Cucumber Avocado Salad

This salad tastes amazing with roasted lamb.  If you're making this ahead, reserve the sea salt until ready to eat.  It will pull all the water out of the cucumber and leave you with a mushy mess.

Cucumber Avocado Salad

Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

1/2 English cumcumber, shredded

1 ripe avocado, mashed

1 handful fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

sea salt to taste

ground pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, add all ingredients, gently stirring to ensure the avocado is well mixed with the cucumber.  Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Read more...

One Year In and a Lifetime to Go

This was supposed to be published last year in June, but life got in the way.

20 June 2010

It's been a year since I realized that what I was eating greatly affected my energy levels, digestion, mood, emotions, behavior, monthly cycle, etc.  I thought that I was eating healthy.  I was eating whole grains, lots of vegetables, and fruit.  I rarely had red meat and ate mostly chicken and fish.  Beans were a staple in my kitchen.  Yet, my health became progressively worse.  One fateful day with a whole wheat roti (Indian flat bread) changed everything.  I never realized all the "good" food I was eating was causing all my pain.  Within a month of taking out grains, sugars, vegetable oil, dairy, and any processed foods or foods with additives, I became a different person.  I was happier.  I wasn't always in pain.  My husband didn't have to avoid me for two weeks every month.  Things started to look up.  It's been a pretty good year (in the past 365 days, approximately 60 of those days were off-track diet days), but I still have a lot of work to do to make up for the 31 years of damage I've done.  Here's a recap of the last year and what I'm looking forward to for the future.

The evolution of my diet:

• I eliminated wheat in late May 2009.  This helped my digestion, but problems still lingered.  I knew rice, corn, and legumes needed to be removed, but everyone thought I was crazy and I kept trying to eat these foods to be "normal".  "Normal" kept me sick.
• I found SCD in early June and eliminated all grains, legumes, and sugars (except honey).  My digestion normalized and any "illegals" I unknowingly ate gave me stomach issues right away.  I started with the full SCD diet and did not limit fruit, sweet veggies, or honey. I stayed with this for about a month without many digestive issues.  My energy was somewhat stable, but the fatigue remained.
• We went to Italy for 2 weeks in late July and I let myself have sugars and dairy.  The last 3 days I started eating wheat again and that brought on binge attacks.
• I started the SCD Intro Diet when we came back from vacation in August.  I found that honey and fermented dairy were causing me to feel worse so I eliminated them.  I had to jump to a low carb, high fat diet to kick my sugar cravings and keep my energy stable. 
• I started reading about the GAPS and Body Ecology Diets and introduced fermented foods.  I did this after a few days of eating only meat.  This killed all sugar cravings I had.  I did well with meats and fermented veggies.  Not quite ready to give up the sugar addiction, I clinged to fermented fruits and dairy, which caused the immediate reaction of muscle aches.  I still binged on fruit after eating out and on sweet veggies. 
• We went on vacation for 3 weeks to the states in November and I binged on chocolate before we even landed in Los Angeles.  These 3 weeks I ate anything and everything.  I remember sitting in the Atlanta airport bound for home and asking my husband to quickly get me a chocolate chip muffin from Dunkin Donuts because this was my last chance before we got back to Seoul.  I didn't really want the muffin, but I had to have it!
• I restarted the diet when I came back in December, introducing bone broth.  My sugar addiction did not let up and I let it get the best of me every weekend in December and through January and early February.  Thankfully, I kept my consumption of grains to several days during this period, mostly just focusing on sugar. 
• On February 11 2010, I was sick and tired of being sick from the carb binges so I decided it was time to stop.  I gave up all sweets including honey, fruits, and sweet veggies under a modified full GAPS diet.  The first few days I was deathly sick, but my appetite eventually came back.  After the first couple of weeks I had cravings after meals, but eating nuts and cheese helped.  I also went back to the states for a couple of weeks in March and didn't knowingly ingest any of my poisons.  This was a first for me. 
• I decided to start the GAPS Intro Diet in May and dropped the dairy and nuts. 
• In early June I had an emotional day and binged on all my poisons.  The next day I had a splitting headache and an uncontrollable fit of rage.  I binged again.  The next morning I was fine.  I increased my Vitamin C intake and the cravings were almost nonexistent.  I let myself have nuts one day it was particularly bad.
• I restarted GAPS Intro Diet in June and have been on it for about a week now.  I have twice as much bone broth as before and am eating more cooked veggies.  I try to eat fermented veggies with every meal that I can. 

Things I've Learned:

• Any kind of sweetness will make me crave more sweet.
• The more carbs I eat, the more carbs I crave.
• The more protein I eat, the fuller I get and the less I eat for my next meal.
• Bone broth is very healing.  I attribute it to my quick turnaround from my 2 day binge earlier this month.
• I feel much better physically without sweetness. 
• Sometimes I would like to be ignorant and eat whatever I want and take pills to take my aches and pains away like everyone else.  Then I see all the people around me that look like death and I'm thankful for the decision I made.
• Chowing down on junk is so unattractive.  I didn't realize how much of a pig one really looks like when stuffing her face. 
• Epsom Salt soaks do wondrous things when I'm feeling bad.
• I handle stress better when my digestion is working properly and I'm eating good fats and protein.
• I'm a much better wife and being a slave to the grind is easier on this diet.

My Goals for the Future:

• Continue focusing on bone broths, meats, animal fats and coconut oil, fermented veggies, and cooked low-sugar veggies.  I'll introduce raw veggies before my next trip since salads are easy options for eating out.
• Keep sweetness to a minimum.  Fructose affects my body physically, mentally, and behaviorally.
• Work towards being able to digest nuts and coconut easier. 
• Work towards being able to do yoga daily again.
• Work up to having coconut oil without significant die-off.
• Work towards being able to eat eggs without a reaction.
• Release my fatigue and bring back my energy.
• Control my addictions to sweets.
• Control my urge to binge on poisons.
• Maintain my current weight for life.

Read more...

Mango Sorbet

We're moving soon back to the states so it's time to clean out the fridge!  I've had a bag of frozen mango chunks for a while now and decided to make a mango sorbet.  It was as simple as blending the frozen mango with the juice on 1/2 a lemon, pinch of sea salt and enough water to make it the consistency of sorbet.  I have trouble finding frozen mango that is as sweet as fresh mango so you may have to add a little sweetener to taste.

Read more...

Roasted Vegetables and Sweet Potato Chips

This weekend I lightly roasted eggplant, asparagus, yellow and red bell peppers, red onion, and zucchini for vegetable additions to my daily bone broths.  I put them into my roaster for an hour at 300 degs.  I'll cook down each portion daily for 20-30 minutes in bone broth. 

Lately (and maybe always) I've noticed a strange reaction to eggplant and sometimes nightshades in general.  When they are too sweet, they cause me to crave more sweetness.  My skin may itch after eating them and I have this weird feeling in my mouth.  I've read that the solanine in nightshades is to blame since it's a toxic poision, but it's also antifungal.  These sypmtoms may be healing reactions so I'm not taking them out for now.  If symptoms persist then I'll reevaluate.

I also made sweet potato chips (fried in goose fat) for the hubby.  These are simple to make, but the carrot chips in goose fat are the best by far.  Sweet potatoes are not SCD/GAPS legal, but since giving up grains, starches, and sugars this week, the hubby seems to be losing too much weight.  I made him these and steamed sweet potato puree loaded with butter to eat daily so he can put some weight back on. 

Read more...

Getting Out and Enjoying Nature (or a Well Manacured Garden in the Middle of the City)

The spring, summer, and early fall seasons in Korea are often plagued with heat, monsoon rains, pollution, pollen, and yellow dust from China's Gobi Desert. It's easy to lose a whole weekend locked away in the apartment, avoiding the world outside. This weekend was overcast, but the heat wasn't stifling and we ventured out to take some pictures. Enjoy these random shots from the garden outside our apartment.

Read more...

Grilled Beef, Korean Style

Korean food is super delicious, but can cause digestive problems for some.  Most Korean dishes come with abundant vegetables on the side, but you'll also find an abundance of irratants like soy, legumes, vegetable and nut oils, starch and grain thickeners, and sugars.  To be safe, I stick with unmarinated meats that can be grilled right in front of me or sushi/ sashimi and raw veggies.

It's hard trying to tell this to a waitress who hardly knows english so thankfully we had our friends Calvin and Ariel there to help.

Thinly sliced grilled beef. 

Wrapping the beef around some grilled onions.  So good!

Grilled steak.

Tofu with spicy topping.

Veggies in hot sauce.

Salad in hot dressing.

Kimchi.

Fermented bean paste.

Raw garlic.

Shredded cabbage with sweet dressing.

Sesame oil with pepar and salt dip for meat.

Watermelon for dessert.

Read more...

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Make a lemon and ginger electrolyte drink!!!

Every morning upon waking to help cleanse my liver, I drink a glass of warm water with the juice from half a lemon and 1/4 tsp Himalayan Sea Salt.  Over the course of the day I drink about 4 cups of water with 3/4 tsp sea salt, juice from the other 1/2 lemon, and about 1 inch ginger (grated).  This combo works well to energize me, kill any cravings that I may have, and settle my stomach.

Read more...

Coconut Cupcakes (with Coconut Flour)

Elana's Pantry is featuring cupcakes all this month (grain-free of course) and I decided to make her coconut cupcakes in an effort to make a dent in all the coconut flour in the freezer.  The only substitution I made was using honey in place of agave nectar.  The hubby whipped together a creamy topping of clotted cream, honey, and strawberries to sweeten them up even further. 

Read more...

Sauerkraut..Es gefällt mir!

A few weeks ago I started a batch of green/purple sauerkraut.  Last year I was addicted to cultured foods and tried to ferment anything and everything.  The last batch I made went earlier this year went bad within a few days and it's taken me a few months to get up the courage to try again.  Pounds of carrots into the garbage.  I was heartbroken.

I decided on a simple sauerkraut this time- cabbage, salt, and water.  The bottles sat out on the counter for about 5 days before I moved them to the fridge.  I'm setting these aside for the intro phase of the GAPS diet that I am planning to start next week. 

Read more...