My dear husband, Mark, is on his first food "quest." Wisely begun after the Christmas holiday eating frenzy, he has embarked upon a diet aimed at cleaning out all the allergy-inducing foods-- aptly named the "Elimination Diet." And as the good wife I try to be, I have joined him in the effort. Also, because I have to actually cook the food.
The list of "no can do" foods is quite extensive and, as many of you already suspect, includes wheat and wheat's entire family (with the single exception of buckwheat). No cheating with spelt or einkorn (rats!). So no cream of wheat. It also includes eggs! Though you know how I feel about eggs, they are on the big-8 list of allergens...unfortunately. I don't think either of us are allergic, but in order to get a true reading of Mark's food allergies, we must follow the rules...all the rules. Given the fact that he typically eats two or three eggs for breakfast every morning, his first question (as you might imagine) was, "what are we supposed to eat for breakfast?"
It's a dilemma, for sure...and one I'm still working on.
We can lawfully eat oatmeal. But, really, how many days in a row can you eat oatmeal without deciding it's probably easier just to go without breakfast? So I went shopping.
Even though the diet allows it, there's no way I'm going to eat processed cereal of any kind, knowing what I know about it. But I was surprised to discover some alternatives. Ever eaten buckwheat cereal? Or brown rice farina? I haven't tried the buckwheat cereal yet--I like buckwheat pancakes, once in a while. But I did try the brown rice farina, and it's pretty good.
But my best discovery of all was oat bran. Now there's a cereal that's downright tasty and quick to make. All it takes is one minute bubbly-boiling on the stove top, and it's done. Does that qualify as "fast food?" If so, it's the healthiest fast food ever! One cup of oat bran gives you over 20% of your daily magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, thiamin and fiber. It will also provide 14% of your protein for the day. Oat bran cereal contains one ingredient-- oat bran. And if you like the taste of oats but you prefer the texture of cream of wheat, you can make your own "oat bran" by pulsing rolled oats in a food processor, which will save you a few pennies per ounce; however, the nutritional value will be that of oatmeal, not oat bran. And if you already have a giant container of oats in your pantry (like me), you don't have to go out and buy oat bran.
There's no milk on this diet, either, so we topped it with a fruit compote. Blueberry compote is my favorite and is very easy to make-- simmer one pint of blueberries with about two tablespoons of organic raw sugar in a stainless steel pot for about ten minutes. Let it cool a little and pour it into a small glass container. It will keep in the fridge for several weeks. Of course, in my house, it never lasts long enough to go bad!
Breakfast cereal every day is probably not the best plan, but at least now we have some choices.
The good news is that this diet is temporary. It is a tool toward discovery. At the end of a month, we'll be reintroducing foods one at a time to determine how we react to them. The ultimate goal is to understand our bodies and how the foods we eat make us feel.
New year. Reboot.
