'Slaw

Coleslaw:

• One small head of cabbage, shredded.
• Two apples, shredded.
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp sugar

Combine olive oil, soy milk, lemon juice and sugar in a blender and combine until set. It will have the consistency of mayonnaise.

Mix shredded cabbage, apples and dressing until fully combined. Allow to set in the refrigerator.

A traditional coleslaw recipe has mayonnaise, which contains milk and eggs and vinegar, which are all off the list.

Coleslaw is not something I normally eat; I'm not a real huge fan of it. But I had a craving and this recipe turned out pretty good.

A love/hate relationship with this diet.

Things I like about this diet:

I feel better. Never underestimate that. Eliminating the foods from my diet that may be affecting how I feel and how I think has done wonders on my ability to function, especially with my day job as a software developer. Much of my job revolves (ironically enough) around interacting with other people--and I feel like a gentle fog of old age has been lifted. (At 45, I know I'm middle-aged--but for God's sake, my brain shouldn't be on a downward spiral this early...)

I'm able to lose weight more easily. So far, since starting trying to lose weight, I've managed to drop 10 pounds over two months at a nice, even pace. But since starting the elimination diet, it's been easier to reduce my calorie intake to my target without feeling like I'm going to climb the wall.

I've got a good recipe for chocolate chip banana bread.

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The things I hate.

I miss wheat bread, wheat tortillas, wheat pasta.

And I'm going to be pretty damned cranky if, after trying to reintroduce wheat, it turns out I'm allergic to it and have to avoid wheat for the rest of my life.

I hate having to cook a week's worth of food for myself for the upcoming week. It turns out my lifestyle is one where it's easiest to come home after work, pop something into the microwave, and settle down in front of the TV to unwind. And there is not a single frozen TV dinner out there that I can eat.

So ideally I spend half my day on Sunday cooking all sorts of stuff, vacuum seal it, drop it in the freezer--and I have my food for the next week.

I hate not being able to just run out to lunch at work, but instead having to think ahead and figure out what to make for lunch.

Thank goodness for a pressure cooker; I'm able to run two pounds of beef and a pound of chicken through in about an hour.

The nutritional value of the Soda Bread Recipe, and some thoughts.

First, I think I'm going to eliminate the salt the next go round. The bread is just a little too salty for my taste, and the baking soda provides enough sodium.

Second, I think the flour substitute will work much better for baking dense things, like cookies. The bread that this recipe produced is dense, good for soup, but not good for sandwiches.

Third, the resulting bread, for a 58g serving (1/12th the loaf), is 130 calories, 360mg (15% RDA) sodium, 29g (10% RDA) of carbs, of which 3g (13% RDA) is dietary fiber. And the rest is pretty negligible.

Fourth, the banana bread recipe from yesterday, for a 59.2g serving (1/15th of the loaf), it's 210 calories, 9g (14%) fat, and 34g (11%) carbs, with 3g (12%) dietary fiber.

One more go-round with the Soda Bread Recipe, and last week's Banana Bread.

I'm now trying the Soda Bread Recipe again, but with two modifications:

(1) I'm adding 2 tsp sugar rather than 1 tsp salt. The bread wound up being a bit dry and bland; my hope is by upping the sugar a touch I'll get something more of a white fluffy consistency. Sugar acts like a liquid in bread recipes.

(2) I'm adding 1 tsp baking powder to the 1 tsp baking soda. My hope is to have the bread rise more than the denser consistency I got the first time.

We'll see how this goes.

As an aside, the banana bread recipe last week worked wonderfully. That recipe was:

• 1 cup millet flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch
• 3 (scant) tablespoons tapioca flour
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• 2 (full) teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg substitute
• 2 bananas
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips

This recipe is, thankfully, rather insensitive to my man-handling. After making the egg substitute, I mix the shortening, sugar, egg substitute together in a mixer until well creamed. Then the other ingredients (flour, potato starch, flour, xantham gum, baking powder, salt) go in and mixed. We then toss in the bananas and beat until a relatively creamy consistency. Then toss in the chocolate chips and mix.

Put into bread pan, and cook at 350°F for about an hour.

That recipe worked perfectly. Which tells me the flour substitute recipe works very well for heavily flavored foods (heavy breads, baked goods), but for last week's Soda Bread? ... Hmmmm ...

New Soda Bread Recipe Experiment.

So after some investigation I came across this web site: Flour substitutions and gluten-free flour mixes And I learned two things: (1) flour substitutions require some experimentation, and (2) someone has already done the experiments.

After finding an Irish Soda Bread Recipe, I'm now trying the following recipe:

• 2 cups millet flour
• 2/3 cup potato starch
• 1/3 cup tapioca flour
• 2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup + some extra soy milk
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Cook at 450°F for 45 minutes.

We'll see how this works out...

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Flavor is perfect. The bread was not quite as fluffy as I had hoped, but I think it's a matter of just adding a touch more soda and perhaps baking powder. This recipe is the closest I've come to a functional wheat free, rice flour free, yeast free bread recipe.

I learned two things. (1) I now have a general purpose flour for other recipes. (Next: banana bread with vegan chocolate chips.) And (2) I learned that I should do the friggin' research first before jumping in...

Barbecue Sauce

This has no tomatoes or tomato products, no yeast (using distilled vinegar--if you're sensitivities are off the chart it could still be a problem), and uses corn starch to thicken, but could use other thickeners if you have a problem with corn.

Put the following into a sauce pan:

• 1/2 c Distilled Vinegar
• 1/4 c Molassis
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 - 2 tsp Liquid Smoke
• 1 tsp Corn Starch or another thickener (or thicken more to taste)

I happen to be a fan of liquid smoke, but some people aren't. Heat all of the above on medium until everything dissolves. Add additional thickener if you like your sauces thick.

It makes quite a passable barbecue sauce for pork or beef.

Sweet and sour sauce

This has no tomatoes or tomato products, no yeast (using distilled vinegar--if you're sensitivities are off the chart it could still be a problem), and uses corn starch to thicken, but could use other thickeners if you have a problem with corn.

Put the following into a sauce pan:

• 1/4 c Brown sugar
• 1/4 c Distilled vinegar
• 1/8 tsp Ginger
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Corn starch or other thickener

Whisk on low heat until all the ingredients have dissolved into the vinegar, allow to start to come to a boil. Remove from heat.

This makes a good sweet and sour sauce for chicken, which I intend to make later this afternoon and freeze for the week.