What's cooking?

Not much lately.. With my kitchen in the garage I have been pretty limited in what I can make. We're waiting for new cupboards and countertops to be delivered, so in the meantime our old kitchen cupboards along with new appliances are in the garage. It's functional except for no stove and no water. I have been using an electric wok to poach or hardboil eggs (as shown in picture). Our microwave also works as an oven so I have baked some salmon. I used the crockpot to make some chicken soup. Other than that, I'm living off dinners and meatballs I have frozen, my yogurt, cheese, and bananas.

I have always been one to believe in moderation. Don't eat too much of one thing type of deal. But lately I've been eating way more cheese and I have been feeling great. I have stopped with worrying about overdoing one food, and started listening to my body. I never 'crave' cheese and always feel good after eating it. It's great to bring along in my purse since it travels well. I think the salt in it helps too. Usually if I'm feeling weak and hungry, a piece of cheese keeps me going until I can cook something up. I also have a piece of cheese before bed so I don't feel weak in the middle of the night. I would even go so far as to call cheddar cheese an adrenal fatigue superfood. Eggs too maybe.

My cheese of choice is an organic cheddar goat milk cheese that tastes fabulous. It's not colored orange like regular cheddar cheese and has a nice pure taste. I'm going through about 2-3 ounces per day. I need to start buying more than one block at a time. I'm also going through 1.5-2 cups of cream yogurt per day, need to start making more of that too..

Soups

Bone Marrow Beef Broth
1 lb beef soup bones with marrow
1/2 lb beef stew meat
carrots
celery
large onion
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup tomato juice
filtered water
butter

Brown bones and meat in a pan with butter or oil. Place meat in a crockpot or stewing pot and place bones on top. Fill pot with water to just the height of the bones.

Add carrots, celery, onion, garlic and tomato juice. Simmer on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove bones carefully to not lose any of the marrow in the center. Eat the marrow as is, with a spoon, it's so delicious!

Strain the stock and remove vegetables, I always return the meat to the stock.

Fish & Seafood

Steamed Fish
2 green onions
1 inch ginger
1 fish (tilapia, bass, or other small 1-2 lb white fish) with head and tail intact
oil or butter
sea salt
cooking wine

Wash fish. Make 3 slices on each side flank of the fish. Rub salt on fish. Slice up onions and spread on fish. Grate or slice ginger and spread on fish.

Place fish on a steamer tray in a big pot with water in the bottom. Pour some cooking wine over the fish. Steam for about 10-20 mins (10 mins per inch thickness). It's done when the flesh separates easily when poked with a fork.

Heat oil in a pan and pour over fish.

The best part of the fish to eat is actually in the head. The cheek muscle below the eye of the fish is my favorite. Above the eye along the top of the head into the body is a lot of meaty flesh with no bones, my second favorite.

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Simple Salmon
1 lb salmon fillet
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
sea salt
butter

Place salmon in a glass baking dish. Pour lemon juice over, sprinkle with salt and add chopped garlic. Dot with butter or coconut oil.
Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

Beverages & Juices

Almond Milk

2 cups water
1/2 cup almonds (I use ones with skin on, blanched are fine too)

Mix in a blender or in a drink jug with an immersion blender. Pour everything into a nut milk bag. Squeeze the liquid back into the jug.

Add 1-2 tbsp of honey and 1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt. Stir well. Enjoy! Refrigerate any unused portion and it will keep a couple days.

Pretty simple, just need to get a nut milk bag. I'm not sure how I would make this without a nut milk bag. To clean the bag, rinse it under water to get rid of the nut bits and then it can go in the dishwasher. I get tired of washing that thing by hand.

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Carrot and celery juice

1-2 large carrot or about 1 cup
1-2 celery stalks
pinch salt

I find straining the juice through a fine mesh strainer works well. My juicer tends to leave some pulp, which isn't so good on a sensitive digestive system.

If the juice seems too bitter, use more carrot and less greens.

Kitchen renovations.. sigh

I'm out of my house for about 4 or 5 days while we do some kitchen renovations. In a couple weeks I'll be out again for a day or two because of the floors being redone. I'm staying at my boyfriend's house and watching them eat wonderfully delicious homemade Chinese food while I eat my plain meats and veggies :P Yogurt is running low and I may have actually underestimated how much I need. Sunday and Monday I may have to go without it. The yogurt maker is at home, and I don't have it in me to try making it in the oven at my boyfriend's house.

A new thing I have started doing lately is meditation. I've always heard meditation can help relieve stress, but I never thought it would work for me. My mind goes crazy thinking too much and I can't clear it out long enough to get any benefit. Then I came across a post on another blog about meditation, saying all you have to do is sit, focus on a spot on the wall, and count your breathing. You don't have to not think about anything, just think about the breathing and focus on that. If your mind wanders, realize it did and then again come back to the breathing. Well I tried this and it is really relaxing. I always thought meditation had to be some complicated 'clear your mind and achieve enlightenment' sorta deal. This was really nice, and I have continued to do it every now and then. I'm only doing about 5-10 mins per day, but it's worth it.

The breathing I do is 'belly breathing' where your belly rises and falls with each breath while your chest remains fairly stable. I do this breathing through my nose, 4 counts in, 6 counts holding, 6 counts out. This type of breathing is also supposed to help circulation and dark circles under the eyes. Over the course of a couple days I did a lot of belly breathing, probably a few hours of it each day, and noticed my eyes looked brighter the next few days. It's a lot of work though, I need to constantly remind myself to do it.

I also read "When Panic Attacks" by David Burns and that has helped tremendously. I realize I'm one of those 'nice' people who doesn't deal with issues when they bother me. Instead I shove it deep down and forget about it. Well it turns out that's the main source of my panic, anxiety and stressful thinking. I'm now making a conscious effort to deal with problems as they happen, even if that means not being 'nice'. For example if my family comes home, eats my food, dumps their dishes and goes to watch tv, I will tell them it bothered me and ask them to not only clean up (so that I don't have to later) but also to help me make food. Surprisingly no one has gotten mad at me for nagging them about cleaning up or helping cook. I know, shocking! I really have to keep asking for help and telling people when they do something that bothers me. So much less stressful that way.

Here's an idea of what I'm eating lately. I'm trying to eat properly for adrenal fatigue, not taking supplements for it or doing more research into it, just resting properly and eating well. This means a good balance of protein, fat and carbs at each meal/snack. I always eat before bed (mostly protein and fat) and first thing when I wake up.
pre-Breakfast: 1/2 cup half n' half cream yogurt with honey
Breakfast: 2 eggs, chicken broth, cheese, banana
Lunch: Salmon, applesauce with butter
Snack: carrot and celery juice, cheddar cheese
Dinner: chicken thighs with artichoke hearts, applesauce with butter
Snack: 1/2 cup half n' half cream yogurt with honey, piece of cheese before bed

PS: picture is stolen from http://icanhascheezburger.com/ one of my favorite blogs for funny stuff

Back from a short (mental) break

It's been a few weeks since I've posted and this is mostly because I had a bit of a mental breakdown. The pressure of getting my work done for my Master's degree coupled with the insane amount of will power and time necessary to do the SCD diet eventually got to me. I have always been a perfectionist and a bit of a worrier. This caught up to me and I ended up having many panic attacks over the past few weeks. I've never had panic attacks before, and of course thought I was having a heart attack and going to die. A trip to the emergency room only calmed my fears temporarily.

I didn't just sit back with all of this, but decided to finally ask for help; something I realize I have never really done. The entire time on SCD I have never asked my parents to help out with cooking, grocery shopping or dishes. Finally I told them I was exhausted and needed them to help. They were glad I finally asked them too. I also started going to see a counselor at school. So far I've only been twice, once for an initial visit and one full session. It has been helpful but once again I find myself searching for my own way to make myself better. While seeing my naturopath, I searched and found the SCDiet myself and then went on it with her approval. Similarly, I feel like I'm searching for techniques to get over this panic, worrying, pressure feeling on my own, while seeing a counselor to sort of 'check in with' and get approval to make sure I'm doing the right thing. Either way, it seems to be working for both my diet and mental health to search on my own, so I guess I'll continue. I realize health in general requires a lot of self searching, and being somewhat selfish in devoting a lot of time to yourself.

I have still not strayed at all from the SCDiet and continue with the very basics, yogurt, cheese, meat, broth. I have stopped following the Pecanbread guidelines however. I just wasn't seeing any improvement trying to follow those stages. I think Pecanbread doesn't place enough emphasis on broth. I've been having 1-2 cups of broth per day and it's helping. I've been eating stewed vegetables (any kind) in small amounts. It doesn't seem to be what vegetable I eat, more like how it's prepared and how much. I have also been juicing vegetables with my new juicer for a few weeks. It's nice to have something 'raw' and refreshing. So far I'm just sticking with carrots, celery and cucumber because I'm enjoying the taste. I have been looking around at other dietary advice as well to get a broader look at food and health. I'm reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price and it's fantastic. I'm also looking into the Gut And Psychology Syndrome diet but don't have the book yet (library doesn't carry it, and hey, I'm too cheap). The GAPS diet is like SCD but places more emphasis on juicing and broth. I may try the fermented veggies soon.

To anyone not having success with SCD, realize that you may need to customize it for yourself. This doesn't mean adding in illegals, but more like figuring out what foods really are healing for you and what you really can't do with. Don't kid yourself, you're the one suffering. Take the time to find your safe foods. Now if I have a touchy stomach day (so tame now compared to pre-SCD) I can rely on chicken broth, stewed chicken or beef, baked fish, homemade yogurt made with whole milk or cream, and natural cheddar cheese. That's my base diet I know I can fall back on no matter what.

For mental health I have been practicing some relaxation techniques like breathing. I practice the breathing when I'm in panic mode, but also just at a random time of day when I feel fine. It's amazing the more you do it, the better you feel, and the easier you can calm yourself down. I'm doing belly breathing and counting 4 counts in, hold for 4, then 6 counts out. I also do some gentle exercise and get lots of sun. Bike riding, rollerblading and volleyball are my choice activities because I enjoy them and they don't take much effort.

I cannot believe how tanned I am getting this summer. It's only June, I've been out tanning in the sun a handful of times, and I'm darker than I've ever been. There is definitely a diet component to this. I have not burned once nor turned pink, while my friends around me are all complaining of burning. Also, I haven't used sunscreen AT ALL. The most I've been out at one time is probably about 1 hour, which doesn't sound like much, but last summer I'd be burnt to a crisp if I did that without sunscreen. Some of my friends have burned with only 1 hour outside while I developed a nice bronzed tan. Some things I attribute to this: eating tons of homemade yogurt made with cream, cheese, butter, and coconut oil. The fats and fat soluble vitamins are so protective against the sun. Vitamin A specifically seems to help and has some relationship with vitamin D. The more vitamin A, the less I burn. Another note, my elbows are about as soft as a baby's bottom. No joke. Those normally wrinkly dry itchy patches on my elbows are completely soft and supple. And tanned too.

I'm still dealing with acne pretty bad, and I do realize now it's so much worse when I'm stressed out. Hopefully working on the panic attacks and worrying thoughts will help clear that up. In the meantime I'm trying a few home remedies. I'm putting SCD homemade yogurt on my face as a mask, I use my dripped whole milk yogurt with no honey added. I'm putting coconut oil on my face at night, helps moisturize and keep it soft. I've heard anecdotal evidence that this helps acne too. Also I'm juicing vegetables, I heard this helps acne too, certainly can't hurt. I only juice about 4oz per day, because I'm lazy, but I'm enjoying it.

I hope to post soon about some of the books I'm reading, although I'm not putting any pressure on myself to update really often. Plus it's summer, we should all be outside enjoying the weather, not stuck inside looking for blog updates, right? lol

The picture for this post is my bicycle. It's a new bike, but an old 'cruiser' style. I love it! Not super complicated (only 7 speeds) and such a comfortable ride. No sore crotch/butt/hands on this one. I have used it probably 3 times a week to go to the store for groceries or the library for books. It's fun!

I'm addicted to new (and old) appliances

I went out and bought a juicer today. I know, I have like 5 bagillion small kitchen appliances (2 blenders, 2 yogurt makers, food scale, 2 crockpots, food processor, meat grinder, etc etc, mostly hand-me-downs from grandparents) but I just had to get a juicer. I've always read about health benefits of juicing and decided to buy into the hype. Any bets on how long this fad will last? I always go through little stages of having one thing I make a lot of. For the past few months it's the yogurt. Now I'm making yogurt with half n half which is super thick and ends up making more (and more calorie dense) yogurt, so I only make it once a week instead of 2-3. Before that it was anything in the crockpot (which in all fairness I still use twice a week). Before SCD I was baking to the extreme with random alternative flours.

The juicer I got is a stainless steel Waring Pro Juice Extractor. I bought it second hand from a local classified ad. It seems to work pretty well, getting a lot of juice out of the vegetables. So far I have made just a bit of carrot juice with garlic. It's not any noisier than my blender, but it is a pain to clean up.

I will mostly start with the carrot juice and garlic. I've heard this helps Candida and is gentle enough on an iffy digestive system. I'm hoping to add celery and cucumber soon. The juicing should help me get some extra vitamins in my diet. I was taking a multivitamin for about 1 week but have gone off it.

Lesson #48923 on SCD: DON'T take multivitamins with iron, just don't.

I have always been the person who reacts to anything in supplements. My naturopath has tried me on many different multivitamins, minerals, herbal formulas etc. I always get the one side effect that 'rarely occurs'. Sigh. I guess it's back to basics and letting nature help me get better. I have changed from taking folic acid + B12 to a full B-complex (Freeda SCD legal B-complex with C and Zinc) and will stick to that, along with a multi mineral that I have found I tolerate well. I'm hoping the juicing will help me get more vitamins A, C, E, K etc which I'm not getting from any supplements. My diet does include some veggies and fruit, but with the heavy cooking I'm pretty sure nowhere near enough vitamins are left in them.