Re: Time Spent in the Kitchen!

[Guest guest]

I realize this post is over a year old but THANK YOU! You have helped me sort

out some of the 'how-to's' for the kitchen. My husband and I will be helping our

daughter with the cooking for the one child with Chrons(she has 5 other children

to care for)and you system gives us a great place to begin...

Hugging you!!

Hadassah

>

>

> Healthydreamer,

>

> Your husband is lucky to have you on the diet

> with him... just like I'm lucky to have my

> husband 95% on it with me. (He eats all SCD at

> home, and doesn't worry about cross-contamination

> if we're eating out, unlike me.)

>

> I am so glad you found BTVC -- whenever I read a

> story about someone responding to SCD like your

> husband has, or like Kim H's husband has, I

> smile, because I have a feeling Elaine is

> smiling, too. And I know she smiles, too, for the

> people who have a tough time finding out what

> foods work for them, and in making a more gradual

> transition, because she knows that SCD works!

>

> As to how much time I spend in the kitchen,

> sometimes it's more than I like. Mostly making bread, crackers, and yogurt!

>

> I highly recommend to you getting an Excalibur 9

> tray dehydrator, I can make 8 liters (four half

> gallons) of yogurt at once, and that usually

> lasts a couple weeks. (I'm fortunate that my

> husband only eats the ranch salad dressing I make

> with half and half or the 8 liters wouldn't last that long!

>

> You can also use the dehydrator to make meat

> snacking sticks, bread sticks, crisp up crackers, and so forth.

>

> Because the almond flour is pretty expensive, I

> save it for special treats and use pecan flour

> which I can buy for some things, or make with a

> grinder. It's a bit coarser than the almond flour, but it's pretty digestible.

>

> I also make a bread with eggs and egg whites and

> a small amount of nut flour which is versatile.

>

> And there are cheese crisps which I love.

>

> When your husband is able to use legumes, you can

> use white beans or lentils or lima beans to make

> bean paste and make crackers with those to cut

> down on the amount of nut flour. (Also gives you a different taste.)

>

> What I try to do is spend one day making bread,

> crackers, and yogurt. Then I plan meals for the

> week based on what I have. The thing which drove

> me craziest in the beginning was, " Oh, I think I

> want beef and broccoli casserole tonight... oh

> <expletives deleted>, I don't have any yogurt

> cheese, and the cheese isn't shredded.... " Or,

> " Mmm, some lasagna would be great... blast, I don't have any tomato sauce! "

>

> I sort of developed a one day of making staples,

> like the bread, crackers and yogurt, and then one

> more day making big quantities of tomato sauce, which I froze.

>

> The next week, I would make staples, plus extra

> yogurt, which I dripped real well, and froze, so

> I always had some to use in cooking. (I didn't

> find a source for dry curd cottage cheese until I

> had been on the diet four years.)

>

> The week after that, I would make staples, plus

> chicken broth, usually grinding the chicken from

> the broth making up to make chicken salad. I

> could make big bags of chicken salad mix, with

> chicken, chives or green onions, etc., and freeze

> it, then pull, defrost, and add either SCD mayo

> or avocado mayo, and have lunches for a week. I

> would usually put up a box of chicken stew with

> some broth and meat and extra veggies for a fast

> dinner on a night I didn't feel like cooking.

>

> The week after that, it would be staples, plus

> beef broth, again grinding the beef up to make

> sandwich spreads. I would usually put up a box of

> beef stew with some broth and meat and extra

> veggies for a fast dinner on a night I didn't feel like cooking.

>

> The next week, staples, plus shredding and

> bagging cheese to freeze, so I could just grab a

> bag of SCD-legal pre-shredded cheese from the

> freezer if I was making a casserole.

>

> Then back to tomato sauce making... I tried to

> buy, during tomato season, around 25 pounds of

> tomatoes and peel and cook them down each week so

> I had enough sauce to last through the year.

> While the tomatoes were cooking, I could usually

> put up other seasonal vegetables or fruits for

> the freezer. For instance, we like a mix of

> broccoli florets, cauliflower, and carrot coins,

> so I may buy those in season, cut them up, and

> freeze in dinner-sized bags so that later, I just

> grab a bag out of the freezer, drop the contents

> in the steamer, and cook, just before whatever the meal is ready.

>

> I had it down to a good system -- until Hurricane

> Katrina hit New Orleans, and I lost absolutely

> everything in my freezers, though luckily, not the house.

>

> I've been trying to get back to my system, though

> I've had hassles with my mother's heart attacks,

> my own cancer surgery, and now the sleep apnea.

>

> But after Katrina, I learned to do a new, less

> complex style of SCD cooking, with quickly

> steamed vegetables and meats broiled in the

> toaster oven or grilled on a Foreman-type grill.

> I had to do this because while they were

> repairing the city's electrical system, I could

> never count on having power for a full hour at a

> time to cook a couple loaves of bread -- but I

> could make fast souffle breads. I learned to keep

> some heavy towels near the yogurt maker so if the

> power went off, I could wrap it up so it would

> stay at the proper temperature until the power

> came back on. I discovered it was possible to do

> SCD out of a 4 cubic foot dorm fridge, which was

> all we had, both fridge and freezer having died

> due to power surges after the storm.

>

> One thing which can be helpful is to sit down and

> think about what you want to have.

>

> For instance, I can roast two chickens in the

> same oven... and have one for later in the week,

> or for making sandwich spreads. If I make a

> largish casserole of veggies and cheese sauce,

> later in the week, all I have to do for dinner is

> reheat the chicken and veggies for a " night out. "

>

> Or I can make up a big batch of veggies and meat

> for Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, and freeze some for another night.

>

> When I make lasagna, the recipe I use calls for

> half of this pepper and half of that. SO for me,

> it's eaiser to make a double batch of sauce. Then

> I make two lasagnas and bake them. One lasagna

> for dinner tonight, and the other, when cool, goes in the freezer for later.

>

> I used almost no nut flour in the beginning

> because I didn't tolerate it. Now, I tend to use

> less because I'm still trying to normalize my

> weight. OTOH, my sister has fruit and nut muffins

> (plural) every morning, with a big bowl of yogurt for breakfast.

>

> I doubt this answered your question... but it

> gives you an idea of how my kitchen functions.

> Well, that's when I'm functioning... <g> I spend

> WAY more time on the computer than I should!

>

> My husband darn near fell over Thanksgiving

> morning when he came out and found me answering

> cooking questions here on the list....

>

>

>

> — Marilyn

> New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

> Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

> Darn Good SCD Cook

> No Human Children

> Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

>