Roast vegetable salad

Because I had intended to roast vegetables to go with the gnocchi and then changed my mind, I had some cut up pumpkin to do something with. It inspired another idea... a roast vegetable salad that I can eat with tuna for lunches for this week. I started chopping.

I roasted potato, pumpkin and carrot with cumin (whole seeds), smoked paprika, olive oil and salt. When those were done, I dumped them into a bowl and added diced green beans (from the garden), capsicum (from the garden), half a tin of corn and red kidney beans (I'll be using the other half for quesadeas for several dinners this week), celery (from the garden) and rainbow chard (from the garden).

Mixed all around and split into containers, my impromptu roast vegetable salad gives me three generous sized lunches. I'll top each with a can of tuna for a delicious, nutritious and colourful meal. Guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow!?

And here's the cost breakdown. It's a little pricier than the gnocchi because of the tuna but it's not protein rich enough for me to eat on its own. I also suspect that these serves are going to prove just a touch too generous, so this may end up making four meals.

Potato Gnocchi and Tomato/Bacon Sauce

At the market on Saturday I snagged a 5kg bag of potatoes for $2. With eyes and sprouts, they're not going to last for much longer than a week before they turn inedible, so making potato gnocchi went to the top of the to-do list.

I used a recipe, of sorts, and because I still have lots of gluten free flours, I used rice and potato flour for the mix. They cooked up nicely enough, more spongy and airy than the ones I've made before and well suited to a sauce. I'd intended to roast some vegetables and add tomato to them to go with the gnocchi, but changed the recipe at the last moment.

I have lots of bacon in the freezer and the market haul also netted a good sized bag of onions so I threw together a bacon/tomato sauce, using some of the frozen tomato paste from the freezer to improve the taste. It made six generous sized serves, perfect for lunches.

Each serve works out at $1.10. Not bad for a delicious, filling and nutritious lunch. Here's the breakdown:

Oh, and I forgot... I found a container of frozen cooked pumpkin in the freezer so I tossed that in as well. That would have cost, maybe, at the absolute most, sixty cents, so technically each serving costs $1.20. That's still an absolute bargain, and delicious too!

Anxiety and depression

After years of symptoms, frustration, dietary restrictions and self-diagnosis, it turns out that I've been suffering from anxiety/depression all this time. All those physical symptoms (ALL OF THEM) were a consequence of insufficient neurotransmitters in my body. I'm now taking an anti-anxiety/depression medication and pretty much every symptom has gone. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want and I don't suffer for it.

I'm embarassed that I put my friends and family through one fad diet after another when all I needed was a once a day pill. I wish I had figured this out much sooner. Not only would I have saved everyone (and myself) a whole lot of inconvenience and distress, but I would have saved a fortune on shonky remedies and naturopaths.

Dwelling on it is pointless. I'm glad that I'm well, or at least on the road to being well. I accept that pride and stubborness prevented me from accepting anxiety as the cause for a long time. I accept it now.

So it's IBS....

I saw a Gastroenterologist so I could rule out anything sinister going on that might explain my bowel symptoms. He ran blood and stool tests that came back normal. Low for one of the B vitamins (I can't remember which, not B12, he said that was fine), but still within the normal range (just). I refused to undergo invasive tests and given the good bloodwork, he didn't push it. His diagnosis is IBS.

The only anomaly that worries him is my calcium. It's low (outside the normal range) -- only just in my opinion, but apparently that's significant. He's running another test for that.

To celebrate the IBS diagnosis (yes, I know I'm strange), I went out with the girls on Friday lunch to a Chinese dumpling restaurant. The company was great, as was the atmosphere and value for money but the dumplings didn't quite come up to scratch. The ones I'd tried to make for myself tasted better, even though they looked worse and had questionable texture.

This wasn't my first wheat (gluten) containing meal, but it was the most deliberate one. I told the gastroenterologist that I'm gluten free. In hindsight, I'm not. I eat a 'normal' wheat containing meal at least once a month and some of my grain choices (like buckwheat and quinoa) are labelled as possibly containing gluten. 

The only obvious and immediate symptom to come out of the wheat-based meal was bloating.But what about anxiety?

It's 2:30am on Monday morning. Today is a public holiday, thankfully, because I can't sleep. I've read over half of a book, browsed news websites and facebook, worked on my wellness journal template, chased mosquitoes around the house and I'm still wired.

I'm tired, but I feel on edge, worried and anxious about something and yet nothing. Last week I blamed the alcohol and I gave that up. I haven't drunk anything this week yet I'm feeling the same way. Oh, and let's not mention the irrational rage incident a little earlier. *blush* It's all okay, no people or animals were injured, but like the storm that hit melbourne yesterday, the anger came out of nowhere. Fortunatley it quickly disappeared, unlike the storm.

Could this be because of the dumplings?  This site suggests it might be: http://www.wheatanddairyfree.com/wheatdairyfreeintolerances.htm

A wheat or gluten intolerance can be difficult to diagnose. As it is such a common food the body adapts to coping with it, hiding the intolerance. Some of the symptoms which a wheat or gluten intolerance produces are: aches and stiffness, depression and mood swings, anxiety, asthma, fatigue/tiredness, sneezing, runny eyes, runny nose, nausea, bloating, stomach cramps, sweating, sore/itchy throat, skin rashes, swollen stomach. .

Depression and anxiety are singled out:

Intolerance to specific foods can often cause depression and anxiety. Sometimes the depressive effect of a food may be accumulative rather than immediate. Sometimes the food may be eaten in moderation without causing any symptoms but accumulation intake of the food may cause onset of depression and anxiety and often also fatigue. In other people the depressive effect may be immediate. Wheat is particularly known for producing this effect.

Hmm...

Realistically, those symptoms can be caused by other things. The only way to know for sure is to keep a food diary. Em is going to help me. I've bestowed upon her the right to nag and belittle me into updating it every day. Until then, I'm going back gluten free. This not sleeping and feeling anxious sucks. And it's not just because of the mosquitoes, though they didn't help.

Beans and chutney

I intended to wait until Em arrives before harvesting any beans. They were planted, afterall, so she and I could share them. However, the little buggers are growing too fast and producing lots of lucious beans. To wait another week and a half would result in the loss of the beans that are ready now. Fortunately there are lots still growing so Em and I will have beans to share.

Here's the first of the crop:

I had a hankering for a Rivers steak sandwich with their signature tomato chutney. My mouth waters just to think of it. Em found me some chutney recipes online and I picked the one (see: recipe) that looked closest to what I craved. Because I didn't have 3 pound of tomatoes, I adapted the recipe. Well, adapt maybe isn't the right word because I didn't amend the measurements according to scale, instead I noted each ingredient and threw in what I thought might be about the right amount given how many tomatoes I had. Then, to really mess up things, I tossed in a bag of stewed apricots.

This is the end result after 2 hours of reducing and simmering:

And, yes, it is as delicious as it looks! And I have leftovers. I figure I'll freeze some to share in two weeks time! Hmmm... beans! 

Oh, and I cut into the Green Zebra (correction to yesterday's post where I said it was a Tigerella) tomato. This is what it looked like inside:

and another:

I took a bite, expecting it to be tasteless or worse, inedibly tart, and instead tasted the most delicious tomato I have ever eaten! I kid you not! It boasted full flavour from beginning to end, starting out sweet, rich and smooth and ending with a delicious subtle tartness that enlivened the tastebuds.

Doesn't it sound like I'm describing wine!? But, seriously, this is one amazing tomato! I can't believe I harvested only one. Though, I don't think I've uprooted the plant yet. Maybe I can coax another fruit out of it before the summer is officially over.

For dinner proper, I went all out with grilled steak (my secret is a burning hot grill pan and a smoked out kitchen. If the smoke detector doesn't go off, the steak won't be tender) on a bed of lettuce and rocket (home grown of course), sweet potato fries, steamed green beans (yes, from the garden), tomato/apricot chutney and because I didn't have bread I used a GF wrap instead.

I admit, it's not quite Rivers, but it was still pretty damned nice. I ate it all while Paddy stood beside me on the couch, drooling. :-)

Now I'm so stuffed full of food that I need to go sleep it off.

Garden update

On a cloudy day with storms forecast, I ventured out into the garden to do some maintenance.

The big tomato patch has almost finished. Here's one pot that's looking rather worse for wear.

I did find this though. Looks like one of the tigerellas fruited afterall -- one tomato. I wonder what it will taste like.

 

 Here's some produce that I found and picked. Who knew I had a red pepper ready for use?

 

 The beans have gone crazy. I've noticed flowers and baby beans, but who knows what could be in there? I'll send Em in to scout when she gets here.  ;-)

The strawberries are doing better. They now fruit like real strawberries and aren't even being eaten anymore... well, not by insects/wildlife anyway.

My idea of growing peas in a bag of potting mix worked. I need to plant out more.

Two new pots have mixed lettuces and chinese greens. They're taking a while to establish and I lost a lot more seedlings than I would have liked. I've not yet mastered the art of growing from seed. The bigger plants do okay, but the little greens have a poor success rate.

And I need to throw in some more radish... and start using the ones that are now ready.

Today I plan to refresh the soil in the big tomato pot now that I've pulled the dead plants out, and I'll go to the nursery and buy some spinach seedlings because it's evident I have no clue on how to germinate them from seed.

Deadly nightshades?

After a miserable three days with joint pain, fatigue and bowel movements that are best not discussed in polite company... or any company really, I'm directing my attention to my favourite foods: the nightshades.

I am descended from Irish stock (in part) and the Irish love spuds. Not those fake sweet potato things, I mean the real potatoes with the white flesh that make amazing crisps, delectable salads, scrumptious mash, divine wedges, fries, hashbrowns, cakes.... Ohmygosh, I'm drooling!

Uh huh, so I'm addicted to potatoes. If I were ever stranded on a desert island there better be a potato crop right nearby or things would get ugly.

Potatoes are not the only member of the nightshade family that I have an unabashed adoration of. Tomatoes are a potatoes' best friend. My backyard is filled with tomato plants. I'm giving tomatoes away because on an instinctual level I know that to eat too many of those delicious red and yellow delights will result in pain. I restrict myself to small portions, diced up small... well, mostly I do.

Also in the family are eggplants, peppers (capsicums to us Aussies), chilli and tobacco. Tobacco and I have never become friends. Chilli and I parted company some time ago thanks to the oral autoimmune condition that I have, but my love of peppers and eggplants remained. If necessary though, I could live without them... for a short time anyway.

In my quest for a peaceful painfree life, I read this article: Do Nightshades Promote Inflammation?

Okay, to backtrack a bit. Two years ago I had a series of blood tests run. One of the things that showed up was inflammation. When I experience fatigue and joint pain I now recognise it as an inflammatory response to something I've eaten or done. So, could my potato addiction be feeding my inflammation?

The author (Scott Kustes) of the article above talks of his joints popping.

When I first changed my eating habits for the better a few years back, I started incorporating lots of salads (still do, but that’s beside the point). One to two salads per day, each with tomatoes and green peppers. .... I was incorporating lots of nightshades into my diet. At that level of consumption, I started getting all kinds of popping in my joints, especially in my back and even in my sternum. It wasn’t painful, but that I could pop pretty much anything at will was disconcerting.

Yup! I can do the same. My sternum popped at work the other day and my colleague's eyes widened. 'I've never known anyone who could do that,' she said and we laughed about it. One elbow pops when I throw the ball to my dog. That's just started in the last few weeks. I can pop my lower back, my shoulders and my ankles. My wrist pops when I use the computer mouse to scroll in small increments across the screen. That's a relatively new one. Come to think of it, I've been wondering about this recent increase in popping. As Scott says, it's disconcerting.

Scott goes on to say:

Later, Dr. Smith started talking about nightshades on the CrossFit forum and I decided to try cutting back. I cut out the tomatoes and peppers from my salads and cut back on the hot sauce. Lo and behold, the popping in my back and sternum went away.

He admits that after eating nightshades he experiences aches in a formerly dislocated shoulder joint. When he's nightshade free, exercises on the same joint are pain free.

The first joint to give me trouble is my knee. It's a sharp twinge/stabbing pain that doesn't stop me walking but generally precedes the burning/aching pain in the other big joints. It does feel like what I imagine arthritis would be, and I'm ready to accept that nightshades may be the culprit.

Scott raises an interesting point about seasonal eating. Before supermarkets and year round produce, people ate seasonally. Nightshades, even consumed in large quantities, were limited to the cropping season -- predominantly summer. Imagine rotating through foods rather than eating them everyday as we now do. I believe in the theory that over-indulgence in anything will result in damage. Why should nightshades be any different?

So, does that mean no more potatoes for me!? Maybe. At least in the short term until the joint pain and popping goes away, then I can trial things again. The lesson here for me is moderation. It's going to be hard. Potatoes are my life! And potato crisps.... my comfort food! *wrings hands*

Though... I will admit that those sweet potato crisps Em had when I last visited her were all kinds of fantastic! Now if I can figure out how to make those myself, life may not be so bad.  ;-)

Oh, and amongst the comments for the article one reader noted that potatoes are medically acknowledged as aggravating IBS symptoms in some people. Huh... who would have guessed?