Grilled Chicken

Since vinegars and tomatoes are now on my forbidden list, my favorite grilled dishes are now off limits.  Fortunately, Annie's Lemon and Chive Salad Dressing is on my edible list and I like it!

Ingredients
serves 1

1 chicken breast (I just separate mine from my family's food)
1T Annie's Lemon and Chive Dressing
1T olive oil

1. In a glass dish or ziplock baggie, mix dressing and oil well.
2. Add chicken and coat thoroughly.
3. Let sit for 10 mins or put in fridge until ready to grill.
4. Grill ~5 mins per side.  Adjust cooking time to grill temp and chicken thickness.

Serve with sides or on top of salad.  Tastes great cold the next day.

Almond Oatmeal

About 30 years ago I was reading a science fiction novel where the main characters ate a nut porridge for their main meal and this gave me the idea for an oatmeal modification that I use to this day.  My normal recipe involves using milk instead of water as the cooking liquid and adding vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon to it along with nuts, seeds and raisins.  Over the years I've used walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, sesame seeds or whatever I happen to have in the cupboard at the time.  I love this porridge and it has become a family favorite.

Now that I'm on The Diet From Hell I've had to modify my beloved oatmeal recipe.  After a few iterations I've come up with a yummy substitute, Almond Oatmeal.  The only bummer about this recipe is that you really need to stand and stir this so it won't stick and I have huge problems standing in one spot as many CFSers do.  Feel free to drag a stool over to the stove to sit while stirring.

A few notes regarding the recipe.  This is based on Bob's Red Mill oats.  Alter the liquid amount and cooking time to the oats you are using.  The amount of both the vanilla and butter can be tinkered with to your preference.  I love both so I tend to add a lot of each to the oatmeal.  The butter not only adds a huge amount of flavor to this but also adds good fat and nut protein to the meal.  This helps balance out blood sugar, helps with mouth feel and taste of the dish and keeps you feeling full a bit longer.  If you leave off the jam this is a low glycemic index dish.

Ingredients
serves 1

1/2 GF rolled oatmeal
1c unsweetened almond milk
1/4t vanilla powder (might have to order on line as it is hard to find)
1-2T plain almond butter
1-2T fruit only spread (optional: my fav is strawberry)
pinch sea salt

1. Bring milk and salt to boil.
2. Add vanilla, oats and almond butter.  Stir thoroughly to fully incorporate the butter.
3. Reduce heat to simmer.
4. Stir and cook 10 mins.  Stiring doesn't have to be continuous but the more often the better.
5. Serve topped with jam.

Broiled Shrimp

I had this for breakfast the other day.  My body needs high quality protein and without tofu as a substitute for the dairy I'd normally use I'm down to pure animal protein.  Anyway, this is a recipe for one person and can be used for any meal or served over salad.

Ingredients
serves 1

6 lg or colossal deveined defrosted uncooked shrimp
1T olive oil
salt
pepper
tarragon

1. Rinse and thoroughly dry shrimp with a paper towel.
2. Put shrimp, olive oil, pinch salt, pinch pepper and pinch tarragon in a sealable sandwich bag. 
3. Shake to evenly coat.
4. Lay out on rack over a tin foil lined pan (less mess) or on an oiled foil lined baking sheet.
5. Place near broiler (not too close or it will burn)
6. Cook 3 mins, flip over and cook another 3mins.

Variations:  garlic, lemon, marjoram, dill are also fine options.  Garlic burns easily so make sure you aren't too close to the heating element if you are using the real deal instead of garlic powder or garlic salt.

Note: I like using my toaster oven for this cuz I can watch them cook and make sure they aren't getting burned.  However, I found the cooking time to be a bit longer since I start it off cold.  It took between 5-10 and I didn't flip the shrimp because I used a rack instead of a sheet.  They were wonderful!!

The Diet From Hell

Just when I had my diet tweaked out to give me the max amount of energy, no blood sugar spikes and to maximize the possibility of actually falling asleep at night my new nutritionist has thrown a wrench in the works.   She has put me on an elimination diet to check for food allergies/sensitivities.  I'm not going to get into this much here since this is my food blog.  Suffice it to say this has been a difficult several weeks for me and I'm reacting badly to the change in diet.  Welcome to the wonderful world of CFS.  Anyway, I wanted to say that the next handful of posts will be a direct result of my experimenting with cooking without the following list of foods:

Milk/dairy
Eggs
Wheat
Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, contaminated oats)
Corn
Soy
Sugar in any form
Chocolate
Cola
Citrus
Caffeine
Alcohol
Vinegars or anything fermented
Fungi (mushrooms)
Yeast
Artificial anything: coloring, flavoring, additives
Dried fruits: raisins, mango, apple, etc
Nightshade vegetables: tomato, white potato, eggplant, peppers