it.  That’s crazy, isn’t it?  I just never thought it would work for ME.

Even though I currently have shingles and have a long way to go on this road of tuning into my body, I feel better than I have in years.  It’s crazy…and wonderful, too.

Okay, a little food.  The other day I made something I’m gonna call:

Sticky Almonds

• 1 to 2 cups almonds
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• agave syrup
• sea salt
• optional spices…I used cinnamon and a little chili powder.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix the olive oil, the agave and the spices in a small mixing bowl.  Dump in the almonds and stir to coat them.  Spread them out in a single layer on parchment on a baking sheet.  This is when I sprinkled sea salt over them.  Stick them in the hot oven for about 12 minutes…but watch them because you don’t want to burn them.  Just get them warm and fragrant and utterly delicious.

Let them cool and then try not to eat them all at once.  Ha!

This morning I made myself gluten-free oatmeal with raisins, dried cranberries, a little almond milk and mashed up Sticky Almonds.

It was a little taste of heaven.  Thank you.

I am getting strong

As you might have read, yesterday started out a little funky.  But as I did my stretches and got limbered up for the day, the kinks started to work themselves out.  Oh well, with a little help from my pain pills, too.

Here’s the amazing part…amazing to me anyway…I started to do laundry.  Then I worked in my studio.  In the afternoon I went for a l-o-n-g walk; the kind of walk I used to take before I got sick.  I’ll bet it was a couple of miles.  Miles!  This blows me away.

In the late afternoon I jumped in the van and scooted up to the South side to Huckleberry’s Market.  It’s pretty pricey but they have the biggest health food/specialty food selection.  I wanted something bread-like.  I had made lima beans with pork the day before and Kevin’s bread looked mighty tempting.  I bought japanese mochi and rice tortillas.  I baked up some mochi and ate it with my beans.  Not bad…I could grow to like them more.  Meghan, my only daughter, tried the tortillas.  She pronounced them edible; a little more chewy than wheat tortillas.  That’s actually a pretty good review since she is very selective about what she will eat.

By the end of the day I must have put through about 8 loads of laundry…all folded.  Only my closest friends will know what a shocker this is.

How am I doing today?  Pretty damn good.  I slept well and woke up a bit stiff.  In between my shoulder blades is bothering me but only about a 4 out of 10 which is okay.  My body is sore from the long walk but that’s to be expected because I am 53 and have been sick for 4 years.

So this morning, I got Jacob ready and off to work, ate gluten free oatmeal for breakfast and went to work in the studio.  It’s noon now and I’m ready for a break and a bit of a rest and then back at it.

Another good day.

Ugg…popcorn not worth it.

Yes, I succumbed to temptation last night when Kevin made popcorn.

Maybe I was wrong about that really strong reaction I had to corn last time?? I should try it again just to make sure.  That sounds like a good idea!

Well, it wasn’t.  Yuk, I woke up achey, sore, tired and grumpy (the four dwarfs).  Definately NOT worth it.

So this morning I have to focus on clean eating.  I had a delicious “milkshake” for breakfast made from frozen bananas, hemp protein powder and chocolate almond milk.  Okay, maybe I’m not eating super clean…but it should help.  Next up will be a hot bath or shower to loosen things up and wash off the funk.

The house is a mess and it’s going to stay that way for a little while because I finally started a new piece.  And I’m going to work on it all day.  It’s an artist’s book.  I might know what it’s going to be about but not enough to say yet.

So here’s to the big four, Gluten, Corn, Soy and Dairy.  I surrender.

This takes the cake

Gluten free quinoa and coconut breakfast cake, that is.  The original recipe is from Karina’s Kitchen.  I made several changes to it so I’ll give my version here.  It was so good that I ate about 4 pieces throughout the day.

What can I say?  It’s good cake.

Quinoa and Coconut Cake

Prepare a 10 x 13 inch pan.  I oiled mine with olive oil, then cut a sheet of parchment to fit.  After laying down the parchment paper I turned it over so there was oil on both sides.  It lays in the baking pan very obediently after that.

• 1 1/2 c cooked quinoa, I used red quinoa
• 1/2 c sorghum flour
• 1/2 c arrowroot powder
• 3/4 c almond meal
• 1 t baking soda (I still have my regular old baking soda and I don’t know if it’s gluten free)
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 1 t xanthan gum
• 2 t ground cinnamon

Put all of the above in a small bowl and combine them. Then, in a different bowl put:

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c olive oil
• 3/4 c organic brown sugar
• 3 to 4 T agave syrup
• 2 t vanilla extract  (Is mine gluten free?  I’m not sure yet.  I’m still a newbie so you check yours)

After you have all these things combined then add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix well.  Now stir in these:

• 1/2 c unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 c seedless raisins
• 1/2 c chopped pecans
• 1/4 c flax seed, this was a scant quarter cup.

I ended up adding about 3 T hemp milk to make the batter a little more workable.  And I use the term “batter” loosely.

All this goes into a 10×13 baking pan.  I used a spatula to smooth it all out.

Karina says to let it rest while you wait for the oven to heat up to 350 degrees F.  Then I put it in the oven for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

This cake tasted great and held together well.  What didn’t get eaten right away was placed in the freezer to keep.  Today I took some out, zapped it for 30 seconds in the microwave and poured some cold canned coconut milk over the top.

It was GOOD.  And I’m not kidding!

Still cookin’

Making some inroads on this god-awful cold or flu or whatever it is.  Plus I had migraine’s two mornings in a row.  Yuk.  But I think I’m coming out of it.  I hope so because I’ve got Princess Ramsey over today 🙂

I want to get a couple of meal ideas down before I forget.  The first is an idea I got from Cori C. on Facebook.  I just tweaked it and made it my own.  I call it

Almost Apple Pie for Breakfast

• 1 organic apple, cored and diced
• 1/4 cup walnuts chopped fine
• drizzle of agave syrup
• 2 Tbls vegan margarine or whatever you use for butter
• 1/4 t cinnamon

Chop up the apple and walnut and put it in a microwave safe bowl.   Drizzle agave syrup over the mix, more or less to taste.  Then some margarine/butter in little dots all around. (NB. I took a guess at the margarine measurement…just distribute enough butter so it looks good to you)

Sprinkle on the cinnamon and stick it in the microwave.  I zapped for one minute and then checked, then another minute and checked and it was good.  I suppose microwaves will vary so watch yourself :).

Then sit and enjoy yourself eating it because it’s so nummy and almost like pie but it’s gluten free, vegan, soy and corn free so you can feel great about yourself at the same time!  What’s not to love???

I’ve got to get ready for the day but I’ll be back to talk about last night’s dinner which was pretty dang good…Pork and veggie stir fry with a side of sweet and sour beets.  And I don’t really like beets.  But even Jacob ate them last night~ LOL!