Papaya Salad

Continuing on the low FodMap theme, I decided to try some salads...

My first one is PAPAYA SALAD

Cut a whole ripe papaya.
Blended 1 tsp chopped ginger with 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
Added 2 tbsp of finely chopped red onion
Added 2 whole scallions, chopped fine
Added 1 avocado, sliced into small pieces with a spoon

Tossed everything delicately together.

About 9-23% of people have IBS. For more, check the link http://www.aboutibs.org/

The low FODMAP is a diet sheet created by Stanford Hospitals and Clinics and can be viewed here, which shows a list of foods that need to be eliminated from the diet for IBS sufferers and it seems to decrease the symptoms considerably. It looks like a very hard diet to follow as it contains almost nothing that is common food in a person's diet, be it Continental, Italian, Mexican, Asian, Mediterranean ... and the list goes on.

The main ingredient to avoid is wheat and that is almost impossible. I have been trying this for a few days now and shall follow up with recipes. Rice is a staple and thankfully, now, the grocery stores carry a range of wheat free flour.



The list above shows the foods that one can eat in moderation. I shall post recipes and pictures on what I did with items on this list that are not so obvious. By that, I mean, not just cooking rice pasta or cooking quinoa and eating with a piece of meat!

My vegan dishes...

Open faced Naan sandwich

Heated a naan in the toaster. Meanwhile, mashed an avocado and spread it on to the naan. saute garlic, onions, spinach, tofu cubes, tomato and mushroom. Add Sriracha sauce, salt and pepper. Saute for a couple of minutes and lad the naan and serve!


Carrot cilantro pancake (adapted from http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/carrot-pancakes-with-salted-yogurt)

My version: Grated carrot, added chopped cilantro leaves and one chopped green chili. Sprinkled chickpea flour and corn meal. Meanwhile, added 1/4 cup of water to 2 tbsp of golden flax powder and let it set. Added the flax mix to the carrot mixture. Added salt and pepper and mixed well and made pancakes. (Omitted the egg and added cornmeal for added crispiness and chili for spice)
Added coriander chutney to the yoghurt and arugula leaves were served with balsamic vinaigrette.

Home cooked meals....

Broccoli scallion egg rice

Had some left over cooked rice and came up with this tasty dish!
Saute garlic, spring onions and broccoli. Add salt and pepper and stir till broccoli is cooked, yet has a bite to it. Add the cooked rice, mix well and add a chopped boiled egg and serve.

Minimalistic is the key word!

What gets news? Child actress Shirley Temple who passed away at a ripe old age or Bruce Jenner? Why can't we decrease the junk clogging the media or the web? Why? Just feel that if things were that way then we could concentrate on things that need our attention now.

So, lesser the better, right? Once I had my mind set on that notion and 'mantra' to follow for my life ahead for the next phase of my life as I will be turning 50 this year, I started looking around myself! I sure have a lot of things. Got to start purging is what I immediately considered doing.

Now, throwing away what you don't need is the fastest way to get everyone around you to see you following what you preach. But, doesn't that defeat the purpose? Throwing reasonably good things into landfills is certainly not my way of being minimal. I would rather see my clutter slowly disappear with thoughtful purging than to just chuck it, be it even something that has lost it's value or meaning too.

Craiglslist for some small change or ebay for the larger ones are the obvious choices or even a trip to the thrift stores or donation bins around town isn't a bad idea either. Then there is freecycle.org. WOW!! What a great idea! I find this better than just dropping it in donation boxes for some company to take a profit from the lower income strata of this country or I have heard that it's sent to Africa and sold there.We all talk of Africa being the third world but some opportunist has even thought of turning their desperation into a profit by relying on the vulnerability of the affluent here to get their donation sent to Africa for profit. Oh well!

It's actually great to feel minimalistic. I even take it to my cooking style these days. Like what I had for dinner today- Basic sauteed chicken, hash brown patty from Trader Joes and arugula salad with avocado. Nothing elaborate, got it done and kitchen cleaned and closed in less than 2 hours. Lesser stress, lesser weight over my shoulders or on me too ;-) Now what else can I ask for?

Yes, "Matural" Disasters! It wasn't a typo. Its something I coined for natural disasters made by man directly or indirectly. With the recent mud slides in Seattle, sink holes suddenly appearing in Florida and random earthquakes in places not on the fault line, why are we wondering how these are happening? Isn't it loud and clear?
Drilling, dredging, fracking, digging deeper for subways, making taller and even taller skyscrapers, sonic booms or whatever it is that is making hundreds or thousands of birds to falls dead or fish to wash ashore dead, or oil spills into our waters or other man made horrors considered accidents when some experiment or thrill goes wrong. Ever wonder what this is all about? Isn't it scary to think that people can conjure up ideas for our gain by destroying the very ground we stand on? Especially since it's the only ground we all have?

Everyone thinks its the fault of the other when we can collectively take a stand. We have to learn to want less, be lesser slaves to materialistic things, feel and breathe more holistically and lead simple lives. Is this hard? Maybe in the beginning but if we take small steps, we will soon realize the pleasures from them and soon this will lead to giant strides in areas we would never have thought to make a difference alone.

Going organic

Well,I thought I was the perfect mom!! Had the solution to my problems with kids and their daily sniffs and allergies. All I had to do was to go organic and we would lead a perfect life!!Voila!!!How cool!!!
With that armour, I went shopping.... With a husband who came to the US with me and 2 small kids in 1997, to do a masters, and had just started his new career in a profession that did a complete 180 to his former one, in his late thirties, didn't give me much wiggle room to splurge on the expensive organic foods!
Life is tough when you have to make a choice in feeding the best that you know to your kids and to have to pick up the commercially grown, GMO and pesticide laden fruits and vegetables...But, like every mother, one learns to work with the options given.

With all the hoopla over the President signing the Monsanto Protection Act, not knowing what kind of grocery produce I am going to bring home, it is going to be a scary future for us and all the generations to come. With that said, daily life does not stop. So, a few changes without breaking the bank should do for now. Here is what I do...

When buying organic, I look at what my family eats the most and see if that is affordable. If not, then, I look at local farmer's market and if that is pricey too, then, my next option is a smaller grocery chain like Trader Joe's  who are more conscientious than the bigger conglomerates. This habit of looking into every thing I buy for consumption and household needs does require some planning and driving to different stores but if it is carefully planned and with repetition, it becomes economical on the carbon footprint as well.

Regarding house cleaners, I buy the phosphate free dish washer detergent ( $2 from Walmart) and other non chlorine cleaning sprays that are naturally derived from Walmart and then the refill from the discount store Costco. I know that goes against my principles of being organic to buy from some of the very companies who market GMO products but we are just a regular middle income household who needs to do the best for our family, working with what we have. So, I don't feel bad about it.

Interested in signing the petition to our President? Here it is...

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/obama_signs_monsanto_protection_act_time_to_label_gmos/