Week 1 of our elimination diet is complete! The novelty of this new challenge has worn off a little, but no “I’m going crazy without ____” cravings to report (yet).
Eating at home has been easy enough since we have been keeping on top of having food easily-accessible. Eating elsewhere takes a little extra thinking ahead. I’ve had two out-of-house eating experiences so far. The first was great because I arrived prepared. Friday I got together with friends, and beforehand we decided on make-your-own taco salads (since we have a few different food preferences/situations represented, but everyone enjoys their own version of the dish). It sounded like a great idea – I love the colors, textures, and flavors of this Tex-Mex staple, and it’s totally customizable. I just knew I wouldn’t be able to eat the tomatoes or cheese. Or corn chips. Or sour cream. Or peppers…. Or guacamole, if it contained lime juice…. Or lettuce…
Turns out Tex-Mex is not elimination diet friendly.
However, I packed myself some provisions, and ended up with baby spinach topped with black beans, crushed rice cake (salty and crispy like chips), charred red onions (so good!), smashed avocado, and homemade hummus (with no lemon juice or tahini and extra garlic) as a dressing. It exceeded my expectations!
The second event was the Superbowl and I arrived after work, hungry but empty-handed. There was a full spread, but it is just so amazing how much food contains gluten/dairy/sugar/citrus/tomatoes/peppers (okay, maybe it’s not amazing, that’s a pretty broad list..) Luckily, Mer had made crispy chickpeas, so I combined those in a bowl with cilantro and green onion and had a little crispyherbysavory salad. I probably ate a whole can’s worth of chickpeas… But it was delicious and filled me up.
There’s always next year for cheese dip.
And cute little guacamole football fields with cherry tomato teams.
At home, I’ve been eating things like millet with almond butter, cinnamon, and honey stirred in, topped with blueberries, raspberries, and walnuts.
And sautéed red rice and spinach topped with avocado, sprouted lentils and hummus.
And I have definitely been branching out and trying new things . Tonight with dinner I made this gluten-free savory quick bread, with a few substitutions (half chick pea flour/half brown rice flour instead of oat flour, “chia eggs” instead of eggs, canned pumpkin instead of applesauce, and onion instead of garlic – because I was too lazy to roast garlic, not because of the elimination diet). Not exactly a crusty artisan loaf, but satisfying in a corn bread kind of way. Definitely something to experiment with!
runandyum 
