How to make your favourite dishes SCD legal/paleo

When you tell people that you don’t eat dairy, grains or sugar, they often stare at you incredulously (and a little pityingly), before gasping, “What do you eat?”

The problem is that so many people have fallen into a groove of slapping together a toastie for lunch or a pot of macaroni cheese for dinner that thinking about creating a meal without bread or cheese or pasta or sugar (tomato sauce, I’m looking at you) seems virtually impossible. Pasta and puddings are easy, cheap, convenient and delicious to make, and without them… What will we EAT??

Here are some ideas: any kind of meat, basically any fruits and veg you can imagine (with the exception of one or two, like potatoes and bananas, if you’re doing paleo), nuts, nut milks, nut butters, seeds, honey (sparingly on SCD) and, once you start thinking a little more laterally, a ton of amazing desserts and treats made with these ingredients. If you’re doing SCD and you aren’t lactose-intolerant, you can add dairy products to this list too.

Of course, if you’ve become accustomed to eating pasta and bread-based meals, as well as the odd pizza cheat on weekends, it can be daunting to make the transition to ‘cleaner’ eating.  Yes, it’s a mindshift, but you’d be amazed at how quickly your thinking changes.

To help you along if you’re new to this, I’ve put together a list of some of the easier and more popular everyday meals that you can turn into SCD legal or paleo dishes.

Pancakes

Traditionally, these are made with milk, wheat flour and butter, so it seems almost inconceivable to make anything resembling a pancake without these ingredients.

Think again: For SCD pancakes, use eggs, almond flour and coconut oil – try this recipe or this one – or attempt an even easier 3-ingredient pancake that’s super light and quick to make.

Smoothies

Bought smoothies are often made with frozen yoghurt or ice cream and loaded with unhealthy sweeteners or sugar. Often they’re just as kilojoule-dense as milkshakes, and we’re tricked into believing that they’re healthy because they have a berry or two thrown in.

Make your own paleo or SCD smoothies at home by throwing your favourite fruit into a blender with a dash of pure fruit juice or a squeeze of lime, and instead of frozen yoghurt, use SCD yoghurt, coconut milk or coconut cream. Don’t forget to add a spoon of your favourite nut butter!

Get creative and come up with your own combinations – you really are limited only by your imagination (and taste buds).

Here’s a collection of great paleo smoothies and shakes to get your creative juices flowing.

Lasagna

This is an awesome hack for dairy, grain-free lasagna: Instead of pasta sheets, use slices of zucchini in between your layers of meat. You could also use butternut or even egg-white crepes that mimic the texture of pasta.

As for the sauce, use substitutes like cashew cream or cashew cheese. These ingredients may sound totally exotic to you now, but I promise that after making them once or twice, they’ll be old hat. If you told me three months ago that I’d be making my own yoghurt using nut milks and non-dairy cultures, I’d never have believed you. Now I do it once a week, and start to panic when my stock gets low!

Anyway, here and here are some fabulous collections of SCD/paleo lasagna recipes to try.

Spaghetti bolognaise

This one is super easy: The trick is not to be fooled by unhealthy packaged ingredients that you’re so used to adding to your bolognaise. It’s okay to use tomato paste, but make sure it has no added sugar. I’ve just about perfected my bolognaise recipe – it’s easy, affordable and totally more-ish. Here’s the recipe.

Instead of spaghetti, serve with cauliflower rice, roast butternut or – if you enjoy the ‘taste’ – shirataki noodles. This is actually a plant product that has a similar consistency to noodles, but zero calories and little-to-no taste (though I definitely detect a vague, odd flavour). It’s quite strange and expensive, but some people like it. Buy it here in South Africa.

Burgers

The only real problem here is the bun, so omit it and, if you like, wrap your pattie in lettuce. Of course, if you’re not doing dairy, omit any cheesy toppings. Bacon is also ill-advised because unless you’re buying organic, it’s usually laden with sugar and unhealthy additives and preservatives.

I have an amazing burger recipe that I’m super proud of – try it here.

Curry

Curries are GREAT for paleo and SCD, because they’re easy to serve without grains, and the recipe doesn’t usually call for dairy. This means that it’s so simple to make SCD/paleo curries. Simply omit any yoghurt and replace with coconut milk or cream, and for sweetness, add a dash of honey instead of sugar.

Make sure that any spices you use are good quality and don’t have any anti-caking agents or other additives in them. The best idea is to buy yours from a spice market, if you have access to one, or simply make your own spice mixes from scratch. This is more labour intensive but definitely worth the effort.

I’ll post K’s Thai green recipe soon, which ticks all the right boxes. In the mean time, browse this selection of paleo curry recipes. I’m also dying to try this SCD roast cauliflower soup recipe – it’s on my list for this winter (by the way, The Tasty Alternative has the most amazing SCD recipes).

Dessert

There are SOOO many healthy, clean SCD and paleo dessert recipes out there – do a quick Google search to see what I mean. Things you’d never even imagine existed. So you never need to feel like you’re missing out just because you can’t have caramel whip or cream cakes. In fact, because these desserts are so kind to your belly, you’ll finally get to enjoy a sweet treat without the awful after effects you’re so used to experiencing.

Here’s a baked apple crisp I made last weekend that was very easy to throw together, and enjoyed by everyone who tried it. My favourite review came from my mom, who said, “You can actually taste how healthy it is.” But yet, super delicious. Win!

Happy cooking, guys – and don’t be afraid to experiment!

 

Day 99: Introducing new foods & a tip for overseas travel

I’ve been wanting to add olives to my diet for a while, so today was the day! They’re not a food I eat in great quantities, but they’re a ‘nice to have’ now that I’ve introduced so many basic foods that I’m happy with.

On phase 4, olives still need to be cooked – so have them on top on an SCD pizza, or as part of a sauce, stew, etc. On a diet that can be quite bland (at least in the beginning) they provide an awesome new flavour that adds a new dimension to your same-old foods. They seem to have treated me fine.

100 days tomorrow!

Tomorrow, I’ll reach my 100 day challenge. The thought is actually quite daunting – what will I do about my diet after 100 days? Well nothing radical, I can tell you that much. I think I’ll continue to eat a mainly SCD diet, but as I’ve mentioned previously, I’ll be transitioning more towards paleo, which I’m hoping will suit me well.

Bali, baby!

So I’m off to Kuala Lumpur on Friday, and Bali next Monday. It’s going to be an amazing trip and I LOVE Eastern food, so that will be interesting too. In fact, I’m even considering doing a cooking class while I’m in KL.

Eastern food really agrees with me and I find I have little trouble when I’m visiting that side of the world. That said, I did ask my doctor for a dose of cortisone, just in case. If you’re travelling abroad and aren’t going to be back for a couple of weeks, it’s a wise idea to have some back-up steroids with you.

You may not have flared in months or even a year or two, but you never know what could happen when you’re away from home and out of your regular routine. Our guts have a mind of their own, after all, and it would be terrible to be stuck in a foreign country and flaring! So back-up meds are a MUST – rather safe than sorry, after all 🙂

Breakfast in Koh Phangan, Thailand, 2013. My kind of food!

Day 98: What to eat (and what to avoid) when you’re having a ‘bad GI’ day

After everything my poor GI system went through last night with the nuts, it was still feeling very fragile today… and the legacy of the assault remained. I spent more time than I’d have liked to in the bathroom, but I didn’t panic, unlike the times before.

There’ve been about three occasions on this diet when my stomach has reacted quite violently to something. The first few times I freaked out, thinking that it was a sure sign of a flare. Slowly I came to realise that a) sometimes your system just has an ‘off’ day, due to any number of factors from food to stress to hormonal imbalances or state of mind, and it doesn’t mean you’re flaring, and b) there’s no point stressing about potential flares – you’ll only make your symptoms worse.

Instead, it’s about eating (and drinking) right on those days to ease the symptoms instead of exacerbating them. Don’t ignore what your body is telling you, and if your GI system is out of whack, treat it delicately to help restore it to health.

What you should and shouldn’t eat when having a ‘bad GI day’

Let’s start with a list of foods to avoid:

• Avoid foods high in fibre like fruit, nuts, high-fibre vegetables (beans, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc) and lentils
• Avoid dairy, as it can aggravate an inflamed gut
• Avoid fruit juice (too much fibre) and carbonated drinks (can cause bloating)
• Avoid nut butters
• Avoid any foods to which you know you react badly
• Avoid alcohol
  
• Avoid any foods you have not yet introduced to your diet – now’s not the time to be adventurous.

What you should eat:

• Bone broth soups, which help to restore the body, especially after a bout of diarrhoea. They’re highly nutritious and packed with vitamins
• Herbal teas – add ginger to soothe your belly
• Starchy vegetables like squash, pumpkin and butternut
• Your ‘safe’ flare foods
• Plenty of water – aim for 2 litres
• BRAT foods – this works very effectively for some people (Banana, Rice, Applesauce, Toast)

While it’s frustrating cutting back on an already limited diet, it’s worth it for the day or two that you feel so, well, crappy. If you’ve been through your fair share of flares already, you’ve probably established a group of ‘safe’ flare foods. For me, it’s basmati rice (which I craved SOOO badly today but I wasn’t prepared to cheat so close to the end!) and eggs. I used to find that crackers were also very soothing, before I had to cut out gluten.

All things being equal, your bad bout should pass within about 24 hours, if it was just something that you ate. If it doesn’t abate or if you start bleeding, suffering from bad cramps, nausea, night sweats or joint pain, it might be a flare and you should contact your doctor ASAP to get it under control.

No.

Day 97: What the f@#!, nuts?

So, it’s pretty much official: my gut hates nuts. The whole kinds, anyway. It seems to tolerate nut milks and yogurts, but when it comes to actual pieces of nuts, it goes, well, completely nuts.

Last night K and I headed out for drinks with colleagues and friends after work, and we only got home at around 9. Neither of us was hungry enough for a meal, so I ‘just’ had a bowl of almonds (unblanched – silly), and some cashew pieces.

Soon after, I felt distinctly faint, and I broke out in a cold sweat. I headed straight to the bathroom, where I remained for about half an hour, wishing for death. The GI symptoms where horrendous: severe cramps and diarrhoea, and an intense nausea that had me hanging my head over the bath at the same time (though I couldn’t vomit for some reason – I think that’s psychological). Plus I was completely light-headed and drenched in sweat.

Times this by 100, and that’s how my head felt

When I was finally able to get off the loo, the furtherest I could manage was the bathroom floor. AND I’M A TOTAL GERMAPHOBE. I hate bathroom floors, even my own, but at that moment, it was heaven. The cool tiles helped to ease the sweating and I eventually managed to drag myself into the shower.

Guys, I have never felt like that – not even during the worst of my flares. It was scary. I even considered that my drink might have been spiked at the bar, but that had been a few hours before. How can I deny that it was the nuts – especially since this is not the first time I’ve had an adverse reaction to them?

Nut allergy vs nut intolerance

I always thought that if your body couldn’t handle nuts, you would just die. But that was silly of me. Having done a little googling, I’ve found a few reputable sites that tell me that a nut intolerance is different to a nut allergy, and can cause all the symptoms I experienced last night (but not death – even though it felt like my last moments had come).

The strange thing is, I’ve never had a problem with nuts of any kind before. But I’ve also learnt that a damaged gut may react to foods that it never used to – doh! Also, adults can develop intolerances over the years – like I developed lactose intolerance due to the fact that, as an adult, my body stopped producing lactase enzymes.

The strange thing is that my body only reacts to whole nuts, as I’ve mentioned. Not even my foray in nut butters a few weeks ago had this kind of effect on me, so it must be that my gut simply can’t break them down.

So nuts – at least in their whole form – are out. Sigh.

Seriously, what the fuck, nuts? I thought we were friends!

Look how happy that bugger is

 

Recipe: SCD/paleo burger patties with guacamole & steamed vegetables

Here’s the recipe I promised you for the AMAZING burger patties I made the other night. They’re SCD/paleo/GAPS, super easy to make an they’re knock-your-socks-off good! How do I know this? K said, “I feel like I’ve just eaten at a restaurant” after finishing hers – which, let me tell you, is high praise!

Bear in mind that the bun and chips aren’t SCD or paleo. The plate on the left is 100% SCD/paleo/GAPS

Ingredients

• 800g mince (I used half ostrich and half venison; I haven’t tried these with beef)
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 1-2 tsp minced garlic (depending on taste)
• 2 extra large eggs
• 1 small tin (50g) tomato paste
• 2 handfuls fresh coriander, stems removed and leaves chopped (divided)
• A good shake of ground nutmeg
• A good shake of ground coriander
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Mixed veg of your choice
• 1 ripe avocado
• lemon juice

Method

1. Add your onion and garlic to a pan and soften for a few minutes. This is not essential but it’s a good idea for anyone who requires their veg fairly well cooked.

2. Meanwhile, place the rest of the ingredients, minus 1 handful of coriander, into a large bowl and add the onion mixture once ready.

Get in there with your hands and work all the ingredients together, mixing well. I asked K to add a few more dashes of salt and pepper as I mixed.

3. Now shape your meat into patties. I made 6 big patties, but you could easily turn these into 8 or 10 smaller ones. Place them on a lined chopping board or plate, and allow to firm up in the fridge for a few minutes. This probably isn’t essential, but I gave mine 20 minutes of chill time.

4. While the meat is chilling, make your steamed veg. I used carrots, zucchini, green beans and broccoli. If you don’t have a steamer, simply put your veg into a colander and place it over a pot filled with about 3-4cm of boiling water. Cover the colander with a lid and steam until desired doneness. I usually cook mine for about 10 mins. Just be sure the water doesn’t evaporate, as you’ll burn your pot! (I’ve done this more times than I care to admit!)

5. Add a drop of coconut oil to a pan, heat to medium, and add your patties. I fried mine in two batches. Because I hate using oil (it makes me a little queasy), I added dashes of hot kettle water to the pan whenever it needed moisture. I know that purists would recoil in horror at this, but it kept the patties so moist while still allowing them to brown. Cover with a lid while cooking, and cook for about 6 minutes on each side, depending on thickness.

Guacamole

While the meat is cooking, make your guacamole. Place the avo and coriander in a bowl, drizzle with lemon juice and add a good crack of salt and black pepper. Mash it all up together with a fork.

And voila! There’s your 100% SCD/paleo meal, super healthy and (I promise) totally delicious. Place 1 – 2 patties on each plate, top with guacamole and slices of gherkin, and serve with veg. If you don’t have a dairy intolerance, go ahead and add some cheese to your burger too 🙂

K’s plates always look a little more fun than mine!

If you’re always hungry, you’ll totally get this

I’m a bit of a Buzzfeed addict and when I read this one, I found myself nodding along vehemently to each one (but especially number 18!)

’26 Struggles only people who are constantly hungry will understand’ is definitely true for me – and hilarious. Enjoy 🙂

http://www.buzzfeed.com/samstryker/struggles-only-people-who-are-constantly-hungry-will-unde

Day 96: The most amazing 100% SCD burgers!

My 100% SCD legal plate on the left; K’s 75% SCD legal plate on the right 🙂

Just look at these babies! I made them tonight out of a recipe I concocted in my head, and the results were far, far better than I expected for a first attempt.

I ate the patty with home-made guacamole and steamed veg on the side, and K – oh she of healthy gut – had hers drenched in cheese, topped with red onion and gherkin, and served on a bun with chips on the side (neither of which are SCD legal of course). Cheese – dairy – is legal on SCD but I haven’t covered it much on this blog because I’m lactose intolerant and hence avoid it at all costs.

I haven’t introduced any new foods in a while, so tonight I experimented with spices (which I finally feel comfortable to do now), and I also ate a few slices of gherkin, which I’ve always loved. I need to keep introducing foods but I’m making such amazing meals from my existing options that I keep forgetting!

It’s really late and my internet connection is a little cranky so I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

Day 95: When can you introduce salad on SCD?

Oh the NOMILICIOUSNESS!

The short answer is: on phase 5. The longer answer is… it really depends on how well your gut is able to handle raw food.

I recently wrote a bit about raw vs cooked fruit and vegetables, the conclusion being that raw is generally ill-advised during flares, and also for those with severely damaged guts.

Before my UC diagnosis, I worked desperately with a nutrionalist in the hope of healing my ‘runny tummy’ without having to go back to hospital, where I’d have more of those horrible tests, more blood drawn, more inconclusive diagnoses, more frustration and fear.

Selfie circa May 2012

While I eventually found myself back in a hospital ward after all (and thank goodness for that, because without my highly trained physician, I’d probably still be in the dark about my disease), my nutritionalist helped me very much, and one of the things she advised me against was eating raw vegetables. A favourite snack of mine, for example, was raw carrots laced with salt. Oh no, she said when she spied it in my food diary, that’s got to stop.

I love(d) salad. LOVE(D). I use the past tense because I haven’t had it in three months, and I’m not sure I’ll eat it in large quantities in the future. How do you feel after you eat a bowl of salad? I feel bloated, tight in the belly, uncomfortable, gassy and ‘stabby’. Now, knowing the state that my GI system has recently been in, I realise that every mouthful of salad was an assault on my belly, especially given my tendency to eat too fast and chew too little.

This is a pity, because salad is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. Plus, it’s an easy option (no cooking!), it’s extremely versatile and it’s just plain yummy. Are there specific ingredients that agree with me more than others? I’m not sure, but I’ll have to test to find out. Perhaps protein-heavy salads with veg I’ve already tested safely, like spinach, is a potential solution.

I think this could possibly be the most perfect salad on Earth. Yummoliciousness.

If you’re doing SCD, raw foods may only be introduced on phase 5 – and phase 5 comes around at a different time for everyone. Some people breeze through the phases in about 2 weeks each, while for others, it takes longer.

I’ve spent roughly three weeks on each phase (some shorter, some longer), but I’ve also erred on the side of caution, especially when it comes to raw fruits and veg. As you know, I only introduced seeds and thin skins – cautiously! – a few weeks ago.

If you’re coming out of a flare or some serious GI damage, be patient. I know there are so many wonderful foods you want to reincorporate into your diet, and you will in time. Right now, just stop, think about the healing you’re doing, and take it slow. It’s not worth rushing through the phases or cheating just to set yourself back – not after all the hard work you’ve put in. Trust me, the rewards are worth far, far more in the long term than a regrettable moment on the tongue.

Day 94: Simplifying food prep

Preparing food for any kind of special diet can be extremely time consuming – and, for those of us who avoid processed foods, there’s never the  option of just ‘grabbing a takeaway’ or buying a ready-made meal. I think that the amount of effort (or perceived effort) that goes into preparing clean, healthy food every day can put people off this kind of diet, but it really needn’t – there are so many ways around it.

Chop and freeze bags of veg for quick weekday cooking

Admittedly, I can spend 3 to 4 hours in the kitchen on a Sunday, prepping for the week. But for the rest of the week, I can rustle up an entire dinner in 30 minutes or less, because all my veg is already cooked and I only have to worry about the meat.

Having been a slave to my kitchen for the past three months, here are some of my favourite tips for making food prep go a lot faster:

• Make batches of boiled eggs for a simple and filling breakfast or snack. Bonus: they’re super easy to transport. I boil six at a time to last me three mornings.
• Buy pre-chopped veg. Yes, it costs more (so I don’t often buy it), but it’s such a lifesaver when you’re short on time. Plus, I can’t lie – I love ‘spoiling’ myself with a bag of butternut chunks and saving myself the 10-minute slog of peeling, chopping and de-seeding. Same goes for green beans and that endless topping-and-tailing!
• When possible, cook different veg together. Instead of separate pots for broccoli, cauliflower, beans and carrots, toss them all into one large pot and cook them in one go (if you’re doing SCD, obviously you won’t be able to do this right at the start). Bonus: Fewer dishes!
• Choose thinner cuts of meat. Not only are they healthier, but they are much quicker to defrost and cook.
• Always make extra quantities of coconut milk and freeze the leftovers. When I need coconut milk for a meal, I often just pop the frozen chunk into the pot and it melts in minutes. Oh, and if you’re low on coconut milk, just add a bit of water to stretch it out.
• Cook as many vegetables as you can manage over the weekend. Refrigerate about three days’ worth, and then freeze the rest in batches for when you need them.
• Not in the mood to cook a big meal? Mash up two small bananas with two eggs and a sprinkling of cinnamon, and fry up some SCD pancakes in a pan coated with coconut oil. Mine always turn into a scramble but it’s just as delicious.
• Not in the mood to cook at all? Put together a plate of veg from the fridge, plus a couple of boiled eggs and some avo if you have it, and boom – a perfectly balanced meal of protein, carbs and healthy fat with zero prep. Win.
• Always cook big batches of food and freeze the leftovers. This works especially well with curries, mince, soups, etc. There’s nothing better than pulling out a pre-cooked, home-cooked meal when you don’t feel like cooking (but you do feel like a proper home-made meal).
• Use your microwave. Put your veg into a microwave-safe dish (not Tuppaware!), add a dash of water and microwave, covered, until cooked. Much easier and quicker than using the stove top – but watch out for the steam!
• Invest in good knives and vegetable peelers. This makes the world of difference when you’re preparing loads of veg. I recently bought a vegetable peeler that cost the same as a small house, but WOW has it made peeling butternuts a dream!
• When it comes to wine, choose screw caps over corks!

Please share any food prepping tips you have – I’m always looking for shortcuts.

Day 93: Meat vs veg – my lightbulb moment

These days, you tell people that you eat meat and you may as well have said that you skin kittens in your spare time. In a world of vegan hipsters, meat is murder and using animal products is about the worst thing you can do after using plastic or not having a beard. Don’t get me wrong: I grew up in a house that was 50% vegetarian – neither my mom nor sister eat meat – and I have the utmost respect for the fact that they don’t eat meat – as they do for the fact that my dad and I do.

Anyway, the point is that SCD had shown me that my body tolerates protein far better than it does simple carbs/veg, and while I could live on veg quite happily… Well I realise that I actually can’t.

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll have seen me post photos of my food. Most of my meals consist of a little protein and A LOT of veg. Some meals often don’t contain any protein. And now, having tested my food and my reactions for three months, I know one thing for sure: veg is knocking me for a six, and I need to completely change how I’m eating. It’s a huge mental shift because for so many years, I’ve built my meals around vegetables, and eaten much less meat. It’s not that I don’t like it… it’s just that I preferred veg. But I realise that, if I want to avoid excessive bloating, loose stools, cramps and gas, can’t keep loading up on veg and adding a dash of protein as an afterthought.

I’m not going to radically change anything while I’m still on SCD. I’m going to finish off this last week properly, and then as I mentioned last week, I’m going to transition to paleo, and to a more high-protein, low carb way of eating. It irritates me that this is a ‘fad’ now (have you heard of banting?) – just as it annoys me that it’s a fad to be ‘gluten intolerant’, making all our foods so much more expensive! But at least it might make my belly happier, which is the ultimate goal.

Parties, booze and little steps forward

The past four days have been interesting in terms of diet. I’ve eaten lots of meat and much less veg, and I feel far less bloated. I’ve also been eating almonds (blanched and slivered this time) and that seems to be a little more tolerable. That said, I know I need to take it easy with them.

Last night, after a long day of celebrating birthdays and family visits (read: drinking), I dove into a packet of vegetable chips at home. They didn’t contain any illegal additives BUT they did contain veg that I shouldn’t have eaten, like sweet potato, so again, I’ve proven to myself (not that I didn’t know this already – doh!) that after hours of champers, I need to be kept away from temptation. That said, I didn’t eat ANYTHING bad or illegal at any of the dinners or parties we went to, which made me so proud of myself. Like several times before, while on this diet, I showed myself that i can have a great time despite not stuffing my face. It’s really been a revelation for me.

NOT yesterday’s selfie

I’m entering my last week of my personal SCD challenge and I’m so excited that I’ve finally had my lightbulb moment (I can’t believe it took me this long). It’s going to be quite a challenge to switch up my diet so radically (for me), but I think after SCD, I can handle anything 🙂