Salad Grease

For me, the sole purpose of salad dressing is lubrication. It's a bit odd, since salad vegetables are mostly cellulose and water, but dressing-less salads seem dry to me. Maybe I don't like to feel like a cow chewing her cud. Whatever the reason, I have to to have something to grease up a salad.

Every salad dressing I've encountered thus far has soy in it. Except for the tried and true olive oil and balsamic vinegar,  I'm out of luck. But olive oil and vinegar get old, fast. So I have a new solution:

Fruit.

Mandarin oranges, to be exact. I only buy those packed in water or 100% juice (check the ingredients, because even if it says juice, they sometimes add sugar). I throw a half cup of those babies on my salad, and mix. The orange segments break down very easily, which releases plenty of grease juice. Here's my favorite salad of the moment:

Iceberg lettuce, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, one hard-boiled egg, and about half a cup of shredded chicken breast. Plus the oranges, obviously.

I'll probably try pineapple next. It's higher in sugar than I prefer, but it's pretty juicy as far as fruits go...

Another one bites the dust

So remember how cream cheese was the only product that I haven't been able to find sans soy, and I can't make it myself?

Well I found another casualty of my soy war: creamy soups.

As in, cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, cream of celery, cream of fill in the blank.

This is quite unfortunate due to the sheer number of favorite recipes that use these ingredients: chicken spaghetti, southern dressing (and no, it's not anything like stuffing!), my personally invented low-fat alfredo, chicken pot pie, chicken enchiladas....

I'm sure I'll find some alternative recipes for some of the items I listed above. I'm actually trying to find a way to make my own cream of chicken soup, but haven't found any good recipes yet. I already make my own chicken broth (you can't buy any that doesn't have natural flavors added), so I don't mind doing the work.

I'm just sad about the chicken pot pie, and dressing. I think I'll probably still make dressing this year for Thanksgiving, but I'll only have a little.

Such is life. Oh, and I'm still pain free. So there's that...

Happiness in a Bowl

After Brint and I started dating, it didn't take long for me to be introduced to one of his Mom's signature dishes - baked potato soup. It was absolutely the best potato soup I'd ever tasted. I asked for the recipe so she gave me a copy of the local cookbook from where it came.

This recipe is easy. It is also free of any trace soy. It is NOT low-fat, or low-calorie. If you want to make it low fat (skim milk, fat free sour cream, and fat free cheese) - feel free. We tried that once and vowed to never do this recipe injustice again. It was still good, but having had the deliciousness of the full-fat version, there was just no comparison.

Here's the skinny (or fat?):

Ingredients
6 Cups Whole Milk
4 large baking potatoes (or as many as you want)
Green Onions
Bacon, cooked and chopped
cheddar cheese
8 oz sour cream
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour


Directions
Bake the potatoes until fork tender, and cool.

Scoop out the pulp and set aside. Note: If you don't want chunky potato soup, pulse the potato pulp in a food processor until creamy. Melt the butter on LOW heat, and add flour, stirring until smooth. Add the milk and stir consistently until smooth.

Add the potato pulp, 2 tablespoons chopped green onions, 1/2 cup bacon pieces, and 1 cup cheese. Cook on low heat until warm throughout, stirring occasionally. Add sour cream, stirring until well constituted. Enjoy!

** I didn't provide amounts of bacon, onions, and cheese because you can use extra for garnish

Matrices and Carnivores

I don't eat enough protein. I never have. I don't do it on purpose, it just happens. So for the last many many months, I've been supplementing my diet with protein shakes. It took me a long, long while to find a protein powder that I liked: Syntrax Matrix. I liked it because it isn't full of sugar (which can be problem with protein powders) and it tastes good.

But alas, it has soy, in the form of soy lecithin. The bane of my existence.

I almost gave up on finding a replacement protein powder, until this week:

Carnivor. It's beef protein; not whey, soy, or egg like most other protein powders. The taste is.... different. If you like dark chocolate (Brint loves it) this is great. But it has a.. dark, almost burned, hint.

I tried to like it, I really did. But based on my recent discovery that I can handle a little soy a few times per week - I'm back on the Matrix. Brint is happily consuming the Carnivor.

But if you have no tolerance for soy and don't want to buy expensive beef collagen gelatin (heavy on protein, used in confections), this could be a pretty good alternative.

The hiatus is over

I'm back, finally. I've ignored the blog for the last two weeks (as if you don't know that already) due to Midterms. Plus a project meeting with my graduate committee.  It's been a rough last couple of weeks, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'll go ahead and schedule another two-week hiatus at the beginning of December. Finals and all, you know. Consider yourself warned.

Summarizing the last two weeks in a sentence is pretty easy. I am still pain free, even without the birth control pills. It's wonderful. I've learned that I can eat a little soy (trace amounts, think barbecue sauce or a hotdog bun) without pain. As long it's only one meal and I am careful to avoid soy the next few days, I'm just fine.

That's good to know, because as I've said before - there will be times in the future when I cannot avoid it. There are plenty of conference and trade show boxed lunches in my future, I'm afraid. But at least I know how to eat and not hurt. It's pretty amazing.

Winter is Coming!

I detest winter. I'm not even that far North, but it's as far as I want to go. But I love fall. I love all the bright colors, the cool breezes, the lack of humidity, and the crunch of leaves under foot. It's just wonderful.

And I love pumpkin. Pie, bread, cheesecake (although that is but a far and distant memory). So today I've been baking sugar pumpkins, and washing and baking seeds for snacks. I'm scouring the internet for soy-free pumpkin recipes. I'll try to post more on those later this week. 

I'll also be posting on using fresh pumpkins instead of the nasty canned pumpkin that's full of chemicals (and probably soy, though I haven't verified it. Just a guess.) and artificial colorings. The real thing tastes so much better, and it's so easy I'll never use another can of pumpkin again.

Plus, a fresh sugar pumpkin (the small kind, maxing out at 5lbs) will last up to 6 months in a cool, dark location. That means pumpkin goodies at Easter! Or you can do as I do, and freeze the fresh pumpkin puree to use whenever you have a hankering.

Just a thought.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I promise I'll have plenty of pumpkin pictures soon....

The Life Sentence Is Over

Well it's been a month since I gave up soy in an attempt to overcome endometriosis-related pain. There have been a couple of instances where I know I've had trace soy, but for the most part I'm sans soy. The results? Glad you asked.

• The obvious one: I'm pain free. Even after dropping the birth control last week, I'm back to pain free. I don't think I can put coherent sentences together to describe just how happy and elated I am. But I finally have my quality of life back. It's pretty amazing.
• I've lost 4 pounds in a month. I know I'm not breaking any weight loss records with that one, but coming from someone who has lost and gained the same 2 pounds since January, it's exciting. 
• An aside: soy is known to inhibit thyroid activity. I've had my thyroid checked 4 different times in recent years because I always had so many symptoms of hypothyroidism, but the bloodwork always came back clean. Perhaps the soy was interfering with enzyme receptors.... this would explain the symptoms and lack of of affected bloodwork. Just thinking out loud here...
• I've also lost 2.75 inches this month, from all over, lending to the idea that the weight loss was mostly attributed to de-bloating. Know how when you get your period you bloat? Well that is attributed to elevated estrogen. So now that all of the soy-related estrogen is out of my body, the bloat has gone away. Thank goodness. Maybe more will follow.
• My skin looks great. I haven't changed my moisturizers or grooming habits, but my skin looks brighter. Before it was dry and drab. Now it's much smoother, and my skin tone has really evened out. I've never really worn make up, but now I feel like I can legitimately get away with it.
• I sleep better. For the last several months, sleep was an effort for me. I would either lay in bed for hours unable to fall asleep, or toss and turn in a barely asleep state of restlessness. Now I sleep through the night. And I'm asleep within an hour of going to bed.
• I have more energy. Clearly, this is likely correlated to the better quality of sleep. But it's still an improvement in my life. I don't get run down at 3 in the afternoon anymore.
• There are other improvements, but since my Mom reads this I think I'll keep them to myself. Just know that Brint is very supportive of my new lifestyle, and for good reason.

Originally I said I'd give this thing a month, and re-evaluate. Having done so, I can confidently say that I'll be making this a permanent lifestyle change. And I can't wait to tell my doctor, so hopefully she will pass the word on to her other endo patients.

The life sentence of endometriosis has not won.