Elimination Diet Adventures

I should have started this post a week ago, since I've recently made several breakfast-lunch-dinners that would have been good to add here, but since this will be continuing for another couple weeks, better to start late than not at all, right?

I've had some pretty horrendous health issues over the years.  The main being an intestinal rupture that almost killed me, three related surgeries, and running parallel to that, many additional, unrelated, surgeries, and I've now been sort of 'diagnosed' with five possible auto-immune diseases* that I'm currently doing battle with, emotionally, physically, with nasty Rx drugs and lots of prayer. . .(*diagnosis for many auto-immune conditions is NOT an exact science, rather hit or miss and determined mostly by symptoms, not actual, conclusive testing)

Many years ago, I saw a gal who did acupuncture and was into holistic nutrition and seemed to specialize in lots of other interesting things.  With her help I did an elimination diet for many weeks, charting my body's response and my overall progress.  As I came out on the other side, my main conclusions were that I was very sensitive to chocolate and coffee, but not a whole lot else.  I've recently decided it's time to do this again since our food sensitivities, intolerances and bodies change over time.

You eliminate all the common food allergens, such as all gluten: wheat, barley, rye; dairy in all forms, citrus and all high-sugar fruits, nightshade vegetables: tomatoes, regular potatoes, mushrooms, peppers and eggplant, also beans, peas and corn, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and any and all refined or processed foods.

What you do eat is organic chicken, lamb, pork, long-cooking white rice, greens, onions, carrots, celery, sweet potatoes, beets and other healthy root vegetables. . .I'm not quite sure how you'd do this as a vegan or vegetarian, but people who are eating like that probably aren't having issues that need an elimination diet to help them with a diagnosis!

This is my most recent creation of a 'breakfast, lunch or dinner,' which creates 4 servings.

1# filet of pork sirloin

1T± sunflower-coconut oil

1 med. chopped white onion

½c dry white wine

1c 20 minute long grain white rice

2+c water

Cut the meat, while still partially frozen, into bite-size pieces.  Combine meat in a large non-stick pan with oil and a little of the onion.  Sauté on low 5-10 minutes.  Increase the heat until everything's snapping and the pan is dry.  Add the wine and rice. 

Stir and saute until the wine evaporates and the rice is browning.  It's a fine line between 'perfectly browned' and 'burnt' so keep a close eye on it.  Add the rest of the onion, water, cover and simmer.  After about 15 minutes check the progress.  Is the rice still tough?  Are you running out of water?  If so, add a little more, re-cover and continue to simmer.  

Once the rice is cooked just right, take the pan off the heat.  Serve with a big serving of coleslaw, salad, greens, steamed vegetables, baked sweet potato, roasted vegetables, etc.  Eat lots of the acceptable vegetables!

Roasted beets are next on my agenda!  Mmmmm!  I bought a big bag of fresh beets from my Super One Grocery Store the other day.  $2.15 for 2#! 😋 . . .  Lin