Herb-a-Licious Dishes Or Save the Salt for the Slugs

No, I don't mean salty slugs. I personally don't eat them although I'm pretty sure they are very high in protein. I mean save the salt to sprinkle on the slugs in your garden, because it kills them. And, guess what--it can kill you too!

My spice rack is where the magic of cooking flavorful salt-free foods begins. My son Ron made it for me, according to my needs and the space available. It's in a most convenient space a few feet from my stove, my counters, my table, and my pantry, and it's alphabetized (so my sister suggested; I used to have it arranged according to whether food is sweet, hot, spicy, meat, vegetables, etc.) so I just step over to it whenever I'm cooking or baking, and choose my spices and  herbs. I grow herbs too. My family is so accustomed to taste-full food that when we eat out they can tell that much of the flavor is just from salt.

I especially appreciate my spices and herbs now that I must stay gluten-free.

Lists are pretty boring, so skip this list unless you REALLY want to know what I flavor my food with. 

Allspice, ground; Allspice, whole; Alum; Anis; Arrowroot; Bacon bits (real);Basil (a dozen varieties in my garden too); Cayenne; Celery salt; Celery seeds; Chili powder; Chive rings(and in my garden); Cilantro (in my garden too); Cinnamon sticks; Cinnamon powder; Cloves ground; Cloves whole; Cumin; Curry (very hot); Dill leaves (and in garden); Dill seeds; Garlic minced; Garlic powdered; Ginger ground; Mace ground; Marjoram; Mustard ground; Mustard whole; Nutmeg ground; Nutmeg whole; Onion chopped (and in my garden); Onion powdered; Oregano (and in garden); Paprika; Parsley (and in a flower pot); Pepper black; Pepper red crushed (and from my garden); Pepper white; Rosemary; Saffron; Sage ground; Savory; Sesame seed; Tartar, cream of; Thyme (and in garden); Turmeric; plus 12 salt-free blends.

This spicy soup is delicious.

Curried Carrot Soup

Sauté in 1 T of oil

5 stalks chopped celery

3 chopped onions

Add

5# of chopped carrots (in a 2-gallon pot)

Water to cover

Enough low-sodium bouillion to flavor (I used 11 tsp)

2 T strong curry

In last moments of cooking, add fresh or dry parsley to taste

This recipe is delicious. It makes two gallons of soup, with only 1335 calories in the entire pot. That’s less than 42 calories per cup. We each had a very large serving bowl of this soup as part of the main course. However, I added turkey sausages in the last 15 minutes of cooking the soup, so we had meat in our main course too. My son ate his on bread. I ate mine with prepared mustard (no gluten I hope).

I HAVE LOST 48 POUNDS. MY OLD CLOTHES GOT SO LOOSE I FINALLY DONATED THEM TO GOODWILL AND I'M PULLING OUT SOME OLDER, SMALLER CLOTHING. SOME OF THAT IS TOO LARGE FOR ME TOO. MY WEIGHT LOSS IS STILL MUCH SLOWER THAN PREVIOUSLY, BUT I AM HAPPY THAT IT CONTINUES AS I CONTINUE TO KEEP COUNT OF AND AVERAGE MY CALORIE INTAKE. MY AVERAGE AS OF YESTERDAY IS 1550/DAY.

Good Riddance to 31 Pounds and Un-Welcome to Celiac Disease

As of Wednesday, June 8, I have lost 31 pounds. That’s an average of one pound lost every 3.96 days; actually this is an unintentional rise in the speed of weight loss. I do not want to lose weight too quickly and then have more medical problems or a fast bounce-back because of it. The loss comes to 4.4 ounces per day, but naturally if I weighed in every day it would vary quite a bit from day to day. I had not weighed myself since May 11.

On my calendar I put a sticky note on June 24; this is the day I estimated reaching a certain goal in weight loss. As it appears now, I’ll probably reach that goal three to four days ahead of time. I’ve been using current averages to figure out the date, but lately I’m speeding up instead of slowing down, as I thought I would. My instinct is telling me not to lower my average daily calorie count any more than it now stands: 1545. In spite of this average, I went to a restaurant twice this past month. I estimated calories in everything I ate there, and gave a few things to my son to eat—like soup (probably had too much salt and fat anyway) and buns.

Speaking of buns, on Wednesday I also learned that I definitely have celiac disease. Restaurant buns have gluten in them; that’s the connection. A nurse practitioner had told me I might have a touch of it several months ago. Then a doctor told me he suspects I have it. Finally a specialist told me I do have it. It is not severe at this point, and I want to keep it that way. This diagnosis is based on results of several blood tests. So, now I know what caused the symptoms. One symptom threw everyone off, even the expert. It is a deep reddening of the face—and only the face. In fact, you could clearly see a line on the edge of my face, with deep red above and pale Polish white below.  In July of 2010, shortly after breast cancer surgery, I began to experience this condition about 50 times a day. My face would get so hot that I would almost faint from it. When I’d get a beet-red face during radiation therapy, the therapists would take my blood pressure thinking it was going up sky-high, but my blood pressure was always normal. Then I was tested for various causes. (It definitely was not due to change of life.) Over more recent time, the reddening lessened, and in the last few months, the frequency went down to three to five times a day, particularly after I started my diet. I had cut down drastically on eating breads and pastas because they are so high in calories. This means I cut down on gluten consumption. Cutting down on gluten affected my symptoms of celiac. Now that I’m changing my diet to nearly eliminate the gluten (wheat, rye, and barley), the reddening may cease. I should eliminate gluten entirely, but gluten products are at least trace ingredients in too many foods.

 

You can learn more about Celiac disease at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/celiac-disease/DS00319 and at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celiac_disease. After I read these articles, it occurred to me that I have probably had this disease for a long time in a mild form. I recall speaking with a doctor eleven years ago about certain symptoms that occurred every day; even long before that, these symptoms occurred far more often than normal. However, my doctors always suggested the more common causes for them. Twenty years ago a doctor told me to eliminate milk products, but that never made a difference, so I returned them to my diet. Nowadays celiac disease is being diagnosed earlier than in the past because of doctors being more aware of it and sending patients for improved tests.

So, this new development will affect my diet even more, as I will cut down again on gluten products. I guess my son will be eating the breads and tortillas, and I’ll have boiled potatoes and rice and on hand for a dinner side. Next stop: finding recipes I like for rice, corn, potato, oat-based, and other grain breads and muffins. The Internet is loaded with them.