I realize it's been a while since I have shared some good meal photos on my humble blog. As my diet has expanded back to a more "normal" variety of foods, with less restrictions, my meals haven't been quite a notable as I rotate the same GB friendly meals over and over with a few of my old favorites in between. However, I notice that because I am able to eat some of my old favorites with no consequence again I am getting a bit lazy with my eating. For example, we have had Olive Garden a few too many times the last few weeks since I discovered that I can eat my (carrot free) salad with my own dressing and the cappellini pomodoro. Chocolate has also become my friend again, since it does not cause nausea anymore and digests fine (though I noticed it does make the mucous in my nose get thick... probably from the milk, which I am learning I have a potential intolerance for). The darker the chocolate the better I do, probably because there is less milk. But I digress.
The long and short of it is that I started getting lazy with my eating. Still mostly healthy, but not quite as healthy as I was during the early months of my GB fixing journey. So, keeping the food interesting, easy to prepare, and flavorful is a challenge at times. The creative juices for meal planning have stopped flowing at times so I resort for the easy outs, which is probably not helping my system continue to clean itself out of the toxin overload it is carrying. In order to stay focused, I need to keep finding new foods to share with you, so here are a few of my favorites from the last few weeks.
This dish was my "ode" to being able to eat broccoli again. Stir-fry with chicken, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, peppers, green onions and broccoli. I used toasted seasame oil, lime, and honey to flavor the chicken and used it as a sauce during cooking. Soy sauce was also abundant, of course. I love how the broccoli sucks up all the sauce so you get a great flavor explosion when eating it.
I discovered a new favorite salad last week. Spring mix with cucumber, mushrooms, red peppers, diced marinated artichokes and flax seed oil and lemon dressing. On the side I serve toasted whole wheat flax seed bread with olive oil and salt and pepper. Quite possibly the best salad ever. I served this to my husband tonight for dinner and he commented on how great the salad dressing was. Who would have thought a simple flax seed oil and lemon dressing would taste so amazing? Shelf stable junk dressing be gone! Homemade is so much better! Oh, and I could seriously eat that bread with EVOO at every meal. It's that good. And believe it or not, it's Schnucks brand bread! I "heart" Schnucks store brands. Not that I'm biased or anything from my previous work/research on store brands, cuz I'm not (though really, I am... Schnucks is one of the best out there).
Now, this dish deserves it's own blog. It is by far the best butternut squash risotto known to man. I have requests from my friends all the time to make this dish, it is so wonderful, especially when it's cold outside and squash is in season. It's a butternut squash risotto with fresh sage, and dried red chilis. A wonderful combination of savory, sweet, and spicy. I've been making this dish for about two years now, and it calls for a ton of butter and Parmesan cheese. Given the state of my GB, I decided the only way I would be able to enjoy it this year was to try to make some changes. I substituted some of the butter for EVOO at the beginning, and used less at the end, plus I omitted the cheese altogether. Drum roll please..... it tasted just as good, if not better, because I could truly enjoy it without overloading my tummy with lots of fat. I did not miss the extra butter or cheese at all.
Last, but not least, was my recreation of another of my husband and my fall favorites. This is a dish I kind of created one day, and it came out wonderful. Italian sausage with kale, diced tomatoes and rigatoni. Previously, I would coat the whole thing with Parmesan cheese, but of course, I omitted that this time. I also made a substitution of the Italian sausage for turkey Italian flavored sausage, and the result was awesome. To up the flavor quotient, I included fresh rosemary and thyme and it made the dish come together spectacularly. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. :)
Now I just need to figure out how to get through Thanksgiving this year. My husband's family is not known for a low-fat turkey dinner. My husband frequently drinks a glass of whole milk with his meal (blech!). I'm bringing my famous cranberry pear pie (trying to come up with a healthier version, especially a shortening free crust), but I think I might need to bring a salad for myself as well...
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