Getting creative with the recipes - how to.

I can hear you saying you have no idea how to make recipes out of the crazy mix of foods on your LEAP diet list.  There are ways of making recipes but it does take a lot of work  Most of the work has already been done by food bloggers around the world, it's just finding their recipes and modifying them even more - that's what you have to do. 


You'll have proteins, starches/grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy/miscellaneous, nuts, seeds, oils and flavor enhancers.  Those are your building blocks.  Some of these foods you're going to enjoy on their own, just plain, but some you won't and you'll need to find recipes for those.  I like broccoli, cauliflower, and all of my fruits on their own, but the rest of them, I needed to do some cooking.


One of my proteins is turkey so I did a search for turkey with the vegetables that I had (week 1), asparagus, cauliflower, pumpkin, lettuce and zucchini.  That got me a lot of thanksgiving recipes (turkey and pumpkin) but not much else.  Then I looked at my list in greater detail, found navy beans and found a turkey and navy bean soup.  It was tasty enough.    It helped get me through the first week.


Look at your list in detail.  Some of the things I would consider to be vegetables are in the protein list.  Some of the foods have different forms and you will want to consider those forms.  One of my fruits was an apple, so I got some apple juice.  I heated it up and put some cinnamon in it for my nightly hot drink.  (I used to drink hot chocolate every night.)  Consider all the different forms of the food.  Coconut has fresh coconut, coconut flakes, coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut sugar and coconut flour.  Just make sure that it is pure or what it is mixed with is something you can have.  Olives on my "fruit" list means I can cook with olive oil as long as it's pure.  Oats on my grains list means I can cook with oat flour as well as eat oatmeal.   Look at your list carefully.  Get a piece of paper and write down each food with all the forms of it you can think of.    Look for recipes online.  Look for food allergy or vegan recipes.  Search for things with quotes like "cookies without eggs" or vegan cookies.  Search for items you have in a list, like I did with the turkey and navy beans.  Get as many flours as you can and make your own blend to make bread. 


Use whatever flour you have, whatever fat you have, whatever spices you have and whatever milk you have to make a sauce for your meat and vegetables.    On the third week, when I was able to add in celery and carrots, I cooked turkey, celery, carrots and onions, then when everything was cooked, put in a little coconut oil and some oat flour, stirred it around, put in a little rosemary and then soy milk and it made a kind of gravy/soup with the other ingredients.  It tasted like turkey pot pie.  It was delicious.   If you need to get proportions, get a recipe for gravy and use those amounts or just use a teaspoon of fat, a 1/4 cup of flour and 1 1/2 cups milk.   You can experiment until you've got a good blend. 


Don't forget that you (I think all of us do) have vinegar and baking soda, two essential ingredients for baked goods rising without yeast and using fruit (applesauce or canned pumpkin) for an egg substitute.  Try making a Wacky Cake.  I made this one and it was really good.  I just left out the spices I couldn't have.  Fortunately, I do have cinnamon on my list. 


Be creative with google and fearless in the kitchen!  You can do it! 

Getting creative with the recipes.

It gets boring just eating plain foods, so I've been mixing it up a little.  This lovely dish is called cabbage hamburger gravy or something like that.  The buckwheat flour makes everything seem a bit gray and unappetizing, but it tastes pretty good and is filling, so I'll probably make it again. 

Also last night I made a cake!  It was good and it made me feel better about things.   I modified this recipe from Gluten Free on a Shoestring.  I can't use baking powder or chocolate chips, so I used baking soda/vinegar in combination and it worked out great.  I need to make my own powdered sugar and make a glaze next time I do it (because powdered sugar has cornstarch in it!). 


Anyway, I'm surviving.  I don't know if my symptoms are any better.  I was up 4 times last night using the bathroom and having to use my eye drops and mouth spray due to the Sjogren's.  I don't know if anything is better, but my elbow and shoulder pain have improved some. 

Day 8

I'm feeling okay.  The diet is not making me feel like I'm suffering.  I'm getting carbs in, so I don't feel like I'm getting carb flu or anything.  I am getting tired of the same foods and feeling a little discouraged, but really, I'm okay.  I was hoping for a miraculous improvement of all of my other symptoms, but that hasn't happened yet.  I feel okay, but I am still having stuffy nose/sneezing symptoms and dry, itchy eyes.  I don't know if anything is related to my diet at this point.  I'm eating a lot of avocado and hamburger meat, alternating it with oatmeal, the oatmeal cookies, bananas and peanut butter and applesauce, among other things.  Tomorrow, I'm going to cook a roast with cabbage and make a gravy to go on the cabbage.  I'd do it tonight, but my kids have friends over and I don't want to spoil their party with the smell of cooking cabbage.  It smells pretty vile. 


I found out this week that I have to have total knee replacement in April, and I'm pretty bummed about that, and yet tired of the knee pain, so I know it's necessary.  That has influenced my mood and the diet is not allowing me to have my main comfort food, mashed potatoes.


Maybe in a couple of weeks.