Christmas Recap: Food Part II, Cakes

Holiday Food Post, No 2: Cakes

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My grandmother once told me that she used to get bibingka, a Filipino treat, following Mass on Christmas. I thought I would rock the nostalgia this year by making her some bibingka for our family gathering. I was able to get a recipe to try from Jun's blog. For those unfamiliar, bibingka is a sweet rice cake, with some salted eggs and/or cheese on top, which makes for a great balance of salt and sweet, in my opinion. Though, I suppose you should be warned that it helps to have a palate accustomed to Asian flavors before you chomp on salted duck eggs.

I kinda overdid the purchase of sweet/glutinous rice flour though. I'm likely going to be making  mochi for the rest of the year. If only I could eat most of the recipes I have found. I will probably try to make a me-safer version of bibingka, too, since I am pretty fond of it.

My grandmother also once told me that I am no longer allowed to come to family functions without cassava cake. So I made some. But I didn't photograph it. It tends to look like this, though (me-safer on the left, traditional on the right):

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And last, but certainly not least, I made a cinnamon bun/pecan roll cake, as posted during Gluten Free Easily's Home for the Holidays blogging extravaganza, by Cook It Allergy Free. I skipped the icing, as that required plain powdered sugar, and switched out the raisins for pecans instead. 

Halfway mark!

Buddy actually liked this cake, which says something about how good it is. It probably helps that I used coconut palm sugar instead of my usual sweeteners. So, this tasty cake is not quite me-safe, but it certainly is me-safer, and probably perfectly acceptable for me in moderation once I'm further along in my recovery. That hasn't stopped me from eating it, though.

I liked the look of the cake upside down

Hey. At least it's not shortbread.

Happy crumble

Christmas Recap: Food Part I, Ginger

Next up, food goodies I made for the holiday season. Unlike Thanksgiving, this seemed to be the season to make sweets. Some me-safe, some sorta-me-safe, and some absolutely dangerous. Dangerously delicious.

I was going to put all the food I made in one post, but it was a bit overwhelming. Instead, I've split it by themes: Ginger and Cake.

Holiday Food Post, No 1: Ginger

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Ginger Schnapps, a month in making. From the hugest piece of ginger I ever owned, and some vodka. Is it bad that I forgot the brand vodka?

Anyhow, it's gotten some rave reviews from those who've tried it, and has quite the flavor. I didn't even bother adding simple syrup. The ginger gives it a nice sweet without needing the added sugar.

I can't handle this Ging!

Ginger schnapps, in single serving sized jars

Next time, I am going to attempt to make some ginger gin schnapps. Throw that in with some sparkling water and lemon, or some tonic, and get the party started!

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My first batch of Buddy's family recipe for shortbread. Quite tasty! But soooo bad for me. I did sneak in a few bites off the edges, because it's so irresistible. Gave them out with honey or jam as small presents to all the family's families.

Delicious Shortbread

They don't have ginger in them, but they're not cakes, so we'll just describe them as ginger colored.

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Molasses crinkles, based off my cousin's provided recipe. I really like these too, but made them for folks who can eat them at my work cookie exchange. They're like soft gingersnaps. So the snap is just from the ginger, and not from the cookie's crunch.

Molassas Crinkles

Since I can't have the molasses crinkles, I thought I'd try Elana's Ginger Snaps recipe. Instead of honey, I substituted yacon syrup and glycerin. The yacon adds some nice molasses flavor to it, but I think I may have overdone it. Next time, just a T of yacon and a T of glycerin, instead of 2 T of yacon and .5 T glycerin. Worth trying as a recipe, though, as these cookies didn't last to the cookie exchange.

Right before the oven

Finished product

Holiday Eats

Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

As some of you know, I have a number of food restrictions I try to observe for health reasons. So that makes holidays a tad complicated. I shouldn't have the mashed potatoes, the gravy made with flour, stuffing with gluten in it, much stuffing at all, even if gluten free, the green bean casserole, the cheesy broccoli, the cranberry sauce that looks like the can even when you take it out of the can, the cheese, the delicious looking rolls, the pies... the pies.

I didn't do too well on some things, but I think I did okay overall. I did sneak two small small pieces of pie on different days, a bite of mashed potatoes (which, at only one, is really quite amazing), ate the dairy and had some gravy. But not too much of anything overall.

I think my body suffered more from the stress I seem to impose upon myself during these holiday marathons than from the food I ate. But she behaved herself well enough overall, and recovered pretty darn quickly, I think. Maybe I'm simply making justifications because I want to think I'm doing better.

However, I thought I would share the recipes that I did actually make that were actually safe for me, if anyone wants to try them.

Cranberries are my best friends these days. They help balance my pH, reportedly, helping create a more alkaline environment that is less friendly to overly plentiful little nasties in my body. So, cranberry sauce is always a winner in my book. It's super simple: take fresh or frozen cranberries with a little water and cook 'em down. You want to cook them until the berries split. You can add stevia or your sweetener of choice to the amount of sweetness you prefer. I also add some orange flavoring to it, as I think oranges and cranberries to well together. If you have oranges lying around, I'm sure you could add some zest to the pot. After you let it cool for a bit, it thickens on its own. I like to put it straight in a jar, so that it seals itself as it cools.

Buddy is far more picky with his food preferences than I am. And by that, I mean that he generally will eat all the foods that I cannot eat and would prefer not to eat most of the food I can eat. My grandmother likes to describe that as manool (I know I just spelled that wrong). So, I use the holidays to actually make foods he won't eat but that I want to try.

To my uncle's, I brought the Sauteed Kale with Tahini Sauce, as posted by Simply Recipes:

I'd post my batch, but it got eaten. Source: Simply Recipes

The kale is always a good choice, in my book, and the tahini is something I can eat that carries a strong flavor and can really make things nice and creamy. The addition of garlic, onion and lemon are also beneficial for my little internal microbial wars. And beneficial for my palate as far as I'm concerned. I also think that it says something when a family member who hates kale noted he really liked it and kept eating it after realizing what it was.

For my dessert option, I brought some pumpkin muffins based off of Elena's Pantry recipe for paleo pumpkin bread. I had to whip one out to save my grandmother from herself, as she doesn't tolerate gluten well and my sister brought bowls of beautiful potato rolls to the feast. This recipe makes a nice moist muffin that counterbalances some of the salty flavor I usually pick up from almond flour based goodies. I switched out the honey for some veggie glycerine and yacon syrup, and yes, I know that butter is neither paleo nor candida diet appropriate. But it looks damn good with a pumpkin muffin.

For my mom's gathering, I brought Roasted Carrots and Parsnips by foodfarmhealth:

Buddy and I got there late, when everyone else had already eaten. I thought it was quite tasty, though I had wished I had stuck with the amount of shallots Shanon recommended. I put the whole shallot in, and was definitely overwhelmed by it. No one else really ate much of it, since they had already eaten by the time I brought it, but my immediate family isn't known for their love of such dishes. Not enough cheese, I think.

I didn't make this for the holiday meals, but just tried this Pumpkin Latte from Whole Approach's forum. Tasty! (Though perhaps too sweet for me with the two T of yacon syrup. Which means it's probably sweet enough for everyone else's preferences.)

Guest Posting at Lexie's Kitchen

One of the things that I have really enjoyed about my new endeavors in blogland is that I have become acquainted with a great set of supportive communities. There have been a few mentions here and there in the sewing blog spheres on how supportive the online community has been for a number of people. The same goes for the food/healthy eating blogosphere. I have gotten so much out of following a number of health minded folks with a span of dietary concerns and goals. I find myself starring posts on meals I want to try right after I marked a free online skirt pattern that I want to try. And just as the sewing community has sew-alongs, the food community has shown an equal interest in mutual support with "adopt-a-blogger" posts where a blogger chooses another blogger's recipes to make and enjoy (and share with the rest of us who may not be as familiar with their culinary goodies). It should come as no surprise with this amount of collaboration, that my starred list is quickly outrunning my calendar year in which to make things.

This is Lexie!

That being said, I am really excited to announce that I am officially contributing a piece to Lexie's "Making the Switch" series. Lexie from Lexie's Kitchen does a great job of reviewing just what you can make/cook/eat out there that is gluten and casein free (as well as free of other allergens). And she has made this commitment to healthy foods because of her family's health needs. You can read more about her experience here.

Because Lexie understands that it sometimes takes significant life events to bring us to a healthier lifestyle, she has asked others who have "made the switch" in their diets to share their stories.


She describes it this way on her blog:

Making the Switch, spotlights everyday people journeying on to better health and well-being by choosing pure food over processed. For some, it has been gradual. For others it was a complete about-face. 

Putting the modified diet focus of this blog aside, Making the Switch is open to all. The point being to bring personal stories to light that encourage young and old to get back into the kitchen to cook real food. As Jamie Oliver puts it, “make only a few small changes and magical things will happen.” Whether it’s weight loss, improvements in a child's behavior or the regaining of health, magical things will happen.

WHAT'S YOUR STORY? Consider being featured onMaking the Switch! Click here and drop me a line telling me a little about yourself. Someone is waiting to be inspired by YOU!

Any college students out there? We'd love to hear from you?

Today, I get to share my story! I hope you'll go and check it out!

Ginger Mint Lemonade

One of the things I find I do when I plan parties is I get crazy excited about the menu and make plans to make too many things all at once. With my recent birthday brunch, I ended up having a whole stash of supplies on things that I never made. Take this ginger and these lemons and this here mint. Sparkling ginger lemonade and mint iced tea, or ginger-mint tea, or mint lemonade, or... (that ellipses really does mean I'm still going on and on and on).

A week later, I still hadn't used them. But I had plans for them, because they just seemed as though they should go together. Don't they?

I can't say that this is the final version. Unlike more serious foodie blogs, I really don't care to try out recipes over and over until it's perfected before I tell you about it. I am more of an idea girl. Let's give it a go and see what happens, right?

Besides, I didn't really do the work on the recipe here. I got the main proportions off of this recipe. It had the most ginger to mint ratio compared to the others I read, and I love me some ginger.

Instead of the honey, though, I added a tablespoon of vegetable glycerin. It's got a nice mild sweet to it, that even Buddy likes, and I can add a little more bite with a drop or two of stevia. But I don't need it, really. It's pretty good as is. And Buddy and I like us a tart lemonade. I do miss some of that honey tang though. Like so many sweet things, it feels like there's no substitution for that kind of nuance. Well, not with the sweeteners I use. There is this or this kinda sweetener, made with sugar alcohols, but it's not recommended for my diet. But I may try it out one day. Maybe.

In the meantime, I have me a nice mellow refreshing drink to keep me cool. Lovely.

Crafty Brunch

No sewing completed this holiday weekend, folks. Nor any done the week prior. I was busy getting ready for a brunch I had with local family and friends.

I thought I'd show you how I procrastinated on cleaning and actual food planning:

There's quite a few tutorials online for these paper flowers, and I had some bright tissue paper leftover from a gift package earlier this year. It was a perfect thing to make while watching Avatar episodes. Yes, I watch Avatar, the Last Airbender. I'm a dork, but I think many a child and preteen would agree with my entertainment preferences. Well, in this case anyway. Like I told my Buddy, I think in primary colors, when it comes to entertainment.

I also used my couch potato time to use up my stash of toilet paper rolls. Sounds glamorous, right? I'm actually hoping to use these flowers to make something more substantial for a wall decoration. Along the lines of this or this.  In the meantime, I used our only spray paint, which happened to be only red, to make them seem more spring-y and vibrant than plain old cardboard. I then tried to make little multi-color tissue flowers/pompons to make it seem less like a Christmas decoration. Buddy pointed out, oh so kindly, that the flowers reminded him of tissues when you get a bloody nose. Ouch. But, I think the end result was cute, and matched my green, cream, and red enamel top table.

The amount of food involved, in large part to my guests and particularly my mother (generous with food and treats to a fault!), was monstrous! I did try to keep the food I made to generally me-friendly stuff, assuming that other folks would bring their preferred treats. We made a couple Spanish tortillas, asparagus, crepes with associated sweet and savory toppings, buckwheat pancakes, sausages, veggie sausage, hashbrowns, fresh fruit, oj, and yogurt. My mom brought locally made scrapple, longanisa (the Filipino version of this sausage, which is sweet and spicy), rice, more eggs, lemonade, more fruit, more yogurt, cake, croissants, and I'm sure about five other things I was too preoccupied to notice. Other folks brought quiches (one of which had a hashbrown crust), a fritatta, salmon (tandoori-style and lox), bread (homemade cinnamon raison bread FTW!), mimosa cupcakes, honey-buns (Buddy has a full box-worth of those now), chips, and I could probably go on even longer.  I even was made my own candida diet safe lemon meringue pie, of which I think I had four slices!! (Thanks Libby!) And it didn't even take into account all the things I intended to make but didn't need to, or those things that my mom brought but didn't make. It. Was. Amazing. and Delish.

I was particularly excited about the buckwheat pancakes, as I had made some rhubarb-strawberry compote.  I used this recipe, as it's super friendly for my needs, and was very fluffy and mild (since buckwheat can be pretty heavy).  The compote was quite easy, and there have also been a post or two on it elsewhere since it is officially rhubarb and strawberry season. I have a LOT left, so I'm contemplating making rhubarb-strawberry-yogurt popsicles for myself this summer.

The party was, in truth, a birthday brunch. Birthdays are a convenient excuse to have people come over simply for your sake, I think. I love it when people visit me, because it satisfies my social needs while still catering to my homebody tendencies. I'm a sociable introvert, or somesuch. Because I like having everyone come over, I tried to limit myself to my peer group within the extended family, my immediate family, Buddy's mom, and friends who live within an hour drive's radius. I think about 20-some folks came, though I haven't made a full tally yet. If I invited everyone... I wouldn't have had a place to stand!

Even though I have these events just to have people around that I like, people sometimes think that they should bring birthday presents. I certainly don't mind, I just don't know if they realize they don't have to do that. I'm just happy they came by. Either way, I would like to at least comment on the handmade/craft oriented gifts I received. (I also received a kick-butt water bottle that's actually easy to clean, and some sweet argyle socks.)

Click on this for a better view, it's worth seeing the cutest felt bee ever!

Buddy's mom brought me some fresh flowers that she arranged. She's a great florist, so I always love getting her arrangements. My friend Amanda gave me some intense fabric for my stash. The fabric is a border print, with a double print of blue cranes (?) against a brown background. The feel is soft and silky, and the drape is great, so I have to think long and hard on how to use it properly. And my friend Erin brought me a felted bee (my favorite of the day, I think), and a homemade necklace. You can check out her Etsy store if you are interested in her style.

I also received this wicked cute Etsy-made sloth necklace the day before. Though purchased, and not home-made, I feel like Etsy purchases are worth celebrating for their handmade goodness. And this guy is super adorable. 

 And speaking of adorable, I must correct an earlier statement. I did sew this weekend. I reattached the ear to my nephew's favorite elephant toy. It gave me a chance to practice my slip stitch, but more importantly it gave me a chance to see my nephew prance around happily showing everyone his fixed elephant (Randolph) and trying to shove said Randolph through our screened in porch. (And just for the record, the wet cardboard behind that sweetie is a casualty of the water balloon war we also had that day. What can I say? It was a fun party!)

Is he cute or what?  I love the lamb's tail of snot, myself.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

Recipe Experimentation: Cassava Cake & Sticky Rice

Champagne Mmmmmmango

One of the tricky aspects of eating a restrictive diet is the fact that you can't have the foods you love. My family is Filipino, and loves a good dessert. I mean, who doesn't? After I got this recipe from a Filipino coworker, one of the dishes that they often ask me to make is cassava cake.  I think an easy way to describe cassava cake is that it's like a coconut flavored bread pudding, only instead of bread, you use a starchy root (cassava/yucca) as the base. Topped off with condensed milk, like any decent Filipino confection, it's a whole lot of rich and sweet and yummy.

For my brother and his then fiancee's wedding shower before Easter (yes, this is how behind I am on my posts, folks), I made cassava cake for the family. I thought this would be a good time for me to experiment with my first recipe innovation for a dessert.  I had made a "sugar-free" version of cassava cake years before, only to have it turn out dry, so I wanted to see if I could apply my newer familiarity with sweeteners to come up with a better version.

The main sugar culprits

The recipe I use for cassava cake has three major culprits for sugar: condensed milk, cream of coconut (the kind used when making pina coladas), and macapuno. I am not sure how to describe macapuno, though I like the explanation given here. Here's a picture of what it looks like when you open one up. Think soft, young, thick, shredded coconut. In syrup. Syrup is the main concern here, though I suppose if the macapuno is cooked down in it, there's still some issues with using it. It's very tasty though, as the texture is meatier and softer than the typical coconut you buy.  And you can't really make a decent cassava cake without macapuno, but the syrup at least has to go.

So, the macapuno substitution was pretty straight forward: get rid of the syrup. I rinsed off the coconut strings completely. The problem with this is that I just lost a lot of my sweetener and some of the moisture of my dessert. This is where the last post's information comes in handy: I need something sweet, but also find a way of returning some softness and moisture to the mix. Enter vegetable glycerine. Since it's hygroscopic, I knew it'd do a good job of retaining the soft texture I'm looking for while still sweetening things up. Had I been a good, diligent blogger, I would have kept track of how much I added. But things were hectic, I was eyeballing it instead of measuring, and I trusted my sieve of a memory to recall the info when things settled down. Not very logical, but certainly in character of me. Let's say it was about a quarter cup.

But I don't like how sweet veggie glycerin is on it's own. It's too much for me. So, I added a tablespoon or so of inulin to calm it down and balance out the sweet spectrum. I may have added a little stevia, but I don't remember at this point. I do know that I refined the taste mainly by comparing the more Seeks-friendly version to the regular version I was making at the same time. Tweek. Taste. Tweek. Taste. Satisfaction. 

Creamed coconut

The cream of coconut was another, similar matter. The addition of cream of coconut adds a lot of sugar and syrupy moistness to the mix, but also adds more coconut. Since I took care of the sweet and moist with the sweeteners I used, the question was how to get more rich coconut into the recipe. Only a few weeks before I had found creamed coconut in the health food store. And then I found it in the Filipino food store as well. My impression is that it's the results of the first pressing of coconut to get coconut milk. You can use it to make your own coconut milk, from what I gather. You reconstitute it in water and you end up with a thick, somewhat gritty, but concentrated stew of coconut.

Reconstituted creamed coconut reminds me of cream of wheat

Finally, for the condensed milk, I really should say that there is no good substitution. Not for all of the characteristics that make the condensed milk so good for this dish. You put it on top of the cassava cake and it browns and bubbles and becomes a sweet, syrupy, milky mess of goodness. You can't get that without sugar. But I wanted something. So I put some yacon syrup on top (which I said earlier at least gives a meek impression of molasses).

And here are the results, with the standard cassava cake on the right, and my safe(r) version on the left:

top view

side view

As you can see, there really is no replacing the condensed milk. The yacon syrup just can't compete. But otherwise, the moisture and texture of the two are really quite similar. Yay! The taste is a little milder on my version, but that is again mainly due to the lack of condensed milk: I really should have put about twice as much yacon syrup on top to match the sweetness of sugar, and that seems like a waste of a lot of yacon syrup. What I may do next time is mix the yacon with glycerin, to maintain more of a syrupy topping than what I had gotten, and to get more sweet with a touch of molasses action.

I want to post the recipe, but am going to try and get permission from my old coworker first, as it's her recipe.  If I get permission, I'll post it! In my opinion, everyone's life would be better with a little more cassava cake.

I also made mangos and sticky rice, a standard version based on this recipe and an alternatively sweetened version (I think I used a stevia/inulin mix).  I am not going to go into details on the process, as this has already gone on long enough. But I can't help but post the pretty food pictures.

Neither of these dishes are really all that good for me to eat, even with the better sweeteners. Coconut, yucca, and rice are all limits. But it all comes down to serving size at that point, so I just take small bits that add up to partial limits. The cassava cake freezes well and reheats in the oven quite happily. And the sticky rice just didn't survive the family.

Candida Diet Basics: Sweeteners

Alright, folks. I realize that most of you aren't really interested in what I eat. I get that. But I love talking about food. I think about food all of the time, and have a reputation for my incredible snacking powers. So you have to bear with me as I write about food.

I've explained in other places a bit about my diet, but the main thing that matters for this post is that I have to avoid sugars. Even fruit and certain vegetables have to be eaten in moderation. So, in order to make desserts that I can eat, I have to seek out other options to add a little sweetness. 

Unlike some folks though, I'm not really able to use the full range of artificial sweeteners. They have various unhappy side-effects or strain the liver, or just act on my little anatomical eco-system in a way that spells trouble. So my options are pretty limited (but not bad).

The easy sweetener, that I think many people are more aware of these days is Stevia. Stevia's sweet chemical, steviol glycoside is incredibly sweet (up to 300x sweeter than sugar, per Wikipedia), so a little goes a long way. It tends to be my go-to sweetener for the most part. It has little to no effect on one's blood sugar, though I can't say I fully understand the chemistry at this point.

It comes in various forms: liquid (with or without an alcohol base), powder, tablets.  It also comes in a combo form, Stevia-FOS (fructooligosaccharide, which we'll come back to later), which balances out the taste to better resemble sugar. I've been using it for a while, so I've gotten used to it's taste. I'm not sure how to describe it anymore, but it has been known to have a bitter, licorice-like aftertaste to it that some do not like. I would say it hits my tongue in the back, around the sour and bitter regions, but I can't explain it better than that. It plays well with fruit, as some of the fruit sugars help balance it out. Great for smoothies, in my opinion.

There is some controversy about stevia, about which I would refer you to the internet. It's been used in Japan for a very long time, and I'm okay with its use despite others' caution about it.

So, now onto that fructooligosaccharide (FOS).  It's also known as inulin, and is a fruit sugar. (Inulin is a less refined option to straight FOS, from what the Wikipedia article says.)  It is too large for our systems to digest, but it is prebiotic. That means that it's good for all of our good bacteria in our guts because they can digest it. It also helps with our calcium absorption (such a goody-two-shoes)! 

As stated before, inulin is a good way to balance out stevia for sweetness, as it's only half as sweet as sugar on its own. I've used yacon syrup as a way to get a molasses flavoring to some dishes I've made, as there's no way to get syrup action out of the powders. At least, not that I know of. And molasses is closer to caramel flavoring than any of my other options, so I used it with my "flan".

Speaking of syrups, our final member of my sweet squad is vegetable glycerin. Quite frankly, I'm not too fond of the taste. It's a little overwhelming in a bubble gum sort of way. But Buddy likes it, which means more people probably like its flavor than stevia's flavor. I am not as familiar with the chemical justifications of why glycerin is a good sweetener, so you may as well just go here to get a sense of it. The reason I like glycerin is that it's hygroscopic, which essentially means it helps keep things moist. This comes in handy depending on what kind of dessert you're making. I used it for my recent foray into a more candida friendly cassava cake, on which I'll post later. It's not a bad flavor, but I actually used some inulin in conjunction with it to make it more palatable for me. It really all comes down to a matter of personal taste.

There you have it, friends. An explanation on what I use to get some sweet in my diet without reeking uncomfortable, frustrating consequences. I hope this summary will come in handy for you when I start making up more of my own recipes, so these food posts will be a little more engaging.

New favorite: Spaghetti Squash

And so we continue with a review of my new favorite foods. Next in line is spaghetti squash!I won't go into describing the food in great detail, as I feel that there are plenty of folk out there how have done a sufficient job for anyone's taste. What I will say though, is that, first and foremost, it tastes like a winter squash.  A mild squash, but a squash. None of this spaghetti nonsense. I don't want folks to go into this thinking they've found a noodle substitute. That's just silly.

What they do have, though, is a great texture to work with. Most winter squashes rock the soft and mushy, and summer squashes just stick to the wheel or stick approach. Spaghetti squash gives you something completely different, that soaks up other flavors and plays with others quite nicely.

The main recommendation I would make is that, when cooking it, opt for the well-done end of the spectrum. When undercooked, you miss some of the sweetness and the texture is not nearly as appetizing.

I am still exploring the options for how to fix this vegetable, but there are plenty of options out there. One of my favorites is the simple roasted squash with garlic, salt & pepper, and butter (or ghee, in my case). Add herbs as you like.

Fat Free Vegan recently posted a recipe for spaghetti squash with roasted brussels sprouts and chickpeas. I've been meaning to try it since she posted it and finally got to make it this week. Though I would recommend always sticking with the fresh sprouts v. the frozen after this attempt, I have to say that it was a tasty meal, even with those little mushballs. If you make it, I recommend the addition of the almonds and lemon juice, and perhaps a little less basil. It was quite tasty, all the same.

I haven't tried any of these recipes in particular, but as one would expect, Martha Stewart offers some pretty tasty sounding options as well. I'm seriously considering the dishes with the scallops or the shrimp.

Smitten Kitchen has a simple recipe for spicing it up Moroccan style, and Candida Cooking offers a soup option that not only is safe for me, it offers me the excuse to have more coconut milk in my life. I need all the excuses I can get for that rich creamy treat!

It can also be used for more sweet types of meal options. Similar to zucchini, it also makes a nice simple breakfast mush/"cereal" with some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds blended in. You can also use it as a way to make some moist treats such as pancakes (on which I will post more later, when I find more recipes with teff), crepes, or  in this case, a candida diet-friendly version of flan!

Based on a recipe from Whole Approach's forum (thank you I <3 Stevia!), I thought I'd give it a try before the end of the weekend. I tweaked it only a little by adding yacon syrup to the bottom of the ramekins to make it seem more like the flan I've been missing. It absorbed the syrup a bit, so I ended up adding more afterwards.


The texture isn't anything like flan, as it's too spongey. However, the taste is certainly custardy, and reminiscent of the good stuff. The stevia made it sweet enough, and the squash and yacon syrup mellowed it's funny bitter aftertaste out. It still tasted squashy, though, so think in terms of a pumpkin kind of custard.

I suppose my taste buds likely differ from most folks when it comes to an appropriate dessert choice, (I have realized that I like carrot juice as a dessert!). However, I would recommend that folks try it. It's not flan, but it's a nice treat.

New favorite: Zucchini

Not being able to eat as many foods as most people without risking some biological fallout that I don't want to deal with, I am finding that there are certain foods that I never gave the time of day which. are. AWESOME. If I can convince my husband of this, than I'd be set, but I will simply have to foster these relationships alone.
This post gets to be my (slightly unpoetic) Ode to Zucchini.


Now before we go any further, I would like to note that zucchini also goes by the name of courgette, which I like better. It's an awesome name. I just forget to use it. You should use it! Maybe then I'll remember to use it. :)


I've never been a big fan of summer squash, so beyond some tasty bars and bread, I've never really felt zucchini offered me much. Until now, of course. It is a great addition to soups, stir fries, sautees, and absorbs flavor very well. Below is a review of some tasty recipes that I've found to use what is a very versatile vegetable.


Simply Recipes has a tasty post on making spicy zucchini soup. It calls for some things that I have to finagle around (mainly bread and peppers), but it's doable. Using alternate thickeners is pretty simple if you want to get rid of the carb question. The peppers really do add a nice kick, though, so if you can have them--play them up! If you can't have them, or just don't like spice, you may want to play around with some other flavor alternatives. The mint/cilantro part gives it a nice light taste to it, but the soup needs to be grounded in something more intense I think.


One of my favorite blogs, Just Bento, has a nice savory take on the low-carb zucchini muffin. I tend to ignore the fact that I'm adding dairy to it, but remind myself that I can have dairy in moderation. :) I've tended to freeze these for desperate snack attacks or for fast breakfast options. I haven't made these in a bit, but have been dreaming of them this whole time.


I didn't originally get this recipe from Just Hungry, but they have a nice post on this option as well: zucchini/chickpea pancakes. Another quick breakfast or lunch option, and it's vegan by its very nature. I rotate my egg consumption, so it's nice to have some savory breakfast options that do not require eggs as a binder. Chickpea flour really is a lifesaver with some dishes. And as a slight digression, Just Bento's listing of zucchini related posts looks delicious and quite extant.


Another version of the zucchini pancake theme is the zucchini latke. Some folks like to just use eggs as a binder, which is nice and simple. I haven't tried to make it like that myself for a while, if ever, though I expect it's easy and adequate. My mom used to make zucchini pancakes with Bisquick, but I can't have that anymore, so I opt to use this recipe from Whole Approach that uses buckwheat flour. It also has egg in it, and it's still a limit with the buckwheat, but it seems to strike a nice kind of comfort food chord with me. And as always, a bonus for me is that they freeze well. I ended up giving a batch of these latkes to my grandmother for Christmas this year, as she has a gluten intolerance. Well, she had an intolerance, I guess since she tells me she was cured this year by attending a healing Mass.


I really could go on, as there are numerous ways to use this vegetable, many of them incredibly healthy and tasty. But, this post is already long. So, I'll finish off with the most unlikely recipe I've found, which has ended up being the one I tend to use the most: hot "cereal" zucchini porridge. Who would have thought? It's actually pretty good, and would probably be better if I added almonds or other nuts to it as the original post suggests. But add some nice spices, a little sweetener (stevia in my case), and blend that stuff up!

Food posts: a manifesto

As I've mentioned in a couple of places, I'm on a specific diet for specific reasons. I will not bore folks with the details beyond noting that it is pretty restrictive and that I do not always follow the recommendations. That being said, I have found that the diet has been a good match for me overall. It should have protected me from the menacing head cold that I've managed to get this week, and it didn't. But I am willing to forgive it this time, and see if it can't straighten up and fly right by me.

If you'd like more information on the actual diet, I've chosen to follow this one. I have found it more palatable than some other choices, but only because its approach resonates with some of my own preferences. The forums on the site are fabulous, and I draw a lot of inspiration and recipes from there. I do want to note that I do *not* hate sugar. It just likes me too much. It's got poor boundaries with me and so I have had to file a restraining order against it.

Anyhow, so the plan on this site is just to post about foods that I've come to love more than I anticipated, or to just show the world that my diet isn't as horrid as some (read: husband) may make it out to be.