Gluten and Dairy free goodness
**Just a little disclaimer to let you peeps know, this is not a fad or a fashion trend.
I haven't decided to go gluten and dairy free because it's what everyone is doing these days. I went and had a consultation with an intolerance practitioner because my health was rapidly going down hill. Nothing too serious, just various things that medicine couldn’t help me with. So I decided to take the complimentary method to see if that would work. This might not work for everyone but it has made a HUGE difference to my holistic health and the basic things we take for granted like nice skin, strong nails and hair!**
First off I should let you in on the foods that I'm intolerant to. This is not to bore you all, i swear! It’s just to prove that although at the start you can think your diet is limited (which it is to an extent) there are still so many delicious organic and whole products which you can try :)
Sooo, I am intolerant to;
- potatoes
-tomatoes
- peppers
-oranges
-banana
- msg (not really a food but found in some foods so I’ve added it in here)
- yeast
- wheat
- dairy
- nuts
- aspartame (its not really a food either, more of a chemical so no surprise my body won’t tolerate it)
- beer
-coffee
- strawberries.
The first thing I did when I got my results was go to the health food shop to get some supplies. I managed to get brown rice pasta (not as nasty as brown rice!) coconut oil and pink Himalayan mountain salt (which i had already), sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, natural yoghurt, goats butter (not as bad as it sounds), So KoKo coconut milk, Schar crispbread, manuka honey, organic oats, prunes and figs and although these types of foods are more expensive than typical foods, I decided I was investing in my health and it was well worth the money.
I also referred back to Dr Axe’s book to help me with recipe inspiration. The first meal I decided to cook was an organic chicken stir fry. Mostly because it is SO easy to make and because I am a huge lover of stir fries. I think you can get so much goodness from them if done properly and you can get a good portion of your veg for your five a day which i really struggle with. *A vegan option is also available on Niomi Smart's YouTube channel so head over there if you fancy trying that*
Organic chicken stir fry
Method
I soaked my chicken in tamari (gluten free soya sauce), garlic, lemon juice, ginger and brown rice vinegar as well as a spoonful of tahini (organic sesame seed paste). Whilst that was marinating, I cooked my brown rice pasta and fried off my sugarsnap peas, pepper, water chestnuts, soya beans, carrot, tenderstem broccoli and mini sweetcorns. I then fried off by chicken with my brown onion until thoroughly cooked (or charred in my case :) I have a thing about uncooked chicken).
Ingredients
-Organic chicken (available in most supermarkets)
- tamari (health food shop)
- organic garlic
- fresh lemon
- organic ginger
- brown rice vinegar (health food shop)
-organic tahini (health food shop)
- sugarsnap peas
- mini sweet corn
- water chestnuts
- carrots
- onion
- tenderstem broccoli
- soya beans
**You will probably find most of these things in your supermarket if you live in a big city etc. I just found it hard to source these things living rurally so the health food shop was my best option!**
I made this meal for my whole family and they were really impressed with the different flavours. However, if you suffer a nut intolerance like I do, be sure to keep an eye out for sesame seeds because unbeknownst to me, although they are not a nut, the body will react to them the same way as they do with nuts!!! I have, however, used it since in a recipe because I’m a rebel who can’t be tamed.
An interesting part of this new lifestyle change meant that, instead of having a drink with my dinner like any other normal individual, i I have to drink my water either an hour before my tea or twenty minutes after. It’s going to make eating out even more interesting!! Because supposedly the acid in your stomach can be watered down if you take a drink with your meal and those whose who like me whose intestines have sprung a leak, it’s proved to not be at all helpful in getting that good bacteria working on healing it! Ice cold water is not at all helpful in digestion which is something I did not know so, it’s worth trying it out to see if it helps!!
Anyway, that night I was thinking what I was going to eat for breakfast because I knew i would be rushing and breakfast has never really been a priority due to me feeling so sick in the mornings, I cant/couldn’t look at anything unless it was very well chilled and had to wait until later to eat. However, I decided i was sticking to my regime and took time to prepare some overnight oats the night before because it would be chilled, it would include some nice fibre and instead of having milk, I included natural yoghurt (yes i can have typical yoghurt which is strange but supposedly it’s different?) with a spoonful of manuka honey stirred in with pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and sunflower seeds. (You can blend these first if you don't fancy eating them whole.) It was actually really delicious and coming from someone who is really picky with the things they like, I would have this again no problem!
Ingredients
-One tub of Yeo valley natural yoghurt (the little one!)
-Organic oats
-Spoonful of manuka honey
-Sunflower seeds
-Pumpkin seeds
-Flax seeds
- okay I may have added in sun maid raisins which I’m not supposed to do but what can I say? I’m a recipe rebel.
-One capsule of good bacteria (sounds like something from a horror film) but this is to help me heal my intestinal problem! TMI? Probably!
Around 10 or 11 o clock that day i was at work and was beginning to get a bit peckish. I had luckily packed some organic goodies because I didn’t know what i was going to feel like! I decided to have some blueberries. I was told to have my fruit seperate from my main meals if I were to have any and I have to say, i was very impressed with their taste!! I could eat a whole punnet given half the chance and I even got my granny hooked too!!
Lunchtime I found was the perfect chance to fill up on all my leafy veg. I ended up having a salmon salad with spinach, baby gem lettuce, carrots and beetroot. It was so filling and so incredibly tasty!! Would have this again! Going to try and stick to home made soups for lunch over the autumn/winter period and leave the salads for spring and summer time. It’s good to get something warm in your tummy when it’s cold outside :)
A few other recipes i decided to have waiting for when i was too busy in the evenings to cook.
Dairy free macaroni cheese it was surprisingly nice! I am normally really picky as anything that i don’t like the texture of can make me physically sick.
- I used my brown rice pasta because I knew i liked it. You could use an alternative if you like!
For the cheese sauce I used two different cheeses
- Vio life which is like a vegetarian alternative to cheese
- mozzarella which I can use because it’s buffalo milk that is in it, not cows
- goats butter
- coconut milk (which i prefer to normal milk)
- coconut flour.
**The only thing i would change about this is, i would use gluten free plain flour instead of coconut. It’s the only gluten free flour i had in the house at the time and made the sauce quite sweet so I had to add more cheese to compensate!**
Because I’d made so much sauce (the rest of the fam were having different macaroni cheese), I used the cheese sauce for making cauliflour cheese the next evening! I’m also pretty certain you could freeze it and use it when needed.
Salmon and dill fish cakes
This is another one of those recipes I didn’t know if i was going to like but im so glad I tried it because i loved it! The only part I didn’t like doing was rolling the fish cakes into their little nests because the consistency was quite sticky and knowing what was in it made me want to tactical chunder in the nearest waste paper bin right there and then. I powered through and once they were in the pan and cooked, they were soooo delicious! I’ll just have to let someone else make them next time - I’ll just stick to tasting them!
The ingredients were
- one tin of fresh caught salmon. I don’t like using tinned products but decided for the sake of this recipe to forgo it.
- one egg (now you know why I was getting the dry heave)
- 40g of crispbread (this acts as your ‘potato’ in an ordinary fish cake and probably added to me thinking i was going to heave. I’m really selling this recipe aren’t I?)
- Sea salt or pink Himalayan mountain salt
- fresh dill to add to your taste
- 1/4 organic onion
Whizzed in a blender to combine ingredients and you can imagine I was thinking I was experiencing another night outside Skinandi’s after too much alcohol.
I then rolled it in gluten free plain flour (learnt my lesson after the coconut mac and cheese fiasco!) and popped a little bit of coconut oil in a frying pan and fried them off.
They were actually so much lighter than ordinary fish cakes and everyone loved them.
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This was my experience of my gluten and dairy free diet so far :)
That’s it for now! Let me know if you enjoyed or if you’re currently undertaking a lifestyle change because I love to hear of everyone’s experiences.
Lots of love
Lauren
Xoxo
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