Linbug's Weblog

C is for Convenience

linbug — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:50:22 +0000

Convenience is a huge word, for those of us following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. There is a very limited range of ready-made items on the supermarket shelves, which we can add to our weekly grocery shop. And in a small country like New Zealand, most of the things referred to on the northern hemisphere support sites, are not readily available. But recently I discovered this fantastic pack of apple sauce sachets.

And one thing us kiwis do have in our favour, is that most of the food manufactured here, (at least in my opinion), can be trusted to be true to label. This newly released product is put out by Fresh Fields – looks like an Enza company). I rang one of their product managers to confirm and it has only apples and vitamin C. 99.997% locally grown apples. Yaaay!

Talk about the max convenience. 4 little plastic sachets, so you only need open as much as you need. I’m stoked.

SCD Book and new-look SCD Diet blog.

linbug — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:18:00 +0000

I like this new theme. It will hopefully signal the dawn of some new stuff happening on this blog, and in particular, the beginning of my journey to finally get my SCD book published. I think it will be in an e-book format first, and maybe later to hard copy.

But on that note, if you, my readers, are at all interested in contributing your SCD stories, I would love to have the opportunity to include them, anonymously if you wish. No problems with that.

So please, get in touch, either via comments or my facebook page.

ciao for now.

SCD Pork Chops in Sauce

linbug — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:36:42 +0000

This isn’t really a recipe as such, but something my sometimes-inspired husband did last night when I was frying some Pork Chops.

Before they were fully cooked, he poured off the juices, then squeezed lemon juice over each chop and left them cooking long enough to brown them. Next he put the chops aside and chopped up some onion and fried it up with the juices he returned to the pan (probably added some extra butter, but I’m not sure about that), with some vinegar (probably a decent splash). Then he chucked a bit of apple sauce in and voila!

Man, it was delicious.

Just thought someone might like to give it a try. No fancy expensive ingredients, and lots of lovely flavour.

We miss SCD

linbug — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:41:03 +0000

On page 52 of BTVC, Elaine says “It is hoped that no one who recovers from his or her problem by following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet ever returns to a diet high in refined sugar and refined flours.”

Well the awful truth is that we have. I think of it as a temporary hardship mind you, but a pronounced hardship nevertheless.

There are some little things which I still try to maintain, if only to mitigate some of the damage we know we are doing.

The things we cling to are:

We still make the yogurt and have the Hunger Buster Smoothie for breakfast fairly regularly.

He still has black coffee (although instant), with either honey or no sweetener at all.

I still make homemade mayonnaise more often than buy it.

Other than that I try to make sure that no bread is consumed at our evening meal.

In the main though, we are eating a lot of cheap, convenience, packaged food. And there is no way in the world we could stretch to things like almond flour right now. Apart from which, we are still benchtop cooking and no oven as yet.

So that’s the extent of our no-longer-SCD life right now. If anyone has any tips for “cheapie” SCD meals, I’d be very glad to receive them.

Happy tummies everyone.

Backtracking SCD

linbug — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:20:42 +0000

Tonight hubby said he thinks he’ll have to go back on “this diet”. Not sure exactly why, but all has not been entirely well in the tummy department this last couple of months.

Trouble is, we have moved into our new place, and a whole new budgetary reality – oops! I haven’t the slightest idea how we’re going to afford to be SCD legal again, short of me landing an umpteen-thousand dollar a year job. Damn, I was hoping not to have to do that. Go out to work I mean. Don’t mind going back to SCD in the slightest. I think we would all do well on it, but again, it would be one heck of a stretch on the purse-strings right now.

So there’s a wee bit of juggling to be done here, not the least of which is financial, but also, the mental “mindset” needs to be tidied up as to whether I want to/can/ought to, bit the bullet and go out to work again.

Will keep you posted …

Tags: Celiac Disease

Tags: Celiac Disease, Colitis, Coeliac Sprue, Crohn’s Disease, Diet and Budget, Specific Carbohydrate Diet Expense, Diarrhea, Digestive Disorders, SCD on a Budget

Post-SCD Decline

linbug — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:32:49 +0000

Sounds an awful headline doesn’t it? Its not really as bad as all that, but when I asked hubby the other day how his tummy was, he said “deteriorating”. That was the first time he has acknowledged that all is not as it was. Trouble is, even though the moving bit is finally over, he still has heaps of physical work to do, and we are still trying to put a bit of weight back on him. So he is still hammering the carb snacks, biscuits etc, and we are crossing our fingers that his tummy will forgive us, until we can get the dietary side of things back on track. Feels a bit like Russian Roulette, but I don’t have an oven set up for baking yet (my old benchtop blew an element) and the budget will be a tad stretched also. I can’t see me buying things like almond flour for quite some time yet.

So, there it is. We can hardly call it SCD progress, since it isn’t SCD anymore, but its where we are.

Oh, and the one bright spot lately, is that I’ve got yogurt and smoothies happening again. Not super-regular yet, but my third batch is in the fridge and for that I’m truly thankful.

Happy tummies all.

Post-SCD

linbug — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:35:06 +0000

Hubby showed me his skin today. He’s been eating basically anything and everything these last couple of weeks, mostly because we are half way between two properties, and he has lost so much weight (down to 70kg a week ago), and he has heaps of physically demanding stuff to do. We had thought we would make a gradual transition back to normal eating (well, not the normal that used to be, but not as demanding as SCD), but it hasn’t happened like that at all.

His skin has aged about 10 years, over the last 3 weeks I’d say. He isn’t eating much bread and still has his coffee black, and not much potatoes either. But we are eating illegal sausages (a great quick convenience lunch for hard working men), bacon, parsnips, potatoes, bread etc. His skin is dry and thinner (veins more prominent on the backs of his hands) and has lost its elasticity. I think even he is surprised at how quickly it has deteriorated. So chances are, his insides aren’t that flash either I suppose. Very disappointing, and almost grounds to stay on SCD forever, if only for the beauty treatment!

I can’t wait to finish moving. I want to get back into a reasonable rhythm of making the yogurt.

Dang – I was wrong about the sausages!

linbug — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:43:51 +0000

It turns out the Pure Beef and Pure Pork sausages also have breadcrumbs for filler, not to mention commercial flavouring mix.

The good news is that the Barbecue Grillers, are okay, so long as you can tolerate caraway seeds, which may be a bit advanced for newbies.

Feel free to comment if you happen to know about the SCD legality of caraway seeds.

SCD 18 months progress report

linbug — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:18:12 +0000

I’ve had heaps of things go through my mind that I’ve wanted to post about here lately, but they are all escaping while we are knee-deep in chaos, trying to move, and trying not to move all at the same time. Trying to move, because we want to be in our new home, and trying not to move because we have to organise some form of either mobile or satellite broadband. We will be too far away from an exchange to have ordinary broadband up there. So I’m clinging on to my existing office, like a limpet, and no doubt as soon as I let go (just like Nemo and Dory), all will turn out just fine.

Anyway, the move is part of the reason for this post. I am gradually introducing the odd “illegal” back into hubby’s diet. Sometimes through sheer convenience while everything is a bit upside down, and sometimes because I think it will be okay. I have started buying parsnips on a semi-regular basis, and he had takeaway hot chips when we were out and hungry the other day and sometimes he has had commercial tomato sauce on his sausages, when I have run out of the home made stuff.

Most of this is a few months ahead of what I had planned (I think I had July in mind originally), but I’m not about to beat myself up about it. It is just what I am doing as a practical measure while we are in this moving (read, upheaval) phase. Moving for us is not a weekend and a couple of trailers. More like a 6-wheeler or two, and a month backwards and forwards, loading and unloading, to move both home and business.

I have been making my own curry powder from mostly legal spices e.g. the seeds which I grind myself. Hunted for ages for a guide for quantities online and couldn’t find anything, so adapted a curry paste recipe by using just the dry ingredients. So I can pat myself on the back about that anyway.

Overall, he is about 98% SCD still, and I basically would like for him never to consume grains again, but at least not wheat. Maybe rice on the odd occasion, but he was never that fussed on rice anyway, so that probably won’t happen.

He has been working so hard though, that he is losing weight again, and I am focussed back on bumping up the calories. Might even chuck the odd egg back into his smoothie occasionally. I am thinking of putting a dose of cream into the yogurt also. Half’n'half would be a bit expensive, but I might put a 500 ml into my normal 4 litre batch.

Pure Meat Sausages – off the shelf in NZ!

linbug — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:50:13 +0000

Yum! I’m a bit naughty posting about this just yet, since I haven’t double-checked the content of these sausages, but the local Pak’n'Save supermarket (I’ve never been a P&S customer until now), has a line of Pure Beef and Pure Pork sausages, made by McLeans Smallgoods, who are a local manufacturer, here in Tauranga. I need to make contact with them, just to check whether there are preservatives or flavours added, but I hope not, ‘cos we’ve been scoffing them with great relish. If they’re true to label, I’m gonna be so stoked!