GAPS Diet Chat and Support - Page 8 « Back to Group Discussions

[LunaLady]

I feel like we're in a rut. I need some more dinner ideas! We have our staples (skirt steak, salmon, soup) but I'd like to do some more adventurous things. Anyone have any ideas?

I'll share my salmon dinner. It's sooo yummy!

Salmon:

Two large fillets

Ghee

Mediterranean Salt Blend (Salt, Lavender, Garlic powder, Thyme...I think that's all. I can't remember. I got it at Whole Foods)

Smear ghee on the bottom of a large pyrex and place salmon skin side down. Put pats of ghee on the top of the salmon and sprinkle the salts liberally.

Cook at 350 for 10 minutes, then 400 for 5-7 minutes until done (doesn't look raw in the middle).

With this I make Lentils:

1 cup lentils

2 cups water (or broth!)

Cook lentils until tender. Add:

3 cups raw spinach

1/2 cup (or more) sun dried tomatoes (the kind canned in olive oil) sliced or diced or however you want it

About a tablespoon (or more) of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes

Top with cheese if desired

The lentils taste like a pasta dish to me... they are so good!

[Abraisme]

Tonight for dinner we had..

Warm kale salad and hamburger patties, drizzled with homemade sour cream.

Kale salad:

1 red onion

1 clove garlic

10 or so mushrooms

1 bunch kale

a handful of raisens

salt

pepper

Today I used lard to cook it all in, but any oil you like is fine.

splash of coconut vinegar

splash of red wine

Saute the onion first, then add everything else until cooked.

[LunaLady]

That sounds delish, Abra. I'll have to try the warm salad thing. We do have burgers quite often, too. We make sausage patties for breakfast every morning, too. Well, DH makes them. I just eat them! ;)

[LunaLady]

I made more kraut. I checked it every day from day 4 on... I let it sit for 7 whole days. It's not very sour. It still kinda tastes like cabbage. We're eating it in/on stuff, but I'm still skeptical. I think next time I may put some Bubbie's juice in it.

I tried this week to make some apple cider. I juiced apples and got 1 quart juice and I left that out on the counter with four layers of cheesecloth over it. We tasted it at 48 hours and it just tasted like apple juice. I checked on it tonight and the whole top was covered in mold, so I tossed it. 

That didn't work!

[Jaimee]

I left my last batch of kraut out for 2 weeks and it's much better!  The latest recipe I'm trying is red cabbage, jalapenos, and garlic.  It says to let it sit for 3 weeks.  The challenge is to prevent the mold.  My recent kraut batch had some mold on the leaf that was holding the shredded cabbage under the brine.  The kraut is fine, but I felt I needed to throw out the leaf and refrigerate at that point.  I really want some lids with air locks so I don't have to deal with the mold!   So, Christina, I would recommend leaving it out at least 2 weeks, if not 3 and seeing how you like it then.

[seraf]

Jaimee, I don't ferment food. When making wine you can drill a hole in the lid and secure some food safe tubing in the lid. Then run the tube into a glass of water. You can run several tubes from several jars into the same glass of water. It's a 10 minute project. Haha, the way my grandpa taught me to make wine you just put one if those giant punch-balloons over the mouth of your wine bottle/jug.

[Abraisme]

We just made a bunch of air-lock lids.  I will post pics soon.  I haven't started a new batch with them yet, but I will let you know how it goes.  My kraut always tastes very fermented, I usually let it sit out around 2 weeks.  My last batch did have a bit of mold on the leaf on the top.  I carefully removed it and about 1" of the kraut and we're still eating it.  Hopefully the airlock lids will prevent this totally.  It's a super cheap project, maybe $1.20 per lid?  

[LunaLady]

Okay, next time I will let it sit out longer. 

Abra, there's a homebrew supply store near me, I'm planning a trip there maybe next week so I can get some airlocks and rubber gasket things. I have a surplus of bubbie's jars that I could use for making ferments.

Anyone making fruit ferments? I'd be curious to try that... 

So how does the airlock work with things that need natural yeast?

[LunaLady]

How's everyone doing? We're doing well. Just chugging along! I really love this diet. The simplicity of it makes things so easy. There's almost no thinking involved. I thought I would get bored of things... but honestly I think when you're eating well and getting lots of nutrients that you just don't crave such a variety. 

[Abraisme]

We are doing well too. I spent the last few days making a weeks worth of soup for our trip to Cali. I also made egg-free banana/blueberry muffins with gelatin. It really works surprisingly well and George is happy to have bread again. I also agree, I'm not bored with the food at all.

[LunaLady]

I hadn't tried gelatin in a bread thing. Care to share the recipe?? :)

Where do you get your recipes, Abra? I'm forever searching Pinterest but you always have good ones.

[Abraisme]

Against all grains
Elanas pantry
Gaps diet journey

Many I've had to alter a bit, but it generally works. I would only bother to use gelatin in a recipe if you have an issue with eggs. Eggs are still better and healthier IMO.

[Abraisme]

I can't remember which site I got the banana blueberry bread recipe. I googled gaps banana bread and it came up.

[LunaLady]

Okay, thanks!

[Jaimee]

There is a grass fed cow split going on here in my area and each share gets some bones.  My neighbor would like the bones and someone that bought a share is willing to sell them, but doesn't know what to charge for them.  How much would you pay for an 1/8th of a cow worth of bones?

[LunaLady]

Our grass fed stock bones are $3.99 a pound. I think that's probably expensive tho.

[Jaimee]

So you'd say a good price is $2/lb?

[LunaLady]

I would say yes. The stuff we are getting is from Whole Foods and I'm sure they mark up quite a bit.

[Abraisme]

I've paid $2-3lb from local farmers.

[Abraisme]

How is everyone doing with the diet stuff?

We are still plugging along of the full GAPS diet.  My dh's digestion has sort of slide backwards with all the traveling and extra GAPS 'treats', so we plan on doing the intro diet again and really trying to figure out what is causing his diarrhea.  We also saw a GAPS practitioner this week for a little extra help.  The DR. is an osteopath and does many other things along with it.  He did several different things to George and gave him a whole new regime of detoxing supplements and some homeopathic things (which I question whether they work).  On top of that he's also in the process of changing his medication, so he's being double dosed with meds right now (during the transition), which could cause digestion issues.  It's hard to keep it all straight really! 

We have decided that we're going to do 'Healing Naturally by Bee' vitamin protocol and see where that takes us.  In George's last bloodwork he was low of B12 and Vit d3 (he hadn't been taking fclo for weeks before the test) and it looks like tons of B vitamins are good for bi-polar.  Beyond that I feel like I'm learning 10 new things a day, all with different focuses and I can't keep it all straight.  I wish there wasn't so much info to learn and sort out about health.  It's literally never ending.