Monday, December 14, 2015

Olive Leaf Tea

Olive Leaf Tea is a beverage that has been around in Greece for over 5,000 years. I was introduced to Olive Leaf Tea through the Low Histamine Chef (now at a new website, HealingHistamine). This gal has so much information about mast cell disorders and histamine intolerance - and foods and supplements that can affect them, with references - that it's a gold mine of information.

Olive leaf tea (made from leaves from the variety Olea europaea L.) contains certain flavonoids - these are organic compounds that occur in plants, and which can have many beneficial properties we can enjoy. They're often known for the anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that some of them possess. Olive Leaf Extract: the Mediterranean Healing Herb mentions daily average flavonoid consumption in the USA is typically 250-275 mg.  If you eat the amount of daily recommended fruits and veggies, though, it should be closer to 1000 mg flavonoids.

Olive leaf tea is one way I'm trying to increase my own flavonoid consumption as many fruits and veggies are off limits to me.

Looks like tea, eh?


Monday, November 23, 2015

Thanksgiving food Ideas when you can't eat anything

The very first Thanksgiving I had after my allergies decided to go insane was pretty awful. I was down to less than ten foods, trying to figure out what to eat, and really came up with nothing all that palatable.

Although admittedly, the next Thanksgiving was more emotionally upsetting, what with being exposed to one of my allergens by my ex (just a whiff), to help prove to me that it was all psychosomatic. Yeah, that one didn't work too well, just made me sick the entire holiday, sigh.

But, anyway, back to foods. There are some AMAZING recipes for Thanksgiving foods you can make with substitutions. Awesome ones. If they help you, awesome. And I mean that - I'm all about the food porn here. I love seeing other people enjoy food, even if it's not something I'm likely to try myself (see the similarity here? Food porn - it truly is).

But if you are like I was, you may have so few foods that you just don't even know where to start. It's overwhelming. So, for those like me, here's some things that might help a little bit for Thanksgiving foods when you have very little you can have. I don't know if these will help anyone, but I hope that they may be of use for some.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Pacific Island Foods

As someone with a limited diet, I'm always interested in finding new foods I can eat, or finding new parts of foods or plants that I can eat.

This is a link to a series of leaflets on South Pacific foods and it's simply wonderful. Lots of recipes, but also lots of practical advice on how to prepare these foods from scratch, or use them in recipes. There is information on more common foods like pineapple, or foods that folks in the west may not be as familiar with, like rarer nuts or tubers.  Also some great information on food we don't eat here at all typically, but could - things like how to make and prepare fresh fig leaves, or the leaves from a chile plant or pumpkin, that sort of thing.

I totally recommend you check it out!




Thursday, May 14, 2015

Watermelon- Mint Salad

This turned out amazing - a nice, cool treat for summertime, and super easy. Pictures will come, as usual, when the camera is behaving.

Watermelon-Mint Salad

Monday, April 20, 2015

Day 9 - Fried Smelt

Pinterest Day 9
The Pinterest recipe I looked at today was Fried Smelt from Steamy Kitchen. 

The Reasons:
I literally just used the basic concept, without even trying out different spices, because smelt was on sale and I thought it'd be interesting! Sorry, but no pictures until the phone gets fixed!

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Homemade sunscreen

This one looks pretty interesting - a homemade sunscreen bar:
http://wellnessmama.com/4844/sunscreen-bars/

One thing, though, is that it requires a lot of oils that many of us can't use. Might be able to find something to substitute with, though.

However, in the interests of the most natural sunscreen ever, I remind you of pigs. Who roll in the mud not only to keep cool, but as a kind of protection from the sun, too.

That's right: rub mud on your skin - the most basic form of sunscreen there is. 

Now, that sounds silly for folks who are going to, say, an amusement park or a picnic. Most of them dressed up and don't care to have mud all over. However, if you were, say, hiking, or gardening? You have a hat on for face protection, so typically you just need arms and legs. Which are going to be getting covered in dirt anyway, so hey, why not just rub them down with a little wet dirt and save the money on sunscreen? Or the possibility of a reaction, at least if you can find some clean dirt that's not, you know, contaminated by heavy metals or something.

I have a friend whose grandmother used to do this when out gardening, living out west and not having sunscreen at the time. Everything old is new again, I guess!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Homemade Cashew Cream

Homemade Cashew Cream

The original idea for this is from a blog that is no longer in existence (and I can't recall the name to save my life) but it's basic and easy, so not too hard to pass on. There will eventually be photos, when my camera comes back to life.

If you don't know what cashew cream is, it's AWESOME is what it is. It has a hint of sweetness to the taste, but it thickens up like dairy, like really thick, so it's a great dairy substitute for dishes that need thickening during heating, especially if the flavors blend well.