Week 4 1/2 Summary

Having followed the allergy elimination diet faithfully for 4 weeks with absolutely no change in how I felt (except for no longer being oversensitive to the smell of dill), I called my doctor to ask what to do. She said that we can probably rule out allergies as the cause of my symptoms (which is what I pretty much expected from the beginning) and that I can skip the formal testing stage, but that I should only add one food back to my diet a day to make sure that I don't have any adverse reactions and that we have a chance to find any food allergies I might have.

So far, I've added back garlic, onion, butter, sugar, and wheat (I'm focusing on the foods that are often in seasonings and sauces because that's what I've missed the most.) I did notice that when I went to the produce market after adding back the first four that I was again oversensitive to the smell of dill. I can live with that, particularly since that's been a stable symptom ever since I was in third or fourth grade. Other than that, I've had no reactions. A few more foods and I should be able to start cautiously eating out again.

I'm still debating whether or not to add coffee back into my diet. I love the flavor of coffee and the ritual of having a cup, but I hate when I get addicted to it and can't function without it (or get a headache if I don't have it.) And personally, I don't think it's worth drinking decaf. Even the quality decaf coffees don't taste as good to me, I'd rather go without.

Week 3 Summary

So, it's been 3 weeks and I don't feel any different. Some of that may be that I seem to have a cold or something coming on, but none the less, I can't start testing foods yet. I have reset that counter to add another week, as the instruction sheet I have from my doctor says if you don't feel better to wait until 4 weeks and then call them.

I gained two pounds this week. I was a little worried that would happen because last week's loss seemed too good to be true! I did however drop 1% in body fat - it hadn't changed previously. (This is per my Tanita Scale.)

I'm still struggling with not having coffee - it's my biggest craving. I actually poured myself a cup the other day just so I could hold it and sniff it. It's really not as much the effect of the coffee, as the enjoyment of the taste and smell. Then again, I might not miss it if I could have a greater selection of tasty foods. It is really hard for me to have to avoid onion, garlic, citrus, sugar, soy and sesame - it seems like most flavorful foods have at least one of those ingredients! Even my sweetie, the chef, has trouble coming up with interesting ideas. (Of course, it doesn't help that I'm a vegetarian - after all, you can always flavor things with bacon grease...)

Pancake Variations

After my success with pancakes, I've been experimenting with variations, with quite a bit of success. First I made pancakes using brown rice flour and stirring in pre-cooked shredded cabbage and carrots. They were so good that my sweetie ate a bunch of them too. It was a little difficult to cook them so they weren't overdone but also weren't mushy around the veggies. Then today I made rice pancakes by stirring a cup of rice into the pancake batter. I also experimented with apple pancakes. Usually when I make apple pancakes, I just mix grated apple into the batter. I tried that with a small quantity of batter and found that it was a little too mushy. So I tried cutting thin slices of apple and putting them on the griddle then pouring the batter over it. This worked great - they looked fabulous (as you can see) and tasted even better!

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My Birthday Cake

Sadly, my birthday falls during my diet, so I can't follow my usual practice of having desserts I usually wouldn't.  However, my sweetie has promised to make me a fabulous cake I found on the National Watermelon Board website.  It sure looks good!  I can't wait!

Recipe Here

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Week 2 Summary

The best thing about week 2 is that I lost 4 pounds.  (Keep in mind that I didn't lose weight in the first week.)  I figure that if I'm mostly eating fruits and veggies and whole grains and not eating sugar or wheat, I should be losing weight, so it was really frustrating that I hadn't.  That said, I don't feel any better.  Although, I have to admit that I am eating better than I really do - it would be hard to eat badly on this diet.  Maybe I'm impatient, but I'm supposed to be feeling better in the two to three week range (if I have food allergies.)

I discovered that Trader Joe's is a wonderful place to shop if you are on this diet.  For instance, they sell non-organic unsulfered raisins, for less than half the price of organic (which is normally the only way to be sure you are getting unsulfered raisins - one of the requirements of this diet.)  They also sell whole grain rice pasta for half the price of everywhere else in town and they actually sell muffins that are on this diet!  Unfortunately, the muffins, Zen Bakery Blueberry Raspberry Oat Bran Muffins, are really not that good - they are very dry.  I was actually surprised because I've had other Zen Bakery products and really liked them.  Then again, I might like them better if I could have them with a cup of coffee! I haven't tried it yet, but Trader Joe's also has inexpensive rice milk.

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Pancakes and Popovers

The other night I decided I wanted something a little different and decided to try to make pancakes.  Despite the fact that I had to substitute for every ingredient in the recipe except salt, they turned out great!

Here's my new recipe -

Hypo-Allergenic Pancakes

Beat together:

1 cup rice milk
2 T canola oil (or other safe oil)
1 T Hanna Kroeger's Flaxseed Egg Replacer

Mix the following dry ingredients together:

1 cup oat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
2 T honey
scant 1/2 tsp salt

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and cook on a hot greased griddle or fry pan.  Keep a close eye on them as they seem to cook slightly faster than standard pancakes.

Inspired by my success, I tried to make popovers today.  I don't know what I ended up with, but they weren't popovers.  They did taste pretty good though.

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Hanna Kroeger's Allergy Baking Recipes

Hanna Kroeger's Allergy Baking Recipes is an irreplaceable resource if you want to bake for someone sensitive to common baking ingredients like wheat, milk, eggs, and yeast. Many of the recipes are also suitable for people on gluten-free diets, although they are not marked as such. Although there are a number of very good recipes in this booklet, it is worth buying for the two egg-replacer recipes alone!  In some recipes, the apricot-based replacer is superior to eggs.  The other egg replacer recipe uses ground flaxseed, which can be a nice way to take advantage of the health benefits of flaxseed.  Also of note is a recipe for corn and aluminum-free baking powder. 

Here's the recipe for the flaxseed egg replacer:

Mix together in a pan:
3 cups water
1 cup ground flaxseed

Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. 
Store in the refrigerator. 
1 tablespoon replaces 1 beaten egg.

Allergy Baking Recipes by Hanna Kroeger.  Hanna Kroeger Publications.  ISBN: 1-883713-02-1



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