Category Archives: Devil Soy

Join the Club! 1 in 3 Of You Are A Part Of It And You Don’t Even Know It

. Boulder, Devil Soy, From Scratch Cooking, gluten free, Monsanto, Organic . , , ,

Today was a TOTAL eye opener. I went to a doctor specializing in functional medicine, meaning, he specializes in finding the root of the problem and fixing it; rather than throwing drugs at some symptoms and dealing with the side effects. I never knew this practice existed but then again, this is Boulder so it really should come as no surprise.

I went there for my “stomach issues.” My “loyal” readers (all 6 of you, shout out!) know that my “stomach issues” have plagued me for my entire life, but have picked up in ferocity in the past 11 years. I have had the gamut of tests run with tubes put in places they just DO NOT belong, scopes, and blood tests. At 27 I was put on medicine typically administered to geriatric patients (but they soon after pulled it off the market because it caused heart attacks, or strokes…or something, but it wasn’t good and so no more drugs. I didn’t like being on them in the first place.) I have been tested for Celiac (negative) and allergies (oh so positive) and have years of internet research and books* and felt that I had a good handle on my “stomach issues”. Which was “diagnosed” as IBS which is really just some bullshit label they give you so can kind of have some piece of mind because they can’t figure out what the huck the problem is.

That is until today. Today, after approximately 3 and a half minutes of talking with this brilliant, genius of a doctor and telling him my issues, he laid it out on the table. He said those two words that I have been dreading to hear all these years, with every bite of toast I take. “Gluten-Free”.

I started crying. (I am particularly weepy lately due to sleep deprivation.)

Whatever you do, PLEASE DO NOT TAKE MY CARBS FROM ME! I will beat you with that loaf of french bread.

“It is the best decision you will ever make.” the doctor said and went on to tell me that about a year ago, he himself thought he was pre-Alzheimers, about to sell his practice, couldn’t remember ANYTHING, had to take his wife along with him to remember what he went out for, etc. His wife went gluten-free due to her fibromylagia and he joined her. Within two weeks his brain function was back and his chronic back pain (of 35 years) was gone.

Ok, that’s great for you guys…but seriously, this is not it.

“You had the stomach flu in your household how many times in a 6 month time span?” he asks. 15

Most likely because myself and the boys are probably gluten-intolerant which  is weakening our immune systems and hence….puke. (an aside, I am currently recovering from a bout of stomach flu from last week.)

“People with gluten sensitivity often are run down.” brilliant, genius doctor says. And I just thought it was kids.

“A lot of gluten sensitive folk also have dairy sensitivity or allergy” brilliant, genius doctor says. My eyes welled up more, I grabbed another tissue as the realization s l o w l y started to seep into my thick skull.

Back in 2006 when I overhauled my diet to to the fine, restricted list it stands at today, I noticed that artificial sweetners and high fructose corn syrup were total gut bombs for me. And let me clarify “gut bomb”, we are talking fetal position, rocking on the floor type pain. The lovely chemical cocktails of processed “food” interestingly enough, are know to cause digestive issues in gluten sensitive folk….hmmmm. ( I learned this from a fantastic article from the Gluten Free Goddess, How To Go Gluten Free.)

Coffee and Black tea are gastric irritants particularly for gluten sensitive and “IBS” folk. I always said caffeine was never a good choice for me (those who know me know why!) so it’s a good thing coffee and tea crush my stomach.

COFFEE

and beer. OOOOOOOOH beer, how I love thee. Not always, but a stint as a server and bartender at a brewery back in the day gave me a great appreciation for it. But I have also had a love/hate relationship with it.  I never know if it’s going to love me or hate me (my belly that is.) I blamed it on hops and draft lines because sometimes my stomach can handle beer no problem, most times I can’t.  But never once did it cross my mind that it would be the wheat. I was already tested for Celiac, I had never heard of gluten sensitivity.

I was in total denial and up until I started writing this post, I still wasn’t convinced that this is the culprit of all of the above. But I know it is, I can no longer deny that I have to further restrict to include another food that is prevalent in almost every.damn.product known on earth. And one of which I CRAVE and enjoy at almost every.single.damn.meal. Wheat, we are officially broken up. I’m pissed at you and your wheat relatives and damn hybridization that hybridized so much over that past 50 years that you made your fool damn self toxic to most humans. (Source)

and while we’re at it, Monsanto can still suck it. They don’t really have anything to do with this, really, directly, this time…but they still are evil.

F Monsanto

*THE book that changed my life: The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O’Brien. It is an EYE OPENING book about our food industry, Monsanto, our corrupt FDA and how all of it can be tied into allergies, asthma, ADD, ADHD, and autism. Also, artificial food coloring will promptly be removed from your children’s diet after reading this book….and it will make a WORLD of difference.

White Bean Chicken Chili and Cornbread……

. Devil Soy, From Scratch Cooking . , , , ,

Whenever I need some recipe inspiration I head over to my friend Sharon’s, Tasty Recipes board. To date she has 194 pins in there full of great recipes! The best part is, is that she tests them out and lets me know which ones she likes. She is also responsible for sending me the most incredible cauliflower recipe I have ever eaten in my life. It is a cauliflower-hater converter recipe, that’s how good it is, but that is for another time.

And, I have to give her FULL credit here, because I forgot to in my REDEMPTION post…Sharon is the one that told me to melt the peanut butter in with the chocolate. It was her idea, not mine, I cannot take credit for this CRITICAL step in the Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Covered Banana’s, aka, Monkey Pops. Thank you Sharon, “Let’s all thank Sharon here for making our Monkey Pop making more efficient and tasty!”

Side note: My Costco just started selling Dole Banana Dippers, 64 pieces for $7.89!!!! That equals $0.12 per ONE STINKIN BANANA SLICE! Seriously? Don’t be lazy and save some moolah…make these yourself (plus, they contain SOY! AHHHH!)

DO try this at homeproof

Last night I pillaged Sharon’s Tasty Recipe board and found this recipe for White Bean Chicken Chili, and also from Couldn’t Be Parve.com, CORNBREAD! aint nothin wrong with that

I did, as usual, make a few edits to both recipes:

To the Chicken Chili, I added a 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes and I simmered it for an hour to let it really reduce down and give it a thicker stock. It created a more “chili” consistency than “white bean chicken soup with chili flavors” consistency that it was occurring after simmering for 25 minutes (as the recipe states.) I am thankful I planned for time.

So, I live in a milk free house. Like, just cow’s milk, the liquid. We do have dairy products here (as mentioned yesterday.) Grant drinks almond milk and rice milk. I did not want to use almond milk in this cornbread recipe (it gives it too nutty of a flavor for my liking) and I ran out of rice milk. My substitution, fat free yogurt, with about 1/4 (?) of a cup of water added to the batter after I had mixed everything up. Really, I have no idea how much water, I just stuck the bowl under the faucet and ran it until I thought it would be at the right consistency which was, very thick. I had to use a spatula to scrape it in the pan and spread it around evenly, that’s how thick.

Now, the reason I chose this recipe was for the honey butter drizzled on top and soaked throughout. I typically would not have done this, but, since I replaced the milk with yogurt I felt NO SHAME dumping ALL OF it, ALL OVER and OH HOLY, MY WORD, you guys, I love cornbread and this was awesome. Very moist, lightly sweetened and I am staring, right now, on my desk, at my third piece today.

I mean, what is left of it….

THE BEST GRANOLA BARS I HAVE EVER EATEN!

. Devil Soy, Monsanto, yum . , , , ,

Seriously, there is no reason you should not make this recipe. TODAY. It took me about 10 minutes, (10 MINUTES! You could do it while your coffee brewed!) it was SUPER EASY, I had all ingredients on hand, and holy cow, they are hands down the BEST granola bars I have ever eaten. In my life. And I consider myself somewhat of a connoisseur when it comes to anything in the “granola” family.

Eat your heart out Kashi

I found these No Bake Homemade Granola Bars last week and knew it would be one of those recipes I immediately try because here’s the thing.  I love my Kashi TLC Chewy Cherry Dark Chocolate Granola Bars, I probably eat two of them a day. I bought them because of the dried cherry and dark chocolate combo (my FAVORITE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!) and because the packaging clearly noted “NO High Fructose Corn Syrup!”  Well yay!  I don’t have to read the ingredients now because the front of the package tells me!  “But wait, what about that pesky, borderline deadly soy allergy you have Kelly?  Shouldn’t you check the ingredients for soy before you buy it? You do that with everything.”  Says, not my brain to me when I bought this. I must have had some sort of mom brain going on during that shopping trip because I know that Kashi has this love affair with cramming protein in a majority of their products in the form of the evil soybean! (More on the evils of GMO soy and how our government and the FDA is in bed with the most evil and corrupt corporation in the US, Monsanto, in a separate post, I don’t feel like getting up on my soapbox right now.)  And typically I stay away from Kashi products for that very reason.  But I bought them and fell in love and then they crushed me like those soy-bombs usually do.  And then I read the ingredients:

Seriously?  For a GRANOLA BAR?  It’s oats and fruits and nuts…

And SO, when I found this recipe I knew I would do a cherry, dark chocolate combo. I have already said this, but oh my holy goodness, these are incredible!!!!! They are, hand DOWN, so much better then the Kashi, soy-bomb bars I bought. I will never, ever buy another package of granola bars ever again.

Ok, so my portion size is a bit off, but my ingredients are far superior

I was a little wary that the recipe called for butter, I don’t like buttery flavored granola and prefer to use a light olive oil when I make mine.  But the longer these sat and firmed up, the more the butter soaked into the oats and I would not change the core recipe one bit. However, I did add a few ingredients to amp up the health factor:

flax seed, whole

wheat germs, ground

dried cherries

Ghiradhelli dark chocolate chips

Typically I add cinnamon to my granola, but left it out this time (and it also has natural preservative properties, natural antiviral effects and is in studies for Alzheimer treatment!) so I will include it in my next batch.  But I am pretty sure I don’t need to help extend the shelf life of these because they will most likely be gone by the weekend.

You could also try these combos:

  • Dried blueberries and slivered almonds (almonds are one of the best nuts for you!)
  • Dried cranberries, dried apples, nutmeg and cinnamon (would make a great fall bar)
  • chia seed, sesame seed, flax seed, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, wheat germ (for a high fiber bar)
  • Dried apricots and  pecans (I usually add pecans to my cherry, chocolate chip granola, would be good in this bar too)
  • Almonds and coconut
  • etc.

Well, what are you waiting for?  Get to it and then let me know what flavor you made and how it turned out!