Almond Joys

My friend Tess, author of the blog Super Happy Eats, sent me a link to  a raw food blog that has some great tips for making almond flour. When I was still trying the SCD diet I was regularly making smoothies for breakfast, only to learn that carrageenan, an additive found in most packaged almond milks,  is verboten by the SCD rules. I was really bummed when I realized I'd have to find an alternative until I found this blog that taught me how to make my own almond milk.  Basically you soak a cup of almonds for at least an hour (overnight is better) toss them in a blender with four cups of water, blend, and then use a cheese cloth to strain it.  I never drank the milk straight, only in smoothies, so I can't really attest to its taste.  But it was pretty easy and the smoothies always came out fine.  The problem, however, was what to do with all the left over almond pulp?  Well thanks to Tess's research, she found the answer on Rawmazing. I assume most devoted SCDers have a food dehydrator on hand, so you should have everything you need to turn your leftover almond pulp into flour, and when I think of how much almond flour I was going through back then I think putting the pulp to good use would be a welcome break on the wallet! 

oops.

Well, I fell off the bike yesterday (I know that's not the saying, but I like this picture).  I'm not beating myself up too much, as I've consulted with friends, family, and strangers alike and the consensus is that I should probably just start over.  I thought I'd done my research, but the whole intro part of the diet was something I didn't really prepare myself for enough. From what I've gleaned I'm probably doing myself a disservice by jumping in too fast.  But more on that later, about that slip...

One of my aunts passed away this weekend, and I had to meet my mom at the airport early in the a.m. and head out to Long Island for the services.  I made sure to eat a good breakfast before leaving my apartment, but somehow allowed my mom to convince me that my uncle would have something I could eat at his house for lunch.  I should have known better and planned ahead to pack myself some snacks, but I think deep down I wanted an excuse to see what would happen if I ate something non-SCD after eating only legal foods for a week.  So when my Uncle offered me home made split pea soup with ham in it- my favorite!- I couldn't turn it down.  I was even weaker, though, and had myself half of a turkey sandwich with a small slice of American cheese on potato bread as well.  I did have a gross looking mini-poop not long after, but I don't know that the reaction would be so immediate.  Otherwise I've actually felt better today than I've been feeling the past few days- a sharp lady pain today has me thinking Aunt Flo might be to blame for some of the symptoms I've been having (not many symptoms- slight tummy cramps and the occasional hint of blood in my stool).

So, back to starting over with the SCD thing.  I'm having an SCD dinner and will continue to strive to eat only SCD foods, but am starting to think of this more as a training period than the actual marathon.  My palate and my lifestyle need to recalibrate before I can really do this right, and I want to do this right. I need to take another look at the SCD chart and check off the "legal" things that should be "illegal" for me (cider is the first thing that come to mind).  I also think I need to focus on figuring out my medication situation.  I went to get some blood work done to test my Imuran levels, and it made me realize that I should probably get my meds regulated and stabilized before messing with other variables (ideally returning fully to SCD will then get me off of the meds).  My doctor had originally advised me to start the diet while still on Prednisone, but I would rather know that my symptoms are from weaning off the Prednisone and not bacteria die-off or over-consumption of grape juice (so far my only source of sweet besides honey).

I'm hoping that over the next few months the medication situation will get figured out, and hopefully I'll be ready for the actual SCD "marathon" come summer, if not sooner.  I don't see myself ever doing the intro diet for a full five days unless in dire straights, but I should definitely give it more than one day and try to move beyond it at a pace that's outlined nicely here at Pecanbread.com.  I'll also continue to build my arsenal of SCD recipes and work on improving my kitchen skills to make myself a more efficient, delicious batch cook able to handle this lifestyle for the long-term.

In other news, Aunt Flo has indeed reared her ugly head since I started working on this post, and she always causes trouble with my gut.  I'd really love to read a study about the connection.