Breakfast shmeckfast

With cereal, toast, English muffins, bagels and coffee (because I don't like it black) cut out of my diet, I've recently struggled to think of anything to eat other than eggs. Plus, I worried about the cholesterol I was inflicting upon my body with a consistent two eggs every day.

But I found the solution! YOGURT! And it kills yeasties too (for when I slip up and accidentally find that some chocolate fell into my belly and feeds the beast).

Today's concoction was finally a success, because I don't like plain yogurt, but honey doesn't blend with everything. I mixed a bowl of yogurt with a drizzle of honey and a handful of pistachios and suddenly it felt like I was in Israel again.

Just a note, I know many people on the Candida diet don't eat honey, but I do. Honey, like yogurt, has lots of beautiful properties like being antimicrobial, antibiotic, and antifungal. According to Whole Foods, honey doesn't act like a regular sugar. In fact, our bodies (and even those bodies with diabetes) seem to benefit much more from honey than plain old sugar.

Additionally, the intuitive healer who first told me to stay off yeast and sugar three years ago told me honey was good for me. I followed her advice for about a year and felt great but started slipping to the point where I was miserable (i.e. a month ago). So I think her advice is pretty sound. Plus, her knowledge on the subject is much more extensive than a few internet articles.

Any other yeast-free, sugar-free breakfast ideas out there?

Cream of Broccoli Soup (inspired from the internet)

Ingredients:
4 cups water or stock
2 large heads of cauliflower
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 small potatoes, chopped
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder (omit if using stock)
1 cup cream
1 cup 2% milk
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:
Chop the broccoli, separating the florets from the stem. Bring the water to a boil in the larger of two pots, add the stem pieces and cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove stem pieces, reserving the water into a smaller pot, and place in a blender. While pureeing the stem pieces, cook the florets in the smaller pot for 3-4 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and butter in the large pot. Add onions and potatoes. Once onions are clear, add the flour stirring constantly. After 30 seconds add the liquid from the small pot (reserving the florets) along with bouillon powder. Bring to a boil and back down to a simmer.
In the same blender as the broccoli stems, add roughly half of the onion/potato mixture, blending until very smooth. Return the entire contents of the blender to the large pot.
Add milk, cream, nutmeg and pepper.
Return broccoli florets to the soup.
Serve with some cream swirled in a pretty pattern. Sharp cheddar cheese is optional, but the soup is already quite thick and creamy.

Drusius, son of Roman Emperor Tiberius (14 BCE to 37 BCE) was the first recorded fanatic of broccoli, once gorging himself on it for an entire month until his bright green urine inspired a severe scolding from his father to stop “ living precariously.”

I felt so guilty after eating this, even though it had all edible stuff for me. Yeah for pretending that I'm cheating! Heated it up again for lunch today and it was just as good as the night before.

will power

It all started with a cute kid offering me a cream puff... And suddenly, 4 days had passed and I had consumed a very concentrated amount of sugar in each. The 1/2 cream puff, a custard, a lemonade, and a chocolate latte seemed so innocuous at the time. Surely these small items couldn't do any damage, right? I'm past all that!

*Blaring buzzer noise* My skin noticed. My sweat glands noticed. My eyelid noticed. I'm like a walking, crusty, sweaty puffy mess. Ok, while that might be a bit of an exaggeration, I do feel pretty miserable.

Today was square one all over again. I celebrated with spicy cauliflower and sweet potato curry with lots of green tea (it feels like I'm cheating, but I'm not!).

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Curry
(Joy of Cooking)

¼ oil
2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tbs. minced ginger
1 tbs. minced garlic
2 tsp. curry power (Madras)
1¾ cups chickpeas, rinsed (1 can)
2 cups ½-inch cubes sweet potato, peeled
2 cups cauliflower florets (Mia adds more!)
1 cup 1-inch pieces green beans
1 cup chicken stock
½ tsp salt
ground black pepper
1 cup yogurt
2 tbs. all-purpose flour
1-2 jalapeños, finely chopped
¼ cup cashews, roasted and unsalted


Heat oil and cumin seeds over medium heat until sizzling. Add ginger and garlic. Cook, stirring over low heat for 1 minute; do not brown.
Stir in curry power. Cook for 1 minute, then add chickpeas, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, green beans, chicken stock, salt and pepper.
Cover and cook over medium heat until vegetables are tender about 10 minutes.
Stir in yogurt and flour. Add jalapeños. Cook, stirring over low heat until heated through, but do not boil.
Top with cashews and serve over rice.

*Especially good topped with shelled, deveined shrimp sautéed in butter with turmeric, red pepper and lime juice.

False Security

Lulled into a sense of false security by last week's success, I thought it was all over and I could go back to living a normal life. That reasoning is so wrong for so many reasons.

I cheated. Two chopsticks full of peanut butter (yes, it took quite a bit of skill to do that) managed to get in my belly a couple days ago, and I've already seen some changes back to the dark side. The trend continued today with a sneaky bite of my husband's granola. *sigh* Immediately, a rash came back on my knees and I feel exhausted and cranky. Ok, the last bit might be from lack of sleep, but the rash is a sure sign that the allergy is still alive.

It's taking a bit of trouble to really really get into my head that this is not a "diet." That word connotes a short-term goal with usually superficial results. My yeast-free/sugar-free eating habits needs to be a lifestyle for me. The lust for sweets and bread will cease eventually, and if I can just keep telling myself that and keeping it one day at a time, my body will certainly be healthier for it.

Even if it turns out that I'm all wrong about my allergy, I will be making my life better by cutting out empty calories, eliminating scary sugar roller coasters of energy-bursts and depression, slimming my waistline, and cramming lots of veggies into my tummy.

I can do it. This is for me.

Coconut Cauliflower with Shrimp

(I not-so-secretly have always wanted a food blog.)

It's been a full week today and I'm starting to crave (CRAVE) sugar. Was even feeling depressed a bit this evening. Funny how food dictates our emotions so much.

Anyway, this recipe cured those blues straight away. It was inspired from others online, but is much less fussy.

1. Heat 2 tsp. cumin seeds in a butter/olive oil mixture in a large pot.
2. After they sizzle and smell ridiculously good, add a chopped onion and 1 tbs. minced ginger.
3. When the onions turn clear, add 2 tsp. turmeric and 1 tsp. cayenne pepper (or any red pepper). Add more spices if you like more.
4. After about 30 seconds it looks dangerously as if it's about to burn. Time to add a small can of coconut milk (no sugar added!). Make sure to stir it well because the cream separates.
5. Once it's mixed, add a full head of cauliflower, chopped. Feel free to add some curry powder here.
6. Cover and simmer, stirring frequently, until the cauliflower is cooked through.

Serve this with basmati rice (even though all we have is Japanese rice, of course) and limey turmeric shrimp!

1. De-shell and de-vein as many shrimp as you want.
2. Throw into a pan with butter/olive oil mixture (tastes like butter but is a bit healthier).
3. Add 1 tsp of turmeric and another of red pepper to the shrimp.
4. Cook until the shrimp changes color.
5. Remove from the pan and drizzle with fresh lime juice.

Needless to say, I feel pretty good right now and ready to take on another yeast-free and sugar-free day. It's so much easier when I think about it one day at a time.

More fish recipes!

Yogurt, Dill and Potato Salmon Bake in my usual no-measurements-fashion:

1. Place a salmon fillet on a piece of aluminum foil
2. Spread a thin layer of butter over fillet (don't need to cover the entire surface because it will melt and spread)
3. Cover with cream, thick yogurt, i.e. Greek, or drained yogurt (regular yogurt is way too watery)
4. Top with chopped dill
5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
   
6. Place sliced garlic along the edges of salmon to remove fishy smell/taste
7. Top fish with slices of semi-cooked potatoes (previously boiled)
8. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper
   
9. Top with more dill
10. Wrap the foil
    
11. Bake.
12. Eat.

Did this tonight, in my end-of-the-first-yeast-free-week meal. This dish, along with the mint, cucumber yogurt from the other day, and some steamed string beans was a perfect meal. I'm so full I can't even think of sweets!

Day 6

Went to the doctor today to get an allergy test done for yeast. In Japan (because that's where I live). Apparently, they don't test for yeast here, so they're testing my blood for a beer allergy instead because it's the closest thing. Luckily, with awesome Japanese health insurance, it doesn't cost that much so I won't be disappointed if it tells me nothing.

I read somewhere that eating plain yogurt is really good for people suffering with yeast allergies. In fact, in trying to find more information about the subject, several sites popped up with tips on turning freezing yogurt into popsicles to be inserted into the body (*ahem*) as a cure for yeast infections.

If you still have your appetite, here's a recipe for a Persian dish my god-mom used to make me all the time. It's very cool and refreshing and perfectly compliments hot food on hot days.

1 32 oz. container of plain yogurt
2 tbs. minced mint (or dill, but I like mint better)
1 large seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare mint, cucumber (removing seeds if necessary to get rid of wateriness) and garlic. Mix into yogurt. Add salt and peppers to taste. Let sit covered in fridge overnight.

Try eating it with warm Persian dill or saffron rice. Yum.

Day 4!

Some dewiness has come back to my skin, and my eyelids are no longer puffy and scaly.

I'm craving sugar pretty badly (mostly fruit juice actually) and wonder if I cheated by eating cherry tomatoes for breakfast and dinner... Does it help that they were sauteed or baked?

And what's the ruling on french fries?

I was previously told by an intuitive healer (who was amazingly accurate and life changing) that I was only restricted from eating yeast, cane sugar, coffee and chocolate (which is the hardest), and only for a year at that. She specifically said that honey was ok because it's treated like a protein in our bodies. She also said that green leafy things were my best friend. Still, for these first few weeks back on the diet I'm trying to be really careful and cut out all sugars (even trying to eliminate fruit sugars and simple sugars found in wheat products for now) so really really "kill" the yeasties, if that's in fact what's wrong with me.

Hopefully in three weeks I'll munch on a piece of bread and see if it all comes flooding back.

My energy is up too! I woke up before the hubbie and was wide awake.

Today's easy recipe for dinner was baked salmon with cherry tomatoes (goodness I hope that's not cheating):

Place salmon fillet in a sheet of aluminum foil.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle salt and pepper on top.
Cover with thinly sliced cross sections of garlic (Chinese trick used to absorb fishy flavors and smells).
Cover with slices of cherry tomatoes.
Top with a fresh basil leaf.
Wrap the fish in foil and seal tightly so juices won't escape.
Bake for 10-20 minutes.

I know this recipe isn't exact, but exactness isn't exacltly my thing. Sorry the length of time and heat for baking is so obscure. My kitchen only has a tiny baking tray (so fat slices of fish don't fit, nor do fat now-illegal-slices of bread), no timer, and no indication of temperature other than a little line that gets fatter around the dial.

Day 1

This blog is mostly to help me keep up my motivation to really stick with a yeast-free diet. I tried it before a few years ago and it was wonderful until I started slipping.

Now I have chronic eczema, fatigue, swollen joints, dandruff, lalala, and it's time to really change.

I don't want this to be just my blog, but rather an open place for people to share yeast-free recipes, encouragement, scientific articles, stories and personal experiences. If you're reading this, you're probably affected by a yeast allergy in some way, and I'd love to know your thoughts.

Wish me luck! I'm starting today with scrambled eggs with avocado and tomatoes. Lol... I'm already craving bread and it's only been 10 hours!