Finally an update!!

Hello my readers, It has been way too long since I did a post. My computers hardrive died on  me and I finally got it back from Toshiba. Over this past month i have been having such issues with the scd diet. I was back to feeling the way I was before I started the diet, so I gave in and for the last week I have been having white rice daily, and I am feeling better. So as it stand right now, I am scd with the exception of rice. And you know what, it works for me. My diet is now gluten, dairy, soy, egg, corn, potato, grape, citrus, tomatoes, spicy, preservative, sugar, high fat and chocolate free. It should just be called the Janna Diet!!  Tell me about your diet and how you have customized the scd to meet your needs. I will be working on more recipes, some will be posted, some are just going to tease you with pictures, but be patient I am starting school on Monday, so my free time is now down to a minimum.

French Toast Fingers

Great breakfast that kids will love!!

You will need:

3 slices of you favorite coconut bread. (mine is small because I messed up the bread recipe I had made earlier but you could use full size bread)
1 egg
honey to drizzle (optional)
cinnamon to taste (optional)
oil or scd legal butter for the pan

What you will do:

If you are using full size bread, cut your bread slices into half or threes (depending on how small you want it), of course you could just leave it whole but then it would just be regular french toast. Wisk your egg in a bowl. Dip and your bread slice in the bowl and turn it over to make sure both sides become eggy.  Fry it in the pan with oil or butter, until golden on both sides. That's it your done, can we say easy??  I made my daughter's with just a little honey drizzled on top but you could sprinkle on cinnamon, or top with fresh fruit or scd legal jam, and it would be just as delish if not more!!

Apple - Pear Crumble

Scrumptious, delish, and just plain good for you!

You will need:

3 apples sliced
2 pears sliced
1/4 cup scd legal apple juice
1/3 cup almong flour
1/2 cup mixed nuts
A generous sprinkle of cinnamon
1-2 tblsp. honey to drizzle (optional)

What you will do:

Pour the apple juice in the bottom of the pan. Toss all the sliced fruit into the pan. Sprinkle the almond flour all over and give the pan a little shake. Sprinkle the cinnamon over top (I liked to use a generous amoutn). Sprinkle the mixed nuts over top. Cover with tin foil and bake at 375 degrees fro 25 - 30 min.  Remove from oven and drizzle with honey. Serve hot!!

Trial and Error

This weekend was about finding what works for us, and learning about using coconut flour, as I have never used it before. I personally don't like the smell or taste of cocnut at all, however my 2 littlest daughters need something to take in their lunch to daycare that does NOT contain nuts, or fish for that matter. So we all went over to my parent's house for an afternoon bake off. My mom and I created a recipe for carrot/apple muffins which would have been great had I been thinking properly and used either a mixer or food processor to get the eggs light and fluffy, but I waasnt so  until I redo the recipe that one was a flop.

I had pulled a recipe from a blog for sandwich bread and gave it a shot. Well again I just mixed by hand, and ended up with a flat heavy brick rather thana loaf of bread, and while I dont expect it to be light and fluffy, I also don't eat bricks. The flavour however was nice, a little bland but nice. And I am not someone to give the coconut a compliment, but surprisingly it didnt taste cocnutty.

I came home that night and while the girl's were winding down for the night`, I whipped together a crustless apple-pear crumble....yummy!! And as a result of a great recipe turn out, I did what I do best. I had a feed! that's right I ate half the pan by myself! It was worth it.

We wake up this morning, and I am thinking wether or not to give it another try today or wait until tuesday, then I had a minor stroke of genius. The bread has to be good for something in its current state (I am not one for waste). Oh YES!! French toast fingers!!

So you are probably going, well where are the recipes. They are on the next 2 post's. I didnt want one really long post so I split it in 3. Let me know about your trial and errors on the scd diet. Sometimes mistakes make something great!

SCD Mama's Protein Bars

Okay this is soo easy and delicious. I was already getting ideas of things to make, although I didn't dream this recipe, like I have many in the past, it is still great! So get out your food processor and a baking pan lined with parchment. Set your oven to 250 degrees, and let's do this.

You will need:
1 cup, pumpkin seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup thompson raisins
1 cup dates, pitted
5-6 tblsp nut butter (I used organic almond butter)
1/4-1/3 cup honey

Dump it all in the food processor and blend until all the seeds have a fine texture. dump it in the center of your parchment on the baking pan. place an equal size of parchment on top. Use a rolling pin to spread it and flatten it down to about 1/4 inch thickness. Place in the oven for about 2 hours. when you pull it out that's when you take off the parchment on top. It should peel off nice and clean. Place your protein bars, parchment (on the bottom) and all onto a cooling rack. When it is cooled, cut it and eat it. I store mine in an airtight container in the fridge.

My Celiac Story!

Welcome to the first blog in my adventures in the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Let me start with my brief health history. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease back in 2007. I had the lovely biopsy which confirmed what I was dreading. Celiac Disease. Personally I loved all sorts of food, junk food, fast food, chocolate, but nothing more than sugars and CARBS. LOTS of carbs, especially pastry. I cried in my doctors office and told him he can forget chocolate, I will never give it up. At this time I was a single mom of a soon to be 5 year old, and didn't really care to cook. In fact my idea of cooking was either something packaged or Mc Donald's, or my frequent Domino's.

The frustration of learning how to cook, gluten free was alot for me to take in, but I had no choice, a girls gotta eat. So I learned, after a while I found I had quite a knack in the kitchen and found it to be a real stress relief. I drastically changed my outlook on food and developed a great relationship with it. Yes I said I had a relationship with food, it's important to really know what you are eating, and how its made and all the health benefits it brings. I was finally feeling great.

Fast forward a few years and two more kids later. I was soo into this gluten free cooking that I had been tweaking recipes to a gf version that all my "regular" family and friends enjoyed, and creating new ones to my likeness, that I had decided, all I want was to open a gf bakery. I have oodles of great recipes in a book just waiting to make me..---..well we need not continue that fantasy.

For the last year now, I started getting my old "before celiac was diagnosed" symptoms. Bloated, stomach cramps were getting worse (they never went away after my celiac diagnosis), diarrhea often. I couldn't put my finger on it. At first I chopped it up to stress, after all I did just have my third baby. by the time Christmas of 2011 rolled around I was feeling horrible and sick ALL the time. I couldn't make or keep plans because 9.9 times out of 10, I was sick. I figured I must have had cross contamination with gluten, I was certain!

January, all 3 kids and myself got the flu..for 8 days. I was left weak.  Early February, I had a massive head cold that last nearly 3 weeks. I was so drained by this time. End of February we were hit with the flu AGAIN! a couple days later all my kids were better but I was getting worse, I figured the flu was really taken it outta me this time, so I better eat more chicken soup with potatoes, lots of potatoes. Oh and some rice bowls too, that'd help. Anyways, by day 8, with no energy, convinced I was dying, looked anorexic, no color, dizzy spells and even water gave me the runs, my mom dragged me to the doctor. I had an appointment with the gastro the next morning. I had lost more than 10 lbs. I was now 5 ft 7 in, weighing 102lbs.

Anyhoo, after 3 more blood tests and stool tests all coming out fine, I had come across a website (www.crohnsboy.com) and that's where I heard of the SCD diet. Everything started making sense, especially why I kept getting sicker, from the second round of the flu, after all I was poisoning myself with potatoes not even knowing it.

I have been on this miracle diet for 3 weeks now, my weight is up to 107 lbs, and maintaining (which for me is huge, normally it takes months to gain 1 lb). I no longer have stomach cramps, they were gone by day 2. While I have given into cravings 3 times now, the last time, was THE LAST TIME. I felt awful, and its not worth it anymore. So while the gf bakery is no longer, I have a new challenge and that is tweaking and creating delicious SCD recipes.