Wow! Life has been hectic, up and down, but overall fun! I am having so much fun with my kids. We were able to play in the snow several days last week. Today we enjoyed a warm but windy walk to school!
I am still following a mostly low FODMAP autoimmune paleo (AIP) plan. I have been able to add back in a few foods, but I can not eat them daily. I have added in eggs, plain organic greek yogurt, cottage cheese, almond butter (homemade), almond milk (homemade),and Enjoy Life chocolate chips. I have more trouble with FODMAP foods than I thought I would. I can have avocado and pumpkin, but apples caused major problems! I made my family a gluten free apple pie and tried some of the filling (that was AIP compliant) and was sick for a few days. What really surprised me was how incredibly tired I felt! I have heard that some people do better with some types of apples than others. I will have to look into that for the future, but I am not planning on trying apples again anytime soon!
This weekend while watching the Ohio State football game, I decided to get some (ok, a lot) of cooking done. I made AIP carrot ginger soup (from Mickey Trescotts AIP cookbook), AIP cinnamon beef stew, AIP Magic chili, homemade chicken soup, butternut squash puree and homemade sausage patties. I did this all at once so I could prep once and cook lots. I had to peal and cut up a lot of veggies, especially carrots!! But my freezer is full of meals for the next few weeks for me. I also only have to clean the food processor once this way! I hade made beef bone broth earlier in the week and had that on hand for these recipes.
I made AIP carrot ginger soup for the first time a few weeks ago. I can not eat it as a bowl of soup. It is too spicy for me. But I found that I love it in small amounts mixed in with other foods. So, I froze it in an ice cube tray and put the cubes into a freezer bag. I can pop a cube of carrot ginger soup into my breakfast bowl, add it to my chicken soup, or mix it with other purees as a side for a meal. It adds some flavor this way, with out being too overpowering. I added a little fresh orange juice this time and it is good!
AIP cinnamon beef stew is tasty! I can’t eat it too often as beef stew meat is a harder for my stomach to digest, but some days a bowl of stew is just what I want! Especially on the cold, snowy days I know we have coming to us! I leave out the mushrooms as I am not sure if I can tolerate them or not. This time I put in a little sweet potato, as well as the butternut squash. As with most of my food, after I cook it, I let it cool and portion it into one cup servings in freezer bags. It is really easy to thaw this way and I have the perfect amount for a serving (or two on a bad day).
AIP magic chili is a great recipe from Mickey Trescott. The first time I made this recipe I did it in a crockpot. I did not know that beets could lose their color if you cooked them long enough! I was surprised when I came home from work to a crockpot with little clear pieces in it. It took me a minute to figure out what had happened! It still tasted good, but I made it on the stove this time. It is a quick meal on the stove and retained all of its color. Also, the first time I made it with ground turkey, this time I made it with ground beef. I think I actually like it better with ground turkey.
I love homemade chicken soup! I make my own chicken broth in the crockpot. First, I cook a whole chicken with just some salt and oregano in the crockpot for the whole day (this is one of my family’s favorite meals). Then after dinner, I pull all of the skin and meat off the bones and leave the bones and juice in the crock pot. I add a little vinegar (most people use cider vinegar but that really upsets my stomach-again with the apples!!) and let it sit while I do the dishes. Then I add some carrots, celery, bay leaf, oregano, salt, turmeric (a little goes a long way) and a piece of ginger. I fill the crockpot until about 2 inches from the top. I let it cook all night on low, sometimes most of the next day too. Then I strain the broth and let it sit in the fridge over night. Once it is cool, I scrape of the layer of fat on the top. Then I put about 4 cups of the broth into the crock pot with either chicken left from the whole chicken (which there usually is none left by now!) or a pound of chicken breasts or tenders. I add in sliced carrots and celery and bit more seasoning that I put in the broth and let it cook all day in the crockpot. Our house smells so good on the days I do all of this! I could eat this soup every day. It feels so healing! I do eat it nearly every day actually. I always have it bagged in the freezer in 1 cup servings.
Butternut squash puree is one of the easiest things in the world to make, that is once you cut through the squash! I make this at least every other week as squash is one vegetable I can eat very easily and use in several different ways. I slice the squash in half long ways, scoop out the seeds and place it in a glass baking dish skin up. I cook it at 400 for 40-50 minutes depending on the size of the squash. After it cools, which can take a surprisingly long time, I puree it in the food processor. I then put it into ice cube trays and freeze it. From there the cubes go into a big bag in the freezer. I use the cubes in my breakfast bowl or as a side to a lot of meals. Last night I pan seared some scallops and added spinach and butternut squash puree. I seasoned it all with just a little salt and lemon juice. It was yummy!
The last thing I made were sausage patties. I make these every week also. I eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sometimes I use ground beef, sometimes ground turkey. For beef, I often season with a little salt, rosemary and a tiny bit of sage (I am not a huge fan of sage). For turkey my favorite way is to add some basil to it (thanks Matt and Rebekah!). For either meat, I divide a pound into 8 pieces, so each patty is about 2 ounces. I either pan fry it for a few minutes on each side, or bake it at 350 for 30 minutes. They look prettier if you pan fry them, but are much easier to make and clean up in the oven!
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