SCD, Day One

So, here we are. I swear I was in "Last Supper" mode last night as I made my poor husband run out minutes before the local ice cream shop closed to get me a hot fudge sundae. I just freaked out knowing I wouldn't be able to eat something like that again. I know there are recipes for SCD ice cream I can make, but there is no hot fudge anywhere....at least not that I've seen. It was good, but the whole time I was eating it I knew it was going to make me sick and I did wake up this morning with some stomach cramps. It's ok though, that's all behind me now. I'm moving on!

What's Day One look like? Well for me:

Breakfast:

2 eggs scrambled with butter and sauteed mushrooms, onions, one slice of bacon (sugar free), and some fresh grated colby cheese. Cantaloupe chunks, weak coffee (black), orange juice diluted with an equal amount of water, 4 Lialda, 4 Prednisone, my prenatal vitamin, and 1/2 a Metformin.

Notes: I grated my own cheese because bagged shredded cheese has stuff added to keep it from caking which makes it illegal for SCD. Also, I take Metformin because I have a history of gestational diabetes and we're trying to keep my blood sugars in line this pregnancy. I know orange juice is not the best for blood sugar, but it's the only way I can swallow the Prednisone...those pills taste so nasty! I measure out a single serving and dilute it with an equal amount of water. Between that and the fruit, I had 3 servings of carbs for breakfast this morning which is in line with what my nutritionist recommended for me.

Morning snack: Apple and a chunk of colby cheese. Water.

Kitchen victory! I tried a cooked mayo recipe I found on the pecanbread website and it turned out amazingly well. I used to make a raw egg mayo, but that recipe was very fickle and only turned out about 2/3 of the time. I would also prefer not to eat raw eggs while pregnant though I know the chances with salmonella are pretty slim. I was kind of sad thinking I wouldn't have yummy options like egg or chicken salad until I found this recipe!

COOKED MAYONNAISE
by Marilyn

2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cayenne
1 cup safflower oil

In a small saucepan, stir together egg yolks, lemon juice, water, honey, mustard, salt and cayenne with a wooden spoon until blended. Place over very low heat and stir constantly until it bubbles in one or two spots. Remove from the heat and let stand 4 minutes. Pour into a blender and blend, slowly adding the oil in a thin, constant stream. Scrape down the sides as needed. When the mixture in thick and smooth, chill until ready to use.

Tip: Mayonnaise keeps 3-4 weeks in the refrigerator as long as only CLEAN utensils are dipped in it. Put a "due" date on the container.

Lunch: Reheated a grilled burger, chopped it up, topped with some SCD mayo and a sliced hard boiled egg. Paired this up with some cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, strawberries, and cherries. Drank a glass of diet Faygo red pop. Tasty! (Also took half a Metformin)

Snack: 1/2 ripe banana, honey, sprinkle of cashew pieces, 2/3 c. SCD yogurt. This is always my sweet tooth time of the day, so something like this helps me out a ton!

Dinner (pictured above): This dinner rocked! Even my non-SCD husband was impressed and ate it as is with nothing added. On the right: curry stew thingy I invented. Started with butter and olive oil in the pan and added some onions, zucchini, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, and diced tomatoes and let that all saute together with some red curry powder, extra cardamom and ground chilies. Once that was all tender, I added coconut milk, black beans (prepped per directions in BTVC), and leftover grilled chicken from last night. Let it all simmer together for about 10 minutes and that was it. Served it up with some cantaloupe and cherries. The pot made two large portions for us plus three more decent sized servings. I put one in the freezer and two in the fridge for lunch for this week.

Snack: "Frappuccino"--this idea still needs work. I thought it would be good to save some of my weak brewed coffee from this morning and freeze it in an ice cube tray. I blended about 8 of these up with some yogurt, vanilla, and a squirt of honey. I didn't get enough honey and vanilla in there to balance the tartness of my yogurt, so it's less sweet than I would like for this type of drink. Maybe I'll add a few frozen banana chunks in the future to see how that goes over?

Speaking of bananas--we walked down to the grocery after dinner tonight for some eggs and Guinness (eggs for me, Guinness obviously not!) and while we were walking through the produce section I saw they had the markdown bags of bananas. I ended up getting 4 1/2 lbs of really ripe bananas for 99 cents! Woot! Three of them weren't too terribly ripe so I added them to my "to eat" pile for the next few days. The rest I peeled, sliced and placed in containers which went in the freezer. They will keep in there for quite awhile and make great smoothies with yogurt and other fruit or "shakes" with yogurt and honey (sometimes I add a little peanut butter, too). This is a great way to make sure you always have some perfectly SCD ready bananas on hand.

I want to take a quick moment to talk about my approach and the fact that I am not doing the Intro Diet as advised in the Breaking the Vicious Cycle book and on the various websites. If you are looking to learn how to do SCD, this is blog is not the place for you to start! You should definitely read Elaine's book, visit the website that goes with it, as well as other great sites like pecanbread which will give you all the facts you need to get started properly and make sure you get the most of the diet for your needs, current condition, and health issues. I am taking a different approach for a couple of reasons. First of all, my symptoms are very mild right now. I know I can handle some of the more advanced foods. Secondly, I am also on a course of Prednisone which will help with any healing that needs to take place. Finally, I've been through the diet before, so I know in general which foods I can tolerate and which give me problems. You will learn these things for yourself with time, too. Some purists will probably shake their heads at this and tell me I'm "doing it wrong" and that's ok. If they turn out to be right, then I'll be back here to give it another go with my 2 days of chicken soup just like the book says.