Food Journal 9-13-11

I would like to keep track of what I am eating, both to help others who are on a similar diet and might need ideas, and to rein myself in on days that I just want to eat-eat-eat!

Today, this is what I'm eating. I will be adding as the day goes on.

~Decaf Frontier Bulk Loose Leaf Ceylon Tea with local honey and milk

Breakfast:
~Omelet made using pastured butter in the cast iron pan, 3 local pastured eggs, and a couple pieces of Muenster cheese.
~Cup of hot PG Tips Loose Tea, with local honey and Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss (this was way too sweet!-didn't think about the added sugar when I put the honey in at first...) I picked up the Natural Bliss at the grocery because it was the closest I could get to half 'n half without the nasty throat-burning additives in most half 'n halfs..  Ingredients are: nonfat milk, heavy cream, sugar, natural flavors. Not sure what the natural flavors are/contain, but I don't get the throat/gut issues with this product...worth the risk, but not sure I will choose it over whole milk next time.

~Large glass of Filtered Water (using our Big Berkey with ceramic filters)
~Cup of nasty, gross coffee (gotta remember to set the grinder right next time!)
Lunch:
~Bowl of Dahl Soup over Brown Rice

Snack:
~ 2 GF Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars-made using the Nestle Tollhouse recipe and subbing Bob's All-Purpose GF Baking Flour for the flour in the recipe
~Glass of 2% rbgh-free milk (Meyer brand this time)

Dinner:
~Bowl of Healing Turkey Veggie Soup (I used turkey bone broth from the freezer, a couple shiitake mushrooms, and added astragalus as it was simmering for 2 hours)

~Glass of 2% rbgh-free milk
~multivitamin, probiotic, omega 3

Before Bedtime:
~Glass of water

BaxAura Update

Today I went in for an allergy/BaxAura appointment. I told how I was feeling the last couple weeks. (rather yucky, if you've not been keeping up with my posts)

So she ran the computer test while I was holding the metal rod. Still fighting with Chenopods (not Ragweed or Nettle) and the ileocecal valve<--I suspect this might be related to my cycles/hormones, though I didn't ask.

When the doc went to do some preliminary muscle testing, she found that I couldn't be muscle tested at first, due to my polarity being blocked. We are not sure why this happened, but it has happened once in the past with the other chiro, when I first started AAT.  The first attempt at resetting my polarity didn't work (rubbing lymph area of the upper left chest), testing with a couple of different vials didn't bring anything up (I'm sorry, I didn't read what they were), but once she rubbed the point between my eyebrows, that seemed to fix the problem enough to be able to muscle test. (I really need to learn/remember the names of these acupuncture points, lol!)

Weird. Apparently, people who have problems wearing watches because they run the battery down so quickly have problems with their polarity as well. "Normal" polarity has one side of the arm with a positive charge, and the other with a negative charge, but the people with polarity issues will have the same charge on both sides of the arm.  The phenomena of the full moon causing lots of people to end up in emergency rooms is also related to this polarity thing.

It sounds sort of "out there" to my ears, but knowing that our bodies operate using electric charges, I suppose it's not a wholly "supernatural" thing. 

Just out of curiosity, the doc is going to look back and see if anything significant occurred around August 17 as far as the earth's polarity, the time this year and last year that my allergies really started acting up (and quite close to the same time the years before). 

I believe she is also going to contact the BaxAura people to see, if I am having problems with polarity, whether my body will know what to do with the homeopathics, which operate with polarity/specific charges.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Granola

I decided to make some Gluten-Free Granola.

For the record, most Oats are NOT Gluten-free due to cross-contamination issues in the field, on farm equipment, and in the grain storage and processing facilities.  To make truly gluten-free oatmeal and granola, you really do need to seek out oats labeled Gluten-Free.  I figured the cost of standard Walmart-brand Old-Fashioned Oats to be about $0.95/lb. Gluten-free Oats from The Food Store are currently $2.19/lb. I am not sure this is a fair comparison; maybe I should have compared to the cost of Quaker Oats for a more fair comparison. I will have to look next time I am in the store and report back.

I adapted a recipe from a cookbook my husband picked up from a semi-local coffee shop. It's called The Basics and More Cookbook and my copy was printed in 1999. The recipe I adapted mine from was called, simply, Granola I.

Following is my changed-up version:

Gluten-Free Granola (real creative, huh?)

~5 cups Gluten-Free Old Fashioned Oats
~1 1/2 cups Coconut (I got the kind from the health food store without the added sugar, sulfites and propylene glycol)
~1 cup seeds (I used pumpkin and sesame, but find I prefer all pumpkin. Sunflower seeds would be good too.)
~1 teaspoon cinnamon


~1/2 cup honey or 3/4 cup brown sugar
~1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
~1/2 cup water
~1 TB Gluten-free Vanilla


~1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit, optional
~1 cup nuts, optional


Preheat oven to 350*. Set out 2 9x13 pans or rimmed cookie sheets.

• Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.

• Mix wet ingredients (include the brown suger here if that's your sweetener of choice) in small bowl, then pour over dry ingredients and stir until evenly coated.

• Spread out onto pans and bake about 30 minutes, checking for doneness and stirring every 10 minutes or so.

• When the granola looks nice and toasted (hubby would even venture to say "just a little burnty" because that's how he likes it, lol), take it out of the oven to cool.

 

• Throw your dried fruit in and mix it up. 

• Add the nuts, if you choose.

• Cool thoroughly and store in airtight container.

Enjoy!

Here's to Real Food!

Bax Update: After My Struggle

After my last (sad) update, I wanted to update again.

Interestingly, looking back at previous years' blog posts, August 17 or so is the day that I really started complaining about fall allergies, both this year and last year. Something to take note of.

I re-evaluated my hayfever problem and have made some changes around the house to hopefully help me out this season.

1. I am continuing the Gluten- and Tomato- free thing, especially through the end of this allergy season.  I am also avoiding cucumbers and melon (and zucchini), as they are associated with Ragweed allergy and can cause problems similar to hayfever when consumed during Ragweed season (Oral Allergy Syndrome). Just because I've had that problem in the past and know I am still struggling with hayfever....trying to give my body the best chance to NOT increase the "bad" things it has to deal with.

2. I have closed nearly all windows in the house.  I'd prefer to let the cool night air in to cool the house off, rather than torture us with hot rooms to sleep in....but for now, the (clean) fans are working 'good enough'.

3. I have made our bedroom an Allergy Safe Zone.
This means:

• Closing the windows
• I have gotten a not-doused-in-pollen-fan to help circulate air
• I swept the floors with my vacuum that has a HEPA filter
• I got rid of the laundry pile on hubby's side of the bed
• I took off ALL of the covers and pillows from the bed and washed them on HOT and dried them thoroughly in the dryer.  As I was taking the pillow cases off of the pillows, I had a sneezing fit. A couple of our pillows' allergy covers are worn out/holey and I need to replace them. 
• I have also mandated that we each need to take a shower before going to bed---no bringing pollen from being outside into the bedroom!

After my sneezing fit when handling the pillows, I really think my "Allergy Tank" was overflowing when I was trying to sleep in my pollen-doused room/bed.  Even I wasn't showering every night (tsk-tsk)...the pollen built up over a couple days on our pillows and bedding---pollen that was stuck to our hair after walking around outside in the garden/fields.  I wasn't getting the rest I needed to recuperate at all, and it was having a snowball effect.

At my last post, I mentioned that I thought about taking Claritin on top of my homeopathics. I did so, and drank a TON of water to hopefully prevent the sinus-clogged-effect I got the last time I took a 24 hour allergy med.  Still, once the Claritin wore off, I found that I actually felt better OFF the Claritin!  (makes me wonder whether there is something in the allergy meds that doesn't agree with me...corn? I hope not.)

Weird. Especially since today's allergy level on Pollen.com is even higher--a 10.6 on a 12 point scale. Maybe finally taking these precautions is actually helping.



So anyway, yesterday and today so far I have only taken my homeopathic and used my Neti Pot once or twice.  It's supposed to get HOT today...we'll see how it goes from here on out.

Product Review: Uncle Harry's All-Natural Tooth Powder

I don't know why, but whenever I use "regular" toothpaste, my teeth decide to go all sensitive on me.  Whitening toothpastes are especially horrible for causing this, but I am talking about the regular toothpaste doing this!

I thought that maybe this was normal and just one of those things I had to accept, and bought into buying the Sensitive Toothpaste. (which at one point definitely came back to bite me)

When I was first diagnosed with multiple food allergies (13+), I was told by my allergist to avoid all of my allergens and their botanical families. Sheesh, was that a hard thing to do! This knocked out every toothpaste that I could buy at any local store (not to mention other run-of-the-mill personal care products). They all contained corn, soy, and/or coconut(sodium lauryl sulfate, anyone?).

So, I was down to using baking soda and salt. And guess what? My sensitive teeth miraculously became not-sensitive! And without the use of Sensitive Teeth toothpaste!

I have no explanation as to how or why, but that is what happened to me. I'm open to any ideas.

Now that I am doing better food-wise, I can use pretty much any toothpaste. But, I still get the sensitive-teeth issue if I use regular(or natural, for that matter) toothpaste on a regular basis.

Enter Uncle Harry's All-Natural Tooth Powder.

I picked this up at Lehman's last spring on a whim. (love that place!) And I have been using it ever since.

I like it because:

1. It cleans much better than any paste that I have used.
2. My teeth aren't sensitive when I am using this on a regular basis
3. It doesn't contain tons of chemicals and unpronounceable ingredients.
4. As far as I can figure, it does NOT contain Gluten, Corn, or Soy.
5. It is Made in the USA (check your toothpaste label--it might not be!)

So, there it is, folks. Now you know what I am currently using on my teeth, and why!  :-D