Making and Using a Food Diary. Why and How.
I have made many food diary’s in my time as a mother for various reasons. Sometimes because I thought that my child was reacting to a food but couldn’t figure out what. Sometimes the diaries have focused more on other aspects of life and simply tracked foods just in case. I have also had to track food for some of the health care practitioners I have seen over the years. More rarely I have simply tracked my own food to see how much I was eating of what to know my ratios of fat/protein/carb and some of the macro-nutrients. As you can see there are many different kinds of food diary and what works for one may not work for another. I’m going to cover the two ways that I have done it below and give you lots of ideas...
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Home Made Corned Beef
I grew up in New England. My family is from New Hampshire and I grew up in Connecticut. Once a year we had New England Boiled Dinner. This is also called Corned Beef and Cabbage by the rest of you. I don’t remember having it any day other than St. Patrick’s day but perhaps we did. Corned beef is a good, old fashioned, wholesome food. Yet today, it has been infiltrated with not so traditional additives. The last time I checked most corned beef available at the grocery store contained corn syrup and preservatives. Not what I want to be serving my family. It turns out corned beef is easy to make at home if you have an anaerobic fermenting jar and a week to wait. I do not know about the oxalate content of this food. Many of these spices are high...
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Mercury In My Mouth Be Gone!
After literally years of research and waiting for the right time, I am finally getting the mercury amalgam fillings out of my mouth. I had seven that I got during the 4 years that I wore braces. At the time the dentist blamed me for not bushing well enough but I do not believe that was the cause. I brush my teeth once a day, I rarely floss and I haven’t used fluoride toothpaste since my early 20’s. My dental practices have not changed since I was a child. I have not had one cavity since I got my braces off when I was 16. In addition, my gum issues that cropped up out of the blue last spring were clearly connected to a cavitation in my jaw at the same spot. Prior to that I was often praised...
Read More2012 Year in Review
What a year 2012 has been. I have been taking some time lately to reflect back over the year. The good and the bad, the victories and the defeats. As I look over this year I think about how sick, weak and hopeless I was in the spring. Then I think about how getting my cavitaitons dealt with has been a turning point in my health journey. Learning about anaerobic fermentation and Pickl-It jars has also been a big change for the better this year. 2012 was my first full year as a blogger as well. I have learned and grown so much this year! I started with just a handful of friends and family reading me on blogger. Now I have a self hosted blog with more than 2000 followers on Facebook and hundreds getting my posts in...
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Guest Post: White Chocolate Peppermint Truffles
It is a pleasure to have another guest post from my friend Starlene. Starlene blogs at GAPS Diet Journey where she chronicles her journey on the GAPS Diet and creates GAPS Friendly recipes. She also has recently released her first book, Beyond Grain and Dairy. This is a cook book filled with dairy free, GAPS approved recipes for everything from appetizers to deserts. ~PattyLA My original goal in creating this treat was to create a white chocolate version of my Chocolate Coconut Fudge Bites. Then I wondered if I could make it low oxalate as well. My curiosity was piqued recently when I read a blog post at Roo’s Clues which talked about how oxalates “…injure and kill the mitochondria” and it made me wonder if I should look more closely at avoiding oxalates. Patty has written a very informative post called What Are...
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White Chocolate Filled Holiday Cookies
My older daughter has been on a gluten free diet since she was 2 and grain free most of that time. My younger daughter has been grain free her entire life. While they think certain treat foods look tasty they have no experience with them and so they don’t really long for old favorites for me to emulate. That is a nice relief in many ways since it means I don’t have to try to emulate something impossible with our limited diet. It also means that my recipes don’t have those inspired names from other cultures and times long past like Snickerdoodles or Grasshoppers. This year my older daughter was inspired to make our cut out cookies and layer them with some sort of filling. We talked several options over and settled on white chocolate for the...
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Savory Lentil Stew with Smoked Ham Hock
This is my children’s favorite soup of all time. Tonight when I served it my praises were sung over and over again. Every family member asked for seconds and both kids had thirds! They love this soup! Lucky me it is super easy to make thanks to a ready supply of GAPS legal ham hocks from The Farmer’s Larder. This is a local business and unfortunately they do not ship but hopefully you can find something similar in your area. It really lends a ton of great flavor to the soup. I make this using Red Lentils because they are lower oxalate than the others. I have also made it with Sprouted Green Lentils and it tastes great but is higher oxalate. Savory Lentil Stew with Smoked Ham Hock lard or bacon fat 3 cloves of garlic 1 large onion, diced...
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Date and Nut Bars
This holiday season I set a goal for myself to figure out 2 new cookie recipes. This one took a couple of tries but I think I got it. It is very versatile. Use any nuts you have on hand to mix it up or even shredded coconut for a different texture and very low oxalate count. You can also replace the dates with other dried fruit to change the flavor. As written this recipe has less than 3 mg of oxalate per bar! Over half of the oxalate in these bars comes from the nuts so replacing them with shredded coconut will drop it much lower. I hope you enjoy them! We sure like them! Date and Nut Bars 2 tbsp melted butter 1/3 cup Honey 3 eggs 4 tbsp Coconut Flour 1/8 tsp baking soda dash of salt...
Read MoreGinger Spice Bread
I discovered this recipe last fall and have made it many times. Everyone who has eaten it has loved it no matter what they usually eat. I like to bring this to get togethers this time of year because it is popular with a wide spectrum of tastes. Also everything in it is a staple in my pantry so I always have the ingredients on hand to throw it together if I haven’t planned anything for a party. I hope you enjoy it! Ginger Spice Bread 8 eggs 1/2 cup melted Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil, butter or Palm Shortening 1/2 cup Coconut Milk about 8 Medjool Dates 1 tspVanilla 1 tsp Ground Ginger 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon or 1 drop cinnamon essential oil* 1/4 tsp Ground Cloves or 1 drop clove essential oil* 2/3 cup Coconut Flour 1/8 tsp baking soda *Use essential oils for the cinnamon and...
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Be Young Green Monday Sale
Today is the annual Green Monday sale that Be Young offers every year. 20% off all in stock products for one day only. It is a great time to stock up. Don’t forget that if you sign up as a sharing partner you already get 20% off the regular customer prices. This is an additional 20% off! For those of you on the Low Oxalate Diet this is a great chance to try the essential oil versions of some high oxalate herbs. I have been using the Cinnamon, Clove, and Peppermint essential oils to flavor lots of holiday foods. Of course their value is far more than as a flavoring. I have also used essential oils for our digestive and respiratory aliments with great success and I wouldn’t want to face the winter cold and flu season without Spice...
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