How to Buy Real Food

August 8, 2011 By 4 Comments

I came across this chart on one of the blogs I enjoy reading called Summer Tomato… I thought it was pretty funny!

Real Food Flowchart

Often when I explain to people the foods that I can’t eat their reaction is “Wow, what can you eat?” It’s kinda weird that listing only three things tends to make people think there is nothing left. Although, I really can’t blame them too much since that was my reaction when my allergy doctor first suggested the change in diet. My new thought process is that I eat only food that God made, a.k.a. nothing in a box, jar, or package. What a crazy idea to eat fresh foods that actually grow out of the ground, ready to eat!

Filed Under: Allergies, General Tagged With: , , ,

Paleo Buffalo Stir Fry

July 28, 2011 By 4 Comments

Have you ever tried buffalo? Neither had I until I landed myself on this crazy allergy diet. With the elimination of pasta, a frequent meal at our house, dinners quickly became a rather boring rotation of chicken, beef, pork… chicken, beef, pork, salmon. So we decided to be adventurous and check out the exotic meats section at Land and Sea Market. We tired several new meats that we hadn’t eaten before. We didn’t care too much for the others we tried, but the buffalo we really enjoyed!

Buffalo has a very similar taste to beef, but you can definitely taste the difference. Since the ground buffalo is a bit on the expensive side I wanted to use it in a recipe that would make it stretch, but still be filling. This is the recipe I first tried with the buffalo and I’ve made it the same way every time since we both really like it.

I start by sauteing chopped onion and garlic in some olive oil. I usually like to use green onion in this recipe, but I forgot to buy some… this onion worked just as well.

Onions and garlic cooking

Once the onions start to get soft, I add in my chopped green and red peppers and cook until everything starts to caramelize nicely.

Peppers

I use a half pound of ground buffalo. The ground buffalo comes in a one pound package. I already had this second half browned and frozen from the last time I made this recipe. I also added most of a package of frozen leaf spinach, just the right amount until it looks like a good ratio. Jesse really likes spinach and although I don’t mind it in a recipe or fresh on a sandwich, I wont eat it plain like he does.

Buffalo and spinach

I don’t like to add to much in the way of seasonings or sauce in this recipe because I don’t want to hide the buffalo flavor. I used a good amount of salt, some black pepper, and just a hint of red pepper. I like to pair it with either a baked potato or quiona.

(Side note: I realize neither of those are paleo approved, but I’m on an allergy version of paleo. I use a lot of paleo recipes for the use of fresh and simple ingredients, not necessarily for the lack of grains.)

Buffalo dinner

So what do you think, do you want to give buffalo a try? It’s really quite good!

Filed Under: Allergies, Recipes Tagged With: , ,

Communion with Allergies

July 25, 2011 By 7 Comments

Food allergies become a part of every little part of life. I never go anywhere without a safe snack in my purse. I’m much more of a planner than I used to be now that I have to think about where or what we will eat if go somewhere for more than a couple of hours. I’ve gotten used to it and no longer feel awkward about having my own food when everyone else is eating something else. However, it is still pretty awkward during communion.

At the beginning of my food allergy issues I would still take the communion provided at church. But I was concentrating so hard on what the later consequences might be and whether or not my mouth was feeling swollen that I kept missing the entire point of participating. Then I found out that the church sent out an email to notify others in the church with food issues when communion was coming so that they could be prepared. I asked to be added to the list and started to bring my own without giving it a second thought.

I’ve been bringing one of my apple chips and some corn syrup free juice each time. Then I had the idea to see if I could order pre-packaged allergen free communion juice and wafers. You know… the kind where you rip the top seal to get the wafer and then rip the bottom to get to the juice. I did find some companies who make wafers I could have, but none with real juice.

Communion

Anyway, the surprising part of my search was discovering such controversy surrounding the idea of using a gluten-free wafer or bread. Like somehow it was the gluten part of the bread that makes communion real. I found several blogs where people were writing that each time they took communion they would be praying that God would protect them from any ill side effects that would result from the ingredients they were eating. The elements are just symbols, they could be anything. I think it is much more a matter of where your heart is.

I’m going to stick with my current solution, but I thought it was interesting to think about. Thoughts, anyone?

Filed Under: Allergies