Days 30 & 31 CANDY corn and peanuts!

Yesterday I introduced sugars/sweeteners.  I bought candy corn for this.  It has, like, 10 different sweeteners in it! And it pairs perfectly with the peanuts I didn't have a reaction to it.  No concerns on the sugar front.  It's seeming more and more like it might be a fatty foods issue, but I still have the biggies left- milk, egg, wheat.  Tomorrow I have stuff for CHOCOLATE MILK!  About the only way I can take a glass of milk.  I can not do plain white milk.  Can not.

Day 25-29 Corn and Peanuts Introduced

I still have not reacted to any foods.  I have now introduced citrus, nightshades, corn and peanuts/nuts.  The amounts of foods I can now eat have grown quite a bit!  Still mostly whole foods/made from scratch meals.  I've really had to change how I structure my day because if I don't cook or pack a lunch, I don't eat.
Tomorrow is a sweetener/sugar introduction day.  I'm going to start with candy corn.  Which seems really unhealthy, but candy corn has a ton of different sweeteners and it sounds really good (with peanuts) and it's just that time of year!

My typical meals over the past couple days are:
Breakfast- Mock orange julius
Lunch-corn chips and guacamole (the Wholly Guacamole 100 cal packs are awesome!)
Supper- Chicken and brussel sprouts

Day 24- Nightshades introduced

Yesterday was day 24 and I got to introduce nightshades back into my diet! YES!  I made salsa (tomatoes, chilies, jalapeno, onion, garlic, salt, cilantro and had it with some chicken, guacamole, and leaf lettuce and it was quite tasty! And tomorrow I intro corn, so hopefully, I can have some corn chips with my mexican food too!
I haven't had any sort of reaction that I can notice.  No stomach pains.  I haven't really been paying attention to other symptoms, but I guess right now I feel tired (although it's after 9p).  I had a headache yesterday, but I'm near positive it was from too little water.
So things are going quite well!  I do think that I have a problem with fatty foods.  The cake with the frosting (made with fatty palm shortening) and the dark chicken meat with chicken skin- have been the 2 things that caused tummy troubles.  Maybe I won't have the gluten or lactose intolerance that I fear!  My brother suggested a blind study of drinking skim milk and 2% milk and having someone give me skim milk and then randomly changing it to 2% on me and see if I react.  Sounds like a sick science experiment.  I think I could find someone willing, just not sure how willing I am yet.
My new favorite recipe is a VEGAN, ORANGE JULIUS!
Ice
Concentrated orange juice
A little water
Almond milk
Maple syrup
Vanilla
Soooooooooooooooo good! I don't know measurements.  I just put in it what looks right and then adjust as needed.

Day 22-Citrus Introduction

Today I introduced my first food.  Citrus.  I had an orange and some hummus (made with lemon juice).  No reaction.  I'll monitor 1 more day and if there are no symptoms I will introduce my next food.  I can't wait to eat some new foods!

Day 20

I didn't eat much during the day because I wasn't that hungry, but then by supper I was starving!  It's amazing how addictive processed foods must be.  Because at this point, I really only eat when I'm hungry.  And I'm not hungry that often.  I drink a lot of water though.  Supper was chicken and sweet potato fries.  Very filling.

I was in a great mood today! I think part of it had to do with being off of work for a 4 day weekend!

Day 19

No GI issues today.  I'm anxiously awaiting day 21 and introducing some new foods!
Today's menu- leftover "cheesy" rice, grapes, almonds, sweet potato fries, lots and lots of water.

Days 14-18

No more stomach issues.
Things are pretty well back to normal.  Just trying to find variety in the diet.  I honestly don't remember what I had for Friday or Saturday.  Likely it was chicken, sweet potato, grapes, almonds, brussel sprouts. These have become standards.  My parents came on Sunday and my mom brought grilled chicken, lettuce, and grapes.  I made a salad out of the grilled chicken and lettuce and the grapes were a nice sweet food.  I've noticed more that I feel better when I eat vegetables, but I need the protein for energy and the fruit just helps curb a sweet tooth.  Yesterday I tried a new recipe because I was wanting some comfort food.  My dad used to make cheesy rice and it was good as a meal just on its own.  I tried to make an allowable version using rice, rice milk, seasonings and nutritional yeast (which is a vegan food that is often substituted for cheesy taste in recipes).  It was decent.  Not the same as the original, of course, but it was warm, gooey, and starchy and that's what I was going for.  Today I had leftovers for lunch and some grapes.  Supper was another new recipe.  I made a pesto sauce (basil, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper) and served it on warm quinoa.  It tasted like pesto.  Pesto isn't one of my most favorite foods, but it was a good change from the standards.
Not too much longer until food reintroduction begins!  I believe the following order will be how I will reintroduce.  There will be at least 3 days between new foods. So it will still be several more weeks until I'm at the end.

1. Citrus
2. Nightshades
3. Corn
4. Peanuts/Nuts
5. Sweetners/Sugar
6. Dairy
7. Eggs
8. Gluten

Day 13

Today started out great.  Almonds for breakfast, a salad and chicken for lunch, and then....a brilliant idea.  I wanted something sweet so I searched for hypoallergenic desserts (dairy free, sugar free, gluten free, etc.).  I found a recipe for a pear cake and frosting.  I went and bought all the supplies (a bit pricey for a cake!) and ran home to mix it up.  I was excited to have something that would be filling and sweet.  I baked the cake and made the frosting.  I ate some brussel sprouts and then headed out to help a friend paint their new house.  By the time I got home the cake was cooled.  I cut a piece and put a dollop of frosting on top and ate.  The taste was ok, the pears were crunchy and the frosting seemed really sweet to me, so I didn't think it was amazing, but it was edible.  And then, horribleness happened.  Within minutes my stomach felt weird.  At first I thought I was just full since the cake was dense, but then my stomach started churning.  Ugh.  I had to zip to the bathroom and then for the next several minutes was excruciating pain which slowly faded.  My stomach still hurts, but it's a lot better.  The suspected culprit- palm shortening or agave nectar.  I have had neither of those yet.  I also hadn't had the quinoa flour, but I did have quinoa and didn't react.  Other ingredients in there I haven't had thus far, but are lower on the suspect list are- baking soda, almond flavoring, flax seed, and walnuts.  I'm so bummed.  I thought I was being careful, and now I have no clue if it was even the cake or the frosting that caused it, and I don't really have a desire to try them separately.  It was so painful!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to call around and find a new gp (mine left the practice) and maybe get in to talk about what I'm doing and get a better plan.  I do have an appointment with my GI doctor but that isn't for another few weeks.  I'm going to look for D.O. and someone who has hospital privileges.

Day 12

Another grumpy feeling day. I'm just not feeling like myself at all.  Is it even the diet or something else?  I don't know!

I woke up at 4am for a prayer meeting and did well energy wise despite the lack of good sleep.

Lunch was just random things- seeds, freeze dried fruit

Supper was a potluck with ladies from my CG (Community Group aka Bible Study).  We grilled (Erin grilled) and people brought sides.  It went well. I had some chicken and a side salad of leaf lettuce and avocado.  I was bummed I couldn't have a brownie though! They looked/smelled yummy!

I"m 90% sure I'm going to start introducing foods back at 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks.  We'll see how I'm doing in a week I guess!

Day 11

Today has been marked by pain, not at all related to diet.  I pulled something in my back (back right shoulder area) and it is so so painful.  I'm taking Ibuprofen and it helps, but if it continues too long I see a trip to the doctor in my future.  Back pain is one of the worst pains, it just makes your whole body so tense.

Diet wise things just seem normal now.  I'm getting into a groove and it's feeling more comfortable and less chaotic to find things to eat.  I had fish tacos, freeze dried pineapple, toasted pumpkin seeds, some crackers from mom, and sweet potato fries.    No symptoms of detox.

Sky (the Siberian Husky) has allergies! Poor thing! She is starting Benadryl tonight and just in the nick of time! She didn't have any raw spots 3 hours ago, but when I got home she had some bleeding on one of her back legs. :(  That's all bandaged and she's medicated.  Hopefully we both sleep well tonight.

Day 10

Today I was in a foul mood again.  I blamed it on detox (mostly because there was no reason I could pinpoint as to why I was in such a bad mood), however a friend asked if it was because I never am in a bad mood otherwise.  And no, that's not true.  So it could just be a bad mood or it could be detox.

I had some rice with a little chicken for lunch.  Some freeze dried pineapple. A few toasted pumpkin seeds. And lots of water.

Supper was fish tacos!  It hit the spot!
Lots of modifications and no yummy white sauce (if someone figures out a hypoallergenic recipe for that, let me know!)

Wild caught fish (I used salmon because it's what I had.  But I'm sure there are other tasty options)
Red cabbage
Leaf lettuce
Avocado
Red onion
Garlic
Salt and pepper to season

I took one filet of fish and lightly brushed it with oil and put some salt/pepper on it.  Wrapped it in foil and grilled it (about 5 minutes each side).

I washed 2 leaves of lettuce and these served as my "shells"
I made guacamole with 1 avocado, a few slices of red onion (diced), and a pinch of garlic and salt.  (Mix well and let set for a bit for flavors to mingle).
I sliced the red cabbage and put some of it on the lettuce shells.  I spread guac on them and flaked the fish on top.
Super good.  And it filled me up! No more cravings or hunger pains for the night!  I recommend this for several reasons- low cost, simple recipe, fast!, good tasting, filled me up!  If you wanted to add another element you could probably toss some cooled, cooked quinoa in with the guac and add black beans (I was going to make some black beans simmered with cilantro, but I forgot to buy those at the store! Next time!)

Days 7, 8, 9

Weekend!
Friday went well.  I drank a lot of water (mostly because I had to be drug tested at work for a car accident I was in, oops). I believe lunch was salmon and fruit and supper was coconut chicken.  I ate a LOT of chicken this weekend.  I had a good friend coming to town so I made enough to have some leftovers for a few meals so I wouldn't be cooking strange foods the entire time she was here.
Breakfast Saturday was coconut chicken, lunch Saturday was coconut chicken with fruit, supper Saturday was grilled chicken, brussel sprouts, and fruit.
Breakfast Sunday was chicken and rice, lunch Sunday was chicken and rice, supper Sunday was sweet potato fries!  Like I said chicken, chicken, chicken.  Supper tonight was a nice break.  I wasn't super hungry, but figured I should eat something so I'm not starving in the middle of the night.  I had some roasted pumpkin seeds throughout the weekend and I tried to make some honey cinnamon almonds.  The taste is good, but they are so gooey (still are 3 days later) so I'm not sure it's a recipe I'd recommend.  I was in the mood for sweet tonight and made the sweet potato fries even sweeter than they naturally are by adding some maple syrup and cinnamon to the oil I used to lightly coat them in.  It was delicious!
Overall mood was generally good.  I was pretty excited to see my friend and spend so much time with her that may have something to do with the good mood!
Detox symptoms- my eyes are super itchy.  This may be a contact issue, seasonal allergy issue, or detox? I'm going to put new contacts in tomorrow or go without and see if that improves.  I had a super bad/weird stomach pain on Saturday night.  Not a normal GI issue sort of pain. It was kind of sharp and slightly reminiscent of the pain I had with the appendicitis, not as bad for sure, but not mild.  It was gone within an hour or two.
Oops of the weekend- I took communion at church.  This was a cracker smaller than a dime and a cup of juice smaller than 15cc. I was worried, but didn't have a reaction.  I don't think such a small amount will derail my progress too badly.

My mom made some seed crackers for me that were pretty tasty! I think they'd be yummy with some hummus.  Mom can you post the recipe in the comments?

Night!

Day 6

I worked early today and I'm not a morning person so I had nearly no time to get a meal together before heading out of the house.  I took some quinoa, cherries, and pumpkin seeds with me.  Then I had a "brilliant" idea to mix the 3 together for eating.  It was edible, but not something I'll do again. I actually like those 3 items better individually than together.
I got home and ate some left over chicken and then made the honey glazed salmon on the grill (forgot to take a picture again!).
All in all today was pretty good.  I had enough energy and no detox symptoms that I could pin point.  Wondering if I'm going to have that rush of awesome energy and feel goodness I did when I went raw vegan.   I hope so!

Day 5

So hungry I was distracted...all day long.  A quick breakfast of Amaranth seeds.  Chicken and veggies for lunch with a side of pineapple and raspberries.  Supper was great but I was starving the entire time I prepared it.  I think the problem was not having enough to snack on throughout the day and not having a larger breakfast.  Supper filled me up though.  To the brim!
I'm very excited about this recipe.  I found a recipe that I modified, made up my own recipe :) and returned to an old favorite recipe, sweet potato fries!

Coconut chicken (modified recipe)
I used the chicken I made yesterday, but it would probably be more juicy/tasty made from scratch.

1 pound of chicken tenders or cubed chicken
1 cup of organic flaked coconut (unsweetened)
1/3 cup arrowroot flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
a dash of salt, pepper and other poultry seasonings, as desired (I used a savory seasoning)
1 t of garlic powder
Enough water/rice milk (or other hypoallergenic milk) to make the batter runny
EVOO or another oil

Preheat oven to 350.  Put flaked coconut into a bowl.  Mix all other dry ingredients and then add milk/water to make the batter.  Dip tenders in batter and then coat in flaked coconut.    Heat oil in pan (I used a wok!) and when hot, add chicken.  Fry until golden (flipping to fry each side).  Remove from skillet and put in oven until chicken is cooked thoroughly (a little over 10 minutes).

Honey Dipping Sauce - This is an original Kelly recipe! (So all measurements are guessed)
Rice milk -about 1/2c-3/4c
Maple syrup- about 1 T
Raw honey- about 2 T
1 1/2 T of arrowroot flour

Heat rice milk, syrup, honey in a small saucepan until boiling (stir frequently).
Mix arrowroot with a bit of rice milk to make it liquid and then add to boiling liquids.  Stir and remove from heat immediately.  It should thicken almost right away.  Do not overstir, it will liquify again.  Let set.

Sweet potato fries (an old favorite)
Peel sweet potato, cut into strips like fries.  Coat with a small amount of EVOO.  Sprinkle with dried basil and salt.  Bake at 400 degrees, turning as needed, until desired texture/crispiness achieved.  (I usually like this with an aioli- mayo, garlic, lemon juice- but that is not allowed on this diet right now.  So I just had them plain.  I'm going to try to make a cinnamon dipping sauce (using the honey dipping sauce technique but omitting the honey and adding a dash of vanilla and sprinkle of cinnamon once removed from heat).

Overall I felt fairly normal today.  I had a bit of a runny nose, but that was the only possible detox symptom and a very minor annoyance.

This diet is very time intensive and it's making it hard for me to balance my life out.  Cooking supper (prep and all) took over an hour, and I didn't take the time to make a breakfast because I was rushed to get to work.  I'm used to grab and go type meals.   Right now I'm testing the waters with these recipes, but as I find some stellar ones like the coconut chicken and honey dipping sauce, I'll start making larger batches so there are left overs!

Day 4

Organic free range chicken.
It roasted for about 1 hr 45 min and now I'm making chicken stock which can take more than 4 hours.  Who has time for this? It should not be a week night dinner, definitely a lazy day Sunday sort of recipe. I don't feel like I even accomplished much because it yielded such a little amount of chicken (fryer bird).  I'm going to try to get caught up on all my e-mails as I wait for the chicken stock to simmer so I suppose I am accomplishing something. (the negativity of this section likely has to do with my mood...explained further below)

Breakfast was skipped (bad idea). Lunch was leftover salmon and cherries for dessert. (Still delicious, even nuked at work in the microwave!).  Supper was chicken.  I'm not really hungry for anything else right now.  Not much food, but the amount of protein has helped with my energy level.

My mood today was foul.  I couldn't shake it, and it was ALL day long!  It could be detox, it could be the first day at work after a vacation and/or coming back on the first of the month (a busy time for me).

I used this site because it was the first site that came up when I searched for "how to roast a chicken". It's pretty straight-forward. It also links to making gravies, stocks, etc.

Day 3

I woke up starving! So hungry!  I ate some leftover quinoa and blueberry syrup I had packed for my trip.  It definitely solved the rumbly tummy issue.  For snacking I had more dried mango. Lunch was cherries and grapes and some amaranth seeds popped. (I ate a larger quantity this time and they were super dry so I drank copious amounts of water with it, kind of like popcorn in that sense too).

Supper...ah glorious supper.  I made it back to Des Moines from my trip (to see my Great Aunt Elaine, who is absolutely amazing and visit my brother and his family, who are also wonderful :).  I headed straight to Whole Foods without stopping home and picked up some wild salmon.  I got home and made a glaze from some raw honey (my brother and his fam got me at the apple orchard...thank you!!!), some olive oil, and garlic.  I heated up the grill and put some salt and pepper on the salmon. After the salmon was on the hot grill for a bit I added the glaze, cooked, flipped (took off the skin), added more glaze and cooked a little longer. Oh my wonderous loveliness! This was a winner!  Delicious! And of course I had cherries on the side.  I wasn't able to snap a picture before I gobbled it up, but I will make it again and try to get a picture...maybe tomorrow night!

Overall, I felt good.  Only detox sign was needing to pee a lot.  I also felt like my intestines were full of gas (ugh) but I think this was from cabbage/increased fiber.  I'm anxious to see if this diet will actually clear up my GI issues.  Almost everyday I have some sort of issue and I remember when I did raw vegan I felt like a rockstar for about a week until I went back to just a vegan diet.  It was way too restrictive of a diet for me to stick to. I should have added foods in slowly, but didn't think of that at the time.  If I can figure out what is the issue then I can either avoid it or just know that if I eat it I should expect some pain to come my way.

Day 2

I woke up feeling a lot better. No headaches today.
Breakfast was cabbage soup.  Then I packed to hit the road for a short trip to visit family.  I packed cherries, grapes, dried Just Mango, cabbage soup, leftover pumpkin seeds, and a pear.  I met my mom on the way and she had made some wild salmon on the grill that was delicious, as well as popped some Amaranth Seeds.  Think tiny, tiny, tiny popcorn.....tiny, and that's kind of what they taste like.  Supper was the cherries, cabbage soup and some dried mango.  Lots of water today also.
Overall I felt good and was in a pretty good mood.  I did get a little drained as the day went on, but nothing too terrible.
The salmon on the grill was the winner food of the day. I definitely will be having that again!

Day 1

Day 1. I slept in late.  

Breakfast/lunch was quinoa with blueberry syrup (which didn't quite cut it, but a sprinkle of fresh berries helped!)

Blueberry syrup recipe found at www.nourishingmeals.com.  It was edible and filling, but at this point I wouldn't say delicious.  I think I'll try it again in a week and see how my taste buds have adjusted.

Next meal was supper.  A healing quinoa and cabbage soup. Recipe found at www.nourishingmeals.com.  I like cabbage.  So it had that going for it.  I had to add some extra salt and pepper and that helped a lot.  I'll be eating this all week (the recipe makes a large pot).

 I wanted a snack so I tried raw pumpkin seeds. I ate a few then decided to toast some in some olive oil and sprinkle salt on them.  They made a good movie snack.

I also snacked on some cherries which were my favorite food of the day. And I made some fresh pineapple blackberry juice.  When I did the juice feast this was my all time favorite combo!  I added some sparkling water to make it "fun" but went a little overboard and it was too watered down.  I still have some juice left for breakfast tomorrow and will probably drink it straight.

I felt very tired all day. Likely related to caffeine withdrawal.  I stopped the caffeine 2 days ago. Yesterday I had a pounding headache, today was brain fog and a dull headache.  The thing I craved the most today was a soda.  

The haul...

Prep for day 1.  Shopping. 

The haul includes: herb seasoning, arrowroot, maple syrup, quinoa (tri-color and white), a pear, blackberries, pineapple, cabbage, cauliflower, ginger root, cilantro, basil, carrots, garlic, pumpkin seeds, fennel, pine nuts, sweet onion, cherries.

Planned recipes for the above foods: Quinoa with blueberries and blueberry syrup; cabbage soup; cauliflower steaks, and some foods for snacking.

Total Cost: $87.40  (several items are staples that will have more than one time use. I bought a load of quinoa which totaled over $15, maple syrup was $8.99, arrow root flour was $6.99, and seasoning was $4.59). Hopefully, shopping bills will drop after this!

Elimination Diet AKA Hypoallergenic Diet AKA The Barely Any Food is Allowed Diet

The research is done (mostly) and a collection of recipes is on stand-by.  Hopefully appearances are deceiving and there is more to eat in Phase 1 (detox) than I think.  I thought for sure I could just reach into my vegan recipe (even RAW vegan recipe) collection and have a good amount of choices, but I've come to realize that I eat a lot of nightshades.

They're delicious and I will be devastated if they are a trigger food.

Start date: September 1, 2012.