And it begins...

This last week my gastroenterologist started me on an elimination diet because medications alone are not fixing the symptoms of my eosinophilic disorder.  It appears that I have EGID (Eosinophilic GastroIntestinal Disorder)  Basically it's an inflammatory response to allergens which causes various pains, inflammation, and other issues through my digestive system.  The doctor also agreed that some, many or perhaps all of my other chronic issues should be corrected by identifying and removing the triggers for me.  Interstitial cystitis, ear infections, migraines, kidney stones...  I could live without all of those.  Happily this sounds and feels like it makes a lot of sense.  It coincides with questions and concerns I've had for some times now.  Unfortunately, it's going to mean some big changes; and I don't like big changes.

As of a few days ago I am now eating entirely dairy free.  Lactose-free eating is similar, but not entirely the same.  I also have to avoid casein which is still present in many lactose-free foods and is also highly prevalent in manufactured foods.  Most store-bought bread contains dairy, as well as margarine (butter is obvious).  The church cannery potato pearls are a no-no now too.  I'm getting really good at reading labels!

Being a highly emotional eater (and I mean any emotion -- anxiety, joy, boredom...) any major dietary change is difficult for me.  Being on an extremely limited budget makes any major dietary change difficult for me.  Thanks to so many wonderful friends nearby and online I have been blessed with a wonderful support group to get me started.  Thursday night I could be found standing in the kitchen with my stomach rumbling and a "deer-in-the-headlights" stare towards the pantry and fridge.  Right now I'm happily fed and even just had some brownies and soy milk!  The key for me is knowing what I can eat.  Being the research fiend that I am, I've found lots of information on dietary substitution.  I was totally overwhelmed though.  With my wonderful friends I've found what's a reasonable way to begin, and how to do a lot of it with things I even have on my shelf!

Since I get really excited about my discoveries and love learning new things, I'm sure I'll post a lot of my experiences here.  In one month I will also be going wheat free.   There's a difference between wheat free and gluten free -- explained here.  So much for my brownies, right?  Well, I'm learning ways around that too.  I've been pretty sneaky in some of my adventuring and I just might accidentally get my family healthier at the same time ;)  The key to wheat free seems to be my wheat grinder!  I got a wheat grinder quite a while ago, because what good are buckets of wheat without a grinder?!  I love the grinder I got.  It takes up very little space, connects easily to my kitchenaid, and also came with a hand crank so it can be used without power.  I have compared the grind from the popular "Nutrimill" and my mill, the KitchenAid Grain Mill.  With each on the finest setting I could not tell a difference at all.  I now have a small selection of white bean flour and rice flour made with the stuff sitting in my pantry!  In two months I will see the doctor again and we'll re-evaluate my symptoms.  If they are not resolved then we'll remove the next three major allergens from my diet: soy, peanuts, and shellfish.  I also have allergy testing scheduled for next week which may help identify other allergens.

My sweet neighbor invited me over the other day, knowing that I was completely overwhelmed (and starving).  She has had experience preparing and eating dairy free, wheat free, and even vegan (at different times) so she is a huge help.  One of her recipe books I looked at, Country Beans, had recipes for "Cream" of Chicken Soup, among other things.  It's made with white bean flour and it's really good.  Who would have guessed???  I also saw a recipe there for Instant Pea Soup that I based a recipe off.  Okay, so here are my discoveries:

****I already mentioned the Cream of Chicken Soup.  It's made of boiling water, ground white bean flour, seasonings, and chicken.  It took minutes to prepare and is wonderful by itself or used in recipes.

****I made spaghetti for dinner last night.  I make my sauce from scratch and usually add a can of tomato paste to thicken the sauce.  I had tried my hand (well, my grinder) at making white bean flour since I had a bag of white beans in the pantry.  I had about 1/4 cup of the flour sitting in a bowl by the stove because it didn't fit in the container with the rest.  So I gave it a shot!  The bean flour thickened the sauce beautifully and nobody knew!  (I never did tell the girls and I only let Michael in on the secret tonight, lol).  Instead of Parmesan cheese on my spaghetti I tried out Nutritional Yeast.  Sounds nasty, right?  Well, it's not what you expect!  It's not like the yeast you use in bread at all.  It has a wonderful naturally cheesy flavor and was a great spaghetti topper!

**** In playing in my pantry I also found a couple of bags of dried split peas.  I really don't like split pea soup, but I know my mom does and I was having fun playing with my grinder.  I ground the split peas into fine flour and mixed in seasonings (I'd seen a proper recipe for it in the Country Beans book).  I took it to my mom tonight and she tried it out.  Two Tbsp. of the powder was mixed into hot water.  It ended up really needing a blender or food processor (she has a cute baby food processor which worked great).  After a few seconds of good pulverization there were no lumps and it was a thick, creamy pea soup.  It wasn't the classic pea soup, though.  I took a taste and actually liked it!  It tastes like fresh peas from the garden!!!  We discussed such ideas as serving it garnished with fresh diced tomatoes... and maybe some crumbled bacon.  I may have to grind my other bag up and make some for me!

****I love popcorn.  I really do.  I really love home popped theater-style popcorn.  I have some theater type buttery flavored oil (artificially butter flavored) and buttery popcorn salt that I got for a Christmas gift.  The oil is fine, but the salt has dairy in it.  Last night I popped up a pan of popcorn and added a touch of salt and then sprinkled it with the Nutritional Yeast.  It was delicious!  I would eat that if I'm going dairy-free or not! 

****This morning (okay, afternoon.  I finally slept well last night!  and all morning, lol) I wanted to make some hashbrowns for "breakfast".  I usually use freshly grated potatoes in hot oil, then add butter halfway through for more flavor.  I had a fresh onion on hand so I was using that too.  Since I can't use the butter or margarine I used the buttery flavored popcorn oil in place of the oil/butter combo!  It looked funny, thanks to the artificial coloring, LOL, but it was very tasty.

****I have been researching the best way to replace an occasional glass of milk (like with my brownies) and milk in recipes.  Soy milk is the obvious replacement.  Rice milk is also pretty widely available.  Neither fits well into the $0 budget.  So I learned how to make my own!  I did buy a quart of prepared soy milk at the health food store today so I have something to compare to, then a bit of instant dry soy milk (lots cheaper, but I'm wary of dried milks), and also some plain soybeans.  Right now I have soybeans soaking in water in my fridge.  Tomorrow I'll see how the homemade variety turns out.  I'm going to add a touch of sweet brown rice for extra flavor and texture.  The quart of milk, powdered milk to make a quart prepared, and beans to try making my own (at least a quart when I'm done) all together cost $5.  If this dairy-free thing is going to happen for years instead of weeks, hopefully someday I can get a soymilk machine.  Purchased in bulk the beans can be very inexpensive.  Even if I end up not being able to eat soy, the machine works for all sorts of other alternative milks (rice, beans, etc.which are all quite cheap)  Considering the cost of the prepared milks at the store, the machine would pay for itself in no time. 

****Tonight I needed a good reason to want to drink milk.  I love milk and could happily drink it alone, but I mean a good reason to make me want milk enough that I could be happy with the soy milk.  So I made brownies.  I made them from scratch partly because I didn't have a mix on had, partly because they're not very hard anyway, and partly because I bet the mix ones have dairy in them.  I had to replace the melted butter/marg. for oil.  Then when it came to adding the 1 1/2 cups of flour, I pulled out my smallish bin of flour from the pantry and it only had 1 c. in it.  I had my big thing of flour right there in the pantry, but unfortunately I'm lazy.  My canister of bean flour was just right there, and it and it had worked so well in the spaghetti...  Well, I finished mixing it up, added some walnuts, and spread it in the pan.  While they were in the oven I set to "cleaning" the bowl.  Nasty.  The original flavor was fine, but the aftertaste was supremely beany.  Nasty indeed.  Oh well, the brownies were already in the oven.  I was very brave and tasted a bit of brownie when they were done.  It actually tasted fine.  So I took a whole piece with a glass of soy milk.  The flavor was a bit different, but not noticeably beany!!!  Michael took a brownie later (I didn't warn him, of course).  He mentioned that they tasted a little different also, but ate the whole thing.  When I admitted about the bean flour he could see that that was the difference, but even according to him it wasn't bad, just different.  Phew!!!  The milk was okay.  I didn't like drinking it by itself, but between bites of brownie it was fine.  I'm a little suspicious of the soy because this is the most soy I've had at at time before and my tongue felt a little funky.  I may end up losing it after all, but I'm game to give it a shot first.

If any of you happen to know great dairy free or wheat free recipes, I'm always happy to collect them :)  I have to say, though, that if I go through all this and don't lose some weight I'm going to be very upset, LOL.  Along with everything else I'll have to be very careful about my chocolate.  And you probably know how I feel about chocolate -- pretty much the same way I feel about my right hand: I expect it to be there and perform its duties! I suppose I could live without it, but it would be a very sad thing.  Fortunately I do like dark chocolate.  Any chocolate 70% cocoa or darker is very unlikely to have dairy in it.  I will have to be a good ingredient reader.  Mostly things will be made from scratch so I can monitor the diary (and eventually wheat) content.  There are dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips available, but even in bulk they're about $4/lb.  Pre-packaged they were closer to $6/lb!  I'll have to find an alternative to my comforting mug of hot cocoa.

All I can say is that if it makes everything else better, it will be worth it.

 Picture of my soybeans soaking over night in preparation for milking them tomorrow.  Moo.