Practically Baby Food

So I have been having a lot, a lot, a lot, of digestion issues since the beginning of December.  At the time, the doctors thought it was viral gastroenteritis. My symptoms matched, it was going around... but it never got better.  Since I was on prednisone they figured that the 5-7 day normal period may last 2 to 3 weeks.  It is now 10 weeks. My Internal Med doctor thought it might be a pancreas issue, but I don't really have any other symptoms.  He ordered some tests though (I'm waiting for the results).

In early January I went on a "low residue diet" which actually kind of made things worse, so I was only on it for about 3 days.

Today I started, what I am not-so-lovingly referring to as "the practically baby food diet".   Easily digestible veggies, low fruit, low fat, low protein (since I have issues with protein anyway), low grains... basically I can eat the following:

I hate to say it (because I'm a foodie), but my digestion was already greatly improved today.  BLAH. After a few days I'm going to reintroduce foods back in, and see how they go.

For breakfast, I had an epic fail.  I apparently forgot that I don't really like sweet things.  I tried to make banana pancakes.   Mashed banana, egg, a bit of coconut flour... I found them really dry (I maybe shouldn't have added the flour) so I topped them with applesauce, and some cinnamon.  I ate about half and was done. The rest are currently sitting in my fridge while I figure out a solution because I hate to waste food.  I must be able to mix it or something (maybe more banana and freeze it...)

bleh. 

Lunch went WAY better.  I made risotto. Arborio rice, vegetable broth, asparagus (uh... that might not be on my list, but I had some and didn't want to waste it), topped with a bit of goat mozzarella.

so delicious and filling!

Supper was the highlight of the day.  I grated sweet potato and steamed them (they could have been steamed longer), added some mild curry spice, coconut flour, egg, and grilled them.  Topped with some probiotic active bacteria yogourt and mustard.  I have some left over for tomorrow!

I liked the ones with mustard the best.

For snacks, I made sweet potato, zucchini and goat feta muffins using banana flour.  I didn't like them warm, but absolutely love them cold.  There's only about a net of 11gr of carbs per muffin, and only 1gr of fat, and since I'm still dealing with steroid induced diabetes, it makes it a perfect snack.

 best snack ever (Banana flour is EXPENSIVE though!)

All of the ridiculousness of the past almost 7 months sometimes catches up with me.  This digestion thing just seems like something else on the long list of things I have to deal with. I try to remember that I'm alive. 20% of people who go through what I went through don't make it, I could have been that 20%. All of the crap I'm dealing with now has to be worth it, because I get to be alive. I get to go to school.  I get to study something I love, I get to work on my Honours research project that I absolutely love. I get to work, although it isn't as much as I'd like to, I get to help people. I get to connect with people.  I get to do things, even if I'm limited in the amount of things I can do. 

Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes people suck... but sometimes it's worth it to get to be alive, and do things you love, even if you can't do everything you want to. 

Rice wraps are my simple love

Totally going a different direction with this post. Not having a lot of energy, sometimes makes it difficult to eat healthy.  Not being well, makes it even more important to eat healthy.

Rice paper wraps have become my go-to. They're quick, easy, delicious, and healthy.  

You can put anything in them... someone recommended peanut butter and banana to me, I haven't tried that yet because I don't know how I feel about the consistency, but I will try it eventually.

You can make cold rice wraps, hot ones, pan fried, deep fried, baked.     Cold and pan fried are what I usually eat.

 I am having difficulty with digestion, so have to be careful with raw veggies, but there are lots of cooked ingredients that taste amazing in them.

 Some of my favourite ingredients are sweet potato, onion, the veggies that are in broccoli slaw (PC is my favourite), mushrooms, tofu, eggplant, avocado, black bean noodles... I tried edamame, it was okay, but I wasn't fond of the texture of them inside.  They were great on their own with a bit of sriracha though!

My spiralizer (which I bought for $25 at Superstore before Christmas, and they now have on sale for around $13)  makes onions, eggplant and sweet potato easy to prep for cooking... although fat sweet potatoes are more difficult to spiralize than the thin long ones. 

I choose the veggies I want, sautée or steam them, and then get the rice paper (bánh tráng) ready.  I can only find square ones at Superstore, and I find them really flimsy.  They don't work that great with my rice paper tray (see: http://www.cuisinivity.com/goodstuff/2012/ricepapertray.php minus the stand) either.  I will stick to circular ones from Asian grocery stores in the future, but the ones Superstore sells when in a pinch (They're okay if you don't want to cook them).

You can see how much nicer the circular ones (on the left) turn out when pan fried, versus the square ones (on the right) which liked to fall apart once they hit the heat :( 

My favourite dipping sauce for them is a combination of peanut butter, coconut almond milk (Almond Breeze unsweetened Almond Coconut Milk is my normal choice, because I also love it in my tea), sriracha, a splash of soy sauce and grated ginger.   I'll sometimes do a splash of orange juice, or rice vinegar if I'm craving a bit of zing.  It's also really good with hoisin, which is one of my guilty pleasures in life... but I can't justify the sugar in hoisin since I'm dealing with steroid induce diabetes... thanks prednisone. If you can eat it, I recommend adding it!  I also once substituted tahini for the peanut butter, because I had it on hand.  It was fantastic, although a pricier option.

 I mix it to a creamy consistency, but add more liquid if you prefer it watery. If I'm taking the wraps with me to school or work for lunch, I'll make the sauce thicker, and put it inside the wraps instead of a dip so I don't have such a messy lunch. 

When choosing ingredients for the inside, something with a crunch gives it a little bit extra something.  Nuts, seeds, shredded carrot, or, I used to not cook the broccoli slaw, when I could eat raw veggies, and it was great. The mix in consistencies is lovely. 

Pinterest is full of recipes for rice paper wraps. 

Sometimes you need to appreciate the simple things in life.  I've had a hard time doing that over the past few months, with all the bad things that have gone on.  Having something delicious, affordable and easy to make, is one of the simple things I do appreciate.