I occasionally see a naturopath because I have persistent and annoying digestive issues that I want to address but don’t need to be medicated for. I’m sure that changing things in my life will do the trick and a naturopath seems like a good way to address a range of solutions. I decided to try this food sensitivity test in order to, at the very least, rule it out as an area of possible issues. I figured if it didn’t make a difference, then whatever, I’ve spent my money in worse ways before and at least I’ll have tried to improve my digestion. Since the supplements I have been taking have been super helpful, it seemed to be worth a shot to make further improvements.
I got the food sensitivity results back and a few things came up. Most of them were in the “low” range — I was told that if I eliminate them for a while, it let’s my gut recover and I can reintroduce them and see how it goes. Malt and brewers yeast came up as the highest sensitivity so… no more beer for me? Actually, beer is disgusting, so this is ok. The other two big areas are gluten, which I suspected, and dairy, which I’ve already detected issues with years ago and rarely consume dairy as a result. My recipes for the next month or 2 are largely going to focus on trying to address the massive range of foods still available for me, sans the comparatively small number of things I will try to eliminate.
To start off, I came up with a fairly flexible potato recipe that you could add so much to and adjust if you wanted to.
Paprika mushroom potatoes
- Cup of mushrooms
- 2 fist sized potatoes
- Smoked paprika
- Powdered or minced garlic (or fresh – fry it with the mushrooms prior to introducing the potatoes
- Vegan butter (or regular butter if you aren’t off dairy)
Fry the mushrooms in butter until they’re little and boil the potatoes. Once the potatoes are cooked, throw them into the frying pan with the mushrooms and smash them up with a spatula. Eyeball the paprika and garlic, add some extra butter if needed, and allow to fry for 5 minutes or so, while making sure to stir.
Double chocolate black bean cookies
These cookies legit amazing and I want to make them again. I love chocolate and cookies and instead of flour, it beans, so I even get to feel good about eating one of these. They come from the Sweet Potato Soul blog and they are vegan and glutan/wheat/oat free. There are more Sweet Potato Soul desserts here with one of her YouTube videos. I would definitely check those out and peruse her blog and YouTube channel, the recipes are amazing!!!
One pan Mexican rice skillet
I am still on my gluten free and mostly dairy free kick, so I am trying to be all about things like rice and quinoa. This is one of the recipes that came up when I looked for it on Pinterest.
It is everything that is good – rice, ground turkey (or beef if you prefer), tomatoes, corn, peas (if you want), and its basically delightful.
I used this mix of black and mahogany rice instead of long stemmed white rice. I have had it in my cupboard for ages and it seemed due time to use some of it.
Mango black bean quinoa salad
I used frozen mangos and red quinoa. This was pretty fun. I keep forgetting that fennel tastes a bit like licorice though, so if that’s a flavour you don’t like, leave it out.
It’s really good warm or cold and the mango would make it nice for a picnic or dinner on the patio this summer. I think it would also be really good with some sweet peppers (bell peppers or banana peppers for example).
Always Fire and Honey 