A diverse restricted diet
The Monday lunch blog addresses food… again!
A paradox, you say? How can a restricted diet be at the same time diverse? I reckon I might have asked myself the same question almost a year ago when I embarked on the very thing.
I have what you might call a self-imposed restriction on my diet in two ways: one, I have a tidy list of food sensitivities that were determined last March/April by a naturopath; and two, I’m on the 100-Mile Diet as far as veggies go — and you’d be surprised at how much of a challenge just that creates.
My food sensitivities are: soy, sugar, dairy (the proteins, not lactose), cashews, and some food additives. Corn was on the list for about 3 months so I just take it easy with that one. Yeast was also on the list, but when told to cut out all grains and refined foods including oats and quinoa for 2 weeks, I did what I normally do when trying to cut back: I ate more. And it went away, so whatever.
The personalised 100-Mile Diet I adhere fervently to is such that I don’t eat what ain’t in season. In other words, if it grows here in the summer, I don’t buy it from California in the winter. I haven’t applied this so much to dining out, but I can say that if I were strict, I’d have gone hungry at the Northern Voice conference because between the cheese, the unknown, spiced meat and the dismal tomatoes and iceberg lettuce curiously provided at lunch in the form of very unseasonal burritos, there wouldn’t have been much for me to eat. Suffice to say I had an apple with me and had forgotten my packed lunch at home.
But I digress.
When it comes to making dinner from mostly whole foods — the only pre-packaged dinner I can eat is perogies, one of three I used to eat — the challenge is finding ingredients that haven’t been, you know, fried in soybean oil (refried beans), made from soybean oil (mayonnaise), had sugar added (salsa, pasta sauce, canned beans, mustard), or soybean oil MAYBE added (bread, breadcrumbs, most other things). Don’t even mention breakfast or snack food. The second challenge as we leave the WORST two growing months of the year is being creative with the limited variety of local veggies available on top of preference. Lastly, there’s only so much you can do with ground beef in the wintertime. (Because of the cost of my cheese, lasagna isn’t really an option, unfortunately.)
So it’s tough, but along the way, with the help of a recipe book, I’ve developed some tasty new lunches and dinners and the realisation that I actually am eating MORE variety and more interesting food than I did before. I’m forced to try out new ingredients and combinations and cooking methods because otherwise I’ll be bored or hungry. So that’s led me to buying, for example, things I don’t really like: cabbage, parsley and turnips — done right, they’re tasty. Or trying my hand at recipes with quinoa, barley, chick peas, black beans (which I thought I didn’t like) and fish. Truth be told, I’ve had sometimes unexpected and usually very delicious results. (Boyfriend doesn’t always agree 😉 ).
And the peak of the realisation: I have three or four different kinds of goat/sheep’s cheese, more variety of breads, five different options for cereal, three nut butters, four kinds of fresh nuts, three varieties of beans, and a partridge in a pear tree. Well, not the last one. But I have pears. In my old life I’d have had one or two of each of the above, so this diet has actually been a blessing in disguise! At times it’s difficult and regularly puts a strain on my relationship but I should be out of the food sensitivity woods within a year.
Oh and one more thing: it’s a greeeeaaaaat excuse to eat more sushi!
Hmm, what shall I have for a snack? Toasted “Squirrelly” bread with almond butter and apple sauce on top? Ah, it’s a wonderful life.