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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allergy elimination diet, pancakes, apple pancakes, rice flour, rice pancakes, recipes, allergy baking

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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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One Week Round Up

So, it's been a week. Other than being able to stand being in the same room with dill weed, I have seen no benefits from this diet. I haven't even lost any weight - I figure that if I'm not eating cookies, pastries, cakes, bread, or anything with flour or sugar, I should at least be losing weight. It's also been a week since I've had any coffee. I haven't had any withdrawal symptoms, but I have noticed that coffee smells better and better every day.

I've started to get into an eating routine of sorts. Most days for breakfast I make myself a bowl of homemade muslei - rolled oats and barley, ground flax, various nuts, sometimes raisins and chopped fresh fruit with apple juice. For lunch, I usually have some mix of fruit or vegetables and possibly some nuts or dinner leftovers. For dinner, I make some combination of rice (or rice noodles) and beans with veggies. I'm often hungry in the evening and sometimes will make another bowl of muslei. For quick snacks I usually have peanut butter and celery or rice cakes, sometimes I'll have fruit or a handful of nuts.

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muslei, allergy elimination diet, weight loss, rice and beans, fruit, veggies, vegetables

Survived Day One

I survived the first day on the elimination diet.  The hardest part was that I came back from my mom's house at the beach (end of the wedding festivities) and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of easily portable food on my diet.  For instance, I can't have bananas or oranges - which are almost ideal road food - cherries and watermelon are just a bit difficult to eat while driving or on a quick break!  I understand that there may be some bread that is on my diet, but I haven't found any of them so far, so no sandwiches. Food takes on a whole new meaning when you are hungry and surrounded by food that you can't eat. I'm definately going to have to find more foods that I can carry around with me in case I get hungry or am out longer than I expected.

So yesterday I had oatmeal with rice mik for breakfast (BTW the rice milk - at least the Rice Dream that Ralph, my mom's husband, drinks is really sweet - too sweet), a wedge of cantaloupe and a mug of chickory. For lunch I had pumpkin seeds (on the road.) Then Pico and I ate a ton of watermelon. This is actually normal for me, when Hermiston watermelons come into season, I usually buy one and eat a bunch of watermelon for a few days, since I'm usually the only watermelon eater - except for Pico, who would probably eat a whole watermelon if she could but I don't think that dogs should be doing that. Then I had some apricots and pistachios before bedtime. 

In addition to struggling with a lack of readily portable food, the other difficult thing was the lack of coffee and sugar.  I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, since I was sleeping on the couch at my mom's house (i.e. one of the last to bed and the first up.)  I just automatically crave sugar and caffeine when I'm tired, but I couldn't have it.  Happily, my attempts to keep to one cup of coffee a day (sometimes two) for the past few weeks seem to have kept me from having trouble with actual caffeine withdrawal.

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