Low FODMAP Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving is probably the biggest holiday in my family. We always host and with upwards of 15 people, food is always a bit difficult. This year we have the added complication of both my dad and I being on the low FODMAP diet, but luckily we have enough control over the key elements of the meal to change them to what we need. It was a pretty huge success, so here's a little guide to how to make your big autumn meals delicious and tummy friendly!

Turkey- For the brine and stuffing, replace all onions with spring greens of Green Onions and use garlic olive oil when you rub down the turkey.

Dressing- Extra special recipe below!

Veggies- Use any of your favorite veggies dishes! We roasted broccoli and tossed it with lemon juice, zest, Parmesan, and pine nuts.

Potatoes- Bake them, mash them, boil them, just don't use any garlic or cream.

Sweet Potatoes/ Yams- Yams are okay, SP are not for those with polyos sensitivity

Gravy- Use corn starch instead of flour when making your own gravy from the drippings of the turkey.

Dessert- We made an awesome dairy free, gluten free pumpkin chocolate cake! Replace the flour with gluten free flour, butter with fake butter, and buttermilk with a non-dairy creamer option.

Pro-Tips: make your own turkey stock, buy more green onions than you'll think you'll need, make onion and garlic infused olive oil.

So here's the our awesome low FODMAP dressing recipe!

• 10 pieces of Gluten-Free Bread, 5 white and 5 rye, cubed
• 1/3 c minced springs greens of Green Onion
• 1/2 c chopped Celery (1-2 stalks)
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2-3 Tbs unsalted butter (1 in veggies,1 on stuffing balls and 1 to grease muffin tin)
• 2 1/2 tsp of Thanksgiving poultry herbs (sage, rosemary, sage) remove big twigs and chop well
• 1 c diced Butternut Squash
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 Eggs, beaten

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Roast butternut Squash for ~20 minutes, until they are fork-tender.
3. Grease muffin tin generously with butter.
   
4. Saute veggies with 1 tbs of the butter, & olive oil over medium heat in medium skillet for 5 minutes or until veggies fork-tender. Set aside to cool down a bit.
   
5. In large bowl, add bread cubes and drizzle 1 cup of water (or onion free chicken stock) over bread.
   
6. Add eggs to bread and stir to blend in.
7. Carefully add cooked vegetables and squash over bread mixture. Using spoon mix vegetables and bread cubes until resembles stuffing consistency. 
   
8. Add herbs and salt and pepper and mix well.
9. Pack in muffin tin to bake.
   
10. Place a tiny slice of butter on top of each muffin.
11. Add a dash of salt and pepper to top of stuffing ball, if desired.
12. Bake for about 25-30 minutes.
    
13. Enjoy!

Citrus Berry Crumble for One

     SO many berries, so little time. As a result I've had quite a few go bad or soft or wrinkly. So here's an easy way to use them! I've been playing with this recipe for the last week and I think I finally like this one best.

Crumble:
Half a Lemon
Handful of Berries
Sprinkle of Sugar

Topping:
1 Tbs Coconut Oil
1 Tbs Almond Flour
1 Tbs Oats
1 tps Brown Sugar


1. Place one thin slice of lemon with skin removed in the bottom of the ramekin

2. Wash blueberries and put them in the ramukin
3. Sprinkle with sugar and mix them up

4. On a seperate plate mix Coconut oil, Almond flour, Oats and Brown Sugar until well combined

5. Crumble over blueberries

6. Top with a little sprinkle of Sugar
7. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until you see purple liquid bubbling up around the sides.

8. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes and top with any yumminess!

Fruit Crisp for 1, or Everyone!

Summer means lots of yummy new fruits! How many times has this happened to you: you buy a bunch of delicious fruit, but before you can eat all of it, the summer heat turns parts of them to mush.
Well now you can turn a few bits of those fruits into a delicious dessert!

I like this recipe because you don't need too much of each ingredient to make it, and you can just make a little treat for your self.  Of you can double, triple, octuple it to share with friends!

I made this recipe low FODMAP for people that can tolerate fructose, but it can easily be made more "typical" (I'll put suggestions at the bottom of the page). I tried a gluten filled butter version while away from my home kitchen and it got pretty good reviews.  I used yellow nectarines but I see no reason why you couldn't use any other fruit.

Recipe:
1 cup diced Fruit (roughly 1 peach, nectarine, apple, etc)
1/2 T Maple Syrup (or other sweetener)

1/4 cup Almond Flour
1/8 cup Oats
1 1/2 T Coconut Oil
1 T Maple Syrup
1/4 t cinnamon
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine Fruit and sweetener in dish

3. Combine Flour, Oats, Coconut Oil, sweetener, cinnamon, and salt. Mix until it seems to be one mixture.

4. Crumble on top of Peach mixture.

5. Cook for 30 minutes, until the top gets a bit crispy. It may take a bit shorter or longer depending on the fruit (longer for apples, a bit shorter for over ripe peaches, shorter for berries)
6. Remove and let cool a bit then enjoy! Top with ice cream, yogurt, cheese, whipped cream, get creative.

The end picture are for 3 times the recipe. I was in a pinch for dishes and I found this gem at a thrift store (yes I checked that it was oven safe). Plus now I get to share it.

Substitutions:
Fruit: Peach, Nectarine, Apple, Pear, Strawberry, Blueberry, you get the point.
Maple Syrup: Honey, Sugar, Agave
Almond Flour: Any type of Flour
Coconut Oil: Butter, Margerine

low FODMAP,  not low FODMAP

Stacks on Stacks of Yum, thanks to Trader Joes!

I ate 3 of these plates, so watch out!

  New treat for you guys! Trader Joes has just come out with a gluten free waffle and pancake mix, and it's actually low FODMAP! It doesn't contain any soy, which apparently is remarkable, because almost all gluten free products do. Personally I'm usually not a fan of store bought gluten free products.  By the time you've mixed together 15 different flours and powders, it doesn't taste anything like the real thing.  TJs stick to a few basic ingredients and the results are great.

   And yes, I realized that I could go to the store and buy potato flower, rice flower, oat flower, almond flower, tapioca starch and mix them all together in a specific ratio, but do I really want to do that? No. (Plus tapioca starch is like 12$ for an ounce, are you kidding me?)

All you need

    Basically, they're super delicious, although a bit cakey.  I added a 1/2c water, instead of 1/4c, as suggested to make them more like "crepes", but I think you could even do 3/4.

 Add the wet ingredients, and mix in the pancake mix. And scoop them out!

Golden Goodness

   This is what the exact amount listed on the box makes, so if you've got a couple gluten free lovers, I suggest making a few servings.

Top with any lovely summer fruit or nut butters or maple syrup or powdered sugar and gobble them up! Well actually, you may want to savor them because they're pretty good.

Nice job TJs!

"It's still Spring" Rolls

      One of the hardest parts of the low FODMAP diet is cutting out gluten.  In America, most of our staples involve wheat, so as a result I started looking to Asian and Latin American influenced foods, as they tend to have less wheat.
   Here is one of my favorite meals to make.  The prep work is a bit more than most, but that's part of the importance.  According to my dietician, a large amount of the digestive juices that your body requires are created in the 30 minutes prior to eating.  Your body only knows to create these juices when you spend that time anticipating food (planning, dicing, cooking, etc.).  So realizing you're hungry and automatically grabbing a burger may work at some times, but it can cause a shock to your system.

   So here is an outline of one of my favorite meals, feel free to add your own suggestions below!

 Spring Roll Ingredients:

• Rice Paper Wraps
• 3 oz Rice Noodles
• 1 Cucumber
• 2 Carrots
• 1 Avocado (limit if you are sensitive)
• 1 Jicama (probably a small one, but left overs are always good)
• 1 Tbs Cilantro
• 1/2 tsp Sugar
• 1/2 Tbs Rice Vinegar
• 1 Tbs Soy Sauce (or soja sauce for gluten free)
• Drizzle of Sesame Oil

Dipping Sauce Ingredients:

• 1Tbs Rice Vinegar
• 1 tsp Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp finely chopped Peanuts
• 1 tsp chopped Cilantro

 Instructions:

1. Chop Everything, except the carrots: you're going to want things in thin strips so it'll fit nicely in your roll
2. Slice the carrots into thin strips, I use a vegetable peeler, but a tool that will jullienne them may be better.
3. Combine the carrots, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and cilantro on a bowl and mix.
4. Cook rice noodles as the instructions say. When finished rinse them with cold water (to stop then from cooking) and drizzle with sesame oil.

 

5.  Assemble all your ingredients and get ready to roll!

6.  Fill a wide flat bowl with warm water.

7.  Dip the rice paper into the water. you want it to be flexible, but not so flexible that it loses the pattern on it.  This may take some practice.

8.  Lay the paper on a flat dry plate and choose your ingredients.

9. Lay the ingredients in a flat line leaving room on the edges (pictured below).

10. Fold in the edges and roll up. Then keep going! 

 Dipping Sauce:
Combine all ingredients and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
In the past I've also added lime juice or ginger and they all turned out yummy.

Enjoy!

I will explain more about the low FODMAP diet in the future, but for now, keep exploring, keep enjoying, keep those bellies happy!

Your friendly neighborhood Food, Health, Style Blogger

     For a while people have been asking me to create a blog but I never got started because I couldn't decide how to narrow down a topic to write about.  But then I realized, I don't have to.  I've never tied myself to a stereotype, and because of that I have a lot of diverse interests. 

     A bit about me: I'm originally from the San Francisco Bay Area.  I graduated with my BA in Psychology with an emphasis in Neuroscience in 2013 from an awesome little university in Tacoma.  And I now live in San Diego.  I work part time at a large children's hospital, volunteer with a cat rescue, model and wander around with my camera. Through modeling I have met some amazing artists and gotten to explore some great places in and around San Diego.  "The Industry" is not always the most welcoming place, but if you search a bit and are choosey about who you work with, you can find some real gems.

     Over the last 5 years I have done a bunch of medical tests to try to figure out why I have had tummy trouble my whole life, and eventually got diagnosed with a functional intestinal disorder (basically things don't work quite the way they should but we don't know why).  So as a result I also spend quite a bit of time coming up with creative food that doesn't hurt my stomach, but still tastes good.

     So here you go, what this blog will be about:

• Shopping small.  I love connecting with people that truly believe in the product they create, and one of the best ways to do this is by shopping small.
• How to make your digestive track healthy.  Whether it's a yummy recipe or other ways to keep yourself balanced, I'm all about it. I have yet to find a place where young women talk openly about their digestive difficulties and I would like to give us a voice.
• Exploring.  Every corner of this world is incredible, I'll share the places I find, what I do, and other things I love.

     I'm not going to tell you how to "get a bikini bod" or  "trends from the latest magazines", but I will share a bit of my world with you.  If you have any questions you'd like me to address in a post, or want to collaborate with me, feel free to contact me!


Well, here goes nothing.