LS proof seasonal treats

Women's health
1

My favourite seasonal treat is very dark chocolate - hardly any sugar 70% cocoa or more if poss. Co-op do one that's 85% and it doesn't trigger my LS.

And sprouts. I LOVE sprouts. Steamed gently and then quartered and fried till tinged with brown along with sauteed onions and garlic, and bacon or crumbled chestnuts all mixed in.

And sweet and sour red cabbage cooked with bits of apple and rasins and a bit of lemon juice or wine vineager.

I'm getting hungry. Anyone else got any LS flare-free treats to share?

2

Great topic, Bridge! I made shortbread cookies today. They aren't lo-cal, but they have very little sugar. Five cups of flour & cornstarch and one cup of icing sugar.

3

This month of December, the Holiday Season is not my favorite.  I try to stay away from 'goodies' that apparently are not so good for me and my LS.  But I got side tracked for a little while.  Tried your good dark chocolate.  Guess what - Lichen Planus in my mounth acted up and so did the LS down below.  

My memory refreshed, I now know again that chocolate, even the darkest kind, still has caffeine.  And that was one of my enemies as well. Too bad. I thought I could perhaps get away with it.  NOT.

In spite of - I wish all of you LS people a Happy/Merry Christmas.  Enjoy the nice lights all around you, but be careful with the sweets.   

4

Yes, it's hard to stay totally focused sometimes re diet. 😕 Mainly I don't let up because it's so not worth it. But it's tricky when out for lunch... Sometimes I can't eat anything on the menu and getting a coffee is a mission. Decaf ok and then the only milk I can tolerate/ like is rice and hardly any Cafes have it. If I take my own they have trouble frothing it and end up boiling it and it's horrible. Today I had a regular coffee at home, it smelled so lovely and hubby was making one in the machine so I did. LP in mouth instant burn and a big lesion and LP down below burn too. Lesson learned, again!  Do you drink decaf Hanny, and others?

I don't have it often either and suspect it does cause burning a bit but may be some other reason at the time.  

Happy Christmas and hope everyone has a stress free and enjoyable time. 

5

Oh Hanny I'm sorry to have triggered that one for you.

I hardly ever drink coffee these days. It was the only thing that came up on my allergy tests, but it wasn't caffeine because tea and chocolate were fine. I've just got into a habit of drinking herbals now anyway. But it does smell good doesn't it Lynne? My husband still drinks a lot so about once every few weeks I have one sip of his and that seems to meet the need without the repercussions. For me anyway.

Wishing everyone a stress-free, LS-free seasonal break

Bridge

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I know, keeping a diet when out is discouraging, to say the least.  Resulting for me to mostly eat at home, because it is safe.  

7

The month of December is particularly trying.  Got in trouble myself just recently.  It was the chocolate, dark and pure, that I thought I could treat myself on.  Mistake!  So now I'm 'behaving' better again.  The flesh is weak. 

Wishing you WELL.

8

I worded my query after my comment awkwardly.

i was wondering if decaf coffee was ok for people who are effected by caffeine. Does anyone find they can get away with decaf. I realise bridge has an intolerance to actual coffee, but is decaf really caffeine free entirely. I do have the odd decaf at cafes and sometimes I get a burning mouth but not badly and it could be that I have eaten something with preservative. 

Just wondering if others indulge in decaf with no ill effects. 

I know this is seasonal treats but anyone got any regular tasty meals that they can share for OLP in particular.

my diet is extremely limited as I also have IBS and diverticulitis.

So no dairy and small amounts gluten tolerated. No onion of any sort.

i seem to live on eggs and bananas and gluten and dairy free bread products. And veggies. 

Preservatives  burn, so do peppers tomatoes potatoes alcohol, caffeine, camomile tea, ginger tea. I am limited to water and it's boring! 

Maybe I should start another subject heading and ask if people will give some ideas for just breakfast and lunches to stop being bored to death with the sameness! 

9

The food stuffs are not perse easy.  I do not dare decaf either, because decaf is worse than ordinary coffee (chemicals)  It really took me a while to find alternatives and such.  Friendly herb teas are okay.  (berries and such)

For breakfast I eat millet *, five heaping tablespoons in a bowl, ad a sprinkle of nutmeg, a handfull of sliced almonds, a small amount of sunflower seeds, some flaxseed.  Mix in the bowl.  Then I ad a tablespoon of Kefir, a bit of orange juice.  I peel one apple and cut in small pieces for on top and ad some frozen blueberries (frozen when not in season)  Chew well. 

*  I cook one cup of millet in a rice cooker, after cooked I mix in a couple of table spoons of coconut oil in the bowl in which I will store the millet.  This will do me for several days. (five heaping tablespoons)  Keep in fridge with lid on top of bowl.   

For lunch I eat a special gluten free bread - two small slices.  

Supper is the easiest actually - always vegies, some potatoes (no rice for me)  small piece of meat.  (a bit like a diabetic diet)  Good winter vegies are: kale, sauerkraut, red cabbage with applesauce (home made)  

Once I have found what my system tolerates well, I stick to it. Mistakes are so easily made when I try a variation.  So breakfast and lunch look mostly the same.  I no longer make food the centre of my life.   

 

10

Thanks for tips Hanny. Millet is unknown to me except as a bird seed mix. Presuming it's a grain, will look it up. 

My lunch is same as you, gluten free dairy free soy free as well and have avocado and chicken or goats cheese. Or an egg on a bagel.

Dinners are fish, chicken, sometimes red meat, no sauces or gravies. Found out you can't make gravy with gluten free flour, what a mess of lumps!

Breakfast  always a smoothie where I add my supplements etc, made with banana, blueberries and baby spinach leaves from my garden, rice milk and a high protein powder. Add flaxseed oil and chia seeds.  

Your breakfast sounds delicious. Kefir is unknown to me as well. Must eat more sunflower seeds and almonds. I forgot about them. 

It's been hard to get to grips with it all, am 70 and ate anything I liked for 69 years, this July everything in my life went to hell when I was diagnosed with LS then LP  and then in November oral LP came to stay. Still learning about the foods, very cautious and a side effect is a very big weight loss in five months, 15 kg (32  lb)  I am in the normal range still for Bmi so all good in that respect and definitely more healthy in other ways.

Cooking meals for my husband and me was kind of the centre of our lives, sadly and we have to eat mostly different food, but we're still learning the ropes. We'll get there. 

Thanks to the advice on here, sugar was the first to go (and the hardest to give up)  most gluten was gone bc of my IBS. And dairy.

No doctors ever advised on the LS diet, I have got all info from here. So thank you all for your great tips and just taking the trouble to help one another. 

11

My mum always used to have a pot of steamed potatoes on the stove. She's make a big batch and then we'd eat one lot fresh and let the others go cold waiting to be put into a meal sometime over the next two days. A habit I've kept. One of my favourite lunches is frittata, an italian dish halfway between omlette and scrambled egg. I saute the already-cooked potatoes (peeled and chopped into cubes) and any left over veggies from the night before, then, when it's all hot, crack an egg or two over the top and stir gently until it's all cooked.

What about buckwheat? If it suits you It's gluten free too. I make buckwheat pancakes. The flavour takes a bit of getting used to but I mash cooked sweet potato in with the egg and milk mix, add the buckwheat flour and then make small, thick rounds which you can top with avocado or other things. The kids will even eat them cold in their lunchboxes the next day. Sometimes I use coconut or other substitute milk instead of dairy.

All my family likes an oat drink called Oatley here in the UK. A drink of that with a bowl of stewed fruit is nice. Not sure about its gluten though.

You get buckwheat or rice noodles in oriental shops, healthfood shops and bigger supermarkets (need to check, some have wheat as well). I put rice noodles in a chicken noodle soup, or to add bulk to a vegetable type minesterone instead of pasta.

We eat a lot of soups, particularly on the evening before the new veg box arrives and I have a random assortment of veg to use up. Then there's lunch the next day too.

And we also do a big hot mix of rice, lentils, peas, tuna and any other veg left over. We pile it on a plate and grate cheese on top, but are there sauces you can tolerate? We have it hot one day, then put it in the fridge and either reheat or add luttice and call it 'salad' the next.

Those are my cooking tips, though obviously what suits me may not be good for someone else. I hope it's given you some ideas though. I get SO bored with my own cooking too, but with four of us to feed have to keep it thrifty.

12

You can make gravy with cornflour which is gluten free. Just make sure you add a few tablespoons of hot liquid (gravy or hot water) to one or two teaspoons of the flour in a cup first and stir until smooth, then add that liquid back to the main sauce, heat up and keep stirring until it thickens, then remove from heat. If you stop stirring it goes lumpy.

Good luck

13

Such great ideas Bridge. Thanks a bunch.

i can eat buckwheat crackers so the pancakes sound like something I will do.

the potatoes, alas, are part of the nightshade family which I must avoid but can and do use kumera (a native root vegetable like sweet potato in NZ) and other left overs with the eggy dish. We used to call it 'bubble and squeak' when I was young.  Now it's frittata. 😀

Soups are great, yes, I make them a lot in winter.

I have my own small  veggie garden and grow silver beet (I hate kale) and use small leaves in smoothies. Also grow zucchini, beetroot, cucumber, carrots beans and rhubarb and peppers for husband. I fry up grated zucchini and carrot in olive oil and it's quite delicious. 

Thank you so much for the tips, I am going to try the buckwheat pancakes when I get the flour. Great tip re the gravy. Missed my gravy a lot. 

 

14

You can find recipies for plain buckwheat pancakes if you look for 'blinis' the sweet potato was my invention (also works with butternut squash or pumpkin) trying to find new ways of using up random veg.

We have bubble and squeak too, but here in the UK it's just potatoes and cabbage or sprouts all mashed up, not eggs. Nice with poached egg on top though.

I know what you mean, once there were milkshakes now there are smoothies, soup used to be made in a pot on the stove, now people buy 'soup makers' like it's some mysterious recipie needing special equipment. ditto breadmakers.

I suppose, in our own need, we are keeping traditional skills alive and sharing them. I'm always shocked at how many people don't seem to know how to cook properly. (or sew, or write letters... essential surely?)

I envy your garden, I have a small square with herbs and fruit bushes but the puppy got in and weed all over the herbs so that put an end to that! better fencing next year.

Bridge