Hi everyone, I wanted to let you know I was quoted in an article by Rosie Spinks in the online magazine EcoSalon about elimination diets. It’s a pretty good article and explores the debate between those who say food sensitivities (such as gluten intolerance) are just a “fad” and those who say food sensitivities are real and affect our health despite not being as severe as a true food allergy.  Here’s the link:

http://ecosalon.com/elimination-diets-good-marketing-or-a-real-phenomenon/

Alright eveyone, I am due next week (give or take) so wish me luck and hopefully I’ll be back writing soon from the other side…I had meant to post more recipes recently but this last month has been a lot more tiring and I have mostly been sticking to routine recipes and not getting too creative (and also letting my husband cook more!). Anyway, keep cooking & eating healthy and I’ll be back soon!

P.S. I wanted to thank those who supported my Kickstarter.com campaign – we were successful!! My CD will be produced later this month. I will put a link on the site later if anyone else is interested in ordering one at some point.

Happy eating!!

Lamb Chili

I’m now officially 8 months pregnant, and I guess you could say I’m nesting. I’m not really doing that much to clean or prepare the house, but what I have started doing is cooking – and freezing meals for the postpartum period.  I have heard that broths and stews are excellent for promoting lactation in addition to being nutritionally dense, so that’s what I’ve been making. I saw this awesome recipe for lamb chili in the New York Times a few weeks ago, and I’ve made it a couple of times since then and adapted it to my taste. ( I’m also still focused on keeping up my iron intake, hence the multitude of lamb recipes lately.) I’ve got a bunch in the freezer now and plan to take some with me to the birth center to devour after going through labor.

Here’s my adaptation of the recipe. I have used different kinds of beans depending on what I have on hand, and have not actually tried the white beans, but this last time I used pinto beans and it balanced the lamb very nicely. The NY Times recipe calls for using the cilantro stems, but I found it easier to avoid that step, without changing the flavor profile in my opinion. I cut the amount of peppers and chili powder by at least half, just to ward off any potential acid reflux or digestive distress, and the level of spice ended up being just right. Also I used stock instead of water for richer flavor and added nutrition (I used lamb stock but beef or chicken would also work).

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound ground lamb

Sea salt and black pepper

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 poblano pepper, seeded and diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/2 tsp chili flakes

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 small can organic tomato paste

4 cups cooked beans (pinto, chili, or white beans)

4 cups homemade stock (lamb, beef or chicken)

1 small bunch cilantro, chopped

Plain goat yogurt, for serving

Lime wedges

Saute the onion, peppers and garlic in olive oil in a large pot until tender and fragrant. Add the ground lamb and spices and saute until browned. Season liberally with sea salt and black pepper. Stir in the tomato paste, beans and lamb stock and bring to a boil. Add a pinch more sea salt (about 1/4 tsp or more to taste, depending on the saltiness of the stock). Turn to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes more to thicken.  Serve in bowls with fresh chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice, and a dollop of yogurt.

You might also notice that I added some raw garlic to the yogurt in the photo above.  I have been on a raw garlic kick lately, primarily to boost my immune system naturally and ward off any potential infection ahead of GBS (group B strep) testing at 36 weeks pregnant. (This is a bacteria that is commonly present in our digestive tracts and is harmless to us but can in very rare cases [1 in 2,000] cause infection if passed to a newborn at birth.) The testing is optional at the birth center but I have learned that if it’s necessary to transfer to a hospital and you have not had the GBS test, they will mandate that you are given IV antibiotics in labor (and if you refuse that, they will take your baby for a complete work-up including spinal tap!). Wanting to avoid all that, I thought it best to just try to test negative. So I’ve been eating a couple cloves of raw garlic every day (it’s delicious on a burger or mixed with some sauteed spinach!), along with other immune boosting measures like taking vitamin C, grapefruit seed extract and probiotics.

I have noticed that since I started the garlic about 10 days ago, my seasonal allergies have gotten significantly better, so I know that its antimicrobial properties are positively affecting my immune system.  Add that to all the immune-boosting ingredients in the chili (stock, healthy fats and B vitamins in lamb, antioxidants from spices, probiotics in the yogurt, etc.) and you’ve got one healthy meal. I have to give credit to foods like this for keeping me from getting sick (I’ve only had one minor cold in the past 2 years, despite being surrounded by kids at work and never getting a flu shot) when it seems like so many people around me get sick quite often (it’s not the germs, it’s the immune system!).

Hope this helps you experience a healthy cold & flu season, as well as enjoy a delicious meal! I hope to post another recipe or two before the baby comes, so stay tuned for another !

Just thought you might be interested in this blog post about the CDC’s data about raw milk:

http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2012/2/22/hey-when-raw-milk-data-dont-go-your-way-try-some-gymnastics.html

The author, David Gumpert, was one of the panelists at a Raw Milk Debate at Harvard University last week.

Here is also a youtube link to that debate if you have time to listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLRdihFi6gw
Sally Fallon is also one of the panelists! She and David Gumpert make a very compelling case. Check it out!

Lamb Meatballs With Yogurt Sauce in Teff Tortilla Wrap

This was a surprisingly savory meal I threw together this week. I have been eating a lot of lamb & other red meat to try to build up my iron supply, and discovered ground lamb as an inexpensive alternative to lamb shanks, chops, or other cuts.  I always have plain goat yogurt on hand, and wild mint growing outside my back patio, which made a lovely sauce that complemented the meatballs. La Tortilla Factory’s Gluten Free Teff Tortillas were the perfect wrap to create a gyro-style sandwich – I just threw in some sauteed kale and red onions.

Spicy Lamb Meatballs

1 lb ground lamb

1/4 cup diced onion

2 T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, pressed

1 egg

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Cracked pepper

Saute the onions in olive oil until tender. Then combine them with the lamb, garlic, egg, and all spices in a large bowl. It’s easiest to just mix it all up with your hands if you’re willing to get them dirty. Form the mixture into small meatballs (about 1 and 1/2 inch) and place into a heated skillet with olive oil. Brown on each side until cooked.

Mint Yogurt Sauce

1/2 cup plain goat or sheep’s milk yogurt

Handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped

1 garlic clove, pressed

1 T fresh lemon juice + a bit of zest

Pinch of sea salt

Mix all ingredients together and serve on top of the lamb meatballs, with some sauteed kale (or other braising green) and sliced red onion and wrap in a warm teff tortilla.

Serves 4

Wow, life is sure getting crazy now that I am in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Thanks to my husband for taking over much of the cooking duty lately, though it hasn’t given me much to write about. So I thought I would share my experience with the standard test that is given at this stage of pregnancy, the glucose tolerance test for gestational diabetes.

If you are wondering, gestational diabetes is what happens to some women during pregnancy when they temporarily take on symptoms of diabetes due to elevated blood sugar levels in pregnancy. Some women with gestational diabetes, they say, will go on to develop type 2 diabetes later in life. However, there is some controversy over whether this is really true or not, and many people get inaccurately classified as gestational diabetic.

I managed to avoid doing the traditional GD test, which is where a pregnant woman has to fast for 3 hours, then drink a bottle of sugar water with 50 grams of sugar in it, and then see how her body reacts. Yikes! How cruel is that? It’s enough to get anyone started on a path to diabetes right there, including the unborn child. Anyway, I knew that would be enough to send me into a sugar coma, but at the same time I was also curious as to whether my sugar sensitivity meant I actually had diabetic tendencies. So I agreed to take an alternative test, where I was allowed to eat a regular meal but had to incorporate the sugar into it. Okay. They said have a glass of juice with the meal and some kind of dessert or something with syrup, etc. I had 8 oz of pomegranate juice (which was over 30 grams right there) with wild salmon fish tacos & mango salsa from the farmers’ market and a small dark chocolate peanut butter cup for dessert. An hour after the meal, my blood glucose level was supposed to be under 140. It was 169. And I felt like I was tripping out. They said, let’s look at your diet. I said, I rarely ever eat sugar, and only in small amounts, because I know I don’t tolerate it well. And I never drink juice. What about white flour & refined carbs, they said. I already avoid those, I’m gluten free, I said. However, the fish tacos came with white corn tortillas. They said, you might have gotten too much, let’s repeat the test.

Great. This time, I avoided the juice, and tried to get more protein, whole grains & fiber. This is what I ate: 1 large apple (22g) with almond butter, breakfast sausage, quinoa pancakes (6g, though only because we ended up using sweetened almond milk, otherwise it’s much less) with 1 tsp raw honey (7g), and 6oz vanilla sheep yogurt (15g). Seems like a really healthy breakfast, doesn’t it? Hard to believe it’s got 50g of sugar. Anyway, I felt much better after this meal than the last, and thought for sure I would pass the test. Wrong – it was better, but my level was still 160. They said, let’s check it again an hour later. I waited around and started to feel a little shaky. The 2-hour glucose level was 64 (it shouldn’t go below 80). Wow, it looks like you might actually be a little hypoglycemic, they said. I know, I said, that’s what I’ve been telling you. They said, we could do another test, this time with 75 grams of sugar, and check you at one, two and three-hour intervals, and this would confirm hypoglycemia and rule out gestational diabetes. I said, are you kidding me??? I’m not putting my body through 75 more grams of sugar!!! Why don’t you check me after one of my normal meals and see how it is then?

So they sent me home with a blood sugar testing kit and I had to check myself for several days, both fasting (first thing in the morning) and after meals. That’s what I’ve been doing, and all my levels have come back normal. Now I almost wish I had declined to take the test in the first place, it was a very stressful week and I have been pricked and poked way too many times. But at least now I know that yes, I am hypoglycemic, and no, I do not tolerate sugar well, but thankfully I do know how to eat to regulate my blood sugar levels, and no one is going to label me a “gestational diabetic.”

Black Eyed Peas With Ham, Brown Rice & Arugula

Happy new year 2012!  Hopefully you all enjoyed the holidays and all the delicious food that comes with it. Maybe you are wondering what to do with all your leftovers. Here’s a quick shot of what I had for lunch today, made from my leftover new years’ black-eyed peas and holiday ham.

Cooked brown rice

Slow-cooked or canned black-eyed peas

Diced ham

Olive oil

Splash of chicken stock

Fresh arugula

Heat the diced ham in a skillet with olive oil. Add the cooked brown rice, black-eyed peas and a splash of chicken stock to add moisture. Heat all ingredients thoroughly and serve in bowls topped with fresh baby arugula.

Got any great holiday leftover recipes? Feel free to share!

Here’s to an exciting year ahead – wishing you all a prosperous and healthy 2012!!

Teff Pancakes

I am always trying to increase my protein intake, and that’s especially important for snacks and breakfast foods, which are not always high in protein. In the mornings I eat a lot of eggs, sometimes bacon and sausage too, but also I want to choose grains that are naturally high in protein. One of those is teff, the gluten-free native African grain that is the basis for the Ethiopian bread injera (which in America is usually not gluten-free because it is diluted with wheat flour). One serving of teff contains 7 grams of protein, the equivalent of an egg.

I have tried many times to make traditional injera but without success – I have not been able to make thin crepes without the batter sticking to the pan and becoming horribly frustrated (if anyone knows how to do this properly, please let me know!).  However, a couple of times I tried making it in small batches like pancakes, and this worked much better. So here is my teff pancake recipe – it’s very simple with few ingredients, but teff has a delicious nutty flavor that is very satisfying on it’s own.

1/2 cup teff flour*

1/2 cup filtered water

1 T plain goat or sheep’s milk yogurt

1 egg

Pinch of sea salt

Coconut oil for frying

In a medium glass bowl, combine the teff flour, water and yogurt. Stir well, cover, and let soak at room temperature overnight.  (This helps to make the grain easy to digest.) In the morning, add the egg and pinch of salt. Heat coconut oil in a large skillet. Pour the batter into 3-inch pancakes and fry for a few minutes on each side (until bubbles start to form on the first side, and then brown on the other). Serve with butter and if you prefer, a low-glycemic sweetener of your choice.

Serves 2

*Note: Teff can be found at Whole Foods or other health food stores, and is packaged by Bob’s Red Mill. if they only sell the whole grain, you can grind it into flour yourself in a coffee grinder.

This weekend I went to the farmers’ market and found the tent where I would buy raw milk from Organic Pastures Dairy completely empty. The woman who normally sells it had set up a table there and was explaining to customers that the dairy had been shut down by the California Department of Food and Agriculture pending a raw milk recall and E. coli outbreak investigation.

Here are the facts:

1. Five people were diagnosed with E. coli infection and were linked because they had all purchased raw milk from Organic Pastures.

2. There was no E. coli strain present in products they had purchased from Organic Pastures

3. Organic Pastures dairy has been tested for E. coli and no evidence of any strain has been found.

4. The CDFA’s claim is simply that because these people had in common that they all consumed raw milk, that must be the source of the outbreak.

For more information:

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/egov/press_releases/Press_Release.asp?PRnum=11-064

http://www.organicpastures.com/pdfs/CDFA%20Recalls%20Raw%20Milk%2011.15.11.pdf

I do not believe that raw milk is responsible for this outbreak. The FDA has been on a witch hunt to shut down raw dairy production for years. You never hear of such a crackdown on spinach and lettuce or conventional cattle farms, which are responsible for the vast majority of E. coli outbreaks in this country – those recalls are generally voluntary and don’t have quite the investigative urgency as the the race to blame raw milk producers. So far there has been no evidence found that the raw milk is actually the cause of this outbreak, and Organic Pastures has never been found responsible for any E. coli incident, ever. It was linked to a similar episode in 2006 but eventually cleared and the dairy received a settlement from the CDFA for the inconvenience.  I believe it will eventually be cleared in this case as well. But it’s too bad I won’t be having whipped cream this Thanksgiving.

Yes, I admit that I have consumed raw milk several times since I have been pregnant, and I have no reservations about it. Organic Pastures follows rigorous standards for cleanliness and their milk is tested twice a week for pathogens. People used to drink only raw milk for centuries, even when pregnant. It is conventional dairy products that need to be pasteurized, due to poor conditions of mass production and longer store shelf life. Of course I take precautions, like keeping it well chilled and consuming it within a matter of days to prevent contamination. And I consume it in moderation. Those who choose to judge me should know that there is a much higher risk of harm from say, getting behind the wheel of a car, than of getting E. coli or listeria from drinking raw milk, which despite all the hype, are extremely rare. (And most of us drive a car almost every day.) For me, the benefits far outweigh the risk. It has already been established that my body cannot digest pasteurized milk – and it is harmful to me and my baby to try to do so. As is not getting the nutrition I need during pregnancy. And calcium supplements are simply not absorbed well by the body without being part of a real food. So I choose to supplement my diet with a variety of digestible real dairy foods including goat cheese, sheep’s milk yogurt, and raw grass-fed cow’s milk.

For those who have not been following the raw milk saga, check out The Raw Milk Experiment Part I & Part II.

Jamie Oliver and Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Discuss The Food Revolution (Feb. 2011)

Persimmon Galette With Brown Rice & Cornmeal Crust

*Note: Because this recipe contains butter, it is not dairy-free. You could try substituting non-dairy shortenings such as coconut oil or lard, but results may not be the same.

You may be able to tell from this more ambitious recipe that my appetite has returned! Though I continued to have morning (or rather, all-day) sickness into my 16th week, it has finally passed (phew!) and for the past couple of weeks I have been hungry almost constantly. Still craving carbs and sweets, so when I saw Martha Stewart’s recipe for a pear galette in the Chronicle last weekend I got the idea stuck in my head and decided to try a version of it using some of the lovely persimmons that are so plentiful in California right now.  Plus it was a great time to try out a pre-Thanksgiving dessert idea!

Gluten-Free Brown Rice & Cornmeal Tart Dough

2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp sea salt

1 cup (1/2 lb.) unsalted cultured butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

5 T cold water

Combine the flour, cornmeal, xanthan gum and salt in a food processor and pulse to mix. Add the butter and pulse briefly until the mixture is like coarse bread crumbs. Pour the mix into a large bowl and add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until the dough holds together. Use your hands to form the dough into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour.

Persimmon Galette

5 large persimmons, thinly sliced

1 T cornstarch

1 T maple syrup (or agave or xylitol)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 egg yolk

Optional: xylitol or raw sucanat for sprinkling

Slice the persimmons and combine with cornstarch, syrup or other sweetener and cinnamon. Set the fruit aside while rolling out the tart dough. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut a piece of parchment paper to the size of your baking sheet. Lightly flour the parchment. Place the chilled dough in the center of the parchment. Cover with a sheet of plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough between the parchment and plastic until it is almost 1/8-inch thick and about a 14 to 16-inch oval. (Martha Stewart says 18 inches, but I found it easier to roll the gluten-free dough into a slightly smaller yet thicker crust – it will hold together better.) If it breaks apart, press the torn edges together with your fingertips. When the dough is rolled out completely, you can seal the tears with a tiny dab of water. Spread the persimmon filling in the center of the dough to within a couple inches of the border. Gently fold the edges of the dough over the fruit, pressing any tears back together. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with a teaspoon of water. Use a pastry brush to gently rub this mixture over the top of the pastry crust. This helps to hold the crust together better and gives it a nice smooth, golden edge. Sprinkle with optional xylitol or raw sucanat. Transfer the tart, still on the parchment paper, to the baking sheet. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 minutes or until crust is light golden brown. Allow it to cool slightly before transferring to a serving plate.

I found that the crust generally held together pretty well, though parts of it did break apart easily, so don’t be frustrated if that happens! The final product did present beautifully (if not totally symmetrically), with a nice flaky texture and buttery taste. You can also try this recipe with other fall fruit such as pears or apples (however I would suggest not using as much maple syrup as these fruits are juicier and sweeter than persimmons).

Egg Salad on Gluten-Free Toast

Here’s another great comfort-food recipe that is super easy to prepare! It doesn’t use mayo, which is on the list of foods to avoid during pregnancy, though I generally don’t cook with mayo anyway. A little dijon mustard goes a long way! (Recipe is pictured above on gluten-free multi-grain toast from Mariposa Bakery in Oakland.)

2 hard-boiled eggs (preferably pasture-raised)

1 T extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp stone-ground dijon mustard

1 green onion, chopped

pinch of sea salt

cracked pepper

Peel the hard boiled eggs and dice them. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and mustard with a fork. Stir in the diced eggs and green onions, and season with sea salt & cracked pepper. Serve on gluten-free toast, a bed of lettuce, or a corn tortilla.

Serves 1