Fall is in the air

     Well its Sunday early evening, with a crisp smell of fall floating through the windows; another weekend has flown by and is coming to an end. Saturday morning I had a chance to sit outside at Whole Foods and enjoy a coffee and "Emerald Necklace Smoothie" after a great BalletFIT class. The rest of the day I was busy doing errands, babysitting, and the routine chores around the house. 

     I am just sitting down now after spending about 2 hours in the kitchen prepping for the work week. I have two new cooking magazines to read and I can’t wait to find some more recipes to add to my collection. My latest creation was a spin on something that has seemed to take over Pinterest and on the go breakfast recipe collections- egg muffins. I made mine with a mix of the vegetables I got in my CSA this weekend; eggplant, red bell pepper, corn, hot pepper, and an organic zucchini I picked up at the store the other day. I mixed 7 egg whites, with 2 egg yolks, ¼ cup of plain unsweetened rice milk, S&P, and crumbled feta. I roasted the veggies for about 20minutes at 400 °, and then filled silicone baking cups ¾ of the way with a scoop of them. I topped each cup off with the egg mixture and baked at 350° for about 30 minutes until they were set. I have to say I am pretty psyched about breakfast this week, and I might even have one tonight for dinner! Throw one of those in between and English muffin and you’re in business on a rushed morning.

     On my last post I mentioned at the end that I would clue you in in my upcoming posts about why the graham crackers I made were gluten free. I am not gluten intolerant, nor did I test positive for celiac disease, but I have been having some digestive issues for quite some time.  I have been to just about every doctor imaginable, and after no concrete answer I began researching on my own.  I found my symptoms most closely resembled fructose intolerance-which I had never even heard of until about two months ago. Fructose intolerance involves many different fruits, vegetables, grains and sweeteners that have a higher percentage of fructose than glucose. Fructose intolerance encompasses a few parts: the process in how sugars affect the “gut” and are digested, as well as the many different types of sugars within fructose.

The Monash University in Australia is responsible for these findings, and have created an acronym FODMAP that helps break each sugar down- (each person is affected by each sugar differently)

Fermentable	The process through which gut bacteria degrade undigested carbohydrate to produce gases (hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide)
Oligo-saccharides	•    Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) found in; wheat, rye, onions and garlic •    Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) found in; legumes/pulses
Disaccharides	Lactose found in; milk, soft cheese, yoghurts
Mono-saccharide	Fructose (in excess of glucose) found in honey, apples, high fructose corn syrups
Polyols	Sugar polyols (eg. sorbitol, mannitol) found in some fruit and vegetables and used as artificial sweeteners

After finding out all I could about Fructose intolerance, and low FODMAP diets, I decided to find a nutritionist to help guide me with the diet and also confirm my self diagnosis. She agreed I exemplified many of the symptoms of fructose intolerance and decided to have me begin an elimination diet. I am about 6 weeks in on the elimination diet, and I feel so much better. So currently my diet is free of wheat and dairy, and I have adjusted my cooking to support it. In a few weeks I will begin the challenge phase in which I will test bringing back different foods to see what I can and cannot tolerate.  For a better explanation and a great resource, I highly recommend you visit http://www.katescarlata.com.

Well I hope I didn’t bore you too much, and hopefully helped a few of you out there who might be suffering from the same thing! I am off to finish my chores, check out my cooking magazines, and catch up on some reading.. . .I am about ¾ of the way through Michael Pollen’s Cooked and am on a mission to finish it! What did you cook/do this weekend?