First, I'd never had risotto until recently. And if you like thick, creamy, starchy stuff (as I do) you will love risotto. Basically it's an Italian rice dish, and so I wanted to try making it at home. Here's a YouTube link showing how to make your own Risotto. It's really not that hard, just takes some tweaking and some time. Now of course I had to make a few adjustments in the ingredients. I can't toast the rice in butter, so I used olive oil instead. And because I can't have salt, I can't use regular chicken broth, so I could use homemade broth, or broth without potato-based salt in it (it's the iodine in salt that has potato source). Superstore's organic section has Imagine brand broths and soups. They're made with natural sea salt. So I used a beef broth, some standard white wine, and button mushrooms. I left out the parmesan cheese at the end (very sad, I am certain this would have been delish). My ND said I could have cheeses as long as I stuck to the higher fat ones, but I decided to stay away for now. Anyway, like I said, the risotto was thick and creamy and had a nice mild taste. I'd like to experiment with it to see what other flavors I can get.
Now, granola bars. If people knew how easy this was, everyone would be making their own granola bars. Really. This is one of the first items I attempted to make when starting my diet, so I've had the opportunity to try a few things. First, I didn't have a recipe for granola bars, so I went to All Recipes and found a recipe called Playgroup Granola Bars. Check it out. It's really easy. At first, I subbed honey for the brown sugar, but then I got my hands on some maple syrup, and I liked the taste of this much better. Here's the base recipe with a few variations.
Processed Sugar Free, Potato Free Granola Bars
Dry Base:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup no name all purpose whole wheat flour
Dry ingredient options I've tried (I usually picked about 4, and kept each to about 1/4 to 1/3 a cup
Kamut grain
Cocoa powder
Flax seed (I grind this in the Magic Bullet)
Unsweetened coconut
Prunes (chopped)
Dates (chopped)
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Dried Apricot (chopped)
Cherry Raisins
etc etc you get the idea
Wet Base:
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup maple syrup
Place on parchment paper that has been lightly greased with olive oil, on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for approximately 15 - 18 minutes.
The allrecipes.com recipe has them in the oven for 30 - 35 min but I find when cooking with honey or maple syrup it bakes faster, I'm not sure why. As you can see, I also subbed applesauce where the vegetable oil was.
On my eczema: I think it might be getting a little better. It's less red and the skin is softer on my hand in that area. It's hard, because with all this cooking, and my little one I am constantly washing my hands and I know I exacerbate the ezcema by doing that. But I do think I am starting to notice a difference. I'll keep updating.
Bonus: I weigh less now than I did before I got pregnant with my son. 5 pounds lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight, just by eliminating processed sugar. Oh and maybe yoga once a week. Life is good.
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