beating the winter blahs

Right around mid January I start itching for the tropics. Visions of turquoise waters and white sandy beaches fill my mind (and are usually the background on my mac). I daydream about the feel of the warm sun on my skin and squiggling my toes in the sand.

This is probably because January in Seattle is about as far from the tropics as you can get. It's wet, drippy, cloudy, and windy. Every once in a while though, we get a few days of bright sunshine in mid January. It's the kind of sun that makes me long for summer. I roll down the windows of my crappy Nissan as far as I can stand, crank the heat up, and imagine the heat from my heater is actually from the sun. For a few minutes, it's pure bliss.

Here's a few recipes inspired by the tropics. Hopefully they'll warm you up on a particularly nasty winter day.

Blackberry coconut smoothie:
Blend 1 cup frozen blackberries, 1/2 cup nonfat milk, 1/4 cup unsweetened kefir, 2 scoops vanilla whey protein powder sweetened with stevia (I like Aria women's protein), 2 tablespoons flaked unsweetened coconut, 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract, and 2-3 packets of stevia or erythritol sweetener to taste (I like Truvia or Organic Zero). Paper umbrella optional.

African peanut soup:
This is modified from a recipe from my friend's copy of Vegetarian Times.
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large red bell peppers, chopped
2 large green bell peppers, chopped
4 medium cloves of garlic, mashed
2 tablespoons canola oil
One 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes with juice, chopped coarsely
2 boxes of Pacific branch mushroom broth
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2/3 cup creamy unsweetened peanut butter
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
Zest of 1 lime

In a large soup pot, saute the onion, bell peppers and garlic until the onions start to brown. Add the tomatoes with juice, mushroom broth, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Simmer, uncovered, over low heat for 40 minutes. Stir in the peanut butter and mix until soup is creamy. Add the coconut milk, ginger, cilantro, and lime zest, and stir until combined. Heat to a simmer and serve.

Tropical Chicken:
Drizzle a baking dish with a small amount of olive oil. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium bowl, beat 2 eggs. Add 2 teaspoons coconut aminos, 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger, 1 dash of garlic powder, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
In a separate medium bowl, combine 1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut and 1/4 cup macadamia nuts, finely chopped.
Dip 8 chicken cutlets in the egg mixture, then in the coconut mixture, and place in the pan. Pour any remaining egg mixture over the chicken in the dish, and top with any remaining coconut mixture. Drizzle the juice of one fresh lime over the top and bake about 20 minutes, until the coconut starts to brown and the chicken is cooked through.

Seasons of Change

It's late October and it's fall in Seattle. The leaves are turning, the grocery stores are filled with displays of pumpkins and pomegranates, and there's a crisp bite in the air. It's the kind of weather that makes me want to curl up on the couch, wrap myself up in a cozy blanket, sip some hot apple cider, and ... blog. It feels like it's been forever since I've written a blog. My sincere apologies for the blog hiatus. Fall is a time of colorful changes, and this fall has definitely been chock full of changes for me. My life has basically been in a state of constant change for the past month. Exciting changes, and stressful changes, but mostly complete and utter life consuming changes that didn't leave much time for blogging. But now I'm through the other side, feeling more settled, and feeling good.

For starters, I got a new job! I have spent the past three and a half years working in food service management for a major Seattle hospital. I enjoyed it, but was feeling like I wanted to try something new. I started job searching, and hoped for a job that would allow me more time with patients and families. A few months ago I began the interview process for a job which would allow me much more patient contact and a chance to utilize my clinical brain a bit more, and I was offered the position at the end of September. I then spent the next three weeks working like a madwoman to wrap up some projects and delegate others. (I also fell off the diet wagon a bit while succumbing to celebratory happy hours and a work farewell pizza party. Alas, I am back on the diet again now and feeling better for it.)

In the midst of changing jobs I also moved. In the past, I've tried to live relatively close to my former job. Since my new position will mean time on the road and also the opportunity to work from home from time to time, I spent time thinking about where I've always wanted to live. I love the water, and was happy to find a cute apartment in West Seattle. I always feel like I'm on vacation when I'm in West Seattle, and the pace is a little slower than some of the other Seattle neighborhoods I've lived in.

So now that life has resumed a more normal pace, I am happy to return to the land of blogging.

Fall has always been my favorite season. I love the brightly colored leaves, the sunny crispy days, the smell in the air when the temperatures start to drop, and even the first of the rainy, stormy days spent curled up on the couch. I also love the fall because of the fall flavors.

To me, fall is synonymous with spice. Nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cardamon, and ginger all remind me of fall. Fall means spiced apple cider, roasted butternut squash, homemade apple cider, and pumpkin. Oh how I love pumpkin. Typically my fall diet consists of pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes topped with pumpkin butter, and pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese. However, this fall is a little different due to the lack of pumpkin in my life. I am still on a strictly low starch diet, and squash has not been allowed back into my life as of yet.

However, what started as a simple craving for muffins on a cold and rainy evening turned into something that somehow reminds me of the pumpkin flavor I love without actually containing pumpkin. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have:

Fall Muffins (perfect for a stormy day):

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare your muffin tin by greasing it or using paper cups.

Combine 1/2 cup coconut flour, 1/2 cup almond flour, and 1/2 cup peanut flour in a medium bowl.
Add 10 packets Truvia, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 tsp cream of tartar, and 1.5 tsp cinnamon.

**Note: baking powder contains cornstarch. To substitute for baking powder in a recipe, use 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar for every 1 tsp of baking powder.

Stir 1/3 cup oil and 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce into flour mixture. Add 1/4 cup milk, 1/3 cup spiced apple cider (made from 100% apple juice), 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 egg.




Fill muffin tins 2/3 full, and bake for ~25 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

Enjoy!

when in doubt, throw it out

I love roller coasters. I love the feeling of my stomach taking a gigantic lurch as I plummet downwards, jerking from side to side, and flipping upside down. This surprises me a bit, since I am typically not someone who likes to feel out of control. It's one of the reasons why I'm typically a two drink wonder when I go out with friends (well, that and I get tipsy pretty easily).

Despite my preference for feeling in control I still enjoyed sugar, and sugar used to make me feel really out of control. In high school my friend Laura's mom would make the best chocolate chip cookies whenever I came over. She knew how much I loved them, and while we were hanging out she would bring us a plate full of cookies fresh out of the oven. Laura and her sisters would each eat a cookie or two, and I'd eat three or four. Sometimes when I spent the night I would even creep into the kitchen before bed and eat a few more cookies. I couldn't help it - I wanted more.

I would also experience what I liked to refer to as "dessert amnesia", where I'd eat lunch, then have a treat afterwards. Then around 2pm I'd start wanting a treat and think to myself "have I had dessert today? I don't think I have." So then I'd eat another treat. I'd crave dessert again around 4pm, and again after dinner. Each time I would forget that I'd already eaten dessert. The cravings would keep on coming, despite the fact that I would satiate them most of the time. 

I've heard that eating sugar activates the same area of the brain that is effected by heroin, and it elicits a similar response. This could explain why even though I tried to just eat one cookie or one piece of chocolate, I would keep coming back for more. Just like a heroin addict I would need more and more of my drug of choice to keep me satisfied.

Once I started the no starch diet I started to feel more in control. As my readers might have noticed, I do have a sweet tooth so I have several recipes where I've tried to create something like a dessert without using sugar. When I eat these treats I don't feel like I need to keep eating whatever I've made until it's gone. I enjoy some, and then come back to it later. It's a totally new concept for me.

All of this hard work went awry when I discovered sugar free chocolate. I can't remember when exactly I decided to first try sugar free candy. I quickly discovered that there are all sorts of varieties, and they all taste delicious. Each package of sugar free candy contained about 12-16 bite sized individually wrapped treats. Unfortunately, each time I bought a package I would eat one piece, then another and another, until the entire package was gone in one sitting. They tasted so good that I couldn't seem to stop.

I kept buying more of the candy. I tried sugar free Dove chocolates, York mints, and Reese's peanut butter cups. I tried Werther's, red vines, and caramels. I even tried sugar free chocolate covered peanuts and almonds. And here's the gross part: each time I ate these products I would experience gastrointestinal discomfort shortly afterwards. (And by gastrointestinal discomfort I mean gas, bloating, and even diarrhea. No good.) That's because all of these products contained maltitol, a sugar alcohol.

Consuming sugar alcohols in excess can often have a laxative effect on the digestive system. And because sugar alcohols such as maltitol are not as sweet as sugar, candy makers need to use more of the maltitol to get the same sweetness they would have gotten from sugar. That makes it pretty easy to consume an excess amount. I researched maltitol and apparently not only is it the worst sugar alcohol in terms of experiencing adverse GI effects, it also still contains carbs! So not only was I putting my body through GI hell, I was still ingesting carbs and feeding the persistent yeast in my gut. Oh crap.

This also might be why I regained a pound a half of the weight I have lost so far during the challenge. I realized I'm not going to kill off the yeast, heal my gut, and win 400 bucks by continuing to eat maltitol laced sugar free candy. That's when I reached this conclusion: when in doubt, throw it out. Even though eating the sugar free candy made me feel disgusting, I kept buying the stuff. Today, I threw it all away. In my house I currently had sugar free ice cream, sugar free Dove chocolates, and sugar free chocolate from Trader Joe's. It all went into the trash.

Tomorrow, I'm turning over a new leaf. This journey I'm on is about wellness, and about being the best version of myself that I can. It's about doing the most loving things for myself, and about supporting healthy behaviors. It's also a learning experience. We are all flawed human beings, and sometimes we make mistakes. The important thing is to realize our errors and do what it takes to get back on the right track.

In the past, I would make excuses for myself. "I deserve a treat, because I've had a hard day." "A few bites of this won't hurt me." "My family is overweight, so it's only expected that I'll struggle with weight gain too." Now I'm sick of making excuses. I'm sick of accepting a mediocre version of myself. I want to be great.

To quote my Lululemon water bottle "Successful people replace the words 'wish' 'should' and 'try' with 'I will'." Therefore, I've decided that I will kick the sugar habit. I will give up sugar free chocolate and maltitol. I will live a more healthful, better life. I will lose again the weight I regained, and keep losing weight until I hit my goal. I will do loving things for my body. I will love all of me, not just the good parts. I will do everything in my power to fight this disease. I will fight, and I will win. 

blueberry coconut loaf

This past weekend I went to the San Juan Islands. The San Juans are a small island chain in northwestern Washington. Several of the islands are accessible by ferry, the largest of which is San Juan Island. The ferry docks in Friday Harbor, which is a tourist's paradise of souvenir stores, restaurants claiming to serve the world's best chowder, homemade ice cream shops, cafes and espresso bars, bookstores featuring local authors, wine tastings, and tons of assorted boutiques.

Being a bit of a foodie, I have a tendency to wander into random food shops wherever I go. Lately when I go exploring I have been on a quest for new starch free things. In Friday Harbor I found a cute little specialty food store called The Gourmet's Galley



(I love how island boutiques have kitschy boat themed names). At The Gourmet's Galley I found some large flaked unsweetened coconut by Bob's Red Mill,
Hungarian paprika, coffee extract, some unsweetened cocoa powder by Dagoba, and apple cider syrup courtesy of Lopez Island Farm. I'm thinking of using the apple cider syrup on pork loin, yum!

For the large flaked coconut, I knew I wanted to bake something, but I wasn't entirely sure what. Then I flipped over the package and spotted a recipe for blueberry coconut muffins. I tweaked the recipe a bit and made a blueberry coconut loaf.

1/2 stick melted butter
1/4 cup stevia in the raw
8 packets Truvia
1 egg
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground sea salt
3/4 cup nut flour (I used peanut flour)
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
3/4 cup large flaked unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a small loaf pan with butter or pan spray, and set aside.

Combine melted butter, stevia and Truvia. Beat on high for one minute.

Add egg and beat on high for 30 seconds.

Add in heavy cream and vanilla until combined.

Beat in baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt, and nut flour.

Fold in blueberries and coconut. Pour into loaf pan.

Bake 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

I ate it warm, fresh out of the oven with some butter on top. It reminded me of the blueberry coffee cake my great-grandma used to make. Enjoy!

AS support groups and Peanut Flour Pancakes!

As I've been on this AS journey of learning about and coping with a crazy sounding disease, I've tried to find ways to connect with other AS sufferers. I found a support group website called www.KickAS.org, which seems to be the #1 support group for those who have AS (over 7,000 members!). It's an international website with tons of discussion forums and good information which was helpful for me when I was first diagnosed. I joined up but was still looking for more ways to connect, so I researched AS on facebook, figuring there was bound to be some sort of something on there. (I mean, isn't that kind of what facebook's all about?) That's how I found the Ankylosing Spondylitis - Find a Cure! page.

Since part of the purpose of writing this blog is to reach others who also have this disease, I've been posting a few links to my blog on there. Through posting these links I've gotten great questions and ideas for new recipes. One person asked about starch free flour, because they love pancakes. I had kind of gotten used to a pancake-free existence, but then I thought, why not?

I had recently found some peanut flour at my local Trader Joe's ($3.99 for one pound) and decided to get cooking. I adapted the following recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook's buttermilk pancake recipe. I was going to use buttermilk but realized mine was expired, so I just used 1%. They turned out delicious!

Peanut Flour Pancakes and maple syrup:
1/2 cup peanut flour
1 TB stevia in the raw + 2 Truvia packets
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup milk
1 TB melted butter
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine peanut flour, stevia in the raw, Truvia, and baking powder. Set aside.

Combine egg, milk, and butter. Stir in xathan gum and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture. (It will look quite a bit like peanut butter.)

Heat your skillet on medium, add a drizzle of canola oil or a pat of butter, and cook. Cook pancakes until sides begin to firm and small bubbles start to form. Flip.

Syrup:
Whisk 1 c stevia in the raw into 1/2 cup boiling water until melted. Bubbles will form and then stevia will dissolve. Add 1/4 tsp maple extract. Serve warm.

Surprisingly, the pancakes didn't taste overwhelmingly like peanuts. Also, the syrup will be much more watery than regular syrup and slightly more bitter. I put peanut butter on top of my pancakes to cut the bitterness and enhance the peanut flavor and it tasted great. I'm sure this recipe would work equally well with any nut flour.

Enjoy!

have your cake and eat it too

The other day my friend Kristi and I went for a jog around Greenlake. Kristi and I have both struggled with losing weight and keeping it off, which is why she is part of the group of women doing the weight loss challenge with me (total weight lost so far: 5 pounds, which means I'm 11 pounds away from my goal weight). One of the awesome things about this challenge has been the opportunity for us to share our struggles and triumphs with one another. Kristi shared her story with me, and I was telling her about how I'm trying to love my body more every day. I told her about my friend Kelsey's theory that in order to expect good things from your body, you should feed it with loving thoughts (see my blog about this idea for my info: http://crystalaskicker.blogspot.com/2010/08/love.html). Therefore, I've been trying to spend less time picking myself apart and more time appreciating my body as a whole, especially as I can feel it getting stronger and more fit.

Kristi brought an interesting twist to this idea. She said that lately she has also been working on loving herself, and has been using the idea of doing loving things for her body as a filter to help her stay on track. For example, when she has had a hard day and wants to go eat a piece of cheesecake, she will ask herself "is this the most loving thing I can do for my body right now?" She has also been trying to reinforce her positive behaviors in this way. She tells herself that getting enough sleep is a way to love herself. When she exercises every day she tells herself that she is doing a loving thing for her body. Also drinking enough water, finding ways to manage stress, and eating fresh fruits and veggies are all acts of self love. In Kristi's words, "sometimes you want to tell yourself that eating a giant piece of chocolate cake is loving yourself. And sometimes it is. But usually, it's not."

Kristi's theory has been helpful for me too. As a kid I wasn't a huge fan of exercise, since it didn't seem fun. To me, exercise was something I had to do to avoid being fat. As an adult I always wanted someone to work out with; I didn't like to do it by myself. I liked playing soccer and doing kickboxing, but I loathed going for runs and doing weight training. Basically, I shied away from anything that felt too much like exercise, because exercise felt like a punishment. Lately however, I've come to enjoy working out. I've realized how much better I feel when I am consistent with my exercise. My AS symptoms bother me less, I have more energy, and my spine feels stronger when I get some form of exercise every day. This daily exercise has also allowed me to build the strength required to push my body in new ways. Also, I've used my daily exercise time as a time of self reflection, and I've come to really enjoy having this "me" time.

Another area I've struggled with is dessert. I've always had a sweet tooth, and even on this restrictive diet I have a tendency to overindulge when I find or create something that tastes like a treat. If I want to continue to progress towards my goal I need to remember that loving yourself is even bigger than not hating yourself. What I mean is, while I have gotten much better at squelching the negative self talk and being proud of myself when I do things like complete a triathlon, I haven't come as far as Kristi in being able to continuously choose courses of actions that are loving to my body.

A recent thing I have been struggling with is sugar free products, especially candy. Actually, especially chocolate. They make sugar free Reese's peanut butter cups, sugar free York peppermint patties, even sugar free Hershey's chocolate filled with caramel. I couldn't remember the last time I ate caramel. Sigh.

Sugar free candy uses sugar alcohols instead of sugar, and I am not supposed to eat them. However, they taste like real candy and are readily available in the gift shop at my work, so lately I have been frequently succumbing to temptation. If you flip over the package of sugar free candy and read the fine print, it actually says "may cause laxative effects in individuals sensitive to sugar alcohols." Talk about yuck. After eating the first package of the sugar free chocolate I was instantly gassy and bloated, but they tasted so darn good that I bought another package the next day. Definitely not a very loving thing to do to my body.

With all of that in mind, some days are chocolate cake days. I decided it's more loving to myself to figure out how to make a dessert I can eat that won't make me feel disgusting. Also, I've noticed that I tend to eat less of the treat that I've made than I do of the sugar free candy. The trick for me will be to eat mindfully and really savor any treats I make. Hence, after two days in the kitchen and two trips to the grocery store, my recipe for no starch chocolate cake with raspberry sauce was born.

No Starch Flourless Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350
Butter a loaf pan, and set aside

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
5 TB melted butter
12 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks, beaten
11 packets Truvia
1 tsp xanthan gum
3 egg whites

Combine applesauce, melted butter, cocoa powder, and milk. Batter will be lumpy. Set aside.

In a small dish, combine coconut extract, vanilla extract, Truvia, and beaten egg yolk. Add xanthan gum. Add this egg mixture into the cocoa mixture.

In a different small dish, whip 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form. The eggs should about triple in volume. Fold the egg whites into the cocoa mixture, and stir just until there are no white streaks visible.

Bake for 30 minutes, until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Raspberry Sauce:
Microwave 1/4 cup frozen raspberries for 1.5 minutes. Add 3 packets Truvia and microwave for 30 seconds. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Mom's birthday dinner and no starch ice cream!

I'm at my mom's house celebrating her birthday this weekend. For her birthday gift my mom requested I make dinner for everyone, which I thought was pretty awesome for a couple of reasons. First off, I love cooking with and for people. A good meal is best shared with those you love. Secondly, I was not always known for my cooking prowess. Actually it was more like the opposite. As a kid and teenager I would experiment in the kitchen, which typically yielded disastrous results. One such time I was baking at my friend Laura's house and accidentally put a tablespoon of salt in our cookie recipe instead of a teaspoon. Then I tried to overcompensate by adding more sugar. The end result was incredibly gross, and she still teases me about it. ("Remember the time you made those nasty salty cookies and tried to convince me they weren't that bad?") In high school my church youth group had a chocolate chip cookie baking contest, and everyone asked which were mine so they would be sure and avoid them. It was pretty sad.

Our senior year of high school Laura and I took a cooking class as one of our electives. Laura's mom recommended it, since she is a really good cook and told us that we should probably try and learn a few things (such as the difference between teaspoons and tablespoons) before we were on our own in college. Things improved as I pursued my major in dietetics, since there were several classes which required cooking as part of my degree. By the time I graduated college my friends and family were no longer afraid to eat anything I prepared.

Therefore, you can see why I'm a little excited that people are actually requesting me to cook for them. My mom has been an AS-kicker blog reader since day one, and she requested I make her my Mustard Glazed Chicken and Lemon Roasted Asparagus (see http://crystalaskicker.blogspot.com/2010/07/one-step-forward-two-steps-back.html for recipes) for dinner. I made the chicken and asparagus and served them with a salad topped with avocado. When making the asparagus I skipped the balsamic vinegar this time and topped them with lemon juice and zest, garlic salt, diced shallot, and minced garlic. I created a simple balsamic vinaigrette to go on top of the salad by mixing equal parts extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I then added a dash of Italian seasoning. It tasted a little bitter, so I added 1 Truvia packet, and voila!

For dessert, my stepdad made homemade cake and ice cream. I have been wanting to make homemade ice cream with stevia for some time now, so I was very excited to get to use the ice cream maker last night. My stevia ice cream took a bit longer to set up than the regular kind my stepdad made, but it tasted awesome!

Stevia Vanilla Bean Ice Cream:

Combine 1 cup heavy whipping cream and 1/2 cup whole milk. Add 7 Truvia packets and stir. Cut 1 vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds inside. Add to ice cream mix. If you don't have a vanilla bean, add 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract. Either use an ice cream maker for ~45 minutes and then transfer to freezer, or pour into a glass bowl and place it in the freezer. Scrape the sides of the bowl every 5 minutes, until it is the proper consistency.

The normal ice cream sets up in 25 minutes. We ran my ice cream mix for 35 minutes and it wasn't frozen enough. I would have ran it longer but the ice cream maker core wasn't frozen enough after making my stepdad's ice cream and mine. I popped my bowl in the freezer and scraped down the sides until it was done, and that worked just fine.

Enjoy!

No starch diet on a budget!

My mom is a frugal gal. When she goes shopping she's a coupon clipping, discount hunting woman on a mission. My dad, on the other hand, is more of an impulse buyer. He enjoys giving big gifts, and when he sees something he wants, he usually buys it. Somehow I ended up being a mix of the two: I'm a compulsive discount shopper, which usually means I end up with a lot of cheap crap. I enjoy my Citizen jeans as much as the next girl, I just buy three pairs from Buffalo Exchange or Nordstrom Rack instead of one full priced pair from Nordstrom. I enjoy a good rummage through the Goodwill, love shopping at Target, and definitely indulge in plenty of retail therapy. Despite the fact that I usually buy items on sale, I still am not very good at actually saving money. I've tried to turn this around during the last year, and for the first time in my life, I'm attempting being on a budget.

My grocery budget is $50 per week. As with managing this diet, some weeks are much better than others. When I was first put on the no starch diet I went way over my budget because I was trying to figure out what and how to eat. Here's the facts about this diet: packaged stuff made without starch usually isn't that cheap. Regardless of what your personal beliefs are about the Farm Bill, high fructose corn syrup, etc, the fact of the matter is that farmers are paid to overproduce corn, which means that modified food starch, corn starch, and high fructose corn syrup end up being the cheap additives that find their way into nearly everything. If you shop at natural foods stores, sugar still finds it's way into products via "evaporated cane juice" or agave nectar, and the starch is frequently tapioca or potato based, but it's still there. This makes searching for anything pre-made without sweetener and/or modified food starch a giant pain in the neck.

Because of the frustration over trying to find anything pre-made that I could eat and also because I enjoy cooking, I've spent more time trying to make food at home. However, I am a woman on the go and sometimes a girl's gotta find something quick to eat. As a result of my ongoing quest for convenience foods I can eat, I wrote a blog a while back entitled "No Starch Diet Staples." See this for some items I've found and enjoy: http://crystalaskicker.blogspot.com/2010/07/no-starch-diet-staples.html


Here's some basics that usually find their way onto my grocery list:
Produce: apples, frozen berries, avocados, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, onions, bell peppers, cilantro, salsa/pico de gallo
Baking: vanilla bean or good quality vanilla extract, Truvia packets, Stevia in the Raw, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, unsweetened coconut, unsweetened chocolate, unsweetened cocoa powder, peanut flour, xanthan gum
Meat: frozen chicken breasts/tenders, sausage (without added sugar, of course), skirt steak
Dairy/Eggs: 1% milk, heavy whipping cream, butter, buttermilk, eggs, cheese, string cheese
Other: peanut butter, nuts, canned diced tomatoes, Biggest Loser protein powder, mustard, The Ojai Cooks Lemonaise, coffee, Talking Rain sparkling water, applesauce, fruit leather

The trick for maintaing this diet and your budget simultaneously lies is being creative. For example, I didn't use to be someone who enjoyed leftovers. Now I rely on them. I also have figured out how to use the same product in a variety of different ways.

At a recent trip to Winco I bought the following:
Coconut milk, eggs, frozen blueberries, limes, bell peppers, tomatoes, avocados, Alfresco brand spinach and feta sausage, diced green chiles, skirt steak, spinach, Bolthouse Farms vanilla latte protein drink, and Talking Rain. I spent $30. With some creativity and using some ingredients I already had at home, I created several different meals from these basic ingredients.

Breakfast Ideas:
Some days for breakfast I eat some string cheese and a handful of nuts, or I drink some Bolthouse Farms protein drink and eat some berries. Other days I feel creative and make something.

Mushroom and Sausage Scramble: saute 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms and 1 diced sausage link in 1 tablespoon butter. Mushrooms and sausage should be lightly browned on both sides. Add 1 egg and 1/2 ounce cheese. Scramble together. Top with 1/2 avocado, diced.

Smoothie: Combine in blender: 1 cup milk, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 avocado, 2 scoops protein powder, 1 packet Truvia




Lunch/Dinner Ideas:

Sometimes I will heat up a sausage link and top it with some shredded cheese and salsa, or I will make egg salad at home and eat it plain or on top of some spinach. When I make something for lunch/dinner, I usually make something for dinner that I can serve atop greens later as a salad or eat as leftovers for lunch.

Mexican Steak Saute/Salad: Cut 4oz of skirt steak into thin strips. Marinade steak in the juice and zest of 1 fresh lime, 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste, 1 small can of diced green chiles, drained, and 1/2 cup salsa/pico de gallo. Saute steak with diced bell peppers. Top with shredded cheese, diced tomato, and avocado. Eat as is, or serve atop spinach.

Italian Sausage Stir-fry: Dice 1 bell pepper, 1/2 onion, and 1 crown of broccoli (optional). Saute in olive oil, until the veggies start to soften. Add 2 chopped sausage links, 1/4 cup diced sundried tomatoes, 1/2 jar diced artichoke hearts, drained (optional), and 1/2 can diced tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook about 10 minutes, until liquid is mostly evaporated and the mixture is thick.
Serve topped with shredded parmesan cheese. I enjoyed mine with a a No Starch Lemon Drop (mix 1 shot vodka with diet lemonade)

Enjoy! More creative recipes to come!

A is for Apple

Fall is coming. I can feel it in the air. That smoky "fall" smell hangs in the air as the sun goes down, and it's getting darker earlier every day. I love summer, don't get me wrong, but fall is my most favorite time of year. This end of summer feeling has got me lighting candles and listening to Sufjan Stevens while daydreaming of crunchy leaves, corn mazes, and pumpkin patches. Fall means hot apple cider, butternut squash soup, bundling up in scarves, and wearing tall boots. For me it's a time of reflection and slowing down as I head into the winter season. I also inevitably spend more time in the kitchen. Fall feelings make me long for roasted beets and fennel, mashed turnips, and biting into a crisp, juicy apple. In Washington, fall time is apple time.



I got some delicious Honeycrisp apples from the farmer's market. Farmer's markets are the best place to find fresh, seasonal produce. Also, not only are you supporting local sustainable agriculture, you are really getting more bang for your nutritional buck by purchasing from the farmer's market. Fruits and veggies that are mass produced are picked before they are fully ripe and are ripened in a warehouse. However, farmer's market produce stays in the ground longer and travels a much shorter distance to your plate, so the food you're eating is packed with more nutrients and antioxidants. Also, as an added perk the farmers who sell at farmer's markets really know and care about their crops, and they are great at helping me pick out the best product. They even give helpful hints on how to prepare new foods. The farmers I bought from helped me pick some truly delicious apples.



For me, a perfect apple needs to be very crisp and juicy. Honeycrisp apples are the best combo of these two factors that I've found. They are very crunchy and biting into one often causes juice to dribble down my chin. They are simply delicious.

After enjoying some of my apples by slicing them up and dipping them in fresh ground almond butter, I felt inspired to try and bake something. When I was a kid we had apple trees in my backyard and every year when they ripened we would pick them and my mom would make apple pie. My mom didn't bake super often, so I remember how I excited we would get when it was pie time. She had this special pie dish with painted apples on it, and we only used it for these end of summer pies. As I grew older I decided I liked apple crisp better than apple pie, so that is what I made last night.

No Starch Pecan Apple Crisp with Maple Whipped Cream



Crumble Topping:
Mix together 1 cup finely chopped pecans, 7 Truvia packets, 2/3 cup peanut flour (or other nut flour), 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie seasoning, and 1.5 tsp maple extract.



Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in 5 TB butter. Mix until it sticks together to form small clumps. Set aside.

Apple Mix:



Combine the following in a medium saucepan:
-5 cups diced apples (about 3 medium apples)
-Juice of 1 small lemon
-1/3 cup Stevia in the Raw (this product is awesome for baking, since it measures cup for cup with real sugar)
-1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-Dash of nutmeg

Cook on medium heat until the apples soften (about 5 minutes).



Pour the warm apple mixture in a baking dish, and use a spoon or your fingers to drop small clumps of the crumple topping evenly over the apples. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serve warm.



I was really craving maple when I made the apple crisp, so I topped mine with Maple Whipped Cream:
Whip 1/4 cup heavy cream with 1 packet Truvia and 1/4 tsp maple extract. Spoon on as much as you want.

Enjoy!

Tri something new

I have always loved the water. When I was a kid I would run towards the ocean, arms outstretched, ready to embrace the surf. (My brother on the other hand was always afraid that crabs would bite his toes off.) I would delight in splashing around and jumping over waves. But that's about as far as it went because as much as I loved the water, I didn't know how to swim.

I took swim lessons at least two different times as a kid. I could stay afloat and keep myself from drowning, but every time I tried to put my face in the water to do the crawl I would start to feel claustrophobic and panic. One time I even hyperventilated. As an adult I pretty much doggie paddle. I can do the back stroke and side stroke, and I've discovered I can swim small distances with breast stroke arms and a flutter kick. I still can't put my face under water for more than about 5 seconds, though.

All of this swim talk is because despite of my lack of swimming ability, I am doing the Danskin Triathlon this weekend! I have to swim 1/2 mile, bike 12 miles, and run a 5K. I've been practicing my swimming and have improved somewhat, but I'm a little nervous for the swimming portion of the Tri.

I'm also a little nervous about nourishing my body during the event. I did the Seattle Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon last year and I drank electrolyte enhanced flavored water and ate sports gels, both of which are completely loaded with sugar and starch. Since I'm anticipating the Tri will take me about 2.5 hours, I'm definitely going to need some portable no starch fuel for my body.

Here's my plan: I've loaded up on some raw almonds, dehydrated blueberries, and fruit leather. I'm hoping the combination of the protein from the nuts and natural carbohydrate from the blueberries and fruit leather will give me the energy I need to perform my best. The last thing I wanted to do was consume a bunch of starch laden gels and drinks and wind up with fatigue and digestive issues during the triathlon. Stretch Island's raspberry fruit leather only uses apple, pear, and raspberry puree plus some lemon juice, so it's definitely ok for us folks on the no starch diet. (Hooray!) I plan on drinking just straight up water, but I'll take a mulltivitamin with minerals first.



I've been training by swimming, biking, and jogging in addition to my regular cardio routine. This week though I've backed off a bit from my typical routine. Yesterday I went to a Bikram yoga class, and it was amazing. Bikram is hot yoga, and you do the same series of 26 poses each time. It makes me sweat literally everywhere, and I feel clean and full of vitality afterwards. I definitely recommend yoga for anyone with AS or chronic back pain, as it has helped strengthen my lower back and improve my flexibility.



After Bikram I feel like I have been cleaned inside and out, so salad was a natural choice for dinner last night. Here's a delicious no starch salad.

Spinach with apples, goat cheese, and blackberry balsamic:

Combine spinach, diced apples, herbed goat cheese, and chopped pecans.
Top with Blackberry Balsamic Vinaigrette.



Blackberry Balsamic Vinaigrette:
Combine equal parts Blackberry balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I use Bistro Blends blackberry balsamic from Pike Place Market. Add a dash of salt and pepper, and some diced shallots. Whisk together.

Enjoy!