Get Well Pho

While I was sick, I wasn't doing too much of anything, except sleeping.  I slept 12-14 hours a day. During the times I was awake, I barely had the energy to make it to the couch to watch TV.   When I ate, food was quick and easy.  I lost my taste, and most days nothing sounded good.  If something actually sounded good, I ate it, only to be disappointed because it had no flavor.

A couple years ago, I had a bad winter cold.  My friend insisted I need a big bowl of chicken "fuh" to feel better. 

Ummm, what?  

You know, "fuh" from that place over by that market. 

Oh, that's what that is?  "Pho" is pronounced "fuh"?  Gotcha.

So I went with her and got a big bowl of pho. 

It was steaming hot and smelled amazing and tasted even better.  You could tell the broth was homemade and simmered from bones all day long.  There was an assortment of bits and pieces you could get in your pho like tendons and tripe, but I stuck with something "safe" and got thinly sliced steak. 

After the first bite, I was hooked.  Don't tell anyone, but I like it better than my mom's chicken noodle soup she made when we were kids.

 
Now, since I have been sick, I have been lazy and using lots of shortcuts.  

 Yes, I know it's way better to cut up a chicken and simmer it for hours and make a rich, nourishing stock.  But when you are only out of bed for 2 hours a day (that's a generous number, too), you don't have time to simmer a stock and make a fancy meal.  

So this is the shortcut way to make a big bowl of pho.   

Get Well Chicken Pho

1-2 carton(s) Chicken Pho Soup Base
1lb seasoned ground pork sausage (once again, I cheated used "Potsticker" flavor fresh made sausage from the local market...but use plain, add 2 finely chopped green onions, 2tbl finely diced red bell pepper, and salt, pepper, soy sauce and freshly grated ginger to taste)
1/2 of a 14 oz package rice noodles, prepared according to package directions, drained (I use the Taste of Thai stir fry noodles)
A handful of dried Shiitake mushrooms, prepared according to package directions
1 package fresh bean sprouts, rinsed
1 Lime cut in wedges
1 bunch basil, roughly torn
1 bunch cilantro, roughly torn


Preheat oven to 400*.  Shape pork into walnut sized meatballs.  In a heavy oven safe skillet, melt coconut oil over medium high heat.  Brown meatballs on one side for about 2-3 minutes.Carefully turn meatballs over, turn off stove, and place skillet in the oven for 10-15 minutes until meatballs are cooked completely (165* internal temperature). 

In a pot heat soup base until it starts to come to a boil. Don't let it boil away for too long, you just want to get it to serving temperature. 

In a deep soup bowl, place a portion of the noodles in the bottom, followed by a small handful of bean sprouts, a few meatballs, and a bit of the shiitake mushrooms.  Ladle hot broth over the top.  Top with basil and cilantro and a lime wedge.  Serve immediately. 

Sweet and Sour Pork

I remember going to my grandma's house every year for my mom's birthday and drooling over a giant turkey platter piled full of homemade sweet and sour pork.  Bite sizes of crispy pork and chunks of luscious pineapple swimming in a golden sauce that was perfectly sweet yet perfectly sour.  I always looked forward to mom's birthday dinner, so I could eat some of my favorite foods!  

When you have to change your eating due to food allergies, it's not like being on a diet.  You can't have your once a year/month/week binge and make up for it by working out extra hard at the gym or having lettuce for dinner.  If you have your binge, you are left with consequences far greater than an extra pound on the scale. You can become violently ill or break out in a rash, or even worse, suffer an anaphylaxis reaction.  Often times, the reaction you have to the offending food can last much longer than your initial reaction, lasting for days, weeks, or even months, leaving you suffering with headaches, body aches, digestive issues, and countless other issues.  For me, if I eat foods with gluten, I wake up the next morning feeling like I am extremely hungover.  I'm tired, nauseous, irritable, and achy.  Each time I eat gluten, it leaves me wanting more gluten, starting that entire cycle all over.  

It can be frustrating to try to convert your favorite family recipes to a gluten-free version.  The flours generally don't work on their own, the suggested make-your-own kinds can be costly, and the pre-made "cup-for-cup" all-purpose flours just don't always seem to work out in your favorite cake or cookie recipe.   Plus, many of those pre-made blends have other ingredients I can't, shouldn't, or won't eat.  Luckily, this recipe only calls for a small amount of flour, and I found substituting with a gluten-free all-purpose flour that worked just fine. As always, make sure that all ingredients are free of any allergens you need to avoid.

I think the key to this recipe is frying the pork twice to achieve that truly cripsy batter.  It's a little bit of extra time, but totally worth it! 

Since this is a special occasion dish for us, and it's usually made for a family get-together, I tend to double or quadruple the recipe.

Gluten Free Sweet and Sour Pork

1 lb pork tenderloin, visible fat trimmed, cut into 1" cubes

Your favorite high-heat oil for frying

Batter:

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/2 c. organic cornstarch

1/4 c. gluten-free all purpose flour (I'm really liking this brand right now)

1/4 c. chicken broth

1 tsp. grated ginger (fresh or powdered)

Sauce:

1 tbl. organic corn starch mixed with 1tbl. water till smooth

1 8oz. can chunk pineapple in 100% juice (not syrup)

1 TBL gluten free soy sauce/liquid aminos/coconut aminos

5 tbl rice vinegar (not seasoned)

5 tbl organic sugar

1/2 bell pepper, cut in small chunks

Preheat oven to 250*.  Set aside an oven safe shallow dish (like a jelly roll pan) lined with a  couple paper towels. 

Heat a dutch oven or deep heavy skillet to 350* with approximately 2" of oil. 

Mix together egg, salt, cornstarch, flour, chicken broth, and ginger until batter is smooth. I like to use the blender for this.  Place cut up pork in a large bowl and pour batter over the pork.  Make sure to coat each piece of pork completely with batter. 

Working quickly, carefully place pork, one piece at a time, into hot oil with tongs and dry to a light golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.  Work in batches and be sure not to crowd the pork, or it will clump together and the yummy batter will fall off.  When you take your first pieces of pork out of the oil.  Place them on the oven safe baking dish layered with paper towels.  Place the baking dish in the preheated oven, adding each batch of pork until you are finished frying all the pork.  Leave in the oven until a few minutes before serving.

Use a candy thermometer to make sure your oil is the proper temperature.

In a medium sized saucepan, mix together cornstarch water mixture, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Add the juice from the can of pineapple into the sauce pan as well, reserving the pineapple chunks.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Add pineapple and cook for one minute.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until ready to serve.

Sauce waiting to meet the crispy pork

While the sauce is cooking, reheat the oil back to 350*.  Add the pork back to the oil and fry once more until a medium golden brown and it's extra crispy.  If you need to fry in batches, make sure to keep the pork in the oven so it doesn't get cold and soggy.

Place twice fried pork in a large serving dish.  Pour sauce over the top.  Serve immediately.   

So much yummy goodness, you won't want to share! 

Garlic Noodles

Even when it comes to birthday dinners, I always try to add as much extra veggies to a dish as possible without going crazy overboard.  Mom's birthday dinner was no exception.  I had decided on these yummy sounding garlic noodles from Crepes of Wrath, but decided that they needed more veggies and more garlic, because you can never have enough garlic.  I was really happy with how they turned out, and everyone went back for seconds! 

If you don't overcook your noodles (like I did), your noodles will look much prettier.

Garlic Noodles

14 ounces rice noodles (I use the Taste of Thai stir fry noodles....they are GF)
2 tbl coconut oil
1 large bunch chopped green onions (whites and greens)
1 small head of garlic, chopped (about 6-8 cloves)
4 small heads of baby bok choy, rinsed thoroughly and finely chopped
1 bell pepper, small dice
A handful or two of fresh bean sprouts
1/4 c. brown sugar
1tbl gf soy sauce/liquid aminos/coconut aminos
2 tablespoon gf oyster sauce


Cook the noodles according to package instructions, but keep them slightly undercooked.  Rinse and set aside. 

While the noodles are cooking, heat a large deep skillet over medium-high heat and melt the coconut oil.  Add the bok choy and bell peppers and stir fry about 2 minutes.  Add the green onions and garlic and cook for another minute.  Do not allow garlic to burn!  Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce to the veggies and cook for a minute until it's hot.  Finally, add the noodles and bean sprouts and toss until thoroughly mixed and the veggies and sauce are evenly distributed over the noodles.  Serve immediately.  

Homemade Chinese Food

My mom's birthday fell on Chinese New Year's this year and my sis and I decided that she needed a homemade Chinese Food Feast for her Birthday dinner.  I remember my grandma used to always make Chinese food for my mom for her birthday...sweet and sour pork, beef and broccoli, and egg rolls.  All of mom's favorites! 

I think I get my food allergies from my mom.  She has anaphalaxis reactions to shrimp, which pretty much eliminates going out to many restaurants.  She can't even eat something that has come into contact with shrimp or she could die. Super scary! 

Of course, I decided that I would make the stuff Grandma used to make...sweet and sour pork, beef and broccoli...plus noodles, fried rice, lemon chicken and three other chicken dishes. And of course, they would all be gluten free so I could eat them.  And, because it would be a feast with leftovers for the week to come, I would make double, triple, or even quadruple of each recipe.  

Did I mention that I have slowly been recovering from pneumonia lately?  

That I hosted a Super Bowl Party the week before while I was just getting over the worst of being sick and was totally exhausted for days afterwards?

  That there was going to be 13 people for dinner at my house?  

That I got totally overwhelmed looking at all the groceries and the menu I planned that I started to have an anxiety attack?  

 You could say that I tend to take on too much...  I'm slowly learning that the hard way....

Luckily, my mom, being the sweet angel that she is, volunteered to come help me cook her own birthday dinner. We spent 4.5 hours chopping, stir-frying, boiling, baking, and deep frying a feast that, that when it was all done, would have fed a small country. Dave was amazing and totally cleaned up the house to make it "company ready."

One thing I did do, was cheat and buy a few pre-made seasoning packets for the chicken dishes.  I did my best to find ones that were free from MSG, visible gluten, and all the gunk you usually find in pre-made foods.  They tasted good, but they aren't a part of our diet and are something I only would buy when having a big dinner party like this.  The did taste EXACTLY like your local take out.

I did, however,  make sweet and sour pork, beef and broccoli, noodles, and fried rice all from scratch.  

First, I made the beef and broccoli from this yummy recipe from Iowa Girl Eats.  In my haste, I forgot to marinate the meat, so I just added some Braggs Liquid Aminos (gf soy sauce replacement) while the meat was cooking and it still turned out fantastic.  

I also made Iowa Girl's fried rice.  It was great and tasted just like takeout. Minor changes....I used white rice instead of brown, frozen peas and fresh diced carrots in place of the frozen mixed veggies, and liquid aminos in place of the soy sauce.

Then I made my version of Garlic Noodles from Crepes of Wrath.  I'll post my version of that soon! 

And finally, I made my  grandma's "famous" sweet and sour pork.  Mom and I figured out how to make the batter gluten free.  It was so tasty, exactly like Grandma makes it.  That recipe will be coming soon as well! 

In the end, everyone loved the food, the family had some quality time together, and my mom had a great birthday.  And to top it all off, my mom snuck over to my house the next day while I was at work, and finished cleaning up the kitchen.  Who does that?

Mom, next year, I think I'm going to scale back dinner, or just take you out for a steak and let the professionals take care of everything.

Resting and recouping

After 3 weeks of being sick and running a fever most of the weekend, I finally dragged myself to the doctor's office at the suggestion of my family and friends.  The receptionist checking me in handed me a beautiful blue mask and I sat in the waiting room with people looking at me like I had leprosy.  The medical assistant calls my name and upon seeing the blue paper mask, instantly puts one on herself and a pair of latex gloves.  Great, not only do they think that I have leprosy, but they think that I probably have the plague too. 

 I mean what's next?  Are they going to try to throw me on the dead cart going down the street like in Spamalot?  I'm not dead yet.  I feel like it, but I'm far from it.  

Have you seen Spamalot?  It's hysterical, and my husband who says he hates theater and musicals, loved it and has seen it twice!  

After the medical assistant took my temperature (100.2*), tried to squeeze off my arm with a blood pressure cuff, and asked a million questions about if I smoke (no), if I'm pregnant (no), or if I'm in an unsafe home environment (no), I finally got to see the doctor.  

I really like my doctor.  I'm so glad I finally found someone I like at Kaiser, it's pretty difficult.  After talking with her for a few minutes and her listing to me (try to) breath through my crackling lungs, and checking my ears, and tonsils, I got the diagnosis I'd been fearing...pneumonia.  Ugh!  I don't have time to be this sick.  I got sent home with a get well present consisting of a z-pak and some stronger cough syrup and ordered to spend the next two days at home in bed.  If I'm starting to get better by Wednesday morning, I can go back to work, and gradually get back to normal life.  If I'm feeling the same or worse by Wednesday, I get to go back to the doctor for a chest x-ray, and a bunch more exciting get well activities.  

I came home and made a quick chicken soup with leftover rotisserie chicken and a few handfuls of whatever veggies I could find in the fridge.  I spent much of the day napping in bed.  When I got bored with that, I napped on the couch.  I made myself some fresh juice with a big hunk of ginger in it. I've sipped on hot lemon honey water all day.  I've been trying not to hack up a lung or break a rib from all the coughing.

Tonight, I'm not feeling any better, but am hoping that I will be able to get a good night's sleep, as long as this cough can get under control.  Hopefully tomorrow, I will start to feel better and can get back to normal life soon.  I miss cooking and going to the gym.  I miss feeling human and caring.  Today, I almost wore sweat pants out of the house and didn't even feel like brushing the knots out of my hair.  Thankfully, the shame about not wanting to look like a People of Walmart picture brought me back to my senses and I went out of the house with real clothes, a washed face, and brushed hair.  I'm just so tired of being sick.  It's exhausting, physically and emotionally.  I want to cry my eyes out, but if I do, I will end up n an asthmatic coughing fit and will cough myself into a migraine, so I just sit and feel sorry for myself and snuggle with my girls.

I hope to back writing and cooking soon.  I miss hanging out here.    

Have you managed to stay healthy so far this year? 

Chicken lettuce wraps

I love my crockpot.  I really do.  I have two full size crockpots, a mini crockpot for dips, and now I have a small lunch crockpot for my desk.  I love the fix it and forget it method of cooking.  I love that I can put something in when I leave for work and when I get home, it's ready to eat. 

(Except the other night.  My work day plus commute is fairly long and a tomato sauce based recipe that cooks 

for 6-8 hours on low ended up burnt and inedible and my house uninhabitable after an 11+ hour day...)

When I discovered the website Crockpot 365 , I was really excited to find many new recipes so I could expand the use of my crockpot.   Even better that all of the recipes are gluten free! 

The hardest part of eating gluten free is no more Chinese food, so I was very excited that she put up a few make your own takeout recipes.  And even better yet, they were all for the crockpot.  It's practically exactly like takeout, but waaaaaaay cheaper and healthier. 

I know many people (especially me) look at their favorite over or stove top recipes and try to figure out some way to make it a crockpot recipe.  But for ones, I was looking at a crockpot recipe and wondering if I could make it a stove top recipe.  I was desperately craving lettuce wraps, and wanted them NOW (along with a golden goose) and I didn't want to drive the hour to the closes PF Changs and didn't want to wait the 4+ hours it would take for them to cook in the crockpot.  So I looked at the ingredient list and cooked the old fashioned way, slaving over a hot stove. 

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

(Adapted from Crockpot 365)

1lb of ground chicken
1/2 onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic
1-2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 can of water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
Fresh ground black pepper
1 bunch of green onions, sliced thin
1 head of butter lettuce

Brown chicken in a large deep skillet.   While cooking, break chicken into small pieces.  I love to use my PC hamburger chopper for these kinds of jobs.  When the chicken is almost done, and sufficiently broken up into small bits, add the diced onion and cook for about 3-5 minutes until the onion is soft.  Add the garlic, ginger, and water chestnuts and cook for about a minute.  Add soy sauce, wine, and vinegar.  Cook for about 5 minutes until the sauce is reduced by about half.  Season with pepper to taste.   Spoon a bit of the chicken mixture into a lettuce leaf.  Sprinkle with green onions.  Serve while chicken is warm.  Makes a great appetizer or light dinner!

Superstitions, Folk Remedies, and Other Cures for Colds and Flus

Wintertime sickness is still lingering in our household.  It started right after Christmas and the coughs, sniffles, and tiredness are still hanging on.  I haven't been at work for a week, and I'm almost starting to miss it....but just a teeny tiny bit...

Ever since I was little, every time I got a wintertime cold, the cough seems to hang on for weeks....even months.  I remember missing a couple months of school when I was about 7 due to bronchitis, and got sick every winter and usually on every family vacation.  Although I do have a history of bronchitis and asthma as a child, it's virtually nonexistent since I've become an adult.  But every bad cold I get seems to reignite the past lung problems and I wind up with a cough that could be mistaken for an 80 year old lifelong chain smoker.

Since I've started eating a much cleaner, organic diet, and even more since going gluten free and working on my food allergies and other health issues, I've slowly been getting healthier.  I don't get every single cold that goes around, but this one managed to hit me hard and fast.  

I tried so many different things when I first started feeling like I was getting sick...vitamin c, zinc, juicing, washing my hands, anti-bacterial sanitizers, raw honey, staying at home, not eating out, eating warm foods like soups and bone broth, lots of garlic, lemon juice and coconut oil....anything I could think of to try to keep my immune system up.  But too many long, cold nights....too much indulging in foods I shouldn't....and I got sick.  

For the past week I have rotated my time between the couch and my bed.  Sleeping on and off all day and night.  Trying different folk remedies.  Eventually giving up on strictly the natural approach and living off Nyquil and way too much Netflix as well. Trying to keep the cravings for junk food away.  

(Does anyone else crave disgusting, crappy food when they are sick?  Or is that just me?)

My gym has a eucalyptus oil steam room.  I did manage to make it there on Sunday morning when the gym was empty and let my body try to sweat out the sickness.  I was very concerned that I would cough up a lung while I was in there...and the fact that I can't bring kleenex in there was of great concern.  But I brought a ton of water and a couple small hand towels for any sort of coughing catastrophe that could happen.  I did feel much better after doing that, but was extremely tired and slept most of the day afterwards.  

My sister said that one of her go-to-cure-all remedies is a hot toddy.  On Saturday evening while we were watching the 49ers game, I decided to give it a try.  I searched online and found many different variations, and decided to create my own version. I drank two of them and slept very well that night and woke up not feeling like I had been hit by a fleet of semi-trucks.  So did it cure me?  Who knows.  But I did feel better the next day, so I'm going to add it to my arsenal of natural cold remedies.   

Honey Lemon Hot Toddy

1/2 of one organic lemon

2 shots of Honey Whiskey 

Boiling water

Spoonful of raw, local honey

In a large mug, add juice of a half of a lemon.  Cut the juiced lemon half into 4 pieces (discard seeds) and add to the mug.  Add 2 shots of honey whiskey.  Fill the mug with boiling water.  Stir in a spoonful of honey.  Drink while still very hot, but don't burn yourself.  Drink entire mug before it cools down. 

***Be sure not to mix this with any cold medicines....always read the warning labels about mixing alcohol and medication.****

What do you do to stay healthy during cold and flu season?  Are you strictly a vitamin and chicken soup person?  Nyquil and trashy daytime TV?  Or a mixture of the two?  What are your favorite cold remedies?