Christmas – Page 4 – Clinical Alimentary

It probably isn’t very good to be following the LOFFLEX diet during the festive season but crohn’s is no respecter of holidays and it may be that you have had to return to a very bland diet during the festive season. You can eat food during this time – here are some recipes I developed to help you to have at least a Christmas lunch, or you could use this recipe for thanksgiving too.

Turkey is suitable for stage one of the lofflex diet, so are carrots and boiled potatoes (no skins.)

Roast potato

Peel potato and wash with clean water.

Cut into pieces and par boil in salted water for five minutes.

Drain off cooking liquor

Shake the pan to roughen the edges of the potato

Spray with a small amount of vegetable oil.

Cook in the oven for minutes at gas mark 7/220°C

Have 1-2 pieces.

Stuffing

3oz/75g Rice crumbs

1 teaspoon of sage

1 teaspoon of mixed herbs

100mls/4 fluid ounces of boiling water

Spray with rapeseed oil

Salt to taste

Method

Add sage and herbs to a cup; pour on water and leave to brew.

Sieve herb liquor to remove solids and retain liquor.

Weigh out rice crumbs and add herb liquor till a consistency of stuffing is achieved, add salt to taste.

Place stuffing into a ramekins and flatten the surface, spray oil on the top.

Put into an oven at gas mark 6/200 degree celsius for approximately 20 minutes or until the surface has browned.

Gravy

Use turkey stock – drain off the fat from the surface and thicken with rice flour.

Cranberry sauce with no alcohol added – sieve out skin and seeds.

Pear or apricot crumble with soya custard

Serves two

50g/2 oz Rice crumbs

12g/½ oz granulated sugar

2 tablespoons sieved, or skin free apricot jam

2 pears

Spray rapeseed oil

Peel and remove the stalk and core from the pears

Slice the pear and add to two ramekins.

Add one tablespoon of sieved apricot jam to each one, (warm the jam in a pan till the jam is runny and sieve off skins, or purchase skin free apricot jam, available for Christmas cake decorating.)

Mix rice crumbs and sugar and sprinkle on the top of the apricot and pear

Spray surface with spray oil

Cook in the oven for 15 minutes gas mark 6/200°C – take care when serving as it can be very hot! Serve with soya custard.

Christmas can be a difficult time if you have restrictions on your diet, so try to keep focused and think of some treats that are not food related, such as going to see a movie at the cinema, watching your local football team on boxing day, going to see a play or pantomime or inviting friends round to watch a Christmas DVD.

Keep well hydrated and if you experience severe symptoms seek help from your healthcare provider. Everyones intolerances can be different so if you have noticed that some of the ingredients in the above recipes make your symptoms worse it’s probably best to avoid them, discuss this with your dietitian.

Christmas and the holidays are a time of celebration and food usually takes a central role, so what if you need to avoid certain foods to prevent having symptoms over the Christmas/holiday period? You can eat food and take some steps to reduce the effects, should you wish. It is possible to eat nice food and prevent spending boxing day never off the loo and with a covered hot water bottle strapped around your stomach. You just need to plan ahead – a reason why this post is going to be published early. First lets talk about Christmas lunch – skinless turkey, carrots, parsnips (use spray oil to roast) and potatoes are fine to have. When making gravy use stock from the turkey and spoon off or pour off the fat that settles on the top of the stock, thicken with corn or rice flour to make a nice gut-friendly gravy. For roast potatoes you could parboil the potatoes for about 5 minutes and then drain off the water, keeping the potatoes in the pan, shake the pan to soften the potato surface – spray with oil and then place in the oven to roast. Trimmings such as cranberry sauce is OK – only have a small portion, wheat free stuffing is also possible using herbs and wheat free bread crumbs (see the LOFFLEX Christmas post for the recipe – although you can use whole fresh herbs) or rice crumbs (available from larger supermarkets.) Again it might be better to trim any bacon fat and grill bacon to reduce the fat levels and prevent diarrhoea, and grill wheat free sausages. These are ideas to help, but of course, if you know your IBS well, you may want to eat normally, it may possibly be uncomfortable for a short while but won’t necessarily do any lasting harm. The following recipe is for Low FODMAP christmas cakes, hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

150g dairy free margarine

150g soft brown sugar

3 eggs (room temperature)

1 cap full (1/2 tsp of vanilla essence)

150g of the wheat free self-raising flour blend.

1tsp of mixed spice

1 flat tsp of cinnamon

1 flat teaspoon of ginger

2 tablespoons of chopped roasted pecan nuts

5 tablespoons of lactose-free milk.

Icing sugar, ready-made fondant icing sugar (check label for fructose) and water to decorate.

Method

Cream together the butter and sugar till the mix is pale in colour.

Add one egg at a time and one tablespoon of flour, mix well till all three eggs have been incorporated. Add vanilla essence.

Sieve the spices and flour into the mix and fold in till well incorporated, add the milk and nuts and mix well.

Spoon mix into paper cases.

Bake in a preheated oven gas mark 6/200 C until risen and browned.

Allow to cool, add some water to icing sugar to make a thin coating. Using ready prepared icing, roll out and cut shapes. ‘Stick’ the icing sugar shape to the cake with runny icing made from icing sugar and water and decorate as wished.

Eat one – (or maybe two if you must! ;-))

I hope all my readers have an enjoyable Christmas (or holiday) and here are some tips that might help –

You DON’T have to be a domestic goddess this Christmas, plan ahead and remember that having time with your family is the most important thing – they will appreciate you just being there, not frazzled or tired after trying to be perfect. Remember that being a perfect ‘housewife’ or ‘househusband’ is a marketing concept and these concepts are usually impossible to attain, no matter how you try (or, in fact, how much you spend!) Children, in particular, appreciate time with their parents more than anything.

Plan ahead if you can – now is the time to take a break and sit and plan your shopping and meals for over the holiday period. Shop online if you don’t like large crowds.

Plan a short walk with the family after Christmas lunch – will help constipation and stop the slump in energy levels after lunch.

Don’t slouch on the sofa eating snacks whilst watching the afternoon or evening movie, try to keep your posture and sit up straight if you can.

Moderate your alcohol intake – who wants to spend boxing day with diarrhoea, abdominal pain and a hangover?

Eat slowly and chew your food well, savour your meal – you have worked hard for it!

Christmas can be a stressful time and this won’t help your gut, IBS is not ‘all in your head’ but stress produces hormones that affect your gut, this can make symptoms worse. Avoid arguments over the dinner table, this may be difficult if you have critical family members. Tell them beforehand that arguing or criticising is NOT acceptable, you are making an effort for them and that should be appreciated, if it is not, then perhaps they are not welcome at the lunch? Be assertive and stay calm!

Don’t have unrealistic expectations, setting yourself up for disappointment, do what you can – nobody will or should expect more.