Batter for Frying plus GF cream cheese wontons

This batter is based off of this recipe (almost exactly it): http://www.food.com/recipe/batter-for-deep-frying-161589 . This is for my kids, so has a lot of stuff not so good for me, but might be fun for someone trying to figure out something similar.

Whole30 Chicken and Zucchini with Green Chile Sauce

For foods that are, likely, whole30 compliant, I'm pretty much just throwing things together, for the most part. Every once in a while I might have a 365 days of pinterest recipe, though.

For right now, though, so I can remember what works, here is the first one.

Whole30 diet

If you haven't heard of this diet, it's kind of like a modified Paleo, with the theory - as I understand it - to take 30 days to get into a different headspace about food, while eating a bit healthier.

Basically, no grains, no dairy, no sweeteners, no sulfites/msg stuff, and almost no legumes. Meals are based around a meat or egg protein with the rest made up of lots of veggies, a little fruit/nuts/seeds/coconut/avocado.

But without the subs like paleo pancakes and breads, because again, this is supposed to be a mindset thing.

I don't really know how this works for other people, but this is pretty much what I have to eat all the time anyway, when I don't want to react, so I'm trying it for this month to get back to my good diet, and also have some folks who are, for once, eating kind of like I do. :-) Although I suspect I'll have more fats than some. :-)

It's actually helped already, because when I'm tempted to eat things I know I react to, I've been able to tell myself, 'just for the next 30 days, at least.'

I'm looking forward to the company, for now.

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?

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.

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!

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