Cheese and Potato Soup

So I've been busy, but I wanted to share this super-easy recipe with y'all. It's from the Starving Student Vegetarian Cookbook, but I have some definite comment to be made on it.

Cheese and Potato Soup with Corn

1 14 oz can of vegetable broth

1 small onion, chopped

1 8 oz can creamed corn

1 c instant mashed potatoes

1 c shredded cheddar cheese

1 ½ c milk

Dash salt and pepper, to taste

In large saucepan, add vegetable broth, chopped onion, and creamed corn. Cook at medium-high heat just until soup starts to boil.

Turn heat to low, cover pan, cook 5 minutes. Turn heat off.

Stir in potatoes until well blended, then add cheese, milk, salt and pepper. Cook over lowest heat about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until cheese is melted and soup is rich and creamy.

As my mom put it, there's not a lot of good direction here. I like it cause then that leaves it up to you to figure out. First off, I don't use onion here at all. I like onions, but I have found that I haven't been able to truly chop them small enough that I'm not crunching down on onions on occasion which totally doesn't go with the soup. "Instant mashed potatoes" is another conundrum...my mom used potato flakes, I used Betty Crocker. Betty won that one. It's about a half a package (so then you have to make the soup again to use the other half!). I used skim milk, which was fine, but whole milk does make it more creamy. And of course, I love cheese, so sometimes I put in more. Also, once I used less corn because that's what I had, but it turned out just fine either way. Just like I used organic vegetable broth, which I've found is a little thicker, so you might need to compensate one way or another depending on what ingredients and proportions you end up using.

No matter how you do it, it's easy and probably more nutritious than a lot of things that we eat. Also, very filling for a soup! I will say that the first time I made it, I could still taste the powdery instant potatoes which turned me off, but it wasn't a problem later. Same for the first time I had the leftovers; I wasn't impressed round one, but otherwise I have been.

So any way you cook it,  it's still an easy and filling recipe!

Well hello, Philadelphia Inquirer!

So I've been on vacation (and still am!) but I wanted to share this. 

No joke! This really happened! My mom left that out for me to see the next morning, since I don't read the newspaper and really don't read the newspaper while I'm out of town.

In case you couldn't see, it really did just happen while we were on vacation this week, I didn't dig up a supplement or anything!

And by the way, Philadelphia Inquirer, check your sources. Egregious errors.

Theorizing

So I came across an article a few weeks back that said that something like 4% of the US population has food allergies. That little statistic comes back to me sometimes when my brain is unoccupied (mostly when I'm trying to fall asleep and CAN'T! or when I'm at the gym...need something to think about besides the stats on the machine!) and I start theorizing...

I wander for a bit down the line of thinking of the increasing incidence and prevalence of allergies in general. There's a lot of theories out there about it but I've always liked the one that my immunology professor in college posited that it's because our environments are so clean nowadays. Kids don't eat sand and spread germs like they used to (makes you wonder how bad childhood diseases used to be) so they aren't exposed to things and don't develop immune responses to them. So our immune systems aren't that busy doing what they're supposed to do so instead they start developing responses to things that are innocuous and thus we have allergies (majorly simplified). Allergies are random, and some people have the same ones in families, or not. It's very individualized because we're all exposed to different things as we go about our lives. This fits, in my head, with what Claire talks about in Outlander, or one of the later books in the series actually. For those of you who don't know Claire and Jamie, Claire accidentally time travels from WWII to the Jacobite revolution in 1745. A random page in one of the books that caught my attention is how Claire mentions that she doesn't get the colds and other bugs that the Scots do and it's because she's got all this immunity passed on through two hundred years of ancestors. Also, vaccines. Either way, we've got all this immunity to everything we encounter in our bodies and thus the bored immune system goes wacko suspicious and starts being allergic to common things we encounter all the time.

Somehow that didn't come out as clearly as I meant it to, but bear with me. :) I'm also done with that thought and moving on...

I also think about 4%! That's a lot of people! Yet I know that as far as I've encountered, about 99.9% of people I know don't have food allergies. I think we all knew some kid in school who had an epi pen because they were THAT allergic to peanuts or something, but for the most part, nada. The next thought is one: what about the foods we instinctively avoid? I know a lot of people know I don't like coffee, but are you all aware that I don't even like the smell of coffee? I've never been able to get over it enough to really drink it. I've had a few mixed coffee drinks in my life, but even dilute...ew. This is a different food aversion than I have to say Swiss cheese--tried it, don't like the flavor. Or tomoatoes, watermelon, cataloupe, et al, things I don't like because I don't like the texture and the fleshiness. I just don't like coffee and I know that without really having gone down that path. Coffee is a potential allergen. They didn't test me for it because I don't drink it. But reverse that--what if I don't drink it because I'm allergic to it? And so potently allergic to it that my body knew that without my really having tried it? Or having tried it and not needed that much to know that I don't want to have any more. There's a part of your brain which doesn't have the infamous blood brain barrier because it quickly comes in contact with things that could be considered poisons and thus you sense it and vomit it right up before it gets too much in your system. All of this swirls together in my brain and makes me wonder if a lot of those foods we don't eat/avoid is because of intolerance/flat out allergy.

We all have foods we avoid--maybe because it caused food poisoning at one point. Or you don't like the flavor. Who else has a food they don't eat because it just grosses them out (and not like sweetbreads gross out!)?

Some food for thought before the work week sets back in...more recipes to (hopefully) follow later this week!

as a side note...I was watching the second episode of Game of Thrones yesterday and he said "an historical note" which made me sigh in happiness. Anyone else watch and notice? :)

I make a terrible vegetarian!

It's so very true. I ate a vegetarian salad yesterday (and yes, I know that's redundant, but when the school serves us free lunches, sometimes they're salad with [sandwich] meat and cheese on them to make them more filling, so there are actually vegetarian salads!) and I ended up with about half the salad in the "don't eat" category. It's not because I can't eat them but because I don't like those things--tomatoes (I do okay with little bits, but not half a tomato like this was), cucumbers (ew!), olives (also ew), Swiss cheese, and then onions and peppers which I do eat but I was being polite since I had to spend another three hours with my classmates. A side note on the Swiss cheese which I don't like; I'm allergic to molds, so while cheeses aren't on my list of allergens, I would conjecture that I can't eat any of the cheese that are moldy cheese (I haven't looked into this but bleu cheese, etc). In case anyone was wondering, I ate cheddar cheese and leafy greens. No salad dressing either; they were out yesterday but most of them have egg yolks in them and some have autolyzed yeast extract, depending on the brand.

There is one vegetarian thing that I do exceptionally well: veggie stir fry. In college, Christina and I had nicknamed our saute pan the "Hamburger Helper pan" because that's about all I made in it. It has since been renamed the "stir (crazy) fry pan," in honor of my new diet. As to the stir fry, I was looking at the ingredients I did have in my pantry right after I started this and I was frustrated. I decided to see what I could do with what I had--namely a can of sliced water chestnuts my mom had bought by accident when she had been looking for whole. I added a can of chickpeas. I happened to have broccoli, carrots, and celery in my fridge, which i sliced and diced into appropriately sized pieces for cooking. Drizzle a little oil over the whole, splash on some salt and pepper, turn on the stove, cover and stir occasionally until everything is cooked. It's delicious! I sometimes cook it too quickly and I seared the chickpeas last time, but it was still still really good. The water chestnuts add crunch and the chickpeas add substance/fiber and it's not that hard to make. I think it also smells good while it's cooking, but I have found that I like the smell of cooked broccoli so...maybe I'm just weird, but I like it. You can use whatever vegetables you have available, but I would not advice potatoes. It's too much with the chickpeas, but I've used squash and baby corn and other vegetables too and it's equally delicious. I'm working on giving it a little more flavor, but I think I did okay for coming up with something on the fly!

So here it is: 1 can of chickpeas (drained) + 1 can of water chestnuts, sliced (drained) + vegetables to fill the pan; add oil, salt, and pepper; cook covered until everything's done (10-15 minutes), stirring occasionally. Enjoy!

(It can probably be served over rice, but I wouldn't know anything about that!)

Quick note!

Hey y'all...thanks for the nice words! It makes me feel...empowered? At least I know people are reading!

So my mom told me never to tell people I had food allergies because it makes them not want to invite me over. Apparently the cat's out of the bag on that one. As a side note, this doesn't mean I expect you to go out of your way to feed me and accommodate all my allergies. Let's look again at the list--it's not the easiest thing to accommodate! So, Taylor commented that the vegetarian dish at her wedding should fit the bill...I'll tell you straight up now Tay, as long as it's vegetarian, it's fine! Maggie sent me cookies and we both considered the recipe...one egg, three dozen cookies. The egg is cooked. The proportion of egg protein left in there to antagonize my GI tract? Little. Actually, no noticeable reaction to those delicious cookies. So it's give and take sometimes.

There are upsides to my food allergies and among them is that my symptoms extend to headaches, fatigue, and sometimes a little cough. Nothing I can't live with! And do frequently because I am an incredibly temptable woman. I avoid what I can without being rude and that's that. For example, I just had an exam yesterday, so I was incredibly picky over the three-four days preceding because I didn't want to have to deal with a sinus headache and falling asleep on my notes during crunch time. There are days when I'm like I don't have anything to do this afternoon, I'm eating a sandwich. Sometimes I regret it. Usually not. There are some things that I will forever avoid--I ate beef at one point and about two hours later I thought my appendix was rupturing, that was how bad the pain was. I was literally sitting in the bathroom deciding if I was going to vomit and who would I call to take me to the emergency room. I managed to get to sleep instead of vomiting, but that's not something I'll experience again. So I take it all into consideration before I put anything into my mouth.

My goals here are not to shame you if you need to feed me, or think twice before inviting me over. I do a good job at refusing invitations or simply refusing food if I can (I was literally just offered girl scout cookies...and said no). It's more of something where I want to educate people, or just think about healthy living and that it can be easier than we all think it is. Radical changes obviously suck, but it can be worth it in the end.

The other thing is that I wasn't born with these food allergies, I'm the girl who enjoyed all kinds of lovely foods and lots of freedom in food choices up until this diagnosis. I'm not the kid who's never tasted peanut butter, and the reason why other kids can't have peanut m&ms in the classroom. I'm doing this whole change and educating myself about what's in my food, and I find that it's something worth sharing with you.

On that note...I'm done for today. I think next time I'll come up with a recipe to share, but we'll see. Depends on how busy I get with school!

H&P

H&P: history and physical, for those of you not involved in the medical field. How we got started down this road...

It was early October and Mom was in town visiting, so we out to a restaurant that I wouldn't go to by myself and a good one to impress her. It was delicious food, but I felt vaguely nauseated all night and on into the next morning. I took some Phenergan I had from a previous illness and felt much better. I saw Mom off after doing a short little tour of the town, and fell asleep. I thought that was that but through the next week the fatigue continued. The headaches and just feeling run down kept on, but it was a bone-deep fatigue that was too annoying...but then it went away. And then it came back about a week later, and I couldn't take it any longer. I went to the doctor. You see, this was the third time I'd be going to the doctor knowing they'd want to write me off as mono. Third time's the charm though, you see...I did get an EBV titer, a very specific test for the virus that causes mono because they didn't want to run another monospot. I also got other bloodwork to check me for hypothyroidism and anemia, other common causes of fatigue and some of the other general symptoms I had. Allergies were considered, and I got put on an intranasal steroid. I went back a week later for my results.....everything was negative! I've never even been exposed to mono! (Most everyone has) Further workup!

I went to see my PCP while I was home over Thanksgiving, and got an official diagnosis of insomnia, which was and still is a component of the fatigue, but the bone-deep fatigue that I'm talking about isn't just i-didn't-get-a-good-night's-sleep kind of fatigue. Once again, allergies were suggested and I got an appointment with an allergist over Christmas break.

Onward to then...we talked through my symptoms and he decided to scratch test me so we could identify particular allergens.

 Looks like fun right?! The left shoulder is foods and the right shoulder is environmentals. This is the start of the scratch testing, so those are normal reactions. You need a wheal and flare for a positive response, meaning you need a 'bubble' to form and a red reaction around it.

 The "angry" one labeled H is histamine, the positive control. It's there to make sure I have a normal immune system, but that's the kind of reaction you need. Wheal and flare most definitely...as it what's going on up on the shoulder. The rest of them are not really positive. Some of them were if they were measured, but those a good example.

The thing about scratch testing is that if you're positive, you're really allergic. And you're done with testing there and you'll probably get desensitization therapy at that point, or 'allergy shots.' If not...you get intradermal testing.

 All these vials were things I did not react to on scratch testing so I had to progress to higher concentrations and intradermal testing. The flipped over bottles are things I did react to so I didn't need further injections.

 Joyous fun right?

Blood and everything (they most definitely hit my radial artery AND nerve...I was permitted to curse once they cleared out the kid in another room!), and here once again we see the wheal and flare. This is foods, and my other arm was environmentals. There's a checklist and once I got all the injections you wait fifteen minutes for the reaction.

So this was a long appointment, and as I continued to get shot up with allergens, I faded big time. Like I said, I had fatigue and headache as symptoms. Not much to go on, but I was a believer that it was allergies after getting injected with all of them reproduced the symptoms. The doc thought I was hilarious because I was so foggy when he talked to me after all the testing.

I left that day with a plan to eliminate all the foods from my diet and see if that corrected the problem. If not, other steps would be undertaken but for now that's what the plan was.

Great plan right. Except you've seen the list--how many things have yeast in them? Or eggs, oats, rice, onward down the list. I came back home and cleaned out my pantry--I was left with fourteen things in toto that I could eat. That when down later when I read some of the boxes and I had to add eggs to them. I had more food I couldn't eat, and while my friends were grateful for the food, it hit home. I had a radical lifestyle change to undertake.

And that's how we got to this point...I did the elimination diet and felt loads better. It was much easier to function at the high level I had gotten used to. It took awhile for some of the wheals/flare to fade (cinnamon hung around for about two weeks), but we had an answer. And a solution.

I had to eliminate beef and chicken from my diet, so I decided to go all out vegetarian. No yeast meant no bread (and lots of other things--salad dressing even, with some brands). I had to rethink what I would eat for lunch since that would mean no sandwiches...and on and on.

Getting started

So most people start off a new year resolutions to be better people, to lose weight, to fall in love, to...whatever.  I started off the year 2012 with a new diagnosis of food allergies and a list of things I needed to do about them. I giggled a little thinking of all the people changing their diet, going to the gym more--I was in the same boat for an entirely different reason.

In the last few months, I've realized that I'm pretty much walking this path alone; not as in I have no support, because I definitely do, but as in I haven't come across any with my array of allergies who can commiserate and help with find my way. In that spirit, that's what I'm doing here. Yes, I started a blog because some of my friends suggested it and it might be interesting to document and share what's going on, but I think also that maybe someone stumbles across this may also be going through this too.

Over the next few posts I'll try to detail what got me here and then I'll start in on the process I've been going through since the new year. Comments and questions are encouraged, and know I can expound on just about any topic. :)

Here goes my attempts at this!

Might you be interested in the list of allergens I have to avoid, to ponder until I get to writing the next post? Obviously, almonds and yeast, providing the A-Z theory on which I've based the name of this blog. Here's the complete list, grouped in 'food groups' that make them easier for me to remember: beef, chicken, eggs, apples, oranges, strawberries, white grapes, almonds, malt, oats, rice, yeast, cinnamon, sesame seed, navy beans, oysters, and codfish.

Read some food labels and think on that for a bit.