Monday 21 May 2012

Lunch and dinner for yesterday

Day 2

After the amazing rice pudding for breakfast, it was always going to be hard to better any meals on Day 2. But somehow we managed!

Lunch was quite simple: leftover pork mince cooked with sauteed leeks and rolled in lettuce leaves (I'm going to make this again tonight so will post a detailed recipe and pictures later).

Dinner however was the piece de resistance (again spelling?)...
Over to Mandy's place, after a walk around Southbank and my first (and most likely only) trip on the Brisbane Wheel, where we prepared chicken noodle soup.

Ingredients
Chicken stock/broth (again recipe to follow)
Shredded brussel sprouts
Shredded cabbage
Chicken pieces (from the roast chicken cooked on Sunday - the bones of which were used to make the broth)
Shallots
Rice noodles
Celery leaves

Method
Simply place the broth in a pot of the stove to re-heat. Add the brussel sprouts, cabbage, chicken and cook until the vegetables are tender. Then add in the rice noodles, shallots and celery leaves. Heat for a couple of minutes then serve.

VERDICT: I need to take more photos. And yum! I'm going to use bigger noodles next time (not the vermicelli).
Breakfast ...

This for me is the biggest challenge. As much as the thought of rice bubbles with rice milk sounds ... well ricey... I don't think I can do it. And I'd like to have some egg free time on this diet starting today. So I'm a little limited.

Which leads me to my next challenge... I googled Asian breakfasts thinking I might have some sort of rice soup with meat and a vegetable or two but instead came across rice pudding. Further searching on dairy free coconut free rice pudding, plus some small amendments of my own and here is my recipe for breakfast for the next couple of days.

Serves 4 (or me several times over)
Ingredients
1-3 tbsp dairy-free spread (nuttlex)
225g write rice (it should be aborio but that's not on my diet)
1 tbsp sugar, or to taste
1-2 litres rice milk
Pear syrup

 Method
In a heavy-based saucepan with a lid, gently melt the dairy-free spread.
Once melted, add the rice and stir to coat. Add the sugar and if you think you're lacking a bit in dairy-free spread, throw in a bit more.
When the rice is gently sizzling, pour in 200-300ml of rice milk and stir.
Cover the pan - make sure the heat is down low, and leave the rice and milk to do its thing for 5 minutes or so.
The rice will gradually start to absorb the rice milk. Stir the mix and add more rice milk over and over again until the rice is tender. The lid will help this process as the rice will steam a little.

When the rice is tender, serve in a bowl, and top with a little pear syrup (recipe to follow later but basically the syrup from tinned pears simmered with a little rich brown sugar).
Recipe was modified from here: http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/special-diet/dairy-free/dairy-free-rice-pudding-recipe

VERDICT: If you like rice, you'll love this. The pear syrup makes it just that little bit better...
My skin is a disaster.. I am covered in a raised red bump rash and have been for most of the past three months. I have tried many things including a steroids, creams, biopsies, blood tests, and a whole host of alternative medicines. My most recent attempt to stop this maddening itch was a visit to an allergy clinic. My doctor there has diagnosed chronic uticaria (? not sure of the spelling) triggered by severe stress and last 1-5 years. Arrrghgghgghghgghhh! I can medicate (lots of strong antihistimines) however there is also the possibility that with changes to my diet I can get this under control.

Therefore I am on a two week elimination diet followed by 4 weeks of challenges to re-introduce foods.

Today is day 1.

This blog is going to be about the foods that I can eat and the recipes and tips. WHY? Because when I have shopped (twice now) in preparation for this elimination diet I have had tears of frustration in my eyes. I had thought this was going to be too hard for me and it was upsetting me. I've changed my mindset now. This is not going to be hard at all! This is going to be an adventure to see what amazing foods and recipes I can come up with and share.

Sunday (aided and abetted by my wonderful friend Mandy) was all about preparation for the week. Unfortunately I didn't take photos along the way - I will from here on in. I made a roast pork with the best crackling EVER, roast chicken (so tender and moist - as was the pork), chicken stock/broth made from the roast chicken carcass, pork mince rice paper rolls with shredded cabbage, bamboo shoots, shallots and rice noodles. Delish.

More to follow...