Happy New Year! Clinical Alimentary blog awards 2012

Will you sing this tonight on the strike of midnight, to being in the new year?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

For the sake of auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne my dear

For auld lang syne

We’ll take a cup of kindness dear

For the sake of auld lang syne – Robert Burns

So as not to forget times long past and new friendships found – with a special thanks to all my followers – in particular (in no order of preference)

Dr Gary Lum author of Yummy Lummy, who consistently likes my posts and has so far provided my only reblog http://garydavidlum.com/

John Thompson (not a relation!) author of Sybaritica, for comments http://sybaritica.me/

Alex Gazzola author of Food Allergy and Intolerance, for support and always making me think ‘out of the box’ http://foodallergyandintolerance.blogspot.co.uk/

Dr Barbara B. Bolen author of About IBS, http://ibs.about.com/ and Patsy Catsos author of IBS free http://ibsfree.net – for driving the most views to my site

Nina and all at IBS Impact http://www.ibsimpact.com/about_us.htm http://ibsimpact.wordpress.com/ for supporting the IBS community and driving some very interesting discussions.

I hope the New Year brings all of my followers good luck, new opportunities and most of all a calm gut.

My most popular posts of 2012

https://clinicalalimentary.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/surely-these-digestive-enzymes-ive-found-can-help-or-are-they-money-down-the-toilet/

https://clinicalalimentary.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/lofflex-recipes/

https://clinicalalimentary.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/low-fodmap-on-a-budget-how-to-make-the-diet-more-affordable/

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 12 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

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Sage and hazelnut stuffing wheat free and Low FODMAP

This is a little late for Christmas 2012 but there is always next year or you could try this with roast chicken or any other light meat.

Ingredients

150g of fibre based wheat free bread

200 g of chicken livers

30g hazelnuts

a good handful of fresh sage leaves

leaves from 4 stalks of thyme

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

100 mls vegetable stock (made from celery + carrot) or chicken/turkey stock – this is probably better home made as stock cubes often contain onion and garlic.

Salt + pepper

Method

Crumb the bread (it is better if it is a little stale)

Chop the herbs and hazelnuts

Trim the livers – removing any white and connective tissue

Add the oil to a frying pan and lightly fry the livers, chop them into small pieces (or lightly blend) They do not need to be cooked through as the stuffing will be going in the oven.

Mix with the breadcrumbs, herbs livers, hazelnuts, salt + pepper.

Place the ingredients in an oven proof dish and cook at gas mark 5, 190 degrees C, for 20-30 minutes.

Serves 5 don’t have a very large amount as hazelnuts do contain a small amount of FODMAPs.

December 31, 2012February 7, 2013

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Dippy over Hummus – oh sigh to find a Low FODMAP alternative

Since I have being doing the Low FODMAP diet I have been missing hummus and I was seeking out an alternative when I came across this recipe by a fellow blogger Frugal Feeding here

http://frugalfeeding.com/2012/12/09/carrot-and-coriander-hummus/

It’s definitely worth a look, however I decided to try to de-FODMAP it somewhat so it could be used by those people who want to follow a low FODMAP diet.

Ingredients

600g bag of carrot batons

1 tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon of chilli power (optional)

1 teaspoon of fennel seeds

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Sprinkling of asafoetida*

300ml of water

Salt + pepper

Method

Add the carrots to a baking tray and sprinkle with olive oil, crushed cumin seeds, chilli, aesofotida and fennel seeds and roast in a hot oven till soft.

Remove from the oven and add the juice of 1/2 lemon, salt + pepper and water and blend till amalgamated.

Serves 2-3

With much thanks to frugal feeding!

http://sqlrus.com/2012/06/thank-you-for-voting-in-the-nomcom-election/

Suitable for low FODMAP, lactose & fructose intolerance (count in your fruit intake – lemon juice – if you have a large portion,) gluten free(*check for gluten!) and vegan diets.

Updated post 22.11.14

December 16, 2012August 8, 2017

Jules_GastroRD2 Comments

When making snow dragons and other mythical creatures, keep your energy up with chestnut biscuits!

These delightful biscuits have a crisp crunchy outside and a cake textured middle. They are so easy to make and do taste very sweet – ideal served with a sweet wine at Christmas, after walking in the snow (doing some exercise to burn off the calories, obviously!) Or after expending energy making snow men/creatures in the cold like the dragon in the picture above, we made him about 3 years ago. I often wondered what people thought of him, we made him along a country walk near to where we live, I think he probably lasted two or three days. The biscuits are wheat, dairy, egg and gluten-free and should be suitable for most people following a low fodmap diet – as long as you tolerate almonds, as almonds can be rather high in fodmaps but obviously, this also depends on how much you add to a recipe and you could always use more gluten/wheat free flour to replace the almonds if you are following the exclusion phase of the Low fodmap diet.

Ingredients

250g dairy free margarine

100g icing sugar

40g soft brown sugar

260g of wheat and gluten-free plain flour

40g of ground almonds

1 x 250g tin of sweet chestnut spread

Icing sugar to dust

Method

It couldn’t be easier – add all ingredients in to a bowl and mix with an electric mixer till all the ingredients have been incorporated into a stiff batter.

Spoon about a tablespoon size drop on a greased baking tray and cook at gas mark 6/200 degrees C, till nicely browned.

Place on a cooling rack and sprinkle with icing sugar, I’m not sure if they are really a cake or a biscuit – I suppose this depends on whether it goes hard or soft on standing (cake goes hard once stale, biscuits go soft.) Will have to let you know.

December 12, 2012December 12, 2012

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LOFFLEX how to manage a #crohn’s flare up during the festive season

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.

December 2, 2012December 2, 2012

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Have IBS food intolerances and only eating gruel? How to avoid a Dickensian diet this holiday!

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.